StemCell Therapy

ISLAMABAD: Over two million Pakistanis are blind and 80 percent of them could have been cured had they been diagnosed at an early stage, Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospitals Executive Director Brig (r) Rizwan Asghar said on Sunday.

He said that data available with Al Shifa showed that lack of basic facilities in far-flung areas and unawareness about the timely check-up were the major causes of eyes diseases and ultimately blindness in the country.

"In last one year, we conducted 40,000 eye surgeries, 350,000 patients were treated and half a million people were screened for possible eye disorders," Asghar said.

Sharing the annual report of the trust with the media, he said that the trust was increasing its services by ten percent annually. "Only the private sector cannot cope with the challenge of blindness as eye diseases are increasing at a fast pace," he said.

"Our population is increasing at an alarming rate. This is putting a strain on services such as sanitation and cleanliness. Many of the viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi that can invade the human body are also capable of attacking the surface or interior of the eye," he said.

"Unfortunately, diseases that damage the retina, the optic nerve, or the blood vessels that feed them often cause no pain at all, which is another major problem," he said.

"The trust is running its four state-of-the-art eye hospitals in Rawalpindi, Sukkur, Kohat and Muzaffarabad. The hospital in Rawalpindi has a capacity of 250 beds. It has 40 highly-qualified eye surgeons and disease specialists. They treat about 1,200 patients daily and conduct 80 to 100 operations per day," he said.

Eyesight development:

A new study suggests that vision develops until midlife. This may have a significant impact on people with amblyopia, which is an eye disorder that causes what is commonly known as a "lazy eye".

A team of researchers led by Kathryn Murphy, a professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, set out to examine the evolution of the primary visual cortex in the human brain by analysing the postmortem brain tissue of 30 people, ranging in age from 20 days to 80 years.

Until now, the accepted view has been that in humans, the maturation of the primary visual cortex is completed in the first few years of life.

This traditional belief was based on anatomical studies of how the synapses are formed, as well as how connections within the cortex and between the cortex and other brain regions occur.

Murphy and colleagues looked at the so-called GABAergic activity in the brain. GABA stands for gamma-aminobutyric acid, and "GABAergic" refers to the brain's ability to produce it.

GABA is a neurotransmitter whose main function is to inhibit the action of another neurotransmitter called glutamate.

Their former study looked at the balance between excitation and inhibition in the brain, and how it is linked to the plasticity and aging of the visual cortex. The researchers followed the maturation of this brain region and showed how these GABAergic mechanisms change across the human lifespan.

This previous research showed that the GABA-producing mechanisms continue to mature until quite late in life. However, it still was not clear whether all of the mechanisms that regulate the plasticity of the synapses behaved in the same way.

GABA is inhibitory, but what about the excitatory neurotransmitters and synapses?

The researchers found that some of the glutamatergic proteins - that is, the ones that produce the excitatory glutamate - develop until late childhood, but others develop until around the age of 40.

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DailyTimes | 'Lack of proper treatment, awareness main causes of ... - Daily Times

One of the fastest growing causes of blindness around the world is an eye disease thats almost entirely preventable.

Diabetic retinopathy is a condition that occurs among diabetics when high blood sugar levels damage the retinal blood vessels, leading to complete vision impairment over time. The disease is a threat to those who have lived with diabetes for years, but it can be detected early and treated if patients are regularly screened.

Unfortunately, in India, which is home to over 69 million diabetics (as of 2015), regular eye examinations arent easy to come by, particularly outside big cities. While access to even basic healthcare is difficult, the problem is compounded by a serious shortage of trained ophthalmologists. So, some 45% of patients suffer from vision loss before theyre even diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy.

And thats where artificial intelligence comes in.

Specialist doctors are trained to diagnose the disease by analysing retinal photographs and looking for different types of lesions, such as microaneurysms or haemorrhages, that can indicate its severity. Last year, Google announced that it had taught an image-recognition algorithm how to detect signs of diabetic retinopathy using a dataset of 128,000 retinal photographs. In subsequent tests with other images, the algorithm managed to perform on par with a panel of ophthalmologists.

Since then, the project team has been working to validate the results with two hospital chains in India, Aravind Eye Care and Sankara Eye Hospital, and has recently completed initial clinical trials. Aravind even found the algorithm performing slightly better than its average ophthalmologist, Lily Peng, product manager at Google Research and a former nanoscientist and bioengineer, said during a talk earlier this year.

Now, Google is in the early stages of figuring out pilot deployments for the technology in India.

Machine learning has the capability of helping extend the reach of healthcare providers and bringing high quality care to everyone, especially rural and under-served communities where there is a shortage of experts, Peng told Quartz in an email.

Thats particularly important in India, where the condition is a major cause of preventable blindness. In 2014, a study by the All India Ophthalmological Society found that diabetic retinopathy was detected in nearly 22% of its sample of over 6,200 diabetic patients across the country. More importantly, signs of the condition were detected even in patients who hadnt yet experienced any vision impairment, suggesting that early screening is the one thing that could make a big difference in avoiding blindness.

As advanced as the diagnostic algorithm is, though, were still a long way from technology replacing doctors, even as AI and virtual reality are being increasingly incorporated into Indias healthcare sector. Peng notes that the successful adoption of the Google algorithm depends on healthcare providers who will need to adapt to handle an increase in patients as more people are diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy.

Machine learnings true potential will only be realised when deployed in partnership with healthcare providers, Peng said.

But as diabetes spreads, notably among low-income communities who can hardly afford medical care, the first order of business is still the matter of getting ordinary Indians through the door.

More here:
A Google algorithm could help Indian diabetics avoid a disease that leads to blindness - Quartz

Islamabad

Over nine hundred thousand people were benefitted from our services of during the last one year but a lot is yet to be done, a leading eye care hospital announced.

In last one year, we conducted 40,000 operations, three hundred and fifty thousand patients were treated while half a million people were screened for possible eye disorders, said Executive Director of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospitals, Brigadier (r) Rizwan Asghar.

Sharing the annual report of the trust with the media persons, he said that we are increasing the services by ten percent annually but only the private sector cannot cope with the challenge of blindness as eye diseases are increasing at a fast pace.

"Our population is increasing putting the strain on services like sanitation, pollution is compromising hygiene while fact remains that many of the viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi that can invade the human body are also capable of attacking the surface or interior of the eye," he said.

Unfortunately, diseases that damage the retina, the optic nerve, or the blood vessels that feed them often cause no pain at all which is another major problem, he added.

Brigadier (r) Rizwan Asghar informed that over two million Pakistanis are blind and eighty percent of them could have been cured if properly checked at an early age.

He said that data available with Al-Shifa shows that lack of basic facilities in far-flung areas and unawareness about the timely check-up are the major causes of eyes diseases and ultimately blindness in the country.

He said that the trust is running its four state-of-the-art eye hospitals at Rawalpindi, Sukkur, Kohat and Muzaffarabad.

The hospital in Rawalpindi eye has a capacity of 250 beds with 40 highly qualified eye surgeons and disease specialists. They treat about 1,200 patients daily and conduct 80 to 100 operations per day.

Link:
Lack of facilities, awareness behind blindness | Islamabad | thenews ... - The News International

HIGHLAND PARK TheFoundation Fighting Blindness,the worlds largest private funder of sight-saving retinal disease research, will host the 16thAnnual Artistry of Wine from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 22, at the Highland Park Country Club. Thistasting eventwelcomes some of the top restaurants in the Chicago area. It also includes a silent auction featuring many unique items and a sweepstakes drawing to win a chance to drive a new Tesla SUV for a long weekend.

The event benefits the foundations mission to advance research into preventions, treatments and cures for blinding retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigments (RP)that affect more than 10 million Americans, young and old. As promising treatments move into critical human studies, the need for research funding is greater than ever.

Featured tasting stations at the event include: Bella Via, Bent Fork Bakery, Coopers Hawk Winery & Restaurant, Copper Fiddle Distillery, Half Day Brewing Company, Highland Park Country Club, KOVAL Distillery, La Macchina Caf, Maggianos Little Italy, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Onion Garden, Park Street, Pinstripes, Revolution Brewery, Spin-Spun Gourmet and Wildfire.

Artistry of Wine Co-Chairs and Foundation Fighting Blindness National Trustees Joel and Barbara Stone of Highland Park have two sons affected with Retinitis Pigmentosa. When our first son, Michael, was diagnosed we were told there is no treatment or cure for his degenerating retinal disease, says Barbara. Today there is still no cure, but thanks to the promising research funded by the Foundation Fighting Blindness, there is hope for a brighter future for all those affected with these blinding diseases.

About Foundation Fighting Blindness

The Foundation Fighting Blindness isa national non-profit organization driving the research that will lead to preventions, treatments and cures for retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration, Usher syndrome and the entire spectrum of retinal diseases that affect more than 10 million Americans. Since 1971, the Foundation has raised nearly $700 million as the leading non-governmental funder of inherited retinal research. Breakthrough Foundation-funded studies using gene therapy have restored significant vision in children and young adults who were previously blind, paving the way for additional clinical trials to treat a variety of retinal diseases. The Foundation also has nearly 45 chapters that provide support, information and resources to affected individuals and their families in communities across the country.

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North Shore Restaurants Come Together to Fight Blindness on June ... - Daily North Shore

America, do you rightfully expect our 45th president to defend and protect our constitutional freedoms or do you blandly trust him to say and do what he feels like at any moment in time? Facts are subjective to scrutiny to verify that the stated information is indeed factual. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America is a promise, sacred and cherished, to protect and defend each of us, all of us, whether this is your country of birth or country by choice. It is not allegiance to any one person regardless of their position of power. Our forefathers must have had the brilliant insight and instinct to foresee possible future consequences of any abuse of power and so none of the three branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial) could have its power left unchecked. It is called balance of power and checks and balances for that very reason. It may only take one person to be deceitful and duplicitous, but it takes at least two to activate the deception two entities, two governments, two countries it still takes two. Collusion may be corrupt or criminal or both. In any case, democracy has its very foundation in truth. It has survived and thrived in America for over 240 years that is provable; that is a fact. Thankfully, democracy is our very foundation.

So what really happened on 11/8/2016? Inquiring minds want to know. What really prompted the firing of FBI Director James Comey? Was it just another example of someone getting far too close for comfort to the truth? Truth requires transparency. Why not have an independent, nonpartisan special investigation into allegations that a foreign government was possibly involved and influenced the outcome of a presidential election in a democracy? Why are so many so terrified of the truth, and what it would reveal? Was the presidents firing of Director Comey just another way of his diversion of factual knowledge being secured when Director Comey was in search of the truth about what actually transpired between two countries with some obvious contradictions? It is not inconceivable, to me, that any individual of any country could alter the potential future of a healthy and active democracy. It felt like I was witnessing the presidential version of The Price Is Right. Director Comey is invited to Come on down and choose Door #1 (personal loyalty), Door #2 (see no evil/hear no evil) or Door #3 (conscience/integrity). Fortunately for America, Mr. Comey chose Door #3 because his allegiance is and was to one nation under God. Unfortunately, Door #3 was also the exit door to transparency and truth. Doesnt anyone else see this as obstruction of justice in seeking some definitive answers to actually proving if any criminal activity was involved, and if so, who, exactly, were the criminals involved? Perhaps when an independent investigation is initiated and completed, Americans will better appreciate our democracy. In the meantime, there are some undisputed facts that all of us need to remember:

Fact #1: America is not for sale. Not now. Not ever.

Fact #2: America is a democracy and as such our Constitution must be protected and preserved.

Fact #3: Our 45th president (and all presidents to follow) is not the CEO of America. Our nation is not a business. He is our employee for our nation, as in We the People.

Fact #4: No president is above or beyond the reach of the law, as in the I word, aka Youre fired.

Fact #5: If youre not outraged, youre not listening.

Did this president, elected only six months ago, somehow miss his high school Civics/Government 101 class or in his ignorance or arrogance has he not even read the U.S. Constitution? (Fortunately, his predecessor taught constitutional law and upheld it in highest regard.) Or is it that he believes that the world, and the United States of America, revolve around him? Incorrect assumption. To assume is to make an ASS of U not me. This so reminds me of not too many years ago when *CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband were getting much too close to the truth about our countrys actual reasoning for invading Iraq. And then not so coincidentally her identity was accidentally leaked to a reporter, thus terminally compromising her safety and security while undermining the security of our own country. There are no coincidences. Power is a privilege but often it is used as a weapon of mass destruction. In a world of way too many warriors waging war without questioning, why are we not seeking transparency and truth? But if you actually believe the assertion that this inauguration in Washington, D.C., on 1/20/17 was attended by more people than the second inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, then Fact #5 is not applicable to you. Blindness, literally and figuratively, keeps you captive in the dark. However, I will trust a blind human being (without even a guide dog) over self-perpetuated blindness any day. Reality check, please. Seek answers. Find truth. Know justice.

Linda Principe lives in Thousand Oaks. *National Geographic, June 2017, Why Do We Lie?

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Blindness keeps you captive in the dark - Ventura County Reporter

Jaap Bosman

Depending on the market, commoditized work can be quite complex. For instance, project finance is one area of specialization for which you need a lot of expert knowledge and experience. The problem is that in a sophisticated market like New York or London, there are just too many good project finance lawyers around who can do the work perfectly well. Hence, in those markets all but the most complex or innovative project finance matters will be considered commoditized.

To better understand lets look at the definition of commoditization in the legal market:

Commoditization is when for a particular matter, the client can choose between multiple lawyers and multiple law firms without sacrificing any aspect of quality. In other words, when from the clients perspective, the process and the final product are the same.

It is important to understand that commoditization is not measured from the law firms perspective. It is the client who decides. It is also important to understand that commoditization is black or white. A certain legal service or product is either commoditized or not. The consequence of commoditization is ultimately, and unavoidably, pressure on price. If everything else is equal and the client has a choice, price will become the decisive factor.

When I discuss the topic of commoditization with lawyers, the first response is always: There might be commoditization in the market, but what I do is 100 percent bespoke.. This phenomenon is called commoditization blindness. The second-most common remark is that the lawyer has a unique and trusted relationship with the clienta relationship that is so strong and special that price alone will never destroy it. Who am I to judge this? So I spoke to a general counsel from a sizable international company and asked him how often he worked with lawyer that he did not like.

The answer did not come as a surprise. Almost all of the lawyers he had worked with during his long career were highly qualified people who did their best to deliver excellent client service and were very pleasant to work with. Basically, all lawyers were equally nice and managed to build a trusted relationship pretty fast. We might think our relationship with our client is unique, but form the clients perspective, even that unique relationship they can get elsewhere.

Commoditization has become a fact of life for law firms, and commoditization will lead to pressure on price. Because of its eroding effect on profit, commoditization might well be the single-most disruptive factor in the legal sector today. To fully grasp the seriousness of this effect, we need to first fully understand a law firms financial model. The basics are simple: revenue minus costs equals profit. Since profit is distributed amongst the partners, there is a direct linear relationship between profit and partner compensation.

The important thing to understand here is the fixed nature of the costs. For a law firm, fixed elements like salaries, rent, insurance and IT can make up to 90 percent of all costs. All of these are invariable in the short term. In most markets, cost will be about 65 percent of budget revenue. So the equation would look like the accompanying chart. As you can see, a 10 percent drop in revenue will result in a 30 percent drop in profit. This leveraged effect is one of the main reasons why commoditization is so dangerous for law firms.

To make things worse and even more threatening, this effect will be amplified by todays increased partner mobility. Loyalty between partners and their firms is at an historic low, and many partners feel free to pick up their books of business and move to another firman event that could easily be triggered by profits declining at the firm they are with. When the most profitable partners leave the firm, taking their books of business, revenue again drops while costs remain the same (salaries, housing, insurance, IT, etc.). Consequently, for the remaining partners, profit will drop even further. This could easily lead to an unstoppable downward spiral with more and more partners leaving.

Eventually this could even lead to the collapse of the firm as we have seen at SJ Berwin, the European branch of King and Wood Mallesons at the end of 2016.

Commoditization will quickly erode profitability. Understanding and accepting the concept of commoditization will help us to understand that in order to maintain our profitability, we will need to adapt our business model. There are several ways to do that. The traditional business model is based on the markup we make on our associates and on time spent. So if a client is billed $3,000 for an associate to complete a task, the profit for the firm will be (based on industry average) $1,000. What if we replace half of what the associate did by a computer, and at the same time charge the client 30 percent less? The calculation will now look more like this: Revenue $2,000, cost $1,000 (only 50 percent time of the associates time spent), profit still $1,000.

Making lawyers more efficient with the help of technology is only one of the solutions. Other measures include reducing the number of equity partners, making costs more flexible, or making the services more valuable though brand building and positioning.

But whatever the solution, it all starts with accepting the situation. We need to stop sticking our heads in the sand and stop believing that what we do is so unique that it cannot be done equally well in every aspect by another lawyer or another firm. As my friend the general counsel said: Typically, all lawyers to a pretty good job and are pleasurable to work with.

Jaap Bosman is a leading strategy consultant, investor and one of the founding partners of TGO Consulting, a boutique consultancy focusing on the legal sector operating from New York, The Hague and Hong Kong. In 2015 he published Death of a Law Firm, recently translated into Chinese. Jaap is a regular speaker on the future of the legal sector.

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Do you suffer from 'commoditization blindness'? If others can do your work for less, open your eyes - ABA Journal

CIRM funds many projects seeking to better understand diseases of blindness and to translate those discoveries into new therapies.

Nearly a million Americans are blind, with another 2.4 million suffering significant visual impairment. While there are several causes of blindness, the leading cause of all visual impairment is age-related macular degeneration, which affects 1.7 million Americans.

Californias stem cell agency funds research into potential therapies for three of the causes of blindness. All the research teams are seeking to use various forms of stem cells to rescue or replace cells in the eye damaged or threatened by the diseases. Several groups are working on ways to restore vision for people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Other projects are looking to preserve vision in patients with retinitis pigmentosa, and to restore clarity to the surface of eyes impacted by corneal disease.

In AMD the layer of cells that support the photoreceptors is destroyed. Without this support system, the photoreceptors, the cells that actually allow us to sense light start to malfunction. CIRM-funded teams are looking at various methods of replacing this layer of support cells called RPE (retinal pigment epithelial) cells. Some are using embryonic stem cells as a starting point to generate new RPE cells. Others are using stem cells obtained by reprogramming adult cells to be like embryonic cells, which could potentially come from the patients themselves.

Retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited and progressive vision loss that leaves most patients legally blind by mid-life, directly destroys the photoreceptors. CIRM-funded researchers are seeking to use stem cells to rescue the receptors from further damage and potentially replace them with new ones.

The cornea, the outer surface of the eye, is constantly refreshed by stem cells that reside in neighboring tissue. But some people just dont have enough of these stem cells, called Limbal stem cells, to make enough new cornea cells. CIRM-funded researcher are trying to correct this condition, limbal stem cell deficiency, by retrieving the few existing limbal stem cells, and using various techniques to expand them in the laboratory until there are enough cells to rebuild a healthy cornea.

Some projects we fund are trying to take promising therapies out of the laboratory and closer to being tested in people. These Disease Team Awards encourage the creation of teams that have both the scientific knowledge and business skills needed to produce therapies that can get approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be tested in people. In some cases, these awards also fund the early phase clinical trials to show that they are safe to use and, in some cases, show some signs of being effective.

This team is using embryonic stem cells to produce the support cells, or RPE cells, needed to replace those lost in AMD. Because these cells exist in a thin sheet in the back of the eye, they are assembling these sheets in the lab by growing the RPE cells on synthetic scaffolds. These sheets are then surgically implanted into the eye. They are testing the human embryonic stem cell-derived RPE cells in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial to treat the advanced dry form of AMD.

For retinitis pigmentosa, the team is using donor tissue to isolate cells that are part way down the path from neural stem cells to adult eye tissue. These retinal progenitor cells are grown in large quantities in the lab and then injected into the eye. The team suggests the cells could help in two ways. They may be able to protect the photoreceptors not yet damaged by the disease, and they may be able to form new photoreceptors to replace those already lost. The team is testing the safety of transplantinghuman retinal progenitor cells into patients with RP in a phase 1/2 clinical trial.

The same team from UC Irvine is now conducting a Phase 2b clinical trial for retinitis pigmentosa using the same stem cell derived retinal progenitor celltherapy. The trial, which is sponsored by the company jCyte, will test the treatment in a larger patient population to determine whether the treatment is effective at restoring some vision.After finishing patient enrollment, the team willconductpatient follow up studies and collectof all clinical outcome measures.

Total:

Find Out More: Stem Cell FAQ | Stem Cell Videos | What We Fund

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Blindness Fact Sheet | California's Stem Cell Agency

Over time, high blood sugar levels from diabetes lead to damage of the retina, the layer on the back of the eye that captures images and sends them as nerve signals to the brain. Whether diabetic retinopathy develops depends in part on how high blood sugar levels have been and how long they have been above a target range. Other things that may increase your risk for diabetic retinopathy include high blood pressure, pregnancy, a family history of the condition, kidney disease, high cholesterol, and whether you smoke.

The early stages of retinal damage are called nonproliferative retinopathy. First, tiny blood vessels called capillaries in the retina develop weakened areas in their walls called microaneurysms. When red blood cells escape through these weakened walls, tiny amounts of bleeding (hemorrhages) become visible when the retina is viewed through an instrument called an ophthalmoscope. To clearly see your retina, the ophthalmologist will enlarge (dilate) your pupils (which serve as a window to the back of your eye) and may also use a special dye to help identify blood vessels that may be leaking.

Fluid from the blood also escapes, leading to yellowish "hard exudates." This type of damage does not cause problems with vision unless some of the leaking fluid is near the macula. (The macula is the area of the retina that is responsible for central vision.) An ophthalmologist who specializes in the treatment of retinal problems will attempt to stop blood leakage by using a laser in a process called photocoagulation. By using an appropriately selected laser, your ophthalmologist may seal the small blood vessels that can leak when a person has nonproliferative and proliferative retinopathy. More recently, ophthalmologists have been using injectable medicines to treat retinal leakage.

If fluid leaks out near the macula, it can disrupt vision. This is called macular edema. As retinopathy becomes more severe, parts of the abnormal capillaries can become closed off. This kills parts of the retina that the capillaries previously supplied with blood. These tiny damaged parts of the retina are called "cotton wool" spots and can be seen using an ophthalmoscope.

The later stages of retinal injury are called proliferative retinopathy, because new fragile blood vessels grow to supply the damaged areas of the retina. These new blood vessels can bleed into the vitreous gel, the gel-filled area in front of the retina. Over time, scar tissue that forms from bleeding can cause the retina to detach from the wall of the eye (retinal detachment) and cause loss of vision.

Severe proliferative retinopathy may be treated with laser surgery in order to save vision. Your eye doctor may use more aggressive laser therapy, called scatter (pan-retinal) photocoagulation. This process is more thorough than that used in localized photocoagulation. And it may require more individual treatments. But it allows your doctor to minimize the growth of new blood vessels across the back of your retina. Severe proliferative retinopathy may also be treated with medicines that slow the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the retina. The growth of these vessels is triggered by a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Anti-VEGF medicines, such as ranibizumab (Lucentis), block the effects of VEGF.

Laser treatments may not always work in treating proliferative retinopathy. If you have retinal detachment or hemorrhages that cannot be repaired, your retinal specialist will need to use a surgical technique to try to restore your vision. This surgical technique, called pars plana vitrectomy, attempts to repair your retina and reduce hemorrhaging. Like many surgical techniques, it has several risks and is much more likely to damage your eye than laser surgery.

People who have diabetes are also at risk for other problems, such as cataracts and glaucoma, that damage vision. They are also at risk for a severe form of glaucoma called neovascular glaucoma. Cataracts are frequently caused by a lifetime of sun exposure, and diabetes speeds up their formation.

The following table outlines the major causes of blindness in people who have diabetes.

Condition

How it causes vision loss

Preventive measures

If you notice problems with your vision, you should immediately seek medical evaluation by an ophthalmologist. Regular eye exams are meant to detect any retinopathy at the nonproliferative stage, where it may still be treated with a good chance of success.

If nonproliferative retinopathy is not detected and treated early, it may progress to proliferative retinopathy. During proliferative retinopathy, your body tries to correct the microaneurysms. To replace blood vessels that have broken or leaked, new blood vessels begin to form. These blood vessels are fragile and may break easily, causing bleeding into the middle of the eye and clouding vision. They also form scar tissue that can pull on the retina and cause the retina to detach from the wall of the eye.

With aggressive management of your condition-keeping your blood sugar in your target range and controlling blood pressure-along with regular screening of your vision, you may be able to prevent or delay blindness.

WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise

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How Diabetes Causes Blindness-Topic Overview - WebMD

The Hindu

Saving three-month-old infant from blindness The Hindu Like blood pressure, every eye has intraocular pressure. In glaucoma, the watery fluid called aqueous humour flows into the eye, but does not exit. This increases the eye pressure and leads to blindness, says S.A. Hussain Naqvi, head of medical ... 2-month-old baby undergoes successful eye surgeryThe Hans India 2-month-old treated for rare glaucomaTimes of India all 4 news articles »

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Saving three-month-old infant from blindness - The Hindu

Fox - credit gingiber

Humanity and compassion have been on the forefront of peoples minds in recent weeks, and even demonstrated by our politicians.

What a shame, though, that there cant be more compassion shown towards the animal kingdom at a time when the enjoyment of inflicting pain and death on fellow creatures is as popular as ever.

And it even featured in the Conservative manifesto.

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The UK Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, Andrea Leadsom, who self-identifies as an animal lover, recently tweeted: Fully committed to protecting rare species in our Conservative manifesto. Saving iconic and hugely loved elephant is vital.

This is a ludicrous assessment of a manifesto which dropped a commitment to a ban on the sale of ivory.

Its a mystifying move given that an elephant is killed by poachers every 25 minutes, as the march towards extinction gathers apace; and it is far, far too late for politicians to be worrying about their popularity among the crucial wealthy antique-dealer electorate.

Perhaps less surprising is the indication that restrictions on fox hunting will be repealed.

Leadsom has said preventing hunters in traditional dress driving a pack of dogs through the countryside to chase then rip apart a fox has not proven to be in the interests of animal welfare whatsoever.

And Theresa May told some factory workers she was in favour of hunting.

Trying to explain fox hunting to my seven-year-old daughter is a difficult process, because while children can be very cruel, they also understand cruelty should not be fun.

The hunting lobby argues that people who oppose it the majority of people fail to understand the longstanding traditions and pursuits of countryside life, that people who live in cities over-sentimentalise animals.

Even leaving aside the class element to that, these arguments fall flat because they are condescending and fickle. However you dress it up, cruelty is cruelty. A culture of cruelty. Even a seven-year-old can understand that.

Compassion is not ignorant. Finding blood sport abhorrent is not complicated, it is principled. Its human.

And blood sport blindness is not exclusively a Tory pastime. The Scottish Government is considering relaxing the ban on amputating puppies tails introduced in 2007.

New exemptions would apply to just two breeds and only if they are likely to be used as a working dog, but the British Veterinary Association told MSPs that any concession would be a retrograde step for Scotland when prior to now it has always been cited as a key example of the Scottish lead on animal welfare.

Arguments for introducing exemptions come from another community of enthusiastic blood sport fanatics. Evidence shows gun dogs who work, particularly Spaniels, are at risk of injury if they have a tail.

But instead of examining the bloodthirsty practice that causes such injuries to these dogs, the answer instead is to mutilate the animal when they are born, and without any pain relief. The fact a dog uses its tail for balance and communication is inconvenient in such a job, apparently.

If your dog is suffering life-threatening injuries during your pursuit of the murder of birds, just maybe that isnt the fault of its tail.

Add in the corpses of driven grouse and the death of a number of inconvenient birds of prey - one in three golden eagles - as well as an annual cull of meddlesome mountain hares, and countryside pursuits is racking up quite the body count.

Will animal rights legislation ever recognise the culpability of the human in the equation?

We are supposed to be special because we have reason and rational thought. Indeed, Scotland is famous for both. But theres really nothing reasonable or rational about cruelty.

Time for some humanity and compassion in the face of barbarism.

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Blood sport blindness afflicts our politicians - Holyrood.com

Daily Trust

16.7% of blindness in Nigeria caused by Glaucoma- CAS Daily Trust Speaking at a Glaucoma awareness lecture and screening exercise organised for personnel and locals of the Nigerian Air Force base in Kaduna on Tuesday, the CAS while quoting the National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey in Nigeria which was ...

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16.7% of blindness in Nigeria caused by Glaucoma- CAS - Daily Trust

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster walks to a meeting between President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, May 20, 2017. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)

How did the worlds only superpower wind up in the middle of this war-crazy mess?The United States seems to be dealing with three or four enemies at once.Or switching sides when a renegade militia changes its name and allegiance.Or refighting old wars Americansthought they had already won.

Its hard to keep track, and lots of citizens have stopped trying. When the Cold War ended a generation ago, the United States took on the singular role of global peacekeeper, protecting or punishing other nations depending on their behavior and values. We spread troops and clandestine warriors in black among scores of nations to keep the peace. It sounded like a noble commitment.

Now our so-called indispensable nation finds itself beset with confusion and contradictions, trying to cope with half a dozen or more irregular insurgencies, some hostile, some friendly. Instead of peace and tranquility, the American Goliath seems to attract a swarm of killer bees.

Washington doesnt know how to win in Afghanistanor how to get out of it.

At the moment, the war in Afghanistan is heating up again. The Taliban are recapturing the countryside and slaughtering scores of young Afghan army recruits assembled for weekly prayers, or blowing up Kabul.American hawks are once again calling for more troops, more arms, and more money. President Trump sent National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to survey the troubled scene and propose a new strategy.

This is an old story.The United States has been at war in Afghanistan for nearly 16 years. New strategies were also proposed by Trumpspredecessors, but none of them succeeded. Washington doesnt know how to win this war or how to get out of it.

Modern warfare, it seems, does not require victory or defeat, just hanging on.On this perverse battlefield, adversaries fight with different weapons. Our side has the wondrous tools of high-tech weaponry, like precision bombing by pilotless drones or video terrain maps for tank commanders. The other side has, in addition to the usual tactics of guerrilla warfare, terrorism, including the deployment of children wearing suicide bombs as jackets to blow up a crowded marketplace.

Yet, strangely enough, the gravest threat to America is not these foreign terrorists. It is a threat closer to home that political leaders dont wish to talk about: We endanger ourselves.

What pulls us deeper and deeper into violence is American hubristhe false pride of our triumphalist pretensions.

What pulls our reluctant citizenry deeper and deeper into chaos and violence is American hubristhe false pride of our triumphalist pretensions. The assumption is that our authority in the world ultimately relies upon our awesome destructive power.The US monopoly on deadly force is supposedly justified by our nobleintentionsprotecting world peace.During the Cold War rivalry, both sides competed, mainly on matching nuclear arsenals, but they did not make the mistake of launching direct war against each other (prudent strategy for both sides).

Without the Soviet empire, Goliath was stuck without a rivalry or clearpurpose. Instead of promoting a general drawdown in weaponry and strategies,the United States and its NATO partners enlarged their franchisethey were no longer just defending the homeland but now reforming the world.

In particular, America dispersed fighting forces and command centersto nearly every continent. These deployments wereintended as warning flags for bad guysdont mess with the United Statesbut some bad guys didnt get the message. And American right-wingers promoted a far more aggressive agenda of changing dozens of supposedly roguish nations that did not comply with our governing values. Iraq was high on the list. The murderous 9/11 terror attack provided the trigger for a generational restart of war-making.

Goliath was ready. Having made themselves the fearsome giant of good intentions, American military leaders felt they could not back away from shooting wars without experiencing utter shame and cowardice. Yet if the United States were to use its full-strength power to kill and conquer, it would destroy its good standing among nations.So the United States clumsily decided to have it both ways.

The Bush/Cheney war on Iraq was launched with a battle slogan that expressed the arrogance of American power: shock and awe. Bomb the crap out of them, and theyll surrender without a fight.

People like the sound of our claim that we are a mighty nation that is both virtuous and deadly dangerous.

In war and peace, Americans seem blinded by their power. People like the sound of our inflated self-confidenceour claim that we are a mighty nation that is both virtuous and deadly dangerous. We further protectedourselves from harm by acquiring still greater killing power and inventing more ingenious ways of delivering destruction.

Terrorismeffectively undermined that reassuring premise. Terror cant win on a traditional battlefield, but it might succeed in deranging Goliath.The governing elites have no real solution for this dilemma, so they keep faith with the old formula for deterrencethe threat of massive retaliationeven though it no longer deters.

In the history of nations, hubris is dangerous territory.Over-wrought pretensions of superiority have brought down kings and empires.Failure to recognize new power realities has led great nations to tragic endings. Does it sound far-fetched to suggest that the United States is now endangered by hubris?Someold soldiers have observed the symptoms.

As a young military officer, McMaster realized that the easy US victory in Desert Storm was profoundly misleading.

As a young tank commander in 1991, H.R. McMaster performed brilliantly in the short, successful war called Desert Storm.Captain McMasters unit of nine Abrams tanks destroyed some 80 Iraqi tanks and other vehicles, and McMaster was decorated with the Silver Star.Yet he realized afterward that the easy US victory in Desert Storm was profoundly misleading and encouraged American war-fighting in disastrously wrong directions.

Popular images from the Gulf War portrayed impressive technologies and flawless operations that went exactly to plan, McMasterwould later write in a sober critique. The public was left with only videos of precision strikes against fixed targets and hapless Iraqi conscripts surrendering in droves without a fight.

But McMaster recognized that military leaders were themselves misled by their swift and overwhelming victory. American power, the Pentagon strategists assumed,would rule in this new, post-Soviet world.American technological advantageswould invent weapons of the future that could literally reinvent the nature of war. Ebullient optimismfollowed the triumph of capitalism and democracy over communism and totalitarianism, McMaster explained.

The triumphalism bothered him a lot.Studying at the Amy War College in 2003, the same year Bush/Cheney launched their Iraq War, McMaster published a powerful essay of dissentCrack in the Foundationthat invoked the Greek concept of hubris: Extreme pride that leads to overconfidence and often results in misfortune.

Withoutnaming names, McMaster explained: The hero vainly attempts to transcend human limits and often ignores warnings that portend a disastrous fate. McMaster perceived such overconfidence in the so-called shock and awe precision strikes. Hubris permeates the language of defense transformation, he wrote.

Warnings by McMaster and other officers were ignored.Disaster did indeed follow.As a colonel, McMaster was admired as a gutsy iconoclast, but he was twice passed over for promotion to brigadier general. His perspectives have changed a lot in 15 years, but the same challenging questions need to be asked. Is the United States launching bombs and missiles or sending more troops to Afghanistan to accomplish plausible strategic goals that are in Americas interest?Or are the generals just trying to protect Goliaths reputation as the toughest guy on the block?

THE STAKES ARE HIGHER NOW THAN EVER. GET THE NATION IN YOUR INBOX.

American hubris was further encouraged by a convergence with the extraordinary digital technologies emerging at the same time.Some giddy military theorists proclaimed the advent of a revolution in military affairs that would lift the fog of war by bringing precision and certainty to the chaos of battle. Certainly, targeting is greatly improved, andbattle commanders have real-time knowledge that informs their tactics.But the visionaries of high-tech war sometimes sound like theyre hallucinating. McMaster didnt buy it.

Under these constructs, McMaster explained, wars would be efficient and even more humane.Near perfect information would make possible precise application of force from great distances which would, in turn, reduce the risk to US forces, minimize collateral damage and even make the battlefield a safer place for the enemy. Makingwar safer for the enemy? Wow. That is visionary.

In fact, when McMaster studied war-fighting doctrines published by the armed services, he found a shocking omission.Theenemy is generally absent from these descriptions of future war, he wrote. When the enemy does appear, he is quickly overwhelmed by American strength and the interactions betweenforces is limited to the application of US military power followed closely by enemy capitulation. That is hubris as a formal policy.

You might call it dream war.Lots more explosives, but not as many people get hurt. New war-fighting machines that kill from a long distance with incredible accuracy.And theres no pilot error, because there are no pilots. Computers do the targeting, even fly the planes.This very pleasing fantasy evaporated once the other side started turning children into bombs, religious faithful into sacrificial killers.

We assumed that [technological] advanceswere going to make wars risk free. But thats not true, of course. McMaster

McMaster was addressing a business group when he ruefully explained the failed dream: We assumed that advances in information, surveillance technology, technical-intelligence collection, automated decision-making tools, and so on were going to make wars fast, cheap, efficient and relatively risk freethat technology would lift the fog of wars and make warfare essentially a targeting exercise. But thats not true, of course.

The new new US strategy has attempted to put people back into the storyorganizing and encouraging reconnections within local populations instead of simply bombing their communities and attacking local insurgents. McMaster has been a leading forcefor this counterinsurgency doctrine in both Iraq and Afghanistan, calling for improving social conditions like health and education while fighting corruption and warlord politics.Building stronger communities for the Afghan people while bombing the Taliban may seem like a virtuous project, but its not yet clear that it can succeed, not without years and maybe decades of US subsidy and military protection.

American peacekeeping missions fail in Afghanistan and elsewhere because they are trying to straddle two contradictory goalsthe violent conquest of native insurgencies, along with humanist healing for people in severely deprived societies. Its not obvious that either of those goals can be achieved separately.But the straddle sets up continuous collision between warriors and health givers, in which the American interest is impossible to define confidently, much less sustain politically.

One month we may be building schools and hospitals.The next month we might blow them up. This is not a sustainable posture. Americanscan provide assistancein good faith; they do in many places, and that is certain to continue. But the truly rough challenge confronting Americans is to re-examine ourselves and discard a lot of pieties that are not good for us or for the world.That doesnt mean dropping out. But we are not in charge of running the world.Nor are we obligated to fight in every other war that comes along.

This is a hard conversation for Americans tohave, since it will be misunderstood and is sure to provoke patriotic distemper.On the other hand, Americans like to argue, and there is a lot to argue over. Personally, Im tired of arguing over wars and whereor whywe should fight them.

See the article here:
HR McMaster and the Blindness of American Hubris - The Nation.

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Original post:
We're Ending Blindness. Are You In? | blindness.org

In a world first, surgeons in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou are planning to inject stem cells derived from human embryos into the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease with the aim of treating their debilitating symptoms.

Meanwhile, another medical team in the same city is aiming to target vision loss using embryonic stem cells (ESC) to replace lost cells in the retina, marking a new direction in China in the wake of major changes in how the country regulates stem cell treatments.

While similar treatments on Parkinson's patients have already been tested in Australia, those trials relied on cells taken from eggs that were forced to divide without first being fertilised in an effort to circumvent any ethical concerns.

Stem cells are a little like blank slates that are yet to take on a specific task. If you rewind the clock on any of your body's tissues, its cells will become less specialised, until you're left with a cell with a lot of potential to become nearly anything.

In the case of both kinds of embryonic stem cells, divided egg cells are subjected to various treatments to encourage them to develop into replacement cells that could treat a condition in a recipient.

The symptoms of Parkinson's disease are largely caused by a loss of nervous tissue deep inside the brain in an area called the basal ganglia.

Losing those cells means a loss of a neurotransmitter called dopamine, and with it a lower ability to control nervous impulses that would prevent muscles in the extremities from activating.

In the case of a condition called macular degeneration, damage to a layer of tissue called the retinal pigment epithelium at the back of the eye causes the light-catching cells above it to die.

By turning ESC into cells that can naturally develop into the tissues that have deteriorated such as the precursors to neurons that can produce dopamine, or into retinal tissue and then injecting it into the target site, the researchers hope to improve the lost functions.

Not everybody is convinced of the success of trials such as those being done in China and last year in Australia.

A stem cell biologist from the Scripps Research Institute in California, Jeanne Loring, believes the choice of cell used in both Parkinson's disease trials won't be specialised enough to match expected results.

"Not knowing what the cells will become is troubling," Loring told David Cyranoski at Nature.

But the research team in China remains confident in its decision.

Qi Zhou from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Zoology in Beijing is the stem cell specialist leading both sets of ESC trials, and says four years of animal trials conducted on monkeys have so far showed promising results.

"We have all the imaging data, behavioural data, and molecular data to support efficacy," Zhou told Nature.

He also claims the team conducting the Parkinson's trial have been selective with their potential candidates, choosing patients who will have the least chance of rejecting the ESCs from the cell bank.

In 2015, China introduced tough new regulations to deal with the growing problem of 'rogue clinics' offering stem cell treatments without due record keeping or process, making it hard to evaluate safety, or even the types of cells used in the treatments.

The changes are set to improve the ethics and safety of stem cell treatments by enforcing the use of cells through a regulatory body, ensuring informed patient consent, and permitting treatments only through authorised hospitals.

Time will tell if the regulations can be enforced, but for stem cell researchers, the changes are positive.

"It will be a major new direction for China," stem cell scientist Pei Xuetaotold Nature.

If the results are as good as the teams in Australia and China predict, it could also set new standards for the world.

Originally posted here:
World-First Trials Have Been Launched to Treat Parkinson's And Blindness With Embryonic Stem Cells - ScienceAlert

INDORE: Glaucoma is major cause of eye related problem but due to lack of awareness, around 90 per cent patients fail to get timely treatment, says an expert during a two-day conference- Ophthalmology Tomorrow- that started on Saturday.

"Glaucoma, also known as eye pressure, is a symptomless disease and therefore, people are unable to approach the doctors at early stage. This lead to permanent blindness within a few years" said the oration award winner Dr G Chandrasekhar of Hyderabad.

People with over 40 years of age suffering from diabetes and have family history of glaucoma are at high risk to catch the disease. Thus, they should go for eye check-up at regular intervals of 1-2 years. "We have technology to operate cataract by placing lenses in eyes without administrating drops of anaesthesia. There is only a need to create awareness among people about comprehensive check-up from eye-specialist for glaucoma," said Dr Chandrasekhar.

Excerpt from:
'Glaucoma is symptomless, leads to blindness in few yrs' | Indore ... - Times of India

Faces: Facial Blindness

Meet two people who suffer from Prosopagnosia, or facial blindness a condition that leaves them unable to recognize friends and family.

Updated: 8:00 PM EDT May 31, 2017

WEBVTT >> THIS IS CHRONICLE ON WCVBCHANNEL 5.>> THE FAMOUS FACE LOOKSFAMILIAR?>> I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THAT IS.>> EVEN THE MIRROR LEAVES HIMUNSURE.>> THERE IS A LACK OFRECOGNITION.>> THESE TWO MEN SUFFER FROM AMYSTERIOUS CONDITION, FACIALBLINDNESS.AND A SURGEON TO MAKE HER ABETTER WOMAN.>> I KNOW HE WOULD MAKE ME LOOKLIKE I WAS BORN NATURALLY LIKETHAT.>> THE AMAZING GERMAN -- THEAMAZING JOURNEY.>> ABOUT FACE.NEXT ON CHRONICLE.>> GOOD EVENING.SINCE BIRTH BROKE HAS HADTROUBLE RECOGNIZING EMILY,COWORKERS, EVEN HIMSELF.HE SUFFERS FACIAL BLINDNESS, ACONDITION BOTH MYSTERIOUS ANDINCURABLE.>> IMAGINE GOING TO WORK EVERYDAY AND NOT BEING ABLE TORECOGNIZE FELLOW WORKERS.IT IS A PROBLEM RICK FACESDAILY.NOT JUST AT WORK BUT AT HOMEWITH HIS ENTIRE FAMILY.HE HAS A RARE CONDITION KNOWN ASFACIAL BLIND.HE HAS DEVELOPED STRATEGIES FORTELLING PEOPLE APART.>> BY THEIR POSTURE, THEIRSHOULDERS.BEARD, NO BEER.VOICE.GAIT IS A BIG THING.I CAN SEE SOMEBODY HALF A BLOCKAWAY FROM ME AND RECOGNIZE THEM.>> IT IS WHAT YOU SEE IN TURN AFACE UPSIDE DOWN.>> IT IS A NEUROLOGICAL PROBLEMTHAT SCIENTISTS DON'T FULLYUNDERSTAND AND SO FAR CANNOTFIX.>> IF I TURN A FACE UPSIDE DOWNYOU WOULD KNOW THE EYES AND THEMOUTH WAS THERE, YOU JUST CAN'TPERCEIVE IT WITH THE SAME WAY.>> THEY HAVE A PROBLEMCOMPREHENDING RACIALEXPRESSIONS.>> I'M NOT REALLY SURE WHAT MOODYOU ARE IN.>> THE FACE CONTAINS LOTS OFINFORMATION.IT'S HARD TO UNDERESTIMATE HOWMUCH INFORMATION WE GET.WE CAN FIGURE HOW THAT PERSONIS.WE GET IDENTITY FROM THE FACE.WE ARE ALSO GETTING FACIALEXPRESSIONS AND DETERMINING WHATPEOPLE ARE THINKING ABOUT.>> RICK WAS BORN WITH FACIALBLINDNESS BUT WASN'T DIAGNOSEDUNTIL A FEW YEARS AGO.FINALLY IT MADE SENSE WHY HENEVER RECOGNIZED HIMSELF IN AMIRROR.>> I KNOW IT IS ME BECAUSE I'MSTANDING THERE AND I KNOW WHAT ILOOK LIKE.BUT I'VE HAD TIMES WHERE I HAVELOOKED AT MY FACE AND FOUND ITTO BE UNSETTLING.IT WOULD BE THIS ODD FEELING OFA LACK OF RECOGNITION.>> I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU ASERIES OF FAMOUS FACES.>> HE HAS COME TO DARTMOUTH TOTAKE PART IN THE FACIALBLINDNESS STUDIES.>> I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THAT IS.>> HE DEVELOPED IT AFTER FALLINGOFF OF A LETTER TO YEARS AGO.IT HAS BEEN EXTREMELY DIFFICULTFOR HIS WIFE OF NEARLY 30 YEARS,THE WIFE H DOESN'T ALWAYSRECOGNIZE.>> HE WOULD REFER TO ME AS HISWIFE.I KNEW HE HAD A HARD TIMERECALLING THE KIDS.HE DIDN'T HAVE NAMES.HE WENT INSIDE AND SAW SOMEBODYTHAT LOOKS LIKE ME.HE REALIZED I WAS OUTSIDE ANDCOULDN'T MAKE THE CONNECTION OFHOW I COULD BE OUTSIDE AND INTHE GROCERY STORE.SOMEBODY FAMILIAR LOOKING WASACTUALLY NOT ME.>> IT WAS HEARTBREAKING FOR HER.I MAKE A MENTAL NOTE OF WHAT SHEWEARS THAT DAY.IF TWO WOMEN WERE STANDINGSIDE-BY-SIDE AND NO JEWELRY ORANYTHING, I WOULD HAVE NO IDEAUNTIL THEY SPOKE.>> I TRIED NOT TO THINK ABOUTIT.PEOPLE WOULD SAY HE KNOWS WHOYOU ARE.I WOULD SAY I DON'T THINK HEDOES.THEY WOULD SAY I'M SURE HE DOES.I DON'T TRY AND THINK ABOUT ITTOO MUCH BECAUSE IT'SHEARTBREAKING.>> IS NOT UNUSUAL FOR IT POSINGA REAL CHALLENGE TORELATIONSHIPS.>> PEOPLE HAVE RELATIONSHIPSTHAT HAVE BEEN LOST BECAUSE OFTHIS.PEOPLE TAKE IT PERSONALLY WHENYOU DON'T RECOGNIZE THEM.I'VE HAD PEOPLE TALK TO ME ABOUTROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS, THEYWALKED RIGHT PAST THE PERSON ONTHE STREET AND THE PERSON DIDN'TREACT WELL TO IT.>> SHE SAYS IT'S GETTING EASIERFOR THEM, HAVING A SENSE OFHUMOR HELPS.>> A POSTED A NOTE THAT SAID JIMREMEMBERED THAT HE PROPOSED TOME 30 YEARS AGO.BY DON'T RECOGNIZE YOUR FACE.>> I NEVER DOUBTED THAT HE LOVEDME OR KNEW WHO I WAS.HE STILL REMEMBERSCHARACTERISTICS ABOUT ME.THE FACT THAT HE COULD LOOK ATSEVERAL PEOPLE AND NOTSPECIFICALLY POINT ME OUT, I TRYNOT TO THINK ABOUT IT TOO MUCH.IT'S HEARTBREAKING.>> I'M NOT GOING TO ASK WHY.I REALLY WANT ASK WHAT IS NEXT.BY GODS'S GRACE I'M GOING TO BETHE FIRST PERSON TO BEAT FACIALBLINDNESS.>> PROBABLY PRESIDENT CLINTON.>> ANOTHER GROUP HAS ANOPPOSITE.THEY ALWAYS SAY I NEVER FORGET AFACE AND MEAN IT.SCIENTISTS CALL THEM SUPERRECOGNIZERS.THEY ARE VERY MUCH SOUGHT AFTERBY LAW ENFORCEMENT.HE MAKES MALE FACES MOREFEMININE.>> THE SHAPE OF HEARSE CALL, THESHAPE OF HER CHEEKS.

View post:
Faces: Facial Blindness - WCVB Boston

What is retinitis pigmentosa?

Retinitis pigmentosa, also known as RP, refers to a group of inherited diseases causing retinal degeneration. The retina is a thin piece of tissue lining the back of the eye. It converts light into electrical signals that the brain interprets as vision. People with RP experience a gradual decline in their vision, because photoreceptor cells in the retina degenerate.

Forms of RP and related diseases include Usher syndrome, Leber congenital amaurosis, and Bardet-Biedl syndrome, among others.

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Symptoms depend on whether rods or cones are initially involved. In most forms of RP, rods are affected first. Because rods are concentrated in the outer portions of the retina and are triggered by dim light, their degeneration affects peripheral and night vision. When the disease progresses and cones become affected, visual acuity, color perception, and central vision are diminished.

Night blindness is one of the earliest and most frequent symptoms of RP. People with mainly cone degeneration, however, first experience decreased central vision and reduced ability to discriminate colors and perceive details.

RP is typically diagnosed in adolescents and young adults. It is a progressive disorder. The rate of progression and degree of visual loss varies from person to person. Most people with RP are legally blind by age 40, with a central visual field of less than 20 degrees in diameter. It is a genetic disorder and, therefore, is almost always inherited.

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An estimated 100,000 people in the U.S. have RP, mainly caused by gene mutations (variations) inherited from one or both parents. Mutated genes give the wrong instructions to photoreceptor cells, telling them to make an incorrect protein or too little or too much protein. (Cells need the proper amount of particular proteins in order to function properly.) Mutations in dozens of genes have been linked to RP.

Genetic mutations can be passed from parent to offspring through one of three genetic inheritance patterns autosomal recessive, autosomal dominant, or X-linked.

In autosomal recessive RP, both parents carry one copy of the mutated gene, but have no symptoms themselves. Children have a 25 percent chance of being affected by inheriting a mutated copy from each parent.

In autosomal dominant RP, usually one parent is affected and is the only parent with a mutated gene. A child has a 50 percent chance of being affected through the inheritance of the mutated gene from the parent.

In families with X-linked RP, the mother carries the mutated gene on an X chromosome, and her sons have a 50 percent chance of inheriting the condition. Daughters have a 50 percent chance of becoming carriers and arent usually affected. However, some daughters are affected sometimes mildly, sometimes severely.

If a family member is diagnosed with RP, it is strongly advised that other members of the family also have an eye exam by a physician who is specially trained to detect and treat retinal degenerative disorders. Genetic counselors are excellent resources for discussing inheritability, family planning, genetic testing, and other related issues.

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Genetic testing is available for RP. It helps assess the risk of passing the disorder from parent to offspring. It also helps with attaining an accurate diagnosis. A patient with an accurate diagnosis is in a better position to keep track of new findings, research developments, and treatment approaches.

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The Foundation is supporting several promising avenues of research, including gene, stem-cell, and drug therapies.

For the latest research advances for RP, refer to the Foundation publication Retinitis Pigmentosa: Research Advances.

This information was made possible through generous gifts from people like you. Please click here to make a donation to the Foundation.

*Images courtesy of the National Eye Institute, NIH

More here:
Retinitis Pigmentosa | blindness.org

American sanctuary cities are established by politicians who presumably seek to protect illegal immigrants from what they see as inhumane U.S. deportation policies. But by ignoring federal requests to detain them, and instead releasing suspected and convicted illegal aliens back into the community, sanctuary cities open their doors wide to the creation of a wave of additional victims in their own communities.

To appreciate the threat, look no further than the tragically avoidable murder of Kate Steinle in sanctuary city San Francisco. Kates killer, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, was deported from the U.S. five times, was on probation, and had seven felony convictions. He used a stolen government handgun to fire three shots, one of which ended Kates life on a city pier. The San Francisco sheriffs office had opted to put Lopez-Sanchez back on the street rather than handing the felon over to ICE.

Few cases are as tragic and expose the risks more clearly than Kates, which demonstrates the fact that subsequent crimes committed by criminal illegal aliens released despite the existence of ICE detainers are preventable. And the very evident risks to those new victims are what sanctuary cities willfully ignore.

There are hundreds of jurisdictions with sanctuary policies across the country. More and more are loudly vocal about their resistance; their primary cry is to accuse the Trump administration of leading a frontal attack on millions of illegal immigrants who are merely trying to eek out an existence in a better place than their homeland. In truth, the Administration is attempting to rid the country of the relatively few criminal illegal aliens whove chosen to prey on our citizens and on other undocumented aliens. To succeed, they need the assistance of state and local law enforcement authorities.

Sanctuary cities defy federal immigration authorities detainer requests, citing the reality that immigration is a federal responsibility and claiming the Feds cant impose their responsibilities on local officers without their consent. Simply put, the performance of a federal job in immigration enforcement by state and local jurisdictions is voluntary.

But the Federal government can encourage local support of immigration enforcement by conditioning the receipt of certain federal funds on cooperation with immigration functions. ICE detainers are one of the primary means used to identify and remove criminal illegal aliens from the interior of the United States. But when local sanctuary policies obstruct or ignore detainer requests and release criminal aliens back into the community, the communities are anything but more safe as a result.

A Department of Justices (DOJ) analysis in October 2014 showed that between January 1 and August 31, 2014, ICE documented 8,145 declined detainers covering individuals in 276 counties in 43 states including the District of Columbia. Of the 8145 illegal immigrants for whom detainers were declined, more than 5000 (62%) were previously charged or convicted of a crime or presented some other safety concern. Almost 3000 had prior felony charges or convictions and almost 2000 had prior misdemeanor convictions or charges to include those related to violence, threats, assaults, sexual abuse and unlawful possession of firearm or other deadly weapon.

Thats 60% of the releasees known to have committed prior crimes. Of course another segment certainly did commit prior crimes but had yet to be identified or charged. An acceptable risk? Release policies that somehow make the community safer? Not at all.

Recidivism in the illegal immigrant community can be every bit as common as in the broader population. The DOJ report also found of those 8,145 releasees, 23% had a subsequent criminal arrest and were charged with 4,298 offenses in just the eight month period covered by the report.

The bigger picture is grimmer. A separate DOJ report on recidivism tracked over 400,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 and followed for five years.

The report found more than two thirds of the prisoners were rearrested within three years of release and more than 75% were rearrested within five years. The 400,000-plus prisoners followed accounted for almost 1.2 million arrests. Translating that recidivism rate to released criminal illegal immigrants in the DOJ study suggests over 6200 would be rearrested within five years, responsible for more than 18,000 total arrests.

The DOJ detainer report documented egregious crimes committed by criminal illegal aliens on unsuspecting, law abiding people to include murder, child sexual abuse, rape, resisting an officer causing death or severe bodily injury and other serious crimes.

Criminal illegal aliens held in sanctuary city jails, including those with a litany of prior crimes, are being released into our communities. They will commit future crimes resulting in death, sexual assault, robbery, burglary and others. They will cause great physical and psychological harm to Americans and other illegal immigrants alike. The future crimes are preventable if communities wake up to their obligation to protect their own citizens first.

No family should suffer the same fate as Kate Steinles.

W. Stephen Thayer is an associate of the Law Enforcement Action Network, a former U.S Attorney and New Hampshire Supreme Court justice.

Original post:
The Willful Blindness Of Sanctuary Cities - The Daily Caller

In a world first, surgeons in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou are planning to inject stem cells derived from human embryos into the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease with the aim of treating their debilitating symptoms.

Meanwhile, another medical team in the same city is aiming to target vision loss using embryonic stem cells (ESC) to replace lost cells in the retina, marking a new direction in China in the wake of major changes in how the country regulates stem cell treatments.

While similar treatments on Parkinson's patients have already been tested in Australia, those trials relied on cells taken from eggs that were forced to divide without first being fertilised in an effort to circumvent any ethical concerns.

Stem cells are a little like blank slates that are yet to take on a specific task. If you rewind the clock on any of your body's tissues, its cells will become less specialised, until you're left with a cell with a lot of potential to become nearly anything.

In the case of both kinds of embryonic stem cells, divided egg cells are subjected to various treatments to encourage them to develop into replacement cells that could treat a condition in a recipient.

The symptoms of Parkinson's disease are largely caused by a loss of nervous tissue deep inside the brain in an area called the basal ganglia.

Losing those cells means a loss of a neurotransmitter called dopamine, and with it a lower ability to control nervous impulses that would prevent muscles in the extremities from activating.

In the case of a condition called macular degeneration, damage to a layer of tissue called the retinal pigment epithelium at the back of the eye causes the light-catching cells above it to die.

By turning ESC into cells that can naturally develop into the tissues that have deteriorated such as the precursors to neurons that can produce dopamine, or into retinal tissue and then injecting it into the target site, the researchers hope to improve the lost functions.

Not everybody is convinced of the success of trials such as those being done in China and last year in Australia.

A stem cell biologist from the Scripps Research Institute in California, Jeanne Loring, believes the choice of cell used in both Parkinson's disease trials won't be specialised enough to match expected results.

"Not knowing what the cells will become is troubling," Loring told David Cyranoski at Nature.

But the research team in China remains confident in its decision.

Qi Zhou from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Zoology in Beijing is the stem cell specialist leading both sets of ESC trials, and says four years of animal trials conducted on monkeys have so far showed promising results.

"We have all the imaging data, behavioural data, and molecular data to support efficacy," Zhou told Nature.

He also claims the team conducting the Parkinson's trial have been selective with their potential candidates, choosing patients who will have the least chance of rejecting the ESCs from the cell bank.

In 2015, China introduced tough new regulations to deal with the growing problem of 'rogue clinics' offering stem cell treatments without due record keeping or process, making it hard to evaluate safety, or even the types of cells used in the treatments.

The changes are set to improve the ethics and safety of stem cell treatments by enforcing the use of cells through a regulatory body, ensuring informed patient consent, and permitting treatments only through authorised hospitals.

Time will tell if the regulations can be enforced, but for stem cell researchers, the changes are positive.

"It will be a major new direction for China," stem cell scientist Pei Xuetaotold Nature.

If the results are as good as the teams in Australia and China predict, it could also set new standards for the world.

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World-first trials have been launched to treat Parkinson's and ... - ScienceAlert

Centre Daily Times

Aaronsburg man doesn't let blindness slow him down Centre Daily Times And heavy too, at least judging by the size of the equipment eating up space in Ron Ream's barn-turned-wood-working emporium. Ream was gracious enough to give me a guy who once nicked himself on a rolling pin a rundown of some of the grizzlier ...

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Aaronsburg man doesn't let blindness slow him down - Centre Daily Times