StemCell Therapy

Shares ofStemcell United Ltd (SCU.AX) are on watch as the Tenkan Line has moved belowthe Kijun line, indicating negative momentum for the equity. Stemcell United Ltd moved0.00 in the most recent session and touched0.07 on a recent tick.

The Tenkan Line or Tenkan Sen (Sen means line in Japanese) is known as the conversion line or turning line is similar to a 9SMA but actually is quite different. Remember a SMA (simple moving average) will smooth out all the data and make it equal but the Tenkan Line will take the highest high and lowest low over the last 9 periods. The explanation for this is Hosada felt price action and its extremes were more important than smoothing any data because price action represented where buyers/sellers entered and directed the market, thus being more important than averaging or smoothing the data out. As you can see by the chart below, the Tenkan Line is quite different than a 9SMA. Because the TL (Tenkan Line) uses price instead of an averaging or the closing prices, it mirrors price better and is more representative of it. You can see this when the TL flattens in small portions to move with price and its moments of ranging.

Akin to all moving averages, the angle of the Tenkan line is very important as the sharper the angle, the stronger the trend while the flatter the Tenkan, the flatter or lesser the momentum of the move is. However, it is important to not use the Tenkan line as a gauge of the trend but more so the momentum of the move. However, it can act as the first line of defense in a trend and a breaking of it in the opposite direction of the move can often be a sign of the defenses weakening.

Turning to addtiional indicators, Stemcell United Ltd (SCU.AX) currently has a 14-day Commodity Channel Index (CCI) of -87.92. Dedicated investors may choose to use this technical indicator as a stock evaluation tool. Used as a coincident indicator, the CCI reading above +100 would reflect strong price action which may signal an uptrend. On the flip side, a reading below -100 may signal a downtrend reflecting weak price action. Using the CCI as a leading indicator, technical analysts may use a +100 reading as an overbought signal and a -100 reading as an oversold indicator, suggesting a trend reversal.

Investors may be trying to define which trends will prevail in the second half of the year. As the markets continue to chug along, investors may be trying to maximize gains and become better positioned for success. Technical analysts may be studying different historical price and volume data in order to help uncover where the momentum is headed. Coming up with a solid strategy may take some time, but it might be well worth it in the long run. As we move deeper into the year, investors will be closely tracking the next few earnings periods. They may be trying to project which companies will post positive surprises.

We can also do some further technical analysis on the stock. At the time of writing, the 14-day ADX for Stemcell United Ltd (SCU.AX) is 32.59. Many technical chart analysts believe that an ADX value over 25 would suggest a strong trend. A reading under 20 would indicate no trend, and a reading from 20-25 would suggest that there is no clear trend signal. The ADX is typically plotted along with two other directional movement indicator lines, the Plus Directional Indicator (+DI) and Minus Directional Indicator (-DI). Some analysts believe that the ADX is one of the best trend strength indicators available.

Interested investors may be watching the Williams Percent Range or Williams %R. Williams %R is a popular technical indicator created by Larry Williams to help identify overbought and oversold situations. Investors will commonly use Williams %R in conjunction with other trend indicators to help spot possible stock turning points. Stemcell United Ltd (SCU.AX)s Williams Percent Range or 14 day Williams %R currently sits at -100.00. In general, if the indicator goes above -20, the stock may be considered overbought. Alternately, if the indicator goes below -80, this may point to the stock being oversold.

Tracking other technical indicators, the 14-day RSI is presently standing at 36.37, the 7-day sits at 35.27, and the 3-day is resting at 38.98 for Stemcell United Ltd (SCU.AX). The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is an often employed momentum oscillator that is used to measure the speed and change of stock price movements. When charted, the RSI can serve as a visual means to monitor historical and current strength or weakness in a certain market. This measurement is based on closing prices over a specific period of time. As a momentum oscillator, the RSI operates in a set range. This range falls on a scale between 0 and 100. If the RSI is closer to 100, this may indicate a period of stronger momentum. On the flip side, an RSI near 0 may signal weaker momentum. The RSI was originally created by J. Welles Wilder which was introduced in his 1978 book New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems.

For further review, we can take a look at another popular technical indicator. In terms of moving averages, the 200-day is currently at 0.08, the 50-day is 0.09, and the 7-day is resting at 0.07. Moving averages are a popular trading tool among investors. Moving averages can be used to help filter out the day to day noise created by other factors. MAs may be used to identify uptrends or downtrends, and they can be a prominent indicator for detecting a shift in momentum for a particular stock. Many traders will use moving averages for different periods of time in conjunction with other indicators to help gauge future stock price action.

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Bearish Signals Shown in Stemcell United Ltd (SCU.AX) Charts ... - Evergreen Caller

When Raymond Funnell, 52, was diagnosed with leukaemia, he had no idea he would survive to climb five of the worlds highest mountains.

Funnell was just over 40 and working as a consulting engineer for a Joburg mining company when he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 2006. This was is after he noticed a bruise on his arm that wouldnt heal.

I had always been fit and healthy so it came as a big shock that cancer was spreading rapidly in my bone marrow.

I was on put on chemotherapy and within no time I was in an isolation ward in hospital as I had no immune system.

At that stage, I had no idea just how hard or how long the treatment was going to be and that it would totally change my outlook on life. My wife and young family were devastated to hear what was about to happen to our normal life.

While he was recovering in hospital, Funnell would shuffle out of his isolation room in the still of the night and slow-walk along the corridors.

He says when the nurses moaned at him to take it easy, the idea of climbing Kilimanjaro was inspired.

For motivation, my wife put up a picture of Kilimanjaro on my room wall. By the middle of 2010, I was ready to make this dream a reality. It was such a spiritual experience, reaching the top of Africas highest point.

Since 2010 he has climbed Mount(Mt) Kilimanjaro, Mt Aconcagua in South America and Mt Vinson in Antarctica.

He attempted to climb Mt Elbrus in Russia in 2012 but 100m from the summit he was held back by poor weather conditions.

Despite the setbacks experienced along the way, including the recurrence of cancer two years after his initial diagnosis, Funnell, who is currently in remission, refuses to give up on life. And this month he has gone back to Russia to reattempt his climb of Mt Elbrus.

This is the highest peak in Europe at an altitude of 5642m, and Funnell hopes to climb it in five days to raise awareness about cancer and stem cell donation.

Not only do I want to inspire other cancer patients, but I also want raise awareness about the need for people to register as stem cell donors. If all goes well, we hope to be holding the Sunflower Fund banner high above our heads on August 17.

Funnell says he wants other people to also benefit from the life-saving stem cell treatment, which saved his life 10 years ago.

I was fortunate to have a perfect match with my brother and we made plans to have the stem cell transplant at the beginning of 2007. The stem cell infusion was uneventful and then it was a waiting game until the new bone marrow was able to produce new blood.

It changed my blood type from A-negative to O-negative. Due to all the anti-rejection drugs, I had a weak immune system and lost a huge amount of weight. I was convinced I was cured, but in March 2008 a routine blood test showed I had relapsed. It was such a feeling of hopelessness.The oncologist was stunned that I had relapsed after the stem cell transplant, he recalled.

After the relapse the only remaining option was high dose chemotherapy, which is about 20 times the concentration of the induction treatment.

The risks were high and this would be a real fight for survival. He spent most of the year between chemo treatments, blood transfusions and isolation wards.

The treatment was very severe and left my body weak and anaemic. I had over 50 blood transfusions and therefore I am truly thankful for all the donors who kept me alive.

Funnells experience opened up a new world and took away the feeling of limitations.

Never give up on your dreams, he says. It may be impossible to get to the top of a mountain in one single step, but by taking many small steps you can climb any summit in your life. Just keep going, step by step, and a day at a time

For more information on becoming a blood stem cell donor contact The Sunflower Fund on the toll-free number 0800 12 10 82

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Climbing for cancer and donor awareness - Independent Online

The Impossible Burger has had a charmed honeymoon period. Crowds of foodies surged into fancy eateries to try it. Environmentalists and animal rights activists swooned. So did investors: Impossible Foods brought in $75 million during its latest investment round.

Now the backlash is here. The activist organizations Friends of the Earth and the ETC Group dug up documents which they claim show that Impossible Foods ignored FDA warnings about safety and they handed them over to the New York Times.

The ensuing story depicted Impossible Foods as a culinary version of Uber disrupting so rapidly that its running headlong into government regulators. In reality, Impossible Foods has behaved like a pedestrian food company, working hand in hand with the FDA and following a well-worn path to comply with an arcane set of rules.

So why isnt this story a nothingburger?

In a word: GMOs. You see, soy leghemoglobin, or SLH, the key ingredient that makes the Impossible Burger uniquely meaty, is churned out by genetically modified yeast. This is a protein produced with genetic engineering; its a new food ingredient, Dana Perls, senior food and technology campaigner at Friends of the Earth, told me when I asked why theyd singled out Impossible Foods.

The company has never exactly hidden the fact that they used genetic engineering, but they havent put it front and center either. You have to dig into their frequently asked questions to catch that detail and thats a recent edit, according to Perls. When I first looked at the Impossible Foods website, maybe back in March, there was no mention of genetic engineering, she said.(An Impossible Foods spokesperson disputed Perlss claim, saying the FAQ has included references to genetic engineering for at least a year, since before the burgers launch in restaurants. But areview of cached webpages suggests the references were added in June.*)

By tiptoeing around this issue, Impossible Foods set themselves up for a takedown by anti-GMO campaigners. These groups monitor new applications of genetic engineering, watch for potentially incriminating evidence, then work with journalists to publicize it. In 2014, Ecover, a green cleaning company, announced it was using oils made by algae as part of its pledge to remove palm oil a major driver of deforestation from its products. When Friends of the Earth and the ETC Group figured out the algae was genetically engineered, they pinged the same Times writer. Ecover quickly went back to palm oil.

When I asked Impossible Foods founder Pat Brown about the GMO question, he said he didnt think that battle was theirs to fight. After all, the SLH may be produced by transgenic yeast, but it isnt a GMO itself. He also pointed out that this isnt unusual: nearly all cheese contains a GMO-produced enzyme.

But now, Friends of the Earth and the ETC Group have brought their battle to Impossible Foods doorstep. (In a blistering series of responses to the New York Times article, the company charged it was chock full of factual errors and misrepresentations and was instigated by an extremist anti-science group.) The FDA documents handed over to the Times include worrying sentences like this one: FDA stated that the current arguments at hand, individually and collectively, were not enough to establish the safety of SLH for consumption.

If FDA officials say your company hasnt done enough to convince them that a new ingredient is safe, arent you supposed to stop selling it?

Not according to a risk expert at Arizona State University who reviewed the documents released by activists. There are no indications that they should have pulled this off the market, Andrew Maynard told me.

Thats just not how the food safety review process works, said Gary Yingling, a former FDA official now helping Impossible Foods navigate the bureaucracy. In the United States, its up to the companies themselves to determine if an ingredient is safe. (Not everyone likes that system or thinks the FDA is doing enough to protect public safety, but it is the law.)

Impossible worked with a group of experts at universities who decided in 2014 that their burger was safe. SLH, it turns out, grows naturally in the roots of soy plants, and the proteins in the burger look a lot like animal proteins a good indicator of safety.

Impossible could have stopped there: Companies, however, can ask the government to weigh in on their research. Sometimes, the FDA asks for more information, which is what happened with Impossible Foods. Its not unusual for the FDA to determine it cant establish the safety of a new ingredient its happened more than 100 times, with substances like Ginkgo biloba, gum arabic, and Spirulina. The FDA has called for more information in about one in every seven of the ingredients companies have asked it to review.

In the case of SLH, the FDA suggested more tests, including rat-feeding trials. Impossible Foods has finished these tests, and academics who have studied the new data confirmed that its generally recognized as safe. Next, Impossible Foods will bring the new evidence back to the FDA, Yingling said.

The criticism raised in this case is really criticism of a system that allows companies to decide for themselves if a new ingredient is OK to add to our food.

If a company decides something is safe, they can go ahead and do it, said Maynard, the risk expert. So thats a weakness in the system. On the other hand, you can argue that once you start this process with the FDA, they have smart scientists who ask tough questions. You can see in those documents that the level of due diligence that a company has to go through is really pretty deep. You really want to make sure that you have a system that doesnt inhibit innovation, but captures as much potentially harmful things as possible.

Each new innovation creates the potential for new hazards. We can block some of those hazards by taking precautions. But how high should we put the precautionary bar?

Impossible Burger could indeed pose some unknown hazard. We just have to weigh that against the known hazards of the present foodborne diseases in meat, greenhouse gases from animal production, the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria in farms, and animal suffering. These are problems which Impossible Foods is trying to solve.

There are other companies trying to solve these problems. (Friends of the Earth notes that the success of non-animal burgers, like the non-GMO Beyond Burger, demonstrates that plant-based animal substitutes can succeed without resorting to genetic engineering.) But its not yet clear that any of these companies including Impossible Foods will be successful in just generating a profit, let alone in replacing the global meat industry. No one knows which startups will pan out. And well probably need to try and discard lots of new things as we shift to a sustainable path.

Trying new things can be risky. Not trying new things and staying on our current trajectory is even more risky.

*This story has been updated to include a response from Impossible Foods about when references to genetic engineering first appeared in its FAQ, and to add information about the FDAs food safety review process.

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The Impossible Burger wouldn't be possible without genetic engineering - Grist

James N. Jarvis, MD, is conducting a study of the gene-environment paradigm for juvenile idiopathic arthritis pathogenesis.

Published August 14, 2017

JamesN. Jarvis, MD, clinical professor of pediatrics, will usean Arthritis Foundationgrant to study how genes and environment work together to influencethe immune dysfunction in juvenile arthritis.

After asthma, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the mostcommon chronic disease condition in children. While genetics play asmall role in the disease, environmental factors are also known tobe important.

Study Focuses on Influence of Epigenome

The study, titled Interplay Between Genetics andEpigenetics in Polyarticular JIA, builds upon previous workby Jarvis and his fellow researchers.

The epigenome refers to the features of DNA and the proteinsthat DNA is wrapped around that do not control the genetic makeupof a person but do influence how cells respond to the environment,says Jarvis, principal investigator on the grant.

Specifically, the epigenome determines what genes a cellwill turn on or turn off in response to environmental cues,he notes.

New Paradigm of Pathogenesis Informs Research

Like most complex traits, genetic risk for JIA is principallylocated within non-coding regions of the genome.

Our preliminary studies present the hope that we canfinally understand the gene-environment paradigm forJIA pathogenesis, Jarvis says.

Rather than regarding JIA as an autoimmunedisease, triggered by inappropriate recognition of aself protein by the adaptive immune system, Jarvishypothesizes that JIA emerges because leukocytes suffer geneticallyand epigenetically mediated perturbations that blunt their capacityto regulate and coordinate transcriptions across the genome.

This loss of coordinate regulation leads to inappropriateexpression of inflammatory mediators in the absence of the normalexternal signals typically required to initiate or sustain aninflammatory response, he says.

Our field has been dominated by a single hypothesis forJIA pathogenesis for 30 years, Jarvis notes. However,as the field of functional genomics becomes increasingly wedded tothe field of therapeutics, our work carries the promise ofcompletely new approaches to therapy based on a completelydifferent paradigm of pathogenesis.

Newly Diagnosed Children Tested in Study

The researchers are recruiting 30 children with newly diagnosedpolyarticular JIA for its study to survey the epigenome and CD4+ Tcells in them and compare the results with findings in 30 healthychildren.

We plan to build a multidimensional genomic map thatsurveys the functional epigenome, examines underlying geneticvariation and examines the effects of genetic and epigeneticvariation on gene expression, Jarvis says.

He notes the work will focus on CD4+ T cells because theresearchers have already identified interesting interactionsbetween their epigenome and transcriptome in the context oftherapeutic response in JIA.

Taking Novel Approach to Understanding Disease

Because the epigenome is the medium through which theenvironment exerts its effects on cells, Jarvis believes thatcharacterizing the epigenome in pathologically relevant cells,ascertaining where epigenetic change is linked to genetic variationand determining how genetic and epigenetic features of the genomeregulate or alter transcription is the key to truly understandingthis disease.

This project addresses a question that parents alwaysask, which I never thought wed begin to answer in mylifetime: What causes JIA? This study wontprovide the whole answer, but it will go a long way toward takingus there, he says.

The project has three specific aims:

Arthritis Patients Help Determine Funded Projects

The two-year, $730,998 grant is part of the ArthritisFoundations 2016 Delivering on Discovery awards. It was oneof only six projects out of 159 proposals chosen for funding. Forthe first time, arthritis patients helped the foundation selectprojects.

Including patient input as part of the selection processwas a new milestone in patient engagement for the ArthritisFoundation and allowed us to select projects that hold the mostpromise from an arthritis patients point of view,says Guy Eakin, senior vice president, scientific strategy.

Partners from JSMBS, Philadelphia Hospital

Collaborators from the JacobsSchool of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are:

Other collaborators include researchers from theChildrens Hospital of Philadelphia.

See the article here:
Studying How Genes, Environment Contribute to Juvenile Arthritis - UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences News

Researchers from Portland, Ore. genetically modified human embryos for the first time on American soil, but this is not a new feat. The process has already been done in China. To date, no genetically modified embryo has been inserted into a womb.

The lead researcher, Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University, has a history of embryo work and demonstrated this round that its possible to safely remove inherited diseases by changing defective genes. This is called germline engineering. However, none of the embryos were allowed to last longer than a few days and the results are still pending publication.

Germline engineering typically uses CRISPR-Cas9, technology which precisely alters DNA. CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.

At its roots, CRISPR is comprised of a small piece of RNA and a protein called Cas9. The RNA is preprogrammed to match a specific genetic code to then subsequently alter a specific strand of DNA once injected. The RNA guides the injection, and Cas9 tags along because, as an enzyme, it is able to break the DNA at an exact spot.

The challenge is that DNA tends to repair itself pretty fast. To avoid this, some CRISPR injections carry another strand of DNA the cell can use to fix the break thats created, therefore allowing genetic alterations.

The implications are very large, Dr. Charles Murry, Director of the UW Medicines Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, said. It gives us the ability to permanently eradicate a genetic disease from a familys pedigree. And as a physician, thats something thats extremely exciting to me.

Genetic modifications have been around for decades, and CRISPR has applied since early 2013. The possibilities for CRISPR were first realized through a natural bacterial process that defends against invasive viruses also known as this all started with yogurt, surprise.

However, the real breakthrough happened in 2015 with Junjiu Huangs first human embryo edits in China. Scientists are also looking at this system to eliminate pests and the diseases they carry.

Theres another side to it of course, Murry contended. When humans begin to rewrite our own genetic code, and there are all kinds of chances to not only make corrections as we edit but to make new mistakes as we edit we may inadvertently create problems in the attempt to solve others.

UW Health Sciences and Medicine public information editor Leila Gray said UW Medicine researchers are using CRISPR on specific somatic cells, which are the ones that make up your body. These cells were collected from patients with their approval. One team, for example, is trying to edit cells with kidney disease, studying certain conditions in petri dishes. But no UW researcher is reporting work to remove genetic diseases from human embryos.

Currently, the National Institutes of Health wont federally fund this research. However, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine are recommending cautious reconsideration.

Murry predicts that before any of this would apply to a human being, a large animal would have to successfully carry to term a genetically modified embryo. Scientists would also likely have to monitor the newborns life afterward.

There are ethical conundrums with this new technology. Its so concerning that upon its first big embryonic debut, there was a three-day summit in December 2015 for hundreds of local and global scientists, policymakers, and the US presidential science adviser.

Some worry genetic engineering could lead to a dark future where humans are pre-edited for appearance, physical strength, or intelligence.

George Church, a Harvard Medical School geneticist, first told the Washington Post two years ago that there were nearly 2,000 genetic therapy trials already underway that didnt use CRISPR. The difference between those and the few that have is cost.

Its about 1,000 times cheaper for an ordinary academic to do, Church is quoted in the article. It could be a game-changer.

Reach reporter Kelsey Hamlin at news@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @ItsKelseyHamlin

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First human embryo genetically modified in the US - Dailyuw

By KIMBERLY HOUGHTONUnion Leader CorrespondentAugust 14. 2017 11:06PM

This sequence of images shows the development of embryos after being injected with a biological kit to edit their DNA, removing a genetic mutation known to cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.(Oregon Health & Science University)

Bryan Luikart, an associate professor of molecular and systems biology at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.

It is pretty amazing. It is a super-exciting time to be a scientist right now, said Bryan Luikart, an associate professor of molecular and systems biology at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.

The study, which was published in the journal Nature, was detailed in a New York Times report. According to the article, Oregon researchers reported they repaired dozens of human embryos, fixing a mutation that causes a common heart condition that can lead to sudden death later in life.

The way they have dodged some ethical considerations is that they didnt go on to have that embryo grow into a person, said Luikart, explaining that if the embryos with the repaired mutation did have the opportunity to develop, they would be free of the heart condition.

At the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Luikart and his colleagues have already been using this concept with mouse embryos, focusing specifically on autism.

Researchers are using the gene-editing method called CRISPR-Cas9 in hopes of trying to more fully understand autism, which he said is the most critical step in eventually finding a cure.

I think the CRISPR is a tremendous breakthrough. The question really is where and when do you want to use it, Luikart said. I have no ethical concerns using it as a tool to better understand biology.

The new milestone, an example of human genetic engineering, does carry ethical concerns that Luikart said will trigger some debates. He acknowledged that while the advancement of gene-editing technology could eventually stop unwanted hereditary conditions, it also allows for creating babies with smarter, stronger or more attractive traits.

The ability to do that is now within our grasp more than it has ever been, he said.

More importantly, the breakthrough could ultimately eliminate diseases, Luikart said. As the technology advances, he said, genetic diseases that are passed down to children may be corrected before the child receives them.

He used another example of a brain tumor, which often returns after it is surgically removed. Now, once the brain tumor is removed, there is the possibility of placing something in the space to edit and fix the mutation that causes the brain tumor in the first place if physicians are able to find the right cell to edit, Luikart said.

People are definitely thinking along those lines, or cutting the HIV genome, said Luikart, who predicts that those advancements will occur in mice within the next decade, and the ability to do that in humans is definitely there.

The big question is whether that can occur without some sort of side effect that was not predicted, he said.

Columbia University Medical Center posted an article earlier this year warning that CRISPR gene editing can cause hundreds of unintended mutations, based on a study published recently in Nature Methods.

This past May, MilliporeSigma announced it has developed a new genome editing tool that makes CRISPR more efficient, flexible and specific, giving researchers more experimental options and faster results that can accelerate drug development and access to new therapies, according to a release.

CRISPR genome editing technology is advancing treatment options for some of the toughest medical conditions faced today, including chronic illnesses and cancers for which there are limited or no treatment options, states the release, adding the applications of CRISPR are far ranging from identifying genes associated with cancer to reversing mutations that cause blindness.

It is pretty big news, Luikart said.

khoughton@newstote.com

HealthHanover

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New Hampshire biologist reacts to gene-editing discovery - The Union Leader

FAIRBANKS Organizers hope a giant fundraiser Saturday will help save the life of a baby.

Six-month-old Quinn Bartholomew has been diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the No. 1 genetic cause of death ininfants. She is the daughter of lifelong Fairbanksan Brienna Marok-Bartholomew and Jack Bartholomew.

A new drug called Spinraza recently wasapproved by the Federal Drug Administration to combat the condition, but the drug is very expensive. Little Quinn will need at least seven treatments at a cost of $125,000 per dose.

Her insurance will not cover the medication or any expenses pertaining to the procedure, fundraiser organizers said. This means insurance will not pay for the medicine, hospital stay, anesthesia, bloodwork, radiology and more.

So family and friends are reaching out to Fairbanksans for help.

Fairbanksans are responding, as always, with incredible generosity. People can donate and also keep track of Quinns progress on YouCaring.com at http://bit.ly/2wKUOFK. The posts are heart rending.

Spinal muscular atrophy is a genetic disease in which the motor neurons in the spinal cord degenerate, causing muscle weakness. Babies born with Type 1, like Quinn, are very floppy and have trouble swallowing and feeding. Life expectancy is generally less than two years.

The good news is, it appears Quinn is benefitting from the treatments. Her parents posted on the YouCaring site Saturday: We are only two treatments in and already we have seen drastic improvements, not only in Quinns strength, but her personality as well. She has been able to hold her head up for around five seconds on multiple occasions over the last few days. She wakes us up every morning with giggles and gurgling stories.

Her third treatment is Wednesday.

When friends of the family offered to organize fundraisers to help pay for these treatments, the Maroks and Bartholomews were grateful. Now, they are overwhelmed at the outpouring of love and support.

Quinns grandparents are retired teachers Bob and Blanche Marok. They have lived in Alaska for 40 years and in Fairbanks for the past 28 years. They are longtime volunteers in the community for everything from Fairbanks Community Food Bank and hospice to sports activities and youth organizations. Over the years, they served as foster parents for 26 children through Fairbanks Counseling and Adoption. Their three children, Chris, Brienna and Trina, all grew up in Fairbanks.

The generosity of the community has been overwhelming, Bob Maroksaid.

People are always asking us, Why do you live in Fairbanks? he said. This is exactly why. Its just blown us away.

The big fundraiser planned for Saturday is called Quinns Roundup. Everyone is invited to saddle up for an evening of games, raffles and shopping, as everyone rounds up funds for Quinns treatments.

The fundraiser takes place at the Event Center and Lounge, 1288 Sadler Way. Doors open at 2 p.m. The silent auction is 2-7 p.m. and a taco bar opens at 5 p.m. An outcry auction begins at 8 p.m. There will be live music throughout the day, including a performance by Nashville singer Ryan Bexley. The fundraiser will include outside volleyball, vendors, 50/50 raffle and door prizes. Some of the auction items aregift cards, artwork, tickets to NASCARevents, airline tickets, a Hawaiian vacation package, chainsaw, the chance to have a photo booth at your own event, hotel stays and gift baskets.

All proceeds go to Quinn and her family to help pay for medical treatments.

Organizers are recruiting support from vendors, donations of gift certificates, merchandise or services. Contact Krystal Wester at 750-6098 or drop off auction donations at the Chris Marok Allstate Agency, 59 College Road.

Another fundraiser is set for Aug. 25. From 5:30-8:30 p.m., you can Spin for Quinn at Lavelles Taphouse. F&H Fitnessis hosting the event. Its a Spin-athon that includes a live disc jockey, prizes and refreshments.

Reach columnist/community editor Kris Capps at kcapps@newsminer.com. Call her at the office: 459-7546. Follow her on Twitter: @FDNMKris.

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Fairbanks fundraiser benefits baby with genetic disease - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

PHOENIX - It's the trip that Justin Mann and his sister Ashtyn will never forget: that one time they biked from Oregon to South Carolina.

It was Ashtyn who had the idea. The two would peddle 3,500 miles in 64 days. They passed through 12 states and three mountain ranges, which was certainly a challenge. But even in Kansas, it was tough. Justin says the wind was intense and made riding even harder.

The two met a lot of strangers along the route and that's where they were able to tell them why they were biking so far: to raise money and awareness for diabetes.

Justin was diagnosed with Type One when he was six.

"It was a pretty terrifying moment in my life," said Justin. "I remember the doctor came out and he said you have diabetes. I was just like -- the first thing I heard was, die."

Justin had to adjust to wearing an insulin pump 24-7 and now also wears a sensor on his arm to monitor his blood sugar. He turned to sports as an outlet and played football for UCLA and Washington State. Oddly biking wasn't anything he had done until a couple weeks before this cross-country ride. Sure the journey was long but the payoff is still going.

"It's already cool enough for someone who is not diabetic to make it across the country," says Justin. "What if a diabetic? A lot of people think shouldn't or couldn't do this kind of thing."

The money raised will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

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Siblings bike 3500 miles to raise awareness about diabetes - ABC15 Arizona

The medical benefits of cannabis are diverse and far-reaching. Even where marijuana cant treat or eliminate a disease, it can still reduce the severity of symptoms and aid recovery. Diabetes is a case in point.In this guide, we break down the best weed strains for diabetes.

According to 2014 CDC data, more than 29 million people in the United States have diabetes. The disease affects the bodys ability to break down sugars in the blood.

This difficulty controlling the bloods sugar levels creates a host of dangerous health issues for people with diabetes. But medical cannabis can help with those issues in a variety of ways

According to researchers, neuropathy is the most common complication of diabetes. It also happens to be one of the hardest to deal with. Neuropathy, a dysfunction of the nerves, leads to numbness, weakness, and pain.

Fortunately, cannabis is a proven anti-inflammatory medicine that can reduce nerve pain and even heal damaged nerves. More specifically, its the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD, or cannabidiol, thats neuroprotective. This cannabinoid shields nerves from damage and reduces neuropathic pain for people with diabetes.

Therefore, some of the best weed strains for diabetes are those that can reduce diabetic neuropathic pain. These strains are high in CBD and rich in the antioxidant properties that protect and restore nerves. Hence, they tend to be indicas.

Devil Fruit treats medical cannabis patients with a light, euphoric cerebral enhancement coupled with full-body soothing effects.

A fantastic strain with strong antioxidant properties, Devil Fruit, helps reduce neuropathic pain with a sweet and spicy palette. Great White Shark genetics give this strain its high CBD content.

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10 Best Weed Strains For Diabetes - Green Rush Daily

Inflammatory processes in the liver lead to elevated cholesterol levels in people with diabetes, thus promoting subsequent vascular diseases. This is the conclusion of a study by scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, Technische Universitt Mnchen (TUM) and the Collaborative Research Center SFB 1118 at Heidelberg University Hospital. The paper has now been published in the journal Cell Reports.

Vascular diseases play a key role among the long-term complications in people with diabetes. Cardiovascular diseases account for 75 percent of hospitalizations, and these diseases are responsible for 50 percent of all deaths. Elevated cholesterol is an important risk factor for atherosclerosis, circulatory disorders and vascular complications.

"Even if blood glucose levels are well controlled, some people with diabetes have a higher risk of long-term complications. We wanted to understand the underlying cause for this," said metabolism researcher Dr. Mauricio Berriel Diaz, deputy director of the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer (IDC) at Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen.

In their study, the researchers focused on inflammatory processes that are known to occur in many metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes and obesity and contribute significantly to long-term complications. Specifically, they concentrated on the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF-), which is known to induce the production of reactive oxygen species (ROSs) in the liver. The scientists demonstrated that these ROSs inactivate the transcription factor complex GAbp (GA-binding protein). In experimental models, this loss inhibited the protein AMPK, an energy sensor of the cell. As a result, excess cholesterol was produced, and typical atherosclerosis symptoms developed.

Key Role in the Maintenance of Hepatic and Systemic Lipid Homeostasis

"Our data suggest that the liver plays a key role in the development of common diabetic vascular diseases," said first author Dr. Katharina Niopek, researcher at the IDC. "GAbp appears to be a molecular regulator at the interface between inflammation, cholesterol homeostasis and atherosclerosis. Without its protective effect, this leads to hypercholesterolemia and increased lipid deposition in the arteries."

"Since initial patient data supported our findings, the new signaling pathwayregardless of how well the blood glucose levels of the patient are controlledmay be a key component in the development of long-term diabetes complications that could be utilized therapeutically," said Herzig, who led the study.

Explore further: Researchers discover new regulator in glucose metabolism

More information: Katharina Niopek et al, A Hepatic GAbp-AMPK Axis Links Inflammatory Signaling to Systemic Vascular Damage, Cell Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.07.023

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Long-term diabetes complication: Liver inflammation raises cholesterol levels - Medical Xpress

Mary Jo has diabetes type 2. Every morning she gets up and pricks her finger to check her blood sugar. Then she takes her medicine which consists of some pills and a new medication that she injects. Breakfast consists of a limited amount of carbohydrate, as does lunch and dinner. She is encouraged by her doctor to get daily exercise and she realizes that her days of eating whatever she wants whenever she wants are over.

Diabetes is a big pain in the neck. But Mary Jo knows that if she doesnt follow her daily routine, she is putting herself at risk for early heart disease, or blindness, or amputations. Her fear of the complications of diabetes fuels her motivation to care for herself.

What if Mary Jo could turn back the clock and prevent this disease before it started? Is it possible? The answer is yes in many cases. The key is to find out before it becomes full-blown diabetes.

There are some characteristics that predict diabetes type 2 before it happens. They call this stage prediabetes. The scary statistic is that 1 in 3 Americans have prediabetes yet only 10 percent know it. That means in Lincoln County if 3,000 people have prediabetes, only 300 are aware of it.

Prediabetes is characterized by a blood sugar reading that is higher than normal but not high enough to be called diabetes. People at this stage are on their way to develop diabetes type 2 within five years, and are at a higher risk for stroke and heart disease than the general population.

The good news is that people with prediabetes can avoid or delay developing diabetes type 2. The sooner prediabetes is identified and changes are made, the better chance to prevent diabetes. These changes mean losing 5 percent to 7 perecent of body weight and getting regular physical activity.

The Centers for Disease Control developed guidelines for a national program to prevent diabetes type 2. That program is called PREVENT. The nationwide Diabetes Prevention Program is here at Cabinet Peaks Medical Center in Libby. For seven years, our team of diabetes educators and dietitians has been helping people lose weight and reduce their risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The 2017 fall program will start on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. The class meets for 26 sessions over 12 months. The cost is $100 for the year, and scholarships are available.

There are no symptoms for prediabetes, so how do you know if you are at risk? Take this quick test and add up the points:

1. Gender: Men 1 point, Women 0 points

2. Age: over 60 3 points, over 50 2 points, over 40 1 point

3. Activity: active 0 points, not very active 1 point

4. Family history: diabetes in family 1 point, no diabetes 0 points

5. High Blood Pressure: Yes 1 point, No 0 points

6. Weight: Normal weight 0 points, slightly overweight 1 point, somewhat overweight 2 points, very overweight 3 points

If you scored 5 or more, you may have prediabetes; check in with your doctor for a simple blood test to make sure. Then ask your doctor to refer you to the Prevent Program.

For more information about the program call 406-283-7318.

Anne Alexander is one of the PREVENT leaders at Cabinet Peaks Medical Center.

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Program helps reduce risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease - The Western News

In an evolutionary arms race with its host rabbits, the virus has evolved the deadly ability to suppress the rabbit's immune system. Credit: Kansas State University

In a classic example of the evolutionary arms race between a host and a pathogen, the myxoma virusintroduced to control the rabbit population in Australia in 1950has developed a novel and deadly ability to suppress the immune response of its host rabbits. New research shows that viruses collected in the 1990s are much more effective at shutting down the immune systems of rabbits that have never been exposed to the virus than are viruses from the 1950s.

"When a host develops resistance to a virus, the virus will often evolve ways to evade the host's immune response," said Andrew Read, Evan Pugh Professor of Biology and Entomology and Eberly Professor of Biotechnology at Penn State and an author of the study. "Instead of hiding from the rabbit's immune response, the myxoma virus has evolved ways to directly suppress it, leading to the development of a virus that is even more deadly to non-resistant rabbits."

A paper describing the new study appears the week of August 14, 2017, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research suggests that efforts to artificially increase resistance to a virus through selective breeding, genetic engineering, or immunizationunless they completely prevent transmission of the viruscould accelerate the arms race, producing even more virulent viruses.

Wild European rabbits were introduced to Australia in the 19th century and quickly spread, wreaking havoc on the land and devastating crops. The myxoma virus was initially extremely effective in reducing the population of these invaders. The strain of virus that was introduced developed in a different species of rabbit in South America. Scientists at the time were interested in understanding how the virus would evolve in this new, European, host.

"This system has been studied since the 1950s as a classic example of an evolutionary arms race," said Peter Kerr of the University of Sydney, Australia and lead author of the paper. "The rabbits evolved resistance, the virus evolved ways to combat that resistance, and this continued in a back-and-forth, ever escalating way. We wanted to know how that arms race has continued since it was last studied in the early 1980s."

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The research team compared viruses collected in the 1990s to the original strain introduced to Australia in 1950. "We can compare how nasty a virus is in what we call a 'common garden'," said Read. "In this case, laboratory rabbits that have not been exposed to myxoma virus provide that common gardenthey have not developed resistance to mxyomatosis so we can compare how they respond to viruses from different eras."

Many of the viruses from the 1990s were extremely virulent, but the laboratory rabbits infected with them did not develop the usual symptoms associated with myxoma infection, including skin lesions and high fever. Instead, these rabbits developed a profound immune system depression, leading to massive bacterial infection and acute collapse syndrome, similar to sepsis.

"The rabbits infected with virus from the 1990s did not have a typical inflammatory response to the infection or develop fevers," said Isabella Cattadori, associate professor of biology at Penn State and an author of the paper. "This is further evidence that the virus is severely suppressing the immune response in these rabbits. The evolutionary arms race has produced a virus that instead of trying to evade the host's immune response, directly attacks it."

Although the original strain of myxoma virus introduced to Australia in the 1950s had some ability to suppress its host's immune system, this ability has increased over time and the acute collapse syndrome that it causes developed sometime after the studies in the 1980s.

"Our study shows that the evolutionary arms race between an infectious agent and its host's immune system can continue to escalate to produce new more dangerous viruses," said Read. "We need to be aware of this in areas like agriculture, and even human vaccinations, where we are artificially enhancing resistance. If our methods do not completely prevent transmission of the viruses we could be accelerating the evolution of more deadly viruses."

Explore further: A real Peter Rabbit tale: Biologists find key to myxoma virus / rabbit coevolution

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Viruses up their game in arms race with immune system - Phys.Org

Nobody wants to get sick. And there isnt a single person on this planet who has ever been pain-free or disease-free.

Lets try to understand how our built-in defense system works. By studying it, we can be guided to support it through our lifestyle choices.

The immune system is actually a network of white blood cell antibodies, tissues and organs that work together to execute the job. Their only goal is to target all foreign invaders that attack the body. Their enemies are microbes like bacteria, parasites and fungi which cause infection.

In the event of an infection, this is what happens. The first major attack, once the line of defense is breached, is called innate immunity, a collection of white blood cells and chemical messengers. This is only activated by the recognition of molecules found in the invaders. Thus, there is a seek, identify and destroy duty assigned to white blood cells.

When bacteria is present, there is an expected inflammatory response. Once the pathogen has been spotted, chemical messengers release histamines, leukotrienes and prostaglandins. The symptoms: swelling, redness, and heat at the infected site.

For example, the presence of sticky mucus means that dust and microbes have been trapped and carried away by cilia, tiny hairs on the cells lining the immune system.

In this 21st century, the landscape of medical science is rapidly changing. In short, we know so much more about how our own bodies function.

In 1954, transfer factors were discovered. They are small immune messenger molecules produced by higher organisms. Henry Sherwood Lawrence discovered this ancient part of the immune system which represents what is considered an archaic dialect in cell talk. Yes, the cells have a language. And today, with the help of a breakthrough, one can contribute to the conversation.

More importantly, with the introduction of an all-natural food supplement called 4-Life from cow colostrum and chicken egg yolk, the recovery of a person from various health challenges is a positive expectation based on actual testimonials.

Truth is, the human body has transfer factors called cells-mediated immunity. This actual cell language was found to be existing in cows and chickens.

A patented technology by a US-based company called 4-Life successfully created a nutrition-based food supplement with the use of transfer factors.

Since the late 90s, transfer-factors based nutritional supplementation has become extremely popular. And it is now in the Philippines.

According to studies, transfer-factors improve the communication between cells. They include helper and regulator-factors which have been shown to induce an immune response within 24 hours.

There is a growing number of positive testimonials from people worldwide. There have been reports of encouraging health turnaround, such as the case of Ellen Escofal, 52, with stage 2B breast cancer, who underwent mastectomy but refused chemo.

After three years, her cancer spread to her lungs. Upon learning about transfer factor on my DZMM teleradyo show on Sundays, she decided to take the oral supplementation for a year. Today, she is in remission.

Cenon Hermojas, 61, a diabetic who was due for dialysis, went on the TF regimen. His sugar and creatinine levels are now normal. This, plus a lifestyle change helped him get better.

Rosa Estrella, 45, and daughter Cecil, 18, suffered from severe allergic rhinitis. After four weeks on TF, they have found relief from severe allergies.

For 4-Life Phils Lifestyle coaching, call Frank Uy, Tesy Emeline at 09178948728 or 09228552079.

This weeks affirmation: Hope abides in me.

Love and light!

Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.

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Making your immune system smarter - Inquirer.net

Todays oil and gas industry is no stranger to cyber attacks. The 2012 hack of Saudi Aramco during which the oil giants computer network was almost completely compromised, forcing staff to resort to typewriters and faxes for months and sending company executives on buying sprees for hard drives could have easily bankrupted a smaller organisation. And all it took was one click on a bad link in a scam e-mail.

Given the risks involved in an increasingly IT-driven industry that operates in a safety-critical environment and which is high on the target list for malicious or geopolitically inspired attackers, the industry has woken up to the importance of cyber security, and its suppliers are responding. In May, industrial giant Siemens announced a new partnership with innovative cyber security firm Darktrace to help bring the latters AI-driven Industrial Immune System technology to customers in the utilities and oil and gas industries.

By combining Darktraces digital tech with Siemenss operational technology (OT) security expertise and strong industry presence, the partners are hoping to offer a comprehensive solution for oil and gas companies. We caught up with Darktrace director of technology Dave Palmer to discuss cyber risks to offshore oil firms, and how sophisticated cyber security systems can help secure their most sensitive infrastructure.

Dave Palmer: I guess you can think of the majority of the cyber security industry as being preventative. So most things on the market have an awareness of previously seen attacker techniques, and they work in different ways to try and block them, which is a perfectly reasonable idea. And on top of that, theres a much smaller number of products out there that try to detect the things that have gotten past your defences. But often its based on the same idea, so its really doing the same thing again, just having another look for what previously known attacks have looked like. Unsurprisingly thats not super-successful, because if something was different enough or novel enough to get past the defences in the first place, then its probably not going to get picked up by using the same idea again.

So in order to do better at picking up an in-progress attack, we just flipped the idea around, so instead of having an awareness of what attacks are like, lets learn what the normal business is like, lets learn about all the different people and devices, whether its something as common as a laptop or an iPhone, or a completely bespoke piece of machinery that doesnt exist in any other pipeline or manufacturing system in the world. What that means for the attackers, then, is if they want a successful attack, they have to be clever enough to get past all the existing defensive systems that are in place, but they cant look different at all from the way the normal business operates, otherwise well pick them up. Those two ideas side-by-side are incredibly powerful.

CL: How did the partnership with Siemens come about? Is it useful to have a very established partner like Siemens when introducing your services to a famously cautious industry?

DP: Of course, Siemens is such a massive part of this sector. I think, really, we caught their attention. Rather than ringing them up every week and saying, Hey, this is a great idea, you should try it, we worked really hard on proving the idea again and again with Siemens customers. So because weve got that self-learning aspect, we never needed to do a partnership in advance of being able to work with Siemens customers because the system would just learn and operate successfully.

CL: What work have you been doing to integrate Darktrace and Siemens services and technologies to create a single, comprehensive solution?

DP: I guess there are two strands. Theres basically a go-to-market piece, where Siemens are basically helping us describe and advertise to their customers how they can get some of the benefits from Darktrace and what that would really mean in a Siemens-type environment. And thats pretty classic for us; its what weve been doing for a few years now, but its great to have their support and great to have them continuing to inform us of what would be useful for their customers.

But Im also really excited about their push into offering cyber security as a service, and Darktrace is going to be a cornerstone of that managed service that theyre going to provide. Repeating the mistakes of the IT industry, where weve tried to get every small law firm and mid-size business in the world to become cyber security experts, isnt particularly helpful.

CL: As well as onshore data centres and the like, is there an increasing cyber risk to upstream facilities such as offshore production platforms?

DP: Whats interesting from my perspective is the vast geo-survey data, sensing data information collection that goes on in all sorts of formats, whether its [a] satellite or stuff being towed through the ocean or distributed sensors being put over land to generate views, of course, of where there might be resources under the surface that are worth going after. If you make decisions worth potentially tens or hundreds of millions of pounds based on relatively small pieces of information that have ended up in your data centre, its worth thinking about the whole information supply chain, where that data has come from and how it might have been manipulated along the way.

If I was a bad person and I really wanted to try and increase harm against your organisation, I would attack your view of the world I would make your view of the world incorrect, and essentially try to influence you into buying drilling rights in the wrong places, and I would do far more monetary harm to your organisation than I would by powering off an oil rig for three days.

CL: What are the main challenges involved in securing oil and gas infrastructure that is complex and geographically widespread?

DP: I think the primary challenge is that in a lot of businesses, its okay to interrupt things on the basis that its better to stop it and then assess whether that was okay or not, than it is to let it continue. Of course, in safety-critical environments, you dont want to be just randomly stopping strange stuff happening in the environment, because the reason why that anomaly has occurred might be because someones just pressed the emergency stop button, and the last thing you want is your cyber defences preventing a safety-critical system from operating.

That said, I think what were seeing in the industry is a faster breakout from data and information and controls being in the OT to coming back into just being corporate. So rather than extending OT networks deeper into the onshore world, what were seeing is that OT networks are more quickly offloading whatever they need to say or do, or the information they need to pass on, into conventional IT and then were back on to nice, non-safety-critical ground.

CL: How important is it to secure buy-in and educate offshore/onshore staff on the fundamentals of cyber security?

DP: Most of the things that go wrong and become cyber security incidents start off with someone either making a mistake that results in a weakness, or because someones been tricked into trusting something that they shouldnt. Because while there is of course technical cleverness in what goes on from the bad guys, frankly a lot of it is whats now nicknamed social engineering, or just taking advantage of the psychology of us all as people who trust our colleagues around us, and people that would get used to seeing things on our own screen and naturally trusting it and having a bias towards it. Its definitely not like the movies where its just people punching through firewalls anymore. That kind of era is over.

CL: What kind of early feedback or interest have you received from the oil and gas industry since you announced the partnership with Siemens?

DP: Its been pretty good so far; were lucky to have a few oil and gas customers that speak well of us to their colleagues in the sector. To be honest, whats really bringing people to us is two things. One, they know theyre really struggling with their own complexity. So we try not to pitch ourselves by saying, Its you versus the hackers. We try very much to explain that for most businesses, its the security team just trying to get their heads around everything that theyve got and what might happen. You can almost stop thinking about the hackers in that regard.

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How an AI-driven industrial immune system could protect oil & gas from cyber attacks - Offshore Technology

By Mark Knauer, North Carolina State University Assistant Professor and Extension Swine Specialist; and Garrett See, North Carolina State University Graduate StudentIn recent years industry geneticists have chosen to focus on increasing sow output through increases in litter size. At some point we may reach an optimal litter size at the commercial level. Some may debate we are there now. Yet geneticists are working to enhance piglet quality which should make it easier for farmers to wean large, quality litters in the coming years.

So what future opportunities do we have to enhance female reproduction through genetics? Genetically reducing age at puberty offers producers multiple avenues to reduce sow herd costs. Recent research by Garrett See (2017) suggests genetically reducing age at puberty would allow gilts to be mated at younger ages and lighter weights. The author reported that after four generations of selection for young puberty, average age and weight at puberty were 163 days and 224 pounds, respectively.

Hence, in theory, you could farrow your gilts at an average age of 10 or 11 months versus a year of age. Not only would this allow you to substantially reduce gilt feed cost, but also potentially market late puberty gilts as full-value market animals. See (2017) further suggests selection for reduced age at puberty would increase gilt retention, enhance sow longevity and improve piglet quality. Hence the benefits of a genetically young puberty gilt are multiple. Yet more research around early puberty is warranted. Can we consistently breed genetically young puberty gilts to farrow at 10 months of age? What is the true economic value of age at puberty?

Genetic suppliers will tell you age at puberty is a challenging trait to capture at the nucleus level. They are currently correct. Yet I think there are some strategies to reduce the cost of capturing puberty data in the nucleus. At the commercial level Im not sure many changes would be needed to incorporate early puberty females, just start breeding at a younger age.

I would like to acknowledge the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and North Carolina Pork Council for their support of this project. Contact Mark Knauerwith questions.

ReferencesSee, Garrett. 2017. Correlated Responses to Selection for Age at Puberty in Swine. M.S. Thesis. North Carolina State University, Raleigh.

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Genetic strategies to reduce gilt feed and development costs - National Hog Farmer

The field is called regenerative medicine, technology that shows promise of repairing or replacing human organs with new ones, healing injuries without surgery and, someday, replacing cartilage lost to osteoarthritis.

New Hampshire could become one of the centers of the new industry and become the next Silicon Valley, says Manchester inventor Dean Kamen. The governor and Legislature, however, arent doing what they need to make the potential economic and intellectual boom more likely.

Sever the spinal chord of a zebra fish, an aquarium standby, and it will regrow in a couple of weeks. Remove a limb from a salamander, and it will grow another one indistinguishable from the first. And even some humans, especially when young, can regrow a new fingertip and fingernail on a digit severed above its last joint. Medical science is moving ever closer to performing such wonders.

3-D bioprinters that use biologic materials instead of printer ink are already printing replacement human skin. A University of Connecticut scientist and surgeon believes it will be possible to regenerate human knees sometime in the next decade and regrow human limbs by 2030.

At Ohio State University, a team has succeeded in using genetic material contained in a tiny microchip attached to skin and, with a tiny, Frankenstein-like zap of electricity, reprogram skin cells to produce other types of human cells. Turn a skin cell into say, a vascular system cell, and it will migrate to the site of a wound, spur healing and restore blood flow. Convert skin cells to brain cells and, with a few more steps, it could help stroke victims recover. The technologys potential is enormous.

Kamen created the portable insulin pump, and he and his team at DEKA Research in Manchesters millyard produced the Segway human transporter, a device that provides clean water in places that lack it, an external combustion engine that will soon heat and power part of the states mental hospital, and other inventions. Their track record helped Kamen and DEKA beat out plenty of other applicants to win $80 million in federal funds to found ARMI, the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute in Manchester. Total funding is now just shy of $300 million.

The governments aim is to spur technologies that could be used to treat injured soldiers but whats learned could aid everyone and make New Hampshire a mecca for scientists, production facilities, pharmaceutical companies and more. DEKA will not create the new technologies but use its inventing and engineering expertise to help companies scale up and speed up regenerative medicine technologies so they can be brought to the market more quickly at an affordable cost.

The states university system has partnered with DEKA to train students who will one day work in the biotech field. The educational infrastructure is in place, but its handicapped by the states sorry funding of higher education. New Hampshire regularly ranks last or next to last in state support and its students carry the most debt of any in the nation.

To make New Hampshire the biotech mecca Kamen envisions will require lawmakers to better fund higher education, support the regenerative manufacturing institute and make housing available. A high-tech company that wants to come to New Hampshire cant do so if its workers cant afford a home.

Regenerative medicine is expected to become a massive economic engine, one that will create jobs and improve lives while lowering health care costs. The Legislature should be doing all it can to make sure that at least some of that engine is designed and made in New Hampshire.

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Editorial: The growth of regenerative medicine - Concord Monitor

By The Canton Repository Editorial Board

There's a lot of excitement aboutOhio State University.

That's not unusual at this time of year. After all, the Buckeyes are getting closer to kicking off the 2017 football season.

But, as exciting as their games are each week, what they've got going on pales in comparison to what some researchers are doing at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center.

In a historic breakthrough, they're helping to save lives, cell by cell. They've successfully turned skin cells into the types of cells the body might need.

What does that mean? The Columbus Dispatch broke it downin a story published last week: "... a technology that has limitless potential, from regenerating a wounded limb to repairing a brain after stroke to healing a damaged heart."

The ramifications are boundless, as is our joy at this breakthrough.

The work started small, building blood vessels to help regenerate limbs in mouse legs within seven to 14 days. Once officials at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., expressed interest, the work took on a grander scale, the Dispatch reported. The leg-healing process was duplicated in pigs. It's clear the technology can help troops in the field, but researchers reported that it must begin within 72 hours of injury to be successful.

The process seems so simple. Twenty-six researchers in the fields of engineering, science and medicine worked together to develop the technology that involved placing a square chip about the size of a fingernail on the skin, adding a drop containing a genetic code. It then was zapped with an energy source. Researchers told the Dispatchthe genetic material changes depending on the type of regeneration that is needed.

"It's like a syringe that's the chip but then what you load in the syringe is your cargo," Chandan Sen, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Cell-Based Therapies at Wexner Medical Center, told the Dispatch. "Based on what you intend the cells to be, the cargo will change. So, if you want a vasculogenic (blood vessel) cell, the code would be different than if you wanted a neuro cell, and so on and so forth."

The mind reels when you think of the ways in which such technology could be used. Ohio State carefully worked on this project, with funding from private sources because of the high risk of failure, and is preparing to seek approvalfrom the Food and Drug Administration to try it out on humans.

The good news on this project extends to Ohio's economy, because a Columbus company is manufacturing the chips, and it already has drawn interest from a Taiwan-based company. L. James Lee, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at OSU and another of the leading researchers on the project, said the team is looking toprove feasibility within a year.

It's wonderful to see such thoughtful and valuable projects accomplished in Ohio, and for the state to benefit furtherfrom the idea. Ohio is home to a wealth of premier medical institutions, and this is another way the state is shining brightly in a field with tremendous growth potential.

Congratulations to the team at Ohio State. You're champions to us!

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Editorial: Cell regeneration work a boon to Ohio, health care - Canton Repository

More and more people in the United States suffer from knee arthritis.

jxfzsy/iSotckphoto

By Mitch LeslieAug. 14, 2017 , 3:10 PM

Knees hurting? You wouldnt be alone. The prevalence of knee arthritis among people in the United States has doubled since the start of World War II, according to an unusual study of more than 2500 skeletons, including some dating as far back as 6000 years. Even after researchers corrected for the recent growth in U.S. waistlines and life spans, the increase still held, meaningsay scientiststhat other, still unknown, factors are causing more people to suffer from aching knees.

This is really important work, says biomechanist Louis DeFrate of the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, who wasnt connected to the study. Knee arthritis is one of the leading causes of disability, he says, and the findings may help researchers better understand why more and more people are developing it.

Today, almost 20% of people in the United States over 45 years old suffer from knee osteoarthritis, in which joint cartilage breaks down; the odds of developing it climb as we get older. Scientists have long suspected that number has risen in recent generations. Because most Americans are living significantly longer than their grandparents, researchers have speculated that the graying population could be one culprit. Another joint-straining suspect is obesity, which now affects more than one-third of adults in the United States, up from 13% in the early 1960s.

To tease out the influences of weight and age, paleoanthropologists Ian Wallace and Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University and their colleagues examined nearly 2600 skeletons that had been saved for research or teaching. The team sorted the skeletons, which came from middle-aged and elderly people, into three groups. Nearly 1600 belonged to people who died between 1905 and 1940. Another 819 were from individuals who died between 1976 and 2015. And 176 were from Native Americans who lived between 300 and 6000 years ago.

The smooth, lighter patch on the left side of the upper bone is a sign of osteoarthritis.

Heli Maijanen

To diagnose arthritis, the scientists checked for the smooth patches that form when cartilage in the knee joint erodes and allows the upper and lower leg bones to grind against one another. When you see this polish on a bone, you know there was no cartilage there, Wallace says. Using that criterion, the researchers compared the two modern groups and determined thatthe rate of knee osteoarthritis has more than doubled since 1940, from 6% to 16%, they report today in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Even among the Native Americansfor whom the scientists didnt have weight datathe arthritis rate was about 8%. There was never a time when knee osteoarthritis didnt exist, Wallace says.

When the team factored out the effects of weight and age in the two modern groups, knee arthritis was still more than twice as common in the group of people who died after 1976, suggesting other factors are involved. What changed to touch off the explosion in knee arthritis cases is still a mystery, Lieberman says.

One modern bad habit that may be partly to blame is inactivity. Because we spend more time sitting and looking at screens, from smartphones to TVs, our leg muscles and cartilage might be weaker, causing our joints to break down faster. Wallace says that the team is testing this hypothesis by studying guinea pigs, which are the only lab animals that naturally develop knee arthritis, and the famous long-distance Tarahumara runners of Mexico.

The study is important because it emphasizes that the causes of knee arthritis are complex, says bioarchaeologist Elizabeth Weiss of San Jose State University in California. Paleopathologist Anne Grauer of Loyola University Chicago in Illinois agrees and says that our remedies will also have to be. People losing weight isnt going to solve the problem.

Continue reading here:
Knee arthritis in Americans has doubled since 1940 - Science Magazine

Osteoarthritis afflicts some 27 million Americans, and that number will certainly grow with the increase in obesity, the current emphasis on lifelong physical activity and the aging of the population. It is a degenerative joint disease that occurs when the protective cartilage on the ends of bones and often the surface of the bones themselves wear down, causing pain, stiffness, instability and disability that can interfere with work and mobility and diminish quality of life.

The Iowa team noted that arthritis will eventually develop in more than 40 percent of people who seriously injure the ligaments (the stabilizing bands that connect bones to one another); the meniscus (the crescent-shaped cartilage that cushions the knee and certain other joints), or the articular surface of a joint. People with a history of trauma to the knee, for example, are three to six times more likely to develop arthritis in that knee. Even without an acute injury, highly repetitive impact on a joint can damage the articular cartilage.

This may help to explain why I ended up with bone-on-bone arthritis and had to replace both knees at age 63. Id sustained three ligament injuries (while skiing) and after years of running and singles tennis, the meniscus in both knees had shredded. Although I did the recommended physical therapy after each injury, I now know that I was not sufficiently diligent about maintaining the strength and flexibility of the supporting muscles and other tissues that might have better protected my knees for years longer.

Recognizing how common a scenario this is, a prestigious group of athletic trainers has issued a call for a more aggressive approach to both preventing and managing post-traumatic arthritis among physically active people. Although athletic trainers most often treat team players and elite athletes, they also work at physical therapy and rehab clinics where they often see joint damage among recreational athletes like me.

They pointed out in a consensus statement in the Journal of Athletic Training that arthritis should no longer be considered a disease that affects only the elderly.

Increasing evidence demonstrates that young and middle-aged adults are suffering from osteoarthritis as well, the statement said. More than half of adults with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis are younger than 65.

In fact, as Joseph M. Hart, an athletic trainer who conducts clinical research at the University of Virginia, and his colleagues wrote in the journal, A 17-year-old athlete who tears her anterior cruciate ligament could develop osteoarthritis before she turns 30, potentially leading to chronic pain and disability. Damage to this ligament, in the center of the knee, is the most common injury among young athletes, especially girls, they wrote.

Jeffrey B. Driban, an athletic trainer at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said that one person in three who injures the anterior cruciate ligament will have X-ray evidence of osteoarthritis within 10 years whether or not the injury is repaired surgically.

Dr. Driban and co-authors pointed out that some sports soccer, elite-level long-distance running, competitive weight lifting and wrestling are associated with a higher risk of knee injuries.

A persons risk of injury can be reduced by having deficits in muscle strength, balance and stability evaluated and treated, Dr. Hart said in an interview. However, he added, not all injuries can be prevented, and unless the initial injury is properly treated, it can lead to additional injuries to the same joint or other joints, increasing the chance that arthritis will develop early in life.

Dr. Driban said in an interview that sports participants who sustain a knee injury can minimize the risk of reinjury and arthritis by not rushing back into activity or trying to play through pain. They must strengthen the muscles that support the joint the quads, hamstrings and hip muscles. Its important to think about the entire lower extremity, not just the knee.

Following an injury, an athletic trainer, rehabilitation specialist or physical therapist who specializes in orthopedics can evaluate a persons muscle strength, endurance, balance and movement quality, then guide recovery with a structured rehab program that is maintained for six to nine months, Dr. Hart said.

It is also important to continue to pursue an active lifestyle, said Abby C. Thomas of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. You may have to modify the activities you do, but you have to stay active to maintain strength and cardiovascular fitness without putting repetitive stress on a joint thats already injured. If your knee hurts and you cant run, maybe get on a bike or swim, activities that place less stress on the knees.

Dont sit around on the couch because running hurts, Dr. Thomas said. Try walking, or something different, but dont give up on physical activity.

Lifelong activity is also important to prevent weight gain, since every extra pound places disproportionate stress on the knees. All the authors emphasized that pursuing a healthy lifestyle is crucial for everyone, not just elite athletes and those who play on school teams.

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When Sports Injuries Lead to Arthritis in Joints - New York Times

Laura Morgan, WUSA 3:47 PM. EDT August 14, 2017

Exercise can help alleviate the pain of Psoriatic Arthritis (Photo: Custom)

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA9) - Youve seen ads on TV to treat the skin condition Psoriasis. But many people are not aware of Psoriatic Arthritis. About thirty percent of people suffering from Psoriasis develop Psoriatic Arthritis. This is an especially painful form of arthritis that causes inflammation of the joints. Forty to fifty percent of affected people can end up having a disability if theyre not treated in time.

A proper diagnosis is instrumental in getting treated. Theres no blood test to detect it, but specialists check if the patient has any of six different ailments. These include Psoriasis, swollen joints, tendonitis, swollen digits, and back pain. Lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking and losing weight can help treat the arthritis, but those with more severe conditions may need extra care.

Luckily a revolutionary treatment called biologic therapies is now available, according to Dr. Evan L. Siegel at Arthritis and Rheumatism Associates, P.C. These therapies intervene with a specific part of the immune system, slow down the inflammation, and also stop the progression of the disease, says Siegel. The biologic therapies can be administered by intravenous infusion in a comfortable setting. Early treatment with those types of medications can really be effective in slowing down disabilities. To schedule an appointment with a rheumatologist, visit http://www.ariseinfusion.com/WUSA9.

This article is sponsored by Arise Infusion Therapy Services

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How to treat Psoriatic Arthritis - W*USA 9