Hometown Glory Bursary Contest Win a $5000 Bursary ...

What?s unique about your hometown? Capture the spirit of your hometown in a creative way for your chance at a bursary to Centre for Arts and Technology!

The task? To capture your hometown in a photo from a unique angle! Bird?s eye, panoramic, all-in-the-details, abstract, panning? how you want to capture your hometown is up to you-make it original!

Entries are due on July 31 and we will email you to give you the voting link so you can share your entry with friends and family (or your whole hometown!) to secure votes. Three rounds of voting will start on August 1, with a public vote determining voting round finalists, and ultimately, the top three entries during the final vote, from August 22nd to August 31. Winners will be announced on September 5, 2012!

The Centre for Arts and Technology, with campuses located in Kelowna BC, Halifax NS, and Fredericton NB, is an accredited, higher education institution. We provide specialized technical training and sought-after skills in a rapidly expanding and evolving entertainment arts and media production industry.

Our programs are led by and designed in conjunction with industry professionals. They include Digital Filmmaking Fusion, Digital Photography, Digital Filmmaking, Animation for Game, Film, & Visual Effects, Audio Engineering, Sound Production, Graphic Design & Web Development, Fashion Design, Interior Design, Network Security, and more.

Source: http://www.photographycompetitions.net/2012/07/hometown-glory-bursary-contest-win-a-5000-bursary/

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Single embryo transfer reduces the risk of perinatal mortality in IVF

ScienceDaily (July 4, 2012) ? A policy of single embryo transfer (SET) reduces the risk of perinatal mortality in infants born as a result of IVF and ICSI. The conclusion emerged from an analysis of more than 50,000 births recorded in the Australian and New Zealand Assisted Reproduction Technology Database between 2004 and 2008, where the introduction of an SET policy has been associated with a reduction in overall perinatal mortality for IVF and ICSI babies.

Results of the analysis were presented in Istanbul July 4 at the annual meeting of ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology) by Professor Elizabeth Sullivan from the Perinatal & Reproductive Epidemiology Research Unit of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Professor Sullivan said that from a public health perspective "there is justification for advocating SET as first line management in assisted reproduction with the aim of minimising preventable perinatal deaths."

The study she described included 50,258 births which were of more than 20 weeks gestation and/or 400 grams birthweight following IVF and ICSI pregnancies. Total perinatal deaths were defined as the number of fetal deaths (stillbirths) plus the number of neonatal deaths (deaths that occur before 28 days after birth).

Analysis showed an overall perinatal mortality rate of 16.2 per 1000 births, representing 813 perinatal deaths during the study period (630 stillbirths and 183 neonatal deaths).

However, births following the transfer of two embryos had a significantly higher perinatal mortality rate than births following SET (19.1 per 1000 births and 13.2 per 1000 births). The risk of perinatal mortality for all births following two embryo transfer was 53% higher than those following SET. This difference was especially apparent in births following the transfer of fresh (and not frozen) embryos; births following the transfer of two fresh embryos had 74% higher risk of perinatal mortality than births following fresh SET.

Twins accounted for half the total neonatal deaths and one-third the perinatal deaths. Twins also had significantly higher perinatal mortality rate than singletons (27.8 per 1000 births and 12.4 per 1000 births). However, twins born from SET (ie, monozygotic) had a higher risk of perinatal mortality than those born from two embryo transfers.

Professor Sullivan noted that the voluntary adoption of an IVF policy of single embryo transfer in Australia and New Zealand has been associated with a reduction in overall perinatal mortality for all babies conceived by assisted reproduction methods, which was justification in itself for recommending SET as a first line fertility treatment for non-donor cycles in women aged under 35 years.

Moreover, said Professor Sullivan, there are wider public health benefits from an SET policy. She explained: "The number of embryos transferred per procedure is the major determinant of multiple pregnancy and multiple delivery, which contribute to an elevated risk of preterm birth and low birth weight, and its sequelae. These are risks in addition to those already faced by women being treated for infertility.

"Australia and New Zealand have shown that in the right policy environment a voluntary change to SET practice is achievable," she added. The proportion of single embryo transfers in Australia/New Zealand IVF rose from 14.2% in 1999 to 67.8% in 2008, which was accompanied by a decline in multiple deliveries of 13.7 percentage points -- from 22.1% in 2000 to 8.4% in 2008.

"In some other countries and regions," said Professor Sullivan, "the uptake of SET has been more dramatic, particularly where policy initiatives linked to funding have led to significant change in practice without compromising quality or safety."

Notes

* Multiple pregnancy has been described by many authorities (ESHRE, ASRM) as the most serious and frequent complication of IVF. Multiple pregnancies are known to be high risk pregnancies with higher chances of maternal and perinatal mortality.

* According to ESHRE's most recent IVF monitoring data (for 2009) only 24% of total IVF/ICSI cycles in Europe were single embryo transfers -- most (57%) were double embryo transfers. High rates (60% and higher) of double embryo transfers were found in Germany, UK, and France, while high rates of SET were found in Finland, Sweden and Belgium.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/w36sGiSaAGw/120704124315.htm

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Video: Firefighters make progress in Colorado

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/48065679/

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An error-eliminating fix overcomes big problem in '3rd-gen' genome sequencing

Monday, July 2, 2012

The next "next-gen" technology in genome sequencing has gotten a major boost.

A quantitative biologist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and collaborators today published results of experiments that demonstrate the power of so-called single-molecule sequencing, which was recently introduced but whose use has so far been limited by technical issues.

The team, led by CSHL Assistant Professor Michael Schatz and Adam Phillippy and Sergey Koren of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center and the University of Maryland (UMD), has developed a software package that corrects a serious problem inherent in the new sequencing technology: the fact that every fifth or sixth DNA "letter" it generates is incorrect. The high error rate is the flip side of the new method's chief virtue: it generates much longer genome "reads" than other technologies currently used, up to 100 times longer, and thus can provide a much more complete picture of genome structure than can be obtained with current, "2nd-gen" sequencing technology.

Using mathematical algorithms, Schatz and the team have preserved the great advantage of the "3rd-gen" method while all but eliminating its chief flaw. They have reduced the error rate from about 15% or greater to less than one-tenth of one percent. This mathematical "fix" ? which has been published in open-source code to the World Wide Web ? greatly increases the practical utility of 3rd-gen sequencing for the entire biomedical research community.

The team demonstrates the breadth of potential applications of single-molecule sequencing by applying their fix to sequencing tasks ranging from the tiny bacteriophage virus at one end of the difficulty scale to the large and vastly more complex genome of the parrot, at the other. The parrot genome is more than a third the size of the human genome and is published online today with the team's paper in Nature Biotechnology. The parrot sequence is "far superior to that of any previously sequenced bird genome," Schatz says.

To understand why it is better is to appreciate the advantages of 3rd-gen sequencing. The main advantage has to do with the average length of each "read" (i.e., genome segments read by a sequencer). The individual sequences are assembled into "contigs" -- shorthand for contiguous sequences -- much the way pieces in a jigsaw puzzle are assembled. In currently used 2nd-gen technology, the contigs are very small, and are massively redundant. A "consensus" version of each segment, representing the results of many layered reads, tends to be extremely accurate. But the small size of puzzle pieces prevents accurate assembly of certain genome portions, like those containing long repetitive sequences.

Obtaining superior versions of complete genomes was the objective that motivated Schatz and his collaborators, who also include HHMI Investigator Erich D. Jarvis of Duke University and CSHL Professor W. Richard McCombie, a sequencing pioneer, among others.

Combining the best of both generations

With single-molecule sequencing, the assembled contigs are much longer ? affording a much better picture of relatively larger genome segments, including those occupied by lengthy repeats. This is what Schatz and his team wanted to preserve, while at the same time boosting the error-free rate. They did so by effectively taking the best of both 2nd- and 3rd-gen technologies.

"We call our approach 'hybrid error correction,'" Schatz explains.

The team's major insight was to take advantage of the long-read data offered by a 3rd-gen machine like that used in their experiments, a Pacific Biosciences RS sequencer, and mixing in highly accurate short reads obtained from a separate 2nd-gen sequencer. The two data types were run through an open-source genome assembly program called Celera Assembler to generate a clean final assembly that has proven 99.9% error-free and composed of contigs whose median size is at least double that obtainable with 2nd-gen "short-read" sequencers. Contig sizes are expected to increase appreciably in subsequent iterations of the hybrid approach as single molecule long-read sequencing improves.

High-quality genome assemblies are especially important for genome annotation and comparative genome analyses. Many microbial genome analyses depend on finished genomes, but their cost is prohibitive using older technologies. High-quality analysis of the genomes of higher organisms depends upon continuous sequences that capture long stretches of DNA that spell out genes. Discoveries in recent years of spontaneously occurring structural changes in genomes called copy number variations -- such as those made by CSHL Professor Mike Wigler and his team in their research on schizophrenia and autism ? make clear the importance of being able to obtain clean and accurate pictures of the entire genomes of affected individuals.

With hybrid error correction, Schatz and his colleagues have "demonstrated that high error rates associated with long reads need not be a barrier to genome assembly," he summarizes. "High-error long reads can be efficiently assembled in combination with complementary short reads to produce assemblies not previously possible."

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Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: http://www.cshl.org

Thanks to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/121393/An_error_eliminating_fix_overcomes_big_problem_in___rd_gen__genome_sequencing

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Gov. Scott: Florida won't comply on health care

By Gary Fineout, NBCMiami.com

Florida Gov. Rick Scott now says Florida will do nothing to comply with President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and will not expand its Medicaid program. The announcement is a marked changed after the governor recently said he would follow the law if it were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Florida is not going to implement Obamacare. We are not going to expand Medicaid and we're not going to implement exchanges,'' Scott's spokesman Lane Wright told The Associated Press on Saturday. Wright stressed that the governor would work to make sure the law is repealed.

Scott told Fox News the Medicaid expansion would cost Florida taxpayers $1.9 billion a year, but it's unclear how he arrived at that figure.

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See the original report at NBCMiami.com

Scott said the state will not expand the Medicaid program in order to lower the number of uninsured residents, nor will Florida set up a state-run health exchange, a marketplace where people who need insurance policies could shop for them.

"We care about having a health care safety net for the vulnerable Floridians, but this is an expansion that just doesn't make any sense,'' he told Fox host Greta Van Susteren.

Scott has gone back and forth on the issue after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Congress cannot withhold federal Medicaid funding from states that opt out of a requirement in the overhaul to expand coverage to those just above the poverty line.

On the day of the ruling Scott was cautious about the expansion, saying he wanted to read the ruling first. Then during an interview Friday morning on a Jacksonville radio station, Scott said it was unlikely he would go along with the expansion because of the potential cost to the state.

But the governor told the Tampa Bay Times later in the day that he was still evaluating the ruling and would come up with a plan within a few weeks.

Scott, the former CEO of a hospital chain, has been a vocal critic of the health care overhaul from the start. He made his first foray into politics by forming a group called Conservatives for Patients Rights that ran television ads criticizing the proposal before it was adopted by Congress.

Scott has also complained about the growing cost of Medicaid, the $21 billion safety net program that primarily aids the poor but also picks up nursing home bills for senior citizens. The governor backed a push by the Republican-controlled Legislature to shift Medicaid patients into managed care programs, a move that is still awaiting federal approval.

Scott has rejected federal money in the past, most notably $2.4 billion for high speed rail. His administration has also said no to some money attached to the Affordable Care Act.

But Scott has said yes to money associated with the federal stimulus program and he has changed some of the positions he advocated during his run for governor. Scott also must weigh the political calculations of saying no to Medicaid because of tight budgets, while it is likely he will continue to push for substantial tax cuts between now and his re-election campaign in 2014.

According to Census data released last year, Florida had the nation's third-highest rate of residents without health insurance during the past three years.

President Obama's health care law called for states in 2014 to expand Medicaid eligibility to those making up to 133 percent of the poverty level, or $29,326 for a family of four. While estimates vary, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has concluded that as many as 1.95 million more people would join Medicaid and other state-subsidized health insurance programs over the next five years.

Most of the cost, running into the billions, would be absorbed by the federal government. The Medicaid expansion would not cost the state anything until 2017 ? although AHCA estimates that changes to other state-subsidized programs would require state money starting in 2014. AHCA estimates that the overall cost to the state would be $2.4 billion between 2013 and 2018 with the federal government picking up nearly $26 billion.

But other groups analyzing the potential changes contend that state officials have ``hyper-inflated'' the potential costs because they assume too many people will enroll.

The ultimate choice, however, won't be Scott's alone. It will also be decided by the Legislature.

Source: http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/30/12503239-gov-scott-says-florida-will-not-comply-with-health-care-law-or-expand-medicaid?lite

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Curcumin Could Preserve Walking Ability Among Spinal Cord Injury Patients

A curry spice may do more than just add some flavor to your dishes -- it could also help to preserve the ability to walk in people who've had a spinal cord injury, according to a new animal study.

Published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that consuming lots of omega-3 fatty acids -- which have a myriad of health benefits, in their own rite -- and curcumin -- found in the curry spice turmeric -- is linked with maintenance of brain functioning and reparation of nerve cells after damage to the spinal cord.

"While surgery can relieve the pressure and prevent further injury, it can't repair damage to the cells and nerve fibers," study researcher Dr. Langston Holly, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the UCLA School of Medicine, said in a statement. "We wanted to explore whether dietary supplementation could help the spinal cord heal itself."

The study was done in rats who all had something similar to the human cervical myelopathy, which is a spine-related disorder that affects walking. One group of rats was fed a diet high in sugar and saturated fats (mimicking a Western diet), while the second group of rats was fed the same diet but with docosahexaenoic acid (found in omega-3s) and curcumin. The third group of rats was just served a regular rat diet.

Then, the researchers examined how the rats walked week after week. Even after as little as three weeks, researchers found that rats that just ate the saturated fat and sugar diet had more walking problems than the other rats, while rats with the DHA and curcumin had fewer walking problems after six weeks of observation.

Researchers also wanted to see how the diets may have impacted the actual spinal cords. They found that the rats fed the saturated fat and sugar diet had more evidence of damage to the cell membrane. Meanwhile, rats that were fed the DHA and curcumin only had evidence of as much damage as the rats fed the regular rat diet.

In 2010, UCLA researchers published a study in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics showing that curcumin could actually make chemotherapy more powerful against tumors in the head and neck, MyHealthNewsDaily reported.

Specifically, curcumin seemed to enhance cisplatin, which is the chemo drug used to treat those specific cancers, according to MyHealthNewsDaily.

And earlier this year, researchers from Chiang Mai University found that curcumin may help to lower the risk of heart attack among recent heart-bypass patients when taken alongside the normal drug treatment regimen, Reuters reported. That study was published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/30/curcumin-walk-spinal-cord-injury-omega-3_n_1638769.html

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Dropped iPhone in a puddle

Hello,

With all the rain we have been having my iPhone slipped out of my pocket and fell into a pretty good size puddle. I picked it up and tried to save it by turning it off, but it vibrated and then shutdown instantly. Ok it got wet let's get the rice bag!

After 2 days of siting in rice it still doesn't work and isn't even picked up by the PC. So I assume it is EOL for the iPhone.

What I'm wondering about is my data... My warranty at BestBuy would replace it (I think / going to try), but if I give them my iPhone and they give me a new one what will happen with my data?

Also if it doesn't work out at BestBuy I'll pay the $200/fee from Apple, but same thing goes with them what will happen to my data?

Source: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1396431&goto=newpost

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