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Families are at the heart of creating enriched learning opportunities for children with visual impairments, including those children with DeafBlindness or multiple disabilities. Families are the guiding force behind all life decisions for the child or youth with visual impairments. To help families become confident and effective, we provide information, connections, and training to fit their individual styles. We partner with state and national family organizations, education service centers, and other state agencies to provide a variety of services to support families within their communities.
Families are welcomed to connect with a family engagement specialist to:
- Talk about family matters, including their child's community involvement, school program, and related supports.
- Request training on a variety of topics related to having children with visual impairments
- Explore Family Leadership Training (insert link to a video)
- Request financial assistance to participate in training, including funding for travel, lodging, registration, childcare, and meals.
- Learn more about special education, visual impairments, family organizations, Medicaid waivers, resources for transition to adulthood, and other needs.


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The pricing was unbelievable! Where can you get a bowl of noodles for RM4.80 these days!
As quoted by my brother "Pan Mee with a twist" on his instagram account @james_yfk he is also a foodie at heart. There were 3 of us but we ordered 4 bowls. We caught the uncle who was taking our orders by surprised. We ordered the usual Pan Mee (Dry). There were three kinds of noodles that you can choose from - thick, thin and the handpulled ones. I ordered the thin ones as I never like to take my pan mee in the thick noodle form and I always prefer it dry. The noodles came with a generous serving of minced meat. On first bite, the noodles were soft and nice and doesn't clump together. Next I had it with their chilli and guess what...
I automatically fell in love with their sambal chilli too. It has a tinge of sourness and sweetness that is a perfect match made in heaven and goes so well with the dry pan mee. It creates a strong appetite for me.
Next we tried the curry pan mee. Luckily we ordered this earlier as I heard it was sold out after 10 mins of my order. The curry is awesome!!!! Dad loved this! Another sold out Pan Mee which we did not get to try is the Dumpling Pan Mee.
One of their famous Pan Mee is the one with this meat. I noticed the older generation loves this and it certainly is one of a kind. It's called the Hakka Char Yoke Pan Mee. This is my father's favourite too. Took a bite. the meat is soft and tender. Thumbs up from me! So now you can see there are so many varieties of Pan Mee at this stall. Hope you get to try them all in your next food adventure.
Earlier when we walked in we noticed many tables were still waiting for their noodles. Good food must wait loh...We waited for a good 20 minutes before our food arrived. Do expect a crowd and be patient.
This concludes my Pan Mee gastronomic adventure and here's wishing you Happy Food Hunting!
Pan Mee Char Chan Tian is located at
16, Jalan SR 3/3,
Taman Serdang Raya
43300 Seri Kembangan

subset: commoncrawl


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Concrete printing!
'Printing on concrete' is one of the most viewed novelties during the Material Xperience in the Jaarbeurs Utrecht. Presented during the Week of Building Construction is the positive response on this new product overwhelming. It is possible to print on concrete slabs of 1,5 centimeters thick and up to 120 x 140 centimeters!!!


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Getty Images stock
It's a sweltering summer day, so you take a big sip of a refreshing, frozen coffee--and you're immediately doubled over with throbbing head pain.
Why do frosty foods give us headaches? New research has shed light on the possible causes (and cures) of the phenomenon known as brain freeze.
When a frozen treat comes in contact with the roof of your mouth, it triggers nerves that alert your brain of the temperature change. In response, the anterior cerebral artery dilates and increases blood flow to the brain's frontal lobe to help keep it warm and protected, says Jorge Serrador, M.D. of Harvard Medical School, lead researcher on a recent study which identified the mechanisms at work during what's commonly called brain freeze.
Researchers believe that the additional blood flow to the frontal lobe increases pressure in the skull, which brain receptors process as pain. This could explain why the frontal lobe is the area of the brain that feels "frozen" post-popsicle, Serrador says.
Here are three ways to avoid the big chill:
1. Tongue It
Can you curl your tongue? Good. Fold the tip of it backward and stick the bottom of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. The warmth will help heat up the nerves in your palette and cause the blood flow to your brain to normalize, Serrador says.
2. Slurp Slowly
To make study participants get brain freeze, Serrador had them suck down ice water like thirsty maniacs. Why? "The only way to get a brain freeze is to drink or eat whatever it is [that's cold] really fast," he says. If you drink (or eat) more slowly, you give your blood time to heat the tissue in the roof of your mouth and avoid triggering a cold-induced headache. So slow down and savor your treat.
3. Warm Your Hands
Your hands might not be cold, but acting like they are can make your mouth warmer, Serrador says. Cup your hands around your mouth like you would in the winter and exhale deeply. It will trap warm air in your mouth and help thaw your noggin.


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mmjamie wrote:
ed2k: The.Matrix.Reloaded.1280x720.HDTV.VeryCD.com.avi [3.83 Gb] [Stats]
Just posted at fh.org. If your wondering, this is far higher quality than the DVD. Its a big avi file and your not going to see a better quality copy of this film... , even if the film totally does suck donkey balls.
microbioz wrote:As most high definition material, the quality is amazing.
Judging by the size I think it's the same copy I have downloaded some time ago.
size: 3.82 GB (or 3,921 MB or 4,015,232 KB or 4,111,597,568 bytes)
video: Windows Media Video V9 720p (1280x720 pixels)
audio: AC3, 48000Hz 384 kb/s total (5 chnls)
yidaki wrote:you can use your computer and output to highresolution projector, or just watch it on your monitor directly.Superman wrote:looks very cool!
if only I had an HDTV..
no need for an expensive hdtv.
but, superhighbitrate stuff like this kills most cpu's, so a hardware mpeg2 decoding card is always appreciated
(hdtv is broadcasted in mpeg2, so if it's anything else, it's a transcoded/re-encoded copy, in which case alot of information has been lost and the high resolution isnt come to it's favour)
microbioz wrote:In fact, Microsoft recomends exactly that :
Minimal Configuration (Play 720p video)
2.4 GHz processor or equivalent
384 MB of RAM
64 MB video card
1024 × 768 screen resolution
16-bit sound card
Optimum Configuration (Play 1080p video with 5.1 surround sound)
DirectX 9.0
3.0 GHz processor or equivalent
512 MB of RAM
128 MB video card
1920 × 1440 screen resolution
24-bit 96 kHz multichannel sound card
5.1 surround speaker system
mmjamie wrote:
- Code: Select all
Media Type : HDTV Rip
Resolution : 1280x720
Framerate : 23,976
Video Bitrate : 1805,76 kb/s
Audio Codec : AC3 - Dolby Laboratories, Inc
Audio Bitrate : 375kb/s
Audio Channel : 6
Size : 3,82 GB ~ (4.111.597.568 byte)
Its a Microsoft codec, and you need a decent PC to playback this file.


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'Can I Become Infertile Just From Getting Kicked in the Testicles?' — Ask Dr. Harry Fisch
"During a soccer game in college, I was accidentally kicked right in the junk. Now some ten years later I'm having trouble conceiving a child. Can a guy become infertile if kicked in the testicles?" -- Mike, 28,
Given their importance, you might think Nature would tuck a guy's "family jewels" somewhere safe, inside the body, rather than suspending them in a soft, unprotected sac that is vulnerable to kicks, blows, and impact from all manner of hurled objects.
Unfortunately, the testicles need to be cooler than body temperature in order to make sperm cells. So they need to be out there, swinging in the wind, so to speak, which, as most guys know from painful experience, is not ideal.
Fortunately, despite their vulnerability, testicles usually recover well from the wide range of trauma to which they are exposed. In fact, this makes scientific study of testicular impact difficult—most of the time guys with testicle injuries are young, don't see doctors, and just shake it off. But, in fact, a hard blow to the testicles can hurt your fertility and/or sex drive. In one of the few studies done on the issue, both hormone levels and semen quality were impaired in 6 of 9 men who had sustained testicular injury. Only 1 of these men, however, was actually infertile.
If you've been kicked in the testicles, or suffered some other blow, get checked out, because the earlier damage is repaired, the better your chances of preserving your fertility and your libido.
Dr. Harry Fisch is a board certified urologist. He's here to answer reader questions in an effort to get guys to "man up about health."


text: Doris Probst just became the first woman to win the Annual Hog Calling Contest at the Illinois State Fair with her amazing hollerin'. Hog calling is the act of yelping, squealing, and singing to get hoggies to move into a specific place. Although the Illinois State Fair competition doesn't really involve herding any hogs, Probst does have to impress the audience and judges with her humorous and authentic way of grunting which, for a woman, usually involves doing away with any idea of being perceived as feminine (snorting isn't very ladylike, apparently). But who cares about being seen as sexy if you can make them laugh. Congrats Doris! [Shakesville]


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The estate inventory of John Grimball, made 17 June 1806, lists the names of more than 70 enslaved ancestors.
Ancestors were listed in families, and four Africans are listed by name.
We invite you to contribute images, stories and information to this page.
To view the document, please click on the images attached to this page.
This document was indexed and made searchable by Khalisa Jacobs.
"Negroes Appraised in Families:"
· Friday, Hannah, Welcome, Dinah, Sarah, Sylvia & Cloe
· John, Nanny, Beck, Tom, Judy & Little Amy
· Ned, Amy, Wan, Carolina, Little Jim, Little Sally & Venus
· Jack, Kate, Chloe, Pompey, Marria & Rachael
· Mingo, Rose, Little Kate & Israel
· Lydia, Moll & Amos
· Dick, Phillis & Harry
· Stepney, Little Hannah, Toney, Charlotte, Little Stepney & Phoebe
· Ishmael, Jenny, Flora, Andrew, January & Little Phillis
· Amelia, Little Tamer, Harriot & Sam
· Sampson, Betty, Nelly, Cudgo & Jacob
· Herod & Mary
· Billy, Little Phoebe, Tamer, Little Billy, Lucy, Judy
· Jim, Monemia & Mary
· Ralph, Phoebe, Doll & Clarinda
· Sally, Sam, Patty, Ned & Henry
· Indian Land Will
· Edisto Will
· Old Affee
"The following ten Negroes were purchased were purchased after the Will of the said John Grimball was executed, of Dr. St. Mark:"
· Nanny
· Cornelia
· Judy
· Sambo
· Fattima
· Jack
· Ben
· Abraham
· Peter
· June


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Traffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast and we'll provide the jams.
I've had the pleasure of passing through La Grange, Texas on a few occasions. Nestled along the Colorado River it marks the end of the Hill Country and is not dissimilar in its undulating landscape and pastoral beauty from places I've visited in Germany. There's also a different kind of beauty at work, of course, as chronicled by ZZ Top in their song "La Grange." Yes, I'm talking about the "Chicken Ranch" brothel.
Whenever I hear those hot bluesy licks come in on a commercial or movie trailer I always wonder if the person who chose the song is aware that those tres hombres are singing about whores.


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Human Resources
The Virginia Western Community College Human Resources Office exists to promote and serve a highly productive and motivated workforce charged with delivery of quality educational and training programs for those who enroll and matriculate through the college. We are committed to providing a work environment that is fair, equitable, open and responsive in the workplace. Every opportunity will be provided to the college community to be part of a quality working and learning environment. Our mission is to proactively and creatively provide all customers with superior, innovative, and cost-effective programs and services which include management practices, recruitment, Equal Employment Opportunity, training and development, compensation and benefits planning and implementation, employee relations, organizational design and facilitation of change. We further commit to continuously seek and supply all customers with the opportunities and resources needed to enhance their knowledge, skills and abilities so they may better support the mission of the college.
Virginia Western Community College is committed to Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action and Diversity.
The Commonwealth of Virginia is committed to Equal Opportunity.
News & Announcements
Visit the Virginia Jobs web site to view current career openings available at Virginia Western Community College.
Contact Us
Location: Fishburn Hall F003
Phone: 540-857-7282
Fax: 540-857-6222
Mailing Address:
3093 Colonial Ave., SW
Roanoke, VA 24015
VWCC Alerts
We use the VW Mass Notification System to immediately contact you during a major crisis or emergency. Get more info and register!


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Blood cell development. A blood stem cell goes through several steps to become a red blood cell, platelet, or white blood cell.
Multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma cells are abnormal plasma cells (a type of white blood cell) that build up in the bone marrow and form tumors in many bones of the body. Normal plasma cells make antibodies to help the body fight infection and disease. As the number of multiple myeloma cells increases, more antibodies are made. This can cause the blood to thicken and keep the bone marrow from making enough healthy blood cells. Multiple myeloma cells also damage and weaken the bone.


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Airfares to Myrtle Beach are down 33% on average compared to last fall, says Melisse Hinkle of Cheapflights.com, and hotel rates this season are, on average, down more than 30% compared to summer, according to data from the hotel site Trivago. About 100 miles down the coast, Condé Nast Traveler readers' favorite city in the U.S., Charleston, is also "a deal destination in the making," Hinkle says, thanks to an airport expansion in the works and increased low-cost airline service. The draws go beyond affordable airfares, though, with great hotels in Charleston like Restoration on King and HarbourView Inn. To eat? Atlanta Journal-Constitution restaurant critic John Kessler likes The Ordinary, on Upper King, "just north of the well-touristed city center."
Bloomberg/Getty Images
Airfares to the District are down as much as 18% this fall, according to Hinkle, which means this destination from our list of summer travel values is just as appealing this season. Hotel rates should also be affordable, according to research from Hotwire, which counts the city as one of its deal-heavy destinations this fall. Thanks to a public transportation system that makes pretty much all attractions accessible from any hotel, D.C. is an ideal town for a blind-booking site like Hotwire or a last-minute hotel deal. The mobile-only app HotelTonight often delivers double-digit percentage discounts on same-night bookings. Other booking apps also provide discounts as your travel date approaches.
Barry Howe/Corbis
Jammed with value any time of the year, L.A. is appealing this fall for its stunning hotel rates, averaging as low as $107 a night, according to Hotwire, a slight drop from this summer. Not every hotel will be that cheap, of course, but hot new properties scheduled to open this fall—The Line, The Moment Hotel—will have specials for their first guests, with rates up to 30% off what future stays will cost. There are also savings to be had for those willing to navigate the city in a perhaps-unexpected way: Los Angeles is celebrating World Car Free Day on September 22, with local hotels, restaurants, and attractions promoting walking, biking, and public transportation as smart alternatives to $4-a-gallon getting around. Needless to say, the weather will be great.
Arch White/Alamy
Scotland's capital of culture is a deal for two reasons this season: Both airfares and hotel rates will be very competitive, particularly when stacked up against other, pricey European destinations. True, the famed Fringe festival ends in August, but there's still plenty worth seeing—and eating—before the frosty Scottish winter settles in. Rooms at the nearly-all-inclusive and super-stylish Missoni Edinburgh (where rooms are kitted out with the designer's fabrics, and the minibars, Wi-Fi, and even laundry are free) can be had for less than $300 on some nights this fall. The Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa, a newly renovated Condé Nast Traveler reader favorite, is offering discounts of up to 30% based on length of stay through the end of the year.
Overall Score:** 83.7
Courtesy Te Tiare Beach Resort
This traditional Polynesian beach resort is located in a small private bay accessible only by boat. Thatched-roof guest bungalows have tiled floors accented by bright island-style fabrics and sit directly above the water.
Danita Delimont/Gallo Images/Getty Images
While the Pacific does see some storms this season, Los Cabos is offering values to entice the intrepid this time of year. Flights to Los Cabos are about 20% cheaper than they'll likely be come winter—when demand for a sun-splashed escape hits its peak—and they're also cheaper this year than they were last, says Hinkle of Cheapflights.com. Take advantage of all those cheap airfares to enjoy the area's plentiful restaurants, bars, and shopping or just organize a delicious taco tour. Condé Nast Traveler readers love the Cabo Azul Resort & Spa, as well as Esperanza, Cabo San Lucas. In addition to hotels, villa rentals are a popular way to stay in Los Cabos, and the specialist to call to find the best is Mexico expert Julie Byrd.
Steve Dunwell/Image Bank/Getty Images
Compared to the summer high season, room rates in the heart of North Carolina's barrier islands are down more than 25%, according to Trivago. There's a reason for the drop that goes beyond the end of summer's shorter days: The Atlantic Coast sits squarely in the path of hurricanes, which pose a risk every fall. Those willing to gamble on the weather are rewarded with warm days (but cooler nights), emptier beaches, and those lower hotel rates. Many attractions managed by the National Park Service—iconic lighthouses and campgrounds—are open at regular hours through Columbus Day, October 14 this year. Sanderling Resort is a reader favorite located in Duck, North Carolina, and it offers visitors this fall a third night free. What to do? Avoid anything too kitschy (pirate-themed attractions unfortunately abound), with this handy guide to the best things to see, eat, and drink in the Outer Banks.


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I have met some Christians who seemed to put a lot of emphasis on their realization of how sinful they were. Others, however, didn't seem to be stressing this point that much.
Honestly, in my personal experience, the joy of knowing the Lord, the joy of the very first prayer to Christ, and the joy of having fellowship with Christians came first. The first true realization of how sinful I am came much later. In fact, this realization is still progressing.
By looking briefly through the New Testament I can think of some examples of individuals' coming to the Lord with a considerable level of contriteness over their sinfulness, for example, the robber on the cross asking Jesus to remember him in His kingdom. On the other hand, there are also some examples of people coming to the Lord for the first time, in which this contriteness is not clearly stated, for example, the eunuch of Ethiopia in Acts 8.
So, my question is how much realization of one's own sinfulness is needed for a person to be saved?


text:
E-Catalogue 1:
E-Catalogue 2:
Keep up-to-date on all Jonathan Grant Gallery exhibitions, events and artists' news with our online newsletter. Simply sign up below to receive monthly updates on all events at the Gallery.
Our expert team are qualified to offer collectors advice regarding valuations, research, conservation and framing, collection management and artwork installation. Our art consultancy can be conducted in the Gallery or onsite in your home or office. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.
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Jonathan Grant Gallery provides a delivery and installation service for works purchased from the Gallery. We provide professional packing and door to door delivery service for national & international clients. We also offer accredited wood packaging accepted by countries worldwide.
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text:
It's been widely assumed since the start of the offseason that the Steelers would be parting ways with guard Willie Colon.
Colon, who wound up on injured reserve for the third straight year, is due to make $5.5 million in 2013 and the word in Pittsburgh is that the Steelers want to get younger and more athletic on the offensive line. Max Starks and Ramon Foster aren't expected back after hitting free agency and the presence of David DeCastro and Kelvin Beachum seem to make Colon expendable as well.
That may come to pass, but it doesn't appear to be imminent. Colon's agent Joe Linta told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the Steelers have not asked for a reduction in Colon's salary and that the team has informed him that they don't plan to do anything with Colon for the time being.
With free agency still about to start and the draft looming next month, it's way early to assume that Colon winds up remaining with the Steelers all the way to next season. For now, though, he isn't among the veterans helping the team create cap space by changing his contract or departing altogether.


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"An engrossing and satisfying novel." –The Washington Post
"Divakaruni is gifted with dramatic inventiveness [and] lyric, sensual language. . . . The Vine of Desire offers many delights." –Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Divakaruni is an incomparable storyteller. . . . the beauty of her talent is her ability to capture the true complexity of the emotional landscape in her characters. . . . A lovely read." –The Denver Post
"Incandescent. . . . Abounds with vibrant images." –Houston Chronicle
"Grab The Vine of Desire. Divakaruni is a transplanted cultural treasure [and] a brilliant storyteller." –The Seattle Times
"As gracefully structured as a piece of chamber music." –San José Mercury News
"Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni fills a space all her own. . . . Her fiction draws a line straight to the heart." –The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Divakaruni. . . . paints worlds of complex characters and cultures with an absorbing story line and beautiful language that reads like poetry." –The Oregonian
"Compassionate. . . . Provid[es] with graceful economy a complex backdrop of contemporary Indian society." –The Boston Sunday Globe
"Dazzling and powerful. . . . Divakaruni's descriptions, as always, possess a fine lyrical beauty. . . . Readers . . . will have much to feast on." –The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Moving, passionate. . . . A beautiful, imperfect journey, much like life itself, and one well worth taking." –Austin American-Statesman
"[An] exquisitely rendered tale of passion, jealousy, and redemption. . . . Divakaruni combines a gift for absorbing narrative with the artistry of a painter." –Publishers Weekly
"A potent, emotional book delivered by a writer who knows when to step back and take in the poetry." –Book
"Compelling. . . . Divakaruni writes prose that is lush. . . . [She] excels at depicting the nuances of the immigrant experience." –SF Weekly


text: The Moffat County School District is expected to start looking for a new staff for the high school football team today. Wild West Radio confirmed yesterday that Head Coach Kip Hafey and his coaching staff will be replaced this year. The shake up is the apparent result of an Continue reading


text:
By Teachers, For Teachers
Fits Your Budget | Expert Speakers | Hassle-Free
Literacy is the cornerstone for success in all subject areas.
With the guidance of literacy experts, discover new strategies to help your students move from reluctant to confident reader. Reading mastery will then allow student to explore and express their passion for science, history, art, music and more
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text:
Welcome to My Personal Page
Achieved: $1,624.75
Bernard Jaffe
Stephen Otis Nash
Mr. Isaac 'Tzachi' Heger
David Nash
I have an amazing opportunity to volunteer in Israel and raise money for Jewish National Fund through their Alternative Break program.
I am so excited to be joining other young adults for a week of community service and connect to the land and people of Israel in such a meaningful way.
As part of my participation, I have committed to raising at least $1,500 to support JNF's groundbreaking and innovative work to develop the land of Israel through a variety of multifaceted initiatives from sustainable development projects like the one I will be working on my Alternative Break.
It's easy to make a difference - just click the button on the left to make a donation.
I greatly appreciate your support of my participation and of Jewish people everywhere.
Thanks again!


text:
Offers smaller trading partners options to convert email, fax and postal mail based documents into EDI standard exchange, which helps reduce errors and cut costs.
Provides visibility into the performance of your entire hosted trading community complete with community-based reporting.
Ensures compliance with established business processes by enforcing document choreography at document and process levels.
Helps speed up the on-boarding process for small trading partners with automated registration and information gathering.
IBM enables companies to scale and adapt quickly to changing business needs without compromising security, privacy or risk levels when using IBM cloud offerings.Learn more about IBM Cloud security


text:
Hey, everyone! Or, you know, the one or two people actually reading the forum...
Your site moderator here, just posting something of an introduction in hopes of getting things started here.
"Snowblind," the main tale in the "Hepcats" series, will be starting on Monday. I'm hoping to get some of the older strips up, possibly on a page of their own, as well as the alternate covers that the comic books have featured in both publications. I make no promises on when this'll be done, but it'll happen sometime eventually.
I highly recommend joining the Yahoo Group -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hepcatscomic/ -- which has gained quite a few members since I've started posting the comic here. Mr. Wagner pops in once in a while and gives updates and status on his work, plus he sells a wide variety of sketches and original pages there. Support your artist, send him money!
For now, enjoy the comic. It's only going to get better once "Snowblind" starts =)
~ Stef


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"If you show someone their future, they have no future." That's the wisdom of Ben Affleck, in this bizarre clip from Paycheck, the movie that bounced. Apparently if you can look into the future, you turn everybody into soulless mall kids, with no purpose. And your attempts to prevent future catastrophes will always cause those catastrophes to happen, because... uhhhh... Hey, it's Uma Thurman with really bad hair! (Wig? You decide.) More details, and another Paycheck clip, below.
You think Paycheck is going to be a slippery thriller about a guy who's had his memory erased, but it takes a very unfortunate left turn. It turns out the missing year that was erased from Affleck's memory involved him building this machine that can look into the future. And he used it to see that bad things would happen if the machine ever went on the market. So armed with this foreknowledge, and a bunch of random objects like paperclips, the amnesiac Affleck is able to prevent the horrible future he saw in the machine. Even though the problem with the machine is that you can never prevent the horrible futures it shows you. Oh hey, it's Uma's hair again!
I'm going to skip the cheap shot about how if Ben Affleck really had a predict-o-matic machine, he would have been forewarned about Jersey Girl and Gigli. Here's another amazing Paycheck moment: The evil henchman decides to look into the future-telling machine to see his own future, not realizing Ben Affleck has stuck a bullet in one of the valves to make it blow itself up. So the predict-o-matic machine shows the henchman that he'll get blown up in about twenty seconds... and twenty seconds later, it happens! He's just turning to run away from the exploding future-scope, and boom! It's comedy gold. Or maybe comedy frankincense, because it's so aromatic.


text: Hey Dudes! Its been a long while and I began my surf season in earnest again this past week. It is like starting all anew again after not pumpin waves since last October. I was at my fave break this past week and waves were super inviting, but I discovered I lost all of the accessory muscle strength I had last year that helped me get to the line up! I plan to be back to the soup in a couple weeks, and before I do I want some pointers for weight bearing exercise that will make it easier for me to have that paddle strength needed to get out there again. Recently I went out in my 3/2 on my custom stick, a frierson "shortboard" and I feel it was mostly the effort of trying paddling a shortboard, versus my accostomed funboard, that made me go noodle armed at the break area, and I was left powerless to get beyond it. Now before I'm told to get back on the funboard, or told to get my virgin Bing soaked, I am asking for help with any dumb bell exercises I might be able to do until I get out again. So I can actually have strength to paddle past the breaks effortlessly on my SB. So far I do basic curls, extensions, rows etc with 30# bells, but are there better land locked techniques one can perform to help paddle strength while still landlocked? I don't have the luxury of a body of water close by to literally paddle around in when I'm away from the island. I should note to you I have an indo board I've used that has not been touched yet this season, but I don't believe it will help with my paddling needs (though I will be using it again soon), however add this item to my repoitoire when you advise me on strength gaining techniques to help my surfing. Alright Dudes, its great to be back and I hope to meet more friends soon to enjoy the stoke this season. Hopefully we can friend up on island this summer and be legend together Thanks for helping with tips and peace! G


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Feeling down once in once in a while is normal. But some people feel a sadness that just won't go away. Life seems hopeless. Feeling this way most of the day for two weeks or more is a sign of serious depression.
Does Diabetes Cause Depression?
At any given time, most people with diabetes do not have depression. But studies show that people with diabetes have a greater risk of depression than people without diabetes. There are no easy answers about why this is true.
The stress of daily diabetes management can build. You may feel alone or set apart from your friends and family because of all this extra work.
If you face diabetes complications such as nerve damage, or if you are having trouble keeping your blood sugarlevels where you'd like, you may feel like you're losing control of your diabetes. Even tension between you and your doctor may make you feel frustrated and sad.
Just like denial, depression can get you into a vicious cycle. It can block good diabetes self-care. If you are depressed and have no energy, chances are you will find such tasks as regular blood sugar testing too much. If you feel so anxious that you can't think straight, it will be hard to keep up with a good diet. You may not feel like eating at all. Of course, this will affect your blood sugar levels.
Spotting Depression
Spotting depression is the first step. Getting help is the second.
If you have been feeling really sad, blue, or down in the dumps, check for these symptoms:
- Loss of pleasure — You no longer take interest in doing things you used to enjoy.
- Change in sleep patterns — You have trouble falling asleep, you wake often during the night, or you want to sleep more than usual, including during the day.
- Early to rise — You wake up earlier than usual and cannot to get back to sleep.
- Change in appetite — You eat more or less than you used to, resulting in a quick weight gain or weight loss.
- Trouble concentrating — You can't watch a TV program or read an article because other thoughts or feelings get in the way.
- Loss of energy — You feel tired all the time.
- Nervousness — You always feel so anxious you can't sit still.
- Guilt — You feel you "never do anything right" and worry that you are a burden to others.
- Morning sadness — You feel worse in the morning than you do the rest of the day.
- Suicidal thoughts — You feel you want to die or are thinking about ways to hurt yourself.
If you have three or more of these symptoms, or if you have just one or two but have been feeling bad for two weeks or more, it's time to get help.
Getting Help
If you are feeling symptoms of depression, don't keep them to yourself. First, talk them over with your doctor. There may a physical cause for your depression.
Poor control of diabetes can cause symptoms that look like depression. During the day, high or low blood sugar may make you feel tired or anxious. Low blood sugar levels can also lead to hunger and eating too much. If you have low blood sugar at night, it could disturb your sleep. If you have high blood sugar at night, you may get up often to urinate and then feel tired during the day.
Other physical causes of depression can include the following:
- Alcohol or drug abuse
- Thyroid problems
- Side effects from some medications
Do not stop taking a medication without telling your doctor. Your doctor will be able to help you discover if a physical problem is at the root of your sad feelings.
Mental Health Treatment
If you and your doctor rule out physical causes, your doctor will most likely refer you to a specialist. You might talk with a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse, licensed clinical social worker, or professional counselor. In fact, your doctor may already work with mental health professionals on a diabetes treatment team.
All of these mental health professionals can guide you through the rough waters of depression. In general, there are two types of treatment:
- Psychotherapy, or counseling
- Antidepressant medication
Psychotherapy with a well-trained therapist can help you look at the problems that bring on depression. It can also help you find ways to relieve the problem. Therapy can be short term or long term. You should be sure you feel at ease with the therapist you choose.
If medication is advised, you will need to consult with a psychiatrist (a medical doctor with special training in diagnosing and treating mental or emotional disorders). Psychiatrists are the only mental health professionals who can prescribe medication and treat physical causes of depression.
If you opt for trying an antidepressant drug, talk to the psychiatrist and your primary care provider about side effects, including how it might affect your blood sugar levels. Make sure that the doctors will consult about your care when needed. Many people do well with a combination of medication and psychotherapy.
If you have symptoms of depression, don't wait too long to get help. If your health care provider cannot refer you to a mental health professional, contact your local psychiatric society or psychiatry department of a medical school, or the local branch of organizations for psychiatric social workers, psychologists, or mental health counselors. Your local American Diabetes Association may also be a good resource for counselors who have worked with people with diabetes.


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This book, published by Routledge in 2006, is a recent attempt at a sociological analysis of the alternative globalization movement (AGM) using a theoretical framework based on an almagamation of the works of Deleuze and Guattari, Hardt and Negri and Gregory Bateson, with complexity theory via D&G deployed to provide qualitative analysis of events such as the May Day 2000 demonstration, the anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle and Prague, the actions of the Zapatistas and the emergent forms of global civil society which seek to impact on globalized capitalism such as the World and regional social fora.
In their introduction, Chesters and Welsh describe their work as 'offering 'a qualitative sociology of the philosophical postulates of Empire and Multitude advanced by Hardt and Negri, rendering tangible the agency and constitutive processes immanent within their works,' (p3) although in several key areas Chesters and Welsh go beyond Hardt and Negri's works, which in places can seem overly centred on finding a revolutionary subject for the network society, by mapping the vectors of contemporary social movements and seeking practical instantiation of how these movements connect and combine to create emergent formations capable of challenging neoliberal capitalism.
The approach pursued by Chesters and Welsh does closely correlate with Hardt and Negi's theoretical works closely in several important ways however; firstly in contesting that 'One must look outside the state at networked processes of interaction between state and non-state actors. This does not mean that the state is no longer important, but that we must consider the meshwork of national and extra-national political institutions, corporate and civil society actors that co-produce the effects of the global.' (p95) That capitalist globalization and the rise of the network society means that activism can no longer be effective if aimed purely at a local level, as the larger scale assemblages of global finances can overcode and render such localism ineffective as an activist strategy.
A second important point of agreement between Hardt and Negri and Chesters and Welsh is that the formal structuring of activist movements plays an integral role in the way that they function, that an organization's internal structure will effect the way that organization operates, and furthermore that contemporary AGM activism is centred around the form of the decentred network, and that this structure allows for a more inclusive and democratic mode of action than the 20th century models of the people's army, unions or political parties. Indeed, while Chesters and Welsh stress the diverse array of influences on the AGM, socialism, liberalism, environmentalism and situationism, they emphasise the central role of anarchism in the democratic, reflexive and inclusive structuring of the movments 'The logic of an anarchist stance is that revolution cannot be led by a vanguard party or sedimented through a revolutionary government or state as these forms lead back to the establishment of old habits of mind. Instead revolution requires the dissipative undermining of established institutional forms, not their re-titling.' (p145)
Finally, Chesters and Welsh approach Hardt and Negri's work in the way that they highlight the importance of information communications technologies and their usages to contemporary social movements, briefly examining the Zapatistas use of digital communications, and broaching the role played by Indymedia in the AGM.
'These processes of physical interaction that characterise the global social movements – the protest actions, encuentros and social fora are further understood to be dynamically interconnected and co-extensive with a digital commons that underpins computer mediated communications and which co-constructs the rhizome of the AGM.' (p103)
The area of media is frequently touched upon by Chesters and Welsh, both in terms of the mainstream media's portrayal of the AGM as thugs which prevents communication of their goals and beleifs, and also in terms of Indymedia as an alternative to the mass media which presents a decentralized, less hierarchical and more transparent alternative, however one area where this book is perhaps lacking is an in depth investigation of Indymedia, and how Indymedia alongside other elements of the digital commons underpin the physical movements which are covered in considerably more depth through case studies.
Chester and Welsh describe the AGM as operating as:
'a strange attractor reconfiguring public opposition to global neoliberalism whilst simultaneously creating 'spaces' where Alternatives Globalisation pathways are fused through a multiplicity of engaged actors. This is not an anti-movement, this is not a movement that can be subordinated to national analytical frameworks, this is not a movement that is going to go away.
This is a movement which prefigures social forms, social processes and social forces which will become normalized as mobility and the information age redistribute the affinities historically associated with space and place. (p1)
For Chesters and Welsh then, the AGM presents an embryonic set of processes whose dynamism and flexibility provide socially and environmentally sustainable alternatives to neoliberalism whose properties will become dominant social forms. Such claims are perhaps exaggerated, but nonetheless provide a valuable starting point for thinking about how the nonhierarchical, dynamic forms of direct democracy practised by actors within the AGM can be mobilised into dominant social forms, how activist practices can become mainstream.
Similar to Hardt and Negri, Chesters and Welsh are keen to stress that the AGM is not an anti-movement which seeks to resurrect a romanticized pre-globalized version of the nation state, but instead seeks to create sustainable and ethical alternatives to the inequalities wrought by neoliberal globalization, quoting Z magazine founder Michael Albert, who says
we want social and global ties to advance universal equity, solidarity, diversity and self-management, not to subjugate ever wider populations to an elite minority. We want to globalise equity not poverty, solidarity not anti-solidarity, diversity not conformity, democracy not subordination, and ecological balance not suicidal rapaciousness. (Albert 2001, www.globalpolicy.org) (p94)
Chesters and Welsh introduce the concept of an 'ecology of action' in an attempt to formulate how contemporary activist interventions effect social ties and structures.
The key to understanding the AGM is not to be found amongst individual actors be they groups or organisations. Instead we must focus our attention upon the processes of interaction between actors, to the iterative outcomes of reflexive framing and to the emergence of an ecology of action within Global Civil Society that is actualised through the AGM.(p101)
This concept is grounded in Bateson's ecology of mind, in which pathalogical epistemological constructions had to be erased in order to conceptualize the subject outside of the boundaries created by conscious purpose (the ego). Chesters and Welsh seek to scale this concept upwards through Bateson's three ecologies, from the ecology of mind to the ecology of society, specifically examining ways in which social forms and actions impact upon the social ecology, with a view to mobilising effective activist campaigns in order to affect change in the world.
In conclusion then, in Complexity and Social Movements Chesters and Welsh provide a sociological investigation into certain aspects of the Alternative Globalization movement, and contextaulise this within a theoretical framework drawing on complexity theory, Deleuze and Guattari, Hardt and Negri, Bateson, Melucci and Goffman to provide a map of what they see to be an ecology of action, with the intent of understanding contemporary developments in activism with a view to energizing the ecology of action and creating positive changes in the world.


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Next Episode of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show is
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The legendary husband and wife comedy team of George Burns and Gracie Allen successfully took their show from radio to an eight year run on CBS. Sadly, the show ended when Allen's health began to fail and she retired from show biz.
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Red, a safe cracker who has just been released from prison, is trying to hold his family together as his past catches up with him in the form of Luc, a psychopathic contract killer who's seeking revenge for the death of his brother.
A former boyracer who married his first love and took a job in one of the fish factories, now has a 17 year-old-son of his own following in his footsteps and can no longer ignore the fact he's going nowhere. Unable to be physically or emotionally present with his family, he takes his son's car out for one final joy ride and risks losing the love that surrounds him
Red Snow is a dramatic adventure that begins when Dylan, a Gwich'in soldier from the Canadian Arctic, is caught in an ambush in Panjwayi, Afghanistan. His capture and interrogation by a Taliban Commander releases a cache of memories connected to the love and death of his Inuit cousin, Asana, and binds him closer to a Pashtun family as they escape across treacherous landscapes and through a blizzard that becomes their key to survival.
Kyle and Swin live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin named Frog, whom they've never met. But when a deal goes horribly wrong, the consequences are deadly.
Actors Rob Byrdon and Steve Coogan continue their travelogue series with a visit to Greece.
A hard-living salesman becomes a quadriplegic after an accident.
Season 2 | Episode 7 Liz is forced to revisit a painful part of her past when her mother shows up at the diner unexpectedly. Michael urges Maria to seek help after she experiences a strange vision. Kyle's attempt to get Steph to open up doesn't go as planned.
Season 2 | Episode 8 Despite promising Liz that he'll take things easy with his new heart, Max sets out to find Cameron after learning that she's gone missing. Michael grows concerned about Maria after a surprising discovery about her family history leaves her vulnerable. Elsewhere, ready to move on, Alex goes on a date with Forrest, and Rosa makes a decision about her future.
Season 2 | Episode 10 After uncovering a cryptic message from the past, Alex, Isobel, Max, Michael and Maria set out in search of answers at the reservation where Alex's mother grew up. Meanwhile, Cameron encourages Liz to reach out to someone from her past after Auturo gets detained.
Season 2 | Episode 9 After uncovering a surprising connection to their past, Michael and Isobel learn the painful truth about the night Tripp attacked their mothers. Meanwhile, Alex confronts his father about their troubled family history. Elsewhere, Kyle's first date with Steph takes an awkward turn after Liz inadvertently becomes a third wheel.
Season 1 | Episode 1 Assistant District Attorney Andy Barber is assigned as the lead prosecutor in the case of his son's murdered classmate.
Season 1 | Episode 3 Andy admits a family secret to Laurie before it becomes public.
Season 1 | Episode 2 When new evidence is discovered, Andy is taken off the case.
Season 1 | Episode 5 Andy visits his father, and learns some troubling information from Jacob's friends Derek and Sarah.
Season 1 | Episode 4 Andy takes matters into his own hands. Laurie reexamines the life she knew.
Season 1 | Episode 6 Andy and Klein explore two last-ditch efforts to prove Jacob's innocence.
Season 1 | Episode 1 Los Angeles, 1938. LAPD detective Tiago Vega and his partner, Lewis Michener, investigate a murder. While at City Hall, Tiago's activist brother Raul Vega battles with the fiery Councilman Charlton Townsend over the construction of California's first freeway. Meanwhile, Peter Craft, the head of the German-American Bun, meets Elsa, the mysterious mother of one of his patients. Sensing danger, Tiago's mother Maria pleads with Santa Muerte to protect her family as the rising tensions in the city threaten to explode.
Season 1 | Episode 7 As the trial begins, Jacob's fate hangs in the balance.
Season 1 | Episode 2 Raul Vega lies on the brink of death. Tiago and Lewis meet radio evangelist Sister Molly Finnister. Councilman Townsend furthers his political goals. Peter Craft runs into Elsa at the beach.
Season 1 | Episode 4
Season 1 | Episode 3
Season 1 | Episode 5


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At the Fifth Floor, this is prepared with quail. Game hens make an easy-to-find substitute.
- Yield
- Makes 4 servings
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh tarragon
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup chopped shallots
- 2 Cornish game hens, each quartered
- 2 heads radicchio, each cut into 6 wedges
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup beef stock or canned beef broth
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
- 1 teaspoon white truffle oil*
- Mix herbs, 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup shallots in bowl. Place hens in large resealable bag. Add herb oil and seal; shake well. Chill overnight.
- Place radicchio on large rimmed baking sheet. Whisk balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup olive oil in small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Pour all but 1/4 cup marinade over radicchio, turning to coat. Let stand 3 hours.
- Boil stock, 1/4 cup shallots and reserved 1/4 cup marinade in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 6 minutes. Add lemon peel. Cool. Add truffle oil. Season lemon vinaigrette with pepper.
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Place hen pieces on another rimmed baking sheet. Bake until brown and cooked through, about 45 minutes.
- Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. Add radicchio with marinade; sauté until lightly browned, about 3 minutes per side. Serve hens and radicchio with vinaigrette.
- *Available at Italian markets, specialty foods stores and some supermarkets.
Related Video
Nutritional Info
- Calories784
- Carbohydrates15 g(5%)
- Fat66 g(101%)
- Protein32 g(65%)
- Saturated Fat12 g(62%)
- Sodium248 mg(10%)
- Polyunsaturated Fat9 g
- Fiber2 g(8%)
- Monounsaturated Fat41 g
- Cholesterol170 mg(57%)


text: The final round of Wednesday's Columbiana spelling bee featured a duel between Emily Hitchcock and Mireille Rhodes (above), which ended with Rhodes getting a hug from eighth-grade language arts teacher Meg Silver, the pronouncer during the event. Rhodes correctly spelled bequeath and then renegade to win the title. Morning Journal/Patti Schaeffer


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Emily Badger
Emily Badger is a former staff writer at CityLab. Her work has previously appeared in Pacific Standard, GOOD, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New York Times. She lives in the Washington, D.C. area.
Transportation consultant Jeffrey Tumlin figures that you've got to be colorful when you're talking about the intractable problems of urban parking infrastructure. As such, he describes what he does this way: "Our business operates like a methadone clinic to get cities off their parking addictions," he says. "And each addict goes through a different route."
Tumlin, a principle with transportation planning consultancy Nelson/Nygaard in San Francisco, has worked with cities on the East and West Coast to build more transit-oriented development and fewer parking garage behemoths. And befitting his addiction analogy, he has a lot of painful things to say to people in these places. He thinks handicapped drivers shouldn't necessarily get free parking, and that some beloved residential parking permit programs must go. He believes that poor people are willing to pay more for parking than we think, that more expensive parking can actually make customers happier, and that a row of pricey credit-card-operated parking meters can in fact make for more successful commercial districts.
"Somebody who's screaming about 'parking needs to be free!' I can sit down with them for 20 minutes and get them to understand," he says. "But it takes a full 20 minutes. And in a world where everything has to be distilled into 15-second sound bites, it's really hard to convince people on a large scale."
The Atlantic Cities had 20 minutes to spare this week at the Rail~Volution conference in Washington, where Tumlin was preaching some of his painful parking innovation. And so we asked for the full story.
Tumlin starts with another great metaphor: What would happen if we gave all children free ice cream? They would, undoubtedly, be thrilled. But in the process we'd also be creating obesity, driving up the price of milk, and probably causing a cheese shortage. "And just as it would be very bad economic and social policy to provide free ice cream for all children," Tumlin says, "it is also bad to provide free parking for all motorists."
In his search for parking policy that truly reflects the market demand and value of a 9-by-20-foot strip of asphalt, Tumlin sounds a lot like an economist. In fact, he thinks we'd be better off thinking of transportation as a branch of economics rather than engineering. For years, cities have told people that they have to pay for parking meters to create more money for general funds, as if those quarters were a kind of tax. That logic obscures the fact that people should pay for parking because parking in and of itself has a cost – and because by charging for parking, cities create parking availability, which is the real commodity.
"What customers want is not a certain number of parking spaces, but really just one empty parking spot where they want to go," Tumlin says. "That's all they need."
The advent of pay-by-credit card technology allows cities to raise the price of parking to where enough people are turned away onto alternate forms of transportation, without upsetting the people who are now paying more. That's the trick of credit cards (and a lesson plenty of other businesses have long understood): People don't mind paying more for something when they don't actually have to hand over that difference in cash (or coins).
"What had been a horrible city council hearing that would go on until 3 a.m. about raising the price of city parking $1.25 to $1.50 an hour, no one notices any more," Tumlin says, "because it's doesn't make a difference."
And because people tend to highly value their time, they're generally happier to pay more for a parking spot right in front of a store than to pay less for a spot that requires 10 minutes of circling. This makes customers happier, and it also facilitates a larger number of people – some of whom now come on bike or transit – getting in and out of a popular shopping district.
When cities raise parking prices in partnership with local businesses, they can explain that such policies exist to create more successful commercial districts. And the city as a whole, Tumlin says, is going to make a lot more money off having successful commercial districts than it ever will off of its parking meters.
Technology, meanwhile, can take advantage of changes in supply and demand by the hour, or the season, or even according to swells in the national economy, adjusting parking rates according to real-time availability. San Francisco is rolling out such a strategy this month.
All of this technology is making it easier to address parking pricing. But the technology has also been around for a few years, even as old assumptions about parking have continued to persist. "Technology," Tumlin says, "has made it even more embarrassing for the cities that are badly managing their parking."
As these systems move parking toward a more market-responsive approach, Tumlin also has his eye on distortions such as the free parking given at disabled spaces. "Disabled people," he says, "don't need to have their parking subsidized unless they are low-income and disabled." It makes no sense, he adds, to give free parking to a disabled doctor or lawyer. But we're not very good, Tumlin says, at having grown-up conversations about how to accommodate people with disabilities. Washington, D.C., will test this idea later this year with an everyone-pays policy (which will require, among other things, some newly designed parking meters).
Tumlin commonly hears one other objection to his ideas: Where will the poor people park? The poorest people, he's found, aren't looking for parking because they don't own cars. But among the rest of this demographic, he says surveys show that poor people also place an extremely high value on their time. They too often say they're willing to pay a little more for parking if it means they don't have to waste time looking for it.
"It's very interesting to do the detailed demographic surveys and ask people what they want," he says. "And what we find again and again is that the people who are complaining about 'oh my goodness, where will the poor people park?' are not the poor people."
But cities have to be careful, he adds, that as they raise parking prices – and some residents will inevitably be harmed by this – they're conscious of investing the revenue in ways that will help mitigate that harm, in, for instance, better bike, transit or walking infrastructure.
"You can create an enormous net public equity benefit by charging for parking," he says. "The real argument is that there is nothing more inequitable than our current policies of providing gross subsidies to the wealthiest and most privileged members of society, who are the people who own the most cars."
Tumlin's addiction metaphor implies that after cities go through this painful period, they'll come out the other end into some kind of recovery. So what exactly will that look like?
"Ahh, the utopian market paradise," he says, laughing. In that world, he predicts, cities will generate greater economic activity by diverting the money that's spent on building parking garages into something else. Individual property owners will earn more money by charging for something they're now giving away for free. It will also become easier to drive for the people who still do as the roads are cleared of parking hunters, and as more people move onto other forms of transportation (some of which will hopefully funded by parking revenue).
"This is why the market is just so brilliant," Tumlin says. "You can make it easier to drive, make people happier about the driving experience, and still have fewer people drive."
Photo courtesy of Flickr user AgentAkit.
Stressful commutes, unexpected routines, and emergent wildlife appear in your homemade maps of life during the coronavirus pandemic.
Expensive to build, hard to adapt to other uses, and now facing massive pandemic-related challenges, airport terminals often live short, difficult lives.
Fear of crowds in small spaces in the pandemic is spurring new norms and technological changes for the people-moving machines that make skyscrapers possible.
Even before coronavirus, many workers hated the open-plan office. Now that shared work spaces are a public health risk, employers are rethinking office design.
Some cities' roads follow regimented grids. Others twist and turn. See it all on one chart.


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There are so many things we could say about The Sagrada Familia. That one day it will have 18 spires. That, of all the buildings under construction in Europe, it is the one that was first started. That it is the most visited monument in Catalonia. That, at the current pace, work will be finished by 2026. And, that fantastic views of this place of worship can be admired from the Eurostars Monumental suites.
In the Eurostars Monumental Hotel, a recently-built establishment, you will find modernity, design, comfort and a warmly enveloping ambiance to make you feel at home. The decoration of the different areas and the rooms themselves include constant reminders of Gaudí.
The hotel provides a breakfast lounge and cafeteria where buffet breakfasts are served with a wide choice of top quality products and the possibility of enjoying room service, for attending to your needs or whims in your own room.
Our hotel displays temporary exhibitions by different artists which are on show throughout the year. The exhibits are on sale. (http://blog.eurostarshotels.com/)
How to get there
The Eurostars Monumental Hotel (barcelona city hotel) is located less than three blocks from the Sagrada Familia.Map


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We're not sure what to expect with George Miller's Mad Max reboot/sequel — especially when the new Mad Max actor, Tom Hardy, says he's going for the "drowned puma look." Read the new star's description of the next Max.
At the Inception junket, a group of reporters asked young actor Hardy about his next starring role, in the classic post-apocalyptic series. He says:
It's a relaunch and revisit to the world, an entire restructuring. That's not to say that it's not picking up or leaving off from the Mad Max you know already, but it's a nice re-take on the entire world using the same character, depositing him in the same world, but bringing him up to date by 30 years. Obviously Mel would've been perfect for it but, for some reason, he's not doing it, and I am. You can expect the same amount of grit and rawness and authenticity [to my] performance, I hope to deliver. But that's really the crux of me and George to deliver that and all the other actors as the other characters.
... Big rigs, big explosions, big car crashes, big violence, you know. It's going to actually happen, as opposed to doing a 2D turned to 3D screen. It's going to be an adventure, let's put it that way.
The actor also revealed that he was going to have to lose about 30 more pounds for the role, when asked why this was his response:
Imagine a hungry wolf. Or like when you put a cat in the bath. You grab a cat by the throat and stuff it under the fucking water. You know what it looks like? That's what I'm going to look like. But like a puma. Very hungry and very dangerous. It's imperative. This is the kind of guy who's not well. So I have to create that reality.
Mad Max was never an insanely ripped character to begin with, and we like the visual. It's a bit creepy and very threatening. To read the entire interview, check out First Showing.


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Junior Ronea Saunders of the Central Connecticut women's track and field team was named Northeast Conference Field Athlete of the Week on Tuesday for her impressive performance this past weekend at the 19th Annual Monmouth Season Opener.
Saunders has contested two meets this outdoor season and has matched her program record in the high jump on both occasions. This past weekend, Saunders out-classed the field at the 19th Annual Monmouth Season Opener, clearing 1.75m (5' 8.75") to strike gold. Her winning leap was five centimeters better than the runner-up finisher.
Saunders is one of only 23 jumpers in the NCAA East Region to have cleared that height thus far this outdoor season.
The Blue Devils will return to action this Friday, April 4, at Stanford.


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Introduction to Mathematical Statistics
Prentice Hall, 1995 - Mathematical statistics. - 564 pages
An exceptionally clear and impeccably accurate presentation of statistical applications and more advanced theory. Included is a chapter on the distribution of functions of random variables as well as an excellent chapter on sufficient statistics. More modern technology is used in considering limiting distributions, making the presentations more clear and uniform.
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Accordingly approximate best critical region bivariate normal distribution chi-square distribution complete sufficient statistic conditional p.d.f. conditional probability confidence interval Consider continuous type converges in probability correlation coefficient critical region defined degrees of freedom denote a random depend upon 9 discrete type distribution function F(x distribution with mean distribution with p.d.f. distribution with parameters equation estimator of 9 Example Exercise gamma distribution given H0 is true hypothesis H0 independent random variables integral joint p.d.f. Let the random Let Xu X2 likelihood function limiting distribution marginal p.d.f. matrix moment-generating function order statistics p.d.f. of Xu Poisson distribution positive integer probability density functions probability set function quadratic form random experiment random sample random variables Xx reject H0 respectively sample space Section Show significance level simple hypothesis statistic for 9 testing H0 theorem u(Xu X2 unbiased estimator variance a2 XuX2 Xx and X2 Yu Y2 zero elsewhere


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Darfur Conflict
Darfur (där´fōōr), region and former sultanate, W Sudan. The region is mountainous, dominated by the central massif of Jebel Marra, which rises to 10,130 ft (3,088 m). Much of the terrain is dry plateau, and there are sand dunes in the extreme north. The region is divided into the states of Northern, Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern Darfur. The Fur (for whom the area is named) and the Baggara are the major ethnic groups. Darfur's economy is based on subsistence agriculture. Cattle, sheep, and goats are raised in the north.
The rulers of Cush, which fell c.AD 350, may have established a dynasty in Darfur. Christian kingdoms emerged in the period between 900 and 1200, but they were destroyed by Muslim incursions from Kanem in the mid-13th cent. Fur, a major kingdom probably founded in the 15th cent., pushed aside the Kanem rulers in the 17th cent. Fur was conquered by the Egyptians in 1874 and by the Mahdists (see Mahdi) of Sudan in 1883. With the fall of the Mahdist state in 1898, Darfur became a semiautonomous sultanate under Anglo-Egyptian suzerainty. The sultan attempted to expel the foreign colonizers during World War I, but his forces were defeated by the British in 1916, and Darfur was incorporated into Sudan.
Since 2003 the region has been scene of fighting, with Sudanese government forces and their allied Arab militias (the janjaweed) battling non-Arab rebels originally linked to an opposition party, but the conflict has gradually widened to include fighting between allied groups on both sides, as both rebels and militias have splintered. Warfare also has spilled over into Chad, and Chadian rebels have based themselves in parts of Darfur. An African Union (AU) peacekeeping force was established in the region beginning in Aug., 2004; the force, which officially became a joint UN-AU operation in Dec., 2007, has not been effective. Attempts to establish a cease-fire produced only temporary results, though in the 2010s fighting lessened. In 2013 the one of the main Darfur rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), signed a cease-fire agreement and committed itself to negotiations with Sudan, but subsequently there has been resurgent fighting in Darfur, and JEM and its allies also mounted attacks in Northern Kurdufan.
An estimated 300,000 persons have died in the fighting or from disease, hunger, and other causes arising from the fighting, and some 2.7 million people have been made refugees. The government and janjaweed have been accused by some of genocide, and in 2009 Sudan's president was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court; in retaliation, Sudan ordered aid agencies to leave Darfur and other parts of Sudan.
See studies by M. W. Daly (2007), J. Hagan and W. Rymond-Richmond (2009), M. Mamdani (2009), and W. Rymond-Richmond (2009).


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Mouse Models Explore Faulty Neuregulin Splitting and Signaling
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Adapted from a story that originally appeared on the Schizophrenia Research Forum.
Four new mouse studies sketch how molecular alterations involving neuregulin-1 (Nrg1) might lead to neurological and behavioral deficits in schizophrenia. In one, Bart De Strooper of the University of Leuven and Flanders Institute of Biotechnology, in Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues followed leads gained from their work on Alzheimer's disease. Their July 15 PNAS report hints that turning off a gene that helps split proteins, including Nrg1, in the cell membrane produces cognitive deficits and neuropharmacological responses that parallel some of those seen in schizophrenia.
The other three studies zeroed in on a type of Nrg1 expressed mostly or totally in the nervous system. In the July 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, a team led by David Talmage and Lorna Role, both of whom moved recently from Columbia University in New York City to Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, conclude that type III Nrg1 plays crucial roles in brain structures involved in filtering sensory information and using short-term memory. Talmage's group also has a paper in the May 5 Journal of Cell Biology, suggesting that type III Nrg1 controls expression of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) along sensory neuron axons by acting as a receptor itself, instead of playing its better-known ligand role. Finally, in the September 10 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, Role and colleagues link aspects of both these lines of research in describing a critical role for type III Nrg1, functioning as a receptor, in α7nAChR-mediated neurotransmission between hippocampus and striatum.
Complex Molecular Scissors
The gene that encodes Nrg1 has emerged as a leading schizophrenia candidate gene, notwithstanding the less-than-encouraging findings from the recent SchizophreniaGene meta-analysis. The protein facilitates processes that range from neural development to adult synaptic functioning, but only if split into the proper segments by a series of enzymes. One step involves snipping off a fragment that hangs outside the cell; this becomes the ligand for the ErbB4 receptor. Another occurs when the "stub" that remains lodged within the cell membrane subsequently undergoes splitting by γ-secretase, releasing it back into the cell.
The intramembrane protease γ-secretase may be best known for processing amyloid precursor protein into the amyloid-β that forms plaques in Alzheimer's disease. In humans, the large γ-secretase complex includes one of the two forms of the protein Aph1, either the A or B variant. Mice carry an additional gene that encodes Aph1C, a twin of Aph1B; the two genes are typically referred to jointly as Aph1B/C.
De Strooper's laboratory had been examining the role of the Aph1B/C-containing γ-secretase in the processing of amyloid precursor protein (Serneels et al., 2005). He and his colleagues wondered whether it also plays a part in the cleaving of Nrg1 and, hence, contributes to schizophrenia.
The Causes of Snipping Snafus
In their new study, first author Tim Dejaegere and his coauthors examined the processing of Nrg1 in Aph1B/C knockout mice. They wanted to learn what Aph1B/C does; unlike Aph1A, it plays no crucial role in survival, so Aph1B/C KO mice survive to adulthood with no overt ill effects.
Dejaegere and colleagues found abnormal buildup of Nrg1 fragments in a number of brain areas in the knockout mice, suggesting that Aph1B/C is indeed critical for the proper cleaving of Nrg1. They identified the fragments not as the peptide that signals through ErbB4 receptors, but rather as the membrane-bound stub that should have been cleaved by Aph1B/C-γ-secretase.
In an interesting piece of supporting investigation, the researchers examined how deficits in Nrg1, as opposed to the γ-secretase complex, might lead to the same end. They focused on a particular single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), in the coding region of the Nrg1 gene, reported to increase schizophrenia risk (Waiss-Bass et al., 2006). This SNP causes a valine-to-leucine substitution in the transmembrane region, where it might disrupt γ-secretase cleavage of the Nrg1 membrane-bound stub. Indeed, when Dejaegere and colleagues introduced this mutation to type III Nrg1 in otherwise normal cells in culture, they found above-normal accumulation of the stub.
Also of interest, in normal mice, the researchers found high levels of expression of Aph1B/C in the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, olfactory bulb, and cerebellum, but not the striatum. "Aph1B/C expression is enriched in brain areas with relevance for schizophrenia," they write. They note that the areas with the most expression in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus, layer 5 and CA1, respectively, include those that send excitatory glutamatergic signals to the ventral striatum and other brain areas.
The Consequences of Snipping Snafus
To illuminate the functions of Aph1B/C, the researchers compared knockout mice with their normal littermates using paradigms that often stand in for behavioral aspects of schizophrenia—specifically, tests of prepulse inhibition (PPI) and working memory. PPI, a common experimental paradigm for sensory gating, occurs when a weak stimulus lessens the startle response to a subsequent stronger stimulus. Studies have found PPI deficits in some patients with schizophrenia, suggesting that they cannot filter sensory information well. PPI tasks are often used to test putative animal models of schizophrenia pathology.
In the study by Dejaegere and colleagues, the Aph1B/C knockout mice showed PPI impairments, which disappeared after injection of haloperidol, a typical antipsychotic, or clozapine, an atypical antipsychotic. Since all current antipsychotic drugs block dopamine D2 receptors to alleviate psychosis, the team assessed dopaminergic functioning by administering amphetamine. This drug not only induces psychosis in otherwise healthy people, it worsens the symptoms of people with schizophrenia, apparently by promoting dopamine release in the ventral striatum.
The scientists found that the amphetamine revved up the Aph1B/C knockout mice more than their normal siblings. Furthermore, the knockouts showed evidence of excessive dopamine turnover in tissue from the ventral striatum. These findings dovetail with a prominent theory that puts dopamine hyperactivity in the mesolimbic pathway at the root of schizophrenia. This pathway links the ventral tegmentum in the midbrain to the ventral striatum.
Dejaegere and colleagues also examined other possible neurotransmitter disturbances. "A hyperdopaminergic state of the ventral striatum can be a consequence of a primary PFC dysfunction of glutamatergic signaling," they note. Since tests of working memory can gauge PFC disturbances, the researchers subjected the rodents to a working memory test in which recently presented information would help them navigate a maze. The knockout mice performed worse than their wild-type siblings.
To further explore glutamate's role in the knockout mice's behavior, the researchers injected both groups of mice with MK-801. This drug, used in a standard animal model of schizophrenia, blocks N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. These glutamate receptors probably play a key role in memory, attention, and other cognitive functions. Consistent with past research, MK-801 impaired PPI in normal mice, but it weakened it even more in the knockouts, to the point of nearly eliminating it. These findings relate the flawed filtering of sensory information to disturbed glutamatergic signaling involving NMDA receptors.
The investigators conclude, "Dysregulation of intramembrane proteolysis of Nrg1 could increase risk for schizophrenia and related disorders" by unleashing ripples through the glutamatergic and dopaminergic pathways. They view their data as supporting both the glutamate and dopamine hypotheses of schizophrenia.
In related work, some members of the research team have been exploring whether silencing Aph1B/C improves symptoms in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Their schizophrenia study, although it did not look at amyloid processing, warns that treating Alzheimer's in such a way could raise schizophrenia risk. Hedging their bets, Dejaegere and colleagues write, "Because a wealth of data supports the contention that the development of schizophrenia depends on a neuronal insult early in life, it is possible that suppression of Aph1B/C activity in the brain in adulthood only will have no severe side effects at all."
Portrait of a Mouse With Too Little Type III
Different gene promoters and ways of splicing result in over 15 isoforms of Nrg1. Enzyme-mediated cleavage snips most forms from the cell surface, enabling them to diffuse and affect distant targets. Only type III stays bound to the cell membrane, limiting its signaling to bordering cells ("juxtacrine" signaling").
The uniqueness of type III, combined with its neuronal-specific expression, has intrigued the two closely collaborating groups of Talmage and Role for some time. In their recent study in the Journal of Neuroscience, led by first author Ying-Jiun Chen, currently of the University of California at San Francisco, they extended their research on its effects on neural circuits and behaviors that relate to schizophrenia. In addition, they sought to learn what regulates Nrg1 expression.
Chen and colleagues compared adult mutant mice that were heterozygous knockouts for type III Nrg1 with their wild-type siblings on structural, functional, and behavioral measures. They looked at heterozygotes because mice that produce no type III Nrg1 die at birth. The authors note that the heterozygotes had larger cerebral lateral ventricles than the wild-type mice. In addition, they had reduced density of dendritic spines, which receive excitatory input, on pyramidal neurons in the subiculum. These neurons convey processed information from the hippocampus to other brain areas such as the ventral striatum. The researchers liken these structural anomalies to those found in autopsy studies of humans with schizophrenia.
Further clues indicate that type III Nrg1 affects not only brain structure, but also function. In the heterozygotes, Chen and colleagues found evidence of low metabolism in hippocampal regions CA3 and CA1, the subiculum, and the medial prefrontal cortex. Such structural and functional changes might trigger abnormal behavior. On a maze test that required use of short-term memory and on an auditory PPI task, the heterozygotes performed worse than their wild-type peers. Interestingly, when the researchers had characterized the normal distribution of type III in the mouse brain, they found that it is "expressed in the medial prefrontal cortex, ventral hippocampus, and ventral subiculum, regions involved in the regulation of sensorimotor gating and short-term memory."
In prior research, PPI deficits in mice and subjects with schizophrenia returned to normal after nicotine administration. Furthermore, many people with schizophrenia smoke, perhaps to self-medicate. After Chen and colleagues gave mice water laced with nicotine for six weeks, the heterozygotes performed as well as the wild-type mice.
Summing up their results, Chen and colleagues write, "Decreased expression of type III Nrg1 leads to structural, functional, and behavioral alterations that are related to schizophrenia." This study, however, did not test whether the structural and functional changes directly affect behaviors related to schizophrenia in mice, let alone humans with the disease.
Backwards Signaling Targets Nicotinic Receptors
Complementing the work by Chen and associates, the remaining study from the Talmage and Role groups looked at the relationship between Nrg1 and nAChRs. Nicotine docks on these receptors, and past research hints that type III Nrg1 regulates expression of nAChR subunits, including α7. Research on animals, as well as people with schizophrenia and their relatives, links α7-containing nAChRs to sensory gating and to schizophrenia (for a literature review, see Martin and Freedman, 2007).
This other study, led by first author Melissa Hancock, investigated the molecular mechanisms by which type III Nrg1 affects presynaptic α7-containing nAChRs. When the researchers examined sensory neurons from embryos of type III Nrg1 knockout mice, they detected a significant reduction, relative to wild-type, of axonal α7nAChR surface expression. There was no overall reduction of this receptor subunit in the neurons, suggesting that trafficking to the cell membrane was specifically impaired.
The next challenge involved figuring out what role type III Nrg1 plays in α7 trafficking. In forward signaling, Nrg1 acts as a ligand for ErbB receptor tyrosine kinases. The Nrg1 fragment that is cleaved from the outside of the cell interacts with receptors on target cells some distance away. However, in this case, the researchers suspected that a different process, dubbed "back signaling" (Bao et al., 2003), might play a role. This presynaptic signaling occurs when the fragment that remains within the cell membrane acts as a receptor for ErbB, spurring the cell that expressed type III Nrg1 to fire.
To find out if type III Nrg1 controls nAChR expression by acting as a ligand or a receptor, Hancock and colleagues treated the neurons with extracellular domain from either ErbB4 (B4-ECD) or ErbB2 (B2-ECD). B4-ECD binds tightly with Nrg1; since B2-ECD does not, it served as a control substance. Only B4-ECD increased expression of α7 nAChRs along axons from the wild-type mice; neither substance did so on cells from the mutants.
When the researchers repeated the experiment with the addition of substances that hinder ErbB tyrosine kinase activity, α7 nAChRs still gathered along the axons. They inferred that type III controls the insertion of α7 nAChRs into the membrane by acting as a receptor for ErbB4 and not as a ligand that launches tyrosine kinase signaling.
The investigators found that the increased surface expression did not stem from ramped-up production of α7 nAChRs. Rather, back signaling appeared to shift existing nAChRs from caches inside the neuron to the axon membrane. It did so by activating a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signaling pathway that controls the movement of cell surface proteins. "These findings, in conjunction with prior results establishing that Type III Nrg1 back signaling controls gene transcription, demonstrate that Type III Nrg1 back signaling can regulate both short- and long-term changes in neuronal function," Hancock and colleagues write.
Chimeras Are Different
The most recent installment in the Talmage-Role collaboration links aspects of both the Chen and Hancock papers. In a study published in the September 10 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, Role, first author Chongbo Zhong, and colleagues examined the role of type III Nrg1 in synaptic transmission in a hippocampus-to-ventral striatum circuit, which they note, is "an important relay in sensory-motor gating."
The experimental method is a major technical challenge—creating a chimeric circuit by "hooking up" the output area of the hippocampus—ventral CA1 and subiculum—from a type III Nrg1 deficient mouse to the target region in the ventral striatum—the nucleus accumbens—from a normal mouse. This is all done in a cultured brain slice preparation, of course, where an excised piece of hippocampal tissue is allowed a day to accommodate itself to life in vitro before nucleus accumbens neurons from a different brain are added. Within a week in culture, the hippocampal neurons form synaptic connections with accumbal cells, and the researchers are able to record glutamatergic synaptic activity from the acumbal target cells in the chimeric circuits.
Whether the hippocampal cells came from mice with normal or reduced levels of type III Nrg1 made no difference in their effects on baseline postsynaptic activity of the nucleus accumbens cells. But when Zhong and colleagues added nicotine, they noticed a major difference. In wild-type-to-wild-type circuits, a single puff of nicotine boosted neurotransmission in the circuit for up to an hour. But when the hippocampal cells had reduced levels of type III Nrg1, nicotine produced only a brief enhancement of glutamatergic transmission in the circuit. "Alterations in this temporal profile might lead to deficits in sensory gating by altering glutamatergic transmission in corticostriatal circuits," the authors write.
Underlying this deficiency, the researchers report, is an 80 percent reduction in α7nACh receptors on the axons of the hippocampal cells. Zhong and colleagues were able to reverse this situation by incubating the hippocampal cells with the ErbB4 extracellular domain, supporting the evidence from the earlier paper by Hancock and colleagues that back signaling by type III Nrg1 controls the levels of α7nACh receptors on these axons.
These four new studies contribute to a framework that may eventually tie together the genes that encode Nrg1, ErbB4, and α7 as potential contributors to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. They may also fuel suspicions that the pathways underlying schizophrenia and neurodegenerative diseases overlap.—Victoria L. Wilcox and Hakon Heimer
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Paper Citations
- Serneels L, Dejaegere T, Craessaerts K, Horré K, Jorissen E, Tousseyn T, Hébert S, Coolen M, Martens G, Zwijsen A, Annaert W, Hartmann D, De Strooper B. Differential contribution of the three Aph1 genes to gamma-secretase activity in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Feb 1;102(5):1719-24. PubMed.
- Walss-Bass C, Liu W, Lew DF, Villegas R, Montero P, Dassori A, Leach RJ, Almasy L, Escamilla M, Raventos H. A novel missense mutation in the transmembrane domain of neuregulin 1 is associated with schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Sep 15;60(6):548-53. PubMed.
- Martin LF, Freedman R. Schizophrenia and the alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Int Rev Neurobiol. 2007;78:225-46. PubMed.
- Bao J, Wolpowitz D, Role LW, Talmage DA. Back signaling by the Nrg-1 intracellular domain. J Cell Biol. 2003 Jun 23;161(6):1133-41. PubMed.
External Citations
Further Reading
Primary Papers
- Hancock ML, Canetta SE, Role LW, Talmage DA. Presynaptic type III neuregulin1-ErbB signaling targets {alpha}7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors to axons. J Cell Biol. 2008 May 5;181(3):511-21. PubMed.
- Dejaegere T, Serneels L, Schäfer MK, Van Biervliet J, Horré K, Depboylu C, Alvarez-Fischer D, Herreman A, Willem M, Haass C, Höglinger GU, D'Hooge R, De Strooper B. Deficiency of Aph1B/C-gamma-secretase disturbs Nrg1 cleavage and sensorimotor gating that can be reversed with antipsychotic treatment. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Jul 15;105(28):9775-80. PubMed.
- Chen YJ, Johnson MA, Lieberman MD, Goodchild RE, Schobel S, Lewandowski N, Rosoklija G, Liu RC, Gingrich JA, Small S, Moore H, Dwork AJ, Talmage DA, Role LW. Type III neuregulin-1 is required for normal sensorimotor gating, memory-related behaviors, and corticostriatal circuit components. J Neurosci. 2008 Jul 2;28(27):6872-83. PubMed.
- Zhong C, Du C, Hancock M, Mertz M, Talmage DA, Role LW. Presynaptic type III neuregulin 1 is required for sustained enhancement of hippocampal transmission by nicotine and for axonal targeting of alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. J Neurosci. 2008 Sep 10;28(37):9111-6. PubMed.
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text:
The phone is already ringing. Many rooms are still empty as Terry Melton's staff attempts to run the first set of tests without the Automated Sequencer that was supposed to arrive weeks ago.
"We're about a month behind schedule," says Melton, a 1996 Ph.D. graduate in genetics and president of a new company. She rushes through the metal doors of a room sized evidence locker (needed to secure the lab's samples from contamination) to answer the phone.
Her company, Mitotyping Technologies, will work for law enforcement, lawyers, and citizens. By sequencing the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in hair shafts, bones, old blood stains, and teeth, Melton can support or disprove claims about a person's identity. She recently helped solve a three-year-old murder case, for instance, by analyzing a blood stain on a watchband.
Most DNA fingerprinting uses DNA from the nucleus of a cell. Mitochondrial DNA offers two advantages. "First, it is only inherited through the mother's side," Melton explains. "All of a woman's children will inherit her type, but her sons will not pass it on. So any maternally related individuals can be expected to share the same mtDNA sequence." This fact makes mtDNA analysis easier for juries and other non-scientists to understand. "It is also useful in cases where a long dead or missing individual is not available to supply a reference sample. Any living maternal relative can do so."
Also, mtDNA can be recovered from old, small, or degraded samples in which no nuclear DNA can be found. "The mitochondria are the energy powerhouses of the cell," Melton explains. Every cell can have hundreds or even thousands of copies of the short mtDNA strands (containing 32 genes), as opposed to only two copies of the much longer nuclear DNA (about 100,000 genes).
"You can run a test using only a two-centimeter-long hair fragment," Melton says. Though when she was once sent several hairs believed to belong to Napoleon, she couldn't find any usable DNA. "A 200-year-old hair is kind of a long shot."
In another case using hair, however, she was able disprove the identity of Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of the last Tsar of Russia. In 1994, Melton did mtDNA analysis on five of Anderson's hairs. Though excited about solving this famous case, Melton was also a little disappointed. "I grew up in Charlottesville, where Anderson lived at the end of her life. She was a local character in my hometown."
The Anderson case was one of several that Melton undertook as a graduate student in the genetics lab run by anthropologist Mark Stoneking, known for his work on the "Mitochondrial Eve" theory. Since mtDNA is inherited only through the mother, Melton says, "if we look at all the mtDNA sequences and link them together through time, we can say that there is an ancestral sequence common to all humans."
For her dissertation Melton studied the mtDNA of 40 populations around the world to see if there was enough diversity to make mtDNA sequencing useful for forensic analysis. She found it to be an excellent tool. As a postdoc, she began processing requests for mtDNA analysis as a community service. Soon she decided to make the switch to president of her own business.
The stalls and setbacks to setting up Mitotyping Technologies—like waiting for the Automated Sequencer to arrive— have been only minor annoyances, Melton says, thanks to the Penn State Gateways Program.
"We helped Terry identify the issues surrounding this business opportunity," says research commercialization specialist Dan Leri, "and determine what was a fact, what was a myth, and what was a critical assumption. Then we proceeded to capitalize on the facts and manage the assumptions." The program found Melton business mentors and identified potential investors for her company. "They've allowed me to focus on the science. They have really done a lot of the leg work," Melton says.
Lab space in the Zetachron Center for Science and Technology Business Development came about through Nina Fedoroff, director of Penn State's Life Sciences Consortium. When Zetachron, a company that developed drug delivery technologies, was sold in 1996 to Watson Pharmaceutical, co-founder Wally Snipes and his wife agreed to donate the $1.2 million building to Penn State. (Snipes is a former professor of biophysics.)
Says Melton. "Everything came together at once. It almost seemed fated." Now, instead of merely dealing with the challenges of precise lab analysis, Melton is learning to run a business, along with the four other companies taking root in the Zetachron Center. "We're all buying equipment. We're all swearing constantly," she says, as she hangs up on another caller who's promised to ship out an Automated Sequencer ASAP.
Terry Melton, Ph.D., is president of Mitotyping Technologies, LLC, 1981 Pine Hall Dr., State College, PA 16801; 814-861-0676; email@example.com. Dan Leri directs Penn State's Research Commercialization Office, Research Park Technology Center Suite 101, University Park, PA 16802; 814-863-6301; firstname.lastname@example.com.