Part 2a: Why Vitamin K2 Can Prevent Root Canal Treatment
To understand Vitamin K2’s dental benefits fully, we’re going to take a trip through the body. It begins inside your teeth, in the dental pulp – the area where our tooth ache often originates. Pulpitis, or dental pulp infections, are why you need to have a root canal treatment on your tooth.
As a dentist who focuses on nutrition, one thing about dental practice that bothered me were tooth aches. Dental school teaches dentists that toothaches occur in such a way that we can’t intervene to help.
This is true in a sense, but only in the most severe cases of toothache, which are usually caused by very advanced dental caries.
Dentists are trained to think in this sequence:
Dental disease -> Reversible pulpitis -> Irreversible pulpitis -> Root canal treatment or tooth extraction
Toothaches are one of the most common reasons for emergency dental appointments. If you’ve experienced tooth pain, you know it’s a not a nice experience.
The concern with many toothaches is that they signal infection in the pulp of the tooth. If you do experience tooth pain, it MAY be a sign you may need root canal treatment or tooth extraction.
When you go to a dentist for an emergency dental appointment, your dentist will investigate the cause. But one big mistake that dental medicine makes is that it doesn’t account for the body’s ability to heal a tooth ache.
Depending on the cause of the ache, they may offer you one of the following options:
- Wait and see how the symptoms develop
- Perform a dental restoration or filling
- Begin root canal treatment
- Extract the tooth and replace
If you have dental caries, then you will often need a restoration. For those who have had dental treatment such as a filling or a crown, toothache or pain is very common. Once the disease process reaches to a certain depth, you may need a dental restoration. But you need to understand how to heal your body to prevent possible root canal treatment.
In this article we’re going to help you to understand how Vitamin K2 and toothaches are connected. How to heal and even cure toothache naturally and also to potentially prevent root canal treatment.
What is a pulpitis?
Inside each of your teeth is a dental pulp. It consists of the tooth’s blood and nerve supply. The pulp is responsible for the sensations of your teeth. It also relays information from the tooth, right back to your brain.
Pulpitis is inflammation of the dental pulp. It occurs due to dental caries, trauma, or dental restorations. The most common cause is dental caries where bacterial infection infiltrates the dentin and pulp of the tooth.
Pulpitis is often felt as a tooth pain that comes and goes. You may feel it as a throbbing tooth pain at night, in the day, or when your tooth encounters something hot or cold.
If you have a tooth pain or throbbing tooth, a dentist will classify it as one of the two types of pulpitis.
1.- Reversible pulpitis
A reversible pulpitis is a toothache where treatment or monitoring will mean the pulp doesn’t need treatment.
Reversible pulpitis symptoms and signs:
- Shallow dental caries and a dental filling
- Sensitivity to cold, and a
- Tooth pain that comes and goes.
- Tooth pain that comes and goes every few months
This is the good type of pulpitis because your tooth remains healthy with no, or minor, dental treatment required. The blood and nerve supply stay alive and your tooth pain eventually stops.
2.- Irreversible pulpitis
This is where the pulpitis and its sequelae require endodontic (root canal) therapy or tooth extraction. The tooth goes through a ‘dying’ or inflammatory process and the tooth becomes non-vital.
Irreversible pulpitis symptoms and signs:
- Toothache that makes your jaw hurt or radiates to your face and neck
- Toothache at night
- Tooth pain when consuming hot drinks and food
- Throbbing, deep pain
- Pain on biting
- Pain when you put pressure on the tooth
- Swelling, draining sinus or abscess above the tooth
- Throbbing tooth pain that comes and goes
- Deep dental caries close to the pulp or dental nerve
Situations where pulpitis can occur:
- After a dental filling
- After a crown
There are two ways to categorize pulpitis: Acute or Chronic; Reversible or Irreversible.
|Acute pulpitis||Chronic pulpitis|
|Usually found in teeth of children and adolescents||Found in adults|
|More noticeable pain; constant throbbing pain often made worse by lying down, swelling of gum and/or face||Less noticeable pain|
|Acute sensitivity to hot/cold|
|Change in color of the tooth|
|Purulent acute pulpitis: complete inflammation of tooth;
Gangrenous acute pulpitis: pulp dies in less painful manner leading to formation of abscess at the tip of the tooth root.
|Reversible pulpitis||Irreversible pulpitis|
|Caused by caries encroaching on pulp||Caused by progression of reversible pulpitis|
|Mild inflammation||Severe inflammation|
|Does not have to be treated; heals over time||Treated via root canal treatment or tooth extraction|
Table 2: Comparison between Reversible Pulpitis and Irreversible Pulpitis
Pain medicine, pulpitis and antibiotics
The most common treatment of pulpitis is a course of antibiotics.
Antibiotics for a tooth ache may take the symptoms away, but they do not treat the cause of pulpitis, so I would recommend avoiding them if you can, because they’re only a band aid solution.
How to heal a pulpitis naturally: Fat-soluble Vitamins and your teeth
An irreversible pulpitis occurs when the inflammatory response kills the nerve and blood supply to the tooth. So if you have an irreversible pulpitis, the blood supply to your tooth is lost and the natural healing capabilities we are about to discuss are gone.
But if you have a reversible pulpitis, tooth decay or need a dental filling, you can prevent irreversible pulpitis and root canal treatment.
The recovery time between the time you experience a pulpitis will depend on your body’s healing process.
Vitamin K2 to cure tooth ache and heal the dental pulp
Inside each of your teeth is a blood supply that carries a specific set of defense mechanisms.
Osteocalcin is a Vitamin K2 dependent protein that helps mineralize teeth and bone. It’s a reparative molecule expressed in response to injury of the dental pulp.
Inside an inflamed dental pulp, inflammatory mediators were found to be related to this expression especially in the reversible stages of pulpal inflammation. Osteocalcin seems to release factors that increase blood supply and decreases inflammatory factors associated with deep cavities.
Studies have shown that levels of osteocalcin are higher in reversible pulpitis than irreversible pulpitis. This means that if your body’s defense systems are working, you can heal a pulpitis.
Vitamin D, Vitamin K2 (and Vitamin A) for healing teeth naturally
Research shows that Vitamin D can increase serum osteocalcin levels. If your tooth has a blood supply, adequate Vitamin D and osteocalcin helps it to boost its immune response.
But Vitamin D alone isn’t enough. Osteocalcin also requires Vitamin A and is activated by Vitamin K2.
Therefore, if you have tooth decay, need a dental restoration or dental crown, you should always go through the protocol below. It may also relieve and cure tooth and mouth pain.
Supplement program to Vitamin K2 to cure tooth ache and decrease risk of root canal treatment
If you suffer from a tooth pain or toothache, or require a dental filling; you should take the following steps:
- Check your blood Vitamin D levels
If your levels are below 40ng/ml or 100nmol/L:
- Supplement 5000 – 10,000IU dosage of Vitamin D3 (consult with your GP regarding Vitamin D levels and your specific dosage, and check safety recommendations).
- Supplement Vitamin K2
In the long term, you should get Vitamin K2 through your diet, but you may need a supplement to boost your activated osteocalcin inside your dental pulp.
- Supplement a minimum of 200mcg of Vitamin K2 MK4 and MK7 per day (always consult your GP before taking Vitamin K2 supplements with anticoagulants such as warfarin).
- Emu Oil – I recommend Walkabout Emu Oil as one of the richest sources of Vitamin K2 MK-4.
- Vitamin A
Natural sources of these fat-soluble Vitamins (including preformed Vitamin A):
- Emu Oil
- Cod liver oil – I recommend extra-virgin cod liver oil by Rosita real foods (Liquid). Cod liver oil (softgels)
300mg Magnesium citrate or glycinate supplement or Wake Up Maggie is a great mix of magnesium types.
Long term diet change for healthy teeth
If you have a diet rich in fat-soluble Vitamins, balance your microbiome and send healthy epigenetic messages, your body can defend against all dental disease. The principles of nutrition and dental health means that your body has everything it needs.
The Dental Diet is your guide to prevent root canal treatment naturally through delicious food.
In the next article, we’ll move to the dentin and the immune system that protects your teeth from tooth decay.
Want to know more? Dr Steven Lin’s book, The Dental Diet, is available to order today. An exploration of ancestral medicine, the human microbiome and epigenetics it’s a complete guide to the mouth-body connection. Take the journey and the 40-day delicious food program for life-changing oral and whole health.
Click below to order your copy now:
Now we want to hear from you. Please leave your questions in the comments below.


Protected Areas & Public Lands
Y2Y IDENTIFIES core habitat under risk of development and finds ways to PROTECT it.
Protected areas, such as national, state and provincial parks, managed to support wildlife and ecosystems are critical to maintain healthy ecosystems throughout the Yellowstone to Yukon region. Unfortunately, large sections of habitat on which wildlife depend to survive remain unprotected and vulnerable to development.Approximately 20 per cent of the entire Yellowstone to Yukon region is private or tribal land. The rest of the landscape is most often owned by the federal government in the U.S. and by the provinces or territories in Canada. Despite these ownership levels, only some 20 per cent of the entire Yellowstone to Yukon landscape is protected in parks, wilderness or private conservancies.
Most public land is open to multiple uses, including mining, drilling, forest harvesting, energy development and associated infrastructure such as roads and pipelines. Public motorized access adds to the cumulative impact on wildlife, ecosystems and our ability to deal with a changing climate. Additionally, few lands – protected or not – are managed to prioritize wildlife’s need to use and move through that landscape. This jeopardizes continental connectivity.
OPPORTUNITYThere are a number of key unprotected core habitats that have been identified as strategically valuable for supporting wildlife and critical ecosystems. Many, like Yukon’s Peel Watershed or British Columbia’s (B.C.) Flathead River Valley, remain untouched, with low populations and few roads. Keeping these places wild is vital for the future of hundreds of species. Additionally, many governments are engaged in land-use planning processes that open the door to improved management to support wildlife connectivity.
WHAT Y2Y IS DOING
Y2Y is leading, partnering and supporting our partners to gain additional protection for a number of strategically valuable landscapes in the Yellowstone to Yukon region.
GOALS & CURRENT PROJECTS
Peel Watershed: Seven times larger than Yellowstone or Jasper national park, Y2Y is supporting our partners to protect 80 per cent of the Yukon’s Peel Watershed.
Alberta Headwaters: Y2Y is leading an initiative to ensure that Alberta’s land-use plans, which will determine the area’s land use for the next 50 years, protect Alberta’s headwaters.
Flathead Wild: As one of the last unsettled valleys in southern Canada, Y2Y aims to secure a national park in the upper Flathead River Valley of B.C. and a Wildlife Management zone that connects two protected areas.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Add Your Voice: Sign up to receive our Action Alerts and add your voice to important conservation causes.
GET THE LATEST: Protected Area & Public Lands News
Y2Y's Stephen Legault makes the argument for Alberta's water security in this op-ed published in the Calgary Herald on Jan. 7. 2017.
Featuring a diverse mix of wild habitat and human settlement, the Cabinet-Purcell Mountain Corridor is integral to the Y2Y vision.
Y2Y is praising US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell's announcement to cancel 15 leases in Montana's sacred Badger-Two Medicine region.
A recent poll done for Y2Y shows strong public support for creating a new provincial park in the Bighorn area west of Rocky Mountain House.
A new poll by Y2Y highlights the strong relationship Alberta residents have with their headwaters.


Booker T. Washington National Monument, in Franklin County, Virginia, is the former Burroughs Plantation. In 1850, James and Elizabeth Burroughs moved their children and a few slaves to this 207-acre tobacco farm in southwestern Virginia. The plantation cook, a female slave named Jane, gave birth to three children over the next 10 years. Her middle child would simply be called Booker.
This National Monument is very close to Smith Mountain Lake and is worth a visit. You can explore the small plantation where Washington first longed for an education, pondered what freedom meant and eventually took his “first breath of freedom.”
He has such an interesting history where he was born in April of 1856, during a time when the U.S. was trying to work towards a solution dealing with slavery. As slavery ceased to exist in the most Northern states, abolitionists began to demonstrate and influence state governments pushing toward the emancipation and sometimes the relocation of former slaves and descendants.
Booker T. Washington wrote in his autobiography, Up From Slavery, about his birth and his nine years living as an enslaved person on the Burroughs tobacco plantation. “I was born in a typical log cabin, about fourteen by sixteen feet square. In this cabin I lived with my mother and a brother and sister till after the Civil War, when we were all declared free. Of my ancestry, I know almost nothing…the cabin was not only our living place, but was used as the kitchen for the plantation. My mother was the plantation cook. The cabin was without glass windows; it had only openings in the side which let in the light, and also the cold, chilly air of winter…there was no wooden floor in our cabin, the naked earth being used as a floor.” He goes on to describe how he never slept in a bed, but just on a “bundle of rags.”
He had the desire to get an education but was not allowed to go to school, although he was expected to carry the books to school for Laura Burroughs, one of the owner’s daughters, who was a teacher. He remembered wearing a flax shirt that was very painful to wear when it was new because it felt like “a dozen or more chestnut burrs or a hundred small pin-points coming into contact with his flesh.”
Washington described the moment when he and his family found out they were free at the end of the Civil War. “Finally the war closed, and the day of freedom came. It was a momentous and eventful day to all upon our plantation.” He remembered a stranger who came to the plantation and read a speech that he thought was the Emancipation Proclamation. “After reading we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased, my mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children while tears of joy ran down her cheeks.” She explained what it all meant to them. This was the “moment she had been praying for.” Washington pioneered forward to get an education and became Dr. Booker T. Washington and became a noted educator, orator, author and advisor to presidents.
The Booker T. Washington National Monument is a place where people visit to come to remember and reflect on this time in American history. He wrote, “No race or people ever got upon its feet without severe and constant struggle, often in the face of the greatest discouragement.”
You can plan your visit by clicking here. It is a free National Monument that encourages donations.
Poplar Forest, very near to Smith Mountain Lake, is a National Historic Landmark and Thomas Jefferson’s personal retreat. Here you can visit, what is believed to be, the first octagonal home in America designed and built by Jefferson himself. Tour the home and visit the landscape, which was meticulously restore in 2011 back to Jefferson’s design using early 19th century techniques. It is such an interesting tour where you learn about architecture, preservation and live in the early 19th century. On the plantation, there is continuous excavation where they find artifacts from the plantation occupants that lived and worked at Poplar Forest. You will discover Jefferson’s vision for his gardens, ornamental plantings and farm at Poplar Forest as it emerges through archaeology.
This Landmark is open for visitors through December 15 (closed Thanksgiving Day). If you are visiting the lake with family and friends, you can arrange a group tour any time of the year. Next week is their annual event, Barrels, Bottles & Casks Summer Tours on July 27th and 28th. This is a great opportunity to get a refreshing look at history! This is a tasting tour that begins in Mr. Jefferson’s kitchen and progress through the villa with stops along the way to sample beverages while guides share insights about the foods and drinks that Jefferson and the enslaved residents consumed during the hot summer months. The tours conclude with an ice cream social in the lower level. Admission to the Summertime Barrels, Bottles & Casks tasting tour is $25 per person and reservations are required. You can purchase your tickets by clicking here.
Plan your stay at Mariners Landing Resort online at smlvaca.com and take a 30 minute drive to Jefferson’s Poplar Forest located at 1542 Bateman Bridge Road, Forest, VA 24551!
I don’t know about you, but I have always had a hard time keeping plants alive. My grandmother, on the other hand, had a naturally green thumb. Her passion was gardening and watching her plants flourish. Everything she touched grew and grew and grew! Unfortunately, that gene wasn’t passed down to me so I have look for plants that are hardy and, more or less, take care of themselves.
One thing I began to look for is “self-sowers.” These plants help maintain colorful floral throughout the summer without the hassle and expense of purchasing and planting annuals. They return year after year from the seeds they dropped the year before, unlike perennials that survive the winter through their roots. Now, most self-sowers aren’t able to survive the winters here, but the seeds survive the cold and begin to germinate once the soil and weather warms. What I love about them is that these seeds sprout and grow without planting or caring for them!
In fact, there’s still time to start planting self-sowers from seed, particularly ones that germinate and grow quickly, such as cosmos and zinnias. You can also consult your local nursery about the best self-sowers.
Here are some good self-sowers:
For many, The Fourth of July is a day filled with family, friends, good food, and fireworks. We often look at it as a fun summer celebration to celebrate our flag, enjoy a busy city parade and snack on cotton candy at local fairs, but Independence Day is so much more than that. It’s easy to forget the details behind the holiday, but we are here to help remind you. We have ten fun facts about the history of Independence Day so you can be reminded as to why we celebrate on The Fourth of July.
The Fourth Of July
The Fourth of July is more than just a celebration of summertime — it’s a time to celebrate our freedom and how far we have come.
This fairly new activity has a number of benefits! And we’re not talking about health boosters only here. Let’s have a look at what this outdoor activity can do for you and you can rent them right from Mariners Landing Resort or online at bwmarina.com.
1. It’s a great activity for EVERYONE!
The appeal of SUP is that it offers a variable level of intensity. Cruising on a paddle board can mean anything from a gentle drift across the glassy lake, to a heart-pounding paddle across wakes or against the current of a river. SUP is probably the only activity that can be equally enjoyable for both senior citizens and extreme sports junkies.
2. Stand up paddle boarding can be done anywhere.
Though it’s usually though of as a beach activity, it works just as well on a lake. This makes it popular with water-sports fans who live inland, as they can train on a local lake or river, than driving hours to the shore. Paddle boards are lighter than kayaks or canoes and easier to travel with.
3. It’s easy to pick up.
Another handy thing about SUP is that it’s quick to get started. The kit can be rented easily at Mariners Landing Resort at the Pointe pool office or online at bwmarina.com. And it doesn’t take much practice to master the technique – once you can stand up and turn your board around, there’s not much more to learn. You can control your speed easily, meaning it’s less intimidating for beginners than sports like windsurfing. And if you do fall off, it’s easy to get back on.
4. It’s an ongoing activity.
In fact, SUP stands out amongst water sports for being a very sociable activity. It’s easy to chat to a friend paddling alongside, and if you have small children, they can sit on the board with you. This makes it a lot more welcoming than sports like surfing or waterskiing, which are very much on-person activities.
5. It improves your balance.
The unstable board is what makes it such an effective workout. Although it might feel like you’re standing still, the wobbling of the board means that all your muscles are constantly working to keep your body upright. With regular practice, you’ll find that your balance is better even when you’re off the water. This can improve your performance in other sports, and it’s fantastic for seniors, to offset the loss of balance.
In the end, SUP is all about exploration, both on the water and in your own mind. On the board, you can get closer to nature and see things in a new way. You can practice on any stretch of water. The lapping of the water and the tug of wind, lull you into a state of total focus, melting away the worries you feel on land!
The lake has become a very popular place to celebrate Independence Day…actually, Independence Week! There are so many places that have amazing fireworks that you can enjoy either by boat or by land. And they start this Saturday, June 30th in Downtown Moneta and go through next Saturday at Mitchell’s Point Marina!
On Saturday, June 30th, the Moneta Volunteer Fire Department will host a “FireWorx” Fest Event in Downtown Moneta. You can go and enjoy a family friendly evening with live music by The Worx and then see the spectacular fireworks show. There will be food, drinks, children’s games and more and all proceeds benefit the Moneta Fire Department. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. and there is a $10 admission except for kids 10 and under who get in for free. For more information, visit the Moneta Fire Department’s Facebook page.
On Tuesday, July 3rd, you can go to the 35th Annual Independence Day Festival, presented by the Rocky Mount Rotary Club, at Franklin County High School in Rocky Mount. They have the event on the football field and the whole family can enjoy a fun-filled evening featuring live music performances, great food, inflatables, children’s activities, games, contests and much more. Gates open at 5 p.m. and the big fireworks show begins after dark. This is one that you want to bring a blanket or lawn chair to as well as your camera!
On the actual holiday, Wednesday, July 4th, Parkway Marina puts together a family friendly day of celebrating that begins at 3:00 pm and goes to 10 p.m. The SVFC (Saunders Volunteer Fire Company) Annual 4th of July Fireworks Celebration is their main fundraiser and charge $10 per car for parking. If you’re not familiar with Parkway Marina, it is located on Smith Mountain Lake just a couple of miles past the State Park. There will be plenty of food vendors, a beer garden and activities for children. Some of the activities include live music by The Worx, arts and crafts vendors, and the 1956 working carousel…definitely a kid and adult pleaser. Be sure to bring a blanket or chair so you can lay back and enjoy the fireworks show.
On Friday, July 6th, Mariners Landing Resort puts on amazing, and FREE, fireworks show from the docks located on the Pointe lawn, brought to you by CALM, Inc., This is a place where you can have dinner at Heath’s Waterfront Grill, either in their dining room or on their newly renovated deck, listen to some local music and then put your blanket or chair on the lawn and enjoy the professional fireworks display that will begin just after dark. There are also condos available to rent and then you could watch the show right from your private balcony! If you are interested in renting a condo, you can call Mariners Landing Hospitality at 540-297-4100 or go to http://www.smlvaca.com.
And last but not least, On Saturday, July 7th, there is the Mitchell’s Point Marina Fireworks, sponsored by Mitchell’s Point Marina & RV Park. This is an annual event and the entrance fee is $10 which is donated to the Semper Fi Fund, one of America’s highest rated charities dedicated to providing urgently needed resources and support for post 9/11 combat wounded, critically ill and catastrophically injured members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families. There is limited parking so consider watching this fireworks show by water!
This time of year is a very popular time for weddings and completing the planning process, especially when it comes to the receptions. They don't always have to be formal and stuffy...have fun! Here are thirteen ideas on how to have fun with your reception.
1. Walk Down Memory Lane
Make the guest feel like integral parts of the day by incorporating them into the décor — in a gallery of meaningful photos. You can call it something like 'memory lane' and hang pictures of the bride and groom with friends and family along the walk from the ceremony to the reception. It's a fun cocktail party conversation starter. As guests take a leisurely stroll and find pictures of themselves with you, they can reminisce and socialize. Even yard signs are good if your guests are walking outside.
2. Break the Ice Creatively
When you enter your reception for the first time as husband and wife, don't just take a conventional arm-in-arm stroll...run, skip or dance! Brainstorm with your groom about the most creative, appropriate way to make a big impression. This is a great way to break the ice and set up for a fun vibe for the rest of the event.
3. Play Party Games
A cool idea is to make the menus puzzles, so each person gets one piece of the puzzle at their place setting, then everyone had to put the pieces together to get the full menu description.
4. Be Entertaining
Guests always love the energy of a live band but tend to want to hear the original artist sing their favorite tunes. As a compromise, a bride may hire a dance band but also play DJ'ed music during the breaks, or she'll arrange to have live music during some parts of the event and recorded music during others.
5. Surprise 'em!
Pablo Neruda is the world's most romantic poet, and a modern, pretty paperback edition of his love poems makes a wonderful, lasting guest favor that's much more meaningful that a bag of Jordan almonds! If you buy in bulk, you might get a discount — contact your bookseller directly. And don't forget to add a personalized bookmark thanking your friends and family for sharing your big day with you.
6. Offer a Dessert Buffet
You can assume most people have a sweet tooth, so have guest get involved in creating their very own dessert. A cupcake-making station is a reinvention of the popular hot fudge station. Have abundant trays of different flavors and colors: a guest might pile crushed Oreos on a chocolate buttercream cupcake or top a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese. This sort of do-it-yourself treat is absolutely guaranteed to bring out the kid in everyone! If you're planning a warm-weather wedding, feel free to get really playful with refreshments. Consider serving up a nostalgic and fun Sno-Cone station. It's easy to rent a shaved-ice machine from the caterer or a party rental company. Add a choice of colorful syrups and even your favorite apres-dinner liqueurs. Think frozen White Russians, Orange Shaved Ice with Grand Marnier, or Ruby Port and Berry. This will be the hit of the party.
7. Be More Entertaining
Consider unexpected, untraditional entertainments, like tarot card readers, magicians and flip book stations (booths where guests create quick movies and make mini books). Ask yourselves what sorts of activities the two of you like to do. You can use your shared interests as surefire wedding inspiration. (Did you meet at a comedy club? You may want to hire a stand-up comic.) Or you can use your heritage as inspiration: We've had couples surprise their guests with ethnic dancers or musicians who share a set with the band. You could hire square dance instructors. Have them teach guests to do a line dance — they'll have a blast.
8. Host Those Stations
Guests love having a chef prepare a dish just for them. Chef-hosted stations of single items are very popular like an heirloom tomato salad bar with local tomatoes and cheeses. We've also seen gazpacho made to order. Look to your region's specialties. If out-of-town guests can't get it at home, it's a special treat. Display a '100 Mile Table', filled with local produce and artisanal foods, all from within one hundred miles of your celebration — handmade cheeses, homemade pickles — and great local beer!
9. Try a Wine Tasting
Looking for a fun, interactive cocktail hour idea? Provide "flights," or 1- to 2-ounce tastes of three different wines. Everybody can get a little notebook with information about the flavor notes. Another plus: As long as you can supply your own wine without being charged corkage fees, this option may cost less than some speciality bars.
10. Hire the Local Food Truck
Long after dinner's over, and guests are still out on the dance floor, serve up a surprise snack. Arrange to have a local mobile food vendor pull up his truck outside your event. Give guests a wrist band or a ticket so they can walk up to the truck and get a snack, then come back inside and start dancing again!
11. Personalize Your Guest Book
Photo booths have been done at many weddings. If you'd like to try something new, give guests dry-erase boards and markers and set up a colorful curtain as a backdrop. They write messages to the happy couple, and are photographed with them in front of the curtain. It's interactive, inexpensive — you can even appoint a friend with an iPhone to take the pictures — and when you put the photos in an album, it makes a one-of-a-kind guest book.
12. Make a Special Toast
Instead of a pricey tasting bar, make one toast with a favorite liquor. Maybe a tequila toasts, if it's special to the couple. Then you can limit the amount everyone drinks, which allows you to serve better quality liquor.
13. Choose a Sweet Treat
In lieu of a traditional favor, you might send guest off on their merry way with a midnight snack. Give them milk and mini donuts served in takeaway boxes. Or hand out packages of cookies iced with your monogram or beribboned boxes holding two artisanal chocolates or even small tins of a speciality tea.
Have you ever woken up early in the morning, looked out your window and the lake looks like glass? That’s the time to wake up the boat driver in the house, a spotter, your skis and jump in the lake! There is a group called the Smith Mountain Lake Water Ski Club that started in 1989. It is an organized group of water skiers interested in promoting the sport of water skiing at the lake. They accomplish that by sponsoring ski clinics, local competitive tournaments, ski exhibitions along with recreational and social activities.
The goal of this group is to:
There is actually a public slalom course that’s available to all skiers and encourage donations if you’re not a member. The course is set up in a cove formed by Bull Run Creek. From the Roanoke River channel or Dam, go northwest (up) the Blackwater River channel past markers B2, B4, B6 and B8. From the upper end of the Blackwater River channel, go southeast (down) the Blackwater River channel past marker 89.
At this point, from either direction, you will be at the mouth of the Bull Run cove. There will be a large island with many pine trees on it know as Christmas Tree Island. Go southwest into Bull Run cove past markers BU1, BU3, BR1 and Bu5. Continue past marker BU5 for about ¾ mile and the cove will make a sharp turn to the right. The cove continues for about ¼ mile and make a sharp turn to the left. Follow to almost the end of the cove and you will see the slalom course on the left. There is no land access to the Bull Run Ski Site.
If you are interested in joining or finding out more information, you can visit www.Smlwaterski.org or contact Todd Rowland at 540.427.0025.
With all the changes in elevation and accessible Blue Ridge Mountains, there are numerous options for finding spots to go on a climbing adventure as part of your Blue Ridge Day. Smith Mountain Lake caving and rock climbing while staying at Mariners Landing Resort is just one of many outdoor things to do near the lake.
Whether you’re looking for traditional rock climbing in the outdoors, the growing activity of bouldering, or an incredible climbing gym, all those activities are available in the Roanoke Valley. Smith Mountain Lake caving is a unique program Roanoke Parks and Recreation offers that takes participants into wild caves, anytime of the year.
If adventure is on your mind, here are some natural rock climbing spots like Barney’s Wall, Bozoo, Dragon’s Tooth, Fools Face, Hanging Rock, Iron Gate, Tinker cliffs, and Tunstall’s Tooth. They all provide incredible challenges and jaw-dropping views. Fools Face is located in the McCoy area outside of Blacksburg, while trails like Tinker cliffs can be found along the Appalachian Trail. Dragon’s Tooth is located on nearby Cove Mountain. Both Tinker Cliffs and Dragon’s Tooth are extremely popular trails that are best hiked during the weekdays if you want to avoid crowds and park your car in a designated area where you won’t be towed.
Caving and spelunking are best enjoyed at places like Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing just outside of Roanoke, Dixie Caverns in Salem, or natural Bridge Caverns near Red Mills. Natural Bridge Caverns, in particular, includes cool features like the Colossal Dome room, Mirror Lake, the WellRoom, and the Canyon Room’s magnificent stalagmites and stalactites. All in a day’s drive from Mariners Landing Resort at Smith Mountain Lake!
With a chorus of seasonal hometown festivals and country store jams nearly every day of the week, the lake soulfully combines the charm of casual venues, musicians by the dozens, and the authentic soundtrack of the Blue Ridge Mountains for an unrivaled, toe-tapping experience. With sentimental country songs, fiddle and banjo dance tunes, heartfelt ballads, crisp bluegrass harmonies and joyful black gospel singing, The Crooked Road in Franklin County is all about real music, real people and real memories for the making.
Between jams, take an intermission in heritage at the Blue Ridge Institute and Farm Museum at Ferrum College. Just a short drive from downtown Rocky Mount, it’s the first of eight major venues along The Crooked Road, home of the annual Blue Ridge Folklife Festival and also recognized as Virginia’s Center for Blue Ridge Folklore.
One of our newest additions to the local music scene is the Harvester Performance Center – a mid-size music venue in historic downtown Rocky Mount. The venue officially opened in 2014 and showcases 175 shows annually from comedy to country, bluegrass to blues, reggae to rock, and more! Shows feature an impressive list of entertainers – from world-class artists to local rising stars. It features a main room with seating for up to 475 people or 700 standing, and another lower level music room with seating for up to 200 people or 350 standing. The 40-foot wide stage in the main room, and state-of-the-art audio, lighting and video systems make every show an intimate and unforgettable concert experience.
On Friday, June 15th, don’t miss Nikki Hill. Those who have seen this Carolina girl sing her you know what off—this isn’t just another newcomer on the scene, this is a “whiplash” moment. Where did this fireball come from? Why haven’t you heard of her before? If you haven’t heard of her yet…you will very soon. And once you see her perform, you won’t forget her!
We will bring you fun and informative blogs written by experts in real estate, resorts, golf and events!


Temporary Assistance for Needy Families:
Fewer Eligible Families Have Received Cash Assistance Since the 1990s, and the Recession's Impact on Caseloads Varies by State
GAO-10-164: Published: Feb 23, 2010. Publicly Released: Mar 11, 2010.
Following sweeping changes made to federal welfare policy in 1996 with the creation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the number of needy families who received cash assistance fell by more than half to 1.7 million in 2008. Poverty among children also fell from about 21 percent in 1995 to about 16 percent in 2000, rising again to 19 percent in 2008. The current recession deepened in 2008, raising questions about state TANF programs' response to increased needs. GAO was asked to provide Congress with information on the (1) factors contributing to the decline in the number of families receiving assistance; (2) characteristics of participating and nonparticipating eligible families; (3) impact of higher participation in TANF cash assistance on child poverty; and (4) changes states are experiencing in caseloads and spending in the current recession. GAO's methodologies included using microsimulation analyses; reviewing relevant research and federal laws; interviewing TANF officials in 21 selected states; analyzing state cash assistance data; and interviewing researchers, federal officials, and other experts.
The decline in the number of poor families receiving cash assistance from 1995 to 2005 reflects declines in both the number of eligible families and in eligible families' participation. The strong economy of the 1990s, TANF's focus on work, and other factors contributed to increased family incomes and a decline in the number of eligible families. However, most of the caseload decline--about 87 percent--resulted from fewer eligible families participating in the program, perhaps in response to TANF work requirements, time limits, and sanction and diversion policies. Compared to TANF families, eligible nonparticipating families worked more and had higher incomes and educational levels. However, among eligible families who did not participate, 11 percent did not work, did not receive means-tested disability benefits, and had very low incomes. 800,000 fewer children would live in extreme poverty--below half the federal poverty threshold--if participation increased from 40 percent to 84 percent of eligible families, the level it reached in 1995, the year before TANF was created. While TANF benefits would generally increase incomes, higher participation would not significantly change the number of children in poverty overall, partly because many children in poverty are not poor enough to be eligible for TANF and because TANF cash benefits are typically low. From June 2008 to June 2009, the number of families receiving TANF cash assistance rose in 12 of the 21 states GAO surveyed, although the recession's impact on cash assistance caseloads varied by state. To offset higher costs of cash assistance, few states reported reducing TANF-related spending on family- and/or work-supports during this time period. Instead, states paid for increases by using funding sources such as 2009 emergency stimulus funds.


Japanese aircraft carrier Shōkaku
Shōkaku on 23 August 1941 upon completion and delivery to the Imperial Japanese Navy
|Empire of Japan|
|Namesake:||翔鶴, "Soaring Crane"|
|Laid down:||12 December 1937|
|Launched:||1 June 1939|
|Commissioned:||8 August 1941|
|Fate:||Sunk by American submarine USS Cavalla on 19 June 1944|
|Class and type:||Shōkaku-class aircraft carrier|
|Length:||257.5 m (844 ft 10 in)|
|Beam:||26 m (85 ft 4 in)|
|Draft:||8.8 m (28 ft 10 in)|
|Installed power:||160,000 shp (120,000 kW)|
|Speed:||34.2 kn (63.3 km/h; 39.4 mph)|
|Range:||9,700 nmi (18,000 km; 11,200 mi) at 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph)|
Shōkaku (Japanese: 翔鶴, "Soaring Crane") was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the lead ship of her class. Along with her sister ship Zuikaku, she took part in several key naval battles during the Pacific War, including the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands before being torpedoed and sunk by a U.S. submarine at the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
The Shōkaku-class carriers were part of the same program that also included the Yamato-class battleships. No longer restricted by the provisions of the Washington Naval Treaty, which expired in December 1936, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was free to incorporate all those features they deemed most desirable in an aircraft carrier, namely high speed, a long radius of action, heavy protection and a large aircraft capacity. Shōkaku was laid down at Yokosuka Dockyard on 12 December 1937, launched on 1 June 1939, and commissioned on 8 August 1941.
With an efficient modern design, a displacement of about 32,000 long tons (33,000 t), and a top speed of 34 kn (63 km/h; 39 mph), Shōkaku could carry 70–80 aircraft. Her enhanced protection compared favorably to that of contemporary Allied aircraft carriers and enabled Shōkaku to survive serious damage during the battles of the Coral Sea and Santa Cruz.
In appearance, Shōkaku resembled an enlarged Hiryū, though with a 35.3 m (116 ft) longer overall length, 4.6 m (15 ft) wider beam and a larger island. As in Hiryū, the forecastle was raised to the level of the upper hangar deck to improve seakeeping. She also had a wider, more rounded and heavily flared bow which kept the flight deck dry in most sea conditions.
The carrier's forefoot was of the newly developed bulbous type, sometimes referred to informally as a Taylor pear, which served to reduce the hull's underwater drag within a given range of speeds, improving both the ship's speed and endurance. Unlike the larger bulbous forefoots fitted to the battleships Yamato and Musashi, however, Shōkaku's did not protrude beyond the ship's stem.
Shōkaku was 10,000 tons heavier than Sōryū, mainly due to the extra armor incorporated into the ship's design. Vertical protection consisted of 215 mm (8.5 in) on the main armor deck over the machinery, magazines and aviation fuel tanks while horizontal protection consisted of 215 mm (8.5 in) along the waterline belt abreast the machinery spaces reducing to 150 mm (5.9 in) outboard of the magazines
Unlike British carriers, whose aviation fuel was stored in separate cylinders or coffer-dams surrounded by seawater, all pre-war Japanese carriers had their aviation fuel tanks built integral with the ship's hull and Shōkaku was no exception. The dangers this posed, however, did not become evident until wartime experience demonstrated these were often prone to cracking and leaking as the shocks and stresses of hits or near-misses to the carrier's hull were inevitably transferred to and absorbed by the fuel tanks. Following the debacle at Midway in mid-1942, the empty air spaces around Shōkaku's aviation fuel tanks, normally pumped full of inert carbon dioxide, were instead filled with concrete in an attempt to protect them from possible damage. But this did little to prevent volatile fumes spreading to the hangar decks in the event damage did occur, particularly demonstrated when Cavalla torpedoed and sank her. Shōkaku normally stowed 150,000 gallons of AvGas for operational use.
The geared turbines installed on Shōkaku were essentially the same as those on Sōryū, maximum power increasing by 8,000 shp (6,000 kW) to 160,000 shp (120,000 kW). In spite of all the additional armor, greater displacement and a 2.1 m (6.9 ft) increase in draught, Shōkaku was able to attain a speed of just over 34.2 kn (63.3 km/h; 39.4 mph) during trials. Maximum fuel bunkerage was 4100 tons, giving her a radius of action of 9,700 nmi (18,000 km; 11,200 mi) at 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph). Two same-sized downward-curving funnels on the ship's starboard side, just abaft the island, vented exhaust gases horizontally from the boilers and were sufficiently angled to keep the flight deck free of smoke in most wind conditions.
Flight deck and hangars
Shōkaku's 242 m (794 ft) long wood-planked flight deck ended short of the ship's bow and, just barely, short of the stern. It was supported by four steel pillars forward of the hangar box and by two pillars aft.
The flight deck and both hangars (upper and lower) were serviced by three elevators, the largest being the forward one at 13 m (43 ft) by 16 m (52 ft), the middle and the rear elevators measured 13 m (43 ft) by 12 m (39 ft). All three were capable of transferring aircraft weighing up to 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) and raising or lowering them took approximately 15–20 seconds.
Shōkaku's nine Type 4 electrically operated arrester wires followed the same standard arrangement as that on Hiryū, three forward and six aft. They were capable of stopping a 6,000 kg (13,000 lb) aircraft at speeds of 60–78 knots (111–144 km/h; 69–90 mph). A third crash barrier was added and a light collapsible wind-break screen was installed just forward of the island.
The upper hangar was 623.4 by 65.6 feet (190 by 20 m) and had an approximate height of 15.7 feet (4.8 m); the lower was 524.9 by 65.6 feet (160 by 20 m) and had an approximate height of 15.7 feet (4.8 m). Together they had an approximate total area of 75,347 square feet (7,000 m2). Hangar space was not greatly increased in comparison to Sōryū and both Shōkaku and Zuikaku could each carry just nine more aircraft than Sōryū, giving them a normal operating capacity of seventy-two plus room for twelve in reserve. Unlike on Sōryū, the reserve aircraft did not need to be kept in a state of disassembly, however, thereby shortening the time required to make them operational.
In September 1942, a Type 21 air-warning radar was installed on Shōkaku's island atop the central fire control director, the first such device to be fitted on any Japanese carrier. The Type 21 had a "mattress" antenna and the initial prototypes were light enough that no major structural modifications were necessary. Later versions, however, were bulkier and required eventual removal of the fifth fire control director in order to accommodate the larger and heavier antenna.
The presence of this radar however, undoubtedly saved Shōkaku one month later at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, when the ship was bombed by SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers from USS Enterprise; the early detection of the US strike planes by this radar alerted refuelling crews below deck, giving them time to drain and purge the aviation gasoline lines before they were ruptured by bomb hits, thus saving the ship from the catastrophic avgas fires and explosions that caused most of the carrier sinkings in the Pacific theater.
Shōkaku's primary air defense consisted of sixteen 127 mm (5.0 in) Type 89 dual-purpose AA guns in twin mountings. These were sited below flight deck level on projecting sponsons with four such paired batteries on either side of the ship's hull, two forward and two aft. Four fire control directors were installed, two on the port side and two to starboard. A fifth fire control director was located atop the carrier's island and could control any or all of the heavy-caliber guns as needed.
In June 1942, Shōkaku had her anti-aircraft armament augmented with six triple 25 mm mounts, two each at the bow and stern, and one each fore and aft of the island. The bow and stern groups each received a Type 95 director. In October another triple 25 mm mount was added at the bow and stern and 10 single mounts were added before the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944.
Shōkaku and Zuikaku formed the Japanese 5th Carrier Division, embarking their aircraft shortly before the Pearl Harbor attack. Each carrier's aircraft complement consisted of 15 Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zero" fighters, 27 Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers, and 27 Nakajima B5N1 or −2 "Kate" torpedo bombers.
Shōkaku and Zuikaku joined the Kido Butai ("Mobile Unit/Force", the Combined Fleet's main carrier battle group) and participated in Japan's early wartime naval offensives, including Pearl Harbor and the attack on Rabaul in January 1942.
In the Indian Ocean raid of March–April 1942, aircraft from Shōkaku, along with the rest of Kido Butai, attacked Colombo, Ceylon on 5 April, sinking two ships in harbor and severely damaging support facilities. The task force also found and sank two Royal Navy heavy cruisers, (HMS Cornwall and Dorsetshire), on the same day, as well as the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes on 9 April off Batticaloa.
The Fifth Carrier Division was then deployed to Truk to support Operation Mo (the planned capture of Port Moresby in New Guinea). During this operation, Shōkaku's aircraft helped sink the American aircraft carrier USS Lexington during the Battle of the Coral Sea but was herself severely damaged on 8 May 1942 by dive bombers from USS Yorktown and Lexington which scored three bomb hits: one on the carrier's port bow, one to starboard at the forward end of the flight deck and one just abaft the island. Fires broke out but were eventually contained and extinguished. The resulting damage required Shōkaku to return to Japan for major repairs.
On the journey back, the carrier shipped so much water through her damaged bow she nearly capsized in heavy seas, maintaining a high rate of speed in order to avoid a cordon of American submarines out hunting for her. She arrived at Kure on 17 May 1942 and entered drydock on 16 June 1942. Repairs were completed within ten days and, a little over two weeks later on 14 July, she was formally reassigned to Striking Force, 3rd Fleet, Carrier Division 1.
The time required for repairs, combined with the aircraft and aircrew losses incurred by her and Zuikaku, kept both carriers from participating in the Battle of Midway.
Following her return to front-line duty, both Shōkaku and her sister-ship Zuikaku, with the addition of the light carrier Zuihō, were redesignated as First Carrier Division and took part in two further battles in 1942: the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, where they damaged USS Enterprise, but Shōkaku was in turn damaged by dive-bombers of Enterprise, which therefore prevented the bombardment of nearby Henderson Field, and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, where they crippled USS Hornet (Hornet was abandoned and later sunk by Japanese destroyers Makigumo and Akigumo). At Santa Cruz, on 26 October 1942, Shōkaku was again seriously damaged, taking at least three (and possibly as many as six) 1,000-lb. bomb hits from a group of fifteen Douglas SBD-3 dive bombers launched from Hornet. With ample warning of the incoming American strike, Shōkaku's aviation fuel mains to the flight deck and hangars had been drained down and she had few aircraft on board at the time of the attack. As a result, no major fires broke out and her seaworthiness was preserved. Her flight deck and hangars, however, were left in shambles and she was unable to conduct further air operations during the remainder of the battle. The need for repairs kept her out of action for months, leaving other Japanese defensive operations in the Pacific lacking sufficient airpower.
After several months of repairs and training, Shōkaku, now under the command of Captain Hiroshi Matsubara, was assigned in May 1943 to a counterattack against the Aleutian Islands, but the operation was cancelled after the Allied victory at Attu. For the rest of 1943, she was based at Truk, then returned to Japan for maintenance late in the year.
In 1944, Shōkaku was deployed to the Lingga Islands south of Singapore. On 15 June, she departed with the Mobile Fleet for Operation "A-Go", a counterattack against Allied forces in the Mariana Islands. Her strike waves suffered heavy losses from US combat air patrols and anti-aircraft fire, but some survived and returned safely to the carrier. One of her D4Y Suisei strike groups, composed of veterans from the Coral Sea and Santa Cruz engagements, broke through and one plane allegedly struck home with a bomb that damaged the battleship USS South Dakota and caused many casualties, but this group suffered heavy losses themselves. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, she was struck at 11:22 on 19 June by three (possibly four) torpedoes from the submarine USS Cavalla (Commander Herman J. Kossler). As Shōkaku had been in the process of refueling and rearming aircraft and was in an extremely vulnerable position, the torpedoes started fires that proved impossible to control. At 12:10, an aerial bomb exploded, detonating aviation fuel vapors which had spread throughout the ship. The order to abandon ship was given, but before the evacuation had progressed very far, Shōkaku abruptly took on water forward and sank quickly bow-first at position , taking 1,272 men with her. The light cruiser Yahagi and destroyers Urakaze, Wakatsuki, and Hatsuzuki rescued Captain Matsubara and 570 men.
Chief Equipping Officer
|No.||Name||Portrait||Rank||Term of Office|
|1||Sumikawa Michio||Captain||20 May 1940||15 October 1940|
|2||Jōjima Takatsugu||Captain||15 October 1940||17 April 1941|
|No.||Name||Portrait||Rank||Term of Office|
|1||Jōjima Takatsugu||Captain||17 April 1941||25 May 1942|
|2||Arima Masafumi||Captain||25 May 1942||16 February 1943|
|3||Okada Tametsugu||Captain||16 February 1943||17 November 1943|
|4||Matsubara Hiroshi||Captain||17 November 1943||26 June 1944|
Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" leaves the Shōkaku for Pearl Harbor.
- Bōeichō Bōei Kenshūjo, p. 344
- "Japanese Navy Ships — Shokaku (Aircraft Carrier, 1941–1944)". U.S. Naval Historical Center. 4 June 2000. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
- Stille, p.17
- Brown, p.23
- Brown, p.6
- Brown, p.23–24
- Brown, p.24
- Stille, p.18
- Stille, p.21
- Bōeichō Bōei Kenshūjo (1967), Senshi Sōsho Hawai Sakusen. Tokyo: Asagumo Shimbunsha.
- Brown, David (1977). WWII Fact Files: Aircraft Carriers. Arco Publishing. ISBN 0-668-04164-1.
- Chesneau, Roger (1998). Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present. Brockhampton Press. ISBN 1-86019-875-9.
- Dickson, W. David (1977). "Fighting Flat-tops: The Shokakus". Warship International. Toledo, Ohio: International Naval Research Organization. XIV (1): 15–46.
- Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1941–1945). Naval Institute Press.
- Hammel, Eric (1987). Guadalcanal: The Carrier Battles. Crown Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-517-56608-7.
- Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter & Mickel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
- Lengerer, Hans (2014). "The Aircraft Carriers of the Shōkaku Class". In Jordan, John. Warship 2015. London: Conway. pp. 90–109. ISBN 978-1-84486-276-4.
- Lundstrom, John B. (2005a). The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway (New ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-471-X.
- Lundstrom, John B. (2005b). The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-526-8.
- Peattie, Mark (2001). Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909–1941. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-432-6.
- Polmar, Norman & Genda, Minoru (2006). Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events. Volume 1, 1909–1945. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. ISBN 1-57488-663-0.
- Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- Shores, Christopher; Cull, Brian & Izawa, Yasuho (1992). Bloody Shambles. I: The Drift to War to the Fall of Singapore. London: Grub Street. ISBN 0-948817-50-X.
- Shores, Christopher; Cull, Brian & Izawa, Yasuho (1993). Bloody Shambles. II: The Defence of Sumatra to the Fall of Burma. London: Grub Street. ISBN 0-948817-67-4.
- Stille, Mark (2009). The Coral Sea 1942: The First Carrier Battle. Campaign. 214. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84908-106-1.
- Stille, Mark (2011). Tora! Tora! Tora:! Pearl Harbor 1941. Raid. 26. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84908-509-0.
- Stille, Mark (2007). USN Carriers vs IJN Carriers: The Pacific 1942. Duel. 6. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-248-6.
- Tully, Anthony P. (30 July 2010). "IJN Shokaku: Tabular Record of Movement". Kido Butai. Combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
- Tully, Anthony; Parshall, Jon & Wolff, Richard. "The Sinking of Shokaku -- An Analysis". Kido Butai. Combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
- Zimm, Alan D. (2011). Attack on Pearl Harbor: Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions. Havertown, Pennsylvania: Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1-61200-010-7.
- US Navy photos of Shokaku
- Tabular record of movement from combinedfleet.com
- Anthony Tully, Jon Parshall and Richard Wolff, The Sinking of Shokaku — An Analysis
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shōkaku.|


The Y chromosome: beyond gender determination
By Roseanne F. Zhao, Ph.D.
pairs of chromosomes (22 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes), with each parent contributing one chromosome per pair. The X and Y chromosomes, also known as the sex chromosomes, determine the biological sex of an individual: females inherit an X chromosome from the father for a XX genotype, while males inherit a Y chromosome from the father for a XY genotype (mothers only pass on X chromosomes). The presence or absence of the Y chromosome is critical because it contains the genes necessary to override the biological default - female development - and cause the development of the male reproductive system.
NIH M.D./Ph.D. Partnership Training Program Scholar
Although the Y chromosome's role in sex determination is clear, research has shown that it is undergoing rapid evolutionary deterioration. Many generations ago the Y chromosome was large, and contained as many genes as the X chromosome. Now it is a fraction of its past size and contains fewer than 80 functional genes. This has led to debates and concerns over the years regarding the Y chromosome's eventual destiny. Many speculate that the Y chromosome has become superfluous and could completely decay within the next 10 million years. While studies of the Y chromosome have been challenging due to the palindromic and repeat-rich nature of its DNA sequence, recent genomic advances have provided some unexpected insights.
This installment of the Genome Advance of the Month highlights two studies published in the April 24, 2014, issue of Nature that explore the evolutionary path of the Y chromosome in various mammals. Together, these studies demonstrate the stability of the Y chromosome over the past 25 million years. They further reveal some critical functions of the Y chromosome that suggest it may be here to stay.
To get started, let's first delve into the evolutionary origin of the sex chromosomes, roughly 200-300 million years ago. The X and Y chromosomes, both of which derived from autosomes, were initially about the same size. At some specific time along the way, the Y chromosome gradually lost the ability to recombine - or exchange genetic information - with the X chromosome and began to evolve independently. This quickly led to a catastrophic deterioration of the Y chromosome, which now contains only 3 percent of the genes that it once shared with the X chromosome.
Recent work from the research groups of David C. Page, M.D., at the Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Henrik Kaessmann, Ph.D., at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, suggests that the initially rapid decline of the Y chromosome may have leveled off and stabilized.
Using different genomic technologies, these two research teams analyzed the evolution of the Y chromosome independently in two separate sets of mammals that covered more than 15 different species, including humans, chimpanzees, rhesus monkeys, bulls, marmosets, mice, rats, dogs and opossums. Strikingly, they found a small but stable group of essential regulatory genes on the Y chromosome that have endured over a long evolutionary period of time, even while surrounding genes were decaying. Significantly, these genes play a critically important role in governing the expression of other genes throughout the genome and may affect tissues throughout the human body. One of the reasons for the continued endurance of these regulatory Y chromosome genes is that they are "dosage-dependent," meaning that two copies are required for normal function.
For most genes on the X-chromosome, only one copy is required. Females have two X chromosomes and therefore two copies of every X-linked gene, so one copy is randomly inactivated, or turned off. Males have only one X chromosome and therefore only one copy is expressed.
However, regulatory genes are often dosage-dependent and haplo-insufficient, i.e., two copies of the gene are required and the presence of only one copy can lead to abnormalities or disease. In females, these regulatory genes escape X-inactivation so that the copy on the second X chromosome is also expressed; in males, who only have one X chromosome, the preservation of this group of regulatory genes on the Y chromosome is crucial for providing the second copy.
Overall, what this means is that beyond its role in sex determination and fertility, the Y chromosome also contains important genes that are critical for the health and survival of males.
These findings have considerable implications for our understanding of differences in biology, health and disease between men and women. Because genes on the X and Y chromosomes have a history of selection independent of each other, subtle functional differences may exist that are a direct consequence of genetic differences on the two chromosomes. While these differences have not yet been explored in great detail, more studies on the conserved Y chromosome genes can help us to understand differences in the basic biology and susceptibility to diseases in men and women and better guide health management.
Read the articles:
Bellott DW, Hughes JF, Skaletsky H, Brown LG, Pyntikova T, Cho TJ, Koutseva N, Zaghlul S, Graves T, Rock S, Kremitzki C, Fulton RS, Dugan S, Ding Y, Morton D, Khan Z, Lewis L, Buhay C, Wang Q, Watt J, Holder M, Lee S, Nazareth L, Rozen S, Muzny DM, Warren WC, Gibbs RA, Wilson RK, Page DC. Mammalian Y chromosomes retain widely expressed dosage-sensitive regulators. Nature, 508(7497):494-9. 2014. [PubMed]
Cortez D, Marin R, Toledo-Flores D, Froidevaux L, Liechti A, Waters PD, Grützner F, Kaessmann H. Origins and functional evolution of Y chromosomes across mammals. Nature, 508(7497):488-93. 2014. [PubMed]


The red Welsh Onion has red tinge to stem bases and has large creamy globe shaped white flowers on thick onion like stems. Taste is similar to white onion, but does not form a typical onion bulb. Foliage and flowers can be eaten for adding onion flavour to dishes. Despite the name the Welsh Onion is in fact a native of Asia.
- Hardy perennial
- Height 30cm
- Evergreen herb with red tinge to the stem base. Large edible creamy flowers
- Full sun to partial shade
- Rich fertile soil, but tolerates most soil types
- Harvest whole clumps of Welsh Onion in June.


Llanthony Secunda Priory is a ruined former Augustinian priory in Hempsted, Gloucester, England. Miles de Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford, founded the priory for the monks of Llanthony Priory, Vale of Ewyas, in what is now Monmouthshire, Wales, in 1136.
In 1135, after persistent attacks from the local population, the monks of Llanthony Priory in the Black Mountains, Wales retreated to Gloucester where they founded a daughter cell, Llanthony Secunda. Today, the remains of Llanthony Secunda Priory are a Grade I Listed building.
In 1530 the prior of Llanthony at Gloucester sent "cheise carp and baked lampreys" to Henry VIII at Windsor. It was also customary at the commencement of the fishing season to send the sovereign the first lamprey caught in the river. The intermittent custom of the city of Gloucester to present the sovereign at Christmas with a lamprey pie with a raised crust may have originated in the time of Henry I of England, who was inordinately fond of lamprey and who frequently held his court at Gloucester during the Christmas season. Shortly afterwards the Dissolution of the Monasteries occurred, and the priory with its lands near Gloucester was granted by the Crown to Arthur Porter.
During the Siege of Gloucester a Royalist cannon, shipped in from Holland to Bristol and from there to Gloucester, was placed on the walls of Llanthony Secunda and directed at Gloucester's City Wall. It was hoped by the besieging monarch, Charles I, that this cannon would break the siege and win him control of the city. The cannon misfired and exploded on the first shot. Some believe this to be the origin of the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme; but this is disputed. The true origins of Humpty Dumpty are unknown but the idea that it refers to the Royalist cannon during the Siege of Gloucester is often cited as fact.
Llanthony Weir and Lock
Llanthony has given its name to a weir on the River Severn, which is the normal tidal limit on the East Channel of the river, and the disused Llanthony Lock, both built about 1870. Llanthony Lock was purchased by the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust in 2008 to restore the link between that canal and Gloucester Docks.
- Ward, Jennifer C (1995). Women of the English nobility and gentry, 1066-1500. Manchester medieval sources series. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 107. ISBN 0-7190-4115-5. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
- Wade, George Wöosung; Wade, Joseph Henry (1930). Monmouthshire. Little Guides (2nd ed.). London: Cambridge University Press. p. 101. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
… during the disturbances of Stephen's reign they suffered so much from the raids of the Welshmen, that under the patronage of Milo of Gloucester, Constable of England, and in 1140 Earl of Hereford, they migrated to Gloucester where a new Llanthony was founded for them in 1136.
- de Bari, Gerrald (Giraldus Cambrensis) (1191–94). Originally: Itinerarium Cambriae ("Journey through Wales", 1191), Descriptio Cambriae ("Description of Wales", 1194), This edition: The itinerary through Wales, Description of Wales. Everyman's Library (5th (1935) ed.). London: J.M. Dent & Sons. p. 36. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
William of Wycumb, the fourth prior of Llanthoni, succeeded to Robert de Braci, who was obliged to quit the monastery on account of the hostile mollestation it received from the Welsh.
- William Walsh's Curiosities of Popular Customs, 1897
- "Gloucester - Outlying hamlets | A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 4 (pp. 382-410)". british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
- A. Jack, Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes (London: Allen Lane, 2008).
- Victoria County History of Gloucestershire: Gloucester Quays and Docks
- Canal Restoration at Llanthony Lock Gloucester
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Llanthony Secunda.|


“Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were [at the burial of Jesus], sitting opposite the tomb.” — Matthew 27:61
The death of Jesus was horrific. The final exhalation of Jesus did not give way to peace on earth nor a sense of tranquility. Pure chaos erupted as Jesus exhaled his last breath – the curtain was ripped, the earth began to shake, the rocks began to split, and the tombs began to break open.
Many women were at the crucifixion of Jesus and witnessed his death. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (the mother of James and Joseph) were among these women.
These women remained with Jesus as his exhausted body hung from the cross. They remained with Jesus as his broken body was lowered to the crowd. They followed Joseph of Arimathea as he carried the body of Jesus to its final resting place.
“Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were [at the burial of Jesus], sitting opposite the tomb.” (Matthew 27:61) These two women witnessed Jospeh place the body of Jesus in the tomb and roll the large stone in front of the entrance to the sepulcher. Evening was dawning as the sun slipped below the horizon. It was the Sabbath day; they would need to hurry home and return the following day to continue their vigil.
That Holy Saturday following the death of Jesus was marked by silence. The followers of Jesus had retreated to hidden quarters. Many of the disciples and the other followers of Jesus returned to the room were the Passover was shared. They hid from the authorities in the room where they previously recalled Israel’s escape from Egypt. They hid within the room where Jesus pointed to his body and his blood as the source of their liberation from the punishment of sin.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary must have sat unsettled. They had witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus, the death of Jesus, and the burial of Jesus. These women, however, had not fully observed his vigil. During the early hours of the morning, as the sun began to rise on the third day, these women left their place of hiding and went to see the tomb.
They intended to pray, to grieve, and to pay their respect to Jesus.
They returned to the place where they knew Jesus would be; or, at least, they returned to the place where they expected his body to be at rest.
Only, Jesus was not there!
The tomb was empty.
Where was Jesus?
If there is one thing we can appreciate, it would be the reaction of the disciples following the death of Jesus. Like many of the disciples and followers of Jesus, we spend the majority of our time in hiding. The disciples were not hiding because they felt differently about Jesus. They were in hiding, because they believed Jesus was dead and they feared the consequence for associating with this man. We hide, as well. We hide sometimes, (though we may not want to admit it), because Jesus feels dead to us…
Do we really want to face the consequences of associating with a dead man?
At our best, we have moments such as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. These women returned to the place where the body of Jesus was laid to rest. They went to the place where they believed Jesus would be…only he is not there. Jesus was not in the one place he was supposed to be.
Do we not share this experience? Have there not been times in your life when you stepped out from your place of hiding so that you could go to Jesus only to discover he was not there? Have you never gone to place Jesus is supposed to be and discovered his absence?
Maybe you have looked for Jesus in church, but struggle to feel his presence.
Maybe you have looked for Jesus in others, but struggle to feel his presence.
Maybe you have looked for Jesus in prayer, but struggle to feel his presence.
Maybe you have looked for Jesus in Scripture, but struggle to feel his presence.
Maybe you have looked for Jesus in all the right places only to discover he is not there!!
What are we to do? What are we to do when the right places prove to be the wrong places? Where are we to find Jesus?
What an interesting question…
What an interesting question to consider over this Holy Triduum as we prepare for Easter Sunday, when followers of Jesus will join together in celebrating the presence of the Risen Lord!!!


A review of Jon Meacham’s American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House (2008)
(Rating 4 of 5)(Video is from the History Channel Documentary on Andrew Jackson's life.)
John Meachham’s book American Lion covers the years when Andrew Jackson was the President of the United States. In some ways it tries to mimic the traditional biography with a few chapters into his background. This sort of reminds me of the last book I read on John Quincy Adams’ post-presidency. Include a small mini-biography in the beginning before getting into the substance of your book. In that view the earlier chapters are a waste of space. Meacham could have just explained Jackson’s back-story in a single page in the beginning. Nevertheless this book is good look at Jackson’s years in the White House.
From the start it is clear that Jackson is a different sort of president than his six predecessors. Even though all of the previous presidents defended their right to use their constitutionally defended powers, Jackson declared himself to be the sole representative of the people and started using his presidential powers rather creatively. He was the first president to veto bills that he did not like rather than veto on the grounds that a bill was unconstitutional. His administration was one of the keys to the development of presidency as an institution.
“Jackson took the Jeffersonian vision of the centrality of the people further, and he took Jefferson’s view of the role of the president further still. To Jackson, the idea of the sovereignty of the many was compatible with a powerful executive. He saw that liberty required security, that freedom required order, that the well-being of the parts of the Union required that the whole remain intact. If he felt a temporary resort to autocracy was necessary to preserve democracy, Jackson would not hesitate. He would do what had to be done. In this he set an example on which other presidents would draw in times of struggle. There were moments, Abraham Lincoln argued during the Civil War, when ‘measures otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the nation.’ It was a Jacksonian way of looking at the world.” (p.48-9)
As I said in my review of Remini’s book on Jackson: there is a dark side to populism. And the victims of that dark side were the Native American populations of the South. Forced from their homes and made to relocate to far and distant place. These actions will always be a stain on Jackson’s legacy.
“But the answer was, tragically, yes. Indian removal was possible because enough white Americans had a stake in it, or sympathized with it, and thus the institutions of the country allowed it to go forward. Frelinghuysen and Evarts were not outliers; there was a significant anti-removal campaign across the country. And the few groups of Indians—the Iroquois in New York and Cherokees in North Carolina—who managed to carve out small spheres east of the Mississippi after removal showed that coexistence was possible. But to many, the idea that the tribes might be left alone on enclaves within states did not appear politically feasible once Georgia moved against the Cherokees. There is nothing redemptive about Jackson’s Indian policy, no moment, as with Lincoln and slavery, where the moderate on a morally urgent question did the right and brave thing. Not all great presidents were always good, and neither individuals nor nations are without evil.” (p.96-7)
The area where President Jackson was great was when he stood up to the nullifiers in 1832. Jackson’s and Clay’s (although neither would acknowledge the other one’s role) actions saved the Union from what could have been a civil war. Had Jackson backed down to South Carolina's demand it would have been the death of the Constitution of the United States.
“A different, less emotionally nationalistic president in these middle years of the Republic might not have been able to balance the forces of respect for the essential rights of the states with a devotion to the causes of the Union. Jackson was perfectly able to do this, for he believed in both, and he knew that both would be forever in tension and sometimes in conflict. It could be no other way in a democratic republic formed from the elements that had formed America. He wanted the power to act as freely as he could because he believed his judgment would serve the country well, for he made no distinction between himself and a broad idea of ‘the people.’ Egotistical, yes; arrogant, probably. But to some degree politics and statecraft always involved the character of the leader, and the character of Andrew Jackson was, in the end, well suited for the demands of the White House. He was strong and shrewd, patriotic and manipulative, clear-eyed and determined.” (p.250)
The Jacksonian Era ushered in popular politics. Gone would be the days of statesmen acting above the idea of party. Now parties were going be far more organized and true vehicles to getting people elected. Constituent based politics were here to stay.
American Lion is a good look into a transformative presidency. From the politics of the petticoat, to the bank war, to infamous Indian removal, and the heroic stand against the nullifiers of South Carolina. This book is worth a read.
“If Jackson had been a president of consistent principle, the issue would have been clear. He was the defender of the Union, the conqueror of the nullification, the hero of democracy. An American organization was exercising its constitutional right to free speech and was using public mails—mails that were to be open to all—to do so. But Jackson was not a president of consistent principle. He was a politician, subject to his own passions and predilections, and those passions and predilections pressed him to cast his lot with those whit whom he agreed on the question at hand—slavery—which meant suppressing freedom of speech. He had done the same in the case of the Cherokees and the state of Georgia, allowing a particular issue to trump his more general vision of government, a vision of government, a vision in which people who obeyed the laws were entitled to the protection of the president.” (p.304)


Maintenance is required to keep an air purifier of any quality running efficiently for as long as possible. Low quality purifiers may need maintenance more often, but this doesn’t mean that high quality devices can be run maintenance free. The most common thing that needs done to keep an air purifier maintained is to clean it’s per-filter, closely followed by the need to replace it’s main filter. Since most air purifiers utilize a filter at some point in the process, it is nearly impossible to avoid replacing filters to keep the machine working at top performance.
Electrostatic, or ionic, purifiers require their plates to be cleaned on a regular basis. These devices rely on the plates having space to hold the particles in order to remove them from the air. When the surfaces of the plates are entirely covered in particles, the device quickly loses it’s ability to purify the air. Dirty plates lower the performance of the device drastically as it forces the purifier to rely on ions sticking to each other until they eventually create a particle too big to continue circulating through the air. Achieving particles of this size can take several circulations and is much less effective than when the plates are clean and able to collect ionized particles.
The activated carbon filters found in most air purifiers require replacement every so often. Thinner filters require more frequent replacement. Activated carbon is porous, which allows it to trap particles. As the pores start to become filled by those particles, the carbon becomes inactive and loses effectiveness until eventually it stops working at all.
Keeping up with these things will not only help to keep the air quality in your home as high as possible, it will also help to keep your unit working for as long as it can. Proper maintenance keeps the unit from becoming over worked, extending the life of it’s part and prolonging the time you have before having to replace the unit entirely.
Air purifiers can be a great addition to any home and make the quest for clean air more attainable. The pollutants found in the air around us are harmful to long term health and should be avoided where possible, something that has become possible through the development and use of air purifiers. People with asthma and other breathing issues no longer to have to worry about having fresh air in their own homes as high quality air purifiers are effective at removing common pollutants from the air. Even those with weakened immune systems can greatly benefit from having an air purifier in their home as it helps to remove air borne pathogens that would otherwise circulate freely throughout the house, leaving them more vulnerable to illness.
There are many different types of air purifiers, and each one solves a unique set of problems. Lower quality units tend to be useful for removing only the most common and basic contaminants, while also providing some level of air purification at a relatively low cost. Higher quality units can tackle more advanced problems, but come as the cost of having a higher start up cost. These factors are always important to consider when looking to buy an air purifier that suits both your budget and your needs.
Like most products on the market intended for long term use, air purifiers require regular maintenance to keep them working as effectively as possible. Keeping the pre-filter clean is a good start that can keep your plates or main filter from becoming prematurely dirty. The plates in ionic purifiers need cleaned regularly to ensure that ions can stick to the plates and be kept out of the air. The carbon and main filters in an air purifier will require replacement occasionally, but it’s a small price to pay for clean air that is easy to breathe. Staying on top of the maintenance for your unit will keep it working for as long as possible and help to keep your wallet happy on your quest to cleaner, healthier air. Everyone can benefit from breathing cleaning air on a regular basis – all you have to do is find an air purification system that works for both your needs and your budget.


Xenotransplantation: a pig issue
The shortage of organ donors means an estimated 100 Australians die on waiting lists each year. Could xenotransplantation from genetically engineered animals fill the gap?
To say that there is room for improvement in current treatments for type-1 diabetes is an understatement.
The chronic illness affects about 150,000 Australians, with those at the more severe end at risk of blindness, vascular problems and potential amputation of limbs, says Professor Philip O'Connell, director of transplantation at Sydney's Westmead Hospital.
Implanting insulin-producing islet cells from pigs into the pancreas could allow people with severe type-1 diabetes to start producing their own insulin in response to fluctuating blood glucose levels, O'Connell says.
While this procedure could reduce, or even eradicate, reliance on insulin injections, O'Connell says it would only be suitable for people with very severe diabetes where the benefits outweigh the health risks of suppressing the body's immune system to ensure the tissue isn't rejected.
Donor recipients face a lifetime on immunosuppressant drugs to prevent their bodies rejecting the foreign tissue, and as a result, increase their risk of getting cancer or infections.
It is still some years before the technique may be available to people with severe type-1 diabetes, but it is a step closer since a ban on experimental research in humans was recently lifted in Australia.
However, not everyone is convinced the benefits of transplanting animal tissue to humans — xenotransplantation — outweigh the risks enough for human trials to go ahead.
What is xenotransplantation?Xenotransplantation is the implanting of live animal organs, tissues or cells into a human patient. The term also covers some procedures that happen outside the patient's body, such as external filtering of blood through a pig liver in a patient with liver failure. It does not include the use of dead tissues derived from animals, such as porcine or bovine heart valves.
Current research mainly focuses on transplantation of individual cells or tissues, particularly in the brain and pancreas, although some scientists believe successful transplantation of whole organs could become a reality in the future.
Xenotransplantation is not a new idea. From the 1960s, surgeons made various attempts to transplant primate organs into people only to see patients die after hearts or kidneys were rejected by their immune systems.
The science has moved on since then.
It is used for treating severe burns — human skin cells are cultured using animal feeder layers, harvested, then grafted onto the patient's wound to assist healing.
But tissue rejection issues and concerns about the potential for cross-species contamination continue to be major stumbling blocks.
In 2004, Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) banned human trials of xenotransplantation procedures (with the exception of skin grafts) due to concerns about the risk of viruses called porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs for short) being transmitted to humans, particularly people with weakened immune systems.
But late last year, the NHMRC gave the go ahead for human trials to proceed under strict conditions, including that xenotransplantation should not be used for routine treatment of diseases. After reviewing the scientific evidence, the council concluded that "the safety and efficacy of xenotransplantation technologies has progressed significantly over the last four years."
So what is the current science underpinning xenotransplantation?
Designing donor animals
A better understanding of what causes our body to reject foreign tissue, combined with our growing ability to manipulate the genome, has opened up the possibility of creating animals specifically designed to provide an unlimited supply of materials for human patients.
O'Connell is part of a large three-state research collaboration that is genetically engineering pigs to minimise the twin risks of tissue rejection and disease transmission.
"Somehow people think we are growing human arms out of the backs of pigs," O'Connell says. "Really, we are just looking at five or six genes. The pig still looks like a pig and behaves like a pig. We are not creating a monster."
Pigs are now considered the donor animals of choice because they are physiologically similar to humans, but are distant enough from us in evolutionary terms that the two species do not share a lot of pathogens.
Because they have large litters and mature relatively quickly, it is also practical to breed them in the quantities required for human transplantation.
A single gene that is active in pigs, but not in humans, is responsible for 95 per cent of the antibodies we produce when exposed to pig tissue, O'Connell says.
Deactivating the gal-transferase gene in donor pigs, and perhaps adding a few human genes involved in regulating immune response, might reduce risk of rejection, allowing tissue recipients to receive much lower doses of immunosuppression drugs.
The amount of immunosuppression drugs needed could be further reduced in the future, if islet cells could be designed to secrete their own immunosuppression within a local area, says O'Connell.
O'Connell and his colleagues have also been collaborating with professor of animal genetics Chris Moran from the University of Sydney.
Using traditional breeding methods rather than genetic engineering, Moran's team has created a herd of pigs that does not carry the porcine virus considered most likely to be transmissible to humans.
One of a trio of PERVs, the viral type known as PERV C has been shown to be capable of recombining with the more common PERV A to generate a form that can infect human cells in the laboratory, although nobody knows whether it would actually cause illness inside the human body.
Although the risk of the recombined virus causing disease in humans might be low, Moran says, "the principle would be to be cautious."
His inbred pigs — so similar genetically that they are effectively clones — are designed to reduce that risk because they do not carry PERV C, making them invaluable for research now and a potential source of transplant material in the future.
A risky business?
Xenotransplantation is not without its critics. Animal rights activists, and some doctors are concerned about the ethics and potential risks of the practice.
"I personally think this risk isn't worth taking," says infectious diseases physician Professor Peter Collignon. "If you look at all the major disease outbreaks in history, it has been a virus that has jumped from animals to humans — and that's everything from HIV, to measles, to flu."
PERVs may not be the only porcine viruses that pose a potential risk, Collignon says.
"Pigs probably have a whole lot of viruses. In my mind, there's no doubt that if we do this we will be putting viruses — or viral genome — that we don't even know exist into people."
Infection risk is aggravated in xenotransplantation, Collignon says, because tissue recipients' immune systems are suppressed by anti-rejection drugs.
"It's one thing if the person themselves succumbs to that, but there's a public health issue if that person become a vehicle for spreading it."
Collignon also questions the likely benefits of such procedures, suggesting there could be other ways of achieving the same aims, such as improving organ donation rates, or even transplants from human cadavers.
O'Connell and Moran, however, say there is a very large body of research showing the risk of transmitting disease to humans is very low and the potential benefits of such techniques are huge.
"The risks seem very, very small and manageable and it's reasonable to go ahead and do clinical trials where people are monitored closely," O'Connell says.
And, for the time being at least, Australia's NHMRC agrees with him.
Published 23 June 2010