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Sunday, April 15, 2012
This Week's Top Web Comedy Video: My Apartment's Very Clean Without You [Video]
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Witness on Lindsay Lohan Club Melee: I Broke it Up!
Lindsay Lohan was in fact involved in a skirmish at a nightspot in L.A. recently ... at least according to a witness who allegedly saw it go down.
A man who worked at the Standard Hotel the night Lohan attacked a woman (supposedly) claims he saw Lindsay there, and even broke it up!
Marisa Dugas went to the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. and filed an incident report, claiming she was at Smoke and Mirrors inside The Standard.
It went down Thursday night when she approached Lindsay's table and started talking to a guy, and Lindsay allegedly pushed and shoved her.
Lindsay insists she was at home the entire evening.
The man who worked that night claims he saw Lindsay Lohan in Smoke and Mirrors sitting with a group of people when all hell broke loose.
He says Marisa sat down near them and began speaking with one of the guys, and that for whatever reasons, people in the group threw ice at her.
Marisa got upset and a scuffle erupted, with Lindsay part of the scuffle. The witness says he then broke it up and Dugas was escorted out of the club.
Crying, she claimed Lindsay hurt her, but refused medical attention.
There are no pictures that have surfaced of Lindsay at the Standard Thursday night, but the man says there is a surveillance video that might.
The alleged witness has spoken to the police about this.
L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. personnel have already requested the surveillance tape three times from the hotel, but management won't give it up.
This could all be an attempt to frame her - it's his word against hers until proof surfaces, and it's a minor incident - but that's what he says.
[Photo: Fame/Flynet]
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Study: Drinking Two Beers Makes You Clever [Booze]
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Friday, April 13, 2012
Distro Issue 36 lands with The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, the New York International Auto Show, Ultrabooks and Nikon's D4
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Distro Issue 36 lands with The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, the New York International Auto Show, Ultrabooks and Nikon's D4 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Choosing the most reliable residential roofing contractors in Winston ...
Choosing the most reliable residential roofing contractors in the Winston-Salem, NC area doesn?t have to be a stressful ordeal. In fact, choosing the right roof installers should make your life easier, not harder! A reliable company is within reach when you follow some simple steps to taking care of your home, budget, and sanity.
Talk to your neighbors about their roofs
When choosing reliable residential roofing contractors in the Greensboro, High Point, Kernersville NC and Triad area it is a good idea to start with a company with a good reputation. Call a neighbor or ask a friend who has had recent roof repairs or replacement what they liked about their roof installers. Look for companies who offer those same traits!
Of course, if you?re new in town you are probably wondering where to turn. A reputable and reliable roofing contractor should have a good reputation with the Central Carolina Better Business Bureau and should be a Better Business Bureau A+ rated Accredited Business.
Are you still wondering how to go about choosing a reliable roof installer in Winston-Salem? Roof installers should understand remodeling design and construction. It?s always a good idea to hire roofing contractors who have experience; Triad Installations only hires contractors with at least ten years of experience and thorough training. You can be confident that the roof installers on your roof know what they are doing!
What happens after repairs are finished?
But what happens when those experienced contractors go home? What if something goes wrong? You should be confident in the company you hire! Triad Installations even goes so far as to offer a five year guarantee on its workmanship, and any possible issues will be fixed quickly and efficiently. This added benefit of hiring a reliable Triad area company means that you can be confident that you spent your money wisely.
Do I need an estimate?
Before you jump in and start a roofing project on your home, you might consider having an estimate done. An estimate takes into account the size of your home, the amount of materials needed, and the type of roof you are interested in. Then, with all of those factored together, you and your trusted roofing expert will determine the best way to meet your needs while still staying safely within your budget. Choosing the most reliable residential roofing contractors means the roof estimate process is easy on the homeowner, because the goal is to make sure your needs are being met! Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point, and Kernersville, NC residents can rely on trusted roofing professionals to help make home improvement projects a breeze.
Can I get help with storm damage?
If you are dealing with the added stress of repairing your home after recent storms, you might be happy to hear that your home is of the utmost importance to Triad Installations, making it easy when it comes to choosing the most reliable residential roofing contractors in the Winston-Salem, NC area. Getting a visit from your trusted roofing professionals quickly once the storms have passed will help get your life back to normal. Don?t leave your important home repairs in the hands of amateurs when there are reliable, affordable professionals available to help you. Call Triad Installations, your?Winston-Salem roofing company today and make an appointment for your roofing estimate and feel good about choosing the most reliable residential roofing contractors.
Tagged with: Choosing the most reliable residential roofing contractors ? Greensboro ? High Point ? Kernersville ? NC and Triad area ? roof installers ? Triad Installations ? Winston-Salem
Filed under: Home Improvements ? roof estimates ? roof installers ? roof repair ? roof replacement ? roofing companies ? Roofs ? Storm damage ? Winston-Salem roofing company
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Thursday, April 12, 2012
Vera Project ? Blog Archive ? A Home-based Business In The ...
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'Hunger Games' Not First Franchise To Go Through Director Shakeup
'Twilight,' 'Spider-Man,' 'Iron Man' among other high-profile series that changed directors along the way.
By Josh Wigler
Gary Ross
Photo: WireImage
"The Hunger Games" franchise, just like the fictional games themselves (minus all the death and bloodshed), has lost a much beloved player in director Gary Ross, who has decided not to return for the developing sequel, "Catching Fire."
Persistent rumors that Ross' days in Panem were numbered concluded with the director's official departure Tuesday night, leaving the continuing tales of Katniss, Peeta and Gale without a visionary to guide them for the time being.
Though Ross' decision is a blow for "Hunger Games" enthusiasts everywhere — yours truly included — it's certainly not the first time that a director has stunned fans by leaving a high-profile franchise at an unexpected time. From your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to the Boy Who Lived, here are five other filmmakers who parted ways with beloved franchises.
Sam Raimi and "Spider-Man" After three films — two widely adored and one critically panned — Sam Raimi's days swinging alongside "Spider-Man" came to an end. In the midst of pre-production on a fourth Tobey Maguire-starring adventure, both Raimi and Maguire parted ways with Sony over creative differences. The result of their ousting: Sony rebooted the "Spider-Man" brand, with an all-new "Amazing" installment hitting theaters this summer from director Marc Webb and "The Social Network" co-star Andrew Garfield.
Jon Favreau and "Iron Man" Spidey isn't the only big-screen Marvel superhero who lost a crucial member of his creative posse. Director Jon Favreau, who helmed the first two "Iron Man" films for Marvel Studios, said his goodbyes to Ol' Shellhead in December 2010, opting to focus instead on another Disney property, "Magic Kingdom." Just as Ross contends there's no bad blood between him and Lionsgate, Favreau and the remaining "Iron Man" players appear to have left on good terms; indeed, the director appeared alongside Robert Downey Jr. at the Hero Complex Film Festival last June for an onstage reunion and geek-out. Tony Stark lives on even without Favreau, blasting off next summer for a brand-new mission under director Shane Black's watchful eye.
Paul Greengrass and the "Bourne" series Following "Bourne Ultimatum," the third film in the spy thriller series, two-time "Bourne" director Paul Greengrass walked away from the franchise to work on other films. Leading man Matt Damon left as well, out of loyalty to the director, leaving "Bourne" producers in a lurch. How do you make a Jason Bourne movie without Jason Bourne? You make "The Bourne Legacy," apparently. Longtime "Bourne" writer Tony Gilroy wrote the script and directed the latest installment, putting an all-new character played by Jeremy Renner in the hot seat this time around. With Renner in play, the door remains open for a future Damon-Greengrass "Bourne" return.
Catherine Hardwicke and "The Twilight Saga" Just as "The Hunger Games" lost Ross, so too did the "Twilight" series lose its original director. Catherine Hardwicke was the first filmmaker to bring the hotly anticipated love story of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan to life, but despite the success of that first film, Hardwicke decided not to direct "New Moon", due to what she described as "timing" issues. Even without Hardwicke behind the lens, "Twilight" continued to do massive business at the box office with different directors for each film; Bill Condon is the only filmmaker to tackle multiple "Twilight" movies, closing the series out with this coming November's "Breaking Dawn - Part 2."
Chris Columbus and "Harry Potter" There would be no Hogwarts without J.K. Rowling, of course, but there would be no Hogwarts-at-the-movies without original "Harry Potter" director Chris Columbus. He helmed the first two "Potter" films with wonderful whimsy, but that tone would not have fit with future movies in the franchise as Harry's world grows progressively darker. The boy wizard's war against Voldemort was therefore chronicled by several other directors following Columbus' post-"Chamber of Secrets" departure, with David Yates ultimately stepping in to helm the final four installments in the series.
Tell us what you think of Gary Ross' "Hunger Games" departure in the comments section!
Check out everything we've got on "The Hunger Games" and "Catching Fire."
For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.
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Upcoming Small Business Competitions
Chrome Instant Pages
Not to be confused with Chrome Instant (see below) or Google Instant (which works on all browser to load Google search results as you type), Chrome Instant Pages requires both Chrome and a site that supports the feature. Of the latter, there is now just one important one: Google Search. The idea is that when you perform a search in Google, the browser will pre-load the page for the result link you're most likely to click on.
In several tests on a slower Wi-Fi connection, however, I only noticed an occasional improvement for simple pages. It seemed only to work for the first result link. Heavy multimedia sites still took their time to load. On a very fast wired connection, some page result were extremely fast, but in that case, you don't really benefit from pre-loading. I saw a definitely faster load for grainger.com than in Opera on the same connection. The idea makes a lot of sense though, particularly for multipage articles, where it's most likely that the next link you'll hit is the one labeled "Next."
The only drawback: If the site guesses your next click wrong, page load could be slower than without Instant Pages, and you'll have wasted bandwidth loading a page you never visited. But this is a technique that's been done using JavaScript or HTML and CSS for years, so I'm not sure why we need a browser-specific solution to preloading pages, but Instant Pages does have the ability to load outside sites, rather than just pages of your own. If you don't like the idea of your browser loading pages before you click on a link, you can turn off the feature in the Under the Hood section of Options (accessible from the wrench icon), and uncheck "Predict network actions to improve page load performance."
Built-in Flash and PDF Support
Chrome is the only browser to come with Adobe Flash built in, rather than requiring a separate (and annoying) installation. And not having to perform the frequent required updates of the Flash plugin separately is another boon?it updates automatically with the browser. With version 10, many of the security issues with Flash (famously bemoaned by Apple's Steve Jobs) went away, thanks to running the plugin in an isolated sandbox so that it doesn't have access to critical system areas.
Chrome boasts a PDF reader as well, so you don't have to worry about installing any Adobe plugins for viewing specialized Web content. When you load a PDF, an intuitive toolbar shows when your mouse cursor is in the southeast vicinity of the browser window. From this, you can have the document fill the width of the window, show a full page, or zoom in and out. By default, you can select text for cutting and pasting, but I couldn't copy and paste images. You can print the PDF as you would any Web page.
Chrome's PDF viewer not only does what its name implies, but also serves as a print preview feature. Unlike IE's print preview, Chrome's shows up in a tab rather than its own window. But you have to go through it to print: In IE, I can just click the printer icon to send a page to the printer if I don't want to fuss with settings. I could choose between color and B&W, portrait and landscape, and choose the target printer, or print to PDF.
An Advanced button got me into the printer's own settings dialog, but this dismissed the print preview, making me have to choose Print from the menu again. But Chrome didn't let me choose a zoom percentage for the printout as Firefox and IE did, nor did it let me turn page headers on and off or choose margin sizes in a Page Setup dialog as those two did. So Chrome's print preview is a decent start, but it's still a bit behind the competition.
Interface
Minimalism has been a hallmark of Chrome since its first beta release. Tabs are above everything, and the only row below them holds the combined search/address bar, or "Omnibox." Here you can type any part of an address or page title, and the most likely site candidates will be presented in a dropdown. Optionally you can display bookmark links in a row below this. And the control buttons on the top-right of the browser window have been reduced to the absolute minimum?just one.
Google has removed the Page icon and placed some of its functions under the wrench button. Some of the Page options have been combined into buttons on one line in the menu, such as Cut, Copy, and Paste. I like what Google's done with the Zoom choice on the menu, adding plus and minus buttons that save you from having to fly out another submenu.
Another theme in the Chrome interface is that everything looks like a Web page, displaying in the main browser window, rather than in separate dialog boxes. This includes the interfaces for History, Extensions, Bookmarks, and even Options.
Mac users haven't been overlooked in the interface department, either. The browser now supports OS X Lion's full screen view, along with overlay scrollbars that only appear when you're scrolling. Other more minor characteristics of the OS X "Aqua" style give Chrome on the Mac a more Mac-y appearance.
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Dental x-rays linked to brain cancer ? experts respond
New research has drawn a link between a history dental x-ray imaging and incidence of meningioma, a type of brain tumor ? but experts note that advances in x-ray equipment, regulations and the low actual incidence of the disease mean that people should not be worried about the health risks.
The new study, published in the journal Cancer, analysed data from 1,433 patients with meninginoma and 1,350 similar, but cancer-free, controls . Researchers found that, over a lifetime, patients with meningioma were more than twice as likely as controls to report having ever had a bitewing exam, which uses an x-ray film held in place by a tab between the teeth. Individuals who reported receiving bitewing exams on a yearly or more frequent basis were 1.4 to 1.9 times as likely to develop meningioma as controls.
An even stronger association was seen between meninginoma and Panorex exams (which are taken outside of the mouth and show all of the teeth on one film). Individuals who reported receiving these exams when they were younger than 10 years old had a 4.9 times increased risk of developing meningioma. Those who reported receiving them on a yearly or more frequent basis were 2.7 to 3.0 times (depending on age) as likely to develop meningioma as controls.
However, The researchers noted that today?s dental patients are exposed to lower doses of radiation than in the past. Nonetheless, ?the study presents an ideal opportunity in public health to increase awareness regarding the optimal use of dental x-rays, which unlike many risk factors is modifiable,? said lead researcher Dr. Elizabeth Claus. ?Specifically, the American Dental Association?s guidelines for heathy persons suggest that children receive 1 x-ray every 1-2 years, teens receive 1 x-ray every 1.5-3 years, and adults receive 1 x-ray every 2-3 years. Widespread dissemination of this information allows for increased dialogue between patients and their health care providers.?
Our colleagues at the UK SMC collected the following expert commentary. Feel free to use these quotes in your reporting. If you would like to contact a New Zealand expert, please contact the SMC (04 499 5476; smc@sciencemediacentre.co.nz).
Prof Malcolm Sperrin, Director Of Medical Physics at Royal Berkshire Hospital, said:
?Ionising radiation from any source is known to have a potential health detriment although the very low radiation dose leads to an overall risk that is extremely small.? That being said, this paper does provide sensible statistical evidence for a correlation between dental radiation exposure and the incidence of meningioma.? Howard, caution is needed in interpreting the conclusions since there is no data that summarises the radiation exposure to the patients.? The paper does state that the findings relate to older, higher exposures and the overall intention is to raise awareness of risk factors which is commendable.
?Current best practice suggests a fatal risk of 6% per Sievert of radiation.? In the UK a ?typical? dental X-ray causes a radiation dose of typically 0.005mSv or a fatal risk of 1 in 40 million.? Whilst data varies with source, the likely incidence of meningioma is around 1 in 10000 hence radiation-induced effects are unlikely (but not impossible).? It is important to realise that under UK legislation a thorough risk assessment is conducted before anyone is exposed to a source of ionising radiation and there is no reason for a patient, or relative of a patient, to be concerned by the findings of this paper.?
Dr Paul Pharoah, Reader in Cancer Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, said:
?Meningioma is a rare form of benign cancer that affects the lining of the inside of the skull.? The tumours are usually slow growing but can sometimes cause problems if they start to press on the brain.
?The disease is rare.? It affects two to three people in every 100,000 in the UK every year.? The lifetime risk of the disease is about 1.5 in a thousand, and it is approximately twice as common in women as it is in men.
?Ionizing radiation in large doses is a well-established risk factor for the disease, but the effects of lower dose ionising radiation ? the sort of dose that comes from an X-ray ? was not known.
?The study reported in Cancer has compared a large number of people with meningioma with a similar number of matched healthy individuals.? The study has been carefully designed and is well-conducted.? The analysis is sound.? Bias is always a potential problem in case-control studies, but this is unlikely to have been a major problem in this study.? The authors report that dental X-rays are associated with a small relative increase in risk of disease of approximately 50 percent or 1.5-fold.? This finding is statistically significant.
?However, as the disease is rare, the increase in absolute risk is tiny ? the lifetime risk increasing from 15 in every ten thousand people to 22 in ten thousand.
?People who have had dental X-rays do not need to worry about the health risks of those X-rays.? Nevertheless, dental X-rays should only be used when there is a clear clinical need in order to prevent unnecessary exposure to ionising radiation.?
?Professor Dame Valerie Beral FRS, Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, said:
?I am familiar with this type of research, where people with known brain (or other) cancer are asked, in retrospect, how many X-rays they had had in the past. The responses about X-ray history in people with cancer are then compared with those of healthy people.
?There is known to be poor agreement between people?s recall of past X-rays and records of X-rays actually done.? Furthermore there is considerable scope for different recall of past X-rays by people with and without cancer.? The authors of this paper did not check whether the X-rays reported agreed with X-rays actually done.? Hence their findings could be simply due to different reporting of past X-rays by those with and without cancer, rather than any true difference in exposure to X-rays.
?Other studies like this one have been done before, but the findings from all such studies are difficult to interpret for the reasons given above.? Reliable evidence can come only from studies that use recorded information on X-rays done (not reported exposures to X-rays long ago) in people with and without cancer.?
?
The UK SMC also provided this helpful statistical review from their Before the Headlines team:
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Title, Date of Publication & Journal: Dental X-Rays and Risk of Meningioma, 0500hrs Tue 10 April 2012, Cancer
Claim supported by evidence?
This paper lends broad support to the claim that exposure to dental x-rays may be associated with increased risk of intracranial meningioma, though does not use the necessary study design nor provide a sufficient depth of analysis and discussion to infer a causal link between the two.
While there is a generally consistent finding relating increased risk to higher frequency of exposure at younger ages, the analyses do not account for the changes in X-ray dose guidelines over the years to modify this association.? Given the developments in X-ray practices over the past 60 years that the authors allude to, it would be useful from a public health perspective to know whether the association is consistent across all time periods or is only limited to past practices.
Summary
This large population-based study allows for generalizable and precise estimation of the association between dental X-rays and meningioma, though it is difficult to rule out the possibility of bias (see below)
Despite the high number of statistical tests performed (which increases the chance of false positive results), the magnitude and direction of associations is generally consistent
Although the authors cite previous validation efforts claiming that biased recall of X-rays visits is minimal, this arguably remains a limitation of any case-control study like this one, given the tendency of people to overestimate previous exposure to explain their disease
The discussion does not go into sufficient depth to explain and interpret the results by, for example, contextualising them within X-ray practices over the last 60 years. The authors suggest an ?apparent association?, and their recommendation to limit X-ray exposure infers causality, though they do not explicitly make this claim.
Conclusions
The authors are justified in suggesting an apparent association between X-ray exposure and the risk of meningioma. Their conclusions are generally supported by their results and analyses, but given the large number of tests performed, the potential for negative findings to be omitted, and the inherent biases associated with retrospective case-control studies like this, these results should be regarded as exploratory and ?hypothesis generating? rather than confirmatory and ?hypothesis proving?.
Strengths/Limitations
Study design and analysis:
- (+) Case-control design is appropriate for this type of research question, given the relatively low incidence of meningioma in the population
- (+)The analytical method used in this study was appropriate for these data
- (+) Cases were frequency matched to controls by age, sex and state of residence
- (+) Results were adjusted for age, sex, race, education and history of head CT scans, but
- (-) they do not account for changes to X-ray doses over time that may have altered the observed associations. It may be unreasonable to assume the effect of exposure in one period is the same as the effect of exposure in another, i.e. that there is no ?period effect? (see glossary)
- (-) Case control studies like this can yield biased estimates of association due to (1) recall bias, (2) selection bias and (3) inability to control for all known and unknown confounders in the analysis
- (-) A large number of statistical tests were conducted, increasing the chance of false positive results
- (-) There was no analysis of the potential for non-participation to influence results. This may have introduced selection bias given the smaller proportion of controls who decided to participate (52%) than cases (65%); and the possibility that people?s exposure could influence their decision to participate
Discussion/Interpretation of results:
- (+) The conclusions are in line with the results and do not exaggerate findings, and findings generally agree with previous studies
- (+) The authors are upfront about acknowledging the issue of recall bias as a limitation
- (-) The discussion of results does not address:
- ?Why bitewing and Panorex, but not full mouth series, was associated with increased risk, given previous studies have found an association with full mouth series
- ?Whether the observed associations were consistent across time periods
- The WHO estimated lag time of several decades between exposure to ionizing radiation and meningioma disease? ? in other words, no distinction was made between recent exposure and exposure longer ago
Glossary
Case control study: a very practical design, but the evidence is lower than for most other study types (e.g. randomised trials or prospective cohort studies)
Recall bias: When the recollection of past exposure is different between cases and controls; typically when cases remember, and even exaggerate their recollection of, exposures more than controls
Selection bias: When the cases and/or controls are selected differentially on the basis of their exposure status, such that cases aren?t representative of all cases in the population and controls aren?t representative of the population that produced the cases
Period effect: When changes occur through time, such as the introduction of safer imaging technologies or medical treatments, that render comparisons across periods inappropriate without some form of adjustment
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Before The Headlines?is a service provided to the SMC by volunteer statisticians: members of the Royal Statistical Society and Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry. A list of contributors, including affiliations, is available at http://www.sciencemediacentre.
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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Mosquito Control in the Florida Keys
As spring creeps up on us, most of the country looks forward to basking in the long-awaited sun. People skip work. College kids skip class. School kids finally get to play outside without snow boots, well maybe not this year. But for some pockets of the country, the prospect of late sunsets and warm summer nights is coupled with the not so pleasant emergence of mosquito season. And even before the year sinks into the summer months, mosquito control workers are faced with tough questions regarding the most socially and environmentally responsible ways to control mosquito populations in their communities.
Crowded Key West at sunset
The Florida Keys is one of those pockets, perhaps one of the worst in the country.
If it weren?t for mosquito control, ?you wouldn?t live here, there?d be no tourism,??says Coleen Fitzsimmons, a biologist at the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District. Fitzsimmons and the rest of her mosquito-fighting team work around the clock to keep Florida?s southern most neighborhoods habitable for residents and tourists and to try to prevent disease.
The effort is comprised of 3 offices and about 75 employees, made up of domestic inspectors, field inspectors, administrative staff, researchers, and even aircraft staff. About a quarter of the group, the domestic inspectors, has the expansive job of visiting every single home in the Keys area every 3 months (there are about 9,400 households in Key West alone and only 12 domestic inspectors assigned to that area), leaving informational pamphlets and looking to remove water ? everything from old cisterns and unmaintained pools to misplaced buckets and backed-up drainpipes.
Luckily for the workers going house to house, the Keys district mosquito control has been supported and paid for by Keys residents since the 1950s, which means less doors shut in their faces. According to Florida Statutes, nuisance mosquitoes are considered a public health threat, says district assistant director Andrea Leal. ?They can suffocate people, they?ve killed cattle in Ft Meyers,? Fitszimmons is quick to add as she sits in her Key West office, jar of mosquitoes in hand.
Inspector Bruce Stephens in Key Largo
?We are just trying to control the spread of disease and make living down here bearable. We are not in the elimination business. That would be impossible, ? says Fitzsimmons. Because the Everglades is a protected area, the team only has access to about 5% of Monroe county.
For well over 50 years, taxpayers have funded helicopters, airplanes, and all other resources used to control mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. Most of their work is preventative ? getting rid of hidden or forgotten still water sources ? but they have found creative ways of controlling existing mosquito nurseries.
For example, the team has found what they call their ?unpaid employees?, the Gambusia, a native fish that lives in brackish water and feeds on mosquito larvae and other organic matter. The team breeds the 3 cm silver fish in a large outdoor tank outside their building and then they release the fish into abandoned hot tubs and swimming pools.
While these mini mosquito-predators can transform any dilapidated Jacuzzi into the outdoor aquarium you?ve always wanted, for most of mosquito-fighting history, DDT has been the human army?s weapon of choice. DDT can wipe out mosquito populations and their larvae for up to four months at a time. Between 1948 and 1952, for example, disease-carrying mosquitoes were eradicated from over 15 South American countries using DDT.
Michael Doyle outside Key West office
Michael Doyle, who recently moved to the Florida Keys to become director of Keys Mosquito Control, has built a career out of finding ways to control mosquito populations without resorting to the most effective, yet most environmentally hazardous method of using DDT. And he is no rookie when it comes to dangerous disease outbreaks. He witnessed firsthand the effects of the West Nile Virus that started in 1999 and took 2 years to spread throughout the United States, killing 146 people and infecting thousands of others.
It was during Doyle?s previous job in Colorado where he presided over 1 and worked in 2? of the 10 districts worst affected by West Nile. Most people wouldn?t think of Colorado as a state with a big mosquito problem, but it had some very intense breeding pockets and just the right conditions for West Nile to spread.
As Doyle explains, ?You have just the right combination of mosquito species, people outdoors, and birds all in a very small area interacting.? He calls it the Oasis effect. The irrigated west is made up of small towns with farmlands all around them. And small plots of vegetation. In Doyle?s ?oasis?, people and animals and vegetation make just the right equation for a West Nile outbreak.
The intense breeding grounds of Doyle?s ?oasis? affected not only people but wildlife, targeting birds, and cyclically, the rest of the food chain. By 2002, just shy of 4500 birds from 111 different species had been positively identified as having died from West Nile. Even raptor sanctuaries were severely affected.
West Nile brought to light limitations in controlling populations in container breeding mosquitoes, non-native mosquitoes that breed in buckets and small, often hidden water sources, mosquitoes that are rarely a natural or useful part of ecosystems where they dwell. ?When West Nile came, we realized we don?t have many tools to treat thousands of little tiny containers. It takes hundreds of hours. You can imagine how long it takes to go from door to door to door, not to mention conversations and getting in and out of doors, and the cost.?
The Aedes Albopictus, a particularly aggressive species of mosquito, also known as the Asian Tiger, has shown just how quickly and vastly an invasive mosquito can spread with human transport as its vehicle. It?s commonly accepted among the mosquito-fighting community that the species came to the US in tires. Now the albopictus, which is known to bite mostly during the day while children are outside playing, is prominent in the entire Southeastern quarter of the United States, parts of Texas, and it?s recently become a problem in California.
In 2009, mosquito control faced a special dilemma with yet another virus, Dengue. By 2010 there were 66 reported cases in the US. Likely there were more actual cases. Because Dengue has similar symptoms to other viruses and food born illnesses, affected people may not know they have it and doctors may not necessarily know to test for it.
Key West Cemetary (potential trial area)
The main culprit in this recent outbreak, Aedes aegypti, is what Doyle and his team call an ?urban mosquito? ? a mosquito that lives in and around people?s homes in small containers. In fact, 99% of mosquitoes that carry Dengue fever live in people?s houses, says Fred Gould, an NC State entomologist who won a 5 million dollar grant for his work in genetic pest management.
Even the most effective and expensive modern mosquito control methods, like Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) a bacteria-based larvacide, which is environmentally gentle and targets only black flies and mosquitoes, frequently misses the small and often hidden breeding grounds of the Aedes aegypti. In samples of different mosquito species taken in and around homes, 2% is considered to be the maximum acceptable percentage of the Aedes aegypti species. This past summer, researchers measured proportions of up to 38%.
When it comes to people?s attitudes toward mosquitoes, the answer is more or less unanimous. Gould compares mosquitoes to rats, ? If you asked people in New York what they think of getting rid of rats, what do you think their answer would be??
If mosquito control was a part of a political platform, it might be the one thing red states and blue states (and Florida) could agree on. Most citizens would vote to get rid of them completely if they could. And, of course, like most issues, there?d be questions from worried environmentalists, the voice of the probable political minority in this hypothetical case. What would fish and dragonflies and bats eat? What would happen if ecosystems were disrupted in such a drastic way?
All of these questions and more are exactly what Michael Doyle faces everyday, as he looks to carry out the first US testing of genetically modified mosquitoes, in a project starting, well, one of these days now?.
Doyle was intrigued when he first got a call from Oxitec, the British company that has found a way to breed genetically modified male mosquitoes for the purpose of reducing disease carrying mosquito species. Oxitec got good results in trials in other countries like the British Cayman Islands and Malaysia. Doyle and Oxitec saw great potential in holding similar trials in the US under the scrutiny of US regulatory agencies.
But the experiment has been delayed for months now seemingly because of an ambiguity in jurisdiction ? exactly which government office would oversee it.
If and when the trial starts, it would take from 4 to 6 months to carry out.
Doyle would put up a small, temporary building outside the main mosquito control facility. In it would be columns of racks like what hold the baked goods in a grocery store, except on these racks he?d grow tens of thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes. Researchers would then separate the males and females, kill the females as pupae, and allow the males to emerge into adults before sending the 5 to 10 thousand adult mosquitoes into the field.
Key West Cemetary (potential trial area)
This insect control technique is not entirely new. Since the 1970s we?ve used the Sterilized male technique, as an alternative to pesticides, to control fruit flies, rampant pests in agriculture. In this experiment, however, the modified males would breed with normal females, creating sterile offspring, who would not reach maturity.
In the field, there are two ways of seeing which mosquitoes are genetically modified and which aren?t, and how the population is changing. One, researchers can simply sprinkle fluorescent powder on the male mosquitoes before releasing them. Secondly, the modified mosquitoes could also have a fluorescent gene in them called a marker gene, used a lot in fruit flies. ?That doesn?t seem to worry too many people because it?s been used for so long that it?s a stable gene,? says Doyle with some relief.
Then the special mosquitoes pass the gene to their sterile offspring ? larva that glows for researchers as they count the modified offspring bred from their trial mosquitoes. The whole idea is looking into the proportion of neon green to grey. Once the modified population gets to 50%, or half the survey sample glows under florescent light, the entire Aedes Aegypti population tilts and starts to fall.
Some have questioned the trial from an economic standpoint, wondering if the project holds any true potential. But Oxitec?s past work is exactly what attracted Doyle to the idea. In a similar trial recently finished in the Cayman Islands, for example, researchers saw an 80% reduction in just 2-3 months from achieving the necessary release numbers. Aedes Aegypti was dramatically reduced and, as far as researchers can tell, not replaced by another disease-carrying species such as Aedes Albopictus.
The possibility that one eradicated dangerous species would merely be replaced by another is a hypothetical downside to the experiment. Luke Alphey from Oxitec explains that the monitoring systems they used in that trial, BG Sentinels and ovitraps, would certainly have detected this had it occurred.
To clear up some other initial concerns, the Aedes Aegypti cannot physically mate with other mosquitoes. This modification technique used in the Keys experiment would target one and only one genetic line of mosquito, the Aedes Aegypti, a carrier of Dengue fever (and Yellow fever) in South Florida.
While Doyle and his team do administer mosquito control for nuisance mosquitoes, they are not looking to eradicate all mosquitoes or native, major food source mosquitoes from their natural habitats. On a Florida Keys warm, late winter?s day, Doyle is more than eager to confront these issues head on in the midst of his buzzing Key West office.
?The black salt marsh mosquito is the mosquito everyone gets bit by here. We have those by the billions, literally the billions, If we were planning on permanently removing THEM from the environment, I?d be very, very hesitant to authorize that because of the food source issue? In the United States there are several hundred species of mosquitoes. In Florida, there are about 77 species. This is ONE of all of those.?
Additionally, Doyle has faced criticism from environmental groups like Friends of the Earth who question whether Doyle was purposefully withholding information about the exact location and amount of mosquitoes that would be released. While Doyle concedes his lack of exact numbers may seem a bit suspect, he vows he is hiding no secret plans. ?If I was someone in the public who wasn?t familiar with mosquito field studies, I?d think, ?Whoa, why wouldn?t they won?t tell us how many mosquitoes are being released??? But from this side of the desk, I?d say, ?It?s obvious why they aren?t giving an exact number.? The number is based on the wild population of mosquitoes, and that number likely to change before the test begins.??
Doyle says he probably won?t know the exact number until a week before. First, they will do trappings to see how many Aedes aegypti show up on average in their trial area (right now a few square blocks in and around the historic Key West cemetery). Once he estimates roughly how many of these mosquitoes live in the area, Doyle will release in genetically modified males 10 times the number wild males he has found. In other words, the goal is to adjust the population, so there are 10 genetically modified Aedes aegypti males per each wild Aedes aegypti male in the field, before eventually seeing entire population drop.
Still, there are some even more murky issues that Doyle has to address. ?There have been two concerns about that and I want to make sure I am completely open about all this. Like any biological system, it?s not seamless, it?s not perfect.? Doyle speaks of the potential of releasing a genetically modified female (only females bite) into the field.
When scientists are sorting the males and females, male mosquitoes are smaller than the females are. So if researchers grow a bunch of mosquitoes in a pan, the males, when they are ready to emerge, are smaller than the females. The females are larger, because they have to carry the eggs. So they are sorted by size, they are put into a sieve. All the small males fall through the sieve and the females get stuck. The males then get dropped into a water tank and emerge as adult mosquitoes.
?Well, occasionally, you?ll have a very small female who just didn?t get enough to eat,? explains Doyle. ?Figure about one in three thousand of those pupae will be a female.? The estimated number of renegade mini females who make it to this stage in the experiment is only 1 in 1,500 or .06% and of that .06%, even less will survive in the natural hardships of the wild.
The estimated number of renegade mini females who make it to this stage in the experiment is only .03 % and of that .03%, even less will survive in the natural hardships of the wild, but the fact that the number is not zero has some citizens worried.
But, the fact that the number is not zero has some citizens worried. ?It takes it from ?I cannot get bit?, to ?I MIGHT get bit by one of these GMO females?, and people don?t want to hear ?might?.? Although the threat of getting bit by the one courageous female survivor, if there is one, is extremely statistically unlikely ? the truth is you?ll probably get bit by a shark first ? Doyle can still understand why the public is concerned. ?The chances of any one person getting bit by one of these GMO females are very, very low, but it?s very hard to explain that to the public. And I don?t know, if I wasn?t an entomologist, that I?d take the time to figure that out.?
?What if it bites me and because it makes its offspring sterile, what if I have children?? Doyle is bombarded with questions being asked through various lenses, filtered by differing understandings of genetics. He has heard questions from ?If it?s affecting another mosquito how will it affect me?? to more plausible worries like, ?Will the bite of that mosquito cause allergies that another mosquito wouldn?t, because it has different proteins in its saliva??
Doyle maintains that he will not go forward with any type of experiment that endangers his fellow Floridians. ?The data I am going to get on paper is that the saliva of one of those mosquito is identical to the saliva of a normal mosquitoes out in the street now,? he says. ?It?s a public image problem more than a real medical problem.?
For now, he waits to see who will oversee the experiment. ?If we get approvals, and if there?s nothing that I find out between now and then that concerns me, we could gear up to do it probably in about 2 months,? says Doyle with a type of muffled hopefulness.
Until then, we may not be able to answer all such questions about the hows, whys and shoulds of mosquito control, but we can at least answer one age-old question; what actually attracts mosquitoes to people? Is it sweet blood? Is it body temperature? Is it raspberry body lotion or coconut oil?
The truth is the first thing mosquitoes sense is carbon dioxide. This is how the traps work, in fact. They release carbon dioxide which attracts the mosquitoes to what they think is a person or animals exhale [similar to wasps and hornets]. Then it?s a combination of body temperature and skin chemistry. Mosquitoes like blood vessels closer to the skin, and most of all, lactic acid, which is produced in higher amounts when we exercise. So in truth, mosquitoes have not a sweet tooth, but a sour tooth, or proboscis, to be more precise.
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'Real life' guide to neurologic disorders
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Public release date: 10-Apr-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Jim Ritter
jritter@lumc.edu
708-216-2445
Loyola University Health System
MAYWOOD, Il. -- The new 4th Edition of Practical Neurology, the respected "real-life" guide to diagnosing and managing neurologic disorders, has been completely rewritten to reflect the many advances over the past decade.
The 748-page text is edited by Jos Biller, MD, an internationally known neurologist and chair of the Department of Neurology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
Practical Neurology Fourth Edition (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins) provides a wealth of practical information for practicing clinicians, residents and fellows.
Section 1 includes 35 chapters on the diagnosis of a broad range of conditions, including dementia; seizures; gait disturbances; sleep disorders; facial pain, numbness and weakness; dizziness; hearing loss; sexual dysfunction; headache; neck and back pain; and pain in the extremities.
Section 2 includes 23 chapters on treatment for such conditions as stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, movement disorders, dementia, chronic pain, nervous system complications of cancer and neurologic diseases in pregnancy.
Contributing authors are well-established clinicians and educators who have a talent for making neurologic information accessible and understandable.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 10-Apr-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Jim Ritter
jritter@lumc.edu
708-216-2445
Loyola University Health System
MAYWOOD, Il. -- The new 4th Edition of Practical Neurology, the respected "real-life" guide to diagnosing and managing neurologic disorders, has been completely rewritten to reflect the many advances over the past decade.
The 748-page text is edited by Jos Biller, MD, an internationally known neurologist and chair of the Department of Neurology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
Practical Neurology Fourth Edition (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins) provides a wealth of practical information for practicing clinicians, residents and fellows.
Section 1 includes 35 chapters on the diagnosis of a broad range of conditions, including dementia; seizures; gait disturbances; sleep disorders; facial pain, numbness and weakness; dizziness; hearing loss; sexual dysfunction; headache; neck and back pain; and pain in the extremities.
Section 2 includes 23 chapters on treatment for such conditions as stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, movement disorders, dementia, chronic pain, nervous system complications of cancer and neurologic diseases in pregnancy.
Contributing authors are well-established clinicians and educators who have a talent for making neurologic information accessible and understandable.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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