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Friday, June 28, 2013

A telescope for your eye: New contact lens design may improve sight of patients with macular degeneration

June 27, 2013 ? Contact lenses correct many people's eyesight but do nothing to improve the blurry vision of those suffering from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness among older adults in the western world. That's because simply correcting the eye's focus cannot restore the central vision lost from a retina damaged by AMD. Now a team of researchers from the United States and Switzerland led by University of California San Diego Professor Joseph Ford has created a slim, telescopic contact lens that can switch between normal and magnified vision. With refinements, the system could offer AMD patients a relatively unobtrusive way to enhance their vision.

The team reports its work in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.

Visual aids that magnify incoming light help AMD patients see by spreading light around to undamaged parts of the retina. These optical magnifiers can assist patients with a variety of important everyday tasks such as reading, identification of faces, and self-care. But these aids have not gained widespread acceptance because they either use bulky spectacle-mounted telescopes that interfere with social interactions, or micro-telescopes that require surgery to implant into the patient's eye.

"For a visual aid to be accepted it needs to be highly convenient and unobtrusive," says co-author Eric Tremblay of the ?cole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. A contact lens is an "attractive compromise" between the head-mounted telescopes and surgically implanted micro-telescopes, Tremblay says.

The new lens system developed by Ford's team uses tightly fitting mirror surfaces to make a telescope that has been integrated into a contact lens just over a millimeter thick. The lens has a dual modality: the center of the lens provides unmagnified vision, while the ring-shaped telescope located at the periphery of the regular contact lens magnifies the view 2.8 times.

To switch back and forth between the magnified view and normal vision, users would wear a pair of liquid crystal glasses originally made for viewing 3-D televisions. These glasses selectively block either the magnifying portion of the contact lens or its unmagnified center. The liquid crystals in the glasses electrically change the orientation of polarized light, allowing light with one orientation or the other to pass through the glasses to the contact lens.

The team tested their design both with computer modeling and by fabricating the lens. They also created a life-sized model eye that they used to capture images through their contact lens-eyeglasses system. In constructing the lens, researchers relied on a robust material commonly used in early contact lenses called polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The team needed that robustness because they had to place tiny grooves in the lens to correct for aberrant color caused by the lens' shape, which is designed to conform to the human eye.

Tests showed that the magnified image quality through the contact lens was clear and provided a much larger field of view than other magnification approaches, but refinements are necessary before this proof-of-concept system could be used by consumers. The researchers report that the grooves used to correct color had the side effect of degrading image quality and contrast. These grooves also made the lens unwearable unless it is surrounded by a smooth, soft "skirt," something commonly used with rigid contact lenses today. Finally, the robust material they used, PMMA, is not ideal for contact lenses because it is gas-impermeable and limits wear to short periods of time.

The team is currently pursuing a similar design that will still be switchable from normal to telescopic vision, but that will use gas-permeable materials and will correct aberrant color without the need for grooves to bend the light. They say they hope their design will offer improved performance and better sight for people with macular degeneration, at least until a more permanent remedy for AMD is available.

"In the future, it will hopefully be possible to go after the core of the problem with effective treatments or retinal prosthetics," Tremblay says. "The ideal is really for magnifiers to become unnecessary. Until we get there, however, contact lenses may provide a way to make AMD a little less debilitating."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/BfdtD-s8D-Y/130627125329.htm

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Line between 'cops and robbers' blurs in Bulger trial

By Richard Valdmanis

BOSTON (Reuters) - Some of accused mobster James "Whitey" Bulger's closest allies should have been his biggest enemies - the FBI agents who cooked him dinner and tipped him off about investigations into his Winter Hill crime gang in the 1970s and 1980s.

Jurors in Bulger's murder and racketeering trial will get a second day of testimony on Friday from former FBI supervisor John Morris, who has described a cozy relationship among he, another corrupt agent and the gangsters they were meant to be keeping off the streets.

Once one of the most feared men in Boston, Bulger, 83, is charged with killing or ordering the murders of 19 people as head of Boston's violent Winter Hill Gang, which ran extortion and gambling rackets for decades.

The trial, which began June 12, has given the jury a glimpse of an era when machine-gun toting mobsters shot associates who talked too much and buried bodies under bridges in a bloody struggle for control of the criminal underworld.

But it also has shown a dark side of the FBI during that period, when some former agents are alleged to have traded information with Bulger and his gang to help them elude arrest and murder "rats" who spoke to police.

Morris said on Thursday that he and fellow ex-FBI agent John Connolly - who cultivated Bulger as an informant - would invite Bulger and his associate Steven "The Rifleman" Flemmi to dinner, where they would trade information and gifts.

Connolly apparently got so rich on kickbacks that he began wearing jewelry and bought a boat and a second home on Cape Cod, Morris said, adding that he too had accepted at least $5,000 in cash directly from Bulger and provided tips.

"I felt helpless. I didn't know what to do. I felt awful about everything," he said.

Morris, who now works as a part-time wine consultant, was granted immunity from prosecution in 1998 in exchange for his testimony in hearings about FBI misconduct.

His description of Bulger as an FBI informant on Thursday caused Bulger to swear at him and call him a liar.

Bulger has adamantly denied providing any information to law enforcement officials, contending that he paid them for tips, but offered none of his own. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He faces possible life in prison if convicted.

Bulger's story has fascinated Boston for decades and inspired the 2006 Academy Award-winning Martin Scorsese film, "The Departed," in which Jack Nicholson played a character loosely based on Bulger.

He fled Boston after a 1994 tip from Connolly that authorities were preparing to arrest him. He evaded capture for 16 years, even though his name was prominent on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list of fugitives.

Connolly is serving a 40-year prison term for murder and racketeering.

Bulger's attorneys have spent much of the past few days attacking the reliability of the FBI's 700-page informant file on him, which they contend was fabricated by Connolly to provide a cover for his frequent meetings with the gang boss.

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/line-between-cops-robbers-blurs-bulger-trial-110350697.html

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Texas Senator Gains Fame for Antiabortion Filibuster (WSJ)

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Researchers find zinc's crucial pathway to the brain

June 26, 2013 ? A new study helps explain how parts of the brain maintain their delicate balance of zinc, an element required in minute but crucial doses, particularly during embryonic development.

The study, led at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) by Mark Messerli in collaboration with scientists from the University of California, Davis, shows that neural cells require zinc uptake through a membrane transporter referred to as ZIP12.. If that route is closed, neuronal sprouting and growth are significantly impaired and is fatal for a developing embryo. Their discovery was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This particular transporter is an essential doorway for many neurons in the central nervous system," explains Messerli. "You knock out this one gene, this one particular pathway for the uptake of zinc into these cells, and you essentially prevent neuronal outgrowth. That's lethal to the embryo."

Previously, scientists thought that zinc could use more than one pathway to enter the cell during early brain development. Some other elements, like calcium, enjoy such luxury of multiple options.

Knocking out ZIP12, affected several critical processes in the brain, the scientists found. For example, frog embryos were unable to develop their neural systems properly. Additionally, neurons had trouble reaching out to connect to other neurons; their extensions were both shorter and fewer in number than normal.

"We were surprised that ZIP12 was required at such an early and critical stage of development," said Winyoo Chowanadisai, a researcher in nutrition at the University of California at Davis and visiting scientist in the Cellular Dynamics Program at the MBL. Dr. Chowanadisai was the first on the team to realize that ZIP12 is expressed in such abundance in the brain."This study also reinforces the importance of periconceptional and prenatal nutrition and counseling to promote health during the earliest stages of life."

ZIP12 is part of a larger family of transporters involved in the movement of metal ions from outside the cell. Other reports showed that simultaneously blocking 3 other transporters in the family -- including ZIP1, 2, and 3 -- had no major effects on embryonic development.

Zinc is needed for healthy neural development, helping the brain to learn and remember new information. However, too much zinc can also be problematic.

The research team is investigating the implications of their results on processes like embryonic brain development and wound healing.

"[The result] was not expected," said Messerli, a physiologist in the MBL's Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Enginering and Cellular Dynamics Program. ""We found that zinc uptake through ZIP12 is a regulatory point for neuronal growth, required for development and possibly required for learning and memory throughout life. We want to elucidate the downstream targets that zinc is affecting. That's the next exploration."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/7oxtNlIxpwk/130626162822.htm

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Kotaku A Note About 'Brutal' Comments and a Kotaku For Everyone | Jalopnik Driving Volkswagen's 261

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Mapping genes of a horse from 700,000 years ago

In this undated photo provided by Ludovic Orlando via Nature, two pieces of a 700,000-year-old horse metapodial bone, just before being extracted for ancient DNA, are shown. From a tiny fossil bone found in the frozen Yukon, scientists have deciphered the genetic code of an ancient horse about 700,000 years old _ nearly 10 times older than any other animal that has had its genome mapped. The work was published Wednesday, June 26, 2013, by the journal Nature and discussed at a science conference in Helsinki. (AP Photo/Ludovic Orlando via Nature)

In this January 2010 photo provided by the journal Nature via Przewalski's Horse Association, a Przewalski's horse is shown in Khomyntal, western Mongolia, in one of three reintroduction sites. From a tiny fossil bone found in the frozen Yukon, scientists have deciphered the genetic code of an ancient horse about 700,000 years old _ nearly 10 times older than any other animal that has had its genome mapped. The researchers also found new evidence that the endangered Przewalski's horse, found in Mongolia and China, is the last surviving wild horse. It is genetically distinct from domestic horses. (AP Photo/Przewalski's Horse Association via Nature, Claudia Feh)

HELSINKI (AP) ? From a tiny fossil bone found in the frozen Yukon, scientists have deciphered the genetic code of an ancient horse about 700,000 years old ? nearly 10 times older than any other animal that has had its genome mapped.

Scientists used new techniques and computing to take DNA from a 5-inch fossil fragment ? most of which was contaminated with more modern bacteria ? and get a good genetic picture of an ancestral horse. The work was published Wednesday in the journal Nature and discussed at a science conference in Helsinki.

The research gives a better insight into the evolution of one of the most studied mammals. Perhaps more importantly, it opens up new possibilities for mapping the genetic blueprints of all sorts of ancient animals from early human ancestors to mastodons to mammoths to bison, said study lead authors Ludovic Orlando and Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen.

This "is breaking the time barrier," Willerslev said.

The previous oldest animal fossil genetically mapped had been an ancient relative of Neanderthals called the Denisovans, from about 75,000 years ago, found in a Siberian cave.

The ancient horse was probably about the size of current Arabian horses, the researchers said. It didn't have the same genes for large muscles that make today's breeds good for racing, and it was larger than researchers once thought, Orlando and Willerslev said.

The new mapping techniques, which involve all sorts of technical changes, could be used not just with fossils from frozen areas like Canada's Yukon and Russia's Siberia, but also from more temperate climates, and may eventually allow researchers to map animal genomes from 1 million years ago, Orlando said.

Ross MacPhee, curator of mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, who wasn't part of the research, said the accomplishment suggests "there's no reason in substance why we couldn't go back further."

"I think it's cool," said another outside expert, Edward Rubin, who heads the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute and has deciphered Neanderthal and cave bear DNA.

"We can always keep our fingers crossed that (DNA from) an ancient hominid will be found in one of those environments that have been cold," perhaps even the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans, he said.

Orlando and Willerslev said it doesn't have to be that cold, but much of the most ancient human development was in Africa where the hotter climate makes DNA disintegrate faster. Still, there were enough hominids in temperate climates to give hope for older genome sequencing of some of our ancestors, they said.

There was a lot of junk in the Yukon fossil that wasn't horse but bacteria, Orlando said. He said for every 200 DNA molecules they sequenced, only one was from the horse.

The research estimated that the evolutionary tree split that led to horses on one branch and donkeys on the other happened about 4 million years ago.

The analysis also found new evidence that an endangered animal called the Przewalski's horse, found in Mongolia and China, is the last surviving wild horse. It is genetically distinct from domestic horses.

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Ritter reported from New York.

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Online:

Journal Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature

___

Seth Borenstein can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-06-26-Ancient%20Horse%20Genome/id-79f2535ea1124e8bb7fd924a70087831

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