Stephan: Here is some potentially very good news for those who are deaf. This is just the beginning but it looks promising.
Citation: Bence György, Cyrille Sage, Artur A. Indzhykulian, Deborah I. Scheffer, Alain R. Brisson, Sisareuth Tan, Xudong Wu, Adrienn Volak, Dakai Mu, Panos I. Tamvakologos, Yaqiao Li, Zachary Fitzpatrick, Maria Ericsson, Xandra O. Breakefield, David P. Corey, Casey A. Maguire.
Rescue of Hearing by Gene Delivery to Inner-Ear Hair Cells Using Exosome-Associated AAV.
Molecular Therapy, 2017; DOI:
10.1016/j.ymthe.2016.12.010 Using a novel form of gene therapy, scientists from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital have managed to restore partial hearing and balance in mice born with a genetic condition that affects both.
The new model overcomes a long-standing barrier to accessing hair cells, the delicate sensors in the inner ear that capture sound and head movement and convert them to neural signals for hearing and balance. These cells have been notoriously difficult to treat with previous gene-delivery techniques.
The team’s findings, published in the February issue of Molecular Therapy, show that the treatment leads to notable gains in hearing and allows mice that would normally be completely deaf to hear the equivalent of a loud conversation. The approach also improved the animals’ sense of balance.
An accompanying commentary to the study appears in the same issue.
The investigators caution the approach is years away from use in humans, but […]
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Saturday, January 28th, 2017
Eric Morath and Kris Maher, - The Wall Street Journal
Stephan: Republicans have never liked even the concept of unions, although they are happy to use them as Nixon did the Teamsters and Trump did the Police Union. They argue there is no need for unions or collective bargaining. But as with so much that Republicans believe the actual facts do not support their fantasies. Anyone who cares about actual facts, and who take time to look into unions quickly learns that the creation of the American middle class and the development of unions go hand in hand.
But that truth has been lost in the miasma of conservative disinformation, and just as unions helped create the middle class so the demise of unions correlates with the collapse of the middle class.
The share of American workers in unions fell to the lowest level on record in 2016, showing a return to the downward trend for organized labor after membership figures had stabilized in recent years.
The total number of union members fell for both private- and public-sector workers last year, the first overall decline in four years, the Labor Department said Thursday. New policies from the Trump administration threaten to put more downward pressure on organized labor’s last stronghold, government employees, but might help stem membership losses among manufacturing and construction workers.
Only 10.7% of workers were union members last year, down from 11.1% in 2015, and from more than 20% in the early 1980s. It is unclear whether any of Republican President Donald Trump’s policies could reverse this decadeslong slide in private-sector union membership, especially when unions were unable to gain traction with a union-friendly Democrat in the White House.
The share of union members in the workforce stabilized between […]
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Saturday, January 28th, 2017
Stephan: Here is some good news. The United States has dreadful infant and maternal health outcomes. You would be more likely as a newborn to survive in Botswana than parts of the U.S., say rural North Carolina. According to Modern Healthcare, “U.S. women are more likely to die during childbirth than women in any other developed country." That's what you get in the American Illness Profit System. I have detailed this endlessly.
And in the course of that research I came across the extraordinary tale of the Baby Box, about which I have done several stories. The Baby Box is a simple card board box filled with everything a new baby needs in their first year, and the box itself has a mattress and is designed to be a crib. Scandanavian nations like Norway and Finland, where the idea began, routinely make Baby Boxes available to any new mother who asks for it.
The boxes cost roughly $76, and the data suggests that they save many thousands of dollars in child healthcare expenses, and reduce Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Syndrome. You would think that every state in the country would embrace such a program, but you would be wrong. Except for a single hospital in St. Louis nobody did a thing about Baby Boxes.
But now New Jersey has decided to begin a Baby Box program. Bravo New Jersey.
The Baby box
New Jersey is becoming the first state to officially partner with The Baby Box Company, a company that works to improve new parent education, encourage newborn health awareness and reduce Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Syndrome.
The program will distribute baby boxes filled with diapers and other newborn necessities to all new parents in New Jersey who complete a free online parenting education course. The course curriculum includes information on breastfeeding, prenatal health and safe sleep practices.
The box itself also acts as a mattress that the baby can use as a bed, encouraging healthy sleeping environments. According to a report by the Child Fatality & Near Fatality Review Board, 93 percent of infant deaths associated with Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Syndrome were directly related to a child’s sleep and sleep environment.
Jennifer Clary, co-founder of The Baby Box Company, said she hopes the program encourages […]
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Saturday, January 28th, 2017
Stephan: The Theocratic Rightists through their agency the Republican Party think they have entered the glory days, and that they are closer than ever to moving America into a post-fact era. And they may be right; we'll see. I think a large number of "christian" Americans really are more comfortable in a world of Fascism and fantasy because facts are so inconvenient to their beliefs.
New legislation introduced in a handful of states would allow alternatives to the theory of evolution to be taught in classrooms, the latest wave of measures backed by religious conservatives targeting broadly accepted scientific curriculum.
The measures could also allow teachers to question whether humans are contributing to climate change, something widely accepted by the scientific community. (emphasis added)
South Dakota’s Senate this week approved a measure that prohibits school boards from preventing teachers from questioning established scientific theories. Similar bills are making their way through legislatures in Oklahoma and Indiana.
The bills represent something of an evolution themselves: They do not specifically mention creationism or intelligent design, two alternatives to evolution theory advanced by religious conservatives. Instead, they allow teachers to address the “strengths and weaknesses” of material being taught to students.Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, said the new effort aims to undermine evolution by preventing school districts from blocking teachers who question scientific consensus.
“They’re no longer trying to ban teaching evolution. They’re no longer trying […]
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