Hey! Run, do not walk, over to Margaret’s blog now and read about the work of Jay Bradner, who just may have figured out a way to stop myeloma dead in its tracks. After watching the video below, I started wishing I was a mouse! (The video has since stopped working. Apologies for that!)
Category: Announcements
Quarter-Finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Competition < Read this first
Amazon.com Review
A nicely-paced, intriguingly written story that has a palpable ring of truth in its universal portrait of thorny family dynamics. First person narrator is honest and sympathetic and her observations are smart and articulated with an original style.
Amazon.com Review
The main character, Sarah, is the strongest aspect (at least in this excerpt). She is quite fully realized, very believable and so well drawn that I can easily visualize her. Her reactions as she deals with her problems are realistic. The author has done an excellent job introducing the characters and setting out the problems they face. The needed information is supplied but it is done in an interesting manner
PDF version of excerpt. Download and review!
http://rachelunkefer.com/2011/03/26/more-about-a-useful-life/trackback/
Most of us already knew this.
Nov 2nd, 2010
LONDON (Oct. 31) — Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, according to a new study.
British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole.
Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison.
Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. When considering their wider social effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.
The study was paid for by Britain’s Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and was published online Monday in the medical journal, Lancet.
Experts said alcohol scored so high because it is so widely used and has devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.
“Just think about what happens (with alcohol) at every football game,” said Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam. He was not linked to the study and co-authored a commentary in the Lancet.
When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.
But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.
“We cannot return to the days of prohibition,” said Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and one of the study’s authors. “Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won’t go away.”
King said countries should target problem drinkers, not the vast majority of people who indulge in a drink or two. He said governments should consider more education programs and raising the price of alcohol so it isn’t as widely available.
Experts said the study should prompt countries to reconsider how they classify drugs. For example, last year in Britain, the government increased its penalties for the possession of marijuana. One of its senior advisers, David Nutt – the lead author on the Lancet study – was fired after he criticized the British decision.
“What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science,” said van den Brink. He said considerations about revenue and taxation, like those garnered from the alcohol and tobacco industries, may influence decisions about which substances to regulate or outlaw.
“Drugs that are legal cause at least as much damage, if not more, than drugs that are illicit,” he said.
Source: http://www.aolnews.com/health/article/study-alcohol-more-lethal-than-heroin-cocaine/19696816?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl1|sec3_lnk2|181500
Subject: Advancing Rare Disease Research: The Intersection of Patient Registries, Biospecimen Repositories and Clinical Data
The Office of Rare Diseases Research, National Institute of Health, is sponsoring a workshop entitled “Advancing Rare Disease Research: The Intersection of Patient Registries, Biospecimen Repositories and Clinical Data,” which will be held in the DoubleTree Hotel in Bethesda, Maryland, on January 11-12, 2010.
The workshop objective is to discuss the development of an infrastructure for an internet-based platform with common data elements utilizing a federated rare disease registry able to incorporate:
1. Existing rare disease registries
2. Patient organizations with no registry looking to establish one
3. Patients with no affiliation with a support group looking to belong to
a registry
The expected outcome of the workshop is to gain acceptance of the concept of a federated rare disease patient registry and participation in creating this patient registry from as many curators of patient registries and other stakeholders as possible. Participating stakeholders will discuss harmonizing standardized common data elements, vocabulary, and open source software to enable the exchange of data and information to facilitate research collaborations. The purpose of this effort is to establish a rare disease registry to benefit the rare disease patient and research communities.
A link to the draft agenda is available at the bottom of the registration page http://www.rarediseases.info.nih.gov/patient_registries_workshop/addcontact.aspx
For additional information please contact: Yaffa Rubinstein (ORDR), 301-402-4338.
Sign Language Interpreters will be provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate in this event should contact Yaffa Rubinstein (ORDR), 301-402-4338 and/or the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).
On Saturday, August 22nd , beginning at 2pm, at the Owens Auditorium at the Sandhills Community College, the County Animal Response Team (CART) will be hosting an invaluable event for those owning or caring for pets and/or domesticated animals in Moore County. A free showing of the award-winning documentary, “Katrina Tails,” will be followed by a presentation and discussion about Moore County’s newly-revised Animal Response Plan to be executed during disasters. Call 910-947-2858 for more details.
More information:
GROUNDBREAKING DISASTER PLAN FOR MOORE COUNTY’S ANIMALS
On August 22nd, the County Animal Response Team (CART) will be hosting an invaluable event for those owning or caring for pets and domesticated animals in Moore County. A free showing of the 2008 Accolade Award-winning documentary, “Katrina Tails,” will be followed by a presentation and discussion about Moore County’s newly-revised Animal Response Plan. The event will take place at the Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College beginning at 2pm.
Doug Harris, a Katrina victim, remembers being asked to leave his pets behind: “We were informed that buses would be taking everyone to higher ground and we would not be able to take our pets with us,” he said. “The worst was being forced to walk away from my beloved dogs who loved and protected us for years and would never have done that to us for any reason.”
We are all haunted by the TV footage and photos of scared and hungry animals left behind in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Long after the flood receded, the heartbreak continued as people searched for their lost pets.
Back in 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act into law.
This landmark legislation requires local and state disaster plans to include provisions for household pets and service animals in the event of a major disaster or emergency.
With more than 358 million pets in the country residing in 63 percent of American households, the PETS Act helps ensure that Americans never again are faced with the choice of abandoning their pet and finding their way to safety or staying with their pet and remaining in a hazardous and potentially life-threatening situation.
Moore County’s Animal Response Team is chaired by Scot Brooks, the County Emergency Manager and Deputy Director of Public Safety. It brings together representatives from the NC Department of Agriculture, the County Department of Animal Operations, the Fire Department, the NC Cooperative Extension Service, the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, the NC Veterinary Alliance, the American Red Cross, the Veterinary Medical Assistance Team, and Moore County’s Pet Responsibility Committee.
Over the past two years, the Team has met and worked on an Animal Response Plan which considers not only pets and service animals, but all domesticated animals in Moore County. It has also included provisions for wildlife.
Plans have been made with Southern Middle School in Aberdeen designating it as a “Co-Located Shelter,” that is, a shelter that accepts both people and their pets.
Meetings have been held with a group of local veterinarians and decisions are being finalized regarding locations for the care and treatment of sick and injured animals in a disaster or emergency.
Contact information for local, State and National animal rescue resources has been compiled for quick access. A plan for a database of local volunteers to help with the animals in an emergency is underway.
The event at the end of August is designed to help residents prepare, plan and stay informed regarding the safety of their pets and animals in a disaster.
Members of the CART will be on hand at the event to answer questions and a number of booths will distribute related information. The Moore County CAMET (Companion Animal Mobile Equipment Trailer), a vehicle designed to quickly enable the setup of an emergency pet shelter will also be on display for the public to see, as will an equine ambulance designed to transport injured horses. Residents may also talk to a CART representative about signing up to be a member of the disaster volunteer pool.
In these uncertain times, there is one thing we can unfortunately be sure of: there will be emergencies and disasters. Animals and humans are profoundly impacted by these unexpected and many times unpredictable events. However, with advance preparation by individuals and government agencies working together within a community, the better everyone is able to effectively respond to the crisis.
For more information regarding the event, please call Animal Services at 910-947-2858.