New mouse model helps explain gene discovery in congenital heart disease

ScienceDaily (June 26, 2012) ? Scientists now have clues to how a gene mutation discovered in families affected with congenital heart disease leads to underdevelopment of the walls that separate the heart into four chambers. A Nationwide Children's Hospital study appearing in PLoS Genetics suggests that abnormal development of heart cells during embryogenesis may be to blame.

When babies are born with a hole in their heart (either between the upper or lower chambers), they have a septal defect, the most common form of congenital heart disease. Although it's not clear what causes all septal defects, genetic studies primarily utilizing large families have led to the discovery of several causative genes.

Vidu Garg, MD, the study's lead author, previously reported that a single nucleotide change in the GATA4 gene in humans causes atrial and ventricular septal defects along with pulmonary valve stenosis. In mice, the GATA4 gene has been shown to be necessary for normal heart development and its deletion leads to abnormal heart development.

"While GATA4 has been shown to be important for several critical processes during early heart formation, the mechanism for the heart malformations found in humans with the mutation we previously reported is not well understood," said Dr. Garg, a pediatric cardiologist in The Heart Center and principal investigator in the Center for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

To better characterize the mutation, Dr. Garg and colleagues generated a mouse model harboring the same human disease-causing mutation. They saw heart abnormalities in the mice that were consistent with those seen in humans with GATA4 mutations. Upon further examination, they found that the mutant protein leads to functional deficits in the ability for heart cells to increase in number during embryonic development.

"Our findings suggest that cardiomyocyte proliferation deficits could be a mechanism for the septal defects seen in this mouse model and may contribute to septal defects in humans with mutations in GATA4," said Dr. Garg, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "This mouse model will be valuable in studying how septation and heart valve defects arise and serve as a useful tool to study the impact of environmental factors on GATA4 functions during heart development."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Chaitali Misra, Nita Sachan, Caryn Rothrock McNally, Sara N. Koenig, Haley A. Nichols, Anuradha Guggilam, Pamela A. Lucchesi, William T. Pu, Deepak Srivastava, Vidu Garg. Congenital Heart Disease?Causing Gata4 Mutation Displays Functional Deficits In Vivo. PLoS Genetics, 2012; 8 (5): e1002690 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002690

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

patrice patrice tether lana peters lana peters jennifer nettles jennifer nettles

This Is What Child Birth Looks Like, From the Inside [Science]

Back in 2010, a team of German doctors announced that they'd recorded the world's first MRI of a woman giving birth. Back then, only still images were available—but now the researchers have released the video, and it's spellbinding. More »

derrick williams railgun jk rowling new book between two ferns ihop statins chardon

AP source: Obama to make first campaign bus trip

President Barack Obama stops at The Varsity restaurant, Tuesday, June 26, 2012, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama stops at The Varsity restaurant, Tuesday, June 26, 2012, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is ramping up a fresh phase of his re-election bid with a bus tour next week, focusing more on direct engagement with voters and less on ritzy fundraisers.

Obama's two-day road trip through Pennsylvania and Ohio, two key battleground states in the November election, kicks off July 5, a campaign official said. It will be the president's first bus tour of the 2012 campaign.

The bus trip also will coincide with the release of the monthly nationwide jobs report, a key economic indicator that could directly affect the president's re-election prospects. The most recent report, for May, showed a slight uptick in the unemployment rate, raising fears among Obama aides of an election-year economic slowdown.

While Obama has been running for re-election for months, his efforts thus far have focused largely on hauling in cash from supporters in dozens of fundraising events across the country as his campaign seeks to compete with energized Republican donors. He spent the early part of this week on a two-day, four-state fundraising blitz that brought in more than $5 million.

The president will still headline campaign fundraisers through the fall, but the official said Obama's schedule would start to include more of a mix of campaign rallies and other events focused on speaking directly to a wide swath of voters in the states Obama needs most in order to hold the White House.

Further underscoring his strategy shift was his campaign's announcement this week that Jennifer Psaki, a former senior White House aide, was joining the president's re-election team as traveling press secretary.

Ohio and Pennsylvania, with 38 electoral votes between them, are crucial to the president's re-election bid. Obama won both states in 2008, but Republican rival Mitt Romney is expected to make a strong play for each.

Just over four months from Election Day, Obama aides consider Ohio a toss-up but believe Pennsylvania is leaning in the president's favor. Romney took a bus tour of his own through Ohio and Pennsylvania earlier this month.

Obama has turned to bus tours before when he needed to reconnect with voters. Last summer, after a bruising fight with congressional Republicans that brought the government to the brink of fiscal default, the president hit the road for a Midwestern bus tour aimed at refocusing his presidency on the economic issues affecting the middle class. He followed it up with a fall trip through Virginia and North Carolina.

Rolling through swing states on a campaign bus allows Obama to engage in more of the informal, retail-style politics that can be hard to achieve in the highly scripted White House. Between his scheduled events, the president is sure to make surprise visits to restaurants and small businesses or stop to greet voters gathered on the side of the road to watch his motorcade.

Obama's itinerary for the bus trip was still being finalized, but the official said the president probably would hold events in northern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The official insisted on anonymity in order to discuss details of the trip before an official announcement from the campaign.

___

Follow Julie Pace on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

cnn debate equatorial guinea marine helicopter crash chicago weather star jones wheres my refund photo of whitney houston in casket

Egypt denies Morsi gave interview to Iran's Fars agency

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

match play championship the national enquirer marie colvin cm punk cm punk lint justin theroux

Robotics and Computers: Curing Paralysis ? Urban Times

Pin It

With the help of a robotic arm, a paralyzed woman took a sip of coffee unaided for the first time in 15 years.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reports?that two paralyzed patients in the United States have successfully managed to control a robotic arm using only their thoughts. This remarkable scientific achievement is the result of a collaboration between Brown University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Department of Veteran Affairs.

58-year-old Cathy Hutchinson is shown in a video controlling a robotic arm and taking a drink from a flask of coffee. For years, Hutchinson had been paralyzed from the neck down, relying on the aid of others to perform simple, daily chores.

What is the secret behind this latest miracle? A tiny sensor chip implanted in the brain. The sensor is linked to a computer, allowing the brain to send signals to control the robotic arm. Theoretically, the arm would allow patients to perform basic daily chores that would otherwise require the assistance of a healthy, mobile assistant.

Credit: Un ragazzo chiamato Bi via Flickr

The new ability to control a robot with the mind is certainly wonderful news for patients suffering from paralysis. Unfortunately, while many new devices are constantly being invented to help people with disabilities function independently, there are still many patients who are solely reliant on others for assistance. The burden of relying on a caregiver, not to mention the strain caregivers must endure, make it difficult for the families of patients to live ordinary lives. ?In many cases where patients are entirely dependent on others, the mind is still completely functional. Mind-controlled robotic technology could drastically improve the quality of life for these patients and their caregivers.

While new technology such as mind-controlled robots are certainly a step in the right direction, these robots cannot yet grant complete independence to those who are paralyzed. Professor Leigh Hochberg, speaking to the BBC about the long-term goals of the robot project, said the team aims to reconnect the brains of paralyzed patients to their limbs. Effectively, the team aims to remove the robotic middle-man and completely ?fix? paralysis. The same technology would also allow amputees to control prosthetic limbs using the neural interface, restoring mobility.

Credit: Frankenstoen via Flickr

Replacing lost limbs with robotic prosthetics certainly sounds a lot like something from a science fiction novel. Professor Hochberg admits that the team?s long term goals are ?distant ambitions?, but they remain optimistic. It?s difficult to say when the new technology will be ready for widespread use, however.

While scientists continue their research, it may be time for society to consider the implications of these new discoveries. How could we adapt to robotic limbs? What sort of patients would be best suited to using the technology? Perhaps more pressingly, how could we reduce the costs of producing the technology so that it can become widespread medical equipment? If we have finally found a way to return freedom to paralyzed patients, then we must work diligently to ensure that we remove all the other barriers to the technology in the future.

nfl nfl cruise ship italy patriots broncos game saints willis mcgahee willis mcgahee

Nexteer Automotive ? Ahead of the Curve | Nexteer Provides ...

? Go Back

June 25, 2012

Advances in company?s software enables tuning of vehicle steering feel to suit local driver expectations

PARIS???Specialist electric power steering supplier Nexteer Automotive is enabling global vehicle manufacturers to create custom steering calibrations to suit different local market requirements. The company?s ride and handling experts and in-house software engineers have provided the first customers with electric power steering (EPS) systems tuned to provide certain markets with different levels of feel, feedback and refinement.

?The perceived quality of a vehicle?s steering by drivers in key markets is a critical part of any global vehicle platform?s commercial success,? said Laurent Bresson, Nexteer?s President and COO. ?Drivers in some markets, such as the UK, expect higher levels of road-feedback than drivers in other markets. Nexteer?s high precision mechanical design and the strength of our in-house software expertise is making it viable for manufacturers to commission custom steering set-ups for some markets.?

A vehicle?s steering feel is influenced by a range of parameters, including suspension geometry, tire and bushing stiffness, spring rates, mass distribution, but the quality of the EPS system is critical. The basis for good steering feel is a mechanical system with low levels of inertia and friction, combined with a high-resolution steering sensor and a smooth assist motor. With intelligent control algorithms and ride and handling engineers adept in tuning the software, it is then possible to create custom set-ups that meet both global brand characteristics and local market requirements.

?Designing the complete system and developing the software entirely in-house gives Nexteer precise control of all the variables, allowing us to calibrate the steering more quickly,? Bertram Moeller, EPS Technology Manager., Nexteer Automotive. ?Using our own specialist software, a custom set-up for a specific local market can be very fast. Much of the driver?s perception of the vehicle?s behaviour and the road?s surface is communicated through the steering system, so the effect on the finished vehicle can be significant, helping to ensure a successful model launch and higher levels of customer satisfaction.?

Nexteer?s developed the algorithms in its control software in-house to provide the necessary range of control and operational robustness for all its EPS systems, regardless of whether the application is a large off-road SUV or small city car. While the algorithms define the system?s functionality, the calibration determines the actual timings and levels of the key system outputs, such as damping levels and the filtration of unwanted vibration.

?Our development process begins by creating the necessary mechanical properties in the system to ensure that no unwanted vibrations can interfere with the system?s response,? said Moeller. ?The mechanical tuning is defined early in the programme, when interfaces, bearings and the mechanical links that determine the system?s friction levels are all specified. The subjective tuning of the vehicle?s steering feel then takes place behind the wheel with a laptop.?

A pioneer in steering technologies, Nexteer was the first company to introduce EPS for volume applications in 1999.

ABOUT NEXTEER

Nexteer Automotive is a multi-billion dollar global steering and driveline business solely dedicated to electric and hydraulic steering systems, steering columns and driveline products for original equipment manufacturers. Its 10,000 employees serve more than 60 customers in every major region of the world. The company has 20 manufacturing plants, six engineering centers and 15 customer service centers strategically located in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Nexteer Automotive?s customers include GM, Fiat, Ford, Toyota, Chrysler and PSA Peugeot Citroen, as well as automakers in India, China and South America. www.nexteer.com

www.nexteer.com

?

CONTACT ? ? ? ? ??

Nexteer Automotive:

Press inquiries
Tristan Honeywill
Market Engineering
Tel: +44 1295 277050
Mob: +44 7870 211887
tristan.honeywill@m-eng.com

Commercial inquiries
Sandrine Fallet
Nexteer Automotive
Tel: +33 6 86 07 72 01
sandrine.fallet@nexteer.com

miami dolphins buffalo bills minnesota vikings st louis rams baltimore ravens atlanta falcons ryan tannehill

'Jeopardy!' host 'up and about' after heart attack

FILE - this Oct. 22, 2007 file photo shows game show host Alex Trebek at the 17th annual Broacasting and Cable Hall of Fame awards dinner in New York. Trebek remains in a Los Angeles hospital recovering from a mild heart attack. But Sony Pictures Television spokeswoman Paula Askanas said Monday, June 25, 2012 that Trebek is "up and about and in good spirits" while doctors complete their tests. He has been moved to a regular room, she said. The 71-year-old Trebek was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file)

FILE - this Oct. 22, 2007 file photo shows game show host Alex Trebek at the 17th annual Broacasting and Cable Hall of Fame awards dinner in New York. Trebek remains in a Los Angeles hospital recovering from a mild heart attack. But Sony Pictures Television spokeswoman Paula Askanas said Monday, June 25, 2012 that Trebek is "up and about and in good spirits" while doctors complete their tests. He has been moved to a regular room, she said. The 71-year-old Trebek was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A spokeswoman says "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek is "up and about" in a Los Angeles hospital as he recovers from a mild heart attack.

Sony Pictures Television spokeswoman Paula Askanas said Monday that Trebek is "in good spirits" while doctors complete their tests. She says he has been moved to a regular room.

The 71-year-old Trebek was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday. He's expected to fully recover and be back at work when "Jeopardy!" resumes production for a new season in July.

Trebek was hospitalized for a heart attack in 2007. He has been hosting the popular quiz show for 28 years.

Associated Press

2012 grammy nominations stephen sondheim los angeles news grammys 2011 mike leach mike leach billy graham