What does Iconocast do? We receive health and science press releases from major research institutes, government agencies, and universities daily. These are articles and press releases that are sent to all publishers regularly. Do we also borrow news from other publishers? Yes, we do and so do many other major Internet publishers such as SeattleTimes.com (from almost all publishers), Washingtonpost.com (from all publishers) and CBS News (from WebMD.com and many other websites and blogs). However, contrary to these publishers, Iconocast adds value to the content presented. The new Iconocast technology provides the most accurate updates on important and valuable health and science news inside a (green-border) table (Google News). Are past news or articles worth searching? Yes, we believe past articles are still valuable if they are effectively updated. Majority of these articles are truly timeless.
How does it work for today's article? Before showcasing today's article, the new Iconocast algorithm also presents links to substantially more views, articles, and news inside a Green Border Table in regards to the article on the page. In most cases the first or second links provided by Google News inside the table is to the original source of the article. Most people click on those links and land on the page where the original article is located. Website that participate in Google news and their articles show up in Iconocast have experienced an increase in traffic (also from the back-links or the link popularity that Iconocast provides). If you are not participating in Google news, Google will be happy to consider your site. We also strongly believe the more views and news about the same article, the more information, intelligence, and much more trustworthy is that article. This is an effective way for the reader to expand on the information and make sure that the article has validity and is reliable. Let us examine some examples. Take a look at this article: The Associated Press : Ad gives hot dogs a bum rap, experts say. If you examine both Google News and Google Scholar results, you get much more important news on what really causes colon cancer, what might help, what prevents, and what is more risky than the poor Hot Dogs. Of course we can never compete with a company as larger as the The Associated Press, however, we strongly believe we have justifiably added value over what they are presenting. Here is another example : CIA, FBI push 'Facebook for spies' If you examine the Google News Table, you get an expanded view of the activities (private social networking system for the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency called A-Space), and Google Scholar will give you important legal issues, privacy issues, and other important intellectual views.

Here is another example: Sarah Jessica Parker Removes Trademark Mole. Notice there are more than 100 articles that validate the news about the mole disappearance. After seeing the links to all these 100 article, don't you feel a bit more confident that the mole is really gone? Or check out this one : Miley Cyrus Without Clothes On in the Shower ; is this true? Fake? If you examine the information and news inside the Green Border Table on the page, you will quickly realize they are fake. These two examples and many, many other examples we can bring justify a system of check and balances to examine the validity of what people actually put out on the Internet. One can confidently say that Iconocast is based on our correct system of "Check (- the article) and Balances (- Google News)". No other News Agency provides the same service as Iconocast does. Everyday, Iconocast is viewed, searched and utilized by FBI, CIA, US Military (more than 54,000 hits so far for September), US Government (more than 29000 hits for September; see the table below), NSA, almost all private background checking agencies, NBC News, Apple Computer, Government News Agencies, Department of Health, CDC, and many other health related websites.

What is the significance of our system? To do a quick search in Google News on the relevant keywords of the article, we are able to identify what each article is about by just examining the title of the article. How reliable is our system? Look at this example : How much risk can you handle? Making better investment decisions. The system correctly identifies the keywords: "you + risk + investment" right at the top of the Green Border Table. This is not an easy task. There are just too many other words in that title such as: How + much + can + handle + Making + better + decision. All these words were correctly eliminated. We strongly believe we have achieved something substantial here.
In addition, Iconocast is the very first International Multimedia News Library, providing updated archived news translated to more than 7 languages.

It is now well known that satellite dish (tv) and the start of the Internet were very instrumental in break up of the tyrannical regime of Soviet Union. I say why stop there? Why not translate our good values (healthy living, healthy eating, quality arts, book reviews, green living, ..... ) in the western free society for everyone in the world? Compared to racy television programs that are translated today (e.g. Bachelorette, Lipstick Jungle), isn't this a better representation of the western values? Iconocast main focus are health, science, technology, and arts. In some cases we have also collected business, real estate, books review, entertainment, gossip, and movie review.
Iconocast acts only as a library for these collections. What does it mean by library? It means we do not present these articles on daily basis (contrary to the news we receive from Universities and research institutes; there is no gossip news on today.htm page). We only save them for future reference and of course these articles can always be searched inside Iconocast by using the Google Search below on this page. In reality we recycle the past content (gossips and entertainment news) with today Google News. We do not intend to violate any copyright laws. If we have missed a link to the original article, we will correct this error. Iconocast is the very first Internet Library that is capable of recycling (value added) the past content. Just not too long ago there was a news (gossip) regarding the iPod effect on Heart Pacemaker. Two weeks later it was known that iPod has absolutely no effect on Pacemaker. Iconocast is the only Internet Library that corrected this content (gossip and rumors) by providing recent Google News at the top of the mentioned article which refuted the iPod harm on pacemaker. I wish someone could have calculated the loss to Apple computer for that period of doubt and more important the loss to the society for temporarily losing its trust on one of the best gadgets ever invented. Take a look at this one: Leaked Document Shows Verizon's Psyops Anti-iPhone Propagands. Now if you examine the Google News Table, you get a better, fair and expanded view on iPhone and all the neat things it can do. Isn't this more fair? You also get competitive analysis, and news on future Google Cell Phone Android. This is what we call check, expand, fair, and balance. Because there are so many wild and unchecked information on the Internet, some people joke that WWW stand for Wild Wild Web. We just like to hopefully remove the sarcasms.

I personally love the music of Amy Winehouse. It is a shame how much garbage is written on the Internet about Amy (e.g.:Amy Winehouse's hair extentions harvested from corpse). It is just as if we love to destroy and tear apart personalities and characters if they are famous or talented. We should wait another 100 years until someone with her talents give us enjoyment.
We strongly believe there is a justified opportunity for correcting gossips and false accusations, and it is to the advantage of the society for a healthy rule of mass communication and intelligence. Iconocast can also be used as an instrument that can remove burden of the liability of the shoulders of those who distribute false news and gossips unknowingly. How important is this effort? Recent article such as "Lawsuits Against Bloggers Seen Rising; Since 2004, 159 Court Actions Have Targeted Citizen Journalists for Libel and Other Charges" is a good indication.
In summary, there is really no difference between Iconocast and your city library with one unique advantage that Iconocast adds value by recycling the news with today's content.
And finally, I like to dedicate this website to the loving memory and honor of Tim Russert and his inspiring legacy. Just like us, he loved the News. He used to say if it's Sunday, it's meet the press. We like to say, if it's in the Internet, it is either expanded, updated, validated or refuted in Iconocast, not just in English, but in Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Italian, ......

Creative People

Here are the steps to creativity and secrets of creative people. No one has ever got off the bed and was a Picasso. No one!

My suggestions to those who like to be creative is to find something, a task, hobby, or profession that you find purified, noble and virtuous. Then copy your favorite leader, teacher, master or mentor. We all have to start with copying before we are creative in our fields. Even the most successful surfer, surgeon, rock climber had to copy his/her first teacher. At first, Picasso also copied. It does not matter how long you have to imitate, copy, plagiarize (give the credit of course), duplicate, or replicate. It does not matter. Don't forget you have to find what you do purified, noble and virtuous. If you don't, it will not work for you. It never works. What about those who have been copied? The smart and open minded have a saying: "Imitation is the highest form of flattery". The closed minded who were lucky once, complain.....This closed mindedness impedes creativity in our great country. Should you be happy that you copy? No! Absolutely not, and through this unhappiness that is the motivation you gain to become creative.

OK, you might think we are a bit unorthodox here and claim things (copying and plagiarizing) that might make people roll their eyes. So we like to bring some great and unique examples. We truly believe copying and plagiarizing will only help those who are true to their tasks and truly find what they do noble and virtuous. We strongly believe these are the people who will eventually become creative and will lead greatly. Do we have an example? Yes we do. Boston University, where Dr. King got his Ph.D. in systematic theology, conducted an investigation and found that he plagiarized major portions of his doctoral thesis. We do not mention this to diminish Dr. King's accomplishments. Totally contrary. We only mention this to foster our own argument. We strongly believe the creativity will eventually come to people once they gathered more insights. And, so did Dr. King. How do you think Japanese did it? How did they become so creative? They copied in 50s and 60s. When they were able to accumulate enough insights into building Cars, TVs,....they stormed out with creativity and ingenuity. Ronald Reagan enjoyed quoting Thomas Paine ("We have it in our power to begin the world over again."! ). Kelsey Grammer was imitating Bob Hope in Frasier and his Dad was John Wayne. Now imagine putting these two characters in one show. What do you get? Cheers! Where was the creativity? The creative part was the fact that you did not notice it. It was done with so much skill and creativity that it was not noticeable.

I like to make sure I am clear on the fact that it is the task that must be found noble and virtuous and not copying or plagiarizing. Copying is never noble, however, if you find the task noble, we believe copying will help and will lead toward creativity. Barak Obama also quotes Thomas Paine when he says I am Citizen Of The World! Did anyone notice? Of course they do. But since they have so much respect for Barak or even they, themselves, copy (I mean the so called elite themselves) they shot their mouth. Does Barak ever says Thomas Paine said it first in sometimes around 1774 (giving credit)? No! I like to challenge Barak to come up with some new and creative stuff and so did John F. Kennedy (And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what, together, we can do for the freedom of man.). Here what I suggest to Barak. Motivate people to become creative again. Ask them not to leave their job for day trading. Challenge people to study science and engineering again. Challenge parents to appreciate creativity in their children.

The moral of the story? Everyone copies. Only those who truly find the task, the occupation, the career noble and virtuous and will concentrate to perfect it and develop insights, will be creative. Why did entrepreneurship and creativity flourished in Ronald Reagan Era? Because Ronald Reagan was himself creative and a political entrepreneur ("I will not make age an issue...I am not going to exploit my opponent's youth and inexperience" ). Lucky are those who find serving their community and this great country noble and virtuous.

In the process of copying, you will concentrate on the task. Then you develop insights about the task. The trick is to combine finding nobility, concentration and developing insights in a spiral circle. Each will strengthen the other in a spiral manner on a circle. In other words, the more you find the task purified, noble and virtuous, the more you will concentrate and the more you will develop insights. The more you concentrate, the more you will find it virtuous and the more you will develop insights. The more you develop insights, the more you will concentrate and the more you will find it virtuous. Each must help the other grow and become stronger and stronger. This is essential in the process. We call this the tornado process. Nobility, concentration and insights are the winds of the tornado and each wind pushes the other to make the tornado stronger and stronger. If the tornado process does not happen, the creativity is not there.

Inside the tornado process you need to develop good observation techniques. You will develop more intuition about the task and how to do it even better than your mentor or master. This will be the turning point from just copying to becoming creative.

Hopefully, it will come the day that you will realize you can be creative. It will just come to you. Believe me it will. One day you will find yourself in a Picasso kind position. It might take 5 years or 5 weeks or 5 days. It all depends how much natural talents you have, how powerful is your tornado, and how much you love what you do. We can not say for certain what talent is. Is it a byproduct of the tornado effect? We don't know. We believe it is. We like to believe we are all talented. We are. We just need to discover our own tornado process. Each one of us has a tornado process hidden somewhere. You need to find your own tornado process.

What are the sign of the tornado process?

If you find yourself doing something nonstop with an amazing energy you never thought you possessed, you are experiencing the tornado. Say, you can not stop playing the piano. You can not stop climbing that rock. You can not stop writing that novel.

These are all the signs of the tornado. Some jobs you do for 5 minutes and you want to die. Say, cleaning your kitchen. Believe me you are not born to clean kitchens or mowing the lawn. And that is good news.

An interesting question would be: How can I find what I am good at? What is my tornado?

I was not introduced to Argentine Tango music and dance until I was 38 years old. Then I discovered some sort of tornado process when I started learning and copying my Argentine dance masters. You need to look for original signs and clues. When I was 25 or even younger I saw an Argentine Tango dance show conducted by Leslie Caron (she was in Father Goose with Cary Grant). I truly found it purified, noble and virtuous. Did I take the second step and the third step (concentration and developing insights into this dance) at 25? No! Unfortunately not. Sad!

Was I too old at age 38? Maybe. The moral of the story is this: If you find something immediately virtuous and noble, do not let go. Here is your clue. If you watch a surfer surfing and you find it immediately noble, do not give up. Go learn surfing. If you find a rock climber, climbing and you find it virtuous, do not just pass by. Go learn rock climbing. If you watch a piano concert and you think you have been mesmerized, do not just say it was just a show. Go learn piano.

Some 15 or 20 years ago, there was a TV show called LA Law. Then, I read in Wall Street Journal, that the application to Law Schools had tripled because of LA Law TV show. This might sound funny to you. But, this is the real tornado process in action for some of the young talented lawyers. There are so may Doctor shows on TV. From Gray Anatomy to ER and Hopkins. They are the best examples of developing tornado process for very young future doctors. So are shows like criminal justice or CSI.

Why are we talking about creativity on this page?

When I started our news publishing business I had no choice but to copy the big and successful Internet news publishers like seattletimes.com or Yahoo News. I had no journalism background. I worked nonstop for 5 years. Sometimes I put like 18 hours or more a day to run this website. Was I happy I could not contribute something new, creative? Of course I was not happy. But this is the price you pay until you get there and become creative. Hopefully there will be a point when you have gatherer enough insights and intuition. When I had enough intuition that I could be creative, I developed our Google news table at the top of every news we publish. I invented a very unique and effective algorithm to discover the keywords from the title of the news. Up to 5 months ago, every news was handled one by one. Now everything is an automatic process done by a software engineered by me. I only hope you find it useful and you also find it creative. One more thing; do I still work 18 hours or more. Sadly the answer is yes. The tornado will never go away. This is the amazing part of the process. Like it or not, once the tornado gets going, you can not stop the tornado. YOU CAN NOT!

Who invented the Tornado Process? The Tornado process (only named by me) is more than 5000 year old method used by Buddhist Monks to meditate. If you think about it, it really applies to anything we do and why we do. Imagine courting a woman. Every man find his woman purified, noble and virtuous. I have met few women who have told me they have never been in love. Tornado is the process of finding love. The first step in finding love is to find a woman or man that you find totally purified, noble and virtuous. You will define the nobility and the ways you believe someone is virtuous. Then you concentrate on that person and then you find insights about her/him. This is the part that every woman says I like him to notice the detail about me. That really mean that she/he wants him/her to develop insights about the opposite. When the tornado develops about a woman or man, love is created.

Who is currently the most famous Tornado man? Perhaps the most famous Tornado man is Michael Phelps. Michael does nothing but swim, eat and sleep. And he has been doing it for more than 8 years now. Last thing I heard was that swimming pools all over the country are filled with kids.

Today I heard they are not going to allow soft baseball in the next Olympics. Why? Because US is too good. This is again the sign of closed mindedness. Next they will ban Basketball and then Swimming,.....

If you like to know more about the tornado process, see www.motivationbook.com.

Looking at beautiful art can act as a painkiller

Beauty is truth, the English romantic poet John Keats once wrote, but according to the latest scientific research it is also a painkiller. Looking at a beautiful piece of art has long been said to have the power to heal emotional wounds but the new research also claims it offers a distraction from physical pain.   Works by Vincent Van Gogh, such as Starry Night [left] and Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus were deemed beautiful while paintings by Fernando Botero [inset] were viewed as ugly The research carried out by the University of Bari in Italy could help vindicate hospitals who are accused of wasting money on art and decor as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients overcome discomfort and pain. A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to contemplate either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly painting, or a blank panel while the team zapped a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been pricked by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when contemplating the ugly paintings or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings. While distractions, such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital patients, Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part. The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process. "Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their aesthetic aspects should be taken into account too," said the neurologist who published her findings in the paper Aesthetic Value of Paintings (And) Affects on Pain Thresholds. "Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. "I think these results show that more research is needed into the how a beautiful environment can alleviate suffering." The 12 volunteers, six female and six male, were picked randomly from the student body at the university and were aged between 22 and 38. They were asked to choose their favourite paintings from the website http://wwar.com/artists/. Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticellis Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by Pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonio Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero. One of the problems with the study for those wishing to reduce pain is the subjective nature of beauty. Edvard Munch's The Scream was deemed by some people as beautiful. "These people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world," said Prof de Tommaso.

Today's Health, Science, Technology, Personal Finance News

(please report bugs and errors: suzanne@liveinfospace.com)

Six dos and dont's of heartburn relief

If you're prone to heartburn, or even if you've got a tough stomach—here are some tips to help stave off tummy troubles.

• Don’t eat spicy, acidic, or fatty foods or drink too much alcohol or lots of caffeinated or carbonated drinks. Limit chocolate, garlic, onions, and peppermint.
• Do sleep on your left side to avoid putting extra pressure on the stomach. Also, keep your head elevated 4 to 6 inches if you suffer from nighttime acid reflux.
• Don’t snack right before bedtime. Stop eating and drinking 3 hours before you lie down.
• Do try to get more fiber in your diet. In addition to improving your overall health, there is some evidence that getting more fiber may reduce heartburn symptoms.
• Don’t smoke. Nicotine relaxes the esophageal sphincter and increases acid production.
• Do watch your weight. Being even slightly overweight puts pressure on the lower esophageal sphincter, causing reflux. Losing just a few pounds can help.

Read more on how to sooth your stomach (free), find out if you're at risk for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (free), and check out our Treatment Ratings for heartburn and GERD (subscribers only).

Tip of the day: Healthy eating for frequent flying

Deactivating a cancer growth promoter

Three enzymes called phosphatases that shut down a molecule called SRC-3 (steroid receptor coactivator 3) could provide a new pathway for fighting cancer, particularly tumors of the breast and prostate, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Molecular Cell.

"This kind of information provides a target for the production of drugs against cancer," said Dr. Bert O'Malley, chair of molecular and cellular biology at BCM. "One can already find drugs that stimulate or inhibit phosphatases in other disease processes."

O'Malley and his colleagues had already determined that SRC-3 is an oncogene or cancer-promoting gene as well as a master switch in the cell. Phosphorylation or adding a phosphate molecule activates its cancer-promoting activities. In this study, the researchers identified three phosphatases that promote removal of the phosphate and thus halt the activity of SRC-3.

Of the three identified, PDXP, PP1, and PP2A, PP1 not only stops SRC-3 activity, it also stops the degradation of the co-activator. SRC-3 then builds up in cells, but without the phosphate, it is a dead molecule that does not function and may even further inhibit tumor growth.

Providing new avenues for fighting cancer is an important outcome of basic science, said O'Malley, who is also associate director for basic research in The Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at BCM. "In cancer right now, many drugs work the same way. They are toxic to all cells. Because the cancer cell grows faster, the drug is more toxic, but there is nothing selective about the process. In the past decade, we have realized that there has to be a better, more intellectual approach to cancer. In fact, some already exist."

For example, the drug Herceptin targets breast cancer cells that carry the protein Her2/neu. Finding drugs that stop the activation of SRC-3, found at high levels in some breast tumors, could provide another avenue of treatment that could target just the cancer cells.

One study, published by Dr. C. Kent Osborne, director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at BCM, showed that women whose tumors have both the Her2/neu protein and high levels of SRC-3 are less likely to be helped by drugs such as tamoxifen and more likely to die quickly of their disease. Finding a way to stop Her2/neu and shut down SRC-3 could make the tumor cell's growth controllable, O'Malley said.

Others who took part in this work include Chao Li, Yao-Yun Liang, Xin-Hua Feng, Sophia Y. Tsia and Ming-Jer Tsai, all of BCM.

Funding for this study came from the National Institutes of Health and the Welch Foundation.

After the embargo lifts, this report can be found at www.molecule.org.

For more information on basic research at Baylor College of Medicine, please go to www.bcm.edu/fromthelab.

Simple device which uses electrical field could boost gas efficiency

With the high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel impacting costs for automobiles, trucks, buses and the overall economy, a Temple University physics professor has developed a simple device which could dramatically improve fuel efficiency as much as 20 percent.

According to Rongjia Tao, Chair of Temple's Physics Department, the small device consists of an electrically charged tube that can be attached to the fuel line of a car's engine near the fuel injector. With the use of a power supply from the vehicle's battery, the device creates an electric field that thins fuel, or reduces its viscosity, so that smaller droplets are injected into the engine. That leads to more efficient and cleaner combustion than a standard fuel injector, he says.

Six months of road testing in a diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz automobile showed that the device increased highway fuel from 32 miles per gallon to 38 mpg, a 20 percent boost, and a 12-15 percent gain in city driving.

The results of the laboratory and road tests verifying that this simple device can boost gas mileage was published in Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly journal published by the American Chemical Society.

"We expect the device will have wide applications on all types of internal combustion engines, present ones and future ones," Tao wrote in the published study, "Electrorheology Leads to Efficient Combustion."

Further improvements in the device could lead to even better mileage, he suggests, and cited engines powered by gasoline, biodiesel, and kerosene as having potential use of the device.

Temple has applied for a patent on this technology, which has been licensed to California-based Save The World Air, Inc., an environmentally conscientious enterprise focused on the design, development, and commercialization of revolutionary technologies targeted at reducing emissions from internal combustion engines.

According to Joe Dell, Vice President of Marketing for STWA, the company is currently working with a trucking company near Reading, Pa., to test the device on diesel-powered trucks, where he estimates it could increase fuel efficiency as much as 6-12 percent.

Dell predicts this type of increased fuel efficiency could save tens of billions of dollars in the trucking industry and have a major impact on the economy through the lowering of costs to deliver goods and services.

"Temple University is very excited about the translation of this new important technology from the research laboratory to the marketplace," said Larry F. Lemanski, Senior Vice President for Research and Strategic Initiatives at Temple. "This discovery promises to significantly improve fuel efficiency in all types of internal combustion engine powered vehicles and at the same time will have far-reaching effects in reducing pollution of our environment."

NOTE: Copies of this study are available to working journalists and may be obtained by contacting Preston M. Moretz in Temple University's Office of News Communications, 215/204-4380 or pmoretz@temple.edu.

A prototype of the original device is available for photos in Dr. Tao's lab at Temple, while the current device being tested on the diesel trucks can be viewed by contacting STWA.

SOURCE CONTACTS:
Rongjia Tao, Temple University, 215/204-7651 or rtao@temple.edu
Joe Dell, SWTA, 610/781-0795 or joedell@live.com

Variety Of Foods The Key For Child Nutrition

New Study Finds Dangerous Carcinogen In Fast-Food Grilled Chicken

The Effect On Muscle Repair And Regeneration Of Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs

• There was a dose dependent decrease in the viability of the satellite cells at 1.0, 10 and 100µM concentrations of simvastatin. At approximately 5.0 µM concentration the viability of the proliferating cells was reduced by 50% (equivalent to the availability of simvastatin in circulation from a 40 milligram dose per day used in some patients). Specifically, the higher end concentrations led to reduced SC proliferation, which would likely negatively affect the muscle's ability to heal and/or repair itself.
  
  
• There was no change in the viability of satellite cells at concentrations of 0.05 or 0.1µM.
  
  
• Cell viability was reduced by approximately half in differentiating cells and myotubes with concentrations of 1.0 and 5.0 µM, respectively.

Wyeth's 'Superbug' Antibiotic, Tygacil (tigecycline), Commended For Innovation And Health Benefit

Life-Extending Kidney Cancer Drug Commended For Health Benefit And Innovation

Natural Viagra? "Horny Goat Weed" Shows Promise In Lab Studies

Novel Mechanism To Reduce Nervous System Inflammation Identified By Researchers

Every Minute Matters During A Stroke

In an editorial response to a report in the September 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine on the efficacy of intravenous thrombolysis treatment in the hours after acute ischemic stroke, Patrick Lyden, M.D., professor of neurosciences and director of the UC San Diego Stroke Center, cautions that the study should not be interpreted to mean that such therapy can be withheld for hours or even minutes.

"The risk of withholding such treatment from patients with acute stroke greatly exceeds the risk of giving it," said Lyden. "The potential for reversing the disabling side effects of stroke declines with every passing minute."

The study, ("Thrombolysis with Alteplase 3 to 4.5 Hours after Acute Ischemic Stroke") by Werner Hacke, M.D. et al, reports the findings from the European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study III (ECASS III).

The design of this study closely mirrored that of the original National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) trial of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) for acute stroke, a pivotal trial that Lyden helped lead that showed the first proven therapy for stroke. The important exception in the ECASS III trial is that the window of therapy was expanded to a period of three to four and a half hours, compared to under three hours in the NINDS trial.

According to Lyden, the very real peril of the BCASS III data is that some may take a slower approach to treating acute stroke.

"Nothing could be more wrong," Lyden states in the editorial. "As we look back on the past decade of thrombolytic therapy for stroke, it is very clear that our focus must remain on the door-to-needle time. Every minute matters during a stroke."

The UCSD Stroke Team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at the UC San Diego Medical Center. Immediate diagnosis of a potential stroke can be made to determine the appropriateness of tPA therapy, approved in 1996 by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of ischemic stroke, which occurs in about 70 to 80 percent of strokes when a blood clot interrupts blood supply to the brain.

Lyden and colleagues at the UC San Diego Medical Center recently completed a first-of-its-kind study of its telemedicine program, which allows the stroke experts real-time visual and audio access to patients and their medical team at remote sites - linking the physicians across long distances to a patient's bedside via computer, using highly sophisticated video, audio and Internet technology to evaluate the patient. The "STRokE DOC" (Stroke Team Remote Evaluation using a Digital Observation Camera) system was proven to enable the consulting physicians to help the local medical team make appropriate treatment decisions, and better decisions than telephone consultations, when evaluating stroke patients across distant sites. The study was published online in Lancet Neurology on August 3, 2008. (View full press release and video at http://health.ucsd.edu/news/2008/8-4-telemedicine.htm.)

Lyden serves as a regular reviewer for journals such as Neurology, Stroke, and the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases. Additionally, he serves as an ad hoc reviewer for Archives of Neurology and Experimental Neurology. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, a charter member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Stroke, and editor the book Thrombolytic Therapy for Acute Stroke.

Source: Debra Kain
University of California - San Diego

An Effective Strategy For Inhibition Of Cirrhosis

Factor Spurring Formation Of Inhibitory Synapses Gives Clues To Neurologic Disorders

Neuroscientists at Children's Hospital Boston have identified the first known "master switch" in brain cells to orchestrate the formation and maintenance of inhibitory synapses, essential for proper brain function. The factor, called Npas4, regulates more than 200 genes that act in various ways to calm down over-excited cells, restoring a balance that is thought to go askew in some neurologic disorders. The findings appear in the September 24 advance online edition of the journal Nature.

Synapses, the connections between brain cells, can be excitatory or inhibitory in nature. At birth, the rapidly developing brain teems with excitatory synapses, which tend to make nerve cells "fire" and stimulate their neighbors. But if the excitation isn't eventually balanced, it can lead to epilepsy, and diseases like autism and schizophrenia have been associated with an imbalance of excitation and inhibition. The creation of inhibitory connections is also necessary to launch critical periods -- windows of rapid learning during early childhood and adolescence, when the brain is very "plastic" and able to rewire itself.

Npas4 is a transcription factor, a switch that activates or represses other genes. The researchers, led by Michael Greenberg, PhD, director of the Neurobiology Program at Children's, demonstrated that the activity of as many as 270 genes changes when Npas4 activity is blocked in a cell, and that Npas4 activation is associated with an increased number of inhibitory synapses on the cell's surface.

The team further showed that Npas4 is activated by excitatory synaptic activity. "Excitation turns on a program that says, 'this cell is getting excited, we need to balance that with inhibition,'" explains Greenberg, who now also chairs the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.

Finally, the researchers bred live mice that lacked Npas4, and found evidence of neurologic problems - the mice appeared anxious and hyperactive and were prone to seizures.

Greenberg and colleagues are now trying to learn more about the wide variety of genes that Npas4 regulates, each of which could give clues to synapse development and reveal new treatment possibilities for neurologic disorders. "If you have your hand on a transcription factor such as Npas4, new genome-wide technology allows you to essentially identify every target of the transcription factor," says Greenberg. One such target is neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which Greenberg and colleagues previously showed to regulate the maturation and function of inhibitory synapses.

Children's researchers Takao Hensch, PhD, and Michela Fagiolini, PhD, also in the Neurobiology program, plan to study the Npas4-lacking mice to see if they have abnormalities in the initiation of critical periods; colleague Chinfei Chen, MD, PhD, will also study the mice, further probing how their synapses develop.

The study was supported by the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, the Lefler Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Yingxi Lin, PhD, was first author.

Citation
Activity-dependent regulation of GABAergic synapse development by Npas4.
Lin Y; et al.
Nature Sep 24, 2008 [advance online publication.
The article can be viewed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature07319.

Children's Hospital Boston is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. More than 500 scientists, including eight members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 members of the Institute of Medicine and 12 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Children's Hospital Boston today is a 397-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Children's also is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

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