Category Archives: Transhuman News

Genetic engineering talk show

By: Victor Rodriguez

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Genetic engineering talk show - Video

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

4-Mar-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-710-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, March 4, 2014Only about 37% of babies around the world are exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The benefits of breastfeeding for both infants and mothers are well-established. The effectiveness of different types of interventions for promoting exclusive breastfeeding in high-income countries is the focus of a Review article published in Breastfeeding Medicine, the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Breastfeeding Medicine website at http://www.liebertpub.com/bfm.

Most interventions designed to encourage women to breastfeed use supportive or educational approaches, with varying levels of success, according to study authors Helen Skouteris and colleagues from Deakin University and University of Melbourne (Melbourne, Australia), and Leeds Metropolitan University (Leeds, UK).

In the article "Interventions Designed to Promote Exclusive Breastfeeding in High-Income Countries: A Systematic Review" the authors evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions, comparing prenatal and postnatal approaches, the duration of the interventions, and identify whether they focus on educating mothers or providing emotional support.

"The search for successful interventions that promote the international goal of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of an infant's life has been continual but inconclusive," says Ruth Lawrence, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Breastfeeding Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics, University of Rochester School of Medicine. "Authors Helen Skouteris and colleagues in their extensive review point out that a trial of more support and interventions in the postpartum period may be critical to solving this issue."

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About the Journal

Breastfeeding Medicine, the Official Journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, is an authoritative, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal published 10 times per year in print and online. The Journal publishes original scientific papers, reviews, and case studies on a broad spectrum of topics in lactation medicine. It presents evidence-based research advances and explores the immediate and long-term outcomes of breastfeeding, including the epidemiologic, physiologic, and psychological benefits of breastfeeding. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Breastfeeding Medicine website at http://www.liebertpub.com/bfm.

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Which interventions are most effective to promote exclusive breastfeeding?

What many didnt realise was that the freaky looking ear was never grown, had nothing to do with genetic engineering and wasnt really a scientific breakthrough at all! Instead, it served as the publics introduction to the new field of tissue engineering, through which researchers attempt to create replacement tissues in the laboratory by combining resorbable materials with stem cells.

Tissue engineers, like those in my laboratory at Kings College London, work to build everything from cartilage to fix creaky arthritic knees to coronary arteries to patch up heart patients. What looked like a human ear grown on a mouse was simply what we call a scaffold, an implantable 3D structure made of a plastic that safely dissolves in the body.

Twenty years later, a UCL-based team led by Dr Patrizia Ferretti is continuing to build on this work to reconstruct ears. Surgeons currently treat microtia, a condition in which children are born with a malformed or missing ear, by taking cartilage from the patients rib and implanting it in the head to form something that looks like an ear.

Dr Ferretti hopes to eliminate the need for this second cartilage-harvesting surgery by growing ear cartilage in the laboratory.

The difference here is that whereas in the 1990s tissue engineers thought that merely forming a scaffold of the correct shape and size would allow us to create a tissue, we now understand that a stem cells perception of its nano-environment plays an important role in determining the tissue it creates.

In short, we can now tailor a scaffold with nano-cues that tell a stem cell to become a liver cell instead of lung.

Dr Ferrettis scaffold does just this. Her team utilises a new nanocaged POSS-PCU scaffold to coax stem cells collected from fat to form cartilage whilst the scaffold slowly melts away.

This exciting material came to light in 2011 when it was used to replace the windpipe of a patient who had to have his own removed because of cancer.

The scaffold here instructed stem cells to create the windpipes lining, essentially using the body as an incubator to help direct their fate. This time, the UCL team utilised a cocktail of chemicals to help push the stem cells to make cartilage, so it remains to be seen if the scaffold will similarly drive ear cartilage formation once placed in the body.

What is clear, however, is that the field of tissue engineering is progressing at a remarkable pace and tailor-made tissues to treat a range of conditions are a real possibility in the near future."

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Commentary: field of tissue engineering is progressing at remarkable pace

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

4-Mar-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, March 4, 2014Nearly a billion people use Facebook, the largest social networking site, but interacting with someone on social media is not the same as meeting them in person. The results of a study to determine whether Facebook exposure increases or reduces arousal during initial face-to-face encounters, especially among socially anxious individuals, are presented in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

"Face to Face Versus Facebook: Does Exposure to Social Networking Web Sites Augment or Attenuate Physiological Arousal Among the Socially Anxious?" Shannon Rauch and colleagues, Benedictine University at Mesa, AZ and Providence College, RI, evaluated the study participants for their level of social anxiety and then exposed each of them to a person via Facebook, a face-to-face encounter, or both. During the exposures the researchers measured physiological arousal using the galvanic skin response measure.

"Results appear to indicate that initial exposure to an individual via Facebook may have a negative impact on consequent face-to-face encounters with that individual for those with high social anxiety," says Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, Editor-in-Chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, from the Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, CA.

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About the Journal

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking is a peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access option and in print that explores the psychological and social issues surrounding the Internet and interactive technologies, plus cybertherapy and rehabilitation. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

About the Publisher

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Meeting face to face vs. meeting on Facebook -- new study on social anxiety