History of Alzheimers

History of Alzheimers Learning From Alzheimers On November 25, 1901, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a 37-year-old neuropathologist and psychiatrist at the Hospital for the Mentally Ill and for Epileptics in Frankfurt, Germany, examined a female patient with an unusual mental illness. Her symptoms included memory loss, language problems, and delusional behavior. After the patient died in 1906, Alzheimer examined her brain and found strange formations of the amyloid plaques and tau tangles. Today, Alzheimers disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. People with Alzheimers progressively lose memory, language skills, and the ability to perceive time and space. The risk of developing Alzheimers also increases with age. Like PD, the underlying disease of Alzheimer starts decade or more before diagnosis. While the exact mechanism by which the disease spread isnt known, the pathology is driven by the aggregation of misfolded proteins either amyloid-beta plaques or tau tangles, or both with the damage spreading from neuron to neuron in a prion-like manner. Alzheimers researchers have recently developed some ingenious tools to help track the disease in the living brain. In 2002, Chester Mathis and the psychiatrist William Klunk developed the PET imaging method to detect and measure amyloid-beta deposition in the brain of living Alzheimers patients. The method involves injecting patients with a radioactive tracer that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier and bind selectively to the amyloid-beta protein. The detectors surrounding the patients head capture the radiation emitted by the tracer and convert them into a picture that represents the relative amounts of plaque buildup in different parts of the brain. PET imaging is an example of a biomarker, a metric that can quantify the progress of a disease in a living patient more sensitively than a clinical test like the UPDRS. No such imaging technique yet exists that can detect alpha-synuclein aggregates in the brains of people with PD. Other potential biomarkers are chemical assays that estimate the amyloid content in a patients cerebrospinal fluid, circulating blood, and urine. In the past decade, with the help of biomarkers, Alzheimers researchers have tested numerous drugs designed to target and break down amyloid-beta plaques. While some showed promise in open-label studies, they all failed when tested in phase 3 trials in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimers. One possible reason is that the drugs were given too late in the disease. To address that issue, Alzheimers researchers are working on three early-intervention studies. The first involves an extended family in South America. They are descendants from an individual who carried a rare mutation, called the Paisa mutation, for a heritable form of Alzheimers disease. By late 20th century, the mutation had spread to around 5,000 people in the city of Medellin. This Alzheimers kindred came to the attention of the University of Antioquia neuroscientist Francisco Lopera. A simple genetic screening test can determine which kindred members possessed the bad gene. Those individuals with the bad gene could be given anti-amyloid-beta drugs long before they showed any cognitive impairments. Loperas project is part of the Alzheimers Prevention Initiative headed by the psychiatrist Eric Reiman at the Banner Alzheimers Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. In the trial, the Paisa volunteers get a baseline cognitive assessment plus a biomarker evaluation (involving PET imaging, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, and other assays) to measure the distribution of amyloid beta. They are given Genentechs drug crenezumab, or a placebo. Researchers follow individuals for at least five years. A second genetic study also part of Banners Alzheimers Prevention Initiative involves 1,300 currently healthy individuals age 60 to 75 in Europe and North America. Members of this cohort are at high risk of developing Alzheimers because they have been identified as carrying two copies of a gene called apolipoprotein E4. Such people are not guaranteed to develop Alzheimers like carriers of the Paisa mutation, but their risk is extremely high. Study subjects will receive either a placebo or one of two experimental drugs developed by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. The third study, known as the A4 trials, is supervised by Dr, Reisa Sperling of Harvard Medical School. It involves a cohort of 1,000 healthy individuals age 70 or older. The individuals in the group exhibit normal cognitive abilities but also have higher than normal levels of amyloid-beta plaques in their brains as measured by a PET scan. This puts them at higher risk for developing Alzheimers. The question is, can that risk be reduced or eliminated? *** PD researchers require imaging and other biomarkers for alpha-synuclein that enable scientists to identify people and also to monitor the disease as it progresses. Chester Mathis and his colleagues are developing a radiotracer that will bind to alpha-synuclein and yield a PET image for PD. The PET tracer is just one element in a bigger Fox Foundation project the Parkinsons Progression Marker Initiative. The idea is to follow several groups of people forward in time performing clinical exams, taking biological samples, and doing multiple imaging scans along the way. Other researchers are looking elsewhere for Parkinsons biomarkers that might allow for early diagnosis. Kathleen Shannon and her colleagues at Rush University Medical Center accessed old colon biopsies performed during routine colonoscopy procedures for three individuals who went on to develop PD. Because these biopsies were done two to five years before the onset of the PD motor symptoms, they provided an opportunity to see if alpha-synuclein was present in the gut before motor symptoms emerged. Another possible place to look for alpha-synuclein is the submandibular gland. Charles Adler of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, biopsied the submandibular glands in twelve people with PD for more than five years and found Lewy pathology in nine of them. The British mathematician Max Little has developed computer algorithms to analyze human voice recordings to detect irregular patterns in PD patients. His PD Voice Initiative uses phone call data as potential biomarkers to diagnose and measure the progression of PD. Key Takeaways Alzheimers researchers have developed some ingenious tools to help track the disease in the living brain.To address the issue that the drugs were given too late in the disease in human drug trials, Alzheimers researchers are working on three early-intervention studies. Inspired by the Alzheimers researchers, PD researchers are working on multiple fronts to develop biomarkers to track PD in the living brain.

The Richness of Olive Oil Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Richness of Olive Oil When I think of olive oil, a picture suitable for a postcard comes to mind: rows of olive groves, pasta figgoli, Pavarotti singing, and Grandma Garone rubbing olive oil on the heads of my father, Vincenzo, and his brother, Francisco. Their hair would take on the Italian look: dark and sheen, slicked back, reminiscent of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Grandpa Garone owned acres of olive groves in a small village outside of Naples in Southern Italy. Each day, his workers collected the olives and made batches of fresh olive oil. When my grandparents came to America in 1925, they smuggled in as much olive oil as they could carry—12 gallons worth—for fear they would find nothing like it here. Pungent, thick, and drab to emerald green in color, olive oil comes from the fleshy pulp of the fruit of an evergreen tree grown exclusively in temperate climates: Spain, Southern Italy, Greece, and, more recently, California. In 1775, the first California olive trees were planted around the state at the various Spanish missions. Today, California’s olive oil industry constitutes less than 0.5 percent of world production because only 3 percent of the 110,000 tons grown in California is used to make olive oil. The rest is canned and consumed as olives; preserving the olives costs less and is more time efficient than pressing for oil. California has four major varieties of olive: Manzanillo, Mission, Sevillano, and Ascalano. The Mission, named for the Spanish missionaries who introduced it, is most commonly used to make oil because of its high oil content and its â€Å"low pit to flesh ratio.† More than 300 other varieties of olives are grown in California. Sounding like female characters in a Fellini film... ... United States, it is unique, compared to the bread and butter usually served in Italian restaurants. By serving the oil with the bread, Kuleto’s is supposedly emulating Italian culture, at a pretty high price. Would this practice be so popular if olive oil tasted more like Crisco? The distinctive flavor, as well as the romantic and pastoral images conjured up by traditional strong olive oils, make this oil a winner in today’s overflowing market. Even the painter Renoir had something to say about olives: â€Å"Regardez cette lumiere dans les oliviers: Ça brille comme un diamant.† (Look at the light in the olive trees: it is brilliant like a diamond.) It is the oil that makes them shine like diamonds. And it is the bucolic images of the Italian countryside that will draw consumers back again and again to the richness of olive oil, both in flavor and on the body.

Ponzi scheme and Madoff Fraud

Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent undertaking whereby the investors are duped into a seemingly profitable deal. The clients are asked to â€Å"invest† their money in a venture to earn huge interest rates. This normally works through the payment of the earlier investors’ interests and principals by using the later investors’ principal amount. This illegal activity got its name after Charles Ponzi of England (1920s). Bernard L. Madoff and Ponzi scheme Bernard Madoff, 70, is the former chairman of Nasdaq Stock Market. He held the position till December 2008 when he was arrested over alleged possibly the largest fraud ever in history.He is the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, which undertakes market-making, and acting as middleman in buying and selling of securities, but is since under receivership after a court order was obtained to place an injunction on its operations by the Security Exchange Commission. (Mike, 2008) It was revealed that Madoff had a separate and secretive investment arm of his firm which was running on a separate floor of their premises. The firm’s financial statements were kept â€Å"under lock and key† and Madoff was â€Å"cryptic† about the firm’s investment arm, according to some top level management employees of the firm.This secret investment arm is the one under investigation due to believe that it is where the Ponzi scheme was perpetrated. (Mike, 2008) Madoff was very smart in playing the Ponzi scheme. He filed false returns with the Securities Exchange Commission, and fabricated gains claiming that its investments together with accounting and audit firms it ran were highly lucrative. At some point for example, Fairfield Sentry Ltd, Madoff’s hedge fund ran by Madoff Investment Services to invest in the shares in Standards & Poor’s 500. Fairfield claimed that its share index had risen by 5.6%, while that of S&P 500 had fallen by more than 30%. Fairfield was late r said to be down by 0. 06% when that of S&P 500 had fallen by about16%. The firm was averaging 10. 5% annually since its inception in 1990. These statistics are quite illogical to believe, and is one way in which Mr. Madoff managed to survive through his Ponzi scheme. (Mike, 2008) The firm’s losses accrued up to $50 billion since it was no longer able to meet its customer demands. This is after clients requested for about $7 billion when they had only about $250 million in the account. (Mike, 2008)Prevention of similar frauds The SEC should be made more proactive. For instance, warnings such as those of Harry Markopoulos, a financial analyst, should have been taken seriously by the SEC since he started his revelation back in 1999. The hedge fund of Mr. Madoff too didn’t register till September 2006, which is too late. Recommendation for enforcement of law, such as Sec. 17 (a) of the Securities Act 1933, Sec. 10 (b) of Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and rule 10b-5 th ere under, and sections 206(1&2) of the Advisors Act of 1940, will also help prevent such frauds.It is worth to make public the reality of rates of interests offered by a firm to its clients. This creates transparency and some sense of genuineness of a firm’s undertaking. The accounting professionals also should be made to learn from such cases to prevent future occurrences of the same vice. Public awareness programs can be broadcasted through media too. This will warn investors to be careful in their choice of investments portfolio. Reference: Mike, S. (2008, December 13th). Biggest Fraud in History $50 billion Madoff Ponzi Scheme. Retrieved April 4th, 2009, from The Market Oracle: http://www. marketoracle. co. uk/Article7769. html.

Rape in India - 1190 Words

Rape in India Brittany Jones As a woman in the United States, rape is the ultimate nightmare, but to women in India it’s everyday life. Many rape victims’ stories just show how the police in India fail to respond adequately to crimes, especially crimes involving children or women. On February 14th, three girls that were five, nine, and 11 were raped and murdered in the village of Lakhni, India. When the girl’s grandfather reported the girls missing to the police nothing was done about it. After two days, the girls were found dead in an old water well. The bodies were reported as â€Å"accidental† deaths. Nobody took any notice to the girl’s deaths until protestors blocked a national highway in uproar of the police inaction. When a†¦show more content†¦The rape of a young child 13 and under could be served a sentence of up to life. However, unlike India the term is expected to be served rather than the convicted just being executed, or in India’s views, hu ng. I personally feel that rape is a very serious crime and it’s something that can also affect someone for the rest of their lives. Reading about India and how lightly they take rape crimes just baffles me. I can’t imagine what the mother of these three little girls was going through, especially with the police having no interest in the fact that her daughters were missing. It’s sad to think that someone could be so heartless to not care about little girls being brutally raped and murder, however I’m sure had it been the police forces children it would have been a whole different story. People these days are not only bias but they tend to care only about their selves and ignore the feelings of others. I’m from a small community where everyone knows everyone and everyone is willing to lend a helping hand. When someone in our town were to die the entire community would come together to help, even if it was just giving their condolences. 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