2008: March 24th Good News (Alive! Man Hears Doctors About to Donate Organs, Rhinos in Nepal on Rebound, more...)

Good Afternoon All,

I wanted today to bring your attention to the second honorable mention story. This is about a cambodian girl whose childhood was marred by a burn that left her leg burned to itself. The story is very long, and has some beautiful pictures which I have not included here. I includeed only part one, but I encourage you all to check out the full story at honolulu star bulletin (use the link under the title). It is a very heart warming story.

Also today, we have stories of bringing laptops to African children; a miraculous story of a young man who was about to be used for organ donations, and woke up; a $25 Million dollar donation, and others. I hope you enjoy today's posts, as I have enjoyed reading and finding them for you. :) See you tomorrow!


Today's Top 5:
1. Alive: The Man Who Heard Doctors Declare Him Brain Dead and Prepare to Harvest His Organs (Daily Mail)
2. Teens Bring Laptops to South African Children (NPR)
3. Nepal's Endangered Rhino Population Rebounding (Earth Times)
4. Cheap New Solar Cells Made Much More Efficient (Science Daily)
5. Tattoos Could be Good for Your Health - Tattooed Vaccines, that is (Earth Times)




Honorable Mentions:
1. Gates Foundation Gives $25 Million to WSU (Seattle Times)
2. A Mother’s Relief: Cambodian Teen Reunites with Kin After Medical Work in Hawaii (Honolulu Star Bulletin)



Today's Top 5:

1. Alive: The Man Who Heard Doctors Declare Him Brain Dead and Prepare to Harvest His Organs
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=543721&in_page_id=1811&ito=1490
Last updated at 20:50pm on 24th March 2008

Zach wiggled his foot just in time

A man who was pronounced dead by doctors said last night: "I feel pretty good."
Four months after he was declared brain dead and doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant, Zach Dunlap is on the road to recovery.
Mr Dunlap was pronounced dead November 19 at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, after he was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His family approved having his organs harvested.
But, as family members were paying their last respects, they were shocked to see him moved his foot and hand.
When he reacted to a pocketknife scraped across his foot and to pressure applied under a fingernail, they were stunned.
Dunlap said one thing he does remember is hearing the doctors pronounce him dead.
"I'm glad I couldn't get up and do what I wanted to do," he said.
Asked if he would have wanted to get up and shake them and say he is alive, Dunlap responded: "Probably would have been a broken window that went out."
It seems he wiggled his foot just in time.
After 48 days in the hospital, he was allowed to return home, where he continues to work on his recovery.
Today, he and his family were in New York, appearing on NBC's "Today" morning show.
"I feel pretty good. but it's just hard ... just ain't got the patience," Dunlap told NBC.
Dunlap, 21, of Frederick, said he has no recollection of the crash.
"I remember a little bit that was about an hour before the accident happened. But then about six hours before that, I remember," he said.
His father, Doug, said he saw the results of the brain scan.
"There was no activity at all, no blood flow at all."
Zach's mother, Pam, said that when she discovered he was still alive, "That was the most miraculous feeling."
"We had gone, like I said, from the lowest possible emotion that a parent could feel to the top of the mountains again," she said.
She said her son is doing "amazingly well," but still has problems with his memory as his brain heals from the traumatic injury.
"It may take a year or more ... before he completely recovers," she said. "But that's OK. It doesn't matter how long it takes. We're just all so thankful and blessed that we have him here."
Dunlap now has the pocketknife that was scraped across his foot, causing the first reaction.
"Just makes me thankful, makes me thankful that they didn't give up," he said. "Only the good die young, so I didn't go."




2. Teens Bring Laptops to South African Children
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88922574&ft=1&f=1004
Morning Edition: March 24, 2008

Two teenage sisters from Boston, along with their family and school, have joined forces with an American non-profit organization to provide laptop computers to underprivileged children in South Africa.
It was friendship and respect, they say, that motivated 17-year-old high school senior Hannah Weber and her freshman sister Julia, 15, to help members of the Kliptown Youth Programme, near Johannesburg.
After a school trip to South Africa two years ago, the Weber sisters flew home inspired by their experience and their new-found friends.
Back in Kliptown, excited children smile as they line up for the presentation of the boxed-up mini-machines. The sisters speak under the blazing sun before handing out the laptops they brought to the children.
Hannah tells the story about their first visit to South Africa.
"Kliptown was one of the stops. We spent a few days out of our stay here and we were so touched by the sense of community that these people had. They were so welcoming to us and we just wanted to do something for them and come back and see them again, " she says.
Julia adds, "We saw how strong a sense of community they had and we thought that the laptops would bring a different sense of community, you know, one they have online, with the Mesh network, and we thought it would just be great for them to have this experience."
Larry Weber, the girls' father, says his daughters were so moved by what they had witnessed in South Africa that they shared their experience with piles of photos and many stories — and a desire to do something.
Weber says he happened to have brought home the prototype of the green and white XO computer and was showing it to his children. They said it would be great if the kids in Kliptown could have a chance to use the XO, he recalls.
The laptop is the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a friend of Larry Weber. Negroponte set up the ambitious non-profit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. The idea is to provide durable, low-cost laptops to school-age children all over the world in rural and urban areas.
OLPC has already been introduced to Afghanistan, Haiti, Pakistan and Rwanda. This is their first foray into South Africa.
Weber says the project is "about getting laptops into the hands of the poorest children in the world. There's a lot of brand new technologies that are being used. It's not just about accessing the Internet, that's just a fun thing. There's a technology called Mesh networking that this community will have."
One hundred children will be able to talk to one another, not just through email, but through their XO laptops, wherever they are in Kliptown, or within a 50-mile radius, according to Weber.
"They will also be able to create music together, draw together, play together and have access to download a hundred different textbooks … starting with Zulu and English — and be able to use those textbooks digitally, so it's great," he says.
Weber says that the XO is specially designed for kids, and that each machine is individually identified, with a mini-keyboard for little fingers. It is durable, attractive, practical and able to withstand harsh treatment — and the near-indestructible laptops went through rigorous tests, says Weber.
"First we have an oven that goes up to 180 degrees, make sure that nothing melts. We drop them 10 times from five feet and see if anything breaks. Nothing broke. We dump them in a bathtub and then, my favorite, was burying them in the sand and then taking it out and see if they still work. And they still work!" Weber says.
Laughing, he compared the laptops with the "Energizer Bunny" in the TV commercials, adding that there were only five parts, so it was easy for the children to fix them.
The XO has no hard drive or fan, so should not suck up dust and dirt, according to Weber. It runs on the Linux operating system and stretches wireless networks using Mesh technology.
That enables each computer, either in a village or urban setting, to relay information and data to others.
The computers were meant to cost less than $100 apiece, but are almost double that price. However the project's managers say the cost should drop to below $100 once the machines are mass-produced.
The Webers praise their friend, Thulani Madondo, the dynamic and energetic director of the Kliptown center, which is tucked behind the railroad, down a dirt road in Kliptown. Kilptown is a poor black and mixed-race neighborhood on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
Madondo emcees the event, entertaining dozens of schoolchildren — toddlers to teenagers — parents, grandparents, and local residents.
The Kliptown youngsters welcome their visitors with song, dance and exuberance. The performances raise laughter, cheers, appreciative applause and whistles. Everyone excitedly awaits the moment for the presentation of the laptops.
There are whoops of joy as their names are announced. The young girls and boys parade onto the stage to receive their XOs from Hannah, Julia and their younger brother.
Nelisiwe Walaza, 17, as she clutches her laptop, says, "This is the highlight of my 2008. I'm carrying a laptop and I'm very happy and excited about it. It's a really great opportunity for us, as the youth of South Africa."
Thanking the Weber family and all those who had helped to deliver the computers to Kliptown, Nelisiwe say she will be using the new laptop to help with her schoolwork — "to discover new things that will teach me things that will be educational. Education is the key to success and I think everybody has a right to education and this is going to help us a lot. Thank you."




3. Nepal's Endangered Rhino Population Rebounding http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/194144,nepals-endangered-rhino-population-rebounding.html
Posted : Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:05:05 GMT
Author : DPA

Kathmandu - Nepal's endangered one-horned rhinoceros population was increasing in protected national parks, officials involved in a recent census of the animal population said Monday. The census was carried out recently in Chitwan National Park, about 250 kilometres south-west of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.
The park is well known for its conservation efforts in protecting endangered species including greater one-horned Asian rhinoceros and Royal Bengal tigers.
"A total of 408 rhinos were spotted in the national park during a recent census," Director General of Wildlife Conservation Department Shyam Bajimiya said. "The number is 36 more than the last census in 2005."
The team said it had identified many female rhinos were in their prime which meant the future looked promising for the species.
"The teams were able to identify 100 animals as males and 130 as females but the sex of the remaining rhinos could not be established," Bajimiya said. "The team came across a considerable number of young rhinos during the census."
During the last survey in 2005, the teams were only able to find 372 rhinos and feared for the future of the animals in Nepal's protected areas.
The new finding has generated a wave of optimism among the wildlife officials after years of a rapidly declining population of the animal.
Rhinos are also found in Bardiya National Park in western Nepal since they were translocated there from Chitwan National Park in the 1980s and 1990s to create a viable alternative population.
However, reports last year said many of the rhinos relocated to Bardiya National Parks had either been killed by poachers or were missing.
Nepal listed one-horned Rhinos as an endangered species in the 1960s after the number of animals hit an all-time low of just over 60.
Conservation efforts saw the population rebound to more than 600 in Chitwan National Park in the early 1990s.
The population again declined during Nepal's decade-long insurgency when army check posts were removed from the wildlife reserve out of fear of Maoist attacks.




4. Cheap New Solar Cells Made Much More Efficient
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080320095008.htm
ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2008)

A cheap alternative to silicon solar cells can be found in dye-sensitised solar cells. This type of cell imitates the natural conversion of sunlight into energy by, for instance, plants and light-sensitive bacteria. Annemarie Huijser has succeeded in substantially improving a process in this type of solar cell, which is similar to Grätzel cells.
The use of solar cells is increasing very slowly. One of the reasons is that the most commonly used type, made from silicon, is quite expensive to manufacture. That is why there has been a great deal of research into alternative solar cells over the past few years.
In searching for solutions, scientists are inspired by nature. Plants are able to transport absorbed solar energy over long distances, typically about 15-20 nanometres, to a location in which it is converted into chemical energy. This is because the chlorophyll molecules in their leaves are arranged in the best possible sequence. During her PhD,* Annemarie Huijser attempted a partial recreation in solar cells of this process as found in plants.
She focused on what are known as dye-sensitised solar cells. These comprise a semiconductor, such as titanium dioxide, covered with a layer of dye. The dye absorbs energy from sunlight, which creates what are known as excitons. These energy parcels then need to move towards to the semiconductor. Once there, they generate electric power.
Lego
Huijser: "You can compare dye molecules to Lego bricks. I vary the way the bricks are stacked and observe how this influences the exciton transport through the solar cells. Excitons need to move as freely as possible through the solar cells in order to generate electricity efficiently."
By studying the best sequence of dye molecules, Huijser succeeded in increasing the average distance which the excitons move in the solar cell by twenty times up to a distance of approximately 20 nanometres, comparable to systems found in nature. This substantially increases the efficiency of the cells.
In order to make this new type of solar cell commercially viable, Huijser estimates that the mobility of the excitons needs to increase further by a factor of three. She believes that this is certainly possible. 'Once that has been achieved, there is nothing to stop this type of solar cell being developed further.'
Grätzel cells
The solar cells used by Huijser are closely related to the more widely known Grätzel cells. In the case of Grätzel cells, however, the dye and semiconductor are very close to each other, they are almost blended. As a result, the excitons do not need to move that far. One disadvantage of this type of cell, however, is the complicated method of charge transport. For this reason, Huijser chose to adopt a different approach and use this simple dual-layer system of dye and semiconductor.
*Huijser will receive her PhD on this subject from TU Delft on Tuesday 25 March.




5. Tattoos Could be Good for Your Health - Tattooed Vaccines, that is
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/194135,tattoos-could-be-good-for-your-health--tattooed-vaccines.html
Posted : Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:15:00 GMT
Author : DPA Category : Health News

Hamburg, Germany - We may all be getting tattoos in the future - tattooed vaccinations against disease, that is. German researchers have shown that tattooing is a more effective way of delivering DNA vaccines than intramuscular injection.
Dr. Martin Mueller and his team at the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (German Cancer Research Centre) in Heidelberg published their findings in the online open access journal, Genetic Vaccines and Therapy.
Using a coat protein from the human papillomavirus (HPV, the cause of cervical cancer) as a model DNA vaccine antigen, they compared delivery by tattooing the skin of mice with standard intramuscular injection with and without the molecular adjuvants that are often given to boost immune response.
The tattoo method gave a stronger humoral (antibody) response and cellular response than intramuscular injection, even when adjuvants were included in the latter.
Three doses of DNA vaccine given by tattooing produced at least 16 times higher antibody levels than three intramuscular injections with adjuvant. The adjuvants enhanced the effect of intramuscular injection, but not of tattooing.
Tattooing is an invasive procedure done with a solid vibrating needle, causing a wound and sufficient inflammation to "prime" the immune system.
It also covers a bigger area of the skin than an injection, so the DNA vaccine can enter more cells. These effects may account for the stronger immune response arising from introducing a DNA vaccine into the body by tattooing.
Of course, the tattooing approach may not be to everyone's taste - - as it is likely to hurt - but the researchers believe that it could have a role in, for instance, routine vaccination of cattle or in delivering therapeutic (rather than prophylactic) vaccines to humans.
"Vaccination with naked DNA has been hampered by its low efficiency," says Mueller. "Delivery of DNA via tattooing could be a way for a more widespread commercial application of DNA vaccines."





Honorable Mention:

1. Gates Foundation Gives $25 Million to WSU
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004302526_webwsugates.html
By The Associated Press

Washington State University officials say a $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will help build a new school dedicated to studying infectious diseases affecting animals and humans.
The grant announced today for the university's School for Global Animal Health is the largest single private gift in WSU history.
Officials say the gift will go toward construction of a $35 million building on the WSU Pullman campus for research focusing on discovering new vaccines, emerging diseases and controlling global infectious diseases.
The largest previous single donation to WSU was a $7 million gift from The Boeing Co. in 1993.




2. A Mother’s Relief: Cambodian Teen Reunites with Kin After Medical Work in Hawaii
http://starbulletin.com/2008/03/24/news/story01.html
Monday, March 24, 2008

A 15-year-old Cambodian girl's life was forever changed by the year she spent in Hawaii.
Part 1 of this series» A girl's arduous path to be able to walk
Sithan Leam walked for the first time after surgery and physical therapy last year at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Honolulu.
She suffered a severe burn as an infant, and when the wound healed, scar tissue fused her foot and calf to her thigh. Star-Bulletin readers helped raise money to bring Sithan to Honolulu for treatment.
She returned to Cambodia for an emotional reunion with her mother in the capital, Phnom Penh. But instead of returning to her family and the rural village with no electricity or running water where she grew up, Sithan is starting on a long road to an education and a better life.
Reporter Craig Gima traveled to Sithan's village of Anglong Thor in 2006 to first tell her story, and he returned to Cambodia in January to cover Sithan's journey home.