What has more than 65 years of research uncovered about autism? Not its cause, not a cure, not a means to prevent it, not a fully effective treatment. Researchers have identified a number of genes associated with the disorder and some studies suggest that people with autism have abnormal levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain. Other studies of people with autism have found irregularities in several regions of the brain. But intriguing new research by scientists at the University of North Carolina actually pinpoints the time when these brain anomalies occur, findings that experts say are critical in developing new ways to treat and diagnose autism earlier.
For the study, Dr. Matthew W. Mosconi and his colleagues at UNC took magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 50 children with autism and 33 controls—22 typically developing children and 11 who were developmentally delayed—between 18 and 35 months and again between 42 and 59 months. Participants also underwent tests that looked for certain behavioral features of autism. The researchers found that at both time points, the amygdala region of the brain, which is associated with controlling emotions, regulating attention and reading social cues from eye contact, in the children with autism was larger than the toddlers in the control group. “The amygdala plays a critical role in early-stage processing of facial expression and in alerting cortical areas to the emotional significance of an event,” the authors wrote. “Amygdala disturbances early in development, therefore, disrupt the appropriate assignment of emotional significance to faces and social interaction.”
The researchers said after observing the children that the enlarged amygdala appeared consistent with something called joint attention, or the ability of a young child to follow another person’s gaze and to share attention with others; behaviors thought to predict later social and language function. “We would basically try to get the child to look one way, we’d turn and point to a clock and see whether or not the child would notice it,” explained Dr. Joseph Piven, director of UNC’s Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center and one of the study’s authors. “The two-year-olds without autism would see your face, see where you are looking and join you but the children with autism, with large amygdalas, would not.”
“We believe that children with autism have normal-sized brains at birth but at some point, in the latter part of the first year of life, it (the amygdala) begins to grow in kids with autism,” said Piven. “Once we understand the neurological circuits, we may be able to detect if a child has problems in those circuits as early as 6 months of age. We need to let the pattern of early brain development guide us to predict who is at higher risk and who would benefit from early intervention.”
The team continues to follow study participants to determine whether amygdala growth rates continue at the same rate, speed up or slow down in children with autism after age four. “Studying this relationship as these children develop will shed important light on the neurobiological basis of autism,” Piven said. UNC researchers are also recruiting 500 infants who are also sibling of children with autism for a follow-up to their initial findings. “By tracking the behaviors and brain volume growth from birth in high-risk babies, we can pinpoint when the brain first begins to grow larger than normal and provide therapy or medications to limit the growth or symptoms a lot earlier than we are doing now,” said Piven.
“What they’re doing at UNC is really starting to define in the brain what’s going on with someone who has autism,” said Scott Badesch, chief executive of the Autism Society of North Carolina. “That gives us an ability as providers to address those needs.” Badesch said recent scientific findings, including an announcement last week about a new genetic clue for up to 15 percent of cases, are offering hope to families struggling with the disorder. “We’re beginning to find things, and the next question is what, if anything, we can do regarding treatment or a cure.”
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Researchers Put Another Piece of the Autism Puzzle in Place
Gender Parity Issue to be Corrected by Health Insurance Industry
Discrimination on the basis of gender is nothing new. Women have been fighting for equal rights, equal pay, and equal treatment by employers and society alike since the dawn of time. But many people do not realize that insurance companies have been charging women higher coverage rates than men, and some members of the United States Senate have chosen to address the issue through the initial stages of drafting legislation to stop it.
On Tuesday, May 5, the Senate Finance Committee met to discuss health care reform, specifically a closer federal regulation of the industry as a whole. Though a number of topics were brought to the floor, including single-payer health insurance plans and public versus private health care companies, it was a focus on gender parity and the need for action that seemed to resonate with most members of the committee.
President of America’s Health Insurance Plans Karen Ignagni was present to testify at the hearing and discussed the need for an end to gender discrimination regarding health insurance policy rates. Since many lawmakers already agree that bias on the basis of health history is unethical and discriminatory, it is more than fair that insurance companies give gender the same fairness. Though Ignagni’s overall point was to address the push for a massive overhaul of the insurance industry that could allow a federally sponsored plan to compete with private insurers, the gender parity issue was of specific importance.
Insurance companies are open to equaling the rates of men and women who apply for health care coverage, though the concession is in exchange for nixing the idea of a government-sponsored insurance company.
Senator John Kerry (D-MA) was particularly keen on sponsoring legislation that would address gender discrimination in the insurance market. “The disparity between women and men in the individual marketplace is just plain wrong,” he said, “and it has to change.”
He attended the committee meeting armed with research to show that women are often charged with higher premiums based purely on gender. In fact, this disparity currently affects the premiums paid by 5.7 million women in the United States, many of whom are self-employed and purchase individual coverage. It has previously been noted in studies that in California, women pay up to 39 percent more than men for individual policies. In addition, it was pointed out during the hearing that costs for women often increase during childbearing years, and some policies refuse to cover maternity care at all.
Employer-based plans are currently prohibited from charging women higher rates than men or eliminating maternity care from plans. In addition, ten states already ban the discriminatory practice -- Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, and Washington. But many agree that a federal law to eliminate the discrimination across the board is needed.
The bill is currently being drafted, and lawmakers hope to introduce it to the Senate by the summer of 2009.
New Testosterone Injections Work as Male Contraceptive
Pregnancy is a big step in life for any couple. Until now, there have only been a few ways to prevent pregnancy and most of them are centered around the female. Now, there is a new monthly injection of testosterone that works as a contraceptive in men, allowing the responsibility of birth control to be shared among the sexes.
For years, scientists have been looking for a contraceptive to be the male equivalent to the Pill. The trials that were conducted in the 1990s found that weekly injections of testosterone reduced the sperm counts for 98 percent of the men, and the effects disappeared when the injections were stopped. However, the researchers thought that the weekly injections would be considered too unpopular and troublesome with men to be a very useful method of contraception.
Since then, researchers have been experimenting with injections that are oil-based. They combined the testosterone with tea seed oil which means that once it was injected, it was absorbed very slowly by the body. This also means that the effect of a single injection could last for much longer.
A new, large-scale study has looked at how well the monthly injections of testosterone has worked as a contraceptive and how safe they really are. The recent study looked at approximately 1,045 Chinese men that were between the ages of 20 and 45, had fathered at least one child in the two years prior to the study, and were in a stable relationship.
For six months, the men that participated in the study took monthly injections of testosterone in their buttocks. After that time, most of the men had very low sperm counts. However, the testosterone injections failed to lower the sperm count in about 5 percent of the men.
If the injections were successful, the men continued to take them for two years. However, many of the participants dropped out over time, so only 733 actually completed the trial. Also during the trial, the sperm count rose again for just over 1 percent of the men, and there were nine pregnancies during the two years. Overall, after the first year of the study, there was 1 pregnancy for every 100 men that participated. At the end of the second year, the pregnancy rate was fractionally higher at 1.1 per 100 men.
Condoms, when they are used perfectly, have about a 2 in 100 pregnancy rate a year. With the female contraceptive pill, the pregnancy rate is approximately 0.3 in 100. It is very important to remember that most of the contraceptives are a lot less effective in the real world than these ‘"perfect use" figures suggest, because people can forget to take a pill or the condom can fail to work properly.
An important question is whether the men’s sperm count rose again after the testosterone injections were stopped. For most of the men it took approximately 200 days for their sperm count to return to normal, however, 17 of the men still had not recovered their fertility after one year. Most of the men who participated had a normal sperm count after an extra three months, but two of the men were still not producing sperm after this time period.
The side of effects of the injections included tenderness at the injection site, a rash or acne, and some men experienced changes in their sex drive. These changes varied from man to man, but the most common side effect was a sex drive that was higher.
The next question is, what does this mean for me? The injection is currently being tested in Phase III trials, which are considered the largest scale human trials that are carried out before a new drug is released to the market. If a new medication is safe and effective in Phase III trials, its manufacturer can then apply to the appropriate regulatory agency for a license to manufacture and sell the product. There is no definite timescale, but it is usually a few years from the successful completion Phase III trials to the launch of the new product.
Job Vacancy : AGI Program Manager
Winrock International
Closing date: 15 May 2009
Location: Sudan (the) - Wau, Western Bahr El Ghazal, Southern Sudan
Winrock International is seeking a Program Manager for an upcoming project based in Wau, Western Bahr El Ghazal, Southern Sudan. The position will start o/a July 2009 and be for a three year term.
Reports to: GEE Chief of Party
Program Title: Southern Sudan Adolescent Girls Initiative
Program Summary: The Southern Sudan Adolescent Girls Initiative will provide job skills and training for adolescent girls and young women leading to increased opportunities and access to demand-driven wage employment and/or entrepreneurship activities that meet market demands of Southernern Sudan.
Position Summary: The AIG Program Manager will provide overall management of the program activities, including maintaining donor relationships, overseeing program development and implementation, managing consultants and staff, supervising project spending, and providing oversight to data collection and monitoring and evaluation.
Qualifications:
Education:
* Bachelors Degree from an accredited institution, (Masters preferred), in education, training, business, or another appropriate field
Work Experience:
* Successful experience as a Program Manager of a similar program
* Prior experience managing funding equal to or exceeding USD 500,000
* Prior experience with programs targeting women or girls empowerment
* Demonstrable experience in implementing vocational education training programs for marginalized populations, especially young women
Skills:
* Excellent oral and written English skills, Arabic a plus
* Computer literacy in Microsoft Office applications
* Skills in financial management and program monitoring and evaluation
* Expertise in at least two of the following: small business development, entrepreneurship training , vocational training (especially agriculture-based), income-generation/micro-credit
Other:
* Experience working in Southern Sudan, experience in Wau a plus
* Willingness to live and work in Wau, Western Bahr El Ghazal
How to apply
Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume via email only to Necia Stanford nstanford@winrock.org with Subject Line of "AGI Program Manager Sudan", no later than Friday, May 15, 2009. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.
Reference Code: RW_7RRRNY-86
Job Vacancy : Coordonnateur (trice) Médical(e)
Médecins du Monde Canada
Médecins du Monde est une organisation non gouvernementale de coopération et de solidarité internationales qui a pour vocation, par l'engagement volontaire et bénévole de professionnels de la santé, d'aider et de soigner les populations les plus vulnérables dans des situations de crise, de guerre, de catastrophe naturelle et d'exclusion dans le monde
Closing date: 24 May 2009
Location: Haiti - POrt-au-Prince
Le candidat au poste sera responsable de coordonner, superviser et offrir un appui technique en s’assurant l’atteinte des résultats attendus pour les projets. Il (elle) coordonnera également de futurs projets médicaux qui pourraient être réalisés.
Ses tâches seront :
* coordonner la planification des objectifs des différents objectifs des projets;
* contrôler la qualité des prestations des services médicaux offerts;
* présenter périodiquement les résultats des projets;
* superviser la production des rapports d’activités mensuelles prévues et réalisées ainsi que les rapports narratifs intérimaires et finales;
* assurer le suivi budgétaire des activités médicales;
* participer au développement de nouveaux projets sur demande et en collaboration avec le coordonnateur général;
* superviser la planification des besoins en ressources humaines, matérielles et financières nécessaires à la réalisation des projets;
* établir et maintenir des relations avec les autorités locales médicales, les partenaires, ainsi que la gestion du personnel médical
Profil:
* Expérience humanitaire indispensable (au moins une expérience à un poste similaire) en VIH/SIDA et en santé communautaire
* Capacité de gestion, leadership, diplomatie, connaissance informatique.
* Capable de travailler dans un milieu à sécurité limitée
* Capacité à travailler dans un milieu instable, et à s’adapter aux pratiques locales.
* Expérience de préparation et de planification de projets souhaitée
* Formation : médecine, sciences infirmières
* Langues : Français, créole un atout
How to apply
Si vous êtes disponibles et intéressées, merci d’envoyer lettre de motivation et CV à :
Médecins du Monde
338 rue Sherbrooke Est
Montréal, H2X 1E6
Québec, Canada
Fax : 514-281-3011
recrutement@medecinsdumonde.ac
Reference Code: RW_7RRS8X-40
Job Vacancy : Senior Agricultural Production Advisor
For over 45 years and in 145 countries, ACDI/VOCA has empowered people in developing and transitional nations to succeed in the global economy. Based in Washington, D.C., ACDI/VOCA is a nonprofit international development organization that delivers technical and management assistance in agribusiness, financial services, enterprise development, community development and food security in order to promote broad-based economic growth and a vibrant civil society. ACDI/VOCA currently has approximately 76 projects in 41 countries and revenues of $100 million.
Closing date: 04 Jun 2009
Location: Afghanistan
We are currently seeking a Senior Agricultural Production Advisor for a multiyear, USAID-funded program in Afghanistan. The Senior Agricultural Production Advisor is responsible for managing the agricultural and productivity activities for the program in the region, overseeing ACDI/VOCA local agricultural-production staff and coordinating inputs with all IDEA-NEW partners. He/she must coordinate technical activities with the Regional Director and other IDEA-NEW Senior Management Committee members. The Senior Agricultural Production Advisor, in tandem with the Regional Director, must interface with regional and local government officials regarding agricultural project ideas and implementation. The position is based in Mazar-e-Sharif with substantial attention to three satellite offices. Please note this is an unaccompanied post (no spouse or family at post).
Responsibilities:
* Reach out to the community to make inroads and develop possible activities
* Manage long-term local technical staff based out of the Mazar-e-Sharif office and satellite offices in coordination with their day-to-day supervisor and oversee all short-term advisors in coordination with their technical counterpart
* Identify implementation issues and work with relevant project stakeholders to solve them
* Participate in the creation and implementation of programmatic work plans in accordance with USAID’s overall objectives
* Provide overall direction and guidance pertaining to agricultural and productivity interventions
* Facilitate technical assistance and training in areas such as fruits and nuts, vegetables, grains, livestock and poultry, productive infrastructure, and organizational strengthening
* Ensure community participation and link with local government
* Incorporate gender considerations into programming as appropriate
* Develop strategic methodologies and interventions for agricultural development relevant to IDEA-NEW
Qualifications:
* Relevant advanced degree from an accredited university
* Minimum 8-10 years of progressive experience in managing a large and complex agricultural production or related project.
* Relevant experience in Afghanistan or similar conflict setting
* Experience planning and managing programs for local government and agricultural organizations; experience assessing needs and gaps, determining appropriate interventions, and monitoring and evaluation effectiveness
* Experience managing a team in multiple locations and ensuring consistent programming
* Experience managing grants programs for USAID in similar environment
How to apply
For quick consideration, Click here to apply: http://www.cytiva.com/av/apply.asp?av?av1072?chayes?29
No phone calls please. Only finalists contacted. Women and minorities encouraged to apply.
Reference Code: RW_7RRSC5-72
Job Vacancy : International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI)
International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI)
international development consulting firm
Closing date: 22 May 2009
Location: South Africa - Southern Africa
International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI), a US-based international management consulting firm, is seeking a Team Leader for a capacity building project in Southern Africa targeted to procurement curriculum development and training.
Qualifications:
* Demonstrated 10+ years of professional experience, 5+ years of international project management experience as team leader or chief of party in developing countries;
* 10+ years in conducting training courses, needs assessment, and curriculum development
* Proven experience in managing projects in Sub-Saharan Africa
* Graduate degree in business management, business administration, economics, and/or international development
* High level of computer skills, including Microsoft Project
* Fluent in English
How to apply
To Apply: Please send a full Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a cover letter addressing each of the above qualifications to lcosgrove@ibtci.com. Please indicate Team Leader in the subject line. No phone calls will be accepted.
Reference Code: RW_7RRT4B-21