Proteins found to help develop auditory neurons

The leading cause of congenital and acquired hearing impairment is loss of spiral ganglion neurons or hair cells in the inner ear.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health found that Sox2, a protein that regulates stem cell formation, is involved in spiral ganglion neuron development. The study was published in the January 13 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

"These findings may provide the first step toward regenerating spiral ganglion neurons, the nerve cells that send sound representations to the brain," said Alain Dabdoub, PhD, co-investigator and assistant professor of surgery with the division of otolaryngology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. "This has significant implications for advances in cochlear implant technology and biological treatments for hearing loss."

In the cochlea, auditory neurons transmit sound vibrations conveyed by hair cells. These vibrations are then converted to nerve impulses that communicate with the brain. If the neurons are lost or damaged, hearing loss occurs. Existing therapies for hearing loss are based on either increasing hair cell stimulation with hearing aids or introducing an electronic substitute for the hair cells with cochlear implants. In either case, the presence of functional spiral ganglion neurons is required for a successful outcome.

Prior research shows that as few as 10 percent of the normal number of spiral ganglion neurons is sufficient for the success of cochlear implants.

"The identification of factors that induce functional neurons has important implications for hearing restoration," said Chandrakala Puligilla, PhD, a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health. "The ability to induce even a small number of cells with gene-based therapy could be enormously beneficial."

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Are deaf people more prone to believe in global warming claims?

I couldn't help but think about this question. Are deaf people more prone or likely to believe in the global warming claim (as caused by man) when compared to hearing people? It'd be an interesting data to gather and collect but it would also mean a lot of time involved to come to this conclusion. Although I have formed my own "conclusion" if you don't mind. It's based on what I've read so far and how people responded to this anthropogenic global warming theory claiming that CO2 is the major culprit on causing Earth to warm up (btw, we haven't warmed up in over 11 years) despite the fact that the Earth's climate system is incredibly complex that is coupled closely with our ocean, the land, the sun and even cosmic rays. What I've seen and read so far it appears that Deaf people in general have a much greater tendency to believe in such a global warming claim than hearing people. Of course, I could be wrong since it's an observation of mine over many years. Though please note a recent poll on global warming concerns by people was shown to be dead last in 20th place with economy, jobs, and terrorism as the top 3 concerns. If impending doom is so great I'm sure global warming concerns would be a the top. But it's not.

Gallaudet University has been pushing this global warming theory (yes, it is a theory and not a fact, folks) for several years on campus to gullible students. Mind the fact that having clean water, air and land, and be good environmental stewards at the regional and local scale is what we all want but to mix it up with the global warming theory confuses the issue and message. And while I'm at it at I have not seen any evidence of Gallaudet University of ever setting up a forum debate between those who believe in the theory to those who do not or are very skepetic. I've addressed this students and Gallaudet question before a few years back in this blog but this time my question is bit different.

First off, one of the good reasons as why people shouldn't buy into this global warming theory is the continual use of fear on people who don't know any better about science. This is currently being done at a global scale in the effort to push this global warming theory. That alone should ring plenty of warning bells. Several clues were already apparent such as polar bears drowning because of lack of sea ice (not true since polar bears can swim for many miles for hours), fearful video ads (such as this little girl seen clutching a stuffed polar bear toy as sea water rushes in with her clinging to life on tree limb), rising sea water to hundreds of feet (like on Al Gore's book cover where sea water ate away many states shoreline even far back into the North Georgian mountains and with Cuba gone, too, even though they have mountains over 6,000 ft high), more frequent and intense hurricanes (already debunked), Himalayan glaciers retreating quickly with such unprecendency (quite false and unproven much to IPCC embarrassment and ineptitude), rising temperature (we've been warming up ever since the last ice age some 13,000 years ago but funnily enough we've been static for the last 11 years or so), and so on. When you see scare tactics being used then it's a warning sign that something doesn't pass the smell test.

Gallaudet Green is guilty of doing this as well.

Dear Student Organizations,

The Green Gallaudet Environmental Organization serves an emerging movement of globally conscious citizens dedicated to improving the condition of our earth. The earth is facing an imminent catastrophic ecological collapse if human civilization continues on its current course.

Imminent catastrophic ecological collapse? That dire warning reminds me of that weird guy on a city corner street holding a sign that says, "The end is near, repent!" Or maybe that would be Obama doing that? Exactly when will this happen? How imminent are we talking about? Years? Decades? Centuries? A few hundred thousand years from now? Can you, Gallaudet Green, explain exactly how this "ecological collapse" will occur? Or do you not have the proper science background and knowledge to spew that nonsense in the first place? I'd have more concerns over an all out nuclear or biological warfare than global warming or for that matter...cooling.

But back to my original question. Are Deaf people more prone to be influenced by this global warming claim (as caused by man)? Or is this related to their lack of understanding in the field of science? Or even critical thinking skills? Does Gallaudet University teach critical thinking skills when it comes to climate and Earth science? Or has Gallaudet University, the students, teachers and such allow themselves to be influenced by a climate theory that cannot even be validated out in the field?

Again, when scare tactics are used globally and scientists who have their hands in the cookie jars of government grants on global warming call names on other people like "deniers" are warning signals that something is wrong here. Something is fishy. People and leaders have been lying to the public for over a decade on this global warming claim.

Shame on them. Shame on Gallaudet University. Shame on those who think it's better to call people names than to debate on the merit of scientific knowledge.

Mowl and Tropp Plead Guilty to Fraud...will others follow?

Yes, it's 4 days old but this is something I want to address here even though this whole thing started back in July 2009.

In a Department of Justice press release:

Anthony Mowl, the former assistant vice president of business development for Viable Communications Inc. (Viable), and Donald Tropp, the former human resources manager for Viable, pleaded guilty today to engaging in a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Video Relay Service (VRS) program of more than $2.5 million, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.

Today, Mowl, 25, and Tropp, 25, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton, N.J., to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Mowl and Tropp were indicted on Nov. 19, 2009, along with Viable’s president, John T.C. Yeh; Viable’s vice president of corporate strategy, Joseph Yeh; and the Viable corporate entity.

In pleading guilty, Mowl and Tropp admitted that beginning in approximately fall of 2007 and continuing through approximately January 2009, they conspired with others to pay individuals to make fraudulent VRS phone calls using Viable’s VRS service. According to the pleas, John and Joseph Yeh paid Mowl and Tropp who would then pay people for using Viable’s VRS service. Mowl and Tropp kept a portion of the payments for themselves and distributed the remainder to the paid callers. Viable then caused the submission of fraudulent call minute claims to the FCC, causing the FCC to pay those claims at a rate of approximately $390 per hour for each of the VRS calls that it processed.

According to information contained in the plea documents, Mowl and Tropp admitted that their role in defrauding the FCC’s VRS program led to a total of between $2.5 million and $7 million in fraudulent billing to the program. At sentencing, both Mowl and Tropp face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, as well as mandatory restitution and forfeiture. A sentencing date has not yet been set by the court.

So, what's the deal here? This is all about corporate greed when one finds him/herself lured by the powerful dollar in using loopholes to defraud the government and other entities to cash in on even more money going into the millions of dollars. Easy money as they thought. Never before has this happened on such a large scale in the Deaf community bilking millions of dollars from the FCC's VRS program. It is an unprecedented event and a lesson for all.

Anthony Mowl, if you remember, was one of the "darlings" who spoke out during the heady days of Gallaudet Protest in 2006. He was also the Copy Editor for Gallaudet's online magazine "The Buff and Blue" whose picture of Mr. Mowl is still there. There is a video of him in YouTube signing away as recent as July 22, 2009 in trying to sell ViableVRS services literally just a few months before he got charged as seen in the November 18, 2009 court docket for fraud.

With names like Anthony Mowl, Donald Tropp and Joseph and Jon Yeh (who founded the famous Rathskeller, a favorite student hangout for many years at Gallaudet) well known in the Deaf community (especially at Gallaudet University where they all graduated beginning with John Yeh in 1971) does this fraud case hits hard the Deaf community. It especially shines a bad light on Gallaudet University as they all are alumni with Yeh at the top of the list. So, embarrassing is this that Deaf Nation, as it would seem, removed a picture of the Yehs (Jason, John, and Joseph Yeh) posing in a picture seen in one of the DN blog article but it is blank except for the captions (a picture of it can be seen in a Google cache.) This case is not just the 4 of them but are part of the 26 people involved in this fraud case. And so I ponder, what are the odds that many of the 26 involved also graduated from Gallaudet University since the VRS center is located in Rockville, Maryland, not far from Gallaudet University?

One thing for sure, this is all a big black eye on the Deaf community and Gallaudet University.