as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
---------------------------------------------
3/6/2008 continues. . .

Bravo. . .

and another edag and drat from boston.com:

Lawyers spar over role of Asperger's syndrome in school slaying
Email|Print| Text size – + March 6, 2008 01:58 PM
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- John Odgren once brought a toy plastic gun and a pen knife to school and claimed in a forensics class that he could “commit the perfect murder,” according to school records discussed today during a hearing in Middlesex Superior Court.

Odgren’s mother talked about her son’s violent thoughts with school officials, and she said he tried to put her at ease. “I’m not going to kill anybody,” Odgren told his mother, according to a lawyer quoting from the school records.

Prosecutors said that his fascination with weapons and the idle threat to kill came before the teenager used a 14-inch kitchen knife to fatally stab another student through the heart in a fury in a Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School bathroom. The new details emerged today during a hearing in which Odgren’s attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, asked a judge to throw out the first-degree murder indictment for the slaying of James Alenson on Jan. 19, 2007. Judge Isaac Borenstein took the motion under advisement and did not indicate when he would issue a ruling.

Odgren, a lanky 17-year-old with peach fuzz on his upper lip, sat passively and watched as lawyers argued over his Asperger's syndrome and the role it played in the slaying. “That’s going to be hotly debated at trial,” Borenstein said.

Shapiro maintained that a prosecutor cut off a grand juror’s questioning about his client’s syndrome. Asperger's makes it impossible for Odgren to have planned the killing, Shapiro said, and premeditation is a key component of a first-degree murder charge.

“One of the facets of Asperger's syndrome is often an obsession with weapons and so on,” Shapiro said. “That would undermine the idea that this was premeditated.”

If the grand jury had learned more about Asperger's syndrome, they may have indicted Odgren with second-degree murder or manslaughter, Shapiro argued. “The district attorney told them they could not consider” Asperger's syndrome, he said. “We think that is wrong.”

Assistant Middlesex District Attorney Daniel J. Bennett argued that grand jurors had ample access to information about Asperger's syndrome in the thousands of pages of Odgren’s school records they reviewed during their investigation. Bennett said that Odgren waited in a bathroom and killed another student whom he didn’t know. The attack was so vicious, Bennett said, that Odgren plunged the knife into Alenson five times, including one blow that buried the blade so deep in his chest it nearly came out his back.

“The evidence of premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty is overwhelming,” Bennett said.

--------------------

See previous entries. . .

boston.com:

business news updatesupdated
Thursday, 2:40 PM From the Boston Globe Business Team

AG: Archdiocese should give up control of hospitals
Email|Print| Text size – + March 6, 2008 02:40 PM
The Archdiocese of Boston must cede control of the Caritas Christi Health Care System if the Catholic hospital chain is to survive, according to a report issued today by Attorney General Martha Coakley.

The report also recommends that St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton abandon its role as an academic medical center competing with the teaching hospitals of the Longwood Medical District and Boston and instead become a community hospital with a teaching role. Carney Hospital in Dorchester should give up its traditional role as an acute care hospital to focus on psychiatric services, perhaps with some emergency services continuing.

The report by a healthcare consulting firm -- which can be downloaded here -- amounts to a stern indictment of the archdiocese's management of its hospital chain, and warns that Caritas will continue to deteriorate if it does not implement changes quickly.

Tops on the list is the need to hire a talented chief executive. The chain's efforts to recruit a leader have failed, with the one top contender rejecting Caritas for a post in Pittsburgh. In the meantime, Caritas plans to refinance its debt load to lower payments, and is revamping its board to make it independent from Church leadership.

For previous Globe coverage of Caritas Christi and Carney Hospital, click here.
(By Jeffrey Krasner, Globe staff)
------------

Ouch. . .

boston.com:

business news updatesupdated
Thursday, 2:40 PM From the Boston Globe Business Team

AG: Archdiocese should give up control of hospitals
Email|Print| Text size – + March 6, 2008 02:40 PM
The Archdiocese of Boston must cede control of the Caritas Christi Health Care System if the Catholic hospital chain is to survive, according to a report issued today by Attorney General Martha Coakley.

The report also recommends that St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton abandon its role as an academic medical center competing with the teaching hospitals of the Longwood Medical District and Boston and instead become a community hospital with a teaching role. Carney Hospital in Dorchester should give up its traditional role as an acute care hospital to focus on psychiatric services, perhaps with some emergency services continuing.

The report by a healthcare consulting firm -- which can be downloaded here -- amounts to a stern indictment of the archdiocese's management of its hospital chain, and warns that Caritas will continue to deteriorate if it does not implement changes quickly.

Tops on the list is the need to hire a talented chief executive. The chain's efforts to recruit a leader have failed, with the one top contender rejecting Caritas for a post in Pittsburgh. In the meantime, Caritas plans to refinance its debt load to lower payments, and is revamping its board to make it independent from Church leadership.

For previous Globe coverage of Caritas Christi and Carney Hospital, click here.
(By Jeffrey Krasner, Globe staff)
-------

Argument For - Maybe more people will try to quit and actually do, myself included:

Argument Against: The kids that get hooked will have a larger daily monetary expenditure of negative health consequences. . .

(I switched to rollies. . .)

boston.com:

Boston Medical Center, Boston University
NIH forms panel to advise agency on BU biolab
Email|Link|Comments (0) Posted by Gideon Gil March 6, 2008 10:54 AM
The National Institutes of Health has created a "blue ribbon panel," including experts on infectious diseases, public health, biodefense and environmental justice, to advise the agency during ongoing reviews of public safety and environmental issues posed by a Boston University laboratory designed to study the world's deadliest germs.

In November, another panel of scientists, the National Research Council, concluded that the NIH had failed to adequately address the potential risks to the South End and Roxbury neighbors of the Biosafety Level-4 lab if germs escaped from the facility on the Boston Medical Center campus.

The panel will hold its first public meeting next Thursday, March 13.

"Our number one concern is the safety of the people working in the laboratory and those living in the surrounding communities," Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of NIH, said in a statement this morning. NIH is partially funding the lab, which is under construction on Albany Street.

"All of the analyses conducted to date indicate that the risks posed by this lab are extremely low," Zerhouni added. "We recognize that the community has remaining concerns, however, and we will address those concerns rigorously, objectively, and comprehensively. ... The goal is to manage and minimize risk to the lowest levels possible, recognizing that there is no 'zero risk'."

The 16-member advisory panel will be led by Dr. Adel Mahmoud of Princeton University and includes Dr. Dennis Kasper, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Ellen Berlin, spokeswoman for Boston Medical Center, said in a statement, "We welcome the additional study and applaud the creation of the blue ribbon panel of independent esteemed scientists. We are pleased they will consider all concerns, including the community’s and those expressed by the panel assembled by the National Research Council. We are confident that the lab will be safe, and this third-party examination is an important step in the public process."
----------------

Keep it all up-front and honest, please. . .

MIT HR:

Assistant Director, MBA Student Affairs mit-00005149 Sloan School Of Management Cambridge MA Full Time
Administrative Assistant II mit-00005170 Department Of Biology Cambridge MA Part Time
Administrative Assistant II mit-00005172 Department of Urban Studies and Planning Cambridge MA Full Time
Administrative Assistant II mit-00005168 Foreign Languages & Literatures Section Cambridge MA Full Time
Research Scientist mit-00005169 Broad Institute Cambridge MA Full Time
Benefits Manager mit-00005171 Broad Institute Cambridge MA Full Time
Special Assistant to the VP mit-00005150 Information Services and Technology Cambridge MA Full Time
Sequencing Project Manager mit-00005166 Broad Institute Cambridge MA Full Time
System Administrator mit-00005164 Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Cambridge MA Full Time
Administrative Assistant II mit-00005162 Sloan School Of Management Cambridge MA Full Time
---------------

One thing I saw on NECN today piqued my interest enough to write it down. . .

New nanotechnology fights fabric stains.

I was reminded of being told that Native Americans would oft lay a blanket atop an ant hill or two, feeding the lice in the blanket.

Quite the metaphor, eh?

Hmmmm. . .

and I'm concerned about the story of the parent, two uncles, and an unidentified woman holding a highschooler whilst the parent's son, who had claimed was beaten the day before, wailed away at him. . .

"The Raven" episode of Voyager is on - very HUMF quite significant. . . oy. . .

see -- look at this. . .

bulk spam:

Callie Elder Big brother is watching you bigger cgwy Thu Mar 06, 2008 2k
---------------------------------

and a curious selection from the InBox:

Leslie Jordan Outgrow, Outsize, Outperform! js Thu Mar 06, 2008 2k
UK NATIONAL BOARD FINAL NOTIFICATION WINNER Thu Mar 06, 2008 3k
CNN Alerts CNN Alerts: Environmental Issues Thu Mar 06, 2008 5k
books@ libertyfund.org Liberty Fund New Title Alert - The Higher Law Background of American Constitutio... Thu Mar 06, 2008 11k
-------------

but enough. . . enough. . .

I must to get ready for second shift. . .

Ought to be all right. . .

Be well . . .

still a wait and see mode here. . .

more, i am sure, later. . .
link post comment




1319 [Mar. 6th, 2008|11:16 pm]
Hmmmm . . .

An easy evening at work. . .

Wow . . .

from HU HR today:

33187 F-T 058 Senior Software Engineer/J2EE Developer
University Information Systems IT Infrastructure Services 03/06/2008
33186 F-T 058 Senior Software Engineer/J2EE Developer
University Information Systems ITI Infrastructure Services 03/06/2008
33185 F-T 058 Senior Software Engineer/J2EE Developer
University Information Systems IT Infrastructure 03/06/2008
33184 F-T 058 Senior Software Engineer/J2EE Developer
University Information Systems IT Infrastructure Services 03/06/2008
33183 F-T 016 Temporary Assistant Cook
Dining Services Crimson Catering 03/06/2008
33181 F-T 032 Grill Cook
Dining Services Sebastian's 03/06/2008
33180 F-T 060 Executive Director
Faculty of Arts and Sciences The Institute for Quantitative Social Science 03/06/2008
33179 F-T 060 Senior Aide to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean of the Faculty 03/06/2008
33177 P-T 058 Nurse Practitioner
University Health Services Internal Medicine 03/06/2008
33174 F-T 058 Design & Implementation Manager
Financial Administration Financial Administration Systems Solution 03/06/2008
33170 P-T 047 Part - Time Animal Care Technician
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Molecular & Cellular Biology 03/06/2008
33166 F-T 058 Design & Implementation Manager
Financial Administration Financial Administration Systems Solution 03/06/2008
-----------

and form boston.com:


Text size – + Harvard University
Nobel laureate retracts paper on research done at Harvard
Email|Link|Comments (0) Posted by Gideon Gil March 6, 2008 07:35 PM
By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

A 2004 Nobel Prize winner retracted a study yesterday that was published in a prestigious science journal, after she learned of discrepancies in data gathered by a junior colleague who worked in her lab at Harvard Medical School.

According to the journal, Nature, Linda Buck and her co-authors have retracted a 2001 paper that mapped nerve connections between smell receptors in the noses of mice and their brains. The paper was not part of the body of research for which Buck and Richard Axel of Columbia University shared the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology.

Buck, who left Harvard in 2002 for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said she and other researchers from her current lab became suspicious when they were unable to replicate the findings from the 2001 paper.

"Moreover, we have found inconsistencies between some of the figures and data published in the paper and the original data," Buck and her co-authors wrote in the retraction published by Nature yesterday. "We have therefore lost confidence in the reported conclusions."


According to the journal, researcher Zhihua Zou, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, was "solely responsible" for providing data and figures for the 2001 paper. He did not return a phone call to his office yesterday. A statement by the school said Zou agreed to join in the retraction, but was disappointed. The school said that Zou defends his research and is confident in the published results.

Buck could not be reached for comment, but a statement from her Seattle lab referred all questions to Harvard Medical School, "since the research in question was conducted seven years ago" at that institution.

A spokesman for Harvard Medical School, David Cameron, said the school has formed an internal committee to review the 2001 paper. If the panel finds sufficient cause to believe "scientific misconduct" occurred, the school will begin an official investigation into the research. Cameron said he does not know the timetable for this investigation.

According to Nature, Buck has asked the Seattle cancer center to review two later publications in which Zou was the lead author.

Buck was very distraught about the inability to replicate the findings and the need to retract the paper, said Catherine Dulac, one of Buck's former Harvard colleagues who spoke to her at a conference about a week ago. Dulac, a Harvard professor of molecular and celullar biology, said that when she met Buck at the conference and asked how she was doing, Buck replied, "Horrible."

Dulac said many top researchers have to rely on and trust the data provided by junior collaborators.

"This is our worst nightmare," she said.

Dulac said that this retracted paper, however, should not take away from Buck's outstanding work. The Nobel was largely based on a pivotal paper she co-authored in 1991 with Axel, which showed how humans recognize thousands of individual scents and how these smells can trigger distinct memories of the past.

Buck, 61, is a native of Seattle and received her bachelor's degrees in 1975 in psychology and microbiology from the University of Washington in Seattle, according to a biographical sketch on the Nobel Prize website. She earned her Ph.D in immunology in 1980 at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She spent the next two decades conducting research at labs at Columbia and Harvard, before returning to Seattle.

-----------

I know I overreact based upon the bad data of the choreography; that's something I have to work on. . .

yahoo Bulk:

ADMISSIONS OFFICE ADMISSIONS OFFICE ADMISSIONS OFFICE CLASSES START SOON !!! Thu Mar 06, 2008 4k
Reunion.com Search Reminder 12 searches for "----- -----". Thu Mar 06, 2008 13k
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-------------

and wow, from washingtonpost.com:

NPR Leader Out After Board Clash
Ken Stern's New Media Forays Rankled Public Radio Affiliates
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 7, 2008; Page C01

Ken Stern, one of the key architects of National Public Radio's rapid growth over the past decade, stepped down as chief executive yesterday following a clash with NPR's board over the direction of the organization.

Washington-based NPR said Stern, 44, was leaving "by mutual agreement," but gave no details about the circumstances of his departure.

People at NPR said, however, that Stern and the organization's 17-member board had clashed repeatedly over several of Stern's initiatives, including NPR's expansion into new media. Those initiatives often riled station managers, who saw them coming at the expense of serving the hundreds of public stations that pay dues annually to NPR.

NPR's board, which includes 10 members from station groups, declined to renew Stern's contract yesterday.

Stern will be replaced on an interim basis by the board's chairman, Dennis L. Haarsager, while the board conducts a search for a permanent replacement. Haarsager, who is general manager of Northwest Public Radio, a 13-station group in Washington state, said in an interview that he "did not anticipate" taking the job permanently.

Haarsager said the board considered "a multidimensional set of circumstances" in deciding not to renew Stern's tenure. He declined to spell any of them out. "Ken had some really great successes," he said. "He did a great job. But the board looked at a lot of things" in evaluating him.

Stern has been with NPR since 1999, first as executive vice president and, since September 2006, as chief executive. He was effectively the hand-picked successor of Kevin Klose, who gave up the CEO job but remained as president.

Under Klose and Stern, NPR grew rapidly, enjoying perhaps the most successful decade of its existence. Weekly audiences for such NPR shows as "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" doubled to 26 million. Revenue grew from $65 million to $200 million, and its workforce doubled to about 800 employees.

NPR also expanded with programming agreements with satellite broadcasters and a Web site that attracts about 8 million monthly visitors. It is also the world's largest producer of podcasts.

On Wednesday, Stern gave no hint of his plans as he announced that NPR had accepted a package of tax incentives from the District's government to keep its new headquarters in the city.

Yesterday, after his contract was not renewed, Stern said in a statement: "I'm proud of having brought NPR to new heights as one of the greatest journalism organizations in the world. . . . I also take great pride in NPR's financial performance during my tenure, with our financial reserves and endowment growing by over 2,000 percent. I have enormous respect for the management team I assembled and know they will keep NPR on this successful path."

Before joining NPR, Stern worked with Klose at Radio Free Europe. He has also been a director of the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau in Washington and was deputy general counsel for President Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign.

Klose, who remains on NPR's board, was instrumental in landing public radio's largest grant, a $235 million bequest from the late McDonald's heiress Joan Kroc in 2003.

Stern is the latest in a recent string of high-level departures at NPR. Bill Marimow, who had been NPR's vice president for news, left the organization in late 2006 to become editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer after serving only eight months in the top editorial job. Jay Kernis, who developed several NPR shows over two long tenures, left in January to become managing editor of CNN. And Barbara Rehm, NPR's managing editor for news, announced her resignation in July.
---------

"new media"? see previousentries -


==========


wow:

washingtonpost.com:

Government Concedes Vaccine Injury Case

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 5, 2008; 9:56 PM



-- Government health officials have conceded that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in a Georgia girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine-injury fund.

Medical and legal experts say the narrow wording and circumstances probably make the case an exception _ not a precedent for thousands of other pending claims.

The government "has not conceded that vaccines cause autism," said Linda Renzi, the lawyer representing federal officials, who have consistently maintained that childhood shots are safe.

However, parents and advocates for autistic children see the case as a victory that may help certain others. Although the science on this is very limited, the girl's disorder may be more common in autistic children than in healthy ones.

"It's a beginning," said Kevin Conway, a Boston lawyer representing more than 1,200 families with vaccine injury claims. "Each case is going to have to be proved on its individual merits. But it shows to me that the government has conceded that it's biologically plausible for a vaccine to cause these injuries. They've never done it before."

A lawyer for the 9-year-old girl has scheduled a news conference in Atlanta on Thursday. Her parents have declined to comment in the meantime because the case is not final and the payment amount has not been set.

Nearly 5,000 families are seeking compensation for autism or other developmental disabilities they blame on vaccines and a mercury-based preservative, thimerosal. It once was commonly used to prevent bacterial contamination but since 2001 has been used only in certain flu shots. Some cases contend that the cumulative effect of many shots given at once may have caused injuries.

The cases are before a special "vaccine court" that doles out cash from a fund Congress set up to pay people injured by vaccines and to protect makers from damages as a way to help ensure an adequate vaccine supply. The burden of proof is lighter than in a traditional court, and is based on a preponderance of evidence. Since the fund started in 1988, it has paid roughly 950 claims _ none for autism.

Studies repeatedly have discounted any link between thimerosal and autism, but legal challenges continue. The issue even cropped up in the presidential campaign, with Republican John McCain asserting on Friday that "there's strong evidence" autism is connected to the preservative.

The girl has a disorder involving her mitochondria, the energy factories of cells. The disorder _ which can be present at birth from an inherited gene or acquired later in life _ impairs cells' ability to use nutrients, and often causes problems in brain functioning. It can lead to delays in walking and talking.

Federal officials say the law bars them from discussing the case or releasing documents without the family's permission. However, The Associated Press obtained a copy of the concession by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials.

According to the document, five vaccines the girl received on one day in 2000 aggravated her mitochondrial condition, predisposing her to metabolic problems that manifested as worsening brain function "with features of autism spectrum disorder." In the 1990s, the definition of autism was expanded to take in a group of milder, related conditions, which are known as autism spectrum disorders.

The document does not address whether it was the thimerosal _ or something else entirely in the vaccines _ that was at fault.

The compensation fund lists problems with brain function as a rare side effect of certain vaccines. Such problems are enough on their own to warrant compensation, even without autism-like symptoms, and the fund has made numerous payouts in such cases.

The Health Resources and Services Administration, which is in charge of the fund, said: "HRSA has maintained and continues to maintain the position that vaccines do not cause autism."

A Portuguese study suggested that 7 percent of autistic children might also have the mitochondrial disorder, versus one in 5,000 people _ or 0.02 percent _ in the general population, said Dr. Marvin Natowicz, a Cleveland Clinic geneticist.

"Even if they're off by a factor of seven" and only 1 percent are afflicted, "it's still a striking statistic," he said.

Others said they doubt the Georgia case will have much effect.

"No link between mitochondrial disorders and autism spectrum disorder has been made in mainstream medicine," said Dr. Michael Pichichero of the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y., who has consulted for the government on vaccines and has received speaking fees from vaccine makers.

A decision is expected this spring on the first test case for a larger group of autism-vaccine claims, which are being heard in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Reported cases of autism have been rising in the U.S., even after thimerosal was removed from most childhood vaccines. However, some experts believe the rise is due to an expansion of the definition of autism and related conditions, and a desire to diagnose children so they qualify for special services and aid.

___

Associated Press writer Kristen Gelineau in Richmond, Va., and medical writer Mike Stobbe in Atlanta contributed to this story.

___

On the Net:

U.S. Court of Federal Claims: http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov

Vaccine injury fund: http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation

CDC autism page: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/index.htm

American Academy of Pediatrics autism reports:

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/oct07autism.htm

=================================================

washingtonpost.com:

Parents Speak Out on Vaccine Settlement

By MIKE STOBBE
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 6, 2008; 10:32 PM



ATLANTA -- The parents of a girl who won a government settlement described how their hearts were broken as they watched their healthy, red-haired toddler transformed into an irritable, odd-behaving child after she got several childhood shots.

"Suddenly my daughter was no longer there," said Terry Poling, the girl's mother, in a news conference Thursday. She and her husband Jon said their daughter Hannah, now 9, has been diagnosed with autism.

The government has agreed to pay the Polings from a federal fund that compensates people injured by vaccines. The amount of the settlement hasn't been set yet. U.S. officials reject the idea that vaccines cause autism, but they say that in this case the shots worsened an underlying disorder that led to autism-like symptoms.

The Polings said five simultaneous vaccinations in July 2000 led to Hannah's autistic behavior. She was about 18 months at the time.

U.S. health officials have consistently maintained that vaccines are safe, and the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that there was no change in that position.

"Nothing in any of this is going to change any of our recommendations" about the importance of vaccines for children, said Dr. Julie Gerberding. "Our message to parents is that immunization is lifesaving."

In the Polings' first appearance since their case became public this week, the Athens, Ga., couple acknowledged their legal case never got to the point where evidence was argued.

They called on the government to remove thimerosal _ a mercury-based vaccine preservative _ from all flu shots. Thimerosal has already been removed from other vaccinations given to children.

"Why take a chance?" asked Jon Poling, a 37-year-old neurologist.

The Polings, accompanied by Hannah, said that as a toddler, their daughter was a bright child who could whistle on command. But almost immediately after the vaccinations nearly eight years ago, she became feverish and irritable. Then, her behavior gradually changed so she would stare at fans and lights and run in circles.

"It wasn't like a switch being turned off. It was more like a dimmer switch being turned down," Jon Poling said.

Government health officials conceded that the vaccines exacerbated an underlying condition and that she should be paid from the federal vaccine-injury fund.

Autism advocates called Hannah's case a "landmark decision," although the Polings' own attorney disputes that.

"This was not a court decision," said Clifford Shoemaker, who is based in Vienna, Va. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conceded the case before the court was asked to make a determination, he added.

Government officials wouldn't discuss why they conceded this particular case, but said people with pre-existing disorders can obtain compensation under the program if they establish that their underlying condition was "significantly aggravated" by a vaccine.

Medical and legal experts say the narrow wording and circumstances probably make the case an exception _ not a precedent for thousands of other pending claims.

"This does not represent anything other than a very special situation," said the CDC's Gerberding.

Hannah has a disorder involving her mitochondria, the energy factories of cells. The disorder _ which can be present at birth from an inherited gene or acquired later in life _ impairs cells' ability to use nutrients. It often causes problems in brain functioning and can lead to delays in walking and talking.

Experts argued over how common the disorder is, and by implication, how many other vaccine cases might be affected.

"Most children with autism do not seem to have a mitochondrial problem, so this association ... is probably relatively rare," said Dr. Edwin Trevathan, a pediatric neurologist who heads the CDC's birth defects center.

The United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based group that raises money for research, says there are more than 100 types of mitochondrial disease, and genetic tests can find only a couple dozen.

The Polings were exploring two theories about what happened to Hannah. One is that she was born with the mitochondria disorder and the vaccines caused a stress to the body that worsened the condition. The other was that the ingredient thimerosal caused the mitochondrial dysfunction, Jon Poling said.

Since 2002, the preservative thimerosal has been removed from shots recommended for young children, except for some flu shots.

___

Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

CDC Autism Information Center: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/

United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation:

http://www.umdf.org/site/c.dnJEKLNqFoG/b.3041929/

=====================

I have this book of Thoreau's Journal snippets. . . I;ve had it more than a month now and am only thirty or so pages in .. . a jourbal snippet here and there. . . Kinda nice - thereall about science, and about observing. . .

that's a positive note to end on. . . I'll be off the journalling for a few days, but will e-mail here or there for posting on the other side of the weekend. . . gonna be a dreadfully rainy day for the fest, but hopefully that'll bring people inside. . .

Be well . . .


=========

or dod they mean - in conjunction with the sex thing stopping from pound - the sex experiments? -