President Obama has submitted eight nominations to fill 20 current appeals court vacancies and 10 nominees for 75 district court vacancies, a much slower pace than President George W. Bush, the AP/New York Times reports. According to figures compiled by the Alliance for Justice, Bush had put forward nominees for 23 of 34 appeals  trustedtablets.com court vacancies and 32 nominations for 81 district court vacancies within the first full eight months of his tenure. However, unlike Obama, Bush did not have to contend with a Supreme Court nomination early in his term. To date, the Senate has confirmed three of Obamas judicial picks, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Judge Gerard Lynch to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York, and Judge Jeffrey Viken to the U.S. District Court in South Dakota.

The AP/Times reports that the “stakes are particularly evident” on the Richmond, Va.based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which was “once a bastion of conservative judges” but now has five Republicans, five Democrats and five vacant seats. Obama has selected nominees for two of the vacant seats, but the Senate has not acted on either. Several decisions by the 4th Circuit which covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia could be reversed in new challenges with a different balance on the bench. Among the cases is the courts 65 decision in June upholding Virginias Partial Birth Infanticide Act. The court announced the decision two weeks before its chief judge, Republicanappointed Karen Williams, announced her retirement. Some abortionrights advocates believe the decision may have been different if the court had waited to make its ruling.

Democratic appointees could gain majorities in several other key districts through Obamas nominations, the AP/Times reports. There are two vacancies on the Philadelphiabased 3rd Circuit, which is split with six judges nominated by presidents from each political party. Obama has put forward nominations for both vacancies. Obamas nominations also could create a Democratnominated majority on the 2nd Circuit and lead to an even split on the 1st Circuit, which covers Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In addition, Obamas nominations could bring Democrats within one seat of reversing a Republican majority on the District of Columbia Circuit, which rules on most major challenges to decisions by government agencies. The District of Columbia Circuit has six Republicans, three Democrats and two vacancies (Margasak, AP/New York Times, 10/3).

Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Womens Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Womens Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

The prevalence of mental health disorders in this country has nearly doubled in the past 20 years. Who is treating all of these patients? Clinical psychologists and therapists are charged with the task, but many are falling short by using methods that are out of date and lack scientific rigor. This is in part because many of the training programs especially some Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD) programs and forprofit training centers are not grounded in science.

A new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, by a panel of distinguished clinical scientists Timothy Baker (University of WisconsinMadison), Richard McFall (Indiana University), and Varda Shoham (University of Arizona) calls for the reform of clinical psychology training programs and appeals for a new accreditation system to ensure that mental health clinicians are trained to use the most effective and current research to treat their patients.

There are multiple practices in clinical psychology that are grounded in science and proven to work, but in the absence of standardized sciencebased training, those treatments go unused.

For example, cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be the most effective treatment for PTSD and has the fewest sideeffects, yet many psychologists do not use this method. Baker and colleagues cite one study in which only 30 percent of psychologists were trained to perform CBT for PTSD and only half of those psychologists elected to use it. That means that six of every seven sufferers were not getting the best care available from their clinicians. Furthermore, CBT shows both longterm and immediate benefits as a treatment for PTSD; whereas medications such as Paxil have shown 25 to 50 percent relapse rates.

The report suggests that the escalating cost of mental health care treatment has reduced the use of psychological treatments and shifted care to general health care facilities. The authors also stress the importance of coupling psychosocial interventions with medicine because many behavioral therapies have been shown to reduce costs and provide longer term benefits for the client.

Baker and colleagues conclude that a new accreditation system is the key to reforming training in clinical psychology. This new system is already under development the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS pcsas.org).

Source
Kevin Lyn Sisson

Made possible by a generous grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Autism Speaks is pleased to announce its first round of Dennis Weatherstone PreDoctoral Fellowships awarding eight Fellows a combined $448,000 in research grants over the next two years. Established in 2008 in memory of Sir Dennis Weatherstone, the former Chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan, the intent of the fellowship program is to encourage the most promising young scientists to establish autism research as their chosen career path. The fellowship awards will provide highly qualified candidates with exceptional research training opportunities in all areas related to the study of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Specifically, Dennis Weatherstone Fellows will work directly with mentors who are leading scientists in the field of autism research to support the growth of a promising cadre of young autism scientists.

Eight applicants were chosen to be among the first class of Dennis Weatherstone Fellows, selected from the 55 proposals received from highly qualified candidates in response to this years request for applications. The thorough and competitive review process confers distinction on those awarded a fellowship grant. Research topics for this years award recipients focus on various aspects of autism science ranging from neurobiology, genetics, and immunology to behavior, communication, and computerbased language tools.

“We are extremely pleased to launch this new fellowships program made possible through a generous gift to Autism Speaks,” says Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for Autism Speaks. “We were especially impressed with the quality and diversity of the fellows whose research spans genetics, neuroscience, and clinical research. Jumpstarting the careers of these young scientists, not only with research funds but with mentor relationships with leading scientists, is one of the best investments we can make.”

In a computer science project entitled “Visualizing Voice,” Joshua Hailpern, under mentor Karrie Karahalios, Ph.D. of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, aims to develop a computerbased program for children with ASD that will “paint” an individuals voice onto the screen, showing volume and pitch changes in real time in order to teach language skills such as multisyllabic word production.

Jennifer FossFeig, with mentor Wendy Stone, Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University, will investigate the underlying neural mechanisms involved in the processing of complex sensory information using noninvasive measures of brain electrical activity.

Meaghan Parladé, with mentor Jana Iverson, Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh, will investigate early risk indicators for autism such as gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, and communicative vocalizations in very young siblings of affected children.

At the University of Colorado Denver with mentor of Donald Rojas, Ph.D., Lisa Wilson will use advanced imaging techniques including magnetoencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging to examine how language is processed in parents of children with autism and in adults with autism.

At the University of Illinois at Chicago with mentor John Sweeney, Ph.D., AnnaMaria DCruz will study abnormalities in brain function that may contribute to Insistence on Sameness, a core feature of autism characterized by routine, stereotyped and repetitive behaviors.

With mentor Paul Patterson, Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology, Elaine Hsiao will use a mouse model of maternal viral infection to investigate the role of Interleukine6 in the development of autismrelated behaviors in the offspring.

Bradford Elmer, with mentor A. Kimberly McAllister, Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis, will study the role of immune molecules but in the formation of brain connections (or synaptogenesis) and possible alterations that might result in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Examining the genetic causes of autism, M. Ali Bangash with mentor Paul Worley, M.D. at Johns Hopkins University, will refine a mouse model to study the gene SHANK3 and investigate its implications for autism using biochemical and behavioral tests. Mutations of this gene have recently been implicated in a subset of individuals with autism.

Source
Jane Rubinstein

Leading experts from international agencies, NGOs, the food industry and academia will meet at McGill University, in Montreal, Oct. 57 to discuss the increasing challenges relating to food security in the world. The 2nd McGill Conference on Global Food Security will focus on the effects of the global economic crisis on food supply and production.

In the past year, approximately 100 million people have been added to the ranks of the roughly 1 billion people worldwide considered to be undernourished, according to a recent report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

The discussions at the McGill conference will address topics such as food security in a challenging economic environment, the effects of markets and trade, climate change and the production of biofuels, access to farm credit, the investments needed for agricultural development as well as the response of international agencies to challenges of food security.

Representatives of developing and emerging economy countries will speak on their countrys experiences. Joining them will be leading academics and officials from a wide range of international agencies, such as the World Bank, the United Nations World Food Program, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Canadian International Development Agency, among others. Several of these experts will gather for a public panel discussion, on Oct. 5 at 5 pm, on “The effects of the global recession and future prospects”.

WHAT McGill Conference on Global Food Security

WHEN October 5, 6 and 7, 2009

WHERE New Residence Hall, McGill University 3625 avenue du Parc, Montreal

Public Lecture (October 5, 5 p.m.) Salon MontRoyal, Centre MontRoyal 2200 Mansfield St., Montreal

For more information on the program, please visit mcgill.ca/globalfoodsecurity/program/

For more information on the speakers, please visit mcgill.ca/globalfoodsecurity/speakers/

Source
Doug Sweet

Older people with the highest needs will be offered free personal home care, Gordon Brown announced.

In a speech at the Labour party conference, Mr Brown said that to provide security for pensioners for generations to come, health and social care services would be brought together under a new National Care Service in England.

People with dementia are hit the hardest by the current care charging system and many are spending their life savings on what is often poor quality care. This dementia tax must end.

It is good to see the Prime Minister highlighting the increasing numbers of people with dementia and the growing human and economic cost of this devastating condition.

A commitment to free personal care for people with the most complex needs living in their own homes sounds like a promising development. We now need to hear the substance behind the sound bite. What is meant by highest needs and what criteria will be used to judge this? As the country debates who pays for care, we must also take action on improving the very poor standards of care provided to many people with dementia.

Neil Hunt
Chief Executive

Source

Threehundred cancer vaccine researchers and immunologists from academia and industry will meet for three days in New York City to discuss the different ways cancer exploits the human bodys selfprotective mechanisms of immune regulation to avoid elimination by the immune system, a problem which researchers in the field have identified as one of the key challenges to therapeutic cancer vaccination. The conference, titled “Control of Cancer Immunosuppression The Challenge for Cancer Vaccine Development,” will take place September 30 to October 2, 2009, at the Millennium Conference Center in the heart of Manhattan.

The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a U.S.based nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of immunebased approaches to cancer treatment, control, diagnosis, and prevention, is sponsoring the event. It is the seventeenth in the CRI Annual International Cancer Immunotherapy Symposia Series.

Twentyfive plenary lectures and a poster session will address topics including cellular and molecular mediators of cancer immunosuppression, targets for immunotherapy of cancer, and strategies to overcome cancer immunosuppression during cancer treatment.

Presentation highlights include

Regulatory T cells and their suppression program, by Dr. Alexander Rudensky, HHMI and Immunology Program, Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Antigen immunoselection as an escape mechanism during cancer immunoediting, by Dr. Robert D. Schreiber, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

Modulating innate and adaptive immunity through the manipulation of dendritic cells, by Dr. Nina Bhardwaj, New York University Langone Medical Center and NYU Cancer Institute, New York, NY

Regulation of tumorassociated inflammation by epithelial cell cytokines, by Giorgio Trinchieri, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD

Checkpoint blockade in tumor immunotherapy, by Dr. James P. Allison, Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, HHMI, and Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

From immunosuppression to immune recognition Antigenspecific cancer immunotherapy, by Dr. Vincent G. Brichard, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Rixensart, Belgium

Prioritization of cancer antigens and immunotherapeutic agents for vaccine trials, by Dr. Martin A. Cheever, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Recombinant viral vectors as a platform for cancer vaccines, by Dr. Kunle Odunsi, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY

Objective clinical responses by therapeutic vaccination with synthetic long peptides, by Dr. Cornelis J.M. Melief, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

Correlative immunological results of compassionateuse trial of Ipilimumab, by Dr. Jedd D. Wolchok, Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

About the Cancer Research Institute

The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is the worlds only nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to the support and coordination of scientific and clinical efforts that will lead to the immunological treatment, control, and prevention of cancer.

Guided by a worldrenowned Scientific Advisory Council that includes four Nobel Prize winners and twentynine members of the National Academy of Sciences, CRI supports leadingedge cancer research at top medical centers and universities throughout the world. CRI is an initiator and steward of global collaborative research efforts aimed at accelerating the translation of basic discovery into effective cancer vaccines and other immunebased therapies to provide new hope to cancer patients.

The Cancer Research Institute has one of the lowest overhead expense ratios among nonprofit organizations, with more than 85 percent of its resources going directly to the support of its science, medical, and research programs. CRI meets or exceeds all 20 standards of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, the most comprehensive U.S. charity evaluation service, and according to Charity Navigator exceeds or meets industry standards and performs as well as or better than most cancer charities. CRI has also received an A grade for fiscal disclosure and efficiency from the American Institute of Philanthropy as well as top accolades from other charity watchdog organizations.