What the film “Still Alice” Tells Us About Alzheimer’s Disease

By Carla Gates

The recent, multiple award-winning film, Still Alice, brings the issue of early-onset dementia to the forefront. The story about how Alice Howland, a linguistics professor at Columbia, and her family deal with her diagnosis of familial Alzheimer’s disease at age 50, is both heartfelt and powerful. Watching the film is the first time many people get to see close-up what it’s like to be an Alzheimer’s patient, as well as a caregiver.

The film is based on a novel by Lisa Genova, Ph.D., a neuroscientist who has merged her scientific knowledge with a talent for writing.  Dr. Genova has written several books highlighting the everyday, emotional effects of living with neurologic disorders, including Huntington’s (Inside the O’Briens), traumatic brain injury (Left Neglected), autism (Love Anthony), and, of course, Alzheimer’s (Still Alice).

Alzheimer’s Association Chief Science Officer, Maria Carrillo, Ph.D., advised on the script to help ensure scientific accuracy. Alzheimer’s Association National Early-Stage Advisor Sandy Oltz, who was diagnosed with younger-onset Alzheimer’s at age 46, provided Julianne Moore with an understanding of her daily experience.

The movie provides a heart-wrenching and haunting depiction of Alice’s increasingly noticeable  symptoms of dementia, including memory-loss, confusion, fear, and difficulties with social situations.  As anyone who has experienced these symptoms can attest to, they are debilitating, and make communication extraordinarily hard.

Alzheimer’s Disease Defined

Alzheimer’s Disease, the condition that Alice is eventually diagnosed with, is the most common cause of dementia.  Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that disrupts typical cell function in the brain.  The leading theory is that, in the case of Alzheimer’s, plaques and tangles (abnormal deposits and fibers) build up in the brain causing brain cell dysfunction and resulting cell death.  This is the most likely cause of the symptoms of dementia described above.

Do you or someone you know have Alzheimer’s?  There are many associations and support groups available, such as the Alzheimer’s Association and the My Brain Movement.  Make sure to check with your local community centers, and reach out to local speech pathologists to see if they host any group therapy sessions, or provide individualized consultation for persons with dementia and their families.  Having a support system in place can stave off some of the isolation that Alice experienced.

More and more research suggests that the earlier Alzheimer’s is identified, the more effective the treatment available is in holding off the symptoms for longer periods of time.  If you are concerned, talk to your doctor about signs of Alzheimer’s as soon as possible.

https://constanttherapy.com/blog/what-the-film-still-alice-tells-us-about-alzheimers-disease/

5W1H:
Who- not given
What-Alzheimer’s disease
Where-not given
When-not given
Why-Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that disrupts typical cell function in the brain.
How-Symptoms of dementia, including memory-loss, confusion, fear, and difficulties with social situations.

Keywords:
1.dementia 癡呆
2.familial 家族性的
3.neuroscientist 神經學家
4.merge 合併
5.heart-wrenching 令人心痛的
6.debilitating 虛弱的
7.stave off 避開

Second 'missing' Hong Kong bookseller returns from China

Sun, Mar 6, 2016

By Ilaria Maria Sala

A second of five Hong Kong booksellers detained on the Chinese mainland has returned home, according to police.

Cheung Chi-ping, who went missing in October after a trip to visit relatives in Shenzhen, was released just two days after his boss Lui Por, a general manager at the Mighty Current publishing house, was also allowed to return to Hong Kong.

In both cases the Hong Kong police released a statement confirming the men were home. According to the police both men said they did not need further assistance from the government or the police force.

Mighty Currents prints titles highly critical of the Communist party and the Chinese government, and, in the weekend before the men started to disappear, had been printing volumes that attacked Chinese president Xi Jinping’s private life.

Gui Minhai and Lee Bo, the owners and managers of the publishing house and its attached bookshop, Causeway Bay Bookstore, and another employee Lam Wing-kee, remain missing.

Gui, a Swedish national, disappeared in October after a holiday in Thailand. He reappeared in January in a tearful televised “confession” in which he said he had voluntarily returned to China out of remorse over a hit-and-run in 2004.

Lee Bo, a British national feared to have been kidnapped on Hong Kong soil, has also appeared in a televised interview where he said he had returned to China “of his own accord” in order to help with “an investigation”, and that he was renouncing his British citizenship. He reportedly met with Hong Kong police last week in an undisclosed location and told them he did not need any help.

The three clerks of the Mighty Current publishing house and Causeway Bay Bookstore had also appeared on a televised interview, where they said they had been detained for “illegal book trading” in the mainland, supposedly admitting to having delivered about 4000 books to China since 2014 without a licence.

Bao Pu, an independent publisher in Hong Kong, said he believed with this gesture “the Chinese authorities want to minimise the impact of the bookstore event, and sweep everything under the carpet as quickly as they possibly can”.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/06/second-missing-hong-kong-bookseller-returns-from-china

5W1H:

Who-Cheung Chi-ping

Where- China

What-missing in October after a trip to visit relatives in Shenzhen and return to Hong Kong

When- 2016/03/06

Why- they sold some forbidden books about China

How- not given

Keywords:

1. general 一般的

2. volumes 卷;冊子

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year Is an Emoji

Tue, Nov 17, 2015

By  Claire Groden

For the first time ever, the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year is not actually a word—it’s an emoji.

The “face with tears of joy”  was the most frequently used emoji this year, and Oxford Dictionaries writes in a blog post that it was chosen as “the ‘word’ that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.”

The emoji depicting a face crying from laughter made up one in five of all of the emojis used in the U.K. this year, compared with one in 25 last year, according to Oxford. American texters fell behind only slightly, with face with tears of joy accounting for 17% of all emojis used, compared with 9% in 2014.

“Emojis are no longer the preserve of texting teens,” Oxford Dictionaries wrote in its post.” Instead, they have been embraced as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers.”

Last year, the Oxford Dictionaries word of choice was “vape” due to e-cigarettes’ boom in popularity.

The shortlist for this year’s word included actual words, like “sharing economy,” “refugee,” “dark web,” and “lumbersexual.”

http://fortune.com/2015/11/17/oxford-word-of-the-year-emoji/

5W1H:
Who- not given
What- the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year is an emoji
Where- not given
When- 2015/11/17
Why- The “face with tears of joy”  was the most frequently used emoji this year 
How- not given

Keywords:
1.ethos 社會思潮
2.preoccupation 先佔據；當務之急
3.nuanced 細微差別的
4.dark web 隱形網路

Obama: Climate agreement 'best chance we have' to save the planet

By John D. Sutter, Joshua Berlinger and Ralph Ellis, CNN

Mon, Dec 14, 2015

President Barack Obama praised a landmark climate change agreement approved Saturday in Paris, saying it could be "a turning point for the world."

"The Paris agreement establishes the enduring framework the world needs to solve the climate crisis," the President said, speaking from the White House. "It creates the mechanism, the architecture, for us to continually tackle this problem in an effective way."

He praised American leadership but noted that all participating nations will have to cooperate.

"I believe this moment can be a turning point for the world," Obama said, calling the agreement "the best chance we have to save the one planet that we've got."

Though the plan was hailed as a milestone in the battle to keep Earth hospitable to human life, critics say it is short on specifics, such as how the plan will be enforced or how improvements will be measured.

The accord achieved one major goal. It limits average global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures and strives for a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) if possible.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/12/world/global-climate-change-conference-vote/

5W1H:
WHO-President Barack Obama
What- praised climate change agreement
Where-White House
When- 2015/12/14
Why-It limits average global temperature
How- not given

Keywords:
1.hospitable (環境)宜人的

San Bernardino shooting: Carnage was 'unspeakable,' police say

Fri, Dec 4, 2015

By Greg Botelho and Steve Almasy, CNN

The gunpowder was still lingering in the air as San Bernardino Police Lt. Mike Madden and three other officers approached a conference center where a mass shooting had been reported.

Bodies had fallen outside the meeting room in San Bernardino, California, where a holiday party with about 80 guests had been underway when two people armed with semiautomatic rifles and pistols walked in and sprayed the crowd with scores of bullets.

Fourteen people died and 21 more were wounded. The names of the dead were released Thursday.

Madden, a dispatch supervisor on his way to lunch, was a mile away Wednesday when the dispatchers started frantically calling for units to head to the Inland Regional Center.

He said he had trained for events like this, but the scene was still surreal. It was sensory overload.

The fire alarms were blaring. People were moaning. Others cried out for help. Bodies lay in a room with a Christmas tree and festive decorations.

Two minutes after he had arrived at the center, he had assembled a small team to go into the meeting room.

"It was unspeakable, the carnage that we were seeing, the number of people who were injured and, unfortunately, already dead, and the pure panic on the faces of those individuals that were still in need and needing to be safe," Madden told reporters Thursday.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/03/us/san-bernardino-shooting/

Structure of the lead:

Who- a dispatch supervisor

When- 2015/12/04

What- terrorist attack

Why- not given

Where-San Bernardino, California

How- not given

Keywords:
1.dispatch 調度
2.frantically 瘋狂地
3.blaring 刺耳地大聲鳴響
4.carnage 大屠殺

Paris attacks: Blindfolded Muslim man asks people to 'show him trust with a hug' after shootings

Thu, Nov 19, 2015
By Alexandra Sims

A Muslim man stood blindfolded in the centre of Paris asking mourners to embrace him as they gathered to commemorate the 129 victims killed in a series of terror attacks across the capital.

Footage posted online shows the man standing next to a homemade sign reading: “I’m Muslim, but I’m told that I’m a terrorist. I trust you, do you trust me? If yes, hug me.”

The video shows dozens of onlookers approaching the man and embracing him at the Place de la République, which has become a hub for homages and tributes.

One woman is moved to tears by the man's gesture and joins another onlooker to hug him.

After taking off his blindfold the man, who remains unnamed, said: “I would like to thank every one of you for giving me a hug. I did this to send a message to everyone.

“I am Muslim, but that doesn’t make me a terrorist. I never killed anybody. I can even tell you that last Friday was my birthday, but I didn’t go out.

“I deeply feel for all the victims’ families. I want to tell you that ‘Muslim’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘terrorist’.

“A terrorist is a terrorist, someone willing to kill another human being over nothing. A Muslim would never do that. Our religion forbids it.”

The video has been watched more than 10 million times on Facebook and received 150,000 likes in two days.  

Attacks by jihadist militants and a rise in refugees seeking help in Europe has led to renewed focus on Europe’s Muslim population.

Since the Paris attacks, committed by Isis militants and suicide bombers, the Slovakian Prime Minister claimed his country is “monitoring every Muslim,” while Poland has demanded security guarantees before accepting refugees.

However, a survey of seven European countries last spring by the Pew Research Centre, found France has the most positive views on followers of Islam, with 74 per cent of people surveyed holding a favourable view of the Muslim community.

In Britain, an advert organised by the Muslim Council of Britainon behalf of more than 300 mosques and community groups said the "barbaric acts of [Isis] have no sanction in the religion of Islam, which forbids terrorism and the targeting of innocents."

The advert called on everyone to stand together to ensure communities were not turned against each another.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-attacks-blindfolded-muslim-man-asks-people-to-show-him-trust-with-a-hug-after-shootings-a6740101.html

Structure of the lead:   Who- A Muslim man
   When- Thursday
   What- ask for a hug
   Why- he want to tell people that not every Muslim is terrorist
   Where- Paris
   How- not given

Keywords:
1. onlooker 旁觀者
2. hub 樞紐
3. homages 敬意
4.barbaric 野蠻的

Liquid water exists on Mars, boosting hopes for life there, NASA says

Tue, Sep 29,2015

By Michael Pearson, CNN

Potentially life-giving water still flows across the ancient surface of Mars from time to time, NASA scientists said Monday in revealing a potential breakthrough in both the search for life beyond Earth and human hopes to one day travel there.

While the discovery doesn't by itself offer evidence of life on Mars, either past or present, it does boost hopes that the harsh landscape still offers some refuge for microbes to cling to existence.

"The existence of liquid water, even if it is super salty briny water, gives the possibility that if there's life on Mars, that we have a way to describe how it might survive," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA.

NASA researchers using an imager aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed the watery flows by looking at light waves returned from seasonal dark streaks on the surface, long suspected to be associated with liquid water.

The investigation showed the streaks absorb light at specific wavelengths associated with chemicals known to pull water from the Martian atmosphere in a process known as deliquescence, said Georgia Tech doctoral student Lujendra Ojha, who first discovered the streaks while still an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona in 2011.

The chemicals allow the water to remain liquid at lower temperatures but also help keep it from boiling off in the thin atmosphere of Mars, the researchers said.

It remains unclear where the water comes from. Theories include deliquescence, melting subsurface ice or even a liquid-water aquifer that feeds the process. Discovering what precisely is causing the phenomenon is a mystery for the next round of investigations, said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program.

The researchers' findings are in a new paper being presented this week at the European Planetary Science Congress in France.This is not the first discovery of water on Mars.

Researchers have known for many years that Mars has water frozen at its poles, in its thin atmosphere, and, most recently, in tiny puddles that appear to form at night on the surface.

Nor is it the first potential clue that Mars could have once -- or may still -- host life. The Mars Curiosity rover, for instance, has detected methane on the surface of Mars, as well as other chemical signatures suggesting the possibility of past or present life.

It remains to be seen whether the new discovery improves the odds of life on Mars, but researcher Mary Beth Wilhelm said the results suggest "more habitable conditions on the near surface of Mars than previously thought."

How habitable, she said, depends on how salty and how cold the conditions are.But Alfred McEwen, who heads up NASA's HiRISE high-resolution camera aboard the Mars orbiter, said he's fairly confident life will one day be found on Mars."It's very likely, I think, that there's life somewhere in the crust of Mars, microbes," he said.

Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA, said the discovery announced Monday puts NASA in a perfect position to look for that life.

"We haven't been able to answer the question, 'Does life exist beyond Earth?' " Green said. "But following the water is a critical element of that. We now have, I think, a great opportunity to be in the right locations on Mars to thoroughly investigate that."

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/28/us/mars-nasa-announcement/

Structure of the lead:
   Who-NASA
   When- Mon, Sep 28, 2015
   What-water still flows across the ancient surface of Mars
   Why-not given
   Where-Mars
   How-using an imager

keywords:
1.briny 鹹的
2.microbes 維生物
3.aquifer 含水層
4.puddles 水坑
5.methane 甲烷
6.crust 外殼