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July 16, 2010
Gene Mutation That Causes Rare Form of Deafness Identified
Researchers have identified a gene mutation that causes a rare form of hearing loss known as auditory neuropathy, according to U-M Medical School scientists.
n the study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U-M's Marci Lesperance, M.D., and Margit Burmeister, Ph.D. led a team of researchers who examined the DNA of individuals from the same large family afflicted with the disorder.
The researchers identified a mutation in the DIAPH3 gene that causes over-production of a compound known as a diaphanous protein. In previous studies, hearing loss has been linked to a related gene that also affects a diaphanous protein.
Posted @ 8:40 AM
New Drug Restores Hearing After Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Rats
Researchers from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, have discovered that a potent new drug restores hearing after noise-induced hearing loss in rats. The landmark discovery found that injection of an agent called 'ADAC', activates adenosine receptors in cochlear tissues, resulting in recovery of hearing function.
The finding paves the way for effective non-surgical therapies to restore hearing loss after noise-induced injury. Dr. Srdjan Vlajkovic and his team's work1 is published in a special edition of Springer's journal Purinergic Signalling, focusing on the inner ear.
Posted @ 8:39 AM
Hearing-Impaired Carjacking Victim Fights Back
A Daytona Beach carjacker was able to sneak up on his victim, because the man was hearing-impaired.
The carjacking victim was just trying to put air in his tires at an apartment complex off Derbyshire Road Thursday. The victim tried to fight back when he saw the carjacker.
John Alexander is still a little stunned and has a sore elbow to go along with it. He was filling up the passenger side tire of his gold Pontiac. When he looked in his air pump, he said to himself, “Doesn't work...so I look up I saw.”
Posted @ 8:35 AM
Deaf children are being heard in Africa
Julie Solberg began venturing up the peaks of Uganda's mountains focused on retrieving deaf orphans with the purpose of providing them with an education. The children had been abandoned and left homeless.
Solberg founded the Child Africa International School in Kabale, Uganda, in 2007 with the aim of integrating deaf children into a regular primary school. Cambridge to Africa, a United Kingdom group that works to advance education in Africa, is working with the school on a cellphone integration project that will make it easier for deaf children to learn alongside, and be taught by, the non-deaf. Ten per cent of the children enrolled at the school are hearing impaired.
Posted @ 8:34 AM
Deaf student overcomes obstacles to lead full, academic life on campus
One simple sound can convey an entire message.
Your heart races when you hear the blast of a fire engine horn, or the roaring of a tornado siren. We’ve been programmed to know these sounds mean danger. They tell us “beware, something bad has happened;” while the sweet harmony of a choir or birds singing on a spring morning can bring comfort to just about anyone.
Many people in the deaf community have never heard these sounds. While technological advancements like hearing aids or more extreme measures like cochlear implants are used to help simulate hearing, many in the deaf community choose to bypass the options and live life just as they always have.
Posted @ 8:31 AM
Apple, AT&T partner to assist deaf with iPhone 4 and FaceTime
Apple and AT&T have teamed with ZVRS to bring video relay calling for deaf and hard-of-hearing users via the iPhone 4 and its FaceTime video chat functionality.
Video relay services allow deaf, hard-of-hearing and speech-impaired people to communicate with hearing people in real-time, via a sign language interpreter. In addition to hardware, ZVRS makes video relay software for both Macs and PCs. And with the help of Apple and AT&T, it will now bring its latest software -- dubbed iZ -- to the iPhone 4.
ZVRS on Wednesday hosted a private party at the Hard Rock Cafe in Philadelphia, Penn., to announce iZ, which will be released on July 26, 2010 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Further details on the service, including whether it will work over a regular cellular data connection, were not provided. Currently, FaceTime is only available over Wi-Fi.
Posted @ 8:30 AM
American School For The Deaf Receives Funding For Summer Programs
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving has awarded more than $33,000 to the American School for the Deaf to support summer programs.
One grant is for the Summer Education Enrichment and Employment Program, which provides intensive reading, language and math instruction to approximately 100 deaf and hard of hearing children and youth, ages 5-21, who live in Greater Hartford. These students have been identified as being at high risk for academic regression during the summer.
Posted @ 8:29 AM
What’s the Rainforest Sound Like? Ask a Deaf Person
What does the jungle sound like? So many things. It sounds like katydids telling each other where to look for food, the smoky jungle frog bellowing for a mate, mosquitos hungry for blood, piranhas leaping out of the muddy brown Amazon and flopping into a dugout canoe, machetes striking a yucca root and a wayward parrot who screams, “Quiero Comer!! (I want to eat in Spanish)” in the middle of the night.
On one day this weekend, the Peruvian jungle was filled with soccer fans cheering over their radios and generator powered televisions as Spain won the World Cup.
Posted @ 8:28 AM
North Melbourne invention allows deaf to feel sound
A North Melbourne product designer is a contender on the world stage for his invention that enables the deaf to feel sound.
Swinburne University industrial design graduate Jack Allwood has created the Outer Ear, a non-surgical alternative to the cochlear implant and hearing aids.
“It enables anyone to feel a knock on the door, a fire alarm sounding, a person calling out from behind,” Mr Allwood, 21, said.
Posted @ 8:27 AM
College for deaf has come a long way in 30 years
Considering the school began with a converted military hospital and not much else, it’s fair to say SouthWest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf has come a long way in three decades.
Current and former students and staff, as well as a long list of well-wishers were present on campus this past weekend as SWCID celebrated its 30th reunion.
While fun and games were also on the reunion agenda, the event mainly gave people a chance to reflect on just how far SWCID, the only self-contained community college for the deaf and hard of hearing the United States, has come since its first class enrolled in 1980.
Posted @ 8:26 AM
Deaf concertgoer feels Christian music through sign language
Like thousands of other Christian-music fans, Jessi Gupta was on her feet for nearly every act Friday at KingsFest at Kings Dominion.
She bounced and nodded to the head-banging group Fireflight. Arms raised, she swayed back and forth during Chris Tomlin's set. When headliner Toby Mac capped the evening at Kingswood Amphitheater, Gupta screamed along with other fans as neon lit up the sky, complementing the hip-hop and rock-fusion sound.
The 30-year-old government worker from Bristow didn't hear one lyric, a single guitar riff or one of the stage-thumping drum solos. Gupta is deaf. She experienced the concert in complete silence, but few may have heard the message of embracing Jesus Christ as clearly as she did.
Posted @ 8:25 AM
Cat lover rescues 21-year-old, deaf pet
A 21-year-old deaf cat that escaped from a car traveling to Maine has been found and safely returned to his owners.
Ruth and Frank Herz, of Searsmont, Maine, were driving home on June 28 when they stopped at the Blue Colony Diner in Newtown to eat. They parked their car in the shade and cracked the window so their pet dog and cat could get some air.
Chester, the cat, had on a metal leash because he does not like being inside cat carriers. The slender feline managed to wiggle through the crack and escaped.
Posted @ 8:24 AM
Teen opens ears to opportunity on Amazon mission
Today, Rhea McKinzie will wake up to a different alarm clock. As jaguars creep through the rainforest and parrots hold secret conversations, she will look outside and see a land of discovery and wonder.
The Fort Collins teen, along with a team of people from across the country, is part of a 10-day mission in the Amazon to erase the stigma associated with hearing loss.
The "Hear the World Expedition," is the first of its kind from Global Explorers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educational travel experiences. Team members will participate in various activities involving sound to better understand how important hearing can be, said managing supervisor Mariana Rodrigues.
Posted @ 8:24 AM
Deaf marathoner to run 40 miles July 18
James Yevich, a deaf runner, can often be seen running on the streets of Stratford, Connecticut in training for marathons.
He will turn 40 in July, and will run 40 miles in one day on July 18 to raise money and awareness of four causes: Friend James Bumbala, fighting liver cancer since 2006; friend, Dana Mallory, fighting lymphoma since 2008; the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation; and the 2013 Deaf Olympics in Greece.
Posted @ 8:23 AM
Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf Turns 30
The Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf in Big Spring kicked off a special weekend of celebrations Thursday Night to celebrate it's 30th birthday.
The college is hosting its first full alumni reunion event.
Throughout the weekend, SWCID will hold several events, inside and outside to mark more than 30 years since it opened its doors for the deaf community in west Texas and across the state.
Posted @ 8:22 AM
Deaf Elderly Woman Beaten in Widener Home Invasion
A 75-year old deaf woman is struggling to survive after a brutal beating. Police say she was attacked at her home in Widener, Arkansas Tuesday evening. Now, the search is on for her attacker.
At The Med Trauma Unit, 75-year old Mary Parker is holding on to life. Her sister Dot Halford said someone broke into her home Tuesday around 7:00pm and beat her severely.
"She is beaten up pretty bad," said Halford. "Her face just looks horrible, her eyes are almost shut."
Posted @ 8:21 AM
Family Won't Sue After Deaf Girl Struck, Killed
The family of a 15-year-old girl who was struck and killed by an SUV driven by a man who claimed he hadn't taken his schizophrenia medication will not sue.
An attorney for the family of Dawn Boozer-Carter said the family had planned to sue Derek Dewitt, 43, who admitted striking the girl and her mother, Tina Boozer-Carter, 41, and his father, who owned the car.
Posted @ 8:20 AM