Leave family in peace, Schumacher's wife tells media

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Michael Schumacher's wife appealed to the media on Tuesday to leave the French hospital they have staked out since the German was critically injured in a skiing accident nine days ago and to let the doctors do their job.

Corinna Schumacher also asked the media to leave her family in peace after German reports said on Monday there had been a slight improvement in the former driver's condition, hours after Grenoble hospital had issued a bulletin saying he was still stable but critical.

"Please support us in our joint struggle with Michael," Corinna said in a statement. "It is important to me that you relieve the doctors and the hospital so they can work in peace.

"Please trust their statements and leave the hospital. Please also leave our family in peace."

They were Corinna's first public comments since a December 30 statement in which she thanked the medical team for their efforts and expressed gratitude to fans around the world for their outpouring of support.

Schumacher, a seven-times Formula One world champion, suffered brain injuries when his head hit a rock in France on December 27.

He has been in an induced coma since then and has undergone two operations in Grenoble.

The hospital and the German's management have repeatedly asked the media to respect his privacy.

The medical team have held news conferences and issued periodic bulletins on his condition including one on Monday that said: "The clinical state of Michael Schumacher is stable as he's under permanent care and treatment.

"However, the medical team in charge stresses that it continues to assess his situation as critical."

BILD REPORT

Bild, Germany's best-selling newspaper, reported on Tuesday under the headline 'First hopes for Schumi' that the former driver nearly died twice last week.

It added that doctors were now more optimistic he would survive.

"Twice in the last week it looked like Schumi would lose the fight for his life," Bild wrote.

"The brain scan on Friday was 'catastrophic', Bild has learned from medical sources. But after the readings stabilised towards the weekend the doctors are now confident he will make it."

Last week Schumacher's agent Sabine Kehm urged journalists to stay away after security guards said they intercepted a reporter disguised as a priest who was trying to get into his room.

Schumacher, who turned 45 on Friday, is the most successful Formula One driver of all time with 91 race victories.

He left the sport last year after a disappointing three-year comeback with Mercedes following an earlier retirement from Ferrari at the end of 2006.

French newspaper Le Dauphine Libere reported on Tuesday that the camera Schumacher had on his skiing helmet was recording when he crashed.

The newspaper said investigators had footage that will be useful to understand the circumstances of the accident. The prosecutor in Annecy is due to hold a news conference on Wednesday.

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Motor racing-Leave family in peace, Schumacher's wife tells media

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Michael Schumacher's wife appealed to the media on Tuesday to leave the French hospital they have staked out since the German was critically injured in a skiing accident nine days ago and to let the doctors do their job.

Corinna Schumacher also asked the media to leave her family in peace after German reports said on Monday there had been a slight improvement in the former driver's condition, hours after Grenoble hospital had issued a bulletin saying he was still stable but critical.

"Please support us in our joint struggle with Michael," Corinna said in a statement. "It is important to me that you relieve the doctors and the hospital so they can work in peace.

"Please trust their statements and leave the hospital. Please also leave our family in peace."

They were Corinna's first public comments since a Dec. 30 statement in which she thanked the medical team for their efforts and expressed gratitude to fans around the world for their outpouring of support.

Schumacher, a seven-times Formula One world champion, suffered brain injuries when his head hit a rock in France on Dec. 27.

He has been in an induced coma since then and has undergone two operations in Grenoble.

The hospital and the German's management have repeatedly asked the media to respect his privacy.

The medical team have held news conferences and issued periodic bulletins on his condition including one on Monday that said: "The clinical state of Michael Schumacher is stable as he's under permanent care and treatment.

"However, the medical team in charge stresses that it continues to assess his situation as critical."

BILD REPORT

Bild, Germany's best-selling newspaper, reported on Tuesday under the headline 'First hopes for Schumi' that the former driver nearly died twice last week.

It added that doctors were now more optimistic he would survive.

"Twice in the last week it looked like Schumi would lose the fight for his life," Bild wrote.

"The brain scan on Friday was 'catastrophic', Bild has learned from medical sources. But after the readings stabilised towards the weekend the doctors are now confident he will make it."

Last week Schumacher's agent Sabine Kehm urged journalists to stay away after security guards said they intercepted a reporter disguised as a priest who was trying to get into his room.

Schumacher, who turned 45 on Friday, is the most successful Formula One driver of all time with 91 race victories.

He left the sport last year after a disappointing three-year comeback with Mercedes following an earlier retirement from Ferrari at the end of 2006.

French newspaper Le Dauphine Libere reported on Tuesday that the camera Schumacher had on his skiing helmet was recording when he crashed.

The newspaper said investigators had footage that will be useful to understand the circumstances of the accident. The prosecutor in Annecy is due to hold a news conference on Wednesday. (Additional reporting by Gregory Blachier in Paris, editing by Tony Jimenez)

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New health resource to improve access to family planning for women after childbirth

13 November 2013 | ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - A new resource for health programme managers and policy makers released today aims to improve access to family planning for women after childbirth and during the first 12 months of motherhood.

Closely-spaced and unintended pregnancies are a health risk to both mother and child: spacing pregnancies at least 2 years apart can avert 10% of infant deaths and about 1 in 5 deaths in children aged 1 to 4.

Launched at the International Conference on Family Planning in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, "Programming strategies for postpartum family planning" provides interventions at all levels of health care to expand access to scientifically-sound family planning methods for new mothers.

The plan identifies three critical areas of work for countries to ensure successful implementation of the strategies:

• close tracking of postpartum contraceptive use to ensure a steady supply and distribution of contraceptives;
• high quality, easy-to-understand informational materials about family planning options to help women and families make informed choices; and
• health worker training of recommended practices so services are consistent with global standards of care.

Programming Strategies is being launched by WHO, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and its implementing partner, the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP).

“Virtually all women who have just had a baby are not ready to have another one right away, but too often they don’t have access to family planning,” says Dr Marleen Temmerman, director of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at WHO. “Many women are not even aware that they can become pregnant within 12 months of giving birth.”

Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 27 developing countries show that 95% of postpartum women want to avoid a pregnancy for at least 2 years, yet 65% do not use contraception. In Ethiopia, a similar analysis shows 81% of postpartum women are not using any contraception.

“There are many obvious, although often missed, opportunities to inform postpartum women on their options for healthy birth spacing and offer them an effective method of contraception,” said Patricia MacDonald, Senior Technical Advisor, Office of Population and Reproductive Health, USAID. “Antenatal care givers, birth attendants, child health providers and vaccinators should all take the time to ask a woman whether she is interested in family planning to protect herself from having another pregnancy too soon. This critical window may be the only chance to offer postpartum women the information they need for safe and healthy motherhood.”

“This document demonstrates the global health community’s response to the growing demand for postpartum family planning,” according to Koki Agarwal, MCHIP Director and moderator of the launch event. “Today we call on stakeholders across the spectrum – from health extension workers to midwives, nurses, medical doctors and policy makers – to ensure that every mother, every couple, are better able to safely plan their families.”

For more information please contact:

Elisa Scolaro
WHO
??lephone: +41 79 516 8872
E-mail: scolaroe@who.int

Colleen Barton Sutton
?elephone: +1 703 203 7843
E-mail: colleen@redjacketpr.com

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New role for protein family could provide path to how crop traits are modified

Sep. 18, 2013 — Pioneering new research from a team of Indiana University Bloomington biologists has shown for the first time that a protein which has been long known to be critical for the initiation of protein synthesis in all organisms can also play a role in the regulation of gene expression in some bacteria, and probably land plants as well.

The protein, called translation initiation factor 3, or IF3, is one of three proteins that make up the core structure of the machinery needed to guide the joining of messenger RNAs and ribosomes as protein translation commences. These three proteins have been widely considered to simply operate in a constitutive manner and play little, if any, role in regulating the expression of genes.

The new findings, from the laboratory of David M. Kehoe, professor of biology in the Indiana University Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences, reveals that IF3, in addition to its well-accepted function during translation initiation, also regulates the expression of genes that encode components of the photosynthetic machinery in response to changes in the color of light in the surrounding environment, a process known as "chromatic acclimation."

These photosynthesis genes produce red-pigmented proteins called phycoerythrin in cyanobacteria when the cells are grown in green light and allow these organisms to efficiently absorb the predominant ambient light color for photosynthesis. The team uncovered the novel function of IF3 while searching for mutants that incorrectly regulated phycoerythrin. The discovery of this mutant was at first surprising, because in all other bacteria that have been examined, mutations in infC (the gene that encodes IF3) are lethal.

The team solved this puzzle by uncovering a second infC gene in Fremyella diplosiphon, the model organism for the study of light color responsiveness in cyanobacteria. While both IF3s, which have been named IF3a and IF3b, can act in the traditional role of translation initiation, only IF3a was found to also regulate photosynthetic gene expression.

By exploring the genomes of hundreds of prokaryotes and eukaryotes in collaboration with members of the laboratory of Indiana University Distinguished Professor and Class of 1955 Professor Jeffrey Palmer, the group identified a wide range of species whose genomes appear to have the potential to encode multiple IF3s, with one organism apparently encoding five distinct IF3 family members. And since almost none of these species are capable of chromatic acclimation, Kehoe believes that multiple IF3s must be used to regulate a wide range of environmental and perhaps developmental responses in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

"Particularly interesting was our finding that IF3 families exist in a number of plant species, including commercially important crops," Kehoe said. "This means that new approaches to the modification of traits in agriculturally significant plant species may be possible by manipulating the expression patterns of different IF3 family members."

The discovery has generated excitement for an additional reason. Historically, scientists have had a difficult time studying IF3 because it is so essential for translation initiation that it can not be altered without causing death. In fact, it remains one of the few proteins involved in translation for which no effective antibiotic has been developed. But the ability of the Kehoe team to delete either of the two infC genes in F. diplosiphon without causing lethality will allow the group to modify both IF3a and IF3b at will.

"Now that we know that F. diplosiphon contains two functionally different IF3s, and that each is nonessential, we have a unique opportunity to enhance our understanding of how the structural features of IF3 are related to its function," Kehoe said. "Advancing our understanding of the role of IF3 in translation is likely to provide opportunities to develop new antibiotics that are targeted to this class of proteins."

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China to crack down on family planning fines after abuses found

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will crack down on penalties paid by families flouting strict family planning rules after a National Audit Office probe found $260 million in fines had been levied illegally, state media reported.

There has been growing public anger about the one-child policy, which was introduced in the late 1970s to prevent population growth spiralling out of control.

The policy covers 63 percent of China, although family planning rules have been loosened over the years to allow some couples to have a second child.

The audit office's investigation of 45 counties in nine provinces and municipalities from 2009-12 found 1.6 billion yuan ($260 million) in fines had been given out in contravention of the rules, Chinese newspapers said on Thursday.

The "social support fee" - the fine - is meant to go towards the government budget to compensate for resources and public services the child would use.

National Health and Family Planning Commission spokesman Mao Qunan said the fines are "a means to ensure the implementation of the one-child policy", according to the official Xinhua news agency.

His department is now pushing "related local family planning departments to rectify misconduct in the collection and management of such fines", the report said.

The ministry "will take effective measures to address problems uncovered from the auditing process and improve the system on the collection and management of fines", Xinhua said.

"The commission will tighten supervision and guide local family planning departments to publish information for public scrutiny," it said.

The audit office found that problems included inaccurate reports of the number of extra children parents had, fees not successfully collected and officials handing out higher fines than they should have.

However, the figure reported for the amount of fines illegally collected falls far short of the more than 16.5 billion yuan activists say provincial governments have failed to account for.

($1 = 6.1212 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait)

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