A Woman-Led Grounds Crew is Making Softball History

A group of 16 female volunteers are working the grounds at the Little League Softball World Series this weekend, in what is believed to be a first for the event. The women are part of a larger effort to increase the number of women in the field of turf management. This is a great opportunity for the girls playing in the tournament to see women in a non-traditional role and perhaps be inspired to pursue a career in turf management themselves.

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12-Year-Old Girl Rescues Two Brothers Before House Fire Spreads Inside Their Home

A 12-year-old girl in Richmond Hill is being praised after her quick response helped save her two brothers from a house fire on Monday afternoon. Macy had just gotten off her school bus when she saw her family’s home was burning. Her mother, Lisa Johnson, said Macy reacted immediately. “You can see the moment where she realized that her house was burning,” Johnson recalled to WTVM News Leader 9. “She ran to the front door and just screamed into the house, ‘Get out. The house is on fire! The house is on fire!’” Inside the home, Johnson said her two older sons did not know there was a fire. One of them, 14, had come home from school sick and was asleep in a bedroom directly above the garage, where the fire had already begun to spread. The other was in the shower getting ready for work. Johnson said neither of them heard or saw anything unusual until Macy started yelling. “My 14-year-old… was sleeping. He had no idea,” Johnson said. “And my oldest son was preparing to go to work… again, had no idea until she started screaming.” Macy’s warning gave both boys time to get out of the house. Firefighters from Richmond Hill and Bryan County responded and contained the blaze before it destroyed the entire two-storey home. Even so, the fire caused major damage. The family had moved into the house only a few months ago, and much of what they owned is now gone. Johnson said the loss has been devastating, but her family is focused on the fact that they are all safe. “Hard as it is to know that we’ve lost almost everything… we have each other and we have God,” Johnson said. “And I have faith in Him and there’s a reason for everything.” The cause of the fire is still under investigation. For the Johnson family, Macy’s actions changed the outcome. Johnson said her daughter saw the danger, ran to the door and shouted for her brothers to get out. Both were able to escape after hearing her cries. A 14-year-old boy who had been asleep in a room above the garage and an older brother who was in the shower did not know anything was wrong until Macy yelled that the house was on fire. Firefighters then managed to contain the blaze before it destroyed the full house, but the family is now dealing with the loss of much of what they owned after moving in only months ago. “Hard as it is to know that we’ve lost almost everything… we have each other and we have God,” Johnson said. Credit: WTVM News Leader 9

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This Boy With Cancer Raised $2,000 to Deliver 124 Easter Baskets to Children in Hospitals

A hospital stay can shrink childhood fast. For 12-year-old Nathan Yuill, it also became the place where he decided to do something for other kids. Yuill, who was diagnosed as a child with stage-4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, is now two treatment courses away from what is anticipated to be a bell-ringing remission announcement. Before his time at Providence Children’s Hospital came to an end, he raised $2,000 to give almost every child there a colorful Easter basket filled with presents. Providence Clinical Nurse Manager of Pediatric Nicki Thurwanger said the carts normally used to transport meals and other items from room to room were overflowing with baskets. She said nearby residents donated the baskets and helped put them together. “When the kiddos are here, every day becomes challenging and hard, and you look for the little things that make you be a kid,” Thurwanger told Alaska News Source. “And so I think that’s what things like this give back is, yes, you’re in the hospital, but you’re a kid, and you get to still be a kid when you’re here.” Nathan’s mother, Dena Yuill, said she was shocked by how quickly people gave to the project, which her son had come up with. She said donations topped $2,000 in just 24 hours. “He’s amazing. I wish I had half the strength he does,” she said. In total, 124 baskets were distributed in time for Good Friday at Providence and the nearby Alaska Native Medical Center. The effort meant children spending Easter in hospital got gifts during a difficult time. Thurwanger said moments like that help remind them they still get to be kids when they are there. 📸 credit: Providence Alaska Children’s Hospital

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A Single Injection Restored Hearing in Patients With Congenital Deafness

For people born with a rare genetic form of deafness, a single injection into the inner ear is showing early results that would have seemed out of reach not long ago. A new study found gene therapy significantly improved hearing in 10 patients with congenital deafness or severe hearing loss linked to mutations in the OTOF gene. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, working with hospitals and universities in China, reported that hearing improved in every case and that the treatment was well-tolerated. The findings were published in Nature Medicine. "This is a huge step forward in the genetic treatment of deafness, one that can be life-changing for children and adults," says Maoli Duan, consultant and docent at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and one of the study's corresponding authors. The trial involved 10 patients aged 1 to 24 who were treated at five hospitals in China. All had deafness caused by OTOF mutations. Those mutations stop the body from producing enough otoferlin, a protein needed to send sound signals from the inner ear to the brain. To treat that, researchers used a synthetic adeno-associated virus, or AAV, to carry a working version of the OTOF gene into the inner ear. Doctors gave the therapy as a single injection through the round window, a membrane at the base of the cochlea. The effects appeared quickly. Most patients started to regain some hearing within one month. After six months, all participants had shown clear improvement. On average, the level of sound they could detect improved from 106 decibels to 52 decibels. The strongest responses were seen in children, especially those aged five to eight. One seven-year-old girl regained nearly full hearing and was able to have everyday conversations with her mother four months after treatment. The study also found meaningful improvements in adult patients. "Smaller studies in China have previously shown positive results in children, but this is the first time that the method has been tested in teenagers and adults, too," says Dr. Duan. "Hearing was greatly improved in many of the participants, which can have a profound effect on their life quality. We will now be following these patients to see how lasting the effect is." Researchers reported that the treatment was safe and well-tolerated during the follow-up period, which lasted from six to 12 months. The most commonly reported side effect was a decrease in neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. No serious adverse reactions were observed during the follow-up period. The work was carried out by researchers from multiple institutions, including Zhongda Hospital at Southeast University in China. The study also points to a broader push in gene therapy for hearing loss. Dr. Duan said the work is already moving beyond OTOF to other genes linked to deafness. "OTOF is just the beginning," says Dr. Duan. "We and other researchers are expanding our work to other, more common genes that cause deafness, such as GJB2 and TMC1. These are more complicated to treat, but animal studies have so far returned promising results. We are confident that patients with different kinds of genetic deafness will one day be able to receive treatment." Funding for the research came from several Chinese research programs and from Otovia Therapeutics Inc. Otovia Therapeutics developed the gene therapy and employs many of the researchers involved in the study. A full list of disclosures and conflicts of interest is available in the published paper. Photo by Bastian Riccardi on Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/creative-shot-of-human-ears-on-dark-background-6244697/)

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Walk for Peace Monk Adopts Three-Legged Shelter Dog, Giving Rescue Pup a Forever Home

After 121 days in a North Carolina shelter, Hopper finally got his shot. Guilford County Animal Services in Greensboro said on Thursday that Hopper, a three-legged dog, was adopted by Monk John, one of the Buddhist monks who took part in the Walk for Peace. Hopper arrived at the shelter injured. Guilford County Animal Services said he had an illness that required his leg to be amputated to save his life. "Despite everything he’d been through, Hopper never lost his gentle spirit … he just needed someone to give him a chance," the Guilford County Animal Shelter said in a Facebook post. The shelter said Monk John developed a friendship with Hopper and welcomed him into a new life full of love. It said it could not be happier for the dog's newfound purpose. "Now, instead of watching the world pass him by through a window, Hopper gets to roam wide open land, explore, and truly be a dog again," the shelter said. A group of Buddhist monks began their Walk for Peace on Oct. 26 in Fort Worth, Texas, and reached Washington, D.C., 15 weeks later on Feb. 10. The walk highlighted Buddhism's long tradition of activism for peace.

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This Museum is Letting Visitors Watch Conservators Restore This 15th-Century Masterpiece

Visitors to a Venice museum can now watch conservators at work on a Renaissance altarpiece that has hung in the city for more than 500 years. Giovanni Bellini created the painting around 1478 for the church of San Giobbe in Venice. The wood panel work, titled Madonna and Child Enthroned, Music-Making Angels and Saints Francis, John the Baptist, Job, Dominic, Sebastian and Louis of Toulouse, hung for centuries inside the church in a custom stone frame. By the 1810s, the painting needed restoration, and the work was moved to the Gallerie dell’Accademia, where it has remained. The painting is more than 15 feet, or about 4.6 metres, tall. “It is a work of immense importance, not only [for] Venetian art but for all of Italian art,” Giulio Manieri Elia, the museum’s director, told the London Times’ James Imam. “It represents that pivotal moment in the Renaissance when the polyptych made with multiple panels transitioned to monumental single altarpieces.” The 15th-century painting now needs another round of work. Conservators have decided it is too delicate to move, so they will stabilize, clean and protect it where it hangs. The museum has turned the exhibition hall into a temporary laboratory, letting visitors see the restoration as it happens. This choice to carry out the work in public view is “not only about caring for an absolute masterpiece of our collection,” Elia said in a statement shared with Artnet’s Richard Whiddington. “It’s about demonstrating how scientific knowledge, responsible conservation and visitor communication are integral to the museum experience.” According to a statement from the museum, the painting is made up of 13 horizontal poplar planks joined with glue and wooden pins. Over time, changes in temperature caused the wood to expand and contract. That movement led to long cracks on the surface. The painting has also become discoloured over the centuries. Conservators plan to stabilize the wood, gently remove dirt and old varnish, deal with the cracks and bring back the original colour. They will then apply a new varnish to protect the surface in the years ahead. “The work site, set up directly in the room with large windows overlooking the working area, will allow visitors to follow the project live, observing up close the different stages of study, analysis and conservation treatment of the artwork,” the museum said in a March 19 Instagram post. As part of the project, conservators will also use ultraviolet fluorescence and infrared imaging to study the painting. They want to learn more about the original composition and about the effects of the six restorations carried out over the past 200 years. The early findings have already turned up several preparatory layers beneath the painted surface, according to the museum statement. Those layers include coats of glue and a clear primer made of white lead. Conservators have also found that some of Bellini’s brushstrokes contain a mix of three pigments. The project will take two years and cost $580,000. Venetian Heritage, a nonprofit that works to preserve Venice’s art and architecture, is funding part of it. Last year, the same group helped fund the restoration of another Bellini work, Pietà, also known as Dead Christ Supported by Angels. That painting belongs to the City Museum of Rimini and is currently on view at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. Watching major restoration work in person is not limited to Venice. In Amsterdam, visitors to the Rijksmuseum can also observe the restoration of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. Conservators there are cleaning and restoring the 17th-century painting from behind a glass barrier. Once work on Bellini’s altarpiece is finished, the painting will move to a former church that is now part of the museum. “That will give it more breathing space,” Toto Bergamo Rossi, director of Venetian Heritage, told the Times. “It will look even more glorious.” 📸 Credit: Matteo Panciera

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A Boston Nonprofit is Empowering Youth With Music, Radio and Creative Tech Skills

An old firehouse in East Boston now sounds very different. Inside Engine 40, young people run a radio station, practice instruments, write songs, and learn technical skills through ZUMIX, a nonprofit focused on music and the creative arts. The organization has been in East Boston for nearly 35 years, but it started on a much smaller scale. Co-founder Madeleine Steczynski said ZUMIX grew out of a specific moment in the community. "The beginnings … really were in response to the epidemic of gang violence in the late '80s and the very early '90s," she said to WCVB. In the summer of 1991, the program was taught out of Steczynski’s East Boston apartment. Eighteen kids learned about songwriting there. Now, the historic firehouse houses a much broader set of programs. Program director Corey Depina said the group now offers instruction across music, performance, and technical media. "Magic happens here at ZUMIX," Depina said. "We make dreams come true. We offer programs that start as a small … like private lessons in guitar, drums, bass, piano. Kids can graduate from that and form ensembles that go out and get paid and do gigs. We also have an audio creative tech media pathway where young kids can learn live sound, audio engineering, studio engineering." That range of programs is reflected in the experiences of students and alumni. Board member and alumnus Bryan Zuluaga said ZUMIX gave him technical skills and work, but he said its effect on his life went well beyond that. "Before, it was the place that gave me technical skills and a job. This was a place where I felt comfortable with other adults," he said. "(One) of the first places in my life where someone that was not my family member was an older person that I could ask about college, or I could talk to about what jobs and taxes were, or just anything else that was going on." Zuluaga now serves on the board of the same nonprofit where he once took part as a young person. Current student Kenneth Palacios said he first found ZUMIX when he was in 8th grade. The Revere High School junior started with guitar lessons, then expanded into other parts of the organization. He now hosts his own live radio show. Palacios said one program led to another. "Radio became storytelling," Palacios said to WCVB. "That became playing guitar for a band, that became making new friends, (then) photography and doing music journalism. All these different things kind of just manifested within each other." ZUMIX describes its mission as empowering youth through music and the creative arts. Its current setup inside the former firehouse includes space for radio, instruments, songwriting, and technical instruction. The organization’s history stretches from an apartment-based songwriting program for 18 kids in 1991 to a nonprofit with multiple pathways in music and creative media. Depina said those pathways can begin with private lessons in instruments, including guitar, drums, bass, and piano. From there, he said, students can move into ensembles that perform paid gigs, or into technical training in live sound, audio engineering, and studio engineering. For alumni such as Zuluaga, that structure offered a place to build skills and find trusted adults. For students such as Palacios, it opened the door from guitar lessons to radio, storytelling, photography, and music journalism. ZUMIX is celebrating its 35th year with a number of events this spring and summer. 📸 Credit: WCVB

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This Artificial Nest is Helping Save the Endangered Palm Cockatoos

For the palm cockatoo, finding a home can take centuries. Now, conservationists say they have found a way to help, after a chick hatched in an artificial nest designed to mimic the rare tree hollows the species depends on. Scientists say the ideal nesting hollow for the palm cockatoo can take 250 years to form. It needs mature trees, termites or fungi to create a hollow, exposure from strong Southern Pacific cyclones, and no wildfires during that long process. Deforestation is making that combination even harder to come by. People for Wildlife says it has now “cracked the code” on getting the birds to nest in artificial hollows, in what the group says is a major step for the species’ protection. “This is huge news,” People for Wildlife associate researcher Christina Zdenek told ABC News AU. “We have a highly endangered species in severe decline, and we’ve been working for years to crack the code of how to help them. And we finally have.” The palm cockatoo lives in Queensland, Australia’s northernmost state. It is a large bird, well over 30 centimetres in length from tip to tail, with a black crest, red cheek and a large black beak. Like other cockatoos, it can use tools. During mating season, it uses a stick to drum rhythms on hollow trees. That behaviour has earned it the nickname the Ringo bird, after Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. Fewer than 2,000 palm cockatoos remain, according to the source text. Their nesting needs are highly specific. The birds look for hollows in mature trees made by termites or fungi and exposed by cyclone winds. Logging and more intense wildfires interrupt the long process needed for those hollows to form. To try to work around that problem, People for Wildlife teamed up with a specialist woodcarver to create the “Palm Cockatube.” The design uses a section of old-growth tree trunk hollowed out to mimic the natural feel of the hollows the birds choose in the wild. The group installed 29 artificial nests across prime habitat where palm cockatoos were known to live but were not currently nesting. The nests used three different designs. Last September, Dr Zdenek and her colleague Benjamin Muller noticed adult birds visiting one particular hollow. They later found an egg inside. That egg has now hatched, in what the group described as a moment of delight for the researchers and for the Apudthama Traditional Owners. The result could matter beyond one species. Tree hollows are used by many animals in Australia as shelter, and Dr Zdenek said the success of the artificial nests could help others too. She said animals such as the glider, a tree-dwelling marsupial with wings like a flying squirrel, may also benefit if the artificial hollows work for a species as selective as the palm cockatoo. “Palm cockatoos here are the umbrella species; if you save them, you save dozens of others,” she said. 📸 credit: Benjamin Muller via ABC News AU

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This Adorable, Endangered Red Panda Just Arrived at a Wildlife Park to Boost Conservation Efforts

A red panda is back at Highland Wildlife Park, and keepers sound pretty pleased about it. Priya, a three-year-old female, arrived at the Kingussie park from Edinburgh Zoo on Tuesday. Keepers said her arrival marks the "long-awaited return" of red pandas at Highland Wildlife Park. Michael Livingstone, carnivore team leader at Highland Wildlife Park, said: “It’s always exciting to welcome a new animal, but even more so when they are as sweet and well-mannered as little Priya. I’m excited to see our visitors fall in love with her. “I used to look after Priya at Edinburgh Zoo, so I know her well. It’s wonderful to be reunited and to see her enjoying a new home. The habitat is beautiful, with lots of trees, areas to explore and plenty of space for her to do as she pleases. She’s going to be really happy here.” Keepers will soon welcome a male red panda to join Priya, and they said they have high hopes of successfully breeding the endangered species. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the wildlife conservation charity that runs both zoos, designed the new red panda habitat. 📸Credit: Talker News

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Dolly Parton, The Queen of Kindness, Now Has a New Children's Hospital in Her Name

For decades, Dolly Parton has backed children’s causes. Now her name is going on a children’s hospital in Tennessee after what its chief executive described as a far-reaching donation. East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville is now Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital, according to Chief Healthcare Executive. Parton never had children of her own, but she created Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to encourage a lifelong love of reading. In 30 years, the program has gifted more than 200 million books. Her support has also reached other projects in Tennessee, and now includes the renamed hospital in Knoxville. Matt Schafer, president and CEO of Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital, told Chief Healthcare Executive that meeting with Parton and hospital staff to talk about the future left a strong impression. “It was truly humbling, and to hear her, in her own words, talk about the importance of this to her, to her community, to this organization, and to children, was super affirming,” Schafer said. Schafer did not disclose financial details of the agreement, but he said Parton’s backing would have a lasting effect on the hospital. “What I can tell you is that she has made a generational and transformational commitment to Children’s and its mission, and that commitment is something that goes beyond our wildest expectations, that is, beyond generous, and will be a lifeline for this mission for now and for years to come. And we’re excited about and humbled by her willingness to do so,” he said. Schafer also said Parton’s support is expected to help fundraising efforts and bring wider attention to the hospital’s work. “Fundraising has and will continue to be a big part of ensuring that mission is exceeded to its fullest,” the CEO explained. “And there’s no time like this opportunity to tell our story in a broader way, to have the halo effect of Dolly Parton and those who like to support what she supports. We’re seeing some of the early fruits of that, and I believe we will continue to see that moving forward.” "dolly parton en american idol" by Alejo Castillo is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

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An Astronomer May Have Seen a Comet Halt Its Spin and Reverse Rotation for the First Time

Comets are messy, hard-to-predict things, and comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák has now given astronomers another reason to say so. A new study described on March 26 in the Astronomical Journal says the comet may have done something rarely, if ever, seen directly before: slowed its spin to a stop and then started rotating the other way. The object, known as 41P, had already caught scientists’ attention years ago. In early 2017, researchers reported that the comet’s rotation had slowed dramatically. It was taking about 46 to 60 hours to complete one rotation, more than twice as long as its earlier roughly 20-hour spin. Comets do sometimes change how fast they rotate, but usually by much smaller amounts. “By so many hours and so drastically, that we’ve never seen,” Dennis Bodewits, an astronomer at Auburn University and a co-author of the older study, told Jonathan O’Callaghan at the New York Times. That was not the end of it. David Jewitt, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently studied archival images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in December 2017. He found that by then, 41P had sped up again, rotating about once every 14 hours. Taken together, the observations point to a simple explanation. The comet appears to have slowed down, stopped spinning, and then begun rotating in the opposite direction. Jewitt told Nikk Ogasa at Science News that the likely cause was sunlight heating some of the comet’s ice and turning it into jets of gas. Those jets can act like thrusters on a rocket. Most of the strongest jets are probably on one side of the comet, pushing it into a particular spin. “It’s like pushing a merry-go-round,” Jewitt said in a statement from NASA. “If it’s turning in one direction, and then you push against that, you can slow it and reverse it.” That kind of change may be easier for 41P than for a larger object. The comet is considered small. Its rocky center, or nucleus, is about 0.6 miles wide. According to the report, that probably makes it somewhat easy to twist. Scientists estimate that 41P entered its current orbit about 1,500 years ago after Jupiter’s gravity flung it there. It now passes through the inner part of the solar system roughly every 5.4 years. Comets themselves are icy leftovers from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. They contain frozen gases, rock and dust because they formed far from the sun’s heat. Qicheng Zhang, an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory who was not involved in the study, said 41P may not be unusual so much as unusually visible. “Most comets of this size probably change their rotation on comparable or shorter timescales,” Zhang said in a statement from the observatory. “They just tend to not pass close enough to Earth for these changes to be observable. In many cases, they’re just destroyed before we ever get a second look at the rotation.” Jane Luu, an astronomer at the University of Oslo in Norway who was not involved in the work, told the Times that researchers had already suspected comets could go through these kinds of reversals. “But as far as I know, this is the first observation to catch a comet doing that in the act,” she said. The study also suggests the comet’s surface may be changing quickly. The source text says most structural changes in comets take centuries, but 41P appears to be evolving fast enough for scientists to follow over a human lifetime. Jewitt also ran computer simulations of the comet. Those simulations suggest its spin will keep speeding up. As that happens, the force from the rotation could eventually become stronger than the gravity holding the comet together, causing it to break into several pieces. Jewitt told Science News that it is hard to say exactly when comet 41P will break apart, but it might happen in only a few decades. 📸 Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute

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