by Greg Miller Immature neurons transplanted into the brains of obesity-prone mice can prevent the animals from becoming so fat, according to a new study. The researchers caution that their experiment was never intended as a step toward treating obesity in humans, but they say it provides an important proof of principle that transplanted fetal cells can integrate themselves into an abnormal neural circuit and help restore its function. Other researchers say the work highlights both the promise and the challenges of developing cell therapies for complex brain disorders. The road to fetal or stem cell therapies for the nervous system has been rocky. Despite early promise, recent trials of fetal cell transplants for Parkinson's disease have yielded disappointing results, for example, and last week the California biotechnology company Geron pulled the plug on a closely watched trial of a stem cell therapy for spinal injury. It also announced that, for financial reasons, it would abandon further stem cell work. Yet basic neuroscience research has been more encouraging. In the past decade, scientists overturned century-old dogma by showing that some parts of the human brain produce new neurons throughout life. There is evidence that these new neurons get wired into existing neural circuits and may help maintain or enhance brain function, suggesting that transplanted cells may be able to do the same. In the new study, reported online today in Science, Harvard University neuroscientist Jeffrey Macklis and colleagues investigated whether fetal neurons transplanted into a part of the mouse brain that does not normally produce new neurons of its own could repair an abnormal neural circuit. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 16084 - Posted: 11.26.2011

By Nathan Seppa By screening people who have died with full-body computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, doctors can often determine the cause of death without an autopsy, British researchers report November 22 in the Lancet. Further combining a CT scan with a quick heart test might result in a solid determination of cause of death in up to half of cases referred for autopsy, says study coauthor Ian Roberts, a pathologist at the University of Oxford. Autopsies are invasive and sometimes inconclusive, and some people object to the procedure on cultural or religions grounds. The new data suggest that imaging may provide an alternative in some cases, adding to post-mortem accuracy and easing the burden of grieving survivors, says Roberts. Whether imaging would save money is unknown, he says. At their essence, autopsies have changed little in the past century but remain the gold standard post-mortem exam. In recent years, some coroners and medical examiners have considered the use of medical imaging with MRI or CT scans, but few labs or hospitals have adopted the technologies because little research data existed to document their utility in this setting. For the new study, Roberts and his colleagues examined 182 deceased people whose cause of death wasn’t known. All underwent a CT scan and MRI. Radiologists analyzed those results separately and combined, arriving at a cause of death from each set of images. The radiologists also ranked how much confidence they had in each cause-of-death conclusion — definite, probable, possible or uncertain. Pathologists then performed autopsies on all of the bodies. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 16083 - Posted: 11.26.2011

By Tina Hesman Saey Scientists have deciphered the complete genetic instruction book of monarch butterflies. It is the first butterfly genome completed and the first of a long-distance migrating insect. Within the butterfly’s genetic archive, neurobiologist Steven Reppert of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester and his colleagues found genes that may help the insects sense the position of the sun and navigate to fir trees in Mexico, where they spend the winter. Reporting in the Nov. 23 Cell, the team also notes that monarchs make more of certain small genetic molecules, called microRNAs, that are involved in building muscle, regulating temperature sensitivity and storing fat when in migration mode. The 273 million DNA units that make up the monarch genome also include a complete set of genes for producing juvenile hormone, which summer butterflies use to kick-start reproduction. Migrating male monarchs use different strategies than females do to turn off the hormone, the team discovered. Monarchs have genes similar to ones that silk moths use to sense mating chemicals called pheromones. Those genes may aid social interactions between monarchs in their wintering grounds, Reppert says. The scientists also unearthed from the genome a gear previously thought to be missing from the butterfly’s daily, or circadian, clock, which helps the monarchs maintain a straight path. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Animal Migration; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 16082 - Posted: 11.26.2011

By BENEDICT CAREY ATHENS, Ohio — She was gone for good, and no amount of meditation could resolve the grief, even out here in the deep quiet of the woods. “When I began to see the delusions in the context of things that were happening in my real life, they finally made some sense," Milt Greek said. "And understanding the story of my psychosis helped me see what I needed to stay well.” Milt Greek pushed to his feet. It was Mother’s Day 2006, not long after his mother’s funeral, and he headed back home knowing that he needed help. A change in the medication for his schizophrenia, for sure. A change in focus, too; time with his family, to forget himself. And, oh yes, he had to act on an urge expressed in his psychotic delusions: to save the world. So after cleaning the yard around his house — a big job, a gift to his wife — in the coming days he sat down and wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, supporting a noise-pollution ordinance. Small things, maybe, but Mr. Greek has learned to live with his diagnosis in part by understanding and acting on its underlying messages, and along the way has built something exceptional: a full life, complete with a family and a career. He is one of a small number of successful people with a severe psychiatric diagnosis who have chosen to tell their story publicly. In doing so, they are contributing to a deeper understanding of mental illness — and setting an example that can help others recover. © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 16081 - Posted: 11.26.2011

By Emily Main Redheads may be stereotyped as having fiery tempers, but those tempers may turn to fear and loathing when they walk through the door of a dentist’s office, according to research published in the Journal of the American Dental Association. The study shows that people with a specific gene that often occurs in redheads tend to experience heightened anxiety when they pop in for a regular teeth cleaning. The details: The study’s authors recruited 144 people for the study, 67 of whom were natural redheads, and 77 who were dark-haired. The participants answered survey questions about any fears or anxieties related to dental visits, and the researchers took blood samples that they later tested for specific gene variants common in people with red hair. People with one specific gene, MC1R, were more than twice as likely to report that they avoided dental appointments because of fear and anxiety than people without that gene. Of the 85 people in the study with MC1R, 65 were redheads. What it means: It’s possible, say the researchers, that redheads with the gene in question tend to be resistant to certain pain medications. This could mean redheads are more prone than most to experience a difficult dental visit, affecting their expectations about future appointments. Redheaded or not, most of us have probably had reservations about going to the dentist at some point in our lives. But don’t let fear prevent you from getting your twice-yearly checkups. Recent studies have linked periodontal disease to a wide variety of chronic diseases, including heart disease, strokes, and type 2 diabetes. If it’s been a while since you’ve visited the dentist, you might be pleasantly surprised at the experience. “Things don’t hurt anymore,” says Kimberly A. Harms, DDS, consumer advisor for the American Dental Association. Anesthesia has become much more effective, she says, and patients don’t have to experience the pain that used to be common in dental procedures. © 2011 msnbc.com

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 16080 - Posted: 11.26.2011

Ewen Callaway Put two young mice in a cage and they will politely sniff one another. Two rat pups, by contrast, quickly become a blur of fur as they begin some “really rough-and-tumble play”, says Richard Paylor, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Such behaviour makes rats an ideal animal model for studying autism spectrum disorder, given that children who have the disorder are often less interested in play than children without it. Paylor is one of the first scientists to use transgenic rats to study neurodevelopmental diseases such as autism, and presented his team’s work at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington DC last week. Transgenic rats, Paylor and others say, are a better proxy than mice for the behavioural and cognitive problems experienced by people with autism. And because rats are a preferred model for the pharmaceutical industry, their use in basic research may speed new treatments. “I think they’re the future,” says Joseph Buxbaum, a neuroscientist at the Seaver Autism Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. “I could name 20 high-complexity behavioural tests that you can do in a rat that nobody’s ever done in a mouse.” At the meeting, he debuted his lab’s own transgenic rat strain, which is missing a working copy of a gene called Shank3. People with this same mutation usually develop a neurodevelopmental condition, often autism. © 2011 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Autism; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 16079 - Posted: 11.26.2011

Sandrine Ceurstemont, New Scientist TV Feeling sleepy after your Thanksgiving dinner? You may have heard that turkey consumption is to blame since it contains a natural sedative called tryptophan. But now an animation produced by the American Chemical Society debunks this common myth and identifies what food in your feast is most likely responsible for your drowsiness. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 16078 - Posted: 11.26.2011

by Jessica Hamzelou BRAIN shrinkage in people with Alzheimer's disease can be reversed in some cases - by jolting the degenerating tissue with electrical impulses. Moreover, doing so reduces the cognitive decline associated with the disease. "In Alzheimer's disease it is known that the brain shrinks, particularly the hippocampus," says Andres Lozano at Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario, Canada. What's more, brain scans show that the temporal lobe, which contains the hippocampus, and another region called the posterior cingulate use less glucose than normal, suggesting they have shut down. Both regions play an important role in memory. To try to reverse these degenerative effects, Lozano and his team turned to deep brain stimulation - sending electrical impulses to the brain via implanted electrodes. The group inserted electrodes into the brains of six people who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's at least a year earlier. They placed the electrodes next to the fornix - a bundle of neurons that carries signals to and from the hippocampus - and left them there, delivering tiny pulses of electricity 130 times per second. Follow-up tests a year later showed that the reduced use of glucose by the temporal lobe and posterior cingulate had been reversed in all six people (Annals of Neurology, DOI: 10.1002/ana.22089). © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 16077 - Posted: 11.26.2011

By R. Douglas Fields WASHINGTON, D.C.—One of the most difficult tasks to teach Air Force pilots who guide unmanned attack drones is how to pick out targets in complex radar images. Pilot training is currently one of the biggest bottlenecks in deploying these new, deadly weapons. So Air Force researchers were delighted recently to learn that they could cut training time in half by delivering a mild electrical current (two milliamperes of direct current for 30 minutes) to pilot's brains during training sessions on video simulators. The current is delivered through EEG (electroencephalographic) electrodes placed on the scalp. Biomedical engineer Andy McKinley and colleagues at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright–Patterson Air Force Base, reported their finding on this so-called transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) here at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting on November 13. "I don't know of anything that would be comparable," McKinley said, contrasting the cognitive boost of TDCS with, for example, caffeine or other stimulants that have been tested as enhancements to learning. TDCS not only accelerated learning, pilot accuracy was sustained in trials lasting up to 40 minutes. Typically accuracy in identifying threats declines steadily after 20 minutes. Beyond accelerating pilot training, TDCS could have many medical applications in the military and beyond by accelerating retraining and recovery after brain injury or disease. The question for the Air Force and others interested in transcranial stimulation is whether these findings will hold up over time or will land in the dustbin of pseudoscience. © 2011 Scientific American,

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 16076 - Posted: 11.26.2011

by Chelsea Whyte Name an animal that is most active during the full moon, and even those of us untouched by the charms of the Twilight movies might think werewolf. Our subject today is no mythical beast, however. The Barau's petrel is one of a handful of tropical birds that uses the moon as a kind of alarm clock. During breeding season, the bird travels to mating sites on the aptly named Reunion Island off the shore of Madagascar to meet its mate. The monogamous birds synchronise their journeys using the full moon as a kind of Bat-Signal to indicate that it's time to mate. "First arrival at the colony is crucial in the mating system of colonial animals like seabirds," writes Patrick Pinet of the University of Réunion, France. It's not uncommon for birds to take cues from the intensity of sunlight or the length of the day to determine the seasons for migration and mating. Circadian clocks are influenced by melatonin secretions, which reflect the amount and intensity of daylight. But the Barau's petrel migrates longitudinally – that is, parallel to the equator – so there isn't much difference between the hours of sunrise and sunset in winter and summer. Still, the slight changes in daylight do affect the petrels. Daily and seasonal changes in melatonin secretion indicate time of day and the time of the year for these birds. But to migrate at the right time to ensure they meet their partners, they need something that varies more reliably. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 16075 - Posted: 11.26.2011

Chelsea Whyte, contributor A 27-year-old woman has lost her place the London 2012 Paralympic Games in what appear to be the most unusual of circumstances: Monique van der Vorst, formerly paralysed from the waist down, has regained her ability to walk. Perhaps surprisingly, though, neuroscientists say her experience is not unprecedented. van der Vorst was a handcyclist with national and international titles to her name. She has now traded her handbike for a bicycle - and has just been given one of 11 spots on the Dutch women's professional cycling team, Rabobank, according to IoL News. When she was 13, van der Vorst lost the use of her right leg after routine ankle surgery damaged her nerves. She took up handcycling, but in 2008, while she was training for the Beijing Olympics, she was hit by a car. Her spinal cord was damaged, leaving her paralysed from the waist down, yet she still entered the Olympics later that year - and won two silver medals. Last year, she was involved in another accident, this time with a cyclist. The accident left her legs tingling, and after a spell in hospital and some rehabilitation, she was able to walk again. Although van der Vorst's recovery remain unexplained, that's largely because of the speed of her recovery, according to IoL News. In fact, regaining the use of paralysed limbs is more common than we realise, according to Geoff Raisman, a neurologist at University College London. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 16074 - Posted: 11.26.2011

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor Researchers have learned that a psychopaths brain structure is significantly different from others. University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers discovered the variance studying images of prisoners’ brains. The results could help explain the callous and impulsive anti-social behavior exhibited by some psychopaths. The study showed that psychopaths have reduced connections between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the part of the brain responsible for sentiments such as empathy and guilt, and the amygdala, which reconciles fear and anxiety. Structural changes in the brain were confirmed using two different types of brain images. Diffusion tensor images (DTI) showed reduced structural integrity in the white matter fibers connecting the two areas, while a second type of image that maps brain activity, a functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI), showed less coordinated activity between the vmPFC and the amygdala. “This is the first study to show both structural and functional differences in the brains of people diagnosed with psychopathy,” says Michael Koenigs. “Those two structures in the brain, which are believed to regulate emotion and social behavior, seem to not be communicating as they should.” © 1992-2011 Psych Central

Keyword: Aggression; Brain imaging
Link ID: 16073 - Posted: 11.26.2011

By Katherine Harmon Weakening eyesight can be sharpened with lenses, and impaired hearing can be improved with aids. What about a failing sense of smell? Detecting and distinguishing the floral bouquet of fresh honey or the miasma of bad lunchmeat might not seem quite as critical for day-to-day existence as sight or hearing. But what the nose knows is clearly important for quality of life. Research has linked this diminution, which is common in people over the age of 60 and can be exacerbated by smoking and some diseases, to loss of appetite and even to depression. Now sufferers might not have to give in to an odorless future, according to a new study, published online Sunday in Nature Neuroscience. Researchers at the New York University Langone Medical Center have found that, with some simple training, over time lab rats could actually improve their brain’s ability to distinguish smells. Without any practice rats could tell when one scent—in a mélange of 10—had been switched for another. (Researchers figured this out by waiting until the rodents were thirsty, then training them to look for water in one of a selection of holes based on what odor combination they had detected.) But their powers of discrimination were not perfect. If a scent was missing from the mix, the rats did not seem to be able to discern it from a full 10-scent combination. Other rats, however, were trained to become extra-familiar with the different combinations through repeated exposures and rewards. “We made them connoisseurs,” co-author Donald Wilson, a professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone, said in a prepared statement. © 2011 Scientific American,

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 16072 - Posted: 11.22.2011

By Eric Niiler Pepper spray, also known as oleoresin capsicum or OC, is made from the same naturally-occurring chemical that makes chili peppers hot, but at concentrations much higher. Its effects include temporary blindness, coughing and skin irritation. To make the spray used by law enforcement officers and police to control crowds, manufacturers take a concentrated oil made from chili peppers and combine it with water, glycol (a chemical used in shaving creams and liquid soaps) and a propellent such as nitrogen, according to Bob Nance, vice president of operations at Security Equipment Corp.,which makes pepper spray and other irritants at its Fenton, Mo., headquarters under the Sabre brand name. "We get it in a red, oily viscous syrup,” Nance said. “It’s the same thing you will find in hot sauce, but in higher concentrations." Interest in pepper spray was piqued after a video of campus police spraying peaceful protesters at the University of California, Davis, made the rounds on the internet this weekend, the university suspended its police chief and two officers. The video shows an officer spraying protesters in the face as they are sitting on the ground. "It causes your eyes to shut and makes breathing difficult," Nance said. "It can cause coughing and choking, and a severe burning sensation on your face. But it’s temporary, usually it lasts from 30 to 45 minutes." © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 16071 - Posted: 11.22.2011

By Laura Sanders Most caffeine addicts would tell you that coffee sharpens the mind. It turns out that in rodents, a single dose of caffeine does indeed strengthen brain cell connections in an underappreciated part of the brain, scientists report online November 20 in Nature Neuroscience. A clearer idea of caffeine’s effect on the brain could allow scientists to take advantage of its stimulating effects and perhaps even alleviate some symptoms of brain disorders. “Caffeine is something people are very interested in,” says neuroscientist Susan Masino of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., who was not involved in the study. So far, most of caffeine’s effects have been illuminated by studies using doses much higher than an average person’s morning cup of joe, says study coauthor Serena Dudek of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Dudek and her team looked at the effects of smaller hits of caffeine on a small part of the hippocampus. In humans, this seahorse-shaped structure is buried deep in the brain behind the ears. After feeding rats the equivalent of two human cups of coffee (two milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight), the team measured the strength of nerve cells’ electrical messages in slices of brain tissue. Nerve cells in this particular nook — a brain region called CA2 — got a major jolt from caffeine, showing a bigger burst of electrical activity when researchers stimulated the cells. Nerve cells in a neighboring part of the hippocampus didn’t show this sensitivity. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sleep
Link ID: 16070 - Posted: 11.22.2011

By SINDYA N. BHANOO Grapheme-color synesthesia is a peculiar neurological condition in which people involuntarily experience colors when thinking about letters, numbers or words. They might, for instance, always see the color green along with the number four, or blue with the letter A. Neuroscientists from the University of Oxford in England are trying to determine what exactly is different about the brains of those with this type of synesthesia. In a new study, they report that people with the condition experience heightened activity in the brain region associated with vision. The study appears in the journal Current Biology. The researchers stimulated their subjects’ visual cortex using a method called transcranial magnetic stimulation. Compared with normal subjects, people with the synesthesia required only one-third the stimulation to experience phosphenes, or transient flashes of light. “We all have different thresholds in the brain, and synesthetes have a lower threshold,” said the study’s lead author, Devin Blair Terhune, a neuroscientist at Oxford. © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 16069 - Posted: 11.22.2011

By HARRIET BROWN In patients with depression, anxiety and other psychiatric problems, doctors often find abnormal blood levels of thyroid hormone. Treating the problem, they have found, can lead to improvements in mood, memory and cognition. Now researchers are exploring a somewhat controversial link between minor, or subclinical, thyroid problems and some patients’ psychiatric difficulties. After reviewing the literature on subclinical hypothyroidism and mood, Dr. Russell Joffe, a psychiatrist at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, and colleagues recently concluded that treating the condition, which affects about 2 percent of Americans, could alleviate some patients’ psychiatric symptoms and might even prevent future cognitive decline. Patients with psychiatric symptoms, Dr. Joffe said, “tell us that given thyroid hormones, they get better.” The thyroid, a bow-tie-shaped gland that wraps around the trachea, produces two hormones: thyroxine, or T4, and triiodothyronine, known as T3. These hormones play a role in a surprising range of physical processes, from regulation of body temperature and heartbeat to cognitive functioning. Any number of things can cause the thyroid to malfunction, including exposure to radiation, too much or too little iodine in the diet, medications like lithium, and autoimmune disease. And the incidence of thyroid disease rises with age. Too much thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism) speeds the metabolism, causing symptoms like sweating, palpitations, weight loss and anxiety. Too little (hypothyroidism) can cause physical fatigue, weight gain and sluggishness, as well as depression, inability to concentrate and memory problems. © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Depression
Link ID: 16068 - Posted: 11.22.2011

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR The risk factors that predict stroke also predict mental impairment, a new study has found, even in people who have never had a stroke. Researchers studied a nationally representative sample of 23,752 mentally normal, stroke-free men and women whose average age was 64, using health questionnaires and an in-home physical and mental examination. They recorded seven risk factors for stroke: three types of heart abnormality, high blood pressure, the use of blood pressure medication, diabetes and smoking. Several of the authors have received payments from pharmaceutical companies. The report appears in Neurology. The volunteers were followed for an average of more than four years. After eliminating from consideration any who had had a stroke, the researchers found 1,907 who were cognitively impaired. After controlling for age, sex, race and education, researchers found that high blood pressure and left ventricular hypertrophy independently predicted cognitive impairment, and the more risk factors a person had, the greater the risk for mental problems. The lead author, Frederick W. Unverzagt, a professor of clinical psychology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, had this advice: “The early detection and treatment of high blood pressure is what we’re advocating for folks to preserve their cognitive health.” © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stroke; Alzheimers
Link ID: 16067 - Posted: 11.22.2011

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Older people who go to an emergency room in pain are less likely to get medication for it than younger people with similar levels of distress, a new analysis has found. A seven-year nationwide study of emergency room patient data has found that 49 percent of patients over age 75 were given pain medication, compared with slightly more than 65 percent of those under age 75. The study, which included data on more than 88,000 emergency room visits, appeared online last month in Annals of Emergency Medicine. Elderly people who were cognitively impaired or otherwise unable to report pain were not included in the analysis, so that does not explain the finding. Although the reasons for the difference are unclear, the authors suggest that emergency room personnel may be concerned about adverse effects of pain medications on the elderly, or they may pay more attention to diagnosis in older patients and less to pain relief. “There are side effects of pain medications,” said Dr. Timothy Platts-Mills, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “But in almost all cases, you can provide some pain relief for older adults by selecting appropriate medications or reducing doses.” © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 16066 - Posted: 11.22.2011

Clive Gamble Wondering what went on in the heads of Neanderthals has rarely produced positive thoughts. H. G. Wells set the bar low in his short story The Grisly Folk in 1921, writing: “We cannot conceive in our different minds the strange ideas that chased one another through those queerly shaped brains.” Wells's hatchet job was effective. Other authors have offered sympathetic alternatives, such as Isaac Asimov's 1958 short story The Ugly Little Boy. But the idea of a 'thinking Neanderthal' has become an evolutionary oxymoron on a par with 'military intelligence' and 'airline food'. Yet cognition certainly took place in the Neanderthal brain — the largest in human evolution, housed in a long, distinctively shaped skull. In How to Think Like a Neandertal, archaeologist Thomas Wynn and psychologist Frederick Coolidge provide one of the most rounded portraits yet of a fossil human. The book covers familiar areas — diet, symbolism and language — but also includes innovative assessments of Neanderthals' capacity to tell jokes, and even speculations on what they might have dreamed about. The authors use the Neanderthals as a means of discussing the evolutionary reasons for such cognitive abilities as humour and deception. We have learned much about Neanderthals in the past 150 years. They were powerfully built and top carnivores. Their stone tools are found across Eurasia. We know from their genome sequence that the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and ourselves lived some half a million years ago. They became extinct in southern Spain as recently as 30,000 years ago. © 2011 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 16065 - Posted: 11.22.2011