Dona Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins talks with Thom Hinks and Richard Sunman (far right) after they obtained a marriage license at the Dona Ana County Clerk's Office in Las Cruces, N.M. In August, Ellins' office began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples for the first time in the state's history.
Juan Carlos Llorca/AP
Dona Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins talks with Thom Hinks and Richard Sunman (far right) after they obtained a marriage license at the Dona Ana County Clerk's Office in Las Cruces, N.M. In August, Ellins' office began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples for the first time in the state's history.
Juan Carlos Llorca/AP
New Mexico law doesn't explicitly ban or approve same-sex marriage. There were a spate of lawsuits seeking to clarify the issue, but they were tied up in the courts. Then in August, the clerk of Dona Ana County, Lynn Ellins, a long-time supporter of same-sex marriage, consulted his staff.
"And we all agreed that it was about time to bring this thing to a head, and if we did nothing, the cases would languish in the district court if we did not move to issue these licenses and try and put the ball in play," Ellins says.
Soon state judges ordered four other county clerks to follow Ellins' lead and together they have issued more than 900 marriage licenses. But not every county clerk was prepared to do the same in their communities. Instead, all 33 county clerks in New Mexico agreed to petition the state Supreme Court for a final say on the matter. The main opposition comes from a group of Republican lawmakers led by state Sen. William Sharer of Farmington.
"So when Lynn Ellins decided that he was the only one in New Mexico that could properly read the law and declared that same-sex marriage was legal, I stepped in and said, 'No, you're wrong. We must stop this,' Sharer says, adding that Ellins "far exceeded his authority."
But the reaction from other quarters has been relatively mild. New Mexico's three Catholic bishops said the action of the county clerks should be resolved by the Legislature. And Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has said the issue should be determined by the voters.
But supporters of same-sex marriage say local polls indicate that New Mexicans are prepared to accept a state Supreme Court ruling confirming marriage equality. They are also encouraged by what's happened in New Jersey, says Elizabeth Gill of the ACLU.
"It's yet another court that has analyzed whether there's any real reason to discriminate against same-sex couples in marriage and concluded that there is not," she says.
Gill and others say their side has momentum.
In Oregon last week, state authorities said they would recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Advocates are trying to get a freedom-to-marry initiative on Oregon's ballot in November 2014.
In Illinois, a same-sex marriage bill awaits action by the lower House.
In Pennsylvania, a federal lawsuit challenging that state's same-sex marriage ban is in the courts, and there's a marriage equality bill before the Legislature.
In Hawaii, a special legislative session has been called for later this month to consider a marriage bill.
And in Tennessee, there's a lawsuit challenging both state law and a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Sara Warbelow, a spokeswoman for the D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, says in some states it appears marriage equality is inevitable.
"There's been a fair amount of polling, and rather consistently, 80 percent of the American public says within the next 10 years, marriage equality will be the law of the land," Warbelow says.
Back in New Mexico, the Supreme Court justices have taken the unusual step of expanding oral arguments Wednesday from 20 minutes to one hour for each side. They have not indicated when they will issue their decision. In the meantime the court is allowing marriages to continue.
This time five weeks ago, markets were ready and waiting for the Federal Reserve to begin its "taper," the beginning of the end of its program of pumping billions of dollars into the economy by buying bonds.
Not only did Fed leaders elect to sit on their hands at that meeting; now the smart money thinks they won't even start to slow their bond buying until this coming spring! That's all the more remarkable given that there has been no radical shift in the tenor of economic data, just a series of mild disappointments, of which the September jobs report issued Tuesday morning was the latest example.
A near twin to the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-J6920DW , the Brother MFC-J6720DW is also aimed at micro and small offices that need to print and scan at tabloid size (11 by 17 inches and the ISO A3 equivalent). There are at least three differences between the two, but the key difference is that, unlike its more expensive sibling, the MFC-J6720DW can't scan both sides of a page. The most likely reason you might prefer it that you don't need the duplex (two-sided) scanning.
The two other main differences between the two multifunction printer (MFP) models are that the MFC-J6720DW doesn't support NFC (near-field communications), and it offers a smaller touch screen for giving commands from its front panel.
NFC makes printing from or scanning to a smartphone or tablet far more convenient by making it easy to establish a connection. However, not all phones and tablets support NFC (notably iThings), and if your mobile device doesn't offer it, having it in the printer doesn't do any good. If you don't need duplex scanning, and don't need NFC, that makes the MFC-J6720DW the much more likely candidate. The smaller touch screen, at 2.7, rather than 3.7, inches also makes giving commands a little less convenient, but it would be hard to justify buying the more expensive printer just for the touch screen.
Paper Handling and Other Basics As with the Brother MFC-J6920DW, the MFC-J6720DW's paper handling is the main reason to choose it over models that are limited to letter-size paper.
For printing, you can set either of both of its two 250-sheet paper drawers for up to tabloid-size paper. That gives you the option of loading 500 tabloid-size sheets at once, or 250 letter-size sheets and 250 tabloid-size sheets, so you can switch between paper sizes easily. You can also use the one-sheet manual feed to print on other paper stock without having to swap out paper in the tray, and the automatic print duplexer lets you print on both sides of a page.
As already mentioned, you can't scan in duplex. However, both the flatbed and 35-sheet automatic document feeder can handle up to tabloid size, which is more than most MFPs can manage.
Beyond that, the MFC-J6720DW delivers lots of MFP features. It can print and fax from, as well as scan to your PC, including over a network; work as a standalone fax machine and copier; print directly from PictBridge cameras; and both print from and scan to memory cards and USB memory keys. It also offers Web-connected features that let you print from and scan to an assortment of online services, including Evernote, Dropbox, Box, Facebook, and more.
Mobile printing and scanning support includes printing through the cloud and both printing from and scanning to a smartphone or tablet over a Wi-Fi connection. And because the connection choices include Wi-Fi Direct along with Wi-Fi and Ethernet, you can print from or scan to a smartphone or tablet even if the printer isn't on a network with an access point.
Setup, Speed and Output Quality Setup is typical for an inkjet. For my tests I connected the printer to a network using its Ethernet port and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.
Print speed is a definitive plus. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), I clocked the printer at 5.6 pages per minute (ppm), which counts as a tie with the MFC-J6920DW at 5.5 ppm. (The actual difference is only two seconds, with one rounded up and one rounded down.)
As another point of reference, both of the current generation printers are significantly faster than the 4.1 ppm speed for Brother's last generation Brother MFC-J6710DW, which is still available at this writing, and which the MFC-J6920DW replaced as Editors' Choice. Photo speed was also fast, at 52 seconds for a 4 by 6.
Not surprisingly, given the similarities between the two printers, the MFC-J6720DW also delivers the same output quality as the Brother MFC-J6920DW, with better-looking text than most inkjet MFPs, but not quite as good-looking graphics and photos. Text quality in my tests was near the high end of the range for inkjet MFPs, which easily makes it good enough for most business use.
Graphics output was a touch below par. That still makes it good enough for any internal business use, but depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may or may not consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photos on photo paper were higher quality than most businesses need, but at the low end of what you would expect from drugstore prints.
If you need a tabloid-size MFP with duplex scanning, NFC support, or both, the Brother MFC-J6920DW is the obvious choice. If you don't need either the duplexing or NFC, however, the Brother MFC-J6720DW offers all the same capabilities otherwise, and it costs less too. The combination can easily be enough to make it your preferred choice.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, director Julie Taymor and actor Mark Rylance gathered Tuesday in Brooklyn to help cut the ribbon for a jewel box-sized, shiny new theater, the first permanent home for Theatre for a New Audience in its 34 year existence.
It is the city's first new theater designed expressly for Shakespeare and classic drama since 1965, and is the first permanent home for the itinerant company, which was founded in 1979 by Jeffrey Horowitz. He estimates it will attract an audience of between 30,000-to-40,000, many public school children.
"Friends, Romans, Brooklynites," the mayor intoned inside the $69 million theater, which was created with public and private pledges. "Lend me your ears. We come not to praise Shakespeare, but to stage him."
In addition to a 299-seat main theater, the 27,500-square-foot company's home also houses a 50-seat rehearsal space and a lobby cafe. It overlooks a new public garden plaza and sits along a walking path between the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Opera House and Harvey Theater. The city pledged some $34 million to the project.
Designed by Hugh Hardy of H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, the new theater has a large glass facade, gunmetal gray panels, a 35-foot-tall main stage, a second-floor lobby and a central staircase. The building went up in a former parking lot and has been named the Polonsky Shakespeare Center after a gift from the Polonsky Foundation.
The new theater boasts an ability to morph into seven different stage and seating configurations. Hardy said building it posed an interesting challenge: "How do you make a small building important?" The answer was to tilt the square structure and help it stand out by using glass and shiny metal.
"I can imagine a child coming in here and saying, 'Yeah, but it's empty. It's got nothing in it,'" said Rylance, the two-time Tony Award-winning English actor who is alternating between starring in "Twelfth Night" and "Richard III" on Broadway. "It's wonderful for plays. It doesn't have a character that forces itself on you. It's a neutral space that is waiting for the words of the actors to fill it."
Taymor, of "The Lion King" and "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" fame, has accepted the theater's invitation to direct the official 2013 inaugural production, "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Taymor has already directed four plays for the troupe, including Carlo Gozzi's "The Green Bird," which moved to Broadway in 2000.
Taymor has already been hard at work getting "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and her cast of 36 ready for its Nov. 2 opening. "I've been in the dark. Oh, I shouldn't have said that," she joked, referring to her rocky ride with the comic book musical.
"I love being here. It's the perfect play to open this theater because it is a blessing of the house," she said. "The theater is flexible and it's small and intimate. How many times do you get a space that's dedicated to that and dedicated to experimentation?"
___
Online:
http://www.tfana.org
___
Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
Contact: Chukuka Enwemeka enwemeka@uwm.edu 41-412-294-712 University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
UWM researchers help reveal how specific wavelengths of light can heal
Multiple sclerosis (MS) causes progressive paralysis by destroying nerve cells and the spinal cord. It interrupts vision, balance and even thinking.
On a suggestion from a colleague, Jeri-Anne Lyons decided to test how the disease responded to a radical therapy exposure to a certain wavelength of light called near-infrared (NIR).
"Never in a million years did I think it would help," says Lyons, an associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), who studies the role of the immune response in MS.
But it did. In rodent models, early MS-like symptoms were treated with exposure to NIR light for a week, alternating with a week of no light. The clinical condition of the mice improved.
Professor Janis Eells, who shared the idea with Lyons, had the same initial reaction after she used NIR therapy on rats to treat blindness caused by poisoning, a condition thought to be permanent. Repeating experiments again and again, she found that certain doses of NIR light allowed lab animals to regain their sight.
Scientists have known for years that certain wavelengths of light in certain doses can heal, but they are only now uncovering exactly how it works, thanks in large part to three UWM faculty researchers, including Chukuka S. Enwemeka, dean of UWM's College of Health Sciences who is internationally known for his work in phototherapy.
Enwemeka researches the effects of both NIR and blue light in the visible range on healing wounds. Among his discoveries is that some wavelengths of blue light can clear stubborn infections even MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant "superbug" form of Staphylococcus aureus.
Together, the UWM cluster has found that NIR and blue light repair tissue in dramatically different ways, but both act on the same enzyme in the cell's energy supply center: the mitochondria.
The studies have revealed key information about managing the effects of aging and disease.
A bodyguard
So how is light accomplishing such wonders?
In applying NIR light therapy to MS, Lyons has identified the right timing and dose. But she's also dug deeper, analyzing the effect the light had on the activities of the animal's genes. It turns out, molecules that would make the disease worse were weakened after exposure to the light, and the ones responsible for improvement were strengthened.
Eells says NIR light acts on the mitochondria and a particular enzyme, cytochrome C oxidase, to stimulate cell repair.
Light can do all that?
"We're not talking about white light [all wavelengths in the visible spectrum combined] as treatment, but only certain wavelengths, at a certain intensity, for a certain amount of time," says Lyons. "Like ingested medication, it's all about the dose."
Determining the best wavelength of light for phototherapy is a difficult task. Studies show that 670 nanometer (nm) and 830 nm light are beneficial, but 730 nm is not. The other difficult task is determining the appropriate dose and dose regimen for delivering the light.
Promising leads
Even more exciting is phototherapy's potential to improve a host of other degenerative diseases. Damaged mitochondria lead to a rise in destructive "free radicals," which play a key role in aging and cancer.
"It's why we try to put antioxidants into our diets," says Lyons, "to fight that process."
One source of free radicals comes from the inflammation caused by the body's immune response. The researchers have found that after an injury or illness triggers the immune response, NIR light resets the mitochondria so they function normally again.
"NIR reduces inflammation," says Eells. "If you can tone down the inflammation in an eye disease like retinitis pigmentosa, you slow the progression of the disease."
A similar observation with inflammation occurred in a study on recalcitrant bedsores, she adds. Wounds treated with phototherapy healed two and a half times more quickly than untreated wounds.
"Chronic non-healing wounds are 'stuck' in the inflammatory phase of wound healing" The light removes that obstacle," says Eells.
She has been working with Tim Kern at Case Western Reserve in treating an animal model of diabetic retinopathy with NIR light, which has been shown to slow progression and reduce the severity of the condition. Kern hopes to initiate a clinical trial in the near future.
A killer
NIR light heals by ensuring that cytochrome oxidase binds with oxygen to turn on protectors and stimulate cell metabolism. Blue light, on the other hand, causes a toxic environment when the immune response has been triggered. That poisonous effect hastens healing of topical wounds by killing bacteria that cause infection.
The question is, "What gives light in the longer wavelength its antibiotic effect?"
Enwemeka's studies suggest that blue light also acts on the mitochondrial enzyme site, but allows cytochrome oxidase to bind with nitric oxide, a free radical that is elevated in the immune response. It's a pairing that poisons the invader.
This theory is still unproven, but the therapy has achieved undeniable results in the lab with antibiotic-resistant MRSA. Enwemeka demonstrated that one dose of irradiation killed as much as 92 percent of two pervasive strains of MRSA.
He is working to improve that success rate by getting the light to penetrate deeper in order to finish off the few colonies that survive irradiation.
Limited availability
Enwemeka is leading a research effort in Brazil and at UWM that he hopes will ultimately lead to clinical use of NIR and blue light in the U.S. for the treatment of wounds.
In the six years since he was asked to test the effects of blue light on MRSA, he says, research on the topic has picked up. But currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not sanctioned the use of blue light in treating wounds, or NIR light for conditions other than wounds and pain.
With so much success, why isn't phototherapy being used more widely?
"It's considered alternative therapy in Western medicine. It seems too simple for people to accept," says Lyons.
What the FDA is waiting for, says Enwemeka, is confirmation from a large-scale clinical study before approving phototherapy for a wider variety of ailments. It's something Enwemeka and Harry Whelan, a UWM alumnus and physician-researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin, are determined to accomplish.
"To see people who have not had relief see their wounds heal and not return," says Enwemeka of the Brazilian patients who have benefited from therapy, "is very touching."
###
Additional study: Photobiomodulation Induced by 670 nm Light Ameliorates MOG35-55 Induced EAE in Female C57BL/6 Mice: A Role for Remediation of Nitrosative Stress
KA Muili, S Gopalakrishnan, JT Eells, JA Lyons
PLoS ONE 8(6): e67358. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0067358 [2013]
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Light as medicine?
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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Contact: Chukuka Enwemeka enwemeka@uwm.edu 41-412-294-712 University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
UWM researchers help reveal how specific wavelengths of light can heal
Multiple sclerosis (MS) causes progressive paralysis by destroying nerve cells and the spinal cord. It interrupts vision, balance and even thinking.
On a suggestion from a colleague, Jeri-Anne Lyons decided to test how the disease responded to a radical therapy exposure to a certain wavelength of light called near-infrared (NIR).
"Never in a million years did I think it would help," says Lyons, an associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), who studies the role of the immune response in MS.
But it did. In rodent models, early MS-like symptoms were treated with exposure to NIR light for a week, alternating with a week of no light. The clinical condition of the mice improved.
Professor Janis Eells, who shared the idea with Lyons, had the same initial reaction after she used NIR therapy on rats to treat blindness caused by poisoning, a condition thought to be permanent. Repeating experiments again and again, she found that certain doses of NIR light allowed lab animals to regain their sight.
Scientists have known for years that certain wavelengths of light in certain doses can heal, but they are only now uncovering exactly how it works, thanks in large part to three UWM faculty researchers, including Chukuka S. Enwemeka, dean of UWM's College of Health Sciences who is internationally known for his work in phototherapy.
Enwemeka researches the effects of both NIR and blue light in the visible range on healing wounds. Among his discoveries is that some wavelengths of blue light can clear stubborn infections even MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant "superbug" form of Staphylococcus aureus.
Together, the UWM cluster has found that NIR and blue light repair tissue in dramatically different ways, but both act on the same enzyme in the cell's energy supply center: the mitochondria.
The studies have revealed key information about managing the effects of aging and disease.
A bodyguard
So how is light accomplishing such wonders?
In applying NIR light therapy to MS, Lyons has identified the right timing and dose. But she's also dug deeper, analyzing the effect the light had on the activities of the animal's genes. It turns out, molecules that would make the disease worse were weakened after exposure to the light, and the ones responsible for improvement were strengthened.
Eells says NIR light acts on the mitochondria and a particular enzyme, cytochrome C oxidase, to stimulate cell repair.
Light can do all that?
"We're not talking about white light [all wavelengths in the visible spectrum combined] as treatment, but only certain wavelengths, at a certain intensity, for a certain amount of time," says Lyons. "Like ingested medication, it's all about the dose."
Determining the best wavelength of light for phototherapy is a difficult task. Studies show that 670 nanometer (nm) and 830 nm light are beneficial, but 730 nm is not. The other difficult task is determining the appropriate dose and dose regimen for delivering the light.
Promising leads
Even more exciting is phototherapy's potential to improve a host of other degenerative diseases. Damaged mitochondria lead to a rise in destructive "free radicals," which play a key role in aging and cancer.
"It's why we try to put antioxidants into our diets," says Lyons, "to fight that process."
One source of free radicals comes from the inflammation caused by the body's immune response. The researchers have found that after an injury or illness triggers the immune response, NIR light resets the mitochondria so they function normally again.
"NIR reduces inflammation," says Eells. "If you can tone down the inflammation in an eye disease like retinitis pigmentosa, you slow the progression of the disease."
A similar observation with inflammation occurred in a study on recalcitrant bedsores, she adds. Wounds treated with phototherapy healed two and a half times more quickly than untreated wounds.
"Chronic non-healing wounds are 'stuck' in the inflammatory phase of wound healing" The light removes that obstacle," says Eells.
She has been working with Tim Kern at Case Western Reserve in treating an animal model of diabetic retinopathy with NIR light, which has been shown to slow progression and reduce the severity of the condition. Kern hopes to initiate a clinical trial in the near future.
A killer
NIR light heals by ensuring that cytochrome oxidase binds with oxygen to turn on protectors and stimulate cell metabolism. Blue light, on the other hand, causes a toxic environment when the immune response has been triggered. That poisonous effect hastens healing of topical wounds by killing bacteria that cause infection.
The question is, "What gives light in the longer wavelength its antibiotic effect?"
Enwemeka's studies suggest that blue light also acts on the mitochondrial enzyme site, but allows cytochrome oxidase to bind with nitric oxide, a free radical that is elevated in the immune response. It's a pairing that poisons the invader.
This theory is still unproven, but the therapy has achieved undeniable results in the lab with antibiotic-resistant MRSA. Enwemeka demonstrated that one dose of irradiation killed as much as 92 percent of two pervasive strains of MRSA.
He is working to improve that success rate by getting the light to penetrate deeper in order to finish off the few colonies that survive irradiation.
Limited availability
Enwemeka is leading a research effort in Brazil and at UWM that he hopes will ultimately lead to clinical use of NIR and blue light in the U.S. for the treatment of wounds.
In the six years since he was asked to test the effects of blue light on MRSA, he says, research on the topic has picked up. But currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not sanctioned the use of blue light in treating wounds, or NIR light for conditions other than wounds and pain.
With so much success, why isn't phototherapy being used more widely?
"It's considered alternative therapy in Western medicine. It seems too simple for people to accept," says Lyons.
What the FDA is waiting for, says Enwemeka, is confirmation from a large-scale clinical study before approving phototherapy for a wider variety of ailments. It's something Enwemeka and Harry Whelan, a UWM alumnus and physician-researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin, are determined to accomplish.
"To see people who have not had relief see their wounds heal and not return," says Enwemeka of the Brazilian patients who have benefited from therapy, "is very touching."
###
Additional study: Photobiomodulation Induced by 670 nm Light Ameliorates MOG35-55 Induced EAE in Female C57BL/6 Mice: A Role for Remediation of Nitrosative Stress
KA Muili, S Gopalakrishnan, JT Eells, JA Lyons
PLoS ONE 8(6): e67358. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0067358 [2013]
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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