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PAGE 10A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. DECEMBER 31.2015
Optimists learn about Kindness Revolution
President Dave Slade (right) thanks Parish Lowrie for his
work with The Kindness Revolution.
By Sue Appleton
Secretary
Parish Lowrie spoke to the
Optimist Club of Jasper on De
cember 17th about The Kindness
Revolution. What is The Kind
ness Revolution?
Based on the principles of the
best-selling book of the same
name, Ed Horrell in 2007 set up
a non-profit organization that is
100 percent funded by a business
membership called Community
Champions. Parish Lowrie of
Parish Lowrie State Farm is our
local Community Champion.
The mission is to bring back
the sorely needed values of dig
nity, respect and kindness to the
workplace, schools and everyday
life. It is a starting point in shap
ing kind behavior.
The Kindness Revolution is
an "anti bullying" program that
rewards kind behavior. How is
that done? Since the focus is on
awareness, they are active in
telling "our story".
Parish works with Jasper Ele
mentary School with this pro
gram by providing the popular
"Pay It Forward" wristbands to
encourage adults and children to
recognize and promote kindness
as well as the popular "It's Cool
2 B Kind" wristband program.
The program shares "Kindness
Tips" with hundreds of thou
sands of followers on social
media, promoting respectful and
courteous behavior.
Parish pointed out that our
community is known as a Caring
Community but wouldn't it be
wonderful to also be known as
the Kindness Community? He is
available to speak to other
groups about this initiative by
contacting him at 706-692-6920
or email him at
Parish@ParishLowrie.com
The Optimist Club will meet
again on January 7th and 21st at
the Woodbridge Inn at 7:00 AM
for breakfast and great speakers!
Come learn more about how the
Optimist Club works to meet
their mission of "bringing out the
best in kids" in our community.
For more information visit our
club website at www.jasperopti-
mist.blogspot.com and "like" us
on Facebook by searching for
Optimist Club of Jasper GA.
Parenting Expert Offers Advice
How to parent as a grandparent
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H: 706-253-0122
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“BRING ONE FOR THE CHIPPER 2016”
CHRISTMAS TREE RECYCLING EVENT
WHEN: Saturday, January 2, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
WHAT: Area residents will go green and drop off Christmas trees to be chipped into
mulch or used as a wildlife habitat. The event educates the public on
recycling and environmental conservation. It also allows communities to
put discarded Christmas trees to good use. The program has been a holiday
tradition in Georgia for more than 25 years and is the largest tree recycling
program in the nation.
WHERE: Your old tree will be reused as mulch or wildlife habitat. Drop off your
undecorated Christmas tree for recycling at the Park’n Ride across from the
Pickens County Chamber of Commerce Building in Newton Park (500
Stegall Street)
By John Rosemond
Q: Our daughter died last
year—long, sad story—leaving
behind a 2-year-old boy. The
father—not named on the
birth certificate—is not and
never has been a factor in the
child’s life and gave us permis
sion to adopt without any con
ditions. He simply has zero
interest. We did not anticipate
becoming parents again, but
“grandparents have got to do
what grandparents have got to
do.” Our new son, whom we
love dearly, is about to turn
three. Do you have any advice
for how to properly parent a
grandchild?
A: First, I am truly sorry to
hear about your daughter’s pass
ing. I’m sure I speak for many in
saying that I cannot imagine any
thing more devastating than a
child’s death, no matter how
problematic said child may have
been. More specifically, my pro
fessional experience had led me
to the general observation that
the more difficult the child, the
more guilt the parents find them
selves having to deal with at the
child’s passing.
I say that because if you are
dealing with a good amount of
self-blame for your daughter’s
problems, you are very likely to
overcompensate with your son in
those parenting areas. For exam
ple, if you feel that you were too
strict with your daughter, you are
in danger of becoming too lax
this time around. If you feel you
were too lax, you’re likely to be
too strict, and so on.
The fact is that parenting is an
influence; it is not the be-all-end-
all determining factor in how a
child “turns out.” Consider that
children raised very well by
solidly moral people sometimes
turn out badly; and children
raised very badly by unquestion
ably bad people sometimes turn
out quite well. In the final analy
sis, a child’s free will trumps any
other influence.
With that in mind, the first bit
of advice I have for you is to em
bark upon this adventure as if it
were exactly that—an adven
ture—rather than a chance for
you to make up for past mistakes.
Parent in the present, not in the
past.
Second, understand that you
cannot successfully be both par
ent and grandparent. While it
may be tempting to exercise the
prerogatives appertaining to the
latter role, all three of you need
for Mom and Dad to be the oper
ative, day-to-day condition.
Third, the fundamental under
standings and principles are the
same regardless of the actual bi
ological relationship between
parents and child. Parenting does
not take on a new meaning when
the parents are a child’s biologi
cal grandparents. To wit, your
marriage trumps your relation-
Not enough YAP means too much
deadly inflammation inside the brain
ship with him and you are the
center of attention, not him; he
obeys the rules and does what he
is told or there are consequences;
the answer to “why?” is “because
we say so,” and so on. Keep it
simple, always.
To sum it up, lead as well and
as much as you love. Therefore,
you are going to have to focus
purposefully on the former, be
cause grandparents always want
to emphasize the latter.. .which is
why God made grandparents.
FOR INFORMATION CALL: Keep Pickens Beautiful, 706-253-3600
Or visit us at www.keeppickensbeautiful.org or on Facebook
2015 Result
Pickens County collected and recycled 130 trees. Good work, community.
* 98,876 trees were collected in total. Of these, 91,147 were recycled into mulch for playgrounds, city and
county landscaping projects, and individual homes.
* 5,908 trees were sunk into lakes across the state to provide fish habitats, 1,821 were used for the fuel or
other uses.
* Over 6 million Christmas trees have been recycled and diverted from landfills since the start of the
program.
* 66 local governments and /or organizations participated.
Family psychologist John
Rosemond: johnrosemond. com,
parentguru.com.
Copyright 2015, John K. Rose
mond
* 205 collection sites were set up throughout the State.
L
* 1171 volunteers donated 4,983 hours of time,
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From Medical College
of Georgia
Inside the brain, a protein
called YAP, best known for its
ability to help right-size our de
veloping hearts and livers, ap
pears to have the different but
equally important task of helping
control inflammation.
Scientists at the Medical Col
lege of Georgia at Augusta Uni
versity have shown that it’s not
size that seems to matter to YAP,
or yes-associated protein, in the
brain. Rather, YAP keeps our as
trocytes, a type of brain cell that
typically protects and nourishes
neurons, from becoming too re
active and essentially tinning on
our neurons.
“While these YAP normally
control organ size, in the brain,
YAP influences astrocyte func
tion, which, in turn, helps regu
late our protective blood-brain
barrier function,” said Dr. Wen-
Cheng Xiong, developmental
neurobiologist and Weiss Re
search Professor at MCG.
In the body, YAP helps con
trol the size of our major organs
by regulating cell death and pro
liferation. But, Xiong and her
colleagues found that inside the
developing brain, YAP is a criti
cal inducer of suppressor of cy
tokine signaling 3, or SOCS3,
another protein, which as the
name implies, suppresses inflam
mation-provoking immune cells.
Inflammation can be dangerous
even deadly in the closed con
fines of the skull, where resulting
swelling and pressure can de
stroy neurons, said Xiong, corre
sponding author of the study in
the journal Cerebral Cortex.
Xiong suspects that in condi
tions, such as hemorrhagic - or
bleeding - stroke and hydro
cephalus, where fluid accumu
lates inside the skull of a baby or
an adult in response to injury, a
problem with YAP could be a
factor.
In fact in her studies, mice
missing YAP also had a form of
hydrocephalus that at first made
Xiong suspect that YAP did help
control the size of the brain.
However, when the scientists
dissected the too-large organ,
they found it was mostly fluid.
And the mice missing YAP did
not induce SOCS3. “The brake is
gone and over-inflammation can
occur,” she said.
YAP is expressed in both as
trocytes as well as the neural
stem cells that help make more
astrocytes and, to a lesser extent,
neurons, for the brain. Xiong and
her team found that without YAP,
astrocytes became hyper-reac
tive, creating a condition called
astrogliosis where they weaken
instead of strengthen the impor
tant but fragile blood-brain bar
rier.
The blood-brain barrier is es
sentially a layer of tightly knit
endothelial cells that line blood
vessels in the brain, a single layer
of smooth muscle cells, or peri
cytes, on top of that, and a layer
of astrocytes on the exterior. The
imique configuration in the blood
vessels of the brain and spinal
cord create a fine filter that limits
what substances can get access to
brain tissue from the blood.
“The blood-brain barrier is
completely disrupted in hemor
rhagic stroke,” Xiong said.
“Once that is broken, it changes
everything.” Cell types and fac
tors that normally don’t have ac
cess to the brain confuse the
relationships between cell types
and substances that are usually
there. One consequence is that
fluid from the blood also gets
into brain tissue, adding pressure
to the confused conversations.
Neurons start to die, scar tissue
forms and more astrocytes form.
They found levels of several
SOCS proteins were lower in
mice where the YAP gene was
deleted from the brain. To dou
ble-check the connection be
tween SOCS3 and YAP, they
selectively expressed SOCS3 in
the astrocytes of the YAP knock
outs and still found less inflam
mation. The inflammation also
seemed to focus on the blood
vessels in mice missing YAP,
and when they injected a dye
tracer that normally cannot pen
etrate the blood-brain barrier, it
easily penetrated into the brains
of mice missing Yap from their
astrocytes.
Xiong wants to pursue stud
ies examining the blood of new
borns with hydrocephalus for
signs of mutated YAP. A mutant
form of YAP is known to cause
liver cancer, in which cells just
keep growing, and the Hippo
signaling pathway that activates
YAP has been targeted for its
anti-cancer potential.
The studies were supported
by the National Institutes of
Health, the Natural Science
Foundation of Zhejiang Province
and the Science and Technology
Planning Project of Zhejiang
Province in China. Collaborators
include scientists at China’s
Wenzhou Medical University
and Zhejiang Provincial People’s
Hospital as well as the Charlie
Norwood Veterans Affairs Med
ical Center in Augusta.
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