Packers beat Lions 27-20, take NFC North lead

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) ? This Green Bay win was big enough to be felt all the way to Chicago.

Mike Daniels returned a fumble 43 yards, and DaJuan Harris and Aaron Rodgers ran for touchdowns in the second half as the Packers moved within one win of the NFC North title with their 27-20 victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday night.

Beat the Bears next weekend at Soldier Field, and Green Bay wins the division.

"We're first in the division by a game and we put ourselves in good position, not only for the division but potentially for a first-round bye. The division is our first goal," Rodgers said. "We can wrap things up next week. It's a tough opponent, a tough place to play. There's a lot on the line."

Rodgers' 27-yard scoring run was the longest of his career and Green Bay's longest of the season. He was 14 of 24 for 173 yards, though he failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time in 36 games at Lambeau Field.

Calvin Johnson had 118 yards receiving to put him over 1,500 for the year, but it wasn't enough to keep the Lions (4-9) from dropping their fifth straight. After touchdowns on their first two drives gave them a 14-0 lead, the Lions could only manage a pair of field goals by Jason Hanson.

This was the third straight game they've blown a lead of 10-plus points, tying an NFL record shared by six other teams.

"We've been in every single game this year. But being in games doesn't mean (anything) in this league," said Matthew Stafford, whose fumble in the second-quarter helped spark Green Bay's comeback. "It's about getting wins and we understand that as a locker room and as a team.

"It's tough when the ball isn't going your way," he added. But we're not helping it go our way. We're doing it to ourselves as well."

The Packers have won 22 straight at home against the Lions, the longest streak in the NFL. The streak, which includes a playoff game, dates all the way back to 1992 ? when Green Bay was still playing some of its home games in Milwaukee.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy likes to say all division games are big, but this one got even bigger when Chicago lost to Minnesota earlier in the day.

Packers-Bears is perhaps the NFL's greatest rivalry, with fans and players alike taking it personal. (Curly Lambeau and George Halas refused to even shake hands after their games.) The games are heated when they're played in September, and a December matchup with the division title on the line only elevates the drama.

"I'm focused on going to Chicago and winning the division," McCarthy said. "We put ourselves in position to get to 10 wins. We really don't look around until we get to 10 wins because double-digit wins is when things really start to fall in place for your football team. Ten wins will give us the division championship and that's what we're focused on."

While beating the Lions may have seemed like the easy leg in Green Bay's road to the division crown, the Packers came out sluggish and quickly found themselves trailing 14-0. But they were re-energized by Daniels' fumble recovery.

The season's first significant storm dumped almost 3.5 inches of snow on Green Bay, making Lambeau Field look like a snow globe for most of the night. As Stafford drew his arm back to throw midway through the second quarter, the ball slipped out of his hands.

"That was a big play. We had all the momentum," Stafford said. "I don't really have much of an explanation for it. I wish I could have gotten on top of it. It squirted away from me again."

And Daniels was right there to scoop it up, rumbling nearly half the length of the field for the score that pulled Green Bay within 14-10. Daniels is Green Bay's first rookie defensive lineman to return a fumble for a TD since 1941.

"Mike Daniels' play was the momentum shift for us that we needed," McCarthy said. "That was a big play."

He needs some work on his Lambeau Leap, however, getting only about halfway up the wall.

"I was too tired," Daniels said.

Hey, Rodgers wasn't much better.

Still trailing in the third, Rodgers was trying to find someone ? anyone ? to throw to on third-and-4. With Lions defensive end Willie Young closing in, Rodgers scrambled away and found a hole on the right side. He ran untouched down the sideline, holding the ball out as he crossed the goal line.

The 27-yard touchdown was the longest scoring run of his career, and the Packers' longest this season.

"For him to score from that distance speaks volumes about his athletic ability," McCarthy said. "He's our guy, he's our ace, it's built around him and he played well again tonight."

So did Green Bay's running backs. Inconsistency and injuries have kept the Packers from finding a groove on the ground this season, and they had to bring back veteran Ryan Grant earlier this week just to give them some depth.

But they might have found a formula that worked. They rushed for 140 yards, 98 of it coming in the second half, and their entire go-ahead drive was on the ground.

Alex Green rushed for 29 yards on the first four plays, then Grant broke off a 13-yard gain.

Then it was Harris' turn. Elevated from the practice squad just eight days ago, his 5-yard gain put the Packers at the Detroit 14. He strolled in untouched on the next play, giving the Packers a 24-17 lead.

"It was poor defense," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. "We had a chance to go out and get a stop, and they just ran the ball down our throats."

The Lions pulled within a score on Hanson's 34-yard field goal with 7 seconds left. But the onside kick went out of bounds, and the countdown to Chicago was on.

"That's something we look forward to," receiver Randall Cobb said. "Just to know that we're on the brink of accomplishing it is big, and we're just trying to find a way to make sure we accomplish it next week."

Notes: The Packers scored twice on the ground for the first time since Dec. 11, 2011. The two TDs almost doubled their total for the season, giving them five touchdowns on the ground. ... Lions TE Brandon Pettigrew did not return for the second half after injuring his ankle. ... Green Bay is 13-1 against Detroit under McCarthy.

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/packers-beat-lions-27-20-nfc-north-lead-044339438--spt.html

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Substrate patterning creates p-n junctions in graphene

Dec. 9, 2012 ? The electronic properties of graphene films are directly affected by the characteristics of the substrates on which they are grown or to which they are transferred. Researchers are taking advantage of this to create graphene p-n junctions by transferring films of the promising electronic material to substrates that have been patterned by compounds that are either strong electron donors or electron acceptors.

A low temperature, controllable and stable method has been developed to dope graphene films using self-assembled monolayers (SAM) that modify the interface of graphene and its support substrate. Using this concept, a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has created graphene p-n junctions -- which are essential to fabricating devices -- without damaging the material's lattice structure or significantly reducing electron/hole mobility.

The graphene was grown on a copper film using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), a process that allows synthesis of large-scale films and their transfer to desired substrates for device applications. The graphene films were transferred to silicon dioxide substrates that were functionalized with the self-assembled monolayers.

Information about creating graphene p-n junctions using self-assembled monolayers was presented on November 28, 2012 at the Fall Meeting of the Materials Research Society. Papers describing aspects of the work were also published in September 2012 in the journals ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces and the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Funding for the research came from the National Science Foundation, through the Georgia Tech Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and through separate research grants.

"We have been successful at showing that you can make fairly well doped p-type and n-type graphene controllably by patterning the underlying monolayer instead of modifying the graphene directly," said Clifford Henderson, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. "Putting graphene on top of self-assembled monolayers uses the effect of electron donation or electron withdrawal from underneath the graphene to modify the material's electronic properties."

The Georgia Tech research team working on the project includes faculty members, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students from three different schools. In addition to Henderson, professors who are part of the team include Laren Tolbert from the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Samuel Graham from the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. The project team also includes Hossein Sojoudi, a postdoctoral fellow, and Jose Baltazar, a graduate research assistant.

Creating n-type and p-type doping in graphene -- which has no natural bandgap -- has led to development of several approaches. Scientists have substituted nitrogen atoms for some of the carbon atoms in the graphene lattice, compounds have been applied to the surface of the graphene, and the edges of graphene nanoribbons have been modified. However, most of these techniques have disadvantages, including disruption of the lattice -- which reduces electron mobility -- and long-term stability issues.

"Any time you put graphene into contact with a substrate of any kind, the material has an inherent tendency to change its electrical properties," Henderson said. "We wondered if we could do that in a controlled way and use it to our advantage to make the material predominately n-type or p-type. This could create a doping effect without introducing defects that would disrupt the material's attractive electron mobility."

Using conventional lithography techniques, the researchers created patterns from different silane materials on a dielectric substrate, usually silicon oxide. The materials were chosen because they are either strong electron donors or electron acceptors. When a thin film of graphene is placed over the patterns, the underlying materials create charged sections in the graphene that correspond to the patterning.

"We were able to dope the graphene into both n-type and p-type materials through an electron donation or withdrawal effect from the monolayer," Henderson explained. "That doesn't lead to the substitutional defects that are seen with many of the other doping processes. The graphene structure itself is still pristine as it comes to us in the transfer process."

The monolayers are bonded to the dielectric substrate and are thermally stable up to 200 degrees Celsius with the graphene film over them, Sojoudi noted. The Georgia Tech team has used 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane (PFES) for patterning. In principle, however, there are many other commercially-available materials that could also create the patterns.

"You can build as many n-type and p-type regions as you want," Sojoudi said. "You can even step the doping controllably up and down. This technique gives you control over the doping level and what the dominant carrier is in each region."

The researchers used their technique to fabricate graphene p-n junctions, which was verified by the creation of field-effect transistors (FET). Characteristic I-V curves indicated the presence of two separate Dirac points, which indicated an energy separation of neutrality points between the p and n regions in the graphene, Sojoudi said.

The group uses chemical vapor deposition to create thin films of graphene on copper foil. A thick film of PMMA was spin-coated atop the graphene, and the underlying copper was then removed. The polymer serves as a carrier for the graphene until it can be placed onto the monolayer-coated substrate, after which it is removed.

Beyond developing the doping techniques, the team is also exploring new precursor materials that could allow CVD production of graphene at temperatures low enough to permit fabrication directly on other devices. That could eliminate the need for transferring the graphene from one substrate to another.

A low-cost, low-temperature means of producing graphene could also allow the films to find broader applications in displays, solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes, where large sheets of graphene would be needed.

"The real goal is to find ways to make graphene at lower temperatures and in ways that allow us to integrate it with other devices, either silicon CMOS or other materials that couldn't tolerate the high temperatures required for the initial growth," Henderson said. "We are looking at ways to make graphene into a useful electronic or opto-electronic material at low temperatures and in patterned forms."

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grants CHE-0822697, CHE-0848833 and CMMI-0927736 and the Georgia Tech Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NSF.

CITATIONS: Sojoudi, Hossein, Creating Graphene p-n Junctions Using Self-Assembled Monolayers, Applied Materials & Interfaces, dx.doi.org/10.1021/am301138v and Baltazar, Jose, Facile Formation of Graphene P-N Junctions Using Self-Assembled Monolayers, The Journal of Physical Chemistry, dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp3045737.

Research News Georgia Institute of Technology 177 North Avenue Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0181

Writer: John Toon

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia Institute of Technology, Research Communications, via Newswise. The original article was written by John Toon.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal References:

1. Jose Baltazar, Hossein Sojoudi, Sergio A. Paniagua, Janusz Kowalik, Seth R. Marder, Laren M. Tolbert, Samuel Graham, Clifford L. Henderson. Facile Formation of Graphene P?N Junctions Using Self-Assembled Monolayers. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2012; 116 (36): 19095 DOI: 10.1021/jp3045737
2. Hossein Sojoudi, Jose Baltazar, Laren M. Tolbert, Clifford L. Henderson, Samuel Graham. Creating Graphene p?n Junctions Using Self-Assembled Monolayers. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2012; 4 (9): 4781 DOI: 10.1021/am301138v

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/3L1KebxFHZw/121210101414.htm

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Low fat diet helps drop pounds, study suggests

Dec. 6, 2012 ? Exchanging fatty foods for lower fat alternatives will help people shift around three-and-a-half pounds -- without any other form of dieting. People taking part in trials also saw their waist-lines become slimmer, and levels of bad cholesterol decrease. The results demonstrate that weight loss can happen without actively trying to lose weight beyond simply choosing foods lower in fat.

The report was commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG) Subgroup on Diet and Health following a request to update their guidelines on total fat intake. The results will be crucial in making global recommendations.

The research is particularly important because being overweight or obese increases the risk of many cancers, coronary heart disease and stroke. Reductions in total fat were also associated with small but statistically significant reductions in cholesterols and blood pressure, suggesting a beneficial effect on other major cardiovascular risk factors.

The systematic review included results from 33 randomised controlled trials, in North America, Europe and New Zealand, involving 73,589 men, women and children.

Those taking part had varying states of health. Comparisons were made between those eating less fat than usual (intervention group) and those eating their usual amount of fat (control group). The effect on weight and waist line was measured after at least six months.

The results show that eating less fat reduces body weight by 1.6kg, BMI by 0.56kg/m? and waist circumference by 0.5cm. All these effects were in trials in which weight loss was not the intended outcome, suggesting that they occur in people with normal diets. The weight loss happened quickly and was maintained over at least seven years.

The research was led by Dr Lee Hooper from UEA's Norwich Medical School. She said: "The weight reduction that we found when people ate less fat was remarkably consistent -- we saw it in almost every trial. Those who cut down more on fat, lost more weight.

"The effect isn't dramatic, like going on a diet. The research specifically looked at people who were cutting down on fat, but didn't aim to lose weight -- so they were continuing to consume a normal amount of food. What surprised us was that they did lose weight, their BMI decreased and their waists became slimmer. On top of this, they kept their weight down over at least seven years. There isn't a specific goal, the more fat you cut down, the more your weight falls.

"We didn't consider different types of fat in this study," said Dr Hooper. "But cutting down on saturated fat reduces our risk of heart disease and strokes, so the healthiest way to cut down on fat is to cut down on saturated fats.

"This means having low fat milk and yogurt, cutting down on butter and cheese, and cutting the fat off meat. Most importantly have fruit instead of fatty snacks like biscuits, cake and crisps. And remember, this isn't a diet, so don't take it to extremes, but work out a way of eating that you can stick to permanently.

"Keeping healthy is not just about fat and weight -- but cutting down on fat, especially saturated fat, is a great start. Being physically active, not smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and drinking plenty of fluid also help to keep us healthy. We just need to get in the habit of doing these things," she added.

Co-author Prof Carolyn Summerbell, from Durham University, said: "A healthy diet is a way of eating that people can sustain over time. That's the trick, to find a comfortable way to eat that you can stick to for life which helps you maintain your weight. Cutting down on fat will help.

"Doing exercise and being physically active is good for maintaining weight and also has other health benefits, but it's not a replacement for a healthy diet."

The small amount of data available for children in the same analysis confirmed a relationship between total fat intake and subsequent weight change. Further trials are needed to examine the effect of reducing fat intake on body weight in developing countries as well as in children.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of East Anglia, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Journal Reference:

1. L. Hooper, A. Abdelhamid, H. J. Moore, W. Douthwaite, C. M. Skeaff, C. D. Summerbell. Effect of reducing total fat intake on body weight: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials and cohort studies. BMJ, 2012; 345 (dec06 1): e7666 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.e7666

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/O_TDl88w3YI/121206203247.htm

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Illegal immigration drops after decade-long rise

WASHINGTON (AP) ? New census data released Thursday affirm a clear and sustained drop in illegal immigration, ending more than a decade of increases.

The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. dropped to an estimated 11.1 million last year from a peak of 12 million in 2007, part of an overall waning of Hispanic immigration. For the first time since 1910, Hispanic immigration last year was topped by immigrants from Asia.

Demographers say illegal Hispanic immigration ? 80 percent of all illegal immigration comes from Mexico and Latin America ? isn't likely to approach its mid-2000 peak again, due in part to a weakened U.S. economy and stronger enforcement but also a graying of the Mexican population.

The finding suggests an uphill battle for the Republicans, who passed legislation in the House last week that would extend citizenship to a limited pool of foreign students with advanced degrees but who are sharply divided on whether to pursue broader immigration measures.

In all, the biggest surge of immigration in modern U.S. history ultimately may be recorded as occurring in the mid-1990s to early 2000s, yielding illegal residents who now have been settled in the U.S. for 10 years or more. They include migrants who arrived here as teens and are increasingly at risk of "aging out" of congressional proposals such as the DREAM Act that offer a pathway to citizenship for younger adults.

"The priority now is to push a vigorous debate about the undocumented people already here," said Jose Antonio Vargas, 31, a journalist from the Philippines. "We want to become citizens and not face the threat of deportation or be treated as second class," said Vargas, whose campaign, Define American, along with the young immigrant group United We Dream, have been pushing for citizenship for the entire illegal population in the U.S. The groups point to a strong Latino and Asian-American turnout for President Barack Obama in last month's election as evidence of public support for a broad overhaul of U.S. immigration laws.

Earlier this year, Obama extended to many younger immigrants temporary reprieves from deportation. But Vargas, who has lived in the U.S. since 1993 and appeared this year on the cover of Time magazine with other immigrants who lacked legal status, has become too old to qualify.

"This conversation is a question about how we as a nation define who is an American," Vargas said, noting that if politicians don't embrace immigration overhaul now, a rapidly growing bloc of minority voters may soon do it for them. "If you want us to pay a fine to become a citizen, OK. If you want us to pay back taxes, absolutely. If you want us to speak English, I speak English. But we can't tread water on this issue anymore."

Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Research Center and a former Census Bureau official, said U.S. immigration policies will have a significant impact in shaping a future U.S. labor force, which is projected to shrink by 2030. Aging white baby boomers, many in specialized or management roles, are beginning to retire. Mexican immigration, which has helped fill needs in farming, home health care and other low-wage U.S. jobs, has leveled off.

"Immigration is one way to boost the number of workers in the population," he said, but the next wave of needed immigrants is likely to come from somewhere other than Mexico. "We are not going to see a return to the levels of Mexican unauthorized immigration of a decade ago."

The numbers are largely based on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey through March 2011. Because the Census Bureau does not ask people about their immigration status, Passel derived estimates on illegal immigrants largely by subtracting the estimated legal immigrant population from the total foreign-born population. The numbers are also supplemented with material from William H. Frey of the Brookings Institution and Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau, who reviewed data released Thursday from the Census' American Community Survey.

The data showed that 11.1 million, or 28 percent, of the foreign-born population in the U.S. consists of illegal immigrants, virtually unchanged since 2009 and roughly equal to the level of 2005. An additional 12.2 million foreign-born people, 31 percent, are legal permanent residents with green cards. And 15.1 million, or 37 percent, are naturalized U.S. citizens.

Fewer Mexican workers are entering the U.S., while many of those immigrants already here are opting to return to their homeland, resulting in zero net migration from Mexico.

In 2007, legal and illegal immigrants made up equally large shares of the foreign-born population, at 31 percent, due to ballooning numbers of new unauthorized migrants seeking U.S. construction and related jobs during the mid-2000s housing boom. Naturalized U.S. citizens then represented 35 percent.

Broken down by geography and race, roughly half of all states last year posted declines or no change in their numbers of foreign-born Hispanics, including big immigrant states such as California and New York as well as economically hard hit areas in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, which previously had seen gains.

Foreign-born Asians were a bigger source of population gain than Hispanic immigrants in California, New York, Virginia, Illinois and New Jersey. Newly moving into suburban communities, the Asian population spread out more across the southeastern U.S. and Texas, increasing their share in 93 percent of the nation's metropolitan areas.

As a whole, foreign-born residents are slowly graying, with 44 percent now age 45 or older. They are more likely than in 2007 to be enrolled in college or graduate school (39 percent, up from 32 percent) and to be single (17 percent married, down from 22 percent).

Births to immigrant mothers also are on the decline, driving the overall U.S. birth rate last year to the lowest in records dating back to 1920.

"At least temporarily, the face of immigration to the U.S. is changing in terms of cultural background, education and skills," Frey said. "The fertility bump provided by past Hispanic immigrants may not be replicated in the future, especially if Asians take over a greater share of U.S. immigrants."

House Republicans, seeking to show they are serious about addressing the immigration issue after being largely rejected by Hispanics in the election, voted last week to make green cards accessible to foreign students graduating with advanced science and math degrees from U.S. universities.

The measure, strongly backed by the high-tech industry and touted as a boost to the U.S. economy, would have a net effect of extending more visas and eventual citizenship to students from India and China. It is opposed by most Democrats, the Obama administration and immigrant rights groups such as the Asian American Justice Center which want to see it packaged with broader legislation that extends legal status for illegal immigrants.

These groups also oppose the proposed new 55,000 visas for foreign students because they would be offset by eliminating a lottery program that provides green cards to people with lower rates of immigration, mainly those from Africa. Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked Republicans from bringing up the bill.

A bill introduced by Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who are retiring at the end of this session, seeks to offer some legal status to young immigrants. Critics say it falls short because it does not provide a path to citizenship, an issue that Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., describes as "non-negotiable."

About 77 percent of Hispanic voters in the November election said they thought people working in the U.S. illegally should be offered a chance to apply for legal status, according to exit polling conducted for the television networks and The Associated Press. That is compared with 71 percent of Asian-Americans and 65 percent of voters overall.

The political implications are great.

Hispanics and Asian-Americans are the nation's two fastest-growing population groups, each increasing by more than 40 percent since 2000. A higher birth rate and years of steadily high immigration have boosted Hispanics to 17 percent of the U.S. population, compared with blacks at 12 percent and 5 percent for Asians.

Even if the nation's estimated 11 million illegal residents do not attain citizenship, the nation's Hispanics, who made up roughly 10 percent of voters in November, are expected to nearly double their share of eligible voters by 2030. Asian-Americans, who now are 3 percent of voters, will also continue to increase.

About 73 percent of Asian-Americans voted for Obama, second only to African-Americans at 93 percent and slightly higher than Latinos at 71 percent, according to exit polling.

Asian-Americans don't strongly identify with either party, but they tend to cite jobs, education and health care as issues most important to them and generally prefer a big government that provides more services. Relatively new to the U.S. and religiously diverse, Asian-Americans also may have been repelled by Republican Mitt Romney's forceful stance during the primaries seeking "self-deportation" of immigrants as well as the GOP's sometimes narrow appeal to evangelical Christians, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California-Riverside who helps conduct a broad National Asian American Survey.

While Mexicans make up about 55 percent of illegal immigrants and other Latin Americans represent another 25 percent, Asians make up a 10 percent share, many of whom overstay temporary visas.

___

AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-06-Census-Immigration/id-5d10d5752b7f4d4687c7a3c5516ff91b

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Toddler leaves hospital for first time since birth | BabyCenter Blog

Here?s a whole new twist on the idea of coming home for Christmas.

Though Adalynn Willett is two years old, the only home she has ever known is the Cook Children?s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

According to an ABC report, Willett was born with an extremely rare condition called omphalocele. She was born with her entire intestinal system, including her liver, outside of her body.

After 850 days and 28 different surgeries, a team of specialists managed to successfully put all of Adalynn?s vital organs back inside her body where they belonged. While not entirely in the clear, Adalynn still has a tracheotomy to help her breathe and feeding tube for sustenance, her attending physician, Dr. Nancy Dambro, reports Adalynn?s long-term future looks bright.

?She will need care for a long time, but there is hope that she will not need lifelong care.?

The image of this adorable little girl, have you checked out that picture, sleeping in her own bed for the first time ever, is moving. It?s also heartrending to imagine her saying good by to the hospital staff and doctors who, after 850 days together, must feel like family to her. And her to them.

Knowing how attached a patient, and even a patient?s parents, can get to nurses and doctors? anyone who nurtures you? I would guess Adalynn?s departure was bittersweet.

But I would be wrong:

?The fact that we were able to manage it so that she is going home for Christmas is nice,? says Adalynn?s attending physician, Dr. Nancy Dambro. And, after spending almost every day with the young child, Dambro notes the trip home is not bittersweet. ?You?d think it is, but it is not,? adding, ?Her job is not to be here every day being cute and smiling at me and cheering me up on my rounds. Her job is to go home and become a productive human being.?

How true. Doctors are much less sentimental than I. And that?s a good thing.

I am guessing the Willett family is going to have a truly memorable Christmas.

Could you imagine not being able to bring your baby home from the hospital for more than two years?

photo by Bryan Willett

Source: http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/1206201two-year-old-leaves-hospital-for-the-first-time-since-birth/

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Frisky Gifts for Cat Nuts

Everyone knows at least one cat owner who is a little bit crazy, a little bit intense, and a little bit covered in cat fur. Hanging out at this friend's house might be a disgusting chore. But that doesn't mean they don't deserve presents! More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/T2IY4ApHQZA/frisky-gifts-for-cat-nuts

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