Hormones dictate when youngsters fly the nest, says new research

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2012) ? Seabirds feed their young less as they reach an age to fly the nest, but it's hormones that actually control when the chicks leave home, according to new research from the University of Leeds.

The study -- published online in Behavioural Ecology July 5 -- aimed to pinpoint the main trigger which causes chicks to leave the nest and embark on an independent life, a process known as fledging.

While studying a colony of Manx Shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus), on the island of Skomer, researchers from the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences noticed that parent birds seemed to become increasingly insensitive to their chicks' demands for food as they grew close to fledging. At the same time the chicks showed a marked increase in levels of the hormone corticosterone. However, the team needed to know whether this increase was independent of, or caused by, the reduction in feeding.

They decided to trick the parent birds, by swapping chicks of different ages between nests -- which the birds make in burrows in the ground -- to see how this affected both parental care and the time chicks took to fledge.

"Manx Shearwaters don't recognise their own offspring, but will simply go back to the same nest after they've gathered food. They have one chick, which makes the interactions between parent and offspring easier to study," explains lead researcher, Dr Keith Hamer. "We swapped chicks which were between 10 days and two weeks apart in age, to see what impact it would have. We wanted to find out whether parents and chicks were responding to each other's behaviour, or whether each was acting independently."

The team discovered that adults reduced their food provisioning after about 60 days of raising a chick, regardless of the chick's stage of development. Although females more than males will adjust their feeding levels to how much their chicks beg for food, after around 60 days both parents start to ignore their pleas. This held true whether parents were feeding their own chicks, or foster-chicks of different ages.

The surge in corticosterone took place over the final few weeks before chicks fledged at about 70 days of age. This held true even when chicks had been fostered by parents at a different stage of the feeding cycle, so was clearly independent of the parent's behaviour and any reduction in food.

"Our findings show that young Manx Shearwaters leave home of their own accord when their corticosterone levels have reached a peak rather than as a result of changes in parental behaviour," says Dr Hamer. "Both parents and chicks need large energy reserves for their arduous migration across the Atlantic to South and Central America, and parents seem to reduce how much they feed their young simply to protect themselves."

"Unlike some other bird species, which let their offspring dictate the level of care, seabirds appear to weigh up the cost of a chick fledging underweight against the greater cost of losing the chance to breed again," he adds. "Manx Shearwaters have a breeding life of around forty years, so parents pay a high cost if they end the season too weak to complete their own migration."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Leeds.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Keith Hamer et al. Parent?offspring conflict during the transition to independence in a pelagic seabird. Behavioural Ecology, 2012 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ars079

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/YT6r4pZG65g/120705133849.htm

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Prince William: Knighted in Scotland!

With the lovely, supportive Kate Middleton by his side, Prince William was knighted as a member of the Order of the Thistle in Scotland on Thursday.

He received the title from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II – the highest honor she can bestow in Scotland – around his 30th birthday last month.

In a nod to her Scottish title, the Countess of Strathearn, Kate Middleton wore a soft yellow coat dress specially made for her by Emilia Wickstead.

Kate and William fell in love at St. Andrews University, just outside the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, where the grand ceremony took place at St. Giles Cathedral.

A pipe band heralded the beginning of the festivities before the royals arrived. Kate had a few words and a smile with a church official and was then escorted in.

No reports of the Queen hating on her today, so that's good.

Prince William then joined other members of the Order of the Thistle. After several minutes, he walked to the cathedral alongside his aunt, Princess Anne.

Like the other knights, including the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, he wore a deep-green velvet cloak and matching hat adorned with a white ostrich feather.

This is actually William's second honorary knighthood. He was invested in the Order of the Garter at Windsor Castle in 2008. Congratulations to the royal!

[Photos: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/07/prince-william-knighted-in-scotland/

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The Lede Blog: What in the World Is a Higgs Boson?

Peter Higgs, an Edinburgh University professor, discussed the particle that bears his name in an interview with PBS in 2011.

High-energy particle physics is not something usually associated with pop culture, but CERN?s Large Hadron Collider, where physicists recently found what might be the long-sought Higgs boson, has had a long run in the cultural limelight.

First, it was the source of the antimatter that was going to blow up the Vatican in the movie and the book ?Angels and Demons.?

Then it was going to destroy the world, as critics alleged in an infamous lawsuit that was eventually thrown out, by producing a black hole that would swallow the earth. Artists, particularly photographers, have found beauty in the gargantuan scale of the collider, 17 miles around.

In my own all-time favorite example of ?outreach,? science writers rapped and danced about it in the ?Large Hadron Rap.?

A small industry has developed around explaining the collider?s quest to discover a particle with the folksy name of the Higgs boson, which could explain why things in the universe have mass. Last winter Lisa Randall, a prominent Harvard theorist, sat down with me in a sort of virtual sense to talk about this quest. Everything she said is still true.

Q.

In 1993, the United States Congress canceled a larger American collider, the superconducting super collider, which would have been bigger than the CERN machine. Would it have found the Higgs particle years ago?

A.

Yes, if it had gone according to schedule. And it would have been able to find things that weren?t a simple Higgs boson, too. The Large Hadron Collider can do such searches as well, but with its lower energy the work is more challenging and will require more time.

Kathryn Grim took a light approach in ?Ten Things You May Not Know About the Higgs Boson,? originally published in Symmetry, a magazine for physicists. And the BBC published a Q. and A. answering basic questions about the Higgs particle.

Peter Higgs, the Edinburgh University professor for whom the particle is named, appeared in Brian Greene?s 2011 ?Nova? special describing some of the agony of the particle?s birth.

And Jorge Cham of PhD Comics turned an explanation by the physicist Daniel Whiteson into an animated feature (the cartoon starts 37 seconds in):

Discovery of the particle would disprove one of the loopier theories that was put forward, by a pair of renowned theorists a few years ago, to the effect that the boson didn?t want to be found and could reach back into the past in a sort of kill-your-grandfather way to prevent itself from being discovered.

If all else fails, you can play the Agent Higgs game.

Or follow the Higgs rumor mill on Twitter.

---

Dennis Overbye writes about science for The New York Times.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=375659a960e8a0cf3df19572be2c9931

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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Data

Photo: Tammy Sanders

Ever since Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, we celebrate with a day of relaxation, barbecues, and the pageantry of dazzling fireworks. Little known is that in 1776, Jefferson had a second great vision that shaped the United States. Like the Declaration, his second vision also relied on citizens relishing civic duty and claiming their right to be informed and educated in order to self-govern and curb corruption, privilege, and aristocracy. The Jeffersonian plan was to provide a thermometer to a deputy in every county in Virginia with instructions to log twice-daily observations of temperature and wind direction. This founding father envisioned what is nowadays called citizen science.

In the legacy of this tradition, in every state of the union, hundreds of thousands of people will be scientifically engaged this summer: observing, measuring, analyzing, checking. Don?t be alarmed if your seemingly ordinary neighbors chronicle the sequence of flower blooms, measure gravestones, or count the pulsing of fireflies. Sharing observations is a collective scientific effort. Across all age levels and segments of society, citizen science is undergoing a revival as an American leisure-time tradition that was born with our Independence.

The Revolutionary War temporarily held up Jefferson?s systematic statewide plan. But from 1776 to 1816, which includes his two terms as President, Jefferson and many of his recruits (including Lewis and Clark) kept a near complete series of weather observations. Those founding our independent nation had a friendly rivalry with Europeans about who lived on the better continent. But, as relative newcomers to the New World, they had little data to support their claims of superiority. It was Jefferson?s patriotic chip on his shoulder, in a time before meteorologists and climatologists, which caused him to enlist citizens in data collection. In particular, weather records were a key part of his efforts to dash the theory of degeneracy: the idea that the temperature and humidity of New World produced animals that were smaller, weaker, and just plain inferior to their European counterparts. Jefferson used weather data, which included his 5 years in France, to show that America had a higher sunny-to-cloudy-day ratio than Europe.

Jefferson?s plan was not formalized until 1870, when President Grant created a new federal agency and assigned it the responsibility to coordinate a volunteer weather observer program. This is today?s National Weather Service?s Cooperative Weather Observer Network which draws about one million volunteer-hours annually at 12,000 sites across all 50 states.

When poor weather forecasting led to disaster in the foothills of the Rockies in 1998, Jefferson?s tradition expanded again with the formation of the Community Collaborative Rain Snow & Hail Network (CoCoRaSH). Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging) can estimate rainfall over large areas, but precipitation is highly localized. It can rain, snow, or hail on one side of the street and not the other. Nothing high-tech in the sky can beat a gauge on the ground. Now meteorologists, claims adjusters, attorneys, construction businesses, utility companies, mosquito control experts, farmers, and urban planners use the publicly accessible, fine-scale data from CoCoRaSH.

In the 21st Century, Jefferson?s legacy intersected with the Internet and mobile phones. The result has been a proliferation far beyond what he ever conceived. Instead of hopping a stagecoach to share observations with friends, with a few keystrokes observations are shared globally and archived in perpetuity. Citizen science is now a global hobby, connecting people and their real-world leisure observations to virtual databases.

People count butterflies in abandoned fields, tally washed-up garbage on beaches, record bird species at backyard feeders, and spend hours sitting at their computers classifying galaxy after galaxy (there are hundreds of thousands of them). Stalwart science militia called Invaders of Texas scour the countryside, eyes peeled for possible invasive species that may threaten the environment or economy, be they plant, bird, or mollusk. In London, the Bronx, and San Francisco, people use smartphone apps to document noise pollution, then direct local changes in truck traffic routes. North of the Arctic Circle, Inuit measure ice thickness. In the Himalayan high peaks, Nepalese villagers record snow leopard sightings and tracks.

Scientific knowledge is now widely co-produced through collaborations between scientists and society. Citizen science, with millions of hours of volunteer work, can stretch tight budgets, and collectively reveal large-scale patterns that scientists could never discover alone.

Citizen science gives people an unselfish, guilt-free reason to take a break, go outside, and slow down enough to observe their world. In return they gain discoveries, large and small, that they never forget. These activities may alter their lives and shape how participants view themselves, their environments and communities.

Science-as-hobby builds social capital, the properties of trust, norms, and personal connections that enable communities to thrive.

Without public participation, science can appear as a quagmire of jargon and uncertainty. With public participation, science encourages people to retain the child?s pleasure of wonder and enchantment in understanding our world. Another reason that Jefferson wanted weather data was to develop a theory of climate, but his inspiration for it was a deep-seated love of the seasons. On weather collection, Jefferson wrote ?Climate is one of the sources of the greatest sensual enjoyment.?

Co-producing knowledge can bring political agency. Hobbyists who engage in science have the ability to enter public discourse, with their opinions and their data, when it really matters: when too many of our kids have asthma, when our quality of water is at risk, and when we want a future with sustainable energy.

This Fourth of July, make your leisure matter. Discover a ladybug, tag whale songs online, or monitor a local stream. Collaborate and feel a newfound capacity to influence decisions. Independence means we don?t leave governing solely to career politicians; likewise, we shouldn?t leave knowledge production solely in the hands of professional scientists. We have two intertwined legacies to protect?democracy and citizen science. Celebrate Jefferson?s other enduring vision: become a citizen scientist.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b18e951a2afc9f5a1115b874dd3cf9d7

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Study sheds light on pregnancy complications and overturns common belief

ScienceDaily (July 3, 2012) ? A study led by Hospital for Special Surgery researchers has demonstrated that women who have a specific type of antibody that interferes with blood vessel function are at risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes and that other antibodies in the same family thought to cause pregnancy complications do not put women at risk.

The researchers say that many doctors may be unnecessarily treating some pregnant women who have antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) with anticoagulants, such as expensive heparin injections, which can cause bleeding and bone loss. The multicenter study appears in the July 2012 issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

"This paper identifies people who are at risk for pregnancy loss and, more importantly, those who are not at risk and who therefore do not need to be treated," said Michael Lockshin, M.D., director, Barbara Volcker Center for Women and Rheumatic Disease, and co-director, Mary Kirkland Center for Lupus Research at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), New York City, and lead author of the study.

Antiphospholipid antibodies interfere with phospholipids, a type of fat found in all living cells and cell membranes, including blood cells and the lining of blood vessels. Patients with these antibodies are at risk for blood clots, stroke, and pregnancy complications, but some patients with these antibodies can be completely healthy. "Phospholipids are highly exposed in the placenta, and as a result antiphospholipid antibodies concentrate there," said Jane Salmon, M.D., the study's senior author and Collette Kean Research Chair and co-director, Mary Kirkland Center for Lupus Research at HSS. "When antibodies are deposited in a person's tissues, inflammation is initiated leading to organ damage." And this is a mechanism for pregnancy complications.

Women who have recurrent pregnancy loss are commonly tested for the presence of aPLs, and up to 15% are positive. Most patients who test positive are treated with anticoagulants. Currently, there are no standards regarding which aPLs doctors test for to assess risk (there are three main ones) and interlaboratory consistency of results is poor.

The new study is the first clinical research publication of the PROMISSE study, an ongoing multicenter, prospective clinical trial comparing the pregnancies of women with aPL, lupus, both aPL and lupus, and healthy controls. Between 20% and 35% of patients with lupus and aPL have pregnancy complications and the study is attempting to identify which patients are at risk.

"The identification of biomarkers that identify patients at high risk will allow us to select a subset of patients who we can consider in an interventional trial," said Dr. Salmon, the principal investigator of PROMISSE. This PROMISSE study, which involves over 700 patients from nine centers in North America, is funded by the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. A strength of PROMISSE is that all aPL tests were sent to core laboratories, eliminating interlaboratory variability.

The current analysis focused on 144 patients who had aPLs, of whom 28 had adverse pregnancy outcomes. A control group, 159 healthy pregnant women, was tested parallel to the group with aPLs. Controls were selected among women with no known illness, no prior fetal loss, no more than one miscarriage and at least one successful pregnancy.

The study examined the association between adverse pregnancy outcome and the presence of three different aPLs: lupus anticoagulant [LAC], anticardiolipin antibody [aCL] and antibody to ?2 glycoprotein I. An adverse pregnancy outcome was defined as otherwise unexplained fetal death after 12 weeks, neonatal death prior to discharge that was associated with complications of prematurity, preterm delivery prior to 34 weeks because of gestational hypertension, preeclampsia or placental insufficiency, and birthing a child that was small for its gestational age.

The researchers found that LAC was the strongest predictor of an adverse pregnancy outcome; 39% of patients with LAC had an adverse outcome compared to 3% who did not have LAC (P<0.0001). Only 8% of women with aCL, but not LAC, suffered an adverse outcome. Other aPLs did not increase risk. "Lupus anticoagulant is the most important predictor of risk and high titer anticardiolipin antibodies alone don't provide substantial risk," said Dr. Salmon. She noted that prior to this study, many physicians considered aCL as a potent predictor of risk.

Anticoagulant treatments are currently used for many women with aPLs, but identifying who to treat is not clear and this treatment is often ineffective. "Although many patients with aPLs are treated with heparin, pregnancy outcomes are still disappointing. We need better therapies," said Dr. Salmon. "This study will allow us to identify subsets of patients with the highest risk in whom to test new approaches and new drugs."

Dr. Salmon's studies in mice with aPL have shown that blocking inflammatory pathways can prevent miscarriages, growth restriction and preeclampsia. Further studies on samples from PROMISSE patients, followed by interventional trials will hopefully shed light on whether this therapeutic approach will be effective in pregnant women with aPLs and/or lupus.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Hospital for Special Surgery, via Newswise.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Michael D. Lockshin, Mimi Kim, Carl A. Laskin, Marta Guerra, D. Ware Branch, Joan Merrill, Michelle Petri, T. Flint Porter, Lisa Sammaritano, Mary D. Stephenson, Jill Buyon, Jane E. Salmon. Prediction of adverse pregnancy outcome by the presence of lupus anticoagulant, but not anticardiolipin antibody, in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies. Arthritis & Rheumatism, 2012; 64 (7): 2311 DOI: 10.1002/art.34402

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120703200550.htm

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Toward an alternative for antibiotics to fight bacterial infections?

Public release date: 3-Jul-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sooike Stoops
sooike.stoops@vib.be
32-474-289-252
VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

VIB researcher Mohamed Lamkanfi, connected to the Ghent University, discovered that mice that do not produce the receptor protein NLRP6, are better protected against bacterial infections and can easier remove bacteria from the body. Therapeutic drugs that neutralize NLRP6 could be a possible treatment option, in addition to the use of antibiotics, for fighting bacterial infections. His research was published in the leading scientific magazine Nature.

Mohamed Lamkanfi (VIB Ghent University): "Our lab investigates the role of the innate immunity, which is of crucial importance to protect the body against bacteria and other pathogens. We started looking for genetic mutations that lead to an increased sensitivity to infections. Our research showed that mice with NLRP6 are less resistant to bacteria and have greater difficulty removing the bacteria from the body. This NLRP6 plays a disastrous role in the entire process."

New therapeutic track?

The discovery of Mohamed Lamkanfi is not insignificant. The first line treatment for bacterial infections is and will remain antibiotics, of course. However, due to the intensive use of antibiotics in the fight against infections, also the resistance of the bacteria grows against this group of medicines. Sometimes this makes it much more difficult for doctors to treat a patient efficiently.

Mohamed Lamkanfi: "Our search for products to help immune systems in the fight against bacterial infections is very important. In spite of the availability of antibiotics bacterial infections continue to pose a serious threat to public health all over the world. Now that we have exposed the role of the receptor protein NLRP6 in the immune response, we can start thinking about the clinical application thereof for the treatment of bacterial infections. A vaccine, in my opinion, seems less suitable, but a medicine that neutralizes the receptor protein NLRP6, is a possibility. Of course not in the immediate future, but it does deserve all the attention to research this further."

###

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 3-Jul-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sooike Stoops
sooike.stoops@vib.be
32-474-289-252
VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

VIB researcher Mohamed Lamkanfi, connected to the Ghent University, discovered that mice that do not produce the receptor protein NLRP6, are better protected against bacterial infections and can easier remove bacteria from the body. Therapeutic drugs that neutralize NLRP6 could be a possible treatment option, in addition to the use of antibiotics, for fighting bacterial infections. His research was published in the leading scientific magazine Nature.

Mohamed Lamkanfi (VIB Ghent University): "Our lab investigates the role of the innate immunity, which is of crucial importance to protect the body against bacteria and other pathogens. We started looking for genetic mutations that lead to an increased sensitivity to infections. Our research showed that mice with NLRP6 are less resistant to bacteria and have greater difficulty removing the bacteria from the body. This NLRP6 plays a disastrous role in the entire process."

New therapeutic track?

The discovery of Mohamed Lamkanfi is not insignificant. The first line treatment for bacterial infections is and will remain antibiotics, of course. However, due to the intensive use of antibiotics in the fight against infections, also the resistance of the bacteria grows against this group of medicines. Sometimes this makes it much more difficult for doctors to treat a patient efficiently.

Mohamed Lamkanfi: "Our search for products to help immune systems in the fight against bacterial infections is very important. In spite of the availability of antibiotics bacterial infections continue to pose a serious threat to public health all over the world. Now that we have exposed the role of the receptor protein NLRP6 in the immune response, we can start thinking about the clinical application thereof for the treatment of bacterial infections. A vaccine, in my opinion, seems less suitable, but a medicine that neutralizes the receptor protein NLRP6, is a possibility. Of course not in the immediate future, but it does deserve all the attention to research this further."

###

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/vfi-taa070312.php

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Mich. soldier fights to recover after losing limbs

In a photo made May 8, 2012, a yellow ribbon is seen in Vassar, Mich., in support of Travis Mills. Family and community are rallying around the ?Superman? soldier from Mich. who lost all 4 limbs in IED blast. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

In a photo made May 8, 2012, a yellow ribbon is seen in Vassar, Mich., in support of Travis Mills. Family and community are rallying around the ?Superman? soldier from Mich. who lost all 4 limbs in IED blast. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

In an undated photo provided by the Mills family, Travis Mills is seen in his hospital bed with his wife Kelsey and daughter Chloe at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Mills served two deployments to Afghanistan without a major injury, and then is a second an IED explosion changed everything. Today the 25-year-old is a quadruple amputee, one of only five servicemen from any military branch to have survived such an injury during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is recovering and describes his situation plainly: I just had a bad day at work. His family _ especially his wife, Kelsey _ admires him for that. (AP Photo/Mills Family)

VASSAR, Mich. (AP) ? Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills served two deployments to Afghanistan without suffering anything close to a major injury. Then, in a second, everything changed.

On patrol during his third tour in April, Mills put his bag down on an improvised explosive device, which tore through the decorated high school athlete's muscular 6-foot-3 frame. Within 20 seconds of the IED explosion, a fast-working medic affixed tourniquets to all four of Mills' limbs to ensure he wouldn't bleed to death.

"I was yelling at him to get away from me," Mills remembers. "I told him to leave me alone and go help my guys.

"And he told me: 'With all due respect, Sgt. Mills, shut up. Let me do my job.'"

The medic was able to save Mills' life but not his limbs. Today, the 25-year-old Mills is a quadruple amputee, one of only five servicemen from any military branch to have survived such an injury during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Maria Tolleson, a spokeswoman at U.S. Army Medical Command. And instead of serving alongside his unit, he has been spending his days based at Walter Reed Medical Center, working on rehabilitation after the accident that dramatically altered the trajectory of his life.

Mills doesn't dwell on that. Sitting in his hospital bed, he describes his situation plainly: "I just had a bad day at work."

His family ? especially his wife, Kelsey ? admires him for that.

"I think he's Superman. I really do," she said. "It's amazing to see just how lucky he is. I mean, he's the luckiest unlucky guy."

Mills' recovery is expected to last at least a year. Already, there have been victories: A procedure performed at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center alleviated the excruciating phantom limb pains Mills was experiencing in the first weeks he was stateside.

He approaches each therapy session methodically, practically.

"There's no reason to sit here and look out the window and feel sorry for myself," Mills told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Walter Reed. "It happened. I can't change the fact that it happened. I can't turn back time."

At Walter Reed, Mills is doing exercises designed to make his body leaner while strengthening his core, hip flexors, pectorals and shoulders. He bounces on a trampoline, trying to execute 90-degree turns with his torso. "There's nothing I really don't like (about PT), except I can't do two-a-days yet," Mills jokes.

While he's in the midst of getting his permanent prosthetics, Mills currently needs assistance to do things that most people take for granted, such as cooking and cleaning or walking and running. As often as Walter Reed doctors let him, Mills makes his way to the Military Advanced Training Center to strengthen his body and prepare for long-term prosthetics. He currently has all four beginner prosthetics.

"They push you to your limit, then they push you a little more," said Mills, a high school football, basketball and baseball star who is more accustomed to bench-pressing and squatting to get bigger.

While he works at learning to use his new artificial limbs, Mills has an army of supporters behind him. On the Facebook page, nearly 20,000 people are tracking his progress and cheering him on virtually through messages.

The page serves as a window into his recovery, and his supporters watch eagerly as he surpasses milestones. When he began to walk on his prosthetics for the first time, a camera followed him as he nudged forward on a small track. With red and white sneakers laced on his prosthetic legs, and crutches gripping his artificial hands, he methodically takes one step at a time while tethered with a harness to the ceiling.

He doesn't just take a few steps. He walks the whole track.

"This is your first day?" an incredulous voice says from nearby.

"Yes, yes it is," he responds proudly, taking another step.

A short time later, another video showed more progress: He walks faster now, swifter than his first deliberate gait.

Videos also show him learning to roll and come to a sitting position in his bed, and learning, patiently, to use an artificial hand. One clip shows him removing colorful clamps from a bar and dropping them in a bucket. Another shows him using that same hand to feed baby food his infant daughter, Chloe.

"Turkey and rice, tastes so nice!" he sings, as the baby girl opens wide and flaps her hands.

Only a half-year older than his injuries, Chloe has been a significant source of inspiration to Mills. He was there when she was born on the base at Fort Bragg, N.C. He left 4 months later for Afghanistan. Now, she sees him every day ? sometimes helping him with his recovery.

Some videos show Mills doing crunches on his bed with an elated Chloe on his torso. In another video, he straps her into his wheelchair and zips around as she waves her hands in excitement.

Mills repeatedly talks of how "blessed" he is to be alive.

"Now I can watch my little girl grow up and see my wife and family again, and everything's good to go," he said. "I didn't die, so that's good. You've got to look at the positive things."

Mills' prognosis moving forward isn't clear, but there have been advances in working with patients who suffer similar injuries. Dr. Karen Pechman, who runs the amputee rehabilitation program at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, N.Y., said "only in the past few decades has the medical care existed that enables" people who incur the trauma or disease states that would result in quadruple amputees to survive, so it's not yet known whether those who lose all their limbs have their life expectancy diminished.

"There is nothing inherent medically about amputation that would affect subsequent health," Pechman said. "It is ... the activity level achieved by the patient that may impact on subsequent health."

As he recovers, Mills' story is compelling thousands to take notice and offer support. Recognizing that the family will face costs not covered by the Army and insurance, a fund has been set up for his family. There have been 5K runs held in his honor. T-shirts printed. Concerts, golf tournaments, motorcycle rides. Under the banner of hundreds who call themselves "Team Mills," fundraisers have been held in Kelsey's home state of Texas, in North Carolina where the couple lived and many places in between.

Nowhere has more been done, though, than in Michigan, where a recent spaghetti dinner at an American Legion post netted tens of thousands in donations. In Mills' hometown of Vassar, it's hard to find a tree, lamppost or telephone pole without a yellow or red, white and blue ribbon attached. Businesses throughout the 2,700-resident town feature signs encouraging prayer for the Mills family.

"I wouldn't want to go through it. I don't know anybody that would," said Paul Wojno, the principal at Vassar High School and the father of one of Mills' best childhood friends. "But ... if I had to pick one kid in this school that has recently graduated, I'd say Travis would be the one to try to do it."

Mills recently achieved his goal of progressing to the point that doctors OKed his move to a nearby outpatient facility that allows him to live with Kelsey and Chloe. Now, he's setting his sights on September, when his unit returns to Fort Bragg.

"I'll be there, hopefully on my prosthetics, and I'll be standing in my uniform and I'll have an arm on my right and left side and I'll be able to salute them as they come in. And I'll be standing there waiting for them," he said.

As for all of the supporters who call him a hero?

"Just because stuff happened to me, I don't think it makes me a hero," he said. "I think it just makes me a guy that did his job, knew the consequences of what could happen and something happened."

___

Follow Mike Householder on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mikehouseholder

___

Online:

Travis Mills ? American Hero: http://www.travismills.org

Support for Travis Mills and Family Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/118339459481

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-03-Soldiering%20On/id-6fbc9d5778124a95ab694ae6fcb39562

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