31st Annual Heat’s On Project Seeks Dane County Veteran Homeowners to Receive Free Furnace Maintenance

For Immediate Release:

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Contact: Julie Walsh, Julie.Walsh@mechanicalindustries.org

Phone: 608-288-1414

31st Annual Heat’s On Project Seeks Dane County Veteran Homeowners to Receive Free Furnace Maintenance

MADISON, WI – Madison Area Mechanical & Sheet Metal Contractors Association (MSC) and Steamfitters Local 601 will host the 31st Annual Heat’s On event on Saturday, October 13, 2018. Over 60 area steamfitters will volunteer a day of labor to inspect and service heating systems in qualified veterans’ homes. Trucks and equipment used for the day are donated by local union heating contractors, and replacement parts are donated by area suppliers. Heat’s On is seeking requests for veteran homeowners in Dane County area to receive free furnace maintenance during this year’s event.

“Giving back to the community and helping to protect our veterans who have fought and protected us is an honor and a privilege,” says Paul Christensen, Owner of 1901, Inc., a heating, cooling, and plumbing contractor in Madison. “Heat’s On is one of our favorite days at the office. I’m proud of our team who volunteer their time to make sure our veterans are safe for the upcoming winter.”

Criteria to receive free maintenance:

Veteran home owner, or surviving spouse
Dane County Resident
Gas Furnace
If you are a veteran home owner, or a surviving spouse of a veteran, and are interested in having Heat’s On come check your furnace, contact one of these sponsoring organizations by September 28 to be considered for free furnace maintenance:

Dane County Veteran Service Office (CVSO), phone: 608-266-4158
Madison VA Hospital – Patient Education Resource Center, phone: 608-280-2031
Homeowners who do not meet the criteria, but would like to have their heating systems serviced, can contact the MSC office at 608-288-1414 for a union contractor referral.

Heat’s On has been serving Dane County residents since 1987, and have performed maintenance services on over 2,500 furnaces. The purpose of Heat’s On is to reduce the occurrence of residents going without heat or facing other life-threatening emergencies associated with home heating systems.

“Lack of maintenance and dirty filters can shorten the life of a furnace,” says Brad Werlein, President of General Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc., a commercial and residential heating and cooling contractor in Madison. “Something this simple can save not only hundreds of dollars in fuel costs, but it can save a life as we experienced during last year’s event.”

Last year, Heat’s On replaced the furnace of a World War II veteran who had been taken to the hospital twice with carbon monoxide poisoning. The leak in the furnace that was causing the poisoning was discovered and fixed by Heat’s On.

About MSC:

MSC is a non-profit contractor association representing union contractors in the heating, piping, air conditioning, and sheet metal industry. Their members are dedicated professionals who provide high-quality, cost efficient products and services with a commitment to safety.

About Steamfitters Local 601:

Steamfitters Local 601 is comprised of approximately 2,400 members, and represents a 14-county area in southeastern Wisconsin. While the majority of membership is comprised of Steamfitters and Refrigeration/Service Fitters, they also represent other classifications such as gas distribution, helpers, and welders. Their members work on a variety of jobsites including residential and commercial heating and cooling systems, breweries, and power plants.

Participating MSC Contractors (Madison):

1901, Inc. (formerly H&H Industries), Owner Paul Christensen, phone: 608-273-3434
All Comfort Services, President Kendall Richards, phone: 608-838-7300
Commercial Air, Service Manager Tami Schultz, phone: 608-221-8886
General Heating & Air Conditioning, Labor Manager Mike Polster, phone: 608-271-3900
Participating Supply Houses:

Design Air, Branch Manager Barb Verbitsky, phone: 608-226-0344
First Supply, Sales Manager Scott Stritzke, phone: 608-222-7799
Gustave A. Larson, Store Manager Aaron Demuth, phone: 608-628-0209
Industrial Control, Owner Mike Stoffel, phone: 608-273-1717
Johnston Supply, Owner Dan Kunze, phone: 608-223-1499
Temperature Systems, Sales & Refrigeration, Roy Kempfer, phone: 608-327-2345
For more information, please contact Julie Walsh, Madison Area Mechanical & Sheet Metal Contractors Association at 608-2881414 or julie.walsh@mechanicalindustries.org

Earlier Autism Diagnosis Possible for Some Children Based on Metabolic Biomarkers in Blood, New Research Shows

Blood, New Research Shows
MADISON, Wis.–Metabolic signatures in the blood of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may lead to earlier diagnosis of the condition for some children, according to newly published research. These biochemical signatures provide insight into how the body metabolizes certain amino acids important to typical neurodevelopment. Children with these metabolic signatures are placed into metabolic subtypes, or metabotypes, that are highly associated with an ASD diagnosis.

The new findings appear online today in Biological Psychiatry in a publication entitled “Amino acid dysregulation metabotypes: potential biomarkers for diagnosis and individualized treatment for subtypes of autism spectrum disorder.” David G. Amaral, Ph.D., of the University of California – Davis MIND Institute, and scientists from NeuroPointDX, a division of Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Inc., of Madison, Wisconsin, authored the publication, which is the first resulting from the Children’s Autism Metabolome Project (CAMP), the largest study of the metabolism of children with ASD.

Autism spectrum disorder is made up of a diverse set of neurodevelopmental disorders that arise from differences in underlying genetic, metabolic, and environmental factors, resulting in a spectrum of cognitive, behavioral, and biological profiles. ASD is marked by communication, behavioral, and social difficulties. No reliable, objective biomarkers have existed to aid in the diagnosis of ASD, which is currently diagnosed based on the behavioral characteristics exhibited by an affected child.

While a diagnosis is possible in children as young as 24 months, the average age of ASD diagnosis in the United States is over four years. Early diagnosis is important because intensive behavioral therapy has been shown to improve the symptoms of autism; the benefit of such intervention is greater the earlier it is started.

“Using a metabolomics approach to detect ASD risk holds substantial promise for the identification of objective ASD biomarkers because metabolism is sensitive to interactions among the genome, gastrointestinal microbiome, diet, and environmental factors that all contribute to an individual’s unique metabolic signature,” said Elizabeth Donley, NeuroPointDX Chief Executive Officer, a co-author of the publication. “Metabolic testing can provide important biochemical signatures that help identify disruptions in biological processes that underlie an individual’s ASD.”

Past studies have been too small to reliably detect these metabolic dysregulations and characterize them into metabotypes. To test for metabolic imbalances that could reveal metabotypes and potential diagnostic biomarkers of ASD, the researchers conducted CAMP, a large-scale, eight-site study that recruited 1,100 children (ages 18 months to 48 months) with clinically confirmed ASD, developmental delay, or typical development. Prior research by this team and others, as well as preliminary analysis of the CAMP samples, suggested analysis of amino acid dysregulation might be a useful approach to identifying unique metabotypes with potential to serve as objective biomarkers of ASD.

When scientists at NeuroPointDX compared plasma metabolites from 516 children with ASD with those from 164 age-matched, typically developing children from the CAMP study, they were able to stratify the ASD children into subpopulations based on shared metabolic signatures. Imbalances in glutamine, glycine, and ornithine with lowered branched chain amino acids (BCAA: leucine, isoleucine, and valine) identified three ASD-associated Amino Acid Dysregulation Metabotypes (AADM). These three AADMs together were present in 16.7% of the CAMP ASD subjects and were detectable with a specificity of 96.3% and an accuracy (PPV) of 93.5%.

“It is unlikely that a single marker will detect all autism,” said lead author Dr. Amaral. “This paper demonstrates that alterations in metabolic profiles can detect sizable subsets of individuals with autism. The hope is that we will be able to generate a panel of biomarkers that will detect a large proportion of people at risk. Moreover, this approach highlights metabolic pathways that may be targets for therapeutic intervention.

“One of the major goals of the MIND Institute is the development of early biological markers for detecting the risk of autism spectrum disorder,” Dr. Amaral continued. “It would have been difficult for the MIND Institute to carry out the CAMP study on its own. CAMP is an excellent example of an academic/corporate partnership that has the promise of benefitting the autism community.”

“A reliable set of biological markers to detect increased risk for autism would improve accurate identification and reduce the impact on people with the condition,” said Thomas W. Frazier, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Autism Speaks, who was not involved in the study. “The metabolomics approach in this paper reflects a rational approach not only to detection but also to developing targeted treatments.”

“One of the critical and currently unmet clinical and research needs in the field of autism is a reliable early biological marker,” said Geraldine Dawson, PhD, FAPA, FAPS, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director, Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, who was not involved in the study. “The sooner families can receive information that their child is at high risk for autism, the sooner they can begin effective behavioral or other therapies. The research in this paper is an important milestone towards establishing metabolomics biomarkers of autism.”

NeuroPointDX continues to analyze the CAMP study samples to identify additional metabotypes that will be diagnostic for other subsets of children with ASD. By combining such ASD-associated metabotypes into a diagnostic panel, it should be possible to develop an objective blood test that enables a substantial percentage of children at risk for ASD to be identified at a very early age, when therapeutic intervention can provide the greatest benefit.

Funding for the CAMP study was provided by a grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health, the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, and the Robert E. and Donna Landreth Family Fund.

About NeuroPointDX and its parent company, Stemina Biomarker Discovery

NeuroPointDX is a division of Stemina Biomarker Discovery, which was founded in 2007 and is located in Madison, Wisconsin. Stemina operates its business in two divisions: NeuroPointDX, focused on diagnosis and more precise treatment of neurological disorders; and Stemina, focused on screening chemicals and compounds for their potential to cause birth defects if a woman is exposed during pregnancy.

Visit NeuroPointDX at http://neuropointdx.com

Visit Stemina at http://www.stemina.com

Contacts

NeuroPointDX & Stemina Biomarker Discovery

Elizabeth Donley, 608-577-9209

CEO

info@neuropointdx.com

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Nicole Litchfield, 415-793-6468

nicole@bioscribe.com

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Joan Kureczka, 415-821-2413

Joan@bioscribe.com