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SOFTWARE: Genome Speed-Reading
Content provided in partnership with Read the full article with a Free Trial of HighBeam Research » A free program from the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, can help researchers locate genes and determine their functions in freshly sequenced genomes. Known as Argo, the new software makes it easy to compare notations about DNA landmarks, such as segments that might code for a piece of a protein, Read the full article with a Free Trial of HighBeam Research »HighBeam Research Members: View the full text of this article » Try HighBeam Research for seven days of free unlimited access to the most powerful research engine on the web. Access superior sources and sophisticated research tools, including the HighBeam Library archive of over 32,000,000 articles from thousands of business and consumer magazines and journals, transcripts of TV & radio news and entertainment broadcasts, maps, images and more! As his vision disappeared, Nielsen`s role in Racine school district Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The , Apr 30, 2006 by ALICE L. CHANGThe signs began early, but Don Nielsen never wanted to acknowledge them. There was the time he nearly walked off a precipice at the Cave of the Mounds near Madison when he was 9. His father grabbed his shoulder and asked, "You couldn`t see that?" "No," Nielsen said. It scared them both. There were also the evenings Nielsen would play football outside, but couldn`t see the ball until it hit him in the head. For a long time, Nielsen thought everyone saw like he did. But then his vision worsened. When he was 24, a doctor diagnosed him with choroideremia, a hereditary, degenerative disease that begins with night blindness, then restricts the visual field and eventually causes blindness. The diagnosis was "a relief" for Nielsen, now 59, because it explained his experiences. Over the last few decades, Nielsen had to give up his driver`s license, learned (and forgot) Braille and reluctantly began using a white cane after he broke his glasses three times by walking into a bus stop, a traffic barricade and a stop sign. Despite the challenges, Nielsen does not regard himself as disabled. "There is ability there," said Nielsen, who still looks directly in the eyes of those in conversation with him. "It doesn`t make you less of a person, just different." Nielsen worked for 27 years as a counselor for at-risk teens in the Racine Unified School District, and he recently beat out eight other candidates to win a spot on the School Board. To Nielsen`s knowledge, he is the only blind person in more than 20 years to sit on the School Board, but he doesn`t want to be known solely for that reason. "I want to be viewed as a board member first," Nielsen said. Working through challenges Nielsen was born the younger of two children on Aug. 19, 1946, in Racine. His father worked as an assistant foreman in the puzzle department of Western Publishing, his mother was a homemaker. Nielsen attended Fratt Elementary School, McKinley Middle School and Park High School, all part of Racine Unified. He started college at the University of Wisconsin Racine Center, the predecessor to UW-Parkside, and finished his bachelor`s degree in sociology at UW-Milwaukee. Nielsen worked for about a year in child welfare and then earned his master`s degree in education with a specialty in guidance counseling at UW-Oshkosh. He interned at Mitchell Middle School to become certified as a counselor, and met his future wife, Nancy, who works as an early childhood diagnostician for Racine Unified. For the next 27 years, he worked at the Academy, which eventually became the Mack Center, a school for at-risk youths. Nielsen`s illness progressed more slowly than expected, but in recent years, his field of vision has narrowed so sharply that it has become like looking through a "paper towel tube shrunk down." Despite the challenges, he is comfortable with the condition and himself, said Carolyn Azarian, a retired business teacher at Mack who worked with Nielsen for his entire career. She said years ago the staff would play practical jokes on Nielsen. "He would take them in stride," Azarian said. "He has affected all of us. (We see him as) a person with a handicap but not a handicapped person." Nielsen took a disability retirement in 2000, which has given him time to pursue other interests. The School Board was a natural choice because, as a longtime district employee, Nielsen had observed several things he thought the district needed to address, for example, the cutting of vocational and work-study programs for budget reasons. "That`s when I started saying, If I were on the School Board . . . ` " Nielsen said. Listening is key Now that he`s a board member, Nielsen said, his top priority is to listen to the community. "Communication is a two-way street," Nielsen said. "The board doesn`t listen as well as they could." He also has a particular interest in special education issues, because his youngest son, Mark, has Down syndrome. Nielsen can see nothing with his left eye and only slightly about 1.5 degrees from center with his right eye. While Nielsen can discern the contrast between light and dark, everything else appears foggy. Still, he has taken up speed-reading (or speed-listening), exchanged his white cane for a Labrador retriever guide dog, Mack, and frequently travels on public transportation. The school district has taken steps to accommodate Nielsen`s vision impairment they put most handouts on CD so he can listen to materials through a text-to-speech program on his computer. Nielsen`s involvement with the School Board is just one of his many roles he also serves on the board of the Racine County Opportunity Center and the Developmental Disabilities Information Services. In the future, Nielsen plans to join Toastmasters to improve his speaking skills so he can better advocate for the disabled. Blindness "has pushed me more than I would`ve pushed myself, to keep going and take pride in the things I do, like walking to the store or running for School Board," Nielsen said. Speed reading index
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