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Pike County Y ard S ale Fall 2021 Sept. 4 EMAIL ������������classifieds@pressdispatch�net Email us your ad! Please include your name and phone number. We'll call you for your payment. CALL����������������������������������������� 812-354-8500 COME IN: ������������� 820 E� Poplar, Petersburg We Accept CASH or CHECK Participants will receive a numbered sign to post at their sale� Yard sales will be grouped together by location to make it easier for shoppers� DEADLINE: AUG. 30 AT 5 PM The Press Dispatch PIKE COUNTY'S NEWS NETWORK INSIDER Get your SIGN! The Press-Dispatch 812-354-8500 | www.pressdispatch.net *By enrolling in the Birthday Club, you agree to have your name, town and birth- day, or the person's name and town and birthday of whom you are enrolling, printed in e Press-Dispatch on the week in which the birthday occurs. Joining is easy! Visit pressdispatch.net/birthday or send your full name, address, city, state, zip code, phone number and birthdate to birthdayclub@pressdispatch.net.* Each week, a list of birthdays will be published in the paper! You could win a FREE PRIZE from area businesses and a three-month subscription to e Press-Dispatch. MUST RE-ENROLL EVERY YEAR! Join the One WINNER is drawn at the end of each month EDRINGTON CELEBRATES 90TH BIRTHDAY WITH CARD SHOWER Charles Edrington, born and raised in Pike County, will be turning 90 years old on August 29. A card shower is planned. Cards may be sent to: 824 Williams Street, Oak- land City, IN 47660. TRAYLOR CELEBRATES 98TH BIRTHDAY WITH CARD SHOWER A card shower is planned to celebrate the 98th birthday of Norma Traylor on Sept. 4. Norma worked for many years as the drive-thru teller at In- tegra Bank and following re- tirement, spends her time working in her flower garden. Cards may be sent to her at 410 S. 5th St., Petersburg, IN 47567. Birthdays Norma Traylor A-4 Wednesday, August 25, 2021 The Press-Dispatch Social Social Professor's search for dogs' healthier living, longevity By Matthew Oates Purdue News Service Audrey Ruple loves Great Danes so much that, while in the middle of Texas on a fam- ily vacation in 2012, she made the decision to get another one. "We were lucky that we had a vehicle large enough to hold an extra passenger," says Ru- ple, recalling how Bitzer, a purebred Great Dane that eventually grew to 140 pounds, came to live with her family. Despite the rocky trip back to Colorado, he became rath- er mellow and the go-to ani- mal for cuddles and chuckles. "He was the best dog. He was my heart dog," Ruple says. Bitzer recently died after living a large life. He was al- most 8 ½ years old. "He was old for a Great Dane, but much too young for a dog to die," says Ruple, who is an assistant professor of public health and a veterinary epidemiologist. She research- es dog longevity through the Dog Aging Project. Being a licensed veterinari- an who knows the ins and outs of animal health doesn't make the loss easier. "The old thought of how 'the larger the dog, the shorter the life span' rings true in this case. We are still not sure why that is," Ruple says. "Dogs break the rule of every other mammal species. Most mam- mal species, it's the bigger you are, the longer you live. That's why we're doing this research with the Dog Aging Project." Bitzer had one serious med- ical issue: osteosarcoma. Ruple has worked with nu- merous scientists, research- ers and veterinary oncologists on studying osteosarcoma in dogs, as they are the perfect translational model for osteo- sarcoma in humans. "Dogs and humans develop the same type of osteosarco- ma. It is the same at the molec- ular level," Ruple says. "If we look at an osteosarcoma from a dog, we can't tell the differ- ence between that and an os- teosarcoma from a human." Osteosarcoma is the most common bone tumor in dogs but is considered a rare dis- ease in humans. According to the American Cancer Soci- ety, there are about 1,000 new human cases diagnosed ev- ery year, and half of them are children, teenagers or young adults. Ruple says osteosarcoma is difficult to study in humans as researchers can't develop randomized control trials be- cause they don't have enough people to enroll. Tyler Trent, a Purdue grad- uate and superfan who died Jan. 1, 2019, had osteosarco- ma. Trent donated his can- cer cells to further cancer re- search. "The group that osteosarco- ma hits most are rapidly grow- ing teenagers. In dog popula- tions, we find osteosarcoma in large breed dogs, which are rapidly growing mammals," says Ruple, who is an affiliate faculty member of the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research. "We think there is something in the growth rate that triggers the cancer to form. It makes sense that humans and dogs have simi- lar cancers because we share a huge amount of genetic se- quence, and cancers arise from our own cells." Because of that shared ge- netic sequence, cancer treat- ments that are developed and successful in dogs are fre- quently adapted for use in hu- mans. The importance of collabo- ration and community science When Ruple began her vet- erinary epidemiological stud- ies, she knew she wanted to explore translational and pre- ventive medicine, cancer out- comes and infection control in dogs and humans. She studied zoonotic diseases – which are illnesses that can be spread between humans and animals. "My goal has been to look at health and disease of humans and animals, and ask, 'How do we stop diseases from occur- ring? '" she says. She was contacted by Dan- iel Promislow and Dr. Kate Creevy of the Dog Aging Proj- ect, seeking her involvement in the design for the longitu- dinal study, which eventually was funded by the National In- stitutes of Health. The project explores biological and envi- ronmental determinants of ag- ing in dogs. "The Dog Aging Project and the epidemiological work I do is about being able to keep people and animals liv- ing healthier lives for longer periods of time. That, to me, is really compelling. A lot of dis- eases we see in dogs are the same ones that happen in our children," Ruple says. "Sick- ness for children has long- term impacts. If they have can- cer – even if they are cured or treated to remission – those chemotherapeutic agents and surgeries we use to treat them have lifelong impact. They live a life that may be a little less than perfect." Currently, the Dog Aging Project has nearly 30,000 dogs – 727 from Indiana – whose owners have complet- ed full enrollment, including completing the questionnaire and uploading complete veter- inary medical records. The top five locations for Indiana-registered partici- pants are Indianapolis (Mari- on County), Lafayette (Tippe- canoe County), Bloomington (Monroe County), Muncie (Delaware County) and Fort Wayne (Allen County). The top five breeds registered from Indiana are golden re- triever, Labrador retriever, German shepherd, dachshund and beagle. Organizers are hoping to get additional dog breeds to make the study more whole: Large breed dogs weigh- ing 70 -100 pounds, especially breeds other than Labradors, golden retrievers and German shepherds (the most common breeds in the U.S.). Giant-breed dogs weighing more than 100 pounds, such as Great Danes, wolfhounds, mastiffs. Hound dogs, spaniels, pointers, terriers, bulldogs and pit bulls (purebred and mixed breed). Working dogs, such as herding, K-9, service, agility and mushing dogs. Organizers also are look- ing for dogs from rural areas, small towns and large cities. Many people are adopting an- imals from shelters or getting a puppy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and puppy partici- pants are especially beneficial to the project as researchers could follow the dogs through their entire lives. Ruple says it is important for a diversity of dog owners to participate in health so re- searchers and scientists can study health outcomes of un- derrepresented minority pop- ulations. To participate in the Dog Aging Project, owners nom- inate a dog (one per house- hold) at DogAgingProject. org. A fter this, they are in- vited to set up a personal re- search portal where they an- swer scientific surveys about their dog and upload veteri- nary records. "What we can learn from dogs is really important," Ru- ple says. "They truly are our best friends." Audrey Ruple, a veterinary epidemiologist and assistant professor of One Health Epidemiology in Purdue University's College of Health and Human Sciences, with Bitzer, a Great Dane. Purdue University photo