Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295639778?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Total Defense for Business
Whoever is in charge of IT at a small business has a lot of things to worry about with a fairly limited budget and limited time to accomplish everything. Total Defense for Business offers small businesses an integrated cloud security platform that allows the administrator to handle endpoint security and Web and email filtering from a single management console. Endpoints have to be kept up-to-date with anti-malware tools, email threats need to be filtered out before the messages reach the user's inbox, and malicious?or inappropriate?sites need to be blocked. Total Defense for Business offers a fairly robust policy framework to handle all three different tasks to make the administrator's daily to-do-list easier to manage.
Total Defense for Business is a feature-packed cloud security platform where all the elements are tightly integrated. Total Defense offers anti-malware protection for endpoints, Web and email, such as detecting and removing malware on the endpoint, scanning emails and taking action when malware is detected, and blocking websites attempting to download malware. A robust rules engine allows administrators to create filtering policies and define granular application controls. I created email and Web policies to restrict file downloads, control what files could be uploaded or emailed (for data leak prevention), and prevent users from accessing certain sites and applications which violate corporate policy.
At first glance, Total Defense for Business reminded me a lot of GFI Cloud, a cloud security platform from GFI Software. GFI Cloud also provides antivirus protection (delivered via the company's VIPRE Antivirus engine)?for the endpoint, but its focus is primarily network management, not security. GFI Cloud offers asset management, health monitoring, and remote support. Total Defense for Business is focused on keeping emails clean, blocking malicious websites, and protecting the endpoint and is essentially a cloud-based unified threat management appliance. I use Sophos UTM as a virtual appliance, and Total Defense for Business felt very similar, except without having to source a server capable of running the virtual machine image.
Getting Started
Small businesses are beginning to realize that cloud security services are cheaper and often easier to manage than on-premise hardware and software. Getting started with Total Defense is pretty simple, as all you really need is the domain's MX record and information about the Web proxy in order to direct all email and Web traffic through Total Defense's servers. There is no hardware to deploy or software to configure.?
I received the login credentials for my Total Defense account over email. Logging in, I saw the interface, with tabs for Dashboard, Filter Management, Quarantine, Archive, and Reports. Since this was my first time logging in, I was automatically directed to Filter Management where I could turn on Web and Email filtering. There are a lot of features packed into the platform, and Total Defense does a pretty good job of peppering the screens with relevant help text and links to the User Guide.
Total Defense for Business supports Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. There doesn't seem to be a way yet to apply the security policies to users on smartphones and tablets, just yet.
Total Defense sells through the channel, so businesses need to contact their local reseller or distributor to purchase an annual subscription for Total Defense for Business. The list price is $71.50 per user per year, for full Web, Email, and Endpoint functionality. While the price may seem pretty high at first, it's worth noting that the per-user license covers multiple devices. The company also offers a 15-day free trial for anyone wanting to try out the platform first. Customers can get support over the phone or open up a support ticket online.
Web Filtering
To turn on Web filtering, Total Defense needs my public-facing IP address to recognize all the traffic with that IP address as being part of my network. The service can take up to 24 hours to accept and initialize the IP address, so I had to wait before configuring my Web proxy settings. I had the option to turn on user authentication with Web filtering, which means users have to log in to prove they are authorized to use the Total Defense platform.?Next: Web and Email Filtering, Endpoint Security with Total Defense
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/0Px9xGxS5is/0,2817,2417247,00.asp
Why impact investing goes beyond venture capital | GreenBiz.com
I used to think that being an impact investor pretty much meant taking the skills and processes of venture capital and applying them for "good." Deal sourcing, due diligence, valuation -- all the basic steps seemed the same.
When I joined the University of Michigan's student-run impact investing fund Social Venture Fund, I expected to learn about investing while thinking about issues I care about. I think other people feel the same way. However, recent news coverage, like this Harvard Business Review article with tips on pitching to an impact investor, reflects a growing discussion about the differences between impact investing and traditional venture capital.
As a current MBA candidate, I've been thinking lately not about the "what," but the "how" -- the skills that will set an impact investor apart. Two years on the Social Venture Fund, including a year serving as its co-director, have taught me that impact investing does not require you to just do what a venture capitalist does; it requires you to do what a venture capitalist does, but better.? ?
A better salesman
All VCs have to go out on the road to raise money from investors. They sell their expertise, connections, industry knowledge, past success. Impact investors add on the challenge of selling the social value proposition, the fact that social results will really be achieved and the promise that financial and social returns can actually go hand in hand. Like most new impact funds, the three-year-old Social Venture Fund has exciting investments, including food company Jack and Jakes and education technology company LearnZillion, but it doesn't have an exit to its name. Impact investors must sell the business, plus more, all without the luxury of past results to point to.
Content with uncertainty
If a VC has to be comfortable taking risks by betting on yet unproven companies, an impact investor has to be even more so. On top of betting on often-unproven products and markets, impact investors operate in a fast-evolving and ambiguous field that has a broad range of goals. Everyone agrees on how to measure dollar-based ROI. Despite efforts on common metrics by the Global Impact Investing Network, the field is a long way from consensus on what "impact" is, let alone how to measure it.
Next page: A closer relationship with portfolio companies
Source: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/03/29/why-impact-investing-beyond-venture-capital
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Friday, March 29, 2013
BMW announces compatibility with four new iOS apps, removable in-car LTE router, we go hands-on
At this year's New York International Auto Show BMW is expanding its portfolio of connected apps -- by four. The company announced iOS integration for Audible, Glympse, Rhapsody and TuneIn Radio and we couldn't help but swing by to check them all out. This integration (which also will work on Connected Minis) entails an update to those existing iOS apps. In other words, you won't need a dedicated BMW app nor second versions of these individual apps. You can use the ones you already know and love.
Join us below for a little more information on how that works, and a look at the company's in-car LTE router that's also on display.
Filed under: Transportation, Software
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/29/bmw-apps-lte-router/
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Scientists create robo-ant colony
28 March 2013
Last updated at 21:09 ET
On its own, each robot would 'just get lost' but as a colony they can navigate
Scientists in the US have built and tested robotic ants that they say behave just like a real ant colony.
The robots do not resemble their insect counterparts; they are tiny cubes equipped with two watch motors to power the wheels that enable them to move.
But their collective behaviour is remarkably ant-like.
By being programmed simply to move forward toward a target and avoid obstacles, the robot colony finds the fastest way through a network or maze.
The secret, the researchers report in the open access journal Plos Computational Biology, is in their ability to take cues from one another - just like an insect swarm.
"Each individual robot is pretty dumb," said Simon Garnier from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, lead researcher on the study. "They have very limited memory and limited processing power."
"By themselves, each robot would just move around randomly and get lost... but [they] are able to work together and communicate."
This is because, like ants, the robots leave a trail that the others follow; while ants leave a trail of chemicals - or pheromones - that their nest mates are able to sniff out, the robots leave a trail of light.
Continue reading the main story?Start Quote
End Quote Dr Paul Graham University of SussexYou don't need something as complex as choice to get some of the behaviour you see in ants?
To achieve this, the researchers set up a camera to track the path of each robot. A projector connected to the camera then produced a spot of light at regular intervals along their route, leaving a "breadcrumb trail" of light that got brighter every time another robot tracked over the same path.
Dr Garnier explained: "[The robots each] have two antennae on top, which are light sensors. If more light falls on their left sensor they turn left, and if more light falls on the right sensor, they turn right."
"It's exactly the same mechanism as ants."
The researcher explained how both the robots and ants worked together, describing their navigation skills as a "positive feedback loop".
"If there are two possible paths from A to B and one is twice as long as [the other], at the beginning, the ants [or] robots start using each path equally.
"Because ants taking the shorter path travel faster, the amount of pheromone (or light) deposited on that path grows faster, so more ants use that path."
Learning from nature Continue reading the main storySuperorganisms
- There are an estimated 20,000 species of ants in the world
- Ant colonies have structured social system, with different castes - worker, soldier, queen and drone - all of which carry out specific tasks for the colony
- Ant colonies are sometimes referred to as "superorganisms" because ants appear to operate as a single entity
There are many other research and engineering projects that take inspiration from nature to solve problems or design robots, as Dr Paul Graham, a biologist from the University of Sussex, explained.
"The classic example," he said, "is the way in which we design information networks to move packets of data around.
"Ants don't have someone in charge telling them where to go, so you can [mimic this].
For instance - in a complex network, there may be a junction with different possible routes that packets [of data] could take. Packets would leave messages for each other at the junction to give information about which routes were quick."
This, he explained, is the basis of an algorithm called ant colony optimisation which has already been used in telecoms networks.
And although Dr Graham doesn't see an immediate practical use for these particular robotic insects he says the study demonstrates an important and interesting piece of biology.
"Lots of animal behaviour gets described using words like 'choice'.
"This shows that you don't need something as complex as choice to get some of the behaviour you see in ants.
"And these things look pretty cool, too."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/21956795#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Arsenal's Diaby out for 9 months with knee injury
Associated Press Sports
updated 3:58 p.m. ET March 28, 2013
LONDON (AP) -Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby is facing up to nine months on the sidelines to recover from a knee complaint, the latest in a long line of injuries to have plagued the France international.
Diaby tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee at a training session on Wednesday.
"Following consultations with specialists, Abou will undergo surgery to repair the injury in the near future," Arsenal said Thursday. "Abou is expected to be out for around eight to nine months."
Diaby has been blighted by injuries since joining from Auxerre in 2006, fracturing and dislocating an ankle after four months at the Premier League club. The commanding midfielder made only 27 Premier League appearances during the next two seasons.
He eventually established himself as a regular in Arsenal's midfield, scoring seven times in 40 matches in all competitions in 2010-11.
But he was restricted to only five appearances last season due to a string of injuries, including ankle and calf problems, and has played only 16 games in the current campaign.
The latest problem adds to manager Arsene Wenger's mounting injury problems.
Jack Wilshere is recovering from an ankle problem which has ruled him out since the loss at Tottenham on March 3.
Wenger must also do without forward Theo Walcott against Reading this weekend after he returned home early from England duty with a pelvic injury, while defender Kieran Gibbs is doubtful because of a virus.
Arsenal is fifth in the league, four points behind Tottenham in the fourth Champions League place.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsIf World Cup draw was today ...
PST: We took the current standings from qualifying tournaments around the world, assumed the teams? points-per-game rates played out, and then ?qualified? the appropriate teams for Brazil.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51362232/ns/sports-soccer/
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EPA settles with Goodrich over Calif. plant water
RIALTO, Calif. (AP) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it has reached a settlement worth at least $21.5 million with aerospace supplier Goodrich Corp. that will require the company to clean up a Southern California industrial site where chemicals contaminated the water supply.
The settlement ends nine years of litigation over the 160-acre B.F. Goodrich Superfund Site in Rialto, which was used for decades by defense contractors and fireworks manufacturers, the EPA said in a statement. Goodrich used it from 1957 to 1962 to develop rocket fuel.
Under the settlement, Goodrich will install new wells for monitoring and testing groundwater at its own expense, then build and operate cleanup facilities with EPA oversight until the process is finished, which could take decades.
Goodrich will pay at least the first $21.5 million toward the cleanup, with contributions also coming from the Department of Defense and several companies that used the site to manufacture fireworks, fuel and munitions and were part of 2012 settlements, the statement said.
Similar sites have cost more than $40 million to clean up, and total costs could reach $100 million, the EPA said.
The cities of Rialto and Colton and San Bernardino County, which sued Goodrich in 2004, were also parties to the settlement.
Phone and email messages left after business hours for a Goodrich spokesman were not immediately returned.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/epa-settles-goodrich-over-calif-022418606.html
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Study: Health law to raise claims cost 32 percent
FILE - In this March 23, 2010 file photo, Marcelas Owens of Seattle, left, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., right, and others, look on as President Barack Obama signs the health care bill in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Medical claims costs _ the biggest driver of health insurance premiums _ will jump an average 32 percent for individual policies under President Barack Obama?s overhaul, according to a study by the nation?s leading group of financial risk analysts. Recently released to its members, the report from the Society of Actuaries could turn into a big headache for the Obama administration at a time when many parts of the country remain skeptical about the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this March 23, 2010 file photo, Marcelas Owens of Seattle, left, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., right, and others, look on as President Barack Obama signs the health care bill in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Medical claims costs _ the biggest driver of health insurance premiums _ will jump an average 32 percent for individual policies under President Barack Obama?s overhaul, according to a study by the nation?s leading group of financial risk analysts. Recently released to its members, the report from the Society of Actuaries could turn into a big headache for the Obama administration at a time when many parts of the country remain skeptical about the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Map shows projected change in medical claim costs by
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A new study finds that insurance companies will have to pay out an average of 32 percent more for medical claims on individual health policies under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
What does that mean for you?
It could increase premiums for at least some Americans.
If you are uninsured, or you buy your policy directly from an insurance company, you should pay attention.
But if you have an employer plan, like most workers and their families, odds are you don't have much to worry about.
The estimates from the Society of Actuaries could turn into a political headache for the Obama administration at a time when much of the country remains skeptical of the Affordable Care Act.
The administration is questioning the study, saying it doesn't give a full picture ? and costs will go down.
Actuaries are financial risk professionals who conduct long-range cost estimates for pension plans, insurance companies and government programs.
The study says claims costs will go up largely because sicker people will join the insurance pool. That's because the law forbids insurers from turning down those with pre-existing medical problems, effective Jan. 1. Everyone gets sick sooner or later, but sicker people also use more health care services.
"Claims cost is the most important driver of health care premiums," said Kristi Bohn, an actuary who worked on the study. Spending on sicker people and other high-cost groups will overwhelm an influx of younger, healthier people into the program, said the report.
The Obama administration challenged the design of the study, saying it focused only on one piece of the puzzle and ignored cost relief strategies in the law, such as tax credits to help people afford premiums and special payments to insurers who attract an outsize share of the sick.
The study also doesn't take into account the potential price-cutting effect of competition in new state insurance markets that will go live Oct. 1, administration officials said.
At a White House briefing Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said some of what passes for health insurance today is so skimpy it can't be compared to the comprehensive coverage available under the law. "Some of these folks have very high catastrophic plans that don't pay for anything unless you get hit by a bus," she said. "They're really mortgage protection, not health insurance."
Sebelius said the picture on premiums won't start coming into focus until insurers submit their bids. Those results may not be publicly known until late summer.
Another striking finding of the report was a wide disparity in cost impact among the states.
While some states will see medical claims costs per person decline, the report concluded that the overwhelming majority will see double-digit increases in their individual health insurance markets, where people purchase coverage directly from insurers.
The differences are big. By 2017, the estimated increase would be 62 percent for California, about 80 percent for Ohio, more than 20 percent for Florida and 67 percent for Maryland. Much of the reason for the higher claims costs is that sicker people are expected to join the pool, the report said.
Part of the reason for the wide disparities is that states have different populations and insurance rules. In the relatively small number of states where insurers were already restricted from charging higher rates to older, sicker people, the cost impact is less.
The report did not make similar estimates for employer plans that most workers and families rely on. That's because the primary impact of Obama's law is on people who don't have coverage through their jobs.
A prominent national expert, recently retired Medicare chief actuary Rick Foster, said the report does "a credible job" of estimating potential enrollment and costs under the law, "without trying to tilt the answers in any particular direction."
"Having said that," Foster added, "actuaries tend to be financially conservative, so the various assumptions might be more inclined to consider what might go wrong than to anticipate that everything will work beautifully." Actuaries use statistics and economic theory to make long-range cost projections for insurance and pension programs sponsored by businesses and government. The society is headquartered near Chicago.
Bohn, the actuary who worked on the study, acknowledged it did not attempt to estimate the effect of subsidies, insurer competition and other factors that could offset cost increases. She said the goal was to look at the underlying cost of medical care.
"We don't see ourselves as a political organization," Bohn added. "We are trying to figure out what the situation at hand is."
On the plus side, the report found the law will cover more than 32 million currently uninsured Americans when fully phased in. And some states ? including New York and Massachusetts ? will see double-digit declines in costs for claims in the individual market.
Uncertainty over costs has been a major issue since the law passed three years ago, and remains so just months before a big push to cover the uninsured gets rolling Oct. 1. Middle-class households will be able to purchase subsidized private insurance in new marketplaces, while low-income people will be steered to Medicaid and other safety net programs. States are free to accept or reject a Medicaid expansion also offered under the law.
___
AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace contributed to this report.
___
Online:
Society of Actuaries: http://www.soa.org/NewlyInsured/
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Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Researchers decode biology of blood and iron disorders mapping out novel future therapies
Mar. 25, 2013 ? Two studies led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medical College shed light on the molecular biology of three blood disorders, leading to novel strategies to treat these diseases.
The two new studies -- one published online March 17 by Nature Medicine and the other March 25 in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation -- propose two new treatments for beta-thalassemia, a blood disorder which affects thousands of people globally every year. In addition, they suggest a new strategy to treat thousands of Caucasians of Northern European ancestry diagnosed with HFE-related hemochromatosis and a novel approach to the treatment of the rare blood disorder polycythemia vera.
These research insights were only possible because two teams that included 24 investigators at six American and European institutions decoded the body's exquisite regulation of iron, as well as its factory-like production of red blood cells.
"When you tease apart the mechanisms leading to these serious disorders, you find elegant ways to manipulate the system," says Dr. Stefano Rivella, associate professor of genetic medicine in pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College.
For example, Dr. Rivella says, two different gene mutations lead to different outcomes. In beta-thalassemia, patients suffer from anemia -- the lack of healthy red blood cells -- and, as a consequence, iron overload. In HFE-related hemochromatosis, patients suffer of iron overload. However, he adds, one treatment strategy that regulates the body's use of iron may work for both disorders.
Additionally, investigators found another strategy, based on manipulating red blood cell production, could also potentially treat beta-thalassemia as well as a very different disorder, polycythemia vera.
Revealing the Third Crucial Player
In the Nature Medicine study, Dr. Rivella and his colleagues tackled erythropoiesis -- the process by which red blood cells (erythrocytes) are produced -- as a way to decipher and decode the two blood disorders beta-thalassemia and polycythemia vera.
Beta-thalassemia, a group of inherited blood disorders, is caused by a defect in the beta globin gene. This results in production of red blood cells that have too much iron, which can be toxic, resulting in the death of many of the blood cells. What are left are too few blood cells, which leads to anemia. At the same time, the excess iron from destroyed blood cells builds up in the body, leading to organ damage. In polycythemia vera, a patient's bone marrow makes too many red blood cells due to a genetic mutation that doesn't shut down erythropoiesis -- the production of the cells.
The researchers studied both normal erythropoiesis, in which a person makes enough red blood cells to replace those that are old, and a mechanism called stress erythropoiesis, which flips on when a person requires extra blood cells -- such as loss of blood from an accident. The hormone erythropoietin (EPO) controls red blood cell production, and can also induce stress erythropoiesis. Iron is also essential, says Dr. Rivella. "The two well-known elements needed to switch between normal and stress erythropoiesis are EPO and iron," he says.
But Dr. Rivella and his team found that a third player is essential: macrophages, the immune cells that engulf cellular garbage and pathogens. Macrophages had been known to digest the iron left when old blood cells are targeted for destruction, but Dr. Rivella discovered that they also are necessary for stress erythropoiesis. He found macrophages need to physically touch erythroblasts, the factories that make red blood cells, in order for more factories to be created so that they can churn out red blood cells.
"No one knew macrophages were a part of emergency red blood cell production. We now know they provide fuel to push red blood cell factories to work faster," says the study's lead author Dr. Pedro Ramos, a former postdoctoral researcher at Weill Cornell.
The research team then looked at diseases in which there are too many red blood cell factories. Polycythemia vera was one of the conditions examined. The researchers disabled macrophage functioning in mice with polycythemia vera and found that red blood cell production returned to normal.
In beta-thalassemia, the body increases the number of red blood cell factories to make up for the lack of viable blood cells -- a strategy that doesn't work. As a result, patients develop enlarged spleens and livers due to the overload of erythroblasts in those organs.
The researchers found in mouse models that if they suppress the function of macrophages, the number of blood cell factories revert back to normal levels. However, there was also an additional benefit discovered. One of the functions of macrophages is to put excess recycled iron into erythroblasts. Researchers report if you suppress that function, less iron goes into the red blood cells. "So you then make red blood cells that have less iron, and they are now closer in structure to what they should be," says Dr. Rivella.
In animal studies, the researchers saw that decoupling macrophages from the erythroblasts not only reduced the number of blood cell factories, but also improved anemia.
The discovery could be translated into an experimental therapy by finding the molecule that physically binds a macrophage to an erythroblast, and then targeting and inhibiting it. "We need macrophages for good health, but it may be possible to decouple the macrophages that contribute to blood disorders," Dr. Rivella says. "I estimate that up 30 to 40 percent of the beta-thalassemia population could benefit from this treatment strategy."
Dr. Rivella also made another connection. He says polycythemia vera "is sort of a tumor of the red cells, because you make too many of them." And he notes that previous research on macrophages found that they are very important in cancer metastasis. "I see a parallel between the activity of macrophages in supporting the proliferation of cells that are under stress conditions -- growing tumors and red blood cells that need to grow," he says. "It seems to us that macrophages are important in supporting a switch between normal growth and increased growth."
Too Much Iron As Well As Anemia
In the Journal of Clinical Investigation study, researchers from Weill Cornell and from Isis Pharmaceuticals of Carlsbad, Calif., examined the body's exquisite regulation of iron. Too little iron causes anemia. Too much iron in the body results in organ toxicity such as heart attacks and liver failure. Beta-thalassemia and hemochromatosis are two disorders in which affected individuals accumulate too much iron in their bodies.
Now, Dr. Rivella, with his partners at Isis Pharmaceuticals Dr. Brett P. Monia and Dr. Shuling Guo, have revealed the ballet of molecules that controls iron absorption, as well as what goes wrong and how to potentially correct the deficit.
Iron control is regulated, first and foremost, by hepcidin or Hamp, a hormone secreted into the bloodstream by the liver. Hamp controls the so-called "iron gate" in the intestines, a protein known as ferroportin. Ferroportin allows the body to absorb iron from food to help make red blood cells. (Iron latches on to the oxygen that the blood cells carry.) If iron levels are too high from iron-rich foods that are consumed, Hamp levels increase, which shuts the door on ferroportin's iron gate, blocking iron absorption, says Weill Cornell's Dr. Carla Casu, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Rivella's laboratory and one of the two lead authors of this study with Dr. Guo at Isis Pharmaceuticals.
Patients with beta-thalassemia and hemochromatosis have levels of Hamp that are too low, so the body absorbs more iron than is healthy. Hemochromatosis occurs because of a deficit in the HFE gene that controls the Hamp hormone. "Hamp is sleeping. It doesn't wake up when iron comes along, so too much iron is absorbed," says Dr. Rivella. The defect in beta-thalassemia is due to a defect in the globin gene that helps make hemoglobin. So Hamp is shut down because the body senses the anemia, and believes that morfe iron is required to make red cells. As a result, there is iron overload."
The researchers found an answer to the iron overload in both diseases by studying a third disease, a childhood disorder in which a mutation in a gene called Tmprss6 causes Hamp levels to rise too high, so not enough iron is being extracted from the diet. Tmprss6 keeps Hamp levels high during childhood and adolescence, so a body cannot use iron successfully to grow.
They reasoned that if they could create the conditions of Tmprss6 mutation -- high levels of Hamp hormone and repression of the body's use of iron -- in patients with thalassemia and hemochromatosis, they could treat those conditions. "If we block Tmprss6, we increase the expression of Hamp to normal levels, with the consequence that iron does not now accumulate," Dr. Monia says.
The research team leaders, Dr. Monia and Dr. Guo at Isis Pharmaceuticals, developed an antisense drug that blocked Tmprss6 "in order to wake up Hamp expression." An antisense drug works by administering a chemically modified, stable DNA-like molecule that targets specifically an RNA sequence that is produced by the gene. This sequence binds to the natural gene RNA product, forming a double-stranded RNA/DNA hybrid duplex. This duplex is recognized by enzymes in the cell that cause degradation of the natural RNA. "When you destroy that RNA, you destroy the ability of the Tmprss6 to make any protein," Dr. Monia says.
Both potential therapies offer new solutions to old blood disorder diseases. They need more studies before they can be brought to the clinic, although the antisense technology can be rapidly modified for its applications in humans, Dr. Rivella says.
"These studies are like putting together pieces of a complicated puzzle, which then offers you the big picture, as well as ways to creatively improve the view," he says.
The Nature Medicine study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK-1R01DK090554 and NIDDK-1R01DK095112), an FP7-HEALTH-2012-INNOVATION grant from the European Community, RoFAR (The Roche Foundation for Anemia Research), the Children's Cancer and Blood Foundation, the American Portuguese Biomedical Research Fund, an Inova grant and the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Portugal.
Study co-authors include Dr. Pedro Ramos, Dr. Carla Casu, Dr. Sara Gardenghi, Dr. Laura Breda, Dr. Bart J. Crielaard, Ella Guy, Dr. Maria Franca Marongiu, Ritama Gupta, Dr. Robert W. Grady and Dr. Patricia J. Giardina from Weill Cornell Medical College; Dr. Ross L. Levine and Omar Abdel-Wahab from Weill Cornell and Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center; Dr. Benjamin L. Ebert from Harvard Medical School; Dr. Nico Van Rooijen from Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Dr. Saghi Ghaffari from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The Journal of Clinical Investigation study was supported by the Children's Cancer and Blood Foundation, a National Institutes of Health grant (NIDDK-1R01DK090554 and NIDDK-1R01DK095112) and Isis Pharmaceuticals, where Dr. Rivella is a consultant.
Study co-authors include Dr. Carla Casu and Dr. Sara Gardenghi from Weill Cornell Medical College; and Dr. Shuling Guo, Sheri Booten, Mariam Aghajan, Raechel Peralta, Andy Watt, Dr. Sue Freier and Dr. Brett P. Monia from Isis Pharmaceuticals.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Weill Cornell Medical College.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal References:
- Pedro Ramos, Carla Casu, Sara Gardenghi, Laura Breda, Bart J Crielaard, Ella Guy, Maria Franca Marongiu, Ritama Gupta, Ross L Levine, Omar Abdel-Wahab, Benjamin L Ebert, Nico Van Rooijen, Saghi Ghaffari, Robert W Grady, Patricia J Giardina, Stefano Rivella. Macrophages support pathological erythropoiesis in polycythemia vera and ?-thalassemia. Nature Medicine, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nm.3126
- Shuling Guo, Carla Casu, Sara Gardenghi, Sheri Booten, Mariam Aghajan, Raechel Peralta, Andy Watt, Sue Freier, Brett P. Monia, Stefano Rivella. Reducing TMPRSS6 ameliorates hemochromatosis and ?-thalassemia in mice. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2013; DOI: 10.1172/JCI66969
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/top_news/top_health/~3/Y8yTZIKM1Es/130325135404.htm
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An Eye-Opening Geopolitical Struggle Over A Golf Course In Iceland
Thanks to reader Rick for Andrew Higgins' A1 NY Times story on Chinese tycoon and former Communist party Propaganda Department member Huang Nubo, who wants to buy a big slab of Icelandic ice to build a golf resort. Or some a place for the Chinese government to station missiles. Or something in between.
?It never seemed a very convincing business plan,? said Iceland?s interior minister, Ogmundur Jonasson, who last year rejected a request that Mr. Huang be exempted from Icelandic laws that restrict foreign ownership of land. ?I put many questions and got no answers,? the minister added.
Prodded by diplomats from the United States and other countries to take a hard look at Mr. Huang?s intentions, Mr. Jonasson questioned what might lie behind China?s curious interest in Grimsstadir. ?One has to look at this from a geopolitical perspective and ask about motivations,? Mr. Jonasson said.
And...
While exotic golf courses are all the rage now, this one seemed to many here a long shot. ?I?ve looked at this very closely and gone through all the documents, and I?m just aghast,? said Edward Huijbens, director of the Icelandic Tourism Research Center in Akureyri, the main town in northern Iceland. ?The whole project is fundamentally not credible.?
But Mr. Huang?s business strategy has apparently impressed the state-owned China Development Bank, which, according to the Zhongkun Group, last year reached a ?cooperation agreement? with the company worth about $800 million. Ms. Xu, Zhongkun?s vice president, said the Chinese bank ?will provide loans and financial support to concrete projects by Zhongkun, including, but not exclusively, in Iceland.?
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Exit the Cubicle. Get Ready to Work From Home. ? AARP
Work Print 
More of us could be working in our comfortable sweatpants and slippers within the next seven years.
A?study?by the software company Intuit predicts that more than 40 percent of the U.S. labor force ? some 60 million people ? may never step foot in the office because we?ll be a nation of ?freelancers, contractors or temporary employees working remotely.
[See also: Job tips for workers 50-plus]
Already itching to bolt from your cubicle? ?The Intuit 2020 report projects this scenario will replace traditional employment arrangements as soon as 2020.
Intuit attributes the trend in large part to increasingly accessible mobile technology, Internet access and the use of social networks that allow us to work across the country, and globally, without leaving our homes. The study also points to the growing number of small businesses in the United States, many of which will be web-based or mobile-based, for this shift.
Among other predictions by the time we hit the next decade:
- The majority of boomers will work past retirement age, either part-time or full-time
- Younger boomers ages 55 to 65 will ?start ?businesses more than any other demographic
- One in four workers will be 55-plus
The idea that many of us will work from home, the beach or wherever is certainly appealing ? no more long and tedious rush-hour commutes. What?s not appealing is the fear that companies will withhold or reduce benefits because remote workers will be considered a contingent labor force ? and not permanent.
To that end, the study predicts that companies will continue to shift more of the responsibility for retirement planning and health insurance to employees.
The move by employers away from providing pension plans and toward offering defined contribution plans, requiring workers to fund the bulk of their plans and to choose investments wisely, has been taking shape for decades. The shift has put workers? retirement security at greater risk for a variety of reasons, including that these plans are tied to an unpredictable stock market and because workers aren?t always the most knowledgeable when it comes to investment strategies.
What?s more recent is the burden of health insurance costs that are increasingly being shifted onto workers. As the cost for insuring workers rises each year, employers are asking workers to take more responsibility for their health. A new survey by the human resources consultancy Aon Hewitt ?found that 83 percent of nearly 800 large and midsize U.S. employers polled offer employees incentives for participating in health screenings and other programs.
Among the results by employers:
- 79 percent offer rewards for healthy actions like quitting smoking or losing weight
- 5 percent issue consequences
- 16 percent offer a mix of rewards and consequences
In the next few years, the survey finds:
- 58 percent of employers plan to impose consequences on workers who don?t take action to improve their health
- 34 percent may tie incentives to results, such as workers upping their cardiovascular workout to 150 minutes per week
?
Photo credit: IQ computer services via flickr.com
Source: http://blog.aarp.org/2013/03/25/exit-the-cubicle-get-ready-to-work-from-home/
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Bloomberg vs. the NRA: Mayor vows to spend $12 million on ads
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre squared off on Sunday's "Meet The Press" over the assault weapons ban being debated in Congress.
"I don't think there's ever been an issue where the public has spoken so clearly, where Congress hasn't eventually understood and done the right thing," Bloomberg, who has become one of the most vocal gun control advocates in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shootings, said in a taped interview with NBC's David Gregory.
"We are going to have a vote for sure on assault weapons and we're going to have a vote on background checks," Bloomberg continued. "And if we were to get background checks only, it wouldn't be as good as if we got both, but we demanded a plan and then we demanded a vote. We've got the plan, we're going to get the vote. And now it's incumbent on us to make our voices heard."
To do so, the billionaire mayor said he's spending $12 million on an advertising campaign?set to launch in 10 states on Monday?that touts tighter gun laws.
"I think I have a responsibility, and I think you and all of your viewers have responsibilities, to try to make this country safer for our families and for each other," he said. "And if I can do that by spending some money and taking the NRA from being the only voice to being one of the voices, so the public can really understand the issues, then I think my money would be well spent, and I think I have an obligation to do that."
LaPierre says Bloomberg would be better off spending his money elsewhere.
"He's going to find out this is a country of the people, by the people and for the people," LaPierre told Gregory. "And he can't spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public. They don't want him in their restaurants, they don't want him in their homes. They don't want him telling them what food to eat; they sure don't want him telling them what self-defense firearms to own. And he can't buy America."
[Related: NRA's LaPierre slams critics of school gun plan]
The NRA chief criticized the gun control legislation currently on Capitol Hill, calling the proposed universal background checks a "speed bump" for law-abiding gun owners.
"The whole thing, universal checks, is a dishonest premise. There's not a bill on the Hill that provides a universal check. Criminals aren't going to be checked," LaPierre said. "The mental health records are not in the system, and they don't prosecute any of the criminals that they catch. ... It slows down the law abiding and does nothing to anybody else."
LaPierre then reiterated the NRA's post-Newtown plea for armed security officers in every American public school. "Not a mom or dad wants to drop their kid off at school and leave their kids unprotected."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/bloomberg-nra-guns-assault-weapons-ban-173107813.html
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Monday, March 25, 2013
Heart repair breakthroughs replace surgeon's knife
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Have a heart problem? If it's fixable, there's a good chance it can be done without surgery, using tiny tools and devices that are pushed through tubes into blood vessels.
Heart care is in the midst of a transformation. Many problems that once required sawing through the breastbone and opening up the chest for open heart surgery now can be treated with a nip, twist or patch through a tube.
These minimal procedures used to be done just to unclog arteries and correct less common heart rhythm problems. Now some patients are getting such repairs for valves, irregular heartbeats, holes in the heart and other defects ? without major surgery. Doctors even are testing ways to treat high blood pressure with some of these new approaches.
All rely on catheters ? hollow tubes that let doctors burn away and reshape heart tissue or correct defects through small holes into blood vessels.
"This is the replacement for the surgeon's knife. Instead of opening the chest, we're able to put catheters in through the leg, sometimes through the arm," said Dr. Spencer King of St. Joseph's Heart and Vascular Institute in Atlanta. He is former president of the American College of Cardiology. Its conference earlier this month featured research on these novel devices.
"Many patients after having this kind of procedure in a day or two can go home" rather than staying in the hospital while a big wound heals, he said. It may lead to cheaper treatment, although the initial cost of the novel devices often offsets the savings from shorter hospital stays.
Not everyone can have catheter treatment, and some promising devices have hit snags in testing. Others on the market now are so new that it will take several years to see if their results last as long as the benefits from surgery do.
But already, these procedures have allowed many people too old or frail for an operation to get help for problems that otherwise would likely kill them.
"You can do these on 90-year-old patients," King said.
These methods also offer an option for people who cannot tolerate long-term use of blood thinners or other drugs to manage their conditions, or who don't get enough help from these medicines and are getting worse.
"It's opened up a whole new field," said Dr. Hadley Wilson, cardiology chief at Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte. "We can hopefully treat more patients more definitively, with better results."
For patients, this is crucial: Make sure you are evaluated by a "heart team" that includes a surgeon as well as other specialists who do less invasive treatments. Many patients now get whatever treatment is offered by whatever specialist they are sent to, and those specialists sometimes are rivals.
"We want to get away from that" and do whatever is best for the patient, said Dr. Timothy Gardner, a surgeon at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del., and an American Heart Association spokesman. "There shouldn't be a rivalry in the field."
Here are some common problems and newer treatments for them:
HEART VALVES
Millions of people have leaky heart valves. Each year, more than 100,000 people in the United States alone have surgery for them. A common one is the aortic valve, the heart's main gate. It can stiffen and narrow, making the heart strain to push blood through it. Without a valve replacement operation, half of these patients die within two years, yet many are too weak to have one.
"Essentially, this was a death sentence," said Dr. John Harold, a Los Angeles heart specialist who is president of the College of Cardiology.
That changed just over a year ago, when Edwards Lifesciences Corp. won approval to sell an artificial aortic valve flexible and small enough to fit into a catheter and wedged inside the bad one. At first it was just for inoperable patients. Last fall, use was expanded to include people able to have surgery but at high risk of complications.
Gary Verwer, 76, of Napa, Calif., had a bypass operation in 1988 that made surgery too risky when he later developed trouble with his aortic valve.
"It was getting worse every day. I couldn't walk from my bed to my bathroom without having to sit down and rest," he said. After getting a new valve through a catheter last April at Stanford University, "everything changed; it was almost immediate," he said. "Now I can walk almost three miles a day and enjoy it. I'm not tired at all."
"The chest cracking part is not the most fun," he said of his earlier bypass surgery. "It was a great relief not to have to go through that recovery again."
Catheter-based treatments for other valves also are in testing. One for the mitral valve ? Abbott Laboratories' MitraClip ? had a mixed review by federal Food and Drug Administration advisers this week; whether it will win FDA approval is unclear. It is already sold in Europe.
HEART RHYTHM PROBLEMS
Catheters can contain tools to vaporize or "ablate" bits of heart tissue that cause abnormal signals that control the heartbeat. This used to be done only for some serious or relatively rare problems, or surgically if a patient was having an operation for another heart issue.
Now catheter ablation is being used for the most common rhythm problem ? atrial fibrillation, which plagues about 3 million Americans and 15 million people worldwide. The upper chambers of the heart quiver or beat too fast or too slow. That lets blood pool in a small pouch off one of these chambers. Clots can form in the pouch and travel to the brain, causing a stroke.
Ablation addresses the underlying rhythm problem. To address the stroke risk from pooled blood, several novel devices aim to plug or seal off the pouch. Only one has approval in the U.S. now ? SentreHeart Inc.'s Lariat, a tiny lasso to cinch the pouch shut. It uses two catheters that act like chopsticks. One goes through a blood vessel and into the pouch to help guide placement of the device, which is contained in a second catheter poked under the ribs to the outside of the heart. A loop is released to circle the top of the pouch where it meets the heart, sealing off the pouch.
A different kind of device ? Boston Scientific Corp.'s Watchman ? is sold in Europe and parts of Asia, but is pending before the FDA in the U.S. It's like a tiny umbrella pushed through a vein and then opened inside the heart to plug the troublesome pouch. Early results from a pivotal study released by the company suggested it would miss a key goal, making its future in the U.S. uncertain.
HEART DEFECTS
Some people have a hole in a heart wall called an atrial septal defect that causes abnormal blood flow. St. Jude Medical Inc.'s Amplatzer is a fabric-mesh patch threaded through catheters to plug the hole.
The patch is also being tested for a more common defect ? PFO, a hole that results when the heart wall doesn't seal the way it should after birth. This can raise the risk of stroke. In two new studies, the device did not meet the main goal of lowering the risk of repeat strokes in people who had already suffered one, but some doctors were encouraged by other results.
CLOGGED ARTERIES
The original catheter-based treatment ? balloon angioplasty ? is still used hundreds of thousands of times each year in the U.S. alone. A Japanese company, Terumo Corp., is one of the leaders of a new way to do it that is easier on patients ? through a catheter in the arm rather than the groin.
Newer stents that prop arteries open and then dissolve over time, aimed at reducing the risk of blood clots, also are in late-stage testing.
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
About 75 million Americans and 1 billion people worldwide have high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attacks. Researchers are testing a possible long-term fix for dangerously high pressure that can't be controlled with multiple medications.
It uses a catheter and radio waves to zap nerves, located near the kidneys, which fuel high blood pressure. At least one device is approved in Europe and several companies are testing devices in the United States.
"We're very excited about this," said Harold, the cardiology college's president. It offers hope to "essentially cure high blood pressure."
___
Online:
Heart conditions and treatments: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/index.htm
American Heart Association: www.heart.org
Atrial fibrillation info: http://bit.ly/odcTTM
___
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heart-repair-breakthroughs-replace-surgeons-152425593.html
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Sunday, March 24, 2013
Kerry arrives in Iraq on unannounced visit
BAGHDAD (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Iraq on an unannounced visit to urge Iraqi leaders to stop Iranian overflights of arms and fighters heading to Syria and to overcome sectarian differences that still threaten Iraqi stability 10 years after the American-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Kerry flew into Baghdad on Saturday from Amman after accompanying President Barack Obama to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan.
Officials traveling with him said he would press Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other senior officials on democratic reforms and directly urge them to stop overflights of Iranian aircraft carrying military personnel and equipment to support the Syrian government as it battles rebels.
The overflights have long been a source of contention between the U.S. and Iraq and Kerry will tell the Iraqis that allowing them to continue will make the situation in Syria worse and threaten Iraq's stability.
A senior U.S. official said the sheer number of overflights, which occur "close to daily," as well as overland shipments to Syria through Iraq from Iran was inconsistent with Iranian claims that they are only carrying humanitarian supplies. The official said it was in Iraq's interest to prevent the situation in Syria from deteriorating further, particularly as there are fears that Iranian-backed extremists may gain a foothold in the country.
The official said there are clear links between al-Qaida linked extremists operating in Syria and militants who are carrying out terrorist attacks in Iraqi territory with increasing regularity.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton secured a pledge from Iraq to inspect the flights last year, but the official said that since then only two aircraft have been checked by Iraqi authorities.
Kerry will tell al-Maliki that Iraq cannot be part of the political discussion about Syria's future until it clamps down on the shipments.
As Iraq approaches provincial elections next month, Kerry will also stress the importance of ensuring that all elements of society feel enfranchised, the official said. A recent decision to delay the polls in Anbar and Nineveh provinces is a "serious setback" to Iraq's democratic institutions and should be revisited, the official said.
Kerry also plans to speak by phone with Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish Regional Government based in Irbil to encourage the Kurds not go ahead with unilateral actions - especially involving oil, like a pipeline deal with Turkey. He will not meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari because he is in Doha for an Arab League meeting
He will stress the "importance of maintaining the unity of Iraq," say that "separate efforts undercut the unity of the country" and that "The Kurdish republic cannot survive financially without the support of Baghdad," the official said.
Kerry's visit if the first by a U.S. secretary of state since Clinton went in 2009. During Obama's first term, the Iraq portfolio was largely delegated to Vice President Joe Biden.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-arrives-iraq-unannounced-visit-074635601--politics.html
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Cheap Fishing Reels For Sale
Fishing can become a quite expensive hobby. There are many different pieces of gear that are essential to the sport, and getting them separately can add up to several hundred dollars very quickly. That doesn't include the other smaller accessories and other items that you will need every day as a fisherman.
When it comes to fishing reels, there are so many different brands, styles, models, and price ranges to choose from. It can be very difficult to narrow down your search without a few criteria to help you out. First of all, pick a price range to choose a fishing reel from. They go from 20 dollars for cheap, low quality reels that you can buy from Walmart all the way up to 500 dollars for top of the line reels. Decide on a range that will give you durability and quality while saving you money. Often, a good fishing reel can be had for under 100 dollars, but depending on the type of reel (fly fishing, baitcasting, spinning), this will change.
Once you have narrowed down your price range, it is time to start looking for cheap fishing reels for sale within that range. Read plenty of customer reviews. This will give you insight into what other fishermen liked and disliked about the specific brands and models you are considering. Getting your fishing reels out of season will help you save money. If you are alright with buying a fishing reel used, you will slash the price even more. Ebay and local classifieds will be able to give you the best options for used fishing reels.
Buying used will allow you to get more fishing reel for your money, so you could possibly even step up into another price range.
Good luck finding the right reel to be used on your next brook trout fishing trip.Source: http://fishing.ezinemark.com/cheap-fishing-reels-for-sale-7d38758161de.html
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Saturday, March 23, 2013
When a gene is worth two: Same gene fulfills different biological roles in plants
Mar. 22, 2013 ? The notion that each gene can only codify for a single protein has been challenged for some years. Yet, the functional outcomes that may result from genes encoding more than one protein are still largely unknown. Now, in a study published in the latest issue of The Plant Cell journal, a group of scientists led by Paula Duque at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ci?ncia (IGC, Portugal) discovered a gene -- ZIFL1 -- that has the particularity of producing two different proteins with completely distinct locations and functions in the plant. The researchers observed that in the root ZIFL1 codifies a protein that is important for the transport of auxin, a hormone essential for the correct growth and development of the plant. However, in the leaves the same gene originates a protein that promotes tolerance to drought. The gene presented in this study is one of the few identified to produce two proteins with such different biological roles.
ZIFL1 belongs to a family of transporter genes known to be present in all classes of organisms, but the functional role of most of its members remains unknown. What is known is that these transporter genes encode proteins that are integrated into cell membranes and act by allowing the passage of small molecules across them. By undergoing genetic and cell biology studies in the plant model Arabidopsis thaliana, Paula Duque's team was able to study the role of the ZIFL1 gene. What surprised the scientists was that mutant plants unable to produce the ZIFL1 transporter presented specific defects in different organs and functions. On one hand, their roots exhibited problems of growth, ramification and orientation when compared to normal plants.
These observations suggested that the ZIFL1 gene was involved in the transport of the auxin hormone, which plays an important role in the development of the root. But the researchers also found out that the mutant plants had problems in tolerating drought. They realized that the leaf pores that regulate transpiration -- the stomata -- were more open in the mutants than in normal plants, resulting in the loss of higher quantities of water. This suggested a role for ZIFL1 in the closure of stomata and in the control of water loss by the plant, which can be critical under drought conditions.
Intrigued by these observations, the researchers investigated whether the ZIFL1 gene could be originating two proteins that would act differently in distinct tissues. Alternative splicing is a key mechanism allowing the same gene to produce multiple proteins. When genes are activated to give rise to proteins, they first originate an intermediate molecule of RNA that can be processed differently, with some parts being removed. This cut and paste process may originate different RNA molecules that can then be converted into different proteins. Estelle Remy, investigator at Duque's laboratory and first author of this work, observed that in the case of the ZIFL1 gene, alternative splicing originates two RNA molecules that differ in just two chemical residues. However, this small difference has a huge impact on the proteins that are generated, with one of them being shortened by 67 amino acids. In collaboration with Isabel S?-Correia's group? at Instituto Superior T?cnico, the researchers then tested the activity of the two proteins in yeast cells and found that both transport potassium ions.
Having different size but similar transport activity, Estelle looked for the reason why these two proteins had such distinct biological functions. Surprisingly, she observed that root tissues only present the longer form of the protein, whereas the shorter protein can only be found in the leaves. Furthermore, the location of these two proteins also differs inside the cells of the root and leaves, being integrated into different cell membranes. According to Estelle, "the fact that we cannot find both proteins being expressed either in roots or leaves suggests that these tissues may have specific factors that somehow influence the splicing of the ZIFL1 RNA into the form that confers the biological role necessary for that tissue."
Says Paula Duque, "To our knowledge, there are not many known cases of proteins with such different biological functions being codified by the same gene. What is most fascinating is how the inclusion or removal of just two chemical residues in the RNA molecule results in the production of two proteins that play essential roles either in hormone transport or in tolerance to drought."
Alternative splicing is a crucial mechanism to generate protein diversity. In humans, about 20,000 to 25,000 genes codify proteins. However, recent studies indicate that over 90% of these genes undergo alternative splicing, with scientists estimating that there may be up to 500,000 or more different proteins in the human body.
This study was carried out at the IGC in collaboration with the research groups of Isabel S?-Correia (Biological Sciences Research Group, IBB/CEBQ, Instituto Superior T?cnico, Portugal) and Ji?? Friml (VIB/Ghent University, Belgium and Institute of Science and Technology, Austria). It was funded by Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e a Tecnologia (Portugal).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Instituto Gulbenkian de Ci?ncia (IGC).
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- E. Remy, T. R. Cabrito, P. Baster, R. A. Batista, M. C. Teixeira, J. Friml, I. Sa-Correia, P. Duque. A Major Facilitator Superfamily Transporter Plays a Dual Role in Polar Auxin Transport and Drought Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell, 2013; DOI: 10.1105/tpc.113.110353
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/most_popular/~3/-K3qwiHxFkk/130322154124.htm
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'Olympus Has Fallen' gritty despite generic script
By Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
Phil Caruso / FilmDistrict
REVIEW -- In a week when North Korea posted a homemade video showing the U.S. Capitol building being destroyed by a missile, what more logical response could Hollywood offer than a macho thriller about a Secret Service agent who takes on North Korean terrorists who attack the White House? The first of two similarly themed action dramas set for this year ("White House Down" arrives in June), "Olympus Has Fallen" will put to the test the question of whether American audiences are ready, 12 years after 9/11, to watch, strictly as disposable popcorn entertainment, a film in which the United States and some of its most prominent landmarks are devastated by foreign terrorists.
More from THR: 'Olympus Has Fallen' Premiere Celebrates Antoine Fuqua's Action Thriller
The answer almost undoubtedly will be yes, as the tough-guy former agent played by Gerard Butler gets to kick a whole lot of badass butt while trying to rescue the president. Although this is the sort of film in which the fate of the world hinges, when all is said and done, on the outcome of a one-on-one martial arts contest, director Antoine Fuqua's notably bloody child of "Die Hard" still generates a fair amount of tension and produces the kind of nationalistic outrage that rock-ribbed Americans will feel in their guts. Foreign revenue should be hefty as well, especially in countries where many viewers will get a thrill watching Washington get the sort of treatment usually reserved for places like Baghdad and Kabul.
More from THR: Gerard Butler on Sacrificing His Life, Declining the '300' Sequel and His ... Bar Mitzvah
Either due to incredible clairvoyance on the parts of first-time screenwriters Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt or just through one of those twists of fate, the film arrives just as North Korea has anti-U.S. saber-rattling an almost daily exercise. So it seems uncannily timely that the brilliant bad guy here is a (supposedly) rogue North Korean who leads a bunch of skilled commandos on a raid of the White House that nets them the president and several key members of his staff as hostages. No doubt bootleg copies of the film will make their way to Kim Jong-un, who might be simultaneously offended and delighted at the opportunity to further rouse his subjects by showing them how much the enemy hates them.
At its core, however, "Olympus" is like an '80s or '90s genre item in which Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson outwitted and outmuscled shrewd, more formidably armed opponents. Like Eastwood in "In the Line of Fire," Butler (who also produced) plays a disgraced presidential agent sidelined and haunted by a fluky failure (detailed in a 10-minute prologue) who suddenly and inadvertently finds himself back in the thick of a crisis.
If seemingly far-fetched, the attack by the North Korean paramilitary team is nonetheless ingenious and pulled off with somewhat disturbing ease, given that the White House is described as the best-fortified location on Earth. It's also quite violently staged. While President Asher (Aaron Eckhart) receives the South Korean premier and his entourage, a C-130 comes roaring in very low over Virginia and D.C. Knocking out two Air Force fighter jets, the terrorist-piloted plane heads down the mall and over toward the White House, strafing civilians while a second wave of gunmen launch a ground attack on the presidential mansion.
More from THR: Antoine Fuqua on Dennis Rodman's North Korea Trip, Violence in Movies and His Eminem Film
Inside, the premier's alleged head of security shows his true colors as the plot's mastermind. Kang (Rick Yune) quickly displays the diabolical genius worthy of any Bond villain (which Yune once played, as another North Korean in "Die Another Day"). He rounds up the president, Secretary of Defense (Melissa Leo, in an enjoyably fierce performance) and a bunch of other top officials and takes them down to the White House's massively secured emergency underground bunker, where he tortures and kills some of his hostages and dictates terms, the keys being the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from near the Korean demilitarized zone and the removal of the Navy's 7th Fleet from the area.
Enter Mike Banning (Butler), who knows the White House inside and out due to his years serving not only the president but entertaining his young son Connor (Finley Jacobsen), who's somewhere in the building and whom Kang wants as the ultimate bargaining chip. The bulk of the film thus becomes an elaborate cat-and-mouse game between Banning, who, against great odds, taunts Kang and gradually reduces his minions' numbers in several ambushes and one-on-one struggles, and the North Korean megalomaniac, who begins extracting the secret codes that will allow him to control the American nuclear arsenal.
Meanwhile, stuck with sedentary roles as officials sweating it out at the Pentagon heavily linked by video, phones and computers are, among many others, Speaker of the House (and acting President) Trumbull (Morgan Freeman); Secret Service director Jacobs (Angela Bassett); and Gen. Clegg (Robert Forster) the gung-ho head of the Joint Chiefs.
More from THR: Melissa Leo: 'I'm Not the Prettiest Actor Around, but I Protect My Characters'
The ordeal is an all-night affair, and unfortunately much of the White House action plays out in a murky, muddy darkness that has a very washed-out look; cinematographer Conrad W. Hall could have taken a tip or two from the incredible nocturnal, low-light-level work his father Conrad L. Hall did two decades ago in "Jennifer Eight." Quite a bit of the action is obscured as a result.
To his credit, though, Fuqua sustains the suspense until near the end of two hours; only in the final confrontation between Banning and Kang does the face-off seem over-extended and borderline risible. Willing to go for an R rating when a more inclusive one might have increased box office, the filmmakers deliver some pretty tough and brutal scenes, not the least of which has Kang mercilessly kicking and beating Leo's defiant Secretary of Defense.
After a string of increasingly lame and embarrassing projects, Butler took charge on this one as a producer here in a role carefully crafted in a time-honored action-hero mold. He comes off pretty well, as a sort of junior-league Mel Gibson with a bit less of the fiery-eyed craziness and wacky humor but plenty of grit and no shortage of appeal. In one-dimensional generic roles, most of the other performers deliver as expected, though Yune's exceptional looks and air of piercing intelligence pretty much maxes out what anyone could do with this sort of laser-focused villain figure.
The extensive CGI work is variable -- pretty good where it counts most but sketchy around the edges. Trevor Morris wallpapers the action with a constantly churning score.
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