NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's energy regulator raised retail fuel prices for petrol and diesel on Sunday due to rising global oil prices and a weaker local currency, while decreasing the price of kerosene.
Fuel prices have a big impact on the rate of inflation in the east African economy. The rate rose to 4.91 percent in June from 4.05 percent a month earlier.
The economy heavily depends on diesel for transport, power generation and agriculture. Kerosene is used in many households for lighting and cooking.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) reviews domestic energy prices every month, with adjustments made depending on fluctuations in international energy prices and foreign exchange fluctuations.
The cost of importing super petrol and diesel in June rose, while that of kerosene fell, while at the same time the Kenyan shilling weakened to 85.65 per dollar from 84.30 per dollar in the previous month the ERC said in a statement.
The regulator raised the maximum price of a litre of super petrol in Nairobi by 1.34 shillings to 109.52 shillings, and increased the price of diesel by 3.70 shillings to 102.86 shillings per litre.
The price of kerosene will fall by 2.03 shillings to 79.49 shillings, the commission said.
The new prices will take effect on July 15, and will be in force for a month.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Yahoo is allowing people to place claims on inactive email addresses that are being given a second life.
The opportunity to request the identifications began Monday afternoon and will extend through August 7. Up to five different names can be submitted at http://wishlist.yahoo.com .
Yahoo Inc. says a substantial number of old email IDs are being made available, but isn't providing specifics.
The email IDs are being released a month after the Sunnyvale, Calif., company notified users that they would have 30 days to log into an inactive account if they wanted to keep it.
People awarded the rights to the recycled email addresses will have a 48-hour period to activate the accounts beginning Aug. 15.
Carnegie Mellon researchers develop artificial cells to study molecular crowding and gene expressionPublic release date: 14-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Byron Spice bspice@cs.cmu.edu 412-268-9068 Carnegie Mellon University
Tightly packed macromolecules enhance gene expression in artificial cellular system
PITTSBURGHThe interior of a living cell is a crowded place, with proteins and other macromolecules packed tightly together. A team of scientists at Carnegie Mellon University has approximated this molecular crowding in an artificial cellular system and found that tight quarters help the process of gene expression, especially when other conditions are less than ideal.
As the researchers report in an advance online publication by the journal Nature Nanotechnology, these findings may help explain how cells have adapted to the phenomenon of molecular crowding, which has been preserved through evolution. And this understanding may guide synthetic biologists as they develop artificial cells that might someday be used for drug delivery, biofuel production and biosensors.
"These are baby steps we're taking in learning how to make artificial cells," said Cheemeng Tan, a Lane Postdoctoral Fellow and a Branco-Weiss Fellow in the Lane Center for Computational Biology, who led the study. Most studies of synthetic biological systems today employ solution-based chemistry, which does not involve molecular crowding. The findings of the CMU study and the lessons of evolution suggest that bioengineers will need to build crowding into artificial cells if synthetic genetic circuits are to function as they would in real cells.
The research team, which included Russell Schwartz, professor of biological sciences; Philip LeDuc, professor of mechanical engineering and biological sciences; Marcel Bruchez, professor of chemistry; and Saumya Saurabh, a Ph.D. student in chemistry, developed their artificial cellular system using molecular components from bacteriophage T7, a virus that infects bacteria that is often used as a model in synthetic biology.
To mimic the crowded intracellular environment, the researchers used various amounts of inert polymers to gauge the effects of different density levels.
Crowding in a cell isn't so different from a crowd of people, Tan said. If only a few people are in a room, it's easy for people to mingle, or even to become isolated. But in a crowded room where it's hard to move around, individuals will often tend to stay close to each other for extended periods. The same thing happens in a cell. If the intracellular space is crowded, binding between molecules increases.
Notably, the researchers found that the dense environments also made gene transcription less sensitive to environmental changes. When the researchers altered concentrations of magnesium, ammonium and spermidine chemicals that modulate the stability and binding of macromolecules they found higher perturbations of gene expression in low density environments than in high density environments.
"Artificial cellular systems have tremendous potential for applications in drug delivery, bioremediation and cellular computing," Tan said. "Our findings underscore how scientists could harness functioning mechanisms of natural cells to their advantage to control these synthetic cellular systems, as well as in hybrid systems that combine synthetic materials and natural cells."
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This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as Tan's Lane Postdoctoral Fellowship and his Society in Science Branco Weiss Fellowship. The Lane Center for Computational Biology is part of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science.
About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon (http://www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 12,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon has campuses in Pittsburgh, Pa., California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university recently completed "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," exceeding its $1 billion goal to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements. The campaign closed June 30, 2013.
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Carnegie Mellon researchers develop artificial cells to study molecular crowding and gene expressionPublic release date: 14-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Byron Spice bspice@cs.cmu.edu 412-268-9068 Carnegie Mellon University
Tightly packed macromolecules enhance gene expression in artificial cellular system
PITTSBURGHThe interior of a living cell is a crowded place, with proteins and other macromolecules packed tightly together. A team of scientists at Carnegie Mellon University has approximated this molecular crowding in an artificial cellular system and found that tight quarters help the process of gene expression, especially when other conditions are less than ideal.
As the researchers report in an advance online publication by the journal Nature Nanotechnology, these findings may help explain how cells have adapted to the phenomenon of molecular crowding, which has been preserved through evolution. And this understanding may guide synthetic biologists as they develop artificial cells that might someday be used for drug delivery, biofuel production and biosensors.
"These are baby steps we're taking in learning how to make artificial cells," said Cheemeng Tan, a Lane Postdoctoral Fellow and a Branco-Weiss Fellow in the Lane Center for Computational Biology, who led the study. Most studies of synthetic biological systems today employ solution-based chemistry, which does not involve molecular crowding. The findings of the CMU study and the lessons of evolution suggest that bioengineers will need to build crowding into artificial cells if synthetic genetic circuits are to function as they would in real cells.
The research team, which included Russell Schwartz, professor of biological sciences; Philip LeDuc, professor of mechanical engineering and biological sciences; Marcel Bruchez, professor of chemistry; and Saumya Saurabh, a Ph.D. student in chemistry, developed their artificial cellular system using molecular components from bacteriophage T7, a virus that infects bacteria that is often used as a model in synthetic biology.
To mimic the crowded intracellular environment, the researchers used various amounts of inert polymers to gauge the effects of different density levels.
Crowding in a cell isn't so different from a crowd of people, Tan said. If only a few people are in a room, it's easy for people to mingle, or even to become isolated. But in a crowded room where it's hard to move around, individuals will often tend to stay close to each other for extended periods. The same thing happens in a cell. If the intracellular space is crowded, binding between molecules increases.
Notably, the researchers found that the dense environments also made gene transcription less sensitive to environmental changes. When the researchers altered concentrations of magnesium, ammonium and spermidine chemicals that modulate the stability and binding of macromolecules they found higher perturbations of gene expression in low density environments than in high density environments.
"Artificial cellular systems have tremendous potential for applications in drug delivery, bioremediation and cellular computing," Tan said. "Our findings underscore how scientists could harness functioning mechanisms of natural cells to their advantage to control these synthetic cellular systems, as well as in hybrid systems that combine synthetic materials and natural cells."
###
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as Tan's Lane Postdoctoral Fellowship and his Society in Science Branco Weiss Fellowship. The Lane Center for Computational Biology is part of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science.
About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon (http://www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 12,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon has campuses in Pittsburgh, Pa., California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university recently completed "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," exceeding its $1 billion goal to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements. The campaign closed June 30, 2013.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
LONDON (Reuters) - The Rolling Stones blasted through the past into the present on Saturday with a rip-roaring show in London's Hyde Park that paid homage to their last concert here 44 years ago.
Frontman Mick Jagger strutted, howled and belted his way through a two-hour set that gave a nod to founding member Brian Jones, whose death in 1969 turned their last appearance at the royal park into a tribute.
"Anybody out there who was here in 1969?" Jagger called out to applause from a sea of grey hair after opening with "Start Me Up" and "It?s only Rock and Roll".
"Well welcome back, it's nice to see you again."
Jones had already left the Stones the last time Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards and drummer Charlie Watts played the park at a gig meant to introduce his replacement, Mick Taylor. Guitarist Ronnie Wood joined in 1975.
But two days before their appearance, the 27-year-old Jones drowned in his swimming pool under the influence of drugs and alcohol, turning that concert into a commemoration.
Now the band with an average age of 69 stormed through the classics from "Brown Sugar" and "Honky Tonk Woman" to "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Sympathy for the Devil" - with rubber-lipped Jagger strumming the guitar for the latest single "Doom and Gloom".
The Stones bounded across the stage and along a catwalk stretching into the sea of 65,000 fans gathered on a sultry summer evening in 21st century central London, sipping beer. The unmistakable aroma of marijuana wafted in the air.
The night belonged to the reconciliation of past and present for a crowd of old and young steeped in Stones lore, watching the band on stage with images of past concerts occasionally flashing past on big screens rising up behind the band.
Jagger donned a white smock-like outfit similar to the one he wore in 1969, played the harmonica and quoted a piece of poetry. The references to Jones and the old days were unmistakable even if his name was never mentioned.
MICK TAYLOR TAKES A BRIEF TURN
Taylor - who left the Stones in 1974 - appeared on stage for a rollicking version of "Midnight Rambler," where he delivered a masterclass in the guitar solo before jamming in front of Watts with Wood and Richards.
"Mick's very first show was with us here," Jagger told the crowd. "We found him in a pub and put him in front of 250,000 people."
The crowd reflected the longevity of the band and their continued popularity across the generations.
"This is my birthday present from my dad," said 34-year-old Dan Kemsley, who had been waiting in front of the stage alongside his Stones-mad father John since noon.
Nostalgia has played a major part in the Rolling Stones' activities the past year as they celebrated 50 years in the music business and embarked on a North American tour.
The Rolling Stones lived up to their reputation as one of the greatest rock and roll bands when they played to more than 100,000 revelers at last weekend's Glastonbury festival.
The band emerged alongside the Beatles in the early 1960s to become one of the most successful groups in rock and roll history with hits such as "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Satisfaction", which rounded off the show amid fireworks.
They last went on the road for their "A Bigger Bang" tour from 2005 to 2007, playing 144 shows around the world and grossing more than $550 million, making it one of the world's most lucrative rock tours.
They play another concert in Hyde Park on July 13.
Live performances have emerged as the major money earner in the music business as record sales go digital, with growing numbers of veteran acts returning to the stage and attracting well-heeled, aging fans willing to pay high ticket prices.
Metastasis stem cells in the blood of breast cancer patients discoveredPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dr. Sibylle Kohlst?dt s.kohlstaedt@dkfz.de Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Individual cancer cells that break away from the original tumor and circulate through the blood stream are considered responsible for the development of metastases. These dreaded secondary tumors are the main cause of cancer-related deaths. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detectable in a patient's blood are associated with a poorer prognosis. However, up until now, experimental evidence was lacking as to whether the "stem cell" of metastasis is found among CTCs.
"We were convinced that only very few of the various circulating tumor cells are capable of forming a secondary tumor in a different organ, because many patients do not develop metastases even though they have cancer cells circulating through their blood," says Prof. Andreas Trumpp, a stem cell expert. Trumpp is head of DKFZ's Division of Stem Cells and Cancer and director of the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM) at DKFZ. "Metastasis is a complex process and cancer cells need to have very specific properties for it. Our hypothesis was that the characteristics of cancer stem cells, which are resistant to therapy and very mobile, are best suited," says Trumpp.
Irne Baccelli from Trumpp's team developed a transplantation test for experimental detection of metastasis-initiating cells. In collaboration with Prof. Andreas Schneeweiss from the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg along with colleagues from the Institute of Tumor Biology in Hamburg and the Institute of Pathology of Heidelberg University Hospitals, the researchers analyzed the blood of more than 350 breast cancer patients. Using specific surface molecules, Baccelli isolated circulating tumor cells from the blood and directly transplanted them into the bone marrow of mice with defective immune systems. "Bone marrow is a perfect niche for tumor sells to colonize," Trumpp explains. After more than one hundred transplantations, metastases actually started forming in the bones, lungs and livers of some of the animals.
This proved that CTCs do contain metastasis stem cells even though apparently with a low frequency. What characterizes these cells? To characterize their molecular properties, the researchers analyzed the surface molecules of those CTCs where the cell transplantation had led to metastases.
Three molecules characterize the metastasis stem cell
In a systematic screening process, Baccelli first isolated cells carrying a typical protein of breast cancer stem cells (CD44) on their surface from the CTCs. This protein helps the cell to settle in bone marrow. Next, the researchers screened this cell population for specific surface markers which help the cells to survive in foreign tissue. These include, for example, a signaling molecule that protects from attacks by the immune system (CD47) and a surface receptor that enhances the cells' migratory and invasive capabilities (MET).
Using a cell sorter, the researchers were then able to isolate those CTCs which exhibit all three characteristics (CD44, CD47, MET) at once. Another round of transplantation tests showed that these really were the cells from which the metastases originated.
Depending on the patient, cells exhibiting all three surface molecules ("triple-positive" cells) made up between 0.6 and 33 percent of all CTCs. "It is interesting that only cells with the stem cell marker CD44 carry the combination of the other two surface molecules," said Irne Baccelli. "It looks like the triple-positive cells are a specialized subtype of breast cancer stem cells circulating in the blood."
Triple-positive cells as prognostic biomarkers
Are the triple-positive cells a more precise biomarker of breast cancer progression than the number of CTCs alone? In a small patient group, the researchers observed that as the disease advances, the number of triple-positive cells increases, but the total number of CTCs does not. In addition, patients with very high numbers of triple-positive cells had particularly high numbers of metastases and a much poorer prognosis than women in whom only few of these metastasis-inducing cells were detected. "On the whole, triple-positive cells seem to have a substantially higher biological relevance for disease progression than previously studied CTCs," Andreas Schneeweiss explains. The researchers plan to confirm these new results in a large study.
Andreas Trumpp considers it good news that the two proteins CD47 and MET are the ones characterizing metastasis-initiating cells. Therapeutic antibodies targeting CD47 to inhibit its functions are already being developed. A substance inhibiting the activity of the MET receptor has already been approved and shows good effectiveness for treating a certain type of lung cancer. The substance may also help breast cancer patients with detectable metastasis-inducing cells. "The triple-positive cells we have found turn out to be not only a promising biomarker of disease progression in breast cancer but also a prospect for potential new therapeutic approaches for treating advanced breast cancer," says Andreas Trumpp.
###
Irne Baccelli, Andreas Schneeweiss, Sabine Riethdorf, Albrecht Stenzinger, Anja Schillert, Vanessa Vogel, Corinna Klein, Massimo Saini, Tobias Buerle, Markus Wallwiener, Tim Holland-Letz, Thomas Hfner, Martin Sprick, Martina Scharpff, Frederik Marm, Hans Peter Sinn, Klaus Pantel, Wilko Weichert and Andreas Trumpp: Identification of a population of blood circulating tumor cells from breast cancer patients that initiates metastasis in a xenograft assay. Nature Biotechnology 2013, DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2576
A picture for this press release is available at:
http://www.dkfz.de/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/2013/images/ctc-induced-bone-xenograft.jpg
Picture caption: Circulating tumor cells isolated from the blood of breast cancer patients form a metastatic tumor in the bone marrow of mice. The stem cell marker CD44 is dyed red.
Source: Irne Baccelli, DKFZ
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Metastasis stem cells in the blood of breast cancer patients discoveredPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dr. Sibylle Kohlst?dt s.kohlstaedt@dkfz.de Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Individual cancer cells that break away from the original tumor and circulate through the blood stream are considered responsible for the development of metastases. These dreaded secondary tumors are the main cause of cancer-related deaths. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detectable in a patient's blood are associated with a poorer prognosis. However, up until now, experimental evidence was lacking as to whether the "stem cell" of metastasis is found among CTCs.
"We were convinced that only very few of the various circulating tumor cells are capable of forming a secondary tumor in a different organ, because many patients do not develop metastases even though they have cancer cells circulating through their blood," says Prof. Andreas Trumpp, a stem cell expert. Trumpp is head of DKFZ's Division of Stem Cells and Cancer and director of the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM) at DKFZ. "Metastasis is a complex process and cancer cells need to have very specific properties for it. Our hypothesis was that the characteristics of cancer stem cells, which are resistant to therapy and very mobile, are best suited," says Trumpp.
Irne Baccelli from Trumpp's team developed a transplantation test for experimental detection of metastasis-initiating cells. In collaboration with Prof. Andreas Schneeweiss from the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg along with colleagues from the Institute of Tumor Biology in Hamburg and the Institute of Pathology of Heidelberg University Hospitals, the researchers analyzed the blood of more than 350 breast cancer patients. Using specific surface molecules, Baccelli isolated circulating tumor cells from the blood and directly transplanted them into the bone marrow of mice with defective immune systems. "Bone marrow is a perfect niche for tumor sells to colonize," Trumpp explains. After more than one hundred transplantations, metastases actually started forming in the bones, lungs and livers of some of the animals.
This proved that CTCs do contain metastasis stem cells even though apparently with a low frequency. What characterizes these cells? To characterize their molecular properties, the researchers analyzed the surface molecules of those CTCs where the cell transplantation had led to metastases.
Three molecules characterize the metastasis stem cell
In a systematic screening process, Baccelli first isolated cells carrying a typical protein of breast cancer stem cells (CD44) on their surface from the CTCs. This protein helps the cell to settle in bone marrow. Next, the researchers screened this cell population for specific surface markers which help the cells to survive in foreign tissue. These include, for example, a signaling molecule that protects from attacks by the immune system (CD47) and a surface receptor that enhances the cells' migratory and invasive capabilities (MET).
Using a cell sorter, the researchers were then able to isolate those CTCs which exhibit all three characteristics (CD44, CD47, MET) at once. Another round of transplantation tests showed that these really were the cells from which the metastases originated.
Depending on the patient, cells exhibiting all three surface molecules ("triple-positive" cells) made up between 0.6 and 33 percent of all CTCs. "It is interesting that only cells with the stem cell marker CD44 carry the combination of the other two surface molecules," said Irne Baccelli. "It looks like the triple-positive cells are a specialized subtype of breast cancer stem cells circulating in the blood."
Triple-positive cells as prognostic biomarkers
Are the triple-positive cells a more precise biomarker of breast cancer progression than the number of CTCs alone? In a small patient group, the researchers observed that as the disease advances, the number of triple-positive cells increases, but the total number of CTCs does not. In addition, patients with very high numbers of triple-positive cells had particularly high numbers of metastases and a much poorer prognosis than women in whom only few of these metastasis-inducing cells were detected. "On the whole, triple-positive cells seem to have a substantially higher biological relevance for disease progression than previously studied CTCs," Andreas Schneeweiss explains. The researchers plan to confirm these new results in a large study.
Andreas Trumpp considers it good news that the two proteins CD47 and MET are the ones characterizing metastasis-initiating cells. Therapeutic antibodies targeting CD47 to inhibit its functions are already being developed. A substance inhibiting the activity of the MET receptor has already been approved and shows good effectiveness for treating a certain type of lung cancer. The substance may also help breast cancer patients with detectable metastasis-inducing cells. "The triple-positive cells we have found turn out to be not only a promising biomarker of disease progression in breast cancer but also a prospect for potential new therapeutic approaches for treating advanced breast cancer," says Andreas Trumpp.
###
Irne Baccelli, Andreas Schneeweiss, Sabine Riethdorf, Albrecht Stenzinger, Anja Schillert, Vanessa Vogel, Corinna Klein, Massimo Saini, Tobias Buerle, Markus Wallwiener, Tim Holland-Letz, Thomas Hfner, Martin Sprick, Martina Scharpff, Frederik Marm, Hans Peter Sinn, Klaus Pantel, Wilko Weichert and Andreas Trumpp: Identification of a population of blood circulating tumor cells from breast cancer patients that initiates metastasis in a xenograft assay. Nature Biotechnology 2013, DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2576
A picture for this press release is available at:
http://www.dkfz.de/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/2013/images/ctc-induced-bone-xenograft.jpg
Picture caption: Circulating tumor cells isolated from the blood of breast cancer patients form a metastatic tumor in the bone marrow of mice. The stem cell marker CD44 is dyed red.
Source: Irne Baccelli, DKFZ
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Most people will have some experience of lugging around a tired handset, knowing they've an eternity to wait before upgrading. UK carrier O2 has just announced its solution to phone fatigue called O2 Refresh, which splits overall costs into a "Phone Plan" and an "Airtime Plan." Much like Phones4U's JUMP plan or T-Mobile USA's new UnCarrier model, you're charged for the handset separately, so you can switch whenever you like as long as the current one's paid off. That price will vary depending on how much you lay down upfront and the Airtime Plan you choose; also, if you're done with the old one, you can get up to £260 towards the new one using O2's Recycle option. Unlike the Magenta carrier's new direction in the US, however, you will still be locked into a two-year contract, with a £12 monthly payment getting you 600 mins, unlimited texts and 750MB of data. Increase that to £17 for 1GB and unlimited calls / texts, or head for the £22 tier to increase that cap to 2GB.
So, you've decided on the Airtime Plan, but what about handsets? There's a solid choice of flagships (and some less exciting models), including the HTC One, Xperia Z, BlackBerry Z10, Note II, Nexus 4 and iPhone 5, with the Galaxy S 4 and BlackBerry Q10 arriving later -- hopefully in time for O2's 4G launch this "summer." To give you an example of what Phone Plans will be like, an HTC One will set you back £529.99 (around $815) in total with a £49.99 upfront payment and £20 each month. O2 Refresh is launching April 16th in stores, and will expand to online and phone orders "in the coming months." Head to the source link below to check out the full list of phones available at launch, but don't blame us if the loathing you have for your current pocket pal is subsequently increased.
If you thought that Mark Zuckerberg's aspirations ended at command your smartphone, then think again. The Facebook chief has teamed up with a raft of other tech heavyweights including Eric Schmidt, Marissa Mayer and Elon Musk to form FWD.us, a political lobby group designed to promote tech-friendly causes. The first issue it wants to tackle is immigration reform to make it easier to woo foreign engineering talent, but it also has designs on scientific research, education reform and job creation. Evidently, these people still have spare time even after their stressful day jobs.
By Alan Baldwin SHANGHAI, April 12 (Reuters) - Red Bull principal Christian Horner denied on Friday that Sebastian Vettel had weakened the boss's position at the Formula One champions by ignoring orders in Malaysia last month. "Is my leadership undermined? I don't think so," the Briton told reporters at the Chinese Grand Prix, referring to his team's three successive drivers' and constructors' world championships. "I've led the team from the time that Red Bull entered the sport to those 35 victories, to those world championships," he added. ...
Chicken owners often take to urban farming blogs with this lament: Where to house the ladies when they leave town?
Bill Bezuk, owner of Eugene Backyard Farmer in Eugene, Ore., used to offer a chicken sitting service, but biking around town before and after work proved onerous, so he came up with another idea: a luxury chicken hotel.
Bezuk named it The Nest, and for now there are two suites next to Bezuk?s urban farming supply store: The Blue Andalusian and the Gold Campine. (The former is named for a rare breed with black or mottled feathers; the former is a haughty show chicken with a perky chest.)
The basic service ? fresh food, water and a safe place to sleep ? costs $2 per chicken per night. For a dollar more, Bezuk offers ?deluxe accommodations? ? organic food, fresh vegetable scraps and turndown service.
Yes, really. Turndown service.
When the store closes, which is around bedtime for chickens, Bezuk or one of his four employees will lure the hens into the enclosed area with meal worms.
The chicken hotel opened in February, and May is already booked ? another indicator that the urban chicken phenomenon continues as city councils across the country vote to approve urban livestock. Bezuk said he plans to add two more split-level chicken suites, each of which houses six to eight chickens.
Bezuk believes that he has the first chicken-boarding business in the U.S. ? there are a handful in the U.K., where chicken ownership has also ballooned in the last five years, a response to the growth of the organic and local foods movements.
There?s Fowlty Towers in Cowden, a village in south east England, and The Chicken Hotel in Cornwall, which boasts spa treatments, including emery-board pedicures to ?round the tips.?
?Rooster nails are especially a problem for the backs of their lady-friends,? The Chicken Hotel explains on its website.
(No boys allowed at The Nest in Eugene. "City regulations prohibit roos, and we want to be consistent with ordinances," Bezuk said.)
Anna Goeser, who runs Easy Acres Chicken Sitting in Los Angeles, said she hasn?t heard of any other chicken boarding business ? possibly because of the risk of spreading avian-borne illnesses. She doesn?t even know of other chicken sitters.
Goeser started her chicken sitting service three years ago with just a handful of business cards ? she says it?s grown into a successful venture. Last week, she was taking care of five flocks ? for $25 a day, or $40 if the family lives more than 10 miles away.
At each home, she wears shoe covers and gloves to reduce the risk of spreading infection.
?I have a tub and I have bleach and a lot of flip flops that I end up disposing of,? Goeser said. ?I?m not a hazmat girl, but I get intense about it.?
Back in Eugene, a mid-sized city known for its quirky and free-spirited politics, Bezuk says that keeping a clean chicken hotel is crucial. Thoroughly cleaning the coops is key to avoid the spread of mites and avian illnesses, although he believes there's little chance of that given that the chickens who stay at The Nest don?t mingle with other livestock.
Even so, after the chickens leave, he and his employees go into the suites with a shovel and bucket to scoop up the bird poop. They sprinkle diatomaceous earth ? an organic compound used in toxic liquid spills -- in the nesting boxes to absorb parasites that may be lurking.
?The challenge with The Nest is the challenge with any hotel ? avoiding overbooking and making sure that the chickens check out on time,? Bezuk said. ?Cleaning the room between guests is clearly important.?
Apr. 10, 2013 ? Spatial measurements of population density could reveal when threatened natural populations are in danger of crashing.
Many factors -- including climate change, overfishing or loss of food supply -- can push a wild animal population to the brink of collapse. Ecologists have long sought ways to measure the risk of such a collapse, which could help wildlife and fishery managers take steps to protect endangered populations.
Last year, MIT physicists demonstrated that they could measure a population's risk of collapse by monitoring how fast it recovers from small disturbances, such as a food shortage or overcrowding. However, this strategy would likely require many years of data collection -- by which time it could be too late to save the population.
In a paper appearing in the April 10 online edition of Nature, the same research team describes a new way to predict the risk of collapse, based on variations in population density in neighboring regions. Such information is easier to obtain than data on population fluctuations over time, making it potentially more useful, according to the researchers.
"Spatial data are more accessible," says Lei Dai, an MIT graduate student in physics and lead author of the study. "You can get them by satellite images, or you could just go out and do a survey."
Led by Jeff Gore, an assistant professor of physics, Dai and Kirill Korolev, a Pappalardo Postdoctoral Fellow, grew yeast in test tubes and tracked the populations as they approached collapse. Yeast cells cooperate with other members of the population: Each of the organisms secretes an enzyme that breaks down sucrose in the environment into smaller sugars that it can use as a food source. All of the yeast benefit from this process, so a population is most successful when it maintains a certain density -- neither too low nor too high.
In last year's study, the researchers found that in populations of yeast that are subjected to increasingly stressful conditions, populations become less and less resilient to new disturbances until they reach a tipping point at which any small disruption could wipe out a population.
This phenomenon can be spotted quickly in yeast, which produces about 10 new generations per day, but measuring these population fluctuations for species such as fish or deer would take much more time. In hopes of finding more useful signals, the researchers turned their attention to spatial information.
There goes the neighborhood
In their new study, the researchers theorized a new type of indicator that they call "recovery length" -- the spatial counterpart to recovery time. This idea is based on the observation that populations living near the boundary of a less hospitable habitat are affected, because the neighboring habitats are connected by migration. Populations further away from the bad region gradually recover to equilibrium, and the spatial scale of this recovery can reveal a population's susceptibility to collapse, according to the researchers.
To test this idea, the researchers first established several linked yeast populations in a state of equilibrium. At the end of each day, a certain percentage of each population was transferred to adjacent test tubes, representing migration to adjacent regions.
The researchers then introduced a "bad" habitat, where only one in every 2,500 yeast survives from one day to the next. This reduction in population mimics what might happen in a natural population plagued by overfishing, or by a drastic reduction in its food supply.
The MIT team found that populations closest to the bad habitat had the hardest time maintaining an equilibrium state. Populations farther away maintained their equilibrium more easily.
"There's some distance you have to go away from the bad region in order to get recovery of the population density," Gore says. "How far you have to go before you reach equilibrium is the recovery length, and that tells you how close these populations are to collapse."
The recovery length varies based on how much stress the populations are already under.
To apply this finding to a natural population, population density would need to be measured in a range of adjacent areas at increasing distances from a good/bad boundary. This information could then be mapped to reveal the recovery length. "What's great about the recovery length is you don't need a long time series. You could just measure it at one moment in time," Gore says.
The MIT researchers are hoping to expand their studies to natural populations such as honeybees, fisheries or forests. They are also studying more complex experimental ecosystems involving several microbial species.
The research was funded by a Whitaker Health Sciences Fund Fellowship, a Pappalardo Fellowship, a National Institutes of Health Pathways to Independence Award and New Innovator Award, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, the Pew Scholars Program and the Allen Investigator Program.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Anne Trafton.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Lei Dai, Kirill S. Korolev, Jeff Gore. Slower recovery in space before collapse of connected populations. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12071
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Apr. 10, 2013 ? A new broad range antibiotic, developed jointly by scientists at The Rockefeller University and Astex Pharmaceuticals, has been found to kill a wide range of bacteria, including drug-resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA) bacteria that do not respond to traditional drugs. The antibiotic, Epimerox, targets weaknesses in bacteria that have long been exploited by viruses that attack them, known as phage, and has even been shown to protect animals from fatal infection by Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax.
Target selection is critical for the development of new antimicrobial agents. To date, most approaches for target selection have focused on the importance of bacterial survival. However, in addition to survival, the Rockefeller scientists believe that molecular targets should be identified by determining which cellular pathways have a low probability for developing resistance.
"For a billion years, phages repeatedly have infected populations of bacteria, and during this period of time they have identified weaknesses in the bacterial armor," says senior author Vincent A. Fischetti, professor and head of the Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology. "We're taking advantage of what phage have 'learned' during this period for us to identify new antibiotic targets that we believe will escape the problem of resistance found for other antibiotics."
The path to identification of this new target spanned more than seven years of effort. Fischetti and his colleagues used a phage-encoded molecule to identify a bacterial target enzyme called 2-epimerase, which is used by Bacillus anthracis to synthesize an essential cell wall structure. In 2008, Fischetti's lab, with Rockefeller's Erec Stebbins and his colleagues in the Laboratory of Structural Microbiology, solved the crystal structure of this enzyme. Based on this work, the researchers identified a previously unknown regulatory mechanism in 2-epimerase that involves direct interaction between one substrate molecule in the enzyme's active site and another in the enzyme's allosteric site. Fischetti and his colleagues chose to target the allosteric site of 2-epimerase to develop inhibitory compounds, because it is found in other bacterial 2-epimerases but not in the human equivalent of the enzyme.
Through the collaboration with Astex, initiated by co-author Allan Goldberg, an inhibitor of 2-epimerase named Epimerox was developed. Raymond Schuch, a former postdoctoral researcher in Fischetti's lab, tested the inhibitor in mice infected with Bacillus anthracis. He found that not only did Epimerox protect the animals from anthrax, but the bacteria did not develop resistance to the inhibitor. The researchers also found that Epimerox was able to kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (or MRSA) with no evidence of resistance even after extensive testing. Their work was published this week in PLOS ONE.
"Since nearly all Gram-positive bacteria contain 2-epimerase, we believe that Epimerox should be an effective broad-range antibiotic agent," says Fischetti. "The long-term evolutionary interaction between phage and bacteria has allowed us to identify targets that bacteria cannot easily change or circumvent. That finding gives us confidence that the probability for developing resistance to Epimerox is rather low, thereby enabling treatment of infections caused by multi-drug-resistant bacteria such as MRSA. It is a very encouraging result at a time when antibiotic resistance is a major health concern."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rockefeller University.
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Journal Reference:
Raymond Schuch, Adam J. Pelzek, Assaf Raz, Chad W. Euler, Patricia A. Ryan, Benjamin Y. Winer, Andrew Farnsworth, Shyam S. Bhaskaran, C. Erec Stebbins, Yong Xu, Adrienne Clifford, David J. Bearss, Hariprasad Vankayalapati, Allan R. Goldberg, Vincent A. Fischetti. Use of a Bacteriophage Lysin to Identify a Novel Target for Antimicrobial Development. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (4): e60754 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060754
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.
Today, Google Ventures announced a partnership with two of the biggest technology venture capital firms in the world, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, on what they’re calling the “Glass Collective.” While this isn’t a fund, the three firms will be sharing seed investment dealflow for entrepreneurs and developers who are working on Google Glass software and hardware. If one firm sees an interesting opportunity, it will go to the others with it. The hope of this collective effort is to kickstart the developer ecosystem for Glass and bring it to mainstream users as soon as possible. Steve Lee, product lead on the Glass team, confirmed that?Google will start shipping,?hopefully within the next month,?the Glass Explorer kits to developers?who showed interest in Glass when it was introduced last year at Google I/O. So the three firms want to get in front of the activity that is currently, and will be in the future, happening in the ecosystem. With the billions of dollars that the firms have, it’s safe to say that they’d like to corner the market on Glass investments immediately. This is similar to the approach that Kleiner Perkins took with its iFund, which has invested more than $450 million into mobile applications. While the forming of the group doesn’t guarantee that the two firms will participate in a round of funding for any given project, the firms do tend to invest in other companies together already, so sharing what they’re seeing among one another makes sense. It was also made clear that there are no plans to bring in any other firms, so the “Glass Musketeers” will be going at this on their own. During the announcement, Google Ventures’ Bill Maris was joined by Marc Andreessen from Andreessen Horowitz and John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins. The three discussed their excitement for the immediate potential of Google Glass as a platform, not just a wearable computing product. The Glass API, called “Mirror,” was announced and shown off at this year’s SXSW. Before the meeting started, we were able to test out the latest iteration of Glass, which has come a long way in just the past few months from what I could tell. That fact, tied with the obvious implications for real businesses to form around Glass, made these firms want to jump in early. Maris started off by discussing his introduction to Glass: I first saw and heard about
You don't have to wait until later this month to get a look at the biggest muscles of the summer movie season. That's because the cast of "Pain & Gain, including Mark Wahlberg, Rob Corddry, Ken Jeong and Bar Paly, plus director Michael Bay, will be stopping by MTV Sneak Peek Week to debut an [...]
Twitbin is a Twitter handler for Firefox that works like Facebook Sidebar. Generally, you can open Twitter by entering twitter.com from any web browser but you will have to switch to another tab for this. But if you will use Twitbin, you could access your twitter profile from both left and right sidebar of your browser. That means you do not have to go to another tab when you are browsing anything else. Its a good opportunity in order to access your multiple twitter account very quickly.
?
Since this Twitter sidebar (Twitbin) works smoothly in the latest version of Firefox, there is nothing to worry about in term of supporting. You can find several Twitter browser client for any web browser or for your Android device but apart from those, this Firefox Twitter plugin is working with multi account support. This is a very common matter that there are so thousands of people who use more than one twitter account (one for business, one for personal usage or for any reason). If you belong to those people, I am quite sure that you cannot access your multiple account simultaneously from one browser. AT this situation, this Twitter add-ons will help you to get rid of that problem. You can access your multiple Twitter account via Twitbin in the fastest way.
How to access Twitter using Twitbin?
After adding it to your browser, you can find an additional button beside Home button. Just press it;
After that you can find a window in your left sidebar which says Add new account. Go with it and enter your twitter log in details;
After doing so, it will ask you a PIN Code. You can find it on your screen. Just enter the correct PIN and press Add user button.
?
After that you can find your account in your left sidebar.
Settings and Preference of Twitbin:
In order to give the maximum advantage, there is a little bit customization choices of this add-on. You can find it after signing in to this.
There from you can choose the position of your sidebar or reload time interval and so on.
Other features of Twitbin:
Suppose, you wan to tweet an entire web page or a particular image from a web page. Before using it, you will have to copy that web page URL for tweeting or save the image on your machine. But if you will use Twitbin, yoiu can easily bypassthose old techniques. It will help you to tweet anything from the web from right click context menu of your browser.
I think, you should give it a try. Twitbin could be grabbed from here.
Versed Tech is a tech blog for Webmasters which covers with SEO, Google AdSense, Web 2.0, Social Media and Modern Technology.
A giant "monumental" stone structure discovered beneath the waters of the Sea of Galilee in Israel has archaeologists puzzled as to its purpose and even how long ago it was built.
The mysterious structure is cone shaped, made of "unhewn basalt cobbles and boulders," and weighs an estimated 60,000 tons the researchers said. That makes it heavier than most modern-day warships.
Rising nearly 32 feet (10 meters) high, it has a diameter of about 230 feet (70 meters). To put that in perspective, the outer stone circle of Stonehenge has a diameter just half that with its tallest stones not reaching that height.
It appears to be a giant cairn, rocks piled on top of each other. Structures like this are known from elsewhere in the world and are sometimes used to mark burials. Researchers do not know if the newly discovered structure was used for this purpose.
The structure was first detected in the summer of 2003 during a sonar survey of the southwest portion of the sea. Divers have since been down to investigate, they write in the latest issue of the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.?
"Close inspection by scuba diving revealed that the structure is made of basalt boulders up to 1 m (3.2 feet) long with no apparent construction pattern," the researchers write in their journal article. "The boulders have natural faces with no signs of cutting or chiselling. Similarly, we did not find any sign of arrangement or walls that delineate this structure." [See Photos of the Mysterious Sea of Galilee Structure]
They say it is definitely human-made and probably was built on land, only later to be covered by the Sea of Galilee as the water level rose. "The shape and composition of the submerged structure does not resemble any natural feature. We therefore conclude that it is man-made and might be termed a cairn," the researchers write.
More than 4,000 years old?
Underwater archaeological excavation is needed so scientists can find associated artifacts and determine the structure's date and purpose, the researchers said.
Researcher Yitzhak Paz, of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Ben-Gurion University, believes it could date back more than 4,000 years. "The more logical possibility is that it belongs to the third millennium B.C., because there are other megalithic phenomena [from that time] that are found close by," Paz told LiveScience in an interview, noting that those sites are associated with fortified settlements.?
The researchers list several examples of megalithic structures found close to the Sea of Galilee that are more than 4,000 years-old. One example is the monumental site of Khirbet Beteiha, located some 19 miles (30 kilometers) north-east of the submerged stone structure, the researchers write. It "comprises three concentric stone circles, the largest of which is 56 m [184 feet] in diameter." [Gallery: Aerial Photos Reveal Mysterious Stone Structures]
An ancient city
If the third-millennium B.C. date idea proves correct it would put the structure about a mile to the north of a city that researchers call "Bet Yerah" or "Khirbet Kerak."
During the third millennium B.C. the city was one of the biggest sites in the region, Paz said. "It's the most powerful and fortified town in this region and, as a matter of fact, in the whole of Israel."
Archaeologist Raphael Greenberg describes it in a chapter of the book "Daily Life, Materiality, and Complexity in Early Urban Communities of the Southern Levant" (Eisenbrauns, 2011) as being a heavily fortified 74-acre (30 hectares) site with up to 5,000 inhabitants.
With paved streets and towering defenses its people were clearly well organized. "They also indicate the existence of some kind of municipal authority able to maintain public structures ..." Greenberg writes.
The research team says that, like the leaders of Bet Yerah, whoever built the newly discovered Sea of Galilee structure needed sophisticated organization and planning skills to construct it. The "effort invested in such an enterprise is indicative of a complex, well-organized society, with planning skills and economic ability," they write in their journal paper.
Paz added that "in order to build such a structure a lot of working hours were required" in an organized community effort.
Future exploration
Paz said that he hopes soon that an underwater archaeological expedition will set out to excavate the structure. They can search for artifacts and try to determine its date with certainty.
He said that the Israel Antiquities Authority has a research branch capable of excavating it. "We will try to do it in the near future, I hope, but it depends on a lot of factors."
Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LONDON (Reuters) - The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must impose tougher sanctions on people who have run failed banks, making them personally responsible for their actions, members of the parliamentary commission which published a damning report into the demise of HBOS told Reuters.
Former HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby on Tuesday offered to give up his knighthood and nearly a third of his pension after being denounced by lawmakers for the "colossal failure" that led to his bank's collapse.
"What we can't do is allow this gesture to detract us away from the core fundamental point which is that the regulator has got to be holding people personally accountable for their actions," said Mark Garnier, a Conservative member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.
The Commission has asked the FCA to consider banning HBOS's former chief executives Crosby and Andy Hornby and its former chairman, Dennis Stevenson, from working in financial services.
"The key thing is that at this moment they can carry on working within this industry. There's no personal accountability. They took not just one but a whole series of disastrous decisions," said Garnier.
The Commission, tasked with finding ways to reform Britain's banks, is expected to make recommendations on how the regulator should be empowered to impose sanctions against individuals involved in wrongdoing at banks in the future when it publishes its final report in May.
"They need to be frightened of the regulator, which certainly wasn't true in the past, and that means that politicians and the government have to back the regulator," said another commission member, who declined to be named.
RESIGNED
Crosby resigned from his role as an adviser to private equity firm Bridgepoint following the report and stepped down as senior independent director at catering group Compass on Tuesday. However, he remains chairman of Moneybarn, a small West Sussex company that lends to people with a bad credit history.
Martin Wheatley, who heads the FCA, has said the culture within banks will only change when individuals are held to account by regulators.
Fred Goodwin, former head of Royal Bank of Scotland, the other large Scottish bank bailed out after the 2008 financial crisis, had his knighthood removed last year and gave up part of his pension in 2009.
Asked on Wednesday if other former HBOS executives should follow Crosby's lead, a spokesman for David Cameron said the Prime Minister believed it was down to the individuals in question to decide but that Crosby had made the right decision.
The Commission, which includes former finance minister Nigel Lawson and the Archbishop of Canterbury, is expected to make recommendations on whether banks should be able to claw back past bonuses and pension awards in its final report.
Pressure is growing on other past HBOS executives to follow the 57-year-old Crosby's example after he offered to give up 30 percent of his 580,000 pounds per year pension. As non-executive chairman of HBOS, Stevenson, 67, did not have a pension but Hornby, 46 and now working as chief executive of betting shop chain Coral, is entitled to 240,000 pounds a year from HBOS when he retires.
Peter Cummings, who was head of corporate lending at HBOS and was last year fined 500,000 pounds by the Financial Services Authority for his role in the bank's downfall, is entitled to a pension worth 369,000 a year.
(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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Today, Google Ventures announced a partnership with two of the biggest technology venture capital firms in the world, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, on what they’re calling the “Glass Collective.” While this isn’t a fund, the three firms will be sharing seed investment dealflow for entrepreneurs and developers who are working on Google Glass software and hardware. If one firm sees an interesting opportunity, it will go to the others with it. The hope of this collective effort is to kickstart the developer ecosystem for Glass and bring it to mainstream users as soon as possible. Steve Lee, product lead on the Glass team, confirmed that?Google will start shipping,?hopefully within the next month,?the Glass Explorer kits to developers?who showed interest in Glass when it was introduced last year at Google I/O. So the three firms want to get in front of the activity that is currently, and will be in the future, happening in the ecosystem. With the billions of dollars that the firms have, it’s safe to say that they’d like to corner the market on Glass investments immediately. This is similar to the approach that Kleiner Perkins took with its iFund, which has invested more than $450 million into mobile applications. While the forming of the group doesn’t guarantee that the two firms will participate in a round of funding for any given project, the firms do tend to invest in other companies together already, so sharing what they’re seeing among one another makes sense. It was also made clear that there are no plans to bring in any other firms, so the “Glass Musketeers” will be going at this on their own. During the announcement, Google Ventures’ Bill Maris was joined by Marc Andreessen from Andreessen Horowitz and John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins. The three discussed their excitement for the immediate potential of Google Glass as a platform, not just a wearable computing product. The Glass API, called “Mirror,” was announced and shown off at this year’s SXSW. Before the meeting started, we were able to test out the latest iteration of Glass, which has come a long way in just the past few months from what I could tell. That fact, tied with the obvious implications for real businesses to form around Glass, made these firms want to jump in early. Maris started off by discussing his introduction to Glass: I first saw and heard about
