Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193373513?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Consumers using smart phones while shopping
By Eve Tahmincioglu
Santa was no match for tech-savvy shoppers during the holiday season.?
When it came to finding the best products and the best prices, more than half of consumers came armed with their cell phones to help them make purchasing decisions. And just as traditional brick-and-mortar retailers feared, many of those shoppers decided not to buy merchandise from stores they visited thanks to information they got via mobile phone comparison shopping.?
Those findings come from a study released Monday by the Pew Research Center?s Internet & American Life Project, which found:?
- 38 percent of cell owners used their phone to?call a friend?while they were in a store for advice about a?purchase they were considering making.
- 24 percent of cell owners used their phone to?look up reviews of a product online?while they were in a store.
- 25 percent of adult cell owners used their phones to?look up the price of a product online while they were in a store, to see if they could get a better price somewhere else.?
?Consumers are feeling like they have a leg up on retailers,? said Esther Swilley, assistant professor of?marketing at Kansas State University, about the increasing use of mobile devices to bargain hunt. ?They can get price quotes quickly, and they now realize, ?I can do better than what you?ve got here.? ??
Not surprisingly, the under-50 crowd was more likely to use mobile devices for online product reviews, and urban and suburban cell phone owners were about twice as likely as rural users to have recently used their phones for product analysis.?
Minority mobile users were more apt to look up online reviews than white cell phone owners; and college-educated shoppers were more likely to dial for deals?than those who did not attend college.?
Retailers who are worried about consumers? new-found independence, she added, are going to have a hard time curbing these cell-phone price crusaders.?
Target recently moved to try and derail mobile deal seekers by asking some manufacturers?to create Target-exclusive items that would make it harder to comparison shop. The retailer, along with many other merchants who rely heavily on in-store sales, don?t much like the growing habit of ?showrooming,? an industry term for shoppers who use stores as a place to check out items and then buy products online at lower prices.?
Such fears, it turns out, are warranted, according to the Pew study.?
Researched asked respondents what actions they took after using their phones in stores to look up prices, and 37 percent said they decided not to buy the product at all.?
In addition:?
- 35 percent purchased the product at that store.?
- 19 percent purchased the product online.?
- 8 percent bought the product at another store.?
That?s just the beginning, said Eric Johnson, management professor and information technology expert at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, who expects mobile devices will become a shopping mainstay.?
Retailers such as Target and Best Buy, he said, have been the most worried about how the technology will undermine sales because of the ?petting-zoo phenomenon,? but they?ll have to learn to embrace it given the potential upside.?
Savvy merchants are using mobile technologies to ?augment the shopping experience,? he explained, pointing to Wet Seal, the junior apparel chain, as a prime example.?
Wet Seal offers its customers an app that gives them suggestions for ensemble pieces, or accessories, when they scan codes on merchandise in the store. They can buy the products in the store, or go to a virtual shelf online and purchase the color or size they want if it?s not in stock, he said. Mobile users can upload the outfits to Facebook so friends can offer their ?likes? or ?dislikes? before shoppers buy.?
This type of mobile integration, he said, ?is where the real excitement is.??
Traditional retailers, he continued, ?can?t just employ defensive moves to make it difficult to compare, but they have to find substantial ways to connect with the shopper in the shopping experience, and do that with mobile apps.?
Related story:
Target tries to fight off online retailers?
Do you use your smart phone to look for deals while in the store?
?
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Myanmar's Suu Kyi calls for changes to constitution (Reuters)
DAWEI, Myanmar (Reuters) ? Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on Sunday for changes to the military-drafted constitution in her first political trip since ending a boycott of the country's political system last year and announcing plans to run for parliament.
Thousands of people lined the roads shouting "Long live mother Suu" as her motorcade moved through the rural coastal region of Dawei about 615 km (380 miles) south of her home city,
Yangon, the main business centre.
The trip, only her fourth outside Yangon since her release from years of house arrest in November 2010, demonstrates the increasingly central role of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as the Southeast Asian state emerges from half a century of isolation.
"There are certain laws which are obstacles to the freedom of the people and we will strive to abolish these laws within the framework of the parliament," Suu Kyi said to cheers from supporters after meeting officials of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Dawei.
The NLD, though well known in the country, has had limited real political experience. It won by a landslide a 1990 election, a year after Suu Kyi began a lengthy period of incarceration, but the then regime ignored the result and detained many party members and supporters.
The NLD boycotted the next election, held in 2010 and won by a military-backed party after opposition complaints of rigging.
Her address on Sunday offered the most extensive detail yet of the policies she would bring to parliament.
In particular, she said she wanted to revise a 2008 army-drafted constitution that gives the military wide-ranging powers, including the ability to appoint key cabinet members, take control of the country in a state of emergency and occupy a quarter of the seats in parliament.
"We need to amend certain parts of the constitution," she said, adding the international community was poised to help Myanmar "once we are on an irreversible road to democracy."
She also said fighting between government soldiers and ethnic minority rebels had to be resolved. There has been heavy fighting recently in Kachin state but rebellions have simmered in many other regions since independence from Britain in 1948.
"Diversity is not something to be afraid of, it can be enjoyed," Suu Kyi said.
Although she has not started to campaign formally for the April 1 by-elections, the speech outside her office to supporters waving party flags and wearing T-shirts showing her face felt like a campaign stop.
"She's becoming more and more explicitly political and talking about the importance of policies," said a diplomat in the crowd. "I think it is the best speech I have heard from her."
"GREAT TRANSFORMATION"
Suu Kyi and her allies are contesting 48 seats in various legislatures including the 440-seat lower house in by-elections that could give political credibility to Myanmar and help advance the end of Western sanctions.
Business executives, mostly from Asia, have swarmed into Yangon in recent weeks to hunt for investment opportunities in the country of an estimated 60 million people, one of the last frontier markets in Asia.
Myanmar is also at the centre of a struggle for strategic influence as the United States sees a chance to expand its ties there and balance China's fast-growing economic and political sway in the region.
The visit to Dawei gives rural voters a rare glimpse of 66-year-old Suu Kyi, a symbol of defiance whose past trips outside Yangon were met with suspicion and violence by the former junta, which handed power to a nominally civilian parliament in March.
But many of the same generals who dominated the junta now lead a government on a dramatic reform drive, freeing hundreds of political prisoners, loosening media controls, calling for peace with ethnic insurgents and openly engaging with Suu Kyi and other opposition figures.
As a result, this trip was very different to one last July to Bagan, north of Yangon, where she was trailed by undercover police and kept a low profile, fearful of a repeat of an attack on her motorcade in 2003 in which 70 supporters were killed.
Suu Kyi told the World Economic Forum in Davos last week that Myanmar had not yet reached its "great transformation," but the elections in April could bring that point closer.
Many believe the turning point for Suu Kyi came on August 19, when she and President Thein Sein met in the capital, Naypyitaw. The president has since repeatedly urged parliament to pursue reforms, while Suu Kyi has voiced support for his government.
Many Burmese speculate that a senior government role, possibly even a cabinet post, awaits Suu Kyi, the daughter of assassinated independence hero General Aung San.
But to get there, much work lies ahead.
Her party has limited resources. Its headquarters are cramped and crumbling. Its senior ranks are filled with ageing activists. And there are questions over how much influence it can wield in a year-old parliament stacked with military appointees and former generals.
Her supporters, however, say her presence would bring a powerful pro-democracy voice to a chamber where many members remain reluctant to speak their mind.
"She will be able to do more inside the parliament than if she remained on the outside. There are some crucial things to do urgently concerning ethnic issues and political changes," said Ko Htin Kyaw, a dissident who was arrested in 2007 and freed in an amnesty this month.
(Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Arrests in Oakland protests rise to more than 400 (Reuters)
OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) ? More than 400 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested in Oakland during a night of skirmishes in which police fired tear gas and bean bag projectiles, the city said on Sunday, marking one of the biggest mass arrests since nationwide economic protests began last year.
Earlier on Sunday, authorities had said that the arrest figure was between 200 and 300. But the Oakland emergency operations center said in a statement that revised that up to more than 400, and said that Oakland Police were expected to announce a more precise number later on Sunday.
Riot police on Saturday night fought running skirmishes with protesters, injuring three officers and at least one demonstrator.
The scuffles erupted in the afternoon as activists sought to take over a shuttered downtown convention center, sparking cat-and-mouse battles that lasted well into the night in a city that has seen tensions between police and protesters boil over repeatedly.
Oakland has become an unlikely flashpoint of the national "Occupy" protests against economic inequality that began last year in New York's financial district and have spread to dozens of cities across the country.
The protests in most cities have been peaceful and sparked a national debate over how much of the country's wealth is held by the richest 1 percent of the population. President Barack Obama has sought to capitalize on the attention by calling for higher taxes on the richest Americans.
Protests focused on Oakland after a former Marine, Scott Olsen, was critically injured during a demonstration in October. Protesters said he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister but authorities have never said exactly how he was hurt.
The Occupy movement appeared to lose momentum late last year as police cleared protest camps in cities across the country.
Violence erupted again in Oakland on Saturday when protesters attempted to take over the apparently empty downtown convention center to establish a new headquarters and draw attention to the problem of homelessness.
Police in riot gear moved in, firing smoke grenades, tear gas and bean-bag projectiles to drive the crowd back.
"Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares," the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. "Oakland Police Department deployed smoke and tear gas."
Some activists, carrying shields made of plastic garbage cans and corrugated metal, tried to circumvent the police line, and surged toward police on another side of the building as more smoke canisters were fired.
Oakland city officials said "extremists" were fomenting the demonstrations and using the city as a playground for the movement. Protesters have accused the city of overreacting and using heavy-handed tactics.
Across the country in New York, police said four people were arrested on Saturday night after protesters clashed with police at what demonstrators had called an "OccuParty" inside an abandoned building in the borough of Brooklyn. Protesters knocked over garbage pails and hurled objects at police, slightly injuring six officers, a police spokesman said. The four people were charged with a variety of crimes including inciting a riot.
Tension was rising in Washington as well, where the National Park Service has said it will bar Occupy protesters in the nation's capital from camping in two parks near the White House where they have been living since October.
That order, if carried out as promised on Monday, could be a blow to one of the highest-profile chapters of the movement.
(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York and Kim Dixon and Rachelle Younglai in Washington; Editing by Greg McCune and Corrie MacLaggan)
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Blood found in home where toddler vanished
AP file
Police in Maine are appealing to the public for help in locating Ayla Reynolds.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
WATERVILLE, Maine -- Investigators say they've found blood inside the Maine home where a toddler was reported missing six? weeks ago.
State police spokesman Steve McCausland?confirmed Saturday that?blood was found in the basement early in the investigation into Ayla Reynolds' disappearance from her father's home in Waterville.
Her father, Justin DiPietro, says Ayla was not in her bed when he checked on her the morning of Dec. 17.
McCausland called the discovery of the blood "troubling."
"We have questioned the three adults that were there in the home that night," McCausland told The Associated Press. "We believe they have not given us the full story."
The blood is being analyzed to determine whose it is. McCausland said he didn't know when the results would be available.
Ayla was 20 months old when she disappeared. A vigil for her was being held Saturday in downtown Waterville.
WCVB-TV in Boston first reported the discovery of the blood.
Ayla was staying with her father at the time she was reported missing. Her mother, Trista Reynolds, lives in Portland.
McCausland declined to discuss how much blood was found in the basement or how old it might have been.
WCVB?said DiPietro did not return several phone calls for comment.
DePietro has previously said publicly that he would never do anything to hurt his child. He has also said he took and passed a lie detector test -- an assertion Maine State Police would not confirm nor deny.
When asked Saturday if the family members were suspects in Ayla's disappearance, McCausland said, "No one has been ruled in, and no one has been ruled out," according to WCSH-TV.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/28/10259428-blood-found-in-home-where-toddler-disappeared
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Is moon base really the 'weirdest' Newt Gingrich idea? Maybe not.
Newt Gingrich once wrote a bill that proposed to clarify when a moon base could apply for statehood. He admitted the bill was a bit odd Wednesday. But it might now prove to be a stroke of brilliance.?
Newt Gingrich wants to establish a colony on the moon, in case you haven?t heard. At a campaign stop on Florida?s Space Coast Thursday he promised that the US would have a permanent lunar base by the end of his second term in the Oval Office.
Skip to next paragraphHe talked about it as if it would be a lunar Plymouth, mankind?s brave foray into a lunar unknown, though he himself did not make that direct comparison. He even put out some ideas as to how the place should be governed.
When Moon Base Gingrich holds enough people, it should apply for statehood, he said.
?I think the moon primary would come late in the [campaign] season,? he said, smiling. This was either hubristic or charmingly self-aware, depending on how one views the prospect of the former speaker in the White House.
As Gingrich noted Wednesday, he?s outlined his ideas for space self-government before. As a young member of Congress in 1981, he introduced a bill he now refers to as the Northwest Ordinance for Space, but back then went by the more prosaic name of National Aeronautics and Space Policy Act of 1981.
BuzzFeed has dug up an actual copy of this legislation from the Library of Congress, and it?s pretty interesting. Much of it consists of an order to NASA to set 30-year goals for everything from a new ?operational world information system? (Newt invented the Internet!) to manned Mars and moon missions.
Title IV covers ?Government of Space Territories.? It begins in a sweeping manner: all persons residing in any US space community (which could be anywhere from the moon to Jupiter, we guess) ?shall be entitled to the protection of the Constitution of the United States.?
Wow ? this means that any terror suspect caught at a US moon base couldn?t be shipped to Guant?namo, right? Also, any baby born to an illegal US moon base immigrant would be a US citizen, raising the possibility of moon birth tourism.
The second section of Title IV says that when a US space colony holds 20,000 people, it will be able to hold a convention to establish a constitution and form of self-government for itself. Kind of like Philadelphia in 1787, only with external oxygen supplies.
Title IV?s third section establishes that whenever said space colony holds the same number of people as the least populous US state (right now, that?s Wyoming, at 544,270) it will be admitted as a US state ?on an equal footing with the original states.?
That raises a question ? if you?re the senator from the moon, would you get in trouble with constituents for not traveling home often enough to take the pulse of Tranquility Base? Because you probably couldn?t do that Friday-to-Monday.
Anyway, Gingrich himself kind of poked fun at himself for all this, saying that he?s old enough to have read ?Missiles & Rockets Magazine? as a kid, and that the whole thing might be the ?weirdest? policy idea he?s ever proposed.
But let?s be honest ? he?s running a Florida primary, and Florida?s Space Coast right now suffers from high unemployment. Gingrich might be crazy like a space fox here.?
Slate?s Dave Weigel wrote about Gingrich?s speech under the head ?Not Actually Crazy.?
?It?s an idea that makes the New York/Washington-Alinskyite media guffaw. It also happens to be a pander to local voters that no one will try to make,? wrote Mr. Weigel.
After all, in the late 1960s, NASA drew up plans to establish a moon base by 1980 and send men to Mars by 1983. But these were cancelled by then-President Richard Nixon, notes Space.com in an outline of presidential visions for space exploration.
Nixon was worried that the government spending was too high ? and NASA was a convenient target.
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Need for courtroom artists fade as cameras move in
This Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, photo, shows courtroom sketch artist Carol Renaud in her Chicago home studio. Artists have drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera ban. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, amd three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
This Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, photo, shows courtroom sketch artist Carol Renaud in her Chicago home studio. Artists have drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera ban. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, amd three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
This 2009 sketch of Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson by courtroom artist Carol Renaud is seen at her Chicago home on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Artists have drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera ban. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, and three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Carol Renaud)
This Dec. 7, 2011 file courtroom sketch by artist Tom Gianni shows former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, left, speaking before U.S. District Judge James Zagel at his sentencing hearing at federal court in Chicago. Sketch artists have been drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera ban. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, and three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Tom Gianni, File)
FILE - In this May 14, 2008 file photo, courtroom sketch artist Andy Austin poses at Chicago's Federal Plaza with one of her works from the corruption trial of Conrad Black. Austin has worked as a court artist for 40 years. Artists have been drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera bans. Just 14 states still have the prohibitions in place, though three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs.(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
This May 20, 2008 file courtroom sketch by artist Lou Chukman shows R&B singer R. Kelly, right, watching in court as prosecutors played the sex tape at the center of his child pornography trial in open court in Chicago. Artists have drawing legal proceedings since the Salem witch trials to the recent corruption trial of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but their ranks are thinning as states lift courtroom camera bans. Just 14 states still have prohibitions in place, and three of those states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, recently moved to end theirs. (AP Photo/Lou Chukman, File)
CHICAGO (AP) ? One marker in hand and one in his mouth, Lou Chukman glances up and down from a sketchpad to a reputed Chicago mobster across the courtroom ? drawing feverishly to capture the drama of the judge's verdict before the moment passes.
Sketch artists have been the public's eyes at high-profile trials for decades ? a remnant of an age when drawings in broadsheet papers, school books or travel chronicles were how people glimpsed the world beyond their own.
Today, their ranks are thinning swiftly as states move to lift longstanding bans on cameras in courtrooms. As of a year ago, 14 states still had them ? but at least three, including Illinois this month, have taken steps since then to end the prohibitions.
"When people say to me, 'Wow, you are a courtroom artist' ? I always say, 'One day, you can tell your grandchildren you met a Stegosaurus," Chukman, 56, explained outside court. "We're an anachronism now, like blacksmiths."
Cutbacks in news budgets and shifts in aesthetic sensibilities toward digitized graphics have all contributed to the form's decline, said Maryland-based sketch artist Art Lien.
While the erosion of the job may not be much noticed by people reading and watching the news, Lien says something significant is being lost. Video or photos can't do what sketch artists can, he said, such as compressing hours of court action onto a single drawing that crystallizes the events.
The best courtroom drawings hang in museums or sell to collectors for thousands of dollars.
"I think people should lament the passing of this art form," Lien said.
But while courtroom drawing has a long history ? artists did illustrations of the Salem witch trials in 1692 ? the artistry can sometimes be sketchy. A bald lawyer ends up with a full head of hair. A defendant has two left hands. A portly judge is drawn rail-thin.
Subjects often complain as they see the drawings during court recesses, said Chicago artist Carol Renaud.
"They'll say, 'Hey! My nose is too big.' And sometimes they're right," she conceded. "We do the drawings so fast."
Courtroom drawing doesn't attract most aspiring artists because it doesn't afford the luxury of laboring over a work for days until it's just right, said Andy Austin, who has drawn Chicago's biggest trials over 40 years, including that of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
"You have to put your work on the air or in a newspaper whether you like it or not," she said.
The job also involves long stretches of tedium punctuated by bursts of action as a witness sobs or defendant faint. It can also get downright creepy.
At Gacy's trial, a client asked Austin for an image of him smiling. So, she sought to catch the eye of the man accused of killing 33 people. When she finally did, she beamed. He beamed back.
"The two of us smiled at each other like the two happiest people in the world until the sketch was finished," Austin recalled in her memoirs, titled "Rule 53," after the directive that bars cameras in U.S. courts.
There's no school specifically for courtroom artists. Many slipped or were nudged into it by circumstance.
Renaud drew fashion illustrations for Marshall Field's commercials into the '90s but lost that job when the department store starting relying on photographers. That led her to courtroom drawing.
Artists sometime get to court early and sketch the empty room. But coming in with a drawing fully finished in advance is seen as unethical.
Some artists use charcoal, water colors or pungent markers, which can leave those sitting nearby queasy. Most start with a quick pencil sketch, then fill it in. Austin draws right off the bat with her color pencils.
"If I overthink it, I get lost," she said. "I have a visceral reaction. I just hope what I feel is conveyed to my pen."
These days, Chukman and Renaud fear for their livelihoods. They make the bulk of their annual income off their court work. Working for a TV station or a newspaper can bring in about $300 a day. A trial lasting a month can mean a $6,000 paycheck. Chukman does other work on the side, including drawing caricatures as gifts.
Austin is semiretired and so she says she worries less. She also notes that federal courts ? where some of the most notorious trials take place, like the two corruption trials of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich ? seem more adamant about not allowing cameras.
Still, though Rule 53 remains in place, federal courts are experimenting with cameras in very limited cases.
"If federal courts do follow, that will be the end of us," Austin said.
Renaud holds out hope that, even if the worst happens, there will still be demand from lawyers for courtroom drawings they can hang in their offices. Lien plans to bolster his income by launching a website selling work from historic trials he covered, including of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Chukman, a courtroom artist for around 30 years, jokes that if asked for his opinion, he'd have told state-court authorities to keep the ban in place a few more years until he retires.
"I recognize my profession exists simply because of gaps in the law ? and I've been grateful for them," he said wistfully. "This line of work has been good to me."
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Video: SEALs rescue American held captive
Mystery disease Morgellons: No clear cause
A strange disease in which sufferers say they find fibers, fuzz and other debris sprouting from sores on their skin is not contagious and has no clear cause, the largest-ever study of the condition called Morgellons has found.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46138690#46138690
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Researchers discover method to unravel malaria's genetic secrets
ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) ? The parasite that causes malaria is a genetic outlier, which has prevented scientists from discovering the functions of most of its genes. Researchers at National Jewish Health and Yale University School of Medicine have devised a technique to overcome the genetic oddity of Plasmodium falciparum, the major cause of human malaria.
This new approach led them discover a new gene involved in lipid synthesis, and opens the door to further genetic discovery for the entire organism. This should foster a much greater understanding of the parasite, and facilitate discovery of new medications for a disease that infects more than 200 million people and kills nearly 700,000 every year.
"The malarial genome has been a black box. Our technique allows us to open that box, so that we can learn what genes in the most lethal human parasite actually do," said Dennis Voelker, PhD, Professor of Medicine at National Jewish Health and senior author on the paper that appeared in the January 2, 2012 , issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. "This could prove tremendously valuable in the fight against a disease that has become increasingly drug-resistant."
The genome of P. falciparum was sequenced in 2002, but the actual functions of many of the organism's genes have remained elusive. One of the primary methods for discovering gene function is to copy a specific gene, insert it into a model organism that is easy to grow, often the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, then draw on the incredible knowledge base about yeast and its abundant genetic variants to discover how that inserted gene changes the organism's biology.
DNA is composed of building blocks with the shorthand designations A,T,C and G. The genome of P. falciparum is odd because it is particularly rich in A's and T's. Because of this A-T-rich nature, P. falciparum genes generally do not function when they are inserted into other organisms. As a result, scientists have been largely stymied when trying to understand the functions of P. falciparum's genes.
It turns out, however, that P. falciparum has a close cousin, P. knowlesi, which shares almost all its genes with P. falciparum, but with fewer A's and T's. As a result, P. knowlesi genes function well when inserted into yeast. Scientists can now insert P knowlesi genes into yeast, discover their function, and then match them to corresponding genes in P. falciparum, which reveals the function of the malarial parasite's genes.
"This technique could lead to an explosion in knowledge about malaria and the parasite that causes it." said Dr. Voelker.
The researchers used the technique to discover a new gene involved in the synthesis of lipids in cell membranes of P. falciparum. The gene, phosphatidylserine decarboxylase, directs the formation of a protein unique to malarial parasites and is a potential therapeutic target. For example, selective disruption of lipid synthesis in P. falciparum, would prevent the organism from making new cell membranes, growing and reproducing in human hosts.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Jewish Health.
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Journal Reference:
- J.-Y. Choi, Y. Augagneur, C. B. Mamoun, D. R. Voelker. Identification of Gene Encoding Plasmodium knowlesi Phosphatidylserine Decarboxylase by Genetic Complementation in Yeast and Characterization of in Vitro Maturation of Encoded Enzyme. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2011; 287 (1): 222 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M111.313676
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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120125113151.htm
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Apple Holding Internal Town Meeting Tomorrow To Discuss "Exciting New Things" — Possibly Dance in a Field Full of Cash [Apple]
![Click here to read Apple Holding Internal Town Meeting Tomorrow To Discuss "Exciting New Things" — Possibly Dance in a Field Full of Cash](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vdjKgKkAa7YbyQJp73A_QO5Wb8lyIMvAsN-uBpoF3Ji7FlyRyoJpy7_ZxRRispJZEsAlgWac0qvwTEDGWG1XHazPaBDqvIciAf0lINADm4EIleYsaqEbnuBbH9ortoaDGIpfn7pZVmRPIDV2J_Kd_IeXttyJ4-AX3F7dij1Q=s0-d "Click here to read Apple Holding Internal Town Meeting Tomorrow To Discuss "Exciting New Things" — Possibly Dance in a Field Full of Cash")
Aiding cancer therapy by mathematically modeling tumor-immune interactions
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Public release date: 25-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Karthika Muthukumaraswamy
karthika@siam.org
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Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Math models can be used to assess the impact of therapies before clinical application
Cancer is one of the five leading causes of death. And yet, despite decades of research, there is no standardized first-line treatment for most cancers. In addition, disappointing results from predominant second-line treatments like chemotherapy have established the need for alternative methods.
Mathematical modeling of cancer usually involves describing the evolution of tumors in terms of differential equations and stochastic or agent-based models, and testing the effectiveness of various treatments within the chosen mathematical framework. Tumor progression (or regression) is evaluated by studying the dynamics of tumor cells under different treatments, such as immune therapy, chemotherapy and drug therapeutics while optimizing dosage, duration and frequencies.
In a paper published last month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 'Controlled Drug Delivery in Cancer Immunotherapy: Stability, Optimization, and Monte Carlo Analysis,' authors Andrea Minelli, Francesco Topputo, and Franco Bernelli-Zazzera propose a differential equation model to describe tumorimmune interactions. "We study the dynamics of the competition between the tumor and the immune system," Topputo explains.
The relationship between cancers and the immune system has been studied for many years, and immune therapy has been known to influence tumor regression. Clinically called immunotherapy, it involves using external factors to induce, enhance, or suppress a patient's immune response for treatment of disease. In this study, the therapy consists of injecting a type of immune cells called dendritic cells, which generate tumor-specific immunity by presenting tumor-associated antigens.
"In particular, cancer immunotherapy has the purpose of identifying and killing tumor cells," says Topputo. "Our research considers a model that describes the interaction between the neoplasia [or tumor], the immune system, and drug administration." Such modeling and simulation can be used to assess the impact of drugs and therapies before clinical application.
Using ordinary differential equations, the authors model the progress of different cell populations in the tumor environment as a continuous process. Within the dynamical system presented by the tumor environment, they apply the theory of optimal controla mathematical optimization methodto design ad-hoc therapies and find an optimal treatment.
The end goal of the control policy is to minimize tumor cells while maximizing effectors, such as immune cells or immune-response chemicals. "The aim is to minimize the tumor concentration while keeping the amount of administered drug below certain thresholds, to avoid toxicity," says Topputo. "In common practice, one searches for effective therapies; in our approach, we look for efficiency and effectiveness."
Elaborating on a prior study where indirect methods used to solve the optimal control problem are not effective, the authors use direct methods that apply algorithms from aerospace engineering to solve the associated optimal control problem in this paper. Optimal protocols are analyzed, and the duration of optimal therapy is determined.
The robustness of the optimal therapies is then assessed. In addition, their applicability toward personalized medicine is discussed, where treatment is customized to each individual based on various factors such as genetic information, family history, social circumstances, environment and lifestyle.
"We have shown that personalized therapy is robust even with uncertain patient conditions. This is relevant as the model coefficients are char
Public release date: 25-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Karthika Muthukumaraswamy
karthika@siam.org
267-350-6383
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Math models can be used to assess the impact of therapies before clinical application
Cancer is one of the five leading causes of death. And yet, despite decades of research, there is no standardized first-line treatment for most cancers. In addition, disappointing results from predominant second-line treatments like chemotherapy have established the need for alternative methods.
Mathematical modeling of cancer usually involves describing the evolution of tumors in terms of differential equations and stochastic or agent-based models, and testing the effectiveness of various treatments within the chosen mathematical framework. Tumor progression (or regression) is evaluated by studying the dynamics of tumor cells under different treatments, such as immune therapy, chemotherapy and drug therapeutics while optimizing dosage, duration and frequencies.
In a paper published last month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 'Controlled Drug Delivery in Cancer Immunotherapy: Stability, Optimization, and Monte Carlo Analysis,' authors Andrea Minelli, Francesco Topputo, and Franco Bernelli-Zazzera propose a differential equation model to describe tumorimmune interactions. "We study the dynamics of the competition between the tumor and the immune system," Topputo explains.
The relationship between cancers and the immune system has been studied for many years, and immune therapy has been known to influence tumor regression. Clinically called immunotherapy, it involves using external factors to induce, enhance, or suppress a patient's immune response for treatment of disease. In this study, the therapy consists of injecting a type of immune cells called dendritic cells, which generate tumor-specific immunity by presenting tumor-associated antigens.
"In particular, cancer immunotherapy has the purpose of identifying and killing tumor cells," says Topputo. "Our research considers a model that describes the interaction between the neoplasia [or tumor], the immune system, and drug administration." Such modeling and simulation can be used to assess the impact of drugs and therapies before clinical application.
Using ordinary differential equations, the authors model the progress of different cell populations in the tumor environment as a continuous process. Within the dynamical system presented by the tumor environment, they apply the theory of optimal controla mathematical optimization methodto design ad-hoc therapies and find an optimal treatment.
The end goal of the control policy is to minimize tumor cells while maximizing effectors, such as immune cells or immune-response chemicals. "The aim is to minimize the tumor concentration while keeping the amount of administered drug below certain thresholds, to avoid toxicity," says Topputo. "In common practice, one searches for effective therapies; in our approach, we look for efficiency and effectiveness."
Elaborating on a prior study where indirect methods used to solve the optimal control problem are not effective, the authors use direct methods that apply algorithms from aerospace engineering to solve the associated optimal control problem in this paper. Optimal protocols are analyzed, and the duration of optimal therapy is determined.
The robustness of the optimal therapies is then assessed. In addition, their applicability toward personalized medicine is discussed, where treatment is customized to each individual based on various factors such as genetic information, family history, social circumstances, environment and lifestyle.
"We have shown that personalized therapy is robust even with uncertain patient conditions. This is relevant as the model coefficients are char
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/sfia-act012512.php
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Transcripts show Italy captain says was told to approach shore (Reuters)
GIGLIO, Italy (Reuters) ? The captain of the Italian liner Costa Concordia said he was told by managers to take his ship close to shore on the night it ran aground and capsized, but the company denied having any prior knowledge of the maneuver.
The daily La Repubblica published transcripts of a conversation Captain Francesco Schettino had with a person identified only as Fabrizio in which he implicates an unnamed manager of the vessel's owners, Costa Cruises.
"Fabri ... anyone else in my place wouldn't have been so nice as to go there because they were breaking my balls, saying 'go there, go there'," Schettino says in the conversation taped while he was being held following his arrest over the incident.
"...the rock was there but it didn't show up in the instruments I had and I went there ... to satisfy the manager, 'go there, go there'."
The conversation, in a thick Neapolitan dialect which the transcription translates into standard Italian, was apparently taped without the knowledge of Schettino. It was posted on the website of the newspaper.
A source in the prosecutor's office said the transcript was genuine. Schettino's lawyer Bruno Leporatti did not dispute it but said his client should not be treated as a "scapegoat."
Investigators say Schettino steered the 114,500-tonne vessel to within 150 meters of the shore to perform a maneuver known as a "salute" in which a ship makes a special display by coming in very close to land.
"Taking a tourist ship close to shore is allowed under certain conditions and is a practice adopted by all the cruise ship companies around the world," Pier Luigi Foschi, chief executive of Costa Cruises, told the Senate on Wednesday.
"In this case the company wasn't aware of such a maneuver, and the program distributed to the cruise's passengers spoke of the ship passing Giglio island at a distance of miles."
Schettino is under house arrest and blamed for causing the accident by steering too close to shore. He is accused of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation of more than 4,200 passengers and crew was complete.
At least 16 people died when the cruise ship struck a rock which tore a hole in its side and caused it to capsize off the Tuscan island of Giglio on January 13. Another 16 people are still unaccounted for. Six bodies are still unidentified.
Whether or not "salute" maneuvers were encouraged by the ship's operators is one of the key questions in the investigation.
Costa Cruise's Foschi said it was common practice "and is not dangerous by definition, but of course one cannot proceed at 16 knots there in that location."
The practice is a matter of discretion that must be planned, recorded in the ship's log beforehand and performed safely, but it is allowed, a Coast Guard source said on Wednesday.
SEARCH RESUMED
Divers resumed their search on Wednesday after blasting four new holes to open up submerged interior space in the ship almost 12 days after the accident.
"It's obvious that for all the time that has passed, and given the conditions, finding someone alive today would be a miracle," said Franco Gabrielli, head of the civil service agency, who is in charge of the state's emergency operations.
Salvage teams are continuing preparations to pump more than 2,300 tons of diesel fuel from the hulk, an operation expected to start by Saturday and last about a month.
Giulia Bongiorno, one of Italy's best-known criminal lawyers, is to represent passengers who are planning to seek damages from the cruise company.
Bongiorno represented Raffaele Sollecito when he was acquitted last year on appeal, with U.S. student Amanda Knox, of murdering Briton Meredith Kercher.
In the transcript published by La Repubblica, Schettino also suggests that he abandoned ship soon after realizing that the vessel was listing dangerously.
During questioning by magistrates, Schettino said he fell into a lifeboat while investigating the state of the ship, which suffered an electrical blackout after it struck the rock. In the confusion, he had been unable to return to the ship.
Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise ship operator, has blamed the captain and suspended him. The company has begun disciplinary action against Schettino, a legal source told Reuters on Wednesday.
Neither the company nor individual executives, apart from Schettino and the ship's first officer, have been placed under investigation even though Schettino's lawyer has said that the probe will be extended to other parties.
(Additional reporting by Cristian Corvino and Ilaria Polleschi in Grosseto, Roberto Landucci in Rome, Emilio Parodi in Milan, and Laura Viggiano in Naples.; Writing By James Mackenzie and Steve Scherer; Editing by Giles Elgood and Robert Woodward)
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Monday, January 9, 2012
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Saturday, January 7, 2012
Oddly mild winter leaves much of U.S. on thin ice (Reuters)
CONWAY, Mass (Reuters) ? Unusually mild winter weather is spoiling the fun for hockey players, skaters and ice fisherman across the Northeast and Midwest as officials warn of uncommonly thin ice.
Fish and game officials in several northeastern states have issued advisories in recent days, saying ice conditions were unsafe on lakes where ice typically reaches 10 inches thick.
In Minnesota, officials warned ice was unreliable in the southern part of the state, where temperatures topped 60 degrees for the first time on record in the first week of January.
With no ice yet recorded on Lake Erie, organizers of Buffalo's public hockey tournament of 1,000 amateur players say they may have to cancel the February 10 event for the first time in its 5-year history.
An extraordinarily mild December and early January failed to deliver the cold needed to freeze most lakes and ponds.
Meteorologists say December temperatures in the region were the warmest in five years. Massachusetts recorded 12 days when the temperature was more than 10 degrees above normal, said Mark Paquette, meteorologist with AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania.
As a result, winter sports enthusiasts who flock to frozen lakes and ponds are at risk, said Lieutenant Robert Bryant of New Hampshire Fish and Game.
"We've had some tragedies over the years with ice skaters," Bryant said. "Ice fishermen tend to get close to their holes and stay in one place and skaters sometimes roam about."
Very little snow is on the ground in New England, so there is less concern snowmobilers will drive onto thin ice, Bryant said.
In stark contrast with last year's long, frigid winter in the Northeast, sturdy ice is lacking on bodies of water from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. At times, conditions in southern New England have seemed more favorable for a round of golf than outdoor ice hockey.
"There are areas where the ice has started to thicken over the open water. But it's still marginal at best, and not consistent," said Colonel David LeCours, Vermont's chief game warden.
LeCours's office, in an advisory last week, warned people to use good judgment and observe safety precautions before venturing onto the ice.
"My biggest concern is, if we do get a bit of cold, it can sometimes give people an unrealistic sense and they forget the ice has only been there a day or two," he said in a phone interview. "There may be only an inch or two of ice, or less, and they don't know it until it's too late."
Weak ice forms atop ponds or open water such as lakes when warming trends break down the surface, allowing the slush to refreeze. Gusty wind, which hammered the region last week, triggers wave action that further inhibits ice formation.
In general at least 6 inches of hard ice is needed to support one person on foot, and 8 to 10 inches of hard ice is needed for a snow machine or an all-terrain vehicle, according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.
In Minnesota, dozens of people have fallen through the ice this winter on foot, in cars, riding all-terrain vehicles and even an ice boat, said Tim Smalley, water safety specialist for the state department of natural resources.
Through Thursday the state had no ice-related fatalities. Four fatalities are recorded on average each year as even thick ice weakens under rising temperatures.
High temperatures reached into the 40s as far north as the border with Canada on Friday.
"It's getting soft," Smalley said. "The ice may be thick, but it is not as strong as it could be."
The icebox of the nation was melting this week, but at 18 inches thick the ice on International Falls, Minnesota, lakes was strong enough for most trucks to drive on. Forecasters expected temperatures to drop back below zero within a week.
"This truly is not the type of weather that creates winter playground conditions," International Falls Mayor Shawn Mason said in a telephone interview.
Mason said it was too early to worry about the warm front's impact on the city's Icebox Days winter festival that starts January 18 and includes a "Freeze yer Gizzard Blizzard Run."
In New Hampshire, some lakes and ponds have begun to freeze over, but officials are urging people to be patient and wait for solid ice. They should always check the thickness before going onto the ice, experts say.
In the western Massachusetts town of Conway, people created a make-shift ice rink by pumping water onto the town's outdoor tennis court. Several families took advantage of it for their first ice skating of the season on Thursday.
"This is pretty good, because you're outside," said Leslie Chaison, who was on the ice with friends and her 4-year-old daughter, Rosa. "But something about skating on a pond feels magical, as opposed to rink skating. Pond skating is the best."
(Additional reporting by Jason McLure in Littleton, N.H., Neale Gulley in Buffalo, and David Bailey in Chicago; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Daniel Trotta)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120106/us_nm/us_ice_warning
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Monday, January 2, 2012
Bright spots, dark clouds ? Obama seeks right tone (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Bullish yet wary, President Barack Obama is highlighting recent economic bright spots while taking care not to overstate a recovery that still has not put millions back to work.
His Republican rivals, in the face of late-arriving economic good news, are making slight adjustments themselves, arguing that Obama's policies have been a drag on a recovery that could have taken hold sooner.
The competing rhetoric reflects the positive indicators in areas ranging from retail sales and housing to unemployment and falling gas prices. All this has pushed up consumer confidence, a potential barometer of political attitudes. Even Congress and Obama managed to agree on a two-month payroll tax cut extension before leaving Washington for the holidays.
But the economic signs could prove fleeting, as they were in the early spring when economist also detected upticks in activity only to watch them tumble. These new indicators may hold more promise. But a looming European debt crisis is casting a pall.
No one is more aware of that risk than Obama.
"We've got an economy that is showing some positive signs; we've seen many consecutive months of private sector job growth," Obama said last week before departing for Christmas in Hawaii. "But it's not happening as fast as it needs to."
For Obama, the danger is in promoting an economy that while, slowly recovering, has yet to reflect reality for millions of Americans, or in highlighting positive signs only to see them falter in 2012.
For David Axelrod, the Obama campaign's top political adviser, visions of a European financial meltdown are what keep him awake at night.
"I think the American economy is gaining strength, I don't think many would argue that point," he said. "The imponderable is not about that, it's really about these externalities and particularly Europe. Especially now that we've passed this threshold on the payroll tax cut and assuming that the Republicans in Congress don't want to rerun that battle, the one big thing on the horizon is Europe."
Indeed, as the year ends on an up note, leading economists surveyed by The Associated Press expect the economy will grow slightly faster in 2012 ? about 2.4 percent compared with the less than 2 percent annual growth that the economy is expected to register by the end of this year.
But underscoring the political challenges facing Obama, these same economists don't expect unemployment to drop much in a year from November's 8.6 percent rate.
The public's economic outlook is improving. An Associated Press-GfK poll in December found that 37 percent of those questioned expect improvement in the economy in the coming year. It was the first time since May that the sentiment significantly outweighed the share saying the economy would get worse in the next year.
This modestly rosy scenario is contingent on keeping any financial disruptions in Europe contained to the other side of the Atlantic. Obama has pressing European leaders, particularly German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, to act swiftly to avoid a wholesale debt crisis from taking hold. But Obama has few tools other than persuasion with which to influence an outcome.
In a trend the Obama camp is sure to watch, the public is holding Obama more accountable for the economy. The AP-GfK poll found that the percentage who says Obama deserves little or no blame for the economy's sluggishness has declined from 43 percent in October to 36 percent now.
Republicans are watching, too.
After months of asserting that conditions under Obama have worsened, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney this past acknowledged signs of improvement, but gave Obama no credit.
"I think the economy's getting better. I sure hope so," Romney told CNN on Wednesday. "There's never been a time when our economy has not recovered from recession. We will recover, but it will not be thanks to the president's policies. It will be in spite of the president's policies."
Republican pollster Wes Anderson, a veteran of congressional and presidential contests, says the first quarter of 2012 could lay down crucial markers that could affect the election results.
"If the uptick in economic indicators that we've seen here this month continues into the next month at the same general pace, it will be an interesting race and it will be very close, and there will be an opportunity for Obama to win," he said. "If economic conditions deteriorate at all, I think he's done.
"If they pick up significantly in the first quarter ? I don't know what that is, but something that is tangible for middle-class America ? he probably gets re-elected," Anderson said.
The White House is ready to have the president maintain a high economic profile, showcasing his bailout of the auto industry as a concrete example of an administration policy that saved job. Beyond that, Obama's team wants to portray the president as a champion of the middle class.
"The battle is really over the long term because the Republicans have a fundamental theory that we can cut our way to prosperity ? cut taxes for the wealthy, cut regulations, especially for Wall Street, and the economy will flourish," Axelrod said. "We've tested that theory and it failed. Badly."
"This notion that he's been there, we should fire him and we should go back to what we were doing before the crisis is not a very strong argument," Axelrod said. "And obviously to the degree that the economy improves it becomes less of an argument."
Still, even economists friendly to the administration see contradictory signals in the end-of-year upswing.
On the positive side, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits has dropped to the lowest level since April 2008. At the same time, November's dip in unemployment from 9 percent to 8.6 percent was partly the result of frustrated workers leaving the labor force and no longer looking to be hired. The private sector is hiring, but states, school districts and local municipalities are shedding jobs. Also, despite an increase in consumer spending, Americans are not seeing real income growth.
"For every positive indicator, there is an indicator on the other side that's worrisome," said Jared Bernstein, former chief economist to Vice President Joe Biden who's now with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics whose data is often cited by Democrats and Republicans, said that for all the encouraging signs, the economy still faces drags. That includes deficit reduction measures that helped reduce the debt in the long term but could cost the economy 1 percentage point in growth next year.
Washington politics poses its own challenges.
"I don't think 2012 is going to be a break out year for the economy," he said. "It is an election year and there is going to be a fair amount of political acrimony back and forth. People in business are already on edge. It doesn't take a lot for them to remain anxious and nervous."
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Ringing in the New Year in the Big Apple
NEW YORK, NY (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - It's said to be the biggest party in the world. Crowds waited in position all day Saturday so they?d be in the perfect place to watch the iconic ball drop in New York?s Times Square.
FOX 25?s Elizabeth Hopkins checked in with Robert Moses from WNYW less than two hours before the city erupted with cheers as 2011 came to a close.
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
TheaGood: Will Google, Amazon, And Facebook Black Out The Net? | Fox News http://t.co/F7GICdCI
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A New Era For Social Interest Sites: Twitter, Tumblr And Pinterest Go Big In 2011
One of the most interesting trends in comScore's 2011 social networking report is the new growth of social sites that cater to users' interests, rather than their real-life social graphs. In particular, according to comScore data, microblogging platforms Twitter and Tumblr have had break-out years, and they've been joined by new online pinboard site Pinterest. But all this growth doesn't seem to be coming at the expense of Facebook. That site's traffic growth has only appeared to slow (but not fall) in places where it is running out of new users to add. The site that has been taking a beating is MySpace. It may be that users who previously used that site to express themselves and follow the celebrities they care about are now doing the same thing across these other sites.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/NZyJyIcDU0o/
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