MADRID, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Lionel Messi has rarely been accused of failing to deliver in big games, having scored in two European Cup finals, but after subdued performances against AC Milan and Real Madrid, questions are being asked. The four-times World Player of the Year and leading scorer in one of the greatest club teams of all time, was a shadow of his usual self at the San Siro in a Champions League last-16 first leg last week, when Barcelona slumped to a 2-0 defeat. ...
When Kellee Santiago resigned from her previous gig as president of thatgamecompany, she left behind a job running one of the most highly acclaimed indie game studios in the industry. But she left on a high note, having helped craft Journey -- not just one of the best games of 2012, but a high mark on the medium. Her next move is similarly bold, taking the reins of the Android-powered OUYA console's digital content library as "Head of Developer Relations." On Santiago's LinkedIn profile, she describes her new job as, "curator of content for the games section on OUYA" (among other things); a job she's plenty qualified for given her time on the board of the Indie Fund (an angel investment group of successful indie game devs). "This role seems almost like a logical extension of everything I've done up to this point," Santiago told us in an email interview this afternoon. Indeed it does. In her new role at OUYA, Santiago will be "working with many developers globally and in different capacities," she said, as well as managing the digital library that users at home see.
"I'm very passionate about empowering new voices in game development so we can have more variety in game content -- that's what initially led me to co-founding thatgamecompany, and Indie Fund, and working with the Independent Games Summit, and IndieCade," she added. The job of course includes courting devs, even if that means OUYA assists in the funding and publishing of those devs' games. "OUYA is doing both," Santiago told us -- that's no doubt assisted by the $8.5 million OUYA pulled in during its Kickstarter funding campaign.
Despite her passion for indies, she said there's no "arbitrary restrictions for developing on OUYA," and that her guiding principle is identifying, "developers and content that for whatever reasons wouldn't be able to exist on any other console." In other words, there's no reason one of the biggies -- think EA, Activision, Ubisoft and others -- couldn't get in on the action. Square Enix has already promised a variety of titles, so it seems a given that others will sign on. One developer who's still curiously uncertain about the console, however? Santiago herself. Though she teased on Twitter earlier today that she'll, "still be making stuff, too," and not to worry, she wouldn't offer us any more details about her plans for development on OUYA. Again, it seems a given, but we can't help but want to know more sooner than later.
Feb. 27, 2013 ? Colorful new images chronicle the seasonal stirrings of our salty world: Pulses of freshwater gush from the Amazon River's mouth; an invisible seam divides the salty Arabian Sea from the fresher waters of the Bay of Bengal; a large patch of freshwater appears in the eastern tropical Pacific in the winter. These and other changes in ocean salinity patterns are revealed by the first full year of surface salinity data captured by NASA's Aquarius instrument.
"With a bit more than a year of data, we are seeing some surprising patterns, especially in the tropics," said Aquarius Principal Investigator Gary Lagerloef, of Earth & Space Research in Seattle. "We see features evolve rapidly over time."
Launched June 10, 2011, aboard the Argentine spacecraft Aquarius/Sat?lite de Aplicaciones Cient?ficas (SAC)-D, Aquarius is NASA's first satellite instrument specifically built to study the salt content of ocean surface waters. Salinity variations, one of the main drivers of ocean circulation, are closely connected with the cycling of freshwater around the planet and provide scientists with valuable information on how the changing global climate is altering global rainfall patterns.
The salinity sensor detects the microwave emissivity of the top 1 to 2 centimeters (about an inch) of ocean water -- a physical property that varies depending on temperature and saltiness. The instrument collects data in 386 kilometer-wide (240-mile) swaths in an orbit designed to obtain a complete survey of global salinity of ice-free oceans every seven days.
The Changing Ocean
The animated version of Aquarius' first year of data unveils a world of varying salinity patterns. The Arabian Sea, nestled up against the dry Middle East, appears much saltier than the neighboring Bay of Bengal, which gets showered by intense monsoon rains and receives freshwater discharges from the Ganges and other large rivers. Another mighty river, the Amazon, releases a large freshwater plume that heads east toward Africa or bends up north to the Caribbean, depending on the prevailing seasonal currents. Pools of freshwater carried by ocean currents from the central Pacific Ocean's regions of heavy rainfall pile up next to Panama's coast, while the Mediterranean Sea sticks out in the Aquarius maps as a very salty sea.
One of the features that stand out most clearly is a large patch of highly saline water across the North Atlantic. This area, the saltiest anywhere in the open ocean, is analogous to deserts on land, where little rainfall and a lot of evaporation occur. A NASA-funded expedition, the Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS), traveled to the North Atlantic's saltiest spot last fall to analyze the causes behind this high salt concentration and to validate Aquarius measurements.
"My conclusion after five weeks out at sea and analyzing five weekly maps of salinity from Aquarius while we were there was that indeed, the patterns of salinity variation seen from Aquarius and by the ship were similar," said Eric Lindstrom, NASA's physical oceanography program scientist, of NASA Headquarters, Washington, and a participant of the SPURS research cruise.
Future goals
"The Aquarius prime mission is scheduled to run for three years but there is no reason to think that the instrument could not be able to provide valuable data for much longer than that," said Gene Carl Feldman, Aquarius project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The instrument has been performing flawlessly and our colleagues in Argentina are doing a fantastic job running the spacecraft, providing us a nice, stable ride."
In future years, one of the main goals of the Aquarius team is to figure out ways to fine-tune the readings and retrieve data closer to the coasts and the poles. Land and ice emit very bright microwave emissions that swamp the signal read by the satellite. At the poles, there's the added complication that cold polar waters require very large changes in their salt concentration to modify their microwave signal.
Still, the Aquarius team was surprised by how close to the coast the instrument is already able to collect salinity measurements.
"The fact that we're getting areas, particularly around islands in the Pacific, that are not obviously badly contaminated is pretty remarkable. It says that our ability to screen out land contamination seems to be working quite well," Feldman said.
Another factor that affects salinity readings is intense rainfall. Heavy rain can affect salinity readings by attenuating the microwave signal Aquarius reads off the ocean surface as it travels through the soaked atmosphere. Rainfall can also create roughness and shallow pools of fresh water on the ocean surface. In the future, the Aquarius team wants to use another instrument aboard Aquarius/SAC-D, the Argentine-built Microwave Radiometer, to gauge the presence of intense rain simultaneously to salinity readings, so that scientists can flag data collected during heavy rainfall.
An ultimate goal is combining the Aquarius measurements to those of its European counterpart, the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite (SMOS) to produce more accurate and finer maps of ocean salinity. In addition, the Aquarius team, in collaboration with researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is about to release its first global soil moisture dataset, which will complement SMOS' soil moisture measurements.
"The first year of the Aquarius mission has mostly been about understanding how the instruments and algorithms are performing," Feldman said. "Now that we have overcome the major hurdles, we can really begin to focus on understanding what the data are telling us about how the ocean works, how it affects weather and climate, and what new insights we can gain by having these remarkable salinity measurements."
Aquarius was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Goddard. JPL managed Aquarius through its commissioning phase and is archiving mission data. Goddard now manages Aquarius mission operations and processes science data. Argentina's space agency, Comisi?n Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), provided the SAC-D spacecraft, optical camera, thermal camera with Canada, microwave radiometer, sensors from various Argentine institutions and the mission operations center. France and Italy also contributed instruments.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Orders for U.S. factory goods that signal business investment plans jumped last month by the most in more than a year, suggesting companies are confident about their business prospects.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that orders for so-called core capital goods, which include industrial machinery, construction equipment and computers, rose 6.3 percent in January from December. A sharp fall in demand for commercial aircraft caused overall durable goods orders to drop 5.2 percent, the first decline since August.
Orders for commercial aircraft are volatile from month to month and can cause large swings in the overall figure. Boeing reported orders for only two planes in January, down from 183 in December. Orders for defense equipment also plummeted by the most in more than 12 years.
Durable goods are items expected to last at least three years.
The increase in core capital goods suggests companies are willing to expand their production capacities despite worries that automatic government spending cuts will slow the economy in the coming months.
"The fact remains that capital spending appears to be holding up very well," Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG, a brokerage firm. "In fact, it appears to be accelerating."
Still, the jump in orders wasn't broad-based and occurred mostly in machinery and manufactured metal products. Orders for computers and communications equipment both fell and orders for autos and auto parts were unchanged.
About $85 billion in spending cuts are scheduled to kick in Friday and there is little sign that the White House and Congress will reach a deal to avoid them. Defense Department officials may have slowed purchases in January in anticipation of the cutbacks.
Business investment plans have held up in recent months despite the uncertainty surrounding tax and spending policies. Core capital goods orders dipped 0.3 percent in December but posted strong gains of 3.3 percent in November and 3 percent in October.
The report suggests U.S. manufacturing is strengthening. The Institute for Supply Management said earlier this month that factory activity grew in January at the fastest pace in nine months. Measures of new orders and hiring both rose.
But industrial production fell in January after two months of increases, the Federal Reserve said. Much of the decline reflected a big drop in auto production that was likely temporary. The auto industry is coming off its best year for sales in five years. Sales continue to rise, so production will likely rebound in February.
Joss Whedon's cult favorite "Firefly" may have only been on air for a brief period, but judging by how often Whedon and the show's cast still bring it up, hope for a revival is never far from fans' minds -- especially in the age of the Netflix rescue of "Arrested Development."
When The Huffington Post visited the "Castle" set for the celebration of the show's 100th episode (airing Monday, April 1 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC) we couldn't resist asking star Nathan Fillion about his thoughts on a potential "Firefly" revival, as well as what's on the horizon for his other collaboration with Whedon -- a "Dr. Horrible" sequel.
"We talk about it, we dream about it. I don't think you could find a cast member, a writer, a director, any of the crew who'd say, 'No, I'm out,'" Fillion admitted of "Firefly." "People are pretty busy right now, Alan [Tudyk] is always working, and obviously Joss is pretty busy. But that would be something that I would do again in a heartbeat. There's something about 'Firefly' -- it was my first love. So if you get a chance to go back to your very first love, you'll do it, right?"
Regarding "Firefly," Whedon recently told the Toronto Sun: "I'll never really accept [that it ended]. And I always, in the back of my head, think, 'What if I could get the old gang back together? ... It's something I would love to do."
The closest the team has gotten so far has been a 10th anniversary reunion panel at Comic-Con, as well as a Science channel special, and Fillion and "Firely alum" Gina Torres reuniting on "Castle" when the actress earned a guest-starring role.
The news was a little more positive for "Dr. Horrible," in which Fillion co-starred as the egotistical Captain Hammer opposite Neil Patrick Harris' titular villain. "We're talking about doing another one; there are plans to do another one; we've done everything but set a date and actually do it ... we haven't really done it. But everybody's in. There's all these ideas flying around, there's plans -- there's, 'Oh, what if we did this?'; 'Oh, that'd be fun! And then after that we can ... '; 'And we did this last time so we'll do this this time ... ' There's those kinds of plans, but we don't have any dates or anything set yet."
Would you watch a "Firefly" revival? Do you think it will ever happen? Weigh in below!
Check back with The Huffington Post for more with Fillion and the rest of the "Castle" cast closer to the 100th episode on April 1.
"Castle" airs Mondays at 10 p.m. EST on ABC.
Joshua Jackson, Michelle Williams & Katie Holmes On "Don't Trust The B---- In Apartment 23"
While we're very excited to see Busy Philipps and James Van Der Beek back together on the ABC comedy, a "Dawson's Creek" reunion is just not the same with the rest of the gang. Van Der Beek, Jackson and Williams have been teasing a reunion for a while now, but Holmes seemed iffy. However, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/katie-holmes-dawsons-creek-reunion-tom-cruise_n_1647000.html" target="_hplink">after her divorce from Tom Cruise, it was reported that he was the one who didn't want the Capeside crew to reconnect</a>. But now that Holmes is a single lady, someone needs to get this started!
Christina Applegate On "Modern Family"
It would be heartwarming to see the "Married With Children" father and daughter reunited on "Modern Family" after all these years. Maybe Applegate could make a cameo as a wacky cousin from Jay's ex-wife's Dede's side of the family.
Elizabeth Berkley and Lark Voorhies on "White Collar"
It's beyond time the ladies of "Saved by the Bell" reunite. Elizabeth Burke's (Tiffani Thiessen) high school friends (Elizabeth Berkley and Lark Voorhies) come calling and need the FBI's help. Good thing Peter and Neal are available.
John Stamos On "90210"
Uncle Jessie and Aunt Becky back together again? Yes please! "90210" could stage a full-blown "Full House" reunion with Lori Loughlin making an appearance. Why not have John Stamos play her new love interest?
Sarah Michelle Gellar On "Bones"
Before Stefan/Elena/Damon, Bill/Sookie/Eric or Edward/Bella, there was Buffy and Angel, the couple who made dating a bloodsucker look glamorous and tragic way before those copycats. Nowadays, David Boreanaz has traded in his fangs for an FBI badge on "Bones," but we'd still like to see SMG swooping in to try and seduce him while Brennan's on the lam, or at least commenting how good he looks with a tan, next season.
James Franco On "Cougar Town"
James Franco is long overdue to reunite with his bad-girl "Freaks And Geeks" co-star Busy Phillips, and Laurie (Busy's character) could use a tall, dark handsome stranger in her life. Let's bring back Daniel and Kim!
Tom Hanks On "Girls"
On the upcoming season of "Girls," "Bosom Buddies" alum Tom Hanks could show up as Hannah's dad's (Peter Scolari) old friend from college who Hannah develops an irrational crush on. Papa Horvath needs his bosom buddy!
Max Casella on "How I Met Your Mother"
"Doogie Howser, M.D." veterans gotta stick together. Max Casella could pop up on "How I Met Your Mother" as a doctor Barney turns to when the threat of an STI rears its ugly head.
Jared Leto On "Homeland"
There's no time like the present for Jordan Catalano to make a comeback, and where better to do it than in his "My So-Called Life" co-star Claire Danes' hit show? Leto can play eccentric pretty well, so we suggest Leto should appear as a fellow psychiatric patient Carrie meets following her ECT therapy -- she already has a great track record with dating unstable guys.
Fred Savage On "Sullivan & Son"
Dan Lauria plays Steve Sullivan's father on the new TBS bar comedy "Sullivan & Son." You know what'd be funny? If Lauria's other TV son, Fred Savage from "The Wonder Years," showed up in a cameo as a drunk, rowdy customer who had to be thrown out of their establishment.
Jurnee Smollett on "Baby Daddy"
It's been a few years, but we bet Michelle Tanner's "Full House" BFFs still keep in touch. Jurnee Smollett could pop up on "Baby Daddy" as Tucker's (Tahj Mowry) old flame. Could it be rekindled?
Jaleel White On "Hart Of Dixie"
Reginald VelJohnson -- the artist formerly known as Carl Winslow from "Family Matters" -- plays Bluebell, AL theatre expert Dash DeWitt on "Hart of Dixie." He runs an arts blog on the town's website, and do you know what every local theatre blog needs? A nerdy intern, preferably played by Jaleel White. Make it happen, CW.
Mario Lopez On "Franklin & Bash"
We think Mario Lopez should take a break from hosting and return to his perfectly permed roots by reuniting with "Saved By The Bell" BFFrenemy Mark-Paul Gosselaar. The erstwhile A.C. Slater could turn up as a client for Gosselaar's Peter Bash, or continue that antagonistic streak by appearing as a law school rival with an ax to grind.
Judith Light On "Mistresses"
Remember the ladies of "Who's the Boss?" Alyssa Milano starred as a housekeeper's (Tony Danza) daughter and Judith Light was the matriarch of the family they lived with and are employed by -- Milano's new series "Mistresses" seems like the perfect opportunity to find a brand new TV reunion around the bend. Light, who recurs on "Law & Order: SVU," could play a legendary famous mistress who helps Milano and the other newbies get through their experiences ... or, she could play the mother of one of the cheating men, who blames it all on his mistress.
Kel Mitchell On "Saturday Night Live"
When "Kenan & Kel" returned to TeenNick and Kenan hosted its opening night on the orange couch, #WheresKel was trending on Twitter. Kenan, an "SNL" cast member, has maintained a steady career after the success of their show and "Good Burger," but we haven't seen much of Kel lately -- he's done a lot of voice work in the past decade and has stuck to the kid market, guest-starring on Disney's "Good Luck Charlie." But maybe it's time for Kel to grow up and reunite with Kenan on "SNL." Will the orange soda jokes translate?
As timely updates go, this one's a bit long in the tooth. After introducing its Cloud Player for iOS to the iPhone and iPod touch last summer, Amazon's finally gotten around to rolling out a version for iPad owners. The updated app, which is seeing a version bump to 2.0, now sports a tweaked UI and a cache size management tool. Other than that, it's still the same "free" streaming music service, offering 5GB of complementary storage, access to Amazon mp3 purchases (AutoRip CDs included) and any AAC-tracks from your current iTunes library. You can grab it now at the source below. Go ahead, it might mend Norah's little broken heart(s).
Beer lovers across the country have filed $5 million class-action lawsuits accusing Anheuser-Busch of watering down its Budweiser, Michelob and other brands.
The suits were filed in Pennsylvania, California and other states on behalf of consumers allegedly cheated out of the beverage's stated alcohol content. Budweiser and Michelob each boast being 5 percent alcohol, while some "light" versions are said to be just over 4 percent.
Lead lawyer Josh Boxer of San Rafael, Calif., said Tuesday the suits are based on information from former employees at some of the company's 13 U.S. breweries. Boxer said water is added just before bottling, and cuts the stated alcohol content by 3 to 8 percent.
The claims against Anheuser-Busch are ?completely false,? Peter Kraemer, the company?s vice president of brewing and supply, said in an e-mail to Bloomberg.com.
?Our beers are in full compliance with all alcohol labeling laws,? Kraemer said. ?We proudly adhere to the highest standards in brewing our beers, which have made them the best-selling in the U.S. and the world.?
You?ve made your picks for the Sweet Sistine, right? If you haven?t, check out the RNS papal brackets.
(Papal basketball fun fact: Pope John Paul II was an honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters. True.)
This is a brutal tourney. Just look what happened to Scottish Cardinal Keith O?Brien. Had to resign after sex-abuse allegations.? . . . . And then there were 115. (Cardinals of voting age in the conclave.)
Picking the pope ain?t for the faint-hearted, David Gibson explains.
It?s also not for the tardy. Cardinals who have not already booked their flights to Rome better hurry up, as Benedict XVI, who resigns on Thursday, has decided to allow the College of Cardinals to waive the usually required 15-20 day waiting period between the end of the pontificate and the beginning of the conclave.
Benedict will be ?His Holiness Benedict XVI, Roman pontiff emeritus? in retirement. He gets to keep the cassock, but will lose the red shoes.
Benedict?s critics say he leaves a holy mess at the Vatican.
For the new pope?s eyes only: the Vatileaks investigation report.
Send peanut butter, says New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, if the conclave meets past Palm Sunday.
Read the rest of the roundup?for the latest in other religion news, such as apologies -- including the one Fox News made to Wiccans.
Google's Nexus One has dreamt of space travel for a while now, but on Monday it was finally launched into orbit aboard a CubeSat dubbed STRaND-1, which was developed by Surrey Satellite Technology and the University of Surrey's Surrey Space Centre. STRaND-1 now holds the honor of being the first PhoneSat and UK CubeSat that has made it into orbit. Alongside the HTC-made handset are an altitude and orbit control system, two propulsion setups and a Linux-based computer with a "high-speed" processor. After the Tux-friendly rig conducts a battery of tests, it'll relinquish control of much of the satellite's functions to the smartphone, which still runs Android.
Not only will the mission test how commercial, off-the-shelf tech can survive in the vacuum and conduct experiments, but it'll squeeze in some fun courtesy of apps developed by winners of a competition held last year. An app called 360 will let folks back on terra firma request their own snapshots of earth taken with the phone's shooter and pin them to a map. Ridley Scott might like to say no one can hear you scream in space, but another application loaded onto the device will put that to the test by playing user-submitted shrieks and recording them with the handset's microphone as they playback. Hit the break for more details and a brief video overview of the satellite, or jab the more coverage links to partake in the app shenanigans.
Study reveals stem cells in a human parasitePublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Diana Yates diya@illinois.edu 217-333-5802 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, lll. From the point of view of its ultimate (human) host, the parasitic flatworm Schistosoma mansoni has a gruesome way of life. It hatches in feces-tainted water, grows into a larva in the body of a snail and then burrows through human skin to take up residence in the veins. Once there, it grows into an adult, mates and, if it's female, starts laying eggs. It can remain in the body for decades.
A new study offers insight into the cellular operations that give this flatworm its extraordinary staying power. The researchers, from the University of Illinois, demonstrated for the first time that S. mansoni harbors adult, non-sexual stem cells that can migrate to various parts of its body and replenish tissues. Their report appears in the journal Nature.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 230 million people are in need of treatment for Schistosoma infections every year. Most live in impoverished areas with little or no access to clean water. Infection with the worm (also known as a blood fluke) can lead to damaging inflammation spurred by the presence of the worm's eggs in human organs and tissues.
"The female lays eggs more or less continuously, on the order of hundreds of eggs per day," said U. of I. cell and developmental biology professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Phillip Newmark, who led the study with postdoctoral researcher James J. Collins III.
"The eggs that don't get excreted in the feces to continue the life cycle actually become embedded inside host tissues, typically the liver, and those eggs trigger a massive inflammatory response that leads to tissue damage."
Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of infection, in some cases experiencing delays in growth and brain development as a result of chronic inflammation brought on by the parasites.
The new study began with an insight stemming from years of work on a different flatworm, the planarian, in Newmark's lab. Collins thought that schistosomes might make use of the same kinds of stem cells (called neoblasts in planarians) that allow planarians to regenerate new body parts and organs from even tiny fragments of living tissue.
"It just stood to reason that since schistosomes, like planaria, live so long that they must have a comparable type of system," Collins said. "And since these flatworms are related, it made sense that they would have similar types of cells. But it had never been shown."
In a series of experiments, Collins found that the schistosomes were loaded with proliferating cells that looked and behaved like planarian neoblasts, the cells that give them their amazing powers of regeneration. Like neoblasts, the undifferentiated cells in the schistosomes lived in the mesenchyme, a kind of loose connective tissue that surrounds the organs. And like neoblasts, these cells duplicated their DNA and divided to form two "daughter" cells, one of which copied its DNA again, a process that normally precedes cell division.
"Stem cells do two things," Newmark said. "They divide to make more stem cells and they give rise to cells that can differentiate."
Collins had labeled the cells with fluorescent markers. This allowed him to watch how they behaved. He noted that over the course of a few days, some of the labeled cells migrated into the gut or muscle, to become part of those tissues.
"We label the cells when they're born and then we see what they grow up to become," Collins said. "This is not conclusive evidence that these cells are equivalent to the planarian neoblasts, but it is consistent with the hypothesis that they are."
The researchers went deeper, determining which genes were turned on or off, up or down in the proliferating cells as compared with the non-dividing cells. They identified a gene in the proliferating cells that coded for a growth factor receptor very similar to one found in planarians. When the researchers switched off the parasite's ability to make use of this gene (using a technique called RNA interference in worms grown in the lab), the proliferating cells gradually died out.
"We postulated that these cells are important for the longevity of the parasite," Collins said. "Now we can start asking which genes regulate these cells."
"We started with the big question: How does a simple parasite survive in a host for decades?" Newmark said. "That implies that it has ways of repairing and maintaining its tissues. This study gives us insight into the really interesting biology of these parasites, and it may also open up new doors for making that life cycle a lot shorter."
###
Editor's note: To reach Phillip Newmark, call 217-244-4674; email pnewmark@illinois.edu. To reach Jim Collins, call 217-244-4504; email collinjj@life.illinois.edu.
The paper, "Adult Somatic Stem Cells in the Human Parasite, Schistosoma mansoni," is available online and to the media from the U. of I. News Bureau.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Study reveals stem cells in a human parasitePublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Diana Yates diya@illinois.edu 217-333-5802 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, lll. From the point of view of its ultimate (human) host, the parasitic flatworm Schistosoma mansoni has a gruesome way of life. It hatches in feces-tainted water, grows into a larva in the body of a snail and then burrows through human skin to take up residence in the veins. Once there, it grows into an adult, mates and, if it's female, starts laying eggs. It can remain in the body for decades.
A new study offers insight into the cellular operations that give this flatworm its extraordinary staying power. The researchers, from the University of Illinois, demonstrated for the first time that S. mansoni harbors adult, non-sexual stem cells that can migrate to various parts of its body and replenish tissues. Their report appears in the journal Nature.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 230 million people are in need of treatment for Schistosoma infections every year. Most live in impoverished areas with little or no access to clean water. Infection with the worm (also known as a blood fluke) can lead to damaging inflammation spurred by the presence of the worm's eggs in human organs and tissues.
"The female lays eggs more or less continuously, on the order of hundreds of eggs per day," said U. of I. cell and developmental biology professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Phillip Newmark, who led the study with postdoctoral researcher James J. Collins III.
"The eggs that don't get excreted in the feces to continue the life cycle actually become embedded inside host tissues, typically the liver, and those eggs trigger a massive inflammatory response that leads to tissue damage."
Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of infection, in some cases experiencing delays in growth and brain development as a result of chronic inflammation brought on by the parasites.
The new study began with an insight stemming from years of work on a different flatworm, the planarian, in Newmark's lab. Collins thought that schistosomes might make use of the same kinds of stem cells (called neoblasts in planarians) that allow planarians to regenerate new body parts and organs from even tiny fragments of living tissue.
"It just stood to reason that since schistosomes, like planaria, live so long that they must have a comparable type of system," Collins said. "And since these flatworms are related, it made sense that they would have similar types of cells. But it had never been shown."
In a series of experiments, Collins found that the schistosomes were loaded with proliferating cells that looked and behaved like planarian neoblasts, the cells that give them their amazing powers of regeneration. Like neoblasts, the undifferentiated cells in the schistosomes lived in the mesenchyme, a kind of loose connective tissue that surrounds the organs. And like neoblasts, these cells duplicated their DNA and divided to form two "daughter" cells, one of which copied its DNA again, a process that normally precedes cell division.
"Stem cells do two things," Newmark said. "They divide to make more stem cells and they give rise to cells that can differentiate."
Collins had labeled the cells with fluorescent markers. This allowed him to watch how they behaved. He noted that over the course of a few days, some of the labeled cells migrated into the gut or muscle, to become part of those tissues.
"We label the cells when they're born and then we see what they grow up to become," Collins said. "This is not conclusive evidence that these cells are equivalent to the planarian neoblasts, but it is consistent with the hypothesis that they are."
The researchers went deeper, determining which genes were turned on or off, up or down in the proliferating cells as compared with the non-dividing cells. They identified a gene in the proliferating cells that coded for a growth factor receptor very similar to one found in planarians. When the researchers switched off the parasite's ability to make use of this gene (using a technique called RNA interference in worms grown in the lab), the proliferating cells gradually died out.
"We postulated that these cells are important for the longevity of the parasite," Collins said. "Now we can start asking which genes regulate these cells."
"We started with the big question: How does a simple parasite survive in a host for decades?" Newmark said. "That implies that it has ways of repairing and maintaining its tissues. This study gives us insight into the really interesting biology of these parasites, and it may also open up new doors for making that life cycle a lot shorter."
###
Editor's note: To reach Phillip Newmark, call 217-244-4674; email pnewmark@illinois.edu. To reach Jim Collins, call 217-244-4504; email collinjj@life.illinois.edu.
The paper, "Adult Somatic Stem Cells in the Human Parasite, Schistosoma mansoni," is available online and to the media from the U. of I. News Bureau.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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This is Legonardo, an automaton capable of drawing portraits. Obviously, it doesn't have the complex clockwork used by automatons of old, like its Swiss counterpart made by Pierre Jacquet-Droz and Henri Maillardet in the 18th century. But it's pretty neat anyway. More »
Question: I'm getting ready to do my taxes soon and would like to know if there are any good mobile apps or websites that will make this less painful and stressful (besides the obvious tax prep tools, of course). Help me get all the stuff I need organized!
Answer: Ah, tax season. Just the thought of it gives some of us headaches. The good news is there are lots of free and inexpensive apps and tools that can greatly simplify this awful process, from getting organized to filing your return. Here's what we recommend.
Get your tax documents in order
If you have an uncomplicated return (one W2, for example, and take the standard deduction), congratulations: You don't have to worry much about organizing your tax records. For everyone else, though, managing the piles of receipts and other documents is a big part of the pain. Several apps can help with that.
Evernote: The Swiss Army knife of note taking and capture tools, Evernote excels at keeping your documents categorized into notebooks. You can set up a tax notebook and then either sub-notebooks or tags for different categories like income statements, interest earned, charitable contributions, and the like. Combine Evernote with compact scanner Doxie or ScanSnap, and you can quickly file your receipts in Evernote. Another strategy is to use webapp automation serviceIFTTT to automatically send any emails you tag in Gmail with a tax label to your Evernote tax notebook. Handy!
Shoeboxed: If scanning and managing all those papers isn't your thing, take a look at receipt scanning solution Shoeboxed. As we've previously mentioned, you can mail, email, or upload your receipts to Shoeboxed and they'll OCR and categorize the documents for you. You can export those receipts to popular tax programs, as well as Evernote, and mobile apps are available. A free account lets you store 5 documents per month, while premium plans starting at $9.95 give you more capacity.
Slice: Slice is a brilliant receipt and package tracking webapp and mobile app. It scans your Gmail for receipts and gives you an overview of your entire purchase history. Last year, I used the convenient listing to find tax-deductible receipts I had forgotten about.
Expensify (pictured right): If you can take deductible expenses like car mileage and meals and entertainment expenses when you travel for business, Expensify has your back. The mobile apps and web receipts extension capture all those stray receipts and attachments and can turn them into IRS-approved eReceipts. It's a great app for independent contractors.
Your personal finance program and financial accounts: Of course, don't forget to consult your personal finance tool, such as popular Mint or Quicken to see spending by category and find all those deductible expenses. Both can port your information to TurboTax.
Also, your year-end statements from your credit card or bank can also come in handy if you're hunting down your tax-related expenses. (American Express has an awesome searchable and sortable view of statements by category.)
TaxCaster by TurboTax (pictured right): Want a sneak peek at how much of a refund (or tax bill) you'll get this year? This free tax refund calculator will estimate your taxes based on your quick inputs. It's available online, for Android, and for iOS.
Bloomberg BNA Quick Tax Reference: This app for Android,iPhone, and BlackBerry gives you instant access to tax rates and other handy information, such as IRA limits, mileage rates, and more. It's developed for financial professionals, but also offers useful tools like quickly calculating your total tax.
TaxACT Central: A companion app to the popular, free tax filing service, TaxACT Central can answer your tax questions and keep you organized, with a convenient checklist of what you need to file. You don't have to use TaxACT for filing to make use of the Android or iPhone app.
File your taxes and monitor your refund
We generally recommend going to a tax professional unless you have a very simple return. If yours isn't complicated, though, mobile and desktop apps can streamline filing your return and tracking your refund.
TurboTax SnapTax (pictured right): You can file your taxes in as little as ten minutes using this simple Android and iPhone app. Snap a photo of your W2, answer a few questions, and file right from the phone or online. (Isn't the future great?) This app is only for those who: make under $100,000 ($120,000 if married); only have W2, interest, or unemployment income; and don't own a home. Free to try, but $24.99 to file both federal and state.
H&R Block also offers mobile tax apps. The 1040EZ for Smartphone prepares your simple federal and state returns for free on Android and iPhone. There's also a iPad app not limited to 1040EZ returns, with free federal filing for simple returns and an additional fee for state filing.
Of course, both of these tax services (and many others) have desktop and/or webapps. Not all tax preparation software will give you the same results, though.ConsumerSearch has rounded up reviews of the top four tax prep applications, and Get Rich Slowly has an excellent (yet older) price comparison of these solutions and services.
IRS2Go: From Uncle Sam himself, IRS2Go doesn't let you file taxes from the Android oriPhone apps, but you can check the status of your refund, get tax law updates, request a copy of your tax records in the mail, and watch IRS YouTube videos. (Perhaps not the most exciting download, but we are talking about the IRS and taxes here.)
Grab these apps and put them in a new tax organization folder and you'll be set for this tax season and beyond.
Feb. 24, 2013 ? Cancer is characterized by uncontrolled cell division and growth. In order to identify new therapeutic targets through which to tackle the disease, scientists seek to clarify the mechanisms that control the expression of genes that favor the development of tumors, in processes such as uncontrolled cell division. Nature has just published a paper by the lab headed by Ra?l M?ndez, ICREA professor at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona). The study describes a mechanism controlled by the CPEB1 protein that affects more than 200 genes related to cell proliferation and tumor progression. The mechanism, which was discovered using Hodgkin lymphoma cells, has been proposed as a general regulatory system that enhances the spread of cancer.
The researchers describe that CPEB1 shortens a highly specific region of RNAs (RNAs are the molecules that carry gene information for protein synthesis). This region holds most of the signals that determine whether an RNA molecule is made into a protein or not. "CPEB1 "takes off the brakes" for hundreds of RNAs that stimulate cell desdifferentiation and proliferation, allowing them to be made into proteins; however, in addition to removing the brakes in the nucleus, this protein accompanies RNA to the cytoplasm, where it speeds up the production of these proteins," explains the senior author of the paper Ra?l M?ndez, head of the "Translational control of cell cycle and differentiation" group at IRB Barcelona.
Ra?l M?ndez is an expert on the CPBE protein family, a type of RNA-binding protein that has a positive and crucial role in early embryo development. "CPEB proteins are necessary during development and also during tissue regeneration via stem cells in adults, but if the programme governed by CPEBs is continually switched on, cells divide when they are not supposed to and form a tumor," explains M?ndez. The CPEB family comprises four proteins, which compensate each other's normal function but which have specific activities in diseased states. "This finding is positive from a therapeutic viewpoint because it means that if you remove CPEB1 from healthy cells, its function can be taken over by any other CPEB protein. In contrast, in tumors only CPEB1 has the capacity to shorten these regions, thus affecting only tumor cells," states Italian researcher Felice Alessio Bava, first author of the paper, and post-doctoral fellow with M?ndez's group who, this year, has obtained his doctorate degree through the "la Caixa" International Fellowship Programme. This study provides further evidence of the potential of CPEB proteins as therapeutic targets. In 2011, in a study published in Nature Medicine, M?ndez identified that CPEB4 "switches on" hundreds of genes linked to tumor growth. This new study explains that the overexpression of CPEB4 in tumors is because CPEB1 has also "released its brakes." "The fact that these proteins control each other is also advantageous from a therapeutic point of view," asserts M?ndez, "because partial inhibition, by a drug, would be amplified, thus allowing tumor cell reprogramming. The amplification should make it easier to find a viable compound."
The lab has developed a system to screen therapeutic molecules for a drug that can inhibit the action of CPEB in tumors while having few secondary effects on healthy cells. "There is no drug currently available that influences the regulation of gene expression at this level. Our findings open up a pioneering therapeutic window. We are optimistic about the potential of CPEB proteins as targets," says M?ndez.
The action of CPEB proteins should be considered in the design of other therapeutic strategies
The study published in Nature includes a meticulous genomic analysis of RNA molecules that are processed in different ways depending on whether CPBE1 is present. The study provides a list of between 200 and 300 of such genes, that is to say, those that would have the region holding regulatory signals removed. This is precisely the region where microRNAs -- small molecules regulating the translation of this RNA to protein -- bind. "Many antitumor therapies attempt to interfere with microRNA binding, but we have now revealed that CPEB proteins remove these regions beforehand. The pharmaceutical companies that are developing such compounds will be able to predict whether their targets are suitable approaches or not," explains the scientist.
The study has involved the collaboration of the group led by Juan Valc?rcel at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), an expert in RNA nuclear processing, and that of Roderic Guig?, an expert in biostatistics and also at CRG. This study received funding from the Consolider RNAreg consortium of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competition and the Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Felice-Alessio Bava, Carolina Eliscovich, Pedro G. Ferreira, Belen Mi?ana, Claudia Ben-Dov, Roderic Guig?, Juan Valc?rcel, Ra?l M?ndez. CPEB1 coordinates alternative 3?-UTR formation with translational regulation. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11901
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.
Ahead of annual, routine military exercises between South Korea and the United States, North Korea issued its usual caustic objections Saturday.
It threatened "miserable destruction," if "your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises ... at this dangerous time."
Though customary, the stark posturing by North Korea stands in the shadow of an underground nuclear test two weeks ago that was preceded by the launch of a long-range missile capable of transporting a warhead.
The detonation of the nuclear charge was the third in Pyongyang's history and the first under supreme leader Kim Jong Un's rule. South Korea's military reacted with fierce military drills, including a public display of newly deployed cruise missiles with pinpoint accuracy.
It has been on heightened readiness ever since.
The test also triggered a global wave of condemnation, including from Beijing, and plans for new sanctions against Pyongyang.
North Korea issued the objections to exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle scheduled for March and April to U.S. commander James D. Sherman, state run news agency KCNA reported.
The message was delivered over the phone in English, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
It also condemned the threat of new sanctions over North Korea's recent actions.
A United Nations military commission informed Pyongyang of the upcoming routine exercises, according to a joint statement from U.S. and South Korean military officials.
The commission also told North Korea that they are "not related with the current situations on the Korean Peninsula."
Around 10,000 U.S. forces will participate in Foal Eagle from March 1 to April 30. Key Resolve will involve 10,000 South Korean troops and 3,500 U.S. troops in exercises March 11 to 21.
Key Resolve will include U.N. troops and neutral supervisors.
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- For the first time, women stood on the scales to weigh in for a UFC bout. Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and challenger Liz Carmouche both made weight in an uneventful weigh-in on Friday afternoon at the Honda Center.
Michael Chiesa came in slightly over weight but the athletic commission let the small overage slide. Nah-Shon Burrell was significantly overweight and will forfeit 20 percent of his purse to his opponent. Here are complete weigh-in results, thanks to MMA Junkie.
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET) ? Champ Ronda Rousey (134.6) vs. Liz Carmouche (133.6) - for women's bantamweight title ? Dan Henderson (205) vs. Lyoto Machida (202) ? Urijah Faber (136) vs. Ivan Menjivar (135.6) ? Court McGee (170) vs. Josh Neer (171) ? Josh Koscheck (171) vs. Robbie Lawler (171) PRELIMINARY CARD (FX, 8 p.m. ET) ? Lavar Johnson (255) vs. Brendan Schaub (243) ? Mike Chiesa (156.2) vs. Anton Kuivanen (156) ? Dennis Bermudez (145) vs. Matt Grice (145) ? Caros Fodor (155) vs. Sam Stout (155) PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 6:30 p.m. ET) ? Brock Jardine (170) vs. Kenny Robertson (170) ? Neil Magny (171) vs. Jon Manley (171) ? Nah-Shon Burrell (175.8) vs. Yuri Villefort (170)
Author: Robert Strong | Total views: 200 Comments: 0 Word Count: 873 Date:
With the growing powers and capabilities of the internet and smart phones, businesses are less and less needing to be centered in an office setting. Many businesses now are operated from home. This can be advantageous in so many ways. This article will offer some tips about being a home businesses operator.
Running your home based business is a challenge, it is important to reward yourself so you will stay motivated. For instance, for every work related task that you complete from your list, you could reward yourself with fifteen minutes of non work activities. This will help to keep you focused and motivated.
Ensure that your home business is properly insured, by discussing the business with an insurance agent. You should also make sure that your home business complies with local zoning laws and city ordinances. You don't want to start a dog care business, if there is a limit to the amount of animals you can have on your property.
Keep an attitude that will bring you success in your home business venture. If you go about your day thinking of your home business as a hobby, you are not going to see the success that you would if you really considered it to be your real job. Keep a business attitude even when your business is in your home.
It is wise to engage the services of a professional accountant early in your home business career. Even the simplest home business owner is in a far more complex tax situation than a salaried employee. A tax expert can ensure that you avoid any pitfalls awaiting you in home business ownership, and make sure you meet all of your tax obligations.
Use a spreadsheet to keep track of your business activity. You can enter mileage, purchases, income and other business related transactions all in one spreadsheet using different columns. Use formulas to run totals on the columns and tax time will not seem quite so threatening.
One way you can keep your home business on track is to set fixed hours for working on it. Running a business out of your home can tempt you to put off your work or prioritize other interests ahead of it. By committing to a relatively inflexible schedule, you can encourage yourself to treat your business professionally.
In order to make your home business successful, make your website attractive. The number one thing a person notices when they click on a website is its design. If the website is too flashy or too plain, it may turn customers off. If you are unsure how to design your website, there are many tools online.
Keep everything you commonly use on your desk or at your workbench within easy reach. That may seem like an obvious tip but if you always have to over extend or even get up from your work area to get something you need then your aren't organizing your area efficiently. Organize according to need.
In order to make a home business successful, your business must be found in the Google search results. Search engine optimization is key in succeeding in today's business world. Many different companies offer tools for search engine optimization, and it is imperative that you employ a few different strategies in order to obtain success.
Leveraging social media for your home business is an absolute must! Both brick-and-mortar stores as well as online-only companies will find that it not only expands your reach but also creates a conversation with your customers. People love it when a company replies to their questions or comments on Twitter or Facebook!
Get your friends and family to promote your home business for you. Give them business cards so they can hand them out to the people they know who might want to use your services. You can even make it a fun game by putting a coupon code on the card which is specific to the individual you give it to, and then the person with the most referrals wins a prize!
Keep your equipment up to date. If you buy equipment that you obviously need for your business, such as office supplies or a computer, you can deduct your expenses from your taxes. To avoid getting in trouble, do not write off expenses that might fit into what you bought for your home rather than your business.
To reduce distractions keep your office off limits to children. Have set work hours that enable you to run your business and still have time for your family. Older children should understand not to disturb you while you are working. For your business to succeed your family needs to be supportive and respectful of your work schedule.
It is extremely important to set up specific space and time to work. When you are interrupted, you must maintain those work-at- home boundaries. With small children, child care is required as if you were not home. As the owner, you don't have any benefits. Sick days, vacations, and paid holidays are a thing of the past.
Read More On Robert Strong site to read more about this blog post Read More And download his video training
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1: Understanding Online Business Success
Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.
2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself
Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.
3: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website
Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.
4: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics
Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."
5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda
If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.
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Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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