Viruses can have immune systems: A pirate phage commandeers the immune system of bacteria

Feb. 27, 2013 ? A study published today in the journal Nature reports that a viral predator of the cholera bacteria has stolen the functional immune system of bacteria and is using it against its bacterial host. The study provides the first evidence that this type of virus, the bacteriophage ("phage" for short), can acquire a wholly functional and adaptive immune system.

The phage used the stolen immune system to disable -- and thus overcome -- the cholera bacteria's defense system against phages. Therefore, the phage can kill the cholera bacteria and multiply to produce more phage offspring, which can then kill more cholera bacteria. The study has dramatic implications for phage therapy, which is the use of phages to treat bacterial diseases. Developing phage therapy is particularly important because some bacteria, called superbugs, are resistant to most or all current antibiotics.

Until now, scientists thought phages existed only as primitive particles of DNA or RNA and therefore lacked the sophistication of an adaptive immune system, which is a system that can respond rapidly to a nearly infinite variety of new challenges. Phages are viruses that prey exclusively on bacteria and each phage is parasitically mated to a specific type of bacteria. This study focused on a phage that attacks Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium responsible for cholera epidemics in humans.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Andrew Camilli, Ph.D., of Tufts University School of Medicine led the research team responsible for the surprising discovery.

First author Kimberley D. Seed, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Camilli's lab, was analyzing DNA sequences of phages taken from stool samples from patients with cholera in Bangladesh when she identified genes for a functional immune system previously found only in some bacteria (and most Archaea, a separate domain of single-celled microorganisms).

To verify the findings, the researchers used phage lacking the adaptive immune system to infect a new strain of cholera bacteria that is naturally resistant to the phage. The phage were unable to adapt to and kill the cholera strain. They next infected the same strain of cholera bacteria with phage harboring the immune system, and observed that the phage rapidly adapted and thus gained the ability to kill the cholera bacteria. This work demonstrates that the immune system harbored by the phage is fully functional and adaptive.

"Virtually all bacteria can be infected by phages. About half of the world's known bacteria have this adaptive immune system, called CRISPR/Cas, which is used primarily to provide immunity against phages. Although this immune system was commandeered by the phage, its origin remains unknown because the cholera bacterium itself currently lacks this system. What is really remarkable is that the immune system is being used by the phage to adapt to and overcome the defense systems of the cholera bacteria. Finding a CRISPR/Cas system in a phage shows that there is gene flow between the phage and bacteria even for something as large and complex as the genes for an adaptive immune system," said Seed.

"The study lends credence to the controversial idea that viruses are living creatures, and bolsters the possibility of using phage therapy to treat bacterial infections, especially those that are resistant to antibiotic treatment," said Camilli, professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and member of the Molecular Microbiology program faculty at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University.

Camilli's previous research established that phages are highly prevalent in stool samples from patients with cholera, implying that phage therapy is happening naturally and could be made more effective. In addition, a study published by Camilli in 2008 determined that phage therapy works in a mouse model of cholera intestinal infection.

The team is currently working on a study to understand precisely how the phage immune system disables the defense systems of the cholera bacteria. This new knowledge will be important for understanding whether the phage's immune system could overcome newly acquired or evolved phage defense systems of the cholera bacteria, and thus has implications for designing an effective and stable phage therapy to combat cholera.

Additional authors are David W. Lazinski, Ph.D., senior research associate in the Camilli lab at Tufts University School of Medicine, and Stephen B. Calderwood, M.D., Morton N. Swartz, M.D. academy professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and chief, division of infectious disease and vice-chair, department of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01AI55058, R01AI045746, and R01AI058935.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Tufts University.

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Journal Reference:

1. Kimberley D. Seed, David W. Lazinski, Stephen B. Calderwood, Andrew Camilli. A bacteriophage encodes its own CRISPR/Cas adaptive response to evade host innate immunity. Nature, 2013; 494 (7438): 489 DOI: 10.1038/nature11927

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/Wyf-HIQF99Q/130227134334.htm

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Maker Business & Manufacturing Software ? Our Tips & Tricks ...

Maker Business & Manufacturing Software ? Our Tips & Tricks @ The Adafruit Learning System.

Adafruit is a high-tech company, run by fairly young people. All of us working here have spend our lives with computers, technology and the Internet. So its not surprising that software and software-as-services (SaaS) are an essential part of running Adafruit. We?re constantly on the lookout for useful new tools that can help Adafruit run effeciently, and cleanly.

Learn more!

Try Adafruit's new iPhone & iPad app for makers! Circuit Playground! "Incredibly handy for anyone working in electronics. Perfect for engineers and non-engineers alike."

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Adafruit has a "be excellent to each other" comment policy. Help us keep the community here positive and helpful. Stick to the topic, be respectful of makers of all ages and skill levels. Be kind, and don't spam - Thank you!

Source: http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/02/28/maker-business-manufacturing-software-our-tips-tricks-the-adafruit-learning-system/

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Swimming in Sperm and Eggs

Sea anemone in?Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, during the 2012 spawning season

Courtesy of Abby Wood

The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, a narrow band of coral stretching from the Yucatan to northern Honduras, hugs the Belizean coastline like a giant parenthesis. In a few places, the main spine of the reef rises above the surface, forming low islands exposed to the wind and waves of the open sea.

One of these islands, 13 miles offshore, houses the Smithsonian Institution?s Carrie Bow Cay Marine Field Station. When I stepped ashore one sweaty evening, the station had an air of cheerful dereliction. Researchers in bikinis and half-zipped wetsuits circled in and out of the bare-bones laboratories. A hand-lettered wooden sign near the station house entry read ?FREE BEER TOMORROW.?

The evening?s task would be delicate, however, and tension was building. It was three days after the full moon, and some of the corals near Carrie Bow were expected to begin their annual spawn once night fell. A team of aquarists and marine scientists had gathered on the island in hopes of collecting sperm and eggs released into the water by endangered coral species.

If all went well, the scientists would each return home with a supply of coral larvae ready to be raised in captivity?and, perhaps, serve as an insurance policy for the Caribbean?s fast-declining reefs. If not ? well, they were trying not to think about that possibility. When it comes to coral, they know they can?t count on much.

On the sandy back steps of the research station, Mary Hagedorn of the Smithsonian sat in front of a picnic table piled with equipment. ?OK, everyone, let?s rehearse,? she said. She turned to Abby Wood, a professional actor who volunteers in the invertebrate department at the National Zoo. ?So I?m a coral,? Hagedorn said, sticking her hands over her head and laughing. ?You?re going to slip the bag over me ??

Wood, a dark-haired 30-year-old with a big, deep voice?she played Tybalt in an all-female production of Romeo and Juliet?pantomimed what Hagedorn and the aquarists hoped would soon happen in the water.

Divers would hitch the silk bags over a few branches of spawning coral, catching the sperm and egg bundles as they floated upward and collecting them in plastic vials attached to the tops of the bags.

Underwater in Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, during the 2012 spawning season

Courtesy of Abby Wood

When the spawn petered out?spawns last only a few minutes?the divers would carefully cap the vials and hand them to a snorkeler, who would ferry them back to the research boat. Wood mugged her way through the demonstration. It was part practice, part ritual.

Coral sex is more complicated than one might imagine. Corals can reproduce asexually?that is, coral fragments can grow into clones of their parent. But corals can also reproduce through the fertilization of eggs by sperm. Sexual reproduction preserves genetic diversity, and with it a species? ability to withstand and adapt to change.

But coral sex probably doesn?t happen as much as it used to. In the Caribbean, warming water, disease, overfishing, and other problems have killed 80 percent of the region?s coral, turning many reefs into rocks and seaweed. Similar foes are killing coral in the Pacific, where the extent of living coral is thought to have shrunk by half in recent decades. These smaller, weaker, and more diffuse populations seem to be less likely to spawn?and when they do, their sperm and eggs are less likely to meet in the water.

In 2006, a group of European and U.S. aquarists, experts in aquatic plant and animal husbandry, were concerned about the ongoing declines in coral worldwide and decided to try raising sexually reproduced coral in captivity. They knew it would be a challenge: They would have to collect coral sperm and eggs in the wild during infrequent, never-quite-predictable coral spawns, fertilize the eggs in the laboratory, and, once they had young, living corals, figure out how to keep them alive through adolescence. They hoped that sexually reproduced captive coral could be used to revitalize or restore wild coral populations damaged by overfishing, climate change, or other forces.

The aquarists managed to bring some endangered staghorn coral larvae back to their aquaria, where they varied water temperatures, water chemistry, flow rates and feeding regimes, trying to find the optimal conditions for each species. ?We were basically trying to re-create the ocean in a box,? says Michael Henley, an invertebrate curator at the National Zoo.

Each year, as the techniques improved, a few more coral larvae survived and grew. The largest captive-grown staghorn coral colony, which lives at a research station in southern Florida, is now as broad as a dinner plate. In the summer of 2010, the aquarists began releasing young captive-grown corals on a reef near Cura?ao, and many are still alive?an encouraging sign for larger-scale restoration efforts.

Now, on the coast of Belize, the aquarists wanted to try their techniques with elkhorn coral, another gravely endangered coral species in the Caribbean.

Just after sunset, the crew loaded a boat with gear and set off for a half-submerged atoll near Carrie Bow with some large, healthy-looking specimens of coral. Lightning flashed in the distance, over the open sea, and the moon began to rise, huge and orange.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=43c3a69ffa75f43c03ba1762020a8043

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Sex, power scandals to loom over Vatican pre-vote talks

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The sex and power scandals haunting the Catholic Church look set to play a big role in meetings before next month's papal election after two senior cardinals called on Tuesday for more internal debate about them.

A leading support group for victims of clerical sexual abuse also made what it called a "last-ditch plea" to Pope Benedict to use his authority before resigning on Thursday to discipline bishops who have protected predatory priests in their dioceses.

The abuse issue took on new urgency after Scotland's Cardinal Keith O'Brien, accused of improper behavior with young priests, quit as Edinburgh archbishop on Monday and pulled out of the Sistine Chapel conclave to elect a new pope.

A Scottish Catholic Media Office spokesman has said O'Brien was taking legal advice and contested the "anonymous and non specific" allegations against him.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, now the only British prelate due to attend pre-conclave talks among cardinals at the Vatican next week, said in London the sexual abuse of children was the most serious scandal in the Church.

"That will be one of the main things the cardinals will be discussing," said Murphy-O'Connor, who cannot vote because he is over 80 years old but can join the cardinal electors in their closed-door discussions about the challenges for the next pope.

French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran said in a newspaper interview that the cardinal electors, who number 115 after O'Brien stepped down, should also be informed about a secret report on Vatican corruption prepared for Pope Benedict.

The retiring pontiff has decided to reserve the report for his successor, but the three cardinals over 80 years old who drew it up will be allowed to inform the cardinal electors about some of its findings during next week's consultations.

ASKING TO NAME NAMES

"The cardinal electors cannot decide to choose this or that name to vote for if they don't know the contents of this dossier," Tauran told La Repubblica newspaper.

"If it's necessary, I don't see why they should not ask for names," said Tauran, a former Vatican foreign minister who now heads its department for interreligious dialogue.

Italian newspapers have been speculating for days about conspiracies and alleged sexual scandals inside the Vatican that may have influenced Benedict to become the first pope in some six centuries to step down rather than die in office.

The Vatican has accused these newspapers of spreading "false and damaging" rumors in an attempt to influence the cardinals who are starting to arrive in Rome for the pope's farewell meeting with them on Thursday.

Two directors of the United States-based abuse victims' network SNAP arrived in Rome on Tuesday to draw attention to their demands for tougher Church policies.

"We're here to make a last ditch plea to Pope Benedict to use the remaining hours of his papacy to take decisive action to protect kids," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

He acknowledged that Benedict had met some abuse victims and made some strong statements condemning the molestation of minors by priests, but said he only acted under public pressure.

"We long for the day when Church officials announce that this cardinal or this bishop is being demoted because Church officials have found proof of wrongdoing and Church officials want to clean things up," he told journalists.

SNAP saw no papal candidates ready to fire bishops for shielding wrongdoers, he said, but added: "It's hard to believe there aren't some cardinals who are grabbing their colleagues by the lapels and saying 'We simply have to do better'."

CATHOLICS CRITICAL OF ABUSE HANDLING

Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, one of the three who drew up the secret report for Benedict, echoed the Vatican attack on the media in an interview on Monday with the daily El Pais.

"This wanting to see snake pits, warring mafias, internal hatreds - all this is absolutely false," he said.

Because conclaves are such secretive events, it is hard to see what effect the heightened public pressure over the abuse issue might have on the cardinals who will elect the next leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics around the globe.

Italian newspapers, which dedicate several pages a day to the papal story, have begun mentioning Cardinal Sean O'Malley as a possible "clean hands" candidate because he was sent to Boston to deal with abuse scandals that erupted there in 2002.

But other factors could lead them to choose a man whose main strengths lie elsewhere, such as an aptitude to promote its "new evangelization" drive, aimed at rekindling the faith in Europe and boost it in other regions.

Recent polls in two important national churches, in the United States and Germany, show that Catholics give their leaders low marks for their handling of the abuse crisis.

A Pew Forum poll last week showed U.S. Catholics have become increasingly critical, with those saying Benedict has done a poor job rising from 40 percent in 2008 to 63 percent now.

A survey in January for the weekly Die Zeit showed that only 28 percent of German Catholics polled believed the Church really wanted to clean up the mess the scandals have caused.

(Reporting By Tom Heneghan; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sex-power-scandals-loom-over-vatican-pre-vote-174102534.html

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Google's E-Commerce Push - Business Insider

Online behemoth Google is preparing to try to "steal online retail from Amazon," according to?Marcus Wohlson at Wired.?

Google's position is a "pretty high perch from which to take aim," Wohlson wrote.?

Big retailers don't have an incentive to work with Amazon, as evidenced by the struggles it has?had breaking into fashion. The big brands already have stores of their own and fear losing their identities to Amazon.?

But what they do want is more play on search, which gives Google leverage over Amazon.?

The San Francisco business Inkling is working with Google to overtake Amazon's Kindle business, according to Wired.?Meanwhile, another startup called Bloomreach helps companies optimize their search results so they'll show up on Google before Amazon does.?

An e-commerce company called Shoprunner doubled sales in one year by improving Google search results, but company executive Fiona Dias told Wired she's wary of the search engine.

?Google will likely evolve from a friend of retailers to a foe,? she said. ?Google Shopping just needs a ?buy now? button to become a retailer rival.?

Google's aggressive e-commerce bid could put Amazon in big trouble, wrote?Kerry Folan at Racked.?

"Google?wants to get in on?Amazon's?online retail domination, and that they're in a unique position to do just that, seeing as Google essentially still runs the internet," Folan wrote. "At the end of the day, customers just want their stuff."?

If Google could get people products as cheaply as Amazon, it could present a real threat.?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-e-commerce-push-2013-2

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Lawmakers scramble for unclaimed lottery prizes

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? So a guy walks into a gas station, buys a scratch-off, wins a few bucks, gets distracted with some fool thing and eventually puts the lucky ticket through the wash in his Wranglers. It happens. No big deal.

But for state lawmakers in a tough budget year nationwide, the unclaimed prizes are adding up to a tempting pot of cash.

"It's something we've seen an increased interest in this year," said Jon Griffin, a policy associate at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington.

[Related: Iowa's $14.3M lottery jackpot abandoned]

Around the world, some staggeringly huge jackpots have gone unclaimed in recent years, drawing lots of headlines and more than a few schemes. In 2011, a $77 million Powerball winner let the 180-day deadline expire in Georgia. In California last year, a woman claimed her $23 million prize only after state officials put on a five-month publicity campaign to find the missing winner. In Illinois, officials are still searching for the holder of a $1 million ticket set to expire on March 17. And in Britain, seven prizes worth $1.3 million each are set to expire between March and July.

After the prize deadlines lapse ?usually within a year, sometimes in as few as 90 days? lottery commissions generally put the money toward future prizes or general state revenues.

For the most part, those policies have remained unchanged since the 1960s, when the modern state lottery movement spread from New Hampshire.

"It was all divided up in terms of who gets the profit," said I. Nelson Rose, a gambling industry expert at Whittier Law School in California. "They didn't think about what's left over unclaimed."

Now, they are officially thinking about it.

In Albany, for example, a New York Senate committee is considering a proposal to transfer unclaimed prizes to a summer reading program known as the Love Your Library Fund.

[Related: Mo. Powerball winners living modestly]

In Wyoming, where lawmakers are trying to start a new state lottery agency, the unclaimed prize money has become the subject of an intricate power squabble. Members have been shading the prize legislation to change which agencies controlled the money and whose pet causes would benefit, from gambling addiction programs to assorted social needs or maladies.

Here in Texas, where even a big oil boom has not quite rescued the budget from troubles including a $4.7 billion debt to Medicaid, the unclaimed prize money seems to fit that name less and less every year.

Over the past decade, the amount has been going up, peaking at $86 million in 2010.

As the pool of cash expanded, the state developed a complex formula allowing appropriations for teaching hospitals, veterans' services and health care in border counties.

Other proposals met resistance. In 2005, one unsuccessful bill would have paid $50,000 to the families of Texas soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year, the lottery commission reported unclaimed prizes of $52 million, including $35.6 million from instant games and $16.7 million from draw games.

Though the total amounts to less than a rounding error in the state's proposed two-year budget of $88.9 billion, some strikingly diverse parties have emerged to compete for the money.

"Something like $50 million will get the legislators nuts, because they can all sense, 'That's what a school costs in my district or a bridge or a road," said William Thompson, an expert on gambling industry regulation at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

To Democratic Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, $50 million means a chance to send some resources back to the original stated beneficiary of the state lottery, the public schools. His bill would send more to supplement school districts with low property tax revenues.

"We're still dealing with $5.4 billion in cuts that was imposed by the Republican leadership," Martinez Fischer said. "I think every dollar we can find should be going to educate our schoolchildren."

Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth also kept her request on the modest side. Her bill would stake out $5 million for military veterans' health and education services. Under the current formula, those programs get a maximum of $5 million.

So far, the boldest proposal would carve out $10 million a year to restore the Battleship Texas, which is anchored at the San Jacinto Battleground in the Houston Ship Channel and draws 100,000 visitors annually.

Bruce Bramlett, executive director of a nonprofit foundation devoted to preservation of the ship, said leaks in the ship, which was commissioned in 1914, have caused damage requiring $75 million in repairs.

He said the idea of tapping unclaimed lottery money occurred to him, though he has done little to promote the proposal publicly.

"Loose lips sink ships," he said in an interview.

Republican Rep. Wayne Smith of Baytown, who filed the measure, expressed little surprise at the emergence of competition for the unclaimed prize money.

Referring to other lawmakers with rival bills, he added, "maybe they did their research too."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-scramble-unclaimed-lottery-prizes-191846445.html

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Video: Tomorrow In :30

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50979630/

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Falcon Pro releasing new version of app to sidestep token limit

Twitter client Falcon Pro is attempting to step around Twitter's 100,000 token authorization limit by releasing a new version of the app with a separate application ID. Just a few days ago, the client had to stop authorizing new users because it hit the Twitter-imposed limitation, which users feared would stop development. Taking to its official Twitter account (naturally), the developer explained the situation, and how he intends to fix it -- at least for the time being.

The plan right now is to release a new version of Falcon Pro -- just the small step to 1.6.7 -- that has a new application ID, which would technically identify it to Twitter as a new client, with a fresh new set of 100,000 user tokens to assign. In order to do this, old user tokens have to all be revoked, and anyone opening a previously installed version will have to re-login. By wiping out old tokens and "starting over", Falcon Pro is hoping to stay active for a while longer.

The price has also been raised -- to $1.95 (€1.49) from $0.99 previously -- to hopefully slow down how long it takes to hit the limit again. The last version hit the 100,000 token limit with less than 50,000 official paid Google Play downloads though, which is disconcerting. We know that a "token" is not a user, and those with multiple devices and accounts occupy multiple tokens, but the average tokens per user is likely well under 2.

For now, Falcon Pro v1.6.6 is still a comical $132.12 in the Play Store, with a reminder in the description not to buy it because there are no tokens left. The developer plans to release the 1.6.7 update to the Play Store tonight, and we'll have to see how long it takes to hit the limit again.

Source: @Falcon_Pro (Twitter); Via: AusDroid

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/PHmq2UmSbfg/story01.htm

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Scientists Discover 'Ghost Continent' Under Layers Of Rock In Indian Ocean

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Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use, and will be moderated prior to posting. NPR reserves the right to use the comments we receive, in whole or in part, and to use the commenter's name and location, in any medium. See also the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Community FAQ.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/26/172998762/scientists-discover-ghost-continent-under-layers-of-rock-in-indian-ocean?ft=1&f=1007

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Oscar Ratings Up, Seth MacFarlane Says 'No Way' To Second Go-Round

'Lotta fun to have done it, though,' MacFarlane tweets about Oscars, whose rating were up 11 percent among 18-49 viewers.
By Gil Kaufman

Seth MacFarlane at the 2013 Oscars
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702623/oscar-ratings-seth-macfarlane.jhtml

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JPMorgan to scale back troubled-mortgage jobs

FILE - In this May 11, 2012 file photo, people stand in the lobby of JPMorgan's headquarters in New York. JPMorgan is trimming about 4,000 jobs, or about 1.5 percent of its work force, becoming the latest big bank to shrink its staff. The bank said the cuts will be focused in consumer banking and mortgages. Many of the cuts would come through attrition, but the bank will lay off workers as well, a bank spokeswoman said. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - In this May 11, 2012 file photo, people stand in the lobby of JPMorgan's headquarters in New York. JPMorgan is trimming about 4,000 jobs, or about 1.5 percent of its work force, becoming the latest big bank to shrink its staff. The bank said the cuts will be focused in consumer banking and mortgages. Many of the cuts would come through attrition, but the bank will lay off workers as well, a bank spokeswoman said. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? JPMorgan will trim about 19,000 jobs over the next two years but cast a positive spin on the news: It is shrinking the unit it had beefed up to handle troubled mortgages.

The bulk of the cuts, about 15,000, will come at the mortgage unit, which had swelled to about 50,000 workers from a pre-financial crisis roster of 20,000 because the bank needed more people to process defaulted mortgages. The bank said it hopes to find jobs in other parts of the company for displaced workers through a "redeployment" program.

The rest of the cuts, about 4,000, will come from the consumer banking business, mostly the branches. JPMorgan said those cuts will come through attrition, not lay-offs.

The bank noted that it's also adding jobs in certain areas, such as commercial banking and asset management. Overall, it expects its payroll to be down by about 17,000 at the end of 2014. That means it would fall to about 242,000 from its current 259,000, a 6.5 percent reduction.

The cuts were revealed in a presentation to investors Tuesday and are part of the bank's bigger cost-cutting campaign. JPMorgan increased its profits and revenue in 2012 and has weathered the financial crisis and its aftermath better than most.

But like its peers, it's facing a host of challenges. Banks are navigating new government regulations that have crimped some old sources of revenue, like issuing credit cards to students. The banks have also said that complying with the new regulations is costing them more money.

The move could signal a new direction for staffing: JPMorgan already shed about 1,200 jobs in 2012, after adding jobs in 2011 and 2010.

Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs all trimmed jobs in 2012. Morgan Stanley's current round of job cuts has focused on senior ranks and investment bankers. Bank of America has also said it needs fewer people to work through problem mortgages, though it has cut jobs in other areas. Citigroup is scaling back in countries that it no longer sees as growth engines.

Shares of New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. ended Tuesday down 10 cents at $47.60. The stock has gained about 24 percent in the past year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-26-JPMorgan-Job%20Cuts/id-7f986c76287044acba5e2bcac3fa3cf2

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Immigration reform would strain English schools

Students at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan speak into headsets as they practice their English. (Liz Goodwin/Yahoo??

The thorny topic of immigration reform has catapulted to the top of the to-do lists of both Republicans and Democrats, even as both sides continue to bicker over details. President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of senators are eager to pass an immigration bill this year, with their main points of disagreement, deliberated in public and in private, centering around topics like border security, guest-worker programs and how long undocumented immigrants should have to wait before gaining citizenship.

There's one issue, however, both sides agree on: The nation?s 11 million illegal immigrants will need to know English before they can earn permanent legal status, commonly referred to as a green card. And therein lies a barely discussed problem with the potential to overwhelm states and put up a barrier to immigrants who want to legalize: The nation?s English as a Second Language system may not be up to the task.

Those familiar with the issue say the woefully underfunded adult ESL system would face challenges that could stretch it to its breaking point. They include the influx of millions of new students, a severe lack of clarity around funding, and the need for more flexible learning situations, as many immigrants?who often work several jobs?will find it difficult to attend classes.

The current ESL system is "cobbled together with toothpicks and Band-Aids,? said Paul Musselman, the president of Carnegie Speech, a virtual learning company that makes language software.

It would be ?insane? to require illegal immigrants to learn English, added Leslie Robbins, the executive director of Riverside Language Program in Manhattan, which teaches legal immigrants intensive English courses. For one, she noted, the system is already overloaded. "There's not enough funding currently to deal with the numbers of people who both need and want English-language instruction," she said.

And Margie McHugh, an expert on immigrant integration issues at the Migration Policy Institute think tank, noted that ?the idea that somehow the system could accommodate 11 million new people is beyond anyone?s imagination."

McHugh estimated that, without schooling, about 55 percent of undocumented immigrants wouldn?t be able to pass the English portion of the U.S. citizenship test?which requires someone to understand English phrases when spoken to slowly and with repetition?if it were given today. That means about 4 million to 5 million people could simultaneously need instruction under the immigration reform law.

Politicians want to add a stricter English requirement in the reform bill in part to make sure undocumented immigrants are integrating and able to succeed economically. Immigrants who speak English well earn on average between 10 and 24 percent more than immigrants who don't, according to several studies, which means providing effective English courses could have a huge economic impact for the country as a whole and immigrants themselves. (Legal immigrants to the U.S. are not required to learn English to gain a green card, but must pass an English test in order to become citizens.)

But the current system in place for teaching English to the nations? immigrants?state- and federally-funded classes provided by a patchwork of community colleges, public libraries and other community organizations?has been hit hard by state budget cuts since the recession began. Nationwide, 1.1 million people were enrolled in ESL courses in the 2006-2007 year, compared with just 730,000 people last academic year due to those cuts.

States may end up shouldering hefty costs associated with immigration reform if lawmakers don?t explicitly reimburse them in a bill. In 1986, Congress promised to reimburse state and local governments $4 billion in costs associated with the amnesty program, including providing adult ESL classes.

But even if the money's there, existing ESL classes on average have not proven to be all that effective at teaching its students English, in part because many immigrants don't have the time to attend classes frequently enough to make a difference.

Some techies as well as immigrant advocates, however, are hoping new language-learning software and online courses could help solve some of the issues, softening the blow to the ESL system if immigration reform passes.

?We need to get out there that there has to be a different way for people to learn English fast and with digital skills,? said Ada Williams Prince, the policy director for OneAmerica, a nonprofit immigration advocacy group. ?It?s not enough to sit people in an ESL class."

A handful of colleges and community organizations are already experimenting with lower-cost digital ESL classes that use free online language programs instead of costly textbooks. They also allow teachers to have larger classes or, in at least one case, remove the need for ESL-trained teachers altogether.

A Gates Foundation-funded pilot program in Washington state?with the help of OneAmerica?taught 250 immigrants English in a 13-week program last year using free language-learning software provided by Livemocha, a Rosetta Stone-like online tool. Students were each given a laptop with a permanent Internet connection and worked in class with the help of a tech coach, but no formally trained ESL teacher. They also spent hours of their own time using Livemocha at home, with the goal of learning both digital and English skills at once.

This fall, another online ESL pilot program funded with $3.5 million by the Gates Foundation will begin in 10 community colleges, also in Washington. The colleges, partnering with Livemocha, will create an interactive curriculum including video and text chatting with native English speakers as a way to improve conversational skills. Each student will be given a laptop or tablet, but this time they'll be assisted by trained ESL teachers and tech coaches in classrooms.

The colleges hope the program will eventually be cheaper than traditional ESL classes, despite the costs of computers. They also hope the digital approach will be more effective than their previous textbook-based ESL classes, which have had a dismal track record of moving students to higher levels of English.

?We don?t believe it is more expensive to put technology in the hands of students than it is to put really not very exciting books in the hands of students,? Kathy Cooper, a policy associate at the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges, said.

These types of online language programs weren't available 25 years ago when Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which required the 2.7 million undocumented immigrants who were legalized under that law to enroll in at least 40 hours of English courses before obtaining green cards. No one knows how effective these courses were, because immigrants were not required to take a test at the end of them. But experts estimate it takes about 600 hours of instruction for someone to move from the bottom levels of English understanding to a conversational competence, which suggests 40 hours would not do much toward helping someone become fluent.

The Department of Education would have final say on which ESL classes are approved, but experts think it's possible it would approve online classes.

?I'm sure that if they go with a 40-hour seat time requirement that many people would try to come up with an online way for folks to fulfill that,? said the Migration Policy Institute's McHugh. She added that the Department of Education would have to create ?appropriate safeguards? to make sure the programs were high-quality.

Of course, the digital divide creates its own share of problems: Immigrants are far less likely than nonimmigrants in the U.S. to have access to a computer or Internet connection. (That wouldn?t be an issue if students are provided with computers as they are in the Gates-funded programs.)

Some in the ESL field also cautioned that digital-language programs may make instruction better and more efficient, but it will not replace the need for a qualified teacher and classroom.

"When we use technology it?s an enhancement, not a replacement,? said Helene Rubenstein, the coordinator for ESL programs at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.

Whatever the solution, McHugh said she hopes Congress does not scrimp on funding. Good English classes, she noted, are necessary "if we really expect people to succeed in integrating or improving their long-term prospects of joining their mainstream workforce and community."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/english-requirement-immigration-reform-test-underfunded-esl-system-171501009--election.html

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How to Clean Everything in Your Kitchen Using Stuff From Your Kitchen

Punxsutawney Phil has deigned us worthy of an early thaw so there's no use procrastinating on your spring cleaning—even if your kitchen is dirtier than a roadside truck stop Blimpie's. Here's how to make your kitchen sparkle using supplies that're already there (or at least should be). More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ivo5tDV06xk/how-to-clean-everything-in-your-kitchen-using-stuff-from-your-kitchen

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Dell S320wi

Short-throw interactive projectors like the Dell S320wi are best understood as less expensive, but nearly as good, alternatives to ultra short throw models like the Editors' Choice Epson BrightLink 485Wi. For any given size image, you can't put them as close to the screen as with ultra short throw projectors, but they generally work just as well otherwise. More important, the S320wi in particular is a reasonably capable representative of the breed.

Built around an XGA (1024 by 768) DLP chip, the S320wi offers a 3,000-lumen brightness rating, putting it in the typical range for current models meant for small to medium-size rooms. It weighs only 7 pounds, which makes it potentially portable. If you want to carry it with you, however, you'll have to buy a carrying case separately. Dell doesn't include one with the projector, which isn't surprising given that projectors in this weight class--particularly interactive projectors?are most likely to wind up on a cart or permanently installed in a wall mount.

Short Throw vs. Ultra Short Throw
Short-throw projectors have the advantage of projecting a big image from a short distance. They're not a match for ultra short throw projectors, on this score, but the difference isn't as much as you might think. For the 78-inch wide image we use for most testing, I measured the distance between the screen and the front of the S320wi at just 49 inches, which is a lot less than the 110 inches or more for most standard projectors at maximum zoom. I measured the Epson BrightLink 485Wi's distance at just 10-inches, but that's not a truly comparable measurement.

With almost all ultra short-throw projectors, including the 485Wi, the image comes from the back of the projector rather than the front. For the 485Wi, the actual throw distance for a 78-inch wide screen comes out to 21 inches. As a practical matter, if the projectors are mounted above the screen, that doesn't give it much advantage over the S320wi for eliminating shadows when you're standing near the screen. However, it can make a more noticeable difference for projectors on a cart.

Setup and Interactivity
Setting up the S320wi is standard fare. Connection options on the back include an HDMI 1.3 port for a computer or video source, plus the usual assortment of VGA, composite video, and S-Video ports. There's also a? USB A port for reading files from a USB key, a USB B port for connecting to your computer for interactive control and mouse control, a LAN port for both sending images to the projector and controlling it over a network, and support for a Wi-Fi connection.

As with most DLP-based interactive projectors, including, for example, the Editors' Choice Optoma TW610STi the S320wi uses the Texas Instruments interactive technology, which doesn't need calibration between the supplied pen and the projector. In addition the pen doesn't need to touch the screen to interact, so you can turn literally any surface into the equivalent of an interactive whiteboard.

As is typical for projectors using TI's approach to interactivity, I saw a slight lag between moving the pen and the results onscreen at times, but the responsiveness was good enough so I don't consider it a problem.

Brightness and Image Quality
The S320wi is bright enough for the 78-inch wide (98-inch diagonal) image size I used in my tests to easily stand up to the level of ambient light you'll find in most offices and classrooms. Turn on interactive mode, however, and the brightness drops noticeably. The good news is that even with interactive mode, the image was bright enough for a 66-inch wide (83-inch diagonal) image with moderate ambient light.

Very much on the plus side, the S320wi did reasonably well for data image quality on our standard suite of DisplayMate tests. Color balance was good, with most preset modes delivering suitably neutral grays over the entire range from black to white. Colors were a little dark in terms of a hue-saturation-brightness color model, but the colors were generally well saturated. More important for data images, the projector holds details well, with text easily readable at sizes as small as 6.8 points.

Video quality is also good for a DLP data projector. The S320wi handled skin tones well, I didn't see any posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually) even in scenes that tend to cause the problem, and I saw only minimal noise in large solid areas, like blank walls. I also saw moderate loss of shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas) in scenes that tend to cause the problem, but many, if not most, data projectors do far worse with shadow detail.

One potential issue for any DLP based projector is rainbow artifacts, with light areas breaking up into little red-green-blue rainbows. I see this rainbow effect relatively easily, but it showed so rarely with data screens on the S320wi that few people, if any, are likely to find it bothersome. As with most DLP projectors, however, the rainbows show more often with video. Anyone who's sensitive to the rainbow effect may well see it often enough with video to consider it annoying.

Other Issues
Two other issues that demand mention are the S320wi's audio system and its 3D support. The audio quality is good enough so I could hear every word of some quietly spoken dialog that's almost impossible to make out with most projectors. Unfortunately, that's balanced by low volume, with a five-watt speaker. For larger rooms, you'll want to use an external sound system.

The 3D support, using DLP-Link glasses, is typical for DLP projectors, which means the S320wi is designed to work with computers that include Quad Buffered, Open GL 3D-compatible graphics cards. It also comes without any DLP-Link glasses, which are currently about $30 each for the cheapest models available. Buying enough glasses for a large audience can be costly enough to make 3D impractical. But at least the feature's available if you want it.

Overall, if you need an XGA interactive projector, the Dell S320wi offers a lot to like, with its short throw and its level of data and video image quality. However it's also a little pricey. Comparable in most ways to the Optoma TW610STi but with a lower resolution, at XGA (1,024-by-768) instead of WXGA (1,280-by-800), it should cost less. Instead, it costs more. That said, if XGA is the resolution you need, the Dell S320wi will be the better fit. And despite its price, it's a fairly reasonable choice.

More Projector Reviews:
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/5Oeitf3_YeU/0,2817,2415938,00.asp

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NextGen eBiz: SEO for Small Business

I believe, it?s every small business owners dream to see their small organization transformed into a large organization spread around the world. It does not mean they want grow into 5000-employee organization with $10Billion turnover in next 5yrs. It?s about their reach to customer base across the Globe.

In today?s online economy, where small business is no longer limited by their physical location or reach, their dream to go global is far closer than it was ever been.

In the past, one of the challenges with any business to market their products worldwide was lack of sales and marketing infrastructure. To build it required constant business growth complimented by huge investment.

Internet marketing is a blessing for every small business owner with a dream to grow big. Internet marketing is the most cost effective way for any business to market their products and services worldwide. Best of all, Internet marketing is not a domain of select few. Numerous Internet marketing specialists can help achieve your objectives.

Even though, technology has made it look like a breeze for any business to jump into Internet marketing but it can result in zero outcome if you don?t do it right.

Internet marketing? must be treated with respect and care. It?s important to understand and evaluate all available internet marketing options and see which of these Internet marketing strategy best suites your business.

Internet marketing? is a combination of multiple options e.g. Email marketing, Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ), Ad Words, Affiliate marketing and now the fastest growing, Social Media Marketing ( SMM ).

So far, promotion through Search Engine Optimization is the most cost effective from longer terms perspective. Getting found through organic search gives more credibility to your business as compared to be listed at the top through Adwords.

To maintain your ranking requires constant work in terms of continually updating your website content, regular blogging and maintaining local listing through Google places etc.

Google constantly changes their search algorithms in other words, rules are changed regularly and that affects every site. For this, you need a good Search engine optimizer who can keep track of the changes and make regular submissions. Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) is all about doing simple things regularly, ethically and by keeping your customers best interest in mind.

We at NextGen ebiz offer combination of online marketing techniques, innovative design & strong application development capabilities to provide best output and results to enhance site rankings and ultimately business over the internet.

Source: http://nextgenebiz.blogspot.com/2013/02/seo-for-small-business.html

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LG's new Optimus L II series: hands-on with the L7II and the L5II

We've heard (and seen) a fair bit about LG's L-series sequels, but nothing beats seeing them in the flesh, right? Both the 4.3-inch L7II and the smaller (4-inch) L5II were on show here at LG's media event, and while we might have been more easily distracted by more powerful relatives, it looks like LG's middleweight smartphone series has its fans.

As is to be expected from the company's Style line, there's been some design changes, alongside a power increase to dual-core processors on the bigger L7II -- the L5II arrives with a single-core 1GHz processor. Cosmetic changes include a textured backing and, well, you'll have to skip after the break to hear about the other improvements, but be reassured that they're backed up by Android 4.1 and dual-SIM iterations -- although those don't look quite as good. After the gallery, we've got more first impressions and you can check out our hands-on videos too.

Gallery: LG L7II and L5II hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/lg-optimus-l-ii-series-hands-on-l7ii-l5i/

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Scientists find genes linked to human neurological disorders in sea lamprey genome

Feb. 24, 2013 ? Scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have identified several genes linked to human neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injury, in the sea lamprey, a vertebrate fish whose whole-genome sequence is reported this week in the journal Nature Genetics.

"This means that we can use the sea lamprey as a powerful model to drive forward our molecular understanding of human neurodegenerative disease and neurological disorders," says Jennifer Morgan of the MBL's Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering. The ultimate goals are to determine what goes wrong with neurons after injury and during disease, and to determine how to correct these deficits in order to restore normal nervous system functions.

Unlike humans, the lamprey has an extraordinary capacity to regenerate its nervous system. If a lamprey's spinal cord is severed, it can regenerate the damaged nerve cells and be swimming again in 10-12 weeks.

Morgan and her collaborators at MBL, Ona Bloom and Joseph Buxbaum, have been studying the lamprey's recovery from spinal cord injury since 2009. The lamprey has large, identified neurons in its brain and spinal cord, making it an excellent model to study regeneration at the single cell-level. Now, the lamprey's genomic information gives them a whole new "toolkit" for understanding its regenerative mechanisms, and for comparing aspects of its physiology, such as inflammation response, to that of humans.

The lamprey genome project was accomplished by a consortium of 59 researchers led by Weiming Li of Michigan State University and Jeramiah Smith of the University of Kentucky. The MBL scientists' contribution focused on neural aspects of the genome, including one of the project's most intriguing findings.

Lampreys, in contrast to humans, don't have myelin, an insulating sheath around neurons that allows faster conduction of nerve impulses. Yet the consortium found genes expressed in the lamprey that are normally expressed in myelin. In humans, myelin-associated molecules inhibit nerves from regenerating if damaged. "A lot of the focus of the spinal cord injury field is on neutralizing those inhibitory molecules," Morgan says.

"So there is an interesting conundrum," Morgan says. "What are these myelin-associated genes doing in an animal that doesn't have myelin, and yet is good at regeneration? It opens up a new and interesting set of questions, " she says. Addressing them could bring insight to why humans lost the capacity for neural regeneration long ago, and how this might be restored.

At present, Morgan and her collaborators are focused on analyzing which genes are expressed and when, after spinal cord injury and regeneration. The whole-genome sequence gives them an invaluable reference for their work.

Morgan, Bloom, and Buxbaum collaborate at the MBL through funding by the Charles Evans Foundation. Bloom is based at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research/Hofstra North Shore-Long Island Jewish in New York. Buxbaum is from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Marine Biological Laboratory, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Jeramiah J Smith, Shigehiro Kuraku, Carson Holt, Tatjana Sauka-Spengler, Ning Jiang, Michael S Campbell, Mark D Yandell, Tereza Manousaki, Axel Meyer, Ona E Bloom, Jennifer R Morgan, Joseph D Buxbaum, Ravi Sachidanandam, Carrie Sims, Alexander S Garruss, Malcolm Cook, Robb Krumlauf, Leanne M Wiedemann, Stacia A Sower, Wayne A Decatur, Jeffrey A Hall, Chris T Amemiya, Nil R Saha, Katherine M Buckley, Jonathan P Rast, Sabyasachi Das, Masayuki Hirano, Nathanael McCurley, Peng Guo, Nicolas Rohner, Clifford J Tabin, Paul Piccinelli, Greg Elgar, Magali Ruffier, Bronwen L Aken, Stephen M J Searle, Matthieu Muffato, Miguel Pignatelli, Javier Herrero, Matthew Jones, C Titus Brown, Yu-Wen Chung-Davidson, Kaben G Nanlohy, Scot V Libants, Chu-Yin Yeh, David W McCauley, James A Langeland, Zeev Pancer, Bernd Fritzsch, Pieter J de Jong, Baoli Zhu, Lucinda L Fulton, Brenda Theising, Paul Flicek, Marianne E Bronner, Wesley C Warren, Sandra W Clifton, Richard K Wilson, Weiming Li. Sequencing of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) genome provides insights into vertebrate evolution. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2568

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/31_IzH_8VG8/130224142915.htm

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Weather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphere

Feb. 25, 2013 ? The world has suffered from severe regional weather extremes in recent years, such as the heat wave in the United States in 2011 or the one in Russia 2010 coinciding with the unprecedented Pakistan flood. Behind these devastating individual events there is a common physical cause, propose scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The study will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and suggests that man-made climate change repeatedly disturbs the patterns of atmospheric flow around the globe's Northern hemisphere through a subtle resonance mechanism.

"An important part of the global air motion in the mid-latitudes of the Earth normally takes the form of waves wandering around the planet, oscillating between the tropical and the Arctic regions. So when they swing up, these waves suck warm air from the tropics to Europe, Russia, or the US, and when they swing down, they do the same thing with cold air from the Arctic," explains lead author Vladimir Petoukhov.

"What we found is that during several recent extreme weather events these planetary waves almost freeze in their tracks for weeks. So instead of bringing in cool air after having brought warm air in before, the heat just stays. In fact, we observe a strong amplification of the usually weak, slowly moving component of these waves," says Petoukhov. Time is critical here: two or three days of 30 degrees Celsius are no problem, but twenty or more days lead to extreme heat stress. Since many ecosystems and cities are not adapted to this, prolonged hot periods can result in a high death toll, forest fires, and dramatic harvest losses.

Anomalous surface temperatures are disturbing the air flows

Climate change caused by greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning does not mean uniform global warming -- in the Arctic, the relative increase of temperatures, amplified by the loss of snow and ice, is higher than on average. This in turn reduces the temperature difference between the Arctic and, for example, Europe, yet temperature differences are a main driver of air flow. Additionally, continents generally warm and cool more readily than the oceans. "These two factors are crucial for the mechanism we detected," says Petoukhov. "They result in an unnatural pattern of the mid-latitude air flow, so that for extended periods the slow synoptic waves get trapped."

The authors of the study developed equations that describe the wave motions in the extra-tropical atmosphere and show under what conditions those waves can grind to a halt and get amplified. They tested their assumptions using standard daily weather data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). During recent periods in which several major weather extremes occurred, the trapping and strong amplification of particular waves -- like "wave seven" (which has seven troughs and crests spanning the globe) -- was indeed observed. The data show an increase in the occurrence of these specific atmospheric patterns, which is statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level.

The probability of extremes increases -- but other factors come in as well

"Our dynamical analysis helps to explain the increasing number of novel weather extremes. It complements previous research that already linked such phenomena to climate change, but did not yet identify a mechanism behind it," says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK and co-author of the study. "This is quite a breakthrough, even though things are not at all simple -- the suggested physical process increases the probability of weather extremes, but additional factors certainly play a role as well, including natural variability." Also, the 32-year period studied in the project provides a good indication of the mechanism involved, yet is too short for definite conclusions.

Nevertheless, the study significantly advances the understanding of the relation between weather extremes and human-made climate change. Scientists were surprised by how far outside past experience some of the recent extremes have been. The new data show that the emergence of extraordinary weather is not just a linear response to the mean warming trend, and the proposed mechanism could explain that.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Petoukhov, V., Rahmstorf, S., Petri, S., Schellnhuber, H. J. Quasi-resonant amplification of planetary waves and recent Northern Hemisphere weather extremes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1222000110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/kxPdGyqhAPI/130225153128.htm

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New type of gene that regulates tumor suppressor PTEN identified

Monday, February 25, 2013

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified a new so-called pseudogene that regulates the tumour-suppressing PTEN gene. They hope that this pseudogene will be able to control PTEN to reverse the tumour process, make the cancer tumour more sensitive to chemotherapy and to prevent the development of resistance. The findings, which are published in the scientific journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, can be of significance in the future development of cancer drugs.

The development of tumours coincides with the activation of several cancer genes as well as the inactivation of other tumour-suppressing genes owing to damage to the DNA and to the fact that the cancer cells manage to switch off the transcription of tumour-suppressor genes. To identify what might be regulating this silencing, the researchers studied PTEN, one of the most commonly inactivated tumour-suppressor genes. It has long been believed that the switching-off process is irreversible, but the team has now shown that silenced PTEN genes in tumour cells can be 'rescued' and re-activated by a 'pseudogene', a type of gene that, unlike normal genes, does not encode an entire protein.

"We identified a new non-protein encoding pseudogene, which determines whether the expression of PTEN is to be switched on or off," says research team member Per Johnsson, doctoral student at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Oncology-Pathology. "What makes this case spectacular is that the gene only produces RNA, the protein's template. It is this RNA that, through a sequence of mechanisms, regulates PTEN. Pseudogenes have been known about for many years, but it was thought that they were only junk material."

No less than 98 per cent of human DNA consists of non-protein encoding genes (i.e. pseudogenes), and by studying these formerly neglected genes the researchers have begun to understand that they are very important and can have an effect without encoding proteins. Using model systems, the team has shown that the new pseudogene can control the expression of PTEN and make tumours more responsive to conventional chemotherapy.

"This means that we might one day be able to re-programme cancer cells to proliferate less, become more normal, and that resistance to chemotherapy can hopefully be avoided," says Per Johnsson. "We also believe that our findings can be very important for the future development of cancer drugs. What we're seeing here is just the tip of the iceberg. The human genome conceals no less than 15,000 or so pseudogenes, and it's not unreasonable to think that many of them are relevant to diseases such as cancer."

###

'A pseudogene long noncoding RNA network regulates PTEN transcription and translation in human cells', Per Johnsson, Amanda Ackley, Linda Vidarsdottir, Weng-Onn Lui, Martin Corcoran, Dan Grand?r och Kevin V. Morris, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, AOP 24 February 2013, doi: 10.1038/nsmb.2516.

Karolinska Institutet: http://info.ki.se/ki

Thanks to Karolinska Institutet for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126994/New_type_of_gene_that_regulates_tumor_suppressor_PTEN_identified

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Quvenzhan? Wallis to play title role in "Annie" movie

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nine-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhan? Wallis will play the title role in "Annie," Sony's Columbia Pictures announced on Sunday.

"Annie" is due to hit theaters in 2014 during the winter holiday season, and is based on the stage play about an orphan's adventures in finding her family and a better life while overcoming the schemes of orphanage mistress Miss Hannigan.

President of production at Columbia Pictures Hannah Minghella expressed confidence in Wallis' talent and star power.

"With the recent Academy Award nomination and critical acclaim, Quvenzhan? Wallis is a true star and we believe her portrayal as Annie will make her a true worldwide star," she said.

"She is an extraordinary young talent with an amazing range, not only as an actress but as a singer and dancer, and we can't wait for audiences to further discover her."

Among the film's co-producers are Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter. Carter's 1998 Grammy-winning album "Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life" contains a hip-hop version of "It's a Hard Knock Life," a song from the original Broadway musical "Annie."

The hit musical was first made into a film starring Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan in 1982. A made-for-TV version with Kathy Bates in the same role aired on ABC in 1999, and earned two Emmy awards.

Wallis is the youngest actress to ever be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. She was nominated for her role as Hushpuppy in indie drama "Beasts of the Southern Wild," which also earned a nod for Best Picture. "Beasts" is Wallis' first acting job.

Among her other firsts, she will also be the first African-American actress to play Annie, who has been traditionally portrayed as a freckle-faced redhead.

Later this year, she will star alongside Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender in Steve McQueen's historical drama "Twelve Years a Slave," based on the book by Solomon Northup.

(Editing by Eric Walsh and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/quvenzhan-wallis-play-title-role-annie-movie-001907046--finance.html

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