Sniffing Out Cancer: A Little Help from Our Canine Companions ...

Our canine companions have some of the sharpest noses in the odor detection business. They can track down suspected criminals and people trapped beneath rubble and can sniff out drugs and explosives. And they can smell cancer?possibly even well before we know we are ill, some patients have claimed.

The possibility that dogs might be able to nose out malignant disease in humans was first raised in the late 1980s, in a paper describing an anecdotal account of a dog obsessed with a mole on its owner?s leg. The dog?s persistence was unusual enough that its owner decided to have the mole biopsied. It turned out to be positive for malignant melanoma.

Our canine companions have an amazing sense of smell, being able to sniff out everything from small game to human cancers. Credit: ? Sally Anne Thompson/Animal Photography

Since then, dogs have been shown in experimental studies to be able to detect melanoma and have been trained to identify patients with bladder cancer based on the smell of patients? urine. They also sniffed out cancers of the lung and breast and colon with a relatively high degree of accuracy and specificity.

Scientists suspect that this remarkable canine ability is associated with volatile chemicals linked to the presence of cancer in the human body. And it is thanks, in part, to man?s best friend that researchers now suspect that each type of cancer may have its own ?chemical signature??one that might even be detectable via a breath test.

Just this month, in fact, researchers reported promising results from preliminary trials of a breath test designed specifically for stomach cancer. The test, if approved for use clinically, could lead to earlier diagnosis of the disease and thereby improve treatment outcomes.

Source: http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2013/03/sniffing-out-cancer-a-little-help-from-our-canine-companions/

Kmart Black Friday PlanetSide 2 Alexis DeJoria sweet potato casserole turkey Pumpkin Pie Recipe wii u

Alfred Offers Bat-tastic Productivity for Mac Owners

We can't all have the riches of Bruce Wayne. Mac owners, however, can have a virtual version of his faithful servant, Alfred. Like Wayne's invaluable butler, this free productivity app is also named Alfred. Its latest version (2.0), released this month, is more useful than ever.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/29bca8b9/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C775640Bhtml/story01.htm

eagle cam trayvon martin case affordable care act the line us soccer bobby brown arrested the happening

Scientists find origins of teamwork in our nearest relative the chimpanzee

Mar. 19, 2013 ? Teamwork has been fundamental in humanity's greatest achievements but scientists at the University of Warwick have found that working together has its evolutionary roots in our nearest primate relatives -- chimpanzees.

A series of trials by scientists at Warwick Business School found that chimpanzees not only coordinate actions with each other but also understand the need to help a partner perform their role to achieve a common goal.

Pairs of chimpanzees were given tools to get grapes out of a box. They had to work together with a tool each to get the food out. Scientists found that the chimpanzees would solve the problem together, even swapping tools, to pull the food out.

The study, published in Biology Letters, by scientists from Warwick Business School, UK, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, sought to find out if there were any evolutionary roots to humans' ability to cooperate and coordinate actions.

Dr Alicia Melis, Assistant Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School, said: "We want to find out where humans' ability to cooperate and work together has come from and whether it is unique to us.

"Many animal species cooperate to achieve mutually beneficial goals like defending their territories or hunting prey. However, the level of intentional coordination underlying these group actions is often unclear, and success could be due to independent but simultaneous actions towards the same goal.

"This study provides the first evidence that one of our closest primate relatives, the chimpanzees, not only intentionally coordinate actions with each other but that they even understand the necessity to help a partner performing her role in order to achieve the common goal.

"These are skills shared by both chimpanzees and humans, so such skills may have been present in their common ancestor before humans evolved their own complex forms of collaboration"

The study, revealed in a paper entitled Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task, looked at 12 chimpanzees at Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya, which provides lifelong refuge to orphaned chimpanzees, who have been illegally traded as pets or saved from the 'bushmeat' trade.

The chimpanzees were put into pairs, with one needed at the back and one at the front of a sealed plastic box. Through a hole the chimpanzee at the back had to push the grapes onto a platform using a rake. The chimpanzee at the front then had to use a thick stick and push it through a hole to tilt the platform so the grapes would fall to the floor and both could pick them up to eat.

One chimpanzee was handed both tools and they had to decide which tool to pass to the partner. Ten out of 12 individuals solved the task figuring out that they had to give one of the tools to their partner and in 73 per cent of the trials the chimpanzees chose the correct tool.

Dr Melis said: "There were great individual differences regarding how quickly they started transferring tools to their partner. However, after transferring a tool once, they subsequently transferred tools in 97 per cent of the trials and successfully worked together to get the grapes in 86 per cent of the trials.

"This study provides the first evidence that chimpanzees can pay attention to the partner's actions in a collaborative task, and shows they know their partner not only has to be there but perform a specific role if they are to succeed. It shows they can work strategically together just like humans do, working out that they not only need to work together but what roles each chimpanzee has to do in order to succeed.

"Although chimpanzees are generally very competitive when trying to gain access to food and would rather work alone and monopolize all the food rewards, this study shows that they are willing and able to strategically support the partner performing their role when their own success is dependent on the partner's."

NB: This study was approved by the local ethics committee at Sweetwater Sanctuary and relevant authorities in Kenya. The chimpanzees were never deprived of food and water was available at all times. They could choose to stop participating at any time.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Warwick, via AlphaGalileo.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. A. P. Melis, M. Tomasello. Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (2): 20130009 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0009

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/_tVy4KJdFYM/130318203327.htm

holes ncaa brackets 2012 odd lamar d antoni fashion star andrew bird

Difficulty in recognizing faces in autism linked to performance in a group of neurons

Mar. 18, 2013 ? Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) have discovered a brain anomaly that explains why some people diagnosed with autism cannot easily recognize faces -- a deficit linked to the impairments in social interactions considered to be the hallmark of the disorder.

They also say that the novel neuroimaging analysis technique they developed to arrive at this finding is likely to help link behavioral deficits to differences at the neural level in a range of neurological disorders.

The final manuscript published March 15 in the online journal NeuroImage: Clinical, the scientists say that in the brains of many individuals with autism, neurons in the brain area that processes faces (the fusiform face area, or FFA) are too broadly "tuned" to finely discriminate between facial features of different people. They made this discovery using a form of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that scans output from the blueberry-sized FFA, located behind the right ear.

"When your brain is processing faces, you want neurons to respond selectively so that each is picking up a different aspect of individual faces. The neurons need to be finely tuned to understand what is dissimilar from one face to another," says the study's senior investigator, Maximilian Riesenhuber, PhD., an associate professor of neuroscience at GUMC.

"What we found in our 15 adult participants with autism is that in those with more severe behavioral deficits, the neurons are more broadly tuned, so that one face looks more like another, as compared with the fine tuning seen in the FFA of typical adults," he says.

"And we found evidence that reduced selectivity in FFA neurons corresponded to greater behavioral deficits in everyday face recognition in our participants. This makes sense. If your neurons cannot tell different faces apart, it makes it more difficult to tell who is talking to you or understand the facial expressions that are conveyed, which limits social interaction."

Riesenhuber adds that there is huge variation in the ability of individuals diagnosed with autism to discriminate faces, and that some autistic people have no problem with facial recognition.

"But for those that do have this challenge, it can have substantial ramifications -- some researchers believe deficits in face processing are at the root of social dysfunction in autism," he says.

The neural basis for face processing

Neuroscientists have used traditional fMRI studies in the past to probe the neural bases of behavioral differences in people with autism, but these studies have produced conflicting results, says Riesenhuber. "The fundamental problem with traditional fMRI techniques is that they can tell which parts of the brain become active during face processing, but they are poor at directly measuring neuronal selectivity," he says, "and it is this neuronal selectivity that predicts face processing performance, as shown in our previous studies."

To test their hypothesis that differences in neuronal selectivity in the FFA are foundational to differences in face processing abilities in autism, Riesenhuber and the study's lead author, neuroscientist Xiong Jiang, PhD, developed a novel brain imaging analysis technique, termed local regional heterogeneity, to estimate neuronal selectivity.

"Local regional heterogeneity, or Hcorr, as we called it, is based on the idea that neurons that have similar selectivities will on average show similar responses, whereas neurons that like different stimuli will respond differently," says Jiang. "This means that individuals with face processing deficits should show more homogeneous activity in their FFA than individuals with more typical face recognition abilities."

They tested the method in 15 adults with autism and 15 adults without the disorder. The autistic participants also underwent a standard assessment of social/behavioral functioning.

The researchers found that in each autistic participant, behavioral ability to tell faces apart was tightly linked to levels of tuning specificity in the right FFA as estimated with Hcorr. This finding was confirmed by another advanced imaging technique, fMRI rapid adaptation, shown by the group in previous work to be a good estimator of neuronal selectivity.

"Compared to the more well-established fMRI-rapid adaptation technique, Hcorr has several significant advantages," says Jiang. "Hcorr is more sensitive and can estimate neuronal selectivity as well as fMRI rapid adaptation, but with much shorter scans, and Hcorr can even estimate neuronal selectivity using data from resting state scans, thus making the technique suitable even for individuals that cannot perform complicated tasks in the scanner, such as low-functioning autistic adults, or young children."

"The study suggests that, just as in typical adults, the FFA remains the key region responsible for face processing and that changes in neuronal selectivity in this area are foundational to the variability in face processing abilities found in autism. Our study identifies a clear target for intervention," says Riesenhuber. Indeed, after the study was completed, the researchers successfully attempted to improve facial recognition skills in an autistic participant. They showed the participant pairs of faces that were very dissimilar at first, but became increasingly similar, and found that FFA tuning improved along with behavioral ability to tell the faces apart. "This suggests high-level brain areas may still be somewhat plastic in adulthood," says Riesenhuber.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgetown University Medical Center, 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. Xiong Jiang, Angela Bollich, Patrick Cox, Eric Hyder, Joette James, Saqib Ali Gowani, Nouchine Hadjikhani, Volker Blanz, Dara S. Manoach, Jason J.S. Barton, William D. Gaillard, Maximilian Riesenhuber. A quantitative link between face discrimination deficits and neuronal selectivity for faces in autism. NeuroImage: Clinical, 2013; 2: 320 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2013.02.002

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/~3/4D09xv7JpWk/130318151530.htm

sbux nfldraft asante samuel salton sea arizona immigration law aubrey huff the killers

North Dakota Abortion Ban: Strictest in the Nation

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/north-dakota-abortion-ban-strictest-in-the-nation/

mexico news the talented mr ripley weather new orleans orcl the hartford illinois primary 2012 michael bay

Free iTunes Money Is Your Deal of the Day

Today's Best Buy deal is one to pick up: it's offering $100 iTunes gift cards for $80. Shipping's free too. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7sSDdDP5tzQ/free-itunes-money-is-your-deal-of-the-day

tropic thunder carnie wilson missing reese witherspoon pregnant billy joel bent new york jets

LPGA Girls Golf of Coronado Opens 2013 Registration

Monday, March 25, 2013, 3:30 pm

Coronado Municipal Golf Course, 2000 Visalia Row, Coronado, CA | Get?Directions??
FREE

LPGA-USGA Girls Golf of Coronado?

REGISTRATION ? 2013

The LPGA-USGA Girls Golf of Coronado is kicking off its 13^th season!? We?ve confirmed our calendar for the season ahead (see ?Event Schedule? at www.coronadogirlsgolf.com) and accepting registrations (please go to ?Join Girls Golf? at www.coronadogirlsgolf.com).? Girls Golf is committed to introducing girls to the game of golf in a fun and non-threatening environment and to using the opportunity to promote life skills: esteem for herself and others, confidence, leadership, and the vision to dream big.

?Our professional golf instructors and volunteers are committed to making this a great year for our girls in golf and a very fun celebration of 13 years together! ? We are looking forward to spending much time together learning new golf skills, getting to know our team mates, and playing golf!

?LPGA-USGA Girls Golf (Girls Golf) provides an opportunity for girls in grades 2 through 12 to learn to play golf, build lasting friendships, and experience competition in a fun, supportive environment, preparing them for a lifetime of enjoyment of the game.? The only national initiative of its kind, Girls Golf is administered through a partnership between The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Foundation and the United States Golf Association (USGA).? Girls are given the opportunity to learn valuable lessons inherent in the game of golf, such as patience, respect, perseverance and honesty, preparing them to meet the challenges of today's world with confidence.

?Any girl in grades 2-12 is welcome to join Girls Golf.? Whether you've played golf before or not, there's a place for you in the program.? Membership is limited to 40 girls, so it is important to register early on.? Because space is limited and in order to get value out of the program, we ask that applicants be prepared to participate to their fullest.

?Please join us Monday, March 25th @ 3:30 at the Coronado Golf Course as we gather for our ?Kick Off?.? We will be completing paperwork, sharing our vision for the year ahead, and giving the girls an opportunity to either work on their skills, or play golf. ?

?Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions:????Brenda Gino, Site Director: nadogirlsgolf@aol.com or call her at 619-921-5821.

?Happy Golfing!

32.68502

-117.167559

primary

/listings/coronado-municipal-golf-course

1394970

/locations/9032375

Source: http://coronado.patch.com/events/lpga-girls-golf-of-coronado-opens-2013-registration

phish gluten free diet barry zito mac virus santorum drops out bby zimmerman website

The Fall of Xamos

• Reputation:
  Words written:
  Words per post:
  Joined:
  Last visit:
  Location:
  Website:
  

Tensions are running high between humans and vyldkin after an unknown assailant razed a vyldkin settlement to the ground, leaving no survivors. With war seemingly impossible to avoid, will you attempt to make peace or prepare for an inevitable war?

Owner:

Game Masters:

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?The Fall of Xamos?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

Topic Tags:

Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

First post: ? 1 post ? Page 1 of 1

---

---

First post: ? 1 post ? Page 1 of 1

Post a reply

RolePlayGateway is a site built by a couple roleplayers who wanted to give a little something back to the roleplay community. The site has no intention of earning any profit, and is paid for out of their own pockets.

If you appreciate what they do, feel free to donate your spare change to help feed them on the weekends. After selecting the amount you want to donate from the menu, you can continue by clicking on PayPal logo.

Our Sponsors

RolePlayGateway is proudly powered by obscene amounts of caffeine, duct tape, and support from people like you. It operates under a "don't like it, suggest an improvement" platform, and we gladly take suggestions for improvements or changes.

The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

? RolePlayGateway, LLC | with the support of LocalSense

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/f2VJuIwqjv4/viewtopic.php

Sally Field The Oscars Searching For Sugar Man george clooney Zero Dark Thirty Academy Awards 2013 Django Unchained

Google Maps Chief Steps Down

Google Maps Chief Steps Down

I suppose after bringing Apple to its knees in the map arena, Jeff Huber felt it was time to move on to bigger and better things within Google. Huber will now be with Google X, the division that concerns itself with Google?s so-called secret projects.

He just finished his first decade at Google ? having worked on some of our most complicated issues like ads, apps, payments and geo ? and now he is eager to work in more of a start up like environment."

Comments

Posted by Al 6:01 PM (CST)??

Source: http://www.hardocp.com/news/2013/03/16/google_maps_chief_steps_down/

kenyon martin big miracle slab city super bowl snacks appleton denver weather super bowl recipes

Chinese PM penetrating on enhancing ties with India

By LM - Sat Mar 16, 8:54 pm

Seeking to raise team-work with India, China?s new Premier Li Keqiang told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Beijing would like to foster a team-work and partnership with New Delhi to a ?new stage??.

Hours after his publicity as Premier yesterday, Li told Singh over phone that a extended shared team-work would minister to swelling a dual countries? space for growth and common interests.

China will, as always, ?attach good stress to a ties with India, and would like to work with it to foster their family of vital team-work and partnership to a new stage,? state-run Xinhua news group quoted him as saying.

Li, an English-speaking proxy and a reformist leader, was yesterday as inaugurated as a Premier of a world?s second largest economy by about 3,000 deputies of a National People?s Congress, famous as a rubber stamp Parliament.

Thanking Singh for congratulating him, Li pronounced China and India are a dual largest Asian powers and building nations, that are also dual ancient civilisations and rising economies.

Li pronounced by enhancing their cooperation, a dual countries can enhance their space for development, and boost common interests to foster a tolerable mercantile and amicable growth and assistance a universe sequence and complement allege in a only and reasonable direction.

?This will foster improved provision of some-more than dual billion people in a dual countries, that bears a good stress for a whole world,? he said.

Singh pronounced that a shared ties over a past few years have seen a extensive growth and continual swell in team-work and exchanges in several fields, Xinhua reported.

Source: http://www.livenewsindia.com/business-news/chinese-pm-keen-on-enhancing-ties-with-india/

president day new york knicks lin j.r. smith espn jeremy lin sleigh bells meek

Cypriots rue bailout deal's bank deposit levy

People queue to use an ATM machine outside of a Laiki Bank branch in Larnaca, Cyprus, Saturday, March 16, 2013. Many rushed to cooperative banks which are open Saturdays in Cyprus after learning that the terms of a bailout deal that the cash-strapped country hammered out with international lenders includes a one-time levy on bank deposits. The move, decided in an extraordinary meeting of the finance ministers of the 17-nation eurozone in the early hours Saturday, is a major departure from established policies. Analysts have warned that making depositors take a hit threatens to undermine investors' confidence in other weaker eurozone economies and might possibly lead to bank runs. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People queue to use an ATM machine outside of a Laiki Bank branch in Larnaca, Cyprus, Saturday, March 16, 2013. Many rushed to cooperative banks which are open Saturdays in Cyprus after learning that the terms of a bailout deal that the cash-strapped country hammered out with international lenders includes a one-time levy on bank deposits. The move, decided in an extraordinary meeting of the finance ministers of the 17-nation eurozone in the early hours Saturday, is a major departure from established policies. Analysts have warned that making depositors take a hit threatens to undermine investors' confidence in other weaker eurozone economies and might possibly lead to bank runs. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

An elderly man holds his bank passbook as he looks through the windows of a closed cooperative bank shop in Limassol, Cyprus, Saturday, March 16, 2013. Many rushed to cooperative banks which are open Saturdays in Cyprus, after learning that the terms of a bailout deal that the cash-strapped country hammered out with international lenders, includes a one-time levy on bank deposits. The move, decided in an extraordinary meeting of the finance ministers of the 17-nation eurozone in the early hours Saturday, is a major departure from established policies. (AP Photo/Pavlos Vrionides)

People queue to use an ATM machine outside of a Laiki Bank branch in Larnaca, Cyprus, Saturday, March 16, 2013. Many rushed to cooperative banks which are open Saturdays in Cyprus after learning that the terms of a bailout deal that the cash-strapped country hammered out with international lenders includes a one-time levy on bank deposits. The move, decided in an extraordinary meeting of the finance ministers of the 17-nation eurozone in the early hours Saturday, is a major departure from established policies. Analysts have warned that making depositors take a hit threatens to undermine investors' confidence in other weaker eurozone economies and might possibly lead to bank runs. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Nervous depositors in Cyprus rushed to ATM machines on Saturday to drain their accounts following a bailout agreement with international creditors that includes a levy on all the country's bank accounts.

Lines formed at many ATMs as people scrambled to pull their money out after word that the ?10 billion ($13 billion) rescue package Cyprus agreed with its euro area partners and the International Monetary Fund included one-off levy on deposit, an unprecedented step in the eurozone crisis.

The levy is expected to raise ?5.8 billion.

European officials said people with less than ?100,000 in their accounts will have to pay a one-time tax of 6.75 percent, those owning more money will lose 9.9 percent. Cypriot bank officials said that depositors can access all their money except the amount set by the levy.

But that hardly assuaged people who continued to withdraw cash from ATMs until the machines ran out, unsure what or how much would be taxed. Officials said that withdrawing funds on Saturday would not reduce anyone's levy.

The country's cooperative banks also shut their doors after depositors scurried in hopes of protecting their savings.

Unlike commercial banks which remain closed on weekends, cooperative banks customarily open for business on Saturday.

The cooperative banks, which represent about a fifth of the island's banking sector, remained open only for a short time. However, people continued to have access to their funds through ATM machines.

"Politicians and senior bank bosses have covered each other's backs for years, now it's ordinary people who are paying the price and are being punished," said Christos Demetriades, 58, milling outside a shut Nicosia cooperative bank branch.

One disgruntled customer at a branch in the southern coastal town of Limassol briefly parked his tractor in front of its shut doors in a show of frustration.

Cyprus' Finance Minister Michalis Sarris defended the decision to accept the levy, saying it was either that or a complete economic meltdown.

"This was the least worst option," he told state broadcaster CyBC. "We battled to prevent the country from completely going bankrupt."

News of the levy came as a shock to most people following strict assurances from Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades that he would not accept a deal which required depositors to share in the losses.

Cypriot and European officials feared that forcing depositors take a hit would undermine investors' confidence in Cyprus and other weaker eurozone economies and even possibly lead to bank runs.

Spain's economic ministry said Saturday that the Cyprus deal would not set a pattern for other countries.

"This is a specific agreement for Cyprus, with its complex situation and an oversized banking sector, which represents 80 percent of GDP, well above any other country in using the euro," a ministry statement said. "Because of this, Cyprus' situation and this agreement are not transferable to any other country in the eurozone."

Cyprus has become the fourth euro area country to get a rescue package to save its banks that took massive losses because of their exposure to toxic Greek debt.

The levy stirred up a political firestorm on the tiny island of a million people, with some politicians accusing the government of leading the country to "a tragic dead end."

Government spokesman Christos Stylianides said Cypriot officials had resisted intense pressure to accept a deposit levy of a whopping 40 percent.

Bank bosses are meeting with Central Bank officials to figure out their next steps, while Anastasiades, who returns to Cyprus Saturday evening has called for a meeting of party leaders to assess the unfolding situation.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-16-Cyprus-Financial%20Crisis/id-7cef2ab6886749f2ae8a7c7c17309da2

kashi neil diamond orange crush harden nor easter nor easter veep

The Rock wants in on the next 'Star Wars'

You have to admit, ?The People?s Lightsaber? has a ring to it.?

Starting March 28, the WWE Universe will get to see WWE Champion The Rock as never before, starring as Roadblock in the action film ?G.I. Joe: Retaliation.? But could it be long before The Great One joins another decorated franchise in the form of ?Star Wars??

According to comments the WWE Champion made while attending a ?G.I. Joe: Retaliation? premiere in Sydney, participating in the beloved sci-fi film series has always been a dream of The Most Electrifying Man in All of Entertainment, who admitted to playing with both ?G.I. Joe? and ?Star Wars? action figures as a child.

The Rock?told Australian press that learning of his role in ?G.I. Joe: Retaliation? was akin to getting a phone call from ?Star Wars? mastermind George Lucas.

The WWE Champion went as far as to say he plans on directly petitioning J.J. Abrams, the director of the next ?Star Wars? installment, due out in 2015.

?I?m gonna call J.J. and you?re gonna help by printing it and I?m gonna be in ?Star Wars?!? he said.

What say you, WWE Universe? If The Rock were to land a part in the next ?Star Wars,? would you see him as a Jedi or do you think he'd embrace the Dark Side? (VOTE NOW)

View Comments

Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/the-rock-wants-in-star-wars

adam sandler College Football Scoreboard nfl scores nfl scores Devon Walker Tom Cruise ryan reynolds

The UN document on women that has terrified Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

Yesterday Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement warning of apocalyptic consequences if a proposed document addressing violence against women is adopted by the UN.

While the core of the group's objections derives from their interpretation of Islamic law, their complaints revealed what many in Egypt feel is a regressive long-term plan for women in Egyptian society. The Brothers, who propelled President Mohamed Morsi to power, warned that the UN is seeking to place the right to decide when to work or where to travel in the hands of women, rather than their husbands; that a married man who rapes his wife would face the same legal risks as if a stranger had raped the woman; or that a woman who had a son out of wedlock could make the same demands on the father as if she were married to him.

While no UN document would have any effect whatsoever on Egyptian society unless Egypt agreed with it, I was curious as to why the Muslim Brotherhood was so riled up. A proposal to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, part of the UN Women organization created in 2010, was presented in early March and has been the subject of negotiation since (so the draft I've found, grandly titled, "The elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls," may be substantially different now).

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Egypt? Take this quiz.

It contains a lot of vague, aspirational language. For instance, the proposal calls on UN member states to "promote and protect the human rights of all women and girls, including their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality free of coercion, discrimination and violence, their right to the highest standard of health, including sexual and reproductive health, and their reproductive rights." And it also wants governments to "accelerate efforts to eliminate discrimination against women and girls and ensure women?s equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to education, health, social security, land, property, inheritance, employment, participation and decision-making in all spheres of life."

Founded in 2010 by a vote of the General Assembly, UN Women's task is to promote "gender equality and the empowerment of women." The first is something the Brotherhood is openly hostile too -- they reject the notion that men and women should be strictly equal. And they don't seem so hot on the "empowerment of women" since they have strongly patriarchal views that require wives to be subservient to husbands.

A lot of the UN ideas do directly conflict with the Muslim Brothers' religious views. Calling for women to have "equal enjoyment" of rights regarding property and inheritance, for instance, conflicts with the Brothers' interpretation of Islamic law, which requires women to inherit less than men. And the Brothers strongly believe that women should not be free to make decisions without interference from their adult male relatives or husbands.To be fair, the drafters of the UN document are trying to universalize their own cultural beliefs, what the Brothers termed an attempted "intellectual and cultural invasion of Muslim countries."

But s the UN going to have any impact on the Brothers plans for Egyptian society (or an effect on places where the rights of women are far more restricted, like Saudi Arabia)? No. But the strength of the Brothers' reaction is a reminder that just because a country has free elections, or is trying to build a more democratic system, its leaders won't necessarily be interested in liberal values more broadly understood.

This is a latest salvo in a long-running culture war, one that Egypt's new leaders seem eager to enter. And they have friends. According to Reuters, Egypt has been joined by Russia, Iran and the Vatican in making strenuous objections to the proposal, finding common cause against the draft's call for better treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and access to abortion.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Egypt? Take this quiz.

Related stories

Read this story at csmonitor.com

Become a part of the Monitor community

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-document-women-terrified-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-190143567.html

justin bieber boyfriend marianas trench camille grammer camille grammer us supreme court breaking dawn part 2 trailer mississippi state

Rob Portman Reverses Gay Marriage Stance After Son Comes Out

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has reversed his stance on same-sex marriage two years after learning that his son is gay, several Ohio news outlets, including the Columbus Dispatch and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, reported Friday.

In an interview with Ohio reporters in his Senate office, Portman said that his son, Will, came out to the senator and his wife in February 2011.

"It allowed me to think of this issue from a new perspective, and that's of a Dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have -- to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years," Portman said.

Portman said that his son, who is now a junior at Yale University, inspired him to reassess his position on same-sex unions. The senator also consulted clergy on the matter, as well as friends such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter Mary is openly gay. According to Portman, Cheney told the senator to "follow [his] heart" on the matter.

"The overriding message of love and compassion that I take from the Bible, and certainly the Golden Rule, and the fact that I believe we are all created by our maker, that has all influenced me in terms of my change on this issue," Portman said.

Portman's announcement comes just days before the Supreme Court hears arguments on the Defense Of Marriage Act, the federal ban on same-sex marriage. Portman co-sponsored the measure as a member of the U.S. House in 1996. And in 2009, Portman voted for a measure prohibiting same-sex couples in Washington state from adopting children.

In 2011, Portman's "openly hostile" record on gay rights led to hundreds of students at the University of Michigan objecting to the senator speaking at the school's graduation ceremony.

"Rob believes marriage is a sacred bond between one man and one woman," a Portman spokesman told the Plain Dealer at the time of the protest.

Portman, who was considered by 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as a potential running mate, says that he informed Romney about his son's sexual orientation.

"I told Mitt Romney everything," Portman told CNN. "That process is, intrusive would be one way to put it. But, no, yeah, I told him everything."

The senator also said that Romney's campaign told him that his son's sexuality was not part of the decision to select Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) over Portman.

UPDATE: 3/15 9:15 a.m. -- Portman has penned an column for the Columbus Dispatch explaining his reversal:

"I have come to believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn?t deny them the opportunity to get married," he writes.

Read the rest here.

Also on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/15/rob-portman-gay-marriage_n_2881805.html

Voting Results 2012 pbs ron paul Cnn Electoral Map roseanne barr guy fawkes gary johnson

Silver and Gold Prices: The Gold Price Kept Rising Today Closing ...

Gold Price Close Today : 1590.60
Change : 2.30 or 0.14%

Silver Price Close Today : 28.773
Change : -0.150 or -0.52%

Gold Silver Ratio Today : 55.281
Change : 0.366 or 0.67%

Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01809
Change : -0.000121 or -0.66%

Platinum Price Close Today : 1587.80
Change : -3.30 or -0.21%

Palladium Price Close Today : 768.80
Change : -0.45 or -0.06%

S&P 500 : 1,563.23
Change : 8.71 or 0.56%

Dow In GOLD$ : $188.95
Change : $ 7.50 or 4.13%

Dow in GOLD oz : 9.141
Change : 0.363 or 4.13%

Dow in SILVER oz : 505.30
Change : 5.52 or 1.10%

Dow Industrial : 14,539.14
Change : 83.86 or 0.58%

US Dollar Index : 82.56
Change : -0.356 or -0.43%

Today I've been staring at long term charts. Folks, when those stocks break down and the silver and GOLD PRICE break up, Bogus Ben will spend months crying, gnashing his teeth, and moaning. Bull market in silver and gold has by no means ended, nor has the bear market in stocks. Y'all hide and watch.

The SILVER PRICE backed off 15 cents today to 2877.2 while gold gained $2.30 to $1,590.60, closing near the range's upper end.

From a low at $1,577.37 right after the market opened the GOLD PRICE kept climbing today, threw a leg over unchanged about noon, then kept climbing. That $1,995 remains a barrier. Did I forget to tell y'all that today marks Gold's THIRD day of break-out above that little pennant? Or that it closed above its 20 dma ($1,588.01) today? What's the matter with my memory?

Shucks, I like to forgot that gold's MACD momentum indicator turned up, several days ago. Pointing up now for sure.

Too early to call it a rally, but that's a bunch of purple martins if there ain't no spring close behind.

The SILVER PRICE has looked weaker. 20 DMA is at 2909 cents, and silver can punch into the upper boundary line of that pennant, but can't break out of it. However, its MACD has turned up.

It's the little things that make life so much fun.

Dow rose for the tenth (10th) straight day, S&P500 has risen 11 out of the last 13 days. Oh, friends, it just don't work this way. Markets can't rise forever, and though stocks may get more rabid and frothy yet, it still don't work this way.

But then, denying any eventual pay-day is pretty much the main stock in trade of the yankee government, the Fed, and American society. As John Calvin might say, Lots of luck.

Dow added 83.86 (0.58%) to 14,539.14, and -- did I mention -- it's tenth new high running. S&P500 added 8.71 to end on its high at 1,563.23, still a little off that 2007 high at 1,565.15. Will probably get wilder, crazier, and drunker before it breaks, but look out then!

Dow in gold made a tinier higher high today, to 9.15 oz (G$189.15 gold dollars) over 9.14 (G$188.94). This moves sidewise on the chart, and hath stalled right about where my target was (9.12oz).

Dow in silver did make a higher high today, to 504.74 oz. Broke out upside from a rising wedge, but only slightly. Might have another 10 oz in it.

The US DOLLAR INDEX reached over that 83 resistance today at 83.166, and sellers were waiting on it with a sledge hammer, cold-cocked it, and knocked it down plumb to 82.427. Time I am writing this it is trading 82.559, down 35.6 basis points (0.46%) on the day. I make that the first half of a key reversal. Lower price tomorrow puts the second and last piece in place.

Euro was the big gainer off the dollar's tumble, gaining 0.37% to $1.3005, but you know, you can put lipstick on a hog and hang earrings on it, but it's still a hog. And first time you let it loose, it'll run back to wallow in that mire.

Yen rose a meaningless little bit, 0.04% to 104.07. Stay away.

US$1=Y96.09=E0.7689+0.034755 oz Ag=0.006286 oz Au.

To please the bankers, on 14 March 1900 the US congress passed the so-called Gold Standard Act. The act changed nothing, but threw up a deceptive barrier to the millions of silver advocates. Why could the act do nothing? Because the US congress in 1792 had already made the standard coin of the US the "dollar" of silver (0.7734 troy ounce fine silver) They couldn't make gold the standard if they tried, because that act was as far beyond them and unconstitutional as suddenly declaring that throughout the US the "foot" would henceforth have only ten inches. Once congress "sets" a standard, it can't change the standard later -- unchanging is what a standard's all about., The banks, of course, wanted the so-called gold standard because it really was no gold standard at all, but only a standard that made paper and bank deposits equal to gold for a while, until they could elbow gold out of the system.

Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought.

- Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger
The-MoneyChanger.com
1-888-218-9226
10:00am-5:00pm CST, Monday-Friday

? 2013, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission.

To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down.

WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned:

Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures.

NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps.

NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced.

NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt.

What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands.

One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. No, I don't.

Source: http://silver-and-gold-prices.goldprice.org/2013/03/the-gold-price-kept-rising-today.html

leslie carter aaron carter sister pfizer signing day 2012 football gasland college football recruiting bjork

St Patrick's Day Crafts at Garanimals Blog

Even though my family does not have an Irish bone in its body, we love to celebrate St. Patrick?s Day. We aren?t the green beer partying types, but do like to make it a fun family event. You may remember my post last year about some of the fun we have! This year we are decorating the house with some crafts inspired by leprechauns, shamrocks, and the rainbow! I wanted to share some of the fun things you can make to decorate your home.

Pictured above is an easy craft that requires only a few supplies. Some green paint and paper help to make some great painted shamrocks. Just draw a shamrock shape and have the kids go crazy painting them. I like them whole, but you could easily cut them out also.

We are also hoping to fill the house with rainbows. An easy way to do this is to take a paper plate and paint it gold or yellow. Then take leftover crepe paper strips in different colors and glue or staple about a foot at the end of the plate trailing off. In addition to a decoration this makes a great item to hold and dance.?Another fun craft involves your child handprint. You can find the instructions and a photo here.

A cool craft that you can use as a gift involves jars and skittles. Have your child sort the skittles by color, then layer in a jar to make a rainbow. Attach a fun tag saying Here is a little St. Patty?s Day in a jar for you! Distribute to teachers, grandparents, friends or neighbors. Who doesn?t love a bright colored rainbow of candy to brighten their day!

Feel free to check out other St. Patricks Day ideas on both Garanimals? board and my board on Pinterest! Everyone is a little Irish on St. Patricks Day!

Kim Ross also writes at ?A Little Bit of This and That ~ The Adventures of a Stay at Home Mom.

Source: http://blog.garanimals.com/2013/03/15/st-patricks-day-crafts/

sanctum the notebook duke basketball miranda july joe paterno near death joepa sc primary

U.S. imposes sanctions on covert Iranian oil-shipping network

By Alister Bull

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States slapped financial sanctions on Thursday on a Greek businessman it says secretly operated a shipping network on behalf of the Iranian government to get around international sanctions on the country's sale of oil.

"Today, we are lifting the veil on an intricate Iranian scheme that was designed to evade international oil sanctions," U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said in a statement.

The U.S. sanctions cited Dimitris Cambis and a number of front companies for buying tankers on behalf of the National Iranian Tanker Company, barring U.S. citizens from doing business with them and freezing any of their assets under U.S. jurisdiction.

Cambis was identified in a Reuters report last month that said Iran was using old tankers to ship oil to China.

Reuters reported that Cambis had bought eight tankers last year, which were then used to transport Iranian crude. Cambis denied trading with Iran or the involvement of his vessels in loading Iranian oil.

A senior U.S. administration official dismissed Cambis' denial in a telephone conference call with reporters on Thursday, saying the clandestine operation had been deliberately structured to conceal Iranian involvement.

As the sanctions have had increasing impact, so have the efforts to evade them, the official said.

Sanctions were introduced last year by the West to choke Tehran's funding of its nuclear program by targeting the country's oil exports. The West believes Iran is developing weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

Sanctions halved Iran's oil exports in 2012 by more than 1 million barrels a day, about the amount that oil production grew in the United States during that time, and Washington has been at pains to keep up the pressure.

"We will continue to expose deceptive Iranian practices, and to sanction those individuals and entities who participate in these schemes," Cohen said.

The targeted network bought and operated eight tankers, each able to carry roughly $200 million of oil per shipment, the Treasury Department said.

"These operations are conducted through a series of ship-to-ship transfers in an attempt to mask the fact that the true origin of the oil is from Iran and to introduce it into the global market as if it were non-Iranian oil," Treasury said.

U.S. officials said the sanctions were not aimed in any way at the Greek government, other Greek shippers or the Greek shipping industry in general.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London; Editing by Vicki Allen and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-imposes-sanctions-covert-iranian-oil-shipping-network-182830737.html

gunner kiel gunner kiel groundhog soulja boy punxsutawney phil ground hog groundhog day 2012

Polo takes the bait: A better 'mousetrap' discovered in fruit flies might stop a human cancer-driving kinase in its tracks

Mar. 13, 2013 ? A seemingly obscure gene in the female fruit fly that is only active in cells that will become eggs has led researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research to the discovery of a atypical protein that lures, traps, and inactivates the powerful Polo kinase, widely considered the master regulator of cell division. Its human homolog, Polo-like kinase-1 (Plk1), is misregulated in many types of cancer.

Stowers Investigator and senior author R. Scott Hawley, Ph.D., hopes that this highly selective kinase trap might give drug developers, who are working to inhibit Polo's crucial role in driving the multiplication of cancer cells, a new method to inactivate Polo without blocking other vital kinases in normal cells. "Our discovery will give people who do drug discovery a new way of thinking about inhibitors for Polo kinase," says Hawley. "At least that's my hope."

In a paper published in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the Stowers researchers reveal in detail how Matrimony (Mtrm) stops the Polo kinase in its tracks in egg cells in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Hawley calls the most likely method by which Mtrm might bind and repress Polo the "mousetrap model." The Matrimony protein, which is expressed only in developing oocytes or egg cells, offers the Polo kinase "cheese" at its N-terminal end in the form of three phosphorylated amino acids that resemble Polo's favored canonical binding sites: phospho-serine or phospho-threonine residues.

Hawley explains, "The way we think of it, the N-terminal region of Matrimony serves as bait. To Polo, it looks like a canonical binding site with three such residues, saying 'Come look at me. I've got a phosphate and I'm a serine. Or I'm a threonine and I've got a phosphate,' because that's what Polo wants." As soon as Polo takes the bait, the C-terminal end of Matrimony wraps around Polo and represses its function. If the N-terminal phosphates are the cheese in the mousetrap, the C-terminus would be the lever. "It springs, and Polo is trapped and repressed," he says.

"Polo is at the top of the regulatory hierarchy in almost all dividing cells," Hawley continues. "It phosphorylates targets that either phosphorylate or dephosphorylate other targets in every regulatory pathway in cell division. The fact that egg cells need to shut down Polo function to divide is a fascinating exception to this rule."

Hawley discovered the Matrimony gene in 2003. Over time, the Hawley lab learned that Mtrm was a critical player in the cell divisions that occur as an egg is being made. Using fly genetics, the researchers knocked out one and then both copies of the Mtrm gene in female flies. With one functioning Mtrm gene, the oocytes could make it through the two rounds of meiosis absolutely required for haploid reproduction, albeit with a high risk of chromosome defects. With both copies of Mtrm disabled, the oocyte suffered catastrophic destruction of chromosomes and other structures required for cell division. Yet, Mtrm also turned out to be a rare example in Drosophila of a protein that can stably bind (and turn off) Polo kinase.

Mtrm seemed to be facilitating meiotic cell division by shutting down Polo. But how did the Mtrm protein manage to slow Polo and stop its action? Answering that question took seven years. According to Hawley, it required important collaborations with the Stowers Institute's core facility in proteomics to characterize the Mtrm::Polo interaction and with the Stowers imaging facility to use an advanced imaging technology to follow the interaction of the two proteins in living oocytes. The project was initially started by S. Kendall Smith, an M.D.-Ph.D. student from the University of Kansas Medical School. After Smith graduated, Amanda Bonner, a research technician, assumed full responsibility for guiding the project and bringing it to its completion.

The project's success helped Bonner transition from her position as a technician in Hawley's lab to a graduate student in the first class of the new Stowers graduate school. The experimental results speak for themselves, she says. "The important thing was finding a small protein that can inhibit Polo. It provides some real therapeutic possibilities because Polo is misregulated in so many types of cancer. To find something small and specific to Polo that doesn't interact with anything else is pretty exciting."

For a basic researcher like Hawley, making a discovery that might have direct therapeutic impact is doubly exciting. "We are a Drosophila genetics lab, but there are lots of people out there in drug discovery working on Polo. I'm hoping that someone like that will read this and my other papers and think, 'I wonder if I can use this as a means of turning down Polo kinase'." Making a basic discovery about cancer is thrilling in another way for Hawley. "I have been funded by the American Cancer Society for almost 26 years, and I've been an American Cancer Society Research Professor for the last nine years. During that time, I think my contributions to chromosome biology have added to basic research that helps us understand how tumor cells divide. Now, I've actually done something that has a practical application."

Researchers who also contributed to the work include Stacie E. Hughes, Jennifer A. Chisholm, Brian D. Slaughter, Jay R. Unruh, Kimberly A. Collins, Jennifer M. Friederichs, Laurence Florens, Selene K. Swanson, Marissa C. Pelot, Danny E. Miller, Michael P. Washburn, Sue L. Jaspersen, all at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

The work was funded by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and the American Cancer Society.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. A. M. Bonner, S. E. Hughes, J. A. Chisholm, S. K. Smith, B. D. Slaughter, J. R. Unruh, K. A. Collins, J. M. Friederichs, L. Florens, S. K. Swanson, M. C. Pelot, D. E. Miller, M. P. Washburn, S. L. Jaspersen, R. S. Hawley. PNAS Plus: Binding of Drosophila Polo kinase to its regulator Matrimony is noncanonical and involves two separate functional domains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1301690110

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/~3/vaWB1VoVulU/130313123519.htm

david letterman march of dimes james randi wargames blake griffin dunk florida primary full force

New monoclonal antibody developed that can target proteins inside cancer cells

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Researchers have discovered a unique monoclonal antibody that can effectively reach inside a cancer cell, a key goal for these important anticancer agents, since most proteins that cause cancer or are associated with cancer are buried inside cancer cells. Scientists from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Eureka Therapeutics have collaborated to create the new human monoclonal antibody, which targets a protein associated with many types of cancer and is of great interest to cancer researchers.

Unlike other human therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, which can target only proteins that remain on the outside of cancer cells, the new monoclonal antibody, called ESK1, targets a protein that resides on the inside of the cell.

ESK1 is directed at a protein called WT1, which is overexpressed in a range of leukemias and other cancers including myeloma and breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancers. WT1 is a high priority target for cancer drugs because it is an oncogenic protein, meaning that it supports the formation of cancer. In addition, it is found in few healthy cells, so there are less likely to be side effects from drugs that target it.

"This is a new approach for attacking WT1, an important cancer target, with an antibody therapy. This is something that was previously not possible," said David A. Scheinberg, MD, PhD, Chair of the Sloan-Kettering Institute's Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program and an inventor of the antibody. "There has not been a way to make small molecule drugs that can inhibit WT1 function. Our research shows that you can use a monoclonal antibody to recognize a cancer-associated protein inside a cell, and it will destroy the cell."

The first studies of the antibody are showing promise in preclinical research as a treatment for leukemia as reported March 13, 2013, in Science Translational Medicine.

"ESK1 represents a paradigm change for the field of human monoclonal antibody therapeutics," said Cheng Liu, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eureka Therapeutics. "This research suggests that human antibody therapy is no longer limited to targeting proteins present outside cancer cells, but can now target proteins within the cancer cell itself."

ESK1 was engineered to mimic the functions of a T cell receptor, a key component of the immune system. T cells have a receptor system that is designed to recognize proteins that are inside the cell. As proteins inside the cell get broken down as part of regular cellular processes, molecules known as HLA molecules carry fragments of those proteins ? known as peptides ? to the surface. When T cells recognize certain peptides as abnormal, the T cell kills the diseased cell.

In the current study, the investigators showed that ESK1 alone was able to recognize WT1 peptides and kill cancer cells in the test tube and also in mouse models for two different types of human leukemia. "We were surprised that the antibody worked so well on its own," said Dr. Scheinberg, senior author of the paper. "We had originally expected that we might need to use the antibody as a carrier to deliver a drug or a radioactive therapy to kill the cancer cells, but this was not necessary."

Additional studies must be done in the laboratory before ESK1 is ready to be tested in patients. But the monoclonal antibody was engineered to be fully human, which should speed the time it takes to move the drug into the clinic. Researchers expect that the first clinical trials, for leukemia, could begin in about a year.

The antibody was developed under a collaborative effort between Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Eureka, which have jointly filed for patent protection.

###

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: http://www.mskcc.org

Thanks to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center 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.

This press release has been viewed 21 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127298/New_monoclonal_antibody_developed_that_can_target_proteins_inside_cancer_cells

49ers news saint louis university leprechaun night at the museum pope shenouda bolton muamba sxsw

Wall Street little changed, retail sales support

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged lower on Wednesday as investors paused after a recent rally, despite data showing retail sales rose more than expected in February.

The Commerce Department said retail sales increased 1.1 percent, the largest rise since September, after a revised 0.2 percent gain in January.

The Dow had risen for eight straight days to extend its all-time highs on Tuesday while the S&P snapped a seven-session winning streak which had left it within striking distance of its all-time closing high of 1,565.15.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected retail sales, which account for about 30 percent of consumer spending, to rise 0.5 percent last month after a previously reported 0.1 percent gain in January.

The Morgan Stanley retail index <.mvr> gained 0.3 percent in early trading.

Investors had been looking for signs of any impact on spending triggered by stubbornly high unemployment and a higher payroll tax that went into effect at the start of the year.

"People had been rather concerned about the payroll tax, the sequestration and the uncertainty small businesses are clearly demonstrating about hiring and indeed, even beginning to fire, so the numbers coming through were a pleasant surprise," said Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Standard Life Investments in Edinburgh, Scotland.

"But after the run that we have had in equity markets over the last couple of months, it's no surprise that people are looking to take profits on occasion."

The blue-chip index is up 10 percent for the year and the benchmark S&P index has gained 8.7 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 31.72 points, or 0.22 percent, to 14,418.34. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> lost 3.03 points, or 0.20 percent, to 1,549.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed 10.03 points, or 0.31 percent, to 3,232.29.

Other data showed import prices rose more than expected in February, driven by the biggest increase in fuel prices since August, while export prices rose 0.8 percent for the month, the largest monthly gain since September.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday inventories increased 1.0 percent, the largest increase since May 2011, after rising 0.3 percent in December, suggesting restocking of warehouses will boost economic growth this quarter.

Coach shares rose 1.4 percent to $49.48 after Citigroup raised its rating on the stock to "buy" from "neutral.

But Express Inc slumped 9.5 percent to $17.05 after the apparel retailer posted fourth-quarter earnings and said it was off to a slow start in the first quarter.

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals shares tumbled 36.5 percent to $7.90 after the company forecast a steep drop in full-year sales as it expects uptake of its biggest-selling product, colon cancer drug Fusilev, to significantly drop as cheaper generics enter the market.

National Financial Partners shares jumped 15 percent to $23.05 after three people familiar with the matter said the New York-based wealth management company headed by Sandy Weill's daughter Jessica Bibliowicz, was exploring a potential sale.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-index-futures-just-down-093626684--finance.html

duke basketball miranda july joe paterno near death joepa sc primary bill moyers heidi klum and seal divorce

Discover delicious food around you with Forkly for iPhone

Forkly is a beautiful social food discovery app that will help you find a delicious meal the next time you're out and about. It features a few different feeds so that you can browse your options by what's nearby, what your friends recommend, or something more specific. When you find something that looks good, you can mark it as something you want, so that you can easily look it up when you're hungry and ready to try something new.

The interface of Forkly is simply gorgeous and features mouthwatering photos shared by other users. For each shared item, you can "want" it, leave a comment, and see who else is interested in trying it out. You can also share to your favorite social network, email, or Messages.

Forkly is one of those apps that gets better with more users, so tell you friends, rate some of your favorite restaurants and dishes, and let us know what you think!

• Free - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/XgwxTcYa7KE/story01.htm

stoudemire jordan hill tony nominations dark knight trailer delmon young dallas mavericks washington capitals

Romney "47 Percent" Video Recorder Comes Forward, Credits Bill Clinton

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/47-percent-video-recorder-to-come-forward/

30 rock live nfl draft picks 2012 space shuttle enterprise ryan leaf ryan leaf luke kuechly brad miller