Herty Advanced Materials Development Center has named Alexander Koukoulas, Ph.D. as its President and CEO. ?Koukoulas, a well-known scientist and entrepreneur, previously served as managing director of ANL Consultants, LLC, a private consulting firm supporting the pulp and paper, biomaterials and bioenergy industries. ? Koukoulas will begin his new role on Nov. 1.
?We are excited to have Dr. Koukoulas join Herty as its President and CEO,? said Georgia Southern University President Brooks Keel, Ph.D. ??Not only is Alex an outstanding business leader, but he is an accomplished scientist and entrepreneur. ?His diverse experience will be a perfect fit as we work to expand Herty?s capabilities as a global leader in traditional and advanced materials innovation.?
Herty?s clients, which include global corporations as well as numerous Fortune 500 companies, are currently focused in the transportation, forest and paper related products, building materials, energy and the environment and bio-products industries. ?In April 2012, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal transferred management of the Herty Advanced Materials Development Center to Georgia Southern University with a goal of enhancing economic and business development in the state of Georgia.
?Dr. Koukoulas brings a wealth of technology management, business and new product development experience to Herty,? said Charles Patterson, Ph.D., vice president for research and economic development at Georgia Southern University. ??His expertise in the chemical sciences and engineering, pulp and paper and bioenergy will enhance Herty?s existing relationships as well as forge strategic partnerships with industries in the region, the nation and beyond.?
Prior to his role at ANL Consultants, LLC, Koukoulas served as vice president and executive director of research and development at Albany International, a leading manufacturer of engineered textiles. ?Earlier in his career, he served in increasingly responsible leadership positions at International Paper, including chief scientist, where he directed research and was responsible for new product development and R&D supporting the company?s pulp, paper and packaging business units.
?Not only are we looking forward to welcoming Dr. Koukoulas to Herty, but we are excited to welcome him to Savannah and the Coastal Empire,? said Patterson. ??Our goal is to expand the center?s existing capabilities to help make Savannah and South Georgia an even more attractive market for research and development in the areas of pulp and paper, materials science, polymer science and composites, with an emerging interest in bio-derived materials and biofuels.?
One of Koukoulas? primary goals will be to enable Herty?s clients to achieve their R&D and financial goals while working to create an environment that cultivates opportunity for businesses to relocate or stay within Georgia. The result, according to Patterson and officials at Georgia Southern, will be more jobs and an expanded national reputation helping put Savannah on the map as a center for advanced materials innovation.
Koukoulas received his Bachelor of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from McGill University. ? He is currently pursuing an Executive Certificate from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. ? He has published numerous presentations and publications and holds numerous U.S. patents. ?He is a scientific advisor and bioenergy expert at the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Agriculture. ?He serves as a technical advisor and board member for numerous organizations including the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), the National Science and Engineering Council of Canada, and the European Union?s Energy Commission. ?Koukoulas is an active member of numerous professional societies including the American Chemical Society, the MIT Enterprise Forum, Sigma Xi and TAPPI.
For more information on Herty Advanced Materials Development Center, visit: www.herty.com.
Georgia Southern University, a Carnegie Doctoral/Research University founded in 1906, offers more than 120 degree programs serving more than 20,000 students. Through eight colleges, the University offers bachelor?s, master?s and doctoral degree programs built on more than a century of academic achievement. In 2012, the University was named one of the Top 10 most popular universities in the country by U.S. News & World Report and is a top choice of Georgia?s HOPE scholars. ?Georgia Southern is recognized for its student-centered approach to education. Visit: www.georgiasouthern.edu.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? An apparent insider attack by Afghan forces has killed a NATO service member and an international civilian contractor with the military alliance, the coalition said Sunday.
The attack Saturday in eastern Afghanistan also killed or wounded Afghan soldiers, the NATO alliance said in a statement. It did not provide further details, including the nationalities. The international coalition typically waits for national authorities to announce their own dead.
An Afghan military spokesman declined to comment.
Afghan soldiers and policemen ? or militants in their uniforms ? have gunned down more than 50 foreign troops so far this year, eroding the trust between coalition forces and their Afghan partners. An equal number of Afghan policemen and soldiers also died in these attacks, giving them reason as well to be suspicious of possible infiltrators within their ranks.
The attacks are taking a toll on the partnership between international and Afghan forces, prompting the U.S. military to restrict operations with small-sized Afghan units earlier this month.
The close contact ? with coalition forces working side by side with Afghan troops as advisers, mentors and trainers ? is a key part of the U.S. strategy for putting the Afghans in the lead as the U.S. and other nations prepare to pull out their last combat troops at the end of 2014, just 27 months away.
[An estate case resulting in a dreaded
family feud] underscores why clients should review their estate plans annually
because tax laws change. Failing to do this might land families in court and
entangle inheritances in litigation.
It is apparent that 2012 is a
unique year for planning with the current estate tax and gifting laws. But as
the years go by and laws change, are you paying attention to your estate plans
and how they could be affected?? Such was
the case back in 2010 when there was no estate tax, a very unique situation
that some did not plan for.
It just goes to show that
changing laws matter, and that your estate plans must change accordingly.
For fresh evidence of the
necessity for annual visitation of the estate plan, and for the oddities of 2010,
Financial Planner magazine recently
published an article titled ?Family Feud: Review Estate Plans Annually.? It?s the case of the family behind
Magnolia Audio Visual, and the couple that sold its retail rights to Best Buy
and accumulated a cool $100 million estate in the process. Unfortunately, the
parents weren?t as savvy with their estate planning.
The estate plan provided that
the maximum amount allowable under the federal estate tax threshold would be
passed down to the children, with the rest to pass to the surviving spouse to
thereby avoid immediate estate taxation. Unfortunately, the plan didn?t
account for the fact that 2010 didn?t have an estate tax (thanks to expiring
Bush-era laws and a gridlocked Congress).
The wife died. When the husband
nevertheless claimed the estate that was to pass to the children under the
estate tax planning, the children were noticeably irked. It seems they had been
passed over and were in danger of losing a fortune afforded under the
once-in-a-lifetime and quite unintended tax loophole. Accordingly, the children
filed suit against their father on the grounds of ?non-compliance, forgery and
the use of undue influence.?
This case serves as a lesson to
all that we should frequently update our estate plans to ensure our wishes are
carried through to our loved ones.
(Reuters) - Affirmative action for minorities, human rights abuses and the constitutional authority for dogs to sniff out crime will top the U.S. Supreme Court's agenda when it returns to the bench on Monday. An even bigger issue, same-sex marriage, lurks on the horizon.
The new term marks the full court's first return to the public eye since June when Chief Justice John Roberts surprised many by joining four more liberal justices in a 5-4 decision that upheld nearly all of President Barack Obama's healthcare law.
The court will start with one of its most anticipated cases, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, and address for the second time the extent to which American judges are empowered to hear lawsuits over human rights atrocities abroad.
On October 10, it will hear perhaps the biggest case on the docket so far, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, and weigh whether using race in undergraduate admissions to increase diversity is still acceptable under the U.S. Constitution.
"When you look at Kiobel and Fisher, and the possibility the court will visit the issues of gay marriage and voting rights, it's already shaping up to be a momentous term," said Ted Shaw, a professor at Columbia Law School and former director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Some justices said over the summer break that the court would, as it normally does, move past the divisions that end a term, including this year over a tough Arizona immigration law.
Dissenting justices in that and the healthcare cases read parts of their opinions from the bench, signaling profound disagreement with the majorities.
The court often finds common ground, and last term it ruled unanimously nearly as often as not. But many closely watched cases still produce 5-4 ideological splits. The five more conservative justices were appointed by Republican presidents, and the four more liberal justices by Democratic presidents.
While Justice Anthony Kennedy is at the ideological center, Roberts' vote to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act was a forceful reminder of his capacity to put his own cast on the law. At age 57, he could do so for another quarter century.
"John Roberts enormously strengthened his administrative hand and legal influence in ruling as he did," said Douglas Kmiec, a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. "Now both sides probably believe they need to work for his support, and that's an enviable position for the chief justice."
The court already has accepted close to 40 cases for the new term, filling roughly half of its usual docket.
RACE AS A FACTOR
In Kiobel, the court will again review the Alien Tort Statute, a long-obscure 1789 law that lawyers have used in the last three decades to challenge corporations' alleged aiding or acquiescing in foreign governments' abuse of their own people.
After hearing arguments in February, the court decided to hold a new hearing to address whether judges could hear such claims brought against anyone, not just corporations.
The case has drawn dozens of briefs from other interested parties. The Obama administration has argued that the law could be used, case-by-case, for claims of abuse that might interfere with U.S. foreign relations or respect for human rights.
In the affirmative action case, Texas' flagship university has for several years filled about three-quarters of its undergraduate class by granting automatic admission to students in the top 10 percent of their high-school classes.
While this "race-neutral" approach has boosted the number of black and Hispanic students because of the homogeneity of many high schools, Texas uses race as one factor to fill the rest of each class, with a goal of improving the educational experience.
This has been challenged, and changes in the Supreme Court's makeup may imperil the 2003 decision, Grutter v. Bollinger, that let universities take race into account to improve diversity.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who in that case endorsed race-based admissions at the University of Michigan law school, retired in 2006 and was replaced by the more conservative Justice Samuel Alito.
In addition, Justice Elena Kagan, who was U.S. solicitor general before joining the court in 2010, has recused herself. This could make it hard for Texas to win more than four votes. A decision voiding the program would likely apply, under a different law, to private universities.
Also on the docket are two "dog sniff" cases from Florida that test the boundary of Fourth Amendment protection against illegal searches, and which the court will take up on October 31.
One, Florida v. Jardines, concerns whether a homeowner's privacy was violated when a trained narcotics dog named Franky was allowed to walk near a home, and appeared to correctly detect a marijuana odor from inside. Another, Florida v. Harris, concerns an "alert" given by another dog named Aldo while being led around a truck that contained methamphetamine ingredients.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
All of these cases could well be dwarfed in public attention should the Supreme Court review any or all of a half-dozen cases concerning same-sex marriages.
Several address the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which requires the government to deny benefits such as Social Security payments to gay and lesbian couples. even if they live in states that allow same-sex marriage.
A federal appeals court in Boston said that requirement should not stand. Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general who last term argued against the healthcare law, represents defenders of DOMA while his opponent in the healthcare case, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, wants DOMA to be invalidated.
Also awaiting review is a lower-court decision striking down California's ban on same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8.
The Supreme Court is expected to announce this fall whether it will accept any of these cases. Decisions would likely come by the end of June, before the court's usual summer recess.
Meanwhile, the court may also weigh the constitutionality of a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that requires states with histories of discrimination to get U.S. Department of Justice permission before changing election procedures.
"We're seeing an increase in voting suppression," said Scot Powe, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and former clerk for Justice William O. Douglas. "If they take a Voting Rights Act case, the betting money is that they will invalidate the preclearance provision. That's a big deal."
(Additional reporting by Terry Baynes; Editing by Howard Goller and Eric Walsh)
An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before.
Described this week in the open-access journalPLoS Pathogens, the new microbe has been named Bas-Congo virus (BASV) after the province in the southwest corner of the Congo where the three people lived.
It was discovered by an international research consortium that included the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and University of California, Davis (UCD), Global Viral, the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville in Gabon, the Institut National de Recherche Biom?dicale, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Metabiota and others.
"Known viruses, such as Ebola, HIV and influenza, represent just the tip of the microbial iceberg," said Joseph Fair, PhD, a co-author and vice president of Metabiota. "Identifying deadly unknown viruses, such as Bas-Congo virus, gives us a leg up in controlling future outbreaks."
"These are the only three cases known to have occurred, although there could be additional outbreaks from this virus in the future," said Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF and director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, who spearheaded the UCSF effort to identify the virus. Chiu and his team continue to work on new diagnostics to detect the virus so that health officials in Congo and elsewhere can quickly identify it should it emerge again.
One odd characteristic of the Bas-Congo virus, Chiu said, is that while a number of other viruses in Africa also cause deadly outbreaks of acute hemorrhagic fever?Ebola virus, Lassa virus and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus to name a few ?the new virus is unlike any of them.
Genetically it is more closely related to the types of viruses that cause rabies, which are known to infect people with a very different sort of disease?a neurological illness that is uniformly fatal if untreated but may take months to develop.
An antibody test developed in this study was applied to the one patient who survived and to others who had come into contact with him. It suggested that the disease may be spread from person to person but likely originated from some other source, such as an insect or rodent.
The identity of this animal "reservoir" and the precise mode of transmission for the virus remain unclear and are currently being investigated by Metabiota and the central African members of the consortium through the PREDICT Project of USAID's Emerging Pandemic Threats Program.
How the New Virus Emerged
In the summer of 2009, a 15-year old boy in a small rural community called Mangala village suddenly fell ill and developed a bleeding nose, bleeding gums and bloody vomit. He rapidly worsened, dying within three days of the first signs of illness.
A week later, a 13-year old girl who attended the same school and lived in the same neighborhood as the boy came down with a similar, serious illness. She declined just as rapidly and also died within three days. One week after that, the male nurse who cared for this girl began showing the same symptoms, and he was transferred to a hospital in Boma, a nearby port city that sits along the Congo River upstream from Africa's Atlantic coast.
Members of the consortium, who had initiated a project to diagnose unusual cases of severe hemorrhagic fever, obtained blood samples collected from the nurse by the Congolese doctors and sent them to the laboratory of Eric Leroy, PhD, doctor of veterinary medicine at the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville in Gabon. There the samples were tested for traces of any known virus, but nothing was found. The Metabiota scientists then solicited the expertise of Chiu at UCSF and Eric Delwart at the Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) in San Francisco to aid in the diagnosis.
The researchers ultimately identified a completely new virus as the cause of the mysterious illness through a powerful strategy for identifying novel pathogens known as "deep sequencing," in which millions of DNA sequences are generated from a clinical sample and then pieced together using computer algorithms combined with human analysis.
Distinct Attributes of Bas-Congo
The Bas-Congo virus belongs to a family of viruses known as the rhabdoviruses, a large family of viruses that infect plants, insects and mammals, including humans. The most famous member of this family is the virus that causes rabies. But even among the rhabdoviruses, Bas-Congo is something of an outlier, being very genetically distinct from other members of the family.
What's most unusual about this virus, though, said Chiu, is what it does to people.
No other rhabdoviruses are known to cause the acute, rapid and deadly hemorrhagic fever seen in the three cases in the Congo. Rabies, for instance, can be a deadly disease if untreated, but the course of rabies in humans is nothing like the rapid and deadly onset seen with the Bas-Congo virus. There is some precedent, however, for hemorrhagic disease from rhabdoviruses in the animal kingdom: fish rhabdoviruses are known to cause hemorrhagic septicemia?acute bleeding and death?in affected fish.
The third patient had enormous amounts of BASV in his bloodstream just two days after he fell ill?more than a million copies in every milliliter of blood.
The BASV sequence was also used to design an antibody test for the virus, an effort led by Graham Simmons at the BSRI, another member of the consortium. Antibodies are blood immune proteins produced in response to an infection. The antibody test allowed the researchers to screen both the third patient with acute hemorrhagic fever and other people who had come into contact with the third patient, including the nurse who cared for him in the Boma hospital. High levels of BASV-specific antibodies were found in the third patient, establishing that he indeed had been infected with Bas-Congo virus. The same antibodies were also found in the second nurse, even though he never actually became sick.
"What this suggests is that the disease may be transmissible from person to person?though it's most likely to have originated from some other source," said Nathan Wolfe, PhD, founder and chairman of Global Viral, and a co-author on the paper. "The fact that it belongs to a family of viruses known to infect a wide variety of mammals, insects and other animals means that it may perpetually exist in insect or other 'host' species and was accidentally passed to humans through insect bites or some other means."
###
University of California - San Francisco: http://www.ucsf.edu
Thanks to University of California - San Francisco 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.
Selecting the right dealer can be a bit nerve-wracking, sure. But just as you?d like that new car smell to last a while, keep in mind that a reputable dealer wants to create a lasting relationship with you. But not all dealerships are alike. If you live in the city side, finding good car dealers that respect you and your decision will not be too difficult. Here?s more about choosing a car dealer from where to buy your new set of wheels.
Sales people actually like customers who?ve surfed the web for info like dealer cost and vehicle features. It?s then just a matter of taking you for a test drive, and making sure the vehicle is a comfortable fit. Auto dealerships that are equipped with knowledgeable salespeople should be your dependable point of contacts.? The salesperson assigned to you should not only be able to answer your questions, but should also be able to find someone higher in authority to deal with you. Also, at the same time your decision of buying a new vehicle from a particular dealership should depend on how long they take to answer your calls or emails.
If you see the dealer?s name plate on a car in a parking lot, strike up a conversation with the owner, and ask if he or she would buy a car there again. Analyze the answers they provide you. If they tend to diverse from the main subject or keep making excuses before answering your questions, then you should steer clear of this dealer.
A dealer interested in earning your trust will fully disclose everything about the transaction.? Avoid car dealerships where the staff puts too much pressure on customers and only deal with those which create a comfortable low-pressure zone. You should always take care of the fact that you only buy a vehicle that suits your lifestyle and not out of which they can make money.
Finally, you expect the dealer to be honest ? so be honest with yourself. What?s your com- fort level when you enter this showroom? Are you greeted professionally, or are you besieged with high-pressure tactics like ?What can I do to put you in this car today??? In this matter, you should take note of how the car dealer deals with you to get you a deal you are comfortable with. If the dealer is not interested in explaining the different plans and comparing the quotes, you can be sure that he is not the best bet for you.
Guest Post by Gwilym Roberts (UK) of Kilburn & Strode LLP
The USPTO delivered an advisory on 30th July?2012 urging US practitioners to file Form PTO/SB/69 effectively releasing search results from an unpublished US patent application for delivery to the EPO.? Practitioners in Europe have become aware of this because of the flurry of queries they have received subsequently from US attorneys requiring clarification!?
The relevant EPO provision is Rule 141 EPC.? Rule 141(1) is the key provision which entered into force on 1st January 2011 requiring applicants filing a European patent application claiming priority to additionally file a copy of the results of any search on the application from which priority was claimed.? However under Rule 141(2) the EPO can make special arrangements and US Federal Register Notice 2011-33539 notes that the USPTO has agreed with the EPO to provide the search results directly.? As a result, the EPO, prior to entry into force of the new rule, confirmed to users that they did not need to provide priority search results for US originating cases.? Hence, as far as European Patent attorneys are concerned, when we file a European patent application claiming priority from a US patent application there is no obligation on us, under EP law, to additionally provide search results from the original US application.
Before we get on to the new complexities following the USPTO advisory, as a final point Rule 141(3) does permit the European Patent Office to additionally request copies of search results from related cases.? In practice we are seeing this invoked in only very few instances.?
The complexity had come, as noted in the Federal Register Notice, because, of course, most if not all US patent applications will not have been published at the time a European application is filed claiming priority, meaning that the search results are not publically available.? As a result, Form PTO/SB/69 needs to be filled out for any US case in which an EP priority is likely to be claimed.? In practice this has not been happening, it would appear, hence issuance of the advisory pleading with US attorneys to fill out the form.? Of course the form is discretionary not obligatory and it may well be that in some instances applicants are not happy for their information to be released before publication of the patent application.? But the implication of the advisory notice is that if the situation is not remedied, the EPO exemption may be lifted meaning that on every EP case filed claiming priority from the US, the US search results need to be filed which will of course add to the burden and cost of the process.? It's not clear whether there has been discussion to that effect between the EPO and the USPTO, nor what prompted the appearance of the advisory.?
So what does this mean for US attorneys?? At present, whether or not the form is filed on the given case has no effect on the legal situation in Europe - European patent attorneys are not obliged to independently file copies of the priority search results by virtue of the notice from the EPO President.? Given that in due course the US application will be published the practical effects of not filing the form are likely to be either that processing of?the European application is delayed until publication of the US application from which it claims priority, or that the EPO will start invoking Rule 141(3) and independently asking for the search results.? Longer term, however, we may see the exemption being lifted with the ensuing problems as described above.?
So for now perhaps the answer is, going forwards, and with applicant consent, to file the form, given that the results will be publically available at 18 months anyway.? However if the applicant is uncomfortable then this needs to be taken into account although it's worth noting that the search results will not become visible from the EPO earlier than 18 months either as it is subjected to the same non-publication period.??Questions have been raised as to whether it is necessary to file back dated release forms for applications already filed.? There will be no need to do this for applications that have been published but more generally this does not appear to be something the USPTO Advisory is requesting.
As regards the USPTO, it is clearly taking the correct legal line in terms of applicant interest.? But looking at other offices the approach taken by the UKIPO is certainly more straightforward - when requesting search on patents form 9A there is a box to be ticked requesting consent for sharing search information confidentially but note H indicates that in any event they are obliged to provide some information before publication to the EPO.? In other words, they just do it.? The relationship between EP law and UK law is far closer and intertwined, or course, but what a simple solution!
Summary
It is necessary to provide search results from US applications in relation to EP applications claiming priority from them,?but this is done automatically by the EPO?
The USPTO can only?send the priority search documents?pre publication with applicant consent which it is?now pleading with?users to provide
From an EP perspective there is no legal obligation for US applicants to provide such a consent
But the long term result otherwise may be that the EPO no longer automatically obtains copies of US search results adding to the burden of the applicant, so it is worth doing, with client consent
There seems no need to retrospectively provide consent on existing applications.
Dynamics of DNA packaging helps regulate formation of heartPublic release date: 27-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Leila Gray leilag@uw.edu 206-685-0381 University of Washington
Findings hold promise for heart regeneration and understanding congenital heart defects
A new regulator for heart formation has been discovered by studying how embryonic stem cells adjust the packaging of their DNA. This approach to finding genetic regulators, the scientists say, may have the power to provide insight into the development of any tissue in the body liver, brain, blood and so on.
A stem cell has the potential to become any type of cell. Once the choice is made, the cell and other stem cells committed to the same fate divide to form organ tissue.
A University of Washington-led research team was particularly interested in how stem cells turn into heart muscle cells to further research on repairing damaged hearts through tissue regeneration. The leaders of the project were Dr. Charles Murry, a cardiac pathologist and stem cell biologist; Dr. Randall Moon, who studies the control of embryonic development, and Dr. John Stamatoyannopoulos, who explores the operating systems of the human genome.
The paper's lead author is Dr. Sharon Paige, a UW MD-PhD student who completed her Ph.D. in Dr. Murry's lab.
The results are published in the Sept. 28 edition of Cell.
Paige, an aspiring pediatric cardiologist, said, "By identifying regulators of cardiac development, this work has the potential to lead to a better understanding of the causes of congenital heart disease, thereby paving the way for therapeutic advances."
Previously UW researchers had examined the signals that prod cells to grow into various kinds of heart tissue. In this case, the researchers entered a relatively unexplored area. They decided to look at the genetic controls behind the transformation of stem cells into heart tissue.
Because stem cells keep their DNA code under wraps until needed, the scientists examined how this packaging is altered over time to permit reading of portions of the code and thereby produce changes in the cell.
DNA is wound up into a structure called chromatin. "DNA can be packaged as tightly closed, neutral or activated," Murry explained. The tightly closed state, he said, is analogous to setting the brakes on a car.
Like a child who clams up when asked, "What will you be when you grow up?" stem cells are protective of the genes that will determine their future cell type, or what scientists call their cell fate.
"We found that stem cells take great care to avoid turning on cell-fate regulating genes at the wrong time," Murry said. "These genes have their brakes on until they are needed." When the time is right, he said, "the brakes come off and the gas goes on."
He explained that the situation is different for genes that regulate cell functions, in contrast to those that regulate cell fate. Genes that control, for example, the production of proteins that allow the cell to contract or to generate electrical signals do not have such a complex braking system. Those genes can be more readily activated.
The researchers pointed out that it was already known that the patterns stem cells follow to modify their DNA packaging distinguished them from progenitor cells cells prepared to begin a lineage of a particular type of cell and also from cells that already had a working identity, such as blood or muscle cells.
However , the dynamics of the DNA packaging modifications how the packaging is programmed to change over timeand how these dynamics influence which genes are "exposed" and activated to create, for example, heart muscle cells, was poorly understood.
The UW-led research team learned that, as human embryonic stem cells become heart cells, this differentiation is accompanied by distinctive dynamic alterations in DNA packaging. This tell-tale pattern enabled the scientists to distinguish the key regulators of heart development from other genes. The researchers referred to the carefully timed pattern of changes in the DNA wrapping as a "temporal chromatin signature."
Just as a bank robber leaves incriminating evidence in a handwritten note to the teller, the temporal chromatin signature gave the scientists the clues they needed to hunt down new genes that might be responsible for heart formation.
"We found a bunch of them," Murry said. Their system revealed the top candidate to be the homebox gene MEIS2. This gene seemed an unlikely choice because it had no previous record of participating in heart formation. However, when this gene was removed from a new generation of zebra fish, the developing fish embryos had heart tube formation defects and other heart abnormalities.
Murry and other members of the research team think patterns in DNA unwrapping could be broadly applicable to discovering the genes that regulate other aspects of tissue and organ formation beyond only the heart. Such a research approach might help reveal the major developmental decisions that occur inside of cells as an embryo forms and grows. These revelations could provide information useful to spurring stem cells to form specific tissues for organ repair later in life.
Acknowledging the limitations of a lab system in mimicking what happens inside living cells in the early stages of organ formation in humans, Murry said, "The use of the temporal chromatin signature to discover regulatory genes could give us new insights into human development and new tools to control cell fate."
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This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health P01 GMO081719, U01 HL100405, P01 HL094374, R01 HL084642, R01 HL64387, R03 AR057477, and the UW ENCODE Center (U54HG004592). Randal Moon is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
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Dynamics of DNA packaging helps regulate formation of heartPublic release date: 27-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Leila Gray leilag@uw.edu 206-685-0381 University of Washington
Findings hold promise for heart regeneration and understanding congenital heart defects
A new regulator for heart formation has been discovered by studying how embryonic stem cells adjust the packaging of their DNA. This approach to finding genetic regulators, the scientists say, may have the power to provide insight into the development of any tissue in the body liver, brain, blood and so on.
A stem cell has the potential to become any type of cell. Once the choice is made, the cell and other stem cells committed to the same fate divide to form organ tissue.
A University of Washington-led research team was particularly interested in how stem cells turn into heart muscle cells to further research on repairing damaged hearts through tissue regeneration. The leaders of the project were Dr. Charles Murry, a cardiac pathologist and stem cell biologist; Dr. Randall Moon, who studies the control of embryonic development, and Dr. John Stamatoyannopoulos, who explores the operating systems of the human genome.
The paper's lead author is Dr. Sharon Paige, a UW MD-PhD student who completed her Ph.D. in Dr. Murry's lab.
The results are published in the Sept. 28 edition of Cell.
Paige, an aspiring pediatric cardiologist, said, "By identifying regulators of cardiac development, this work has the potential to lead to a better understanding of the causes of congenital heart disease, thereby paving the way for therapeutic advances."
Previously UW researchers had examined the signals that prod cells to grow into various kinds of heart tissue. In this case, the researchers entered a relatively unexplored area. They decided to look at the genetic controls behind the transformation of stem cells into heart tissue.
Because stem cells keep their DNA code under wraps until needed, the scientists examined how this packaging is altered over time to permit reading of portions of the code and thereby produce changes in the cell.
DNA is wound up into a structure called chromatin. "DNA can be packaged as tightly closed, neutral or activated," Murry explained. The tightly closed state, he said, is analogous to setting the brakes on a car.
Like a child who clams up when asked, "What will you be when you grow up?" stem cells are protective of the genes that will determine their future cell type, or what scientists call their cell fate.
"We found that stem cells take great care to avoid turning on cell-fate regulating genes at the wrong time," Murry said. "These genes have their brakes on until they are needed." When the time is right, he said, "the brakes come off and the gas goes on."
He explained that the situation is different for genes that regulate cell functions, in contrast to those that regulate cell fate. Genes that control, for example, the production of proteins that allow the cell to contract or to generate electrical signals do not have such a complex braking system. Those genes can be more readily activated.
The researchers pointed out that it was already known that the patterns stem cells follow to modify their DNA packaging distinguished them from progenitor cells cells prepared to begin a lineage of a particular type of cell and also from cells that already had a working identity, such as blood or muscle cells.
However , the dynamics of the DNA packaging modifications how the packaging is programmed to change over timeand how these dynamics influence which genes are "exposed" and activated to create, for example, heart muscle cells, was poorly understood.
The UW-led research team learned that, as human embryonic stem cells become heart cells, this differentiation is accompanied by distinctive dynamic alterations in DNA packaging. This tell-tale pattern enabled the scientists to distinguish the key regulators of heart development from other genes. The researchers referred to the carefully timed pattern of changes in the DNA wrapping as a "temporal chromatin signature."
Just as a bank robber leaves incriminating evidence in a handwritten note to the teller, the temporal chromatin signature gave the scientists the clues they needed to hunt down new genes that might be responsible for heart formation.
"We found a bunch of them," Murry said. Their system revealed the top candidate to be the homebox gene MEIS2. This gene seemed an unlikely choice because it had no previous record of participating in heart formation. However, when this gene was removed from a new generation of zebra fish, the developing fish embryos had heart tube formation defects and other heart abnormalities.
Murry and other members of the research team think patterns in DNA unwrapping could be broadly applicable to discovering the genes that regulate other aspects of tissue and organ formation beyond only the heart. Such a research approach might help reveal the major developmental decisions that occur inside of cells as an embryo forms and grows. These revelations could provide information useful to spurring stem cells to form specific tissues for organ repair later in life.
Acknowledging the limitations of a lab system in mimicking what happens inside living cells in the early stages of organ formation in humans, Murry said, "The use of the temporal chromatin signature to discover regulatory genes could give us new insights into human development and new tools to control cell fate."
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This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health P01 GMO081719, U01 HL100405, P01 HL094374, R01 HL084642, R01 HL64387, R03 AR057477, and the UW ENCODE Center (U54HG004592). Randal Moon is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
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So after your brain hurts a bit and you're tired of learning computer science on the Raspberry Pi, you might want to relax with a bit of nostalgia and exercise your thumbs with some retro gaming. Want to revisit your childhood memories of Pong? Ping away. Maybe your kids have been hounding you for a video game console but you don't have the $300 to spring for a PS3. The Pi can help you with this and help teach your kids something, to boot. After some slight software configurations and a hardware purchase or two, you can relive the days of the almighty Atari 2600. Catch us after the break and we'll show you how to get your Pi to play all your totally legal cartridge backups.
Election workers count ballot papers for parliamentary elections, Kandahar, Afghanistan, in September 2010 (Image: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features)
Election fraud is a fact of life in Afghanistan. In 2009, protest over the validity of the presidential election led to nationwide bloodshed, and in parliamentary elections the following year nearly a quarter of the ballots were discredited.
Now a study suggests that a simple snap with a smartphone camera could help make elections fairer.
A team at the University of California, San Diego, wanted to determine whether monitoring election fraud with cellphones could make the democratic process more robust. Focussing on Afghanistan, they arranged for photos of electoral returns forms to be taken at each polling station across a certain area the morning after voting.
The electoral returns form is a record of the total votes for each candidate at that location, and is relatively easily to tamper with either at the polling station or en route to the national aggregation centre.
The team sent out local researchers to take pictures of the forms containing the final count result at more than 400 polling stations during the 2010 parliamentary elections. On the day of voting, around half of the stations in the study were told that this instantaneous record would be made the following day. The research, presented by Michael Callen of the university's Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation at Growth Week in London this week, found that this announcement of monitoring reduced the amount of tampering by 60 per cent.
Comparing the photographs with records from the national aggregation centre, they found that this drop in tampering had the knock-on effect of reducing the number of votes for politically powerful candidates by around 25 per cent.
More influential candidates who have stronger political connections can tamper with the results, the team conclude, because they can provide protection for the election officials who would have access to the electoral returns form.
Its true then. Hes no longer just a myth, no longer just the story that sent shivers down your spine, no longer just that stupid horror game. The Slenderman is most certainly real, and our very own human brains have made him flesh and blood...
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Lactose can colloquially be referred to as sugar of milk. It is composed of glucose and galactose and the digestion and absorption of lactose involves the breaking down of this complex sugar into its simpler constituents.
Lactose intolerance can be defined as the inability of the body to breakdown and absorb lactose. This can be attributed to a lack of the enzyme that is responsible for the digestion of lactose, called ?lactase?. This enzyme is secreted by the cellular lining in the small intestine.
There are various causes of lactose intolerance which can be categorized and elaborated as follows:
Congenital Causes: Sometimes, lactose intolerance is caused due to mutation in the genetic code of our ancestors and is passed on along with other hereditary traits. This is, however, a rare cause of lactose intolerance. Secondary Causes: The secondary causes of lactose intolerance include certain infections and diseases. Developmental Causes: Developmental causes include mutations in the genetic code of a person while still in the zygotic or embryonic phase.
Such causes of the affliction involve the evidence of the symptoms of lactose intolerance in later childhood and persist in adulthood. When the lactose is not being broken down into simpler sugars, it is not being absorbed in the small intestine. It then passes to the colon sub-division of the large intestine where it is broken down by bacteria to releases gases like hydrogen and methane, which lead to flatus. Other symptoms of lactose intolerance are abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal bloating and distension.
Here are a few tips to relieve the symptoms of lactose intolerance:
First and foremost, you must avoid and reduce the intake of lactose in your diet. As such, you are advised not to consume milk, cheese, and ice-cream. However, the intake of yogurt in small amounts is not restricted as the bacteria in it can help in the breakdown of lactose. You can also consume milk substitutes like soy and rice milk. You must avoid other foods that may contain lactose like salad dressings, mixes for biscuits and cakes, margarine, baked products like bread, processed breakfast cereals, soups, and even potatoes. As such, reducing your intake of lactose is the best way to avert the symptoms of lactose intolerance.
It is also a good idea to consult a dietician to learn more about the foods that must be consumed and the ones that should be avoided if you are lactose intolerant.
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LaCie's no stranger to kicking out portable HDDs that are a-okay with getting kicked around, and the Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series is no exception. As the extended title implies, this one is equipped to transfer files via USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt, and it'll play nice with Mac and Windows platforms. The LaCie Rugged SSD offers up transfer rates as high as 380MB/sec -- a feat we came darn close to hitting ourselves in testing -- and the HDD variants claim up to 110MB/sec. The bantam drive is entirely bus-powered, and it's engineered to shake off drops of up to four feet. Interesting? Both models should be shipping shortly, with the 1TB HDD edition going for $249.99 and the 120GB SSDer for $199.99.
One of the first points that Norwich Free Academy football coach Jemal Davis made to his Wildcats following a 48-7 win over Woodstock on Saturday was that critics will point out that NFA has not beaten anyone yet despite a 2-0 record.
It?s true that the Wildcats have not been challenged. NFA has scored 48 points in the first half of each of its first two games and then had the luxury of resting its starters for the entire second half. Will that be a problem when NFA plays host to Fitch at 1 p.m. this Saturday? Quarterback Joey Paparelli said the Wildcats have been going at it hard in practice and will be mentally prepared for the Falcons and the physical side shouldn?t be a problem. ?We have the two-platoon thing going and only offensive players play offense and defense plays defense, so no one is going to get overwhelmingly tired,? Paparelli said. ?We conditioned all offseason and went through the hardest camp that I?ve ever been a part of. We?re still running three days a week and all of our practices are high-tempo like we?re in a game.? ?Booting better ?There were few things Ledyard coach Jim Buonocore looked upon as a positive following the Colonels? game with Killingly. But there was an exception to that rule ? kicker Christian Alvis. ?He?s doing a nice job with the point-afters, he?s been perfect so far, and I thought our kickoffs were much better,? Buonocore said. Alvis has a straight-on kicking style that you might expect from a player who is normally either on the offensive line or at linebacker. Buonocore said his staff worked with Alvis in the week between the Waterford and Killingly games and ?changed some things up? to improve his style. ?I was really happy with that. Now we just have to get the coverage team on board,? Buonocore said with a rare chuckle on Thursday night. ?Big plays ?There were plenty in between but it was the ?bookend? big plays by New London that set Montville back on Friday ? the first play from scrimmage and the last play from scrimmage in the first half. Quarterback Ackee Barber found Sammy Miranda for a 75-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the game. Miranda caught the ball about seven yards off the line of scrimmage and quickly shook his defender who fell down. ?We wanted to try and air it out early, make those big guys run, because we?re not going to pound the football at them (the Whalers ran the ball only 13 times)? New London coach Duane Maranda said. ?We?re going to take what they?re giving us and what they were giving us was that play.? Joquin Riley was responsible for the play that sent Montville into the locker room with its heads down. Indians? quarterback Nick Clemons ran into his own halfback, stumbled and lost control of the ball. Riley was coming in on the blitz and did the old ?scoop-and-score? trick. ?I just picked it up and ran as fast as I could, it just popped right up to me,? Riley said. ?Lack of focus ?Woodstock first-year head coach Jesse Pimental is doing everything he possibly can to make his team competitive. In the game against NFA Saturday, the Centaurs tried just about every trick in the book but there was one thing that seemingly escaped the Centaurs ? focus. They executed some things well, but also lost concentration and it resulted in such things as a pass on a punt deep in their own territory that gave the ball back to NFA deep in Woodstock territory. The Centaurs also had a host of delay-of-game penalties and fumbled a punt. ?We stressed the importance of being strong mentally in practice (Friday) and I was a little disappointed to come out the way we did,? Pimental said. ?The intensity has been better in practice, but it?s not translating to the games, so we have to take a look at that. Some of it is being intense and some of it is getting behind early and not being able to sustain the intensity.?? Mighty Panthers It?s early, but something special might be brewing in Central Village. Plainfield improved to 2-0 with a 43-6 thumping of St Bernard/Norwich Tech Friday night. The Panthers totaled only five wins in the prior two seasons and with a win Friday at Waterford (0-2), could equal last season?s victory total. For the second week in a row, it was Plainfield?s defense that kept coach Patrick Smith?s squad in the game during the first half until the offense finally hit its stride in the second, rolling up 244 yards and three scores over the final 24 minutes. ?We?re still a work in progress,? said Smith, ?We didn?t do much of anything right in the first half. Fortunately, for us in the second half, we came out and made some nice adjustments and the kids responded. Give the kids credit. This is two weeks in a row that kids came out in the second half and played with some passion.? Plainfield?s defense limited St Bernard to 163 yards of offense and also returned a fumble for a touchdown for the second consecutive week. Marc Allard and Peter Koiva contributed to this report.
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