By Tim Kenneally LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Madea goes bye-bye? A new petition published on Change.org is demanding that Oprah Winfrey's network remove Winfrey's friend and business partner Tyler Perry from OWN's airwaves, claiming that Perry "perpetuates stereotypes" about the black community. Or, as the petition puts it more whimsically, Perry "is 'malt liquor' for the community!" Perry's new series, "The Haves and the Have Nots," premiered Tuesday night on OWN to record breaking ratings. ...
New therapy is tolerable in lung cancerPublic release date: 30-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Diana Quattrone diana.quattrone@fccc.edu 215-815-7828 Fox Chase Cancer Center
Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists and others worldwide are conducting further tests to determine the efficacy of the drug nivolumab
CHICAGO, IL (May 28, 2013)A promising new therapy for the most common form of lung cancer appears to produce largely manageable side effects, and an ongoing clinical trial is determining whether the compound treats tumors more effectively than what's on the market, according research that scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center will present at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Saturday, June 1.
"We're very excited about this drug," says Hossein Borghaei, DO, chief of thoracic medical oncology at Fox Chase. "I think if we learn how to use it appropriately, and manage the side effects effectively, it will be a good drug to have in our armamentarium."
Lung cancer is the number one cause of death from cancer. Currently, patients with a metastatic form of the most common form of lung cancernon-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)are treated with a combination of various chemotherapy drugs. If that fails, they are typically treated with a single agent. "We're trying to find a new option," says Borghaei, also the director of Lung Cancer Risk Assessment at Fox Chase.
The drug, known as nivolumab, is a monoclonal antibody that targets the immune system's response to cancer. Specifically, it acts on the pathway that protects the tumor from the efforts of the immune system to destroy it. Treatment with nivolumab is like taking the brakes off the immune system, says Borghaei"it allows the body's own immune system to recognize the tumor as foreign and attack it." A similar drug, ipilimumab, has been approved for melanoma.
Because nivolumab acts on the immune system, Borghaei explains, he and his colleagues have noted different side effects than what often occur with standard chemotherapy. These side effects, reported on other studies with this drug, include thyroid inflammation or inflammation of the colon.
The drug's seller, Bristol-Myers Squibb, has sponsored other research that suggests nivolumab may have some effect on lung cancerin a previously published phase 1 trial in patients with NSCLC, 33% responded to the treatment.
To test the drug's effects further, Borghaei and his colleagues are conducting two phase III trials of nivolumab, comparing its effectiveness to another commonly used chemotherapy drugdocetaxelin patients with NSCLC of different histologies who have already failed previous treatments.
The trials, which is ongoing, aims to enroll several hundred people worldwide, and will likely be complete in a few years. Fox Chase alone has enrolled approximately 10 people so far, says Borghaei. "We're going to keep going until we're told to stop."
He encourages patients with NSCLC who think they may benefit from trying nivolumab to discuss the option with their doctors. "Every drug patients get now was once experimental," he says. "There are a lot of new drugs for lung cancer being investigated, so a lot of reason to feel hopeful that new therapies are on the horizon. But the only way this will happen is if patients participate in experimental trials."
###
Fox Chase Cancer Center, part of Temple University Health System, is one of the leading cancer research and treatment centers in the United States. Founded in 1904 in Philadelphia as one of the nation's first cancer hospitals, Fox Chase also was among the first institutions to receive the National Cancer Institute's prestigious comprehensive cancer center designation in 1974. Fox Chase researchers have won the highest awards in their fields, including two Nobel Prizes. Fox Chase physicians are routinely recognized in national rankings, and the Center's nursing program has achieved Magnet status for excellence three consecutive times. Fox Chase conducts a broad array of nationally competitive basic, translational, and clinical research and oversees programs in cancer prevention, detection, survivorship, and community outreach. For more information, call 1-888-FOX-CHASE (1-888-369-2427) or visit http://www.foxchase.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New therapy is tolerable in lung cancerPublic release date: 30-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Diana Quattrone diana.quattrone@fccc.edu 215-815-7828 Fox Chase Cancer Center
Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists and others worldwide are conducting further tests to determine the efficacy of the drug nivolumab
CHICAGO, IL (May 28, 2013)A promising new therapy for the most common form of lung cancer appears to produce largely manageable side effects, and an ongoing clinical trial is determining whether the compound treats tumors more effectively than what's on the market, according research that scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center will present at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Saturday, June 1.
"We're very excited about this drug," says Hossein Borghaei, DO, chief of thoracic medical oncology at Fox Chase. "I think if we learn how to use it appropriately, and manage the side effects effectively, it will be a good drug to have in our armamentarium."
Lung cancer is the number one cause of death from cancer. Currently, patients with a metastatic form of the most common form of lung cancernon-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)are treated with a combination of various chemotherapy drugs. If that fails, they are typically treated with a single agent. "We're trying to find a new option," says Borghaei, also the director of Lung Cancer Risk Assessment at Fox Chase.
The drug, known as nivolumab, is a monoclonal antibody that targets the immune system's response to cancer. Specifically, it acts on the pathway that protects the tumor from the efforts of the immune system to destroy it. Treatment with nivolumab is like taking the brakes off the immune system, says Borghaei"it allows the body's own immune system to recognize the tumor as foreign and attack it." A similar drug, ipilimumab, has been approved for melanoma.
Because nivolumab acts on the immune system, Borghaei explains, he and his colleagues have noted different side effects than what often occur with standard chemotherapy. These side effects, reported on other studies with this drug, include thyroid inflammation or inflammation of the colon.
The drug's seller, Bristol-Myers Squibb, has sponsored other research that suggests nivolumab may have some effect on lung cancerin a previously published phase 1 trial in patients with NSCLC, 33% responded to the treatment.
To test the drug's effects further, Borghaei and his colleagues are conducting two phase III trials of nivolumab, comparing its effectiveness to another commonly used chemotherapy drugdocetaxelin patients with NSCLC of different histologies who have already failed previous treatments.
The trials, which is ongoing, aims to enroll several hundred people worldwide, and will likely be complete in a few years. Fox Chase alone has enrolled approximately 10 people so far, says Borghaei. "We're going to keep going until we're told to stop."
He encourages patients with NSCLC who think they may benefit from trying nivolumab to discuss the option with their doctors. "Every drug patients get now was once experimental," he says. "There are a lot of new drugs for lung cancer being investigated, so a lot of reason to feel hopeful that new therapies are on the horizon. But the only way this will happen is if patients participate in experimental trials."
###
Fox Chase Cancer Center, part of Temple University Health System, is one of the leading cancer research and treatment centers in the United States. Founded in 1904 in Philadelphia as one of the nation's first cancer hospitals, Fox Chase also was among the first institutions to receive the National Cancer Institute's prestigious comprehensive cancer center designation in 1974. Fox Chase researchers have won the highest awards in their fields, including two Nobel Prizes. Fox Chase physicians are routinely recognized in national rankings, and the Center's nursing program has achieved Magnet status for excellence three consecutive times. Fox Chase conducts a broad array of nationally competitive basic, translational, and clinical research and oversees programs in cancer prevention, detection, survivorship, and community outreach. For more information, call 1-888-FOX-CHASE (1-888-369-2427) or visit http://www.foxchase.org.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq foiled an al Qaeda plot to use tanker trucks packed with explosives to attack a key Baghdad oil facility, a senior security official and oil sources said.
The security official declined to name the facility because the investigation was underway but oil ministry officials said the security forces were on high alert following a spate of attacks on a northern pipeline.
Protecting infrastructure for the world's fourth largest oil reserves is crucial for Iraq as it rebuilds an industry battered by years of war following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and sanctions against former ruler Saddam Hussein.
"We have arrested a key local leader of al Qaeda who organised the plan to launch a major attack against a large oil facility in Baghdad," a senior anti-terrorism official said.
The security source said insurgents planned to pack explosives into tankers transporting crude oil from southern Basra oilfields to the main oil storage depots inside the major oil facility of Baghdad, where the bombs would be detonated.
"They were planning to put in explosives and booby-trap more than one oil tanker," he said.
Baghdad oil facilities include the large Doura refinery, East Baghdad oilfield, which currently has limited production of around 10,000 barrels per day to feed Doura, and a gas facility just north of the capital.
Militants often target security forces, and Shi'ite and Sunni mosques, but attacks on major oil sites beyond pipeline bombings are rarer.
A key pipeline from Iraq's northern oilfields around Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan has been repeatedly attacked by militants over the last month.
Gunmen attacked a gas field operated by Korea Gas Company in April, killing three local contractors.
Violence has spiked since the start of the year as al Qaeda's local wing, the Islamic State of Iraq, and other Sunni Islamist insurgents stepped up attacks to try to stoke a widescale sectarian conflict.
Iraq expects to boost its oil output to rival the level of top producer Saudi Arabia after awarding some of its most attractive oilfields to global oil companies, including BP, Shell and Exxon Mobil.
OAXACA, Mexico (AP) ? Hurricane Barbara drenched a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico's southern Pacific coast with rain Wednesday after making the second-earliest landfall since reliable record-keeping began in 1966. It quickly lost strength over land but not before killing at least two people, including a man identified by local officials as a U.S. surfer.
By evening, Barbara had weakened to a tropical storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The director of civil defense for Oaxaca state, Manuel Maza Sanchez, said a 61-year-old man from Colorado died while surfing at Playa Azul, a beach near the resort town of Puerto Escondido, when Barbara made landfall at midafternoon as a Category 1 hurricane about 120 miles (200 kilometers) to the east. He said the man was dragged out by waves kicked up by Barbara and then battered against the shore.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City was not immediately able to confirm the man's name, nationality or hometown.
Maza Sanchez also said a 26-year-old Mexican man drowned in the nearby city of Pinotepa Nacional while trying to cross a rain-swollen creek.
Farther to the east, near the landfall area, 14 fishermen who set out to sea Wednesday morning from the town of Tapanatepec had been reported missing, Maza said.
Barbara came ashore with winds of about 75 mph (120 kph) and lost power as it moved inland. By Wednesday night, maximum sustained winds had dropped to 50 mph (85 kph) as the storm slogged northward, but flooding was reported in some areas and remained a threat.
On May 23, the National Hurricane Center had said odds favor a below-normal hurricane season in the eastern Pacific for 2013. It said 11 to 16 named storms were likely, below the 15-storm annual average for 1981-2010.
But Barbara appeared to start the Pacific season unusually early, and it also made landfall farther east than any other Pacific hurricane since 1966. Such storms often form closer to the resort of Acapulco, to the west.
Officials in Oaxaca had rushed to prepare emergency shelters and suspended school for children in coastal communities as rain began lashing the coast when the storm formed close to shore.
The area first hit by the storm is a largely undeveloped stretch of coastal lagoons, punctuated by small fishing villages.
The major Gulf oil port of Coatzacoalcos is located on the other side of the narrow waist of Mexico known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. But the hurricane center predicted Barbara would dissipate into a rain system well before reaching Coatzacoalcos.
Maza Sanchez said classes would be suspended at schools along the coast for the rest of the week. Storm shelters were set up in 20 towns and hamlets, and such shelters are often installed at schools.
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's foreign minister says his government will attend planned Syrian peace talks "with every good intention" to reach a deal. But he says the Syrian opposition is setting preconditions.
Walid al-Moallem said in a TV interview Wednesday that U.N.-sponsored peace talks, tentatively to be launched next month in Geneva, present a "real opportunity" for ending the country's civil war.
Al-Moallem says Syria rejects the opposition's apparent condition for attending talks, that President Bashar Assad step down at the start of any transition period. Al-Moallem told the Lebanese TV station Al-Mayadeen that "only the Syrian people can decide who is to rule Syria."
May 28, 2013 ? The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the image of an unusual galaxy -- a beautiful, glittering swirl named, rather un-poetically, J125013.50+073441.5. A glowing haze of material seems to engulf the galaxy, stretching out into space in different directions and forming a fuzzy streak in this image. It is a starburst galaxy -- a name given to galaxies that show unusually high rates of star formation. The regions where new stars are being born are highlighted by sparkling bright blue regions along the galactic arms.
Studying starburst galaxies can tell us a lot about galactic evolution and star formation. These galaxies start off with huge amounts of gas, which is used to form new stars. This period of furious star formation is only a phase; once all the gas is used up, this star birth slows down. Other famous starbursts captured by Hubble include the Antennae Galaxies and Messier 82, the latter of which is forming new stars ten times faster than our galaxy, the Milky Way.
The data for this image were collected using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 as part of a study named LARS (Lyman Alpha Reference Sample), which is investigating the interaction between radiation and matter in relatively nearby starburst galaxies.
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Amazon has decided on the five pilots it will turn into full series?Alpha House, Betas, Annebots, Creative Galaxy, and Tumbleleaf?have all officially gotten the green light.
These five?two comedies and three children's shows?were selected based on customer feedback out of 14 pilots Amazon put online in April. Bear with us here, because Betas is another series centered around (ugh) Silicon Valley in which "four young entrepreneurs [attempt] to make it big in techland." But Alpha House, the political comedy about four senators who become roommates,sounds promising. It stars John Goodman and features a cameo from Bill Murray. And at least Amazon didn't go with Zombieland.
All five series will be streaming on Amazon Prime Instant Video later this year and in early 2014. Let us know what you think of the selections below. [Amazon]
Home improvement is a fantastic way to spruce up an outdated dcor or to give your home a new look. There are so many different options when it comes to home improvement while fitting almost anybody?s budget. Painting, wallpaper or even just new curtains are a few examples that will give any home a fresh look for a minimal price.
Beware custom made items. Custom is great for cabinets, but it can get costly when it comes to most items. Save money by figuring out how to modify store-bought items, or how to modify your home itself to fit around the item you purchase. This will typically end up saving you money.
How to paint an indoor room quickly and easily. If possible, try to do all your painting in daylight hours, as artificial light can cause you to miss small areas. Tackle the ceiling first, painting around the edges in bands, and working your way into the center. The walls should be painted starting at the top, and working downwards in sections.
A great home improvement tip is to not let your ego get in the way when making renovations. Sometimes, a renovation you may have in mind does not need to be done because it could violate a particular building code, or it could even harm the value of your home.
Install radiant heat under your new tile floors. There are kits available for the do-it-yourself homeowner, and it?s really not rocket science. It will make a dramatic difference in the ?wow? factor of your home both to guests and to potential buyers. Invite them to take their shoes off and feel the heat!
If you are interested in changing the look of your bathroom, this space could be the perfect choice for your next home improvement project. Give your bathroom an extra special touch by installing radiant floor heat and a light-tube, which gives the space the appearance of having natural light. Both features come with instructions that are easy to follow.
Installing new lighting fixtures is a great investment. Dark or dim rooms can seem smaller and depressing. Simply installing additional lighting can give new life to a room. A bright kitchen not only makes it easier to cook, but can liven the whole house, and a well lit bathroom can seem much larger than it really is.
When it comes to home improvement, be aware that you should never pay more than 35% of the project cost up front as a down payment. This is to ensure that you do not lose your money if the contractor backs out. Always pay by some method of payment that can be tracked such as check, instead of cash. Finally, only pay for the complete job when the job is actually completed.
If you live in a home that was built before 1990, consider having your attic re-insulated with newer materials and energy saving foam. Newer home insulation technology can save you hundreds of dollars in less than a year by improving the overall efficiency of your heating and cooling systems.
Increase your productivity when installing new kitchen cabinets by planning the order in which you will hang them. Install the top cabinets first so you do not have to lean over the base cabinets to attach them to the wall. Beginning in a corner is the easiest way to avoid fitting problems.
In conclusion, it can be quite easy and affordable to improve your home?s appearance. If you are doing it yourself and only working on simple projects it will become obviously worth the little money spent. There are many options and styles available to suit everyone?s needs. Who doesn?t want to walk into their home and feel aesthetically refreshed?
For more details you will have to look on house cleaning new york and new york city cleaning
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? Australian officials on Tuesday refused to confirm or deny whether Chinese hackers had stolen the blueprints of a new spy agency headquarters as a news report claims. A tiny party essential to the ruling coalition's government demanded an inquiry into how much damage may have been done.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. television reported on Monday night that the plans for the 630 million Australian dollar ($608 million) Australian Security Intelligence Organization building had been stolen through a cyberattack on a building contractor. Blueprints that included details such as communications cabling, server locations and security systems had been traced to a Chinese server, the network reported.
Des Ball, an Australian National University cybersecurity expert, said China could use the blueprints to bug the building, which is nearing completion in Canberra, the capital, after lengthy construction delays.
Ball told the ABC that given the breach, ASIO would either have to operate with "utmost sensitivity" within its own building or simply "rip the whole insides out and ... start again."
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, the minister in charge of the spy agency, on Tuesday refused to confirm or deny the report, citing a longstanding government policy of declining to comment on security matters.
He later said the lakeside glass and concrete structure did not need to be redesigned, and that ASIO will move in this year.
"This building is a very secure, state-of-the-art facility," said Dreyfus, adding that the ABC report contained "unsubstantiated allegations."
"I'm not going to comment on operational matters involving the Australian Security Intelligence Organization or any security matters," he said.
Questioned about the alleged security breach in Parliament, Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the ABC report as "inaccurate" but refused to go into detail.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China opposed hacking in any form and questioned what evidence the ABC report relied on.
"Since it is technically untraceable, it is very difficult to find the source and identify the hacker," Hong said. "Therefore we have no idea what is the evidence for their report in which they make the claim with such certainty."
He said countries needed to cooperate to fight hacking. "Groundless accusations won't solve the problem," Hong said.
The minor Greens party, which the center-left Labor Party relies on to maintain its minority government, has demanded an inquiry into the future of the troubled building, which has been plagued by cost blowouts from an original budget of 460 million Australian dollars.
"It is time that we had an independent inquiry into the whole sorry history of the ASIO building and the extent to which the current hacking has compromised its capacity to ever be the building and serve the purpose for which it was intended," Greens leader Christine Milne told reporters.
She said no more money should be spent on the building until an inquiry was held into the truth of the hacking allegation and the extent of the alleged security compromise.
The alleged hacking would appear to be "an extremely serious breach" to Australia's intelligence-sharing allies, including the United States, Milne said.
Dreyfus didn't immediately respond to the Greens' call for an inquiry.
ASIO, Australia's main spy agency, has grown rapidly since the al-Qaida attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and needs the new headquarters to house its growing staff that has trebled to almost 1,800 in a decade.
Tobias Feakin, a security analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that if a security breach has occurred, it could affect intelligence sharing with allies.
"There is no doubt that instances like this, if proved true, create a period of difficulty," Feakin said. "But one thing that would happen is that there would be mutual assistance provided to be able to plug that gap and no intelligence agency could possibly allow that kind of breach to continue."
Foreign Minister Bob Carr refused to discuss the allegations but said the claims do not jeopardize Australia's ties with its most important trading partner, China.
"It's got absolutely no implications for a strategic partnership," Carr said. "We have enormous areas of cooperation with China."
____
AP researcher Zhao Liang contributed to this report from Beijing
?But don?t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it???Luke 14:28?(NLT)
Do you rush into relationships without weighing the pros and cons? Think back to your last failed relationship. That might include a friendship, a commitment, or even a marriage. Did you count the cost of that relationship before you entered into it? A lot of times, the very reason a relationship fails is from failure to count the cost of it first.
For instance, say you meet someone you?re interested in, but you find out they left a marriage last month. If ?you count the cost, you might find they haven?t healed, their financial stability is nearly destroyed, or their children aren?t adjusting well to the divorce. If you decide to enter a relationship with them anyway, you?ll most likely end up battling with their unresolved hurt, money problems, and children who consider you a threat.
In most cases, when you overlook or ignore those costs, the relationship doesn?t work out. A harvest of hurt grows, you can?t figure out why it happened, and you may even blame God. This story is the story for so many people and it usually stems from a decision to start a relationship without having counted the cost?never because of a mistake or fault of God.
This week, renew your approach to beginning new relationships by counting the cost first. Remember, that doesn?t mean backing away from anyone with a problem, but simply setting up relative boundaries where it?s too costly, until those problems are appropriately resolved.
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Prayer:?Father God, You are pro-relationship but You do not want me to dive into relationships without counting the cost first. You know that?hurt follows lack of wisdom. Help me to practice wisdom in all my relationships. And God, for those relationships I?ve already committed to, show me how to make my part right where it was already wrong. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
We?d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below. It would also be great if you became a member and joined a group to get more out of the community.
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd will team up with Mozilla and launch a mobile device that runs on the U.S. company's Firefox operating system, a Mozilla spokeswoman said, as Hon Hai looks to diversify its client base away from Apple.
The Taipei-based Mozilla spokeswoman declined to provide details on the device that the companies plan to unveil on June 3, but Focus Taiwan, citing an "industry insider", reported that it would likely be a tablet.
Hon Hai and Mozilla declined to comment on the report.
Hon Hai, a contract electronics maker that draws an estimated 60 percent of its revenue from assembling gadgets and other work for Apple Inc, saw its net profit ease last quarter as sales of iPhones and iPads slowed.
Most of the mobile devices that Hon Hai manufactures run on Apple's iOS and Google's Android systems. Hon Hai said it would add Firefox to its product line for clients.
Mozilla, the non-profit organization that evolved from Netscape, said at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress in February that it was working with manufacturers Alcatel (TCL Communication Technology), LG Electronics and ZTE Corp to build the first Firefox OS devices, with Huawei Technologies to follow later in the year, all powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile processors.
(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (AP) ? Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords says the futures of today's college graduates "shines bright."
Giffords spoke only briefly Saturday at the Bard College commencement but urged the graduates to create, lead and innovate.
Giffords was among 13 people wounded in a January 2011 shooting outside a Tucson, Ariz., supermarket that left six others dead. The Democrat resigned from Congress a year later.
In her one minute, 20 second speech, the former congresswoman told the graduates they can start changing the world tomorrow. She urged them to "be bold, be courageous, be your best."
Giffords' husband joined her at the podium. Retired astronaut Mark Kelly talked about their new organization, Americans For Responsible Gun Control. He says its focus is to keep communities safer while protecting the Second Amendment.
May 25, 2013 ? An unusual kind of circuit fine-tunes the brain's control over movement and incoming sensory information, and without relying on conventional nerve pathways, according to a study published this week in the journal Neuron.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) discovered new details of a mechanism operating in the cerebellum, the brain region that processes nerve signals coming in from the spinal cord and cortex.
"Our results explain a second layer of nerve signal transmission that depends, not on whether a nerve cell is wired into a defined signaling pathway, but instead on how close it is to the pathway," said Jacques Wadiche, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology within the UAB School of Medicine, investigator in the Evelyn McKnight Brain Institute at UAB and senior study author. "It has become clear that this kind of nerve circuit is intimately linked with autism and movement disorders like ataxia, and we hope the mechanisms detailed here contribute to the design of new treatments."
Beyond nerve pathways Nerve cells are known to occur in defined pathways that transmit messages in one direction. This pathway-specific view of nerve signaling has been reinforced by high-tech imaging studies yielding detailed connectivity maps. Along these lines, the Obama Administration will soon ask Congress for $100 million in research funding to further improve such maps.
Within nerve pathways, each nerve cell sends an electric pulse down an extension of itself called an axon until it reaches a synapse, a gap between itself and the next cell in line. When it reaches an axon's end, the pulse triggers the release of chemicals called neurotransmitters that float across the gap, where they either cause the downstream nerve cell to "fire" and pass on the message, or stop the message. In this way, each synapse between nerve cells in a pathway "decides" whether or not a message continues on.
In recent years, studies have found that neurotransmitters also spill into tissue surrounding axons in a type signaling not restricted to synaptic connections. With the term itself implying a mess, "spillover" was thought to degrade the capacity of nerve cells to precisely pass on signals.
The current study adds to recent evidence arguing that spillover may instead enhance message transmission, with the results revolving around three nerve cell types in the cerebellum: climbing fibers, Purkinje cells and interneurons.
Climbing fibers, which carry information from the brainstem into the cerebellum, play key roles in motor timing and sensory processing. Within these fibers, nerve cells release the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate into synapses that then strive to pass messages deeper into the cerebellum. Purkinje cells are paired with climbing fibers and intent on inhibiting their signals.
When excited by glutamate from climbing fibers at one end, Purkinje cells release another neurotransmitter called GABA at their downstream synapse to stop the message. An excitatory signal triggers an inhibitory one as a counter-balance, a form of feedback critical to the function of the central nervous system. Lack of inhibition, for instance, causes circuits to seize, seizures and the death of Purkinje cells, the latter of which has been linked by post mortem studies to a higher incidence of autism spectrum disorders.
Previously, researchers thought that incoming signals from climbing fibers caused a single, strong response in the cerebellum: the activation of Purkinje cells that released GABA. The current study argues that such signals also trigger the firing of interneurons, nearby inhibitory middlemen that connect sets of nerve cells.
Interneurons within, and outside of, the glutamate spill zone around climbing fibers may have different effects on the other interneurons and Purkinje cells they connect to, according to the current finding. The interactions either inhibit or excite many Purkinje cells surrounding an active climbing fiber and refine its messages in a feedback system more sophisticated than once thought.
Glutamate has its effect by fitting into AMPA and NMDA receptor proteins, like a key into a lock, on the surfaces of nerve cells it signals to. The consensus has been that glutamate receptors occur only within synapses. Finding them on nerve cells outside of synapse-defined pathways represents "a fundamental shift in understanding," said Wadiche, and may result in longer-lasting inhibition within key signaling pathways.
"A 2007 study published in Nature Neuroscience found that many climbing fibers signal to interneurons in the outer layer of the cerebellum outside nerve pathways and exclusively through glutamate spillover," said Luke Coddington, a graduate student in Wadiche's lab and study author. "Our team built on that observation to show how spillover affects the function of interneurons, Purkinje cells, and ultimately, the entire cerebellum. Spillover-mediated signaling recruits local microcircuits to extend the reach and finesse of climbing fiber signaling."
Linda Overstreet-Wadiche, Ph.D., was also senior co-author of the study, with important contributions also coming from Stephanie Rudolph and Patrick Vande Lune, all within the Department of Neurobiology.
For those who grew up in the surrounding areas, the Jersey Shore is a strip filled with decades of sweet summer memories. But many people across the country got their first up-close look at the boardwalk when it served as the backdrop for MTV's reality TV bash with the same name.
Last fall, Superstorm Sandy brought devastation to the famous stretch. Now the Shore is back in the spotlight again -- for a much better reason.
Friday morning the attraction officially reopened. To mark the occasion, the cast of "Jersey Shore" joined TODAY on the all-new boardwalk.
"We were here right after the storm," Vinny Guadagnino recalled. "We were doing a big relief effort with MTV. You know, we got to interview real-life people that were here during the storm, and we saw all the devastation. And I can't believe how much it's recovered since (we were) here a couple of months ago. It's amazing!"
It was a sentiment echoed by Vinny's former castmates.
"This is known to be a happy place," Paul "Pauly D" DelVecchio said. "Everybody's always happy, laughing, smiling, having a good time. We came after the storm (and) it was the exact opposite. It was dead -- silence. It was awful. So to see this being rebuilt and us being back? It makes me happy."
And why wouldn't it? The Shore is back to being the place to be.
"It's a summer place," said Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, who was well known for the parties she had on boardwalk when "Jersey Shore" was still on the air. "You come with your family, your friends. It's just a good time."
Jennifer "JWoww" Farley, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Sam Giancola and Deena Cortese were also on hand to kick off the fun again. When asked which traditional Shore treats they were looking forward to the most, they just couldn't decide between the cheese balls and the fried Oreos. And if those seem like tame choices for the gang that had more than one brush with New Jersey's finest thanks to their past party days, well, Vinny explained why.
"The governor's here," he said with a glance off-screen toward Gov. Chris Christie. "We've got to behave."
"Jersey Shore" fans can see more from Vinny on his new MTV effort, aptly titled "The Show With Vinny," Thursdays at 10 p.m.
Candice Glover, left, won "American Idol" over Kree Harrison.
Two "American Idol" fans in York, Penn., took a heated debate over season 12's top two to extremes when their argument ended in multiple stab wounds.
Karen Elaine Harrelson, 48, and Gregory L. Stambaugh, 57, were watching the "Idol" finale in the basement of Stambaugh's West Manchester Township home on Wednesday, May 15, when they got into a drunken argument over which finalist -- Candice Glover or Kree Harrison -- should win the title.
Photos from THR: 'Idol' finalists' hometown visits
The fight escalated as Harrelson allegedly went into the kitchen to fetch a knife and the two proceeded to stab the other. According to a report in the York Dispatch, the knife exchanged hands at some point, but neither party remembers who stabbed whom first.
Both were treated at York Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and charged with two counts of simple assault and one count of aggravated assault, according to online court documents.
Story from THR: A day in the life of 'Idol's' musical director
Stambaugh told police that Harrelson went upstairs to the kitchen, got a knife, returned to the basement and stabbed him. He said she then went back to the main floor and Stambaugh followed her and got the knife away from her. In her version, Harrelson claims she got the knife to cut a ?piece of cake,? but Stambaugh grabbed a ?second knife? to cut her wrist.
If you are using a jailbroken iPod touch or iPhone, you would surely love to only change and customizing the aesthetics of iOS and it would be more exciting for you to try Athena package recently launched on the repository of?Big Boss? A lot of fans of Jailbreak download and install regular themes for complete system and then activate them via WinterBoard to enjoy their aesthetic pleasure. Athena can be considered a perfect alternative for the people who prefer adding eye candy on the icons of the application.
Every user gets a few configurable options while Installing Athena. He gets these options from the inside of the primary Settings app. It is due to the advanced preferences panel of Athena that the users can apply various effects and settings to the icons to give an appealing look to their iPhone screen. There are basically four major parts of the tweak that enable the user to change the intensity of its effects, the color scheme, change the blend mode and the alpha of the icon. The combination of every effect would surely give a newer and appealing look to your icons.
The people well versed with various graphic packages such as Illustrator or Photoshop would be of more advantage by using a lot of blend modes added in Athena. You can apply any color of your choice directly to the icons and can apply any subsequent mode including Soft Light, Lighten or Darken. Athena?s intensity properties allow to make your icons more attractive and colorful.
Athena can do a great job for the users having an artistic approach. The effects of Athena can be customized and just by operating a few things, you can apply a wide range of effects to your iPhone?s icons. Yet, it sounds great to have ?some attractive icons appeared in the Settings App. So you can also see what type of effects you are creating and what effect you are applying. Now, it is required that some changes should be made and a respring to happen before something visual appears. The package price is only $0.99 and Athena worths it for the people who would prefer tweaking the visuals in their iPhone.
Athena can be downloaded from the repository of BigBoss and you need a jailbroken iPhone on iOS 6.0 for downloading it.
I’ve tried Apple’s Cards app, and I liked the quality and the convenience of sending cards with that app. ?Some people may find those cards too impersonal, because you can’t even add a handwritten signature line. ?I think nowadays many people wouldn’t mind getting a card that was created on a computer and automatically mailed [...]
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? AEG Live LLC did not conduct any background checks or supervise the doctor who was later convicted of killing Michael Jackson, a corporate attorney testified Tuesday in a lawsuit claiming the concert promoter was negligent in hiring the physician.
AEG Live General Counsel Shawn Trell told jurors that no legal or financial checks were done involving Conrad Murray or anyone else who worked as an independent contractor on the "This Is It" shows.
Jackson's mother Katherine is suing AEG claiming it failed to properly investigate Murray, who was deeply in debt when he agreed to serve as Jackson's tour physician in 2009 for $150,000 a month.
Trell said he thought a background check would be appropriate for people working in financial roles, but not tour personnel who weren't employees of AEG.
Murray's employment status is a central issue in the case. Katherine Jackson's lawyers contend he was hired by AEG, but the company denies it hired him and notes the singer died before signing the doctor's contract.
Trell also acknowledged while testifying that numerous people in the company knew of concerns that Jackson's health was declining.
Five days before Jackson died, AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips alerted the promoter's parent company that Jackson had missed a rehearsal and didn't appear to be ready for his comeback concerts.
"We have a real problem here," Phillips wrote in the message to the CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group.
Trell agreed with a statement by plaintiff's attorney Brian Panish that company executives knew by then there was a "deep issue" with Jackson.
Trell also said he continued discussions with an insurance broker about additional coverage to recoup AEG Live's investment if the tour had to be canceled.
Hours after Phillips sent the warning email, attorney John Branca, who later became co-executor of Jackson's estate, offered to enlist a spiritual and substance abuse specialist to help Jackson, according to an email shown in court.
On that same day, Phillips and others met with Jackson and Murray at the singer's home.
Hours later, Phillips sent an email to tour director Kenny Ortega telling him not to worry. Ortega had expressed grave concerns about Jackson.
"This doctor is extremely successful ? we check everyone out ? and he does not need this gig so he (is) totally unbiased and ethical," Phillips wrote.
Panish called Phillips' statement "a flat out lie" and asked Trell whether he agreed with it or if it signified how AEG did business. Trell said he didn't know what Phillips thought he knew when he wrote the message.
"I know this statement is not accurate, but you'd have to speak with Mr. Phillips about what he thought or meant in saying it," Trell said.
Phillips is listed as a potential witness in the case, and Trell said he expects him to testify later in the trial.
Outside court, AEG's attorney Marvin S. Putnam declined comment on the email or Panish's characterization of it.
Trell also said on Tuesday that no one at AEG supervised or monitored Murray, who was convicted in 2011 of administering a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol to Jackson.
Trell is considered the most knowledgeable person on numerous issues involving the shows, including contracts and Jackson's health. He has not yet been questioned by AEG's trial lawyers.
Earlier in the day, Trell revised previous testimony in which he told jurors that tour director Ortega worked on "This Is It" without a contract.
The lawyer said Monday that Ortega worked under an agreement forged through a series of emails but didn't have a signed contract.
On Tuesday, he told jurors he was mistaken, and Ortega did have a contract. The agreement was signed in April and included three pages of legal text and several pages of emails laying out the terms.
Trell said he had been reminded of Ortega's agreement by AEG's trial attorneys.
___
Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
STOCKHOLM (AP) ? Gangs of youth angered by the police shooting death of an elderly man in a mainly immigrant neighborhood hurled rocks at police and set cars and buildings on fire in a Stockholm suburb early Monday, forcing the evacuation of an apartment block.
Around 50 youths were involved in the riots in the suburb of Husby, police spokesman Lars Bystrom said.
The youths set light to a parking garage, compelling police to evacuate residents from an adjacent apartment block, Bystrom said. Residents were allowed to return home after a couple of hours.
Around 80 percent of the roughly 11,000 people living in Husby ? a drab, low-income neighborhood of apartment blocks west of Stockholm ? are first or second generation immigrants.
Bystrom said police responded to calls of burning cars and were met by masked youths hurling rocks at them.
One policeman was attacked by youths kicking him and two others were injured by rocks, local police officerJorgen Karlsson said. He added around 10 cars were set ablaze, and windows were smashed at two schools and several local businesses.
Karlsson said the dead man was "European," but couldn't specify his nationality.
Residents said they had gathered to protest against the shooting death and that police responded by sending in SWAT teams that cordoned off the area.
"I understand that people react like this," said Rami Al-Khamisi from the organization Megafonen, which represents citizens in Stockholm's suburbs.
The organization said police had used excessive violence against the youths and also attacked passers-by with batons and dogs.
Police have launched an internal probe to investigate the shooting death on May 13 of a 69-year-old man in Husby. They say they shot the man in self-defense because he had attacked police with a knife when they broke down the door to an apartment, where he had locked himself up with a woman.
However, Megafonen has criticized police for initially releasing a faulty report saying the man was taken to a hospital. The group said residents had seen his dead body being transported from the scene hours after the shooting in a hearse, which police later admitted was correct.
May 20, 2013 ? People who are consistently exposed to both wood smoke and tobacco smoke are at a greater risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and for experiencing more frequent and severe symptoms of the disease, as well as more severe airflow obstruction, than those who are exposed to only one type of smoke, according to the results of a new population-based study conducted by researchers in Colombia.
The results of the study will be presented at the ATS 2013 International Conference.
"Although previous studies have shown a definite link between wood smoke exposure and the development of COPD, those studies were case-controls and case series of patients with similar disease or health profiles," said study lead author Carlos Torres-Duque, M.D., director of research at the Fundacion Neumologica Colombiana in Bogota. "This new data derives from a population-based study that looked at wood smoke exposure and the overall prevalence of COPD, as well as the characteristics of the disease and those who suffer from it."
About 40 percent of the world's population uses solid fuels -- especially wood -- for cooking or heating, he noted.
For this study, Dr. Torres-Duque and his colleagues used data from the PREPOCOL (Prevalencia de la Enfermedad Pulmonar Obstructiva Cr?nica en Colombia) study which evaluated the prevalence of COPD among the adult residents of five Colombian cities. The study included 5,539 subjects, 8.9 percent of whom were diagnosed with COPD. The study participants were divided into four groups: those who were exposed to wood smoke and who had never smoked tobacco (30.9 percent); those who were exposed to tobacco smoke but had no exposure to wood smoke (18.7 percent); those who had been exposed to both types of smoke (29.8 percent); and those who had exposure to neither type of smoke (20.6 percent).
Patients' lung function was measured using spirometry, a technique used to measure the amount of air a person is able to inhale and exhale, and all patients completed a standardized respiratory questionnaire to identify exposure to smoke.
In their initial review of data, the researchers learned that 53 percent of those diagnosed with COPD had both wood and tobacco smoke exposure; moreover, the prevalence of COPD increased as exposure to wood smoke increased.
After adjusting for specific factors including age, active and passive tobacco smoking, education level, history of TB and altitude, the researchers found that wood smoke exposure of 10 or more years posed a significant risk factor for developing COPD in both men and women and those with both wood and tobacco exposure had poorer lung function scores and more phlegm and coughed more frequently than those who had exposure to only one type of smoke.Among the COPD population, those who were exposed only to wood smoke tended to be women, to have higher BMIs and to be shorter than those exposed to tobacco smoke or to a combination of wood and tobacco smoke.
"In the population we studied, exposure to wood smoke was identified as an independent risk factor for developing COPD, both in women and men," Dr. Torres-Duque said. "In addition, the prevalence of COPD was significantly higher in those who were exposed to both wood and tobacco smoke and those with both exposures had more symptoms and more severe disease than those who were exposed to only one type of smoke."
This result suggests that the combination of wood and tobacco smoke produces an additive effect that causes an increase in COPD prevalence and in the frequency of COPD symptoms, he added.
"It is also possible that the responses of the lungs and airways could vary, based on the pollutants to which they're exposed," Dr. Torres-Duque noted.
Future studies might provide additional data regarding varying responses and help clinicians determine specific treatments based on exposures, he said.
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Public release date: 30-May-2013
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