Strauss-Kahn and wife have separated: source

PARIS (Reuters) - Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is facing a probe into his alleged involvement with a prostitution ring in France, and his wife have separated, a source said.

Anne Sinclair, a wealthy heiress who recently relaunched her media career as a news editor at the Huffington Post's French edition, and Strauss-Kahn separated about a month ago and they are living in separate residences in Paris, said the source, who is close to Strauss-Kahn.

The weekly magazine Closer earlier reported in its online edition that Sinclair threw Strauss-Kahn out of their home in central Paris.

Lawyers for the couple said they intended to sue the magazine for invasion of privacy over the report, which also appeared on the front page of the print edition and in an article inside.

"Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Anne Sinclair have decided to sue this publication for invasion of privacy," lawyers Frederique Baulieu, Richard Malka and Henri Leclerc said in a statement.

Strauss-Kahn is under investigation in France to establish whether he knew he was dealing with prostitutes and pimps when he attended sex parties in northern France, Paris and Washington in 2010 and 2011 allegedly organized by business acquaintances.

Public prosecutors last month widened the inquiry to include a possible gang rape charge after a prostitute told them Strauss-Kahn and friends had forced her to have sex in a group when she came to Washington to meet him in December 2010. The woman has not filed a formal complaint.

Strauss-Kahn denies knowing that the women at the parties were prostitutes or that there was any violence.

His career at the head of the Washington-based IMF was cut short when he was arrested in New York in May 2011 on charges, which he denied and that have since been dropped, of attempting to rape a hotel maid. After criminal charges were abandoned over concerns about her credibility, the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, pressed ahead with a civil case.

Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, and Sinclair have been married for 20 years. She stuck close by him when he faced the rape accusations in New York.

The scandal destroyed his hopes of running for French president in the April-May 2012 election for the Socialist Party, which instead won power under Francois Hollande.

News of the separation comes after weeks of media speculation that the relationship was under pressure, in part as Strauss-Kahn grew depressed at his lack of career options.

"He's in a bad way. It's very sad," a person who knows Strauss-Kahn and recently saw him socially told Reuters this month. "He's mostly just at home on his own while Anne is out and about with her new job. He's shunned by everybody."

(Reporting By Catherine Bremer, additional reporting by Joseph Ax in Washington and Nicholas Vinocur in Paris; Editing by Michael Roddy)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/48017129/ns/today-entertainment/

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Eastern US storm hobbles Netflix and Instagram

The lights at an intersections on Richmond Road are out on Saturday, June 30, 2012 in Staunton, Va. Violent storms swept across the eastern U.S., killing at least nine people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands on a day that temperatures across the region are expected to reach triple-digits. (AP Photo/The News Leader, Pat Jarrett)

The lights at an intersections on Richmond Road are out on Saturday, June 30, 2012 in Staunton, Va. Violent storms swept across the eastern U.S., killing at least nine people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands on a day that temperatures across the region are expected to reach triple-digits. (AP Photo/The News Leader, Pat Jarrett)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Netflix, Instagram and Pinterest are using Twitter and Facebook to update subscribers after violent storms across the eastern U.S. caused server outages for hours.

Netflix and Pinterest restored service by Saturday afternoon.

Instagram used its Facebook fan page to communicate with users of its photo-sharing service. It posted a message on Saturday morning that blamed the electrical storm for the outage and explained that its engineers were working to restore service.

Still, many Instagram's users were searching for answers. "Instagram" was the top search term on Google on Saturday, according to Google Trends.

Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram are customers of Amazon Inc.'s web services division. The unit provides web services and data storage facilities that are commonly used for "cloud computing".

Amazon spokeswoman Kay Kinton told The Associated Press in an email that the storm cut power to some of company's operations. Service has been restored for most customers, Kinton said.

Netflix, a video streaming service, said on Twitter that subscribers should reconnect if they still experienced problems.

The online scrapbook service Pinterest says employees are working to fix remaining issues that may affect performance.

The Friday evening storms knocked out power for millions of people.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-06-30-Website%20Outages/id-15e1f6b933bc4c7cbee52492902a82d8

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US man in critical care after SAfrica chimp attack

In this photo taken Feb. 1, 2011, chimpanzees sit in an enclosure at the Chimp Eden rehabilitation center, near Nelspruit, South Africa. A paramedic official says chimpanzees at a sanctuary for the animals in eastern South Africa bit and dragged a man at the reserve, badly injuring him. In a statement, Jeffrey Wicks of the Netcare911 medical emergency services company said the man he described as a ranger was leading a tour group at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden Thursday June 28, 2012 when two chimpanzees grabbed his feet and pulled him under a fence into their enclosure. The international institute founded by primatologist Jane Goodall opened the sanctuary in 2005. It is a home to chimpanzees rescued from further north in Africa, where they are hunted for their meat of held captive as pets. (AP Photo/Erin Conway-Smith)

In this photo taken Feb. 1, 2011, chimpanzees sit in an enclosure at the Chimp Eden rehabilitation center, near Nelspruit, South Africa. A paramedic official says chimpanzees at a sanctuary for the animals in eastern South Africa bit and dragged a man at the reserve, badly injuring him. In a statement, Jeffrey Wicks of the Netcare911 medical emergency services company said the man he described as a ranger was leading a tour group at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden Thursday June 28, 2012 when two chimpanzees grabbed his feet and pulled him under a fence into their enclosure. The international institute founded by primatologist Jane Goodall opened the sanctuary in 2005. It is a home to chimpanzees rescued from further north in Africa, where they are hunted for their meat of held captive as pets. (AP Photo/Erin Conway-Smith)

In this photo taken Feb. 1, 2011, chimpanzees sit in an enclosure at the Chimp Eden rehabilitation center, near Nelspruit, South Africa. A paramedic official says chimpanzees at a sanctuary for the animals in eastern South Africa bit and dragged a man at the reserve, badly injuring him. In a statement, Jeffrey Wicks of the Netcare911 medical emergency services company said the man he described as a ranger was leading a tour group at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden Thursday June 28, 2012 when two chimpanzees grabbed his feet and pulled him under a fence into their enclosure. The international institute founded by primatologist Jane Goodall opened the sanctuary in 2005. It is a home to chimpanzees rescued from further north in Africa, where they are hunted for their meat of held captive as pets. (AP Photo/Erin Conway-Smith)

In this photo taken Wednesday April 25, 2012, chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall holds a monkey doll she carries with her wherever she travels, in Pasadena, Calif. A paramedic official says chimpanzees at a sanctuary for the animals in eastern South Africa bit and dragged a man at the reserve, badly injuring him. In a statement, Jeffrey Wicks of the Netcare911 medical emergency services company said the man he described as a ranger was leading a tour group at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden Thursday June 28, 2012 when two chimpanzees grabbed his feet and pulled him under a fence into their enclosure. The international institute founded by primatologist Jane Goodall opened the sanctuary in 2005. It is a home to chimpanzees rescued from further north in Africa, where they are hunted for their meat or held captive as pets.(AP Photo/Nick Ut-file)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? In the six years he's managed a sanctuary for abused and orphaned chimpanzees, South African conservationist Eugene Cussons is from time to time called on to comment when an ape elsewhere in the world attacks a human. Cussons says he could always pinpoint a moment of taunting or perceived aggression that could have set off the quick and powerful animals.

This time, though, the attack was at his own Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden in eastern South Africa. And Cussons, host of the Animal Planet show "Escape to Chimp Eden," is without an explanation.

In telephone interview Saturday, Cussons said he would have to wait until the severely injured victim, a University of Texas at San Antonio anthropology graduate student who was inspired by famed primatologist Jane Goodall to study chimps, was well enough to provide details on what sparked Thursday's attack.

It was the first such attack since Cussons, working with Goodall's renowned international institute, converted part of his family's game farm into the sanctuary in 2006.

"You can train for it, you can do your best to prepare," Cussons said. "But when it actually happens, it's shocking and traumatic for everyone."

Cussons's team quickly evacuated the dozen tourists to whom Andrew F. Oberle had been giving a lecture and tried to separate the chimps from Oberle. In the end, Cussons, who was himself attacked by a chimp as he tried to pull it off Oberle, took the extreme step of firing into the air, scaring the animals away.

Oberle was bitten repeatedly and dragged for nearly a kilometer (half mile). Cussons said one of the chimps was injured in the scuffle, and he was awaiting a veterinarian's report to determine the nature and extent of the injury. No one else was hurt.

Male chimps can stand up to 1.7 meters (5 feet, 7 inches) tall and weigh about 70 kilograms (154 pounds), according to the Jane Goodall institute. The two chimps that attacked Oberle were male, though the sanctuary's website did not say how large those animals were.

Cussons said it was the first time he had asked Oberle to speak to visitors. The student had arrived last month for a follow-up study visit after an extended stay to observe the chimps a year or so ago, Cussons said. As a researcher, Cussons said Oberle had been trained to ensure he understood how the animals might behave and knew to keep a safe distance. Cussons said Oberle was given additional training before addressing the tour group.

Cussons said Oberle broke the rules by going through the first of two fences that separate humans from the chimps. The chimps then grabbed him and pulled him under the second fence, which is electrified. Cussons said it was unclear why Oberle had moved so dangerously close.

Only after Oberle is well enough to talk will investigators "be able to find out why he crossed the safety fence to go on to the main fence," Cussons said.

Mediclinic Nelspruit hospital said Saturday that the 26-year-old Oberle remained in critical condition in intensive care. Oberle underwent surgery at the hospital Thursday.

Cussons said Saturday that Oberle's mother was on her way to South Africa. Oberle's mother, Mary Flint of St. Louis, said Friday that chimpanzees have been her son's passion since seventh grade, when he watched a film about Goodall.

Goodall, a Cambridge University-trained ethnologist, began studying chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe National Park in 1960. Since 1994, her institute has been involved in conservation programs across Africa. The institute says its Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in Congo is the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in Africa.

Flint said Oberle knew the risks of working with chimps and would not want them blamed for the attack.

"He adored them," she said. "Since he was a little boy he just loved them, and I just have faith that ... when all is said and done, he's going to go right back into it."

The sanctuary has been closed to tourists since the attack, while government and police officials investigate. The Jane Goodall Institute South Africa is conducting its own investigation.

"Everyone at Chimp Eden is hurting," Cussons said, saying the thoughts of staff members were with Oberle and his family.

Cussons said the two chimps that attacked Oberle, Amadeus and Nikki, had been isolated in their night pens since the attack. He said they were calm and exhibiting remorse, which he said chimps show by behaving submissively.

Human-animal contact is kept to a minimum at the sanctuary, designed as a haven for chimpanzees, which are not native to South Africa, that have been rescued from elsewhere in Africa. Some lost their parents to poachers in countries where they are hunted for their meat or to be sold as pets, and others were held in captivity in cruel conditions.

"They come here and we rehabilitate them by giving them space ... and contact with their own kind," Cussons said. According to the sanctuary's website, one of the chimps involved in the attack, Amadeus, was orphaned in Angola and brought to South Africa in 1996, where he was kept at the Johannesburg Zoo until the sanctuary opened. The other, Nikki, came from Liberia in 1996 and also was held at the zoo until becoming among the first chimps at the sanctuary. Before arriving in South Africa, Nikki, whose parents were killed for their meat, had been treated like a son by his owners, who dressed him in clothes, shaved his body and taught him to eat at a table using cutlery, the website said.

In the United States, a Connecticut woman, Charla Nash, was attacked in 2009 by a friend's chimpanzee that ripped off her nose, lips, eyelids and hands before being killed by police. The woman was blinded and has had a face transplant. Lawyers for Nash filed papers this week accusing state officials of failing to seize the animal before the mauling despite a warning that it was dangerous.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-06-30-South%20Africa-Chimp%20Attack/id-e37a40eb6ac34d268de0f2a6849ad0a5

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Portals Matter: The Perfect Windows and Doors | ej-fransen.com

Many elements combine to make a functional, structurally sound and attractive home. While each element is as important as the next, windows and doors of a home are among the most conspicuous parts serving two purposes: functional and aesthetic.

Doors ? More than a Portal

Doors are entryways that provide access into and out of a home. As such, the main entry door should be positioned centrally to allow easy access to most of the interior. It should appear inviting without sacrificing the home?s privacy. Sturdy doors symbolize security and safety, thus the need to choose a well-built door matched with a dependable locking mechanism.

Doors can be constructed of wood, steel, glass or any combination of these materials. The choice of material will hinge on the preferred style. Typically, doors that conform to traditional styles are made of wood. Country-style doors are made of wood or steel fully clad in wood. Contemporary styles tend towards glass or glass-inspired materials.

Windows and Rooms with a View

From the interior of the home, it is easy to see that windows have many functions. Windows let natural light in, reducing energy costs for running artificial lights. The right types of windows insulate a home to moderate interior temperature especially during extreme weather outdoors.

Windows improve air circulation when left open. Rooms with a great view need a suitable window style to maximize enjoyment of the vista at all hours. Windows can also be used as emergency exits.

Effect on Curb Appeal

From the street, it is easy to pass judgment on a home just by looking at the windows and doors. Both portals should be chosen based on the general style of the home. A modern ranch home needs to have modern double-hung or casement windows with clean lines. Likewise, the main door should harmonize with the home?s exterior design. A country cottage is best equipped with a simple wooden door.

Doors and windows should be installed correctly to optimize insulation and ensure home security. In addition, misaligned windows and doors give the home a haphazard look and a sense that the home may not be structurally sound.

Innovations in Door and Window Technology

Innovations have been introduced to improve materials and methods for constructing and installing doors and windows.

So-called smart windows are available today to provide better light filtering and temperature control. By applying electrochromics, suspended particle devices or liquid crystals technologies, smart windows can filter as little or as much light with a sliding button that controls the flow of electricity to the window. These windows will eliminate the need for window coverings. Light filtering will also reduce energy costs.

At present? photochromatic windows are in use. These windows apply the same light-filtering concept as sunglasses.

Fiberglass is the wave of the future when it comes to main doors. A well-constructed fiberglass door is more durable than wood or steel. It is also more flexible when it comes to design options as it can be made to look like wood. Fiberglass is low maintenance as it resists deterioration due to mold, rust and warping.

The Right Choice

The best doors and windows for a home depend on many factors including the style of the home and the homeowners? desire for privacy, security and green-friendly construction.

This post is brought to you on behalf of Beverley Hills Home Improvement, providing vinyl sliding, patio doors, windows and doors Milton and across the Halton-Peel Region. www.beverleyhillshome.com

Source: http://ej-fransen.com/portals-matter-the-perfect-windows-and-doors/

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front lines: Victor Davis Hanson - Legal Illegal Immigration

President Obama recently issued an edict exempting an estimated 800,000 to 1 million illegal aliens from the consequences of federal immigration law. Ostensibly that blanket amnesty applies to those who arrived before the age of 16 and are younger than 30; who are in, or graduated from, high school or have served in the military; and who have not been convicted of a felony or multiple misdemeanors. And while most Americans sympathize with helping those who were brought into the United States as toddlers, raised as de facto Americans and followed the rules, the policy of exempting hundreds of thousands en masse in the long run may create far more problems than it solves.

First was the cynical timing. In 2009 and 2010, Democrats had a supermajority in the Senate and a majority in the House and could easily have enacted such a law over all opposition. So why was the edict handed down in a tough campaign year?

Then there is a problem of constitutionality, an especially serious issue for former constitutional law lecturer Barack Obama, who ran on the premise that he would restore respect for the separation of powers. But as seen in the reversal of the order of the Chrysler creditors, the attempt to shut down a non-union Boeing plant in South Carolina, the decision not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, and the recent use of executive privilege not to hand over Fast and Furious documents, this administration sometimes just bypasses a now-difficult Congress to rule by fiat.

The move contradicts Obama's earlier claim that a de facto amnesty "would not conform with my appropriate role as president." He later reiterated that "some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own," but "that's not how our system works."??? More

Source: http://frontlines2011.blogspot.com/2012/06/victor-davis-hanson-legal-illegal.html

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Congress sends student loan and infrastructure package to Obama

By NBC's Frank Thorp

?

Updated 2:12 p.m. - Congress ended months of partisan bickering on Friday by passing and sending to President Barack Obama?a comprehensive extension of highway and infrastructure projects, along with a one-year extension of low student loan rates that were set to double.

The House voted 373 to 52 to approve a $120 billion, 27-month bill to fund highway projects. Attached to that bill was the student loan extension, which prevented rates from doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1.

The Senate approved the package shortly thereafter in a 74-19 vote. The legislation now heads to the White House for the president's signature.

The package lumps together some of the biggest stumbling blocks to beguile lawmakers in the past few months. Squabbling over how to finance each priority had divided the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-run Senate.

Republicans had also insisted on including a measure to move the Keystone XL oil pipeline forward. President Obama and Democrats opposed it, though, and it was ultimately omitted from today?s bill.

Instead, Republicans were able to use funds set aside for "beautification, bike paths, and sidewalk lighting" for higher priority infrastructure projects such as the national highway system instead.? They were also able to keep funding at current levels.

The package also cuts the average review and permitting process for new infrastructure projects in half, done mostly by streamlining environmental reviews so they can run concurrently, something for which Republicans had also fought.

Source: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12483144-house-approves-student-loan-and-infrastructure-package?lite

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Greece: 2 hurt in attack on soccer coach's home

ATHENS, Greece ? Two people were wounded in a shootout after armed robbers invaded the Athens home of PAOK Thessaloniki soccer coach Giorgos Donis and briefly held his father-in-law hostage on Thursday, police said.

The shooting occurred in Athens? upscale Kifissia area. A police officer was shot in the leg and an alleged armed robber was also wounded.

The two gunmen were arrested following a large police operation involving a helicopter and dozens of officers on foot and on motorcycles. One of the alleged attackers was identified as a 25-year-old Albanian man, while the second man was not immediately identified.

Jewelry snatched by the robbers was also recovered, police said.

The 42-year-old Donis, a former Greek National team midfielder and player for Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield United in England, was not present when two men entered his home, holding his wife?s parents and two children at gunpoint.

Police were alerted after Donis? wife was returning home and apparently spotted the gunmen through a window. She alerted police guards posted outside the neighboring home of former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou. Police said the gunmen briefly took her father hostage as they left the building, before letting him go unharmed.

Armed robbery has risen sharply in Greece since the country?s major financial crisis broke out in late 2009.

Donis took over at financially struggling PAOK at the end of the season, after coaching top-flight club Atromitos and taking them to the Greek Cup Final for two successive years.

? Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/soccer/general/view.bg?articleid=1061142097&srvc=rss

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Sounder win 1-0 in US Open Cup over Earthquakes

Associated Press Sports

updated 1:11 a.m. ET June 27, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - MLS rookie Cordell Cato scored in the first half as the Seattle Sounders, three-time defending tournament champions, beat the San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 Tuesday night in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal.

Cato, 19, scooped up a long pass that skipped through San Jose's defense and launched an 8-yard shot from a sharp angle to the right of the Earthquakes' goal. The ball slid through the legs of keeper David Bingham in the 19th minute.

It was the first goal as a member of the Sounders for Cato, a Trinidadian youth international.

The Sounders made the early goal stand despite second-half pressure from San Jose, which owns the MLS's best record. Seattle extended its Open Cup unbeaten streak to 17 and will host Chivas USA in a tournament semifinal July 10.

San Jose poured players forward after inserting Chris Wondolowski, the MLS's leading scorer, in the 53rd minute, but never could find an equalizer.

Earthquakes defender Victor Bernardez unleashed a drive from the top of the penalty are in the 94th minute that deflected out of bounds, but San Jose's calls for a hand ball went unheeded.

Andrew Weber, whose contract option was dropped by San Jose this winter, got the shutout in his first Open Cup action this year.

In a game that grew more testy in the second half, Quakes forward Alan Gordon received a red card in the final minutes.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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More newsAnne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP - Getty Images

Portugal has puncher's chance

PST: If Cristiano Ronaldo can convert when Portugal gets a rare chance, they could upset Spain, while Germany is better and should beat Italy in the other semi.

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New vaccine for nicotine addiction

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have developed and successfully tested in mice an innovative vaccine to treat nicotine addiction.

In the journal Science Translational Medicine, the scientists describe how a single dose of their novel vaccine protects mice, over their lifetime, against nicotine addiction. The vaccine is designed to use the animal's liver as a factory to continuously produce antibodies that gobble up nicotine the moment it enters the bloodstream, preventing the chemical from reaching the brain and even the heart.

"As far as we can see, the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction from smoking is to have these Pacman-like antibodies on patrol, clearing the blood as needed before nicotine can have any biological effect," says the study's lead investigator, Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, chairman and professor of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.

"Our vaccine allows the body to make its own monoclonal antibodies against nicotine, and in that way, develop a workable immunity," Dr. Crystal says.

Previously tested nicotine vaccines have failed in clinical trials because they all directly deliver nicotine antibodies, which only last a few weeks and require repeated, expensive injections, Dr. Crystal says. Plus, this kind of impractical, passive vaccine has had inconsistent results, perhaps because the dose needed may be different for each person, especially if they start smoking again, he adds.

"While we have only tested mice to date, we are very hopeful that this kind of vaccine strategy can finally help the millions of smokers who have tried to stop, exhausting all the methods on the market today, but find their nicotine addiction to be strong enough to overcome these current approaches," he says. Studies show that between 70 and 80 percent of smokers who try to quit light up again within six months, Dr. Crystal adds.

About 20 percent of adult Americans smoke, and while it is the 4,000 chemicals within the burning cigarette that causes the health problems associated with smoking -- diseases that lead to one out of every five deaths in the U.S. -- it is the nicotine within the tobacco that keeps the smoker hooked.

A New Kind of Vaccine

There are, in general, two kinds of vaccines. One is an active vaccine, like those used to protect humans against polio, the mumps, and so on. This kind of vaccine presents a bit of the foreign substance (a piece of virus, for example) to the immune system, which "sees" it and activates a lifetime immune response against the intruder. Since nicotine is a small molecule, it is not recognized by the immune system and cannot be built into an active vaccine.

The second type of vaccine is a passive vaccine, which delivers readymade antibodies to elicit an immune response. For example, the delivery of monoclonal (identically produced) antibodies that bind on to growth factor proteins on breast cancer cells shut down their activity.

The Weill Cornell research team developed a new, third kind -- a genetic vaccine -- that they initially tested in mice to treat certain eye diseases and tumor types. The team's new nicotine vaccine is based on this model.

The researchers took the genetic sequence of an engineered nicotine antibody, created by co-author Dr. Jim D. Janda, of The Scripps Research Institute, and put it into an adeno-associated virus (AAV), a virus engineered to not be harmful. They also included information that directed the vaccine to go to hepatocytes, which are liver cells. The antibody's genetic sequence then inserts itself into the nucleus of hepatocytes, and these cells start to churn out a steady stream of the antibodies, along with all the other molecules they make.

In mice studies, the vaccine produced high levels of the antibody continuously, which the researchers measured in the blood. They also discovered that little of the nicotine they administered to these mice reached the brain. Researchers tested activity of the experimental mice, treated with both a vaccine and nicotine, and saw that it was not altered; infrared beams in the animals' cages showed they were just as active as before the vaccine was delivered. In contrast, mice that received nicotine and not treated with the vaccine basically "chilled out" -- they relaxed and their blood pressure and heart activity were lowered -- signs that the nicotine had reached the brain and cardiovascular system.

The researchers are preparing to test the novel nicotine vaccine in rats and then in primates -- steps needed before it can be tested ultimately in humans.

Dr. Crystal says that, if successful, such a vaccine would best be used in smokers who are committed to quitting. "They will know if they start smoking again, they will receive no pleasure from it due to the nicotine vaccine, and that can help them kick the habit," he says.

He adds that it might be possible, given the complete safety of the vaccine, to use it to preempt nicotine addiction in individuals who have never smoked, in the same way that vaccines are used now to prevent a number of disease-producing infections. "Just as parents decide to give their children an HPV vaccine, they might decide to use a nicotine vaccine. But that is only theoretically an option at this point," Dr. Crystal says. "We would of course have to weight benefit versus risk, and it would take years of studies to establish such a threshold."

"Smoking affects a huge number of people worldwide, and there are many people who would like to quit, but need effective help," he says. "This novel vaccine may offer a much-needed solution."

###

New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College: http://www.med.cornell.edu

Thanks to New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College for this article.

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

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The Latest from Iran (23 June): All-Is-Well Oil News

See also The Latest from Iran (22 June): Supreme Leader "More Talks, Please"

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1915 GMT: Economy Watch (Zionist Edition). Looks like Iran's problems with domestic production and rising prices have opened up unexpected imports --- the head of the Tehran Association of Fruit and Vegetable Sellers says cherries from Israel sre available in Iran for $3 per kilogramme.

1555 GMT: I Love Ahmadinejad Watch. Ezzatollah Zarghami, the head of State broadcaster IRIB, says he is not sure if there will be televised debates during the 2013 Presidential campaign and explains why they took place for the first time in 2009: the "spirit" and "leadership" of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Khabar Online is not in the mood, however. Today it considers the new housing projects that Ahmadiejad has proclaimed and sees the "many ups and downs".

1545 GMT: Presentation of the Day. Back to President Ahmadinejad's trip to Venezuela, "Iranian firms finished construction of 384 residential units and transferred their ownership deeds to the Venezuelan people."

Ahmadinejad offered a few words at the ceremony about "Iran's preparedness to provide Venezuela with more experiences in development and house construction", but don't mistake this for a gift: in September, Venezuelan housing officials announced a $2.5 billion contract with Tehran for the construction of 17,000 housing units.

1539 GMT: Computer Games Watch. I post this simply because I have no clue what Fars and the Minister of Culture are chattering about:

Iran's culture minister on Saturday called for a precise analysis and critique of western computer games to reveal the underlying goals pursued by developing such software.

"Development of these games is goal-oriented and they should, thus, go under critique by the media," Seyed Mohammad Hosseini told reporters at a press conference held on the sidelines of the 2nd Tehran International Computer Games Expo.

Anyway, here's this piece of information: "After the US programmers in an open war of media developed 'Battlefield 3' depicting a US assault on Iran, the Iranian computer game programmers announced that they would soon release 'Attack on Tel Aviv' in a retaliatory move."

1530 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. A slow day in Iranian politics is disrupted by Major General Mostafa Izadi, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, "The Islamic Revolution enjoys high capability, and if the Zionist regime wants to take an action against us, it will cause its imminent end."

Izadi added a jab at the United Arab Emirates, with whom Tehran is in dispute about sovereignty over islands off its southern coast:

In addition to military capabilities, we also have many other capabilities and possibilities which are way beyond the Zionist regime's abilities and capabilities. For instance, the many islands that Iran has in the Persian Gulf have provided us with capabilities to make Iran the superior military force in the region.

0558 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. President Ahmadinejad continues his Latin American tour, reaching the welcoming arms of Venezuela's President Chavez and declaring, "Today marks the demise of imperialism around the world":

0555 GMT: Oil Watch. Here's an item that is missing in the Iranian press this morning:

Turkey's sole refiner Tupras has cut imports of Iranian crude by 20 percent, Turkish Energy Minister Tamer Yildiz said.

Yildiz said Turkey would continue to source "a certain amount" of crude from its neighbour Iran but would compensate for the reduction by taking more from Saudi Arabia and Libya.

0535 GMT: Initially muted in its response to the lack of movement in this week's nuclear talks in Moscow, the regime has settled on the line that --- while the West has been led by Israel into blocking progress --- the discussions must proceed.

That, however, leaves the major problem that the European Union's sanctions will escalate eight days from now, with the cut-off of imports of the Islamic Republic's oil. So Iranian media has to broadcast the message that all will be OK.

Both Fars and Press TV trumpet the news that Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation has renewed its oil contract with Iran. What both decline to add is that Mitsubishi, and other Japanese customers, have cut back the total shipment, ensuring that Tokyo avoids US sanctions.

Fars also headlines, "India Working on Insurance for Iran Oil Imports". The website neglects to mention, however, that some Indian refineries have suspended shipments of Iranian crude, while others have limited their purchases.

Fars then posts, "Iran Resolved to Reach Self-Sufficiency Manufacturing Drilling Rigs", which has absolutely no bearing on the current difficulties for the Islamic Republic, but sounds good: "Through the efforts made by the country's scientific centers and domestic manufacturers, from 2015 onward, the Islamic Republic of Iran not only will achieve the expertise of making onshore drilling rigs but will also be able to export those equipments."

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A battle for Internet freedom as UN meeting nears

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secret negotiations among dozens of countries preparing for a United Nations summit could lead to changes in a global treaty that would diminish the Internet's role in economic growth and restrict the free flow of information.

The U.S. delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications to be held in Dubai in December has vowed to block any proposals from Russia and other countries that they believe threaten the Internet's current governing structure or give tacit approval to online censorship.

But those assurances have failed to ease fears that bureaucratic tinkering with the treaty could damage the world's most powerful engine for exchanging information, creating jobs and even launching revolutions, according to legal experts and civil liberties advocates who have been tracking the discussions. Social networks played a key role in the Arab Spring uprisings that last year upended regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.

Russia, for example, has proposed language that requires member states to ensure the public has unrestricted access and use of international telecommunication services "except in cases where international telecommunication services are used for the purpose of interfering in the internal affairs or undermining the sovereignty, national security, territorial integrity and public safety of other states, or to divulge information of a sensitive nature," according to a May 3 U.N. document that details the various proposals for amending the treaty.

The wording of this provision could allow a country to cite a U.N. treaty as the basis for repressing political opposition. The provision also appears to contradict Article 19 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says people shall have the right to access information "through any media and regardless of frontiers."

An amended treaty would be binding on the United States if it is ratified by the Senate. But approval is not automatic. The treaty is sure to be scrutinized by lawmakers wary of its potential impact.

The U.N.'s International Telecommunication Union, which oversees the treaty, does not operate like the U.N. Security Council, where the United States has the power to veto resolutions to which it objects. The ITU works on a consensus basis. Proposals can be stopped from serious consideration if enough countries voice their objections. More than 190 nations will attend the Dubai conference and the U.S. delegation is seeking support for its positions at the preparatory meetings that will continue until the conference convenes.

"It is important that when we have values, as we do in the area of free speech and the free flow of information, that we do everything that we can to articulate and sustain those values," Philip Verveer, deputy assistant secretary of state and U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy, said in an interview.

The drafting and debating of proposals in preparation for the Dubai conference have taken place largely behind closed doors. Public interest groups have criticized the process and said it runs counter to development of sound public policy. In response to calls for transparency, two research fellows at George Mason University's Mercatus Center launched the website WCITLeaks.org earlier this month as a way to make documents that have been leaked to them by anonymous sources available publicly.

The negotiations have sparked rumors that the U.N. and the ITU are plotting to take control of the Internet from the loose coalition of nongovernmental organizations that establishes Internet policies, standards and rules, they said. The ITU's secretary general, Hamadoun Toure, has called the takeover rumor "ridiculous."

The ITU said the preparatory process is open to all member states as well as hundreds of private sector and academic organizations. The member states, not the ITU, determine the rules of participation and are free to share documents and information as they see fit, the agency said in an emailed statement.

The treaty, known formally as the International Telecommunications Regulations, was developed in 1988 to deal with global telephone and telegraph systems that were often state-run. The conference in Dubai, which is being run by the ITU, will be the first time in more than 20 years that the treaty is being opened for revisions.

Independent organizations, including the Internet Society, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and the Worldwide Web Consortium, for years have served as the Internet's governing bodies. They handle core tasks like network and domain name administration and make decisions based on input from the public and private sectors. This system allows the Internet to evolve organically and react rapidly to changes in technology, business practices and consumer behavior, according to open Internet advocates.

Yet for countries still grappling with how communications have been transformed by the Internet, ITU and the treaty are viewed as the best avenues for plugging themselves into the global information economy. For developing nations that don't have an effective broadband infrastructure, bureaucratic and regulatory measures can allow them to benefit financially from the traffic that crosses their borders.

But treaties are static instruments that often are unable to adapt and adjust to the fast pace of Internet innovation, said Sally Shipman Wentworth, senior manager for public policy at the nonprofit Internet Society. "Further, we do not believe that we should simply take the 1988 regulatory model that applied to the old telephone system and apply it to the Internet," she said.

A proposal offered by a European association of telecommunications network operators would put pressure on content providers such as Google, Facebook and Netflix to offset the costs of delivering Internet traffic to end-users. Traffic increasingly includes bandwidth-hungry video, and the proposal from the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association essentially argues that the investment needed to expand and improve data delivery should be borne by the operators and the content providers.

Verveer called the proposal unworkable and said it would have unintended consequences, such as blocking Harvard, MIT and other universities from putting courses online at no cost to users in places where access to education is already limited. "If it became necessary to pay in order to make these courses available, they would predictably become less available, which would be very unfortunate," he said.

Even what appear to be minor alterations to the treaty can have far-reaching consequences. A coalition of Arab states has proposed expanding the treaty's definition of telecommunications by adding the word "processing." The change, if made, would "essentially swallow the Internet's functions with only a tiny edit to existing rules," Robert McDowell, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission, said late last month at a congressional hearing.

The threat to Internet freedom won't come in the form of a "full-frontal assault," McDowell said at the hearing, "but through insidious and seemingly innocuous expansions of intergovernmental powers." His warning resonated with members of the House Energy and Commerce communications and technology subcommittee.

Several lawmakers questioned Verveer, who also testified, and McDowell about the relationship between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Toure, the ITU's secretary general. Their fear is that Putin, who long has pushed for centralized control of the Internet, will use his allegedly close ties to Toure to accomplish that goal. Toure, a native of Mali, received advanced degrees in electronics and telecommunications from universities in Moscow and Leningrad.

"Is this relationship a concern?" asked Republican Rep. Greg Walden, the subcommittee's chairman. "What steps are we taking to be able to counterbalance that relationship?"

Verveer told Walden he has no doubts about Toure's honesty and fairness.

But McDowell struck a more ominous tone. Putin's "designs" need to be taken very seriously, he said, and urged proponents of Internet freedom to be on guard for "camouflaged subterfuge" that could threaten the Internet's future.

___

Online:

International Telecommunication Union: http://www.itu.int/en/Pages/default.aspx

WCITLeaks: http://wcitleaks.org

Associated Press

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Idelle Davidson: ASCO, Where Have You Been?

A few days back I was in Arlington, Va. at the National Cancer Institute's Sixth Biennial Cancer Survivorship Research Conference. I had been asked to speak about cancer and cognition, the topic of my book, Your Brain After Chemo. Memory issues are one of the potential side effects of chemotherapy and the organizers wanted me to discuss the research/medical community's seeming lack of attention to a phenomenon that affects quality of life.

That wasn't hard to do. I continue to receive letters from readers telling me that although they now understand what's happened to them cognitively as a result of cancer treatment, they can't seem to get their medical teams to take their concerns seriously. There is a common thread: They bring up their memory issues to their doctors only to have their worries waved away, dismissed, as if it's all a figment of the imagination.

To illustrate this disconnect, I showed a slide of a sample patient consent form that I downloaded from the ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) website. ASCO offers this form as a service to their members. Oncologists can then use the form to have their patients acknowledge the risks of chemotherapy.

So what's on this form that patients are asked to sign? Basically, it's a list of all the potential side effects (see the actual form here):

• Nausea/vomiting
• Hair loss
• Low red blood count
• Fatigue
• Risk of Infection
• Risk of bleeding
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Mouth and throat sores
• Skin effects
• Muscle/bone effects
• Nerve effects
• Kidney/bladder effects
• Sexual effects
• Heart effects
• Lung effects
• Reproductive/fertility effects
• Other

It doesn't take more than a glance at the 2008 form to see what's missing. And of course, that would be language such as "memory or other cognitive effects." That warning has not been incorporated into this outdated consent document even though cognitive issues can be far more debilitating than hair loss and nausea.

Now this is ASCO, a 30,000-member strong organization made up of oncologists and oncology professionals that sets the standards for patient care worldwide. It is their mission to advance the education of physicians and others who care for cancer patients.

And even though ASCO is highly respected and tremendously valuable, at least on this point, ASCO has gone AWOL. If the professional association that sets standards for oncologists doesn't seem to concern itself with timely disclosures, is it any wonder that clinicians in their hospital and community practices dismiss their patients' concerns as frivolous?

Adding another bullet and line of text to the consent document would take two seconds. But it's really about so much more than that. It's about closing the gap between research and patient. It's about leadership.

To learn more about "chemo brain," read Your Brain After Chemo: A Practical Guide to Lifting the Fog and Getting Back Your Focus by Dan Silverman, M.D., Ph.D. and Idelle Davidson.

For more by Idelle Davidson, click here.

For more healthy living health news, click here.

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Follow Idelle Davidson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/IdelleDavidson

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With Vladimir Putin watching, Fedor Emelianenko knocks out Pedro Rizzo

MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko notched another win in St. Petersburg, Russia, knocking out former UFC heavyweight contender Pedro Rizzo in the first round. With Russian president Vladimir Putin looking on, Emelianenko leveled Rizzo with a right hand then followed him to the ground to stop the fight.

Emelianenko now has three wins in a row after losing to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson in Strikeforce. Before that, he was an unstoppable force, racking up 31 wins, one loss and one no contest.

Before this bout, Emelianenko told Russian television this fight would be his last, but he did not talk about retirement in his post-bout interview. It remains to be seen if "The Last Emperor" is truly done with MMA.

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Genomics and African queens: Diversity within Ethiopian genomes reveals imprints of historical events

ScienceDaily (June 21, 2012) ? Researchers have started to unveil the genetic heritage of Ethiopian populations, who are among the most diverse in the world, and lie at the gateway from Africa. They found that the genomes of some Ethiopian populations bear striking similarities to those of populations in Israel and Syria, a potential genetic legacy of the Queen of Sheba and her companions.

The team detected mixing between some Ethiopians and non-African populations dating to approximately 3,000 years ago. The origin and date of this genomic admixture, along with previous linguistic studies, is consistent with the legend of the Queen of Sheba, who according to the Ethiopian Kebra Nagast book had a child with King Solomon from Israel and is mentioned in both the Bible and the Qur'an.

Ethiopia is situated in the horn of Africa, and has often been regarded as one of the gateways from Africa to the rest of the world. The Ethiopian region itself has the longest fossil record of human history anywhere in the world. Studying population genetics within this diverse region could help us to understand the origin of the first humans.

"From their geographic location, it is logical to think that migration out of Africa 60,000 years ago began in either Ethiopia or Egypt. Little was previously known about the populations inhabiting the North-East African region from a genomic perspective. This is the first genome study on a representative panel of Ethiopian populations," explains Luca Pagani, first author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge. "We wanted to compare the genome of Ethiopians with other Africans to provide an essential piece to the African -- and world -- genetic jigsaw."

They found that the Ethiopian genome is not as ancient as was previously thought and less ancient than the genomes of some Southern African populations. There were also links with other populations.

"We found that some Ethiopians have 40-50% of their genome closer to the genomes of populations outside of Africa, while the remaining half of their genome is closer to populations within the African continent," says Dr Toomas Kivisild, co-author from the University of Cambridge. "We calculated genetic distances and found that these non-African regions of the genome are closest to populations in Egypt, Israel and Syria, rather than to the neighbouring Yemeni and Arabs."

The team found that these two groups of African and non-African people mixed approximately 3,000 years ago, well before the historically-documented Islamic expansions and the colonial period of the last centuries.

An earlier study found that Ethio-Semitic, an Ethiopian language belonging to a linguistic family primarily spoken in the Middle East, split from the main Semitic group 3,000 years ago, around the same time as the non-African genomic component arrived in Ethiopia. All this evidence combined fits the time and locations of the legend of the Queen of Sheba, which describes the encounter of the Ethiopian Queen and King Solomon.

"None of this research would have been possible without the superb fieldwork of our Ethiopian colleagues Professor Endashaw Bekele and Dr Ayele Tarekegn over many years. The outstanding genetic diversity present within the peoples of Ethiopia is a rich resource that will contribute greatly, both to our understanding of human evolution and the development of personalised medicine." says Dr Neil Bradman, co-lead author from UCL (University College London). "The Ethiopian Government has a practice of encouraging genetic research, a policy that bodes well for the future."

"Our research gives insights into important evolutionary questions," says Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, co-lead author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "We see imprints of historical events on top of much more ancient prehistoric ones that together create a region of rich culture and genetic diversity. The next step for our research has to be to sequence the entire genomes, rather than read individual letters, of both Ethiopian people and others to really understand human origins and the out-of-Africa migration."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Pagani et al. Ethiopian Genetic Diversity Reveals Linguistic Stratification and Complex Influences on the Ethiopian Gene Pool. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 2012 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.05.015

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

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

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Building an Opt-In Number, Building Relationships ( space ) Any ...

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Stitcher Adds ?Smart Station? To Help Listeners Discover Podcasts

Podcast aggregator Stitcher has just added Stitcher Smart Station to their updated mobile app, effectively creating a recommendation engine for podcasts. The service scans 10,000 shows for content, style, and other factors and recommends podcasts that are similar to podcasts you already enjoy. On average, new users will discover five new podcasts they like in the first month. The service works based on current customer preferences and connects podcasts that listeners often subscribe to together. For example, if you’re a big Car Talk and Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me fan, the app will give more relevance to podcasts in a similar vein like On The Media or Metalcast, the heavy metal podcast. The app is available for iOS and Android. The app also includes a new Sleep mode to shut off the audio as you nod off and increased Twitter integration. Product Page

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Logitech Laptop Speaker Z305 Review

My laptop is my home away from home. It serves as everything from office to stereo to audio game centre. Being totally blind, I truly care about how things sound. Sadly, as far as laptop designers are concerned, sound is at best an ill-considered afterthought. That may well be fine for many poor souls afflicted [...]

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Gaming Out the ObamaCare Ruling: 3 Possible Outcomes - Hit ...

Sometime in the next 10 days, and possibly as early as tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court is expected to release its decision about the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ? a.k.a. ObamaCare. With a decision like this, practically anything is possible. But most high court watchers agree that there are only a handful of likely outcomes.

Whatever happens, the ruling is bound to have a big effect on the national political scene, health and entitlement policy, and the legal boundaries of federal policymaking for years to come. Here?s a brief look at the most likely outcomes and some of the possible ramifications of each.

Uphold the entire law: This is what the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are hoping for. This will vindicate the administration to some degree, but it may also spark further public opposition: A recent study by the University of Missouri Political Economics Research Lab reports that the public, which has long been highly opposed to the mandate, would be most upset of the Court decided to uphold the entire law. A ruling to uphold the entire law would also close off opportunities to limit Congressional authority under the Constitution?s Commerce Clause going forward.

Strike down the mandate: There are two basic ways this could go. Either the court could strike down the mandate alone, or the court could strike down the mandate along with linked insurance regulations like guaranteed issue and community rating that govern how health insurers can deal with preexisting conditions.

Striking down the mandate and various related provisions would leave much of the law in place, but would also excise some of the most popular parts of the law ? the rules restricting the way insurers can discriminate based on preexisting conditions.

Striking down the mandate alone might create a different problem: An easily gamed health insurance system in which it?s possible for individuals to wait until sick to purchase individual health insurance at artificially low rates. As I noted in a 2009 Wall Street Journal op-ed, states that have experimented with preexisting condition rules for insurers while forgoing a mandate have watched their individual insurance markets melt down as people drop out and wait until they?re sick to purchase coverage. But none of those states had ObamaCare?s system of middle class insurance subsidies. Right now there?s some debate as to whether the inducement provided by the insurance subsidies would be enough to draw people into the system. Massachusetts health care overhaul mastermind Jonathan Gruber has run numbers suggesting that even with subsidies, the preexisiting condition rules wouldn?t work without a mandate, which is certainly plausible.?But there?s no real-world example for us to look at, which makes it hard to know.

Strike down the entire law: Even if the court took down the preexisting condition rules, it?s not clear how the government-run health exchanges would work in the absence of the mandate and related provisions. Those exchanges are intended as the primary vehicle for delivering regulated, subsidized coverage, but as I noted in Reason?s July issue, without the preexisting condition rules, that could prove difficult (not to mention all the other challenges exchange designers are already struggling with). The law was designed as an interlocking whole, so taking out any part, especially the mandate, might crash the rest of the system. Which is why the Supreme Court might decide that the least intrusive way to strike down the mandate is to take down the entire law and let Congress start over. This is the least likely outcome, but it?s not entirely out of the bounds of possibility. It?s also the best possible outcome for those opposed to the law.

I?m not particularly confident in my ability to predict the outcome of the ruling, but I?ll venture a guess and say that I think the most likely outcome is that the court strikes down the mandate and the preexisting condition regulations together. Taking down the entire law is probably be more than the court is willing to do, but even the administration explicitly argued that if the mandate goes, the rules regulation preexisting conditions should be scrapped too. If that's the ruling, we'll be left with the insurance subsidies, the Medicaid expansion, the rules governing exchanges (which states may decline to set up and let the feds pay for instead), and assorted other smaller provisions. And Congress will have to sort it all out. It?ll be a big, expensive, technocratic mess ??in other words, a lot like it is already.

Update: On a related note, prediction site Intrade now has the odds of the Supreme Court striking down at least the mandate at 79.9 percent.?

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'Dark Knight' scalpers want $100+ for tickets

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

Sure, buying scalped tickets to the Super Bowl or World Series makes sense -- those are one-of-a-kind experiences with limited seating capacity.

But buying a scalped ticket to a movie, which will run numerous times a day, in hundreds of cities, for weeks on end? If you're willing to pay $100 or more for one of those, you clearly have more money than sense.

Yet scalpers are out there, trying to catch that rare movie fan with a bulging wallet who simply must get into the very first showing in their area?of "The Dark Knight Rises."

Tickets to IMAX midnight showings of the upcoming Batman flick are being offered for more than $120 on ticket resale sites, ScreenCrush.com reports. And Movieline links to one hopeful Toronto seller as proof.

The Toronto seller even touts, "multiple seats will be side by side." Uh, OK, if the theater in question actually assigns specific seats, or if, like as most movie theaters, you just happen to pull up a seat next to your friend.

Would you pay extra for to be in the first audience for a new movie? Tell us on Facebook.

Related content:

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Watch the Fascinating Pizza Circulatory System of New York City [Video]

New York is a titanic animal made of more than eight quadrillion hungry cells. Cells that love delivery food—any kind, any time of the day or night. This video shows part of its food network, its pizza circulatory system. More »

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Scientists discover how key enzyme involved in aging, cancer assembles

ScienceDaily (June 19, 2012) ? UCLA biochemists have mapped the structure of a key protein-RNA complex that is required for the assembly of telomerase, an enzyme important in both cancer and aging.

The researchers found that a region at the end of the p65 protein that includes a flexible tail is responsible for bending telomerase's RNA backbone in order to create a scaffold for the assembly of other protein building blocks. Understanding this protein, which is found in a type of single-celled organism that lives in fresh water ponds, may help researchers predict the function of similar proteins in humans and other organisms.

The study was published June 14 in the online edition of the journal Molecular Cell and is scheduled for publication in the print edition on July 13.

The genetic code of both the single-celled protozoan Tetrahymena and humans is stored within long strands of DNA packaged neatly within chromosomes. The telomerase enzyme helps create telomeres -- protective caps at the ends of the chromosomes that prevent the degradation of our DNA, said Juli Feigon, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry and senior author of the study.

Each time the cell divides, the telomeres shorten, acting like the slow-burning fuse of a time bomb. After many divisions, the telomeres become eroded to a point that can trigger cell death.

Cells with abnormally high levels of telomerase activity constantly rebuild their protective chromosomal caps, allowing them to replicate indefinitely and become, essentially, immortal. Yet undying cells generally prove to be more of a curse than a blessing, Feigon said.

"Telomerase is not very active in most of our cells because we don't want them to live forever," said Feigon, who is also a researcher at UCLA's Molecular Biology Institute and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. "After many generations, DNA damage builds up and we wouldn't want to pass those errors on to subsequent cells."

Overactive telomerase has potentially lethal consequences far beyond the propagation of erroneous DNA. The enzyme is particularly lively within cancer cells, which prevents them from dying out naturally. Finding a way to turn off telomerase in cancer cells might help prevent the diseased cells from multiplying.

Flipping the switch on telomerase might mean stopping it from forming in the first place, said Feigon.

"Any time you want to stop an enzyme, you can target activity, but you can also target assembly," she said. "If you keep it from assembling, that's just as good as keeping it from being active, because it never even forms."

While there is enormous interest in telomerase due to its connection to cancer and aging, very little is known about its three-dimensional structure or its formation, Feigon said.

Four years ago, UCLA postdoctoral scholar Mahavir Singh set out to determine how a strand of RNA and multiple proteins bind together to form telomerase. He set his sights on the p65 protein, one of the key components of the enzyme. Like many proteins, p65 is a long chain of both stiff and supple links that fold in upon one another in a prescribed pattern. At the very end of the p65 protein is a floppy, disordered tail.

"We knew the tail was important for the protein's function, but it wasn't clear how or why," said Singh, first author of the current study. "From the structure, it became evident how it interacts with the telomerase RNA."

When Singh snipped off the flexible tail from p65, he found that the assembly of telomerase became severely limited. The tailless p65 simply couldn't help put together the enzyme.

Using both X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Singh probed the structure of the protein and its interaction with telomerase RNA. He found that upon assembly, the flexible tail transforms into a rigid crowbar that pries apart the strands of the RNA double helix. The newly altered protein tail bends the RNA into a new shape required for binding an essential component of telomerase, a protein called telomerase reverse transcriptase, or TERT.

The p65 protein not only brings two parts of the RNA closer together to allow for the attachment of the TERT protein, but it also folds around the end of the RNA strands to protect them before the telomerase assembles. Without its protein shield, the "naked" RNA is susceptible to degradation and could be chewed up by other enzymes, Singh said.

The p65 protein belongs to a family of "La-motif" proteins, molecules that act as "RNA chaperones" in many organisms including humans, said Feigon.

"How the p65 protein binds with RNA has never been clear," Feigon said. "Nobody could figure it out, and that's partly because they were missing a critical, extra part of the protein which changes from being a completely random coil to being folded and ordered when it interacts with RNA."

Studying p65 within the humble Tetrahymena may help Singh and Feigon better understand its La-motif cousins within the human body, which may also sport protein tails.

"A lot of data indicates that the protein tail is important for the binding of all kinds of RNAs in human cells," Feigon said. "It is particularly critical for the translation of the hepatitis C viral RNA. Now we can potentially predict how those proteins will assemble and interact with their RNAs."

The researchers who first discovered telomerase were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009. They also used Tetrahymena thermophila, a tiny microorganism with hair-like flagella commonly found in fresh water.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Kim DeRose.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Mahavir Singh, Zhonghua Wang, Bon-Kyung Koo, Anooj Patel, Duilio Cascio, Kathleen Collins, Juli Feigon. Structural Basis for Telomerase RNA Recognition and RNP Assembly by the Holoenzyme La Family Protein p65. Molecular Cell, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2012.05.018

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

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

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