রবিবার, ২৪ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩

Spain grumbles as king's son-in-law appears in court

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain (Reuters) - The Spanish king's son-in-law appeared before a judge on the island of Mallorca on Saturday to respond to charges of tax fraud in a six-million-euro embezzlement case that has eroded public support for the once-popular royal family.

The scandal and other corruption cases in which politicians are accused of taking millions of euros in bribes have enraged Spaniards at a time when unemployment has soared to 26 percent in a deep recession.

Inaki Urdangarin, a former Olympics handball player who is married to the king's daughter, the Infanta Cristina, is accused of using his powerful connections to win public contracts to put on events on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca and elsewhere in Spain.

His Noos Foundation is suspected of overcharging for organizing conferences about the business of sports and hiding the proceeds abroad.

Dozens of police officials guarded the courthouse in Palma as Urdangarin got out of a car and walked down a 30-metre access ramp into the building for the closed-door hearing where he will be questioned by Examining Magistrate Jose Castro.

Near the courthouse, a few hundred protesters chanted and held up signs reading "down with the monarchy" and "they call this a democracy but it isn't".

More than a hundred journalists were also on hand.

In Spain's legal system, lengthy pre-trial investigations are carried out by an examining magistrate, or judge. Urdangarin, 45, is charged with fraud, forgery, embezzlement and corruption. If convicted, he could face a prison sentence and fines.

Urdangarin was first charged and called in for questioning in 2011, but a trial could still be months or years away as the judge continues his probe and adds or dismisses charges.

Judge Castro was expected to question Urdangarin for most of the day on Saturday and perhaps into the early hours of Sunday.

Urdangarin is fighting an order that he and a former business partner in the Noos Foundation post bail of 8.2 million euros. His assets could be seized if he does not meet bail.

The judge will also question on Saturday Carlos Garcia Revenga, former treasurer for the Noos Foundation and also private secretary to Urdangarin's wife, Cristina, 47.

Judge Castro is trying to find out how much the Infanta Cristina knew about the business of the foundation. A criminal indictment of the king's daughter would be an unprecedented accusation against a royal in Spain.

Cristina is the only one of five directors of the Noos Foundation that has not been charged with a crime.

PHOTOGRAPHS REMOVED

The royal family has taken efforts to distance itself from Urdangarin, whose official title is Duke of Palma. Photos of him have been wiped off the royal website. He has also been banned from royal family events for over a year.

In Spain's severe economic downturn, more companies announce lay-offs each week. Tens of thousands of homeowners have defaulted on their mortgages and been evicted from their homes. The government has cut public salaries and spending on health and education.

Public angst over the economy has been aggravated by a number of high-profile corruption cases from the 1990s and early 2000s, when a tax bonanza from a property boom fuelled massive public spending on events and infrastructure that now look like folly.

In another case that has rocked Spain, prosecutors are looking into millions of euros in Swiss bank accounts controlled by a former politician from the ruling People's Party, Luis Barcenas, who is charged with bribery, money laundering and tax evasion.

In Palma, where a number of corruption cases have surfaced, Urdangarin has become a despised figure.

The local government held a news event earlier this month and in front of television crews ceremoniously removed a street sign "Boulevard of the Duke and Duchess of Palma" and renamed the street.

"It's a disgrace for our islands that have been so supportive of the royal family," said Esperanza Ruiz, a resident of Palma, as she shopped in a supermarket near the courthouse.

King Juan Carlos, who took the throne in 1975, was the most popular public figure in Spain in the late 1970s because of his role in supporting the transition to democracy after the long Francisco Franco dictatorship.

But for the first time, politicians have openly called for him to abdicate and hand the throne to his son, Prince Felipe, as his prestige has eroded due to the Urdangarin case, as well as his own missteps. Metroscopia polling firm figures show his approval rating has fallen to 58 percent from much higher levels.

Last year, when Spain seemed on the brink of bankruptcy and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was imposing unpopular budget cuts, the king fell and broke his hip during an elephant hunting safari with wealthy friends in Botswana.

The king, 75, made an unprecedented public apology for the trip, which had been secret until his accident.

(Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spain-grumbles-kings-son-law-appears-court-104736621--business.html

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শনিবার, ৯ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩

Jeb Banner's Comments - Musical Family Tree

Let's get a hold of everyone we know like the editor of the IDS Jonathon. How about Conan O'Brien, and Andy Richter? His dad was a prof at IU and I had a beer or 2 with him when he visited a couple of times. I introduced him to Leo Cook in Bloomington as the funniest guy in Bloomington and Leo never forgave me haha.

Leo and I are talking about a Garlic Festival in Bloomington with music and food.

Neil Sharrow who was a manager at WQAX was a TV producer in Cincinatti, but I'm not sure if he is still. I played with him in my first band The QAX Pistols and we did TV themes, surf, and 60's garage mash ups. Like we did Pink Out, where we played Wipe Out and the Pink Panther theme over it.

Jim Manion at WFHB in Bloomington is the 70's expert down there for bands like The Screaming Gypsy Bandits.
Bob Richert ( Is that the spelling?) also from Gulcher knows well that era.

I contacted the drummer from Guided by Voices in Dayton, Don Thrasher. He writes for one of the Dayton arts publications. I've also sent this site to many friends in Austin.

Source: http://www.musicalfamilytree.net/xn/detail/2000984%3AComment%3A206027?xg_source=activity

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Physicians' Belief about Obesity Causes Impacts Advice and Care

February 8, 2013

How physicians view the causes of obesity may impact the advice they give their patients. The findings are from a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who compared the relationship between primary care physicians? beliefs about the causes of obesity with the frequency of nutritional counseling. They found that physicians who believed overconsumption of food to be a major contributor to obesity were significantly more likely to counsel their patients to modify nutritional habits. The results are featured in the February 2013 issue of Preventive Medicine.

?Our study found that primary care physicians, who believed that overeating was a very important cause of obesity had significantly greater odds of counseling their obese patients to reduce portion sizes, avoid high-calorie ingredients when cooking and reduce sugar-sweetened beverage intake. Similarly, primary care physicians who associate sugar-sweetened beverage consumption as a primary cause of obesity were significantly more likely to advise their patients to cut back on sugary beverages such as soda and juices,? said Sara Bleich, PhD, lead author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School?s Department of Health Policy and Management. ?Improved primary care physician education related to the causes of obesity may be a feasible strategy for increasing the frequency of nutritional counseling--particularly concrete dietary tips that primary care physicians can easily share with their patients.?

Bleich, along with colleagues from the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, analyzed a national cross-sectional Internet-based survey of 500 U.S. primary care physicians collected between February and March of 2011. Researchers assessed physician beliefs about the causes of obesity with the question, ?How important is each of the following possible causes of obesity for your patients?? Possible causes included overconsumption of food, restaurant or fast food eating, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, genetics or family history and metabolic defect. For each cause, primary care physicians indicated whether it was very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not at all important. Nutritional counseling habits were assessed using the question, ?How frequently do you provide each of the following types of nutritional counseling to your obese patients?? Nutritional recommendations included reading nutritional labels to determine calorie or nutrition content, avoiding high-calorie ingredients when cooking, avoiding high calorie menu items when eating outside the home, reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and reducing portion size. For each nutritional recommendation, primary care physicians indicated whether they provided it very frequently, somewhat frequently, not very frequently or not at all frequently.

?Eighty-six percent of primary care physicians indicated that overconsumption of food is a very important cause of obesity, followed by 62 percent of physicians reporting that restaurant or fast food eating is a very important cause and 60 percent attributing consuming sugar sweetened beverages as a very important cause,? noted Bleich. Few physicians reported genetics, family history or metabolic defect as an important cause of obesity.

?Do physician beliefs about causes of obesity translate into actionable issues on which physicians counsel their patients?? was written by Sara N. Bleich, Kimberly A. Gudzune, Wendy L. Bennett and Lisa A. Cooper.

The research was funded in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Media contact for Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Natalie Wood-Wright at 410-614-6029 or nwoodwri@jhsph.edu.

Source: http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2013/bleich-physician-obesity-perception.html

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2 antibodies are better than 1

Friday, February 8, 2013

Cancer drugs of the new, molecular generation destroy malignant breast tumors in a targeted manner: They block characteristic molecules on tumor cells - receptors for the hormones estrogen or progesterone, or a co-receptor, called HER2, that binds to many growth factors. But about one in every six breast tumors has none of these receptors. Such cancers, called triple-negative, are particularly aggressive and notoriously difficult to treat.

Some of these therapy-resistant cancers have a potential molecular target for cancer drugs, a growth-factor receptor called EGFR, but an EGFR-blocking drug has proved ineffective in treating them. In a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Weizmann Institute researchers propose a potential solution: to simultaneously treat triple-negative breast cancer with two EGFR-blocking antibodies instead of one. In a study in mice, the scientists showed that a certain combination of two antibodies indeed prevented the growth and spread of triple-negative tumors. The research team, led by Prof. Yosef Yarden of the Biological Regulation Department and Prof. Michael Sela of the Immunology Department, included Drs. Daniela Ferraro, Nade`ge Gaborit, Ruth Maron, Hadas Cohen-Dvashi, Ziv Porat, Fresia Pareja, and Sara Lavi, Dr. Moshit Lindzen and Nir Ben-Chetrit.

Of the different combinations they tried, the scientists found that the approach worked when the two antibodies bound to different parts of the EGFR molecule. The combined action of the antibodies was stronger than would have been expected by simply adding up the separate effects of each. Apparently, the use of the two antibodies created an entirely new anti-cancer mechanism: In addition to blocking the EGFR and recruiting the help of immune cells, the antibodies probably overwhelmed the EGFR by their sheer weight, causing it to collapse inward from the membrane into the tumor cell.

Deprived of EGFR on its surface, the cells were no longer receiving the growth signals, preventing the growth of the tumor. This approach resembles the natural functioning of the immune system, which tends to block essential antigens at several sites by targeting them with multiple antibodies. If supported by further studies, the two-antibody approach, in combination with chemotherapy, might in the future be developed into an effective treatment for triple-negative breast cancer.

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Weizmann Institute of Science: http://www.weizmann.ac.il

Thanks to Weizmann Institute of Science for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126685/__antibodies_are_better_than__

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3G-capable Nexus 7 hits Japan this Saturday

Android Central

Hot on the heels of the Nexus 10, the Wifi+3G version of Google's Nexus 7 tablet is set to go on sale in Japan in a couple of days. Like its big brother, the Nexus 7 3G has been available elsewhere since late 2012, but until this month there had been no official Japanese launch.

Now Japanese site Impress Watch brings news that the launch is imminent, with Feb. 9 being touted as release day. The Japanese version's hardware, it says, is identical to the tablet sold in other markets, with a Tegra 3 CPU inside,  32GB of storage and pentaband HSPA+ support.

Upon release the Nexus 7 3G is said to sell for around ¥29,800 ($318).

Source: Impress Watch (Japanese); via: Engadget



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/8qG0C-lQHTU/story01.htm

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Samsung attracts indie devs to its yard with zero-commission offer

Samsung attracts indie devs to its yard with zerocommission offer

Samsung, tired of its own-brand app store playing second fiddle to Google Play, has decided to throw some of its considerable cash at the problem. It's appealing to indie app developers in the hope of finding the next Angry Birds big thing. In partnership with Chillingo, EA's mobile games division, Samsung is launching "100 percent indie," offering bedroom coders commission-free sales on any of their apps for the first six months of its life. After which, Samsung will take a 10 percent cut, with that fee rising to 30 percent after two years -- matching the fees charged by Google and Apple's services. Now all we need is a Simon Cowell-type to judge which new apps have that... je ne sais quoi.

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Via: Reuters, SammyHub

Source: 100 Percent Indie

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/qynk4Z7G27g/

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শুক্রবার, ৮ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩

Lungs of the planet reveal their true sensitivity to global warming

Feb. 6, 2013 ? Tropical rainforests are often called the "lungs of the planet" because they generally draw in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. But the amount of carbon dioxide that rainforests absorb, or produce, varies hugely with year-to-year variations in the climate. In a paper published online Feb 6 2013 by the journal Nature, a team of climate scientists from the University of Exeter, the Met Office-Hadley Centre and the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, has shown that these variations reveal how vulnerable the rainforest is to climate change.

Lead author Professor Peter Cox of the University of Exeter explained: "We have been struggling for more than a decade to answer the question 'will the Amazon forest die back under climate change?' Our study indicates that the risk is low if climate change is associated with increased plant growth under elevated carbon dioxide. But if this effect declines, or climate warming occurs due to something other than a carbon dioxide increase, we expect to see a significant release of carbon from tropical ecosystems."

The study reveals a new way to find out how sensitive biological systems are to changes in climate. The key was to learn how to read the year-to-year variations in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide increases each year as a result of burning fossil fuels and deforestation. But the amount it goes up from one year to the next depends on whether tropical forests are absorbing carbon dioxide or releasing it -- and this in turn depends on whether the tropical climate was warmer and dryer than usual, or wetter and cooler. So the trace of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere holds a record of how the lungs of the planet respond when the climate warms or cools.

The team studied how these year-to-year variations in carbon dioxide concentration relate to long-term changes in the amount of carbon stored in tropical rainforests. They found that climate models that predicted tropical forest dieback under climate change also had a very large year-to-year variation in carbon dioxide concentration, while models in which the rainforest was more robust to climate change had more realistic year-to-year variation in carbon dioxide concentration.

By combining this relationship with the year-to-year variation in carbon dioxide as seen in the real world, the team were able to determine that about 50 billion tonnes of carbon would be released for each degree Celsius of warming in the tropics. Peter Cox said the findings were initially a relief: "Fortunately, this carbon release is counteracted by the positive effects of carbon dioxide fertilisation on plant growth under most scenarios of the 21st century, so that overall forests are expected to continue to accumulate carbon."

The researchers are however certain that tropical forests will suffer under climate change if carbon dioxide doesn't fertilise tree growth as strongly as climate models suggest.

Co-author, Chris Jones, of the Met Office said: "The long-term health of tropical forests will depend on their ability to withstand multiple pressures from changing climate and deforestation. Our research has shed light on the former, but the latter remains a significant pressure on this ecosystem."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Exeter, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Peter M. Cox, David Pearson, Ben B. Booth, Pierre Friedlingstein, Chris Huntingford, Chris D. Jones, Catherine M. Luke. Sensitivity of tropical carbon to climate change constrained by carbon dioxide variability. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11882

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/qlykoxbku4U/130206131050.htm

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Fighting fat with fat: Stem cell discovery identifies potential obesity treatment

Fighting fat with fat: Stem cell discovery identifies potential obesity treatment

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Ottawa scientists have discovered a trigger that turns muscle stem cells into brown fat, a form of good fat that could play a critical role in the fight against obesity. The findings from Dr. Michael Rudnicki's lab, based at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, were published today in the prestigious journal Cell Metabolism.

"This discovery significantly advances our ability to harness this good fat in the battle against bad fat and all the associated health risks that come with being overweight and obese," says Dr. Rudnicki, a senior scientist and director for the Regenerative Medicine Program and Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He is also a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Genetics and professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Globally, obesity is the fifth leading risk for death, with an estimated 2.8 million people dying every year from the effects of being overweight or obese, according to the World Health Organization. The Public Health Agency of Canada estimates that 25% of Canadian adults are obese.

In 2007, Dr. Rudnicki led a team that was the first to prove the existence of adult skeletal muscle stem cells. In the paper published today, Dr. Rudnicki now shows (again for the first time) that these adult muscle stem cells not only have the ability to produce muscle fibres, but also to become brown fat. Brown fat is an energy-burning tissue that is important to the body's ability to keep warm and regulate temperature. In addition, more brown fat is associated with less obesity.

Perhaps more importantly, the paper identifies how adult muscle stem cells become brown fat. The key is a small gene regulator called microRNA-133, or miR-133. When miR-133 is present, the stem cells turn into muscle fibre; when reduced, the stem cells become brown fat.

Dr. Rudnicki's lab showed that adult mice injected with an agent to reduce miR-133, called an antisense oligonucleotide or ASO, produced more brown fat, were protected from obesity and had an improved ability to process glucose. In addition, the local injection into the hind leg muscle led to increased energy production throughout the body?an effect observed after four months.

Using an ASO to treat disease by reducing the levels of specific microRNAs is a method that is already in human clinical trials. However, a potential treatment using miR-133 to combat obesity is still years away.

"While we are very excited by this breakthrough, we acknowledge that it's a first step," says Dr. Rudnicki. "There are still many questions to be answered, such as: Will it help adults who are already obese to lose weight? How should it be administered? How long do the effects last? Are there adverse effects we have not observed yet?"

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Ottawa Hospital Research Institute: http://www.ohri.ca

Thanks to Ottawa Hospital Research Institute for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126654/Fighting_fat_with_fat__Stem_cell_discovery_identifies_potential_obesity_treatment

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ৭ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩