There are things that are adorable but make complete sense: babies, puppies, kittens, small phones, you get the point. Then there are things that are cute that make no sense: monkeys eating bananas, a ball of yarn and so on. A miniature chandelier would usually be sensibly cute. But putting that miniature chandelier in a light bulb? Boy, I don't know why I love this so much.
And you're going to have to love this a lot because the tiny chandelier will run you more than $600 (?480). Still, if chandeliers are now marks of excess, tiny chandeliers poke fun of that excess (and $600 tiny chandeliers poke fun at you for poking fun at excess).
Called the King Edison and designed by Young & Battaglia it combines the ornate old world with the simplicity of a bulb. The chandelier is made from brass, the glass is hand blown and the cable is braided. It's fun, in a I will never pay 600 bucks for you kind of way. [Mineheart via DesignTAXI]
For all the lip service given by Republicans to the party's efforts to modernize its image, a quick look at the GOP's standing in two must-win battlegrounds doesn't paint a promising picture of their efforts. In Colorado and Virginia?the archetypes of suburban, demographically changing states?Republicans are barely contesting next year's Senate races, are facing fresh setbacks in the two pivotal upcoming gubernatorial races, and are dealing with persistent issues recruiting new talent into the pipeline.
The most glaring example took place earlier this month in Virginia, where Republican Party leaders nominated for lieutenant governor E.W. Jackson, a minister whose thunderous opposition to gay marriage and invective against Obama threaten to damage the Republican ticket. His emergence was enabled by party leaders opting to choose their statewide candidates at a convention filled with single-issue activists instead of through a primary involving a wider swath of Republican voters. The party's gubernatorial nominee, Ken Cuccinelli, who engineered the convention process, is trying to downplay his socially conservative background, but is struggling to do so with his new ticket mate. Meanwhile, Republicans are empty-handed in next year's Senate race against Sen. Mark Warner, not even entertaining the notion that term-limited Gov. Bob McDonnell could follow in his predecessor's footsteps and pursue a congressional career.
Less noticed, but equally as damaging, is the party's persistent inability to contest statewide races in Colorado, which is rapidly becoming a Democratic-leaning state?in large part because of GOP mismanagement. The party's brightest recruit, Rep. Cory Gardner, just opted to pass up a Senate campaign against Mark Udall, leaving the GOP empty-handed. Even more startling is the reemergence of immigration hardliner Tom Tancredo as a legitimate gubernatorial candidate, jumping in the race this month against Gov. John Hickenlooper. (Tancredo won 36 percent of the vote as a third-party candidate in 2010.) If Republicans can't contest the Senate and governorship in 2014, it would mark eight straight setbacks in presidential, Senate, and gubernatorial contests dating back nearly a decade. An 0-8 record would get the Denver Broncos coach fired, but there hasn't been a comparable shakeup in the state party's practices in a long time.
These swing states are important precisely because they contain significant and growing numbers of the rising American electorate?Hispanics, single women, and young, college-educated voters?that are necessary for Republicans to win over for their long-term health. The party's favorable short-term prospects in 2014?a path to a Senate majority can be won in exclusively Republican states?could easily blind Republicans to the long-term vulnerabilities it faces.
What's remarkable is that these swing-state setbacks are taking place in what's shaping up to be a promising political environment for Republicans. The off-year electorate, on paper, should be more conservative than in 2012, with younger voters and minorities less likely to show up for a midterm election. The scent of scandal threatens to weigh down Democrats over the next year. The implementation of Obama's health care law, polling as poorly as ever, will be taking place right as the midterms begin in earnest. This is the stuff that should be catnip for prospective GOP recruits.
But instead we're hearing crickets in these two Senate races, not to mention a handful of other battleground contests (Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire) where Republicans should be faring better. It's awfully telling that Republican Senate candidates have already lined up in many of the deeply conservative states up for grabs, but there's comparably little movement elsewhere. Talk about two Americas.
President Obama?s signature achievements will have to survive Republican-dominated federal courts.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
President Obama is finally getting serious about the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The federal appeals court is second only to the Supreme Court in importance, because it referees fights about the power of federal agencies and the rulings they make (and also because it?s a traditional feeder to the high court). After years of filibuster woe over Obama?s initial failed nomination to the court, the Senate confirmed Sri Srinivasan to the D.C. Circuit last week by a vote of 97?0. This marks the first appointment on the court since 2006 and the one and only cakewalk Obama can expect. The president reportedly will soon nominate three candidates simultaneously to fill the D.C. Circuit?s remaining vacancies.
This is a big dare to Senate Republicans, who have been calling the simple filling of the open spots ?court packing? and parried with legislation to reduce the number of seats on the D.C. Circuit from 11 to eight. That would conveniently leave Obama with no more seats to fill and the court with four Republican appointees; four Democratic ones (including Srinivasan); and six senior judges (five of them chosen by Republicans) who pick up the rest of the workload.
Nominating three judges at once signals that Obama is finally heeding the call of the Democratic lawyers and law professors who have bemoaned his relative lack of interest in the lower courts since around Day No. 2 of his first term. The president taught constitutional law, goes the refrain. He knows how important judges are. Why isn?t he pushing his people through? Obama has been molasses slow about naming his nominees: There are currently 16 open spots on the federal appeals courts, and with the three D.C. Circuit choices that are on their way, the number of Obama nominees is still only nine. On the district courts, the president has named only 16 candidates for 64 open spots.
At the same time, liberal bafflement over Obama?s relative indifference toward the courts does not give Senate Republicans enough credit for their determination to throw up roadblocks. The filibuster used to be reserved for judicial nominees with a whiff of controversy about them, and during the presidency of George W. Bush, a bipartisan group of senators agreed only to filibuster judicial nominees under ?extraordinary circumstances.? That deal is long gone: Republicans today are filibustering just about everyone except Srinivasan. As of last month, Obama?s nominees for the federal appeals courts have waited an average of 148 days for a confirmation vote following approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee, a wait more than four times as long as the average for President George W. Bush?s nominees. (The average wait for district court nominees has risen to 102 days from 35 for Bush.)
It?s worthwhile for Obama to finally push back because of the courts? power over his legacy. If Obama doesn?t get his judges through and the bench becomes increasingly dominated by conservative justices for years to come, his failure to fill these vacancies could be the poison pill of his presidency. Law isn?t simply made by the Supreme Court. It?s also hammered out in the lower courts.
What exactly is at stake for Obama in the fight over judges? Here are five current court challenges that could derail key parts of his agenda. If you have another case to add to the list, send it to me at emilybazelon@gmail.com or post it in the comments below. Email may be quoted in Slate unless you stipulate otherwise. If you want to be quoted anonymously, please let me know.
Twenty-six states are not establishing the state-run health care exchanges that were supposed to be Obamacare?s primary engine for increasing access to health insurance. (Sigh.) In these naysaying states, the federal government is supposed to step in and create the exchanges itself. But there?s a catch. As Simon Lazarus explains in the New Republic, a lawsuit filed this month in federal court in Washington, D.C., argues that only state-run exchanges can offer tax credits and subsidies. Meanwhile, the Obama administration thinks that 80 percent of the people who buy insurance through the exchanges will need those subsidies.
Here?s the thinking behind the lawsuit, funded in part by the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. The problem, apparently, is a drafting error, but Congress doesn?t want to fix any of those. The Obama administration says the Internal Revenue Service has the authority to extend the tax-credit provisions in the Affordable Care Act to people who use federally run exchanges. But what if the judges who hear the case disagree? Without the tax breaks and subsidies, Lazarus argues, ?the individual mandate, constitutional though the Court has declared it, simply won?t work.?
PARIS (AP) ? The recession in Europe risks hurting the world's economic recovery, a leading international body warned Wednesday.
In its half-yearly update, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that protracted economic weakness in Europe "could evolve into stagnation with negative implications for the global economy."
The OECD again slashed its forecast for the economy of the 17-country eurozone, saying it will shrink by 0.6 percent this year, after a 0.5 percent drop in 2012. The OECD had predicted a 0.1 percent decline for the eurozone in its report six months ago ? and this time last year, it forecast growth of nearly 1 percent for 2013.
The U.S. economy will continue to outpace Europe, the OECD said, with growth of 1.9 percent in 2013 and 2.8 percent in 2014. For global gross domestic product, the OECD forecasts an increase of 3.1 percent for this year and 4 percent for 2014.
Noting that eurozone policymakers have "often been behind the curve," the OECD warned that Europe was still beset by "weakly capitalized banks, public debt financing requirements and exit risks."
Meanwhile, the eurozone's 12.1 percent unemployment rate "is likely to continue to rise further ... stabilizing at a very high level only in 2014," the OECD said.
The report predicts unemployment will reach 28 percent in Spain next year and 28.4 percent in Greece.
The eurozone economy shrank 0.2 percent in the January-March period, the sixth consecutive quarterly decline, making it the eurozone's longest ever recession.
Austerity measures have inflicted severe economic pain and sparked social unrest across the continent. Europe's young people are especially suffering, with unemployment of around 50 percent in some of the hardest-hit eurozone countries such as Spain and Greece.
But OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria also noted that the tough reforms those countries made ? such as loosening their labor markets and making public administrations more efficient ? will soon bear fruit.
"In the periphery in particular, which was hardest hit by the crisis, that is where the reforms are taking place at the faster pace and where things eventually are, I believe, going to be looking better faster once we go through the acute stage of the crisis," Gurria told reporters.
With a population of more than half a billion people, the EU is the world's largest export market. If it remains stuck in reverse, companies in the U.S. and Asia will be hit.
Last month, U.S.-based Ford Motor Co. lost $462 million in Europe and called the outlook there "uncertain."
The OECD also urged the European Central Bank to take additional emergency steps to boost the economy. It said the eurozone's central bank should take the unusual step of cutting the interest rate it pays banks for depositing money with it to below zero. This would push banks to lend money rather than hoard it as super-safe central bank deposits.
The OECD also said the ECB should issue clear guidance on how long its exceptional measures, such as very low interest rates, will remain in place ? along the same lines as the U.S. Federal Reserve. The ECB was even urged to consider buying assets such bonds ? a tool that can ease borrowing costs and increase the supply of money in the economy but one that the central bank has so far been reluctant to take.
Other major economies have faltered this year but none are in recession, like Europe. The U.S. economy grew 2.2 percent last year and China, the world's No. 2 economy, is growing around 8 percent a year.
In the U.S., the organization urged politicians to soften automatic across-the-board budget spending cuts to make them less harmful to growth, and said "a credible long-term fiscal plan needs to be put in place."
___
Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this article.
May 29, 2013 ? Honey bees don't start out knowing how to find flowers or even how to get around outside the hive. Before they can forage, they must learn how to navigate a changing landscape and orient themselves in relation to the sun.
In a new study, researchers report that a regulatory gene known to be involved in learning and the detection of novelty in vertebrates also kicks into high gear in the brains of honey bees when they are learning how to find food and bring it home.
Activity of this gene, called Egr, quickly increases in a region of the brain known as the mushroom bodies whenever bees try to find their way around an unfamiliar environment, the researchers observed. This gene is the insect equivalent of a transcription factor found in mammals. Transcription factors regulate the activity of other genes.
The researchers found that the increased Egr activity did not occur as a result of exercise, the physical demands of learning to fly or the task of memorizing visual cues; it increased only in response to the bees' exposure to an unfamiliar environment. Even seasoned foragers had an uptick in Egr activity when they had to learn how to navigate in a new environment.
"This discovery gives us an important lead in figuring out how honey bees are able to navigate so well, with such a tiny brain," said Gene Robinson, a professor of entomology and neuroscience and director of the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois. "And finding that it's Egr, with all that this gene is known to do in vertebrates, provides another demonstration that some of the molecular mechanisms underlying behavioral plasticity are deeply conserved in evolution." Robinson led the study with graduate student Claudia Lutz.
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Journal Reference:
C. C. Lutz, G. E. Robinson. Activity-dependent gene expression in honey bee mushroom bodies in response to orientation flight. Journal of Experimental Biology, 2013; 216 (11): 2031 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.084905
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ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A court hearing begins Tuesday to determine how Trayvon Martin should be portrayed to a jury when a neighborhood watch captain goes on trial for killing the unarmed black teenager last year.
George Zimmerman, whose highly anticipated second-degree murder is scheduled to start June 10, has said he shot Martin in self-defense during a fight in February 2012.
At issue in Tuesday's hearing are pieces of evidence that suggest 17-year-old Martin used marijuana at an undetermined time and had been suspended from school shortly prior to his death. The defense also wants to use text messages and social media posts that Zimmerman's lawyer said would show that Martin presented himself as "street wise" and interested in guns.
Prosecutors will argue that the Facebook postings by Martin, who had no criminal record and the way he portrayed himself to his friends is irrelevant to what happened on the night of the killing.
In a motion to ban evidence of marijuana use, prosecutors said there is no evidence that Martin was under the influence or that marijuana contributed to his death. O'Mara claims, however, that the evidence supports the defense theory that Martin was the aggressor.
The hearing before Judge Debra Nelson begins at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) in the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford, where national news media are gearing up for extensive live coverage of the trial.
Zimmerman followed Martin after he spotted him walking in the rain in a gated community in the town of Sanford near Orlando where Martin was spending the weekend in one of the town homes with his father. Zimmerman called police to report a suspicious person and pursued Martin despite the dispatcher telling him not to. Soon after, Zimmerman shot Martin during a struggle before police arrived.
In court filings Zimmerman's lawyers say they want the judge to decide about the use during the trial of voice analysis of 911 tapes of calls to the police before and during the struggle.
Lawyers are seeking clarification from the judge about whether the science behind the various types of voice analysis used by experts for the state and defense is solid enough to be considered by the jury.
Experts have reached different conclusions about whether it was Zimmerman or Martin screaming in the background of a 911 call taped just before Martin was shot, or whether it is possible to be certain at all.
Some experts could isolate only seconds of usable audio on the tape while one prosecution expert claims to have deciphered several phrases uttered by Zimmerman and Martin.
The defense also wants the judge to allow the identities of the jurors to remain secret and to let the jury visit the crime scene.
Martin's death set off debate about Florida's "stand your ground" law, which allows deadly force if a person fears serious bodily harm. Police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, which led to racial protests.
May 28, 2013 ? Some people seem to pick up a second language with relative ease, while others have a much more difficult time. Now, a new study suggests that learning to understand and read a second language may be driven, at least in part, by our ability to pick up on statistical regularities.
The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Some research suggests that learning a second language draws on capacities that are language-specific, while other research suggests that it reflects a more general capacity for learning patterns. According to psychological scientist and lead researcher Ram Frost of Hebrew University, the data from the new study clearly point to the latter:
"These new results suggest that learning a second language is determined to a large extent by an individual ability that is not at all linguistic," says Frost.
In the study, Frost and colleagues used three different tasks to measure how well American students in an overseas program picked up on the structure of words and sounds in Hebrew. The students were tested once in the first semester and again in the second semester.
The students also completed a task that measured their ability to pick up on statistical patterns in visual stimuli. The participants watched a stream of complex shapes that were presented one at a time. Unbeknownst to the participants, the 24 shapes were organized into 8 triplets -- the order of the triplets was randomized, though the shapes within each triplet always appeared in the same sequence. After viewing the stream of shapes, the students were tested to see whether they implicitly picked up the statistical regularities of the shape sequences.
The data revealed a strong association between statistical learning and language learning: Students who were high performers on the shapes task tended to pick up the most Hebrew over the two semesters.
"It's surprising that a short 15-minute test involving the perception of visual shapes could predict to such a large extent which of the students who came to study Hebrew would finish the year with a better grasp of the language," says Frost.
According to the researchers, establishing a link between second language acquisition and a general capacity for statistical learning may have broad implications.
"This finding points to the possibility that a unified and universal principle of statistical learning can quantitatively explain a wide range of cognitive processes across domains, whether they are linguistic or nonlinguistic," they conclude.
This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (159/10) and by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (RO1 HD 067364 and PO1HD 01994).
New diagnostic technology may lead to individualized treatments for prostate cancerPublic release date: 28-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cara Lasala Cara.lasala@cshs.org 310-423-7798 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
NanoVelcro chip device captures and isolates potentially high-risk cancer cells
LOS ANGELES A research team jointly led by scientists from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles, have enhanced a device they developed to identify and "grab" circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, that break away from cancers and enter the blood, often leading to the spread of cancer to other parts of the body.
If more studies confirm the technology's effectiveness, the NanoVelcro Chip device could enable doctors to access and identify cancerous cells in the bloodstream, which would provide the diagnostic information needed to create individually tailored treatments for patients with prostate cancer.
The researchers believe this technology may function as a "liquid biopsy," revolutionizing conventional biopsy practices and significantly advancing the field of personalized medicine. Today's biopsies require the removal of tissue samples through a needle inserted into a solid tumor, a procedure that is invasive and sometimes painful. Biopsies are extremely difficult in metastatic prostate cancer because the disease often spreads to bone, where the availability of the tissue is low.
The biggest challenges in the treatment of cancer are that every person's tumor differs greatly and often mutates over time, especially in response to treatment. Researchers hope that by analyzing these CTCs, doctors will be able to understand the tumor evolution in each individual. By monitoring the genetic changes in CTCs and their invasiveness in a tissue culture dish, doctors may be able to quickly adjust their treatment plans in response.
"We are optimistic that the use of our NanoVelcro CTC technology will revolutionize prostate cancer treatment. We know that cancers evolve over time and that every patient's cancer is a unique problem the 'one-size-fits-all' approach is not going to allow us to cure prostate cancer or any other cancer," said Edwin M. Posadas, MD, medical director of the Urologic Oncology Program at Cedars-Sinai's Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute and senior author of the article in the March online issue of Advanced Materials.
"This evolution means that we need to be able to monitor these changes over time and to ensure a patient's treatment is individualized and optimized. The molecular characterizations of CTCs will provide real-time information allowing us to choose the right treatment for the right patient at the right time. This improvement will be a great step toward developing personalized medicine," he added.
The existence of CTCs and their role in cancer metastasis was first suspected more than 140 years ago, and the first test for the routine measurement of CTCs became available in 2004, but earlier methods have produced low capture efficiencies and limited capability of captured cells to be utilized for later molecular analysis.
"Our technology is the combination of three state-of-the-art technologies: the NanoVelcro CTC chip, laser capture microdissection and whole exome sequencing," said Yi-Tsung Lu, MD, a postdoctoral scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, and one of the article's first authors. "This advancement will, in principle, allow us to track the genomic evolution of prostate cancer after we initiate a therapy and will allow us to better understand the mechanism of drug resistance that is common in prostate cancer patients. We hope the comprehensive understanding of cancer biology at the individual level will ultimately lead to better therapy choice for patients suffering from advanced cancer."
With the new system, a patient's blood is pumped through the NanoVelcro Chip the microvilli protruding from the cancer cells will stick to the nanofiber structures on the device's surface, much like Velcro. This phenomenon facilitates the capture of rare CTCs in the blood stream. Next, laser capture microdissection technology allows the scientists to selectively cut out and pick up the CTCs from the NanoVelcro Chip, virtually eliminating any trace of any contamination from white blood cells, which can complicate analysis. Finally, the isolated and purified CTCs are subjected to single cell "next-generation" sequencing, which reveals mutations in the genetic material of the cells and may help doctors personalize therapies to a patient's unique cancer.
"To date, CTC capture technologies have been able to do little more than count the number of CTCs, which is informative but not very useful from a treatment planning perspective. It is a scientific breakthrough to have the ability to isolate pure CTCs and maintain their integrity for sophisticated genomic and behavioral analyses," said Hsian-Rong Tseng, PhD, associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA and the inventor of the NanoVelcro Chip concept and device. His enthusiasm is echoed by Leland W. K. Chung, PhD, director of the Urologic Oncology Research Program at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute.
###
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA and VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Beijing Genomics Institute in China, CytoLumina Technologies Corp. and Fourth Military Medical University in China contributed to the article.
Cedars-Sinai researchers were supported by a Young Investigator Award and a Challenge Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation, research grants (P01 CA098912 and R01 CA122602) from the National Institutes of Health, a Department of Defense Idea Award (W81XWH-11-1-0422) and from Spielberg Family Foundation. UCLA researchers were supported by a Creativity Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation and research grants (R21 CA151159 and R33 CA157396) from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) Program.
Citation: Advanced Materials, "High-Purity Prostate Circulating Tumor Cell Isolation by a Polymer Nanofiber-Embedded Microchip for Whole Exome Sequencing," March 2013 issue.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New diagnostic technology may lead to individualized treatments for prostate cancerPublic release date: 28-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cara Lasala Cara.lasala@cshs.org 310-423-7798 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
NanoVelcro chip device captures and isolates potentially high-risk cancer cells
LOS ANGELES A research team jointly led by scientists from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles, have enhanced a device they developed to identify and "grab" circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, that break away from cancers and enter the blood, often leading to the spread of cancer to other parts of the body.
If more studies confirm the technology's effectiveness, the NanoVelcro Chip device could enable doctors to access and identify cancerous cells in the bloodstream, which would provide the diagnostic information needed to create individually tailored treatments for patients with prostate cancer.
The researchers believe this technology may function as a "liquid biopsy," revolutionizing conventional biopsy practices and significantly advancing the field of personalized medicine. Today's biopsies require the removal of tissue samples through a needle inserted into a solid tumor, a procedure that is invasive and sometimes painful. Biopsies are extremely difficult in metastatic prostate cancer because the disease often spreads to bone, where the availability of the tissue is low.
The biggest challenges in the treatment of cancer are that every person's tumor differs greatly and often mutates over time, especially in response to treatment. Researchers hope that by analyzing these CTCs, doctors will be able to understand the tumor evolution in each individual. By monitoring the genetic changes in CTCs and their invasiveness in a tissue culture dish, doctors may be able to quickly adjust their treatment plans in response.
"We are optimistic that the use of our NanoVelcro CTC technology will revolutionize prostate cancer treatment. We know that cancers evolve over time and that every patient's cancer is a unique problem the 'one-size-fits-all' approach is not going to allow us to cure prostate cancer or any other cancer," said Edwin M. Posadas, MD, medical director of the Urologic Oncology Program at Cedars-Sinai's Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute and senior author of the article in the March online issue of Advanced Materials.
"This evolution means that we need to be able to monitor these changes over time and to ensure a patient's treatment is individualized and optimized. The molecular characterizations of CTCs will provide real-time information allowing us to choose the right treatment for the right patient at the right time. This improvement will be a great step toward developing personalized medicine," he added.
The existence of CTCs and their role in cancer metastasis was first suspected more than 140 years ago, and the first test for the routine measurement of CTCs became available in 2004, but earlier methods have produced low capture efficiencies and limited capability of captured cells to be utilized for later molecular analysis.
"Our technology is the combination of three state-of-the-art technologies: the NanoVelcro CTC chip, laser capture microdissection and whole exome sequencing," said Yi-Tsung Lu, MD, a postdoctoral scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, and one of the article's first authors. "This advancement will, in principle, allow us to track the genomic evolution of prostate cancer after we initiate a therapy and will allow us to better understand the mechanism of drug resistance that is common in prostate cancer patients. We hope the comprehensive understanding of cancer biology at the individual level will ultimately lead to better therapy choice for patients suffering from advanced cancer."
With the new system, a patient's blood is pumped through the NanoVelcro Chip the microvilli protruding from the cancer cells will stick to the nanofiber structures on the device's surface, much like Velcro. This phenomenon facilitates the capture of rare CTCs in the blood stream. Next, laser capture microdissection technology allows the scientists to selectively cut out and pick up the CTCs from the NanoVelcro Chip, virtually eliminating any trace of any contamination from white blood cells, which can complicate analysis. Finally, the isolated and purified CTCs are subjected to single cell "next-generation" sequencing, which reveals mutations in the genetic material of the cells and may help doctors personalize therapies to a patient's unique cancer.
"To date, CTC capture technologies have been able to do little more than count the number of CTCs, which is informative but not very useful from a treatment planning perspective. It is a scientific breakthrough to have the ability to isolate pure CTCs and maintain their integrity for sophisticated genomic and behavioral analyses," said Hsian-Rong Tseng, PhD, associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA and the inventor of the NanoVelcro Chip concept and device. His enthusiasm is echoed by Leland W. K. Chung, PhD, director of the Urologic Oncology Research Program at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute.
###
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA and VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Beijing Genomics Institute in China, CytoLumina Technologies Corp. and Fourth Military Medical University in China contributed to the article.
Cedars-Sinai researchers were supported by a Young Investigator Award and a Challenge Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation, research grants (P01 CA098912 and R01 CA122602) from the National Institutes of Health, a Department of Defense Idea Award (W81XWH-11-1-0422) and from Spielberg Family Foundation. UCLA researchers were supported by a Creativity Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation and research grants (R21 CA151159 and R33 CA157396) from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) Program.
Citation: Advanced Materials, "High-Purity Prostate Circulating Tumor Cell Isolation by a Polymer Nanofiber-Embedded Microchip for Whole Exome Sequencing," March 2013 issue.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Microsoft's SharePoint always featured a core set of social tools, but with the acquisition of Yammer, as well as the ongoing integration of Lync and Skype, the folks over in Redmond are clearly ready to push social the next major cornerstone of their enterprise offerings. Today, Microsoft is launching a new campaign to help companies understand how social can help them become more productive. In connection to this, the company also commissioned a new study that tried to quantify the state of social in the enterprise.
WASHINGTON -- Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Angel Pagan was thinking triple out of the box. Once he rounded second and saw third base coach Tim Flannery waving him home, he shifted into another gear.
Pagan became the first San Francisco player to end a game with an inside-the-park homer, connecting with a runner aboard in the bottom of the 10th inning Saturday to give the Giants a thrilling 6-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies.
"I know two things: I'm going to score and Flannery is going to score with me," Pagan said. "He's amazing. I'll be honest with you, I was running out of gas a little bit around third. He helped me to get there."
Troy Tulowitzki homered leading off the 10th to put the Rockies ahead 5-4, but Colorado closer Rafael Betancourt (1-2) walked Brandon Crawford to open the bottom half.
Guillermo Quiroz sacrificed before Pagan sent a long drive that hit the base of the oddly angled wall in right-center and bounced high over the head of right fielder Michael Cuddyer. The ball caromed away from Cuddyer as the speedy Pagan raced around the bases and slid home ahead of the relay.
"I was thinking at least three. I was watching the ball and it didn't bounce too far from him," Pagan said. "I'm thinking three but looking at the coach. He gives me the OK and I'm going for it."
The last major leaguer to hit an inside-the-park home run that ended a game was Rey Sanchez for Tampa Bay on June 11, 2004 ? also in a 10-inning victory over Colorado, according to STATS.
The previous Giants player to do it was Hall of Famer Bill Terry on Aug. 24, 1931, when the club was in New York. His drive beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1, STATS said.
"I thought it was going over the fence," said Pagan's teammate, Hunter Pence. "Inside the park is the last thing you think of. All we could do is watch him run and hope he was safe."
It was Betancourt's first blown save in 11 chances this season.
Carlos Gonzalez homered among his three hits and drove in two runs for the Rockies. Cuddyer and Jordan Pacheco also drove in runs.
Buster Posey had three hits and scored twice for the Giants, who ended a four-game slide against the Rockies. Pence, Andres Torres and Marco Scutaro each drove in runs. Crawford and Pablo Sandoval had two hits apiece.
"That would have been a tough one to lose," San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. "That was an emotional roller-coaster ride. We had a couple of critical calls go against us, but it's all about bouncing back and these guys found a way."
Bochy watched the game-winning hit from his office. He had been ejected in the eighth inning.
"I've never seen that before," Bochy said. "I wish I could have been out there."
Giants closer Sergio Romo (3-2) gave up Tulowitzki's 10th homer.
"To go up and then lose the game is tough," Tulowitzki said. "But then we know the Giants play well in front of their fans and feel like they can win these kinds of games."
Rockies starter Juan Nicasio went five-plus innings, allowing two runs and seven hits. He walked one and struck out two.
Barry Zito lasted six innings, giving up four runs and seven hits. He walked one and struck out three.
Bochy was ejected in the bottom of the eighth by plate umpire Alfonso Marquez for arguing a call at third base after Scutaro appeared to dodge Nolan Arenado's tag on a throw from the outfield.
Marquez called Brandon Belt out at home on a close play in the seventh.
Pence's RBI double in the sixth ended San Francisco's 24-inning scoreless streak against Colorado pitching. Crawford's sacrifice fly and Scutaro's bases-loaded walk brought the Giants within 4-3.
Torres tied the game with a double in the seventh.
Dexter Fowler opened the game with a double and, one out later, Gonzalez hit the first pitch into McCovey Cove beyond the right-field wall.
The Rockies added a pair of runs in the fourth on consecutive doubles from Tulowitzki and Cuddyer, and a one-out single by Pacheco.
"It was a well-played game," Colorado manager Walt Weiss said. "The walks hurt us. You don't think about it when the ball comes off the bat, but with the configurations of the park, it can bounce anywhere."
Cuddyer has three hits ? all for extra bases ? and four RBIs in his two games back from the disabled list.
The Giants loaded the bases in the first inning but failed to score. Nicasio retired 13 of his next 16 hitters, twice stranding runners in scoring position.
NOTES: Gonzalez became the first Rockies player to have a "splash hit" into McCovey Cove. It was the 27th splash hit by an opponent and the 90th overall since the ballpark opened in 2000. ... The Giants played their major league-leading ninth extra-inning game. ... Centerplate, Inc. concession workers went on a one-day strike, picketing in front of the ballpark. Concessions were staffed by management and others. ... Bochy said a decision on Tuesday's starter, to replace injured RHP Ryan Vogelsong, will be made by Sunday. ... Rockies RHP Jon Garland (3-5, 5.19 ERA) pitches Sunday's series finale. He last faced the Giants on Sept. 9, 2010. ... Tulowitzki extended his hitting streak to 10 games. ... RHP Matt Cain (3-2, 5.12) starts Sunday for the Giants. He will be facing the Rockies for the 30th time.
May 25, 2013 at 11:48 am | In Health, West Seattle news, West Seattle schools | No Comments
If you?re going to convince kids to get up and get moving, the message needs to get to the adults in their lives too ? and that?s exactly what happened this past week during the Family Health and Fitness Carnival at West Seattle Elementary School.
WS Elementary counselor Laura Bermes for sharing a report and photos ? she says more than 200 people were there:
In collaboration with WSE School Nurse, Terri Helm-Remund, the evening?s dinner and festivities were hosted by the Hope Heart Institute and Molina Healthcare and featured community organizations from Camp Long, Apple Corps, Cascade Bicycle Club, First Tee Golf, the West Seattle YMCA, Neighborhood House, the Farmer?s Market Alliance, Southwest Pool, Washington Dairy Council, and Neighborcare Health. The goal of the Hope Heart Institute and Molina Healthcare Family Fitness Carnival was to teach students and their families about healthy eating, active living and heart health. The evening included a healthy dinner, games, prizes, and health tips. Families blended smoothies by pedal power, took a swing at golf, and danced with a local Zumba instructor and Seattle School District Parent Leader Yui Dirksen! Teachers, staff, parents, and community members volunteered their time, and everyone had a blast!
WSE has also participated all year in ?Fuel Up to Play 60,? stressing movement and nutrition.
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LONDON (AP) ? Counterterrorism police on Saturday questioned a friend of alleged Islamic extremist Michael Adebolajo, one of two suspects in a savage killing of a British soldier on a London street that has horrified the country.
The friend, Abu Nusaybah, was arrested immediately after he gave a BBC Television interview Friday describing how Adebolajo may have become radicalized in Kenya and alleging that Britain's security services tried to recruit him six months ago. Police said Nusaybah was wanted on suspicion of involvement in unspecified acts of terrorism.
Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are suspected of killing soldier Lee Rigby by hacking his body with knives and a meat cleaver in front of dozens of passersby Wednesday in the southeast London district of Woolwich. The horrific scene was recorded on witnesses' cellphones, and a video has emerged showing one of the two suspects making political statements and warning of more violence as the soldier lay on the ground.
Police shot both men as they arrived minutes after Rigby's slaying. Both suspects remain under armed guard at two London hospitals.
The attack has sparked fears of anti-Muslim sentiments in Britain. Police on Saturday arrested three people on suspicion of posting racist comments on Twitter ahead of a march organized by the far-right group English Defense League in the northern city of Newcastle. Police said some 1,500 people took part in the march.
The group, which has clashed violently with police in the past, has used Rigby's murder to criticize the British government for not paying enough attention to radical Islam in the country. About 350 people staged a counter-demonstration.
Faith Matters, a charity campaigning against extremism, said its helpline has received 162 calls since Rigby was killed from people reporting anti-Muslim incidents including attacks against mosques.
Questions abound over what could have led the two men to attack Rigby, a 25-year-old ceremonial military drummer and machine-gunner who had served in Afghanistan and was off duty when he was walking near his barracks. Nusaybah's interview offered one possible narrative. He said Adebolajo's behavior changed after he allegedly suffered abuse at the hands of Kenyan security forces.
Nusaybah said Adebolajo became withdrawn after he was allegedly arrested and then abused both physically and sexually while in jail.
"Although that change wasn't necessarily one that became overt, aggressive or anything like that, he became ... less talkative. He wasn't his bubbly self," Nusaybah told the BBC.
He claimed that agents from Britain's domestic spy agency, MI5, approached Adebolajo after he returned to Britain and initially asked him if he had met specific Muslim militants, then asked Adebolajo if he was willing to act as an informer.
"He was explicit in that he refused to work for them," Nusaybah said.
The BBC said police arrested Nusaybah outside its studios Friday night immediately after recording the interview.
"This interviewee had important background information that sheds light on this horrific event," the BBC said in a statement. "And when we asked him to appear and interviewed him, we were not aware he was wanted for questioning by the police."
London police confirmed that a 31-year-old man was arrested Friday night on suspicion of "the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism." Police declined to identify Nusaybah by name or provide further detail.
It was not immediately possible to verify the information provided by Nusaybah, who said he had known Adebolajo for about a decade. MI5 does not publicly discuss its efforts to recruit informers.
It is not uncommon, however, for special services officers to occasionally visit communities to ask people if they know potential terror suspects or others under MI5 surveillance.
Potential informants go through a screening process to determine if they should be trusted, what their motivation might be and whether their information would be likely to be accurate.
Nusaybah said Adebolajo was converted to Islam around 2004. His account corroborates those provided by two Muslim hard-liners who said they also knew Adebolajo.
Anjem Choudary, a former leader of a banned British radical group called al-Muhajiroun, said Adebolajo was a Christian who converted to Islam around 2003. Choudary told The Associated Press that Adebolajo participated in several of the group's London demonstrations before Britain outlawed the group in 2010.
Omar Bakri Muhammad, another former al-Muhajiroun leader and radical Muslim preacher, said Adebolajo is a Nigerian who was born and raised in Britain. He said that Adebolajo attended his London lectures in the early 2000s, but added that he had not stayed in touch with the suspect since then. Muhammad fled London and resettled in Lebanon in 2005 after suicide attacks on London's public transit system killed 56 people, including four bombers.
"I don't know what Michael did since 2004 or 2005," Bakri told the AP. "Two years ago he stopped attending our open lectures and lessons as well as our activities."
The University of Greenwich confirmed Saturday that records show Adebolajo was registered as a student there between 2003 and 2005. His academic progress was unsatisfactory and he did not complete his studies there, vice chancellor David Maguire said. The university did not have records for the second suspect, Adebowale.
University officials are investigating whether there was any evidence of extremism on its campus, Maguire added.
Police have not officially named the two suspects ? officials in Britain usually wait to name suspects until charges have been filed. The AP has received confirmation of the identity of Adebowale from a British official speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to disclose the information.
Few details have emerged about Adebowale besides one reported brush with death as a teenager.
The Guardian reported Saturday that Adebowale was stabbed in 2008, when a man attacked him and two friends in a London apartment. One 18-year-old friend died and the attacker received a life sentence for murder, the newspaper said.
Both suspects had been known to Britain's security services as part of previous terrorism investigations. Authorities said they have arrested three others, a man and two women, on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, but it is not yet clear whether the killing was part of any larger plot. The man remains in custody and the two women have been released without charge.
MI5 Director-General Andrew Parker is expected to deliver a preliminary report next week to Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee detailing what the agency knew about both suspects and whether MI5 could have done anything to stop the attack.
The directors of Britain's foreign spy agency, MI6, and Britain's eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, also are expected to give reports on what intelligence they had on the two men.
___
Associated Press writer Paisley Dodds in London and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
It's not a spoiler to say that there is going to be a good deal of naked Ken Jeong in "The Hangover: Part III." Leslie Chow is back and crazier than ever in the new film, and Jeong believes that being naked is a necessary part of his character's personality. "He's entering the world in [...]
A new advertising method from Twitter will watch for tweets from you about certain TV shows and allow those shows' advertisers to target you. Of course, you can always ignore their tweets the way you ignored their commercials.
The new way to target ads was described in a post on the Twitter advertising blog Thursday. It works like this: Suppose a user were watching a sitcom and tweeted about it. And suppose that during one of the commercial breaks, Macy's had an ad promoting a spring sale. Twitter's tool would alert Macy's that this user had been watching, and Macy's can choose to follow up with something like the following:
"@TVwatcher: Did you enjoy the episode? You know that the characters do all their shopping at #Macy's, right? Follow this link for a 15% off coupon..."
Or something like that. It's a bit creepy, but the fact is that tweeting publicly, like searching on the Internet or buying something with a credit card, already exposes you to this kind of directed advertising.
The Twitter TV ad targeting is only rolling out in beta form for a few U.S. partners at first, but don't be surprised if you start seeing suspiciously accurate ads in your Twitter stream later this summer. Twitter explains the effort in the video here:
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
A member of the Westboro Baptist Church is drawing a link between the Oklahoma tornado?s devastation and a local team?s support for openly gay NBA star Jason Collins. WTF??!
Fred Phelps Jr., the son of Westboro Baptist Church minister Fred Phelps, tweeted the following:
Via HuffPo reports:
It isn?t the first time that an anti-gay pundit has attempted to blame a natural disaster to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. In 2012, chaplain John McTernan linked Hurricane Sandy (and a number of other recent weather-related trends and natural disasters) on LGBT people and President Barack Obama?s backing of marriage equality.
?God is systematically destroying America,? McTernan wrote at the time. ?Just look at what has happened this year.?
That?s weird, we blamed the tornado on the Westboro Baptist Chruch and all its evil members.
BEIJING (AP) ? China told a top North Korean envoy Friday it wants a peaceful, denuclearized Korean Peninsula, and said the emissary warned there is "no guarantee of peace" but that his country was willing to hold talks with all sides.
The official state Xinhua News Agency said a top Chinese army general, Fan Changlong, made the call for denuclearization in his meeting Friday with North Korean Vice Marshal Choe Ryong Hae.
His comments were a reiteration of China's established position, but could be seen as a rebuke of its neighboring ally following a half-year gap in high-level contacts during which Pyongyang angered Beijing by conducting rocket launches, a nuclear test and other saber-rattling.
Tensions surrounding the nuclear issue have "intensified strategic conflicts among involved parties and jeopardized the peace and stability of the peninsula," continued Fan, a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission overseeing China's armed forces.
Choe, a personal envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was widely expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and deliver a message from Kim before returning.
"Conditions on the Korean Peninsula and in the east Asian region are complex and exceptional, and there is no guarantee of peace. North Korea's people require a peaceful and stable environment to build their nation," Choe was quoted as saying.
"North Korea is willing to work with all sides to search for a method of solving the problems through dialogue," Choe said.
The envoy's comments reflect both the threatening tone of North Korea's recent statements, and its desire to show deference to Beijing's hopes for a return to nuclear disarmament talks.
Choe met Thursday with the ruling Communist Party's fifth-ranked official, and Chinese state media later quoted the envoy as saying that North Korea "is willing to accept the suggestion of the Chinese side and launch dialogue with all relevant parties."
Beijing considered Pyongyang's recent moves an affront to its interests in regional stability and showed its displeasure by joining with the U.S. to back U.N. sanctions and cut off dealings with North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank.
China is North Korea's last significant diplomatic ally and main source of trade and economic assistance.
China's North Korea watchers said it is unlikely that Chinese leaders would have accepted Choe's visit without a promise from Pyongyang that it was prepared to return to diplomacy as Beijing has sought.
"The relationship is rocky, so they will try to mend the relationship," Cui Yingjiu, a retired professor of Korean at Peking University, said of North Korea. "Second, they also want to improve relations with the U.S. and need China to be their intermediary."
May 24, 2013 ? Research by an Indiana State University doctoral student found that students did equally well on a test whether reading from a digital book or a printed one.
Jim Johnson, who also is director of instructional and information technology services in the Bayh College of Education, surveyed more than 200 students. Half of the students used an iPad2 to read a textbook chapter while the other half of the students read from a printed textbook chapter. The students then took an open-book quiz with eight easy and eight moderate questions on the chapter.
"Few people have done a lot of research into what I'm doing," Johnson said. "Mine directly ties performance with perception by undergraduates."
Johnson's research specifically examined three questions: Are there any significant differences in reading comprehension test scores of students when using paper texts versus digital texts? Are there any differences in reading comprehension test scores with regard to gender or between text formats and gender? Is there a relationship between the hours of experience using tablet computers and reading comprehension test scores among study participants?
"No matter what the format, no matter what the preference, they did well," he said. "It was interesting that the gender didn't matter on the test scores."
Men had a mean score of 12.87 out of 16 while women had an average score of 13.60 out of 16. Students age 21 had an average score of 13.87 out of 16 while students 25 and older had an average score of 13.5 out of 16.
He also found that there was no significant difference on test scores whether or not the participant had past experience on a tablet.
"The delivery method didn't make any difference," he said.
Of the participants, 88 percent said they had read books on laptops, netbooks or desktops while 51 percent said they had used an iPad, iPhone or iPod to read books. Additionally 36.1 percent said they used a cell phone to look at digital texts. When asked what they would like to use, 69.1 percent said they would want to use an iPad, iPhone or iPod to read digital text and almost the same amount, 68.7 percent, said they would prefer a laptop, netbook or desktop computer. Only 48.1 percent said they would want to use an e-book reader. In considering digital textbook readers, 74.7 percent said the ability to browse the Internet was important while 70.4 said they wanted to read email, 62.7 percent said cheapest price was important. Of the prices students said they would pay, 40 percent said between $100 and $200 while 16.7 percent said they would pay between $200 and $249.
"The bulk of undergraduate students are looking at cheaper devices. That's important for students," he said. "The market is driving our students to Android devices like Kindle."
However, some problems remain in the digital textbook market. Students expressed concern about eye strain from reading text on electronic devices. Johnson said one participant became so nauseous reading the digital text that she was unable to complete the study. Also students expressed concern about the high price of digital textbooks as well as the battery life, software and reliable technology.
In focus groups after the initial test, Johnson said students didn't like the high cost of digital book rental or the inability to resell digital textbooks.
"A lot of the students didn't like the idea of renting books," he said.
Johnson said there needs to be further discussion about the cost of digital textbooks and how to keep costs down. Faculty members also need to be encouraged to write and create their own digital textbooks and resources for students, he said.
Digital texts would allow professors to use the most current resources.
"Publishing on paper is always slower," he said. "Delivery options for students are important. Information should be on demand."
In the future, Johnson said professors could select chapters from different digital textbooks and combine it into one digital textbook so students wouldn't have to buy different textbooks to read chapters that the professors like.
Limited partners had a chance to praise and lambaste the venture industry during a no-holds-barred panel at the National Venture Capital Association?s VentureScape annual meeting last week. They delivered more rants than raves.
A sample: ?The truth is many of you in this room won?t get to raise another fund,? said Jamey Sperans of Morgan Stanley.
The session, intended to be edgier than past LP panels, which have featured measured criticisms of VCs, came near the end of the two-day event, as a lineup of past NVCA chairmen waited in the audience for a celebration of the organization?s 40th birthday.
The panel drove home several points: that LPs are emboldened in dealings with VCs, that investors still think venture fund performance in general is terrible and that when it comes to investor relations, attitude is everything.
?Don?t lie,? said Sperans in advising VCs how to fundraise. ?I get lied to every single day?Exaggeration is lying. Being hyper-promotional is lying. Don?t do it.?
Furthermore the ?illusory superiority complex? is rife in the venture industry, Sperans said, even though, by definition, half of venture investors are below average and ?particularly in venture, average sucks; top quartile, frankly, kind of sucks.? He encouraged VCs to practice ?business love? in dealings with their partners, entrepreneurs and investors, and advised that ?a little humility and a little self awareness go a long way.?
Lindel Eakman of?University of Texas Investment Management?said the endowment?s venture investments had not outperformed its credit or private equity portfolios even though it has backed some of the best-performing venture funds.
?Not only do you have to be good, you have to be lucky,? Eakman told VCs. An LP?s job is even harder, he said, because ?I have to be right every time? in picking funds to back.
Chris Douvos of Venture Investor Associates compared venture capital to a lottery and VCs? behavior just prior to launching a new fund to the famous ?I Love Lucy??chocolate factory skit, in which Lucy tries in vain to keep up with her assembly-line duties as pieces of candy pile up, unwrapped. In the VCs? case, it?s the companies piling up in their portfolio that they?re trying to hide, as deals far exceed exits, he said.
Jason Mendelson, the Foundry Group managing director who moderated the session, let his speakers go at it. He said in an email after the event that NVCA members loved the panel.
?I thought it was one of the best panels I?ve ever seen,? said Paul Maeder of Highland Capital Partners, a former NVCA chairman. He especially praised Sperans?s remarks.
?It?s not all just about the money,? Maeder said. ?Fundamentally, it?s all about interpersonal relationships.?
He said he?d asked for a video of the session so he could show it to his partners.
Write to Russ Garland at russell.garland@dowjones.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RussGarland
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Microsoft's SharePoint always featured a core set of social tools, but with the acquisition of Yammer, as well as the ongoing integration of Lync and Skype, the folks over in Redmond are clearly ready to push social the next major cornerstone of their enterprise offerings. Today, Microsoft is launching a new campaign to help companies understand how social can help them become more productive. In connection to this, the company also commissioned a new study that tried to quantify the state of social in the enterprise.
