PFT: 'Do you like girls?' question investigated

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Josh Cribbs has played his entire NFL career with the Browns after playing his college football at nearby Kent State, and he?s eager enough to stick around that he?d be willing to give the Browns a hometown discount. Just not too big a hometown discount.

Cribbs, who is about to become a free agent, said on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland that he doesn?t have any kind of update on contract negotiations. But he?s still hoping things can be worked out.

?It?s at a standstill right now,? Cribbs said, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. ?I?m hearing a lot of different meetings are being scheduled with different teams and everything. My plan is to stay with the team as much as possible, even to take a slight pay cut. But at the same time, not huge pay cuts. And I?m trying to work with the team. I want to be a Brown. I want to end my career here. We have the coaches to do it now, to take it to the next level, and I definitely want to be there.?

According to Cribbs, he and his camp have shown more interest in getting a deal done than the Browns? front office has.

?Right now, it doesn?t seem like the interest level is there with upper management,? Cribbs said. ?I want to be a Brown. I want to continue my career here. I want to retire a Cleveland Brown, and that?s my intention. I?m gonna go as far as I can with the team to make a compromise.?

Cribbs said late last season that he was frustrated by the way he was being used (or not being used) in the Browns? offense. He still feels that way, and he isn?t sure if the new coaching staff has any plans for him.

?I know I haven?t been used to my potential,? Cribbs said. ?My thing with coaches and upper management ? mostly with upper management ? you draft guys and guys come in that?s new, they have to play. And it shouldn?t be this way. It should be the best guys that?s gonna help you win that play.?

If Cribbs wants to show that he can help a team win, he may need to do it somewhere other than Cleveland.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/27/league-will-investigate-quetioning-of-nick-kasa-at-combine/related/

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Anti-gun Democrat shoo-in to replace Jackson Jr.

Robin Kelly celebrates her special primary election win for Illinois' 2nd Congressional District, once held by Jesse Jackson Jr., Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, in Matteson, Ill. After a primary campaign dominated by gun control and economic woes, voters chose Kelly over Debbie Halvorson and Anthony Beale, making her the likely replacement for Jesse Jackson Jr., three months after his legal troubles and battle with depression forced the son of the civil rights leader to resign from Congress. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Robin Kelly celebrates her special primary election win for Illinois' 2nd Congressional District, once held by Jesse Jackson Jr., Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, in Matteson, Ill. After a primary campaign dominated by gun control and economic woes, voters chose Kelly over Debbie Halvorson and Anthony Beale, making her the likely replacement for Jesse Jackson Jr., three months after his legal troubles and battle with depression forced the son of the civil rights leader to resign from Congress. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Robin Kelly celebrates her special primary election win for Illinois' 2nd Congressional District, once held by Jesse Jackson Jr., Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, in Matteson, Ill. After a primary campaign dominated by gun control and economic woes, voters chose Kelly over Debbie Halvorson and Anthony Beale, making her the likely replacement for Jesse Jackson Jr., three months after his legal troubles and battle with depression forced the son of the civil rights leader to resign from Congress. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Chicago Alderman Anthony Beale, a Democrat, speaks with election judge Nancy Karen as he casts his vote in Chicago, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, in the special primary election to replace former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson in Illinois' 2nd Congressional District. Beale is one of three front-runners in the primary. The others include former state Rep. Robin Kelly and former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson. They were among 14 Democrats and four Republicans in the special primary, but the Democratic winner is expected to sail through the April 9 general election because of the heavily Democratic region. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson casts her vote in Steger, Ill., Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, in the special primary election to replace former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson in Illinois' 2nd Congressional District. Halvorson is one of the front-runners in the primary.? The others include former state Rep. Robin Kelly and Chicago Alderman Anthony Beale. They were among 14 Democrats and four Republicans in the special primary, but the Democratic winner is expected to sail through the April 9 general election because of the heavily Democratic region. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Former Illinois state Rep. Robin Kelly, a Democrat, finds a supporter in Yolanda Stratton as she campaigns at an IHOP in Matteson, Ill., on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, on the final day of the special primary election to replace disgraced former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson in Illinois' 2nd Congressional District. Kelly is one of the three front-runners in the primary. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

CHICAGO (AP) ? The newly elected Democratic nominee to replace disgraced former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. vowed to become a leader in the fight for federal gun control and directly challenged the National Rifle Association in her victory speech.

But it remains to be seen if Robin Kelly's primary win Tuesday night in the Chicago-area district, aided by a $2 million ad campaign funded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's super PAC, would fuel the national debate.

Kelly, a former state representative, emerged early as a voice for gun control in the truncated primary season after Jackson resigned in November. She gained huge momentum as Bloomberg's super PAC poured money into anti-gun television ads in her favor that blasted one of her Democratic opponents, former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson, for receiving a previous high rating from the NRA. Kelly supports an assault weapons ban, while Halvorson does not.

"We were on the right side of the issue and our message resonated," Kelly told The Associated Press shortly after her win.

Kelly promised in her victory speech later Tuesday night to fight "until gun violence is no longer a nightly feature on the evening news" and directly addressed the NRA, saying "their days of holding our country hostage are coming to an end."

Bloomberg called Kelly's win an important victory for "common sense leadership" on gun violence, saying in a statement that voters nationwide are demanding change from their leaders.

But other Democratic front-runners accused Bloomberg of buying a race and interfering in the heavily urban district that also includes some Chicago suburbs and rural areas.

"It shows, unfortunately, you can't go up against that big money. ...That's the problem with super PACs," Halvorson, who unsuccessfully challenged Jackson in a primary last year, told the AP. "There is nothing I could have done differently."

Kelly's win all but assures she will sail through the April 9 general election and head to Washington, because the Chicago-area district is overwhelmingly Democratic. The Republican contest, featuring four lesser-known candidates, was too close to call as of Tuesday night, though no Republican has won the district in 50 years.

The race was the district's first wide-open primary since 1995, when Jackson was first elected to Congress in a special election. He resigned in November after a months-long medical leave for treatment of bipolar disorder and other issues, then pleaded guilty this month to misspending $750,000 in campaign money on lavish personal items.

Even with his legal saga playing out in the courts, talk of guns dominated the primary race, which featured 14 Democrats. The election came after Chicago saw its deadliest January in more than a decade, including the fatal shooting of a high-profile honors student just days after she performed at events in Washington to celebrate President Barack Obama's second inauguration.

Political experts and fellow candidates said the super PAC money made all the difference, particularly in an election with a short primary and low voter turnout.

"The money bought Kelly a tremendous among of attention," said Laura Washington, a political analyst in Chicago. "She tapped into a real hard nerve out there in the community. People are really concerned about gun control and violence. She was smart to focus like a laser on that issue."

Bloomberg's entrance into the race became controversial, at least with the candidates and some voters.

The Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent has long taken a vocal stance against guns. He launched his super PAC weeks before the November election and spent more than $12 million to back seven candidates nationwide, including for newly elected Rep. Gloria Negrete McLeod, a California Democrat who ousted an incumbent during a race where guns were an issue.

On Tuesday, Kelly told supporters that she would work with Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to get gun control legislation through Congress.

However, gun rights advocates dismissed the notion that Kelly's election and Bloomberg's attention would fuel the debate on gun control.

"This is an aberration," said Illinois State Rifle Association spokesman Richard Pearson. "This shows what you can do with $2 million in an offseason race. He bought the election is the way."

Another Democratic front-runner, Chicago Alderman Anthony Beale, also took issue with the ads, saying people were "extremely upset" that someone from New York was trying to tell people in Illinois how to vote.

"That's what money gets you," he told the AP after conceding late Tuesday. "We earned every vote."

Roughly 14 percent of registered voters came to the polls, an estimate Chicago officials called the lowest turnout in decades. Adding to the problem was a blast of wintry weather Tuesday that snarled traffic, cancelled hundreds of flights and could have kept some voters home.

But those who did make it out indicated that guns, ethics and economic woes were on their minds.

Mary Jo Higgins of Steger, a south Chicago suburb, said she voted for Halvorson because the former congresswoman was "the only Democrat who believes in the Second Amendment."

But Country Club Hills minister Rosemary Gage said she voted for Kelly because she was "standing with (Obama) and trying to get rid of guns."

"It's really bad in Chicago and across the country," Gage said. "Too many children have died."

___

Associated Press writer Sara Burnett contributed to this report.

___

Sophia Tareen can be reached at http://twitter.com/sophiatareen

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-27-House-Jackson%20Seat/id-f71ed712bbc04b6487565158f9756e14

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Scott Weiland: Fired By Stone Temple Pilots!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/scott-weiland-fired-by-stone-temple-pilots/

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE ships to US Cellular

Americans wanting a Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE of their own have largely been biding their time for a Verizon model. They're still waiting for that variant to show, but US Cellular isn't -- it just started shipping its own variant of the 4G tablet. From all indications, the slate is largely a branding swap that's adapted to the carrier's network, which is good news for prospective buyers who aren't dead set on Big Red. Pricing might give at least some customers pause, however. US Cellular's Note 10.1 LTE costs $500 only when it's paired with at least a 2GB data plan, and $800 no strings attached. With that kind of outlay, you'll want to be fully committed to the concept of pen-based computing before picking one up.

Filed under: Tablets, Samsung

Comments

Via: Android Central

Source: US Cellular

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/27/samsung-galaxy-note-10-1-lte-ships-to-us-cellular/

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Drop in Taliban attacks incorrect

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan incorrectly reported a decline in Taliban attacks last year, and officials said Tuesday that there was actually no change in the number of attacks on international troops from 2011 to 2012.

The corrected numbers ? from the original reports of a 7 percent decline to one of no change ? could undercut the narrative promoted by the international coalition and the Obama administration of an insurgency in steep decline.

A coalition spokesman, Jamie Graybeal, attributed the miscounting to clerical errors and said the problem does not change officials' basic assessment of the war.

The 7 percent figure had been included in a report posted on the coalition's website in late January as part of its monthly update on trends in security and violence. It was removed from the website recently without explanation. After The Associated Press asked last week about the missing report, coalition officials said they were correcting the data and would re-publish the report in coming days.

U.S. and allied officials have often cited declining violence as a sign that the Taliban has been degraded and that Afghan forces are in position to take the lead security role when the last U.S. combat troops leave Dec. 31, 2014.

[Related: America's homegrown terrorists]

In mid-December, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said "violence is down," in 2012, and that Afghan forces "have gotten much better at providing security" in areas where they have taken the lead role. He said the Taliban can be expected to continue to attack, "but overall they are losing."

On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman George Little said Panetta was "concerned to learn of the errors" and was only very recently briefed on the matter.

"This particular set of metrics doesn't tell the full story of progress against the Taliban, of course, but it's unhelpful to have inaccurate information in our systems," Little said.

The Taliban have lost a good deal of territory since a 2010 surge of U.S. forces in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, and they failed to recover it during the last two fighting seasons. Even so, they are resilient, and they are expected to severely test Afghan forces as the U.S. and its coalition partners step further into the background this year and complete their combat mission next year.

Graybeal did not fully explain ISAF's erroneous reporting of 2012 Taliban attacks. It was not clear, for example, at what point the data errors began or who discovered them.

[Related: U.S. troops engaged in 'torture' and murder?]

"During a quality control check, ISAF recently became aware that some data was incorrectly entered into the database that is used for tracking security-related incidents across Afghanistan," Graybeal said from Kabul, speaking for the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.

Graybeal said an audit determined that portions of the data from unilateral Afghan military operations were "not properly reflected" in the trends ISAF had reported in its monthly updates.

"After including this unilateral ANSF (Afghan National Security Force) data into our database, we have determined that there was no change in the total number of EIAs (enemy initiated attacks) from 2011 to 2012," Graybeal said.

"This was a record-keeping error that we recognized and have now corrected," he added.

The coalition defines enemy initiated attacks as attacks by small arms, mortars, rockets and improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. But it does not include IEDs that are found and cleared before they explode.

Trends in Taliban attacks are one yardstick used by ISAF to measure war progress. Others include the state of security in populated areas, the number of coalition and Afghan casualties, the degree to which civilians can move about freely, and the performance of Afghan security forces.

Graybeal said even though the number of 2012 Taliban attacks was unchanged from 2011, "our assessment of the fundamentals of campaign progress has not changed. The enemy is increasingly separated from the population and the ANSF are currently in the lead for the vast majority of partnered operations."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-newsbreak-drop-taliban-attacks-incorrect-121946153--politics.html

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Helping Your Business Go Viral - Social Media Marketing Tips ...

Author: Greg James | Total views: 187 Comments: 0
Word Count: 1002 Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 3:32 AM

With today's technology and with everyone on a mobile device, marketing via the Internet and social media is really the only way to go. Social media is a fairly new way to market your business services, but you must learn how to do it to succeed. The article below contains some of the best tips on the subject of social media marketing.

Offer exclusive deals for social media fans. Provide your customers with valuable content and they will show interest in your campaign. Offer unique items through contests. Otherwise, you could just simply provide some special offers for your fans. You can make announcements strictly through a social media page.

In the age of the world wide web it can be easy to forget about printed advertising, but it can be quite beneficial to incorporate your social media marketing campaign with your printed ads. You should include your profile address on the publications and post them on your site. This can help you to generate a greater interest in your products, both online and in print format.

Ensure that you are always updating your blog and sharing it with your social media sites. Post any sales or promotions that you are offering in your blog. Also post updates containing information about vital news, such as changes in your operating hours, closings and new locations opening up. You should also put this into your blog.

Do not take time off during the holidays; this is the best time of the year for business. You can inspire holiday spirit and shopping enjoyment by staying in touch with customers during this busy time. Plan the holidays well ahead of time: come up with fun ideas for contests, giveaways or coupons. Customers will pick up on this.

If you have a tough time with formatting, use a list format for the next article you post on your social networking profiles. Doing this will allow you to display important information in an easy to digest manner that lets reader see what's most important. Social media users are usually young people with short attention spans, so this format will get them the information they need without a lot of filler to read through.

Use the Twitter API to keep your feed interesting. This can be performed so that other people's blog posts can be auto-tweeted. Find good blogs that are trustworthy and updated frequently to share with the followers you have. This will help to keep your page new and fresh.

When you publish something new on your company blog, be sure to repost it at your social media venues. By back-linking to your blog, you will be able to tell your social media followers that you have new content available.

Stay active! You can't be successful without being social. If you don't have any activity, then your social media campaign is not going to succeed. Being active can spark the interest of your followers and help you be more successful.

Games on Facebook are something to look into. Creating a game around your product or service will be a fun way to introduce it to a large audience. Some popular brands have been extremely successful with Facebook's games, which turned into viral phenomenons. It's worth the cost to pay a professional design team to create the app, and market it on social media!

Through helping others and commenting on social media posts, you can boost your positioning as an industry expert. This will consistently bring new business your way because of your expertise. Find questions about your industry and give quality answers. Specific and useful knowledge will help you gain customers that you may not have been able to find without SMM.

Create new content frequently, and update it often. If you post daily or more often, your customers will get in the habit of checking your feed regularly. If you rarely post, many customers will stop frequenting your page. Make a posting schedule, or use a company that will post for you in specific time intervals. You will also keep a schedule with your readers.

An effective way to use Twitter for social marketing purposes is to organize a group chat, commonly called a Twitter party. A Twitter party involves a number of people gathering on Twitter and talking about a topic chosen in advance, using a unique hashtag to track the conversation. Get a few bloggers to join and give advice to customers. Make sure you choose influential bloggers who will write about the upcoming party and attract their own crowd.

Be sure to think of eye-catching headings for your posts. This is the first thing that a reader sees, so it can make or break the deal. You must get their attention and keep them interested enough to read all of your content. So careful thought is necessary when thinking up headlines and titles to catch the readers attention.

If you have a blog or a site, you need to ensure that people can subscribe to it easily. Make sure you subscribe and share buttons are visible on your social media pages. When you put it in a noticeable location, it will help your fans sign up easier. Remember, some people may have very slow Internet connections, so it is best to have the subscribe button as the first thing that loads on your page.

Hopefully, the idea of launching a marketing push in social media is now looking a little less complex to you. Once you choose to start such an effort, continuing to educate yourself in trends and techniques will take you far. Consistent yields are the result of constant effort, so apply the ideas and insights from the preceding paragraphs, and block out whatever hours are needed to provide fresh content to your social media profiles with regularity.

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1: Understanding Online Business Success

Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.

by: Mike Christie on: Sat, 29 Sep 2012

2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself

Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.

by: Michel Maling on: Sat, 29 Sep 2012

3: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website

Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.

by: WJaegel on: Tue, 18 Dec 2007

4: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics

Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."

by: Steve Shaw on: Sat, 23 Apr 2011

5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda

If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.

by: K Damian Qualter on: Mon, 26 Mar 2012

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/helping-your-business-go-viral-social-media-marketing-tips.htm

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RolePlayGateway?

This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "A Life Unknown"

A-okay.

So, it's that time of year again when I have finally put a boot up my ass and decided to recreate an old roleplay that was successful in the past, but eventually died due to the players getting busy in real-life. Now, after remaking it several different ways, changing the plot a little, changing it back again, and changing it some more, I've decided to try and remake the world that I have in my head and give people a fucking awesome story to be a part of.

How does that sound?

Well, if you're still reading, obviously it sounds good, or even great. Now. Like the title suggests, this is a medieval/light fantasy RP. I imagine it to be along the same genre as the Game of Thrones books (which I am currently reading the first and enjoying immensely. Dunno why I didn't find these books sooner!). Anyhow, I've been creating and developing this world for a few years now, and sometime this week, I hope to draw a detailed map for it too, and outline all the lores, politics, storylines, etc etc.

Here Is the link to the old OOC thread which was to the first time I RP'd it when it was successful.

The basic story is that there are two main lands; Illena of the North and Ayia of the South. Illena has a great king in control of his country. He looks after his people, is well loved, but there is a sad story behind him. Sixteen years ago, he had the most beautiful queen. Her skin as as pale as a peach, freckles dotting her face, and eyes as green as emeralds. That year she finally birthed a beautiful daughter called Tianna. She was their world, until that tragic night, 53 days until Summer.

It was a night where the heaviest of rains fell. The princess would not sleep and the king was with his counsel. The queen, alone in the baby's nursery, safe sat nursing her baby when the door opened and instead of her husband like she expected, in came an intruder all in black. She tried desperately to scream for help and save her child, but the intruder was no match. Before she knew it, her child was in the man's arms and a knife was embedded in her stomach. Then he was gone.

By the time the guards and king arrived, the baby was nowhere in sight. Three days later, his queen passed away from an infection and heartbreak. From the night his daughter was taken, he had his best knights out there searching for her. As the years passed by, she was still not found, dead nor alive. No word had been heard about her and no one had seen her. The search was scaled back, but still, sixteen years on, he hasn't lost hope that his daughter is alive, though most people suspect that she was killed the night she was taken.

Now, every year, as it gets to the time of 53 days until summer, the king sends out four of his best nights to hunt again for his long lost daughter.

And then there is Ayia; a kingdom that is led by a tyrant of a king that makes his people suffer because of his greed. He triples their taxes, starves their families, takes their values and has them living in fear of him. Criminals are prosecuted by watching their loved ones dies - innocent people killed because of a crime someone in their family committed. Men, women, even children. It doesn't matter. He is a greedy king.

19 years ago, he had a queen. She was just as beautiful as Illena's queen and they had a beautful son but she was in a kingdom where holding her tongue was best for her. She did not have input into how he ran his kingdom and she was disgusted. But she knew that for her own safety, she had to hold her tongue. It was him that drove her into having an affair. She got pregnant and led the king to believe it was his. With the man she had an affair with, she planned to leave the king and take their son to safety. She even had a child out of the kingdom, two years later and had trusted maids let the king know that the baby was stillborn. The baby was with it's father.

Someone betrayed the queen and let the king in on her illicit affair and later it was said that she had died in childbirth but the baby had survived. The maids involved had also been killed for treason, though this treason they committed wasn't released to anyone. And not long later, the king was bringing up his daughter and his son...

So, that's the basis of the story.

I want 4 knights of Illena that are looking for the princess. I have the prince sorted, but there are other people, like the daughter that the Ayian queen had that she sent to her father before the king found her alive and not to be his. Maybe a maid of the Illenian princess who is now living as the Ayian princess unknown to her of her true heritage. And even the best friend of the Ayian prince. And much more are welcome. Multiple characters and even NPC's too. I plan to get this up and going towards the end of this week.

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway

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Cell scaffolding protein fascin-1 is hijacked by cancer

Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Hilary Glover
hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com
44-020-319-22370
BioMed Central

A protein involved in the internal cell scaffold is associated with increased risk of metastasis and mortality in a range of common cancers finds a meta-analysis published in Biomed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine.

The protein, fascin-1, is involved in bundling together the actin filaments which form the internal scaffolding of a cell and are involved in cell movement. Though it is absent, or only present at a low level in normal epithelial cells, several small studies have shown fascin-1 to be increased in many carcinomas, but its role in metastasis and mortality risk has been uncertain.

Researchers from the University of Bristol combined and reanalysed data from 26 studies looking at five different types of carcinomas. The meta-analysis showed that increased fascin-1 was associated with increased risk of mortality in breast, colorectal and oesophageal carcinomas but not in gastric or lung carcinoma. It was also associated with disease progression in breast and colorectal carcinoma, but not lung carcinoma. It was associated with local and distant metastasis in colorectal and gastric carcinomas but there was no involvement of fascin-1 in metastasis of oesophageal carcinomas.

These results show that the picture is not simple and that different types of cancer are affected in different ways. The story of fascin-1 not only provides a biomarker and potential avenue for research into anti-cancer therapy but also demonstrates the complexity of cancer.

Josephine Adams and Richard Martin who led this study said, "Our results show that fascin-1 is associated with several types of human carcinomas. The results will help focus further research into fascin-1 as a marker and potential target for cancer therapy to the most relevant types of carcinomas."

###

Media Contact

Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3192 2370
Mob: +44 (0) 778 698 1967
Email: hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com

Notes

1. Research article

Association of fascin-1 with mortality, disease progression and metastasis in carcinomas: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Vanessa Y Tan, Sarah J Lewis, Josephine C Adams and Richard M Martin
BMC Medicine (in press)

Commentary

Fascin-1 is a novel biomarker of aggressiveness in some carcinomas
Vathany Kulasingam and Eleftherios P Diamandis
BMC Medicine (in press)

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

Article citation and URL available on request on the day of publication.

2. BMC Medicine is the flagship medical journal of the BMC series, publishing original research, commentaries and reviews that are either of significant interest to all areas of medicine and clinical practice, or provide key translational or clinical advances in a specific field. @BMCMedicine

3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral

---

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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.

Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Hilary Glover
hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com
44-020-319-22370
BioMed Central

A protein involved in the internal cell scaffold is associated with increased risk of metastasis and mortality in a range of common cancers finds a meta-analysis published in Biomed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine.

The protein, fascin-1, is involved in bundling together the actin filaments which form the internal scaffolding of a cell and are involved in cell movement. Though it is absent, or only present at a low level in normal epithelial cells, several small studies have shown fascin-1 to be increased in many carcinomas, but its role in metastasis and mortality risk has been uncertain.

Researchers from the University of Bristol combined and reanalysed data from 26 studies looking at five different types of carcinomas. The meta-analysis showed that increased fascin-1 was associated with increased risk of mortality in breast, colorectal and oesophageal carcinomas but not in gastric or lung carcinoma. It was also associated with disease progression in breast and colorectal carcinoma, but not lung carcinoma. It was associated with local and distant metastasis in colorectal and gastric carcinomas but there was no involvement of fascin-1 in metastasis of oesophageal carcinomas.

These results show that the picture is not simple and that different types of cancer are affected in different ways. The story of fascin-1 not only provides a biomarker and potential avenue for research into anti-cancer therapy but also demonstrates the complexity of cancer.

Josephine Adams and Richard Martin who led this study said, "Our results show that fascin-1 is associated with several types of human carcinomas. The results will help focus further research into fascin-1 as a marker and potential target for cancer therapy to the most relevant types of carcinomas."

###

Media Contact

Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3192 2370
Mob: +44 (0) 778 698 1967
Email: hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com

Notes

1. Research article

Association of fascin-1 with mortality, disease progression and metastasis in carcinomas: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Vanessa Y Tan, Sarah J Lewis, Josephine C Adams and Richard M Martin
BMC Medicine (in press)

Commentary

Fascin-1 is a novel biomarker of aggressiveness in some carcinomas
Vathany Kulasingam and Eleftherios P Diamandis
BMC Medicine (in press)

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

Article citation and URL available on request on the day of publication.

2. BMC Medicine is the flagship medical journal of the BMC series, publishing original research, commentaries and reviews that are either of significant interest to all areas of medicine and clinical practice, or provide key translational or clinical advances in a specific field. @BMCMedicine

3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/bc-csp022213.php

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3 Easy Recipes Of Pasta - ArticlesWide.com

Great Italian pasta recipes are usually very easy to make. Knowing how to make pasta can be a blessing when you have unexpected guests. These three easy pasta recipes will save your day anytime!

Vegetarian Tomato Basil Pasta with Asiago Cheese

Ingredients:

6 ounces fettuccine

1 tablespoon olive oil

teaspoon fresh minced garlic

teaspoon salt

6 ounces sliced cherry tomatoes

1 tablespoon fresh basil leaves, chopped in thin strips

Less than 1/4 cup Asiago cheese

Preparation:

1. Boil pasta al dente and drain.

2. Saut the garlic in olive oil in a small pan and add the tomatoes and basil. Stir all the ingredients till theyre warm.

3. In a large serving bowl, mix the pasta with the sauted ingredients and cheese. Garnish with extra basil. The easiest pasta recipe youll find!

Alpine Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients:

4 ounces fettuccine

3 cups shredded Savoy cabbage

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 medium portobello mushroom caps with removed gills and sliced thinly

chopped onion (small)

1 minced garlic cloves

1 cups dry white wine

1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

teaspoon salt

teaspoon freshly ground pepper

cup halved grape tomatoes

cup diced smoked cheese

teaspoon dried sage

Preparation:

1. Now to start with the making of your pasta recipe. Cook pasta for 4 minutes in boiling water. Add cabbage, and stir frequently till both pasta and cabbage are tender. Keep aside cup of the cooking liquid and drain the pasta-cabbage mixture.

2. Heat oil in a pan over a medium flame. Add mushrooms, onion, garlic and cook, stirring until the mushrooms are tender and beginning to release their liquid.

3. The best part about this Italian pasta recipe: whisk wine and flour in a bowl, add to the pan with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens. Add tomatoes, cooking till they just start breaking down.

4. Return the pasta and cabbage to the pot. Add the mushroom sauce, the reserved cooking liquid, cheese, and sage; gently toss to combine. A recipe of pasta thats mouthwatering!

Knowing how to cook pasta means that you have the best dishes in your home at your finger tips. Enjoy the deliciousness by trying the pasta recipes in your very own kitchen right now!

Rajiv Tiwari is an out and out gourmet whose love of food has made him travel to all top food destinations. Italian pasta recipes, how to cook pasta

Source: http://www.articleswide.com/article/17774-3_Easy_Recipes_Of_Pasta.html

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Nigerian militants threaten to kill French hostages

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) ? A video posted online Monday apparently shows seven French hostages kidnapped from northern Cameroon, with a masked militant claiming the radical Islamic group Boko Haram from neighboring Nigeria holds them.

The video, posted to YouTube and mentioned on a jihadist website, shows one of two French men reading a statement, with a woman in between them. Four children sit on the ground near them, flanked by two masked militants wearing camouflage uniforms and holding rifles.

A masked militant in front says in the video that Boko Haram kidnapped the French hostages, a family of three adults and four children who were taken from outside a national park in Cameroon's Far North Region on Feb. 19. A black banner in the background, bearing the images of the Quran flanked by two Kalashnikov assault rifles, also resembles a symbol previously used by Boko Haram.

The man says the kidnappings came due to the French military intervention in northern Mali, where its troops have fought with Malian soldiers against Islamic extremists who took over the north in the months following a coup last year. The man also threatens the Nigerian and Cameroonian government, calling on them to release their imprisoned members.

"Let the French president know that he has launched war against Islam and we are fighting him everywhere," the man says in Arabic. "Let him know that we are spread everywhere to save our brothers."

The man threatens to kill the French hostages if group's demands are not met.

The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the video's authenticity Monday, though it shares similarities with some Boko Haram propaganda videos published in the past.

However, in this video, the man speaks entirely in Arabic, while other Boko Haram videos have its leader Abubakar Shekau also speaking the Hausa language of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. Boko Haram has not published a video featuring hostages before. The video appears to have been filmed outside, as prayer mats hung in the background sway in a breeze.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement that "for us, these images are horribly shocking. They show cruelty without limits." He said France is fully mobilized to free the hostages but "verifications needed in these circumstances" are under way.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault of France told journalists his country's intelligence services are analyzing the video and "examining the nature of the demands."

The French gas group GDF Suez last week identified the captives as an employee working in Yaounde, the Cameroon capital, and his family. The group was vacationing in the north, a company statement said without elaborating. Cameroonian and Nigerian soldiers continue to search for them in the arid, rural border region the two countries share in West Africa.

Waza Park, a natural wildlife reserve in Cameroon's Far North Region attracts mainly foreign tourists. But the area often suffers from raids by bandits lurking in Cameroon, Chad and neighboring Nigeria, who abduct locals for ransom. A local witness told the AP he saw gunmen on motorcycles abduct the tourists on Feb. 19.

Boko Haram ? which means "Western education is sacrilege" ? has launched a guerrilla campaign of bombings and shootings across Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. It is blamed for at least 792 killings last year alone, according to an AP count. It is known to have ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, an Algerian-based group that opened a front in Mali.

The sect, which typically speaks to journalists in telephone conference calls at times of its choosing, could not be immediately reached for comment Monday.

Boko Haram remains highly fragmented, without a clear command-and-control structure. One splinter organization launched from Boko Haram appears to be Ansaru, which has claimed the recent north Nigeria kidnappings of a British citizen, a Greek, an Italian, three Lebanese and one Filipino, all employees of a Lebanese construction company called Setraco. The group earlier claimed the kidnapping in December of a French national working on a renewal energy project in Nigeria's northern Katsina state.

However, the video claiming the kidnapping comes after supposed Boko Haram leaders denied this weekend that they took part in the kidnapping of the seven French citizens ? leading to more questions about who actually remains in control of the group. Shekau hasn't been seen in a video since late November.

A total of 15 French citizens are currently being held in western Africa. In addition to the seven kidnapped in Cameroon, there is one other in Nigeria and seven thought to be in northern Mali.

___

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/video-claims-nigeria-sect-holds-7-french-hostages-163759996.html

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Green Blog: Import Ban Sought on Asian Crabs

In another twist in the long-running debate over how to manage the population of horseshoe crabs along the East Coast, fisheries officials are calling for a ban on imports of three Asian species of the ancient anthropods.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, an interstate body that oversees marine resources along the coast, urged 14 member states to outlaw imports of the crabs because they carry parasites and pathogens that could harm local fisheries and endanger human health.

?The importation of Asian native horseshoe crabs poses a significant threat to the welfare and survival of the wildlife resources of the United States? ? even if they are already dead when used as bait in United States waters, it said.

The Asian species have been imported since 2011 to meet the demand from commercial fishermen. Restrictions on the harvest of domestic horseshoe crabs along the East Coast have driven up the price of horseshoe crabs, which are used as bait for eels and whelks.

Thirteen states have already taken steps at the commission?s urging to limit the crab harvest in an attempt to protect the red knot, an imperiled shorebird that relies on the eggs of horseshoe crabs in places like Cape May and Delaware Bay to refuel during its migration from southern Argentina to breeding grounds in Arctic Canada each spring.

The red knot population has plummeted because of overfishing of the horseshoe crabs, and the bird is a candidate for designation as an endangered species by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Biologists say the red knot is at risk of extinction.

Only New Jersey has placed a complete moratorium on the harvesting of horseshoe crabs, although a bill has been introduced in the state assembly that would lift it in a bid to protect the livelihoods of local fishermen.

The commission said it was seeking the introduction of state bans because the Fish and Wildlife Service can take up to a year to add species to a list of ?injurious wildlife? that are subject to federal regulation.

If the domestic population of horseshoe crabs is damaged, the food supply of shorebirds could be further reduced at a time when the red knot is struggling to recover from years of overfishing of the crabs, the commission warned.

In 2012, seafood dealers in New York State imported 16,280 pounds of Asian horseshoe crabs in response to the domestic bait shortage, the commission said, noting that the imported species themselves are in decline in Asia.

Horseshoe crab bait sells for as much as five times what it cost a decade ago, said Stewart Michels, the fisheries program manager at the Division of Fish and Wildlife in Delaware, which is represented on the commission. He said a female crab could now fetch as much as $5.

Delaware backs the proposed import ban and plans to implement one, Mr. Michels said. Currently Delaware fishermen are allowed to harvest about 162,000 horseshoe crabs a year, but only males and only after June 7, when red knots and other shorebirds have resumed their northward migration.

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/import-ban-sought-on-asian-crabs/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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iMore show. Tonight. 6pm PT. 9pm ET. Be here!

Forget the Walking Dead (or whatever they call the Oscars these days...) because the iMore show is coming your way LIVE tonight. David Chartier is joining us, and we'll be talking about Google's new hardware and what, if anything, it means for iOS and Apple users. We'll also be talking about default apps on iPhone and iPad, and a whole lot more. You don't want to miss it.

6pm PT, 9pm ET. Be here.

Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for "mobilenations". Want to subscribe to any or all of our shows? Head on over to our podcast page.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/3VP2PPpqvIU/story01.htm

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Abe Vows Japan Will Boost Its Defenses

By YUKA HAYASHI

WASHINGTON?Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told U.S. President Barack Obama he will boost his country's defense capabilities in response to rising tensions in East Asia, a move that could ease pressure on the U.S. at a time of a shrinking defense budget.

During their first meeting since Mr. Abe's party returned to power in December, the two leaders agreed to act resolutely against North Korea as it continues to develop its nuclear-weapons program. Mr. Abe called for additional sanctions against North Korea, as he pledged closer cooperation with the U.S. and South Korea, a neighbor with which Japan has had frosty relations despite their close economic ties.

Mr. Abe said he and Mr. Obama agreed that the security alliance between Japan and the U.S. is improving after a period of occasional bumps during the prior three years when his long-ruling conservative party was in Japan's opposition.

Getty Images

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks at a news conference on Friday in Washington D.C., where he met with President Barack Obama.

"The U.S.-Japan alliance is the central foundation for our regional security and so much of what we do in the Pacific region," Mr. Obama said after a bilateral meeting with Mr. Abe at the White House.

Mr. Abe said he discussed recent tension between Japan and China over a group of uninhabited East China Sea islands, an issue that has concerned U.S. officials.

"I told Mr. Obama that Japan intended to respond always calmly and that's exactly what we have done up until now," Mr. Abe said. "We agreed the existence of the Japan-U.S. alliance does contribute to the stability of the region."

Japan and the U.S. also issued a joint statement saying the countries are continuing to discuss Japan's participation in negotiations over a regional free-trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "The two governments will continue their bilateral consultations with respect to Japan's possible interest in joining," the statement said. "While progress has been made on these consultations, more work needs to be done."

At a news conference, Mr. Abe said he hoped to decide quickly whether Japan would formally join the Trans-Pacific trade talks. He said he confirmed with Mr. Obama that Japan needn't promise in advance to give up tariffs on some agricultural products with "sensitivities" at home.

Separately, Mr. Abe said he hoped to pick a new governor of the Bank of Japan quickly on his return to Tokyo.

To help ease the steep costs of energy imports following Japan's nuclear accident in 2011, Mr. Abe told Mr. Obama that he would like the U.S. to allow exports of natural gas to Japan, a Japanese official said. Washington currently limits exports abroad other than to its free-trade agreement partners.

Mr. Abe said that since he took power in December, he has promised an increase in Japan's defense budget for the first time in more than a decade and allowed a boost in the size of Japan's military personnel. He also said Japan intends to ease its domestic laws that severely limit the operational scope of its military so the nation can play a bigger role in the security alliance to ensure regional stability.

Such a change would allow Tokyo to shoot down a missile flying to the U.S. from North Korea, or allow Japanese troops to fire at enemy forces if friendly troops came under fire during peacekeeping operations. Mr. Abe also promised to host a second unit of X-band radar to boost ballistic missile defense in East Asia.

Mr. Abe's Liberal Democratic Power swung back to power in December elections, pledging a more assertive foreign policy and a stronger military. Such comments made Japan's Asian neighbors, particularly China and South Korea, nervous.

During his whirlwind visit to Washington, Mr. Abe's displayed his enthusiasm for a stronger Japan. As he greeted reporters on his plane to Washington, he wore an aviator's jacket labeled "Japan Air Self-Defense Force." On Friday morning, the prime minister ventured in freezing temperatures to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

After a meeting and a working lunch with Mr. Obama, Mr. Abe headed to a Washington think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to deliver a speech in English titled "Japan is Back."

He reviewed his "Abenomics" policy, which has set off a strong rally in Japan's long-dormant stock market. He called again on the central bank to ease monetary policy and said his program of stimulus spending would lift economic growth by two percentage points and create 600,000 jobs.

"I make a pledge. I will bring back a strong Japan," Mr. Abe said.

Mr. Obama didn't make specific comments about Mr. Abe's economic policies, the Japanese official said. Some European officials have criticized Tokyo's monetary easing and the sharp drop in the yen's value that has resulted.

?Peter Landers contributed to this article.

Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared February 23, 2013, on page A6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Abe Vows Japan Will Boost Its Defenses.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324503204578320640390164434.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

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Prairie View (SID): Baseball Drops MLB Urban Invitational Opener

Baseball Drops MLB Urban Invitational Opener

PV Sports Information

2/23/2013 12:35:00 AM

BOX SCORE
Prairie View A&M dropped its first game of the MLB Urban Invitational 9-2 to Alabama State on Friday night under the lights of Minute Maid Park in Houston. The Panthers had their lowest scoring output of the season and couldn't overcome a four-run fifth inning by ASU en route to their second loss in a row.?

Panthers starter Michael Medina made it through four innings with just moderate damage and a 2-0 deficit to battle back from before Alabama State tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth to take a 5-0 lead. He was replaced by Chadd Flick out of the bullpen, who threw 3 2/3 innings with four runs (three earned) off of seven hits.

Alabama State held Prairie View A&M scoreless through 8 2/3 innings before an RBI single by junior first baseman Dominiq Harris was able to score sophomore short stop Walter Wells from third base. Designated hitter Greg Salcido reached on a throwing error by Alabama State's third baseman and Harris advanced three bases to score an unearned run. Harris finished 2-for-4 with one run scored and a RBI to lead Prairie View A&M offensively.?

The Panthers will play Texas Southern at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Minute Maid Park as they look to bounce back with authority over their in-state rival.?

Source: http://www.bbstate.com/news/648884

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President Obama's administration filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to strik...

US: Obama Administration puts pressure on Supreme Court to strike down DOMA

www.pinknews.co.uk

In a filing made on Friday, the Obama Administration urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, saying courts considering laws targeting gay people should do so with extra scrutiny, and calling it unconstitutional.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/pinknews/posts/132340466937156

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Alcide breaks NCAA record, defends SEC title

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.arkansasrazorbacks.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=6100&ATCLID=206485060

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Video: Researchers develop protein 'passport' that help nanoparticles get past immune system

Video: Researchers develop protein 'passport' that help nanoparticles get past immune system

Friday, February 22, 2013

The body's immune system exists to identify and destroy foreign objects, whether they are bacteria, viruses, flecks of dirt or splinters. Unfortunately, nanoparticles designed to deliver drugs, and implanted devices like pacemakers or artificial joints, are just as foreign and subject to the same response.

Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and Penn's Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics have figured out a way to provide a "passport" for such therapeutic devices, enabling them to get past the body's security system.

The research was conducted by professor Dennis Discher, graduate students Pia Rodriguez, Takamasa Harada, David Christian and Richard K. Tsai and postdoctoral fellow Diego Pantano of the Molecular and Cell Biophysics Lab in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Penn.

It was published in the journal Science.

"From your body's perspective," Rodriguez said, "an arrowhead a thousand years ago and a pacemaker today are treated the same ? as a foreign invader.

"We'd really like things like pacemakers, sutures and drug-delivery vehicles to not cause an inflammatory response from the innate immune system."

The innate immune system attacks foreign bodies in a general way. Unlike the learned response of the adaptive immune system, which includes the targeted antibodies that are formed after a vaccination, the innate immune system tries to destroy everything it doesn't recognize as being part of the body.

This response has many cellular components, including macrophages ? literally "big eaters" ? that find, engulf and destroy invaders. Proteins in blood serum work in tandem with macrophages; they adhere to objects in the blood stream and draw macrophages' attention. If the macrophage determines these proteins are stuck to a foreign invader, they will eat it or signal other macrophages to form a barrier around it.

Drug-delivery nanoparticles naturally trigger this response, so researchers' earlier attempts to circumvent it involved coating the particles with polymer "brushes." These brushes stick out from the nanoparticle and attempt to physically block various blood serum proteins from sticking to its surface.

However, these brushes only slow down the macrophage-signaling proteins, so Discher and colleagues tried a different approach: Convincing the macrophages that the nanoparticles were part of the body and shouldn't be cleared.

In 2008, Discher's group showed that the human protein CD47, found on almost all mammalian cell membranes, binds to a macrophage receptor known as SIRPa in humans. Like a patrolling border guard inspecting a passport, if a macrophage's SIRPa binds to a cell's CD47, it tells the macrophage that the cell isn't an invader and should be allowed to proceed on.

Penn's Dennis Discher explains how his lab designed a protein that acts a "passport" for the body's immune system. Nanoparticles equipped with this passport last longer in the bloodstream than equivalent particles without it.Credit: Kurtis Sensenig, University of Pennsylvania

"There may be other molecules that help quell the macrophage response," Discher said. "But human CD47 is clearly one that says, 'Don't eat me'."

Since the publication of that study, other researchers determined the combined structure of CD47 and SIRPa together. Using this information, Discher's group was able to computationally design the smallest sequence of amino acids that would act like CD47. This "minimal peptide" would have to fold and fit well enough into the receptor of SIRPa to serve as a valid passport.

After chemically synthesizing this minimal peptide, Discher's team attached it to conventional nanoparticles that could be used in a variety of experiments.

"Now, anyone can make the peptide and put it on whatever they want," Rodriguez said

The research team's experiments used a mouse model to demonstrate better imaging of tumors and as well as improved efficacy of an anti-cancer drug-delivery particle.

As this minimal peptide might one day be attached to a wide range of drug-delivery vehicles, the researchers also attached antibodies of the type that could be used in targeting cancer cells or other kinds of diseased tissue. Beyond a proof of concept for therapeutics, these antibodies also served to attract the macrophages' attention and ensure the minimal peptide's passport was being checked and approved.

"We're showing that the peptide actually does inhibit the macrophage's response," Discher said. "We force the interaction and then overwhelm it."

The test of this minimal peptide's efficacy was in mice that were genetically modified so their macophages had SIRPa receptors similar to human. The researchers injected two kinds of nanoparticles ? ones carrying the peptide passport and ones without ? and then measured how fast the mice's immune system cleared them.

"We used different fluorescent dyes on the two kinds of nanoparticles, so we could take blood samples every 10 minutes and measure how many particles of each kind were left using flow cytometry," Rodriguez said. "We injected the two particles in a 1-to-1 ratio and 20-30 minutes later, there were up to four times as many particles with the peptide left."

Even giving therapeutic nanoparticles an additional half-hour before they are eaten by macrophages could be a major boon for treatments. Such nanoparticles might need to make a few trips through the macrophage-heavy spleen and liver to find their targets, but they shouldn't stay in the body indefinitely. Other combinations of exterior proteins might be appropriate for more permanent devices, such as pacemaker leads, enabling them to hide from the immune system for longer periods of time.

While more research is necessary before such applications become a reality, reducing the peptide down to a sequence of only a few amino acids was a critical step. The relative simplicity of this passport molecule to be more easily synthesized makes it a more attractive component for future therapeutics.

"It can be made cleanly in a machine," Discher said, "and easily modified during synthesis in order to attach to all sorts of implanted and injected things, with the goal of fooling the body into accepting these things as 'self.'"

###

University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews

Thanks to University of Pennsylvania 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.

This press release has been viewed 47 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126976/Video__Researchers_develop_protein__passport__that_help_nanoparticles_get_past_immune_system

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HTC brings Dashwire back, focuses on setting up new Android smartphones

When HTC dissolved Dashwire's original service just months after acquisition, many wrote off the smaller company; it all but disappeared from the limelight, even with its early cloud sync service still in action. Rather than relegate Dashwire to the oblivion traditionally associated with takeovers, though, HTC is staging a comeback. It's relaunching Dashwire to help carriers get customers up and running on a new smartphone, including contacts and a customized look. Details are short, but the revived service won't be HTC-exclusive: Dashwire will support "leading" Android device makers. While the company's return to form will depend on successful sales pitches at Mobile World Congress, it at least stands a chance of being more than just a footnote.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC

Comments

Source: Dashwire

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/22/htc-brings-dashwire-back/

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Video: Stress ball factory worker attacks boss

>>> there is an outburst report in the u.k. a man bunched his boss and brandished two knives, shouting at colleagues, threatening to slice them up. here's the bad part. he was employed at a stress ball factory. he was arrested and admitted to the charge of assault.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50897770/

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The Witness is headed exclusively to PlayStation 4, the next game from Braid creator Jonathan Blow

Nothing could've been more delightful than Braid creator Jonathan Blow suddenly appearing on-stage at Sony's big PlayStation 4 reveal only to make fun of all the explosions the event had already featured. Oh sure, he was also at the event to reveal that his latest game, The Witness, is headed exclusively to Sony's PlayStation 4, but the first statement was much funnier. Anyway, the game looks much, much better than the various demos we've played across the past few years -- Blow's been developing The Witness for quite some time, and showing it publicly, albeit never on a PlayStation 4. We'll hopefully hear more in the coming days, so keep an eye out.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Sony

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Um9T_-bAoJk/

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Gigwalk, An Amazon Turk For Real World Work, Gets An Upgraded Backend For Businesses

Gigwalk, the mobile temp agency that allows users to get assigned jobs (or "gigs") from companies in need of real-world data or market research, is today upgrading its business-facing platform as the service grows to accomodate larger-scale job assignments from customers like Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, TomTom, eBay, and others. It's also adding another big-name brand to its roster - Reckitt Benckiser, home to hundreds of household products including things like Lysol, Finish, Easy Off, Jet Dry, Woolite, Vanish, Vicks and many more.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gL8CQ3XiSXo/

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