Egypt's president heads to Turkey to build ties

CAIRO -- Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi travels to Turkey on Sunday to strengthen an emerging alliance between two moderate Islamist governments in a region beset by conflict and instability.

Even though Morsi has only been in power for a few months, there are already strong signs a partnership with Turkey is forming, evidenced by a common effort to end Syria's civil war by urging the exit of President Bashar Assad from power.

Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited the Egyptian capital Cairo and pledged $2 billion in aid to boost confidence in an economy badly battered by a tourism slump, strikes and ongoing protests since the fall of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in an uprising last year.

During the 12-hour visit, Morsi will try to strengthen economic ties with Turkey - a country his Muslim Brotherhood group views as an Islamist success story, mixing a strong economy with Western ties and Islamic piety.

Turkey, a NATO member with a mostly Muslim, but not Arab, population, has been touted as a democratic model for Egypt and other Arab countries swept up in popular revolts over the past two years.

After initially looking to the Turkish ruling party as a role model, the Islamic fundamentalist Brotherhood in Egypt has cooled to the idea because of Turkey's strong secular leanings. Morsi and the Brotherhood, on the contrary, have been criticized by their opponents for pushing a more conservative Islamist line, particularly in drafting the country's new constitution.

"Before the revolution, we saw (Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan's regime ... as a successful model that can be emulated," said Dina Zakaria, a member of the foreign relations committee of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. "But can it be with all its details and can it all suit Egyptian society? Of course not."

Turkish officials and media have voiced enthusiasm for the relationship with Cairo after the uprising. Turkish President Abdullah Gul was the first foreign leader to visit Egypt after Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, 2011, meeting with both the largely liberal and secular youth groups that spearheaded the pro-democracy revolt as well as with generals from the ruling military council who took over from Mubarak and then eventually transferred power to the democratically elected Morsi.

Erdogan got a warm welcome in Cairo last year, with crowds of Brotherhood supporters lining the airport road upon his arrival, some of them carrying banners reading: "Erdogan is a hero."

Erdogan has encouraged Egypt to mimic the Turkish model of governance.

But Zakaria said that after frequent visits to Turkey and meetings with different groups there, she is convinced Egyptian society would not accept Turkey's secular constitution.

Many in conservative Egypt equate the term secularism with "anti-Islam." As efforts to draft the country's constitution are marred by disputes over what many liberals perceive as overtly Islamist clauses in the charter, Zakaria ruled out drawing inspiration from the Turkish constitution.

"Their constitution won't work here in Egypt," she said. "There are things Egyptian people won't accept," she added, referring mainly to the separation of religion and he state.

One of the founding principles of Turkey's constitution is that it is a secular democracy, something that contradicts Egypt's old constitution, and is not even considered in the writing of the new charter. Debate remains in Egypt over whether to keep the current charter, which cites the principles of Islamic law as the basis of legislation, or to harden it to include a reference to specific Islamic laws which would guide all legislation.

Associated Press writers Chris Torchia and Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Istanbul and Ankara.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/29/3025872/egypts-president-heads-to-turkey.html

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China's lines around islands suggest more conflict

BEIJING (AP) ? One of the hottest items in bookstores across China is a map for a place that is closed to visitors, home only to animals such as goats and crabs, and the reason China's relations with Japan are at their lowest point in years.

China calls them the Diaoyus; Japan, the Senkakus. The new map shows a satellite image of a kidney-shaped main island with splotches of green and a list of 70 affiliated "islands" that are really half-submerged rocks.

China hastily published the map to help maintain public outrage over the Japanese government's purchase of some of the islands from their private Japanese owners. Beijing also has engaged in another type of mapmaking that may end up escalating the conflict.

It has drawn new territorial markers, or baselines, around the islands and submitted them to the United Nations. That could lead to a more serious attempt to claim the islands, and broad swaths of valuable ocean around them.

"The status quo has been broken in the last month by Japan's purchase and China's publishing of the baselines," said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt of the International Crisis Group. She said friction is likely to reach its worst level since the 1980s when China and Japan tacitly agreed to set aside the dispute in pursuit of better overall relations.

Beijing has been firm rhetorically. On Saturday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the country must safeguard its territorial integrity at a reception celebrating the upcoming National Day.

State television on Saturday reported that the country's navy and air forces conducted joint military exercises with live fire targeting a small island in the East China Sea.

More than lines on paper are at stake. By submitting the baselines to the U.N., China is spelling out its claim to the waters, the fish in them and the oil, gas and other minerals beneath them. Up until now, China has sought to jointly exploit resources with Japan through negotiation.

Japan says it bought to islands to maintain stability, noting that the nationalist governor of Tokyo had been pushing a more radical plan to not only buy the islands but develop them. China, however, was outraged, and considered Japan's move a violation of their earlier agreements.

The dispute has brought nationalism and patriotism to the fore, and sparked sometimes-violent protests in China targeting Japanese businesses, restaurants and cars. A Chinese man driving a Toyota Corolla was beaten unconscious by a mob in the tourist city of Xi'an and left partially paralyzed, according to state media. Chinese and Japanese coast guard vessels have been facing off in the contested waters.

The dispute is testing perhaps the most important economic relationship in Asia, between the world's second- and third-largest economies.

Japan has claimed the islands since 1895. The U.S. took jurisdiction after World War II and turned them over to Japan in 1972. China says they have been part of its territory since ancient times, and that it opposed and never acknowledged the deal between Japan and the United States. Taiwan also claims them.

The islands make a strange setting for a potential conflict zone. The largest is less than 4 square kilometers (1.5 square miles). It is home to a growing population of goats ? the offspring of a pair brought there by right-wing Japanese activists in 1977 ? as well as moles, crabs, Okinawan ants, albatross and lizards, and plants including azalea.

The islands themselves are remote, "intrinsically worthless features" that were largely forgotten for decades, said Clive Schofield of the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong.

"The reason why there is uncertainty over the ownership, sovereignty is because they have essentially been ignored over a large period of time," Schofield said.

A U.N. survey in the 1970s that said oil and gas may lie beneath the surrounding waters changed that. Then, the Law of the Sea Convention introduced the idea of 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones, or EEZs, which give coastal countries sole exploitation rights over all natural resources contained within.

China's new baselines are a prelude to defining that exclusive zone. It has drawn straight lines around the main group of islands and a separate set around isolated Chiwei Island, some 50 nautical miles to the east.

It also plans to submit a document outlining the outer limits of its sea bed ? those that stretch beyond 200 nautical miles from land ? in the East China Sea to a U.N. commission. The move is a way for China to underscore its claim, but has little real impact. The commission, which comprises geological experts, evaluates the markers on technical grounds but has no authority to resolve overlapping claims.

"That puts a line in the sand, but it doesn't have any legal impact," said Ian Townsend Gault, director of the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

He doubts whether the islands would be capable of generating a 200-nautical-mile EEZ because they are too insignificant ? too small and without a population.

"They are not important in the economic sense, no matter how beautiful they look on postcards," he said.

Legal questions aside, China sees the waters within its baselines as its internal waters under Beijing's administration.

That raises the risk of a confrontation in the clear waters around the disputed islands between Japanese coast guard vessels and Chinese fishing boats and law enforcement vessels, and even Taiwanese vessels ? all ostensibly with orders to patrol the area.

Already there has been sparring the past two weeks, with Chinese maritime surveillance vessels entering waters Japan claims, and the Japanese coast guard firing a water cannon at Taiwanese boats approaching the islands.

The parties could legally resolve their dispute if they submit it to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany, or their own court.

"Both would be equally terrified of losing on flimsy grounds," said Townsend Gault. "They have snookered each other legally and diplomatically speaking. They have driven each other into a corner. We need some third party to say can you put this to bed so we don't have this enormous disruption in your bilateral relations whereby people are smashing up Toyota dealerships."

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

___

Follow Louise Watt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/louise_watt

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-lines-around-islands-suggest-more-conflict-051655331.html

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Send in your High School Sports Fan Photo of the Week!

Kate from Golden Sierra?High and Sydney from Lathrop High were the two most recent winners?in the Papa Murphy's USA TODAY High School Sports Fan Photo of the Week Contest.

They each won $50 in coupons for food and drink at Papa Murphy's!

What are we looking for? With high school football in full gear, it's easy to find lots of examples of school spirit: Fans dressed in school colors, clever banners and signs, the school mascot, the school spirit squad, game-day rallies, players cheering a teammate's play -- you get the idea.

All you have to do is send your school pride photo to fanphoto@news10.net for a chance to win. You must be at least 14 years old and enrolled in a California public or private high school to enter. Official rules here.

So come on, send in those fan photos for a chance to win $50 in coupons for Papa Murphy's Pizza every week!

Source: http://centralstockton.news10.net/news/news/104623-send-your-high-school-sports-fan-photo-week

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Property Laws in the UK | The Niche Report

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This article briefly explains the various real estate regulations in England and Wales.

UK property law is pretty extensive and covers several aspects of real estate like agricultural tenancy, business leases, tenants? laws, and mortgages etc. You need to understand the nuances of the various land holding acts for buying and selling property in the UK or conveyancing.

Conveyancing

This occurs when a certain property is up for sale and the owner accepts a buyer?s offer. Contracts are exchanged between both parties who also decide the amount of the despot as well the last date of the transfer of ownership. During this time, the remaining balance is paid by the bidder, and the keys are handed over.

UK property law does not require that your consult a solicitor to conduct the conveyance. You can do it on your own. However, most people do hire a professional in order to minimize the risks involved in the buying and selling of property. Solicitors firms do charge a fee for their services and you should do some research in order to compare different prices.

Property Information

Another law deals with the Home Information Pack or the HIP. This is a collection of documents that provide essential details of a property to all those are interested in purchasing it. The law stipulates that all homes in the UK should have an HIP and it is the responsibility of the property owner or the seller to hand it over to interested parties. There is no charge for obtaining the HIP on the part of the buyer.

More than One Owner

UK property laws also explain the details regarding co-ownership of a property. Many times people purchase a property together. The owners mostly include a group of students or a couple living together. Each person has par in the ownership and is equally responsible for the maintenance of the property. If one partner wants to cancel out his/her membership, the joint tenancy would be severed.

If unmarried couples buy a property, they have to pay a stamp duty at the time of purchase. However, laws are different from joint ownership in case an unmarried couple has a property dispute.?

Height Safety Laws

Although working at a height is not restricted to the property business, these regulations also constitute real estate laws in the UK. If you are constructing a building, you need to ensure that all you workers receive the proper safety equipment.

The work at height laws were passed in 2005, and important amendments were made two years later. Working ?at height? refers to all places in a property where a worker can suffer from injury if he falls over.

This means that the law not only pertains to working on the roof. Even if a person falls at ground level and suffers injury, the employer could face legal action under the work at height law. Examples of dangers at ground level include falling from a ladder, or falling in a hole or a drain.

However, if someone falls from the staircase while viewing the property or walking around, it will not be considered a violation of the work at height laws. Moreover, the law does not apply outside the person?s area of operation.

So along with providing safety gear to the workers, guardrails, fences and walls have to be built in order to provide a steady support for the workers and to avoid other people from falling over.

About the Author

Eva Holmes, the author, is a legal practitioner in the UK who provides consultation to clients about property laws like height safety.

Short URL: http://www.thenichereport.com/?p=11322

Source: http://www.thenichereport.com/uncategorized/property-laws-in-the-uk/

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South Africa: Strikes roil platinum prices

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More strikes have hit South Africa's mining industry, a week after striking workers at a platinum mine won a 22 percent pay raise. Workers walked off their jobs this week at mines run by AngloGold Ashanti, one of the world's largest gold producers.? The workers are reportedly demanding a pay raise in line with the workers at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana township.

Meanwhile, gold producer Village Main Reef says 1,700 of its workers failed to report to work for September 27 night shift as well as September 28 day shifts.? Also, mining firm Petmin said on September 28 that 345 of its workers at a coal mining subsidiary walked off their jobs. ?Both companies said they are talking with workers and hoping to end the strikes peacefully. The Lonmin deal followed a clash between police and miners in which police shot dead 46 striking workers.? Earlier this month, union leaders said the Lomnin deal set a precedent for other miners. Striking miners have armed themselves with homemade traditional spears and machetes, defying the mineowners to dismiss or dislodge them.

On September 27, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the top producer of platinum, declared that it would begin disciplinary action against strikers and could dismiss them. So far, the strike is considered illegal. Four of Amplats' Rustenburg mines have been idled for over two weeks, thereby costing the company at least 20,000 ounces in lost output to date, or $33 million at current spot prices.Spot prices for platinum were up 1.4 percent at $1,665.74 an ounce.

Workers living in the slums on the periphery of Rustenburg, 70 miles from Johannesburg, say they will resist. Some said they are prepared to die in order to wrest concessions from the mine owners. ?Miners at Amplats are seeking wage concessions as those secured by the strikers at Lonmin. ?Violence broke out at the Amplats operation at Rustenberg in January and February during clashes between the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the National Union of Mineworkers. As a result, work stopped for six weeks.

Miners have received text messages from Amplats urging them to return to work. But the miners remain defiant. According to Reuters, text messages sent by Amplats tell? workers to attend a hearing on October 2 to argue why they should not be fired for taking part in an illegal strike. "Should you not make any representations, a decision will be made in your absence," the messages say.

Source: http://www.speroforum.com/a/TIMWQMYBTI49/73150-South-Africa-Strikes-roil-platinum-prices

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Romney camp lowers debate expectations

In a memo sent to surrogates today, Romney senior adviser Beth Myers sets the expectations for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney low - very low - compared to the "ample rhetorical gifts" of his opponent. The memo says President Obama has a "significant advantage" heading into the first debate.

"President Obama is a uniquely gifted speaker, and is widely regarded as one of the most talented political communicators in modern history," Myers writes, calling Obama a "universally acclaimed public speaker."

Myers' memo is the latest in pre-debate jockeying by both campaigns to set their candidate's expectations low, while raising expectations for their opponent.

Beyond his "natural gifts" for oratory, Meyers argues that Obama has "substantial debate experience under his belt."

"This will be the eighth one-on-one presidential debate of his political career. For Mitt Romney, it will be his first," she says. Obama, in her words, has had "extensive seasoning under the bright lights of the debate stage."

Myers predicts that President Obama will use these advantages to go negative and attack Romney on the debate stage.

"Since he won't - and can't - talk about his record, he'll talk about Mitt Romney. We fully expect a 90-minute attack ad aimed at tearing down his opponent."

Myers concludes that the election will not be decided by the debates.

The first of three presidential debates is Oct. 3, next Wednesday, at the University of Denver.

The full memo from Beth Myers to surrogates is below:

From: Beth Myers, Senior Adviser To: Interested Parties Date: September 27, 2012 Re: 2012 Presidential Debates

In a matter of days, Governor Romney and President Obama will meet on the presidential debate stage. President Obama is a universally-acclaimed public speaker and has substantial debate experience under his belt. However, the record he's compiled over the last four years - higher unemployment, lower incomes, rising energy costs, and a national debt spiraling out of control - means this will be a close election right up to November 6th.

Between now and then, President Obama and Governor Romney will debate three times. While Governor Romney has the issues and the facts on his side, President Obama enters these contests with a significant advantage on a number of fronts.

Voters already believe - by a 25-point margin - that President Obama is likely to do a better job in these debates. Given President Obama's natural gifts and extensive seasoning under the bright lights of the debate stage, this is unsurprising. President Obama is a uniquely gifted speaker, and is widely regarded as one of the most talented political communicators in modern history. This will be the eighth one-on-one presidential debate of his political career. For Mitt Romney, it will be his first.

Four years ago, Barack Obama faced John McCain on the debate stage. According to Gallup, voters judged him the winner of each debate by double-digit margins, and their polling showed he won one debate by an astounding 33-point margin. In the 2008 primary, he faced Hillary Clinton, another formidable opponent - debating her one-on-one numerous times and coming out ahead. The takeaway? Not only has President Obama gained valuable experience in these debates, he also won them comfortably.

But what must President Obama overcome? His record. Based on the campaign he's run so far, it's clear that President Obama will use his ample rhetorical gifts and debating experience to one end: attacking Mitt Romney. Since he won't - and can't - talk about his record, he'll talk about Mitt Romney. We fully expect a 90-minute attack ad aimed at tearing down his opponent. If President Obama is as negative as we expect, he will have missed an opportunity to let the American people know his vision for the next four years and the policies he'd pursue. That's not an opportunity Mitt Romney will pass up. He will talk about the big choice in this election - the choice between President Obama's government-centric vision and Mitt Romney's vision for an opportunity society with more jobs, higher take-home pay, a better-educated workforce, and millions of Americans lifted out of poverty into the middle class.

This election will not be decided by the debates, however. It will be decided by the American people. Regardless of who comes out on top in these debates, they know we can't afford another four years like the last four years. And they will ultimately choose a better future by electing Mitt Romney to be our next president.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-camp-downplays-debate-expectations-012331687--abc-news-politics.html

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Honey bees fight back against Varroa

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) ? The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is a major contributor to the recent mysterious death of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology finds that specific proteins, released by damaged larvae and in the antennae of adult honey bees, can drive hygienic behavior of the adults and promote the removal of infected larvae from the hive.

V. destructor sucks the blood (hemolymph) of larval and adult bees leaving them weakened and reducing the ability of their immune systems to fight off infections. Not that honey bees have strong immune systems in the first place since they have fewer immunity genes than solitary insects such as flies and moths. These tiny mites can also spread viral disease between hosts. This double onslaught is thought to be a significant contributor to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

But all is not lost -- honey bees have evolved a way to fight back: hygienic behavior where diseased or parasitized larvae are removed from their brood cells, and Varroa-sensitive hygienic behavior which they use to reduce the number of reproductive mites on remaining larvae.

To find exactly how bees respond to hive infections, researchers from Canada looked at the natural behavioral of bees in the presence of damaged larvae and compared this to protein differences in the larvae and adults. After scanning 1200 proteins the team found that several proteins, including LOC552009 (of unknown function but similar to ApoO), found in the antennae of adults were associated with both uncapping brood cells and the removal of larvae. Other proteins were involved in olfaction or in signal transduction, probably helping the adults find infected larvae amongst a brood.

In damaged larvae, transglutaminase, a protein involved in blood clotting, was upregulated, which appeared to be a key component in regulating the adult's behavior. Other proteins indicated adaptations to help fight infection, including chitin biosynthesis and immune responses.

Dr Leonard Foster from CHIBI at the University of British Columbia, who led this research said, "Bee keepers have previously focused on selecting bees with traits such as enhanced honey production, gentleness and winter survival. We have found a set of proteins which could be used to select colonies on their ability to resist Varroa mite infestation and can be used to find individuals with increased hygienic behavior. Given the increasing resistance of Varroa to available drugs this would provide a natural way of ensuring honey farming and potentially survival of the species."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited.

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Journal Reference:

1. Robert Parker, M Marta Guarna, Andony P Melathopoulos, Kyung-Mee Moon, Rick White, Elizabeth Huxter, Stephen F Pernal and Leonard J Foster. Correlation of proteome-wide changes with social immunity behaviors provides insight into resistance to the parasitic mite, Varroa destructor, in the honey bee Apis mellifera. Genome Biology, 2012 (in press) [link]

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/t7G0qfiJJY0/120927205308.htm

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Vidyo Excellence Honors Developer Community | Vidyo Blog

Vidyo started as a company licensing the SDK for its next generation video conferencing technology even before it brought its VidyoConferencing product line to market. For years, Vidyo has been supporting development teams to build our video conferencing architecture into their own unique solutions. So it should come as no surprise that Vidyo has evolved the tools it offers developers into a rich set of Web Services APIs and Client APIs to make VidyoConferencing a natural part of the business workflow.

The number of developers who have integrated video communications within their applications has grown dramatically. Vidyo now has a team solely dedicated to making these partners successful, as well as growing the set of support tools to make this integration effort even easier. The range of Vidyo APIs is expanding to enable broader integration of the larger product portfolio. In fact, just added with the recent release of V2.2 are APIs for VidyoReplay.

With so many developers creating interesting and useful integrations the time has come to recognize these excellent innovations by our community. Vidyo opened the competition to our developers and selected winners in three application areas: healthcare, customer service and resource scheduling. Here are the Vidyo Excellence winners!

Healthcare
HealthSpot earned the Vidyo Excellence Award for Healthcare for its Care4 Station, a walk-in kiosk with integrated medical devices that connect patients to healthcare providers over real-time, high-definition videoconference appointments.

?HealthSpot selected Vidyo as its exclusive video conferencing platform based upon Vidyo?s media-aware, intelligent routing architecture that enables access to high quality video communications via a wide range of devices and networks,? said Dave Sebenoler, HealthSpot?s Chief Information Officer. ?This visual communications technology, in concert with Vidyo?s enterprise-ready APIs, has allowed HealthSpot to create an industry leading self-service kiosk solution. The APIs allow HealthSpot to run advanced technology ?under the hood? while providing an intuitive user experience that distills many complex processes into a seamless patient experience.?

Customer Service
The Vidyo Excellence Award for Customer Service was earned by UST Global for iDispatch. The iDispatch application gives field technicians complete visual communications with a team of experts who can assist in solving problems while the technician is on-site.

?Using Vidyo?s rich set of web services APIs we were able to create a conference solution that is tightly integrates with an enterprise mobility platform for customer service,? said Tony Velleca, UST Global?s CIO and VP of Services and Solutions.? ?This direct integration plus our hosted VidyoConferencing service provides our clients with a turnkey solution without the need to install additional hardware or software.?

Resource Scheduling
The Vidyo Excellence Award for Resource Scheduling was earned by Soltrite for See-Speak. Soltrite created an on-demand language interpretation solution customized for each client organization that may choose the languages they want to offer, as well as a variety of routing choices to select the interpreter that best meets their needs.

?We have essentially created a ?Vidyo ACD? product and an integration that can be molded to different client requirement situations,? said Scott Colesworthy, Soltrite?s CEO. ?Vidyo allows quality over uncontrolled networks to a variety of devices enabling client locations to use non-QoS enhanced networks to lower bandwidth cost and allow the interpreters to be located in their homes.?

Congratulations again to these developers for creating stand-out videoconferencing integrations!

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# # #

Marty Hollander is Vidyo?s SVP of Market Development. With more than 20 years of high-tech marketing experience, Marty specializes in developing lasting strategic assets through creative market development. Previously, Marty served as Vice President of Marketing at Cemaphore Systems, Latitude Communications (later acquired by Cisco) and ProactiveNet (later acquired by BMC). He also founded CollectiveSpace and IntelliCorp, where he played a variety of executive roles. Marty has also held senior level positions at Silicon Graphics and Storm Technology. Marty earned an MBA from Stanford University as well as an MS from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Source: http://blog.vidyo.com/technology/vidyo-excellence-honors-developer-community/

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Fabricated: Scientists develop method to synthesize the sound of clothing for animations (video)

Developments in CGI and animatronics might be getting alarmingly realistic, but the audio that goes with it often still relies on manual recordings. A pair of associate professors and a graduate student from Cornell University, however, have developed a method for synthesizing the sound of moving fabrics -- such as rustling clothes -- for use in animations, and thus, potentially film. The process, presented at SIGGRAPH, but reported to the public today, involves looking into two components of the natural sound of fabric, cloth moving on cloth, and crumpling. After creating a model for the energy and pattern of these two aspects, an approximation of the sound can be created, which acts as a kind of "road map" for the final audio.

The end result is created by breaking the map down into much smaller fragments, which are then matched against a database of similar sections of real field-recorded audio. They even included binaural recordings to give a first-person perspective for headphone wearers. The process is still overseen by a human sound engineer, who selects the appropriate type of fabric and oversees the way that sounds are matched, meaning it's not quite ready for prime time. Understandable really, as this is still a proof of concept, with real-time operations and other improvements penciled in for future iterations. What does a virtual sheet being pulled over an imaginary sofa sound like? Head past the break to hear it in action, along with a presentation of the process.

Continue reading Fabricated: Scientists develop method to synthesize the sound of clothing for animations (video)

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Fabricated: Scientists develop method to synthesize the sound of clothing for animations (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/g3nZ3dQ2zhY/

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Young mothers get complete recovery by taking bath in the whirlpool ...

After giving birth to the infants, the ladies would become so weak and thin. They would have body ache and abdomen pain. Their bodies would not be suitable for taking bath in normal way. People install the whirlpool tub in their houses when their wives are feeble and in a position to take suitable bath. They would be made to lie down on the whirlpool tubs which are filled with warm water. The ladies get comfort and soothing feeling when they are sitting in the whirlpool tub and enjoy their bath. They are relived from the entire pain and agony by taking bath in the bath tubs.

There are many bathroom products sellers sell their products to the users. The buyers see the performance of the products mainly as they have to use the whirlpool tub every day. Hence they would check the performance at the time of buying the equipment from the sellers. The sellers are arranging to send the products to the customers at free of cost if the distance is within the specified distance from the shop. The sellers are also giving after sales service to their products. The people from the company would come and install the equipment in the customers bathrooms at free of charge.

There are various accessories given along with the whirlpool tub to the customers. These accessories would be fitted with the tubs in suitable way. The bathroom users would be lying in the bathroom tub for long time to get enough satisfaction and enjoyment. Married people and young mothers are using the whirlpool tubs in their bathrooms for getting complete recovery from the delivery strain and weaknesses.

They are becoming energetic and healthy by taking bath in these most convenient bath tubs. The sellers are spreading their business all over the world by following the different business tactics to promote their sales. They are canvassing the products by directly approaching the customers. They also demonstrate the performance of the whirlpool water tubs in the main junctions of the city to explain to the customers. By this way also the sellers are selling their bath tubs at the innumerable customers in short period. Every year they also introduce different new products to be used in the bathrooms. Now the buyers are able to enjoy many more facilities in the bathrooms due to the innovative bathroom products are available in the bathroom ware items sales market.

Source: http://product.ezinemark.com/young-mothers-get-complete-recovery-by-taking-bath-in-the-whirlpool-tub-7d37ccb7b914.html

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Political puzzle: Voting for candidates who violate our beliefs

Most of us assume that our vote for our chosen candidate accurately--or at least tolerably--represents our beliefs. In truth, though, our politics frequently violate the coherence of our beliefs. This was vividly impressed upon me six years ago, when, with a friend, I stumbled into a minor international incident while working in Vietnam with a fellow journalist.

Our crime was interviewing a dissident Vietnamese artist without first getting permission from the Vietnamese authorities. As it happens, my journalist friend and I both have fathers with a profound connection to the Vietnam War. My friend?s father wound up moving to Canada to avoid the draft. When he returned to the States after the war, he was prosecuted for draft dodging. He defended himself before the Illinois Supreme Court and won, a decision that later became the cornerstone of President Carter?s blanket pardon of American draft resisters. My father, conversely, was a Marine Corps lieutenant and combat veteran who nearly died of the wounds he received in a tiny hamlet called Tuy Phoc. So we have one father who so opposed his nation?s involvement in Vietnam he felt sympathy for the soldiers and guerrillas killing his fellow Americans, and another so convinced by his nation?s inherent moral rightness that he put his life on the line to stop the spread of Communism.

How do you think these two men would have reacted upon learning that their sons had been detained and threatened by agents of a Communist regime that stands as a living reminder of the war that had so affected their lives? One of our fathers said: ?Those dirty Commies! How dare they touch my son!? Another said: ?Well, son, it is their country, which means you have to abide by their rules and laws.? If our politics were truly related to our beliefs, my father would have been the one to complain about dirty Commies. But he wasn?t. Why? Because our politics don?t necessarily have anything to do with our beliefs. Politics, and presidential politics particularly, are instead dictated by nodes of sympathetic inclination.

Nothing else can explain the bizarre and historically unprecedented phenomenon of evangelical Christian voters willing to support a candidate whose religious beliefs are a product of one of the most successful, and recent, heresies to emerge from within Christianity. Conservative Christian ?values voters? are supposed to be citizens for whom religious faith is an unbreakable ballast, the moral line that shall never be crossed. How, then, can they in good conscience vote for Mitt Romney, whose church rejects two thousand years of orthodox Christian thought?

Barack Obama, meanwhile, despite the Right?s relentless caricature of him as a secular Islamist Marxist racist and foreign-born Chicago community organizer, took a grave step beyond the previous administration?s extrajudicial war on terror policies. For the first time in American history, an American president sanctioned the assassination of American citizens merely suspected of terrorism. How can this policy not horrify and trouble self-described liberals? How can it not shatter their trust in President Obama? If George W. Bush had signed off on such an assassination program, there would have been talk of war crimes, impeachment, and constitutional degradation. There has been some such talk on the Left, to be sure, just as some conservative Christians are troubled by Romney?s faith, but not nearly as much or as many as one would think.

A smartly run presidential campaign is of course aware that much of the communication that goes on between candidates and voters occurs at a nodal, almost subliminal level. The so-called messaging emerging from the Obama campaign for the last six months has along these lines: getting better, tough out there, responsible, steady, schools = good, tax the rich, middle class middle class middle class, and hang in there, America. For a man the Tea Party Express calls ?the candidate of Al-Qaeda,? it?s a surprisingly staid message. The Obama campaign has so far studiously avoided trafficking in the language of disenfranchisement and identity politics once common among Democrats, and which has historically been about as appealing to the average American voter as Norwegian death metal.

The Romney campaign, on the other hand, has been transmitting its own array of messages: no more weakness, no taxes, no gays, no illegals, no apologies, business = good, angry angry angry, and Bible time all the time. This is not a notably heart-warming message, and it sounds eerily similar to the speech the Big Lebowski shouts at the Dude as he throws him out of his office. Obviously, both the Democrats and Republicans have unhinged charlatan fringes, but this campaign, for the first time in my adult life, puts forth a Democratic Party confident enough to stand as the bearer of status-quo responsibility and a Republican Party convinced that up-against-the-wall cultural radicalism presents the clearest path to victory.

A large part of me, I admit, finds this turn of events somewhat strange and discomforting. I came of age inclined toward the Left precisely because it was not the status quo. But once you develop a node of sympathetic inclination, it proves shockingly difficult to turn away. For instance, this website recently informed me, to my utter shock, that the candidate to whom I?m most ideologically similar is the Green Party?s Jill Stein, even though I have never voted Green and cannot even contemplate the possibility of voting Green. Why not? Well, they?re pretty clearly a bunch of dirty Commies.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-do-evangelical-christians-like-romney--why-do-civil-libertarians-like-obama--who-you-gonna-believe-.html

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Irony & Karma Want To Kick Mitt's Ass (talking-points-memo)

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Rare Disease Science Challenge- Your Call to Action!

If you or a loved one is unlucky enough to be affected by a rare disease then it can be a continued uphill struggle. Your doctor will likely never have seen a case before which means you suffer with symptoms while awaiting diagnosis, and this can sometimes take years. Even when an accurate diagnosis is reached there may be few treatment options; the pharmaceutical companies just aren t interested in developing drugs to treat such a small market. For the majority (>95%) of the 7000 rare diseases there is no FDA approved therapy. Perhaps the cruelest twist of rare diseases, however, is that so many of the patients are young children. The NIH estimates that 50% of rare diseases affect children, and 30% of pediatric cases die before they reach their 5^th birthday!

Collectively rare diseases are not rare. The fact is that while a disease might be labeled as rare , the number of persons suffering from one of the thousands of rare diseases is estimated at 10% of the population [1], or approx. 30 million people in the United States and 350 million people globally. Mainstream pharmaceutical companies have long ignored rare diseases. With the increasing de-centralization of scientific research, and the growth of the citizen science movement, however, there has never been a better time to tackle this problem head on. That s exactly what Assay Depot is doing by teaming up with the Rare Genomics Institute ? to bring awareness to the current broken system for diagnosing, treating and curing rare diseases.

The Rare Genomics Institute provides hope to children suffering with a rare disease. Most rare diseases are genetic in nature, caused by a mutation somewhere in the 3.2 billion bases of human DNA. The Rare Genomics Institute uses crowdfunding to pay for sequencing of the sick child s genome and then assembles a network of academic specialists who work together to identify the child s genetic mutation. Now Assay Depot has teamed up with The Rare Genomics Institute to take the process one-step farther, and go on the offensive with the Rare Disease Science Challenge.

The competition is open to researchers, foundations, or everyday people. Families with a child afflicted with a rare disease will have the opportunity to work with a network of academic researchers and use donated research services to develop research proposals tailored to their child?s needs. An expert panel of scientists will evaluate the research proposals with the final winner(s) selected by Facebook voting.

If we can improve the standard of care for just one rare disease we will bring relief to thousands of people, very likely children, who currently suffer. We think that is a dream worth fighting for. I am sure Chris and Hugh Hempel would agree. Their identical twin daughters, Addison and Cassidy, have been diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Type C, a rare, incurable and fatal genetic disease that causes progressive neurological deterioration. This week Global Genes, the leading rare and genetic disease patient advocacy organizations in the world, with the Kauffman Foundation is screening the Hempels story in Hollywood and revealing the grim truth; that diagnosing, treating and curing rare disease is moving at a tedious pace, and leaving heart-rending personal accounts in its path.

How can you help?

If you work for a company that offers research services or makes lab consumables, reagents or instruments ask them to get involved. The great thing about sponsorship is that it will cost your company very little, we re not asking for money, just a donation of time or resources. Does your company make antibodies? How about donating some production capacity? Do you sell DNA sequencers, or mass spec instruments? Could you run some samples in your lab for us?

If you put your mind to it there are a multitude of ways your company could get involved for very little cost, and in return get some great publicity, and help a very worthy cause.

For the rest of you please help publicize the Rare Disease Science Challenge, post it, blog it, tweet it, let s do everything we can to get the word out, and be a part of the solution.

References:

[1] NIH Rare Disease information site: http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/RareDiseaseList.aspx

?

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
? 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rare-disease-science-challenge-call-action-112900853.html

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Reports: NFL, referees closing in on new deal

Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy addresses reporters' questions about a controversial touchdown call on Monday Night Football during a press conference in Green Bay, Wis., on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/The Green Bay Press-Gazette, Lukas Keapproth) NO SALES

Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy addresses reporters' questions about a controversial touchdown call on Monday Night Football during a press conference in Green Bay, Wis., on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/The Green Bay Press-Gazette, Lukas Keapproth) NO SALES

Green Bay Packers fan Mike LePak holds a sign in front of Lambeau Field along Lombardi Avenue, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, in Green Bay, Wis., in protest of a controversial call in the Packers 14-12 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Monday night in Seattle. Just when it seemed that NFL coaches, players and fans couldn't get any angrier, along came a fiasco that trumped any of the complaints from the weekend. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)

Two days after a controversial call cost the Green Bay Packers a win, the NFL and the referees' union are reportedly nearing an end to a lockout that put replacement officials on the field since the start of the season.

According to several reports, the NFL and the union are close to a new deal that would allow the league's regular officials to return to work, possibly as early as this weekend.

ESPN reported Wednesday that "an agreement in principle is at hand," and The New York Times reported that the sides "''were closing in" on a way to end the impasse. ESPN cited unidentified sources from both sides; the Times cited a person briefed on the negotiations.

A person familiar with the situation tells The Associated Press that the NFL and its locked-out officials were meeting Wednesday. The sides met for about 14 hours starting Tuesday into early Wednesday. They broke for a few hours before reconvening in an attempt to resolve the dispute and end the firestorm over the use of replacement refs.

___

AP Sports Writer Richard Rosenblatt in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-09-26-Replacement%20Furor/id-7fc7735388c941f49ac1e2af0fe1bf4d

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FDA: Bully Sticks Recalled | Babble Pets

The company that manufacturers ?Boots and Barkley Beef Bully Sticks? is issuing a voluntary recall of the pet treats due to a risk of salmonella, says the US Food and Drug Administration.

The recalled five-inch, six-count packages of American Beef Bully Sticks were sold at Target from April to September of 2012.?The FDA?s press release left out a really important factoid, though. Boots and Barkley?s ?Bully Sticks? are, in fact, dried bull penises.

So the real news story here (to me) is that not only do dried bull penis pet treats exist, they?re sold at Target, which seems like a pretty mainstream place to just have dried bull penises laying around. Another angle to this story is that people apparently give their dogs dried bull penises to gnaw on, and don?t even pass out from the incredibly high skeeve factor.

?

According to the?FDA, animals that eat the recalled ?bully sticks? and humans who handle the product are at risk for contracting salmonella.

Pets with salmonella?infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever, and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has any of these signs, please contact your veterinarian.

People who may have handled the products should monitor themselves for symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever, advises the FDA. Rarely,?Salmonella?can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. If you?ve had any of these symptoms after handling the recalled bully sticks, please contact your healthcare provider.

I haven?t come in contact with salmonella-tainted dried bull penises, but I am close to vomiting right now. However, I?m probably not infected with anything. I?m just completely skeeved from learning that dogs gnawing on dried bull penises is a thing. In this case, there?s no need to contact my healthcare provider. Instead, I?ll just go look at pictures of animals doing ?jazz hands? and/or wash my brain with bleach.

The product comes in a clear plastic bag containing 6 bully sticks marked with bar code number 647263899189. Kasel Industries is recalling all lot numbers because the following lot codes tested positive through analysis by the State of Colorado Department of Agriculture: BESTBY20APR2014DEN, BESTBY01JUN2014DEN, BESTBY23JUN2014DEN, and BESTBY23SEP2014DEN.

No illnesses have been reported to date in animals or humans in connection with this problem, reports the FDA, which clearly does not care that their press release made me almost vomit.

(Photo Credit: US Food and Drug Administration)

Read more from Joslyn at?Strollerderby?and at her blog,?stark. raving. mad. mommy. You can also follow her on?Facebook?and?Twitter.

Recent Posts by Joslyn:
Daily Dose of Cute: Baby Pandas Around the World
Study: Dogs Really Do Feel Your Pain (12 Photos of Service Dogs in Action!)
Pup?s New Boots Lead to Awesome Dance Moves
Things That Will Brighten Up Your Day: 12 Animals Doing ?Jazz Hands? (Photos)

Source: http://blogs.babble.com/pets/2012/09/26/dried-bull-penis-pet-treats-recalled-has-nothing-to-do-with-inherent-skeeve-factor/

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To Unlock A Full Price AT&T iPhone 5, Just Restore It In iTunes

If you have bought an AT&T iPhone 5 without a contract over the past few days, chances are that you want to unlock it to use it on another carrier. The traditional process involves filling out an online form on AT&T's website, sending a fax (yes, a fax) to AT&T, waiting 5 to 7 days and restoring your phone. It turns out that it is much easier than that: just restore the phone in iTunes and it will be unlocked. We have confirmed the process with AT&T's technical support and successfully tried it with a T-Mobile SIM card. After restoring the device in iTunes, the user is prompted with the usual unlocking message: "Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked." This message wasn't enough for me though. I need more proof that I could use the iPhone on every carrier and abroad.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PZKFLjzgEp4/

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The Benefits of Business Interruption Insurance | Reference and ...

For easily and quickly addressing problems connected to a business? physical location with a risk of income loss, a certain type of small business insurance is designed, called ?Business Interruption Insurance?. Business interruption insurance can help mitigate losses which are not typically covered by standard property insurance policies. Adding this extra coverage can really make a positive impact in the event of the unexpected, and may mean the difference between the life and death of your business.

Feel Comfortable with the Extra Protection

With business interruption insurance, your business will be protected if there is a loss of income. This can occur when it?s become impossible to do business at your existing location. Examples of why this could happen include damages due to storms or other natural disasters, break-ins, or any other circumstances which require you to do business from a different location temporarily. This can really ease the financial burden of any business which is forced to cover expenses for two different physical locations (the original and the temporary) for the short-term.

Costs Coverage

Interruption coverage will often take care of any fixed expenses as well. These are determined by examining your business records to find typical costs of those expenses, such as utilities and rent. The amount of coverage granted by the benefits for income loss is also determined by previous financial records. Extra expenses, such as those incurred by simultaneously operating from a new location while maintaining the old location, may also be covered by a business interruption policy.

Protecting Your Investment

Purchasing business interruption insurance is likely one of the most valuable coverages you can maintain for your business. Unfortunately, it?s also one of the types of business insurance policies which is very typically overlooked by business owners. It?s far too easy to forget that a physical property is needed in order to keep running the business, and take it for granted. Additionally, many business owners may incorrectly assume that property insurance covers loss of income. In reality, a property policy typically only covers physical losses such as the building itself and any inventory. For more comprehensive protection, including business interruption insurance is crucial for anyone who is interested in the longevity of their company.

This entry was posted on September 25, 2012, 5:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://www.ourdartmouth.com/the-benefits-of-business-interruption-insurance.html

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Gaming crowdfunding platform Gambitious is live | Games industry ...

A new crowdfunding platform built specifically for games developers is now live.

Gambitious is selling itself as ?the first professional crowdfunding platform exclusively dedicated to the video game industry?. Though it takes its inspiration from the likes of Kickstarter, it differs in that it provides for both fan donations and equity investment.

The launch lineup includes seven titles, with a project by Duke Nukem?s 3D Realms also on the way.

Equity investing options are currently only legal in the EU, but it is expected that the practice will be legalised in the US in 2013. Until then American backers will only be able to participate via donations.

?Crowdfunding is causing a great seismic shift in how projects get funded, however, there are risks of crash-and-burn due to unfulfilled projects and unfinished games,? Gambitious CEO Paul Hanraets explained.

?Unlike other crowdfunding platforms, Gambitious is designed specifically for the video game industry and ups the ante of developer credibility, investor engagement and development cycle understanding.?

The day one lineup is as follows:

? ????????? Candy Kids by Abstraction Games, The Netherlands
? ????????? Cosmic DJ by Gl33k, USA
? ????????? Mushroom Men by Red Fly Studio, USA ?
? ????????? Piratoons by Fishing Cactus, Belgium
? ????????? Super Micro Heroes by Mutant Games, Spain
? ????????? Tink by Mimimi Productions, Germany
? ????????? Train Fever by Urban Games, Switzerland

Upcoming projects include:

? ????????? Earth No More by 3D Realms, USA ?
? ????????? Pantzer Pets by Gamundo, The Netherlands
? ????????? Stronghold Crusaders 2 by Firefly Studios, England

Source: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/gaming-crowdfunding-platform-gambitious-is-live/0103422

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How can humans touch Mars? Bring back a soil sample

A new report from NASA suggests that the agency prioritize bringing samples back from Mars to Earth for study. NASA will not make a specific plan for how they'll achieve this goal until after the president releases his 2014 budget in February. ?

By Mike Wall,?SPACE.com / September 25, 2012

This artist's concept shows a rendezvous in Mars orbit between a small container holding Red Planet samples and a vehicle that will fly them back to Earth.

NASA/JPL

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The next steps in NASA's Mars exploration strategy should build toward returning Martian rocks and dirt to Earth to search for signs of past life, a new report by the space agency's Red Planet planning group finds.

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The report, released today (Sept. 25) by the?Mars Program Planning Group?(MPPG), lays out a series of options that NASA could employ to get pieces of the Red Planet in scientists' hands here on Earth. The space agency is now mulling those options and could announce its chosen path by early next year, when the White House releases its proposed budget for fiscal year 2014.

"The first public release of what plans, you know, we definitively have would not be until the president presents that budget to Congress in February of 2013," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA?s Science Mission Directorate, told reporters today.

NASA put together the MPPG this past March to help?restructure its Mars strategy?in the wake of cuts to the space agency's robotic exploration program.

The MPPG was instructed to consider NASA's newly constrained fiscal situation and the priorities laid out by the U.S. National Research Council's Planetary Decadal Survey, which was released last year. President Barack Obama's directive that the agency get astronauts to the vicinity of?Mars?by the mid-2030s was another factor, NASA officials said.

The MPPG's focus on sample-return should thus come as no surprise. It was a top priority of the Decadal Survey, and sample-return could help spur and work in concert with NASA's plans for human exploration of Mars, Grunsfeld said. [7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars]

"Sample-return?represents the best opportunity to find symmetry technologically between the programs," he said. "Sending a mission to go to Mars and return a sample looks a lot like sending a crew to Mars and returning them safely."

Humans could even be involved in the sample-return process, according to the MPPG report. Astronauts aboard NASA's?Orion capsule, which is currently under development, could intercept the Martian sample in deep space, secure it in a contained environment, and bring it safely down to Earth.

"It is taking advantage of the human architecture, because we anticipate it will be there," Grunsfeld said. "And it potentially solves an issue of, when we return samples, somewhere we have to make sure that the samples are completely contained so there's no chance ? remote as it may be ? that there is something on Mars that could contaminate Earth."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/5NLAPK8AWVM/How-can-humans-touch-Mars-Bring-back-a-soil-sample

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Researchers uncover biochemical events needed to maintain erection

Public release date: 26-Sep-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ellen Beth Levitt
eblevitt@jhmi.edu
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Discovery in mice may lead to new therapies for erectile dysfunction in men

For two decades, scientists have known the biochemical factors that trigger penile erection, but not what's needed to maintain one. Now an article by Johns Hopkins researchers, scheduled to be published this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), uncovers the biochemical chain of events involved in that process. The information, they say, may lead to new therapies to help men who have erectile dysfunction.

"We've closed a gap in our knowledge," says Arthur Burnett, M.D., professor of urology at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the senior author of the study article. "We knew that the release of the chemical nitric oxide, a neurotransmitter that is produced in nerve tissue, triggers an erection by relaxing muscles that allow blood to fill the penis. We thought that was just the initial stimulus. In our research, we wanted to understand what happens next to enable that erection to be maintained."

In a study of mice, Burnett and his colleagues found a complex positive feedback loop in the penile nerves that triggers waves of nitric oxide to keep the penis erect. He says they now understand that the nerve impulses that originate from the brain and from physical stimulation are sustained by a cascade of chemicals that are generated during the erection following the initial release of nitric oxide. "The basic biology of erections at the rodent level is the same as in humans," he says.

The key finding is that after the initial release of nitric oxide, a biochemical process called phosphorylation takes place to continue its release and sustain the erection.

In a landmark study published in the journal Science in 1992, Burnett and his Johns Hopkins co-author, Solomon S. Snyder, M.D., professor of neuroscience (who is also an author on the current study), showed for the first time that nitric oxide is produced in penile tissue. Their study demonstrated the key role of nitric oxide as a neurotransmitter responsible for triggering erections.

"Now, 20 years later, we know that nitric oxide is not just a blip here or there, but instead it initiates a cyclic system that continues to produce waves of the neurotransmitter from the penile nerves," says Burnett.

With this basic biological information, it may be possible, according to Burnett, to develop new medical approaches to help men with erection problems caused by such factors as diabetes, vascular disease or nerve damage from surgical procedures. Such new approaches could be used to intervene earlier in the arousal process than current medicines approved to treat erectile dysfunction.

In particular, Burnett says, "The target for new therapies would be the protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylation of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). Now that we know the mechanism for causing the 'activated' form of nNOS in penile nerves, we can develop agents that exploit this mechanism to help with erection difficulties."

One of the agents studied by the researchers was forskolin, an herbal compound that has been used to relax muscle and widen heart vessels. They found that forskolin also ramps up nerves and can help keep nitric oxide flowing to maintain an erection.

"It has been a 20-year journey to complete our understanding of this process," says Snyder. "Now it may be possible to develop therapies to enhance or facilitate the process."

###

The new study, "Cyclic AMP Dependent Phosphorylation of Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase Mediates Penile Erection," was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), under grant number RO1DK067223.

In addition to Burnett and Snyder, the study article's authors are K. Joseph Hurt from the University of Colorado, Sena F. Sezen, Gwen F. Lagoda and Biljana Musicki from Johns Hopkins, and Gerald A. Rameau from Morgan State University.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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: 26-Sep-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ellen Beth Levitt
eblevitt@jhmi.edu
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Discovery in mice may lead to new therapies for erectile dysfunction in men

For two decades, scientists have known the biochemical factors that trigger penile erection, but not what's needed to maintain one. Now an article by Johns Hopkins researchers, scheduled to be published this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), uncovers the biochemical chain of events involved in that process. The information, they say, may lead to new therapies to help men who have erectile dysfunction.

"We've closed a gap in our knowledge," says Arthur Burnett, M.D., professor of urology at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the senior author of the study article. "We knew that the release of the chemical nitric oxide, a neurotransmitter that is produced in nerve tissue, triggers an erection by relaxing muscles that allow blood to fill the penis. We thought that was just the initial stimulus. In our research, we wanted to understand what happens next to enable that erection to be maintained."

In a study of mice, Burnett and his colleagues found a complex positive feedback loop in the penile nerves that triggers waves of nitric oxide to keep the penis erect. He says they now understand that the nerve impulses that originate from the brain and from physical stimulation are sustained by a cascade of chemicals that are generated during the erection following the initial release of nitric oxide. "The basic biology of erections at the rodent level is the same as in humans," he says.

The key finding is that after the initial release of nitric oxide, a biochemical process called phosphorylation takes place to continue its release and sustain the erection.

In a landmark study published in the journal Science in 1992, Burnett and his Johns Hopkins co-author, Solomon S. Snyder, M.D., professor of neuroscience (who is also an author on the current study), showed for the first time that nitric oxide is produced in penile tissue. Their study demonstrated the key role of nitric oxide as a neurotransmitter responsible for triggering erections.

"Now, 20 years later, we know that nitric oxide is not just a blip here or there, but instead it initiates a cyclic system that continues to produce waves of the neurotransmitter from the penile nerves," says Burnett.

With this basic biological information, it may be possible, according to Burnett, to develop new medical approaches to help men with erection problems caused by such factors as diabetes, vascular disease or nerve damage from surgical procedures. Such new approaches could be used to intervene earlier in the arousal process than current medicines approved to treat erectile dysfunction.

In particular, Burnett says, "The target for new therapies would be the protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylation of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). Now that we know the mechanism for causing the 'activated' form of nNOS in penile nerves, we can develop agents that exploit this mechanism to help with erection difficulties."

One of the agents studied by the researchers was forskolin, an herbal compound that has been used to relax muscle and widen heart vessels. They found that forskolin also ramps up nerves and can help keep nitric oxide flowing to maintain an erection.

"It has been a 20-year journey to complete our understanding of this process," says Snyder. "Now it may be possible to develop therapies to enhance or facilitate the process."

###

The new study, "Cyclic AMP Dependent Phosphorylation of Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase Mediates Penile Erection," was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), under grant number RO1DK067223.

In addition to Burnett and Snyder, the study article's authors are K. Joseph Hurt from the University of Colorado, Sena F. Sezen, Gwen F. Lagoda and Biljana Musicki from Johns Hopkins, and Gerald A. Rameau from Morgan State University.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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/2012-09/jhm-rub092512.php

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