Ipswich Business over Breakfast (BoB Club), Last Anchor Bar and ...

This successful business networking club in Ipswich meets every two weeks on a Tuesday. For those of you who may have tried networking before and felt under pressure to refer each week, try BoB Networking as we concentrate on quality referrals rather than quantity at our meetings. So come along and try our lively group and learn more about how Networking through BoB clubs can help both you and your business.

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Business over Breakfast (BoB) Clubs

www.bobclubs.com

BoB Clubs creates a secure and successful networking environment for members to cooperate and exchange referrals. Members actively seek and create opportunities for each other.

You and your business will thrive during your professionally structured meetings where you feel welcome, trusted and respected, whilst building confidence and potential business and profits.

You are encouraged to focus on quality referrals, not quantity, leaving you free to network without any undue pressure.

Constant support is on hand to help you save time, earn more money.

Interested in Running your Own Business over Breakfast (BoB) Clubs Event?

Raise the profile of your own business, among other benefits, by organising business networking events in your local area.

Opportunities currently exist with Business over Breakfast (BoB) Clubs to run their events in various UK locations. Click below for further information.

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Source: http://www.findnetworkingevents.com/events/index.cfm?action=eventdetail&eventid=60145&utm_source=sitefeeds&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=regionfeed

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PECHANGA: Isaak bringing the 'Sun' with him on current tour

Chris Isaak will perform songs from his new record, ?Beyond the Sun,? at his Aug. 11 concert at Pechanga Resort & Casino. COURTESY OF SCOTT NEWTON

Chris Isaak knows what he is.

?I put a lot of value on being a performer and entertainer, and some people go, ?I?m an artist,? the rest of us, we?re singers and entertainers,? Isaak said from the road in Phoenix, Ariz. ?To me, I am proud of the fact that everyone is out there having a good time. Not everyone out there came to see me in concert, I know that. And the biggest compliment I get is people saying, ?I didn?t know who you were, but I had a great time, I?m coming back.??

Isaak is being modest, a lot of people know exactly who he is. All you have to do is harken back to the ultra sexy music video for the 1989 single, ?Wicked Game,? featuring Helena Christensen. He?s been featured in movie roles, had a TV show and has been all over the music business.

The ladies love Isaak, and he has to be well aware of that sex appeal when you see him on stage. But, in speaking with him, its less about being sexy and exclusively about putting on a show.

?We dress up like James Brown?s Famous flames and we dance on stage and do moves ? nobody does moves together as a band anymore,? he said. ?We get people up on stage and dance around, get out into the crowd, and we keep changing it up. It is important you know, when I go see a band and they just sing a song and then sing the next song, to me, that gets really old pretty quick.?

His ?Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing? was featured in Stanley Kubrick?s final film, ?Eyes Wide Shut,? and singles ?Life Will Go On? and ?Two Hearts? were also featured in films, and certainly, if you come to his Aug. 11 show at Pechanga Resort & Casino, you will hear some of those famous tunes. In addition, he will be cranking out tunes from his latest record, ?Beyond the Sun,? a tribute to the glory days of Sun Records, featuring songs by Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and more.

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?That music really is the music that pushed me over that threshold that maybe that?s what I do want to do for a living,? Isaak said. ?When I started off, I was living in a small town, my dad was driving a forklift, mom working in a potato chip factory. Being in the music business just seemed like a fantasy. But that music was so good and moved me so much, even though I had no idea how to get there, there were no maps to buy, I said, ?I?m going.??

More than catapulting him toward the music business, it was an essential part of his life growing up and his relationship with his family.

?My dad had all those records growing up, we had a box of records in our house and we just wore them out,? Isaak said. ?When I made this record, my dad was real sick and he?s since passed away two years now, but I?m glad he heard it before he passed away. He listened to it and when he got done, and my dad always only talked to my mom and she would translate, he said to her, ?That?s the way I would have sung it.? For me, it was a really good feeling. And for him, it had to be, ?Here?s my kid listening to my music.? He knew he had an influence on me.?

Now 57 years old, Isaak is looking toward the future, and it includes performing music as long as he?s allowed.

?I was just talking to my bass player and my drummer, we?ve had the band for 30 years, I said, ?We gotta keep healthy because I?d like to keep playing until I just fall over,?? he said. ?It is the most fun I have and it is something I?m good at, and as long as people want see it, I want to keep doing it.

?If you have ever been in a band with people you like, you don?t want to give it up. One time I was helping to induct Bob Wills into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he had bought a bunch of property and he told his band, ?Hey, we can all build houses right next to each other, that way when we retire, we can all play music together.? I just love that about him and I can relate.?

One of those bandmates is longtime drummer Kenney Dale Johnson who is battling Leukemia and someone Isaak misses greatly on the current tour.

?Leukemia, man, that?s a scary word when you hear it,? Isaak said. ?But we?re trying to get him out here and at least come out and play a little, and so far he?s doing great. I told him he has to come back, because I?m paying him.?

CHRIS ISAAK
7 p.m. Aug. 11
Pechanga Theater, Pechanga Resort & Casino, 45000 Pechanga Parkway, Temecula
$50-$70
877-711-2946 or pechanga.com

Source: http://blog.pe.com/2013/08/01/pechanga-isaak-bringing-the-sun-with-him-on-current-tour/

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20th annual Jamie Hill Memorial Golf Tournament

Press release submitted by city of Bettendorf

BETTENDORF: The 20th Annual Jamie Hill Memorial Golf Tournament will be held on Saturday, August 24 at Palmer Hills Golf Course. The tournament is sponsored by the Friends of Bettendorf Parks Foundation, Advance Homes, and Isle of Capri Casino.

4-Person preferred ball, open to first 36 paid teams to register. Limited spots for foursomes are left, so don't hesitate to get registered for this event with an 8:00 A.M. shotgun start.

Give it your best shot Hole-in-One Prize, win $10,000 cash.

$75.00 per person (includes Mulligans and Skins) $80.00 after August 1.

Price includes awards presentation, dinner and beverages, greens fees and golf cart and prizes.

Proceeds will go to the Friends of Bettendorf Parks Foundation.

For reservations and information, call 563-332-8296.

Source: http://www.qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=647857

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Feminists exclude Weiner, Filner from worst women's rights ...

• 

The National Organization for Women released their ?gallery of worse offenders when it comes to women?s rights? in an email to supporters Thursday.

All the offenders, according to NOW?s list, are Republicans. Noticeably absent from the gallery, however, are San Diego Democratic Mayor Bob Filner and New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.

Eight women have accused Filner of sexual harassment, including inappropriate touching. Weiner recently admitted to continuing to engage in sexting even after resigning from Congress in 2011 for similar activities.

Filner has refused to resign and Weiner says he is staying in the race for mayor.

NOW?s worst women?s rights offenders gallery focuses solely on pro-life Republican men. ?Let?s keep our reproductive rights in our hands, not in the hands of these men!? NOW introduces the gallery.

In addition to their pro-life viewpoints, some of these Republican politicians are on the list also due to their stances on sexual assault in the military, gay rights, pay equity and Violence Against Women Act.

?The Republican leadership?s anti-woman agenda is so unpopular with most voters that they have resorted to a stealth strategy ? such as attaching anti-choice bills to unrelated measures, or using misleading rhetoric to defend their extremist legislation,? NOW president Terry O?Neill wrote in the email to supporters Thursday. ?You can help expose their covert tactics by reviewing our gallery of offenders, sharing the images with your network and taking action today.?

The list includes: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Texas Rep. Michael Burgess, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and E.W. Jackson, a candidate for Virginia lieutenant governor.

While the national NOW did not include Filner and Weiner in their gallery of worst women?s rights offenders NOW?s chapters in San Deigo and New York have voiced disappointment in Filner and called on Weiner to drop out of the race.

?We endorsed him with very high hopes of what he would do for women,? Gloria Johnson, president of San Diego NOW told CNN?s Gut Check. ?But we are disappointed in what we know about his recent actions.?

She added that she ?and the majority of NOW members agree? that he does not have NOW?s support.

?Ending harassment on the job is one of NOW?s top priorities,? Johnson said.

New York?s NOW chapter called for Weiner to drop out of the race shortly after he admitted to post-resignation sexting.

?As if we didn?t already have enough evidence of Anthony Weiner?s utter lack of judgment, impulse control and honesty, these latest revelations show the degree to which his candidacy distracts us from the important business of choosing the next leader of New York City,? Sonia Ossorio, President of NOW-NYC, said in a statement. ?He is clearly and compellingly unfit for public office and the sooner comes to this realization, the better for the people of New York.?

NOW did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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Source: http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/01/feminist-group-excludes-weiner-filner-from-worst-offenders-of-womens-rights-list/

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Russia gives Snowden asylum, Obama-Putin summit in doubt

By Timothy Heritage and Steve Holland

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia rejected U.S. pleas and granted American fugitive Edward Snowden a year's asylum on Thursday, letting the former spy agency contractor slip out of a Moscow airport after more than five weeks in limbo while angering the United States and putting in doubt a planned summit between the two nations' presidents.

The United States wanted Russia to send Snowden home to face criminal charges including espionage for disclosing in June secret American internet and telephone surveillance programs. The White House signaled that President Barack Obama may boycott a September summit with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Snowden, whose disclosures triggered an international furor over the reach of U.S. spy operations as part of its counterterrorism efforts, thanked Russia for his temporary asylum and declared that "the law is winning."

Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden's Russian lawyer, said the 30-year-old had found shelter in a private home of American expatriates.

Putin's move aggravated relations with the United States that were already strained by Russian support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country's bloody civil war and a host of other issues.

"We see this as an unfortunate development and we are extremely disappointed by it," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters in Washington. "We are evaluating the utility of a summit, in light of this and other issues, but I have no announcement today on that.

Other high-level U.S.-Russian talks were also put in doubt.

Discussions planned for next week between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and their Russian counterparts are now "up in the air," according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, has avoided the hordes of reporters trying to find him since he landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport from Hong Kong on June 23. He gave them the slip again as he left the transit area where he had been holed up.

State television showed Snowden, wearing a backpack and a blue button-up shirt, getting into a gray car at the airport, driven by a young man in a baseball cap.

"Over the past eight weeks we have seen the Obama administration show no respect for international or domestic law but in the end the law is winning," Snowden, whose first leaks were published two months ago, was quoted as saying by the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group, which has assisted him.

"I thank the Russian Federation for granting me asylum in accordance with its laws and international obligations."

Grainy images on state television showed Snowden's document, which is similar to a Russian passport, and revealed that he had been granted asylum for a year from July 31.

'MOST WANTED MAN'

"He is the most wanted man on planet Earth," Kucherena told Reuters.

Kucherena said Snowden wanted to rent an apartment and find work in Russia, and had no immediate plans to leave.

Snowden, who had his U.S. passport revoked by Washington, had bided his time in the transit area between the runway and passport control, which Russia considers neutral territory.

"He needs to work. He is not a rich man, and the money that he had, he has of course, spent on food," said Kucherena, who sits on two high-profile Russian government advisory bodies.

"Snowden is an expert, a very high-level expert, and I am receiving letters from companies and citizens who would eagerly give him a job. He will not have any problems," the lawyer said.

Snowden already has been offered a job by Russia's top social networking site.

A pledge not to publish more information that could harm the United States was the condition under which Putin said Snowden could receive safe harbor. "Edward assured me that he is not planning to publish any documents that blacken the American government," Kucherena said.

Snowden was accompanied by Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks legal researcher. "We would like to thank the Russian people and all those others who have helped to protect Mr. Snowden. We have won the battle - now the war," WikiLeaks said on Twitter.

"I am so thankful to the Russian nation and President Vladimir Putin," the American's father, Lonnie Snowden, told Russian state television.

Bruce Fein, an attorney for Lonnie Snowden, spoke twice on Thursday with Kucherena. The discussions were about Edward Snowden's safety - "he is fine" - and about arranging a visit to Russia by Snowden's father and his legal team to see his son, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

Lonnie Snowden has not had direct contact with his son yet and "nobody knows where he (Edward) is," the source said.

The visit to Russia could occur in the next three weeks or so, the source said.

U.S. LAWMAKERS INCENSED

Prominent U.S. lawmakers - Republicans and Democrats - condemned Russia's action and urged Obama to take stern retaliatory steps beyond the issue of the September summit.

It is not clear whether Obama might also consider a boycott of the G20 summit in Russia in September, immediately after the planned summit with Putin, or of the Winter Olympics, which Russia will host in the city of Sochi next February.

"Russia has stabbed us in the back, and each day that Mr. Snowden is allowed to roam free is another twist of the knife," said Senator Chuck Schumer, a close Obama ally and fellow Democrat who urged Obama to recommend moving out of Russia the summit of G20 leaders planned for St. Petersburg.

Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, already sharp critics of Putin, called Russia's action a disgrace and a deliberate effort to embarrass the United States. They said the United States should retaliate by pushing for completion of all missile-defense programs in Europe and moving for another expansion of NATO to include Russian neighbor Georgia.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov played down concerns about the impact on relations with the United States.

"Our president has ... expressed hope many times that this will not affect the character of our relations," he said.

Snowden hopes to avoid the same fate as Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army soldier convicted on Tuesday on criminal charges including espionage and theft related to releasing classified data through WikiLeaks.

Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela have offered Snowden refuge, but there are no direct commercial flights to Latin America from Moscow and he is concerned the United States would intercept any flight he takes.

Snowden also has received a marriage proposal via Twitter from Anna Chapman, the glamorous former agent who was deported to Russia from the United States in a Cold-War style spy swap in 2010.

Putin has said he wants to improve relations with the United States amid differences over the Syrian civil war, his treatment of political opponents and foreign-funded non-governmental organizations. He would have risked looking weak if he had handed Snowden over to the U.S. authorities.

More than half of Russians have a positive opinion of Snowden and 43 percent wanted him to be granted asylum, a poll released by independent research group Levada said this week.

(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel, Gabriela Baczynska, Alexei Anishchuk, Katya Golubkova and Gleb Stolyarov in Moscow, Mark Felsenthal and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington, and Andrew Osborn in London, Editing by Will Dunham and Jim Loney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-gives-snowden-asylum-obama-putin-summit-doubt-034622610.html

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Egypt: Protesters gather to demand Morsi's ouster

CAIRO (AP) ? Thousands of opponents and supporters of Egypt's Islamist president began massing in city squares in competing rallies Sunday, gearing up for a day of massive nationwide protests that many fear could turn deadly as the opposition seeks to push out Mohammed Morsi.

Waving Egyptian flags, crowds descended on Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo, one of multiple sites in Cairo and around the country where they plan rallies.

On the other side of Cairo, thousands of the Islamist leader's backers gathered not far from the presidential palace in a show of support.

The demonstrations on Sunday, the anniversary of Morsi's inauguration as Egypt's first freely elected leader, are the culmination of growing polarization since he took office.

The president is joined in one camp by his Islamist allies, including the Muslim Brotherhood and more hard-line groups. The other is an array of secular and liberal Egyptians as well as moderate Muslims and Christians ? and what the opposition says is a broad sector of the general public that has turned against the Islamists.

There is a sense among opponents and supporters of Morsi that Sunday's rally is a make-or-break day, hiking worries of violence. Already at least seven people, including an American, have been killed in clashes between the two camps over the past week, mainly in Nile Delta cities and the coastal city of Alexandria.

The opposition believes that with sheer numbers in the street, it can pressure Morsi to step down ? perhaps with the added weight of the powerful military if it signals the president should go. But Islamists have vowed to defend Morsi.

In an interview published Sunday in The Guardian, Morsi said he had no plans to meet the protesters' demand for early presidential election.

"If we changed someone in office who (was elected) according to constitutional legitimacy ? well, there will (be) people or opponents opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later, they will ask him to step down," Morsi told the British daily.

"There is no room for any talk against this constitutional legitimacy," he said.

As the crowds swelled in Tahrir, birthplace of the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak, traffic in the normally capital's normally clogged streets was light at midday as many residents chose to stay home for fear of violence. Banks were closing early and most government departments were either closed for the day or were thinly staffed.

Thousands of Morsi's supporters have staged a sit-in since Friday in front of the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque near the Ittihadiya presidential palace. In the evening, anti-Morsi crowds plan to march on the palace, and Morsi supporters have vowed to defend it if it is attacked.

The opposition protests emerge from a petition campaign by a youth activist group known as Tamarod, Arabic for "rebel." For several months, the group has been collecting signatures on a call for Morsi to step down. On Saturday the group announced it had more than 22 million signatures ? proof, it claims, that a broad sector of the public no longer wants Morsi in office.

It was not possible to verify the claim. Morsi's supporters have questioned the authenticity and validity of the signatures, but have produced no evidence of fraud.

Morsi, who has three years left in his presidential term, claims that Mubarak loyalists are behind the planned protests. His supporters say Tamarod is a cover for thugs loyal to Mubarak.

The 22 million signatures, while they have no legal weight, deal a symbolic blow to Morsi at a time when he is widely seen by Egyptians to have failed to tackle the country's most pressing problems, from surging crime rates and high unemployment to fuel shortages and power outages.

If verified, the number of people who signed the petition calling on Morsi to step down would be nearly twice the number who voted for him a year ago in a run-off that he won with around 52 percent of the vote.

Adding to his troubles, eight lawmakers from the country's interim legislature announced their resignation Saturday to protest Morsi's policies. The 270-seat chamber was elected early last year by less than 10 percent of Egypt's eligible voters, and is dominated by Islamists.

A legal adviser to Morsi also announced his resignation late Saturday in protest of what he said was Morsi's insult of judges in his latest speech on Wednesday.

With a sense of doom hanging over the country, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last week gave the president and his opponents a week to reach a compromise and warned that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel."

Morsi had called for national reconciliation talks in a Wednesday speech but offered no specifics. Opposition leaders dismissed the call as cosmetics.

Asked by The Guardian whether he was confident that the army would not intervene if the country becomes ungovernable, Morsi replied, "Very."

The Egyptian leader, however, said he did not know in advance of el-Sissi's last week's comments.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-protesters-gather-demand-morsis-ouster-093244528.html

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BlueStacks Adds A Free Hardware Option To Its ?Netflix For Gaming' With GamePop Mini

Mobile virtualization startup BlueStacks only recently revealed the GamePop, its mobile home gaming console that offers all-you-can play gaming for a flat monthly fee, but it's already expanding the line. Today, the company is announcing GamePop Mini, a version of the GamePop that offers completely free hardware with a standard $6.99 monthly GamePop service subscription, with smaller hardware that's yours to keep after 12 months even if you decide to cancel your GamePop account.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TMAGug592ZE/

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Deal of the Day: 75% off the Amzer Skin Case for iPhone 5

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The Amzer Skin Case is made out of 100% premium silicone and is a great, lightweight option for protecting your iPhone 5. The durable silicone absorbs any shock your device may receive from accidental drops or bumps, keeping it just like new. The smooth silicone gives you a sure and lasting grip on your iPhone 5 and prevents slides on flat surfaces.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/SYARxMAT3wg/story01.htm

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Men who can't produce sperm face increased cancer risk

June 20, 2013 ? Men who are diagnosed as azoospermic -- infertile because of an absence of sperm in their ejaculate -- are more prone to developing cancer than the general population, a study led by a Stanford University School of Medicine urologist has found. And a diagnosis of azoospermia before age 30 carries an eight-fold cancer risk, the study says.

"An azoospermic man's risk for developing cancer is similar to that for a typical man 10 years older," said Michael Eisenberg, MD, PhD, assistant professor of urology at the medical school and director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics. Eisenberg is lead author of the study, published online June 20 in Fertility and Sterility.

Diagnoses of male infertility and azoospermia are surprisingly common in the United States. About 4 million American men -- 15 percent of those ages 15-45 -- are infertile. Of these, some 600,000 -- about 1 percent of those of reproductive age -- are azoospermic. "There is evidence that infertility may be a barometer for men's overall health," Eisenberg said, "and a few studies have found an association of male infertility with testicular cancer." The new study, he said, not only assigns the bulk of infertile men's increased cancer risk to those with azoospermia, but also suggests that this risk extends beyond testicular cancer.

Eisenberg conducted most of the analysis for the study at Stanford, using data gathered from the Texas Cancer Registry and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he completed his medical training. The study's senior authors are Larry Lipshultz, MD, and Dolores Lamb, PhD, professors of urology at Baylor.

The study population consisted of 2,238 infertile men who were seen at a Baylor andrology clinic from 1989 to 2009. Their median age was 35.7 when they were first evaluated for the cause of their infertility. Of those men, 451 had azoospermia, and 1,787 did not. There were otherwise no apparent initial differences between the two groups.

Azoospermia can arise for two reasons. Obstructive azoospermia is caused by a blockage that prevents otherwise plentiful, fit sperm produced in the testes from reaching the ejaculate. But a screen of about one-fourth of the azoospermic men in the study population indicated that the vast majority suffered from the non-obstructive variety: Their testes didn't produce enough sperm for any to reach their ejaculate, most likely because of genetic deficiencies of one sort or another. Fully one-fourth of all the genes in the human genome play some role in reproduction, Eisenberg noted, so there are a lot of ways for the capacity to sire offspring to go astray.

After undergoing a semen analysis, the men were followed for an average of 6.7 years to see which of them turned up in the Texas Cancer Registry. (Fortunately for the analysis, most people tend to stay in the state where they've grown up, said Eisenberg.) Their rates of diagnosed cancer incidence were then compared with age-adjusted cancer-diagnosis statistics of Texas men in general.

In all, a total of 29 of the 2,238 infertile men developed cancer over a 5.8-year average period from their semen analysis to their cancer diagnosis. This contrasted with an expected 16.7 cases, on an age-adjusted basis, for the male Texas population in general (which, Eisenberg said, closely reflects cancer incidence rates for the entire U.S. population). This meant that infertile men were 1.7 times as likely to develop cancer as men in the general population. This is considered a moderately increased risk.

But comparing the cancer risk of azoospermic and nonazoospermic infertile men revealed a major disparity: The azoospermic men were at a substantially elevated risk -- nearly three times as likely to receive a diagnosis of cancer as men in the overall population. Infertile men who weren't azoospermic, in contrast, exhibited a statistically insignificant increased cancer risk of only 1.4 times that of men in the overall population.

By excluding men whose cancer diagnosis came within two or three years of their infertility evaluation, the researchers were able to rule out the possibility that azoospermia caused by an undiagnosed cancer had affected the statistics.

While the study wasn't large enough to delineate which specific types of cancer pushed azoospermic men's incidence rates up, the diagnoses they received covered a wide range of cancers: brain, prostate and stomach tumors, as well as melanoma, lymphoma, testicular cancer and cancer of the small intestine. The findings suggest that genetic defects that result in azoospermia may also broadly increase a man's vulnerability to cancer, Eisenberg said, supporting the notion that azoospermia and cancer vulnerability may share common genetic causes.

The study, which was funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, is the first to examine the cancer risk of azoospermia in particular, or to link it to non-germ-cell cancers. Previous studies have failed to consistently identify any increased risk for nontesticular cancers in infertile men, whether azoospermic or otherwise. In those previous studies, however, azoospermic men couldn't be separately examined because sperm analyses weren't available.

Most striking of all, said Eisenberg, was the cancer risk among azoospermic men who first had their semen analyzed before age 30. They were more than eight times as likely to subsequently develop cancer than Texas males in the general population of the same age. In contrast, there was no relationship between age of semen analysis and risk of cancer for nonazoospermic men.

The good news, Eisenberg said, is that while the cancer risk among young azoospermic men was quite large compared to their same-age peers, their relative youth means that their absolute risk of contracting cancer during the follow-up period remained small. The bad news, he said, is that men in their 30s often don't have a primary health-care provider. He advised that young men who are diagnosed as azoospermic should be aware of their heightened risk and make sure to get periodic checkups with that in mind.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/fdzhd_2xLmQ/130620214033.htm

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91% Frances Ha

All Critics (95) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (86) | Rotten (9)

This is an odd film (creepier than it knows), and even if you feel the atmospheric company of Dunham-ism, with a little of Whit Stillman, Henry Jaglom, and Woody Allen, the core influence on Noah Baumbach's film is fifty years older or more.

Baumbach usually builds his films around difficult protagonists, but Frances is entirely endearing, at once silly and deep, hopeless and promising.

The dialogue and editing are zippy and generally charming, combining with the tart observations of 20-something culture to create a nice frisson.

A black-and-white salute to the French New Wave (the score is borrowed from Georges Delerue, composer of many a Truffaut and Godard film) that manages to be very much of this moment ...

The movie's a love letter to an actress and her character, but by the end you may feel like an intervention is more in order.

The obvious love of New York City echoes Woody Allen at his best. But "Frances Ha" is very much its own film, a story of life and love and messy rooms.

A refreshing amount of buoyancy to dance and charm its way through Quarter-Life Crisis territory. One of the best performances of Greta Gerwig's career to date

Frances Ha is a sympathetic but not uncritical depiction of a girl's gradual evolution into a woman; one that never condescends by forcing her to abandon all her quirks and impish qualities in the final act... An absolute delight, this is.

Indie darling Gerwig has a great deal to do with the picture's success: she's disarmingly likable...

There's a level of audacity beneath the lightweight whimsy in this unassuming low-budget comedy.

"Frances Ha makes a star out of Gerwig, and she's the kind of star we need: a goofy one we can feel tender about but never underestimate."

'I can't account for my own bruises,' Frances says, as if she were a clumsy kid with an adult's vocabulary. Does the remark refer to more than the abrasions on her skin?

A celebration of cinema, New York City and the distinctive charms of actress Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha was co-written by Gerwig and its director, Noah Baumbach, and it's the best film either has made.

There's a thin line between comedy and tragedy, and Greta Gerwig walks it remarkably well.

There's depth and realism in the way Frances Ha shows aspiration versus reality.

Gerwig, beyond a doubt, is immeasurably appealing, and Frances Ha is tailor-made to showcase her gifts better than anything she's ever been in.

...if you hold your nose and simply wallow through the stench of self-aggrandizement, you'll be rewarded with an experience that will actually tug on your emotions.

Frances Ha provides a sharp, fleet, and very funny look at female friendship and the acceptance of adult responsibilities.

This is very minimalist storytelling much of which feels improvised in front of the camera. The film is more of a character situation than a character story.

Frances Ha is endearing, kind and, in many ways, Noah Baumbach's best movie to date.

It's a film that bears all of the zingy dialogue and sharp characterizations of Baumbach's other films ("The Squid and the Whale," "Greenberg") but with more of a generosity of spirit towards its characters.

Funny and touching, Frances Ha may very well be the most eloquent take yet on a generation in flux.

The light Frances Ha provides skittish moments of heartbreak and confusion on the humorous path to adulthood, but it sends a comforting message that our fate may use the same language as our dreams even if it doesn't tell the same story.

Easily Baumbach's warmest and most upbeat film to date.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frances_ha_2013/

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Long Distance Friendships: 5 Louise-Approved Tips for Making ...

My life is one big long distance relationship.?

?

I figure this is simply a result of adulthood. Granted, it's a truth that I bemoan and groan and fight, kicking and screaming against, but a truth nonetheless.?

?

People grow up, people get jobs, people move to Japan. It happens and in my brief adult-life-so-far I've found that generally one of two things happen when close friends move away: good intentions are set but touch is lost or you carry on -- and in some magic, cosmic way, your friendship gets forged in candy-colored steel. (My steel is candy-colored because my friendships are one of the few things I get all sappy and hearts/butterflies over, but your steel may be any style of your choosing. May I suggest skulls?)?

?

I move around a lot. Since I was a kid, moving around to new neighborhoods, states, there was even a new country in the mix, was something I just got used to. Very early on, I developed a motto that still serves me really well: "Don't hold on to a friendship that doesn't want you, but cling like a pit bull to one that does." Awwwwww, I'll wait while all of y'all sew that into pillows. (Note: I've since learned that pit bulls do NOT have "locking jaws"; just don't want to perpetuate any mean doggie stereotypes.)

?

But really, while there is always a mourning period of losing the intimacy of the everyday with a friend or partner (my husband moving to Japan for a year to study nerd things), I've found that with a little effort, dedication and forgiveness, long-distance friendships can be the antidote to when nobody knows your name, and you need the comfort of someone "just getting it."

?

A few months into living in O'ahu, I went out with some of my husband's new classmates. I tried to be on my best behavior -- witty, weird, wise-ass -- I thought I was charming the crowd. Turns out "charming" was not the way most people thought of me that night. Try "loud" and "overly aggressive" and "Did Louise just steal that woman's lighter?" (For the record I DID NOT.)?

?

If it hadn't been for the knowledge that I have a small army of people 3000+ miles away who love me not only in spite of my social disgraces but BECAUSE of them, I would have let that incident fester and boil and keep me away from social situations for my duration in O'ahu. The magic of a late night phone call with someone who wishes that they had been there with you during "the lighter incident," if only to laugh at the absurdity of it all, does wonders to restore one's confidence.?

?

So in the spirit of National Long Distance Friendship Day (I made that up, but don't you have a friend you need to call?), here is a list of the tips, tricks and forgivable blunders that have allowed me to delight in a collection of real friends across the country and internationally.?

?

1. Make regular phone dates.

?

I am officially the worst at calling people. Everyone who knows me knows this, and it's not OK.?

?

Making weekly phone dates make you prioritize your long distance friend for a certain amount of time, carve out a part of your schedule to just "hang out" with them. Just like old times.?

?

More than that, sometimes spontaneously picking up your phone and reporting the big and little things to your friends restores a sense of normalcy to a far apart friendship. Yes, it's not the same as everyday contact, but by it does keep you in each other's lives.?

?

Sometimes it does take some effort, like when my husband was living in Japan. Aside from Skype (more on that later), buying a calling card was one of the best things I did. When exciting things happened to me, I could call him, granted with a few more digits to dial, and yelp and holler over the phone almost like he was just across town.

?

I have a phone date with my friend Bethany later today, and I programmed an alarm in my phone to remind myself to call. Bethany is the very best at forgiving me for not making our dates, and for this reason alone, I started using my phone alarm so that I wouldn't abuse that kindness.?

?

Behold! My reminder on my piece of crap phone!?

?

Which brings me to?

?

2. Forgive.

?

Birthdays will be wished late, people will feel left out, tons of texts or e-mails will be misinterpreted, "Why didn't you tell me?!" stuff will happen.

?

Forgive, forgive, forgive. Apologize. Forgive.?

?

Having long distance friendships is hard, and life happens, so sometimes things fall by the wayside, but holding grudges only creates more distance. In my experience, as hurt as you are by your friend forgetting your birthday, they feel twice as horrible and panicked when they REALIZE they missed your birthday.?

?

I'm telling you, the cell phone calendar with reminders is the greatest invention of the modern age.?

?

3. Don't hesitate to do the nice stuff.

?

My friend Liz, one of my oldest and most skilled long distance friends, once said to me, "When I see something that might make my friend happy, if I can afford it, I will get it for them, because you shouldn't hesitate when you could do something nice for your friends." MY GOD, I have nice people in my life.?

?

But it's true. Nothing makes me shed tears of joy quicker or laugh real laughs faster than getting a little gift in the mail, or a "This made me think of you" picture of a dog in a dress sent to my phone. And inversely, there is something really uplifting about sending a little surprise to someone you care about.?

?

Sometimes I really have to force myself off my lazy ass to get to the post office to mail shit, but in the end I'm always glad I did. You will be too.?

?

4. Skype.

?

What did people do before Skype??

?

My friend Joy, her boyfriend and her cat, Deryk, just moved to a new apartment, and while I'm SO BUMMED that I can't be there to break it in with her, an upcoming Skype session will allow me to get a tour and be not QUITE so out of the loop. Thanks, Skype!

?

When my husband was living in Japan, Skype single-handedly preserved, if not strengthened our relationship. Unlike phones, you have to make a little more effort to actually be in a certain place, at a certain time, and look at a person.?

?

Not to mention, you can Skype someone into a show, party, bat mitzvah -- anything! And for a moment, it's like they're not so far away.?

?

5. Save up for a visit.

?

Money sucks. I say that almost everyday. But really, coming from one of the cheapest people ever born, save up for that rendezvous with your BFF, it's worth it.?

?

And you know what's even more fun than planning a trip to see a friend? Surprising them on a special occasion.?

?

I screamed, cried, and peed a little when, on my first birthday in Hawai'i, my friend Joy surprised me by flying all the way from LA just to see me (and hang in Hawai'i, let's be honest).?

?

There's something so renewing about spending even a few days with a dear friend. You'll fly or drive away from each other with your roots a little deeper intertwined and feeling, I promise, a little less lonely in the world.?

?

If you can make the big trip to see your friend, it's like the phone date, Skype session, and "I miss you!" gift all rolled up into one.?

?

Not flying across the Pacific, but one of the happiest days of my life. My friends, Joy and Marty, surprised me at LAX when I had a three hour layover at 1am. I'm the luckiest.?

?

So that's what I do.?

?

It may seem simplistic, but in my experience, just seeing, spelled out, how easy it can be to evolve a friendship from near distance to long distance can assuage the FREAK OUT that can occur when faced with leaving your friend-family.?

?

So I want to know: What do you do?

?

How do you stay in touch with your long distance friends? How far away is your farthest friend? Do you also collect friends across the world?

?

Source: http://www.xojane.com/relationships/long-distance-friendships-how-i-make-them-work

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McDreamy part of all-American team at Le Mans ? Artesia News

In this June 9, 2011 file photo, U.S actor and auto racing driver Patrick Dempsey poses for photographs in Le Mans, France. The only all-American lineup at the 24 Hours of Le Mans might very well be the one that draws the most interest from non-racing fans. The No. 77 Dempsey Del Piero-Proton Porsche will be headlined by Patrick Dempsey. (AP Photo/Vincent Michel, File)

The only all-American lineup at the 24 Hours of Le Mans might very well be the one that draws the most interest from non-racing fans.

The No. 77 Dempsey Del Piero-Proton Porsche will be headlined by Patrick Dempsey ? you know, ?McDreamy? of ?Grey?s Anatomy? fame. He is joining co-drivers Joe Foster and Patrick Long in the GTE Am division and driving a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

?I think anybody who?s a road racer wants to race here,? Dempsey said. ?Having done it in the past and coming back and doing it with an all-American driver lineup with Patrick Long and Joe Foster with a great team at Proton-Dempsey-Del Piero, it?s a tremendous honor. It means everything to us, and it?s humbling, it?s exciting, it?s inspirational, and it?s so moving to be a part of this event. It?s a dream come true to come back here.?

It will be the actor?s second time competing in the endurance race in Le Mans, France, but this time he appears to have a legitimate shot at a class victory.

The 47-year-old Dempsey shared a Ferrari at Le Mans in 2009 with Foster, his motorsports business partner. New to the entry this year is Long, a two-time Le Mans winner making his 10th start in the race. Long turned the third-fastest lap in class during the one-day Le Mans pre-test earlier this month.

The team was also buoyed by its second-place result at Laguna Seca last month in Dempsey?s last outing. The team appeared poised to win until co-driver Andy Lally was passed for the class lead following a restart on the final lap of the four-hour race.

To be considered a contender has Dempsey on the cusp of what once seemed to be an unreachable goal.

?We would sit around the kitchen or in the trailer dreaming about when we?d go to Le Mans and getting on the podium,? he said. ?This has always been a dream and a goal. So to come back here ? it was a dream come true and a turning point in my life to have done it in 2009, and I haven?t had a win yet, and I would love to if I could get my first win to be at Le Mans. It would just be so, so special. It would be deeply moving certainly. I know the drivers on the team can do it.?

It will be Long?s first race teaming with Dempsey and Foster. He was a late addition to the team in place of Dempsey Del Piero team principal Michael Avenatti, whose business commitments outside of racing prevented him from competing at Le Mans. But it didn?t take him long to feel comfortable with the team assembled.

?Once Patrick and Joe got in the car and picked it up really quickly, I started to feel really positive about our chances,? Long said. ?That was sort of capped off by the test that we had just two weeks ago.?

Dempsey has been an active participant in sports car racing now for nearly a decade, and Long has been impressed by his progress.

?He definitely is underrated,? Long said. ?I?ve watched him and Joe partner up and go very seriously at racing a little bit from a distance. Working alongside him has certainly been a different experience. He?s a very intense competitor, very focused. What I underestimated was his fitness. We went testing in (in Italy) and the team was worn out. They were looking at me. I?ve run with them previously over here in Europe and they were like, ?We?re out of tires; we?re out of fuel.? I?m like, ?This guy still wants to drive and he?s here to put the numbers up and not just show up and look the part.??

___

DOUBLE DUTY: Brian Vickers has a lot of road in front of him this weekend as the only driver attempting double duty in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races.

Vickers is scheduled to run the Nationwide race on Saturday at Road America for Joe Gibbs Racing before heading West to Sonoma, Calif., for the Cup race in a Michael Waltrip Racing entry on Sunday.

?I?m looking forward to both of them,? said Vickers. ?It?s going to take a little different mentality and technique going from Road America which is a little bit faster place to Sonoma which is a slower, more technical road race, but I?m up for the challenge and excited.?

In the past, most Cup drivers have spent the majority of their time in Sonoma and flew to the Nationwide race just in time for the start. Vickers, though, will spend most of the weekend in Wisconsin with JGR as he focuses on his Nationwide effort. He?s currently 10th in the championship race, 100 points behind leader Regan Smith.

Jason Bowles will drive MWR?s No. 55 for him at Sonoma in practice and qualifying, and Vickers will have to start at the back of the field when he arrives Sunday. Vickers was able to find a silver lining in knowing he?ll start at the back.

?I think there?s opportunities at Sonoma to get to do a little bit different pit strategy,? he said. ?Knowing that you don?t really have track position to protect kind of can create opportunities. We?ve been there in the past where we?ve had either bad qualifying or something happened during the race and we had to come in and pit or penalties on pit road, like last year we had the penalty on pit road and had to go to the back and we worked our way back up to fourth, but as much as it hurt us, it also created opportunities.?

___

It?s been a rough few weeks for Gustavo Yacaman, the Grand-AM Series driver who was placed on two-race probation by series officials for ?his involvement in various incidents? during the June 1 race in Detroit.

His first stint back on the track since the hand-slapping couldn?t have gone any worse.

The Colombian started eighth at Mid-Ohio on Saturday and was trying to make a pass on Memo Rojas ? the same driver he wrecked at Detroit ? when the two made contact. It led to a flat tire for Yacaman, who drove off the track and through a gravel trap, which ruptured the oil line.

The Michael Shank Racing entry then burst into flames, causing significant damage to the No. 6 Ford-Riley. It also led to harsh criticism of Yacaman from racers from various series, many who instantly took to social media to lambast the 22-year-old.

Among those showing zero sympathy was Scott Pruett, Rojas? co-driver who never got a chance to drive at Detroit because of the accident with Yacaman.

?I feel really bad for Mike Shank, but not the driver,? Pruett said. ?It will be interesting to see what Grand-Am does, since he?s on probation.?

Shank on Sunday supported his driver through a series of tweets, saying Yacaman drives for the team this season and ?that is not changing? while acknowledging he ?has made bad decisions and I promise u that we will correct this path.?

Shank said the team has obligations to the sponsor and the 10 employees that work on the car, and tweeted, ?Our focus is now on the massive rebuild effort to try and get the 6 car to Watkins.?

All wasn?t lost at Mid-Ohio for the Shank organization. Ozz Negri marked his return to the No. 60 with a fourth-place finish with co-driver John Pew. The car had to come back from significant damage of its own suffered in Detroit, and Negri had missed three races while he continued to recover from an offseason training injury to his leg.

?It?s great having Ozz back, it?s like a missing family member that?s finally back,? Pew said. ?The whole team is excited that he?s back. The guys did a tremendous job getting the car back from Detroit. Right down to the last nut and bolt it rolled off the trailer just about perfect. It was an awesome car. It?s too bad we couldn?t get a podium, but I?m pretty happy with a fourth place.?

This entry was posted on June 19, 2013, 11:36 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://www.artesianews.com/2013/06/19/ap-news/entertainment-ap-news/mcdreamy-part-of-all-american-team-at-le-mans/

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Restoring appropriate movement to immune cells may save seriously burned patients

Public release date: 19-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sue McGreevey
smcgreevey@partners.org
617-724-2764
Massachusetts General Hospital

Treatment with recently identified molecule helps neutrophils travel to site of injury, may reduce sepsis, other complications

Advances in emergency medicine and trauma surgery have had a significant impact on survival of patients in the days immediately after major injuries, including burns. Patients who survive the immediate aftermath of their injuries now are at greatest risk from infections particularly the overwhelming, life-threatening immune reaction known as sepsis or from inflammation-induced multiorgan failure. Now, a device developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators that measures the movement of key immune cells may help determine which patients are at greatest risk for complications, and a novel treatment that directly addresses the cause of such complications could prevent many associated deaths.

"One in every three patients with burn injuries that dies in an intensive care unit does so because of septic complications," says Daniel Irimia, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Surgery, corresponding author of a report in the June FASEB Journal. "In the days immediately after injury, white blood cells called neutrophils can lose their ability to move to the site of an injury. In an animal model of burn injury, we found that death due to septic complications can be prevented by a treatment that restores the proper movement of neutrophils."

The most abundant type of white blood cell, neutrophils are part of the innate immune system and the body's first line of defense against infections. Normally, neutrophils are drawn towards the site of a infection by chemical signals from bacteria or injured cells. However, it has recently been discovered that in patients with serious burn injuries neutrophils' ability to follow these signals becomes impaired soon after the injury. Not only does that impairment reduce the availability of the cells to fight infection at the site of injury, but misguided neutrophils also can attack healthy tissue, contributing to organ failure. The current study was designed to analyze changes in the speed and direction of neutrophil movement after burn injury and to investigate whether recently identified molecules called resolvins, which normally act to terminate the inflammatory process after an infection has cleared, could also restore normal neutrophil motion after burns.

Using a microfluidic device that measures neutrophil movement developed at the MGH BioMEMS Resource Center, the investigators first confirmed that the ability of neutrophils from burn-injured rats to move towards a chemical signal of injury progressively deteriorates in both speed and accuracy as time passes. While cells from uninjured animals moved quickly and directly through a series of microchannels towards the injury signal, cells from blood samples taken 9 days after the injury became trapped in the device or reversed direction. The researchers then showed that application of resolvin D2 significantly improved the in vitro migratory ability of neutrophils from burned animals.

Experiments in living rats revealed that treatment with resolvin D2 restored appropriate neutrophil motion, an effect that lasted at least two days after treatment ended. In addition, when burn-injured animals were subjected to a second sepsis-inducing injury, treatment with resolvin D2 significantly increased survival. For example, in a group of rats injected with a bacterial toxin nine days after a burn injury, all of those pre-treated with resolvin survived, while all untreated animals died.

"Our ability to measure neutrophil movement in great detail gave us the information we needed to develop the optimal dosage and duration of resolvin treatment for the burned rats. Our results also indicate that neutrophil motility could be a useful biomarker for the actual risk of septic complications in patients," says Irimia, an assistant professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School who is also affiliated with Shriner's Hospital for Children. "Our experiments in the animal model suggest that a resolvin-based treatment could prevent those complications by restoring the body's own resources, allowing it to respond to secondary infections, which could save hundreds of patients with burns every year. "

###

Lead author of the paper is Tomohiro Kurihara, MD, previously of the MGH Department of Surgery and now at Keio University in Tokyo . Additional co-authors are Caroline Jones, PhD, Yong-Ming Yu, MD, PhD, Susumu Watada, MD, Ronald Tompkins, MD, ScD, and Shawn Fagan, MD, MGH Surgery; and Alan Fischman, MD, MGH Radiology. The study was supported by grants from Shriners Burns Hospital and by National Institutes of Health grants GM-092804, GM-007035, and DE-019938.

Massachusetts General Hospital (http://www.massgeneral.org), founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."

---

[ | 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: 19-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sue McGreevey
smcgreevey@partners.org
617-724-2764
Massachusetts General Hospital

Treatment with recently identified molecule helps neutrophils travel to site of injury, may reduce sepsis, other complications

Advances in emergency medicine and trauma surgery have had a significant impact on survival of patients in the days immediately after major injuries, including burns. Patients who survive the immediate aftermath of their injuries now are at greatest risk from infections particularly the overwhelming, life-threatening immune reaction known as sepsis or from inflammation-induced multiorgan failure. Now, a device developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators that measures the movement of key immune cells may help determine which patients are at greatest risk for complications, and a novel treatment that directly addresses the cause of such complications could prevent many associated deaths.

"One in every three patients with burn injuries that dies in an intensive care unit does so because of septic complications," says Daniel Irimia, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Surgery, corresponding author of a report in the June FASEB Journal. "In the days immediately after injury, white blood cells called neutrophils can lose their ability to move to the site of an injury. In an animal model of burn injury, we found that death due to septic complications can be prevented by a treatment that restores the proper movement of neutrophils."

The most abundant type of white blood cell, neutrophils are part of the innate immune system and the body's first line of defense against infections. Normally, neutrophils are drawn towards the site of a infection by chemical signals from bacteria or injured cells. However, it has recently been discovered that in patients with serious burn injuries neutrophils' ability to follow these signals becomes impaired soon after the injury. Not only does that impairment reduce the availability of the cells to fight infection at the site of injury, but misguided neutrophils also can attack healthy tissue, contributing to organ failure. The current study was designed to analyze changes in the speed and direction of neutrophil movement after burn injury and to investigate whether recently identified molecules called resolvins, which normally act to terminate the inflammatory process after an infection has cleared, could also restore normal neutrophil motion after burns.

Using a microfluidic device that measures neutrophil movement developed at the MGH BioMEMS Resource Center, the investigators first confirmed that the ability of neutrophils from burn-injured rats to move towards a chemical signal of injury progressively deteriorates in both speed and accuracy as time passes. While cells from uninjured animals moved quickly and directly through a series of microchannels towards the injury signal, cells from blood samples taken 9 days after the injury became trapped in the device or reversed direction. The researchers then showed that application of resolvin D2 significantly improved the in vitro migratory ability of neutrophils from burned animals.

Experiments in living rats revealed that treatment with resolvin D2 restored appropriate neutrophil motion, an effect that lasted at least two days after treatment ended. In addition, when burn-injured animals were subjected to a second sepsis-inducing injury, treatment with resolvin D2 significantly increased survival. For example, in a group of rats injected with a bacterial toxin nine days after a burn injury, all of those pre-treated with resolvin survived, while all untreated animals died.

"Our ability to measure neutrophil movement in great detail gave us the information we needed to develop the optimal dosage and duration of resolvin treatment for the burned rats. Our results also indicate that neutrophil motility could be a useful biomarker for the actual risk of septic complications in patients," says Irimia, an assistant professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School who is also affiliated with Shriner's Hospital for Children. "Our experiments in the animal model suggest that a resolvin-based treatment could prevent those complications by restoring the body's own resources, allowing it to respond to secondary infections, which could save hundreds of patients with burns every year. "

###

Lead author of the paper is Tomohiro Kurihara, MD, previously of the MGH Department of Surgery and now at Keio University in Tokyo . Additional co-authors are Caroline Jones, PhD, Yong-Ming Yu, MD, PhD, Susumu Watada, MD, Ronald Tompkins, MD, ScD, and Shawn Fagan, MD, MGH Surgery; and Alan Fischman, MD, MGH Radiology. The study was supported by grants from Shriners Burns Hospital and by National Institutes of Health grants GM-092804, GM-007035, and DE-019938.

Massachusetts General Hospital (http://www.massgeneral.org), founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."

---

[ | 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/2013-06/mgh-ram061913.php

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White House says they have nearly completed executive actions on gun control (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/313490398?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Rett Syndrome protein surrenders some of its secrets

June 17, 2013 ? Discovery of a mutant gene responsible for a disease is a milestone, but for most conditions, it may be only a first step towards a treatment or cure. Understanding Rett Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, is further complicated by the fact that the implicated gene controls a suite of other genes. Two papers, published in today's Nature Neuroscience and Nature, reveal key steps in how mutations in the gene for methyl CpG-binding protein (MECP2) cause the condition. The Rett Syndrome Research Trust (RSRT) funded this work with generous support from partners Rett Syndrome Research Trust UK and Rett Syndrome Research & Treatment Foundation.

Rett Syndrome is a single-gene neurological disorder that affects girls. Development slows during the first year of life, then regresses, as toddlers lose speech, mobility, and hand use. Many girls have seizures, orthopedic and severe digestive problems, as well as breathing and other autonomic impairments. Most live into adulthood and require total, round-the-clock care. Rett Syndrome affects about 1 in 10,000 girls born each year.

The papers result from a collaboration between the labs of Adrian Bird, Ph.D., Buchanan Professor of Genetics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh, and Michael Greenberg, Ph.D., Department Chair and Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.

The Bird and Greenberg labs have been working together since 2011 as members of the MECP2 Consortium along with Gail Mandel, a Howard Hughes Investigator at Oregon Health and Sciences University. The Consortium, launched by RSRT with a $1 million lead gift by RSRT Trustee Tony Schoener and his wife Kathy, fosters novel alliances among leading scientists to interrogate the molecules at the root of the syndrome.

Professor Bird discovered the MeCP2 protein in 1992. In 2007, he showed that affected brain cells in a mouse model of Rett Syndrome can regain function, even in late stages of the disease, suggesting that the disorder is curable. Despite this unexpected breakthrough the function of the Rett protein remains elusive.

In search of the function, the Bird lab set out to identify the key domains of the protein. Mutations found in individuals suffering from Rett led them to their answer. By focusing only on "missense" mutations, which alter a single amino acid, the researchers were able to hone in on two key domains where the mutations aggregated. The first was the well-known methyl binding domain (MBD) which is the site where MeCP2 binds to methylated DNA, thereby modulating the expression of downstream genes. The second key domain is where MeCP2 binds to a molecule called NCoR/SMRT, a large multi-protein machine that shuts down genes. The Bird lab coined this domain the NCoR/SMRT Interaction Domain (NID).

"Further proof of the importance of the MBD and the NID came from mining the genomes of 6503 healthy people. The result was the exact mirror image of the situation seen in Rett. All along the MECP2 gene normal people have non-disease causing alterations, known as polymorphisms. However, no alterations of any kind could be found in the MBD and the NID, indicating that these domains are prized real estate that cannot be tampered with," said Matthew Lyst, postdoctoral researcher and lead author on the Nature Neuroscience paper.

The most frequent Rett mutation in the NID is at amino acid # 306. When the researchers recapitulated the mutation in mice, the animals suffered symptoms similar to girls with Rett. At fault: loss of the interaction between the MeCP2 and NCoR/SMRT proteins and further evidence of the importance of the NID.

"We knew that MeCP2 binds to the genome at methylated sites, but nothing more than that. We now know that its function depends on the ability to bring NCoR/SMRT co-repressors to the DNA," Prof. Bird summed up.

The Nature paper continues the story through another amino acid location, 308, which is very near the 306 mutation in the human version of the gene. Sensory input leads to the addition of a phosphate group at the 308 site and this alters the ability of the MeCP2 protein to interact with the NCoR/SMRT co-repressor, thereby affecting the expression of downstream proteins. The Greenberg lab created mice with a mutation at 308 that are unable to attach a phosphate group. As a result, genes that MeCP2 normally controls are mis-regulated.

"The MeCP2 308 mice have reduced brain weight, motor system abnormalities, and lower seizure thresholds that correspond to the deceleration of head growth, motor system impairments and seizure disorders found in Rett. This suggests that the modification of 308 is critical for the normal function of MeCP2 and its disruption might contribute to Rett," said Daniel Ebert, postdoctoral researcher and lead author on the Nature paper.

Whether the phosphates are added to MeCP2 depends on activity of the neuron. The Greenberg lab has found that in early life, sensory input leads to modification of MeCP2 at multiple sites, including 308. These changes appear to be critical for proper brain development, and their absence in Rett Syndrome may begin to explain what goes wrong in the brains of girls with this devastating disorder.

Each step deciphered in the genetic choreography behind Rett Syndrome is a step towards treatment. "To design an effective small molecule therapy, one needs to understand the underlying mechanisms of how MeCP2 functions and how mutations in MeCP2 lead to disease. Both papers published today make significant progress by providing compelling evidence for dysregulation of the MeCP2-NCoR interaction underlying key aspects of Rett Syndrome," said Prof. Greenberg.

What still isn't known is which genes the co-repressors target. And that will be the next leap in traveling the road from a mutant gene to a little girl who wrings her hands, has seizures and can't talk or walk. Discovering the other molecular events might reveal intersecting or redundant genetic pathways that drug developers can tweak in the search for treatments.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/ohn4IuWHhU8/130617122506.htm

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In Cambodia's jungles, a lost world is found (+ video)

A team of archaeologists from Australia has found an ancient city buried for more than 1,000 years beneath Cambodia's soupy jungles.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 17, 2013

Hidden in the depths of the Cambodian jungle lays an ancient city, undiscovered until now (News2242).

If at seems at times that our globe is already thoroughly mapped and explored, all its corridors charted and its mysteries explained, then the latest news out of Southeast Asia is solacing ? there are, it seems, still lost worlds to be discovered, combed out from beneath a millennium of accumulated jungle in remote Cambodia.

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A team of archaeologists from Australia has found an ancient city that has for more than 1,000 years escaped detection ? not even looters had found the mysterious place, buried in Cambodia?s otherwise heavily trafficked Siem Reap province, which sees about a million tourists each year, Australia's The Age reported.

Known as Mahendraparvata, the lost world is some 1,200-years old, about 350 years older than the Angkor Wat temple complex, also in Siem Reap. Like Angkor, it was part of the Hindu-Buddhist Khmer Empire that from about 800 A.D. to 1400 A.D. ruled?Southeast Asia, using slave labor to construct opulent, arrestingly beautiful stone temples.

Damian Evans, director of the University of Sydney's archaeological research center in Cambodia, and a small group of colleagues working in Cambodia?s northwestern corridor first mapped the area, Cambodia?s Phnom Kulen mountain, using airborne Lidar, a remote-sensing technology that uses lasers. The Lidar data revealed structures hidden beneath Technicolor green of rural Cambodia?s thick jungles, giving scientists the basic outline of the almost mythical place ??as well as the wish to know more.

Weeks later, guided by an ex-Khmer Rogue soldier familiar with the terrain, the team hacked their way to the remnants of this once-booming cosmopolis:?abandoned, overgrown temples, as well as evidence of roads and canals.

Scientists are unsure why Mahendraparyata was abandoned ??possibly, the area had suffered too much?environmental degradation to support the empire?s burgeoning population. Turned over to time, the royal city was worked to rubble as a millennium of industrious vegetation and monsoon rains did their worst. The mountain itself, once home to the peak of Cambodian culture, would go on to witness one of its worst moments, becoming a Khmer Rouge stronghold in the 1970s.

Throughout all that, the mountain has remained a spiritual place, host to tens of thousands of pilgrims each year.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/B3ccJe-9oA4/In-Cambodia-s-jungles-a-lost-world-is-found-video

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