LOS ANGELES (AP) — The head of the Secret Intelligence Service, where James Bond works, has returned from the dead.
Played by Judi Dench, M was killed off in the most recent Bond adventure, "Skyfall." But Dench resurrected the character in a video released Thursday as part of the Weinstein Co.'s appeal to the Motion Picture Association of America to change the rating of Dench's latest starring vehicle, "Philomena."
The MPAA has given the film an R rating for language, but the Weinstein Co. wants it changed to PG-13. Company co-founder Harvey Weinstein appeared on "CBS This Morning" on Thursday to discuss his fight with the ratings organization.
He previously battled the MPAA over the rating for the 2011 documentary "Bully" and the title of "The Butler" this year, which became "Lee Daniels' The Butler."
Weinstein introduced the Dench video, which shows the actress in M's office, saying, "Just when you thought I was dead." She then appears to send an agent on a mission, asking, "Are you familiar with MPAA?"
NASA's Hubble sees asteroid spouting 6 comet-like tails
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7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Cheryl Gundy gundy@stsci.edu 410-338-4707 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Astronomers viewing our solar system's asteroid belt with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have seen for the first time an asteroid with six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel.
Unlike all other known asteroids, which appear simply as tiny points of light, this asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, resembles a rotating lawn sprinkler. Astronomers are puzzled over the asteroid's unusual appearance.
"We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," said lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles. "Even more amazing, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust. That also caught us by surprise. It's hard to believe we're looking at an asteroid."
Jewitt leads a team whose research paper appears online in the Nov. 7 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
P/2013 P5 has been ejecting dust periodically for at least five months. Astronomers believe it is possible the asteroid's rotation rate increased to the point where its surface started flying apart. They do not believe the tails are the result of an impact with another asteroid because they have not seen a large quantity of dust blasted into space all at once.
Scientists using the Pan-STARRS survey telescope in Hawaii announced their discovery of the asteroid Aug. 27. P/2013 P5 appeared as an unusually fuzzy-looking object. The multiple tails were discovered when Hubble was used to take a more detailed image Sept. 10.
When Hubble looked at the asteroid again Sept. 23, its appearance had totally changed. It looked as if the entire structure had swung around.
"We were completely knocked out," Jewitt said.
Careful modeling by team member Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Lindau, Germany, showed that the tails could have been formed by a series of impulsive dust-ejection events. She calculated that dust-ejection events occurred April 15, July 18, July 24, Aug. 8, Aug. 26 and Sept. 4. Radiation pressure from the sun stretched the dust into streamers.
Radiation pressure could have spun P/2013 P5 up. Jewitt said the spin rate could have increased enough that the asteroid's weak gravity no longer could hold it together. If that happened, dust could slide toward the asteroid's equator, shatter and fall off, and drift into space to make a tail. So far, only about 100 to 1,000 tons of dust, a small fraction of the P/2013 P5's main mass, has been lost. The asteroid's nucleus, which measures 1,400 feet wide, is thousands of times more massive than the observed amount of ejected dust.
Astronomers will continue observing P/2013 P5 to see whether the dust leaves the asteroid in the equatorial plane. If it does, this would be strong evidence for a rotational breakup. Astronomers will also try to measure the asteroid's true spin rate.
Jewitt's interpretation implies that rotational breakup must be a common phenomenon in the asteroid belt; it may even be the main way small asteroids die.
"In astronomy, where you find one, you eventually find a whole bunch more," Jewitt said. "This is just an amazing object to us, and almost certainly the first of many more to come."
Jewitt said it appears P/2013 P5 is a fragment of a larger asteroid that broke apart in a collision roughly 200 million years ago. There are many collision fragments in orbits similar to P/2013 P5's. Meteorites from these bodies show evidence of having been heated to as much as 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. This means the asteroid likely is composed of metamorphic rocks and does not hold any ice as a comet does.
###
For images and more information about P/2013 P5, visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2013/52
For more information about NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
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NASA's Hubble sees asteroid spouting 6 comet-like tails
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Cheryl Gundy gundy@stsci.edu 410-338-4707 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Astronomers viewing our solar system's asteroid belt with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have seen for the first time an asteroid with six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel.
Unlike all other known asteroids, which appear simply as tiny points of light, this asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, resembles a rotating lawn sprinkler. Astronomers are puzzled over the asteroid's unusual appearance.
"We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," said lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles. "Even more amazing, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust. That also caught us by surprise. It's hard to believe we're looking at an asteroid."
Jewitt leads a team whose research paper appears online in the Nov. 7 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
P/2013 P5 has been ejecting dust periodically for at least five months. Astronomers believe it is possible the asteroid's rotation rate increased to the point where its surface started flying apart. They do not believe the tails are the result of an impact with another asteroid because they have not seen a large quantity of dust blasted into space all at once.
Scientists using the Pan-STARRS survey telescope in Hawaii announced their discovery of the asteroid Aug. 27. P/2013 P5 appeared as an unusually fuzzy-looking object. The multiple tails were discovered when Hubble was used to take a more detailed image Sept. 10.
When Hubble looked at the asteroid again Sept. 23, its appearance had totally changed. It looked as if the entire structure had swung around.
"We were completely knocked out," Jewitt said.
Careful modeling by team member Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Lindau, Germany, showed that the tails could have been formed by a series of impulsive dust-ejection events. She calculated that dust-ejection events occurred April 15, July 18, July 24, Aug. 8, Aug. 26 and Sept. 4. Radiation pressure from the sun stretched the dust into streamers.
Radiation pressure could have spun P/2013 P5 up. Jewitt said the spin rate could have increased enough that the asteroid's weak gravity no longer could hold it together. If that happened, dust could slide toward the asteroid's equator, shatter and fall off, and drift into space to make a tail. So far, only about 100 to 1,000 tons of dust, a small fraction of the P/2013 P5's main mass, has been lost. The asteroid's nucleus, which measures 1,400 feet wide, is thousands of times more massive than the observed amount of ejected dust.
Astronomers will continue observing P/2013 P5 to see whether the dust leaves the asteroid in the equatorial plane. If it does, this would be strong evidence for a rotational breakup. Astronomers will also try to measure the asteroid's true spin rate.
Jewitt's interpretation implies that rotational breakup must be a common phenomenon in the asteroid belt; it may even be the main way small asteroids die.
"In astronomy, where you find one, you eventually find a whole bunch more," Jewitt said. "This is just an amazing object to us, and almost certainly the first of many more to come."
Jewitt said it appears P/2013 P5 is a fragment of a larger asteroid that broke apart in a collision roughly 200 million years ago. There are many collision fragments in orbits similar to P/2013 P5's. Meteorites from these bodies show evidence of having been heated to as much as 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. This means the asteroid likely is composed of metamorphic rocks and does not hold any ice as a comet does.
###
For images and more information about P/2013 P5, visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2013/52
For more information about NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Crisco was the original product made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which contains trans fats. Today, Crisco has only small amounts of the fats.
Tony Dejak/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Crisco was the original product made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which contains trans fats. Today, Crisco has only small amounts of the fats.
Tony Dejak/ASSOCIATED PRESS
If the Food and Drug Administration has its way, an era of food technology will soon end. The agency announced Thursday it is aiming to ban partially hydrogenated vegetable oils from all food products.
Margaret Hamburg, the FDA commissioner, said at a press conference that her agency has come to the preliminary conclusion that the oils "are not generally recognized as safe for use in food."
If the agency makes this decision final, it will mean a complete ban on this ingredient.
Health concerns about the trans fats in the oil have been mounting for years. The biggest concern? Trans fats raise the risk of heart disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that an FDA ban on trans fats could prevent an additional 7,000 deaths from heart disease each year and up to 20,000 heart attacks each year.
But it took decades for health officials to arrive at that conclusion.
Partially hydrogenated oil came on the market about a century ago when food scientists figured out how to add hydrogen atoms to a molecule of oil. Typically, it's soybean oil.
Kantha Shelke, a scientist with the Institute of Food Technologists in Chicago, says this makes liquid oil more solid, and stable. Depending on how you add the hydrogen atoms, you can make the oil as solid as you like.
"So we could literally dial the needle to as solid as you wanted, and get the kind of results we were looking for," says Shelke.
These results include cookies or doughnuts that didn't leave a ring of oil behind on a paper towel and don't start tasting rancid after a few weeks.
Also, this oil doesn't have a strong taste of its own so you can use lots of it without ruining the flavor.
"It's really absolutely perfect, and it's also perfect for the American style of shopping: You buy boxes and boxes of crackers, put them in your pantry," says Shelke. "You open this box six months or eight months or a year later, and it would still taste and smell just as good as it was on the day you bought it!"
By the time the government came up with laws regulating food additives, people had been eating this form of oil for decades with no apparent problems.
David Schleifer, a researcher at a nonprofit group called Public Agenda, in New York, says most scientists in the 1980s actually thought this kind of oil was probably safer than lard or palm oil. Schleifer wrote a recent journal article on the history of trans fats.
McDonald's, Schleifer says, previously used beef tallow for frying. "People freaked out about beef tallow because it had saturated fat, and McDonald's responded to that public outcry by replacing beef tallow with trans fat," he says.
Everything changed in the mid-1990s. New studies showed that trans fats raised bad cholesterol and increased the risk of heart disease.
In fact, they were even worse than saturated fats. In 2006, after a campaign by public health advocates, the FDA required food companies to add trans fats to food labels.
Most companies responded by drastically cutting their use of partially hydrogenated oil. That had a big impact on consumption — Americans consumed around 1 gram per day in 2012, down from 4.6 grams per day in 2003.
But not every company has eliminated it from every product.
You can still find trans fats in microwavable popcorn, frozen pies and all kinds of mass-produced baked goods. Often, food companies use just a little bit. If there's less than half a gram of trans fats per serving they can list the amount of trans fats in their products as zero.
A complete ban on trans fats would be a big deal for food manufacturers, says Shelke. She says food companies can drop the trans fats, but their products won't be quite the same.
"They have to go back to re-educating consumers that cookies and consumers don't last forever," says Shelke.
The cookies will have a shorter life, but consumers' lives might be longer.
This combination of Sept. 10 and 23, 2013 photos provided by NASA shows six comet-like tails radiating from a body in the asteroid belt, designated P/2013 P5. The Hubble Space Telescope discovered it in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. A research team led by the University of California at Los Angeles believes the asteroid is rotating so much that its surface is flying apart. It’s believed to be a fragment of a larger asteroid damaged in a collision 200 million years ago. (AP Photo/NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt - UCLA)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — This is one strange asteroid.
The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a six-tailed asteroid in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Scientists say they've never seen anything like it. Incredibly, the comet-like tails change shape as the asteroid sheds dust. The streams have occurred over several months.
A research team led by the University of California, Los Angeles, believes the asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, is rotating so much that its surface is flying apart. It's believed to be a fragment of a larger asteroid damaged in a collision 200 million years ago.
Scientists using the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii spotted the asteroid in August. Hubble picked out all the tails in September.
The discovery is described in this week's issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Peptide derived from cow's milk kills human stomach cancer cells in culture
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Eileen Leahy jdsmedia@elsevier.com 732-238-3628 Elsevier Health Sciences
Findings reported in the Journal of Dairy Science show promise for treatment of gastric cancer
Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2013 New research from a team of researchers in Taiwan indicates that a peptide fragment derived from cow's milk, known as lactoferricin B25 (LFcinB25), exhibited potent anticancer capability against human stomach cancer cell cultures. The findings, published in the Journal of Dairy Science, provide support for future use of LFcinB25 as a potential therapeutic agent for gastric cancer.
"Gastric cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide, especially in Asian countries," says Wei-Jung Chen, PhD, of the Department of Biotechnology and Animal Science of National Ilan University, Taiwan Republic of China. "In general, the main curative therapies for gastric cancer are surgery and chemotherapy, which are generally only successful if the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage. Novel treatment strategies to improve prognosis are urgently needed."
Investigators evaluated the effects of three peptide fragments derived from lactoferricin B, a peptide in milk that has antimicrobial properties. Only one of the fragments, LFcinB25 reduced the survival of human AGS (Gastric Adenocarcinoma) cells in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner.
Under a microscope the investigators could see that after an hour of exposure to the gastric cancer cells, LFcinB25 migrated to the cell membrane of the AGS cells, and within 24 hours the cancer cells had shrunken in size and lost their ability to adhere to surfaces. In the early stages of exposure, LFcinB25 reduced cell viability through both apoptosis (programmed cell death) and autophagy (degradation and recycling of obsolete or damaged cell parts). At later stages, apoptosis appeared to dominate, possibly through caspase-dependent mechanisms, and autophagy waned.
"This is the first report describing interplay between apoptosis and autophagy in LFcinB-induced cell death of cancer cells," says Dr. Chen.
The research also suggested a target, Beclin-1, which may enhance LFcinB25's cytotoxic action. Beclin-1 is a protein in humans that plays a central role in autophagy, tumor growth, and degeneration of neurons. In this study, the investigators found that cleaved beclin-1 increased in a time-dependent manner after LFcinB25-exposure, suggesting to the authors a new approach in drug development that may boost the anticancer effects of LFcinB25.
"Optimization of LFcinB using various strategies to enhance further selectivity is expected to yield novel anticancer drugs with chemotherapeutic potential for the treatment of gastric cancer," concludes Dr. Chen.
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Peptide derived from cow's milk kills human stomach cancer cells in culture
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Eileen Leahy jdsmedia@elsevier.com 732-238-3628 Elsevier Health Sciences
Findings reported in the Journal of Dairy Science show promise for treatment of gastric cancer
Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2013 New research from a team of researchers in Taiwan indicates that a peptide fragment derived from cow's milk, known as lactoferricin B25 (LFcinB25), exhibited potent anticancer capability against human stomach cancer cell cultures. The findings, published in the Journal of Dairy Science, provide support for future use of LFcinB25 as a potential therapeutic agent for gastric cancer.
"Gastric cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide, especially in Asian countries," says Wei-Jung Chen, PhD, of the Department of Biotechnology and Animal Science of National Ilan University, Taiwan Republic of China. "In general, the main curative therapies for gastric cancer are surgery and chemotherapy, which are generally only successful if the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage. Novel treatment strategies to improve prognosis are urgently needed."
Investigators evaluated the effects of three peptide fragments derived from lactoferricin B, a peptide in milk that has antimicrobial properties. Only one of the fragments, LFcinB25 reduced the survival of human AGS (Gastric Adenocarcinoma) cells in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner.
Under a microscope the investigators could see that after an hour of exposure to the gastric cancer cells, LFcinB25 migrated to the cell membrane of the AGS cells, and within 24 hours the cancer cells had shrunken in size and lost their ability to adhere to surfaces. In the early stages of exposure, LFcinB25 reduced cell viability through both apoptosis (programmed cell death) and autophagy (degradation and recycling of obsolete or damaged cell parts). At later stages, apoptosis appeared to dominate, possibly through caspase-dependent mechanisms, and autophagy waned.
"This is the first report describing interplay between apoptosis and autophagy in LFcinB-induced cell death of cancer cells," says Dr. Chen.
The research also suggested a target, Beclin-1, which may enhance LFcinB25's cytotoxic action. Beclin-1 is a protein in humans that plays a central role in autophagy, tumor growth, and degeneration of neurons. In this study, the investigators found that cleaved beclin-1 increased in a time-dependent manner after LFcinB25-exposure, suggesting to the authors a new approach in drug development that may boost the anticancer effects of LFcinB25.
"Optimization of LFcinB using various strategies to enhance further selectivity is expected to yield novel anticancer drugs with chemotherapeutic potential for the treatment of gastric cancer," concludes Dr. Chen.
###
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HPV can damage genes and chromosomes directly, whole-genome sequencing study shows
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Darrell E. Ward Darrell.Ward@osumc.edu 614-293-3737 Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
COLUMBUS, Ohio The virus that causes cervical, head and neck, anal and other cancers can damage chromosomes and genes where it inserts its DNA into human DNA, according to a new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC James).
It's long been known that cancer-causing types of human papillomavirus (HPV) produce two viral proteins, called E6 and E7, which are essential for the development of cancer. However, they are not sufficient to cause cancer. Additional alterations in host-cell genes are necessary for cancer to develop. Here, scientists identified a new mechanism by which HPV may damage host DNA directly and contribute to cancer development.
Published in the journal Genome Research, this laboratory study used whole-genome sequencing to investigate the relationship between the HPV and host genomes in human cancers.
"Our sequencing data showed in vivid detail that HPV can damage host-cell genes and chromosomes at sites of viral insertion," says co-senior author David Symer, MD, PhD, assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at the OSUCCC James.
"HPV can act like a tornado hitting the genome, disrupting and rearranging nearby host-cell genes," Symer explains. "This can lead to overexpression of cancer-causing genes in some cases, or it can disrupt protective tumor-suppressor genes in others. Both kinds of damage likely promote the development of cancer."
"We observed fragments of the host-cell genome to be removed, rearranged or increased in number at sites of HPV insertion into the genome," says co-senior author Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, epidemiology and otolaryngology and the Jeg Coughlin Chair of Cancer Research at the OSUCCC James. "These remarkable changes in host genes were accompanied by increases in the number of HPV copies in the host cell, thereby also increasing the expression of viral E6 and E7, the cancer-promoting genes."
HPV causes about 610,000 cancers annually worldwide, including virtually all cervical cancers, and many anogenital and head and neck cancers. How it causes cancer isn't completely understood.
The two cancer-causing proteins, E6 and E7, silence two key tumor-suppressor genes in host cells, contributing to cancer development. "E6 and E7 are critically important for the virus to cause cancer. Our findings shed light on how HPV, and perhaps other viruses, can disrupt the structure of host chromosomes and genes and thereby contribute to cancer development," Gillison explains.
For this study, Symer, Gillison and their colleagues examined 10 cancer-cell lines and two head and neck tumor samples from patients. Along with whole-genome sequencing, the scientists used several molecular assays, including RNA sequencing, spectral karyotyping (SKY) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).
Key technical findings included:
The genome-wide analysis, at single nucleotide resolution, identified a striking and recurrent association between HPV integrants and adjacent genomic amplifications, deletions and translocations;
The HPV integrants mapped broadly across the human genome, with no evidence of recurrent integration into particular chromosomal hotspots;
The researchers proposed a "looping" model by which abnormal viral replication results in the extraordinary damage that occurs to host chromosomes at the sites of viral DNA insertion.
"Our study reveals new and interesting information about what happens to HPV in the 'end game' in cancers," Symer says. "Overall, our results shed new light on the potentially critical, catastrophic steps in the progression from initial viral infection to development of an HPV-associated cancer."
###
Funding from the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC James), the Ohio Supercomputer Center, an Ohio Cancer Research Associate grant, the Oral Cancer Foundation and the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research, supported this research.
Other researchers involved in this study were Keiko Akagi, Jingfeng Li, Tatevik R. Broutian, Weihong Xiao, Bo Jiang, Theodoros N. Teknos, Bhavna Kumar and Dandan He, The Ohio State University; Hesed Padilla-Nash, Danny Wangsa, Thomas Ried, National Cancer Institute; James W. Rocco, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute strives to create a cancer-free world by integrating scientific research with excellence in education and patient-centered care, a strategy that leads to better methods of prevention, detection and treatment. Ohio State is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of only four centers funded by the NCI to conduct both phase I and phase II clinical trials. The NCI recently rated Ohio State's cancer program as "exceptional," the highest rating given by NCI survey teams. As the cancer program's 228-bed adult patient-care component, The James is a "Top Hospital" as named by the Leapfrog Group and one of the top cancer hospitals in the nation as ranked by U.S.News & World Report.
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HPV can damage genes and chromosomes directly, whole-genome sequencing study shows
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Darrell E. Ward Darrell.Ward@osumc.edu 614-293-3737 Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
COLUMBUS, Ohio The virus that causes cervical, head and neck, anal and other cancers can damage chromosomes and genes where it inserts its DNA into human DNA, according to a new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC James).
It's long been known that cancer-causing types of human papillomavirus (HPV) produce two viral proteins, called E6 and E7, which are essential for the development of cancer. However, they are not sufficient to cause cancer. Additional alterations in host-cell genes are necessary for cancer to develop. Here, scientists identified a new mechanism by which HPV may damage host DNA directly and contribute to cancer development.
Published in the journal Genome Research, this laboratory study used whole-genome sequencing to investigate the relationship between the HPV and host genomes in human cancers.
"Our sequencing data showed in vivid detail that HPV can damage host-cell genes and chromosomes at sites of viral insertion," says co-senior author David Symer, MD, PhD, assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at the OSUCCC James.
"HPV can act like a tornado hitting the genome, disrupting and rearranging nearby host-cell genes," Symer explains. "This can lead to overexpression of cancer-causing genes in some cases, or it can disrupt protective tumor-suppressor genes in others. Both kinds of damage likely promote the development of cancer."
"We observed fragments of the host-cell genome to be removed, rearranged or increased in number at sites of HPV insertion into the genome," says co-senior author Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, epidemiology and otolaryngology and the Jeg Coughlin Chair of Cancer Research at the OSUCCC James. "These remarkable changes in host genes were accompanied by increases in the number of HPV copies in the host cell, thereby also increasing the expression of viral E6 and E7, the cancer-promoting genes."
HPV causes about 610,000 cancers annually worldwide, including virtually all cervical cancers, and many anogenital and head and neck cancers. How it causes cancer isn't completely understood.
The two cancer-causing proteins, E6 and E7, silence two key tumor-suppressor genes in host cells, contributing to cancer development. "E6 and E7 are critically important for the virus to cause cancer. Our findings shed light on how HPV, and perhaps other viruses, can disrupt the structure of host chromosomes and genes and thereby contribute to cancer development," Gillison explains.
For this study, Symer, Gillison and their colleagues examined 10 cancer-cell lines and two head and neck tumor samples from patients. Along with whole-genome sequencing, the scientists used several molecular assays, including RNA sequencing, spectral karyotyping (SKY) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).
Key technical findings included:
The genome-wide analysis, at single nucleotide resolution, identified a striking and recurrent association between HPV integrants and adjacent genomic amplifications, deletions and translocations;
The HPV integrants mapped broadly across the human genome, with no evidence of recurrent integration into particular chromosomal hotspots;
The researchers proposed a "looping" model by which abnormal viral replication results in the extraordinary damage that occurs to host chromosomes at the sites of viral DNA insertion.
"Our study reveals new and interesting information about what happens to HPV in the 'end game' in cancers," Symer says. "Overall, our results shed new light on the potentially critical, catastrophic steps in the progression from initial viral infection to development of an HPV-associated cancer."
###
Funding from the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC James), the Ohio Supercomputer Center, an Ohio Cancer Research Associate grant, the Oral Cancer Foundation and the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research, supported this research.
Other researchers involved in this study were Keiko Akagi, Jingfeng Li, Tatevik R. Broutian, Weihong Xiao, Bo Jiang, Theodoros N. Teknos, Bhavna Kumar and Dandan He, The Ohio State University; Hesed Padilla-Nash, Danny Wangsa, Thomas Ried, National Cancer Institute; James W. Rocco, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute strives to create a cancer-free world by integrating scientific research with excellence in education and patient-centered care, a strategy that leads to better methods of prevention, detection and treatment. Ohio State is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of only four centers funded by the NCI to conduct both phase I and phase II clinical trials. The NCI recently rated Ohio State's cancer program as "exceptional," the highest rating given by NCI survey teams. As the cancer program's 228-bed adult patient-care component, The James is a "Top Hospital" as named by the Leapfrog Group and one of the top cancer hospitals in the nation as ranked by U.S.News & World Report.
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Amid the clamor of "bring your own device" (BYOD), a question lurks in the background: "What happens to technical service and support?" Concerns for the tech support function encompass the extremes, from agents being overwhelmed with calls, to their becoming inhabitants of a help desk ghost town.
On the one hand, it’s easy to imagine a flood of calls as employees attempt to access wireless networks or synch their e-mail, especially in companies that permit the use of any device type. At the same time, as more people own smartphones, they are increasingly accustomed to resolving issues independently, through online forums, communities and other means of self-support.
By 2016, says Gartner analyst Jarod Greene, help desks will see a 25% to 30% drop in user-initiated call volume, as BYOD drives a companion trend of BYOS, or “bring your own support.”
Gov. Chris Christie visits with students at Jose Marti Freshman Academy in Union City, N.J., on Wednesday.
Rich Schultz/AP
Gov. Chris Christie visits with students at Jose Marti Freshman Academy in Union City, N.J., on Wednesday.
Rich Schultz/AP
Chris Christie has become a national phenomenon.
His "crushing margin" for re-election as governor of New Jersey on Tuesday has landed him on the cover of Time. He's now considered a "leading contender" for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
Christie clearly has the attention of the national media, as well as his mostly likely rivals. But a bigger question is how well his message and persona will play in the critical states that vote early in the process.
That picture is decidedly mixed.
"I think he's DOA in South Carolina," says Daniel Encarnacion, state secretary of the Republican Liberty Caucus, a libertarian group. "The perception is, he is just too moderate for the average, everyday South Carolina voter."
The split in early opinion about Christie — that he has the best potential to open up an electoral map that has favored Democrats in recent elections, as opposed to the conviction that he is simply not conservative enough to lead today's GOP — is an important phenomenon that may come to dominate the 2016 race.
Republicans, who historically have tended to coalesce around an early front-runner, face the kind of intraparty schism that has been more common for the Democratic Party in the past.
Christie is likely to be far and away the favorite of the "establishment" — or money — wing of the party, but he still has a long way to go to win over the hearts and minds of rank-and-file conservatives who have yet to settle on a champion.
"I have a feeling that through the process, you'll have a hard-line conservative candidate emerge as a front-runner and a mainstream conservative, and it's likely to come down to one of each of those," says Steve Grubbs, a former Iowa GOP state chairman.
Why Christie Rankles
Christie holds conservative positions on many issues, including abortion. He withdrew his state from a regional climate change initiative, as well as from a multibillion-dollar federal infrastructure project. He has also prided himself on taking on public-sector unions.
Yet conservatives aren't convinced that, at heart, he's one of them. The very things that helped him win big in New Jersey — working with the Democratic legislative majority and his handling of Superstorm Sandy, during which he praised President Obama for the federal response — have made him suspect to some on the right.
Unlike many of his Republican peers, Christie accepted the expansion of Medicaid in his state under the Affordable Care Act, which is anathema to conservatives.
Christie vetoed a bill giving in-state tuition rates to young people in the country without documentation, but angered conservatives by suggesting in a recent speech that he'd changed course on the issue.
Similarly, they're dismayed that, while he vetoed a same-sex marriage law, he dropped a court challenge on the issue. At a news conference Wednesday, Christie said of gay couples getting married in his state, "I'm happy for them, if they're happy."
"When you're kind of all over the place, seemingly blowing with the wind, that's where rank-and-file conservatives ask, 'Who is this guy, really?' " says Matt Reisetter, a GOP consultant in Iowa.
Just Win, Baby
In 2011, a group of Iowa businessmen flew to New Jersey in hopes of convincing Christie to run for president. They were convinced, like many others, that he was the party's best hope for beating Obama.
Many feel similarly, looking ahead to 2016. With the GOP having lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, many party elders feel that it's time, as Christie himself says, to try to win elections rather than trying to win arguments by staying pure.
"A lot of Republicans up here would like to see someone nominated who has a chance to win," says Tom Rath, a former New Hampshire attorney general and longtime political operative in the state. "One of the great attractions of Gov. Christie would be his ability to expand the electoral map and make us competitive in places where we're not competitive."
Of the early states, New Hampshire offers Christie the most favorable territory. Its primary electorate tends to be broader and less religious than those found in Iowa or South Carolina, says Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.
"Right now, he gets the most votes among Republicans in our polls," Smith says. "But he's also tied as one of the Republicans the most people wouldn't vote for under any circumstances."
The Romney Hangover
People who wanted Christie to run last time around believed he would be a stronger candidate than Mitt Romney. As he prepares to run in 2016, one of the problems Christie has to deal with is the party's lingering disappointment with Romney.
"The same people who didn't like the establishment candidate Romney are going to have similar problems with Christie," says Scott Huffmon, a pollster and political scientist at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. "They really want to see strong conservative bona fides down here."
Conservative voters will be skeptical about claims about Christie's electability, Huffmon says.
"There will be the people who say going with what experts predicted would be the safe route has lost us the White House two times in a row, and we're not going to go down that path again," he says.
Arguing The Party's Path
This debate has happened before. In 1964 and 1980, conservatives were unhappy about having been saddled with losing nominees they perceived as too moderate in earlier cycles and insisted on nominating one of their own.
That worked out well for the party in 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected president, but not so well in 1964, when Barry Goldwater suffered one of the biggest defeats in modern history.
Now, the same type of argument within the party about whether Christie is too moderate or represents the party's best chance of winning is only just beginning.
"There are a lot of people I know who will be very excited about [Texas Sen.] Ted Cruz," says Grubbs, the former Iowa GOP chair. "But there are an equal number of people who will be very excited about a Christie type."
This week's Time magazine features three articles on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose landslide re-election Tuesday "instantly christened him the GOP frontrunner for 2016." The issue includes an accompanying story by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, who compares Christie to Ronald Reagan and Bruce Springsteen.
"For a pro-life conservative running in a deep blue state, it was a performance every bit as dominant as the Boss ripping through a live version of 'Rosalita,'" Scarborough writes. "And like Springsteen himself, Christie made it all look easy."
But it's the cover that's likely to get the most attention.
It shows a shadowy silhouette of Christie's profile above the coverline "The Elephant in the Room," a reference to both the Republican Party's mascot and the GOP hopeful's weight.
Christie's weight has long been tied to his political ambitions, with some fearing it could be a health concern for voters.
According to "Double Down," a new book by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann about the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican nominee Mitt Romney passed on picking Christie as a vice presidential running mate in part because of his weight.
But the governor has since taken steps to shed pounds.
Christie underwent lap-band surgery in February. On Tuesday, he told the New York Times he is more than halfway to meeting his weight-loss goal, and that he's sleeping better as a result. "I didn’t realize how badly I was sleeping being that much overweight," Christie said. (His appetite is so small these days, he said, he "recently could not even finish a wrap sandwich.")
He's also long poked fun at his outsized frame. In February, he said his weight is "fair game" for comedians. In an appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" earlier this year, Christie consumed a doughnut during the interview.
And when asked by the Times if he would have trouble handling the rigors of a presidential campaign, Christie replied, “No more than any other 51-year-old person. I’m slower than I was when I was 40. But that’s the slow march of time."
The Nov. 18 issue with Christie on the cover is due on newsstands Friday.
Of course, it's not the first time Time has courted controversy.
Last year, the magazine sparked a firestorm with a cover featuring a 26-year-old woman breastfeeding her 3-year-old son.
A French court has ordered Google to block from its search results pictures of former Formula One motor racing president Max Mosley participating in a sado-masochistic sex party with five women.
Google’s lawyers are still studying Wednesday’s ruling and plan to appeal. They say the Paris High Court wants the company to build a censorship machine.
The pictures were initially published under the headline “F1 BOSS HAS SICK NAZI ORGY WITH 5 HOOKERS” on March 30, 2008, by now-defunct British newspaper News of the World, which paid one of the women to record the event using a hidden video camera.
A subsequent court case found that, while the video showed participants speaking German and wearing modern German military uniforms or playing the role of prisoners, there was no evidence of a Nazi theme. In the same ruling, the High Court of England and Wales found that the newspaper had infringed Mosley’s right to privacy and awarded him £60,000 (then $120,000) in damages.
Mosley has also had publication of the photos declared illegal in separate cases in France and Germany, according to a statement released by his U.K. lawyers, Collyer Bristow.
“This is a welcome decision. The action was brought in respect of a small number of specific images ruled illegal in the English and French courts several years ago. Despite their illegality and my repeated notifications to them, Google continued to make the images available on its own webpages,” Mosley said in the statement.
However, the company maintains that it has responded to Mosley’s notifications by removing links to the photos.
In the present case, Mosley had asked the Paris High Court to go further, banning Google from showing or linking to nine specific photos
Can you erease an embarassing image?
In the present case, Mosley had asked the Paris High Court to go further, banning Google from showing or linking to nine specific photos without waiting for notification about individual publications of them.
The court ordered that Google France and its U.S. parent company not show or link to the images for five years, or pay a €1,000 ($1,575) fine for each lapse. It is not clear whether the ruling, which Google has two months to implement, is intended to apply to Internet users outside France, and Google’s lawyers are still studying it.
“This is a troubling ruling with serious consequences for free expression and we will appeal it. Even though we already provide a fast and effective way of removing unlawful material from our search index, the French court has instructed us to build what we believe amounts to a censorship machine,” said Google Associate General Counsel Daphne Keller in a statement.
A company spokesman declined to answer further questions about the case.
Wednesday’s ruling only concerns Google, and will not affect the publishers of the Web pages carrying the images, which will remain online. Nor will it affect other search engines—and a rapid comparison with Microsoft’s Bing shows that it offers an equally comprehensive selection of links to the disputed images in its search results.
Peter Sayer, IDG News Service , IDG News Service
Peter Sayer covers open source software, European intellectual property legislation and general technology breaking news. More by Peter Sayer, IDG News Service
Twitter's $18 billion IPO is today. Ev Williams and Jack Dorsey are going to get very rich. You're going to get even more ads in your stream - Marc Perton (@marcperton) November 7, 2013 ...
Unlike commercial airliners, modern military aircraft are subjected to ever-changing flying conditions—from high-thrust takeoffs to flying at altitude to combat maneuvers. So why are they outfitted with engines that perform optimally in only one of those flight envelopes? For the next iteration of the F-35 Lightning II, Pratt and Whitney is developing an engine that performs at its best no matter what's required of it.
"In rewriting these applications, some features from iWork '09 were not available for the initial release," says Apple's support document. "We plan to reintroduce some of these features in the next few releases and will continue to add brand new features on an ongoing basis."
Many of the most common complaints from users of iWork '09 are addressed in the document, including improvements to AppleScript support for Numbers and Keynote, more presenter display options in Keynote, keyboard shortcuts for styles in Pages, and many more.
If you've been holding off upgrading to iWork '13, remember that the installers do not replace your current iWork '09 versions, so you can continue to rely upon those for any features that Apple hasn't yet integrated. As to whether subsequent upgrades will return all the missing features, it's too early to say, but it seems likely that Apple is looking to make sure that its productivity suite helps make its customers, well, productive.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, talks to reporters after the Senate cleared a major hurdle and agreed to proceed to debate a bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. The bipartisan vote increases the chances that the Senate will pass the bill by week's end, but its prospects in the Republican-led House are dimmer. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, talks to reporters after the Senate cleared a major hurdle and agreed to proceed to debate a bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. The bipartisan vote increases the chances that the Senate will pass the bill by week's end, but its prospects in the Republican-led House are dimmer. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate pushed toward a historic vote on legislation outlawing workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, demonstrating the nation's quickly evolving attitude toward gay rights nearly two decades after Congress rejected same-sex marriage.
All 55 members of the Democratic majority, including senators from the Deep South, and several Republicans were expected to unite on Thursday in backing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Sen. John McCain, the GOP's presidential nominee in 2008, signaled his conditional support on Wednesday.
"The time has come for Congress to pass a federal law," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who urged House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to reconsider his opposition.
The enthusiasm of the bill's supporters was tempered by the reality that the Republican-led House, where conservatives have a firm grip on the agenda, is unlikely to even vote on it. Boehner maintains his longstanding opposition to the measure, arguing that it is unnecessary and certain to create costly, frivolous lawsuits for businesses. Outside conservative groups have cast the bill as anti-family.
In the Senate, opponents of the legislation remained mute through three days of debate, with no lawmaker speaking out. That changed on Thursday as Republican Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana said the legislation would force employers to violate their religious beliefs, a direct counter to rights embodied in the Constitution.
"I oppose discrimination of any kind," Coats said, "and that includes discrimination of organizations of faith."
Senate passage would be a major victory for gay rights advocates in a momentous year. The Supreme Court in June affirmed gay marriage and granted federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples. In the heartland, Illinois is on the verge of becoming the 15th state to legalize gay marriage along with the District of Columbia.
"I hope that we are on the verge of making history tomorrow by passing this bill with a strong vote," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday. "I then hope that our colleagues on the House side will follow suit and that we can see this bill signed into law."
If the House fails to act on the bill, gay rights advocates are likely to press President Barack Obama to act unilaterally and issue an executive order barring anti-gay workplace discrimination by federal contractors.
Through three days of Senate debate, backers of the bill repeatedly described it as an issue of fairness some 50 years after Congress passed and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.
"It is well past time that we, as elected representatives, ensure that our laws protect against discrimination in the workplace for all individuals, that we ensure those some protections for those within the LGBT community," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who described the diversity in her state.
Murkowski's support underscored the generational shift. Seventeen years ago, when a bill dealing with discrimination based on sexual orientation failed by one vote in the Senate, the senator's father, Frank, voted against it. That was the same year that Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act.
Current federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race and national origin. But it doesn't stop an employer from firing or refusing to hire workers because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
The bill would bar employers with 15 or more workers from using a person's sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for making employment decisions, including hiring, firing, compensation or promotion. It would exempt religious institutions and the military.
By voice vote Wednesday, the Senate approved an amendment from Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire that would prevent federal, state and local governments from retaliating against religious groups that are exempt from the law.
The Senate planned to vote Thursday on an amendment by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to expand the number of groups that are covered under the religious exemption.
Likely Senate approval of the overall bill reflects the nation's growing tolerance of gays and the GOP's political calculation as it looks for supporters beyond its core base of older voters. A Pew Research survey in June found that more Americans said homosexuality should be accepted rather than discouraged by society by a margin of 60 percent to 31 percent. Opinions were more evenly divided 10 years ago.
Deep-pocketed Republican-leaning groups such as the American Unity Fund, which counts on hedge fund billionaires and Mitt Romney donors as well as former Republican lawmakers, pushed for the legislation.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have approved laws banning workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and 17 of those also prohibit employers from discriminating based on gender identity.
About 88 percent of Fortune 500 companies have adopted nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign. About 57 percent of those companies include gender identity.
Libyan militias from towns throughout the country's west parade through Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 14, 2012. Analysts say Libya is awash with heavy weapons in the hands of militias divided by tribe, ideology and region. The central government has little power over the gunmen.
Abdel Magid Al Fergany/AP
Zintan, a mountain town in northwestern Libya, is a place of gray and brown buildings, with little infrastructure, about 50,000 people and no central government control.
The Libyan government doesn't provide basic services, not even water. People use wells to provide for themselves. The local council runs all of Zintan's affairs out of a building in the center of town.
We head to the local militia base on the outskirts of the town. There, we meet the keeper of Saif el-Islam Gadhafi, the son and one-time heir apparent of Moammar Gadhafi.
The younger Gadhafi is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The central government wants him to stand trial in the capital, Tripoli. But the commander of Zintan's militia, Ajmi al-Atiri, won't give him up.
We caught Saif and we are responsible for him, Atiri says. The government in Tripoli isn't worthy of taking him off our hands, he adds.
Loyal To Themselves
Atiri, a small man in his 50s, was a teacher when Moammar Gadhafi demanded volunteers from Zintan to fight rebels in the east. Atiri and the rest of the town refused, and launched their own rebellion against the Libyan leader, who was slain by revolutionaries just over two years ago.
Now, Atiri is Zintan's boss. He and his men are paid by the state, but like most of Libya's militias they are loyal mostly to themselves.
There are men like Atiri across the country who believe they know what's best for Libya. They are former teachers, engineers and political exiles whose power is now unrivaled, and who are unwilling to relinquish it to the state.
Just this week, rival militias engaged in an hours-long shoot out in Tripoli captured by cell phone cameras.
Without security, the organs of the state barely function. Atiri says government leaders spend their time fighting over power and money, and they are trying to use the militias to get what they want. He scoffs at other militias, calling them criminals. He says his own militia is different — it's looking out for Libya. But he says this is not the Libya he fought for in the uprising against Gadhafi.
The View From Tripoli
We meet the Justice Minister Salah Bashir Margani in his office in Tripoli. We tried meeting him the last time we were here, but Margani was in the middle of a crisis.
"Well, we are still in the middle of a crisis," he says, laughing. "No change."
For Margani, every day brings a crisis. He escaped a kidnapping attempt in September. In the spring, he was kicked out of his office by a militia that demanded passage of a law that put hundreds of judges out of work. Last month he worked the phones urgently after Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was briefly kidnapped by one militia and freed by another.
"When I called the attorney general at 5 a.m. and asked, 'Have you arrested the prime minister?' He said, 'What?'" he recalls, laughing. "Of course, he said, 'No. I didn't, do you think I'm crazy?'"
Margani laughs a lot. It masks the deep worries he has about Libya's future. The government, he says, needs to secure the country, but can't.
"This is the real danger that whatever we do is absorbed by the deterioration, and ... whatever kind of situation we deal with, next day we have the next crisis. It's like waking every morning and asking what kind of disaster do we have today," he says, laughing.
'We Need Help'
The state has no viable security forces, so the government doesn't have the ability to rein in the militias. So the militias act as the country's de facto security forces, in essence running the two security ministries.
Margani says hopes for judicial and other reforms are on the backburner while the militias act with impunity.
"The idea is that we should not allow Libya to slip into chaos, to slip into say a Somalia-like situation, an Afghanistan-like situation," he says. "This is too bad for Libya."
Libya, he says, desperately needs help.
"We are like someone who is drowning but he can see the shoreline so we're trying to swim to that shoreline and that's why we need help," he says.
He hopes to get that help from the international community. He says some 18,000 Libyans will be trained, some in the U.S., to become Libya's new army and police force. But in the interim, militiamen with anti-aircraft guns roam the streets.
"They are still committing very bad things like murder, torture," Margani says, "all the evil things that those young guys shouldn't be doing."
Danger Of Anarchy
On the streets of Tripoli, there are militia checkpoints everywhere, manned by former rebels from different parts of the country, carving out their own little fiefdoms. Ordinary Libyans are getting sick of it, and their anger is not just directed at the militias.
Outside the parliament building, a female protester screams into a bullhorn. The members of parliament are monsters, she says, they're ruining our country.
The economy is suffering and the nation is fracturing, says Hanan Salah, Libya director for Human Rights Watch. She says part of the problem is NATO helped Libyans remove Gadhafi, but then did very little to help secure the borders, secure weapons or rein in the thousands of armed men who fought.
"If you look at the political situation, you have a very weak government that's hardly able to implement any of what it should be doing," she says. "And it's certainly not in control of its own institutions."
And, she says, there is a real danger of total anarchy.