The American Institute of Architects' winning structures combine environmental sustainability with a focus on public health
By Erin Brodwin
YIN YANG HOUSE The Yin Yang House in Venice, Calif. retained part of an existing 1,200-square foot home built in 1963 and incorporates green roofs, an independent stormwater retention system, and drought-tolerant native plantsImage: John Edward Linden
Most paragons of architectural greatness distinguish themselves by an ability to stand out from their surroundings. The American Institute of Architects, by contrast, has just recognized a handful of buildings for their capacity to blend in.
This week, the AIA?s Committee on the Environment (COTE) chose 10 structures that contribute more to the environments in which they dwell than they remove.
They all have a few things in common: First, winning structures are designed with the natural environment in mind: the buildings, as examples, recycle wastewater and replace non-permeable ground and roof coverings, like asphalt, with soil and native vegetation. They also reduce energy consumption by taking advantage of natural light and using on-site renewable energy options like photovoltaic systems. Projects are also designed to improve public health: buildings are located within access to existing public transit networks to encourage walking, bicycling and riding, and designers maximized use of natural light and ventilation and used products that do not give off harmful particles or gases to improve indoor air quality.
Beyond providing feedback for green designers and architects, the panel encourages planners to recognize the importance of sustainable design. As an added incentive to green construction, AIA introduced a voluntary self-reporting system for builders to track their progress toward designing low energy structures as part of its goal of having most buildings be carbon-neutral and non-polluting.
?What we see is a national average energy reduction of around 35 percent over the last three years and this is a great step forward,? says Judson University Department of Architecture Chair Keelan Kaiser, who was a member of the COTE judging panel.
ISTANBUL ? Despite major education initiatives and social reformations since the time of Ataturk, many girls in Turkey still do not receive an education.
Mustafa Kemal, now better known as Ataturk, or ?Father of Turks,? is credited with founding the modern Republic of Turkey and was the first president of Turkey. Ataturk?s many social, political and economic reforms were embedded in the six fundamental principles of what is now known as ?Kemalism.?
These six principles include Republicanism, Nationalism, Populism, Statism, Secularism and Revolution. The latter two were vital in the emerging role education has played in Turkey throughout the past decades.
?Kemalism was one of the main reasons that education and literacy increased and spread around girls and boys ?equally? after the establishment of the Republic,? said Nesrin Ersoy McMeekin, an instructor at Koc University, a private university in Istanbul.
A leisurely park in Istanbul overlooks the Blue Mosque, a historic site where Turkish sultans once lived. Photo submitted by Kate Riley.
?Still, it was and is a slow process, but since man and woman are considered equal by law, it became the government?s duty to provide equal education for both sexes,? McMeekin said.
?Principles of Kemalism were very strongly ? and unfortunately sometimes wrongly ? used in education in different periods of the Republican era. Right now there is a big battle of keeping some of them and/or destroying them.?
As a professor of higher education, as well as someone who grew up in the Turkish education system, McMeekin has experienced challenges due to lack of funding for public education in Turkey, much like the monetary problems faced in the United States. She also sees how familial relations play a major role in the education of both young girls and boys, whether positively or negatively.
Although primary school is mandatory just as it is in the United States, many children, particularly girls, are not enrolled due to ?traditional values? sought by parents, according to the United Nations Girls? Education Initiative (UNGEI). This problem occurs primarily in the eastern parts of the country, which are considerably more rural and conservative.
Tolga Tan is a second-year Koc student who grew up in Kadikoy, Istanbul and is passionate about his own education. Tan has seen the impact families seem to have in various parts of the country.
?In rural areas, getting some sort of education has traditionally been a challenge,? Tan said. ?Most people in the eastern part of Turkey usually complete only primary education. The gender role in rural parts is more pronounced than it is in urban parts. Many girls don?t receive any education although it is unconstitutional, and this is mainly due to the parents and what they call ?traditional.??
According to the UNGEI and the United States Embassy in Turkey, the main obstacles to school attendance for girls in Turkey include a lack of school facilities, gender discrimination, low expectations from education, low quality of education and the cost associated with families sending their children to school.
Many children, particularly girls, are not enrolled due to ?traditional values??
UNGEI exemplifies the problem by outlining Van, a small town in eastern Turkey that demonstrates how poverty and cultural traditions have historically kept girls at home. Many families are worried an education could ?spoil their daughters for marriage,? according to the report. But through the efforts of the UNGEI, more and more of these families have altered their opinions in order to change their family?s educational legacy.
?It is true that if the parents have higher education it is more likely that their kids will have one as well,? McMeekin said. ?But there is also a significant number of parents who would do everything to have their kids go to university just because they themselves didn?t have the chance.?
Both Tan and McMeekin believe the amount of money pumped into education from the government could be increased, which might financially encourage families to make more of an effort in regards to their children?s education.
According to the United States Embassy in Turkey and the UNGEI, part of the problem lies in the cost of transporting a child to school and buying supplies. This could be solved with the creation of scholarships to improve attendance rates in public primary, secondary and higher education in the eastern parts of Turkey.
Public universities in Turkey generally cost about 400 Turkish Lira per semester, which is equal to about $222.60 in the United States, or they are free of charge. But students must go to primary school and follow the system in order to eventually take the university entrance exam during their final year of high school. At this point, there are a number of scholarships given if needed, McMeekin said.
But the campaign ?Hey Girls, Let?s Go to School? has seen challenges that inhibit some children from eventually reaching these upper levels of education. Although the UNGEI has seen persistent poverty and a lack of resources in rural Turkish areas that continue to harm the potential of the nation?s education system, it has also seen increased media visibility and support from prominent politicians including the Prime Minister and the first lady of Turkey since its 2003 inception.
Additionally, the number of female children not enrolled in primary school has decreased significantly since 2003, according to World Bank analyses. In 2003, the number of girls not in primary school in Turkey was about 253,000, while that number shrank to about 53,000 in 2010.
?In the last 15 to 20 years, emphasis on education and campaigns to support girls and kids from rural areas in getting education have increased significantly,? McMeekin said. ?But is it enough? Not yet. There is still a huge prejudice against girls? education in Turkey, especially in eastern Turkey.?
Education, international, Istanbul, study abroad, Turkey, UNGEI, Women's Rights
About Kate Riley
Kate is a junior Journalism major with minors in Psychology and International Studies, with a concentration in the Middle East. She is also a former Special Projects Editor, Copy Editor and Copy Intern with The Pendulum and served as the Editor-in-Chief of The Edge.
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Android: We mentioned AirDroid 2's public beta a few months ago, but the new version is finally available at Google Play and open to all users. The final version has a bit more polish, and brings some new useful tweaks to the table.
As promised, you no longer need to have your phone and your computer on the same Wi-Fi network in order to control it with AirDroid. Just like the beta, as long as you have your phone set up (you'll need to be on the same network to pair it and create an account if you don't have one already) you can then enable remote access and then connect to it from your desktop web browser anytime you want. Unfortunately, connecting remotely means you're routing traffic through AirDroid's network, so you're capped at 1GB of data transfer. Don't worry though: that's actually a lot of data, as long as you're not streaming media or transferring huge files.
The AirDroid webapp has seen some upgrades as well: features like remote calling, texting, file transfers, and sideloaded APK installs have all been brought to the fore where they're a little easier to find and access. You can still get your phone's precise location via GPS, control your phone's rear camera (without activating the camera app, so if your phone is lost, the person who has it doesn't know you're on to them), access files and folders on your SD card, and more. Sending SMS messages through your phone while sitting at your desktop keyboard is just as easy as always.
If you've been using the beta, the biggest differences you'll see are in polish, shine, and overall organization. If you've been using the original AirDroid and waiting for the official launch (or not using it at all), now's the time. Grab it from the link below and give it a try.
AirDroid 2 (Free) | Google Play via Android Police
Internet sales tax headed for Senate vote with strong support from anti-tax Republicans
WASHINGTON (AP) ? You don't see this very often: a majority of Senate Republicans voting to make people who buy stuff on the Internet pay state and local sales taxes.
Anti-tax guru Grover Norquist isn't happy about it and the conservative Heritage Foundation is questioning the senators' conservative credentials. But the issue of taxing Internet sales is getting strong support from Republicans and Democrats alike.
The Senate could vote as early as Thursday on a bill to empower states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. Under the bill, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.
On Wednesday, the bill passed a test vote in the Senate, 74 to 23, with 27 Republicans voting in favor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., vowed to pass the bill this week, before senators leave for a scheduled vacation.
"This is a matter of equity and fairness," said South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, a Republican. "The same people who are selling the same products should be paying the same taxes."
Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.
It is part of GOP orthodoxy to oppose higher taxes, a central issue that divides Democrats and Republicans. That's why the bill faces an uncertain fate in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase.
But supporters of the bill insist it is not a tax increase. Instead, they say, the bill merely provides states with a mechanism to enforce current taxes.
"This bill has nothing to do with imposing any kind of new tax or revenue generator," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "What this law does is allow states that already have laws on the books to carry out the implementation of those" laws.
In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales taxes when they file their state income tax returns. In South Dakota, which has no state income tax, taxpayers are supposed to pay a use tax on out-of-state purchases. But Daugaard said the law is widely ignored.
"The difficulty is consumers don't understand the law," Daugaard said. "I think that's true in many other states as well."
Supporters say the bill is about fairness for businesses and lost revenue for states. Opponents say it would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn't have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.
Many of the nation's governors ? Republicans and Democrats ? have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales.
The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to Commerce Department estimates.
The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that states lost $23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state sales.
Daugaard estimates that South Dakota loses $48 million to $58 million a year, important revenue for a state that doesn't have an income tax.
The main opposition in the Senate is coming from three states that have no sales taxes: New Hampshire, Montana and Oregon. Delaware doesn't have a sales tax, either, but both Delaware senators have voted to advance the bill.
"We don't like the idea of other states auditing our businesses," said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. "They don't like the idea of being subject to both bureaucrats and potential legal action."
Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, says the bill is about "money-hungry state legislators."
"This is a dangerous road to travel, and sets precedent for further expansions of state-level tax collection authority," Norquist says in a letter to supporters. "Take action now to urge your senators to oppose an Internet sales tax scheme that lets liberal states like California and Illinois tax across their borders!"
The Heritage Foundation says that "real conservatives" oppose the bill and that it would hurt online commerce, force small businesses to jump through new bureaucratic hoops and erode state sovereignty.
But Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former Tennessee governor, said the bill enhances states' rights because it gives states the authority to enforce their tax laws.
"Tennessee wants to avoid a state income tax and treat businesses fairly in the marketplace, and it shouldn't have to play 'Mother, May I?' with the federal government to do so," Alexander said.
___
Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.
MANCHESTER, Ill. (AP) ? The nephew of a small-town Illinois mayor shot and killed five people, including two boys, before leading police on a chase that ended in an exchange of gunfire that left him dead, authorities said Wednesday.
Illinois State Police said they believe Rick O. Smith, 43, entered a Manchester home through the back door and shot the victims at close range with a shotgun, leaving two women, one man and the boys dead. Two people were found in a bedroom, two in a second bedroom and the man in the hallway. A sixth victim, a 6-year-old girl, was injured and taken to a Springfield hospital.
"The offender took the 6-year-old out of the residence and put her in the hands of a neighbor," State Police Lt. Col. Todd Kilby said.
Officials have not revealed a motive for the killings. Police said the victims are related. Authorities believe Smith and the victims were acquainted, but they didn't provide details of the relationships.
A bystander called police and told them that Smith fled the home in a white sedan. A car chase ensued, leading authorities to the nearby town of Winchester, where Smith and officers exchanged gunfire. Officers shot Smith, and he later died at a hospital.
Police said they found a rifle, shotgun and large hunting knife in Smith's car.
Coroner officials said they plan autopsies on the victims Thursday morning in Bloomington and identities would be released at that time.
Scott County State's Attorney Michael Hill said Smith, of rural Morgan County, had previous convictions for reckless homicide, drugs and bad checks.
Manchester Mayor Ronald Drake confirmed that Smith was his nephew, saying he hadn't spoken to Smith in two years, but he believed his nephew was unemployed. Drake said the last time Smith contacted him was to borrow tools.
In Manchester, yellow police tape surrounded the small one-story brick home where the victims were found. Manchester is a village of about 300 residents located about 50 miles west of Springfield.
"It's a close-knit community," Drake said. "Everybody talks to everybody. ... We enjoy that goes on (in) town. This is just a tragedy for (the) whole town."
The last homicide in Scott County was 20 years ago, in 1993.
Manchester resident Julie Hardwick, 48, said she lives in the same county housing authority complex as the victims. Authorities told her she couldn't return to her home yet because of the investigation, she said.
"The kids were really nice," Hardwick said of the family. "You couldn't ask for better kids."
The Rev. Robin Lyons of Manchester United Methodist Church, one of two churches in the community said, "this shows tragedy can happen anywhere."
Two area school superintendents said they received calls from county sheriffs before 6 a.m. informing them that five people had been shot to death at a house in Manchester and that a suspect was at large.
Superintendent David Roberts of the Winchester School District and Les Stevens of the North Greene Unit District No. 3 both said they immediately canceled classes when they were told of the shootings and that other school districts did the same.
Roberts said the wounded girl is a student at Winchester Grade School and her teacher was with her at the Springfield hospital.
The school will use its own counselor, nurse and other staff members to help students who need to talk, Roberts said. Other area districts have offered to help too.
Roberts said he also will call on area ministers to be available on campus. "I've found that to be helpful in the past," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Don Babwin and Jason Keyser in Chicago and David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., contributed to this report.
Amazon's business model, CTO Werner Vogels reminded us today, is based on "low margins and high volume", and today the company announced news of how it's applying that to its enterprise services. From today, it's expanding its Redshift data warehousing product and its EC2 High Storage service to Europe. Big data, Vogels said, will be the crux of competitive advantage in the future, but it it is also the thing that can be the biggest stumbling block. "The database will be the bottleneck," he said. The annoucemnt was made this morning during the Amazon Web Services Summit in London today, part of a wider roadshow for AWS.
The headline number climbed 1.5% to an annualized rated of 417k.
Economists were looking for a 1.2% increase to a level of 416k.
The discrepancy in the numbers comes from the fact that last month's 4.6% drop was down to a 7.6% drop.
"The median sales price of new houses sold in March 2013 was $247,000; the average sales price was $279,900," added the Census. "The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of March was 153,000. This represents a supply of 4.4 months at the current sales rate."
"The drop in sales in February was probably at least partly reversed," said Jim O'Sullivan of High Frequency Economics in a note yesterday.
Panasonic's just unveiled the 12-megapixel Lumix DMC-LF1 compact for fans of high-end compacts like Canon's S110 who may not want to snap with a smartphone camera. But the social set will still be able to share images to their handset or tablet thanks to the LF1's built-in WiFi with NFC pairing and included app. Meanwhile, most cellphones definitely can't compete with the 1/1.7-inch, 12-megapixel CMOS sensor and 28-200mm equivalent f2.0-5.9 Leica zoom lens. Other specs include 1,920/60i video with AVCHD and MP4 recording, POWER O.I.S image stabilization, a 200K EVF, a variety of shooting modes like panorama, and full manual control. There's no set arrival date, but it'll run a hefty $500 or so --perhaps a hard sell against certainphoto-clever handsets.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks sharply cut gains before bouncing back on Tuesday following a "bogus" Associated Press report about explosions at the White House.
The benchmark S&P 500 dropped 14 points to as low as 1,563.03 before recovering, all in about five seconds. An AP tweet, which an AP spokesman said was "bogus," had said there were two explosions at the White House.
"We see this every time this type of news comes out: liquidity evaporates quickly. High-frequency traders cancel their orders on even one little tweet," said Dennis Dick, proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas. "They provide so much liquidity and don't have obligations like market makers did in the past."
Investors are also on edge following two fatal explosions last week at the Boston Marathon that led to a lockdown in Boston on Friday as police hunted for one of the suspects.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 120.65 points, or 0.83 percent, at 14,687.82. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 13.77 points, or 0.88 percent, at 1,576.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 32.90 points, or 1.02 percent, at 3,266.46.
Among the day's biggest gainers, Netflix Inc shares jumped 25 percent to $217.68, a day after reporting earnings that beat expectations and strong subscriber growth.
Market volatility had eased this week after last week's big increase in CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX <.vix>. It hit an intraday peak of 14.87 after the bogus tweet before erasing the gains, said WhatsTrading.com options strategist Frederic Ruffy.
Ruffy also noted option interest in companies that make security software. "There was a buyer of 3,000 September out-of-the-money $20 strike calls on Fortinet at about 1:30 p.m. ET," Ruffy said.
(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica in New York and Doris Frankel in Chicago; Editing by Jan Paschal and Nick Zieminski)
Apr. 22, 2013 ? Children can get five to 10 colds each year, so it's not surprising that adults often turn to over-the-counter cough and cold medicines to relieve their little ones' symptoms. But a new University of Michigan poll shows that many are giving young kids medicines that they should not use.
More than 40 percent of parents reported giving their children under age 4 cough medicine or multi-symptom cough and cold medicine, according to the latest University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. Twenty-five percent gave those children decongestants.
In 2008, the federal Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory that these over-the-counter medicines not be used in infants and children under age 2. They have not been proven effective for young children and may cause serious side effects, says Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.
In response to the FDA, manufacturers of over-the-counter cough and cold products changed their labels back in 2008, to state that the medicines should not be used for children under 4 years old.
"These products don't reduce the time the infection will lasts and misuse could lead to serious harm," says Davis. "What can be confusing, however, is that often these products are labeled prominently as 'children's' medications. The details are often on the back of the box, in small print. That's where parents and caregivers can find instructions that they should not be used in children under 4 years old," Davis says
The side effects from use of cough and cold medicines in young children may include allergic reactions, increased or uneven heart rate, drowsiness or sleeplessness, slow and shallow breathing, confusion or hallucinations, convulsions, nausea and constipation.
The poll found that use of the cough and cold medicines in children age four and under did not differ by parent gender, race/ethnicity or by household income.
"Products like these may work for adults, and parents think it could help their children as well. But what's good for adults is not always good for children," says Davis.
Davis says parents need to be vigilant about reading the directions and should always call their pediatrician or health care provider about questions regarding over-the-counter medications.
"Because young children often suffer from cold-like symptoms, more research is needed to test the safety and efficacy of these cough and cold medicines in our littlest patients," Davis says.
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iranians lined up to buy cooking oil and meat in Tehran on Monday, as price hikes threatened to stir discontent less than two months before presidential elections.
Prices of staples such as imported cooking oil, chicken and red meat have jumped up to 60 percent since authorities decided last week to increase the official dollar exchange rate for importers who need the currency to do business. They now pay 24,500 rials for $1, nearly double the previous rate of 12,260.
Iran's economy is flagging under international and Western sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. The West suspects the program could lead to production of weapons, but Iran denies the charge. The sanctions, which include an oil and banking embargo, have led to a shortage of foreign currency and drastically cut the government's income, while the country's persistent inflation eats into consumer buying power.
Despite government assurances that the new rate will go not go into effect for several weeks, many people are stocking up on goods before prices rise even more. The government has banned prices hikes until the new measures are in place and dispatched inspectors to keep tabs on businesses.
"Any price rise is illegal," said Mojtaba Farahani, an official in the Commerce Ministry. "So far a remarkable number of reports have been filed about wholesale and retail shops," he told the semiofficial ISNA news agency.
In Tehran, stores were crowded with people rushing to beat the hikes. In one grocery, homemaker Neda Rahimi quickly scooped up the last three bottles of cooking oil left on the shelves. "Everyday prices are going higher and higher. I will take these for now, so I have some extra at home," said the mother of two.
In another shop, 48-year-old high school teacher Asghar Niazi said a government announcement in March to raise public sector wages had encouraged stores to raise prices.
"Now every shop has hiked its prices up more than 20 percent. I was here to buy cooking oil, but people snapped it all up before I arrived."
Frustration over the price hikes has resonated in Iran's tightly controlled media, which has grown increasingly critical of the government over the past year for the surge in costs for milk, chicken, rice and locally made cars.
On Monday, a string of newspapers warned that the new currency rules could add to restlessness ahead of the June 14 election to select a successor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The commentaries, which came from across the political spectrum, suggest disputes within the country's closed ruling system. Even the influential conservative daily Kayhan, which often supports the policies of Iran's ruling clerics, referred to "hidden hands" working from behind the scenes to provoke discontent.
The more moderate Hamshahri newspaper ran a front page article focusing on "expanding" prices, accusing officials of trying to "downplay" their effects. Another daily, Haft-e Sobh, reported traffic jams in front of major stores because of long lines of customers rushing to make last-minute purchases.
Prices for local products are also rising, although at a slower rate. While in Tehran a liter of imported cooking oil has jumped to around 100,000 rials from about 60,000, the domestically produced version now costs 34,000 rials, compared to 27,000 rials two weeks ago.
Price rises for locally produced products that have become the mainstay of much of the country are likely to generate more concern among policymakers, especially since even the prices of basics, like bread, are becoming less stable. Last week, Deputy Commerce Minister Abbas Ghobadi said prices of bread "will definitely go higher."
The Power Jacket for Nokia Lumia 920?from Brando is an extended battery/case that can nearly double the battery life for the Lumia 920, if you’re willing to accept the trade-offs that come with it. ?So what are the trade-offs? ?Let’s look at them. Unboxed Besides the nearly impossible to photograph black version I received above, [...]
Apr. 19, 2013 ? A monoclonal antibody targeting a protein known as SFPR2 has been shown by researchers at the University of North Carolina to inhibit tumor growth in pre-clinical models of breast cancer and angiosarcoma.
In a paper published in the April 19 issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, a team led by Nancy Klauber-DeMore, MD, Professor of surgery and a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, used a monoclonal antibody to target SFRP2 expressed in cells from triple-negative breast cancer and the aggressive blood-vessel malignancy angiosarcoma, reducing the rate of tumor growth. The antibody, created at the University of North Carolina, is the first therapeutic discovered that targets SFRP2.
"We showed in this paper that targeting SFRP2 with a monoclonal antibody in pre-clinical models inhibits tumor growth. This demonstrates that SFRP2 is a therapeutic target for cancer" said Dr. DeMore.
The DeMore lab first discovered the role of SFRP2 in tumor growth while looking to develop an alternative to the FDA-approved anti-angiogenesis drug known as Avastin (bevacizumab). Avastin targets the protein VEGF, which has also been tied to angiogenesis (the production of new blood vessels). Although Avastin is of benefit to some patients with cancer, not all tumors respond to Avastin, and of those that respond, some eventually progress. To find a solution for patients whose tumors are resistant to Avastin, DeMore began looking at other proteins linked to angiogenesis that could be used as therapeutic targets.
"We previously microdissected blood vessels from malignant human breast cancers and compared gene expression to blood vessels microdissected from normal tissue. We found a number of genes that were highly over-expressed in the malignant blood vessels compared to normal. One of those genes was SFRP2," said Dr. DeMore.
The DeMore lab found that SFRP2 is expressed in a variety of human cancers, including breast, prostate, lung, pancreas, ovarian, colon, kidney tumors, and angiosarcomas, DeMore, working with Dr. Cam Patterson, Ernest and Hazel Craige Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, discovered that SFRP2 acted as a potent stimulator of angiogenesis, leading their team to hypothesize that targeting SFRP2 could inhibit tumor growth. In collaboration with Dr. Russ Mumper, the John A. McNeill Distinguished Professor in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics, their group developed a drug to target SFRP2.
"Demonstrating that a monoclonal antibody to SFRP2 inhibits tumor growth in pre-clinical models opens up a new potential for drug development. This treatment is not presently available for human studies, but our efforts are focused on obtaining funding for further drug development that would lead to a clinical trial" said DeMore.
This work was supported by National Institute of Health (P50-CA58223, 1R01CA142657-01A1 and R01 HL61656), North Carolina TraCS Large Pilot Award, University Cancer Research Fund, Nancy DeMore Foundation and North Carolina Kickstart Commercialization Collaboration Award.
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Journal Reference:
Emily Fontenot, Emma Rossi, Russell Mumper, Stephanie Snyder, Sharareh Siamakpour-Reihani, Ping Ma, Eleanor Hilliard, Bradley Bone, David Ketelsen, Charlene Santos, Cam Patterson, and Nancy Klauber-DeMore. A Novel Monoclonal Antibody to Secreted Frizzled-Related Protein 2 Inhibits Tumor Growth. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, April 19, 2013 DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-12-1066
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
LONDON (Reuters) - American conductor Marin Alsop is to become the first woman in 118 years to lead the Last Night of the Proms, the grand finale of Britain's leading classical music festival which includes a punk band and gospel choirs in its line-up.
Details of the 2013 BBC Proms were unveiled on Thursday, with the festival involving 92 concerts over two months to appeal to a wide audience with chamber music, TV theme tunes, gospel choirs and punk veterans The Stranglers set to perform.
The festival will open on July 12 with Sakari Oramo conducting the First Night of the Proms as he starts his tenure as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
It closes on September 7 with American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and British violinist Nigel Kennedy conducted by Alsop, 56, the chief conductor of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Roger Wright, director of the Proms, said Alsop was ideal.
"We don't plan any demographic. We chose her because she's a really good conductor and she'll make a great conductor on the last night," Wright told a news conference.
The Last Night of the Proms, broadcast globally, will feature pieces by Richard Wagner and Gioachino Rossini and, in line with tradition, end with the rousing trio of "Rule, Britannia", "Pomp and Circumstance" and "Jerusalem" as the audience wave flags.
In past years, hundreds of fans have queued for hours, and even overnight, outside London's cavernous Royal Albert Hall to get hold of the coveted "promming tickets" that grant a standing place in front of the stage for as little as 5 pounds.
Highlights of the 2013 Proms include Israeli Daniel Barenboim conducting Wagner's complete four opera "Ring Cycle" and Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" played by genre-crossing violinist Kennedy.
PUNK TO PERCUSSION
Giuseppe Verdi's 200th birthday will be marked with performances by Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja, soprano Kristine Opolais, and Italian orchestras from Rome and Milan.
Two evenings dedicated to music from the BBC's popular sci-fi TV drama "Dr Who", which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and a Hollywood Rhapsody evening of Golden Age film music are set to attract non-classical fans.
Rap and soul will clash with orchestral showpieces as conductor Jules Buckley brings together urban artists with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in an evening featuring popular British singer Laura Mvula.
The Stranglers, known for songs "Golden Brown" and "No More Heroes", will perform with the London Sinfonietta.
The Proms will also give a platform for artists from Azerbaijan and Mali as well as Grammy Award-winning Touraeg guitar group Tinariwen that started out in Algeria.
Wright said broadening the appeal of the Proms was important even though the focus remained on the Western classical canon.
"If you can develop and get people into what can for some be a forbidding hall, or can look like a forbidding hall, then that's part of what the Proms' job has been since 1895," he said.
Apart from performances by various BBC orchestras, there will be appearances from top international orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, Olso Philharmonic, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Freshly inaugurated this year, the U.S.'s National Youth Orchestra will mark its first time in Europe with a performance at the Proms including star violinist Joshua Bell.
At the first free main evening Prom, the National Youth Orchestra of Britain will celebrate young artists at the festival with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
"It is in a way madness to put Beethoven 9 on at the Proms and make it free. ... it's all part of our desire to broaden the audience," Wright said.
Tickets for the Proms go on sale from May 11.
(Reporting By Shadia Nasralla, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)
Tobacco freedom is definitely an aspiration on most smokers, and yet also something that smokers attempt to obtain and fail at again and again. In the event that you smoke and have struggled in the past with putting them down permanently, keep reading. The next sentences contain proven factors from those people who have succeeded.
Find yet another way to flake out. Nicotine is really a relaxant, which means you have to look for a substitute to lessen your stress. A massage or yoga is just a really good way of soothing, or you could attempt a hot bath, or playing your favorite music. Whenever feasible, try to avoid something tense during the initial couple of weeks once you give up smoking.
Realize that the very first day or two are the hardest, if you?re attempting to stop smoking. As soon as you get past the physical withdrawal signs, which last around three days, the worst element of quitting has ended. You?ll still experience some psychological withdrawal symptoms and intense desires, but in general, stopping gets easier as time passes.
You should seek out support in your neighborhood. While on the web support is great, face-to-face support will help you relearn how exactly to socialize without tobacco. Cigarette cessation support groups are wonderful places to do that, as it pertains to quitting smoking as your unique emotional challenges will be there understood by the people.
Plan a regular exercise routine. Exercising provides you with a healthy and positive focus for the life. Additionally, it may replace cigarettes in your head. You will be less likely to want to smoke again, as physical fitness is gained by you. Try to exercise at least five times weekly for best results.
Confer with your doctor about prescription medications. If you?d like to ease nicotine withdrawal symptoms, consider prescription drugs. There are certain drugs that influence the chemical balance in the human brain and might help reduce cravings. Additionally, there are drugs that may reduce bothersome withdrawal indicators, like inability to concentrate or depression.
With a couple form of nicotine replacement is a good way to slowly ease your addiction to smoking when you are attempting to quit. Smoking substitutes come in many forms, including lozenges, gum, and patches that may be worn on the body. These products give your system a little dose of cravings are eased by nicotine, which for using tobacco products.
If you have made a decision to quit smoking, mentally get ready for what is ahead. Try to concentrate on the fact that you are able to stop, and that this isn?t an impossible dream. Set an official ?quit date? and also consider putting it to your calendar. By taking this type of positive approach, your likelihood of stopping increase.
Don?t be concerned about being great. Many people who quit smoking have to make a few attempts at it before they succeed. If you are it is made by one of the lucky few who on your own first try; congratulations. For the others of you, beating yourself up over it can only strain you out and cause stronger desires to smoke. Relax and do the best you can.
Each time when you?re trying to stop smoking you feel like smoking, reward your self for perhaps not carrying it out. Put that money sideways, if you feel like you are about to go buy a pack of cigarettes. Get yourself something nice that tells you of your success, after you do this for some time.
Prevent holding your cigarettes around with you. This makes them harder to make the journey to and you will manage to reduce smoking by doing this. Once they are an inconvenience to make it to, they will not be smoked by you as often. This will ultimately allow you to quit smoking for good.
Don?t feel that a nicotine withdrawal treatment has to have nicotine in it. While it is true that you can find an alternative source of nicotine and reduce your levels of it, you could just get one of these prescription drugs that blocks your dependence on nicotine. Consult your personal doctor about a medicine that may just kill your desires.
Set a certain date for you to stop smoking, and tell everyone else you know very well what this date will be. It?ll create a sense of accountability on your part, the one that you will be ashamed never to continue with. You will be observed as failing or a person who can?t control their actions. Furthermore, those around you will help you leave, if you give them the opportunity to do this.
Ensure your stress is reduced by you as much as possible when you are wanting to quit smoking. If they are under great pressure as the smoking helps them to relax many individuals turn to smoking. Listen to some relaxing music, obtain a massage, choose a walk. Do whatever helps stress to be relieved by you.
Keep at heart that there surely is just one outcome from taking another puff of a cigarette. That consequence is smoking again at the particular level you are in a healthcare facility dying and that you were at, before behavior cripples you. It is a scary fact that will assist you stick to track.
Create a step-by-step listing of goals and rewards. Give a limited date to yourself of which you intend to be achieved smoking completely, and split the full time between then and now with smaller targets. Add a desirable and very particular (however feasible) incentive to each one of these goals to keep yourself stoked up about quitting.
Where people generally smoke to avoid temptation try to avoid areas. Avoid smoking areas at bars, smoking rooms at other and work places where there are smokers, if you think the temptation could be too much. Also, when meeting friends or family that smoke, make an effort to do this in a smoke-free atmosphere, such as for example, non-smoking restaurants and parks.
Since you arrive at the end with this report, you have read ideas and insights provided by others. They are people who once smoked, just like you do now, but don?t smoke any more, like you hope to be. Follow their some ideas and you?ll soon follow in their achievement.Steve Miller
BestElectronicCigaretteSource.net
575 Market Street, Suite 3000
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 209-5257
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No, no, no, Doug! An onion burger isn't even a little bit like a White Castle, and, yes, it is classically limited to the El Reno (just west of OKC) area.
In the first place, it's BIG. Three times as big as White Castle, maybe four. In the second place, it is a loose (almost loose enough to see through) patty of meat, almost like you chopped it quickly off the end of a package of ground beef to make chili but slapped it on the grill instead. Then it is fried on the [greasy] hot top separately from the onions. They are combined on a greasy hot bun when finished and served -- now, Easterners, remain calm -- with your choice of ketchup or yellow mustard. Mustard goes on hot dogs! Not always.
There is a fair amount of other stuff to see in El Reno, and if you space your eating, you can have an onion burger at each of the three classic places. I had potato salads rather than fries with mine, IIRC.
Distant blazar is a high-energy astrophysics puzzlePublic release date: 18-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tim Stephens stephens@ucsc.edu 831-459-2495 University of California - Santa Cruz
Blazar PKS 1424+240 is the most distant known source of very high-energy gamma rays, but emission spectrum deviates from expectations
Blazars are the brightest of active galactic nuclei, and many emit very high-energy gamma rays. New observations of the blazar known as PKS 1424+240 show that it is the most distant known source of very high-energy gamma rays, but its emission spectrum now appears highly unusual in light of the new data.
A team led by physicists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, used data from the Hubble Space Telescope to set a lower limit for the blazar's redshift (z ? 0.6035), which corresponds to a distance of at least 7.4 billion light-years. Over such a great distance, a substantial proportion of the gamma rays should be absorbed by the extragalactic background light, but calculations that account for the expected absorption yield an unexpected emission spectrum for the blazar.
"We're seeing an extraordinarily bright source which does not display the characteristic emission expected from a very high-energy blazar," said Amy Furniss, a graduate student at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP) at UCSC and first author of a paper describing the new findings. The paper has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters and is currently posted on arXiv.org.
Coauthor David Williams, adjunct professor of physics at UC Santa Cruz, said the findings may indicate something new about the emission mechanisms of blazars, the extragalactic background light, or the propagation of gamma-ray photons over long distances.
"We're finding very high-energy gamma-ray sources at greater distances than we thought we might, and in doing so we're finding some things we don't entirely understand," Williams said. "Having a source at this distance will allow us to better understand how much background absorption there is and test the cosmological models that predict the extragalactic background light."
The extragalactic background light (EBL) is the diffuse radiation from all stars and galaxies, a dim but pervasive glow that fills the universe. When a high-energy gamma-ray photon collides with a lower-energy EBL photon, they annihilate and create an electron-positron pair. The farther gamma rays have to travel the more likely they are to be absorbed by this mechanism. This limits the distance to which sources of very high-energy gamma rays can be detected.
Measuring the EBL is extremely difficult because there are so many bright sources of light in our immediate neighborhood. In addition to estimates based on cosmological models, astronomers have used galaxy counts to set a lower limit for the EBL. Using a model close to this lower limit to calculate the expected absorption of very high-energy gamma rays from PKS 1424+240, Furniss derived an intrinsic gamma-ray emission spectrum for the blazar. The results, however, deviate from the expected emission based on current blazar models.
Blazar emission is thought to result from a relativistic jet of particles powered by matter falling onto a supermassive black hole at the center of the host galaxy. "There may be something going on in the emission mechanisms of the blazar that we don't understand," Williams said. "There are more exotic explanations as well, but it may be premature to speculate at this point."
Gamma rays from PKS 1424+240 were first detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and subsequently by the ground-based instrument VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System), which is sensitive to gamma-rays in the very high-energy (VHE) band from about 100 GeV to more than 10 TeV. To determine the redshift of the blazar--a measure of how much the light from an object has been stretched to longer wavelengths by the expansion of the universe--the researchers used data obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph for another research program.
###
In addition to Furniss and Williams, the coauthors of the paper include J. Xavier Prochaska, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC; Joel Primack, professor of physics at UCSC; Michele Fumagalli, a former UCSC graduate student now at Carnegie Observatories and Princeton University; Charles Danforth and John Stocke at the University of Colorado; Meg Urry at Yale University; Alex Filippenko at UC Berkeley; and William Neely at the NF/ Observatory.
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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.
Distant blazar is a high-energy astrophysics puzzlePublic release date: 18-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tim Stephens stephens@ucsc.edu 831-459-2495 University of California - Santa Cruz
Blazar PKS 1424+240 is the most distant known source of very high-energy gamma rays, but emission spectrum deviates from expectations
Blazars are the brightest of active galactic nuclei, and many emit very high-energy gamma rays. New observations of the blazar known as PKS 1424+240 show that it is the most distant known source of very high-energy gamma rays, but its emission spectrum now appears highly unusual in light of the new data.
A team led by physicists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, used data from the Hubble Space Telescope to set a lower limit for the blazar's redshift (z ? 0.6035), which corresponds to a distance of at least 7.4 billion light-years. Over such a great distance, a substantial proportion of the gamma rays should be absorbed by the extragalactic background light, but calculations that account for the expected absorption yield an unexpected emission spectrum for the blazar.
"We're seeing an extraordinarily bright source which does not display the characteristic emission expected from a very high-energy blazar," said Amy Furniss, a graduate student at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP) at UCSC and first author of a paper describing the new findings. The paper has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters and is currently posted on arXiv.org.
Coauthor David Williams, adjunct professor of physics at UC Santa Cruz, said the findings may indicate something new about the emission mechanisms of blazars, the extragalactic background light, or the propagation of gamma-ray photons over long distances.
"We're finding very high-energy gamma-ray sources at greater distances than we thought we might, and in doing so we're finding some things we don't entirely understand," Williams said. "Having a source at this distance will allow us to better understand how much background absorption there is and test the cosmological models that predict the extragalactic background light."
The extragalactic background light (EBL) is the diffuse radiation from all stars and galaxies, a dim but pervasive glow that fills the universe. When a high-energy gamma-ray photon collides with a lower-energy EBL photon, they annihilate and create an electron-positron pair. The farther gamma rays have to travel the more likely they are to be absorbed by this mechanism. This limits the distance to which sources of very high-energy gamma rays can be detected.
Measuring the EBL is extremely difficult because there are so many bright sources of light in our immediate neighborhood. In addition to estimates based on cosmological models, astronomers have used galaxy counts to set a lower limit for the EBL. Using a model close to this lower limit to calculate the expected absorption of very high-energy gamma rays from PKS 1424+240, Furniss derived an intrinsic gamma-ray emission spectrum for the blazar. The results, however, deviate from the expected emission based on current blazar models.
Blazar emission is thought to result from a relativistic jet of particles powered by matter falling onto a supermassive black hole at the center of the host galaxy. "There may be something going on in the emission mechanisms of the blazar that we don't understand," Williams said. "There are more exotic explanations as well, but it may be premature to speculate at this point."
Gamma rays from PKS 1424+240 were first detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and subsequently by the ground-based instrument VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System), which is sensitive to gamma-rays in the very high-energy (VHE) band from about 100 GeV to more than 10 TeV. To determine the redshift of the blazar--a measure of how much the light from an object has been stretched to longer wavelengths by the expansion of the universe--the researchers used data obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph for another research program.
###
In addition to Furniss and Williams, the coauthors of the paper include J. Xavier Prochaska, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC; Joel Primack, professor of physics at UCSC; Michele Fumagalli, a former UCSC graduate student now at Carnegie Observatories and Princeton University; Charles Danforth and John Stocke at the University of Colorado; Meg Urry at Yale University; Alex Filippenko at UC Berkeley; and William Neely at the NF/ Observatory.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Kate is a junior Journalism major with minors in Psychology and International Studies, with a concentration in the Middle East. She is also a former Special Projects Editor, Copy Editor and Copy Intern with The Pendulum and served as the Editor-in-Chief of The Edge.
View all posts by Kate Riley 
Amazon's business model, CTO Werner Vogels reminded us today, is based on "low margins and high volume", and today the company announced news of how it's applying that to its enterprise services. From today, it's expanding its 
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Public release date: 18-Apr-2013
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