The keyboard lover's BlackBerry is on its way, and the first place to sell it will be none other than our old favorite, Selfridges. The UK department store will carry a black version of the Blackberry Q10 exclusively between April 26th and April 28th, according to a tweet from Blackberry UK, well before other retailers. You can pre-order it now for £580 (at the source) or, if you'd like to meet other people who also love keyboards, grab one at the store starting Friday.
The Rams currently hold the Redskins? first-round pick in the 2013 draft, thanks to the RGIII trade.? The Rams may not actually be using that pick.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the selection ?clearly is for sale.?
That Rams, who also have the 16th overall pick, would surely like to trade down and get more picks.? Last year, the combination of coach Jeff Fisher and G.M. Les Snead put together a great draft, thanks to having extra picks.? The more picks, the better the chances of emerging with good players.
Pick No. 22 comes one spot before the Vikings? first of two first-round selections.?? A team that wants a cornerback, receiver, or inside linebacker the Vikings may be targeting could be tempted to jump the line.? Which is precisely why every team creates smokescreens about who they do and don?t want.
Like most round-one trades, don?t expect anything to happen before the Rams are on the clock.? Teams that trade up want a specific player; trading up too early creates the risk that the player won?t be there.
Of course, doing the trade when the team is on the clock entails risk, since there?s a chance one of the two teams won?t be able to call the trade in to the league office.? Unless each team calls the trade in separately, the trade doesn?t happen.? And with only 10 total minutes to get it all done, there?s a chance that cutting it too close could keep the trade from happening at all.
NEW YORK (AP) ? The longtime feud between late-night hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman is the stuff of legend and, apparently, so yesterday.
The two Jimmys: Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, agree there's no rivalry between them.
Both were among the honorees in New York Tuesday at a gala recognizing Time magazine's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
"I feel good about it. We're very friendly. I know people expect us to dislike each other and say bad things about each other but that will never happen," said 45-year-old Kimmel.
He agreed that making nice is a good thing.
"It is nice. We're like (vocalist duo) Peaches & Herb. I'm Peaches," he laughed.
They'll face-off in the ratings next year when Fallon leaves NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and replaces Leno as host of "The Tonight Show."
Thirty-eight-year-old Fallon said, as of now, things won't change much when he switches to "The Tonight Show."
"We do a great show now. I think we're ready. I thank Jay Leno for being awesome and still being number one because without him I wouldn't have a job," he laughed. "It's just like they call you up from the minor league so I'm ready to go for the majors and I'm gonna swing for the fences."
In January, ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" moved to the 11:35 p.m. EST time slot, putting it in direct competition with "The Tonight Show" and "Late Show with David Letterman."
___
Online:
http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/
http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/jimmy-kimmel-live
___
Alicia Rancilio covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow her online at http://www.twitter.com/aliciar
Apr. 24, 2013 ? In an advance toward coping with bacteria that shrug off existing antibiotics and sterilization methods, scientists are reporting development of a new family of selective antimicrobial agents that do not rely on traditional antibiotics. Their report on these synthetic colloid particles, which can be custom-designed to recognize the shape of specific kinds of bacteria and inactivate them, appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Vesselin Paunov and colleagues point out that many bacteria have developed resistance to existing antibiotics. They sought a new approach -- one that bacteria would be unable to elude by mutating into drug-resistant forms. Their inspiration was the antibodies that the immune system produces when microbes invade the body. Those antibodies patrol the body for microbes and bind to their surfaces, triggering a chain of events in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys the microbes.
Paunov's team describes development and successful tests of synthetic colloid particles, called "colloid antibodies." Colloids are materials in which tiny particles of one material are dispersed in another material. Milk is a colloid in which globules of fat are spread throughout water and other materials. The colloid antibody particles are shells packed with a killing agent. They are designed to recognize and bind to specific bacteria.
Laboratory experiments showed that the colloid antibodies attached to and inactivated only their intended targets without harming other cells. "We anticipate that similar shape selective colloid antibodies can potentially become a powerful weapon in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria," say the researchers. "They can also find applications as non-toxic antibacterial agents, preventing growth of harmful bacteria in various formulations."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Josef Borovi?ka, William J. Metheringham, Leigh A. Madden, Christopher D. Walton, Simeon D. Stoyanov, Vesselin N. Paunov. Photothermal Colloid Antibodies for Shape-Selective Recognition and Killing of Microorganisms. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2013; 135 (14): 5282 DOI: 10.1021/ja400781f
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) ? When preachers told congregants at a mosque in November that it was appropriate for Muslims to celebrate U.S. holidays such as the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, a man who would later be a suspect in last week's the Boston Marathon bombing stood up to argue, the mosque said.
The Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center on Monday told about that outburst by Tamerlan Tsarnaev and provided more details on a second one two months later that the group had previously described.
The group said in its statement that Tsarnaev, who was pronounced dead on Friday after a shootout with police, was not a member of its Cambridge mosque but sometimes attended Friday services and daily prayers over the last year or so. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, who was captured Friday and charged Monday with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, showed up sometimes for prayers, the group said.
Two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Monday that the brothers were motivated by religion but appear not to be tied to any Islamic terrorist groups. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
Both mosque incidents happened after the older brother returned from a months-long trip to Russia last year. An aunt there said he was studying Islam but struggled to fit in.
The troublesome behavior first came in November, just before Thanksgiving, the mosque said. At a weekly prayer, a preacher gave a sermon saying it was appropriate for Muslims to celebrate American holidays. Tamerlan Tsarnaev stood up and argued that "celebration of any holiday was not allowed in the faith."
The preacher met with Tsarnaev and discussed the issue after the service.
In January, the mosque said Tsarnaev had a similar outburst.
This time, the sermon included praise for Martin Luther King Jr., and this time Tsarnaev shouted, calling the preacher a "non-believer" and "hypocrite" who was "contaminating people's minds." Congregants shouted back at him, telling him to leave, and he did.
Later, volunteer leaders of the mosque met with him and told him that he would not be welcome at service if he interrupted again. The group said he continued attending sometimes and did not cause any more problems.
___
Associated Press reporters Eileen Sullivan and Pete Yost in Washington and Arsen Mollayev in Makhachkala, Russia, contributed to this report.
In today?s first-quarter earnings letter, Netflix announced a $12-a-month plan that doubles the current limit of two simultaneous video streams to four simultaneous feeds plan.
The FBI did not know that deceased Boston Marathon bomber suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev went on a six-month trip to Dagestan and Chechnya, Russia?in 2012 because his name was misspelled, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday.
?He went over to Russia, but apparently when he got on the airplane, they misspelled his name, so it never went into the system that he actually went to Russia,? Graham said on Fox News, saying he spoke to an assistant director of the FBI.
Graham's comments, first reported by Politico, inform why the FBI failed to realize that the 26-year-old was a terrorism risk.
The F.B.I. interviewed Tsarnaev and his family in Boston after Russia's warning, but found no sign of terrorism activity at the time.?
Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of the suspected bombers, told The Wall Street Journal that FBI?officers visited him about 18 months ago to discuss Tamerlan's interests.
"They told me they were watching everything?what we look at on the computers, what we talked about on the phone," he said. "I said that's fine. That's what they should be doing."
The New York Times reports that the trip?did not seem?to radicalize?Tsarnaev, who had?already begun?practicing devout Islam. But it could have provided the FBI with further incentive to find indications of violent behavior.
?One of two things happened,? Graham said Monday on Fox News, ?the FBI either dropped the ball or our system doesn?t allow the FBI to follow this guy in an appropriate fashion. I think once the Russians made the request, the FBI did a good job of looking at him. The reason we didn?t know he went to Russia is because the name was misspelled.?
What's with today, today? Monday, April 8, is Rex Manning Day, a holiday created to commemorate the film "Empire Records."
The one-crazy-day comedy -- which focuses on a ragtag group of record store employees, the tyranny of chain stores and the power of Gin Blossoms and The Flying Lizards -- was released in October of 1995, making this the 17th Rex Manning Day in recorded history. But we mustn't dwell on numbers like that. No, not today. Not on Rex Manning Day.
To celebrate this year's Rex Manning Day, HuffPost Entertainment has decided to shock you (shock you, shock you) with some deviant behavior: an imagined 2013 version of "Empire Records," featuring some of today's brightest stars. We'll say no more, mon amour, and get to the fake casting:
Shailene Woodley as the Corey Mason (originally played by Liv Tyler)
Jennifer Lawrence as the Gina (originally played by Renee Zellweger)
Aubrey Plaza as Debra (originally played by Robin Tunney)
Skylar Astin as the A.J. (originally played by Johnny Whitworth)
Ezra Miller as the Lucas (originally played by Rory Cochrane)
Lucas Cruikshank as Mark (originally played by Ethan Embry)
Adam Driver as Berko (originally played by Coyote Shivers)
Emory Cohen as Warren (originally played by Brendan Sexton III)
Kieran Culkin as Eddie (originally played by James "Kemo" Wills)
Jake Johnson as Joe (originally played by Anthony LaPaglia)
Amanda Setton as Jane (originally played by Debi Mazar)
and ...
Alec Baldwin as sexy Rexy himself, Rex Manning (originally played by Maxwell Caulfield)
MEANWHILE:
Monica Lewinsky Jokes
There are only so many things you can rhyme with "black beret."
The Blair Witch Project
Although we do miss the sound our palms made against our foreheads whenever someone asked, "Is this real?"
Fax Machines
When someone asks us to fax something today, we panic. That is, until we realize that scanners and PDFs exist.
Britney Spears' Virginity
Some things, in retrospect, are too distressing to remember.
Cargo Pants
What did we really keep in those extra pockets, anyway?
Pokemon
Embarrassing hobby used "Embarrassing."
It was super effective.
The Phantom Menace
Came out in 1999, still counts as a 90s mistake.
Courtney Love
The fact that she has a <a href="https://twitter.com/Courtney/" target="_hplink">Twitter account</a> is bad enough.
Old Destiny's Child
Beyonce is better as a single lady.
Gay Stereotypes
Thanks to 90s TV, aunties the world over still believe that every homosexual has a childlike obsession with Cher.
Shortalls
Only cute if you're half-painting a room.
Beanie Babies
Parents lost their money $5 at a time and kids inherited a future yard sale. Nobody really came out on top here except Ty.
Limp Bizkit
Although we did get some joy out of watching little suburban "badasses" sing a George Michael song without realizing it.
Bucket Hats
If we could describe the 90s in one word it would be "floppy."
Dial-Up
Who misses waiting minutes for pages to load, having to hear that weird start-up noise and not being able to receive phone calls while surfing the web? Also, who misses saying, "surfing the web?"
War in Iraq
Too late.
Baywatch
We prefer to remember Hasselhoff as he was in "Knight Rider" and then just skip right to the cheeseburger-eating 2000's version.
JNCOs
Remembering them is bad enough, but how about the fact that they're still being sold <a href="http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=jnco" target="_hplink">for actual human currency</a>?
The "Rachel"
Even <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/jennifer-aniston-hated-the-rachel_n_810229.html" target="_hplink">Jennifer Aniston</a> hated it.
Cowry Shell Necklaces
You never went to Hawaii, just American Eagle.
Pogs
Future civilizations are going to be baffled by the importance that was placed on these little circles of cardboard. And don't even get us started on slammers.
Creed
They should take a page out of Nickelback's book and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/nickelback-responds-to-nfl-petition-video_n_1108279.html" target="_hplink">enlist Funny Or Die</a> to make them appear at least <em>ironically</em> good.
The Macarena
Once a year at a wedding is as much as we can handle.
Gel Pens Being Exciting
We were so easily impressed.
Ace of Base
Unless "The Sign" said, "You'll never have to hear 'The Sign' on the radio again," we're uninterested.
Scrunchies
Bagginess and extra fabric were the bane of 90s fashions. Exhibit A: the scrunchie.
Eyes Wide Shut
Well maybe not the movie, but the relationship between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
The Aladdin Cartoon
Needless to say, this cartoon didn't make it "One Jump Ahead" (*crickets*)
Causes of migraines nearly impossible to determinePublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bonnie Davis bdavis@wakehealth.edu 336-716-4977 Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Too many variables exist, says new research from Wake Forest Baptist
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. April 8, 2013 Women often point to stress, hormones, alcohol, or even the weather as possible triggers for their migraines. But a new study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center found that it is nearly impossible for patients to determine the true cause of their migraine episodes without undergoing formal experiments.
The majority of migraine sufferers try to figure out for themselves what causes their headaches based on real world conditions, said lead author Timothy T. Houle, Ph.D, associate professor of anesthesia and neurology at Wake Forest Baptist.
"But our research shows this is a flawed approach for several reasons," he said. "Correctly identifying triggers allows patients to avoid or manage them in an attempt to prevent future headaches. However, daily fluctuations of variables such as weather, diet, hormone levels, sleep, physical activity and stress appear to be enough to prevent the perfect conditions necessary for determining triggers."
For example, said Houle, the simple act of drinking a glass of wine one day and not on the next could be complicated by inconsistencies in other factors. Similarly, a patient may drink wine for several days, but adding cheese to the mix one day could further skew results. In fact, a valid self-evaluation requires such perfect conditions that only occur about once every two years, he said.
"Many patients live in fear of the unpredictability of headache pain. As a result, they often restrict their daily lives to prepare for the eventuality of the next attack that may leave them bedridden and temporarily disabled," Houle said. "They may even engage in medication-use strategies that inadvertently worsen their headaches. The goal of this research is to better understand what conditions must be true for an individual headache sufferer to conclude that something causes their headaches."
Houle and co-author Dana P. Turner, M.S.P.H., also of the Wake Forest Baptist anesthesiology department, have published two related papers on the subject in the journal Headache, which were published online ahead of print this month.
For the study, nine women who had regular menstrual cycles and were diagnosed with migraine either with or without aura provided data for three months by completing a daily diary and tracking stress with the Daily Stress Inventory, a self-administered questionnaire to measure the number and impact of common stressors experienced in everyday life. Morning urine was also collected daily for hormone level testing. Houle and Turner also reviewed three years worth of weather data from a local weather station.
Because of the difficulty in recreating identical conditions each time a patient evaluates a potential trigger, determining triggers proves difficult even for physicians, said Turner. "People who try to figure out their own triggers probably don't have enough information to truly know what causes their headaches," she said. "They need more formal experiments and should work with their doctors to devise a formal experiment for testing triggers."
###
The research was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and of the National Institutes of Health (1R01NS06525701).
Co-authors include: Todd A. Smitherman, Ph.D., University of Mississippi, Donald B. Penzien, Ph.D., Head Pain Center, University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Vincent T. Martin, M.D., University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is a fully integrated academic medical center located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The institution comprises the medical education and research components of Wake Forest School of Medicine, the integrated clinical structure and consumer brand Wake Forest Baptist Health, which includes North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Brenner Children's Hospital, the commercialization of research discoveries through the Piedmont Triad Research Park, as well as a network of affiliated community-based hospitals, physician practices, outpatient services and other medical facilities. Wake Forest School of Medicine is ranked among the nation's best medical schools and is a leading national research center in fields such as regenerative medicine, cancer, neuroscience, aging, addiction and public health sciences. Wake Forest Baptist's clinical programs have consistently ranked among the best in the country by U.S.News & World Report for the past 20 years.
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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.
Causes of migraines nearly impossible to determinePublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bonnie Davis bdavis@wakehealth.edu 336-716-4977 Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Too many variables exist, says new research from Wake Forest Baptist
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. April 8, 2013 Women often point to stress, hormones, alcohol, or even the weather as possible triggers for their migraines. But a new study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center found that it is nearly impossible for patients to determine the true cause of their migraine episodes without undergoing formal experiments.
The majority of migraine sufferers try to figure out for themselves what causes their headaches based on real world conditions, said lead author Timothy T. Houle, Ph.D, associate professor of anesthesia and neurology at Wake Forest Baptist.
"But our research shows this is a flawed approach for several reasons," he said. "Correctly identifying triggers allows patients to avoid or manage them in an attempt to prevent future headaches. However, daily fluctuations of variables such as weather, diet, hormone levels, sleep, physical activity and stress appear to be enough to prevent the perfect conditions necessary for determining triggers."
For example, said Houle, the simple act of drinking a glass of wine one day and not on the next could be complicated by inconsistencies in other factors. Similarly, a patient may drink wine for several days, but adding cheese to the mix one day could further skew results. In fact, a valid self-evaluation requires such perfect conditions that only occur about once every two years, he said.
"Many patients live in fear of the unpredictability of headache pain. As a result, they often restrict their daily lives to prepare for the eventuality of the next attack that may leave them bedridden and temporarily disabled," Houle said. "They may even engage in medication-use strategies that inadvertently worsen their headaches. The goal of this research is to better understand what conditions must be true for an individual headache sufferer to conclude that something causes their headaches."
Houle and co-author Dana P. Turner, M.S.P.H., also of the Wake Forest Baptist anesthesiology department, have published two related papers on the subject in the journal Headache, which were published online ahead of print this month.
For the study, nine women who had regular menstrual cycles and were diagnosed with migraine either with or without aura provided data for three months by completing a daily diary and tracking stress with the Daily Stress Inventory, a self-administered questionnaire to measure the number and impact of common stressors experienced in everyday life. Morning urine was also collected daily for hormone level testing. Houle and Turner also reviewed three years worth of weather data from a local weather station.
Because of the difficulty in recreating identical conditions each time a patient evaluates a potential trigger, determining triggers proves difficult even for physicians, said Turner. "People who try to figure out their own triggers probably don't have enough information to truly know what causes their headaches," she said. "They need more formal experiments and should work with their doctors to devise a formal experiment for testing triggers."
###
The research was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and of the National Institutes of Health (1R01NS06525701).
Co-authors include: Todd A. Smitherman, Ph.D., University of Mississippi, Donald B. Penzien, Ph.D., Head Pain Center, University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Vincent T. Martin, M.D., University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is a fully integrated academic medical center located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The institution comprises the medical education and research components of Wake Forest School of Medicine, the integrated clinical structure and consumer brand Wake Forest Baptist Health, which includes North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Brenner Children's Hospital, the commercialization of research discoveries through the Piedmont Triad Research Park, as well as a network of affiliated community-based hospitals, physician practices, outpatient services and other medical facilities. Wake Forest School of Medicine is ranked among the nation's best medical schools and is a leading national research center in fields such as regenerative medicine, cancer, neuroscience, aging, addiction and public health sciences. Wake Forest Baptist's clinical programs have consistently ranked among the best in the country by U.S.News & World Report for the past 20 years.
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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.
In this April 4, 2013, photo, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, center, signs legislation at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., that includes new restrictions on weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, a response to last year's deadly school shooting in Newtown. Neil Heslin, behind left, father of Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis, Nicole Hockley, right, mother of Sandy Hook School shooting victim Dylan, and Conn. Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, left, watch. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
In this April 4, 2013, photo, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, center, signs legislation at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., that includes new restrictions on weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, a response to last year's deadly school shooting in Newtown. Neil Heslin, behind left, father of Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis, Nicole Hockley, right, mother of Sandy Hook School shooting victim Dylan, and Conn. Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, left, watch. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) ? Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy harshly criticized gun industry lobbyists on Sunday, saying they are doing too little to halt gun violence.
Just three days after he signed into law new restrictions on weapons and large-capacity magazines, the governor compared Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, to clowns and said lobbyists want to ensure that the industry can sell guns indiscriminately.
"Wayne reminds me of the clowns at the circus," Malloy said of LaPierre on CNN's "State of the Union." ''They get the most attention and that's what he's paid to do."
Representatives of the NRA did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
"What this is about is the ability of the gun industry to sell as many guns to as many people as possible even if they're deranged, even if they're mentally ill, even if they have a criminal background," Malloy said. "They don't care. They want to sell guns."
Robert Crook, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition of Sportsmen, a lobbying group, said Malloy's criticism was "absolutely false."
"It's another political statement from a governor with little knowledge," he said.
Connecticut's gun industry supports a gun trafficking task force and tighter background checks of buyers, Crook said.
Andrew Doba, a spokesman for Malloy, said the Democratic governor was criticizing lobbyists, not the gun industry. Malloy has said he wants Connecticut's large gun industry to remain in the state, though gun manufacturers say the new restrictions will hurt their business.
"People are welcome to stay in our state as long as they're producing a product that can be sold in the United States legally," Malloy said.
Nearly four months after a gunman killed 20 children and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, lawmakers and Malloy enacted legislation that adds more than 100 firearms to the state's assault weapons ban. It also immediately bans the sale of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. People who purchased those guns and magazines before midnight Wednesday will be allowed to keep them if they're registered with the state police before Jan. 1.
Required background checks for private gun sales also take effect.
Other parts of the new law include a ban on armor-piercing bullets, establishment of a deadly weapon offender registry, expansion of circumstances when a person's mental health history disqualifies them from holding a gun permit, mandatory reporting of voluntary hospital commitments, doubled penalties for gun trafficking and other firearms violations, and $1 million to fund the statewide firearms trafficking task force.
Malloy said he preferred an "all-out ban" on magazines of more than 10 rounds of ammunition, but the legislature opposed him on the issue.
ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers and Iran failed again to end the deadlock in a decade-old dispute over Tehran's nuclear program in talks that ended in Kazakhstan on Saturday, prolonging a standoff that could yet spiral into a new Middle East war.
No new talks were scheduled but big power negotiators, who earlier this year were insisting that time was running out, were at pains to say the diplomatic process would continue.
Iran's critics accuse it of covertly seeking the means to produce nuclear bombs. Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, sees Iran's nuclear program as a potential threat to its existence.
With a presidential election due in Iran in June, scope for a breakthrough at the two-day meeting in Almaty was slim.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the powers' chief negotiator, said long discussions had not bridged the differences between the two sides.
"It became clear that our positions remain far apart," Ashton, who represents the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany in talks with Iran, told a news conference.
In the meeting, the powers were asking Iran to suspend its most sensitive uranium-enrichment work in return for modest relief from international sanctions, an offer Iran did not accept.
"The Iranians indicated readiness to take some steps but they were small," one Western diplomat said.
Iran says its nuclear work is entirely peaceful and that it is Israel's assumed atomic arsenal that threatens peace.
"NO BREAKDOWN"
A senior U.S. official said there had been no breakdown in the negotiations and suggested that a willingness by Iranian negotiators to engage in detailed dialogue about the six nations' proposal was the most useful sign in years.
"There may not have been a breakthrough but there also was not a breakdown," the official, who requested anonymity, said. "Our intention is to proceed," the official added, referring to the powers' commitment to further diplomatic efforts.
Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili acknowledged a gap in positions between the two sides.
"We proposed our plan of action and the other party was not ready and they asked for some time to study the idea," he told a separate news conference, referring to Tehran's own proposals.
Iran says it is only refining uranium to power a planned network of nuclear energy plants and for medical purposes.
Some diplomats and experts have said Iran's June presidential election fuels uncertainty in the West over the Islamic Republic's strategy for nuclear diplomacy.
The U.S. official did not rule out that new talks could take place before the vote. But first the six powers would have to decide what steps, if any, to take to energize diplomacy.
OPTIONS
Strengthening economic sanctions, which now target Iran's vital oil industry and its banking sector, is one likely option.
"We need to absorb and digest what we heard," the official said. "And decide what makes best sense on the way forward."
Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz warned in a statement that Iran was trying to use the negotiations to gain time to advance its uranium enrichment programme.
"The Iranians are using this round of talks to pave the way to a nuclear bomb," Steinitz said, urging a more aggressive stance to make it "unequivocally clear to the Iranians that the negotiation games are finished."
Shashank Joshi, a senior fellow and Middle East specialist at the Royal United Services Institute, said: "I do not think the risk of war has substantially increased.
"The priority for both sides is to keep the diplomatic track alive until after the Iranian presidential elections."
Ashton said that for the first time there had been a "real back and forth between us when were able to discuss details ... To that extent, that has been a very important element"
But, she added: "What matters in the end is substance."
The six powers tried to persuade Iran to abandon its higher-grade uranium enrichment, as a first step to a broader deal. Refined uranium can be used to power atomic reactors, Iran's stated aim, or provide material for weapons if processed more.
Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, wants major economic sanctions - including on its oil exports and banks - lifted and its right to enrich uranium publicly recognized.
Diplomats said one area where Iranian negotiators appeared willing to cede some ground was the demand that Tehran ship out some of its stockpile of 20 percent uranium, the sensitive product that powers worry represents an important step on route to making weapons-grade material.
One way to address the stocks could be for Iran to speed up conversion of the higher-grade uranium into reactor fuel. But that alone would not allay international concerns.
Jalili said it was Iran's "inalienable" right to refine uranium but that the activity could still be a subject for confidence-building cooperation. He did not elaborate.
The talks were held against a backdrop of flaring tension between big powers and North Korea, which like Iran is defying international demands to curb its nuclear program.
(Additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich, Dmitry Solovyov in Almaty,; Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem and Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Editing by Stephen Powell)
Two nationally known but weakened Republicans are raising Democratic hopes in the ruby-red Republican stronghold of South Carolina.
A Southern state in which the GOP controls the state Legislature, all nine statewide offices, both U.S. Senate seats, and six out of seven House seats is an unlikely Democratic beachhead. And President Obama lost South Carolina by 11 points in November.
But Democrats see Gov. Nikki Haley, with approval ratings in the low 40s, as one of their top targets in 2014. An automated poll by a Democratic firm?of the 1st Congressional District also found that ex-Gov. Mark Sanford, the likely winner of Tuesday?s Republican primary runoff, slightly trailing Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert. An internal campaign poll for Colbert Busch last week had her slightly ahead of Sanford, who became a national punch line in 2009 after he disappeared from public view for several days and then admitted to an affair with a woman from Argentina.
?There?s a feeling that we?re ready for change, and it?s energizing Democrats,? said Kristin Sosanie, spokeswoman for the South Carolina Democratic Party. ?The common thread is that these Republicans aren?t looking at what?s in the best interest of South Carolina.?
The special House election to replace Tim Scott, whom Haley appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jim DeMint, is May 7. The district leans Republican, but Sanford is dogged by the scandal that led to his resignation in 2009.
?When Democrats look at the district, they see the independent flavor of Charleston County where there?s little influence from the Religious Right, but the three other counties in the district are much more problematic for them,? said Barry Wynn, former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. ?If Sanford wins [Tuesday], he?s probably the favorite, but only a slight favorite.?
Republican Party Chairman Chad Connelly argued that Colbert Busch?s support for labor unions would sink her in the right-to-work-state. As for Democrats eyeing pickup opportunities in that district and the Governor?s Mansion, he quipped, ?Democrats believe in the tooth fairy and Easter bunny, too.?
Despite her waning popularity at home, Haley is considered a rising star in her party. As the first woman and Indian-American governor of South Carolina, she is an important symbol of Republican efforts to broaden the party's appeal to a rapidly diversifying electorate. The GOP is unlikely to let her go down without a fight.
Still, Democratic Party leaders rank her 2014 reelection campaign in their top gubernatorial tier--which also includes Rick Scott of Florida, Rick Snyder of Michigan, and John Kasich of Ohio. Haley is facing a potential rematch against Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, whom she defeated by only 5 percentage points in the tea-party-fueled Republican wave of 2010.
Among the reasons Democrats see Haley as vulnerable: Unemployment in the state runs higher than the national rate (most recently, it was 8.6 percent in February). State officials have been embarrassed by a massive security breach in the state Department of Revenue last year that allowed hackers to swipe financial information from millions of residents. More recently, Haley rejected the federal Medicaid expansion offered by President Obama?s health care law, which a University of South Carolina study said would mean an estimated $11.2 billion in federal aid and 44,000 new jobs.
The Democratic line of attack is clear: portraying Haley an incompetent, uncompromising ideologue.
?This is going to be a big race--Republicans have a lot invested in her--but the job performance has been so poor that she?s incredibly vulnerable, no matter what her national profile is,? said Danny Kanner, spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association
Sheheen has not yet launched a campaign but is already getting plugged. In a speech in South Carolina last month, Maryland Gov. Martin O?Malley, finance chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, dropped Sheheen?s name not once but twice. The former city prosecutor is currently on a statewide tour to promote his new book, The Right Way: Getting the Palmetto State Back On Track.
Haley's chief bragging rights involved the newly built Boeing plant in North Charleston, which employs 6,000 people. The airplane-manufacturing?plant was the subject of a high-profile union dispute that allowed the governor to rally antilabor conservatives in the state.
?Boeing is a good story for her that she can play up, and every time the plant spawns another business she can go down there and take credit,? said Wynn, who was named recently to Haley?s fundraising committee. ?I tend to think she may be a stronger incumbent than what people believe.?
MILWAUKEE (AP) ? A Medical College of Wisconsin researcher has been charged with economic espionage after he stole samples of a possible cancer-fighting compound and credited himself with its discovery in a grant application to study in China, prosecutors said.
Hua Jun Zhao, 42, stole three vials of the C-25 powder compound from the office of Marshall Anderson, a professor at the college in suburban Milwaukee, with the intention of providing it to Zhejiang University in China, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Zhao was a member Anderson's team researching whether the compound could help to kill cancer cells without damaging healthy ones, school spokeswoman Maureen Mack said.
It's not clear how far along testing of the compound is and whether it has been used only in the lab or been tested in animals or people. Mack said rights to the compound are owned by the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Cincinnati.
Anderson noticed the vials were missing Feb. 22. School security video showed Zhao was the only person who entered Anderson's office that day. Federal investigators questioned Zhao about the vials on Feb. 27, but he claimed he did not understand their questions, the complaint says. The school immediately placed him on administrative leave.
Zhao's co-workers told the FBI that Zhao spoke excellent English and that he had lived in the U.S. for many years. Mack declined to say how long Zhao worked at the school and would not provide details of his immigration status, referring questions to the FBI. Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office.
Zhao's wife lives in Zhejiang, according to the criminal complaint.
The stolen vials are worth $8,000, the complaint said.
Zhao was arrested March 29 and charged with economic espionage, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. On Monday he was ordered held at Milwaukee County Jail until trial. No trial date has been set.
Messages were left Tuesday with Zhao's defense attorney, federal defender Juval Scott, and with Anderson.
Zhao went to China in late December and returned mid-February, and since then he has claimed on his resume that he's an assistant professor at Zhejiang University, the complaint says.
After he was placed on administrative leave Zhao allowed the college to copy files from his personal laptop, a thumb drive and an external hard drive. Investigators found 384 files related to Anderson's research, as well as research results from another professor from the school's cancer department.
Among the files was a grant application to a Chinese foundation that Zhao wrote in Mandarin. In the application he said he discovered the C-25 compound and that he was seeking funding to continue his research in China. Anderson told investigators the application was a verbatim translation of a grant application he himself had written several years earlier in English.
School security staff told FBI agents that on the day of his suspension Zhao also accessed school computers remotely and deleted files related to the C-25 research. The college was able to recover the files. Zhao denied accessing the server or deleting files and said he didn't understand the FBI agents' questions.
Federal authorities subsequently searched Zhao's home and found a receipt for shipment of a package to Zhao's wife along with two airline tickets from Chicago to China leaving Tuesday, as well as an application to the National Natural Science Foundation of China for research funding for C-25.
___
Associated Press writers Didi Tang in Beijing contributed to this report.
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2 April 2013Last updated at 08:19 ETBy Pallab GhoshScience correspondent, BBC News, Cern, Geneva
Engineer Katy Foraz shows Pallab Ghosh how to upgrade the Large Hadron Collider
Engineers have begun a major upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Their work should double the energy of what's already the most powerful particle accelerator in the world.
BBC News is the first to be allowed to see inside the LHC - on the French-Swiss border - to watch the work being carried out.
Scientists believe the upgrade will enable them to discover new particles which will lead to a more complete theory of how the Universe works.
A project leader with the LHC's Atlas experiment, Dr Pippa Wells told BBC News that there was much more to come from the LHC.
"The past two years have been the most exciting in my time as a particle physicist. People are absolutely fired up. They've made one new discovery (the Higgs) and they want to make more discoveries with the new high energies that the upgrade will give us. We could find a new realm of particle physics".
I was taken by the technical coordinator for the upgrade project, Katy Foraz and Cern's UK communications manager Stephanie Hills, to one of the many access points to the LHC's underground tunnels.
Continue reading the main story
LHC Upgrade
Replace 10,000 connections
Install 5,000 insulation systems
10170 leak tests
18,000 electrical tests
Total cost ?70m
We entered a lift shaft with two buttons marked zero and minus 1. Katy hit minus 1 and we made our way 100 metered below the surface.
As the lift doors opened we walked to a large heavy green door which we strained to open.
As we went through it was like entering Aladdin's cave.
No jewels or gold - but one of the largest and most complex machines ever built. A bright blue superconducting beam-line stretches into the distance - around it are gleaming precision instruments to make the line one of the coldest places in the Universe.
In front of me engineers were replacing some the first connectors. In all 10,000 will need to be changed. 800 people are involved in this project which will cost ?70m.
The tasks also include testing and replacing some of the LHC's main dipole and quadrupole magnets, which are used to bend the paths of the particles and keep them tightly bunched; conducting tests to detect any irregularities in the magnets or imperfections in the electrical insulation; and a range of other work to improve the machine.
Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
We are always at the limit of what we know in terms of the technology. It is very exciting for an engineer to be close to all these new technologies?
End QuoteKaty ForazLHC Upgrade coordinator
The LHC is known for its cutting edge science. But as we walked to this scientific wonderland Katy told me that for her and her team people forget that the particle accelerator is also on the cutting edge of engineering, after all creating the conditions of the beginning of the Universe is no easy feat.
"We are always at the limit of what we know in terms of the technology. It is very exciting: as the coordinator I have access to all the technology and they really are at their limit in terms of superconductivity cryogenics. It is very exciting for an engineer to be close to all these new technologies," she said.
Katy and her team of engineers are calling the work an "upgrade". But critics say it's a repair.
As we walked passed a team replacing a damaged connector Cern's Stephanie Hills was quick to respond to the charge that this expensive refit is putting right a mistake that shouldn't have been made in the first place.
"Nobody has ever done this kind of technology before. Everything from the most basic welding to the most complicated beam diagnostics is pushing the boundaries of technology, and sometimes these things just don't go right simply because we don't know how it's going to work," she told me.
"You can see in front of us the way that we're managing the upgrade is meticulous. There is lots and lots of quality control, making sure that everything's absolutely spot-on so that when we turn the machine back on we are absolutely ready for some more fantastic scientific discoveries."
The damage was done shortly after the switch on of the Large Hadron Collider in September 2008.
The LHC upgrade will enable it to discover new particles. Pallab Ghosh explains how this will lead to a radical change in our understanding of how the Universe works.
Nine days later it broke down because the connections between the superconducting magnets simply couldn't take the current running through them.
It took a year and ?24 million pounds of taxpayer's money to repair the damage. Even then it could only operate on half power. That was enough to discover the much sought-after Higgs Boson.
Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
The LHC is more than just a one trick pony, We hope to find something completely new that will change our understanding of the Universe. ?
End QuoteDr Pippa WellsAtlas Project Leader
Those in charge made a pragmatic decision. They decided to press ahead to keep their funders happy.
To their joy and relief scientists had found their prize last summer. And so at the beginning of this year it was politically possible for Cern to begin the long shut down to fix faulty connections.
Back above ground, students from around the world are shown the Atlas control room, one of the places where data from the LHC will be gathered when it is switched back on. That is something for the students to look forward to - because after the upgrade the beams will be crashing into each other at twice the power.
This will enable researchers here to move on to their ultimate goal: to find evidence of so-called "new physics", which they believe, will lead to a new more compete theory of sub-atomic physics.
The discovery of the Higgs last year was the end of a successful chapter of late 20th century physics.
This was the development of the current theory in the 1960s and 70s called the "Standard Model".
This theory says that most of the forces of nature, the objects around us and our own existence, is all down to the interaction of the Higgs with 16 other particles. It successfully explains how electricity, magnetism and light operate.
Since then, all the particles predicted by the Standard Model have been discovered - most recently the Higgs.
The problem though is that more recently scientists have found that this theory is limited. It explains the world around us extremely well - but it can't explain the way most of the Universe behaves.
Physicists hope that by operating at full power, the LHC will be able to find evidence of so-called supersymmetric particles. These are like the particles on the Standard Model - but more massive.
One form of supersymmetry predicts that there should be five Higgs Bosons, which are each slightly different. The first order of business for LHC scientists when the collisions resume in 2015 will be to test the Higgs that's been discovered, to see if it shows any of the properties predicted by supersymmetry, according to Dr Wells.
"The LHC is more than just a one trick pony," said Dr Wells. "It wasn't designed to find just the Higgs. We hope to find something completely new that will change our understanding of the Universe. We are on the threshold of finding many more new particles."
Asthma is becoming an epidemic in the United States. The number of Americans diagnosed with asthma grows annually, with 26 million currently affected. And according to a new study, nearly two-thirds or more of all asthmatics also have an allergy, which can make this spring season particularly bothersome.
The study, which is published in the April issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), found that an astonishing 75 percent of asthmatic adults aged 20- to 40-years-old, and 65 percent of asthmatic adults aged 55 years and older, have at least one allergy.
"Allergists have known the prevalence of allergies among asthmatic children is high at 60 to 80 percent, but it was thought allergies were not as common in asthmatic adults," said allergist Paula Busse, MD, lead study author. "These findings are important, and can help lead to proper diagnosis and treatment."
A total of 2,573 adults were studied in a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). A panel of 19 allergens was used to detect allergy among asthmatics.
While asthma is frequently associated with children, it is not uncommon among adults 60 years and older, affecting three to seven percent. This number is likely higher, however, because asthma is often underdiagnosed in older adults.
"Both asthma and allergies can strike at any age, and are serious diseases," said allergist Richard Weber, MD, ACAAI president. "Anyone who thinks they may be having symptoms of an allergy or asthma should see a board-certified allergist. Allergists are experts in diagnosing and treating both conditions."
According to the ACAAI, more than 50 million Americans have an allergy, a number which is also on the rise. Is the link between asthma and allergies a reason?
"It could be one of many creating this perfect storm for allergies," said Dr. Weber. "Other factors, such as the hygiene hypothesis, climate change and an increase in awareness and education can also be reasons for this growth."
###
American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology: http://www.acaai.org/Pages/default.aspx
Thanks to American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
Hey for anyone interested in medieval/political roleplay check it out. Story is slightly cliche i will have to be honest, i did not include very specific aspects of society letting other players to create the world as well.
The king is dead, bards and courtly minstrels sing of lands asunder. The Bastard Prince now sits on the throne favoured by the His Late Majesty. Again the Isles gradually descends into a violent loyalty and struggles for personal gain.
Choose one of the open characters. You will be playing one of the 'Wardens' equivalent to a Duke in real life. I've gotten questions about playing other roles, just need to fill up at least 3 of the Warden roles then other characters can be considered.
Apr. 1, 2013 ? For the first time, an elusive step in the process of human DNA replication has been demystified by scientists at Penn State University. According to senior author Stephen J. Benkovic, an Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry and Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Chemistry at Penn State, the scientists "discovered how a key step in human DNA replication is performed."
The results of the research will be published in the journal eLife on 2 April 2013.
Part of the DNA replication process -- in humans and in other life forms -- involves loading of molecular structures called sliding clamps onto DNA. This crucial step in DNA replication had remained somewhat mysterious and had not been well studied in human DNA replication. Mark Hedglin, a post-doctoral researcher in Penn State's Department of Chemistry and a member of Benkovic's team, explained that the sliding clamp is a ring-shaped protein that acts to encircle the DNA strand, latching around it like a watch band. The sliding clamp then serves to anchor special enzymes called polymerases to the DNA, ensuring efficient copying of the genetic material. "Without a sliding clamp, polymerases can copy very few bases -- the molecular 'letters' that make up the code of DNA -- at a time. But the clamp helps the polymerase to stay in place, allowing it to copy thousands of bases before being removed from the strand of DNA," Hedglin said.
Hedglin explained that, due to the closed circular structure of sliding clamps, another necessary step in DNA replication is the presence of a "clamp loader," which acts to latch and unlatch the sliding clamps at key stages during the process. "The big unknown has always been how the sliding clamp and the clamp loader interact and the timing of latching and unlatching of the clamp from the DNA," said Hedglin. "We know that polymerases and clamp loaders can't bind the sliding clamp at the same time, so the hypothesis was that clamp loaders latched sliding clamps onto DNA, then left for some time during DNA replication, returning only to unlatch the clamps after the polymerase left so they could be recycled for further use."
To test this hypothesis, the team of researchers used a method called F?rster resonance energy transfer (FRET), a technique of attaching fluorescent "tags" to human proteins and sections of DNA in order to monitor the interactions between them. "With these tags in place, we then observed the formation of holoenzymes -- the active form of the polymerase involved in DNA replication, which consists of the polymerase itself along with any accessory factors that optimize its activity," Hedglin said. "We found that whenever a sliding clamp is loaded onto a DNA template in the absence of polymerase, the clamp loader quickly removed the clamp so that free clamps did not build up on the DNA. However, whenever a polymerase was present, it captured the sliding clamp and the clamp loader then dissociated from the DNA strand."
The team members also found that, during the moments when both the clamp loader and the clamp were bound to the DNA, they were not intimately engaged with each other. Rather, the clamp loader released the closed clamp onto the DNA, allowing an opportunity for the polymerase to capture the clamp, completing the assembly of the holoenzyme. Subsequently, the clamp loader dissociated from DNA. "Our research demonstrates that the DNA polymerase holoenzyme in humans consists of only a clamp and a DNA polymerase. The clamp loader is not part of it. It disengages from the DNA after the polymerase binds the clamp," Hedglin added.
Benkovic noted that this mechanism provides a means for the cell to recycle scarce clamps when they are not in use for productive replication.
In addition to Benkovic and Hedglin, other Penn State researchers who contributed to the paper include Senthil K Perumal and Zhenxin Hu.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
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Journal Reference:
Mark Hedglin, Senthil K Perumal, Zhenxin Hu, Stephen Benkovic. Stepwise assembly of the human replicative polymerase holoenzyme. eLife, 2013; (in press) [link]
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Public release date: 8-Apr-2013
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