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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea said its new, young leader Kim Jong Un is married, announcing it for the first time in a brief and routine state TV report Wednesday evening that ends weeks of speculation about a beautiful woman who accompanied him to recent public events.
Kim toured an amusement park with his "wife, comrade Ri Sol Ju" on Tuesday, while a crowd cheered for the leader, the speaker said without giving any more details about Ri, including how long they had been married.
Seven months after inheriting the country from his father, Kim Jong Il, the 20-something leader has been shown in the media several times with the young woman, including at a concert where Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters appeared and at tours of various North Korean sites.
While the woman hasn't been identified until now, media and analysts in the South were quick to guess that she was his wife.
Kim's public appearances with the woman are a striking change from his father's style. Kim Jong Il's 17-year rule was known for its secrecy. His companions and his children weren't mentioned by state media, including Kim Jong Un, who was virtually unknown before his formal introduction to the world in late 2010.
The new leader's style is considered more similar to his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, who built homes, parks and schools and was often shown alongside his wife, Kim Jong Suk, and with children in his arms.
The speculation about Kim Jong Un's private life has coincided with high tension on the Korean Peninsula following a North Korean long-range rocket launch in April and repeated threats by Pyongyang to attack the South.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-confirms-leader-kim-jong-un-married-131440029.html
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FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2012 file photo, an oil tanker is moored near oil refineries in Kawasaki, west of Tokyo. Japan reported its biggest half-year trade deficit ever as exports weakened and fuel imports soared to keep the power on while most reactors are idled in the aftermath of last year's nuclear crisis. The Ministry of Finance on Wednesday, July 25, 2012, reported a 2.9 trillion yen ($37.4 billion) trade deficit for the first half. The deficit was triple the size of the deficit reported for the same period last year. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2012 file photo, an oil tanker is moored near oil refineries in Kawasaki, west of Tokyo. Japan reported its biggest half-year trade deficit ever as exports weakened and fuel imports soared to keep the power on while most reactors are idled in the aftermath of last year's nuclear crisis. The Ministry of Finance on Wednesday, July 25, 2012, reported a 2.9 trillion yen ($37.4 billion) trade deficit for the first half. The deficit was triple the size of the deficit reported for the same period last year. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)
TOKYO (AP) ? Japan reported its biggest half-year trade deficit ever as exports weakened and fuel imports soared to keep the power on while most reactors are idled in the aftermath of last year's nuclear crisis.
The Ministry of Finance on Wednesday reported a 2.9 trillion yen ($37.4 billion) trade deficit for the first half ended June 30. The deficit was triple the size of the deficit reported for the same period last year. First half exports fell 2.5 percent from last year while imports surged 13.1 percent.
The latest trade deficit is the biggest since Japan started compiling such records in 1979.
Until this month, all 50 of Japan's working nuclear reactors were offline after the nuclear crisis set off in March 2011 by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Two reactors are now back online but the country still must rely more on oil and gas to supply electricity.
Exports were dented by weaker demand stemming from Europe's debt crisis. A strong yen also hurt exports.
Disruptions to parts supplies caused by the disaster in northeastern Japan have also hurt exports as production of autos and electronics slowed, although have since recovered.
Imports surged on the back of the growing cost of importing fuel, including oil, petroleum products, gas and coal.
Japan has managed to eke out small trade surpluses in some months over the last year.
Earlier this year, Japan reported a record annual trade deficit for the fiscal year ended March.
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London's Olympics got off to an embarrassing start Wednesday when North Korea's women footballers refused to play after a mix-up over their national flag, in one of a series of blunders.
Hosts Great Britain had kicked off the sports festival, years in the making and costing billions of dollars, with a 1-0 win over New Zealand as women's soccer got under way two days before the opening the ceremony.
The United States beat France 4-2 and Japan overcame Canada 2-1. But North Korea's opener against Colombia was held up after their players were pictured next to South Korea's flag on the big screen at Glasgow's Hampden Park.
The North Koreans were finally persuaded to take the field and the match, scheduled for 7:45 pm (1845 GMT), began at 8:50 pm. Red-faced organisers were quick to apologise for the howler.
"Today ahead of the women's football match at Hampden Park, the South Korean flag was shown on a big screen video package instead of the North Korean flag," said a statement from London 2012 organisers.
"Clearly that is a mistake, we will apologise to the team and the National Olympic Committee and steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again."
The incident -- involving two countries still officially at war -- ensured a nightmare debut for the 19-day Games, where the hosts' capabilities are on show as thousands of athletes compete for 302 gold medals until August 12.
"Yes, we were angry because our players were introduced as if they are from South Korea, something that may affect us very greatly as you might know," said North Korea coach Sin Ui-Gun.
"Winning the game cannot compensate this. It is a different matter. We hope there is no repeat in the next matches," he added.
But it was not the only problem on Wednesday. Elsewhere, Team GB sent out an email referring to the Great Britain women's football team as "England".
And organisers had to offer a refund to diving fans whose view will be partially obscured due to a defect in the purpose-built, wave-shaped Aquatics Centre.
Separately, Greek triple-jumper Voula Papachristou was kicked out of the Olympics for a racist tweet which poked fun at Africans living in her country.
And athletics' world governing body said 10 athletes had been barred for doping, including Morocco's women's 1500m runner Mariem Alaoui Selsouli who failed a test earlier this month.
Anti-drugs officials said the London Olympics would be most stringently patrolled Games yet, boosted by a sophisticated new test for human growth hormone.
"It's a very significant step and it's a very helpful one," said World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Director General David Howman.
"Every step is significant if it ends up catching someone who has been cheating with impunity."
At the Games, Usain Bolt is hoping for a second successive sprint treble, Michael Phelps needs just three more swimming medals to become history's most decorated Olympian, and Roger Federer leads a galaxy of tennis stars.
China, who topped the medals table at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, arrived at the athletes village as thousands of competitors, coaches, officials and media poured through London's Heathrow Airport and headed to Olympic Park.
"All athletes and teams are in good spirits and are performing their training every day as scheduled," said China's deputy chef de mission Xiao Tian.
Meanwhile, "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle led a team of 10,000 participants in the full dress rehearsal for Friday's hotly anticipated opening ceremony.
While details of the show -- which has much to live up to after Beijing 2008's lavish opener -- are a closely guarded secret, it is expected to feature cows and sheep along with Sir Paul McCartney and David Beckham.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/football-kicks-off-london-games-152555131--oly.html
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They are essentially FasTrak freeloaders: drivers who stay in a dedicated FasTrak lane as long as possible to get ahead of traffic and then, at the last minute, switch to a lane that accepts cash.
Kevin Gong, a longtime FasTrak user, said he sees that kind of driving all the time on the Bay Bridge and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge ? not just during rush hour.
"You think the cars in front of you are FasTrak users until about 500 feet before the toll booth, and they slow down and try to switch lanes. And you think, 'Why are you doing this to me? You're slowing everyone down and pissing everyone off,' " Gong said.
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About half of all drivers on Bay Area bridges use FasTrak, according to John Goodwin, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which oversees toll collection on the region?s seven state-owned bridges. Late lane switchers represent what he called "a tiny percentage of drivers." But Goodwin acknowledged they can have a big impact on the commute, especially on the Bay Bridge, where FasTrak lanes are at capacity during peak hours and on many weekends.
Yet policing those last-minute lane changers isn't a priority for the California Highway Patrol.
"As agitating and frustrating it may be, it's not necessarily going to kill somebody," said Diana McDermott, public information officer for the CHP.
Jed Lane might disagree. In June, he was driving on the Benicia bridge when a woman crossed over three FasTrak-only lanes to get to a lane that accepts cash.
"I locked up the brakes, and the car started to skid. I missed her by about a foot and a half, traveling 50 to 60 miles per hour," Lane said. "She's trying to do the right thing by paying the toll, but she's going to kill someone."
Last-minute lane changers are not necessarily breaking the law, said CHP Officer Hector Baiza. Drivers can legally switch into and out of FasTrak lanes near a toll booth if they do so safely, he said. If not, a driver can be cited for an unsafe lane change, impeding the flow of traffic and illegal use of restricted lane ? violations that can add up to hundreds of dollars.
The CHP doesn't keep statistics on how many of those tickets it has issued near toll plazas, and Goodwin said there is no data on the length of the delays caused by the late lane switchers. But, he said, drivers have complained about them since FasTrak lanes were first installed on Bay Area bridges.
"It's just part and parcel of inconsiderate driving," he said.
An electronic toll-collection system could eliminate late lane changes, according to Goodwin. The Golden Gate Bridge District, which is not part of the MTC, plans to switch to the new system in December.
The district is switching to electronic tolls to cut costs, said its spokeswoman, Mary Currie. It is spending about $3.2 million to install the new system, which will save an estimated $2.4 million a year, in part by eliminating toll collectors.
The system will treat all drivers as FasTrak users, regardless of whether they have the devices on their car. There will be no FasTrak-only lanes. Instead, cameras will take pictures of cars without the devices and mail the bills to the cars' owners. The district plans to switch to the new system in December.
If it works well on the Golden Gate Bridge, then the MTC would "eventually" install electronic tolls on the state-run bridges in the region, Goodwin said.
"There?s no quick fix,? he added.
FasTrak Rough Cut from Anika Anand on Vimeo.
Source: http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/late-fastrak-lane-changes-frustrating-mostly-legal-17236
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Will I be able to drive the car across the border? Because we'll both be out of town until the day before I'm planning to leave, I don't think I can get my name added to the title before the road trip.
It seems that I don't need a temporary vehicle importation permit if I'm just driving around Baja, and so won't need to show the title/registration documents, but I'm having trouble confirming on the Internet that my specific situation is ok. Any advice the hive mind can offer?
posted by psycheslamp to travel & transportation around Baja California, Mexico (3 answers total)Source: http://ask.metafilter.com/220638/Can-I-drive-across-the-Mexico-border-in-my-partners-car
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Business marketing is simply the promotion of a product to a specific target market. Over time, you can see trends develop in marketing tactics. So it?s helpful to have someone to handle the dynamic field of business marketing so you don?t have to keep up with changing trends on your own. As you may have seen yourself, one advertising plan may work great while another falls flat. If you cannot figure out the reason, you should probably turn to a business marketing consultant.
Sometimes, business marketing consultants play the role of saving your business. They are trained to be keen on details that entail change in the marketing trends. As known experts in this field, they retain and/or win customers. They should have the most up to date techniques in this area. Also, these consultants can bring your company to a higher level because they can control the flow of your market. With the strategies that they know, they can easily flip the coin help turn things around for you. Actually, with the advent of technology and its further growth, business marketing consultants are more in demand than ever.
Because of the use of these consultants, they now embody a greater role in the world of business. Therefore, their rates have gone up as well. Some companies might not be able to afford their service. You may be able to pay for just one project, but that is not always enough to evoke major change for your business. So, some companies should probably consider hiring a freelance consultant or look for a more affordable consultant available through an agency. It?s also possible to find someone who is still in training that you can employ once they are ready to be of service.
Thinking about the future of the business is important. Even if the first quarter gave you a good result, it does not mean that the next quarter will. You have to look at the long-term results you want for your business. To plan better for the future and obtain a more accurate forecast of what the coming quarters may bring, you should consider turning to the experts, business marketing consultants.
Source: http://springboarddesigns.com/business-marketing-consultants-serve-an-important-role/
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Source: http://realbizzy.com/are-you-looking-for-effective-home-based-business-suggestions/
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/48287082/
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Air Jordan 10 reasons for beginning a lucrative property small business on the net.
It?s probable to begin a household business on-line with pretty tiny
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Source: http://isocracy.occupyboise.org/activity/p/43752/
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Public release date: 22-Jul-2012
Share ] Contact: Michael Patrick Rutter
mrutter@seas.harvard.edu
617-496-3815
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass. July 22, 2012 Using recent advances in marine biomechanics, materials science, and tissue engineering, a team of researchers at Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have turned inanimate silicone and living cardiac muscle cells into a freely swimming "jellyfish."
The finding serves as a proof of concept for reverse engineering a variety of muscular organs and simple life forms. It also suggests a broader definition of what counts as synthetic life in an emerging field that has primarily focused on replicating life's building blocks.
The researchers' method for building the tissue-engineered jellyfish, dubbed "Medusoid," was published in a Nature Biotechnology paper on July 22.
An expert in cell- and tissue-powered actuators, coauthor Kevin Kit Parker has previously demonstrated bioengineered constructs that can grip, pump, and even walk. The inspiration to raise the bar and mimic a jellyfish came out of his own frustration with the state of the cardiac field.
Similar to the way a human heart moves blood throughout the body, jellyfish propel themselves through the water by pumping. In figuring out how to take apart and then rebuild the primary motor function of a jellyfish, the aim was to gain new insights into how such pumps really worked.
"It occurred to me in 2007 that we might have failed to understand the fundamental laws of muscular pumps," says Parker, Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. "I started looking at marine organisms that pump to survive. Then I saw a jellyfish at the New England Aquarium and I immediately noted both similarities and differences between how the jellyfish and the human heart pump."
To build the Medusoid, Parker collaborated with Janna Nawroth, a doctoral student in biology at Caltech and lead author of the study, who performed the work as a visiting researcher in Parker's lab. They also worked with Nawroth's adviser, John Dabiri, a professor of aeronautics and bioengineering at Caltech, who is an expert in biological propulsion.
"A big goal of our study was to advance tissue engineering," says Nawroth. "In many ways, it is still a very qualitative art, with people trying to copy a tissue or organ just based on what they think is important or what they see as the major componentswithout necessarily understanding if those components are relevant to the desired function or without analyzing first how different materials could be used."
It turned out that jellyfish, believed to be the oldest multi-organ animals in the world, were an ideal subject, as they use muscles to pump their way through water, and their basic morphology is similar to that of a beating human heart.
To reverse engineer a medusa jellyfish, the investigators used analysis tools borrowed from the fields of law enforcement biometrics and crystallography to make maps of the alignment of subcellular protein networks within all of the muscle cells within the animal. They then conducted studies to understand the electrophysiological triggering of jellyfish propulsion and the biomechanics of the propulsive stroke itself.
Based on such understanding, it turned out that a sheet of cultured rat heart muscle tissue that would contract when electrically stimulated in a liquid environment was the perfect raw material to create an ersatz jellyfish. The team then incorporated a silicone polymer that fashions the body of the artificial creature into a thin membrane that resembles a small jellyfish, with eight arm-like appendages.
Using the same analysis tools, the investigators were able to quantitatively match the subcellular, cellular, and supracellular architecture of the jellyfish musculature with the rat heart muscle cells.
The artificial construct was placed in container of ocean-like salt water and shocked into swimming with synchronized muscle contractions that mimic those of real jellyfish. (In fact, the muscle cells started to contract a bit on their own even before the electrical current was applied.)
"I was surprised that with relatively few componentsa silicone base and cells that we arrangedwe were able to reproduce some pretty complex swimming and feeding behaviors that you see in biological jellyfish," says Dabiri.
Their design strategy, they say, will be broadly applicable to the reverse engineering of muscular organs in humans.
"As engineers, we are very comfortable with building things out of steel, copper, concrete," says Parker. "I think of cells as another kind of building substrate, but we need rigorous quantitative design specs to move tissue engineering to a reproducible type of engineering. The jellyfish provides a design algorithm for reverse engineering an organ's function and developing quantitative design and performance specifications. We can complete the full exercise of the engineer's design process: design, build, and test."
In addition to advancing the field of tissue engineering, Parker adds that he took on the challenge of building a creature to challenge the traditional view of synthetic biology which is "focused on genetic manipulations of cells." Instead of building just a cell, he sought to "build a beast."
Looking forward, the researchers aim to further evolve the artificial jellyfish, allowing it to turn and move in a particular direction, and even incorporating a simple "brain" so it can respond to its environment and replicate more advanced behaviors like heading toward a light source and seeking energy or food.
Along with Parker, Nawroth, and Dabiri, contributors to the study included Hyungsuk Lee, Adam W. Feinberg, Crystal M. Ripplinger, Megan L. McCain, and Anna Grosberg, all at Harvard.
###
Funding for the study included grants from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, and the NSF Program in Fluid Dynamics.
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Public release date: 22-Jul-2012 Share ] Contact: Michael Patrick Rutter
mrutter@seas.harvard.edu
617-496-3815
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass. July 22, 2012 Using recent advances in marine biomechanics, materials science, and tissue engineering, a team of researchers at Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have turned inanimate silicone and living cardiac muscle cells into a freely swimming "jellyfish."
The finding serves as a proof of concept for reverse engineering a variety of muscular organs and simple life forms. It also suggests a broader definition of what counts as synthetic life in an emerging field that has primarily focused on replicating life's building blocks.
The researchers' method for building the tissue-engineered jellyfish, dubbed "Medusoid," was published in a Nature Biotechnology paper on July 22.
An expert in cell- and tissue-powered actuators, coauthor Kevin Kit Parker has previously demonstrated bioengineered constructs that can grip, pump, and even walk. The inspiration to raise the bar and mimic a jellyfish came out of his own frustration with the state of the cardiac field.
Similar to the way a human heart moves blood throughout the body, jellyfish propel themselves through the water by pumping. In figuring out how to take apart and then rebuild the primary motor function of a jellyfish, the aim was to gain new insights into how such pumps really worked.
"It occurred to me in 2007 that we might have failed to understand the fundamental laws of muscular pumps," says Parker, Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. "I started looking at marine organisms that pump to survive. Then I saw a jellyfish at the New England Aquarium and I immediately noted both similarities and differences between how the jellyfish and the human heart pump."
To build the Medusoid, Parker collaborated with Janna Nawroth, a doctoral student in biology at Caltech and lead author of the study, who performed the work as a visiting researcher in Parker's lab. They also worked with Nawroth's adviser, John Dabiri, a professor of aeronautics and bioengineering at Caltech, who is an expert in biological propulsion.
"A big goal of our study was to advance tissue engineering," says Nawroth. "In many ways, it is still a very qualitative art, with people trying to copy a tissue or organ just based on what they think is important or what they see as the major componentswithout necessarily understanding if those components are relevant to the desired function or without analyzing first how different materials could be used."
It turned out that jellyfish, believed to be the oldest multi-organ animals in the world, were an ideal subject, as they use muscles to pump their way through water, and their basic morphology is similar to that of a beating human heart.
To reverse engineer a medusa jellyfish, the investigators used analysis tools borrowed from the fields of law enforcement biometrics and crystallography to make maps of the alignment of subcellular protein networks within all of the muscle cells within the animal. They then conducted studies to understand the electrophysiological triggering of jellyfish propulsion and the biomechanics of the propulsive stroke itself.
Based on such understanding, it turned out that a sheet of cultured rat heart muscle tissue that would contract when electrically stimulated in a liquid environment was the perfect raw material to create an ersatz jellyfish. The team then incorporated a silicone polymer that fashions the body of the artificial creature into a thin membrane that resembles a small jellyfish, with eight arm-like appendages.
Using the same analysis tools, the investigators were able to quantitatively match the subcellular, cellular, and supracellular architecture of the jellyfish musculature with the rat heart muscle cells.
The artificial construct was placed in container of ocean-like salt water and shocked into swimming with synchronized muscle contractions that mimic those of real jellyfish. (In fact, the muscle cells started to contract a bit on their own even before the electrical current was applied.)
"I was surprised that with relatively few componentsa silicone base and cells that we arrangedwe were able to reproduce some pretty complex swimming and feeding behaviors that you see in biological jellyfish," says Dabiri.
Their design strategy, they say, will be broadly applicable to the reverse engineering of muscular organs in humans.
"As engineers, we are very comfortable with building things out of steel, copper, concrete," says Parker. "I think of cells as another kind of building substrate, but we need rigorous quantitative design specs to move tissue engineering to a reproducible type of engineering. The jellyfish provides a design algorithm for reverse engineering an organ's function and developing quantitative design and performance specifications. We can complete the full exercise of the engineer's design process: design, build, and test."
In addition to advancing the field of tissue engineering, Parker adds that he took on the challenge of building a creature to challenge the traditional view of synthetic biology which is "focused on genetic manipulations of cells." Instead of building just a cell, he sought to "build a beast."
Looking forward, the researchers aim to further evolve the artificial jellyfish, allowing it to turn and move in a particular direction, and even incorporating a simple "brain" so it can respond to its environment and replicate more advanced behaviors like heading toward a light source and seeking energy or food.
Along with Parker, Nawroth, and Dabiri, contributors to the study included Hyungsuk Lee, Adam W. Feinberg, Crystal M. Ripplinger, Megan L. McCain, and Anna Grosberg, all at Harvard.
###
Funding for the study included grants from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, and the NSF Program in Fluid Dynamics.
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/hu-ajs071712.php
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ProfitHub.com is now open and already impacting many small business across the globe grow and reach more clients and prospects. Secret Millionaire Jeff Usner has recently released a new book and now is giving newbies and experience marketers a new way to stay on top of the industry.
Secret millionaire and business coach Jeff Usner announced today the launch of a new company, ProfitHub.com. This new addition is expected to attract thousands of business minded individuals looking for competitive and competent training on how to create success in businesses online.
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Jeff Usner is an internet millionaire and a highly sought business coach and mentor. He helps small and big business alike create systems and funnels which will transform their business processes into the most productive, most efficient, and most profitable systems there is. Profithub.com is the place to gain an edge with internet marketing training and have more free time.
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ScienceDaily (July 22, 2012) ? Only by viewing a Seurat painting at close range can you appreciate the hidden complexities of pointillism -- small, distinct dots of pure color applied in patterns to form an image from a distance. Similarly, biologists and geneticists have long sought to analyze profiles of genes at the single cell level but technology limitations have only allowed a view from afar until now.
Research published in the July 22 issue of Nature Biotechnology, shows for the first time that a novel genomic sequencing method called Smart-Seq can help scientists conduct in-depth analyses of clinically relevant single cells. Smart-Seq has many possible applications, including helping scientists to better understand the complexities of tumor development. This is vitally important as many clinically important cells exist only in small numbers and require single cell analysis. The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, the University of California, San Diego and Illumina Inc.
"While our results are preliminary, we showed that it is possible to do studies of individual, clinically relevant cells," says biomedical scientist Rickard Sandberg, researcher at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and principal investigator at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet. "Cancer researchers around the world will now be able to analyze these cells more systematically to enable them to produce better methods of diagnosis and therapy in the future."
Previous research showed that it is common for one gene to give rise to several forms of the same protein through different cut-and-paste configurations of its raw copy. The phenomenon, known as splicing, means that cells from the same tissue are not so homogenous as previously thought.
The research team has now taken its study a step further and developed a method for the complete mapping of the gene expression of individual cells. In showing which genes are active, it is now possible to accurately describe and study differences in gene expression between individual cells from the same tissue.
"Scientists have been waiting for a long time for such a method to come along, but technical limitations have made it difficult to produce a sufficiently sensitive and robust method," says Dr. Sandberg. "The method has several areas of applications including cancer research where it can be used to study which cell types form cancer tumors in individual patients."
In the study, scientists studied tumor cells in the blood system of a patient with recurring malignant melanoma. Once they had identified the tumor cells in a regular blood test, the team used Smart-Seq to analyze their gene expression. By using this method, researchers could show that the tumor cells had activated many important membrane proteins that are understood to be responsible for their ability to evade the body's monitoring system and spread in the blood or lymph.
The study was conducted with the support of several funding bodies, including the European Research Council, the Swedish Research Council, the Foundation for Strategic Research, the ?ke Wiberg Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120722135200.htm
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Police are pictured outside of a Century 16 movie theatre where as many as 14 people were killed and many injured at a shooting during the showing of a movie at the in Aurora, Colo., Friday, July 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
Police are pictured outside of a Century 16 movie theatre where as many as 14 people were killed and many injured at a shooting during the showing of a movie at the in Aurora, Colo., Friday, July 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
Police are pictured outside of a Century 16 movie theatre where as many as 14 people were killed and many injured at a shooting during the showing of a movie at the in Aurora, Colo., Friday, July 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The movie industry grappled Friday with the deadly Colorado shooting at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises," as one of the most anticipated films in years became enmeshed with a horrifying tragedy.
The shooting, which killed 12 and left nearly 60 injured in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, reverberated through Hollywood and upended carefully laid plans for the global release of "The Dark Knight Rises." Warner Bros. quickly canceled a premiere planned for Paris and canceled press interviews in France.
"Warner Bros. and the filmmakers are deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident," read a statement from Warner Bros. "We extend our prayers and deepest sympathies to the victims, their loved ones and those affected by this tragedy."
New York City's police commissioner said he was told the gunman had painted his hair red and called himself the Joker ? Batman's nemesis ? but Aurora police would not confirm that.
The studio rushed to react to the tragedy. Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., said he had been up since 4 a.m. making calls.
"Everybody is very saddened by the event. We were obviously looking for a very happy occasion for us," Fellman said. "It's a difficult way to begin. We're just more concerned now with the well-being of those that were injured, of course."
The studio had no further comment on whether screenings might be canceled or precautions taken. Director Christopher Nolan issued a statement on behalf of the cast and crew of the film, expressing their "profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy."
"I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie," said Nolan. "I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theater is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me.
"Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families."
Warner Bros. did move to pull trailers for its upcoming movie "Gangster Squad" from showings of "The Dark Knight Rises." The trailer of the film, which stars Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling in a ruthless war between '40s Los Angeles police and the mob, includes a scene of mobsters firing into a movie theater from behind the screen.
A person familiar with what was shown at the Aurora theater said the trailer did not play there. The person did not want to be identified because the person was not authorized to speak on the matter.
Cinemark Holdings Inc., the chain that owns the theater where the shooting happened, said it was working closely with local law enforcement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and loved ones, our employees, and the Aurora community," the company said.
Movie theaters around the country continued Friday showings of the film as planned, though some were stepping up security and conducting bag searches. New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly said the city was providing extra security in New York theaters playing "The Dark Knight Rises" ''as a precaution against copycats and to raise the comfort levels among movie patrons."
In the wake of the shooting, "The Dark Knight Rises" and the earlier Batman films, with their dark themes and emphasis on terrorism, were sure to be heavily scrutinized. The practice of midnight screenings for eagerly anticipated blockbusters, too, could come into question.
Kelly said that the suspected gunman, James Holmes, had his hair painted red and identified himself to authorities saying he was the Joker. Heath Ledger played the Joker in the previous Batman installment, "The Dark Knight," although his hair was colored green. Ledger died in 2008 from a toxic combination of prescription drugs before the film was released.
"I don't know if James Holmes cared deeply about Batman," film critic Roger Ebert wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times. "I suspect he cared deeply about seeing himself on the news."
The National Association of Theatre Owners issued a statement offering their "hearts and prayers" to the victims. The association said, "Guest safety is, and will continue to be a priority for theater owners," adding that the group would work closely with law enforcement and review security procedures.
"We share the shock and sadness of everyone in the motion picture community at the news of this terrible event," said former Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. "We extend our prayers and deepest sympathies to the victims, their loved ones and all those affected by this tragedy."
"The Dark Knight Rises" had expectations of being one of the biggest weekend openings ever. Its midnight screenings earned $30.6 million, Warner Bros. said Friday. That's the second-best midnight opening ever, behind $43.5 million for the "Harry Potter" finale. "The Dark Knight" earned a then-record $158.4 million in its first three days, including $18.5 million from midnight screenings.
The PG-13 film played in 3,825 theaters domestically in the midnight screenings, expanding to 4,404 cinemas nationwide Friday. Many showings on the weekend were sold out in advance.
Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for Hollywood.com who specializes in box office, declined to speculate on an effect the tragedy might have on the film over the weekend, saying it was too soon to estimate. But some moviegoers were already rethinking their plans.
Christine Cooley, who works for the University of Florida at a campus facility near Tampa, Fla., said she and her 15-year-old daughter were stunned by the TV coverage of the shooting Friday morning.
"Her immediate reaction was 'I'm never going to the movie theater again. Why should I go somewhere where I'm looking over my shoulder worrying that someone is going to come in and harm us when I can wait six months and watch it in the safety of my own home?'"
Cooley said she tried to explain to her daughter that it was an isolated incident, "but I see where she's coming from. Why put yourself in harm's way?"
Others were undeterred.
"Just seem like another day at the movies," said Jimmie Baker, 40, of Harlem, N.Y., at a theater in Times Square.
Andrew Bross, 22, of Livingston, N.J., returned Friday to watch "The Dark Knight Rises" for the second time in 12 hours.
"I go to the movies every week," he said. "I'm going to keep going. I'm not going to let it stop me one bit."
Damon Lindelof, the co-creator of "Lost," said he was going to see the film Friday night and suggested a modest tribute: a minute of silence as the end credit roll.
___
AP Movie Writer David Germain and AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Matt Moore in Philadelphia, Alex Katz in New York and Mitch Stacy in Columbus, Ohio, also contributed.
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Public release date: 21-Jul-2012 Share ] Contact: Jeff Sheehy
jsheehy@ari.ucsf.edu
415-597-8165
University of California - San Francisco
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Makerere University in Uganda have used hair and blood samples from three-month old infants born to HIV-positive mothers to measure the uninfected babies' exposureboth in the womb and from breast-feedingto antiretroviral medications their mothers were taking. The results, they said, are surprising.
"We found high levels of exposure to three antiretroviral medications in the hair samples of HIV uninfected infants at twelve weeks of life," said study senior author, Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at the UCSF Division of HIV/AIDS at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH).
"From looking at plasma level data at the same time point, we believe that transfer of two of the medicines from mother to baby occurs exclusively in the womb and transfer of the third medication occurs both in the womb and through breastfeeding."
The findings could lead to new ways to protect infants from HIV transmission and to better understand the development of toxicities and resistance to the drugs, the researchers said.
A single plasma level of a medication reflects drug exposure over approximately 24 hours. Measuring the concentrations of antiretrovirals in a small hair sample reveals exposure over the past month. The team therefore measured both plasma and hair levels of medications in babies whose mothers were taking HIV medications to get a better idea of when drugs are being passed from mother to baby. "Since fetuses start growing hair in the womb, hair sampling gives us an opportunity to examine exposures to drug before birth," said Gandhi.
UCSF researchers have pioneered the use of hair sampling for measuring antiretroviral levels. The procedure is now a standard measure in many research studies, equivalent in HIV clinical care to measuring hemoglobin A1C to monitor average blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes.
In the study, the team took hair and blood samples from two groups of HIV-positive mothers, all of whom breast-fed their infants. For 45 mother/infant pairs, the mothers' antiretroviral regimens included a protease inhibitor, lopinavir, boosted by ritonavir, another antiretroviral medication. The other 64 mothers were on an efavirenz-based regimen.
Infants in the lopinavir group had levels of the drug in their hair that measured 87 percent of the levels found in their mothers' hair. The levels of ritonavir were about 45 percent of the levels found in their mothers' hair. When the researchers looked at the drug levels in the blood drawn from the mothers and infants at 12 weeks, they found the expected levels of lopinavir and ritonavir in the mothers, but none of either in the blood of the infants.
"The inability to find drug in the infants' blood at 12 weeks tells us that the lopinavir and ritonavir in their hair is not due to recent exposure, so breast-feeding did not transfer these drugs to the infants. Our conclusion is that the lopinavir and ritonavir were transferred to the babies in the womb, and lopinavir at quite a high level," said Gandhi.
In the efavirenz group, researchers found infant drug levels in hair samples that were about 40 percent of the levels found in their mothers. Additionally, they found that infants had levels in their blood that were about 15 percent of what was found in their mothers.
These findings indicate a moderate transfer of efavirenz both in the womb and during breastfeeding said Gandhi.
"Our findings, as we verify them, will have important implications. One, being able to measure drug exposures of fetuses in the womb and during breast-feeding can help us understand how to better protect infants from HIV transmission from HIV-positive mothers during pregnancy, birth and after birth. Antiretroviral medications are delivered prophylactically to HIV-positive mothers and newborns to prevent transmission, and fetuses derive protection from transmission if their HIV-positive mothers are on an antiretroviral regimen," she said.
"Second, the development of resistance to antiretroviral medications in infants is an important issue. HIV develops resistant mutations after fairly low levels of exposure to the class of medications to which efavirenz belongs, non-nucleoside transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). Additionally, hair sampling for antiretroviral exposure levels will ultimately help us monitor toxicities associated with these medications in infants."
Using hair to measure exposure to antiretrovirals has advantages in that it is a painless, bloodless, biohazard-free method of collecting a stable specimen from HIV patients. It measures drug exposure over time and has been shown to be more predictive of treatment response than the "snapshot" of exposure provided by a single plasma level of medication.
Gandhi said that researchers are finding hair sampling to be a very useful tool in several settings. One use is in resource-limited settings where collecting, storing and handling blood draws is difficult and expensive. Hair is snipped, wrapped in foil and needs no refrigeration.
Another setting is in monitoring drug exposures in uninfected people. Researchers have been using the technique to measure adherence/drug levels in some of the pre-exposure prophylaxis trials, where high-risk uninfected patients take antiretrovirals to prevent getting infected with HIV. Non HIV-infected individuals cannot be monitored for adherence to antiretrovirals like HIV-infected individuals (where levels of HIV in the blood are measured routinely to indicate how well they are taking their pills) so hair levels provide a novel and reliable indicator of adherence.
A third setting is for monitoring prenatal exposures. Hair sampling is the only way currently to measure how much antiretroviral exposure fetuses are getting in the womb long-term. Cord blood measurements of antiretrovirals at birth, which are expensive and cumbersome to collect, still only reflect exposure to the babies over the short-term. And collecting hair levels is a much easier technique for monitoring drug exposure levels in infants, especially when compared to blood draws.
This work will be presented at 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday July 21, 2012 during the 4th International Workshop on HIV Pediatrics, which takes in Washington, D.C. preceding the XIX International AIDS Conference. A poster presentation of the same data, titled, "Lopinavir and efavirenz concentrations in paired hair samples as a marker of cumulative exposure among postpartum women and breastfeeding infants in Tororo, Uganda" will be unveiled at the XIX International AIDS Conference at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 22, 2012.
###
Study co-authors include Jane Achan, Deborah Cohan, Frances Aweeka, Julie Mwesigwa, Yong Huang, Albert Plenty, Edwin Charlebois, Theodore Ruel, Veronica Ades, Tamara D. Clark, Paul Natureeba, Moses R. Kamya, and Diane V. Havlir (principal investigator of the study), from the Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration, UCSF-Makerere University, Tororo, Uganda.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Office of AIDS Research, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief provided funding for this research.
The UCSF Division of HIV/AIDS at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center is affiliated with the AIDS Research Institute (ARI) at UCSF. UCSF ARI houses hundreds of scientists and dozens of programs throughout UCSF and affiliated labs and institutions, making ARI one of the largest AIDS research entities in the world.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to advancing health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.
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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.
Public release date: 21-Jul-2012 Share ] Contact: Jeff Sheehy
jsheehy@ari.ucsf.edu
415-597-8165
University of California - San Francisco
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Makerere University in Uganda have used hair and blood samples from three-month old infants born to HIV-positive mothers to measure the uninfected babies' exposureboth in the womb and from breast-feedingto antiretroviral medications their mothers were taking. The results, they said, are surprising.
"We found high levels of exposure to three antiretroviral medications in the hair samples of HIV uninfected infants at twelve weeks of life," said study senior author, Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at the UCSF Division of HIV/AIDS at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH).
"From looking at plasma level data at the same time point, we believe that transfer of two of the medicines from mother to baby occurs exclusively in the womb and transfer of the third medication occurs both in the womb and through breastfeeding."
The findings could lead to new ways to protect infants from HIV transmission and to better understand the development of toxicities and resistance to the drugs, the researchers said.
A single plasma level of a medication reflects drug exposure over approximately 24 hours. Measuring the concentrations of antiretrovirals in a small hair sample reveals exposure over the past month. The team therefore measured both plasma and hair levels of medications in babies whose mothers were taking HIV medications to get a better idea of when drugs are being passed from mother to baby. "Since fetuses start growing hair in the womb, hair sampling gives us an opportunity to examine exposures to drug before birth," said Gandhi.
UCSF researchers have pioneered the use of hair sampling for measuring antiretroviral levels. The procedure is now a standard measure in many research studies, equivalent in HIV clinical care to measuring hemoglobin A1C to monitor average blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes.
In the study, the team took hair and blood samples from two groups of HIV-positive mothers, all of whom breast-fed their infants. For 45 mother/infant pairs, the mothers' antiretroviral regimens included a protease inhibitor, lopinavir, boosted by ritonavir, another antiretroviral medication. The other 64 mothers were on an efavirenz-based regimen.
Infants in the lopinavir group had levels of the drug in their hair that measured 87 percent of the levels found in their mothers' hair. The levels of ritonavir were about 45 percent of the levels found in their mothers' hair. When the researchers looked at the drug levels in the blood drawn from the mothers and infants at 12 weeks, they found the expected levels of lopinavir and ritonavir in the mothers, but none of either in the blood of the infants.
"The inability to find drug in the infants' blood at 12 weeks tells us that the lopinavir and ritonavir in their hair is not due to recent exposure, so breast-feeding did not transfer these drugs to the infants. Our conclusion is that the lopinavir and ritonavir were transferred to the babies in the womb, and lopinavir at quite a high level," said Gandhi.
In the efavirenz group, researchers found infant drug levels in hair samples that were about 40 percent of the levels found in their mothers. Additionally, they found that infants had levels in their blood that were about 15 percent of what was found in their mothers.
These findings indicate a moderate transfer of efavirenz both in the womb and during breastfeeding said Gandhi.
"Our findings, as we verify them, will have important implications. One, being able to measure drug exposures of fetuses in the womb and during breast-feeding can help us understand how to better protect infants from HIV transmission from HIV-positive mothers during pregnancy, birth and after birth. Antiretroviral medications are delivered prophylactically to HIV-positive mothers and newborns to prevent transmission, and fetuses derive protection from transmission if their HIV-positive mothers are on an antiretroviral regimen," she said.
"Second, the development of resistance to antiretroviral medications in infants is an important issue. HIV develops resistant mutations after fairly low levels of exposure to the class of medications to which efavirenz belongs, non-nucleoside transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). Additionally, hair sampling for antiretroviral exposure levels will ultimately help us monitor toxicities associated with these medications in infants."
Using hair to measure exposure to antiretrovirals has advantages in that it is a painless, bloodless, biohazard-free method of collecting a stable specimen from HIV patients. It measures drug exposure over time and has been shown to be more predictive of treatment response than the "snapshot" of exposure provided by a single plasma level of medication.
Gandhi said that researchers are finding hair sampling to be a very useful tool in several settings. One use is in resource-limited settings where collecting, storing and handling blood draws is difficult and expensive. Hair is snipped, wrapped in foil and needs no refrigeration.
Another setting is in monitoring drug exposures in uninfected people. Researchers have been using the technique to measure adherence/drug levels in some of the pre-exposure prophylaxis trials, where high-risk uninfected patients take antiretrovirals to prevent getting infected with HIV. Non HIV-infected individuals cannot be monitored for adherence to antiretrovirals like HIV-infected individuals (where levels of HIV in the blood are measured routinely to indicate how well they are taking their pills) so hair levels provide a novel and reliable indicator of adherence.
A third setting is for monitoring prenatal exposures. Hair sampling is the only way currently to measure how much antiretroviral exposure fetuses are getting in the womb long-term. Cord blood measurements of antiretrovirals at birth, which are expensive and cumbersome to collect, still only reflect exposure to the babies over the short-term. And collecting hair levels is a much easier technique for monitoring drug exposure levels in infants, especially when compared to blood draws.
This work will be presented at 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday July 21, 2012 during the 4th International Workshop on HIV Pediatrics, which takes in Washington, D.C. preceding the XIX International AIDS Conference. A poster presentation of the same data, titled, "Lopinavir and efavirenz concentrations in paired hair samples as a marker of cumulative exposure among postpartum women and breastfeeding infants in Tororo, Uganda" will be unveiled at the XIX International AIDS Conference at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 22, 2012.
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Study co-authors include Jane Achan, Deborah Cohan, Frances Aweeka, Julie Mwesigwa, Yong Huang, Albert Plenty, Edwin Charlebois, Theodore Ruel, Veronica Ades, Tamara D. Clark, Paul Natureeba, Moses R. Kamya, and Diane V. Havlir (principal investigator of the study), from the Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration, UCSF-Makerere University, Tororo, Uganda.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Office of AIDS Research, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief provided funding for this research.
The UCSF Division of HIV/AIDS at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center is affiliated with the AIDS Research Institute (ARI) at UCSF. UCSF ARI houses hundreds of scientists and dozens of programs throughout UCSF and affiliated labs and institutions, making ARI one of the largest AIDS research entities in the world.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to advancing health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/uoc--hsf071212.php
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