Saturday, March 31, 2012

3 winners, over 100 million Mega Millions losers

RED BUD, Ill. (AP) ? The Mega Millions winners ? at least three of them ? stayed out of sight. The losers, who could number 100 million, had plenty to say Saturday about losing out on the world's largest-ever lottery jackpot and their dashed dreams of colossal wealth.

Journalists descended on convenience stores in Illinois and Maryland, and lottery officials there and in Kansas proudly proclaimed they sold winning tickets in the $640 million world record-breaking Mega Millions jackpot. The winners will earn $213 million before taxes. Three other ticket holders became millionaires.

But on the street, online and outside the stores where the winners had purchased their tickets, Americans grumbled about hopes that were raised, and then vanished. And they mused about what they would have done with the money.

"What do I do with this useless lottery ticket now?" Laurel Ashton Brooks of Greensboro, N.C., asked on Twitter.

As the jackpot got bigger by the hour on Thursday and Friday, Americans had snapped up tickets while dreaming of quitting jobs, paying off debts, building hospitals, buying an island. On Saturday, they took to Twitter and Facebook to bemoan their lost, razor-thin chance at millions.

"I knew that when I bought the ticket, that I wouldn't win. But I did it anyhow," said Sean Flaherty, a video game tester in New York City. "The whole notion of 'what if' still has some currency with me."

Even President Barack Obama's re-election campaign tapped into the widespread lottery letdown. It sent a fundraising email with the subject "Jackpot" that began: "Yeah, we didn't either. So we're still at."

All told, Americans spent nearly $1.5 billion for a chance to hit the jackpot, which amounts to a $462 million lump sum and around $347 million after federal tax withholding. With the jackpot odds at 1 in 176 million, it would cost $176 million to buy up every combination. Under that scenario, the strategy would win $171 million less if your state also withholds taxes.

Illinois' winner used a quick pick ? an automatically generated set of digits ? to select the winning numbers at a convenience store in the small town of Red Bud, south of St. Louis, Illinois Lottery spokesman Mike Lang said. The winning numbers also were purchased at a 7-Eleven in Milford Mill, Md., north of Baltimore, and somewhere in northeast Kansas.

"It's just unbelievable. Everyone is wanting to know who it is," said Denise Metzger, manager of the MotoMart where Illinois' winning ticket was sold.

"All day yesterday I was selling tickets and I was hoping someone from Red Bud would win. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this. I'm just tickled pink," added Metzger, whose store will receive $500,000 for selling the winning ticket, lottery officials said.

Paramedic Dan Parrott walked away from the store with $5 in winnings after checking numbers on his $40 worth of tickets. That won't pay for the new house, new car and the new ambulances he'd decided the jackpot would help him buy in this farming community of 3,700 about 40 miles south of St. Louis.

"I'd love to have all that money, but with all of that money comes responsibility," he said outside the store. "But it'd still be awesome."

James Sitzes emerged from the MotoMart where his check of his six plays flopped. "I bought them at the right place," he shrugged. "I just didn't have the right numbers."

"I've been thinking for years what I'd do with all that money," said Sitzes, 70. He'd pay off the house, invest the rest and give away his small plating shop.

In Maryland, TV cameras descended upon the 7-Eleven where the state's winning ticket was purchased. The harried manager repeatedly said "No interviews" to reporters pressing for details as customers pushed through the media crush for their morning coffee.

Nyeri Murphy, holding two scratch-off tickets, said she normally plays Powerball but drove to a nearby county to buy $70 worth of Mega Millions tickets this week. "I should have bought them here," she said.

Maryland does not require lottery winners to be identified; the Mega Millions winner can claim the prize anonymously. The store will receive a $100,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket, which was purchased Friday night.

The third winning ticket was purchased in northeast Kansas, but no other information would be released by the Kansas Lottery until the winner comes forward, spokeswoman Cara S. Sloan-Ramos said. The Kansas location that sold the ticket will receive $10,000.

No winner had contacted the agency by Saturday morning, Kansas Lottery Director Dennis Wilson said. "We sure want to meet the winner, but we want to tell them, sign the back of the ticket and secure it."

Kansas law also allows lottery winners to remain anonymous, though lottery winners in Illinois are identified.

The winning numbers in Friday night's drawing were 02-04-23-38-46, and the Mega Ball 23.

Maryland Lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett said the last time a ticket from the state won a major national jackpot was in 2008, when a ticket won for $24 million.

"We're thrilled," she said. "We're due and excited."

The holder of the winning ticket in Maryland has 182 days to come forward and claim the prize. Winners in Kansas and Illinois have up to one year; but if the Illinois winner wants to be paid in a lump sum, they have to come forward in 60 days, Lang said.

Even though just three tickets matched all the winning numbers, the jackpot made a millionaire of at least three other winners and gave a windfall to more than 100 others. Three ticket-holders won $1 million each, and 158 won $250,000 for matching the first five numbers drawn, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association in Urbandale, Iowa.

The estimated jackpot dwarfs the previous $390 million record, which was split in 2007 by two winners who bought tickets in Georgia and New Jersey.

For some, the dreams were enough. Katie Kapczynski bought her first-ever lottery ticket with a roommate at a Washington, D.C., gas station. The attendant had to show her how to buy one.

"We kind of went more for the experience than the 'what if'," she said.

On Saturday morning, Kapczynski, a visitor services manager at the Newseum who was in New York on vacation, had left her $6 in tickets behind at home.

She still doesn't know if she won.

___

Associated Press reporters Jeffrey McMurray and Jason Keyser in Chicago, Kasey Jones in Milford Mill, Md., John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., Samantha Gross in New York, Margery Beck in Omaha, Neb., and Ed Donahue in Washington contributed to this report.

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Kent Island Family Gives Pit Bull New Home ? CBS Baltimore

By BEN WEATHERS
The Capital of Annapolis

STEVENSVILLE, Md. (AP) ? Nearly two months after he was found bloodied on the side of the road in Linthicum, Rocky Road has a new home and family.

The pit bull, whom county police believe was a ?bait dog? used to train fighting dogs, has been adopted by a family of four living in the Gibson?s Grant community on Kent Island. Sabrina Benko filed the paperwork with Columbia-based shelter Tara?s House this week, making the adoption official.

The adoption came six days after the Benkos?took the dog into their home to foster him for the shelter. So far, Rocky Road, whose name has been shortened to Rocky, has been spending a lot of time sleeping and cuddling, Benko said.

?What these people did to this dog has in no way defined him,? Benko said. ?It just amazes me how trusting he is of other people and other animals.?

Earlier this month, a second dog police believe also was being used for dogfighting was found in Brooklyn Park, within five miles from where Rocky was discovered Feb. 2. County Animal Control officers are investigating whether the two incidents are linked.

Benko, who owns and operates a dance studio, S Be Dance Complex of Crofton, and her husband James, a litigation consultant, have two daughters ? Nadia, 5, and Aida, 3.

Rocky is the second abused pit bull the Benkos have adopted. The first, Newman, was rescued from Baltimore 10 years ago.

Benko began following Rocky?s story after he was found.

?Just like everybody else I was feeling so sad and helpless,? Benko said. ?There was just something about him ? his face.?

Rocky suffered from wounds to his face, ears, head and one of his front legs. The dog was so badly injured animal control
officers considered euthanizing him.

But the staff at the Waugh Chapel Animal Hospital offered to treat Rocky for free.

It?s possible Rocky belonged to another family before he was abused, Katie Boring, the animal hospital?s office manager said.

?When people are searching for bait dogs, they?re looking for dogs that are calm, not going to fight back as much,? Boring said. ?People can get bait dogs from anywhere ? adopt them, buy them, steal them from yards.?

The animal hospital is taking care of the second dog that was found injured, named Princess by the hospital staff.

Like Rocky, Princess is affectionate. She had to undergo surgery to repair a wound under her front right leg. Princess will stay at the animal hospital as she recovers.

The Benko?s first dog is a regular patient at the animal hospital, and the staff said they will be excited to see Rocky in
the future as well, Boring said.

Inspired by Rocky?s story, Benko applied to become a foster? parent through Tara?s House. About a week later, the shelter called and asked if she would be interested in taking the pit bull.

Although the dog will bark at the occasional UPS truck driving by and bite at his tail, he has shown no aggression toward anyone, even the family?s other pit bull.

Rocky is very gentle with her daughters, Benko said. ?He?ll lay on the couch and the girls will come and lay right
on him,? she said. ?He?s a cuddler.?

In light of the two abused dog incidents, Sen. Bryan Simonaire, R-Pasadena, is spearheading emergency legislation in General Assembly that would increase penalties for those found guilty of baiting dogs. A Senate subcommittee meeting is scheduled for today.

Information from: The Capital of Annapolis, Md., http://www.hometownannapolis.com/

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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All About Drive Away Auto Transport Service | Auto concept

Increased technological innovation along with shrinking product development cycles is overburdening the auto industry.

For the system based strategy, a complete solution must be flexible, robust and integrated utilizing Customer Need Management, Customer Relationship Management, Quality Management, Supply Chain Management and Product Lifecycle Management. A holistic system management approach is the right roadmap for auto companies but since business revolves around the products or services a company offers, PLM could be the single most rewarding area to focus on in system implementation.

  • Integrated design with product record
  • Manufacturer, Supplier and Customer Collaboration
  • Building the right product the first time using distributed manufacturing
  • Tracking and minimizing cost
  • Protecting intellectual property
  • Tracking product portfolio, product and project lifecycles
  • Closed loop quality feedback
  • Increased profitability

PLM Vendor Selection

* Cost + Software and Hardware + Business Process Designing/Re-engineering + Implementation and support + Integration and synchronization with ERP and other system of product records + Training and Change Management * Benefits + Business problems solved e.g. collaboration during new product introduction, change management and CAD management, proprietary information security and access to new markets due to product compliance + Quality gains e.g. reduced quality related recalls, quality action requests etc. + Process efficiency gains e.g. efficient searches and part reusability, new product introduction time reduction, change management time reduction and data entry related improvements.

CAD vs. Non-CAD PLM criteria

PLM software with strong engineering collaboration and CAD integration capabilities to automate the item/BOM creation in the ERP/PLM system should be seriously considered while selecting the right PLM vendor.

PLM Solutions

Auto companies should look into adopting flow-based PLM solutions where streamlining the business processes is the main focus.

* Customer Need to Product Formulation Product design is usually originated by the marketing or product development team who comes out with either a new product concept or requirement(s) expressed by the customers.

* Product Record Management Centralization of product records is important because distributed inconsistent and partial information can increase the data maintenance cost, operation cost and quality cost substantially. A single source of truth for product, product attributes, BOM, supplier and supplier parts, manufacturer and manufacturer parts and site information is critical to the PLM systems implementation strategy.

* Product Portfolio to Profitability Companies launch various projects and programs during the product lifecycle to manage, control and track the risk involved in cost, product rollout timeframe and compliance etc.

* Product Governance and Compliance Company products need to comply with various standards, regulations or tracking guidelines to conduct business in any country.

* Product Cost Management Tracking and managing the product cost against target cost levels is the key to maintaining profitability. The product cost management solution is used to calculate part and resource costs across the supply chain throughout the entire product lifecycle.

Product Lifecycle Management Solution to Auto Industry Challenges

from your own site.

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'Wrath Of The Titans,' 'Mirror Mirror,' And More: Double Feature Friday!

If one movie is never enough for you and you're looking for a flick to get you in the mood for this week's new release, Double Feature Friday is here to help. Every week we break down the new releases and pair them with older movies that you should catch before heading out to the [...]

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Top Rated Conveniences Scanning Treadmill Reviews Quotidian ...

treamillIt really is an established fact that young people need a balanced diet and many exercising to stay in excellent cardio workouts medical. On the subject of many of our exercise session nonetheless, the best training routine to improve your health preferences is definitely important. Placing cardio workouts to the workout routine is necessary pertaining to protecting a beautiful body with an allover standard both mental and physical healthiness.

Many of us select wandering as the way of getting typically the aerobic exercise they want. Exercising on a consistent basis is required for selecting that cardiac workouts through. Having said that, there are a lot treadmill reviews who help keep women and men starting from hiking for a continual grounds. The elements might be the first rate believe that can hold everyone again. Plenty of people probably won?t walk couple of months pouring or freezing out over. Simultaneously, remarkably cold conditions are instead not ever nutritious merely to walk from undoubtedly influence your system for unpleasant options.

Something different of which preserves everyday people through going for a walk is definitely basically an incredible risky nearby. In the present day, often it is just not safe going outdoors solely for any go. You can find the risk of remaining robbed, increased, raped or rather more serious, put to sleep. This particular may audio hard, yet it is an unfortunate straightforward fact today.

Every time trekking outside the house is not really possible, you are able to even now acquire adequate cardiovascular health and fitness having an elliptical. You should utilize all the equipment from the convenience your own house and never be worried about that daily complications regarding going for a walk out-of-doors. Similar primary advantages of treadmill machines are highlighted below:

Fitness treadmill straps are usually shock absorbing that will takes away force on muscles and joints.

Treadmills get a functional demonstrate that will enable you to view your progress. You can program just how many distance you could have travelled, how many calories you might have burned off coupled with modify the pace not to mention slope to extend your current beats per minute.

There is absolutely no prolonged a requirement to help you charm diet plans or simply weight loss diet plans. With the well being home trainer will enable you to shed weight with a free from danger premium and keep the fat off from, not like your weight will arrive back at one time avoiding one of the celebrity diets available.

You might status your entire running working on my Television so you have being able to be careful best applications whereas jogging. Which you find in using the cardio equipment more pleasant. It assists to plenty of time move, so that you can are doing fine up over with out the diversion from unwanted feelings on the Tv for pc.

Treadmills help you to live in your own property and receive a cardio workout workout rrnstead of leaving behind to try out in the open to have a travel or alternatively visit a workout.

These are just among the a great number of sole treadmill reviews to help you having a cardio equipment to have an individual?s aerobics training. It?s just an incontrovertible fact that treadmill machines help support excellent aerobics health and wellness. Specifically would you like should depart from the comfort of the house to get in ones own cardiovascular exercise. Your work accomplish is definitely consideration on to your running machine and begin wandering.

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How To Leverage Other Resources for Online Business Promotion

Just searching for winners. This is the common perception that most people have when looking at the keyword research that Internet marketers do. Once these searches are performed, you will see that much more data comes through. This above-average data, like seasonal monthly volume averages, is something you can get access to. They are typically displayed as a bar graph with different heights for the individual bars. This information is extremely important, something you won?t notice until you start examining what it has to offer. If escalating ipo going public is something that appeals to you in your net business, then be really sure you get all the particulars about it prior to a full campaign. One with the most simple prerequisites for effective conversions is depending on knowledge of those to whom you are promoting. In addition to understanding the way to speak to your market place, you may realize their requirements from a marketing perspective. It?s actually really simple to view just how much more you are able to get done and just how much far better it will make all your business efforts. You need to become understood by your niche market place, and that signifies you are the 1 who has to understand the way to speak with them. It?s really clear that you just must give people a opportunity to embrace your messages but only following you make a connection.

Way before the Internet took off, offline option was the only chance people had. It wasn?t called "offline" back then, though, it was called "direct" or "response" marketing and advertising. You should borrow from those techniques and create a multi-faceted campaign that incorporates everything from your sales or squeeze page to Facebook to making videos. Drive traffic, for example, through a Facebook page that contains both video and text based content. You will be able to create a separate feeder site that will be pretty much a video based site. Then your job is to send them on to your main website or to your squeeze page. Think about working harder at your lead generation. Make a real effort to use your lead generation giveaways to help you build your list.

Organizing the data that you receive will help you understand what you need to do in regard to the seasonal offer research that you have in front of you. The goal here is to cover all the four seasons with as many good offers as you can find. When you do this, you will see that there are many different marketing opportunities available throughout the year. As with anything, new opportunities will bring more work that you will have to do every day. But hey, it?s all good and only means more chances for you to make money. You will have so much more information and opportunities at your fingertips. You also know if you are marketing products during the wrong season, something that you would not have known without understanding this data. The web is undoubtedly a different kind of location to market place, advertise and usually do business. Dynamic is usually utilised to describe undertaking business on the internet and at times fluid is mention, at the same time. So just don?t forget that the climate can grow to be really different, and you will must adjust to it the top you are able to. Hopefully you will discover our discussion on the merits of ipo services as something that could be easily integrated with your present approaches. If you analyze something new for feasible inclusion in your marketing arsenal, you should be entirely objective.

Nonetheless, there is going to be times once you just need to be bold, and also don?t forget that just about every thing in business has an element of danger with it.

It isn?t that hard to get involved with the super competitive niches, if that is something that interests you. The key is a lateral approach instead of the head-on approach that is probably your first instinct. Pick the niche that is the most interesting to you and then do the research you need to do so that you can find the best sub-niches within which to provide some content. The next step is to create a video series or eBook that centers on that content or sub-niche and get to marketing work. What you are doing here is coming at the same material and the same audience but in a new and innovative way.

It isn?t hard to see that most online marketers are simply doing the same things that other online marketers have done before them. They are all, however, told that they shouldn?t waste time trying to "reinvent the wheel." This is all fine and good but the truth is that sometimes you need to make your own way. Even if the ideas you have seem different or strange you shouldn?t ever be afraid to give them a real try. We?ve shown you what is feasible once you use approaches involving advantage of going public, and they?re able to develop positive results by means of intelligent application.

Get in the habit of learning as a lot as possible on any marketing method due to the fact that may make your actions more effective. With operating ads, in the event you get it right you are able to seriously boost the targeted traffic entering into your marketing process from different points. We would like to mention an crucial aspect of marketing when coping with new approaches. Ask your self if operating a modest test campaign would be in your best interest. But in the end each of us has our own comfort level, and just do what you are comfortable with undertaking. If this really is your very first business venture on the internet, then you?d best be advised to take it to heart.

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To Understand the Lack of Business Ethics Look to Education ...

So you want high business ethics? Well, that may just be a pipe dream if the data from existing universities is confirmed through actual behaviors.

In 2005, Duke University released one report that revealed over 75% of high school students admitted to cheating. That number climbs to over 90% if copying by sharing homework is included.

An extensive article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Regan McMahon published on September 9, 2007 shows the depth of cheating and the potential impact to the business world within the secondary education world.

And the graduate world is also a mecca for cheating students. A report published in 2006 by the Academy of Management Learning and Education journal suggested that 56% of the MBA students admitted to cheating. These are potentially the future business leaders. Other reports released have suggested that soon to be lawyers and teachers also practice cheating on a consistent basis.

The American business economy has already experienced the affects of bad business ethics. When people point the finger at companies such as Enron and Arthur Anderson, the unethical behavior was not caused by the organization, but rather these individuals were already unethical. Again, the belief that everyone does it was probably not far from their conscious actions.

The excuses for cheating are many just like in the work place where business ethics are violated on a daily basis. However, what is interesting to note is that when everything is peeled away, the belief that everyone does it whether they do or do not is driving this cheating behavior.

This belief that everyone does it is not only regulated to business ethics, but human behavior in general. Children complain to parents well so and so can do it. Adults complain to other adults about so and so doing something.

To change business ethics demands that the beliefs driving the attitudes demonstrated through the behaviors must be identify. Ignoring these beliefs will only make the current situation worse.

Source: http://sinefuarcilik.com/to-understand-the-lack-of-business-ethics-look-to-education-2.html

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William Hill Casino Introduces New Live Dealer Games

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Renowned online casino, poker and sports betting operator William Hill has announced yesterday that it managed to extend its offering of live dealer games. The new live dealer casino games will be aimed mostly at the Italian market.

The new live dealer game package introduced by William Hill includes the games Live Roulette and Live Blackjack. According to a press release, the new games will offer players a new and action-packed gaming experience.

The biggest element of the new live casino games will be the live dealers that will be hired. The live dealers will be trained professionals with long-time experience in the casino business. The dealers will interact and communicate with the players though live chat and webcam.

The new live dealer games will be marketed for the Italian market. This means that the new live dealers hired will also be Italian citizens who will have the necessary understanding and cultural background in dealing with Italian customers.

Italian Country Manager of William Hill Roby Salvadori commented the following:

"We are excited to present a new offering dedicated to live games. Thanks to the Live Casino everybody can experience the emotion of a real casino, simply connecting from its sofa at any time. It's fun and easy to use and we believe it will be a big hit with Italian players."

Up until now William Hill used two providers for its live dealer casino games. The first is Evolution Gaming that supplies William Hill Vegas; the second is Playtech that is powering the brand William Hill Casino Club.

Italy not so long ago decided to regulate its online gambling market. The regulation of the Italian online gambling market became a success story after it managed to generate a lot of income to the state in form of taxes. After the legislation was adopted, many operators, among then William Hill, decided to acquire a license in the country.

William Hill is one of the biggest European online sports betting, casino and poker providers. The William Hill casino platform provides a large selection of games which are also available in mobile format. The introduction of these new live dealer games will make the casino even more attractive to players.

Tags: William Hill Casino, Live Dealer Games, Live Roulette, Live Blackjack, Italy

Source: http://www.onlinecasinoadvice.com/news/william-hill-casino-introduces-new-live-dealer-games/

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Friday, March 30, 2012

Declines in Caribbean coral reefs pre-date damage resulting from climate change

Declines in Caribbean coral reefs pre-date damage resulting from climate change [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Mario Aguilera
scrippsnews@ucsd.edu
858-534-3624
University of California - San Diego

Novel excavation technique attributes prior damage to land clearing and overfishing

The decline of Caribbean coral reefs has been linked to the recent effects of human-induced climate change. However, new research led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego suggests an even earlier cause. The bad news humans are still to blame. The good news relatively simple policy changes can hinder further coral reef decline.

Employing a novel excavation technique to reconstruct the timeline of historical change in coral reefs located on the Caribbean side of Panama, a team of scientists led by Scripps alumna Katie Cramer and current Scripps Professor of Oceanography and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) Emeritus Staff Scientist Jeremy Jackson has determined that damage to coral reefs from land clearing and overfishing pre-dates damage caused by anthropogenic climate change by at least decades.

"This study is the first to quantitatively show that the cumulative effects of deforestation and possibly overfishing were degrading Caribbean coral and molluscan communities long before climate change impacts began to really devastate reefs," said lead author Cramer, currently based at the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Coral reefs have suffered alarmingly since the 1980s due to coral bleaching and coral disease, thought to stem from the warming of the oceans due to anthropogenic, or human-induced, climate change. However, until recently, the impact of prior human activities on Caribbean coral reefs had not been studied with experimental techniques.

Historical records and qualitative surveys provide hints that declines in corals in some parts of the Caribbean occurred as far back as the early 1900s after coastal lands began to be cleared to make way for plantations. However, the current study is the first to quantify the changes that reef corals and mollusks have undergone as a result of long-term stress caused by the deposition of silt, nutrients, and pollution onto coral reefs from land clearing and the depletion of reef fish that prevent algae from overtaking reefs.

"Because researchers did not really begin to study Caribbean reefs in detail until the late 1970s, we don't have a clear understanding of why these reefs have changed so dramatically since this time," said Cramer. "So, we set out to reconstruct an older timeline of change on reefs by looking at the remains of past reefs coral skeletons and mollusk shells."

To reconstruct this timeline, the team dug below modern reefs in incremental layers and, using radiocarbon dating of the coral skeletons they found, linked fluctuations in the types and numbers of coral and mollusks over time to historical records of land clearing. Changes in the relative numbers of these various species represent clear indicators of the overall health of the coral reef.

The team also improved upon the standard technique of taking long, narrow core samples of coral fossils that cannot track fluctuations in the numbers of larger species of coral.

"We wanted to look at the whole complement of the coral community," said Cramer.

To catalog the relative numbers of dozens of coral and molluscan species, the researchers dug two-foot-wide by three-foot-deep pits into reefs at several coastal lagoon and offshore sites near Bocas del Toro, Panama, that were heavily affected and less affected by land runoff, respectively. At each of these sites they also conducted surveys and recorded the composition of living corals.

"We dug up over a ton of coral rubble and tens of thousands of shells," said Cramer, who led the fieldwork at STRI and likened the laborious experience to doing underwater construction.

Systematically sifting through the coral and shell fossils, the scientists noted several indicators of environmental stress, including a decrease in the overall size of bivalves such as oysters, clams, and scallops, a transition from branching to non-branching species of coral, and large declines in the staghorn coral and the tree oyster, which were once the dominant coral and bivalve on these reefs.

These indicators were observed in layers of the excavated pits at coastal lagoon sites that were dated before 1960 and as far back as the 1800s, corresponding to a period of extensive deforestation in the Bocas del Toro region. Similar evidence of environmental stress at offshore sites was dated after 1960, indicating that the negative impacts of land clearing have more recently begun to affect reefs further offshore.

With the decline of the branching coral species, the reefs now have fewer nooks and crannies that are used as habitat for reef fish and other organisms. Also, the non-branching species that have taken their place grow at a much slower rate. "Consequently, there is less of a chance that the reefs will be able to keep up with sea level rise from climate change," said Cramer.

"Because the governments of the world have yet to undertake any meaningful efforts to mitigate climate change, it is of the utmost importance that locally caused stressors to reefs such as overfishing and deforestation are minimized," said Cramer. "Advocating for more intelligent use of land as well as implementing sustainable fisheries management, those are things that can be done right now."

###

The research team, which also includes Jill Leonard-Pingel of Scripps, Thomas Guilderson of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Christopher Angioletti, will publish its findings in the April issue of Ecology Letters. An early online version has been released today.

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps, the UC San Diego Academic Senate, and the PADI Foundation's Project AWARE.



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Declines in Caribbean coral reefs pre-date damage resulting from climate change [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Mario Aguilera
scrippsnews@ucsd.edu
858-534-3624
University of California - San Diego

Novel excavation technique attributes prior damage to land clearing and overfishing

The decline of Caribbean coral reefs has been linked to the recent effects of human-induced climate change. However, new research led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego suggests an even earlier cause. The bad news humans are still to blame. The good news relatively simple policy changes can hinder further coral reef decline.

Employing a novel excavation technique to reconstruct the timeline of historical change in coral reefs located on the Caribbean side of Panama, a team of scientists led by Scripps alumna Katie Cramer and current Scripps Professor of Oceanography and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) Emeritus Staff Scientist Jeremy Jackson has determined that damage to coral reefs from land clearing and overfishing pre-dates damage caused by anthropogenic climate change by at least decades.

"This study is the first to quantitatively show that the cumulative effects of deforestation and possibly overfishing were degrading Caribbean coral and molluscan communities long before climate change impacts began to really devastate reefs," said lead author Cramer, currently based at the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Coral reefs have suffered alarmingly since the 1980s due to coral bleaching and coral disease, thought to stem from the warming of the oceans due to anthropogenic, or human-induced, climate change. However, until recently, the impact of prior human activities on Caribbean coral reefs had not been studied with experimental techniques.

Historical records and qualitative surveys provide hints that declines in corals in some parts of the Caribbean occurred as far back as the early 1900s after coastal lands began to be cleared to make way for plantations. However, the current study is the first to quantify the changes that reef corals and mollusks have undergone as a result of long-term stress caused by the deposition of silt, nutrients, and pollution onto coral reefs from land clearing and the depletion of reef fish that prevent algae from overtaking reefs.

"Because researchers did not really begin to study Caribbean reefs in detail until the late 1970s, we don't have a clear understanding of why these reefs have changed so dramatically since this time," said Cramer. "So, we set out to reconstruct an older timeline of change on reefs by looking at the remains of past reefs coral skeletons and mollusk shells."

To reconstruct this timeline, the team dug below modern reefs in incremental layers and, using radiocarbon dating of the coral skeletons they found, linked fluctuations in the types and numbers of coral and mollusks over time to historical records of land clearing. Changes in the relative numbers of these various species represent clear indicators of the overall health of the coral reef.

The team also improved upon the standard technique of taking long, narrow core samples of coral fossils that cannot track fluctuations in the numbers of larger species of coral.

"We wanted to look at the whole complement of the coral community," said Cramer.

To catalog the relative numbers of dozens of coral and molluscan species, the researchers dug two-foot-wide by three-foot-deep pits into reefs at several coastal lagoon and offshore sites near Bocas del Toro, Panama, that were heavily affected and less affected by land runoff, respectively. At each of these sites they also conducted surveys and recorded the composition of living corals.

"We dug up over a ton of coral rubble and tens of thousands of shells," said Cramer, who led the fieldwork at STRI and likened the laborious experience to doing underwater construction.

Systematically sifting through the coral and shell fossils, the scientists noted several indicators of environmental stress, including a decrease in the overall size of bivalves such as oysters, clams, and scallops, a transition from branching to non-branching species of coral, and large declines in the staghorn coral and the tree oyster, which were once the dominant coral and bivalve on these reefs.

These indicators were observed in layers of the excavated pits at coastal lagoon sites that were dated before 1960 and as far back as the 1800s, corresponding to a period of extensive deforestation in the Bocas del Toro region. Similar evidence of environmental stress at offshore sites was dated after 1960, indicating that the negative impacts of land clearing have more recently begun to affect reefs further offshore.

With the decline of the branching coral species, the reefs now have fewer nooks and crannies that are used as habitat for reef fish and other organisms. Also, the non-branching species that have taken their place grow at a much slower rate. "Consequently, there is less of a chance that the reefs will be able to keep up with sea level rise from climate change," said Cramer.

"Because the governments of the world have yet to undertake any meaningful efforts to mitigate climate change, it is of the utmost importance that locally caused stressors to reefs such as overfishing and deforestation are minimized," said Cramer. "Advocating for more intelligent use of land as well as implementing sustainable fisheries management, those are things that can be done right now."

###

The research team, which also includes Jill Leonard-Pingel of Scripps, Thomas Guilderson of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Christopher Angioletti, will publish its findings in the April issue of Ecology Letters. An early online version has been released today.

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps, the UC San Diego Academic Senate, and the PADI Foundation's Project AWARE.



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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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/uoc--dic033012.php

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Stocks cut earlier losses, close mixed

By msnbc.com news services

Stocks cut earlier losses on Thursday and closed mixed, supported by gains in blue chips, which have been rallying toward the end of the quarter as money managers chase performance.

Earlier, Wall Street was set for a third day of losses as jobless claims data failed to meet heightened market expectations, leaving investors to wonder if the economy can sustain a rally.

New U.S. jobless claims fell last week, according to a government report, but still came in below forecasts.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://marketday.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/29/10926008-stocks-cut-earlier-losses-close-mixed

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Ugandan rights groups upset at a murder's pardon

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) ? A decision by Uganda's president to pardon an Indian man sentenced to die for the murder of his wife has generated fierce criticism from activists who say it sends the wrong message in a country where women's rights have long been abused.

Sharma Kooky, who was set free this week on humanitarian grounds, spent 12 years in jail for torturing his wife to death in a case whose gruesome details once shocked and then galvanized the women's rights movement.

President Yoweri Museveni has rarely pardoned convicts. Only a handful of prisoners, mostly political prisoners, have been freed on his orders. Kooky was a businessman in Kampala.

Miria Matembe, a former parliamentarian, called the pardon unfortunate and insensitive.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-03-30-AF-Uganda-Presidential-Pardon/id-3b29de189ffe4b36b003bda6e57616ae

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Dengue virus turns on mosquito genes that make them hungrier

Dengue virus turns on mosquito genes that make them hungrier [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Mar-2012
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Contact: Tim Parsons
tmparson@jhsph.edu
410-955-7619
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have, for the first time, shown that infection with dengue virus turns on mosquito genes that makes them hungrier and better feeders, and therefore possibly more likely to spread the disease to humans. Specifically, they found that dengue virus infection of the mosquito's salivary gland triggered a response that involved genes of the insect's immune system, feeding behavior and the mosquito's ability to sense odors. The researchers findings are published in the March 29 edition of PLoS Pathogens.

Dengue virus is primarily spread to people by the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Over 2.5 billion people live in areas where dengue fever is endemic. The World Health Organization estimates that there are between 50 million and 100 million dengue infections each year.

"Our study shows that the dengue virus infects mosquito organs, the salivary glands and antennae that are essential for finding and feeding on a human host. This infection induces odorant-binding protein genes, which enable the mosquito to sense odors. The virus may, therefore, facilitate the mosquito's host-seeking ability, and couldat least theoreticallyincrease transmission efficiency, although we don't fully understand the relationships between feeding efficiency and virus transmission," said George Dimopoulus, PhD, senior author of the study and professor with the Bloomberg School's Malaria Research Institute. "In other words, a hungrier mosquito with a better ability to sense food is more likely to spread dengue virus."

For the study, researchers performed a genome-wide microarray gene expression analysis of dengue-infected mosquitoes. Infection regulated 147 genes with predicted functions in various processes including virus transmission, immunity, blood-feeding and host-seeking. Further analysis of infected mosquitoes showed that silencing, or "switching off," two odorant-binding protein genes resulted in an overall reduction in the mosquito's blood-acquisition capacity from a single host by increasing the time it took the for mosquito to probe for a meal.

"We have, for the first time shown, that a human pathogen can modulate feeding-related genes and behavior of its vector mosquito, and the impact of this on transmission of disease could be significant," said Dimopoulos.

"Dengue virus infection of the Aedes aegypti salivary gland and chemosensory apparatus induces genes that modulate infection and blood-feeding behavior" was written by Shuzhen Sim, Jose L. Ramirez and George Dimopoulos.

###

Funding for the research was provided by National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health.


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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.


Dengue virus turns on mosquito genes that make them hungrier [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Tim Parsons
tmparson@jhsph.edu
410-955-7619
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have, for the first time, shown that infection with dengue virus turns on mosquito genes that makes them hungrier and better feeders, and therefore possibly more likely to spread the disease to humans. Specifically, they found that dengue virus infection of the mosquito's salivary gland triggered a response that involved genes of the insect's immune system, feeding behavior and the mosquito's ability to sense odors. The researchers findings are published in the March 29 edition of PLoS Pathogens.

Dengue virus is primarily spread to people by the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Over 2.5 billion people live in areas where dengue fever is endemic. The World Health Organization estimates that there are between 50 million and 100 million dengue infections each year.

"Our study shows that the dengue virus infects mosquito organs, the salivary glands and antennae that are essential for finding and feeding on a human host. This infection induces odorant-binding protein genes, which enable the mosquito to sense odors. The virus may, therefore, facilitate the mosquito's host-seeking ability, and couldat least theoreticallyincrease transmission efficiency, although we don't fully understand the relationships between feeding efficiency and virus transmission," said George Dimopoulus, PhD, senior author of the study and professor with the Bloomberg School's Malaria Research Institute. "In other words, a hungrier mosquito with a better ability to sense food is more likely to spread dengue virus."

For the study, researchers performed a genome-wide microarray gene expression analysis of dengue-infected mosquitoes. Infection regulated 147 genes with predicted functions in various processes including virus transmission, immunity, blood-feeding and host-seeking. Further analysis of infected mosquitoes showed that silencing, or "switching off," two odorant-binding protein genes resulted in an overall reduction in the mosquito's blood-acquisition capacity from a single host by increasing the time it took the for mosquito to probe for a meal.

"We have, for the first time shown, that a human pathogen can modulate feeding-related genes and behavior of its vector mosquito, and the impact of this on transmission of disease could be significant," said Dimopoulos.

"Dengue virus infection of the Aedes aegypti salivary gland and chemosensory apparatus induces genes that modulate infection and blood-feeding behavior" was written by Shuzhen Sim, Jose L. Ramirez and George Dimopoulos.

###

Funding for the research was provided by National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/jhub-dvt032812.php

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Testone, Ledet take on Zeppelin, Mariah on 'Idol'

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/testone-ledet-zeppelin-mariah-idol-024015664.html

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Create Your Career Success: Have the Courage to Care About What ...

I was in New York last week.? I had an experience that made me think of the career success advice in Tweet 100 in my career advice book Success Tweets:? ?Care about what you do.? If you care a little, you?ll be an OK performer.? If you care a lot, you?ll be an outstanding performer.?

In the space of two days, I encountered two people ? one who cared a little, and one who cared a lot.? I didn?t meet either of them in person, but I could easily tell which one cared a little and which one cared a lot.? They were both housekeepers at the hotel where I as staying.

After the first night I was there the housekeeper clearly didn?t care a lot about her service.? While the room was clean, she didn?t replace the shampoo and towels that I used.? I had to call Housekeeping and ask them to send some more up when I arrived back at the hotel after my business day.? I was a little surprised as I usually get good service at this hotel ? and because I always leave a tip for the housekeeper.? I?ve worked for tips a lot in my life and know that they are an important supplement to a housekeeper?s salary.

The second day was a complete 180.? I arrived back at the hotel and the room was immaculate.? The housekeeper replaced all the towels and amenities.? The papers on my desk were squared up.? The two newspapers that I had left in front of the TV were placed nicely on an end table next to the easy chair.? And, the baseball cap I had with me in case of rain, was sitting on the back of the easy chair as if being displayed.? As soon as I opened the door I knew that someone had taken the time to make sure my room looked really good.? I also realized that the person who serviced my room that day really cared about her job.

Outstanding performance ? while not enough to guarantee your life and career success ? is necessary if you want to create the career success you deserve.?? That?s why it is at the heart of the career success model in my new book Climbing the Corporate Ladder.

I care about helping people create the life and career success they want and deserve.? I care a lot.? That?s why I wrote Success Tweets and I give it away for free.? That?s why I am wrote a series of blog posts explaining each of the 141 tweets in more detail and turned it into a book called Success Tweets Explained.? You can get both books for free by going to http://budurl.com/STExp.? I do this because I care.? I care a lot about helping you achieve the kind of career success you deserve.? And I know that this caring will pay off in me becoming an outstanding career success coach ? somebody who gives really great career advice.

When you care you do your very best.? This year marks the 50th anniversary of the film release of one of my favorite books: To Kill a Mockingbird.? There is a passage in that book that has always stuck with me.? It?s in Chapter 11 and is spoken by Atticus Finch, the father, played by Gregory Peck in the film.? He?s speaking to Scout, his daughter?

?I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.? It?s when you know you?re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.? You rarely win, but sometimes you do.?

It takes courage to care. Because when you care, you put yourself out there.? You do your best.? And doing your best can be a scary thing.? When you care, when you consciously do your best and fail, it is heartbreaking.? But at least you have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best.

One of my career success coaching clients had an experience like this recently.? He was up for a promotion to Senior VP.? He put his heart and soul into preparing for the series of interviews he had.? At the end of the interviews he told me that he knew in his heart of hearts that he did the best he possible could have in each interview.? He didn?t get the job.? He allowed himself to feel down about it for a day.? Then he approached each of the people who interviewed him and asked for candid feedback on what he could have done differently to secure the job.? He cared, he did his very best?? and didn?t win.? But he decided that he would learn something from his failure.? That?s taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.

I remember when I applied to graduate school at Harvard.? I decided that I was going to demonstrate to myself how much I cared by writing the very best application I could.? I wasn?t going to let myself off the hook if I didn?t get accepted by saying, ?I could have written a better application, but I just didn?t spend the time I should have.?

When I put my application in the mailbox ? we still did quaint things like that back in the old days ? I was proud of what I had written.? I knew it was the very best I could do.? I was also frightened because I knew that my best might not be good enough.? After all, both of my other degrees were from state schools.? Who was I to think that those kind of credentials would get me accepted at Harvard?

I cared about the quality of my application, so I did the very best I could.? The story in this case has a happy ending.? I was accepted and got my degree.? Even if I had not been accepted, I would have been proud of myself because I cared enough to write the best application I could, and I dared enough to admit it to myself.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.? Successful people are proud of what they do.? They care.? They do their very best.? It doesn?t matter if they are housekeepers at a hotel, or VPs in a Fortune 100 company.? They follow the career advice in?Tweet 100 in Success Tweets.? ?Care about what you do.? If you care a little, you?ll be an OK performer.? If you care a lot, you?ll become an outstanding performer.?? Does your work show that you care?? Or does it reflect an ?it?s good enough? attitude?? Take it from a career success coach, if you want to create the life and career success of which you are capable, make sure that how much you care shows through in every single piece of work you do.

That?s the career advice I took from seeing two vastly different approaches to doing a mundane job like being a hotel housekeeper.? What do you think?? Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.? As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.? I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven?t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.? The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style ? in 140 characters or less.? The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.? Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.? You?ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.? It?s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.? You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Source: http://www.budbilanich.com/career-success-coach/create-your-career-success-have-the-courage-to-care-about-what-you-do/

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User:ChatfieldNapoleon818 - PlugWiki

From PlugWiki

Now more than ever society is concerned with their health and overall appearance. Fitness goals are visible in just about everyone's life and the topic is covered everywhere you turn on a television, radio, and heard in many daily conversations. Fitness experts are a vital part of the healthcare and fitness industry and taking a personal trainer course will give you the necessary skills to succeed as professional in this field.

What is a Personal Trainer

A personal trainer is a professional who has the essential knowledge, skill, and fitness certification to guide individuals in exercising and developing the core components of fitness health. A trainer will not steer their clients in the right direction to get in shape, but fitness trainers focus on building muscular strength, muscular endurance, body composition, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. To become a professional trainer, you must obtain a fitness certification and it is highly recommended to obtain training through a medical training course.

Courses for Personal Trainers

A personal trainer course ensures that an individual has the necessary knowledge and skill for fitness certification and they are prepared to successful give accurate health information to their clients. Course such as:

? Nutrition ? Injury Prevention ? Fitness Assessment ? Anatomy ? Basic Aerobics ? Cardiovascular Training

A personal trainer course that provides fitness certification will include these fundamental courses. In addition, a medical training school will provide courses that help students gain more insightful knowledge on health and how the body functions. Learning this information is vital to helping clients to learn how to care for their bodies and become more healthy.

A fitness trainer course from a medical training school will not only teach provide fitness certification, but will train personal trainers to become health experts in their field.

Personal Trainer Certifications

An individual enrolled in a fitness trainer course can choose from many certification programs. There are many to choose from and a variety of medical training schools that offer convenient classes, with some even assessable online. A fitness certification program requires students to pass an exam before they complete the course and to ensure the student has the proper knowledge. In addition, trainers are required to have a high school diploma, have a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification, and a automated external defibrillator or AED.

A fitness consultant course is ideal for individual who want to have a rewarding career in the fitness and healthcare industry. There are many programs available that you enroll in to become a personal trainer, however, you must ensure that the program includes the essential classes and training to teach you the extensive knowledge to become a fitness trainer. A medical training school will provide the necessary fitness certification to become a part of the growing field.

For more information, check out certified personal trainer certification

Source: http://plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/User%3AChatfieldNapoleon818

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Bacteria use chat to play the 'prisoner's dilemma' game in deciding their fate

ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2012) ? When faced with life-or-death situations, bacteria -- and maybe even human cells -- use an extremely sophisticated version of "game theory" to consider their options and decide upon the best course of action, scientists reported in San Diego March 27. In a presentation at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), they said microbes "play" a version of the classic "Prisoner's Dilemma" game.

Jos? Onuchic, Ph.D., who headed the research team, said these and other new insights into the "chat" sessions that bacteria use to communicate among themselves -- information about cell stress, the colony density (quorum-sensing peptides) and the stress status and inclinations of neighboring cells (peptide pheromones) -- could have far-reaching medical applications.

"Using this form of cell-to-cell communication, colonies of billions or trillions of bacteria can literally reach a consensus on actions that impact people," Onuchic explained. "Bacteria that previously existed harmlessly on the on the skin, for instance, may exchange chemical signals and reach a consensus that their numbers are large enough to start an infection. Likewise, bacteria may decide to band together into communities called biofilms that make numerous chronic diseases difficult to treat -- urinary tract infections, for instance, cystic fibrosis and endocarditis."

Scientists now are pursuing hints that human cells engage in another form of chemical chit-chat, Onuchic said -- communication that may result in a decision to begin the uncontrolled division and growth that defines cancer. Likewise, cells in a malignant tumor may chat and spread, or metastasize, from their original location to establish a new tumor in the liver, lungs or brain.

"Understanding how cells make decisions could enable scientists to control those decisions," said Onuchic, who is with Rice University. "It would open the door to developing better drugs that have fewer side effects. For example, once we get a handle on this process, we might block the specific chemical messages that signal a tumor to grow, developing a medicine that wouldn't affect other body processes, reducing or eliminating side effects."

Before trying to determine the steps a human cell might take on the road to becoming cancerous, however, Onuchic and colleagues at Rice and Tel Aviv University are tackling bacteria. They turned to Bacillus subtilis, a common microbe found in colonies numbering into the billions in the soil and used as a model in several kinds of scientific research. Faced with drought, radiation, over-crowding or other harsh environmental conditions, B. subtilis engages in quorum sensing, with individual microbes releasing chemical compounds that enable it to check out how their neighbors are responding to the unfavorable environment.

Members of a colony of B. subtilis may decide to respond to the stressful environment in one of two ways. They may make a decision to turn themselves into "spores," a hibernation-like existence. Alternatively, they may opt for transformation into a state called "competency."

In sporulation, bacteria dump half of their DNA into the environment and encase themselves in a thick, armor-like shell that enables the microbe to endure harsh conditions for decades on end. Forming a spore involves more than 500 genes and can take about 10 hours to complete. When conditions improve, the spore turns into a regular bacterium again. Most bacteria, when faced with bad conditions, become spores. But a few -- about 1-2 percent in the wild -- "see" that their neighbors are becoming spores and decide to become competent. In doing so, they take up some of their neighbors' discarded DNA in a last-ditch effort to adapt to the harsh environment.

"Sporulation is a drastic, traumatic process," said Onuchic. "The advantage of competency is that the cell might be able to adapt and live normally without undergoing that drastic upheaval. But competency is risky -- if conditions don't improve fast enough, the competent cell could die before having a chance to become a spore. Also, the spores could decide to break out of hibernation and compete for resources. It's a complicated decision."

Onuchic's research suggests that the way cells make decisions is consistent with game theory, a concept used in math to analyze conflict and cooperation and made famous by the book and 2001 movie A Beautiful Mind , based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics.

Sporulation is like cooperating or confessing in the so-called "Prisoner's Dilemma," a famous example of game theory, Onuchic said. Becoming competent, however, is a selfish decision that exploits the misfortunes of others.

In the human version of the Prisoner's Dilemma, a player's prison sentence depends not only on their own decision whether to confess, but also on another prisoner's decision. In the game, two prisoners are separated and told that if one confesses, the confessor goes free, and the other prisoner gets a one-year sentence. If both confess, each serves three months. If both stay silent, then each serves one month. The trick is to see whether a player will be selfish by confessing for a chance at earning a "get-out-of-jail-free" pass while subjecting their partner to a long sentence.

"Just as in the classic Prisoner's Dilemma game, the bacteria have to weigh the pros and cons of their decisions," said Onuchic. "The bacteria make a decision based not only on what it knows about its own stress and environment, but it also has to think about what the other bacteria might do. So this is like the Prisoner's Dilemma being played with 1 trillion cells in a colony instead of just two people."

Using mathematics, biology and physics, Onuchic's team identified the proteins, genes and other substances involved in making such decisions for B. subtilis and how they interact with each other. The team's sights now are set on determining whether human cells undergo similar decision-making processes in health and disease.

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Dynamic Mitochondrial Networks in Cancer

Mitochondrial network of an endothelial cell is shown in green

Mitochondrial network of an endothelial cell is shown in green

Research projects evolve in a fortuitous manner, often guided by a convergence of novel observations, intuition, helpful colleagues and unique personal circumstances. It is precisely this constellation that prompted two cardiologists to study the mitochondrial networks in lung cancer cells.

In 2008, my colleague and friend Stephen Archer, a Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, asked me whether I would be interested in studying the role of mitochondrial networks in lung cancer cells. My first response was the question ?Do mitochondria really form networks??, because at that time the expression ?mitochondria? evoked images of scattered oval-like organelles, a textbook image of electron microscopy.

I was also intrigued by my colleague?s request, since we were both cardiologists and it therefore appeared to be somewhat unusual for us to study cancer cells. However, as is often the case in science research, personal motivations lay behind Stephen?s newfound research interest ? Stephen?s cousin had recently died from lung cancer.

His cousin?s untimely death and Stephen?s frustration at the lack of therapeutic options for lung cancer victims had served as an incentive for him to expand his ongoing work on the role of mitochondria in cardiovascular cells to also include the investigation of mitochondria in cancer cells. Could we contribute to the identification of novel approaches to treat lung cancer?

During the preceding years, Stephen had focused on the role of glucose oxidation in cancer, in part inspired by the work of the German Nobel prize laureate Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883-1970). In the 1920s, Warburg hypothesized that cancer cells primarily rely on non-oxidative glycolysis instead of glucose oxidation to fuel their energy demands.This metabolic signature of cancer cells was critical for the development and growth of tumors.

As he examined the metabolism of malignant lung cancer cells and non-malignant healthy epithelial cells, Stephen had noticed an important difference in the physical appearance of the mitochondria. The mitochondria in the vast majority of cancer cells appeared to be small and fragmented, while healthy epithelial cells predominantly contained elongated, filamentous-like mitochondria that formed large intact networks. The cause and significance of this difference in the mitochondrial structure between lung cancer cells and healthy lung epithelial cells was unknown and thus a fertile ground for new discoveries.

Even though the planned collaborative project would primarily focus on the mitochondrial network structure and not the mitochondrial metabolism of cancer cells, I also decided to read some of the original Warburg papers in the original German language. German used to be a major language of scientific communication and publication in the 19th century as well as the first half of the 20th century. However, during the latter half of the 20th century and especially in the 21st century, English has become the predominant language of the scientific enterprise, even in Germany.

My nostalgic longing for reading scientific articles in German and my curiosity about how scientists wrote articles in the 1920s prompted me to download some of the Warburg papers. I have to admit that I was quite impressed by the comprehensive nature of the work described. The paper entitled ??ber den Stoffwechsel der Carcinomzelle? (Biochemische Zeitschrift 152, 309-344 (1924)) by Warburg and his co-authors Karl Posener and Erwin Negelein contains a comprehensive evaluation of the respiration of tissues from multiple organs, such as the epithelium, connective tissue, brain tissue, retina and various benign and malignant tumors. This 36 page paper includes numerous hypotheses, observations and conclusions about the nature of tumor metabolism that would inspire subsequent generations of scientists.

One observation made by Warburg, for example, toward the end of the manuscript is that tumors with high levels of glycolysis are also associated with high levels of ammonia production and Warburg refers to this observation as an oddity that needs further research. It would take at least 80 years for researchers to understand some of the key underlying molecular mechanisms that explain this observation, when multiple research groups demonstrated that cancer cells use the amino acid glutamine as a major mitochondrial substrate and which upon degradation releases ammonia.

After reading the awe-inspiring Warburg papers, I felt even more enthusiastic about embarking on this new collaboration to study mitochondrial networks in cancer cells.

Peter Toth, a pharmacologist and neuroscientist who directed the confocal microscopy imaging core in Stephen?s group, used his extraordinary live-cell imaging expertise to visualize the mitochondrial networks of malignant and non-malignant lung cells over time. The microscopy data showed that the mitochondrial networks of cells were highly dynamic, continuously undergoing mitochondrial fission (fragmentation or division) and mitochondrial fusion (rejoining). However, at any given time, the majority of cancer cells had smaller, fragmented mitochondria when compared to healthy lung epithelial or vascular cells.

Working with a number of colleagues in our laboratories, we determined that lung cancer cells expressed higher levels of the mitochondrial fission protein Drp-1 when compared to multiple healthy cell types found in the lung. Inhibition of Drp-1 reversed the mitochondrial fragmentation and restored the degree of mitochondrial networking in malignant cancer cells to the levels we observed in healthy non-malignant cells. Similarly, over- expression of the mitochondrial fusion mediator Mitofusin-2 (Mfn-2) also increased mitochondrial networking. Importantly, inhibiting mitochondrial fission resulted in a cell cycle arrest of cancer cells and markedly reduced cancer cell proliferation. In vivo experiments using a tumor xenotransplant model showed a marked reduction in tumor progression when tumors were either treated with a pharmacological inhibitor of Drp-1 or when Mfn-2 was over-expressed.

Our findings are consistent with the observation that mitochondria undergo a cycle of fission and fusion which is coordinated with the cycle of cell division (mitosis). Our experiments suggest that targeting the mitotic fission of mitochondria may be a complementary approach to halt cancer cell proliferation. When we examined the tumor tissues of lung cancer patients, we found that tumor regions indeed expressed markedly higher levels of Drp-1 than healthy lung tissues. Whether Drp-1 levels are also higher in other forms of cancer and whether targeting mitochondrial fission in these other tumor tissues would be equally beneficial still needs to be examined in future studies.

Prior studies have detailed the role of Drp-1 in non-malignant cells where the protein appears to play a role in cell death. Drp-1 induced mitochondrial fission is a characteristic of mitochondrial apoptosis and short-term inhibition of Drp-1 can actually prevent cell death. However, other studies have also linked Drp-1 activation and mitochondrial fission to cell proliferation to mitochondrial fission because the cell cycle regulator Cdk1/Cyclin B regulates the activity of the mitochondrial fission mediator Drp-1. This suggests that mitochondrial fission induced by Drp-1 has two very distinct and nearly contradictory roles: cell death and cell growth.

In the highly proliferative cancer cells that we studied, Drp-1 appeared to be primarily acting as a mediator of mitotic fission, but it is quite possible that in other cell types or settings, Drp-1 may be more closely tied to regulation of apoptotic fission. The fact that the same protein regulates seemingly opposite processes of apoptotic fission during cell death and mitotic fission during cell proliferation may seem surprising. However, it is also reminiscent of the fact that mitochondria themselves can have apparently contradictory roles in cells, acting both as metabolic powerhouses as well as initiators of cell death.

From an evolutionary and teleological standpoint, a cell undergoing division (mitosis) would want to coordinate this process with the dividing and distributing of its mitochondrial organelles. Intact mitochondrial networks are probably difficult to distribute to daughter cells, whereas smaller, fragmented (?fissioned?) mitochondria can be easily distributed. Our study suggests that a reverse signal also exists, by which halting the mitochondrial fission seems to also halt the progression of the cell cycle.

As with any research, our study also points towards many unanswered questions, some of them highlighting the importance of how the nucleus communicates with other organelles: what are the specific mechanisms by which preventing mitotic mitochondrial fission signals back to the nucleus and halts the progression of the cell cycle? How does the cell coordinate the dynamics of other organelles during cell cycle? Could the dynamics of other organelles also be therapeutically targeted in cancer cells?

The work described above will appear in an upcoming issue of the FASEB Journal in an article entitled ?Inhibition of mitochondrial fission prevents cell cycle progression in lung cancer.? by Rehman et al.

Disclosure: This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Stephen Archer and Jalees Rehman have filed a patent application addressing the therapeutic role of mitochondrial networking in cell proliferation.

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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=eb7c0a64c68c410c6fa0979fcaa0f7d4

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