Payments Startup Ribbon Now Lets You Buy In-Stream On Twitter.com, Launches YouTube Support & Price-Matches PayPal

Ribbon, the AngelPad-backed payments startup that introduces a simpler checkout experience when buying from merchants online or via social media, is today rolling out two big new features: support for YouTube payments and a new Twitter "in-stream" payment option that lets you buy without ever clicking away from Twitter.com. The company has also reduced its fees in order to be more competitive with payments competitors like PayPal and Stripe.

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Blame it on the rain (from Saturn's rings): More charged water particles fall than thought

Apr. 10, 2013 ? A new study tracks the "rain" of charged water particles into the atmosphere of Saturn and finds there is more of it and it falls across larger areas of the planet than previously thought. The study, whose observations were funded by NASA and whose analysis was led by the University of Leicester, England, reveals that the rain influences the composition and temperature structure of parts of Saturn's upper atmosphere.

The paper appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

"Saturn is the first planet to show significant interaction between its atmosphere and ring system," said James O'Donoghue, the paper's lead author and a postgraduate researcher at Leicester. "The main effect of ring rain is that it acts to 'quench' the ionosphere of Saturn. In other words, this rain severely reduces the electron densities in regions in which it falls."

O'Donoghue explains that the ring's effect on electron densities is important because it explains why, for many decades, observations have shown those densities to be unusually low at certain latitudes on Saturn. The study also helps scientists better understand the origin and evolution of Saturn's ring system and changes in the planet's atmosphere.

"It turns out that a major driver of Saturn's ionospheric environment and climate across vast reaches of the planet are ring particles located some 36,000 miles [60,000 kilometers] overhead," said Kevin Baines, a co-author on the paper, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The ring particles affect both what species of particles are in this part of the atmosphere and where it is warm or cool."

In the early 1980s, images from NASA's Voyager spacecraft showed two to three dark bands on Saturn, and scientists theorized that water could have been showering down into those bands from the rings. Those bands were not seen again until this team observed the planet in near-infrared wavelengths with the W.M Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, in April 2011. The effect was difficult to discern because it involves looking for a subtle emission from bright parts of Saturn. It required an instrument like that on Keck, which can split up a large range of light.

The ring rain's effect occurs in Saturn's ionosphere, where charged particles are produced when the otherwise neutral atmosphere is exposed to a flow of energetic particles or solar radiation. When the scientists tracked the pattern of emissions of a particular hydrogen ion with three protons (triatomic hydrogen), they expected to see a uniform planet-wide infrared glow. What they observed instead was a series of light and dark bands -- with areas of reduced emission corresponding to water-dense portions of Saturn's rings and areas of high emission corresponding to gaps in the rings.

They surmised that charged water particles from the planet's rings were being drawn towards the planet along Saturn's magnetic field lines and were neutralizing the glowing triatomic hydrogen ions. This leaves large "shadows" in what would otherwise be a planet-wide infrared glow. These shadows cover some 30 to 43 percent of the planet's upper atmosphere surface from around 25 to 55 degrees latitude. This is a significantly larger area than suggested by images from NASA's Voyager mission.

Both Earth and Jupiter have an equatorial region that glows very uniformly. Scientists expected this pattern at Saturn, too, but they instead saw dramatic differences at different latitudes.

"Where Jupiter is glowing evenly across its equatorial regions, Saturn has dark bands where the water is falling in, darkening the ionosphere," said Tom Stallard, a paper co-author at Leicester. "We're now also trying to investigate these features with an instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft. If we're successful, Cassini may allow us to view in more detail the way that water is removing ionized particles, such as any changes in the altitude or effects that come with the time of day."

Keck observing time was funded by NASA, with a letter of support from the Cassini mission to Saturn. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.

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Journal Reference:

1. J. O?Donoghue, T. S. Stallard, H. Melin, G. H. Jones, S. W. H. Cowley, S. Miller, K. H. Baines, J. S. D. Blake. The domination of Saturn?s low-latitude ionosphere by ring ?rain?. Nature, 2013; 496 (7444): 193 DOI: 10.1038/nature12049

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/nasa/~3/AETAq5Ayll0/130410202315.htm

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A fly mutation suggests a new route for tackling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Apr. 8, 2013 ? A team of researchers, led by Marc Freeman, PhD, an early career scientist with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have discovered a gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster that, when mutant, blocks the self-destruction of damaged axons, which could hold clues to treating motor neuron diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

A neuron has a very distinctive form -- a bush of dendrites that receive signals, an incredibly long axon, which is like a long tail, and "a little dot" between them that is the cell body, housing the genetic headquarters. Every part of the neuron is required for it to transmit messages. "If anything breaks along any part of the neuron, the cell unplugs from the circuit and no longer functions," explained Dr. Freeman, who presented this research at the Genetics Society of America's 54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Washington, D.C.

Once the long tail-like axon is damaged, it shrivels away, basically self-destructing, and resulting in neurons that no longer operate. This catastrophic damage can happen in several ways: from inflammation, a neurodegenerative disease, a metabolic disorder such as diabetes, toxin exposure, or tumor growth. Such axon loss is thought to be a primary factor that leads to functional loss in patients with neurological disorders -- it is equivalent to going into an electrical circuit and randomly cutting wires.

The study of axon destruction in response to damage goes back to British neurophysiologist Augustus Waller, who in 1850 described how an axon separated from the cell body and cut off from its nutrient supply breaks apart and is dismantled by scavenger cells. "The idea that this process, called Wallerian degeneration, was a passive wasting away of the axon held for 150 years," Dr. Freeman said.

Then in the late 1980s, researchers discovered a mutation in the mouse, called Wlds, which enables a damaged axon to survive for weeks after injury. "That fundamentally changed how we think about an axon. Under certain circumstances, axons can survive for a much longer time than we have given them credit for," Dr. Freeman explained.

Freeman's laboratory speculated that if axon self-destruction is an active process, then there should be genes in the fly genome whose normal function is to destroy cut axons. They decided if they could break those genes responsible for axon destruction, then the axons shouldn't fall apart. To identify those genes, they performed a labor-intensive screen, randomly breaking genes in the fly genome and looking for those that when broken blocked axon destruction after injury.

This approach led to the identification of one gene, called dSarm, whose normal function is to promote the destruction of the axon after injury. "We got beautiful protection of axons when we knocked out this molecule," Dr. Freeman said. Mice and humans have forms of this gene too, and Freeman and colleagues have shown its functions in a similar way in mice. The preservation of these signaling mechanisms from flies to humans is a sign of evolutionary retention and argues for its importance.

To get closer to applying the axon death gene to the study of disease, the researchers crossed the mouse version of the Sarm mutation into a mouse model that has a type of familial ALS, which is also in humans. Although the mice still lost weight and had difficulty with a mobility test, they lived about 10 days longer than their brethren without the Sarm mutation, and at least half of their motor neurons remained intact. "Since not all the motor neurons are needed," Dr. Freeman said, "even with a 50 percent reduction a patient could feel very close to normal. It would be life-changing for the patient, so it's a step in the right direction."

"We used Wallerian degeneration as a model for axon degeneration. We've identified a signal pathway whose normal function is to promote axon destruction after injury, and hope to build on this research to better understand the role of axon death in neurodegenerative diseases," Dr. Freeman summed up.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/2dkY31vqYR8/130408133915.htm

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Get Twitter Traffic ? How To Generate 100 - Danjur Online Men's ...

Image by: rosauraochoa
By Fabian Tan

Are you looking to get Twitter traffic to generate exposure for your business? Well, now is just about the right time to start using Twitter to ramp up your online web traffic. Recently, Twitter has undergone a massive popularity revival again. You can ride on the site?s popularity to get Twitter traffic to your business as well.

You may have heard about Charlie Sheen?s exploits and his unpredictable posts on Twitter. Sheen started his account at the beginning of March 2011 and has already amassed 2.8 million followers in just 2 weeks (at the time of writing this article). He is also far ahead for having the most followers per tweet. This shows the power of Twitter as a real-time information gathering and sharing tool.

After the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the number of Tweets from the country reached a peak of 1,200 per minute. Tweets from London and New York also hit 1,000 per minute during the disaster. Worried people also used Twitter to find out if their loved ones were safe as telephone lines were down. This terrible tragedy managed to highlight how Twitter is an extremely powerful communication tool.

Lest we forget, Twitter is still one of the most visited sites on the Internet. It is currently the 9th most visited website on the Internet according to Alexa. Now let?s look at some tips to tap into this traffic goldmine:

Tip #1: Get A Cool Background

To get visitors to be attracted to your Twitter page, you need a cool background. Obviously, this also ties in with having a relevant and easy-to-remember Twitter username and an interesting bio.

You can look for cool backgrounds just by searching for ?Twitter backgrounds? on Google. Many of the sites providing Twitter backgrounds can also design a customized background for you if you desire.

Tip #2: Post Tweets With Value

This almost goes without saying doesn?t it? If you intend to use Twitter as a business and communications tool with your followers, prospects and the public, you need to post tweets that are valuable, and not just inane stuff.

Sure, if you are a celebrity, you can get away with posting what you had for breakfast and have your followers hanging on to your every word, but if you are not, you need a plan. Tweets of value can be links to interesting and relevant content, new product announcements, special offers and coupon codes for your products.

Tip #3: Proactively Generate Followers

Again, unless you are a celebrity, you won?t get followers out of nothing so you have to do something to generate followers. The easiest way to do this is to start following the followers of mavens in your market. Mavens are authority figures in your market who have long, established followers. Once you follow the followers of these authority figures, many will start following back and you will grow a large base of followers. However, you should not follow more than a few hundred people per day, as Twitter looks down on people who follow too many other people aggressively in one day.

Tip #4: Get Your Tweets Re-Tweeted Like Crazy

The key to getting your Tweets to become viral is to get them re-tweeted like crazy. To do this, you need to be active in your account so people will pay attention to you and more importantly, you need to post tweets that are natural ?link bait?.

In the search engine optimization world where experts optimize their sites to gain top search engine rankings, link bait refers to any content that people feel the urge to link to, because the content is either very entertaining or helpful. The trick is to post tweets that have links to this type of content. You can also post tweets that do not have links but contain content that people will want to re-tweet to their followers.

Tip #5: Tweet During Prime Times

One of the surest ways to get more exposure for your Tweets is to tweet during what I call prime times. These are periods where Twitter users are most active. If most of your followers and prospects are in the USA, these times are usually in the morning Eastern Time, and in the night time Easter Time. So to get the best results, you will want to tweet during 8am to 11am EST, and 8pm to 12am EST. You can use the same times for the time zone you are targeting.

Tip #6: Make Connections With Other Twitter Users

Twitter is called a social network, so make connections with your followers. Respond to their tweets and ask for the opinions of your followers from time to time. Re-tweet good posts that you see and more people will start to pay attention to your own posts. It?s simple, if you re-tweet other people?s posts, they are more likely to re-tweet yours later on. It?s the law of reciprocity.

Tip #7: Use Twitter To Build Your Own Email List

Twitter is one of the best tools around for generating leads for your business. It is not a sound idea to promote links to direct sales pages and attempt to make the sale there and then, unless your followers are already your customers (in which case, you can post coupon codes or links to your products and make sales). Therefore, you will want to get your followers on to your own email list where you can follow-up with them on your content and offers.

Now go ahead and get Twitter traffic for your business!

(Ed. Note: With the right tools, an online business can quickly become very profitable. Discover 7 sure-fire methods of making up to $20,000 per month online in just 30 minutes a day with Fabian Tan?s Maximum Money Blueprints.)

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Source: http://www.danjur.com/1350/get-twitter-traffic-how-to-generate-100s-of-visitors-per-day-from-twitter/

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Report: Anti-Semitic incidents surged in 2012

Jean-Philippe Arles / Reuters, file

A man comforts a school child as they leave the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, southwestern France, March 19, 2012 after a man on a scooter opened fire outside the school killing two children and one adult, a police source said. Five people were injured in the attack, which occurred as students were arriving for morning classes at the Ozar Hatorah school, a city official said.

By Ariel David, The Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel ? Israeli researchers and Jewish leaders on Sunday reported a 30 percent jump in anti-Semitic violence and vandalism last year, topped by a deadly school shooting in France, and expressed alarm about the rise of far-right parties in Hungary, Greece and other countries.

Following a two-year decline in the figures, the annual report on worldwide anti-Semitic incidents recorded 686 attacks in 34 countries, ranging from physical violence to vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries, compared to 526 in 2011. The report was issued at Tel Aviv University, in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe.

The report linked the March 2012 shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, where an extremist Muslim gunman killed four, to a series of copycat attacks, particularly in France, where physical assaults on Jews almost doubled.

Researchers who presented the report at the university on Sunday said they had also found a direct correlation between the strengthening of extreme right-wing parties in some European countries and high levels of anti-Semitic incidents, as well as attacks on other minorities and immigrants.

They said Europe's economic crisis was fueling the success of parties like Jobbik in Hungary, Golden Dawn in Greece and Svoboda in Ukraine.

Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, called for strong action by the European Union, charging that governments ? particularly Hungary ?were not doing enough to curb these parties' activities and protect minorities.

"Neo-Nazis have been once again legalized in Europe, they are openly sitting in parliaments," said Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress.

Golden Dawn swept into Greece's parliament for the first time in June on an anti-immigrant platform. The party rejects the neo-Nazi label but is fond of Nazi literature and references. In Hungary, a Jobbik lawmaker has called for Jews to be screened as potential security risks. The leader of Ukraine's Svoboda denies his party is anti-Semitic but has repeatedly used derogatory terms to refer to Jews.

The report by the university's Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry found little correlation between the increase of anti-Semitic attacks and Israel's military operation in Gaza in November. While there was a spike in incidents at the time, it was much smaller in number and intensity than the one that followed the Toulouse attack, said Roni Stauber, the chief researcher on the project.

"This shows that the desire to harm Jews is deeply rooted among extremist Muslims and right-wingers, regardless of events in the Middle East," he said.

The release of the report was timed to coincide with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was starting Sunday at sundown.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Agricultural Leaders Join Farmer Veteran Coalition Board of Directors

Farmer Veteran Coalition has named its first official board of directors, comprised of leaders of the national farming and agricultural community.

Davis, CA (PRWEB) April 03, 2013

The Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC) has announced that it has filed articles of incorporation and will seat its first official board of directors. The board is comprised of leaders from national farm organizations, academia, the military and the Farmer Veteran community. An organization dedicated to veteran assistance, FVC was started in 2009 by organic farming pioneer Michael O?Gorman and has grown into a network of veterans pursuing careers in agriculture in 48 states, Puerto Rico and Guam.

The mission of the Farmer Veteran Coalition is to mobilize veterans to feed America. It provides practical skills education, career counseling and one-on-one coaching to prepare veterans to become farmers. In addition, the organization offers the Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund, a small grants program that targets disabled veterans and those who have recently returned from service, assisting them to heal from service-related injuries in a productive farm environment.

The Chair of the new board is Gary Matteson, Vice President of Farm Credit Council for Young, Beginning and Small Farmers. Farm Credit Council is the national trade association representing the Farm Credit System. ?Veterans have character and possess unique skills that they can transfer into meaningful careers in agriculture. After their sacrifice and service to our nation, veterans are continuing to serve by joining the ranks of America?s farmers,? said Matteson.

Retired Brigadier General and fourth-generation Missouri farmer, Charles Kruse will serve as Vice Chair. General Kruse served for 18 years as President of the Missouri Farm Bureau. ?As a life-long farmer and having served 26 years in the military, I am proud to be involved in an effort to help veterans become involved in Agriculture. They have stepped up and served us; now it is our turn to serve them.?

Larry Jacobs, Co-Founder and Owner of Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo, one of the nation?s leading organic vegetable and fresh herb companies, and Founder and CEO of Farm Fuel LLC, will serve as Secretary. Poppy Davis will serve as Treasurer. Ms. Davis is the past national program leader for Small Farms and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers at the USDA, where she co-founded the USDA for Veterans Reservists and Military Families workgroup.

Donn Teske, President of the Kansas Farmers Union, will serve as the Representative-at-Large to the Executive Committee. Teske is a fifth-generation family farmer from Northeast Kansas where he raises organic soybeans, grain sorghum, red clover, wheat and oats.

Board Member Stan Flemming is a retired Brigadier General, Ambassador to the United States Army Reserves, and practices medicine outside Fort Lewis, WA. Ambassador Flemming noted that ?FVC fulfills a vital role in the veteran outreach community by providing access to critical services for our men and women who serve our nation with distinction, but who reside in our rural communities where resources are typically scarce or unavailable. They deserve no less than those who reside in our urban communities.?

Other Board Members include:

• ????Garrett Dwyer, cattle rancher and veteran with the US Marine Corps. Garrett received his degree in Agriculture Production at Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture after returning from Iraq and now co-owns and operates a cow/calf operation on the family ranch in Bartlett, Nebraska.
• ????Dr. Bill Field, Ed.D, Purdue University, Executive Director of the National AgrAbility Project. AgrAbility was formed to help farmers with disabilities succeed in agriculture. Many of its 27 statewide affiliates are working with combat-disabled Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans pursuing careers in farming.
• ????Kathleen Hadley, Executive Director of the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and their signature program, ATTRA. ATTRA serves as a national information service for sustainable farming and small-scale farming ventures.
• ????Tasha M. Hargrove, Ph.D., Assistant to the Dean for Outreach, College of Agriculture, at Tuskegee University, in Alabama. Dr. Hargrove is a Ph.D. from Iowa State University in Agriculture Extension Education and a retired Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force Reserves.
• ????Weldon Sleight, Ph.D., Dean Emeritus of Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture (NCTA). Dr. Sleight oversaw the school?s 100 Acre/100 Cow and Combat Boots to Cowboy Boots programs, which assists beginning farmers and military veterans with building farm ownership.

To learn more about Farmer Veteran Coalition and its commitment to veterans in transition, visit http://www.farmvetco.org/

About Farmer Veteran Coalition

The mission of the Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC) is to mobilize veterans to feed America. Its farming education programs and charitable projects include a small grants program; a program to collect and distribute used farm equipment; a Resource Guide for Veteran Careers in Agriculture; an annual conference for women veterans in Agriculture; and educational, training and veteran employment assistance programs.

FVC has operated as a project of Community Partners of Los Angeles since 2009 and will continue under the fiscal umbrella of Community Partners until the incorporation process is completed sometime later this year.

Adrian Ott
Farmer-Veteran Coalition
(530) 756-1395
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/agricultural-leaders-join-farmer-veteran-coalition-board-directors-173625388.html

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Medical Franchise Opportunities - Uniting To Advance Care

In my time of studying business, I have come across many different people who have had some pretty good business ideas they are wanting to try out. Things that match the skills they already have like people who enjoy cooking wanting to open a small cafe or a catering business. Another friend who is really into fashion wants to start their own clothing line. These are less common though than the people with the slightly more crazy and unrealistic business ideas I get from people. Most people want to start a business so they can do what they love without having a boss and I have to admit that idea can sound very appealing at times. Its part of the American dream.

While there is a lot to gain from starting a successful business and many people value the pride of coming up with their own concept and brand from scratch, its rarely the way to become a successful business owner. Buying a franchise has some major benefits over starting your own business, and there are many different opportunities out there is every field of work you can possibly think of. For instance, one of the lesser known areas of business you can get into when it comes to franchising is with a?local medical franchise?opportunity. Many people think that the whole medical field is filled with independently owned doctors or hospitals controlled by the state.

One of the least expensive ways to get into the medical field with a franchise is with medical billing. Doctors and hospitals do not always have the time or the means to follow up on the complicated process of getting payment and insurance claims straight after medical services. People in the medical billing field are basically the middle man between hospitals and other health care providers and insurance companies. As with many jobs in the medical field, this work can be quite lucrative if you have people who know how to work with the insurance companies and can get contracts with healthcare providers. In addition to a medical billing franchise there are also urgent care franchises, medical lab franchises, and also mobile medical franchise opportunities. The possibilities are endless when it comes to buying a franchise.

This entry was posted in Medical Franchise and tagged franchise opportunities in the medical field, medical billing, start your own business by Admin. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.unitingtoadvancecare.com/medical-franchise-opportunities/

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The Alternative Board Is Coming To Lafayette to ... - Franchising.com

LAFAYETTE, La. - April 2, 2013 // PRNewswire // - Allen Fishman , Founder and Executive Chairman of The Alternative Board, the world's largest franchise system providing peer advisory boards and coaching services for business owners, announced today that The Alternative Board (TAB) will be seeking to open a TAB office in Lafayette, LA. As part of the expansion, TAB will seek interested and qualified individuals to operate an office to help business owners in the Acadiana area. Interested individuals may apply by completing the contact form at http://www.thealternativeboard.com/franchise-opportunity/apply.

From his office in nearby Baton Rouge, TAB franchise owner Tim Stoll likes the expansion into Lafayette. "TAB has been helping business owners in the Baton Rouge metro area build better, more sustainable businesses for the past four years. By focusing on the key elements of their business that truly move the needle, these business owners have experienced growth and improved profitability, despite the headwinds of a tough economy."

Voicing his excitement relating to TAB's expansion in Louisiana, Mr. Fishman said, "We view Lafayette as an area where we will continue The Alternative Board's mission of helping small and midsize business owners achieve work-life balance while leading their companies to their maximum potential." Mr. Fishman has authored two books appearing on the Wall Street Journal's best-sellers list and knows firsthand the best practices for small business coaching and peer boards.

About The Alternative Board

The Alternative Board currently operates in seven countries, including the United States, bringing together owners of non-competing businesses in half-day monthly board groups of up to 10 members. Each meeting, under the guidance of a TAB Certified facilitator, is conducted in a confidential "think-tank" atmosphere, and additional one-on-one business coaching is provided as well. TAB delivers real world advice to help business owners stay focused on what matters most. Since its inception in 1990, more than 15,000 businesses have benefited from The Alternative Board services. For more information visit www.TheAlternativeBoard.com.

Contact:

Rachel Moore
Social Media & PR Specialist
The Alternative Board
(303) 839-1200 x158
RMoore@TheAlternativeBoard.com

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White blood cell enzyme contributes to inflammation and obesity

Apr. 2, 2013 ? Many recent studies have suggested that obesity is associated with chronic inflammation in fat tissues. Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have discovered that an imbalance between an enzyme called neutrophil elastase and its inhibitor causes inflammation, obesity, insulin resistance, and fatty liver disease. This enzyme is produced by white blood cells called neutrophils, which play an important role in the body's immune defense against bacteria. The researchers found that obese humans and mice have increased neutrophil elastase activity and decreased levels of ?1-antitrypsin, a protein that inhibits the elastase. When the team reversed this imbalance in a mouse model and fed them a high-fat diet, the mice were resistant to body weight gain, insulin resistance (a precursor to type 2 diabetes), and fatty liver disease. Their study appears April 2 in Cell Metabolism.

"The imbalance between neutrophil elastase and its inhibitor, ?1-antitrypsin, is likely an important contributing factor in the development of obesity, inflammation, and other health problems. Shifting this balance -- by either reducing one or increasing the other -- could provide a new therapeutic approach to preventing and treating obesity and several obesity-related conditions," said Zhen Jiang, Ph.D., assistant professor in Sanford-Burnham's Diabetes and Obesity Research Center at Lake Nona, Orlando and senior author of the study.

What happens when you reduce neutrophil elastase levels

This study began when Jiang and his team noticed that neutrophil elastase levels are particularly high and ?1-antitrypsin levels are low in a mouse model of obesity. Then they saw the same thing in blood samples from human male volunteers.

To further probe this curious neutrophil elastase-obesity relationship, the researcher turned once again to mouse models. They found that mice completely lacking the neutrophil elastase enzyme don't get as fat as normal mice, even when fed a high-fat diet. Those mice were also protected against inflammation, insulin resistance, and fatty liver. The same was true in a mouse model genetically modified to produce human ?1-antitrypsin, which inhibits neutrophil elastase.

Normal mice on a high-fat diet were also protected against inflammation, insulin resistance, and fatty liver when they were given a chemical compound that inhibits neutrophil elastase. This finding helps validate the team's conclusions about neutrophil elastase's role in inflammation and metabolism and also suggests that a medicinal drug could someday be developed to target this enzyme.

Mechanism: how neutrophil elastase influences inflammation and metabolism

How do high neutrophil elastase levels increase inflammation and cause weight gain and other metabolic problems?

Jiang and his team began connecting the mechanistic dots. They discovered that neutrophil elastase-deficient mice have increased levels of several factors, including adiponectin, AMPK, and fatty acid oxidation. These are known for their roles in increasing energy expenditure, thus helping the body burn excess fat.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. The original article was written by Heather Buschman.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Virginie Mansuy-Aubert, Qiong?L. Zhou, Xiangyang Xie, Zhenwei Gong, Jun-Yuan Huang, Abdul?R. Khan, Gregory Aubert, Karla Candelaria, Shantele Thomas, Dong-Ju Shin, Sarah Booth, Shahid?M. Baig, Ahmed Bilal, Daehee Hwang, Hui Zhang, Robin Lovell-Badge, Steven?R. Smith, Fazli?R. Awan, Zhen?Y. Jiang. Imbalance between Neutrophil Elastase and its Inhibitor ?1-Antitrypsin in Obesity Alters Insulin Sensitivity, Inflammation, and Energy Expenditure. Cell Metabolism, 2013; 17 (4): 534 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2013.03.005

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/b6LXZzTYZyY/130402163250.htm

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FCC seeks public comment in review of TV, radio decency policy

(Reuters) - Regulators on Monday launched a review of policy governing the way it enforces broadcasts of nudity and profanity on radio and television and asked for public comment on whether its current approach should be amended.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a public notice inviting comment on whether it should focus its efforts on pursuing only the "most egregious" cases in which rules are broken, or focus on isolated cases of nudity and expletives uttered on radio and TV shows.

The public notice follows a Supreme Court ruling in June 2012 against a government crackdown some 10 years ago on nudity and profanity.

"We now seek comment on whether the full Commission should make changes to its current (egregious cases) broadcast indecency policies or maintain them as they are," the FCC said on Monday.

It asked for public input over the next 30 days on whether, for example, it should treat cases of nudity in the same way as profanity, and whether "deliberate and repetitive" use of expletives is necessary to prove indecency.

Since the Supreme Court ruling, the FCC said it had focused its enforcement on "egregious cases" and had handled a backlog of more than 1 million complaints since June 2012.

The Supreme Court said that the FCC rules were vague and that it had not given fair notice of a tougher stance that resulted in three-high profile incidents that resulted in complaints and fines against U.S. networks.

These included the broadcast of a glimpse of singer Janet Jackson's breast at a 2004 Super Bowl half time show.

Under a 2001 FCC policy that was amended in 2004, network and local radio and television channels can be fined up to $325,000 for a single fleeting expletive blurted out on a live show or for brief glimpses of nudity. Cable and satellite operators are not subject to such rules.

The FCC said that it would continue to enforce its current polices as usual during the comment period and that Monday's public notice did not alter any of its policies.

The TV industry has argued that policies have been inconsistent over the years, allowing the television broadcast of movie "Schindler's List" that includes nudity, but leading to fines against News Corp's Fox television for expletives uttered by singer Cher and reality TV star Nicole Richie on awards shows in 2002 and 2003.

The most publicized case in recent years was the so-called "wardrobe malfunction" that allowed part of Jackson's breast to be briefly exposed during a half-time show for the 2004 Super Bowl football championship that drew half a million complaints.

CBS was fined $550,000 but the fine was thrown out by the Supreme Court in a separate judgment in late June 2012.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fcc-seeks-public-review-tv-radio-decency-policy-225421851.html

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Arrrrrgh - there be booty buried somewhere in this Google Treasure Map

The end of YouTube is just the start of Google's April Fool's Day 2013 fun. Up next we've got Google Treasure Maps. It's, ummm, Google Maps done up treasure-map style, having been scanned from William "Captain" Kidd's lost maps. 

There're are more than a few easter eggs in this one, and the whole thing is one big puzzle. The San Francisco Bay Area is a good place to start, but they're spread out globally as well. 

Explains Google:

When Dr. Marco Meniketti, an independent archaeologist, confirmed that this was Captain Kidd’s 315 year-old map, we were very excited. However, as seen in the video, the map contains a variety of encrypted symbols and is not readily decipherable. We need your help to decipher these symbols and find Captain Kidd’s treasures; therefore we’ve decided to digitize the map and make it accessible to everyone.

Just head to Google Maps on the desktop (doesn't look like there's a mobile end; Google shows something in the video, but, well, watch the rest of the video) and start scouting around.

We've got the Google Treasure Map video after the break. Have fun!

Source: Google Lat Long blog

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/n92AKuLrAfE/story01.htm

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How herpesvirus invades nervous system

Mar. 27, 2013 ? Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a component of the herpesvirus that "hijacks" machinery inside human cells, allowing the virus to rapidly and successfully invade the nervous system upon initial exposure.

Led by Gregory Smith, associate professor in immunology and microbiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, researchers found that viral protein 1-2, or VP1/2, allows the herpesvirus to interact with cellular motors, known as dynein. Once the protein has overtaken this motor, the virus can speed along intercellular highways, or microtubules, to move unobstructed from the tips of nerves in skin to the nuclei of neurons within the nervous system.

This is the first time researchers have shown a viral protein directly engaging and subverting the cellular motor; most other viruses passively hitch a ride into the nervous system.

"This protein not only grabs the wheel, it steps on the gas," says Smith. "Overtaking the cellular motor to invade the nervous system is a complicated accomplishment that most viruses are incapable of achieving. Yet the herpesvirus uses one protein, no others required, to transport its genetic information over long distances without stopping."

Herpesvirus is widespread in humans and affects more than 90 percent of adults in the United States. It is associated with several types of recurring diseases, including cold sores, genital herpes, chicken pox, and shingles. The virus can live dormant in humans for a lifetime, and most infected people do not know they are disease carriers. The virus can occasionally turn deadly, resulting in encephalitis in some.

Until now, scientists knew that herpesviruses travel quickly to reach neurons located deep inside the body, but the mechanism by which they advance remained a mystery.

Smith's team conducted a variety of experiments with VP1/2 to demonstrate its important role in transporting the virus, including artificial activation and genetic mutation of the protein. The team studied the herpesvirus in animals, and also in human and animal cells in culture under high-resolution microscopy. In one experiment, scientists mutated the virus with a slower form of the protein dyed red, and raced it against a healthy virus dyed green. They observed that the healthy virus outran the mutated version down nerves to the neuron body to insert DNA and establish infection.

"Remarkably, this viral protein can be artificially activated, and in these conditions it zips around within cells in the absence of any virus. It is striking to watch," Smith says.

He says that understanding how the viruses move within people, especially from the skin to the nervous system, can help better prevent the virus from spreading.

Additionally, Smith says, "By learning how the virus infects our nervous system, we can mimic this process to treat unrelated neurologic diseases. Even now, laboratories are working on how to use herpesviruses to deliver genes into the nervous system and kill cancer cells."

Smith's team will next work to better understand how the protein functions. He notes that many researchers use viruses to learn how neurons are connected to the brain.

"Some of our mutants will advance brain mapping studies by resolving these connections more clearly than was previously possible," he says.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Northwestern University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Sofia?V. Zaichick, Kevin?P. Bohannon, Ami Hughes, Patricia?J. Sollars, Gary?E. Pickard, Gregory?A. Smith. The Herpesvirus VP1/2 Protein Is an Effector of Dynein-Mediated Capsid Transport and Neuroinvasion. Cell Host & Microbe, 2013; 13 (2): 193 DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2013.01.009

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/DpfJns9Ndl0/130328091754.htm

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Happy 65th Birthday, Steven Tyler!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/happy-65th-birthday-steven-tyler/

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Mindfulness improves reading ability, working memory, and task-focus

Mar. 26, 2013 ? If you think your inability to concentrate is a hopeless condition, think again -- and breathe, and focus. According to a study by researchers at the UC Santa Barbara, as little as two weeks of mindfulness training can significantly improve one's reading comprehension, working memory capacity, and ability to focus.

Their findings were recently published online in the empirical psychology journal Psychological Science.

"What surprised me the most was actually the clarity of the results," said Michael Mrazek, graduate student researcher in psychology and the lead and corresponding author of the paper, "Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering." "Even with a rigorous design and effective training program, it wouldn't be unusual to find mixed results. But we found reduced mind-wandering in every way we measured it."

Many psychologists define mindfulness as a state of non-distraction characterized by full engagement with our current task or situation. For much of our waking hours, however, we are anything but mindful. We tend to replay past events -- like the fight we just had or the person who just cut us off on the freeway -- or we think ahead to future circumstances, such as our plans for the weekend.

Mind-wandering may not be a serious issue in many circumstances, but in tasks requiring attention, the ability to stay focused is crucial.

To investigate whether mindfulness training can reduce mind-wandering and thereby improve performance, the scientists randomly assigned 48 undergraduate students to either a class that taught the practice of mindfulness or a class that covered fundamental topics in nutrition. Both classes were taught by professionals with extensive teaching experience in their fields. Within a week before the classes, the students were given two tests: a modified verbal reasoning test from the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and a working memory capacity (WMC) test. Mind-wandering during both tests was also measured.

The mindfulness classes provided a conceptual introduction along with practical instruction on how to practice mindfulness in both targeted exercises and daily life. Meanwhile, the nutrition class taught nutrition science and strategies for healthy eating, and required students to log their daily food intake.

Within a week after the classes ended, the students were tested again. Their scores indicated that the mindfulness group significantly improved on both the verbal GRE test and the working memory capacity test. They also mind-wandered less during testing. None of these changes were true of the nutrition group.

"This is the most complete and rigorous demonstration that mindfulness can reduce mind-wandering, one of the clearest demonstrations that mindfulness can improve working memory and reading, and the first study to tie all this together to show that mind-wandering mediates the improvements in performance," said Mrazek. He added that the research establishes with greater certainty that some cognitive abilities often seen as immutable, such as working memory capacity, can be improved through mindfulness training.

Mrazek and the rest of the research team -- which includes Michael S. Franklin, project scientist; mindfulness teacher and research specialist Dawa Tarchin Phillips; graduate student Benjamin Baird; and senior investigator Jonathan Schooler, professor of psychological and brain sciences -- are extending their work by investigating whether similar results can be achieved with younger populations, or with web-based mindfulness interventions. They are also examining whether or not the benefits of mindfulness can be compounded by a program of personal development that also targets nutrition, exercise, sleep, and personal relationships.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/pvpafk1DiYo/130326133339.htm

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If You Can?t Change The Amount of Stress You?re Under, Change Your Mindset Instead

Too much stress can have serious effects on your body and health, but alleviating it isn't as simple as just not doing the things that stress you out. All the things that stress you out?your job, your boss, your kids?they're still there. What you can change, however, is your mindset and approach to handling that stress, and new research indicates that may be just as effective.

Over at The Harvard Business Review, Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. (who's work you've seen here before) explains that sometimes it's your approach to stressful events and chronic stressors that matters more than the way you handle them after the fact. We focus frequently on coping mechanisms that help you minimize the effects of stress, but she points out that with a healthy mindset and approach to stressful situations?one that looks at the stress you experience as something that can strengthen you instead of harm you?you'll weather the stressful storm a bit better.

The full study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, turned up some surprising results:

in their studies, Crum and colleagues began by identifying stress mindsets among a group of nearly 400 employees of an international financial institution. They found that those employees who had stress-is-enhancing mindsets (compared to stress-is-debilitating) reported having better health, greater life satisfaction, and superior work performance.

That's already rather amazing, but here's the best part - your mindset can also change! If you have been living with a stress-is-debilitating mindset (like most of us), you don't have to be stuck with it. A subset of the 400 employees in the aforementioned study were shown a series of three-minute videos over the course of the following week, illustrating either the enhancing or debilitating effects of stress on health, performance, and personal growth. Those in the stress-is-enhancing group (i.e., the lucky ones) reported significant increases in both well-being and work performance.

Now to be clear, the study isn't saying that stress doesn't stress you out, or that too much stress is somehow healthy. What the researchers point out is that your attitude and approach matter a lot, almost as much as knowing how to cope with the stress afterward. In fact, take the study results with a healthy dose of skepticism. The results are preliminary, and just one study in the face of a mountain of research about stress. However, there's no harm (and everything good) about changing your mindset towards the things that stress you out, and if there are tangible health and lifestyle benefits to doing so (and they're backed up by some research), then by all means, do it.

How You Can Benefit from All Your Stress | Harvard Business Review

Photo by rick.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/WbDeTwNNiXo/if-you-cant-change-the-amount-of-stress-youre-under-change-your-mindset-instead

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?perhaps the greatest anomaly in finance? | The Reformed Broker

• Joshua M Brown
• March 24th, 2013

The financial blogosphere has been talking about the Low Volatility Anomaly forever. The anomaly, referred to as "the greatest" and "the last" given it's staying power and refusal to go away, shows that over long stretches of time equity investors are actually rewarded more for taking less risk (holding quieter stocks) than for taking more risk (with exciting growth stocks).

This concept flies in the face of centuries-old investing wisdom and even basic human common sense! Since our earliest primitive ancestor braved the beehive to bring home sweet, sweet honey to his mate and children, we've been hardwired to believe that Fortune Favors the Bold (as the poet Virgil told us) and that only by going out on a limb could we ever truly find great success.

In what other endeavor are we taught that big rewards come with lower risk? And yet the persistent long-term outperformance of Low Volatility stocks stares us right in the face each day, any time we look at the data.

The way this works - according to the academic literature produced on the topic (reams and reams of it) is that investors tend to overpay for growthier and sexier stocks, which then underperform as promised growth projections fall short and gravity goes to work on those excessively rich multiples. In the meantime, lower volatility stocks keep chugging along and rarely fall prey to huge swings given the "margin of safety" inherent in low-multiple, modestly valued companies.

The ETF arms dealers have been steadily churning out funds this year to capitalize on the phenomenon. They actually get two bites of the apple:

a) First they can show how the anomaly generates a steady, non-ostentatious alpha over the years.

b) then they can pitch it to risk-averse investors who need to buy stocks but can't stomach the swings of full-blown beta given the Post Traumatic Stock Syndrome that remains so prevalent amongst the investor class.

The most well-known vehicle in the low-vol space is SPLV - essentially a basket of the steadier, more defensive names in the S&P (utilities, consumer staples, etc). The fund is two years old and has raised an impressive $4.1 billion since launching, no easy feat in such a noisy ETF marketplace.

John Spence's latest blog post on the subject at ETF Trends shows us that SPLV no longer has the field to itself - the new entrants are rolling off the assembly line like gleaming new automobiles...

Other low-volatility ETFs include iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility ETF (NYSEArca: USMV), PowerShares S&P International Developed Low Volatility (NYSEArca: IDLV) and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Minimum Volatility (NYSEArca: EEMV).

State Street (NYSE: STT) recently launched its first low-volatility ETFs: SPDR Russell 2000 Low Volatility ETF (NYSEArca: SMLV) and SPDR Russell 1000 Low Volatility ETF (NYSEArca: LGLV).

The one caveat I want to add (that I've not seen mentioned elsewhere) is that, these days, traditionally low volatility stocks are not quite as cheap as they used to be.

Utilities and Telecoms - which are frequently loaded into these low-vol products - are two of the most expensive sectors in the S&P on a PE multiple basis right now. These stocks are trading at high valuations historically on both a relative and absolute basis - thanks to their perceived safety and high dividend yields. Utilities trade at 16 times trailing earnings versus the S&P 500's multiple of 15.25 - and don't even get me started on Telecoms at 23 times last year's earnings, an absurdity to be sure.

What future effect this Fed-induced perversion will have on the low-vol indexes and products that hold these securities in size remains to be seen.

The other thing to keep in mind is that in a true bull market - one in which cyclical stocks and growth stocks enjoy expanding earnings and multiples - you can expect so-called low-vol stocks to get hit as investors exit to chase the shiny stuff. Flight from Utilities would especially knock down the share price of SPLV as it currently carries a 30% weighting to the sector, or 10 times the weighting the S&P 500 gives these stocks.

Just be forewarned, there is no such thing as "works all the time" - low volatility or otherwise.

Full Disclosure: Nothing on this site should ever be considered to be advice, research or an invitation to buy or sell any securities, please see my Terms & Conditions page for a full disclaimer.

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Source: http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2013/03/24/perhaps-the-greatest-anomaly-in-finance/

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lern2play Resources and Information. This website is for sale!

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Depression stems from miscommunication between brain cells

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A new study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine suggests that depression results from a disturbance in the ability of brain cells to communicate with each other. The study indicates a major shift in our understanding of how depression is caused and how it should be treated. Instead of focusing on the levels of hormone-like chemicals in the brain, such as serotonin, the scientists found that the transmission of excitatory signals between cells becomes abnormal in depression. The research, by senior author Scott M. Thompson, Ph.D., Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, was published online in the March 17 issue of Nature Neuroscience.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2005 and 2008, approximately one in 10 Americans were treated for depression, with women more than twice as likely as men to become depressed. The most common antidepressant medications, such as Prozac, Zoloft and Celexa, work by preventing brain cells from absorbing serotonin, resulting in an increase in its concentration in the brain. Unfortunately, these medications are effective in only about half of patients. Because elevation of serotonin makes some depressed patients feel better, it has been thought for over 50 years that the cause of depression must therefore be an insufficient level of serotonin. The new University of Maryland study challenges that long-standing explanation.

"Dr. Thompson's groundbreaking research could alter the field of psychiatric medicine, changing how we understand the crippling public health problem of depression and other mental illness," says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Maryland and John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "This is the type of cutting-edge science that we strive toward at the University of Maryland, where discoveries made in the laboratory can impact the clinical practice of medicine."

Depression affects more than a quarter of all U.S. adults at some point in their lives, and the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020 it will be the second leading cause of disability worldwide. Depression is also the leading risk factor for suicide, which causes twice as many deaths as murder, and is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds.

The first major finding of the study was the discovery that serotonin has a previously unknown ability to strengthen the communication between brain cells. "Like speaking louder to your companion at a noisy cocktail party, serotonin amplifies excitatory interactions in brain regions important for emotional and cognitive function and apparently helps to make sure that crucial conversations between neurons get heard," says Dr. Thompson. "Then we asked, does this action of serotonin play any role in the therapeutic action of drugs like Prozac?"

To understand what might be wrong in the brains of patients with depression and how elevating serotonin might relieve their symptoms, the study team examined the brains of rats and mice that had been repeatedly exposed to various mildly stressful conditions, comparable to the types of psychological stressors that can trigger depression in people.

The researchers could tell that their animals became depressed because they lost their preference for things that are normally pleasurable. For example, normal animals given a choice of drinking plain water or sugar water strongly prefer the sugary solution. Study animals exposed to repeated stress, however, lost their preference for the sugar water, indicating that they no longer found it rewarding. This depression-like behavior strongly mimics one hallmark of human depression, called anhedonia, in which patients no longer feel rewarded by the pleasures of a nice meal or a good movie, the love of their friends and family, and countless other daily interactions.

A comparison of the activity of the animals' brain cells in normal and stressed rats revealed that stress had no effect on the levels of serotonin in the 'depressed' brains. Instead, it was the excitatory connections that responded to serotonin in strikingly different manner. These changes could be reversed by treating the stressed animals with antidepressants until their normal behavior was restored.

"In the depressed brain, serotonin appears to be trying hard to amplify that cocktail party conversation, but the message still doesn't get through," says Dr. Thompson. Using specially engineered mice created by collaborators at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the study also revealed that the ability of serotonin to strengthen excitatory connections was required for drugs like antidepressants to work.

Sustained enhancement of communication between brain cells is considered one of the major processes underlying memory and learning. The team's observations that excitatory brain cell function is altered in models of depression could explain why people with depression often have difficulty concentrating, remembering details, or making decisions. Additionally, the findings suggest that the search for new and better antidepressant compounds should be shifted from drugs that elevate serotonin to drugs that strengthen excitatory connections.

"Although more work is needed, we believe that a malfunction of excitatory connections is fundamental to the origins of depression and that restoring normal communication in the brain, something that serotonin apparently does in successfully treated patients, is critical to relieving the symptoms of this devastating disease," Dr. Thompson explains.

###

University of Maryland Medical Center: http://www.umm.edu

Thanks to University of Maryland Medical Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127345/Depression_stems_from_miscommunication_between_brain_cells

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Flush With Oil, Abu Dhabi Opens World's Largest Solar Plant

Rows of parabolic mirrors at the Shams 1 plant in Abu Dhabi.

Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images

Rows of parabolic mirrors at the Shams 1 plant in Abu Dhabi.

Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images

Abu Dhabi, the most oil-rich of the United Arab Emirates, is now home to the world's single-largest concentrated solar power plant.

The 100-megawatt Shams 1 plant cost an estimated $750 million and is expected to provide electricity to 20,000 homes, according to the BBC.

Why, you might ask?

Bloomberg says the less oil Abu Dhabi uses for local consumption, the more it can export.

Sultan Ahmed al Jaber, head of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., speaking at a news conference for the plant's opening over the weekend, said it is part of a "strategic plan to diversify energy sources in Abu Dhabi."

"Together, with clean energy and nuclear energy, it will make up 7 percent of Abu Dhabi's energy sources from renewable energy sources," he said.

Shams 1 uses 768 adjustable parabolic "trough mirrors" to focus sunlight onto a water boiler that produces steam, activates turbines and finally generates electricity, reports the website Clean Technica. The middle step in the process, it says, is to use natural gas to superheat the water.

The plant, located about 75 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, is similar in design to Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) located in California's Mojave Desert. Although Shams 1 claims to be the single-largest plant, the nine SEGS plants taken together generate more than three times as much energy and serve more than 10 times as many households at peak output.

Officials in Abu Dhabi hope Shams 1 will save 175,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of taking 15,000 cars off the road. The plant is the first of several more on the drawing board.

The UAE's neighbor, Saudi Arabia, is on a similar tack with the most extensive renewable-energy program in the Middle East, Bloomberg reports:

"The country is seeking about $100 billion in investments to generate about 41,000 megawatts, or a third of its power, from solar by 2032. That compares with about 3 megawatts now, which puts it behind Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates in capacity, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/19/174745557/flush-with-oil-abu-dhabi-opens-worlds-largest-solar-plant?ft=1&f=1007

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Fewer compensation claims for asbestos-related lung cancer than ...

Dated: 19/03/2013 ?Key Contact: Emma Costin ?? Although many sufferers of asbestos-related mesothelioma can now expect to claim compensation, the same is not true of lung cancer, regardless of whether the condition was caused by asbestos.

According to the Health and Safety Executive?s (HSE's) awareness campaign, Asbestos: The Hidden Killer, 20 tradespeople die in Britain every week due to asbestos-related lung diseases.

Despite asbestos' ban in 1999, many people are still gravely affected by exposure to the material. While mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer that attacks the membrane around the lung, is the most notorious asbestos-related disease, others include a type of lung cancer similar to that linked to smoking.

However, perhaps due to the smoking connection, fewer compensation awards are made for asbestos-related lung cancer.

With some 4,000 fatalities annually and rising, inhalation of asbestos fibres causes the UK's highest proportion of work-related deaths, mainly among tradespeople such as plumbers, builders, plasterers and electricians.

The HSE says that since the ban was enforced some years ago, many tradesmen believe risk is now negligible. But because asbestos remains present in about 500,000 older buildings, many built before the 1999 ban, workers are still in danger of exposure.

Loosening asbestos when a building containing the material is repaired, refurbished or demolished, particularly if the work involves cutting and drilling, can lead to inhalation of its fibres as fine dust.

If the exposure leads to mesothelioma, there is no known cure, although symptoms can be relieved and life prolonged by means of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Sufferers of mesothelioma can usually expect to be able to claim compensation. However, perhaps surprisingly, the same does not hold true for lung cancer, irrespective of whether contracting the latter was a direct result of asbestos exposure.

The HSE believes tradespeople must be educated about the dangers of asbestos and its relevance to them. "We want them to change the way they work so that they don't put their lives at risk," said Steve Coldrick, director of the HSE's Disease Reduction Programme.

If you are worried about the possible presence of asbestos at work, or you'd like to know more, the HSE has a helpline (0845 345 0055) and a web page (www.hse.gov.uk/hiddenkiller) from where you can obtain a free asbestos information pack and find out whereabouts in a building asbestos might be found.

Source: http://www.simpsonmillar.co.uk/news/news.aspx?newsid=2047

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