IDG News Service - Google may be moving too slowly in building up Google Apps' enterprise social networking (ESN) features, at a time when this type of software has become a key component in workplace collaboration suites.
On Wednesday, the company took another small step in its effort to tailor its Google+ consumer social networking site into one that Apps customers can use to boost collaboration among their employees.
Although moves in that direction are welcome for the Apps email and collaboration suite, Google might do well to speed up the pace, since demand for ESN software has been growing robustly, a trend expected to intensify in coming years.
"We have to think about this as the art of the possible," said Forrester Research analyst Rob Koplowitz, referring to the development of Google+'s ESN capabilities.
ESN software provides Facebook- and Twitter-like functionality adapted for workplace use, including employee profiles, activity streams, microblogging, document sharing, content rating, blogging, discussion groups and online communities.
Spending on ESN products grew almost 40 percent last year to US$767.4 million, and is expected to increase at a 42 percent compound rate through 2016, when it will reach almost $4.5 billion, according to IDC.
Microsoft recently paid $1.2 billion to acquire ESN vendor Yammer, a deal intended to boost enterprise social collaboration capabilities in SharePoint, Office, Dynamics and other Microsoft products.
IBM, VMware and Cisco have added ESN components to their broader enterprise collaboration suites, while Oracle and Salesforce.com have done the same to their broader enterprise application stacks. And there is a thriving ecosystem of pure-play ESN vendors like NewsGator, Jive Software and Telligent.
Although Apps was launched in 2006, Google only started working on an ESN component last year, when it made it possible for Apps administrators to offer Google+ to their end users as part of their suite.
This week, Google threw in an initial set of IT controls to let Apps administrators set companywide default restriction settings for Google+ posts and multiparty video conferencing via the Hangouts feature. These IT controls are available to customers using the Education, Government and Business editions of Apps.
End users can also individually mark their posts as restricted, which makes it impossible to re-share them outside of their organization's domain.
Google+ also gained the ability to append Hangouts to a Calendar event, making it possible for users to join the video conference directly from the Calendar invite or entry. This feature is available to both consumer and Apps users of Google+.
Previously, Hangouts had been integrated in similar ways with both Gmail and the Docs office productivity applications, again for consumers and Apps users.
Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? Lifted by a show of Republican unity that once seemed so distant, Mitt Romney plunged into the presidential campaign's final 67 days focused more than ever on jobs and the economy, and depicting President Barack Obama as a well-meaning but inept man who must be replaced.
"America has been patient," he told the nation. "Americans have supported this president in good faith. But today, the time has come to turn the page."
Obama, who will hold his own convention next week, served notice that he will use his powers of incumbency to make Romney's mission hard. Obama planned to visit a Texas military base exactly two years after declaring the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, the war that haunts the last Republican president. This, as Democrats prepare to gather in Charlotte, N.C., for Obama's convention.
Romney capped a high-energy night closing the Republican National Convention with a spirited and unusually personal speech infused with his family life, touching on his Mormon faith and recounting his youth. The cheers were loud and frequent, surely music to the ears of a candidate who struggled throughout the bruising primary season and beyond to bury doubts among many in his party that he was the authentic conservative in the field.
"Now is the time to restore the promise of America," Romney declared to a nation struggling with unemployment and the slowest economic recovery in decades.
Polls suggest a to-the-wire campaign finish. The two men will spend the next 10 weeks in a handful of competitive states, none more important than Florida and Ohio, and meet in one-on-one debates where the stakes could hardly be any higher.
The campaign themes are mostly set. Romney depicts the president as a once-inspiring but disappointing figure who doesn't understand job-creation or ordinary Americans' frustrations. Democrats portray Romney as a man shifting ever rightward in the absence of core convictions, and a wealthy plutocrat who can't relate to the middle class.
Hanging over the campaign is a big number: the nation's 8.3 percent unemployment rate. It is Obama's biggest impediment to a second term. Republicans seem to be banking on the notion that it will bring Obama down if Romney simply presents himself as a competent alternative.
Strikingly absent from Romney's campaign, including the three-day convention in Tampa, were detailed explanations of how he would tame deficit spending while also cutting taxes and expanding the armed forces. He seems to be asking voters to trust his ability to create jobs and to make tough, unpopular decisions later.
Romney used his biggest moment yet in the spotlight, Thursday's televised acceptance speech, to put a softer glow on his business record and to make short work of a conservative checklist that is now less important as he pursues swing voters.
He briefly hailed "the sanctity of life," but did not mention "abortion," illegal immigration, or even Ronald Reagan by his first name.
Romney's speech also omitted many of the sharp barbs that he and his allies often throw at Obama.
"I wish President Obama had succeeded, because I want America to succeed," Romney said. "But his promises gave way to disappointment and division. ... We deserve better."
He repeated his claim that Obama can't lead America out its economic doldrums because he has no business background.
"Jobs to him are about government," Romney said.
The relatively toned-down rhetoric was a shift from Romney's taunt, only two weeks ago, of "Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago."
Thursday's gentler tone by Romney might simply be a nod to reality. Polls repeatedly find that voters find Obama more likable than Romney. Romney's convention message was: It's OK to like Obama even as you fire him.
Of course other top Republicans, and Romney himself, might revert to ripping into Obama, especially if they don't see polls moving in Romney's direction soon in the 10 or so states up for grabs.
Democrats hope their convention in Charlotte will, at a minimum, neutralize any GOP bounce out of Tampa.
Obama seemed equally willing to avoid bombastic rhetoric for a while. He told Time magazine he hoped his re-election would help end the political stalemate in Washington, much like "popping a blister."
The president also said he wants to do a better job of explaining how his policies will help boost the economy.
Obama planned to campaign this weekend in Ohio, Colorado and Iowa.
Romney planned to campaign Friday in Virginia, Saturday in Ohio and both days in Florida before taking a couple of days to rest while Democrats start their quadrennial show in Charlotte.
Obama narrowly won North Carolina in 2008, and scheduled his 2012 convention there in hopes of repeating the unexpected feat. Romney's path to victory is severely complicated unless he puts the state back in the GOP column.
Like any presidential challenger, Romney must do two things: Make voters willing to oust the incumbent, and make himself an acceptable replacement.
In Thursday's address, Romney seemed to assume Americans have already cleared the first hurdle, weary of high unemployment.
"What America needs is jobs, lots of jobs," Romney said. "To the majority of Americans who now believe that the future will not be better than the past, I can guarantee you this: if Barack Obama is re-elected, you will be right."
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama's visit to Fort Bliss on Friday will highlight administration efforts to support U.S. service members and their families, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those efforts include attempts to combat what Carney called "unseen wounds" of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, including post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
Romney avoided the topic of terrorism and wars in Islamic countries, which bedeviled President George W. Bush's final years and helped launch Obama's career. In his big speech Thursday, Romney did not mention Iraq, Afghanistan or terrorism.
___
Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt, Steve Peoples, Philip Elliott, Beth Fouhy, Thomas Beaumont and Julie Mazziotta in Tampa and Jennifer Agiesta and Cal Woodward in Washington contributed to this report.
(Reuters) - As Tropical Storm Isaac was on its path through the Caribbean before becoming a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico this week, U.S. scientists were testing an experimental new weather spy tool - an unmanned, marine robot about the size of a surfboard that can gather storm data at sea level.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)research laboratory in Miami sent the "Wave Glider," a floating platform of sensors with an underwater stabilizer christened Alex, into ocean waters about 100 miles north of Puerto Rico last week to try to intercept Isaac.
"Isaac did not barrel right over it," said Alan Leonardi, deputy director of NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, after the storm passed to the south of the island before turning north and making landfall near New Orleans as a Category 1 hurricane.
"But Isaac being the size storm it is, the Wave Glider was able to collect data from the outer rain bands. We can't steer a hurricane, but we did get good data out of it."
A few days later, scientists got a second look at Isaac, from another Wave Glider - named G2 - on a separate oil and gas mission in the Gulf of Mexico.
The eye of Isaac passed barely 60 miles east of G2, enabling it to collect valuable ocean data, including evidence of a dramatic drop in water temperature, "suggesting that Isaac was vacuuming the heat from the Gulf," according to its manufacturers, Liquid Robotics, based in Sunnyvale, California.
Bill Vass, CEO of Liquid Robotics, grew up in Louisiana and is a veteran of hurricanes. His grandparents died in Hurricane Camille in 1969, and his family lost a home to Katrina.
CLOSE ENCOUNTER
"We are proud that it was able to survive the mission," battling 85 mph sustained winds, and gusts up to 120 mph," he said. "Hopefully the Wave Glider will make it possible to better predict the severity and risk to everyone in the Gulf Coast area in the future."
Testing of another robotic boat, the Emergency Integrated Life-Saving Lanyard, or EMILY, will begin in the Pacific Ocean off California this week, said Justyna Nicinska, project manager for NOAA's Weather In-Situ Deployment Optimization Method.
Its builder, Hydronalix, based in Green Valley, Arizona, launched EMILY in 2010 as a robotic lifeguard. For NOAA, the builder outfitted the 5-foot, 5-inch (1.65-meter) boat with storm data-gathering sensors.
NOAA bought 10 EMILYs at $30,000 each last spring, Nicinska said. Researchers said they plan to send one into a tropical storm by the end of the 2012 hurricane season.
Both Wave Glider and EMILY can measure a tropical storm's surface air temperature, wind chill, barometric pressure, actual wind speed, relative wind speed, wind direction, ocean temperature and ocean salinity, researchers said.
Both will be less expensive to operate than C-130 hurricane-hunter flights or NOAA ocean research vessels that cost $10,000 to $20,000 a day to operate, Leonardi said.
The tiny boats will also be used for other NOAA projects in marine resources, fisheries, archaeology, imagery and bottom topography, researchers said.
But meteorologists hope to plug the craft's storm data into forecast models and better predict when a tropical storm is going to intensify into a hurricane, researchers said.
"We're trying to understand what happens at the ocean surface, which is where the energy transfer happens between the ocean and the overlaying hurricane," said Erica Rule, spokeswoman for NOAA's oceanographic and meteorological laboratory.
"Heat energy becomes the kinetic energy that drives the hurricane, and it comes from the warm water that they pass over," she said. "It's why hurricanes die when they go over land or over colder water."
AUTONOMOUS, MILITARY VERSION
The Wave Glider is so rugged it can stay at sea for a year at a time relying on renewable energy from technology that converts wave motion into energy for propulsion.
Solar panels power the onboard communications and sensor equipment, and it can be piloted by satellite from the company's California offices.
The robots are already being used in marine research by scientists off the coast of California monitoring great white sharks. A military version, dubbed the "Shark" has also been adapted for intelligence, communications and surveillance operations.
"The Department of Defense is a big customer of ours," said Vass.
Leonardi said his NOAA lab is working with the builder to have several ready for the 2013 hurricane season. They will be placed in a line east of the Leeward Islands in the path of an approaching tropical storm, he said.
"It's what we call a picket fence," he said. "The dream scenario would be to have six or 12 of these all get run over by a storm."
(Additional reporting by David Adams; Editing by David Adams and Todd Eastham)
Bacteria that live in the soil seem to be swapping antibiotic-resistance genes with other, more dangerous bacteria ? the ones that cause devastating infections in humans, a new study indicates.
When a team of researchers analyzed bacteria they had grown from soil samples, they found the microbes were harboring seven genes identical to those that enabled harmful bacteria to resist antibiotics. These genes are active against antibiotics within five major drug classes, they write.
It is highly unlikely these genes evolved independently in the soil microbes and the disease-causing ones, they concluded.
"The sequences of the resistance genes are identical, but they are in organisms that are very, very different, so we know they have been shared between these organisms," said study researcher Kevin Forsberg, of Washington University School of Medicine, in an audio interview released by the journal Science, where the research appears this week.
Bacteria, even members of different species, can swap genes. This ability gives the microbes incredible flexibility, Forsberg said. [ Tiny & Nasty: Images of Things That Make Us Sick ]
"If they don't have a gene or function necessary for survival in a given environment, they might survive and thrive nonetheless by borrowing a gene or genes from their neighbor," he said.
So far, it's not clear whether the genes are moving from the clinic to the soil or from the soil to the clinic, but Forsberg said he suspects both.
The team looked at soil from 11 samples from a variety of ecosystems in the United States, such as forest, urban and farmland.
They focused on soil because it contains a great diversity of microbial inhabitants, including Streptomyces bacteria. The compounds these bacteria produce to fight off other bacteria have provided the majority of naturally produced antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance, the ability of other bugs to fight off these attacks, is also believed to have evolved in the soil.
And finally, soil is receiving increasing amounts of antibiotics as a result of agriculture.
"Upwards of 80 percent of the antibiotics by weight are used in animal feed to promote growth, and these antibiotics end up in the surrounding environment, including soil," Forsberg said.
The overuse of antibiotics as medication can give rise to resistance among disease-causing bacteria, and so can the flood of antibiotics into the environment.
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Bacteria in both settings are acquiring more resistance genes and swapping them because they have a reason ? the pressure from more, and new, antibiotics. The gene sharing means humans? treatment of one group is likely to affect the other, he said.
Forsberg and his colleagues grew the soil bacteria in media containing antibiotics to select for those with antibiotic-resistance genes. They found not only exact replicas of known resistance genes but also new ones.
When fed to a laboratory strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli, one unrecognized gene helped the E. coli fight off large doses of an antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis, they found. The antibiotic was cycloserine.
"The fact we are finding resistance genes that we haven't seen before means there is more resistance out there," Forsberg said.
Although the swapping of resistance genes between soil bacteria and those that cause disease has serious implications for health, there's no way to prevent it.
"Bacteria developed resistance well before humans existed, and they have been trading genes for even longer," Forsberg said. "What we can do is diminish the problem by giving bacteria less reason to have these antibiotic-resistance genes."
This means more prudent use of antibiotics, he said.
The research appears in Friday?s issue of the journal Science.
Follow LiveScience ? writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry? or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook? and Google+.
With dizzying speed, over the past few days, the outsourcing group Mouchel teetered, went bust and will now be majority-owned by its creditors through an ?87m debt for equity deal.
Since those creditors include Royal Bank of Scotland, we now have a situation where local services are being provided to the residents of, for example, Middlesbrough, Lincolnshire and Bournemouth, by a part-nationalised company (the latter facing calls to bring its workforce back in house).
Mouchel claims that despite its near-death experience it?s ?business as usual? for the company. But it can?t and shouldn?t be. What the collapse of this company shows is that outsourcing isn?t a clean cut. Local authorities and other public bodies can?t just sign a contract and walk away in the expectation the service will be seamlessly provided.
Before and after contracting, public bodies ought not just to do what the lawyers call due diligence and assess the financial viability of the contractor, but maintain the utmost vigilance over their business affairs.
Take Mouchel. Once upon a time, the company bearing this name was a straightforward engineering specialist, helping build the Royal Liver Building and Battersea Power Station.
Then, a decade ago it merged with another former engineering outfit called Parkman. Mouchel Parkman start popping up as a generic supplier of maintenance and repairs to social landlords and councils, working in schools and elsewhere. In 2007 they took over Hyder Business Services (formerly owned by Terra Firma, it had major problems with a Bedfordshire outsourcing contract) then rebranded as Mouchel. After falling into difficulties (including a law suit with Westminster city council over a parking contract), the company next faces takeover by VT Group (former the shipbuilder Vosper Thorneycroft ? now itself taken over by Babcock), and by Costain (another builder become ?service supplier?).
How far could public bodies buying Mouchel services ever keep up with this whirligig of corporate restructuring? What could they do when, last December, Mouchel announced a ?65m loss, knowing that the resulting turmoil was bound to affect the quality of service offered locally by the firm.
Public bodies are often na?ve about business. Here?s John Beesley, the Tory leader of Bournemouth, welcoming the banks? takeover of Mouchel: ?It removes the uncertainty surrounding the future of the company?. On the contrary, the banks are likely either to try to exit very quickly or dismember the company to minimise their potential losses.
Another example. After the Olympic security debacle, any responsible police authority would think hard about the capacity of G4S to deliver. But shouldn?t they also examine that company?s finances? Read the Guardian?s Nils Pratley and ponder his conclusion that G4S is ?running out of steam?.
How many public bodies buying G4S services were even aware of its recent attempt to take over the Danish company ISS ? a decision (some analysts say) that if consummated would have been akin to the disastrous capture of Dutch banking group ABN-Amro by RBS, just before its collapse?
A prime lesson from the Private Finance Initiative is that companies will engage in complex financial engineering in order to reduce their borrowing costs, inflating the profits. The Jimmy Reid Foundation, a new Scottish thinktank, has been doing some work on the privatised utility companies. Ofwat and other regulators allow price rises based on one estimate of the cost of capital; the companies then find ways of lessening their borrowing costs and their profits rise accordingly.
The moral of this has to be: eternal vigilance by public bodies over private companies motivated by profit maximisation. But do councils and civil servants have enough financial expertise to know what?s happening? Are they capable of becoming part-time stock analysts?
This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Guardian Public Leaders Network free to receive regular emails on the issues at the top of the professional agenda.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Chevron Corp, the second-largest oil producer in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, said on Wednesday that all production at its four platforms was shut down and its Mississippi refinery was operating after Hurricane Isaac came ashore Tuesday evening.
Chevron did not specify whether its 330,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, was operating at reduced rates.
However, the U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday that the refinery was running at reduced rates.
The company operates four oil and gas platforms in the Gulf. They are Tahiti, which can produce up to 125,000 bpd of oil and 70 million cubic feet per day of natural gas; Blind Faith, 65,000 bpd of oil and 55 mmcf per day of gas; Genesis, 55,000 bpd of oil and 72 mmcf per day of gas; and Petronius, 40,000 bpd of oil and 35 mmcf per day of gas.
(Reporting by Kristen Hays; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Bernard Orr)
Vito Technology has updated one of their two flagship Astronomy apps, Star Walk, with a significant update this morning. ?The new 6.0 version brings a completely rebuilt information section that has a new layout and revised information. ?That new information includes things like short facts, a new image gallery, overview note(s), orbital and physical characteristics, magnitude and elevation and planetary structure.
Other improvements in this version include a new gallery for Picture of the Day which has a cleaner and simpler layout with iPhoto-like folders both from ESA (European Space Agency) and ESO (European Southern Observatory). ?Sharing is also introduced with the ability to share to Facebook, Twitter, Email and the ability to print or save what you are viewing to your Camera Roll.
Star Walk is also compatible with AirPlay so you can wirelessly display the app via your AppleTV to a HDTV display. ?This is a?huge feature for educators as the can show planets, stars and other heavenly bodies in real time thanks to the augmented reality of Star Walk on a large screen, saving having to crowd around the iPad or iPhone itself.
Star Walk is in my opinion the best Astronomy app in the App Store today. ?It is great for both learning and teaching and even for the casual stargazer, it provides a depth of knowledge at your fingertips.
Star Walk for iPhone is $2.99 and Star Walk for iPad is $4.99.
Star Walk for iPhone ? $2.99 ? Download Now
Star Walk for iPad ? $4.99 ? Download Now
Clinton
Clinton is the editor of AlliOSNews.com. He has been writing opinions, reviews, how to's and anything related to the mobile communications market since 1999. You can follow Clinton on Twitter @AlliOSNews
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Scientist and children's television personality Bill Nye, in a newly released online video, panned biblical creationism and implored American parents who reject the scientific theory of evolution not to teach their beliefs to their youngsters.
"I say to the grownups, 'If you want to deny evolution and live in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we've observed in the universe that's fine. But don't make your kids do it,'" said Nye, best known as host of the educational TV series "Bill Nye the Science Guy."
The video, titled "Creationism Is Not Appropriate for Children," was posted on Thursday by the online knowledge forum Big Think to YouTube and had netted more than 1.3 million views as of Monday.
In it Nye said widespread public doubt in the scientific concept of evolution -- which holds that human beings and all other forms of life developed from a process of random genetic mutation and natural selection -- would hinder a country long renowned for its innovation, intellectual capital and a general grasp of science.
"When you have a portion of the population that doesn't believe in (evolution) it holds everybody back, really," he said.
According to a Gallup poll that surveyed 1,012 adults in May, 46 percent of Americans can be described as creationists for believing that God created humans in their present form at some point within the last 10,000 years.
Education advocates have argued for decades over what children should be taught in public schools in regard to the formation of the universe, life and humans.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that requiring biblical creation to be taught in public schools alongside evolution was unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment separation between church and state.
In April, a law was passed that protects teachers in Tennessee who wish to critique or analyze what they view as the scientific weaknesses of evolution, making it the second state, after Louisiana, to enable teachers to more easily espouse alternatives to evolution in the classroom.
Nye said that while many adults may believe in creationism, children should be taught evolution in order to understand science. Absent a grasp of evolution, he said, "You're just not going to get the right answers." And he called evolution the "fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology."
Teaching children the building blocks of science is essential for the country's future, he added, saying, "We need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future."
Nye's popular show, produced by Disney's Buena Vista Television, aired from September 1993 to June 1998 on PBS and was also syndicated to local television stations.
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian military helicopters dropped thousands of leaflets over Damascus and its suburbs Tuesday, urging rebels to hand over their weapons or face "inevitable death" as part of a widening and deadly offensive to recapture areas near the capital that have fallen into rebel hands.
The leaflets appear to be part of the regime's psychological warfare against the rebels, but are highly unlikely to have any effect on fighters intent on toppling President Bashar Assad's regime. Human rights groups say more than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since the revolt against Assad began in March 2011.
The head of the main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Council, criticized U.S. officials for saying it was premature to speak about a provisional Syrian government.
Abdelbaset Sieda, speaking in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, said the opposition is making "serious" preparations and consultations to announce a transitional government, but admitted it is not imminent.
On Monday, French President Francoise Hollande called on the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government, saying France would recognize it. But Hollande's statement, believed to be the first of its kind, was quickly shot down by U.S. officials who said it was premature to speak about a provisional government when Syria's fractured opposition hasn't even agreed yet on a transition plan.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter, cited persistent disagreements among the Syrian National Council and rival opposition groups, and between Syrian opposition figures campaigning outside the country and rebels fighting the Assad regime on the front line.
"We're nowhere near that yet," one U.S. official said.
Sieda said the U.S. comments show the international community was not ready not ready" to take decisive decisions when it comes to Syria.
"It seems to me as if the international community is not prepared to take decisive decisions and blames the Syrian opposition for its own shortcomings," Sieda said.
"Yes there are differences within the Syrian opposition and this is normal in any country, but as long as we are agreed on a common vision, these differences can be overcome," he added.
"The international international community must make a move before it's too late."
Syria's opposition has been plagued by divisions and infighting since the start of the uprising last year, and forming a transitional government is fraught with difficulties.
In addition to the SNC, several other opposition groups are known to be making similar plans, including a new opposition alliance headed by veteran opposition figure Haitham Maleh.
Sieda said his group has been contacting other opposition figures and the Free Syrian Army rebels to consult over a transitional government, but admits they have not started discussing names yet.
For more than a month, the military has been fighting major battles against rebels in the outskirts of Damascus and its suburbs while engaged in what appears to be a stalemated fight in the north against rebels for control of Aleppo, the nation's largest city and commercial capital.
The government recently has intensified its offensive to recapture rebellious districts on the capital's periphery, and hundreds of people have been killed in several days of shelling and clashes in the affected areas. Over the weekend evidence mounted of mass killings by regime forces in the Damascus suburb of Daraya after it was stormed by troops.
Some of the leaflets dropped Tuesday, which were signed by the armed forces and the army's general command, read: "The Syrian army is determined to cleanse every inch in Syria and you have only two choices: Abandon your weapons ... or face inevitable death."
"No one will help you. They have implicated you in taking up arms against your compatriots," they said. "They drown in their pleasures while you face death. Why? And for whom?"
Syrian authorities blame the 17-month uprising on a foreign conspiracy and accuse oil-rich Gulf countries Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in addition to the U.S. and Turkey, of backing "terrorists" seeking to oust the regime.
Assad told an Iranian delegation this week that he was determined to crush the conspiracy against Syria "whatever the price."
With its forces stretched thin by fighting on multiple fronts, Assad's regime has increasingly turned to air power, unleashing both helicopters and fighter jets on the rebels.
The lightly armed fighters, in turn, have grown bolder and their tactics more sophisticated in recent months. Rebels claimed to have shot down a military helicopter that crashed in flames in the Damascus district of al-Qaboun Monday. State media confirmed the crash but gave no details about the cause.
___
AP writer Albert Aji contributed to this report from Damascus.
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From time began plant life and organic treatments have been the pillar of life on Earth. Long before doctors or modern science, there has been illness and disease, and yet life continues. There are three key ingredients to life on Planet Earth, air , water, and food. The better the quality of these elements, the better the quality of being. All living beings on Earth depends on these three common components. For most living creatures, whether plant, animal or man, health depends on the availability of breathable air, consumable water, and sustainable food and nutrition. In the past both mankind and the animal world, have counted on herbs and botanicals to cure their sicknesses, even totally carnivorous animals on occasions supplement their typical diets by consuming grass or other herbal plants. In every country, there are folk treatments for a wide number of health problems, from chicken soup for the common cold, to Horny Goat Weed for sexual problems, and St. John?s Wort for depression. Herbs and botanicals have been ?Nature?s Drugstore ? for centuries. To a huge extent, our health and wellbeing, are affected by our nutrition, environment and lifestyle. We tend to take these points without any consideration, perhaps because theree is not much that we can do as people to change our immediate circumstances. Fortunately, as human beings, alive in a modern world, we have more possibilities than ever before in just how we want to live our lives. That said, our environment, diet and lifestyle, and also hereditary influences, often wreak havoc on our ability to live truly happy healthy lives. The demands of career, the hectic pace of life, and the oftentimes poor standard of supermarket and restaurant ?food?, often have a detrimental toll on our complete health and well being. Modern man suffers from a wide range of lifestyle related ailments, and conditions that often lead to large medical bills, expensive invasive treatments and surgery, and a poor quality of life. Herbal supplements, while not being a cure all for major illnesses , can greatly enhance our lives, and add nutritional support for our often poor diets, and stress related problems. Practically all doctors and health care professionals accept that most major maladies are the result of unhealthy diet, stress and thoughtless diet choices. and while modern medicine has come a long way over the years, many prescription medications, have detrimental side effects, and may even lead to other illnesses or complications, that make these prescription drugs highly questionable as being truly life supporting. Herbal nutritional supplements, are not drugs, they?re natural plant or food based products. rather than being harsh chemically manufactured drugs, they generally provide safer non toxic solutions for many common problems, and when used responsibly, can really help, prevent and cure many long term debilitating sicknesses. Since ancient times, mankind has always trusted and relied on herbs and other plants for the treatment and cure of many serious illnesses, and even today in countries with large populations, like China and India, even medical doctors, will usually prescribe herbal supplements to cure disease, before they prescribe chemically, manufactured prescription drugs or surgery. Interestingly in these cultures that rely and trust in herbal solutions, rather than prescription drugs and surgery, people on average tend to live longer healthier and happier lives than, people who live in developed countries with the most advanced surgical techniques, sophisticated diagnostic machines, and a strong reliance on prescription drugs for medication. In days of old the use of herbs as treatments or cures for serious illness, usually relied on the knowledge of elders, priests, shamans , witch doctors, or magicians. Thankfully today through analysis and the sharing of information, it is easy to research and find herbal supplements, prepared by experts in the field of herbal medicine, who?ve made it easy to find and access quality herbal products in scientifically prepared dosages for optimum results. While it is not wise to try and treat serious or chronic illnesses with herbal nutritional supplements, without consulting a medical practitioner, it is perfectly safe to try them as therapeutic dietary supplements to ,enhance general health, fitness and well being. There are many natural health supplements available without prescription, which are helpful for many common complaints. from weight loss issues to sexual dysfunction, many easy, inexpensive options are available at quality herbal supply stores.
Vitopharma Nutritional Supplements are a global supplier of top quality dietary supplements visit their herbal health store online
For those who are inquiring, ?is remaining a well being insurance policy agent an excellent job in this economic system?? then you are in all probability trying to find a residing business enterprise chance. Together with the current downward spiral with the market many consumers are looking for more options. It appears the most up-to-date pattern is definitely the financial recovery. Additional and more business are opening up and thriving.
Wherever you a short while ago laid off? Several People in america have been affreux off inside the previous several ages. It has produced the chance for most of them to open their particular little business. Is this an alternative in your case? Or else you favor use how long will marijuana stay in urine to pass a drug test for dirty electrican job? Exactly what are you passionate about? After you have something that you intend to do, go for it.
?Is becoming a well being insurance plan agent an excellent occupation during this financial system?? is often a legitimate concern. Chances are you?ll need to discover how saturated your nearby market place is with insurance coverage agents. Before it is possible to provide anything there requires to be a demand. If you open a fresh supermarket across the street from numerous others which have been currently thriving your prospects of success are low. The same applies with any sort of dwelling organization.
In case you are only looking for a career that will be considered a paycheck you might not be happy for extremely extended. An awesome solution to pick out the proper occupation for on your own would be to consider about what interests you. You could be able to locate a career that consists of a enthusiasm of yours. That could make your performing days a great deal additional satisfying for many years to occur.
What else can help establish the achievement within your small company? Getting the proper schooling is a substantial in addition on the subject of operating an enterprise. You really do not need a lengthy intricate degree; some specific courses may well be all you may need. In case you are not certain where by to start out discover anyone that has started their own individual company. They may be greater than joyful to position you within the ideal route.
Make Your own private Results
You simply cannot sit around waiting for good important things to transpire. If you would like for being profitable you should pursue that good results. Results may perhaps call for which you comprehensive additional schooling, or are living on the limited spending budget for the several several years for getting up and going. Following asking you, ?is becoming a well being insurance coverage agent an excellent position within this market?? go out and allow it to be happen. If you prefer your residing organization for being successful you then could have to place in a very ton of challenging perform.
Kodak may not be beloved by digital filmmakers, but it's not fallen out of love with the talkies. It's new "asset protection" cinema film is designed to save motion pictures from being lost if your digital-storage-medium-of-choice is rendered obsolete. It's designed for long-term archive storage, with your Hollywood blockbuster stored in a "human-readable" format that'll remain usable "well into the future." As such, the reels are loaded with dyes that will reportedly remain stable for "decades," but the company thinks will remain viable for over a century -- in stark contrast with the short life of your average hard-drive. It'll add a monochrome offering to the range later in the year, but if you want the color version now, your people will have to talk to Kodak's people, Mr. Producer.
Should you be asking yourself in the event you have the correct understanding as a way to start a home improvement venture, then it is best which you become knowledgeable on what you have to do. In relation to something like redesigning, you need to always be certain you understand up to you are able to so that you can boost your house to the best of capacity, read this article that will help you support on your own.
Get no-VOC paints for your home. Traditional paints have hazardous substances, but no-VOC paints are produced without the need of and so are environmentally friendly. They work just as well as conventional paints and price slightly a lot more.
As you may begin your house advancement task, take care not to demolish too quickly. It will always be smart to discover what is powering a drawer or wall surface before demolishing it. If power aspects were actually damaged, it may be expensive to produce the desired repairs.
You can create an air of quet in your home by deciding on lighter weight hues including paler crimson, eco-friendly or azure. Make use of cottons and linens as opposed to weightier textiles. Position some potpourri in your gourmet coffee table and light-weight a scented candlestick to make your very own piece of relaxing paradise.
Process great security tactics when attempting jobs to further improve your house. If operating in your kitchen area or somewhere else where fuel can be current, turn off the petrol for the timeframe. Construction function near gasoline facial lines is quite hazardous. Familiarize yourself with the position of the shutoff control device! You need to ensure you?re conscious of where by your gas lines are to make certain that you don?t unintentionally hit 1.
Natural hardwood kitchen cabinets are a great concept should you be considering shifting things in your kitchen. Timber kitchen cabinets are strong, to enable them to put up with a lot of use without exhibiting dress in. Kitchen cabinets are typically created from maple, cherry and oak. These may also be colored or discolored, it is easy to re-blemish them also.
A fast and uncomplicated means of increasing the outside the house physical appearance of your home is usually to put vivid plants and blooms. Be sure the plants you select go with the seasons. It?s also well worth the hard work to help keep your shrubs properly-manicured along with your lawn beautifully mowed and edged. Tiny upgrades such as that will instantaneously improve your home?s visual appeal.
To boost the look of your bathrooms, try providing them a brand new glaze. A glaze can perk up a dingy washroom, and can accept it from hunting used to sparkling and nice and clean. Installing new porcelain tile with your bathroom may be an extremely pricey proposition, but re-glazing the present ceramic tile work might cost no more than 1 or 2 one hundred bucks. Value of a home might be improved at a deal price by means of glazing.
A convenient tiny tip for boosting the overall look associated with a place is to purchase new handles due to its electric powered stores. Over time, wall socket handles fade away, alter hues, and get ruined they reveal badly on the wall surfaces. Should you replace the handles on the retailers it would include a great new appearance.
When creating a doing work partnership with contractors, get all things in writing such as a great contract, including all appropriate costs. The agreement also needs to checklist repayment ideas and operate work deadlines.
There are many revealing indicators to search for that indicate repairs are essential on the outdoor patio. Are there any unequal or chipped boards? Exist nails or screws adhering out? Are the boards dried up rotted?
Usually, refacing your units or replacing entrance doors and computer hardware will be just the thing your units need to have. Completely changing all of your current cabinets can cost a ton of money. However, the charge is significantly lowered if you choose to reface the drawer entry doors as an alternative. Your kitchen can look fresh and new so you won?t have to spend a fortune.
As was stated previously, too little information can make home improvements projects seem more challenging they then are. As you now hold the inspiration and data from this article, you should be more confident inside your abilities to produce a distinction in your house. Practical, no-nonsense details like this will make it easier for you to finish your selected project on time and in price range.
There is more content available on Tulsa plumbers look at Lavelle C. Kavaney?s site there is plenty of information not detailed on this page, visit Author?s website to uncover more.
Anytime someone is is terminated, he?s faced with the task of managing his 401k plan. Lots of people are normally clueless concerning how to proceed with the saved dollars, finding it hard to come to a decision whether to withdraw. Even though pulling out your funds could appear like an excellent choice, being out of a job and all, it turns out to be quite expensive for you in the long run. There?s the other alternative of resting the funds with your previous employer. Yet this is an awful choice on its own. Leaving your funds with your previous employer means that you will have minimal control over the plan.
A much better choice for most people would be to rollover their own 401k plans, either to the new company or into a pre-existing IRA. Transferring your funds is an ideal choice considering that, for some reason, you achieve the halfway between the expensive option of cashing out and the non-viable choice of resting the cash with the old company. Let?s study some of the advantages of rolling over 401k.
No matter what the rationale which resulted in you leaving your job, you definitely don?t want your previous employer to be in control of the plan. Not that companies may fleece you, but everybody wants to enjoy freedom over how to handle his funds. Resting the account with the employer leaves you with little command.
Transferring it to the Individual Retirement Account provides a wide variety of options for investing. IRA plans can have a huge number of investment possibilities from which to select. It?s not like the standard 401k account where there could be only a few investment options to consider. Yet it is important to remain vigilant in choosing your strategy of investment because sometimes, failing may imply wasting a lot of your funds.
Transferred accounts have lower fees. Once you cash out, there will be penalties to your money which are subtracted automatically, with an extra fine if the funds aren?t kept in the new plan within a given time period. These fees aren?t applied when it comes to rolling over. Plus, since you are free to pick whichever investment option you consider practical, you can select the alternative that?s not very costly.
Despite the fact that transferring 401k accounts is quite beneficial, you need to be cautious in choosing your rollover alternatives. You should look into seeking the advice of professionals that will help you make a sound choice. If you cannot pay for the cost of employing one, you may simply rollover your funds to the new company and then move on.
To have a safe future, we all need to prepare for the retirement. Finding help from others could be fairly rewarding. For additional information, check out: 401k Rollover Rules
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As shared internet hosting has the track record of simply being most inexpensive kind of webhosting, additionally it is the preferred web hosting sort worldwide. If we assess the main reason of shared hosting?s recognition, we occur to be familiar with some details as ?When freshly shaped enterprises are getting into in to World-wide-web community at relatively first of all time because of their new online resources, they are really not all set to pay out vast sum of money like an Internet hosting price. For that reason of the businessmen straight look at to the most economical type of website hosting products, plus they come to a decision to opt for shared internet hosting. Multiple web hosting service providers furnish their web hosting expert services with varying pricing and multiple established ups and configurations. The essential valid reason powering shared web hosting known as as shared web hosting mainly because it?s always determined by shared server assets, this suggests a person server is parted in to numerous partitions which happen to be chosen by a huge selection of internet websites.
All aspects depending on a server like running platform, disk area, random obtain memory (RAM), Central processing device (CPU) are utilised traditionally by all internet sites, shockingly even bandwidth and that?s a significant aspect from webmaster?s stage of vies can also be shared according to demanding desire of the distinct websites. Since it is mostly a most cost-effective type of internet hosting everybody can discover pricing alternate options in a short time. It?s also commonly second hand while in the kind of cPanel Internet hosting basically because it includes an user interface and that is implemented to manage e mail accounts, database, FTP, sub-domains website?s stats, fantastico and lots of other important functionality, these all attributes performs a significant purpose in reviewing your website?s effectiveness as well as route of development it is really accomplishing. cPanel Internet hosting may be a blessing for these site owners that has a decent and minimal price range for that conduction in their on-line functions.
Just before web hosting a web site the administrator needs to seem immediately following at other things which performs a pivotal position ahead of internet hosting a company for example, IP and DNS, exactly what are these? Let us take a look at all the pieces one after the other, IP it is really a web protocol, a novel quantity to distinguish a pc although conversation inside of a community. Domain Identify Registration(DNS) is seen as an interesting identify of the online site. Whenever you sign up the domain title implementing a registration firm, it can be bundled inside of the listing of sign-up, the server shops the DNS details and IP deal with information and facts, and personal other pcs about DNS registration and IP handle.
Until now now we have found all goodies of shared internet hosting but around the other aspect it?s got also some restrictions and downsides of its private. As site owners must reveal the servers with other site owners he has rather restricted entry and regulate on that specific server. If any certain internet site consumes excessive bandwidth offered to your shared server than it influences to other sites residing in the exact same server hens faces some accessibility situations. All online pages hosted on the shared server also must reveal just one IP tackle. Any malfunction done by other web pages may well have an impact on your website?s general performance because of to sharing comparable server. Reveal internet hosting constructed it plausible to provide a lot of small-scale enterprises on On line and additionally, it aided can potentially everyone to try and do advertising and marketing in their solutions and companies over the internet.
Website hosting can be quite a rather acquainted expression for world-wide-web developer but for your beginner it can be far more intricate to digest it in. In very simple terms, an persons and businesses place their online websites in the server in order to make it obtainable to your across the world viewers or client due to a web link, this is often referred to as internet hosting. Even though a variety of web sites are sharing identical server during this variety of internet hosting style, remarkably you can find no limitation on disk-space, bandwidth or other functions. The fundamental cause driving this is certainly, awfully effective and extremely configured servers are utilised by web hosting merchants for his or her buyers. A wide selection of web hosting suppliers furnished the two methods of minimal disc-space and endless disk-space to their valued clients. Shopper must prefer the choice thinking about his website?s will want.
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in his new book, Finance and the Good Society, just published by Princeton University Press.
Actually, the majority of the book that deals with finance per se seems reasonable ? but I can?t say for sure because I am not an economist. However, as field director of NCRP and a career nonprofit executive, I know about philanthropy, and the section of his book that focuses on philanthropy is a mess ? and on many levels.
Still, I would leave Shiller alone if his wrongheaded arguments remained buried in a thick economic treatise. But unfortunately he also propounds them in a recent New York Times op ed. So critique them I must.
In a nutshell, Shiller advocates for an expansion of the charitable tax deduction (as well as creating other types of tax breaks for charitable giving) with the goal of helping private charity to supplant government programs to the extent possible. Shiller lays out the essence of his argument in a single, awful passage on p. 203. He writes:
?The government could give special tax incentives for contributions to organizations designated as filling particular national needs, instead of just raising taxes to pay for government expenditures for those needs. This would be an alternative form of public financing of important activities. For example, in a time of recession, directed contribution tax incentives could be implemented that would encourage donations to organizations that would create jobs for the unemployed. Or, at time of rising inequality, there could be a special tax incentive for donations to organizations that embrace the concerns of the poor or foster a sense of community between rich and poor."
Does Professor Shiller actually believe that ?a thousand points of light? of private charity can replace government in addressing the massive, systemic problems of unemployment and income inequality in an advanced capitalist economy? Worse, he wants to drain money away from government and give it to private charity during one of the worst economic downturns in our nation?s history and at a time of massive government deficits. Shiller?s naive faith in the efficacy of private charitable service provision seems especially puzzling considering the (soft) Keynesianism he has advanced throughout his career ?and which he advanced in an earlier chapter of this very book by portraying Keynesian counter-cyclical fiscal policy as a proper antidote to recession.
?The tax breaks would be much bigger than the usual contribution deduction. They could take the form of a partial tax credit, rather than just a deduction, so that the gift-giving would be just as meaningful for people in the lower tax brackets.?
The current tax deduction already drains $40 billion per year from the U.S. Treasury ? and here Shiller wants to drain even more!
?The government could afford such high tax incentives if the specifications for the qualifying organizations were written so as to encourage them to carry out work that the government itself would have to do.?
?Encourage?? If lawmakers want to tackle unemployment, should they attack the problem directly through law ? or ?encourage? voluntary philanthropic efforts? What has a better chance of reducing massive unemployment: A well-financed and centrally directed government program backed by the force of law or a scattershot, under-financed, private effort?
As we scratch our heads wondering how somebody as smart as Shiller could be so na?ve, we finally figure out the key to the puzzle. For at the end of the passage, Shiller reveals that he is less interested in solving society?s problems than in empowering donors and making them feel good about themselves:
?Such tax breaks would allow people to put their own mark on these causes, giving their own personal direction to these programs while at the same time promoting the public-goods programs of the government. They would give the wealthy a sense of personal satisfaction and at the same time allow them to feel the gratitude of others for their contributions. Such a plan might receive far greater public acceptance than one to merely ?tax the rich and give to the poor.??
Hey, Professor Shiller, is the goal to reduce our nation?s staggering unemployment rate and historic levels of income inequality ? or is it to bolster Billionaire Man?s self-esteem? Also, why do you think plutocrats would craft better solutions to unemployment and income inequality than the people?s democratically elected representatives? Whom should we trust more to make public policy: President Obama or Jamie Dimon?
Finally, informing the entire passage is an assumption that bigger tax breaks necessarily incentivize charitable giving. Yet, the most authoritative, recent studies find little or no correlation as noted in this LA Times op ed, in Giving USA 2012 (p.35), a Congressional Research Service report, a study by the Tax Policy Center and analyses conducted by the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities and The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Shiller seems unaware of this research ? an oversight surprising for such a famously empirical scholar.
To summarize: With a real unemployment rate stuck above 10 percent, with Gilded-Age levels of income inequality getting worse each day, and with mounting government deficits, the very last thing lawmakers should do is drain federal government coffers and thereby lame the federal government?s ability to solve these mega-problems ? all in the hopes that ?encouraging? privately philanthropy would somehow solve these problems better. Only a strong federal government ? not a ?thousand points of light? of private charity ? can make the massive, coordinated investments in public education and? public infrastructure that can simultaneously jumpstart the economy and lay the groundwork for a greener future of shared prosperity. If that hurts the feelings of a handful of plutocrats, they can move to a different country (don?t let the door hit you on the way out, Donald).
But even if Shiller believes that private charitable service provision can somehow accomplish such gargantuan national tasks, the preponderance of empirical evidence indicates that increasing the tax breaks for charitable giving would not appreciably augment philanthropy?s means to do so.
America does not need a bigger nonprofit sector (as Shiller believes); American needs a better nonprofit sector, one that does not attempt the hopeless task of replacing government services but instead empowers marginalized communities so their voices, too, get heard in civic discourse and the corridors of power ? not just the voices of the 1% and too-big-to-fail corporations.
Sean Dobson is field director at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).
Moffitt Cancer Center researchers and colleagues identify PHF20, a regulator of gene P53Public release date: 24-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kim Polacek kim.polacek@moffitt.org 813-745-7408 H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
PHF20 found to directly interact with p53 by up-regulation of p53 at transcription and post-transcription levels
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have identified PHF20, a novel transcriptional factor, and clarified its role in maintaining the stability and transcription of p53, a gene that allows for both normal cell growth and tumor suppression. PHF20, the researchers found, plays a previously unknown and unique role in regulating p53.
When p53 is activated, it can mend DNA damage and eliminate cancer cells by binding to DNA. How p53 maintains its basal level and becomes activated remain elusive, but identifying transcription factor PHF20 and understanding its interaction with p53 and its induction of p53 protein stability and transcription has provided a clue.
Results of their research appeared in a recent issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology and also in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
"When a cell undergoes alterations that predispose it to become cancerous, p53 is activated to either mend the DNA damage or eliminate the affected cells, thereby preventing the development of tumors," said Jin Q. Cheng, Ph.D., M.D., a senior member of the Molecular Oncology Department and Molecular Oncology and Drug Discovery Program at Moffitt. "A number of mechanisms normally keep a regulatory strong check on p53 and allow for rapid activation. Still much is unknown about the mechanism of p53 regulation."
After identifying PHF20 as a novel transcriptional factor, the researchers set out in subsequent studies to probe the function of human PHF20 and its effect on p53. They found that PHF20 not only transcriptionally induces p53 but also directly interacts with and stabilizes p53. Akt negatively regulates these processes by interaction and phosphorylation of PHF20.
To determine whether the absence of PHF20 might regulate stress-induced p53 expression, the researchers "knocked down" PHF20. In doing so, they demonstrated that in the absence of PHF20, p53 was reduced. These findings established the role of PHF20 as a key regulator of p53 and additional link between Akt and p53.
According to Cheng, the identification of PHF20 as a regulator of p53 is significant because PHF20 "participates in simultaneous multiple interactions with other proteins and DNA" and serves to stabilize and induce p53.
"Regulation of p53 is critical to allow both normal cell growth and tumor suppression," explained Cheng. "However, further investigation is required to understand PHF20 tumor suppressor function and its possible involvement in human malignancy."
###
This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants (CA137041, CA132878, CA77429, ES007784, and ES007247), the Florida James & Esther King Biomedical Research Program (1KG02) and the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (RP110471).
About Moffitt Cancer Center
Located in Tampa, Moffitt is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a distinction that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research, its contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Since 1999, Moffitt has been listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer. With more than 4,200 employees, Moffitt has an economic impact on the state of nearly $2 billion. For more information, visit MOFFITT.org, and follow the Moffitt momentum on Facebook, twitter and YouTube.
Media release by Florida Science Communications
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Moffitt Cancer Center researchers and colleagues identify PHF20, a regulator of gene P53Public release date: 24-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kim Polacek kim.polacek@moffitt.org 813-745-7408 H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
PHF20 found to directly interact with p53 by up-regulation of p53 at transcription and post-transcription levels
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have identified PHF20, a novel transcriptional factor, and clarified its role in maintaining the stability and transcription of p53, a gene that allows for both normal cell growth and tumor suppression. PHF20, the researchers found, plays a previously unknown and unique role in regulating p53.
When p53 is activated, it can mend DNA damage and eliminate cancer cells by binding to DNA. How p53 maintains its basal level and becomes activated remain elusive, but identifying transcription factor PHF20 and understanding its interaction with p53 and its induction of p53 protein stability and transcription has provided a clue.
Results of their research appeared in a recent issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology and also in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
"When a cell undergoes alterations that predispose it to become cancerous, p53 is activated to either mend the DNA damage or eliminate the affected cells, thereby preventing the development of tumors," said Jin Q. Cheng, Ph.D., M.D., a senior member of the Molecular Oncology Department and Molecular Oncology and Drug Discovery Program at Moffitt. "A number of mechanisms normally keep a regulatory strong check on p53 and allow for rapid activation. Still much is unknown about the mechanism of p53 regulation."
After identifying PHF20 as a novel transcriptional factor, the researchers set out in subsequent studies to probe the function of human PHF20 and its effect on p53. They found that PHF20 not only transcriptionally induces p53 but also directly interacts with and stabilizes p53. Akt negatively regulates these processes by interaction and phosphorylation of PHF20.
To determine whether the absence of PHF20 might regulate stress-induced p53 expression, the researchers "knocked down" PHF20. In doing so, they demonstrated that in the absence of PHF20, p53 was reduced. These findings established the role of PHF20 as a key regulator of p53 and additional link between Akt and p53.
According to Cheng, the identification of PHF20 as a regulator of p53 is significant because PHF20 "participates in simultaneous multiple interactions with other proteins and DNA" and serves to stabilize and induce p53.
"Regulation of p53 is critical to allow both normal cell growth and tumor suppression," explained Cheng. "However, further investigation is required to understand PHF20 tumor suppressor function and its possible involvement in human malignancy."
###
This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants (CA137041, CA132878, CA77429, ES007784, and ES007247), the Florida James & Esther King Biomedical Research Program (1KG02) and the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (RP110471).
About Moffitt Cancer Center
Located in Tampa, Moffitt is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a distinction that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research, its contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Since 1999, Moffitt has been listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer. With more than 4,200 employees, Moffitt has an economic impact on the state of nearly $2 billion. For more information, visit MOFFITT.org, and follow the Moffitt momentum on Facebook, twitter and YouTube.
Media release by Florida Science Communications
[ | E-mail | 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.
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Public release date: 24-Aug-2012
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