When I heard the radio commercial attacking a candidate for the Los Angeles School Board, it didn?t make much of an impression?until I heard the tag line.
Funding for the ad, the announcer said, came primarily from ?Michael R. Bloomberg.?
What? The mayor of New York City putting money into a school board race on the other side of the continent?
Yes, indeed. Bloomberg has donated $1 million to the Coalition for School Reform, which backs many of the same school reforms?tougher teacher evaluations, more charter schools?that Bloomberg has pushed for in the city he governs.
Half a continent away, Bloomberg?s money also was at work in the political terrain: His pro-gun-control super PAC, Independence USA, spent at least $2.2 million in a special congressional election in Chicago, four times what the top five candidates' campaigns spent ? combined. And it paid off. His candidate, gun-control backer Robin Kelly defeated former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, once the odds-on favorite to succeed Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
This largesse follows on the heels of Bloomberg?s multi-million-dollar spending in a series of races last year, such as the California U.S. House of Representatives race between Democrat Gloria Negrete McLeod and incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe Baca. Independence USA put? $3.3 million into McLeod?s campaign to unseat Baca, a foe of gun-control measures.
Why does this story intrigue me? Because for much of last year, one of the obsessions of the liberal-progressive side of the political spectrum was the fear?bordering on terror?that a collection of ?millionaires and billionaires? would unleash a money bomb of staggering proportions that would overwhelm the political process, defeating President Obama and sending armies of legislators and executives into power.
Over here were the Koch brothers, with their think tanks and their political action committees, pushing their anti-environmental agenda; over there was Sheldon Adelson, with his millions keeping alive the presidential candidacy of Newt Gingrich. Feeding this fear was the worry over the Citizens United case, in which the Supreme Court had eviscerated a century of campaign finance regulation, permitting those millionaires and billionaires to make ?one man one vote? an anachronism, replaced by ?one million dollars, one million votes.?
In Michael Bloomberg, we have one of the wealthiest people in the world?with a net worth estimated as high as $25 billion?prepared to put at least some of his money where his political beliefs are. And if, as Bob Dylan says, "money doesn't talk, it swears,? Bloomberg has the potential to sound like a David Mamet play. Consider: Over the past decade, the National Rifle Association (with its subsidiaries and employees) has donated $2.8 million in campaign contributions. For Bloomberg, that?s not even tip money.
So, the question is: If you?re of a liberal or progressive persuasion, are you appalled by the presence of a single individual with the power to shape political races from one end of the country to the other? Or do you welcome the ?leveling of the playing field??
What?s at play here is the concept of what legal scholars call ?neutral principles??or, as it?s better known, ?What?s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.? If you think money has far too much power in politics, how do you feel when a ton of money is put on the table from ?your? side?
Remember, the first presidential candidate to reject public financing for both the primary and general election was...Barack Obama, in 2008. He did it, in spite of a flat pledge to the contrary, because his campaign saw that it could vastly outspend John McCain. And if that spending in part came from a flood of small contributions, which can hardly be said of Bloomberg?one individual with billions at his disposal.
A reasonable response to this is to raise the issue of unilateral disarmament?as long as the law permits the mega-rich to spend limitless funds on politics, our mega-rich would be foolish not to. Indeed, at least one well-known figure on the left has gone further, at least in his imagination. Back in 2009, Ralph Nader penned ?Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us??a 700-page fantasy in which Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, Barry Diller, Yoko Ono and a clutch of others pool together some $15 billion and reshape American politics into a progressive utopia.
If Michael Bloomberg decided to try this, he could hold the meeting in a phone booth.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are launching a major operation to take control of the strategic eastern city of Deir al-Zor after pushing out government forces from oil-producing areas around it, a rebel commander said.
If they seize the city, the rebels will control a whole province for the first time in the 22-month-old Syrian uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Ibrahim Abu Baker, leader of the powerful Al-Qadisiyah Brigade, said his rebel force, along with Islamists from Jabhat al-Nusra and Arab fighters, had surrounded Deir al-Zor on four sides in the build-up to the operation.
"The countryside is liberated, what is left of the province (of Deir al-Zor) is the city itself," he told Reuters from the province via Skype. "All brigades are taking part in this... We are in charge of the eastern side of the city."
Deir al-Zor extends northwards along the Euphrates River from the border with western Iraq, home to Sunni Muslim tribes which support the Syrian rebels.
Another rebel from Abu Baker's brigade said on Monday that fighters had started the first stage of the operation by targeting tank fire against three military targets inside the city and besieging the final army stronghold on its outskirts.
"We are now surrounding (the army's) '113 Brigade' which is the last point in the countryside before we are totally focused on the city," said the rebel fighter who used the name Abu Mazen. "When we liberate the city some brigades will stay to take care of it and the rest will march to Damascus".
Abu Baker said for months the rebel forces had only limited access to the city, which contains powerful security branches and a military airport.
But two weeks ago, with help from Jabhat al Nusra, they captured a security branch located near a strategic bridge on the Euphrates, opening the eastern bank to the rebels.
"After liberating the bridge we started sending aid and weapons to the fighters inside the city.. And also sending reinforcements," he said. "Now there is nothing to stop us from entering the city."
The Qadisiyah Brigade is one of the most influential in the province and has fought fierce battles with government forces.
It already controls wheat silos, a textile factory and a gas distribution centre. It is composed of eight battalions with fighters from across the country, Abu Baker said.
"FIGHTING FOR GOD"
The revolt against Assad has taken on a sectarian hue, pitting the mainly Sunni rebels against an army whose senior ranks are dominated by Assad's minority Alawites.
Like most brigades fighting in Syria, Abu Baker said his force is composed of Syrian Sunni fighters only. "We are Islamists, we went out just to support our religion. This is why we took to the streets. We respect other religions but we are Sunnis and we want a Sunni to rule not an Alawite."
Other Arab fighters from Iraq and Saudi Arabia are also fighting in the province, he said. "They are a separate faction, but our relation with them is good. We welcome anybody who wants to join us in jihad against Assad whether Saudis or Iraqis."
"...Our goal is one and we are fighting for God."
Rebels control the Syrian side of the Albu Kamal crossing into Deir al-Zor province, a key supply route from Iraq, but the Iraqi government has sometimes closed the crossing fearing a spillover of sectarian conflict into their country.
Iraq's government faces its own Sunni protests, with a series of demonstrations in the Western province of Anbar.
With protests in Iraq increasing, Syrian rebels are keeping a close eye on their neighbor and some are anticipating clashes with the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad.
"The Sunnis in Anbar are helping with weapons and ammunitions," Abu Baker said. "Their days (of fighting) will come soon and Inshallah (God willing) we will go to jihad with them. Those Sunnis are our brothers."
The leadership of the Bank of Korea in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 12, holds an emergency meeting on to check the financial market in the wake of North Korea's reported nuclear test. Earlier in the day, seismic activity was detected in North Korea's northeastern county of Kilju, which was believed to be the result of the North's third nuclear test.
By Jack Kim, David Chance and Louis Charbonneau, Reuters
Updated at 1:07 a.m. ET: SEOUL ??North Korea confirmed on Tuesday it has successfully conducted a third nuclear test, saying it used a miniaturized device that had a greater explosive force than previous tests, the North's KCNA official news agency said.
"It was confirmed that the nuclear test that was carried out at a high level in a safe and perfect manner using a miniaturized and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously did not pose any negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment," KCNA said.
Seismic activity measuring 4.9 magnitude was registered by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The epicenter of the seismic activity, which was only one kilometer below the Earth's surface, was close to the North's known nuclear test site.
"We've been informed by the South Koreans that there's been a (North Korean) nuclear test," a U.N. Security Council diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
An international nuclear test monitoring agency said the location of the seismic event was "roughly congruent with" 2006 and 2008 tests carried out by the reclusive state and had "clear explosion-like characteristics".
North Korea, which had been threatening a third nuclear test, had informed Beijing and Washington on Monday of plans to undertake a test, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
The isolated state, which is banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions from developing nuclear and missile technology, did not make any immediate comment.
North Korea is not prone to seismic activity and it may take hours or even days to determine officially whether a nuclear test had been conducted.
South Korea's defense ministry said the North Korean seismic event could be the result of a 6-7 kiloton or stronger nuclear blast. South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak called a national security council meeting for 0400 GMT.
North Korea successfully launched a long-range rocket in December in violation of U.N. resolutions that banned it from developing missile or nuclear technology after nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
Toru Hanai / Reuters
Japan Meteorological Agency's earthquake and tsunami observations division director Akira Nagai points at a graph of ground motion waveform data observed in the morning in Japan during a news conference in Tokyo Feb. 12. Seismic activities detected in North Korea may be the result of a nuclear test, Japan's top government spokesman said.
It announced plans for a third nuclear test in response to the sanctions imposed in January after the rocket launch, although satellite imagery indicated it has been readying its test site for more than a year.
The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on North Korea's apparent nuclear test at 9:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday, council diplomats said.
Diplomats had said previously that the United States, South Korea and European members would want the Security Council to adopt a resolution that would impose new sanctions on Pyongyang in the event of a third nuclear test in defiance of earlier council resolutions.
Getting approval on a council resolution, however, could take weeks.
Turbine opponents contend that exposure to low-frequency noise and vibrations from wind turbines ? in particular, inaudible infrasound ? can lead to sleep disorders, headaches, depression, anxiety and even blood pressure changes.
Photograph by: Photos.com , canada.com
OTTAWA - Health Canada says it has tweaked its methods for a study on the possible link between wind farms and the adverse health effects reported by those living near them.
Ottawa announced last summer it would conduct the study, a decision that was lauded by opponents of the towering turbines.
The department says revisions to the plan were informed by more than 950 comments submitted by residents during a public consultation.
It says changes were made to the assessment of infrasound and a questionnaire to be administered by Statistics Canada.
Turbine opponents contend that exposure to low-frequency noise and vibrations from wind turbines _ in particular, inaudible infrasound _ can lead to sleep disorders, headaches, depression, anxiety and even blood pressure changes.
The $1.8-million study will initially focus on residents in 2,000 dwellings near eight to 12 wind-turbine installations.
There are about 140 such land-based wind farms in Canada, most of them in Ontario and Quebec.
The study is being conducted by a team of more than 25 experts in acoustics, health assessment and medicine, including four international advisers.
>>during our blizzard coverage, you might have noticed someone was missing, our own dylan dreyer. it turns out she was in a little bit of a
car accident
on the way to hartford to cover the
storm
. she is doing okay and joins us on the phone. dylan, good morning. we are glad you are resting up.
>>good morning. first of all, i'm upset i'm missing out on
jelly beans
.
>>we'll save you some.
>>i was just heading to standard
storm
coverage, heading up to hartford. when we left new york, the roads were totally fine. it was starting to get a little slippery. all of the sudden, i started tweeting pictures, because the roads were awful. then, a typical weather-related accident, we spun around. we got hit. i smashed my head against the window. i've never had a concussion before. they are not fun.
>>you are mentioning you were not driving. you were tweeting.
someone else
was driving.
>>i was tweeting from the bad seat. the roads got bad real fast. it was just one of those situati situations. any
head injury
, you have to take precautions. i went to the e.r. and it was said to be a minor concussion.
>>what was more painful missing out on the big
storm
from your area or getting hit in the head?
>>it was brutal. i worked in boston and for the last year i was there, we didn't have a big
storm
. two years before that, we had
storm
after
storm
. it was one of those things, you are tweeting all the latest information and the
computer models
and you are making the forecast and when the big thing hits, i'm out of commission spending it in the e.r. looking at the computer made me dizzy. it was heartbreaking not to be a part of this
storm
. i hated that.
>>i think oscar there in the park was happy you got to take him in the snow.
>>we are glad you are doing better and we are
looking forward
to getting you back.
>>thank you so much. it was a nice little treat to enjoy a snowstorm and walk around it. i'm taking it easy.
>>snow angels
always make you feel better. i can tell you that from personal experience.
Feb. 11, 2013 ? In a study to be presented on February 15 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ?, in San Francisco, researchers will report findings that suggest that consistent physical activity and healthier lifestyle changes beginning in a woman's first trimester can prevent excessive weight gain in obese pregnant women (with a Body Mass Index greater than 30), helping to avoid preterm delivery, hypertension and gestational diabetes.
This randomized study, entitled Occurrence of pregnancy complications in women with BMI >25 submitted to a healthy lifestyle and eating habits program, should help physicians understand why it is important to offer more specific advice to obese women who are pregnant regarding the amount of weight they should gain during their pregnancy.
"Weight gain should be monitored related closely to the starting weight. If you start with normal BMI [defined by weight before pregnancy divided by height measured in squared meters] could increase 11-16 kilograms. But if you are obese, the expectation is that you should only gain 5-9 kilos -- more or less just the weight of the pregnancy" said Dr. Fabio Facchinetti, referencing the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in the United States.
Researchers from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia's mother-infant department teamed up with their colleagues in the clinical diagnostic medicine and public health department to create a Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) Program. The 33 women in the treatment group followed a regimen of 1500 kcal/day diet coupled with mild physical activity (30 minutes/day, 3 times/week). Twenty-eight women in the control group just received general advice from their OB/GYN. They only worked with single pregnancies and treatment began at 12 weeks.
Their research shows that of the obese subgroup of women [those in TLC group with BMI>30] who stuck with a proper diet and exercise, 77.8 percent were able to stay within the allotted weight gain limit, as opposed to only 30 percent from the control group. Additionally, the rate of, hypertension, preterm delivery and gestational diabetes was significantly lower in the TLC group.
"The diagnosis of gestational diabetes is done [by having the women drink] 75 grams of glucose and looking at the levels after one and two hours," said Facchinetti. "In our study, we found [after monitoring the glucose levels] that 57 percent of obese women in the non-treatment group had diabetes whereas in the treatment group, it was only 21 percent. This is important because [the glucose test] was done at 16-18 weeks and, even if negative, repeated at 24 weeks. In other words, if the first evaluation occurred just 12 weeks after the treatment began, the small amount of time was enough to correct the body's level of glucose."
The study was conducted by Fabio Facchinetti, Elisabetta Petrella, Lucrezia Pignatti and Isabella Neri of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Mother-Infant Department, Modena, Italy; and Marcella Malavolti, Valentina Bertarini and Nino Carlo Battistini of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Clinical Diagnostic Medicine and Public Health, Modena, Italy.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats in Congress are bringing victims of gun violence to his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, providing faces and voices to the carnage that he wants to curb with new firearms restrictions.
About two dozen victims, including a girl from Newtown, Connecticut - site of the December 14 school massacre that killed 20 children and six adults - will see a divided Congress, uncertain what, if any, new gun laws to pass.
And lawmakers will see victims who agree with Obama that bold action is needed now, including a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons and a limit on high-capacity ammunition clips, like those used in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
The move is part of a multi-faceted campaign by gun control advocates to apply public pressure on members of Congress to stand up to the gun-rights lobby, despite fears that it could cost some of them reelection.
"They should be worried about doing the right thing, not about getting reelected," said John Aresta, a gun violence victim who was invited by Democratic Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York to attend Obama's speech.
Aresta, the police chief of Malverne, New York, had a partner with the New York City Police Department shot to death while on duty in 1989, and an uncle killed in a 1993 mass shooting on a commuter train.
McCarthy's husband was killed in the same train attack.
"When people are killed, their names appear in the paper and then they are basically forgotten," Aresta said. "We don't forget them."
With 310 million firearms in the hands of U.S. civilians and more than 11,000 gun-related homicides in 2010, the United States is one of the world's most heavily armed nations and one of the most violent in terms of gun-related deaths.
"Enough is enough. People should have stepped up years ago," said Jim Tyrell of Rhode Island, whose sister was killed in a 2004 armed robbery. Since then, Tyrell has held an annual fundraiser for the study of nonviolence.
Tyrell and others impacted by gun violence will hold a news conference at the Capitol before Obama's speech.
"I understand gun owners have a right to own guns, but who needs to walk around with a semi-automatic?" Tyrell said.
The only gun-related proposal drawing bipartisan support is one requiring background checks for all gun buyers. Critics, including the National Rifle Association, reject tougher steps as violations of the Constitution's right to bear arms.
SHADOW OF NEWTOWN
No Republican has offered to bring a gun violence victim to the speech, said Democratic Representative Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, who helped organize the outreach effort.
"This should be a bipartisan issue," Langevin said. "We should all be concerned about guns in the wrong hands."
The victims will sit in the visitors' gallery of the House of Representatives, overlooking members of Congress as Obama delivers a speech that will spell out his priorities for the coming year, including tougher gun laws.
"It's important to have people there who have touched by gun violence," Langevin said. "They will be able to see members, and members will be able to look at the gallery and know they are there."
Langevin is one of at least a half dozen or so members of Congress who are also gun violence victims. Some lost family members and a few, like Langevin, were nearly killed.
At age 16, he was paralyzed when a bullet accidentally discharged from a police officer's gun and struck him in the neck.
"What happened to me shows that despite what the NRA says, having more guns isn't the answer to keeping our communities and children safe," Langevin said.
Langevin's guest at Obama's speech is Tyrell.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi invited a fourth-grade student from Newtown after the youngster wrote her. The girl didn't attend Sandy Hook Elementary School, where the shooting occurred but has since become a gun control advocate.
"After the shooting in my town, I started an online petition asking for help from the president and Congress to change the gun laws," the youngster wrote.
"What everyone in Newtown wants is for you to ban semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines," she wrote.
Natalie Hammond, a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School who was shot in the attack, will also attend Obama's speech as a guest of Democratic Representative Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut, her congresswoman.
Langevin and McCarthy, along with three other House Democrats, urged colleagues to invite victims in the wake of the Newtown massacre and after Obama vowed to make gun control a top priority.
"It is our hope that their presence in the House Gallery will send a strong message that it is long past time to act," the five Democrats wrote.
(Reporting By Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Paul Simao)
Today Monica welcomes Chris Anna Northrop, author of ?The Normal Bar. Then in studio Cynthia Ringo on behalf of CDM Mind and Body. Follow them on Facebook. Melissa Costello, author of the Kharma Chow, on her vegan diet to help you stay in shape. Lastly, Blood and Sands restaurant and lounge is in studio. For more info visit bloodandsandstl.com
Feb. 10, 2013 ? An international team of scientists led by King's College London has discovered 24 new genes that cause refractive errors and myopia (short-sightedness).
Myopia is a major cause of blindness and visual impairment worldwide, and currently there is no cure. These findings, published February 10 in the journal Nature Genetics, reveal genetic causes of the trait, which could lead to finding better treatments or ways of preventing the condition in the future.
Thirty per cent of Western populations and up to 80 per cent of Asian people suffer from myopia. During visual development in childhood and adolescence the eye grows in length, but in myopes it grows too long, and light entering the eye is then focused in front of the retina rather than on it. This results in a blurred image. This refractive error can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses or surgery. However, the eye remains longer, the retina is thinner, and this may lead to retinal detachment, glaucoma or macular degeneration, especially with higher degrees of myopia. Myopia is highly heritable, although up to now, little was known about the genetic background.
To find the genes responsible, researchers from Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States collaborated as the Consortium for Refraction and Myopia (CREAM). They analysed genetic and refractive error data of over 45,000 people from 32 different studies, and found 24 new genes for this trait, and confirmed two previously reported genes. Interestingly, the genes did not show significant differences between the European and Asian groups, despite the higher prevelance among Asian people. The new genes include those which function in brain and eye tissue signalling, the structure of the eye, and eye development. The genes lead to a high risk of myopia and carriers of the high-risk genes had a tenfold increased risk.
It was already known that environmental factors, such as reading, lack of outdoor exposure, and a higher level of education can increase the risk of myopia. The condition is more common in people living in urban areas. An unfavourable combination of genetic predisposition and environmental factors appears to be particularly risky for development of myopia. How these environmental factors affect the newly identified genes and cause myopia remains intriguing, and will be further investigated by the consortium.
Professor Chris Hammond from the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London, and lead author of the paper, said: 'We already knew that myopia -- or short-sightedness -- tends to run in families, but until now we knew little about the genetic causes. This study reveals for the first time a group of new genes that are associated with myopia and that carriers of some of these genes have a 10-fold increased risk of developing the condition.
'Currently myopia is corrected with glasses or contact lenses, but now we understand more about the genetic triggers for the condition we can begin to explore other ways to correct it or prevent progression. It is an extremely exciting step forward which could potentially lead to better treatments or prevention in the future for millions around the world.'
Currently, possibilities to reduce progression of myopia are very limited. While one drug, called atropine, may reduce progression, it dilates the pupil and causes problems with light sensitivity and difficulty with reading. New options are necessary. Chances are good that the insights gained from this study will provide openings for development of new strategies.
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While some may think you are just enjoying the numerous aspects of social network, the truth of one's attention may likely be tinged with a business focus.
What that doesnt mean is that you post only to leave a traceab...
The use of cultural media encompasses a wide array of on the web media forms. You will find a few social media formats that contain significant marketing potential for internet business while some may possibly only consider a social system like MySpace.
The reality of your interest may be tinged with a small business focus, while others may think you are simply enjoying the numerous facets of social network.
What that doesnt mean is that you submit in order to leave a traceable link back to your business site. Those who visit any social media site see through articles which are overtly aimed toward marketing. Most of the time social press customers see this as spam even when the social system owners don't. In the long run, you can lose reliability of you dont act as a significant factor in a social media marketing environment.
Social media may be offered in several different types. A peak is taken by lets at a number of them.
YouTube and other similar video sites These videos can be interesting, significant, off the cuff and often political in character. You can show your business in a light and allow individuals to be interested in learning your business and you.
MySpace and other social systems This kind of social media is popular since it brings together numerous aspects of social marketing and makes them accessible to the masses of people that may view social network being an online version of reality television.
Blogs This can be a form of social networking if only since it does allow involved exchanges between the blogger and the audience.
Boards This may permit you to have an individual voice ready to discuss matters of interest to the majority. Much like all social media you are able to supply a link to your internet site. You'll probably find community people following you to your internet website to learn more if you're viewed as a reliable source.
Podcasting This really is an audio stream that could allow a customer to know an individual message from you. This may have a pronounced impact in social marketing.
That isnt an exhaustive list, however it does give something for you to take into account being an addition to other marketing techniques you may have set up. Social media marketing allows you to have some fun while your message is shared by you and simply take your message to individuals.
I cant stress enough how essential it's to be real. The complete Internet community features a low threshold for supposed junk therefore be sure you dont use social media as simply another type of online advertising.
Here's an unpopular opinion, especially on TechCrunch: The Valley needs a new Valleywag. On any given day, beneath the hype cycle of startups?threatening to launch, then getting their VCs to blog/tweet about their launch threats, then pre-launching, then fueling PR/hype about their pre-launches, then putting up a special access code on select blogs, then their official launches,* some darker aspects surface.
While Sen. Marco Rubio leads immigration reform efforts, Rep. Paul Ryan has been the face of the GOP's less-popular fiscal battles. Lately, associates have hinted he may run for president after all.
By Liz Marlantes,?Correspondent / February 6, 2013
Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin arrives at the ceremonial swearing-in for President Obama at the US Capitol during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, in January.
Carolyn Kaster/AP/File
Enlarge
Is Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan losing the GOP's pre-presidential-primary battle ? otherwise known as the "invisible primary" ? to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio?
Skip to next paragraph Liz Marlantes
Correspondent
Liz Marlantes covers politics for the Monitor and is a regular contributor to the Monitor's political blog, DC Decoder.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Sure, 2016 is years away, and it seems awfully early to be speculating about who's likely to run, let alone who's likely to win. But it's also?true that this is a crucial time for those considering bids to try to build buzz, woo potential supporters and staffers, and ? maybe most important ? set themselves?apart from the field.
So far, this pre-primary stage has clearly been good for Senator Rubio. He's currently the face of the bipartisan immigration reform effort moving through Congress, which appears to have a good chance of passing. And as a young Hispanic in a party that is now openly discussing its need to improve its standing among Latino voters, he has a strong claim to be the kind of leader the party needs going forward. He's been winning glowing praise from conservative opinion-shapers such as talk-radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin ? and that's despite the fact that many of them don't particularly like his immigration plan.?
By contrast, Representative Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, has lately been most closely associated with 1) the losing?presidential ticket last November and 2) the ongoing fiscal battles on the Hill ? which have not exactly done wonders for the GOP's public image. True, Ryan was credited with negotiating the short-term debt-ceiling extension and with talking fellow House Republicans off the "fiscal cliff." But by voting for that deal (which, tellingly, Rubio voted against), he probably didn't win a lot of new fans among the party's conservative base.
Then there's the ? for lack of a better term ? coolness gap. This week, Rubio was the guest at a forum sponsored by BuzzFeed at a D.C. bar. He discussed, among other things, the relative merits of ?90s rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls (or The Notorious B.I.G.), noting at one point that there was a Tupac song that mentioned Bob Dole and Bill Clinton. (Actual quote: "I think Tupac's lyrics are probably more insightful, in my opinion ? with all apologies to Biggie fans.") He also casually threw in Pitbull's real name ("Armando").
Compare that with Ryan's appearance at a recent round-table discussion sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, which Politico called "a wonky affair," with Ryan spending "90 minutes in the budget weeds." Asked about how he dealt with last November's loss, Ryan said:?"Clearly I thought about the woulda-coulda-shouldas, but I already processed that thinking after the election and during the holidays." It's one thing to say he didn't want to dwell on the disappointment ? but it's hard to imagine too many presidential contenders passing up the opportunity to show some emotion by saying they'd already "processed" their thinking on that matter.
To make matters worse, on Tuesday, Politico posted a long piece speculating that the former vice-presidential nominee may opt not to run for president in 2016 after all, instead focusing on "amassing more power within Congress." The piece quoted a "conservative who recently spent time with Ryan" as saying that the congressman "has?no interest in the sheer grind of campaigning.? The source concluded bluntly: ?It?s hard to see him having ?what it takes.? ?
That's a dramatic turnaround for a politician who not long ago was hailed as the future of the Republican Party and, even before November's loss, was seen by many as a 2016 front-runner. (As recently as last October, he was the subject of a lengthy New York Times Magazine profile auspiciously titled "Paul Ryan Can't Lose.")
But in some ways, the prediction that Ryan may take a pass on a White House bid makes sense. For one thing, the House is not a typical springboard to the presidency (the last candidate to do it successfully was James Garfield, in 1880). And the idea that Ryan may not?enjoy the campaign trail fits with the "wonkish" personality often portrayed in the media ? of a guy who's obsessed with policy and less comfortable with the glad-handing and often-superficial demands of presidential politics.?
On the other hand, it's also possible that Ryan's interest in a 2016 run hasn't really dimmed much at all. He still has an active network of support ? including many former Romney backers who have expressed willingness to get behind a Ryan campaign. Also, few politicians can stay in the glare of the spotlight for long without taking some hits and showing some blemishes.
More to the point, in presidential politics ? as in life ? sometimes playing hard to get can be a very good way of making yourself more desirable. By letting Rubio assume the front-runner's mantle, and the scrutiny that goes with it, Ryan may then be able to gin up interest by professing disinterest ? all the while still keeping his options open.
BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraqi officials say assailants opened automatic fire on a police checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing two officers and wounding four.
A police officer says the attackers were in two speeding cars when they sprayed the checkpoint with machinegun fire early on Wednesday in the town of Musayyib, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Baghdad.
A hospital official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.
Security forces are frequently targeted by insurgents seeking to undermine government efforts to restore security after years of strife.
Despite a significant drop in violence since the height of insurgency several years ago, militants still launch lethal attacks almost daily.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) ? The verdict against a top leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party was being read Tuesday as the group enforced a general strike to protest his prosecution and others on charges of crimes against humanity during the nation's 1971 independence war.
Judge Obaidul Hasan was reading out the 131-page judgment against Abdul Quader Mollah at a crowded court in central Dhaka, ATN News and Ekattar Television reported.
Mollah and five other leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party have been on trial before Dhaka's International Crimes Tribunal. They have been accused of committing atrocities during the nine-month war against Pakistan more than 40 years ago.
Jamaat-e-Islami ? a key partner in a former Bangladeshi government ? says the charges are politically motivated. Authorities deny the claim.
The strike shut down schools and shops and halted most traffic in Dhaka. Jamaat supporters exploded homemade bombs and clashed with police in parts of the capital, leaving several people injured, ATN News said.
Jamaat enforced a similar protest last week. Strikes are a common opposition tactic in Bangladesh to highlight opposition demands.
Jamaat campaigned against Bangladesh's independence war and stands accused of forming several groups to help the Pakistani troops in killing, rape and arson. Until it gained independence in 1971, Bangladesh was the eastern wing of Pakistan, and Bangladesh says Pakistani troops aided by local collaborators killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women.
Mollah has been tried on six counts, including playing a role in the killing of 381 unarmed civilians, the prosecution says. He denies the charges.
Last month, the tribunal sentenced former party member Abul Kalam Azad to death in the first war-crimes trial verdict.
International human rights groups have raised questions about the conduct of the tribunals, including the disappearance of a defense witness outside the courthouse gates.
Jamaat-e-Islami was a key partner in the former government of Khaleda Zia, a longtime political rival of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Zia has called the tribunal a farce, while Hasina has urged Zia to stop backing those she says fought against independence.
Police charged a fifth grade student in Alexandria, Va., with brandishing a weapon during a bus ride home from Douglas MacArthur Elementary School on Monday.
The 10-year-old student apparently showed a phony weapon to?his peers?during the afternoon bus ride, which prompted an immediate investigation by school officials, Alexandria police said.
Alexandria police and school administrators?stopped the student for questioning as he entered the school building on Tuesday morning. Officers discovered a toy replica weapon with an orange tip in the child's backpack, police said, and the student was immediately taken into custody. No students were harmed during the incident.
"The safety of our students is always our first concern,? said Superintendent Morton Sherman. ?We appreciate the quick response and action by our police. The student is suspended from school. The school division will complete its investigation in cooperation with the police as we consider further disciplinary action, including expulsion. As always, we encourage direct communication from parents, including personal phone calls."
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) ? The City Council voted Monday to change the names of three parks that honor the Confederacy and two of its notable members.
The council passed a resolution to immediately rename Confederate Park and Jefferson Davis Park in downtown Memphis and Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, which lies just a few miles away. The vote was 9-0 with three members sitting out the vote.
The resolution changes the name of Confederate Park to Memphis Park; Jefferson Davis Park to Mississippi River Park; and Nathan Bedford Forrest Park to Health Sciences Park.
The name changes upset those who believe the council is trying to change history by downplaying the significance of the Confederacy's struggle against Union forces. It was applauded by at least one civil rights activist.
The council already had been considering changing the name of the park honoring Forrest, a Confederate cavalryman and former slave trader who was a member of the early Ku Klux Klan. He also is accused of massacring dozens of black Union soldiers who tried to surrender at the battle at Fort Pillow in 1864. Davis was president of the Confederacy.
The idea for the resolution to change the name of all three parks emerged Monday morning, after council members learned of a state House bill that would prevent parks named after historical military figures from being renamed.
The bill was seen by the council as unnecessary interference by state lawmakers. Because a House vote is likely several days away, the council voted on a resolution to remove the military names and go with more generic ones, giving them time to decide on new park names without worrying about state action.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans and others in Memphis oppose the name changes, saying that Forrest is a misunderstood figure who was not a racist but a businessman who treated his slaves humanely and resigned from the Klan.
"We should cherish the history that we have, we shouldn't cover it up and try to bury it or hide it," said Becky Muska, who spoke against the name change.
Muska, who is white, acknowledges that Memphis is a racially divided city. So does Kennith Van Buren, a civil rights advocate who supports the name changes.
"These three parks have a racial history that should be erased," said Van Buren, who is black. "These parks are an embarrassment to our city."
Forrest Park, which is the burial place of the former Memphis resident, has long been a source of argument in Memphis. The shady, city block-sized park features a large statue of the Confederate lieutenant general, who won several key Civil War battles.
The park is located a few miles from the old Lorraine Hotel, where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them. And its snap split the world in two.
It is early May. Karou has left Earth for Eretz, where the chimaera lie defeated and broken by the seraphim. Her friend Zuzana, and Zuzana's boyfriend Mik, still remain in Prague. The supernatural events that occurred on the Charles Bridge have caught the attention of the media worldwide. Zuzana and Mik are chatting while a news reporter interviews Kaz about Karou, known to the world as "the Girl on the Bridge". In Uzbekistan, Akiva enters a portal that will take him back home, to Eretz. After making it to the other side, he relentlessly searches for Karou through a ravaged land. He eventually realizes that she must have fled to her childhood home - the Adelphas Mountains. In the mountains, Akiva examines the caves that once housed the members of the Kirin tribe. He finds one of the thuribles used by chimaera soldiers to store the souls of revenants lying on a table. Attached to the vessel is a slip of paper with one word written on it: Karou.
Leaving the Adelphas Mountains behind, Akiva heads to Cape Armasin, where he practices his fighting skills at a training theater. Unexpectedly, he is confronted by his two half-siblings, Hazael and Liraz. Meanwhile, Zuzana grows increasingly worried at her friend's absence, sending e-mails to her that end up unreplied. Akiva spends a month patrolling, training, practicing magic, interacting with his half-siblings - anything to keep his guilt and despair from overwhelming him. His routine is interrupted one day, when he and his father discover that someone has been killing seraphim.
Back on Earth, Mik turns his girlfriend's attention to the news on the television screen. Elsewhere, a seraph named Bethena arrives at a small chimaera village with seven other seraphim. They have been sent by Emperor Joram to exterminate the villagers, as part of Joram's plan to wipe out the remaining chimaera settlements left in Eretz. The chimaera, however, knew that the seraphim were coming and went into hiding under the aqueduct. The seraphim become aware of this as they follow the chimaera's tracks. But the villagers aren't the only things under the aqueduct, as the eight seraphim have the misfortune to find out...
The news that catches Zuzana's and Mik's attention is revealed to be about a phantom girl who has been stealing teeth from the wildlife dioramas of museums around the world. Karou finally replies to Zuzana, assuring her friend that she is still alive though her whereabouts are cryptically written.
In her workshop, Karou has a brief dream about Akiva. She wakes up, startled, and continues stringing together some teeth, bones, and iron filings reserved for the body of a soldier named Amzallag. As it turns out, Karou has taken up Brimstone's former role as "resurrectionist" of the chimaera. While she has the ability to magically create new bodies out of animal teeth and minerals, she still has a lot to learn before reaching Brimstone's level. This is demonstrated when she accidentally misplaces one of the teeth for Amzallag's body.
Once upon a time, the sky knew the weight of angel armies on the move, and the wind blew infernal with the fire of their wings.
This is where our story begins. New generations of soldiers. So what will the outcome be? Never ending war, or perhaps...peace...? Lets us begin writing our tale~
This is the map of Eretz~
Code: Select all
[right][color=#YOUR HEX CODE][size=200]FULL NAME HERE[/color][/size] ? ? ? ? ? ? [img]DIRECT IMAGE URL HERE. Real life Photos Please.[/img][/right]
? ? ? ? ? ? [color=#YOUR HEX CODE][b]Race[/b][/color] ? ? ? ? ? ? [size=90]List if chimaera or seraphim. If chimaera put what tribe, or what animal attributes your character possesses~![/size]
? ? ? ? ? ? [color=#YOUR HEX CODE][b]Age[/b][/color] ? ? ? ? ? ? [size=90]Put age here. Age has no range.[/size]
[size=150][color=#YOUR HEX CODE][b]How do you feel about the war?[/b][/color][/size] [size=90]Put your characters thoughts on war here.[/size]
? ? ? ? ? ? [color=#YOUR HEX CODE][b]Job[/b][/color] ? ? ? ? ? ? [size=90]Put job here. Depends on race, if seraphim choose between soldiers, dominion, or citizen. If chimaera choose between rebel, slave, soldier, or in hiding. [/size]
? ? ? ? ? ? [size=150][color=#YOUR HEX CODE][b]Theme Song[/b][/color][/size] ? ? ? ? ? ? [size=90][url=Link to song]Name of Song by Author of Song[/url][/size]
Chimaera Characters~ Allaiska Lell
Seraphim Characters~
+No random killing please. If you would like to kill someones character please converse with the person who controls the character please! +Read everything please. I know it seems like alot but it is all needed information, so please read it. +NO TEXT TALK OR ONE LINERS!! Please this is a literate RP so post at least three lines. I understand you have writers block sometimes, so I will be flexible with three lines minimum. +This is a original RP based off the two books, which there are links to, so make original characters please~ +Now the ever cliche` HAVE FUN~~~
Betable, a gaming platform that enables developers to use real money instead of virtual currencies, just signed one of Canada’s largest independent developers Frima Studio. Frima, which has about 350 people and is based in Quebec, is opening up a real-money gaming division called 3OAK. Instead of going their own way with acquiring gambling licenses in different countries, Frima said they chose Betable to fast-track the process. Betable is a real-money gaming platform that already has a gambling license in the U.K., so that third-party developers can incorporate real bets in their games without having to go through the legal hassle of getting their own permits. “They’ve already secured legality, which is a blessing to us,” said Mikael Lefebvre, who is a director of Frima’s 3OAK studios. “It makes our life much easier.” This is a big year for Betable as the company is trying to get ahead of a wave of developers moving into social casino style games like slots and Slingo. At the same time, a difficult economic recovery has made more domestic states at least consider loosening online gambling regulations to improve their finances. Zynga recently made its first moves toward enabling real-money gaming by applying for “preliminary finding of suitability” from the Nevada Gaming Control Board and partnering with bwin.party to offer real-money bets in the U.K. While Betable hasn’t said how many games or developers it has signed or how many players it reaches so far, the company has disclosed partnerships with developers like Big Fish Games, Digital Chocolate, SGN, Slingo and Mandala. Big Fish, in particular, is a noteworthy client because their game Big Fish Casino is consistently one of the top 20 grossing iPhone games in the U.S. Betable’s belief is that the casual gaming market is going to change over the next 18-24 months as some developers choose to pick up real-money betting and suddenly acquire a host of new “whales” or lucrative players. Those developers will suddenly be able to spend more on marketing, boosting costs for other similar game makers. At the same time, real-money gaming creates its own unique set of challenges. Managing a game economy with real money is different from one with virtual currencies, where the developer needs to tweak currency sources and sinks properly to avoid inflation or deflation. Betable also says that it legally needs to manage the direct relationship with a game’s real-money players.
Researchers discover mutations linked to relapse of childhood leukemiaPublic release date: 3-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Christopher Rucas Christopher.Rucas@nyumc.org 212-404-3525 NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine
Finding emerged from 100 billion RNA nucleotides in 10 children with cancer
After an intensive three-year hunt through the genome, medical researchers have pinpointed mutations that leads to drug resistance and relapse in the most common type of childhood cancerthe first time anyone has linked the disease's reemergence to specific genetic anomalies.
The discovery, co-lead by William L. Carroll, MD, director of NYU Langone Medical Center's Cancer Institute, is reported in a study published online February 3, 2013, in Nature Genetics.
"There has been no progress in curing children who relapse, in spite of giving them very high doses of chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants," said Dr. Carroll.
The discovery suggests how scientists may be able to thwart a dangerous form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a rapidly progressing blood-borne cancer that strikes about 6,000 people in the United States every year and accounts for more than one in four pediatric cancers. Eventually, such information could help doctors detect the early emergence of chemotherapy-resistant leukemia cells in patients and switch to a different treatment strategy before the disease can fully reassert itself.
In acute lymphoblastic leukemia, abbreviated ALL, the body's bone marrow produces an abnormally large number of lymphocytes, or white blood cells. Improved treatments have increased the overall cure rate to roughly 80 percent. But Dr. Carroll says the prognosis is especially dire for some 20 percent of patients who relapse.
Medical researchers have suspected that the reemergence of disease could be due to drug resistance, but previous efforts had not uncovered any definitive pathway. For the new study, led by Dr. Carroll and graduate student Julia Meyer, researchers at five U.S. institutions spent three years analyzing multiple bone marrow samples from pediatric ALL patients for more clues to the disease's progression.
With the help of the Children's Oncology Group, a multi-institutional clinical trials consortium supported by the National Cancer Institute, the researchers analyzed the entire transcriptomeor the full sequence of RNA from 10 children with pediatric B lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common subtype of ALL. RNA is an essential intermediary in the cellular process that uses DNA blueprints to assemble specific proteins, thus a leukemia transcriptome gives researchers a view of all active genes within the cancerous cells.
For each patient, the team pieced together a complete sequence of RNA extracted from the bone marrow at three time points: at diagnosis, during remission, and upon relapse some months or years later. All told, the project required the researchers to sequence, or spell out, 100 billion letters of RNA. By comparing the before and after sequences, the team found that each patient had acquired between one and six mutations that changed the genetic code over the course of the disease. In some cases researchers were able to detect these mutations in a very small subset (0.01 percent) of the tissue samples at diagnosis so that these cells likely expanded because their drug resistant properties provided the leukemia cells with a survival advantage.
In all, the team documented 20 relapse-specific mutationsnone of which had previously been implicated in ALL recurrences. Intriguingly, two patients harbored a mutation in the same gene, NT5C2, which encodes a protein that normally regulates some building blocks used to construct DNA but also can degrade an important class of drugs called purine analogues used in ALL therapy.
When the researchers fully sequenced the NT5C2 gene in 61 other cases in which pediatric ALL patients had relapsed, they found five more mutations that altered the gene's coding region. Further experiments suggested that these NT5C2 mutations all increased the protein's enzymatic activity, making the cancer cells more resistant to a chemotherapy treatment designed to force the cells to kill themselves. All seven patients with NT5C2 mutations relapsed within three years of the initial diagnosisan early, particularly hard-to-treat re-emergence likely mediated by the drug resistance.
Armed with the new knowledge, Dr. Carroll says doctors may be better equipped to identify patients likely to relapse. "We plan to test the feasibility of screening patients during therapy using sophisticated sequencing technology to pick up low-level mutations in NT5C2 and other genes indicating that a mutant clone is growing," he says. His team is researching whether that advance warning could allow doctors to administer separate drugs to beat back the cancer cells, and is also working on a strategy to directly inhibit the mutant enzyme.
###
The study co-authors include Julia A. Meyer, Jinhua Wang, Laura A. Hogan, Smita Dandekar, Zuojian Tang, Jiri Zavadil, Timothy Cardozo, Elizabeth Raetz, and Debra J. Morrison at NYU Langone Medical Center; Jun J. Yang and William E. Evans at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; Jay P. Patel and Ross L. Levine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Paul Zumbo, Sheng Li, and Christopher E. Mason at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University; and Stephen. P. Hunger at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, with additional support from the American Society of Hematology and St. Baldrick's Foundation.
About the NYU Cancer Institute:
The research mission of the NYU Cancer Institute is to discover the origins of cancer and use that knowledge to eradicate the personal and societal burden of cancer in our community and around the world. Fifteen research programs are organized as scientific research programs, focused on the fundamental biology of cancer in general, and as disease-specific research programs centered on individual types of cancer, such as breast or lung cancer. Translational research, a hallmark of the institute, is finding new ways to integrate the extraordinary growth and understanding made in basic research with the ever-growing need for the development of new therapies and approaches in the clinic to a variety of cancers that have remained difficult to treat. To help translate discovery into clinical practice, the NYU Cancer Institute has embarked on five programs that integrate efforts in laboratory investigation and clinical care: cancer targets and novel therapeutics, community and environment, integrative health, molecular oncology/cancer genomics, and immune- and stem-cell-based therapies.
About NYU Langone Medical Center:
NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class, patient-centered, integrated, academic medical center, is one of the nation's premier centers for excellence in clinical care, biomedical research and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is composed of four hospitals Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute care facility; the Hospital for Joint Diseases, one of only five hospitals in the nation dedicated to orthopaedics and rheumatology; Hassenfeld Pediatric Center, a comprehensive pediatric hospital supporting a full array of children's health services; and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, the world's first university-affiliated facility devoted entirely to rehabilitation medicine plus NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history. The medical center's tri-fold mission to serve, teach and discover is achieved 365 days a year through the seamless integration of a culture devoted to excellence in patient care, education and research. For more information, go to www.NYULMC.org.
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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.
Researchers discover mutations linked to relapse of childhood leukemiaPublic release date: 3-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Christopher Rucas Christopher.Rucas@nyumc.org 212-404-3525 NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine
Finding emerged from 100 billion RNA nucleotides in 10 children with cancer
After an intensive three-year hunt through the genome, medical researchers have pinpointed mutations that leads to drug resistance and relapse in the most common type of childhood cancerthe first time anyone has linked the disease's reemergence to specific genetic anomalies.
The discovery, co-lead by William L. Carroll, MD, director of NYU Langone Medical Center's Cancer Institute, is reported in a study published online February 3, 2013, in Nature Genetics.
"There has been no progress in curing children who relapse, in spite of giving them very high doses of chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants," said Dr. Carroll.
The discovery suggests how scientists may be able to thwart a dangerous form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a rapidly progressing blood-borne cancer that strikes about 6,000 people in the United States every year and accounts for more than one in four pediatric cancers. Eventually, such information could help doctors detect the early emergence of chemotherapy-resistant leukemia cells in patients and switch to a different treatment strategy before the disease can fully reassert itself.
In acute lymphoblastic leukemia, abbreviated ALL, the body's bone marrow produces an abnormally large number of lymphocytes, or white blood cells. Improved treatments have increased the overall cure rate to roughly 80 percent. But Dr. Carroll says the prognosis is especially dire for some 20 percent of patients who relapse.
Medical researchers have suspected that the reemergence of disease could be due to drug resistance, but previous efforts had not uncovered any definitive pathway. For the new study, led by Dr. Carroll and graduate student Julia Meyer, researchers at five U.S. institutions spent three years analyzing multiple bone marrow samples from pediatric ALL patients for more clues to the disease's progression.
With the help of the Children's Oncology Group, a multi-institutional clinical trials consortium supported by the National Cancer Institute, the researchers analyzed the entire transcriptomeor the full sequence of RNA from 10 children with pediatric B lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common subtype of ALL. RNA is an essential intermediary in the cellular process that uses DNA blueprints to assemble specific proteins, thus a leukemia transcriptome gives researchers a view of all active genes within the cancerous cells.
For each patient, the team pieced together a complete sequence of RNA extracted from the bone marrow at three time points: at diagnosis, during remission, and upon relapse some months or years later. All told, the project required the researchers to sequence, or spell out, 100 billion letters of RNA. By comparing the before and after sequences, the team found that each patient had acquired between one and six mutations that changed the genetic code over the course of the disease. In some cases researchers were able to detect these mutations in a very small subset (0.01 percent) of the tissue samples at diagnosis so that these cells likely expanded because their drug resistant properties provided the leukemia cells with a survival advantage.
In all, the team documented 20 relapse-specific mutationsnone of which had previously been implicated in ALL recurrences. Intriguingly, two patients harbored a mutation in the same gene, NT5C2, which encodes a protein that normally regulates some building blocks used to construct DNA but also can degrade an important class of drugs called purine analogues used in ALL therapy.
When the researchers fully sequenced the NT5C2 gene in 61 other cases in which pediatric ALL patients had relapsed, they found five more mutations that altered the gene's coding region. Further experiments suggested that these NT5C2 mutations all increased the protein's enzymatic activity, making the cancer cells more resistant to a chemotherapy treatment designed to force the cells to kill themselves. All seven patients with NT5C2 mutations relapsed within three years of the initial diagnosisan early, particularly hard-to-treat re-emergence likely mediated by the drug resistance.
Armed with the new knowledge, Dr. Carroll says doctors may be better equipped to identify patients likely to relapse. "We plan to test the feasibility of screening patients during therapy using sophisticated sequencing technology to pick up low-level mutations in NT5C2 and other genes indicating that a mutant clone is growing," he says. His team is researching whether that advance warning could allow doctors to administer separate drugs to beat back the cancer cells, and is also working on a strategy to directly inhibit the mutant enzyme.
###
The study co-authors include Julia A. Meyer, Jinhua Wang, Laura A. Hogan, Smita Dandekar, Zuojian Tang, Jiri Zavadil, Timothy Cardozo, Elizabeth Raetz, and Debra J. Morrison at NYU Langone Medical Center; Jun J. Yang and William E. Evans at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; Jay P. Patel and Ross L. Levine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Paul Zumbo, Sheng Li, and Christopher E. Mason at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University; and Stephen. P. Hunger at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, with additional support from the American Society of Hematology and St. Baldrick's Foundation.
About the NYU Cancer Institute:
The research mission of the NYU Cancer Institute is to discover the origins of cancer and use that knowledge to eradicate the personal and societal burden of cancer in our community and around the world. Fifteen research programs are organized as scientific research programs, focused on the fundamental biology of cancer in general, and as disease-specific research programs centered on individual types of cancer, such as breast or lung cancer. Translational research, a hallmark of the institute, is finding new ways to integrate the extraordinary growth and understanding made in basic research with the ever-growing need for the development of new therapies and approaches in the clinic to a variety of cancers that have remained difficult to treat. To help translate discovery into clinical practice, the NYU Cancer Institute has embarked on five programs that integrate efforts in laboratory investigation and clinical care: cancer targets and novel therapeutics, community and environment, integrative health, molecular oncology/cancer genomics, and immune- and stem-cell-based therapies.
About NYU Langone Medical Center:
NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class, patient-centered, integrated, academic medical center, is one of the nation's premier centers for excellence in clinical care, biomedical research and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is composed of four hospitals Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute care facility; the Hospital for Joint Diseases, one of only five hospitals in the nation dedicated to orthopaedics and rheumatology; Hassenfeld Pediatric Center, a comprehensive pediatric hospital supporting a full array of children's health services; and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, the world's first university-affiliated facility devoted entirely to rehabilitation medicine plus NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history. The medical center's tri-fold mission to serve, teach and discover is achieved 365 days a year through the seamless integration of a culture devoted to excellence in patient care, education and research. For more information, go to www.NYULMC.org.
[ | 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.
Here's an unpopular opinion, especially 
Betable, a gaming platform that enables developers to use real money instead of virtual currencies, just signed one of Canada’s largest independent developers Frima Studio. Frima, which has about 350 people and is based in Quebec, is opening up a real-money gaming division called 3OAK. Instead of going their own way with acquiring gambling licenses in different countries, Frima said they chose Betable to fast-track the process. Betable is a real-money gaming platform that already has a gambling license in the U.K., so that third-party developers can incorporate real bets in their games without having to go through the legal hassle of getting their own permits. “They’ve already secured legality, which is a blessing to us,” said Mikael Lefebvre, who is a director of Frima’s 3OAK studios. “It makes our life much easier.” This is a big year for Betable as the company is trying to get ahead of a wave of developers moving into social casino style games like slots and Slingo. At the same time, a difficult economic recovery has made more domestic states at least consider loosening online gambling regulations to improve their finances. Zynga recently made its first moves toward enabling real-money gaming by applying for “preliminary finding of suitability” from the Nevada Gaming Control Board and partnering with bwin.party to offer real-money bets in the U.K. While Betable hasn’t said how many games or developers it has signed or how many players it reaches so far, the company has disclosed partnerships with developers like Big Fish Games, Digital Chocolate, SGN, Slingo and Mandala. Big Fish, in particular, is a noteworthy client because their game Big Fish Casino is consistently one of the top 20 grossing iPhone games in the U.S. Betable’s belief is that the casual gaming market is going to change over the next 18-24 months as some developers choose to pick up real-money betting and suddenly acquire a host of new “whales” or lucrative players. Those developers will suddenly be able to spend more on marketing, boosting costs for other similar game makers. At the same time, real-money gaming creates its own unique set of challenges. Managing a game economy with real money is different from one with virtual currencies, where the developer needs to tweak currency sources and sinks properly to avoid inflation or deflation. Betable also says that it legally needs to manage the direct relationship with a game’s real-money players.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 3-Feb-2013
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