Thursday, January 31, 2013

Aging cells lose their grip on DNA rogues

Jan. 30, 2013 ? Transposable elements are mobile strands of DNA that insert themselves into chromosomes with mostly harmful consequences. Cells try to keep them locked down, but in a new study, Brown University researchers report that aging cells lose their ability to maintain this control. The result may be a further decline in the health of senescent cells and of the aging bodies they compose.

Even in our DNA there is no refuge from rogues that prey on the elderly. Parasitic strands of genetic material called transposable elements -- transposons -- lurk in our chromosomes, poised to wreak genomic havoc. Cells have evolved ways to defend themselves, but in a new study, Brown University researchers describe how cells lose this ability as they age, possibly resulting in a decline in their function and health.

Barbara McClintock, awarded the Nobel Prize in 1983, made the original discovery of transposons in maize. Since then scientists have found cases in which the chaos they bring can have long-term benefits by increasing genetic diversity in organisms, but in most cases the chaos degrades cell function, such as by disrupting useful genes.

"The cell really is trying to keep these things quiet and keep these things repressed in its genome," said John Sedivy, professor of medical science in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry and senior author of the new study published online in the journal Aging Cell. "We seem to be barely winning this high-stakes warfare, given that these molecular parasites make up over 40 percent of our genomes."

Cells try to clamp down on transposons by winding and packing transposon-rich regions of the genome around little balls of protein called nucleosomes. This confining arrangement is called heterochromatin, and the DNA that is trapped in such a tight heterochromatin prison cannot be transcribed and expressed.

What the research revealed, however, is that carefully maintaining a heterochromatin prison system is a younger cell's game.

"It's very clear that chromatin changes profoundly with aging," Sedivy said.

"We seem to be barely winning this high-stakes warfare, given that these molecular parasites make up over 40 percent of our genomes." Credit: David Orenstein/Brown UniversityWhat Sedivy, lead author Marco De Cecco, and their co-authors measured in several experiments was that young and spry cells distinctly maintain open "euchromatin" formations in regions where essential genes are located and closed "heterochromatin" formations around areas with active transposable elements and few desirable genes.

The distinction appeared to become worn in aging, or senescent, cells. In the observations, the chromatin that once was open tended to become more closed and the chromatin that was once closed, tended to become more open.

Working with computational biologist Nicola Neretti, assistant professor of biology, Sedivy and De Cecco conducted a genome-wide analysis of these differences. The team extracted and then sequenced DNA from young and senescent human fibroblast cells using a technique called FAIRE. Essentially FAIRE uses chemicals such as formaldehyde to separate out DNA that is loosely packed in euchromatin from DNA that is more tightly wound up in heterochromatin.

Then the scientists compared the DNA that was coming from open or closed chromatin formations in the young and senescent cells.

"Given that our genomes contain well over a million copies of transposable elements and that they are very similar to one another, tracking all this mayhem is no easy matter," Neretti said. "Computationally speaking, it's a nightmare."

But Sedivy said results were well worth the effort. In their study not only did they find that the chromatin lockdown was breaking down, but also that the newly freed transposons were taking full advantage.

"I was really surprised to see that first of all these transposable elements start to get expressed and that they actually start moving around [to other regions in the genome]," Sedivy said. "That's really an amazing thing."

How bad and how to stop it?

What's not clear from the study is the relevance of the damage that the cells suffer from the transposable element jailbreak and resulting genetic crime spree. That depends on the timing, which Sedivy's team measured only in approximate terms.

"Is the transposition really bad for the organism or is it something that happens so late that by that point the organism has already accumulated so much age-associated damage?" he asked. "Then maybe this extra insult of transposition is not going to make a lot of difference."

The question matters, Sedivy says, because drugs might be able to suppress transposons in aging cells. Virtually all of the transposons of concern in mammals are so-called "retrotransposons" because they use RNA and an enzyme to copy themselves. Certain HIV drugs work by these enzymes called "reverse transcriptases." Remarkably, Sedivy said, the reverse transcriptase of the major human retrotransposons called "L1" has been shown by researchers to be inhibited by some HIV drugs widely used in the clinic.

"The prospects of coming up with an existing drug therapy is something we really need to think about seriously," he said. "We're definitely going to test that and in the future, if needed, we also should be able to design new drugs that are highly specific for L1."

Ultimate success would provide a way to restore order in the cells and forestall at least some of the molecular ravages of age.

In addition to Sedivy, De Cecco, and Neretti, other authors on the paper are Steven Criscione, Edward Peckham, Sara Hillenmeyer, Eliza Hamm, Jayameenakshi Manivannan, Abigail Peterson, and Jill Kreiling.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/NEraS_xVRNY/130130132409.htm

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Anthropologist in the Attic: Jared Diamond: what we can learn from ...

The west's dwindling connection with the natural world puts it in increasing peril, says the distinguished biologist in his new book. Many of the practices of tribal cultures can help us to rediscover our way, he argues ? from respecting the environment to letting toddlers play with knives

The Kaulong people of New Britain used to have an extreme way of dealing with families in mourning. Until the 1950s, newly widowed women on the island off New Guinea were strangled by their husband's brothers or, in their absence, by one of their own sons. Custom dictated no other course of action. Failure to comply meant dishonour, and widows would make a point of demanding strangulation as soon as their husbands had expired.

The impact on families was emotionally shattering, as Jared Diamond makes clear in his latest book, The World Until Yesterday. "In one case, a widow ? whose brothers-in-law were absent ? ordered her own son to strangle her," he says. "But he could not bring himself to do it. It was too horrible. So, in order to shame him into killing her, the widow marched through her village shouting that her son did not want to strangle her because he wanted to have sex with her instead." Humiliated, the son eventually killed his mother.

Widow-strangling occurred because the Kaulong believed male spirits needed the company of females to survive the after-life. It is a grotesque notion but certainly not the only fantastic idea to have gripped traditional societies, says Diamond. Other habits have included infanticide and outbreaks of war between neighbours, though these are balanced with many cases of care and compassion, particularly for the elderly, and a concern for the environment that shames the west.

"We have virtually abandoned living in traditional societies," explains Diamond when we meet. "But this was the only way of life that humans knew for their first 6m years on the planet. In giving it up over the past few thousand years, we have lost our vulnerability to disease and cold and wild animals, but we have also lost good ways to bring up children, look after old people, stave off diabetes and heart disease and understand the real dangers of everyday life."

Diamond is wearing a bright red jacket, checked trousers, a carefully ironed shirt and a tie. With his moustache-less beard, he looks more like a renegade Amish preacher than a distinguished biologist. His book, subtitled "What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?", is a form of rescue anthropology, he explains, a bid to save the last useful nuggets of tribal life before it is finally destroyed by the spread of nations and states. The World Until Yesterday is Diamond's latest foray into a field that he has virtually made his own ? the biological analysis of human history ? and will be eagerly awaited by a global army of loyal readers. While traditional historians concentrate on treaties and successions, Diamond has concerned himself with the ecological constraints that influence the fate of a particular nation or state.

Consider Diamond's astonishingly successful Guns, Germs and Steel, which has sold more than 1.5m copies since its publication in 1998. It was written to provide an answer to a basic question: why did Spain conquer the Incas and not the other way round? Or to put it in more general terms, why did the nations of the west prosper at the expense of the rest of the world?

Historians have tended to avoid this question or have alluded to the innate intellectual vigour and genetic strength which, they have suggested, are possessed by western people. Diamond has no truck with that thesis. Europe became a power base because its nations grew out of the first farming societies, which arose in the Middle East 8,000 years ago, he says. And agriculture first appeared there because the world's most easily domesticable animals, including sheep, cattle and horses, were found there. With this head start, Europe was able to maintain a level of food production that allowed the first political states and military power bases to materialise. Guns and steel were invented there and were then used to conquer the rest of the world. Lacking these technologies, the Incas had little chance against the Spanish. Germs ? "Europe's sinister gift to other continents" ? followed in our wake. The book's message is simple but politically charged: there is nothing special or innately superior about western people. They are not the master race. They are simply geographically privileged.

Guns, Germs and Steel has been praised for its erudition, clear prose and elegant syntheses of multiple sources, from archaeology to zoology. One US reviewer hailed it for being "Darwinian in its authority" while in the Observer we described it as "a book of extraordinary vision and confidence". The book won a Pulitzer prize; was misquoted by Mitt Romney during last year's US presidential campaigns; and spawned a number of sound-a-like works, including Peter Nowak's history of modern America: Sex, Bombs and Burgers.

Diamond today seems fit and self-confident, and, although he is now 75, he assures me he still takes field study trips every year or two to New Guinea. For several decades, he has camped in its forests with local tribes, studied their habits and watched as they have embarked on endless raids and bouts of conciliation.

"It has been an utterly fascinating experience, " he says, "and the initial motivation for writing The World Until Yesterday was to share my times in New Guinea over the past 50 years and to show what the people have taught me."

Diamond came to his field from an odd angle. His father, Louis, was a distinguished paediatrician and expert on blood diseases, while his mother, Flora Kaplan, was a concert pianist and linguist. Both parents came from east European Jewish families who escaped the pogroms of the early 20th century and who settled in Boston where Diamond grew up, leaving him with a husky, mellifluous New England drawl in which his vowels seem stretched near to bursting point.

Jared followed his father into medicine and studied physiology at Harvard and later Cambridge before becoming an expert in salt transfer processes in the human gall bladder. In his 20s, Diamond swapped subjects to take up ornithology, which took him?to New Guinea. (He is the author of several academic works on the island's birds.) There he became fascinated by its various native societies, and he turned finally to the field of cultural anthropology and sociology. He is currently a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Since moving to LA, Diamond has produced a series of books that have propelled him to fame. The first, The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, appeared in 1992, its title referring to Homo sapiens, who are depicted by Diamond as a species of chimpanzee that is increasingly out of kilter with the natural world, particularly since the invention of agriculture, "a catastrophe from which we have never recovered". With the arrival of farming, Diamond argues, women were subjected to domestic drudgery; people started to hoard resources and wealth; and our proximity to animals triggered disease epidemics that still threaten to overwhelm us. "With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence," he states. The Third Chimpanzee won the Royal Society prize for science books that year.

Guns, Germs and Steel came next, with Diamond adding a new sin to those introduced by the first farmers: colonialism, including ? as we have already mentioned ? the enslaving of the Inca people by the conquistadors of Spain. Then, in 2005, came Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. Here he attempted to answer another basic question about the human species: why do some cultures implode and disintegrate because their members destroy their own habitats while other cultures maintain a careful ecological balance? Why did the Vikings perish in 16th-century Greenland while the Inuit flourished? Why did the ancient Mayans wreck their own ecology by stripping their lands of forests, thus triggering the soil erosion and starvation that caused the collapse of their civilisation? And, most poignantly of all, why did the people of Easter Island chop down every tree on their remote island and so maroon themselves in the middle of the Pacific, where they eventually descended into civil war and cannibalism?

In tackling this question, Diamond identifies several factors which help to explain why societies collapse: political intransigence, climatic change, loss of trade, attacks by neighbours and self-imposed environmental degradation. Crucially, these factors are now operating at a global scale, he says. Painted on a larger canvas, the fate of the people of Easter Island could therefore be repeated for the whole planet unless we take action.

There are no great heroes or leaders according to the narratives of Jared Diamond. The pages of The Third Chimpanze, Guns, Germs and Steel, and Collapse contain no Churchills, no Hitlers and no Genghis Khans. This is history stripped of its personalities, its nameless human protagonists hovering at the edge of extinction in an environmentally unfriendly world. Some anthropologists resent Diamond's assumption that individuals play no real role in the grand sweep of historical affairs. These critics claim that men and women are depicted not as conscious agents but as helpless pawns of their environment by Diamond, that he underplays the importance of human initiative.

Other critics make more particular accusations. Several challenge Diamond's claim that the fate suffered by the Easter Islanders was self-inflicted, for example. Slave raids and diseases introduced by Europeans were the real causes of depopulation, not civil war, while feral animals were the reason for the island's environmental collapse, they state.

Most reviews ? for all Diamond's books ? have generally been favourable, however. Writing in the New Yorker (about Collapse), Malcolm Gladwell praised the importance that Diamond places on biological issues when it comes to studying cultures and societies. Praising ourselves for being civilised is no guarantee of survival, says Gladwell. "We can be law-abiding and peace-loving and tolerant and inventive and committed to freedom and true to our own values and still behave in ways that are biologically suicidal."

The same vexed issue lurks at the back of Diamond's writing: humanity's increasing dissonance with the natural world. He describes how small groups of humans ? ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred hunter-gatherers ? survived several ice ages, kept close to nature and still managed to conquer the world. "I believe the few remaining tribes and nomad groups left on the planet have a great deal to teach us," he says and it is this belief that inspired The World Until Yesterday.

Some tribal customs, such as widow-strangling, will not be missed, of course. "We should not romanticise traditional societies," he says. "There are horrible things that we want to avoid, but there wonderful things that we should emulate."

Take the example of child rearing. Far from being harsh towards children, many tribes and groups adopt highly permissive attitudes. "I mean permissive in that it is an absolute no-no to punish a child. If a mother or father among African pygmies hits a child, that would be grounds for divorce. There is no physical punishment allowed at all in these societies. If a child plays with a sharp knife and waves it around, so be it. They will cut themselves on some occasions, but society figures it is better for the child to learn the hard way early in life. They are allowed to make their own choices and follow their own interests."

Diamond has twin sons, Max and Joshua. Both were treated as honorary pygmies by their parents. "We let them do what they wanted as much as possible and never spanked or hit them," says Diamond. Giving free rein to his children's interests had unexpected consequences, however. Aged three, Max developed a passion for snakes and the Diamond household ended up as repository of more than 150 reptiles and amphibians. For his part, Joshua transferred his first love of butterflies to rocks and finally to second world war and civil war battlefields. "I took him to Guam one time," Diamond recalls fondly. Today Joshua is training as a lawyer. Max is a gourmet cook. "The crucial point is that they were allowed to follow their own paths. I learnt that from the people of New Guinea."

Diamond has studied traditional societies in Africa, Asia, South and North America and the Arctic, but most of his analysis comes from his observations of his old scientific stamping grounds in New Guinea, a process that has not been without its tribulations.

Several years ago, Diamond says he met a tribesman called Daniel Wemp who said he had organised a clan war in New Guinea to avenge the death of an uncle. According to Diamond, after three years, and 30 deaths, Wemp's target ? a man called Isum Mandingo ? was left paralysed in an attack. Diamond wrote up the story for the New Yorker in 2008 - and found himself at the receiving end of a $10m libel lawsuit from Wemp and Mandingo.

An investigation by Rhonda Roland Shearer ? the widow of the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould and publisher of iMediaEthics, a not-for-profit news website ? alleged that the New Yorker article was riddled with errors, that Wemp had not organised the clan war and that Mandingo was injured in an unrelated attack when he was protecting his land. It was also claimed that Wemp was now living in fear of his life because of Diamond's article. Hence the lawsuit. For their part, both Diamond and David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, vigorously denied the allegations. Their story was backed by careful notes that had been taken at the time by Diamond, while his text had been carefully scrutinised by one of the magazine's best fact checkers, Remnick added.

Nevertheless, Shearer maintains: "Neither Diamond nor New Yorker fact checkers verified maps or political districts, contacted missionaries working in the area, checked local government, police, court or hospital records, or contacted the leading anthropology expert in the area, Paul Sillitoe, to verify Diamond's single-source story. Our report revealed Diamond named and accused people he never met of killing. He now writes that he removes or changes names as is required in anthropological practice to protect informants."

The case caused a flurry among science journals but has since fizzled out. Diamond blinks and looks pained when I mention the name Rhonda Shearer. "A distinctive person about whom I shall refrain from commenting," he mutters. Wemp and Mandigo's case was withdrawn by mutual consent after the sudden death of their lawyer but it's now understood that a new lawsuit is pending. There is no mention of the Wemp tale, although highly relevant to Diamond's thesis, in The World Until Yesterday. Caution appears to have won the day.

The issue of vengeance is central to Diamond's book. In the west, when a person is robbed or injured in an attack, the state ? in the form of the police ? take responsibility for tracking and punishing the culprit. Traditional societies take a very different approach. Minor offences are normally settled by payment of compensation ? the pig is the traditional currency in New Guinea ? or by holding a feast to signal the re-establishment of friendly relations. For more serious offences, including murder, a family will seek to make alliances with others to help track down and kill their relative's murderer. This usually triggers an identical response from the murdered murderer's family and the process is repeated. The west's depersonalised system of justice looks a lot better from this perspective.

But there is a cost, says Diamond, pointing to an example provided by his wife Marie's family. Her father, Jozef Nabel, was Jewish and born in Klaj, near Krakow, in Poland. During the second world war, he was captured by the Russians, imprisoned and later recruited into the Red Army. He survived, became an officer and in 1945 took a platoon to Klaj to find his family. He discovered that his father had been transported to a concentration camp when the Nazis arrived. However, his mother, sister and a niece had survived, in hiding, for a further two years until a local gang had killed them, believing that, because they were Jews, they must possess gold.

Jozef found the gang leader and with a loaded gun faced the killer of his mother, sister and niece ? but could not shoot. He had had enough of people behaving like animals, he told himself. The killer was handed to local police but was released a year later. For the rest of his life, Jozef was tormented by grief, that he had not saved his family, and regret that he had not properly avenged them. Every night, just before sleep, he thought of his mother and sister and how he had let their murderer go, a fact that he admitted to his family only when he was in his late 80s, says Diamond. "He kept his torment to himself until near his death."

Jozef's fate is a consequence, albeit an extreme one, of life in modern states. Here robberies and murders are dealt with by police because this is the most efficient way of dealing with crime. As a result, vengeance is viewed as being socially unacceptable and is strictly outlawed. "But it is a basic emotion along with hate, love, anger and jealousy, and if one is told to sit on this feeling the result is ? like my father-in-law ? something that can get bottled up for the rest of one's life. It is an unfortunate consequence of state justice and we need to help those caught up in it. We don't give enough consideration to the feelings of those who have been robbed of their loved ones."

Or consider the issue of old age. "Most traditional societies give their older folk much more satisfying existences than we do and let them live out their last years surrounded by their children, relatives and grandchildren," says Diamond. "Old people are useful ? as sources of knowledge because these societies do not have books. If you want to survive a cyclone, an old person's past experiences might well determine whether that group lives or dies. And they are often the best makers of tools and pots and baskets and weapons. In the west today ? with our cult of youth ? we seem to have lost how to get value from our older people."

There are exceptions. Nomad tribes, particularly those in the Arctic or deserts, faced with insufficient food will often kill old people or abandon them ? or encourage them to commit suicide, a grim policy taken to extremes not just by the Kaulong but by people of the Banks Islands in the Pacific, whose old and sick would beg their friends to bury them alive to end their suffering, and the Chukchi, who live in the northeastern corner of Asia, who used to encourage their old folk to let themselves be strangled on the promise they would get preferential treatment in the next world. Yes, it sounds grim, admits Diamond, but it has a cruel logic: food supplies are limited and what else should they do when resources dry up? Let their children starve?

Finally, there is the issue of everyday risks, a topic that modern western men and women have got absurdly out of context, Diamond argues. "We worry about dangers from events that kill lots of people at once: plane crashes, nuclear-plant explosions, terrorist attacks. But the chances that we will be killed in one of these events is utterly negligible."

By contrast, people in traditional societies worry about small-scale local risks. "On one trip in New Guinea, I wanted to pitch a tent under a dead tree. My guides thought I was mad. It could fall and kill me in the night, they told me. I argued the risk was low but later realised, if you spend a long time in forests, these will accumulate. It is the same with western life. The risks from little events mount up, and don't forget, if you slip in the shower or on the sidewalk, you can break a hip. For someone of my age that could end my life or at least my walking life. Similarly, car accidents pose genuine dangers.

"So we should take a leaf out of the New Guineans' book and worry about showers, sidewalks and cars and not fret about plane crashes or terrorist attacks. Of course, most of my American friends think I am paranoid, but, as I point out, I am still here."
__________________________
References:

McKie, Robin. 2013. ?Jared Diamond: what we can learn from tribal life?. The Guardian. Posted: January 6, 2013. Available online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/jan/06/jared-diamond-tribal-life-anthropology

Source: http://anthropologistintheattic.blogspot.com/2013/01/jared-diamond-what-we-can-learn-from.html

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Indiana Flexes Political Muscle at Statehouse | Hoosier Ag Today

Indiana Flexes Political Muscle at Statehouse

Posted on 30 January 2013 by Gary Truitt

Bob Kraft

Indiana Farm Bureau is no stranger to property tax fights in the state legislature. There many been times that they have been on the losing end of those battles, but that is not the case this year. Last week, both House and Senate committees took up legislation that would place a moratorium on a new soil fertility factor used to assess the value of farmland. As Farm Bureau?s Bob Kraft explained, they were right in the middle of this issue, ?Farm Bureau tax specialist Katrina Hall testified before both the House and Senate committees.? The bill also requires the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) to submit a report explaining any changes it recommends to the General Assembly for approval before they can they be implemented.?The Senate bill was amended in committee; the amendment added to the bill by the committee requires Purdue to be involved in any studies undertaken by DLGF.

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The bills (SB 319 and HB 1114) will save farmers thousands of dollars on their property tax bills. Kraft says Farm Bureau worked closely with a number of key lawmakers to get these bill moving, ?We want to thank several key sponsors on the Senate side, Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg), Senator John Waterman (R- Sullivan), and Senator Greg Wakler (R-Columbus). In the House,?Rep. Bob Cherry (R-Greenfield).?? Rep. Cherry was joined in presenting the bill by Rep. Don Lehe (R-Brookston), who also introduced an identical bill in the House.? The Governor and Lt Governor have expressed strong support for the legislation, virtually assuring its adoption.

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Kraft says another key piece of legislation Farm Bureau supports deals with depreciations of personal property, ?Senate bill 375 will lower the floor on the taxable value of personal property from 30% to 20%.? This means that personal property can be depreciated down to its 20% level. This bill is before the tax and finance committee.

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In other State House action, the House Ways and Means Committee approved HB 1007 (Rep. Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte) that would require online vendors with a physical presence in Indiana to begin collecting state sales tax from Indiana residents on July 1, 2013, rather than January 1, 2014.? It is estimated that this six-month acceleration would raise anywhere from $75 million to $150 million per year for state coffers by collecting a tax already owed by those buying from online retailers such as Amazon.com.? Kraft said this will allow main street businesses to compete with on-line businesses on a equal basis.

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Source: http://www.hoosieragtoday.com/index.php/2013/01/30/indiana-flexes-political-muscle-at-statehouse/

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Guard lets vessels pass leaking Miss. River barge

The towboat Harold B. Dodd pilots south on the Mississippi River as vehicles cross the Interstate 20 bridge in Vicksburg, Miss., Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. Commercial traffic for southbound vessels on the Mississippi River resumed Wednesday after closing Sunday. (AP Photo/Vicksburg Post, Eli Baylis)

The towboat Harold B. Dodd pilots south on the Mississippi River as vehicles cross the Interstate 20 bridge in Vicksburg, Miss., Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. Commercial traffic for southbound vessels on the Mississippi River resumed Wednesday after closing Sunday. (AP Photo/Vicksburg Post, Eli Baylis)

The towboat Harold B. Dodd pilots south on the Mississippi River as both vehicles and train cross the Interstate 20 and U.S. 80 bridges in Vicksburg, Miss., Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. Commercial traffic for southbound vessels on the Mississippi River resumed Wednesday after closing Sunday. (AP Photo/Vicksburg Post, Eli Baylis)

The towboat Harold B. Dodd pilots south on the Mississippi River as a train crosses the U.S. 80 bridges in Vicksburg, Miss., Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. Commercial traffic for southbound vessels on the Mississippi River resumed Wednesday after closing Sunday. (AP Photo/Vicksburg Post, Eli Baylis)

The towboat Nature Way Endeavor banks a barge against the western bank of the Mississippi River Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 near Vicksburg, Miss. A barge carrying thousands of gallons of oil struck a railroad bridge and began leaking before dawn Sunday. The accident forced the closure of a 16-mile stretch of the lower Mississippi, a major inland corridor for vessels carrying oil, fuel, grain and other goods. (AP Photo/The Vicksburg Evening Post, Eli Baylis ) MANDATORY CREDIT

Shannon Warnock, far right, a salvage hand with Big River Ship Builders & Salvage, secures his flotation device after loading a boat with MDEQ employees at Le Tourneau Landing to work on the damaged barge stalled on the west bank of the Mississippi River, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013 near Vicksburg, Miss. A barge carrying thousands of gallons of oil struck a railroad bridge and began leaking before dawn Sunday. The accident forced the closure of a 16-mile stretch of the lower Mississippi, a major inland corridor for vessels carrying oil, fuel, grain and other goods. (AP Photo/The Vicksburg Evening Post, Melanie Thortis ) MANDATORY CREDIT

(AP) ? The Coast Guard is letting vessels pass through a closed section of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg as it evaluates how traffic would affect efforts to remove and clean up oil from a leaking barge, a Guard spokesman said Wednesday.

Chief Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski told The Associated Press that a 16-mile stretch of the river remained technically closed four days after two barges struck a railroad bridge, even though some barges are being allowed to pass.

Roszkowski said southbound barges were allowed to pass first ? "methodically and slowly" ? so crews could assess the effects on cleanup operations. The Coast Guard allowed the first northbound vessel to pass on Wednesday afternoon and was evaluating its effect on the cleanup.

"We understand the huge impact this (closure) is making on vessel traffic on the Mississippi River," Roszkowski said.

But, he added, "It's critical that the vessels going through there don't affect our operations."

A Coast Guard "safety zone" extends the width of the river for 16 miles, which means it is effectively closed because barges must have permission to pass, he said.

Petty Officer 1st Class Matt Schofield said Wednesday that at times there have been more than 70 vessels, including towboats, and hundreds of barges idled at the closed section of the river, one of the nation's vital commerce routes. The numbers fluctuate as the barges are let through and others arrive at the closed section.

The leaking barge has been pushed against the Louisiana shore, across from Vicksburg's Riverwalk and Lady Luck casinos, since Sunday's crash.

Schofield said the Coast Guard started pumping oil from the leaking barge onto another barge ? a process known as lightering ? about 2:30 p.m. CST on Wednesday.

It's not clear how long that process would take. Roszkowski said the transfer operation would be halted at night because it's safer and easier to see if any oil is escaping during the day. The river is not expected to reopen before that process is complete.

Severe weather that swept through the area overnight Tuesday shut down cleanup operations for a time, but crews were working again Wednesday morning, Schofield said.

The Coast Guard said 7,000 gallons of crude oil were unaccounted for, but it's not clear if it all spilled into the river or if some seeped into empty spaces inside the barge.

Schofield said Wednesday that oil is still seeping from the damaged barge.

He said most of the oil was being contained, but some had escaped the containment booms Wednesday and a sheen was visible on a section of the river. Skimmers were cleaning it up, he added, saying 3,900 gallons of an oil-and-water mixture had been sucked from the river since the cleanup began.

The oil that spilled at Vicksburg would fill about two-thirds of a 10,500-gallon tank truck. When it spilled, water flowing under the bridge would have filled more than 600 such trucks in a second.

Crews have been working to contain and remove oil since the barge, owned by Corpus Christi, Texas-based Third Coast Towing LLC, struck the railroad bridge and began leaking early Sunday. The company has refused to comment.

The Coast Guard said the environmental impact has been minimal because a boom is containing the leak around the barge and the leak is slow. Crews are using a skimmer to collect the oil.

The closure has been costly for the shipping industry.

Ron Zornes, director of corporate operations for Canal Barge Co. of New Orleans, said each idled towboat could cost a company anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 a day. The low end would be for a single boat with a couple of barges and the high end for boat in "a system of towboats that acts sort of like a bus system."

"So if one bus is stopped, it gums up the whole system," he said.

About 168.4 million tons of cargo a year move along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, La., and the mouth of the Ohio River, carried by nearly 22,300 cargo ships and 162,700 barges, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. About 3.6 million tons of cargo are handled annually by the port of Vicksburg.

When low water threatened to close the river earlier this month, the tow industry trade group American Waterways Operators estimated that 7.2 million tons of commodities worth $2.8 billion might be sidelined over the last three weeks of January.

Nature's Way Marine LLC of Theodore, Ala., has been named the responsible party for the oil spill, a designation that is assigned under the federal Oil Pollution Act.

The barges were being pushed by the company's tug Nature's Way Endeavor. The company has also declined requests for information.

Companies found responsible for oil spills face civil penalties tied to the amount of oil that spilled into the environment.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally said Tuesday it's too early in the investigation to know if the company could face penalties or fines.

The Nature's Way Endeavor was pushing two tank barges when the collision with the bridge happened about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. Both barges were damaged, but only one leaked. Authorities declared the bridge safe after an inspection.

The leaking tank, which was pierced above the water line, was carrying 80,000 gallons of light crude, authorities said. The Coast Guard hasn't said how much oil was in the other tanks on the barge.

___

Associated Press writer Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-30-Oil%20Barges%20Hit%20Bridge/id-093e8f4da3bc4317a241f23ce84728d2

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Shooting reported at Phoenix workplace, reports of four shot

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Four people were reported shot when gunfire erupted at a mortgage company in Phoenix, Arizona media reported on Wednesday.

Officers are looking for a suspect described as a white male in his 60s, local FOX 10 news reported. A nearby intersection was reported closed.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shooting-reported-phoenix-workplace-reports-four-shot-182718485.html

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Mike Sikora's Dayton Home Improvement Awarded CertainTeed's ...

CertainTeed, North America?s leading brand of exterior and interior building products, has recognized Mike Sikora?s Dayton Home Improvement Center (DHI) with the two highest certifications for roofing contractors for all of its shingle products.? The Master Shingle Applicator? (MSA) and SELECT ShingleMaster?credentials are awarded to top-notch roofing professionals like the Sikora workforce who have been properly trained in every aspect of shingle installation techniques using the approved procedures for installing all CertainTeed roofing systems.

The Master Shingle Applicator? status is a requirement for all roofers to achieve the higher level SELECT ShingleMaster? qualification.? It signifies that Sikora?s roofers are held to the highest workforce standards in delivering a high-quality job using CertainTeed?s shingle roof systems that are guaranteed to meet stringent warranty compliance.? The elite training program utilizes CertainTeed?s proprietary manual and educates roofers in topics such as good workmanship practices, roof systems, estimating, flashing, ventilation, and installation instructions for all of CertainTeed?s shingle products.

As a CertainTeed ShingleMaster? Sikora must employ a MSA qualified workforce including one job supervisor and at least two installers who have passed CertainTeed?s ShingleMaster? credentialed course.?? The course allows Sikora?s DHI to offer the SureStart?, PLUS 3-STAR and 4-STAR coverage warranty extensions for CertainTeed roofing systems.

Both certifications require advanced training and testing every two years to renew certification and maintain credentialed status in good standing.

About CertainTeed?

A subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the world?s largest building products company, CertainTeed has helped shape the building products industry for more than 100 years through the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products.

Source: http://www.daytonhomeimprovement.com/2013/01/mike-sikoras-dayton-home-improvement-awarded-certainteeds-prestigious-master-shingle-applicator-and-shinglemaster-certifications/

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What we know about BlackBerry 10

Despite -- or rather thanks to -- major delays in releasing BlackBerry 10, RIM has let quite a bit slip about its upcoming operating system and related BB10 devices. We've had more than a year to absorb leaks, rumors and official information, after all, so it's no surprise that we have a very good idea of what to expect when Waterloo pulls back the curtain on January 30th. That doesn't mean things are as plain as day, though; the deluge of blurrycam shots and carrier screens have provided an almost indigestible amount of information about BB10, and we don't blame you if you can't keep the story straight. We're here to parse the madness, though, so read on to find out what to expect at tomorrow's launch event.

Software

Touch keyboard with predictive input


The first BB10 handset likely won't sport a physical keyboard, but that doesn't mean you should expect a subpar typing experience. RIM's on-screen layout will boast quite a few enhancements to compete with SwiftKey and other similar input options. For instance, the company has demoed predictive typing; press on a letter, and a selection of likely words will hover over the corresponding character ("hey" when you hit H, for example). To pick one of the predicted words, you simply swipe up on it. The keyboard will learn and adapt to your linguistic habits, so you can expect more accurate suggestions over time. In addition to predictive input, the on-screen layout features intuitive gestures such as swiping to the left to delete text and swiping from the lower left to minimize the keyboard. Other gestures include swiping from the bottom to reveal numbers and special characters.

Timeline lens, camera filters

At BlackBerry World 2012, RIM showed us its take on fancy camera software: the "timeline lens," which uses Scalado's Rewind technology to capture frames even before you hit the shutter. This means you can cycle back through the shooter's cache if you miss an image by a second or two.

If The Gadget Masters website, which posted a hands-on video with a "pre-production Z10," is to be believed, we can also expect photo-editing software courtesy of Scalado, including Instagram-style filters and options such as transform, brightness / white balance adjustment, rotate and aspect ratio customization.

User interface with Peek, flow gestures

One of the most anticipated aspects of BlackBerry 10 is the user interface's focus on multitasking. The aptly named Peek feature, showcased at BlackBerry Jam last September, lets users view apps running in the background by simply swiping from the left or right. From there, users can either return to their previous task or swipe back to go into previously launched programs. At least in theory, this is meant to provide a more fluid app-switching experience than the task list à la webOS and Android.

Back in May, RIM officially previewed the BB10 home screen, which will include an app grid that displays all currently running programs. From here, swiping to the right will bring up the full launcher, and gesturing to the left will bring you to the unified inbox. Here as well, you can use Peek to view recent notifications and any currently running applications, and then swipe to backtrack to the main hub. Users can also minimize a given window to see new notifications. We also got a hands-on look at the UI in action when we met with RIM Principal Architect Gary Klassen last June -- check out our video.

Security features, BYOD


Historically, RIM's handsets have been almost synonymous with the BYOD (bring your own device) movement, so it's no surprise that BB10 devices will come with corporate-minded features on board. First off, the OS has FIP 140-2 certification, meaning it meets the security and encryption requirements of government agencies and enterprises.

BB10 devices will also have BlackBerry Balance, which partitions RIM's phones into separate work and personal profiles. To toggle between these two modes, you simply pull down from the app icon grid. You'll see different applications listed depending on which profile you're in, and you can run applications simultaneously in both profiles. For instance, you can have the browser open on the corporate side, and it will adhere to your IT desk's policies, and on the personal side it will run without these restrictions.

Apps

One of many tidbits we've gleaned from the leaked BB10 training manual is that RIM is promising some 70,000 QNX apps in the BlackBerry World store at launch. And indeed, Waterloo has been aggressively courting developers, offering a $10,000 guarantee for approved apps that make less than 10k in the first year. The company also held "Portathon" events to drum up app submissions with a cash incentive. One such contest netted 15,000 entries in less than 38 hours.

In addition to seeking new applications, RIM has invested time and money into securing the top names for its platform. Rest assured that a native Facebook app will be on board at launch, as will Foursquare. We also have good reason to believe that Google Talk and Twitter will be integrated into the unified inbox.

The devices

The all-touch BlackBerry Z10


Back in November, CEO Thorsten Heins told us that a full-touch device will be RIM's way of gaining back market share, as the company's smartphone success to date has been in the QWERTY category. Hence, the first BB10 device will feature an on-screen rather than a physical keyboard.

All signs point to the first flagship device being the full-touch BlackBerry Z10, a phone in the higher-end L-Series line. We've seen that model name come up repeatedly, in RIM marketing materials and most recently in a screen cap from Verizon's website.

Leaked specs for the Z10 match up quite closely with the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha we first saw last May. Unveiled at BlackBerry World, the device sported a 4.2-inch, 1,280 x 768 display with 16GB of internal storage. Rumors and leaks about the Z10 have echoed that same set of specifications -- save for 2GB rather than 1GB of RAM -- and we now hear it will run a 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor under the hood. Whether that CPU spec turns out to be true or not, it's safe to assume the phone will pack a dual-core chip.

Lower-end and QWERTY models coming soon

From the beginning, Heins has made it clear that RIM's BB10 strategy is to target the more "premium" end of the market first, though "at least six" handsets in total will debut in 2013. We can expect mid-range and lower-end devices in this batch; Heins said a physical keyboard model will be released soon after the first BB10 touch device, and this QWERTY model should fall under the N-Series. Physical keyboards have arguably been RIM's bread and butter, and while the company clearly finessed its on-screen input for the all-touch Z10, it's unclear whether QWERTY models will receive a keyboard revamp as well.

We'd be remiss to move on without mentioning the PlayBook. Though we don't know if any new models are on the horizon, RIM has confirmed that existing versions of its biz-focused tablet will receive the upgrade to BlackBerry 10. Of course, this is possible because the PlayBook is a QNX-based device.

Carrier support

Unsurprisingly, most of the major carriers will be on board when BlackBerry 10 hits the market. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have all confirmed that they'll be carrying BB10 devices at launch, and Sprint recently spoke up to reassure customers that it will be on board by "later this year." UK carriers, including Three, O2 and EE, also confirmed that they'll offer BB10 products in early 2013. Additionally, in our interview with Heins, he confirmed that BB10 devices, including the QWERTY handset, will support 4G LTE.

Wrap-up

Clearly, we won't be walking blindly into the BlackBerry 10 launch event, as both RIM itself and countless leaks have furnished us with plenty of details about what devices and software features to expect. Still, nothing is for certain until Waterloo announces it on stage, so you'll want to tune into our liveblog when the action goes down tomorrow.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/29/what-we-know-about-blackberry-10/

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Monday, January 28, 2013

New LGBT Health journal launching in 2013

New LGBT Health journal launching in 2013 [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Sophie Mohin
smohin@liebertpub.com
914-740-2254
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, January 28, 2013Over 4 million adults in the United States identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual and approximately 700,000 identify as transgender. An NIH-sponsored investigation by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that the health status and healthcare needs of this sizable population are poorly understood and likely inadequately met. A journal is urgently needed to support, promote, and address the unique healthcare needs of each population that comprises the LGBT community, in the United States and worldwide. LGBT Health, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com) launching in fall 2013, will identify crucial LGBT healthcare needs and the means to address them, providing a much-needed authoritative source and international forum in all areas pertinent to LGBT health and healthcare services. To sign up to receive email alerts for LGBT Health, email journalmarketing3@liebertpub.com

"President Obama's commitment to the gay and lesbian communities underscores the importance of providing them with the best healthcare options both physical health and mental health," says Mary Ann Liebert, president and CEO of Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

Editor-in-Chief William Byne, MD, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, NY), says "The Journal will assess the healthcare needs of each population that comprises the LGBT community, and identify gaps in knowledge as well as priority areas where policy development and research are needed to achieve healthcare parity for sexual and gender minorities."

The health status and healthcare needs of the LGBT population are inadequately understood due to both the paucity of LGBT health research and the practice of mistakenly treating the LGBT population as a single entity when each letter stands for a distinct population with unique health vulnerabilities and concerns. Furthermore, the needs of each population are uniquely impacted by factors such as age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographical region, and the stigma that continues to be associated with sexual or gender minority status.

LGBT Health will promote optimal healthcare for millions of sexual and gender minority persons worldwide by employing a specific focus on their health concerns, while maintaining the breadth needed to fully encompass the relevant biological, psychological, and social facets. LGBT research has been hampered by a lack of funding opportunities and barriers to disclosure of sexual or gender minority status due to stigma and fear of discrimination in the healthcare setting. This promising new Journal will promote greater awareness; encourage further research; improve treatment options, patient care, and outcomes; and foster increased funding in this critical field.

Editor-in-Chief Byne has gathered a distinguished multidisciplinary editorial board of internationally recognized experts with established track records in LGBT health including Bobbie A. Berkowitz, PhD, RN, Columbia University School of Nursing and Senior Vice President of the Columbia University Medical Center; Judith Bradford, PhD, The Fenway Institute (TFI); Demetre Daskalakis, MD, NYU and Gay Men's Health Crisis; Griet De Cuypere, MD, PhD, University Hospital Ghent, Belgium; Annelou de Vries, MD, PhD, VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam; Brian de Vries, PhD, San Francisco State University; Jack Drescher, MD, President, the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry; A. Evan Eyler, MD, MPH, University of Vermont College of Medicine; Louis Gooren, PhD, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam; Robert Garofalo, MD, MPH, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Gregory M. Herek, PhD, University of California, Davis; Michael Kauth, PhD and Jillian Shipherd, PhD, LGBT Program Coordinators for Patient Care Services, Department of Veterans Affairs; Ilan Meyer, PhD, Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA; Brian Mustanski, PhD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Jeffrey T. Parsons, PhD, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY; Caitlin C. Ryan, PhD, ACSW, San Francisco State University; Patricia Robertson, MD, UCSF; David Sandberg, PhD, University of Michigan; Eric Vilain, MD, PhD, Director, Center for Gender-Based Biology, UCLA; Veriano Terto, MD, PhD, Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association; Sam Winter, PhD, University of Hong Kong; and many more.

Scholarly articles from the relevant perspectives will be solicited, including population studies; basic, translational, and health services research; best practices and policies; professional training and education; and cultural competence in the delivery of healthcare to members of sexual and gender minorities from childhood through the older adult years.

Specific content areas will include healthcare disparities, barriers to healthcare, reproductive health and assisted reproduction, parenting and family concerns, physical and mental well-being, and the health and preventive services appropriate to members of each sexual or gender minority population group. Since the majority of LGBT studies to date have focused on minority communities defined by sexual orientation, research on behalf of populations defined by gender identity and gender variance will be particularly welcomed.

###

About the Journal

LGBT Health will facilitate and support the efforts of researchers, clinicians, academics, and policymakers to improve the health, well-being, and patient outcomes of the LGBT population. Spanning a broad array of disciplines, the Journal will bring together the LGBT research, medical, and advocacy community to address challenges and discover new breakthroughs in medicine and patient care. The Journal will publish original research, review articles, clinical reports, case studies, legal and policy perspectives, and much more. LGBT Health will be published quarterly in print and online with open access options.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com)is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative medical and biomedical peer-reviewed journals, including AIDS Patient Care and STDs, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, Journal of Women's Health, and Population Health Management. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers pioneered the first journal on AIDS in 1983. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's more than 70 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com)website.



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

?


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


New LGBT Health journal launching in 2013 [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Sophie Mohin
smohin@liebertpub.com
914-740-2254
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, January 28, 2013Over 4 million adults in the United States identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual and approximately 700,000 identify as transgender. An NIH-sponsored investigation by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that the health status and healthcare needs of this sizable population are poorly understood and likely inadequately met. A journal is urgently needed to support, promote, and address the unique healthcare needs of each population that comprises the LGBT community, in the United States and worldwide. LGBT Health, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com) launching in fall 2013, will identify crucial LGBT healthcare needs and the means to address them, providing a much-needed authoritative source and international forum in all areas pertinent to LGBT health and healthcare services. To sign up to receive email alerts for LGBT Health, email journalmarketing3@liebertpub.com

"President Obama's commitment to the gay and lesbian communities underscores the importance of providing them with the best healthcare options both physical health and mental health," says Mary Ann Liebert, president and CEO of Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

Editor-in-Chief William Byne, MD, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, NY), says "The Journal will assess the healthcare needs of each population that comprises the LGBT community, and identify gaps in knowledge as well as priority areas where policy development and research are needed to achieve healthcare parity for sexual and gender minorities."

The health status and healthcare needs of the LGBT population are inadequately understood due to both the paucity of LGBT health research and the practice of mistakenly treating the LGBT population as a single entity when each letter stands for a distinct population with unique health vulnerabilities and concerns. Furthermore, the needs of each population are uniquely impacted by factors such as age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographical region, and the stigma that continues to be associated with sexual or gender minority status.

LGBT Health will promote optimal healthcare for millions of sexual and gender minority persons worldwide by employing a specific focus on their health concerns, while maintaining the breadth needed to fully encompass the relevant biological, psychological, and social facets. LGBT research has been hampered by a lack of funding opportunities and barriers to disclosure of sexual or gender minority status due to stigma and fear of discrimination in the healthcare setting. This promising new Journal will promote greater awareness; encourage further research; improve treatment options, patient care, and outcomes; and foster increased funding in this critical field.

Editor-in-Chief Byne has gathered a distinguished multidisciplinary editorial board of internationally recognized experts with established track records in LGBT health including Bobbie A. Berkowitz, PhD, RN, Columbia University School of Nursing and Senior Vice President of the Columbia University Medical Center; Judith Bradford, PhD, The Fenway Institute (TFI); Demetre Daskalakis, MD, NYU and Gay Men's Health Crisis; Griet De Cuypere, MD, PhD, University Hospital Ghent, Belgium; Annelou de Vries, MD, PhD, VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam; Brian de Vries, PhD, San Francisco State University; Jack Drescher, MD, President, the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry; A. Evan Eyler, MD, MPH, University of Vermont College of Medicine; Louis Gooren, PhD, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam; Robert Garofalo, MD, MPH, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Gregory M. Herek, PhD, University of California, Davis; Michael Kauth, PhD and Jillian Shipherd, PhD, LGBT Program Coordinators for Patient Care Services, Department of Veterans Affairs; Ilan Meyer, PhD, Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA; Brian Mustanski, PhD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Jeffrey T. Parsons, PhD, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY; Caitlin C. Ryan, PhD, ACSW, San Francisco State University; Patricia Robertson, MD, UCSF; David Sandberg, PhD, University of Michigan; Eric Vilain, MD, PhD, Director, Center for Gender-Based Biology, UCLA; Veriano Terto, MD, PhD, Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association; Sam Winter, PhD, University of Hong Kong; and many more.

Scholarly articles from the relevant perspectives will be solicited, including population studies; basic, translational, and health services research; best practices and policies; professional training and education; and cultural competence in the delivery of healthcare to members of sexual and gender minorities from childhood through the older adult years.

Specific content areas will include healthcare disparities, barriers to healthcare, reproductive health and assisted reproduction, parenting and family concerns, physical and mental well-being, and the health and preventive services appropriate to members of each sexual or gender minority population group. Since the majority of LGBT studies to date have focused on minority communities defined by sexual orientation, research on behalf of populations defined by gender identity and gender variance will be particularly welcomed.

###

About the Journal

LGBT Health will facilitate and support the efforts of researchers, clinicians, academics, and policymakers to improve the health, well-being, and patient outcomes of the LGBT population. Spanning a broad array of disciplines, the Journal will bring together the LGBT research, medical, and advocacy community to address challenges and discover new breakthroughs in medicine and patient care. The Journal will publish original research, review articles, clinical reports, case studies, legal and policy perspectives, and much more. LGBT Health will be published quarterly in print and online with open access options.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com)is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative medical and biomedical peer-reviewed journals, including AIDS Patient Care and STDs, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, Journal of Women's Health, and Population Health Management. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers pioneered the first journal on AIDS in 1983. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's more than 70 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com)website.



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

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/mali-nlh012813.php

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Article Writers needed!!! New freelancers are welcome | Academic ...

Tax Type Tax Rate Tax ID or Company no.

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Source: http://www.freelancer.com/projects/Technical-Writing-Ghostwriting/Article-Writers-needed-New-freelancers.4179236.html

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Facebook updates iOS app with voice messages, video recordings

Facebook updates iOS app with voice messages, video recordings

Facebook's got a fresh update for its main iOS app, and version 5.4 has some pleasant additions coming your way. The social network is throwing in the ability to send voice messages (which has been available on Android for a little over a week, and on iOS through Messenger) and share video recordings directly through the app, and it's also enhanced functionality in the Nearby tab as well. We're still all waiting impatiently for Graph Search on the mobile front, but we can at least enjoy some new ways of showing the world what we're up to. Head to the source to download the update.

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Comments

Source: Facebook

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/28/facebook-ios-update/

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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Shakira Leaves Hospital With Baby Milan And Boyfriend Gerard Pique (PHOTO)

Colombian pop star Shakira and footballer Gerard Piqu? left the hospital Sunday and headed home with their newborn baby Milan, HuffPost Voces reports.

The couple tried to make a break for it without getting spotted, but the hospital was surrounded by press and photographers hoping to catch a glimpse of them as they departed. For now, the new mother will stay in a luxury apartment that belongs to Piqu? along with close family members, while Piqu? gets back to work for Bar?a.

Shak gave birth to her baby boy by caesarean section at Teknon Hospital in Barcelona on Jan. 22.

But curious fans will have to keep waiting to see what the baby looks like -- the throngs of photographers didn't manage to snap an image of him. Piqu? tweeted the first picture of baby Milan's feet on Thursday.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/27/shakira-leaves-hospital-baby-milan-gerard-pique_n_2562665.html

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Davos summit ends with warnings on global economy

Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurria, right, gestures as he speaks at the Open Forum, while Spanish Economy Minister, Louis de Guindos Jurado looks on, on the sideline of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurria, right, gestures as he speaks at the Open Forum, while Spanish Economy Minister, Louis de Guindos Jurado looks on, on the sideline of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

(AP) ? Top international financial officials wrapped up the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos warning that much needs to be done to stabilize the world economy.

Despite relief that the euro, for all its struggles, remains intact and the U.S. has so far managed to get through a crucial budget hurdle, the International Monetary Fund's managing director Christine Lagarde urged world leaders to "not relax."

Lagarde said Saturday that the 17 European Union countries that use the euro have to follow through on steps to keep the troubles at banks from burdening governments.

And she said U.S. officials have to "indicate very promptly" how they're going to deal with their ongoing budget dispute between President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-26-Davos%20Forum-World%20Economy/id-86c9582edd694330b3572769aa2da0e1

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Sundance: Filmmaker Pelosi shoots first, asks permission later | The ...

Courtesy | HBO Former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey is the subject of the documentary "Fall to Grace."

In "Fall to Grace," filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi profiles former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who resigned in 2004 after declaring himself a "gay American."

The short film ? screening in Sundance?s Documentary Shorts Program II and airing on HBO in March ? tells how McGreevey left politics behind to do good works. After resigning, he attends divinity school with a goal of becoming an Episcopal priest while he spends time working with female inmates at a New Jersey correctional facility.

?

?Fall to Grace?

The last screening of Alexandra Pelosi?s short documentary about former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey will be Saturday, Jan. 26, at 8:30 p.m. at the Holiday Village Cinema 1, Park City. It?s part of the Documentary Shorts Program II.

"Maybe it?s just because I?ve been around politicians all my life and I?m fascinated by the life cycle of the politician," said Pelosi, the daughter of U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Jim doesn?t have anything nice to say about politicians. He?s a recovering politician."

"Fall to Grace" isn?t so much about politics or even a whitewashed profile of McGreevey, but instead unfolds a story of faith and redemption.

Pelosi said she knows Sundance audiences might be suspicious of McGreevey?s motives. "I have all these snarky, New York media-type friends ? the kind that work at HBO ? who say things like, ?Well, why would he do this?? And he?s doing something. Which is more than most people are doing."

The backstory of her short film is worth a documentary all by itself. Pelosi?s work certainly fits in the model of a shoestring Sundance indie film. Her biggest expense during filming was the $1.75 train fare from her apartment in New Jersey to meetings with McGreevey at the correctional facility.

"If you don?t have a camera crew, it costs nothing," Pelosi said. "It was a zero-expense project. It was just getting on the train and going to the jail."

When she needed to hire an editor, she sought support from HBO. Despite her track record of making nearly 10 HBO documentaries during the past decade by herself, officials weren?t convinced a McGreevey documentary was a good idea before they saw her footage.

"When I looked at just a little bit of it, I immediately endorsed it," said Sheila Nevins, the president of HBO documentaries. "She?s a filmmaker sprite, and she?s a very fine documentary filmmaker."

Added Lisa Heller, HBO?s vice president of documentaries: "She?s a one-woman show. I mean, we have people who go with big crews and a lot of support. She?s out there on her own, and it is shocking how high quality her material is when it comes back."

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That?s Pelosi?s style, to shoot first and ask permission later. "People still don?t take me seriously," she said. "The camera?s rolling in their face and they still don?t realize it?s going to end up on HBO."

She?s also underestimated because of her shoestring filming methods. "When [subjects] see an old mom with a camcorder, they?re not intimidated or afraid," said the 42-year-old Pelosi. "When my kids have events at their schools, the parents have nicer cameras than I shoot my documentaries with. So if someone sees me filming, they don?t think, ?There?s a documentary crew. What are they doing? Did they get permission to be here???"

She started her filmmaking career on advice from Karl Rove, the former aide to President George W. Bush. Working as an NBC News producer during the 2000 presidential campaign, the daughter of the first female speaker of the House would often whip out a small, hand-held camera.

"Karl Rove would walk by and see me filming, and he?d say, ?Oh, I get it. It?s better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission,??" Pelosi said. "And then I would just keep going until someone would tell me to turn it off. And, ironically, no one ever told me to turn it off."

The footage from the 2000 campaign became her first documentary, "Journeys with George," which she submitted to Sundance. When it wasn?t accepted, "That broke me. I was like, ?OK, I?m not going to be a filmmaker.??"

The irony was that Bush "used to say to me, ?We?re going to go to Sundance!??" It became a refrain, with Bush comparing Pelosi to filmmaker Michael Moore. "But he used to call me Roger Moore because he would mix it up," Pelosi said. "Then I didn?t get in, and that was sort of crushing. After that, I never applied again."

Until this year, when Pelosi submitted "Fall to Grace" to Sundance the same way every other filmmaker does ? sent off the film and hoped for the best. "People assume because of my last name I know people," she said. "I don?t know anybody. I don?t even know who to call."

Pelosi is thrilled the TV network is paying her way to the festival. "I couldn?t even pay for the airfare to go to Sundance," she said. "And do you know how much the hotels cost?"

Plus there?s the expense of finding baby sitters for her 5- and 6-year-old sons. "I can?t be gone for a week," she said. "I don?t have a nanny. I have to raise my own kids. They?re already mad I?m going to Sundance. I?m, like, ?You don?t understand. I?ve worked my whole life to get to Sundance.? It was something I always dreamed of. And here I am reborn at the age of 42.

"And my kids are, like, ?Who?s going to pick us up from school on Monday???"

spierce@sltrib.com

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Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment2/55612623-223/pelosi-documentary-mcgreevey-sundance.html.csp

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