In March last year Yahoo?s SVP of the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region abruptly quit his role in the rejuvenation of Yahoo, supposedly to be closer to family in Sunnyvale. However, after an orderly departure he's now joined Shazam, the mobile music discovery app as CEO. Longtime CEO Andrew Fisher (since 2005) will become executive chairman. The London-based Shazam says it now has 300 million users in 200 countries, with 90 million of them in the U.S. and calls itself a "media engagement company."
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Apr. 28, 2013 ? Scientists from ETH Zurich have shown for the first time that brown and white fat cells in a living organism can be converted from one cell type to the other. Their work, using mice as a model organism, provides important new insights into the origin of brown fat cells, which is a prerequisite for the development of successful anti-obesity therapies.
Two types of fat cells can be found in mammals and hence in humans: White fat cells function mainly as highly flexible energy stores which are filled in times of calorie abundance. The fat is stored in the form of lipid droplets, which are mobilized when energy is needed. Diametrically opposed in function are the so-called brown adipocytes: These cells specialize in burning energy in the form of fat and sugar to produce heat. New-born babies possess substantial amounts of brown fat and utilize it to maintain body temperature. Since it was recently shown that brown adipocytes also exist in adult humans, research has focused on understanding how brown adipocytes are formed. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to increase brown adipocyte number and activity in obese humans, allowing them to burn excess calories and thus reduce weight.
Against the current belief
It is known that both humans and mice can adapt to cold temperatures by forming brown fat cells within their white fat depots. These cells are called "brite" fat cells (brown-in-white) and are less common at warmer versus colder temperatures. However, the origin of these special brown adipocytes has remained a matter of debate. The prevalent hypothesis was that brite cells are formed from special precursor cells and are removed when no longer needed. The alternate idea of a direct interconversion between white and brown fat cells gained less attention. By demonstrating that this interconversion does occur and is one of the main contributors to brite fat cell formation, the current belief has been challenged.
Genetically labelled fat cells
To demonstrate how brite fat cells are formed the researchers in the laboratory of Christian Wolfrum, a professor at the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, generated mice that allowed them to genetically label specific fat cells. These animals were kept in a changing environment: starting at 8?C for a week and for several weeks afterwards at normal room temperature. During the cold exposure, the mice formed brown adipocytes in their white fat depots -- a process called "britening." After warm adaptation the fat tissue turned white again. Using the genetic markers the scientists concluded from these experiments that white fat cells can convert into brown fat cells and vice versa. As humans have the same type of cells as mice it is likely that the same process occurs in humans upon cold stimulation.
Treatments against obesity
"To develop new treatment strategies we need to find ways to convert white into brown adipocytes," says Wolfrum. Most of the research has focused on identifying the precursor cells for brown fat cells, an approach that may be insufficient. Future work will address the question of how to manipulate this interconversion process either by pharmacological or by nutritional means.
This approach would represent a novel strategy. "Current anti-obesity therapies target the energy intake side of the equation by controlling appetite and the uptake of nutrients," says Wolfrum. The pharmacological treatments that are available are not very efficient and usually are associated with side effects. In contrast, this novel approach to treat obesity would target the energy expenditure side of the equation by promoting brown fat formation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by ETH Zurich, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Matthias Rosenwald, Aliki Perdikari, Thomas R?licke, Christian Wolfrum. Bi-directional interconversion of brite and white?adipocytes. Nature Cell Biology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ncb2740
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? A new pope from Latin America who wants to build "a church for the poor" is stirring hopes among advocates of liberation theology, a movement of social activism that alarmed former popes by delving into leftist politics.
Pope Francis has what it takes to fix a church "in ruins" that has "lost its respect for what is sacred," prominent liberation theologian Leonardo Boff said Saturday.
"With this pope, a Jesuit and a pope from the Third World, we can breathe happiness," Boff said at a Buenos Aires book fair. "Pope Francis has both the vigor and tenderness that we need to create a new spiritual world."
The 74-year-old Brazilian theologian was pressured to remain silent by previous popes who tried to draw a hard line between socially active priests and leftist politics. As Argentina's leading cardinal before he became pope, Francis reinforced this line, suggesting in 2010 that reading the Gospel with a Marxist interpretation only gets priests in trouble.
But Boff says the label of a closed-minded conservative simply doesn't fit with Francis.
"Pope Francis comes with the perspective that many of us in Latin America share. In our churches we do not just discuss theological theories, like in European churches. Our churches work together to support universal causes, causes like human rights, from the perspective of the poor, the destiny of humanity that is suffering, services for people living on the margins."
The liberation theology movement, which seeks to free lives as well as souls, emerged in the 1960s and quickly spread, especially in Latin America. Priests and church laypeople became deeply involved in human rights and social struggles. Some were caught up in clashes between repressive governments and rebels, sometimes at the cost of their lives.
The movement's martyrs include El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose increasing criticism of his country's military-run government provoked his assassination as he was saying Mass in 1980. He was killed by thugs connected to the military hierarchy a day after he preached that "no soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God." His killing presaged a civil war that killed nearly 90,000 over the next 12 years.
Romero's beatification cause languished under popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI due to their opposition to liberation theology, but he was put back on track to becoming a saint days after Francis became pope.
Scores of other liberation theologians were killed in the 1970s and 1980s. Six Jesuit teachers were slaughtered at their university in El Salvador in 1989. Other priests and lay workers were tortured and vanished in the prisons of Chile and Argentina. Some were shot to death while demanding land rights for the poor in Brazil. A handful went further and picked up arms, or died accompanying rebel columns as chaplains, such as American Jesuit James Carney, who died in Honduras in 1983.
While even John Paul embraced the "preferential option for the poor" at the heart of the movement, some church leaders were unhappy to see church intellectuals mixing doses of Marxism and class struggle into their analysis of the Gospel. It was a powerfully attractive mixture for idealistic Latin Americans who were raised in Catholic doctrine, educated by the region's army of Marxist-influenced teachers, and outraged by the hunger, inequality and bloody repression all around them.
John Paul and his chief theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, drove some of the most ardent and experimental liberation theologians out of the priesthood, castigated some of those who remained, and ensured that the bishops and cardinals they promoted took a wary view of leftist social activism.
Yet much of the movement remained, practiced by thousands of grassroots "base communities" working out of local parishes across the hemisphere, nurtured by nuns, priests and a few bishops who put freedom from hunger, poverty and social injustice at the heart of the Church's spiritual mission.
Hundreds of advocates at a conference in Brazil last year declared themselves ready for a comeback.
"At times embers are hidden beneath the ashes," said the meeting's final declaration, which expressed hopes of stirring ablaze "a fire that lights other fires in the church and in society."
Boff and other advocates are thrilled that this new pope spent so much time ministering in the slums, and are inspired by his writings, which see no heresy in social action.
"The option for the poor comes from the first centuries of Christianity. It is the Gospel itself," said then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio during a 2010 deposition in a human rights trial. He said that if he were to repeat "any of the sermons from the first fathers of the church, from the 2nd or 3rd century, about how the poor must be treated, they would say that mine would be Maoist or Trotskyite."
Msgr. Gregorio Rosa Chavez, the auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, said Romero and Francis have the same vision of the church. "When he says 'a church that is poor and for the poor,' that is what Monsignor Romero said so many times," he said.
Rosa Chavez said neither cardinal was among the most radical of churchmen.
"There are many theologies of liberation," he said. "The pope represents one of these currents, the most pastoral current, the current that combines action with teaching." He described Francis' version as "theologians on foot, who walk with the people and combine reflection with action," and contrasted them with "theologians of the desk, who are from university classrooms."
John Paul II himself embraced the term "liberation theology," but was also credited with inspiring resistance to the communist regime in his native Poland, and was allergic to socialist pieties.
For 30 years, the Vatican has been seeding Latin America, Africa and Asia with cardinals "who have tended to be, adverse, to put it kindly, to liberation theology," said Stacey Floyd-Thomas, a professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.
In Brazil, Sao Paulo Archbishop Odilo Scherer, widely considered a possible pope, told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper last year that liberation theology "lost its reason of being because of its Marxist ideological underpinnings . which are incompatible with Christian theology."
"It had its merits by helping bring back into focus matters like social justice, international justice and the liberation of oppressed peoples. But these were always constant themes in the teachings of the Church," Scherer said.
In 1984, Ratzinger put Boff in Galileo's chair for a Vatican inquisition over his writings, eventually stripping him of his church functions and ordering him to spend a year in "obedient silence." Nearly a decade later, in 1993, the Vatican pressured him again, and he quit the Franciscan order.
Now Boff says Francis has brought a "new spring" to the global church.
"Josef Ratzinger. He was against the cause of the poor, liberation theology," Boff said. "But this is from last century. Now we are under a new Pope."
___
Associated Press Writers Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Jenny Barchfield in Rio de Janeiro, Marcos Aleman in San Salvador and John Rice in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Jared Zoneraich and Nick Joseph are two high school students who've spent the night here at the Disrupt NY 2013 Hackathon coding an in-car app for learner drivers using GM's API. The pair got a great reception on stage during their presentation for Learn to Drive -- not least for the in-car dashboard app's killer feature: a voice warning that booms out when a learner is going too fast.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ? The fishing trip off the rugged north coast of St. Lucia was supposed to last all day, but about four hours into the journey, the boat's electric system crackled and popped.
Dan Suski, a 30-year-old business owner and information technology expert from San Francisco, had been wrestling a 200-pound marlin in rough seas with help from his sister, Kate Suski, a 39-year-old architect from Seattle. It was around noon April 21.
He was still trying to reel in the fish when water rushed into the cabin and flooded the engine room, prompting the captain to radio for help as he yelled out their coordinates.
It would be nearly 14 hours and a long, long swim before what was supposed to be a highlight of their sunny vacation would come to an end.
As the waves pounded the boat they had chartered from the local company "Reel Irie," more water flooded in. The captain threw life jackets to the Suskis.
"He said, 'Jump out! Jump out!'" Kate Suski recalled in a telephone interview Thursday with The Associated Press.
The Suskis obeyed and jumped into the water with the captain and first mate. Less than five minutes later, the boat sank.
The group was at least eight miles (13 kilometers) from shore, and waves more than twice their size tossed them.
"The captain was telling us to stay together, and that help was on its way and that we needed to wait," Kate Suski said.
The group waited for about an hour, but no one came.
"I was saying, 'Let's swim, let's swim. If they're coming, they will find us. We can't just stay here,'" she recalled.
As they began to swim, the Suskis lost sight of the captain and first mate amid the burgeoning swells. Soon after, they also lost sight of land amid the rain.
"We would just see swells and gray," Dan Suski said.
A plane and a helicopter appeared in the distance and hovered over the area, but no one spotted the siblings.
Several hours went by, and the sun began to set.
"There's this very real understanding that the situation is dire," Kate Suski said. "You come face-to-face with understanding your own mortality ... We both processed the possible ways we might die. Would we drown? Be eaten by a shark?"
"Hypothermia?" Dan Suski asked.
"Would our legs cramp up and make it impossible to swim?" the sister continued.
They swam for 12 to 14 hours, talking as they pushed and shivered their way through the ocean. Dan Suski tried to ignore images of the movie "Open Water" that kept popping into his head and its story of a scuba-diving couple left behind by their group and attacked by sharks. His sister said she also couldn't stop thinking about sharks.
"I thought I was going to vomit I was so scared," she said.
When they finally came within 30 feet (9 meters) of land, they realized they couldn't get out of the water.
"There were sheer cliffs coming into the ocean," she said. "We knew we would get crushed."
Dan Suski thought they should try to reach the rocks, which they could see in the moonlight, but his sister disagreed.
"We won't survive that," she told him.
They swam until they noticed a spit of sand nearby. When they got to land, they collapsed, barely able to walk. It was past midnight, and they didn't notice any homes in the area.
"Dan said the first priority was to stay warm," she recalled.
They hiked inland and lay side by side, pulling up grass and brush to cover themselves and stay warm. Kate Suski had only her bikini on, having shed her sundress to swim better. Dan Suski had gotten rid of his shorts, having recalled a saying when he was a kid that "the best-dressed corpses wear cotton."
They heard a stream nearby but decided to wait until daylight to determine whether the water was safe to drink.
As the sun came up, they began to hike through thick brush, picking up bitter mangoes along the way and stopping to eat green bananas.
"It was probably the best and worst banana I've ever had," Dan Suski recalled.
Some three hours later, they spotted a young farm worker walking with his white dog. He fed them crackers, gave them water and waited until police arrived, the Suskis said.
"We asked if he knew anything about the captain and mate," Kate Suski said. "He said he had seen the news the night before and they hadn't been found at that time. I think we felt a sense of tragedy that we weren't prepared for."
The Suskis were hospitalized and received IV fluids, with doctors concerned they couldn't draw blood from Kate Suski's arm because she was so dehydrated. They also learned that the captain and mate were rescued after spending nearly 23 hours in the water, noting that their relatives called and took care of them after the ordeal.
St. Lucia's tourism minister called it a miracle, and the island's maritime affairs unit is investigating exactly what caused the boat to sink. Marine Police Sgt. Finley Leonce said they have already interviewed the captain, and that police did not suspect foul play or any criminal activity in the sinking of the ship.
A man who answered the phone Thursday at the "Reel Irie" company declined to comment except to say that he's grateful everyone is safe. He said both the captain and first mate were standing next to him but that they weren't ready to talk about the incident.
The brother and sister said they don't blame anyone for the shipwreck.
"We are so grateful to be alive right now," Kate Suski said. "Nothing can sort of puncture that bubble."
Upon returning to their hotel in St. Lucia earlier this week, the Suskis were upgraded to a suite as they recover from cuts on their feet, severe tendonitis in their ankles from swimming and abrasions from the lifejackets.
"It's really been amazing," Dan Suski said. "It's a moving experience for me."
On Saturday, they plan to fly back to the U.S. to meet their father in Miami.
Once a night owl, Kate Suski no longer minds getting up early for flights, or for any other reason.
"Since this ordeal, I've been waking up at dawn every morning," she said. "I've never looked forward to the sunrise so much in my life."
BOSTON (AP) ? Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhohkar Tsarnaev was moved from a hospital to a federal prison medical center while FBI agents shifted the focus of their investigation to how the deadly plot was pulled off and searched for evidence Friday in a landfill near the college he attended.
Tsarnaev, 19, was taken from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he was recovering from a throat wound and other injuries suffered during an attempt to elude police last week, and he was transferred to the Federal Medical Center Devens, about 40 miles from Boston, the U.S. Marshals Service said. The facility, at a former Army base, treats federal prisoners.
"It's where he should be; he doesn't need to be here anymore," said Beth Israel patient Linda Zamansky, who thought his absence could reduce stress on bombing victims who have been recovering at the hospital under tight security.
The FBI's investigation of the April 15 bombing has turned from identification and apprehension of suspects to piecing together details of the plot, including how long the planning took, how it was carried out and whether anyone else knew or was involved.
A federal law enforcement official not authorized to speak on the record about the investigation told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity on Friday that the FBI was gathering evidence regarding "everything imaginable."
FBI agents picked through a landfill near the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where Tsarnaev was a sophomore. FBI spokesman Jim Martin would not say what investigators were looking for.
An aerial photo in Friday's Boston Globe showed a line of more than 20 investigators, all dressed in white overalls and yellow boots, picking over the garbage with shovels or rakes.
Investigators also have continued to interview people who were close to Tsarnaev, including two young men from Kazakhstan who were students with him at UMass Dartmouth.
Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev were jailed by immigration authorities the day after Tsarnaev's capture. Kadyrbayev's lawyer, former federal prosecutor Robert Stahl, said the pair, who had partied with Tsarnaev and other students at an off-campus apartment, had nothing to do with the attack and had no idea their friend harbored any violent thoughts.
"These kids are just as shocked and horrified about what happened as everyone else," Stahl said. He said they are being held for violating their student visas by not regularly attending classes and want to return to Kazakhstan as soon as possible.
U.S. officials, meanwhile, said that the bombing suspects' mother had been added to a federal terrorism database about 18 months before the deadly attack ? a disclosure that deepens the mystery around the Tsarnaev family and marks the first time American authorities have acknowledged that Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was under investigation before the tragedy.
The news is certain to fuel questions about whether President Barack Obama's administration missed opportunities to thwart the marathon bombing, which killed three people and wounded more than 260.
Tsarnaev is charged with joining with his older brother, now dead, in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs. The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago with their parents. Investigators have said it appears that the brothers were angry about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Two government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, said the CIA had Zubeidat Tsarnaeva's name added to the terror database along with that of her son Tamerlan Tsarnaev after Russia contacted the agency in 2011 with concerns that the two were religious militants.
About six months earlier, the FBI investigated mother and son, also at Russia's request, one of the officials said. The FBI found no ties to terrorism. Previously U.S. officials had said only that the FBI investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
In an interview from Russia, Tsarnaeva said Friday that she has never been linked to terrorism.
"It's all lies and hypocrisy," she said from Dagestan. "I'm sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person, and I've never been mixed up in any criminal intentions, especially any linked to terrorism."
Tsarnaeva faces shoplifting charges in the U.S. over the theft of more than $1,624 worth of women's clothing from a Lord & Taylor department store in Natick in 2012.
Earlier this week, she said she has been assured by lawyers that she would not be arrested if she traveled to the U.S., but she said she was still deciding whether to go. The suspects' father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said that he would leave Russia soon for the United States to visit one son and lay the other to rest.
A team of investigators from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has questioned both parents in Russia this week, spending many hours with the mother in particular over two days.
Meanwhile, New York's police commissioner said the FBI was too slow to inform the city that the Boston Marathon suspects had been planning to bomb Times Square days after the attack at the race.
Federal investigators learned about the short-lived scheme from a hospitalized Dzhokhar Tsarnaev during a bedside interrogation that began Sunday night and extended into Monday morning, officials said. The information didn't reach the New York Police Department until Wednesday night.
"We did express our concerns over the lag," said police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who with Mayor Michael Bloomberg had announced the findings on Thursday.
The FBI had no comment Friday.
___
Sullivan reported from Washington. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Rodrique Ngowi in Boston, Colleen Long in New York and Pete Yost and Julie Pace in Washington.
The Spanish government hopes that its measures will be enough to convince Europe to okay a two-year extension on its deficit-reduction goals.
By Andr?s Cala,?Correspondent / April 26, 2013
Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos speaks during a news conference after a weekly cabinet meeting at Moncloa Palace in Madrid today.
Sergio Perez/Reuters
Enlarge
The Spanish government on Friday announced new public deficit-cutting measures to convince Europe that it deserves a two-year extension on reaching its targets, as data this week suggested that the recession is slowing down and that growth could resume next year.
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The government announced it is extending a 2012 income tax hike, which was due to expire next year, until 2015, and eliminating some tax deductions for big companies. It also announced that more targeted tax increases will follow, although it ruled out any that would affect fuels.
But Spain didn?t announce any reforms in the pension system nor did it further reform labor laws, as the European Union wanted. The government believes to do so would only worsen its already dire unemployment, which for the first time in history topped 6 million people according to data released this week by Spain's National Statistics Institute.
The new measures are part of Spain?s revised macroeconomic stability plans, which need to be presented to and ultimately sanctioned by the EU. The new deficit target for 2013, if approved, will be 6.3 percent of gross domestic product, almost a two-point hike from its current ? and unreachable ? 4.5 percent.
?There have been talks with European institutions,? Finance Minister Luis de Guindos said Friday, suggesting that the government's plans have preliminary European support. The EU will review member country plans, and if convinced, sanction them in late May, which is when Spain would be given two more years to meet its target.
?The new hypothesis are extremely conservative, very prudent, to add credibility to the government?s action,? Mr. De Guindos said.
Bottoming out?
But the EU is also justifiably concerned. Not only has Spain missed its targets year after year ? albeit like most of Europe, which continues to face economic headwind ? but its economic situation is dire. At?10.6 percent of GDP,?Spain?s real deficit is the EU?s biggest, higher even than Greece?s 10 percent, according to Eurostat data released this week.
Although the government?s 2012 deficit was officially 7 percent, down from 9 percent in 2011, a European bailout of the Spanish financial sector ? in the form of loans to private institutions, but underwritten by the government ? raises the total government liability.
The worst might be over though, although the vast majority of Spaniards won?t feel respite. The Central Bank said this week that the recession had slowed down in the first quarter of 2013 to 0.5 percent, a severe contraction, but nonetheless smaller than the previous quarter, and will bottom out in the end of 2013. Home prices also continue to fall, but at a slower pace than before.
The cost of borrowing for Spain has also dropped to 2010 levels, allowing the government to continue financing its increased spending requirements needed to return to growth.
Increasing debt
That is why Spain says it needs more time. The government significantly revised its outlook for the year and now expects a 1.3 percent contraction, from the 0.5 percent previously estimated.
The revision was largely expected and is in line with other forecasts. The government now expects only slight growth of 0.5 percent in 2014. Unemployment, already topping 27 percent, will continue increasing throughout most of this year, but job creation thereafter will be excruciatingly slow, and joblessness will remain around 25 percent even in 2016, the government said in its new outlook.
Spain?s total debt has also ballooned during the crisis, alarming investors, even though it remains manageable. In 2011, it was equal to nearly 70 of the GDP, but it will continue swelling to more than 91 percent in 2013 and reach almost 100 percent by 2016.
Tax revenue, as a share of the GDP, is also one of the lowest in the EU, as a result of lower consumer spending and unemployment.
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Itchy eyes, scratchy throat, running nose--it's allergy season! What triggers these allergic reactions, and how do allergy medications work?
The outer surface of many of our cells, including those in the airways, has a protein called the H1 receptor. This protein attaches to histamine, an organic compound involved in immune responses. In some people, the binding triggers allergic reactions, such as hay fever or food and pet allergies. Antihistamine drugs work by preventing histamine from attaching to H1 receptors.
H1 receptors belong to a special family of proteins called G protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs. Scientists estimate that there are about 800 different types of GPCRs in the membranes of our cells. Some are sensing molecules that let us see, smell and taste; others give us a boost after a few sips of coffee, make us retreat during a conflict or help fight off infection. GPCRs also are associated with diseases ranging from asthma to schizophrenia, and they are the target of more than a third of marketed drugs, including heart medications and antidepressants.
Yet GPCRs' structures--key to understanding how they work and to designing more effective drugs--have remained relatively hidden from view. Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have given us a peek at some of them, and the improved methods these scientists have developed could reveal lots more structures in the near future.
Structural Clues
Labs around the world have tried for years to obtain detailed images of human GPCRs because the precise, three-dimensional arrangement of a protein's atoms provides important details about how a protein interacts with its natural partner molecules in the body or with drug molecules. But the structures of membrane proteins, including GPCRs, are as difficult to determine as they are valuable to understand.
One challenge is that GPCRs are exceedingly flimsy and fragile when not anchored within their native cell membranes. This makes it very hard to coax them to form crystals so that their structures can be determined through X-ray crystallography.
Right now, we know the structures of about 1 percent of all human GPCRs, and researchers are using two key approaches to generate and study more. Stanford University's Brian Kobilka, who shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on GPCRs, is among the scientists who are focusing on specific GPCRs to better understand how they function and interact with other molecules, including drugs.
Other scientists, such as Raymond Stevens at The Scripps Research Institute, are taking a complementary approach to get structures that represent each of the major branches of the GPCR family tree. Knowing more about one member could enable scientists to computationally model the others.
GPCR
In addition to the H1 histamine receptor, some of the key structures that the Stevens group and its collaborators, including Kobilka and other scientists around the world, have solved using the family tree approach include the:
? ?2 adrenergic receptor, or the molecular "fight or flight" switch.
? A2A adenosine receptor, sometimes called the "caffeine receptor."
? CXCR4 chemokine receptor, which has been linked to more than 20 types of cancer.
?D3 dopamine receptor, which plays a vital role in the central nervous system, affecting our movement, cognition and emotion.
? Kappa opioid receptor, a protein on the surface of brain cells that is centrally involved in pleasure as well as in pain, addiction, depression, psychosis and related conditions.
Technical Breakthroughs
What was the game-changing technical breakthrough that has made determining these structures possible?
"I'm always asked that question," says Stevens, "and the answer is that there wasn't just one breakthrough, there were about 15 separate developments by several different investigators around the world, each breakthrough critically needed in combination with one another, and they came together after a long time."
Some of these breakthroughs have improved researchers' ability to produce and purify GPCRs in quantities sufficient for crystallization. Other breakthroughs have been aimed at stabilizing GPCRs, making them more crystallizable and holding them in a specific structural conformation. Scientists continue to improve other methods, including the ability to model new GPCR structures from known ones.
These developments have had an enormous impact on furthering our understanding of GPCRs, and they should lead to new insights on biological processes and aid progress in drug discovery.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NIH, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Itchy eyes, scratchy throat, running nose--it's allergy season! What triggers these allergic reactions, and how do allergy medications work?
The outer surface of many of our cells, including those in the airways, has a protein called the H1 receptor. This protein attaches to histamine, an organic compound involved in immune responses. In some people, the binding triggers allergic reactions, such as hay fever or food and pet allergies. Antihistamine drugs work by preventing histamine from attaching to H1 receptors.
H1 receptors belong to a special family of proteins called G protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs. Scientists estimate that there are about 800 different types of GPCRs in the membranes of our cells. Some are sensing molecules that let us see, smell and taste; others give us a boost after a few sips of coffee, make us retreat during a conflict or help fight off infection. GPCRs also are associated with diseases ranging from asthma to schizophrenia, and they are the target of more than a third of marketed drugs, including heart medications and antidepressants.
Yet GPCRs' structures--key to understanding how they work and to designing more effective drugs--have remained relatively hidden from view. Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have given us a peek at some of them, and the improved methods these scientists have developed could reveal lots more structures in the near future.
Structural Clues
Labs around the world have tried for years to obtain detailed images of human GPCRs because the precise, three-dimensional arrangement of a protein's atoms provides important details about how a protein interacts with its natural partner molecules in the body or with drug molecules. But the structures of membrane proteins, including GPCRs, are as difficult to determine as they are valuable to understand.
One challenge is that GPCRs are exceedingly flimsy and fragile when not anchored within their native cell membranes. This makes it very hard to coax them to form crystals so that their structures can be determined through X-ray crystallography.
Right now, we know the structures of about 1 percent of all human GPCRs, and researchers are using two key approaches to generate and study more. Stanford University's Brian Kobilka, who shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on GPCRs, is among the scientists who are focusing on specific GPCRs to better understand how they function and interact with other molecules, including drugs.
Other scientists, such as Raymond Stevens at The Scripps Research Institute, are taking a complementary approach to get structures that represent each of the major branches of the GPCR family tree. Knowing more about one member could enable scientists to computationally model the others.
GPCR
In addition to the H1 histamine receptor, some of the key structures that the Stevens group and its collaborators, including Kobilka and other scientists around the world, have solved using the family tree approach include the:
? ?2 adrenergic receptor, or the molecular "fight or flight" switch.
? A2A adenosine receptor, sometimes called the "caffeine receptor."
? CXCR4 chemokine receptor, which has been linked to more than 20 types of cancer.
?D3 dopamine receptor, which plays a vital role in the central nervous system, affecting our movement, cognition and emotion.
? Kappa opioid receptor, a protein on the surface of brain cells that is centrally involved in pleasure as well as in pain, addiction, depression, psychosis and related conditions.
Technical Breakthroughs
What was the game-changing technical breakthrough that has made determining these structures possible?
"I'm always asked that question," says Stevens, "and the answer is that there wasn't just one breakthrough, there were about 15 separate developments by several different investigators around the world, each breakthrough critically needed in combination with one another, and they came together after a long time."
Some of these breakthroughs have improved researchers' ability to produce and purify GPCRs in quantities sufficient for crystallization. Other breakthroughs have been aimed at stabilizing GPCRs, making them more crystallizable and holding them in a specific structural conformation. Scientists continue to improve other methods, including the ability to model new GPCR structures from known ones.
These developments have had an enormous impact on furthering our understanding of GPCRs, and they should lead to new insights on biological processes and aid progress in drug discovery.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NIH, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea summoned Tokyo's ambassador in Seoul on Thursday to protest at Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's defense of visits by senior officials and lawmakers to a shrine seen by Japan's neighbors as a symbol of wartime aggression.
China and South Korea chastised Japan after more than 160 lawmakers visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine this week. That followed a symbolic offering made by Abe to the shrine and a visit by Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and two other ministers.
Such visits, a regular occurrence during religious festivals, have long angered Asian nations where the scars of Japan's past militarism still run deep.
"We don't understand why Japanese society closes its eyes and covers its ears about pain and damage caused by its past invasion and colonial rule, while it treats honesty and trust as important values," Kim Kyou-hyun, South Korea's vice foreign minister, told the ambassador, according to the ministry.
The recurring flare-ups in tensions between Japan, South Korea and China have been a source of concern for Washington, which is keen to secure cooperation from Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing in reining in reclusive North Korea.
Thursday's summons in Seoul came a day after conservative Abe defended the latest visits to Yasukuni at a parliamentary panel in Tokyo.
The shrine honors Japan's war dead, as well as 14 leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal. It is seen by Koreans as a reminder of Japan's brutal colonial rule from 1910-1945.
China, which also suffered under Japanese occupation, also takes offence when Japanese leaders pay their respects at the shrine.
BURDEN OF HISTORY
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference on Thursday that Tokyo did not want the Yasukuni issue to affect ties with its neighbors.
"Our basic stance is, as I have been saying, our nation has caused a great pain and suffering to many nations, especially people in Asian nations, in the war," he said.
"Japanese governments have accepted these historical facts sincerely and have expressed our deepest remorse and heartfelt apology, and have expressed the condolences for all the victims ... This is the same for the Abe government."
Earlier this week, South Korea's foreign minister canceled a trip to Tokyo, and Beijing said recent events showed Japanese leaders continued to deny the nation's militaristic past.
Abe, however, was unapologetic.
"It is only natural to honor the spirits of the war dead who gave their lives for the country. Our ministers will not cave in to any threats," Abe told a parliamentary panel on Wednesday. "It is also my job to protect our pride, which rests on history and tradition."
While defending his actions, Abe also said he was open to dialogue with China and others. Tokyo was also discussing a possible trip by defense officials to Beijing to ease tensions.
Japanese media said the delegation could leave as soon as Thursday, but the defense ministry said details were still being worked out.
Tensions have also risen this week in a Sino-Japanese row over disputed islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, after a flotilla carrying Japanese nationalists sailed near the rocky islets and China sent eight surveillance ships into nearby waters.
(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko in TOKYO; Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Paul Tait and Alex Richardson)
Apr. 24, 2013 ? The teenage years may be a key period of vulnerability related to living in the "stroke belt" when it comes to future stroke risk, according to a new study published in the April 24, 2013, online issue of Neurology?, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
More people have strokes and die of strokes in the southeastern area known as the stroke belt than in the rest of the United States. So far, research has shown that only part of the difference can be explained by traditional risk factors such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Previous studies have shown that people who are born in the stroke belt but no longer lived there in adulthood continue to have a higher risk of stroke, along with people who were born outside the stroke belt but lived there in adulthood.
The current study looked at how long people lived in the stroke belt and their ages when they lived there throughout life to see if any age period was most critical in influencing future stroke risk.
Data came from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, a national random sample of the general population with more people selected from the stroke belt. The study involved 24,544 people with an average age of 65 who had never had a stroke at the start of the study, with 57 percent currently living in the stroke belt and 43 percent from the rest of the country. The study tracked each person's moves from birth to present, with some people moving into or out of the stroke belt. The participants were then followed for an average of 5.8 years. During that time, 615 people had a first stroke.
After adjusting for stroke risk factors, only living in the stroke belt during the teenage years was associated with a higher risk of stroke. People who spent their teenage years in the stroke belt were 17 percent more likely to have a stroke in later years than people who did not spend their teenage years in the stroke belt. Across all age periods, living in the stroke belt increased the risk about two-fold for African-Americans compared to Caucasians.
"This study suggests that strategies to prevent stroke need to start early in life," said study author Virginia J. Howard, PhD, of the School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "Many social and behavioral risk factors, such as smoking, are set in place during the teenage years, and teens are more exposed to external influences and gain the knowledge to challenge or reaffirm their childhood habits and lifestyle."
The study was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute on Aging.
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Journal Reference:
Virginia J. Howard et al. Effect of duration and age at exposure to the Stroke Belt on incident stroke in adulthood. Neurology, 2013 DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182904d59
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Folks hoping to get their mitts on Samsung's Galaxy S 4 have had a long wait, and those angling to snag the device from Magenta's online store will have to wait a tad longer. The Uncarrier sent word tonight that the handset won't be available online on April 24th as originally planned thanks to an unexpected delay with inventory deliveries. Instead, online sales of Samsung's smartphone wunderkind will be pushed back to Monday, April 29th. Of course, folks who want to hitch a Galaxy S 4 to a T-Mobile plan can always waltz into one of the firm's brick-and-mortar shops starting May 1st. Head past the break to take a gander at the carrier's full statement.
Lego's new Mindstorms EV3 kit isn't all just gun-firing robots and killer scorpions. Unfortunately, there's also some learning to be done, with the new Mindstorm EV3 kit ready to land in schools this August. Lego reckons the kit touches on several curriculum areas like computer science, math, engineering mixed with (we hope) a little fun -- c'mon, it's class-time Lego!
We got to have a brief play with it back at CES, and as far as Lego goes, it appears to have more than enough additions to keep young minds ticking over, including Linux firmware that connects to Android and iOS apps, infrared and its very own 3D construction guide from Autodesk. The core kit includes the EV3 brick nerve center, a rechargeable battery, sensors, motors, a pile of bricks, a new ball wheel and (thankfully) instructions. Added to that, the teaching set includes a "customizable curriculum", digital workbook and 48 step-by-step tutorials to get the lil' tykes started.
Earth Day: Big ecosystem changes viewed through the lens of tiny carnivorous plantsPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cheryl Dybas cdybas@nsf.gov 703-292-7734 National Science Foundation
Researchers use pitcher plants to identify signs of trouble dead ahead
In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.
---Kahlil Gibran
What do a pond or a lake and a carnivorous pitcher plant have in common?
The water-filled pool within a pitcher plant, it turns out, is a tiny ecosystem whose inner workings are similar to those of a full-scale water body.
Whether small carnivorous plant or huge lake, both are subject to the same ecological "tipping points," of concern on Earth Day--and every day, say scientists.
The findings are published in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the paper, ecologists affiliated with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site in Massachusetts offer new insights about how such tipping points happen.
"Human societies, financial markets and ecosystems all may shift abruptly and unpredictably from one, often favored, state to another less desirable one," says Saran Twombly, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.
"These researchers have looked at the minute ecosystems that thrive in pitcher plant leaves to determine early warning signals and to find ways of predicting and possibly forestalling such 'tipping points.'"
Life in lakes and ponds of all sizes can be disrupted when too many nutrients--such as in fertilizers and pollution--overload the system.
When that happens, these aquatic ecosystems can cross "tipping points" and change drastically. Excess nutrients cause algae to bloom. Bacteria eating the algae use up oxygen in the water. The result is a murky green lake.
"The first step to preventing tipping points is understanding what causes them," says Aaron Ellison, an ecologist at Harvard Forest and co-author of the paper. "For that, you need an experiment where you can demonstrate cause-and-effect."
Ellison and other scientists demonstrated how to reliably trigger a tipping point.
They continually added a set amount of organic matter--comparable to decomposing algae in a lake--to a small aquatic ecosystem: the tiny confines of a pitcher plant, a carnivorous plant native to eastern North America.
Each pitcher-shaped leaf holds about a quarter of an ounce of rainwater. Inside is a complex, multi-level food web of fly larvae and bacteria.
"The pitcher plant is its own little ecosystem," says Jennie Sirota, a researcher at North Dakota State University and lead author of the paper.
Similar to lake ecosystems, oxygen levels inside the water of a pitcher plant are controlled by photosynthesis and the behavior of resident organisms--in this case, mostly bacteria.
Ellison says that conducting an experiment with bacteria is like fast-forwarding through a video.
"A bacterial generation is 20 minutes, maybe an hour," he says. "In contrast, fish in a lake have generation times of a year or more.
"We would need to study a lake for 100 years to get the same information we can get from a pitcher plant in less than a week."
The same mathematical models, Ellison and colleagues discovered, can be used to describe a pitcher plant or a lake ecosystem.
To approximate an overload of nutrients in pitcher-plant water, the team fed set amounts of ground-up wasps to the plants.
"That's equivalent to a 200-pound person eating one or two McDonald's quarter-pounders every day for four days," says Ellison.
In pitcher plants with enough added wasps, an ecosystem tipping point reliably occurred about 45 hours after the start of feeding.
The scientists now have a way of creating tipping points. Their next step will be to identify the early warning signs.
"Tipping points may be easy to prevent," says Ellison, "if we know what to look for."
###
Other authors of the paper are Benjamin Baiser of Harvard Forest and Nicholas Gotelli of the University of Vermont.
-NSF-
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Earth Day: Big ecosystem changes viewed through the lens of tiny carnivorous plantsPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cheryl Dybas cdybas@nsf.gov 703-292-7734 National Science Foundation
Researchers use pitcher plants to identify signs of trouble dead ahead
In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.
---Kahlil Gibran
What do a pond or a lake and a carnivorous pitcher plant have in common?
The water-filled pool within a pitcher plant, it turns out, is a tiny ecosystem whose inner workings are similar to those of a full-scale water body.
Whether small carnivorous plant or huge lake, both are subject to the same ecological "tipping points," of concern on Earth Day--and every day, say scientists.
The findings are published in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the paper, ecologists affiliated with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site in Massachusetts offer new insights about how such tipping points happen.
"Human societies, financial markets and ecosystems all may shift abruptly and unpredictably from one, often favored, state to another less desirable one," says Saran Twombly, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.
"These researchers have looked at the minute ecosystems that thrive in pitcher plant leaves to determine early warning signals and to find ways of predicting and possibly forestalling such 'tipping points.'"
Life in lakes and ponds of all sizes can be disrupted when too many nutrients--such as in fertilizers and pollution--overload the system.
When that happens, these aquatic ecosystems can cross "tipping points" and change drastically. Excess nutrients cause algae to bloom. Bacteria eating the algae use up oxygen in the water. The result is a murky green lake.
"The first step to preventing tipping points is understanding what causes them," says Aaron Ellison, an ecologist at Harvard Forest and co-author of the paper. "For that, you need an experiment where you can demonstrate cause-and-effect."
Ellison and other scientists demonstrated how to reliably trigger a tipping point.
They continually added a set amount of organic matter--comparable to decomposing algae in a lake--to a small aquatic ecosystem: the tiny confines of a pitcher plant, a carnivorous plant native to eastern North America.
Each pitcher-shaped leaf holds about a quarter of an ounce of rainwater. Inside is a complex, multi-level food web of fly larvae and bacteria.
"The pitcher plant is its own little ecosystem," says Jennie Sirota, a researcher at North Dakota State University and lead author of the paper.
Similar to lake ecosystems, oxygen levels inside the water of a pitcher plant are controlled by photosynthesis and the behavior of resident organisms--in this case, mostly bacteria.
Ellison says that conducting an experiment with bacteria is like fast-forwarding through a video.
"A bacterial generation is 20 minutes, maybe an hour," he says. "In contrast, fish in a lake have generation times of a year or more.
"We would need to study a lake for 100 years to get the same information we can get from a pitcher plant in less than a week."
The same mathematical models, Ellison and colleagues discovered, can be used to describe a pitcher plant or a lake ecosystem.
To approximate an overload of nutrients in pitcher-plant water, the team fed set amounts of ground-up wasps to the plants.
"That's equivalent to a 200-pound person eating one or two McDonald's quarter-pounders every day for four days," says Ellison.
In pitcher plants with enough added wasps, an ecosystem tipping point reliably occurred about 45 hours after the start of feeding.
The scientists now have a way of creating tipping points. Their next step will be to identify the early warning signs.
"Tipping points may be easy to prevent," says Ellison, "if we know what to look for."
###
Other authors of the paper are Benjamin Baiser of Harvard Forest and Nicholas Gotelli of the University of Vermont.
-NSF-
[ | 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.
If you?re like most Americans you probably don?t get eight hours sleep each night.
But, if you also constantly feel exhausted, experience headaches for no obvious reason or have high blood pressure, you could have a more serious problem.
That?s because these can all be the result of snoring?which is, in turn, the most common symptom of a potentially serious health problem?obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
While most people think of snoring as a minor annoyance, research shows it can be hazardous to your health.? That?s because for over 18 million Americans it?s related to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). People who suffer from OSA repeatedly and unknowingly stop breathing during the night due to a complete or partial obstruction of their airway.? It occurs when the jaw, throat, and tongue muscles relax, blocking the airway used to breathe.? The resulting lack of oxygen can last for a minute or longer, and occur hundreds of times each night. ?
Thankfully, most people wake when a complete or partial obstruction occurs, but it can leave you feeling completely exhausted.? OSA has also been linked to a host of health problems including:
Acid reflux
Frequent nighttime urination
Memory loss
Stroke
Depression
Diabetes
Heart attack
People over 35 are at higher risk.
OSA can be expensive to diagnosis and treat, and is not always covered by insurance. ?A sleep clinic will require an overnight visit (up to $5,000).? Doctors then analyze the data and prescribe one of several treatments.? These may require you to wear uncomfortable CPAP devices that force air through your nose and mouth while you sleep to keep your airways open, and may even include painful surgery.
Fortunately, there is now a?comfortable, far less costly and invasive treatment option available. ?A recent case study published by Eastern Virginia Medical School's Division of Sleep Medicine in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine concludes that wearing a simple chinstrap while you sleep can be an effective treatment for OSA.
The chin strap, which is now available from a company called MySnoringSolution, works by supporting the lower jaw and tongue, preventing obstruction of the airway.? It?s made from a high-tech, lightweight, and super-comfortable material.? Thousands of people have used the MySnoringSolution chinstrap to help relieve their snoring symptoms, and they report better sleeping, and better health overall because of it.
In March last year Yahoo?s SVP of the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region abruptly quit his role in the rejuvenation of Yahoo, supposedly to be closer to family in Sunnyvale. However, after an orderly departure he's now joined Shazam, the mobile music discovery app as CEO. Longtime CEO Andrew Fisher (since 2005) will become executive chairman. The London-based Shazam says it now has 300 million users in 200 countries, with 90 million of them in the U.S. and calls itself a "media engagement company."
This continues?our series?highlighting new positions posted at Twitter each week.?Check out past listings?here.
And here they are:
Jared Zoneraich and Nick Joseph are two high school students who've spent the night here at the Disrupt NY 2013 Hackathon coding an in-car app for learner drivers using GM's API. The pair got a great reception on stage during their presentation for Learn to Drive -- not least for the in-car dashboard app's killer feature: a voice warning that booms out when a learner is going too fast.
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Public release date: 23-Apr-2013
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