Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/254577640?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday, October 12, 2012
The 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors, which are the portals by which information about the environment reaches the interior of cells and leads to their responses. About half of all drugs work by interacting with G-protein-coupled receptors.
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The 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors, which are the portals by which information about the environment reaches the interior of cells and leads to their responses. About half of all drugs work by interacting with G-protein-coupled receptors.
The official Nobel Prize press release:
10 October 2012
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2012 to
Robert J. Lefkowitz
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
and
Brian K. Kobilka
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
"for studies of G-protein?coupled receptors"
Smart receptors on cell surfaces
Your body is a fine-tuned system of interactions between billions of cells. Each cell has tiny receptors that enable it to sense its environment, so it can adapt to new situtations. Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka are awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for groundbreaking discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family of such receptors: G-protein?coupled receptors.
For a long time, it remained a mystery how cells could sense their environment. Scientists knew that hormones such as adrenalin had powerful effects: increasing blood pressure and making the heart beat faster. They suspected that cell surfaces contained some kind of recipient for hormones. But what these receptors actually consisted of and how they worked remained obscured for most of the 20th Century.
Lefkowitz started to use radioactivity in 1968 in order to trace cells' receptors. He attached an iodine isotope to various hormones, and thanks to the radiation, he managed to unveil several receptors, among those a receptor for adrenalin: ?-adrenergic receptor. His team of researchers extracted the receptor from its hiding place in the cell wall and gained an initial understanding of how it works.
The team achieved its next big step during the 1980s. The newly recruited Kobilka accepted the challenge to isolate the gene that codes for the ?-adrenergic receptor from the gigantic human genome. His creative approach allowed him to attain his goal. When the researchers analyzed the gene, they discovered that the receptor was similar to one in the eye that captures light. They realized that there is a whole family of receptors that look alike and function in the same manner.
Today this family is referred to as G-protein?coupled receptors. About a thousand genes code for such receptors, for example, for light, flavour, odour, adrenalin, histamine, dopamine and serotonin. About half of all medications achieve their effect through G-protein?coupled receptors.
The studies by Lefkowitz and Kobilka are crucial for understanding how G-protein?coupled receptors function. Furthermore, in 2011, Kobilka achieved another break-through; he and his research team captured an image of the ?-adrenergic receptor at the exact moment that it is activated by a hormone and sends a signal into the cell. This image is a molecular masterpiece ? the result of decades of research.
Robert J. Lefkowitz, U.S. citizen. Born 1943 in New York, NY, USA. M.D. 1966 from Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. James B. Duke Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
Brian K. Kobilka, U.S. citizen. Born 1955 in Little Falls, MN, USA. M.D. 1981 from Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Also see:
Cell Signalling Caught in the Act and Cell Signalling: It's All About the Structure, both by Lizzie Buchen
And videos of two 2010 Lefkowitz lectures:
Part 1 Seven Transmembrane Receptors
Part 2 Beta-arrestins
?
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=f32de7be092b7a04b6fb4d376f378f80
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Mubarak loyalists acquitted in attack on protest
FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 file photo, pro-government demonstrators, some riding camels and horses and armed with sticks, clash with anti-government demonstrators in Tahrir square, the center of anti-government demonstrations, in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's state news agency said Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 that a Cairo court has acquitted 25 loyalists of ousted President Hosni Mubarak loyalists who had been accused of organizing an attack in which assailants on horses and camels charged into crowds of anti-regime protesters last year. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 file photo, pro-government demonstrators, some riding camels and horses and armed with sticks, clash with anti-government demonstrators in Tahrir square, the center of anti-government demonstrations, in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's state news agency said Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 that a Cairo court has acquitted 25 loyalists of ousted President Hosni Mubarak loyalists who had been accused of organizing an attack in which assailants on horses and camels charged into crowds of anti-regime protesters last year. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 file photo, supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, riding camels and horses, fight with anti-Mubarak protesters in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's state news agency said Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 that a Cairo court has acquitted 25 loyalists of ousted President Hosni Mubarak loyalists who had been accused of organizing an attack in which assailants on horses and camels charged into crowds of anti-regime protesters last year.(AP Photo/Mohammed Abu Zaid, File)
FILE, In this Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 file photo, pro-government demonstrators riding camels and carrying sticks pass by an Egyptian Army tank on their way to charge at anti-government demonstrators, unseen, near the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square, the center of anti-government demonstrations, in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's state news agency said Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 that a Cairo court has acquitted 25 loyalists of ousted President Hosni Mubarak loyalists who had been accused of organizing an attack in which assailants on horses and camels charged into crowds of anti-regime protesters last year. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
CAIRO (AP) ? An Egyptian court on Wednesday acquitted 24 loyalists of ousted President Hosni Mubarak who had been accused of organizing one of the most dramatic attacks on protesters during last year's uprising, the "Camel Battle," in which assailants on horses and camels charged into crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
The 24 were found innocent on charges of manslaughter and attempted murder. The defendants included some of the biggest names of Mubarak's regime, including the former parliament speaker and the head of the now-dissolved ruling party, along with government ministers and businessmen. A 25th defendant died during the course of the trial.
The Feb. 2, 2011 assault left nearly a dozen people killed and was a major turning point in the 18-day wave of protests that led to Mubarak's downfall.
It came a day after Mubarak spoke on national television, saying he would eventually step down. The emotional speech won him sympathy and drained the numbers of protesters in a days-long sit-in in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the heart of the uprising.
But then the attack came. A crowd of Mubarak supporters waded into the young activists at the sit-in. Amid the melee, a number of men on horses and camels swept in, trying to beat and trample protesters. The assault, widely aired on TV, turned into an all-out battle that lasted two days, with more protesters flooding into the square to defend it in clashes that saw the two sides pelting each other with stones, bricks and firebombs. In the end, the Mubarak supporters were driven away.
The attack and the images of young protesters fighting back reversed sympathies and galvanized the uprising. Many Egyptians who were sitting on the fence saw it as a desperate last ditch attempt to crush the revolt, and many accused Mubarak officials and pro-regime businessmen of paying thugs to carry out the attack. The wave of protests grew and on Feb. 11, 2011, Mubarak was forced out.
Judge Mustafa Abdullah said the defendants were acquitted because the testimony of the witnesses was weak and "driven by grudges between witnesses and the defendants due to partisan differences."
Abdullah also said some of the witnesses had criminal records, including one who had a record of perjury. Despite the list of known victims, the judge said he trusted the testimony of a general who was a member of the council that ruled Egypt during the transition, who said that no one was killed in the square during the battle.
The defendants' lawyers had asked for an acquittal because they said there was not enough evidence incriminating their clients. An official in the prosecutor general's office said an attorney has been commissioned to review the reasons for the verdict, a sign it will likely appeal.
A senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed el-Beltagi, said in comments published on its party's online newspaper that the acquittal is a "farce" and called on Egypt's new president, the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi to intervene to retry the defendants.
Gamal Eid, a human rights lawyer whose center was involved in the case, said some evidence presented to the court was not taken into consideration and other evidence was tampered with. Some witnesses in the case changed their testimony from what they had given earlier to investigators, Eid said, blaming pressure from still powerful ex-regime loyalists.
Activists are planning a large rally on Friday criticizing Morsi's 3-month-old rule, and the acquittals of some of the most hated figures of Mubarak's regime are likely to fuel calls for justice.
Nearly 1,000 protesters were killed in the uprising against Mubarak, mostly during clashes with security forces in the early days of the protests, which began on Jan. 25, 2011. But almost none of the officials and policemen brought to trial for the deaths have been found guilty. Most were released for lack of evidence and poor investigation. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop the violence.
Lawyers and activists have questioned the impartiality of the investigations into the killings, which were conducted in the days following the uprising by Mubarak-era officials who still held their posts and by police officers embittered by the protests. The multiple acquittals have fueled calls for reforming the judiciary, which is still made up of judges appointed under Mubarak.
Morsi has promised to hold new trials on new evidence and appointed a new fact-finding mission to investigate the deaths of protests.
Ahmed Ragheb, a human rights lawyer who is participating in the fact-finding mission, said Wednesday's verdict was not a surprise, considering numerous flaws in the procedures leading up to the trial and reported pressures on witnesses and investigating judges from ex-regime officials.
"The acquittal doesn't mean this didn't happen or that so and so did not commit the crime. It means the evidence is not enough," he said. "This is the case in most of the other trials concerning the killing of protesters, because the police, who are accused in the killings, are the ones collecting evidence."
Ragheb said the fact-finding mission has collected new evidence, but that anything short of an overhaul of the judicial system would not mete out justice for the protesters.
"The current judicial system is not qualified to try the state. It is part of it," he said. "We need a new justice system that can protect the revolution," and implement a system of transitional justice to bring former regime officials to trial.
Chief among the defendants in the "Camel Battle" trial was Safwat el-Sherif, one of Mubarak's most trusted aids and secretary-general of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, and Fathi Sorour, who served for decades as speaker of parliament.
Last year, a government-appointed commission investigating the Feb. 2 events released findings, based on testimony from 87 witnesses. The commission said el-Sherif masterminded the attack, making phone calls to ruling party lawmakers and their supporters and telling them to "curb anti-Mubarak protests in Tahrir Square with violence."
"The eyewitnesses said that there was a specific assignment to clear the square by any means," the report said.
Sorour paid thugs anywhere from 50 to 500 Egyptian pounds ($9 to $90) and provided them with meals and drugs to attack the crowd, the commission said.
Witnesses told the investigators they saw ruling party members among the assailants, inciting them against the protesters, and even some on the camels and horses, the report said. "Snipers also took positions on rooftops of residential buildings overlooking the square and they opened fire at protesters."
Associated PressMars landing Gabby Douglas John Orozco Garrett Reid shawn johnson Tony Sly Lauren Perdue
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Decide.com offers $200 price guarantee on purchases
10 hrs.
If you take?a systematic approach to tech product pricing, you will find that prices don?t just slowly rise and fall over a period of days or months. They can also jump up and down over the course of a day, changing as many as twenty times, according to the price-tracking site Decide.com.
Decide tracks these fluctuations, crunches the numbers, predicts whether the price of a product will rise or fall, and tells you whether to buy or wait. And now Decide will back up those predictions with a price guarantee that pays you the difference to the tune of up to $200 per product if they get it wrong and the price drops lower than what you paid within two weeks of when you made the purchase.
So how does it work? The guarantee applies to any product Decide predicts is a good time to buy, but only if you buy it from the retailer listed with the lowest price. You then forward your email receipt to Decide before midnight PST the same day. Decide automatically tracks the price across thousands of retailers??including Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart???for the next 14 days. If the price drops, Decide will notify you and pay the difference.
Right now, the guarantee covers 200,000 products in more than 75 categories across electronics, appliances, sports & outdoors, tools, and lawn and garden. And, for now, the service is free. Soon, Decide will require a paid subscription to get the price guarantee.
In addition to pricing advice, Decide also helps you select which product to buy. On each product page you?ll find a ?Decide Score,? which takes into account user and expert reviews.
For instance, this Canon EOS Rebel T4i gets an 87 and is considered highly rated. You can read the reviews the score is based on and see comparable products. And, you?ll also see news and rumors related to the product.
With much of the shopping leg work done for you, all that will be left is for you to decide.
More from Techlicious:
Get Suzanne's free daily Techlicious Newsletter or chat with her on?Facebook.
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Top China delegate pulls out of IMF meet amid islands row
TOKYO (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday that China's central bank governor will not lead the Chinese delegation at the IMF's semi-annual meeting this week, in what appeared to be a snub to host Japan.
Zhou Xiaochuan's failure to attend the meeting follows a deterioration in relations between China and Japan over their competing claims to sovereignty of some islands in the East China Sea.
The row has been marked by violent protests and calls for boycotts of Japanese products in China. Japanese car makers, including Toyota Motor, later reported a tumble in auto sales in the world's biggest car market.
"We were informed two days ago that Governor Zhou's schedule might require him to cancel his lecture in Tokyo," an IMF spokeswoman said. "It has now been confirmed that his deputy Yi Gang will represent him."
Zhou had been set to deliver what amounted to a closing keynote lecture on Sunday.
A Japanese government official said Zhou's absence would be "regrettable".
The IMF comments confirm a report on Tuesday by Chinese state news agency Xinhua that China's delegation will not be led by its most senior finance officials.
According to Chinese protocol, only the most senior officials usually lead such trips. China's delegation will be led by Yi Gang, vice head of the People's Bank of China, and Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao, Xinhua said.
The disputed group of islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are located near rich fishing grounds and potentially huge oil and gas reserves. Taiwan also asserts its sovereignty over the uninhabited islets.
Japan is scheduled to host the IMF and World Bank annual meetings for the first time in nearly half a century. About 20,000 people are expected to attend the event, making it one of the world's largest international conferences.
"If he (Zhou) is not coming, it is regrettable that a representative of the Chinese authorities does not participate in this important international meeting in Tokyo. At all events, Japan-China economic relationship is very important and Japan will continue to communicate with China from a broader standpoint," said a Japanese government official.
Earlier this week, Xinhua also reported that China's state-owned banks Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China, will not attend the IMF and the World Bank meetings.
Tokyo and Beijing have traded increasingly sharp words in the dispute, which has seen both countries send patrol boats to waters near the disputed islands, raising concerns that an unintended collision or other incident could escalate into a broader clash.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China and Japan to let "cool heads" prevail in the dispute.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said in late September that his country will not compromise on the islands, saying they were "an inherent part of our territory in light of history and also under international law."
Chinese state media say the islands have been "sacred territory since ancient times".
The dispute has bubbled as several Asian governments have argued over sovereignty of islands in the South China Sea.
But the Senkaku/Diaoyu row escalated in September when Japan bought the islands from their private owner to prevent fiery nationalist politician from buying them.
(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneka in TOKYO; Writing by Neil Fullick)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-china-delegate-pulls-imf-meet-amid-islands-010803796.html
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Anderson pitches A's past Tigers to avoid sweep
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? The Oakland Athletics will play another day in this improbable season full of remarkable rallies.
These A's never count themselves out ? down and doubted is their dogma.
Brett Anderson outdueled fellow postseason first-timer Anibal Sanchez and the upstart Athletics showed off stellar defense all over the diamond, avoiding another playoff sweep by Detroit by beating the Tigers 2-0 Tuesday night in their AL division series.
The A's cut their deficit in the best-of-five matchup to 2-1.
Coco Crisp, whose misplay dearly cost Oakland in Game 2, saved a likely home run by Prince Fielder with a leaping catch at the top of the center-field wall in the second inning.
"You see him hit it and you just kind of put your head down a little bit because you think you just gave up a homer," Anderson said. "Then you see him plow through there and catch the ball and it kind of kick starts you to go out there and make pitches."
Yoenis Cespedes hit an RBI single in the first inning and Seth Smith homered in the fifth. That was plenty on a night Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, Fielder and the Tigers' high-priced offense were shut down by the low-budget A's.
Tigers 16-game winner Max Scherzer will try to close out the series in Game 4 Wednesday night against A's rookie A.J. Griffin. Detroit swept the A's in the 2006 AL championship series.
Fielder was the biggest victim of Oakland's spot-on defense, robbed three times. First by Crisp, Oakland's most experienced player whose blunder on Cabrera's fly allowed two runs to score in a 5-4 loss Sunday in Detroit.
"Not to be all over-confident or anything, I think I'm going to catch everything out there," Crisp said. "Obviously it doesn't happen that way ? duh Detroit, right?"
Crisp let out a big "Whoo!" after raising his arm to signal he'd made the grab.
"Coco's catch, the ball was out of the ballpark and it came back," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "The key to that play was he was playing deep and that enabled him to get into a spot to get up and make the catch. And it was a great catch, no doubt about it."
A's shortstop Stephen Drew made a tough play running to his left to stop Fielder's grounder in the fourth and then threw to first while still off balance and in motion.
Then, in the seventh, Cespedes cut over to make a diving catch on Fielder's liner to left field.
That delighted the yellow towel-waving sellout crowd of 37,090 in this blue-collar city.
"It's frustrating. But it's a good team you're playing," Fielder said. "They're going to make those plays, that's why they're here."
After Cabrera singled with one out in the ninth, Fielder grounded into a game-ending double play.
The A's own the lowest payroll in baseball at $59.5 million. Fielder is getting big money in Motown: $214 million over nine years.
Anderson, back on the mound for the first time since straining a muscle in his right side Sept. 19 at Detroit, worked quickly and showed no signs of a layoff or jitters in his first postseason start.
That's just not the way the A's have operated this year.
Last week, Oakland entered its final three-game series of the regular season needing to sweep the two-time reigning AL champion Rangers to capture the AL West ? and the A's did it, sending a stunned Texas team to the one-game wild card, which it lost to Baltimore.
A club with a majors-best 14 walkoff wins and countless whipped cream pie celebrations snapped the longest postseason skid in franchise history at six games. All of those against the Tigers, too.
The Tigers are trying to reach second straight AL championship series after losing last year's ALCS in six games to the Rangers.
Detroit captured the AL Central in Oakland last year and is hoping for another clinching party as soon as possible.
Anderson did his job to delay it.
He insisted he was healthy and ready to go ? and manager Bob Melvin took his pitcher at his word and gave him a shot in his biggest start yet. Anderson had shown plenty when he returned in August following a 14-month absence recovering from elbow-ligament replacement surgery and made six impressive starts.
Not feeling quite 100 percent, he allowed two hits, struck out six and walked two in six innings. He was on a pitch count of 80 and was done at exactly that, though was never told about it beforehand.
"I don't know how you could expect more than we got out of him tonight," Melvin said.
Next, the reliable bullpen took over.
Ryan Cook pitched the seventh, Sean Doolittle struck out the side in order in the eighth and closer Grant Balfour finished the four-hitter for a save. The A's staff pitched the 11th postseason shutout by the franchise, while the Tigers were blanked for the 13th time in the postseason.
The A's had lost five straight while facing elimination in the postseason, one shy of the longest active streak by the Twins.
But this group has defied expectations ever since the first full workout at spring training back in February when the A's lost third baseman Scott Sizemore to a season-ending knee injury. Opening day starter Brandon McCarthy took a line drive to the head Sept. 5 and needed brain surgery. Starter Bartolo Colon was suspended for 50 games in August for a positive testosterone test.
Oakland became the first team in major league history to win the division or pennant after trailing by five or more games with fewer than 10 to go. The A's were five back of the Rangers with nine left, then won their final six all at home with sweeps of Seattle and Texas.
Smith hit a towering drive to the deepest part of center field in the fifth for yet another timely home run for the A's, whose 112 longballs after the All-Star break led the majors.
"That's how you win postseason baseball games, with pitching and defense and timely hitting," Smith said. "We had that. We got two runs and that's all we needed. Anderson was great and our defense was, too."
Sanchez gave up five hits and two runs in 6 1-3 innings, struck out three and walked two.
NOTES: Smith hit his first postseason homer and third lifetime against Sanchez in 15 at-bats. ... At 24 years, 251 days, Anderson became the fifth-youngest pitcher in Oakland history to make his first career postseason start. ... Both Bay Area teams avoided elimination after the NL West champion San Francisco Giants won at Cincinnati earlier in the night. ... Oakland sold out for the eighth time this year and second straight ? the regular-season finale vs. Texas drew 36,067 ? including 1,000 standing-room only tickets and extra suite sales. It was the biggest crowd at the Coliseum since drawing 43,974 against the Yankees on Sept. 4, 2005, before the upper decks were tarped.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anderson-pitches-past-tigers-avoid-sweep-040750035--mlb.html
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Monday, October 1, 2012
Saturday's High School Football Scores, 9/29
KING5.com
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 10:21 PM
Updated yesterday at 11:01 PM
PREP FOOTBALL
?? Cascade (Leavenworth) 54, Chelan 19
?? Cascade Christian 60, Bellevue Christian 21
?? Chimacum 28, Life Christian Academy 13
?? Crescent 36, Clallam Bay 20
?? Eisenhower 23, Davis 16
?? Lakes 55, Decatur 18
?? Lopez 46, Tulalip Heritage 8
?? North Thurston 34, Wilson 0
?? Quilcene 48, Rainier Christian 30
?? Sedro-Woolley 54, Bellingham 13
?? Taholah 34, Lake Quinault 20
?
Source: http://www.king5.com/sports/high-school/Saturdays-High-School-Football-Scores-929-171965331.html
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