Mila Kunis, 29, is the sexiest woman alive, according to Esquire magazine, and anyone with doubts can check out the November cover, on which Kunis appears wearing nothing but black tights and strategically placed arms.
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2012) ? Using animal models, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered how a protein deficiency may be linked to frontotemporal dementia (FTD) -- a form of early-onset dementia that is similar to Alzheimer's disease. These results lay the foundation for therapies that one day may benefit those who suffer from this and related diseases that wreak havoc on the brain.
As its name implies, FTD is a fatal disease that destroys cells, or neurons, that comprise the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain -- as opposed to Alzheimer's which mainly affects brain's memory centers in the hippocampus. Early symptoms of FTD include personality changes, such as increased erratic or compulsive behavior. Patients later experience difficulties speaking and reading, and often suffer from long-term memory loss. FTD is usually diagnosed between the ages of 40 and 65, with death occurring within 2 to 10 years after diagnosis. No drug exists to slow, halt or reverse the progression of FTD.
A new study led by Gladstone Senior Investigator Robert V. Farese, Jr., MD, offers new hope in the fight against this and other related conditions. In the latest issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, available today online, Dr. Farese and his team show how a protein called progranulin prevents a class of cells called microglia from becoming "hyperactive." Without adequate progranulin to keep microglia in check, this hyperactivity becomes toxic, causing abnormally prolonged inflammation that destroys neurons over time -- and leads to debilitating symptoms.
"We have known that a lack of progranulin is linked to neurodegenerative conditions such as FTD, but the exact mechanism behind that link remained unclear," said Dr. Farese, who is also a professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), with which Gladstone is affiliated. "Understanding the inflammatory process in the brain is critical if we are to develop better treatments not only for FTD, but for other forms of brain injury such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and multiple sclerosis (MS) -- which are likely also linked to abnormal microglial activity."
Microglia -- which are a type of immune cells that reside in the CNS -- normally secrete progranulin. Early studies on traumatic CNS injury found that progranulin accumulates at the injury site alongside microglia, suggesting that both play a role in injury response. So, Dr. Farese and his team designed a series of experiments to decipher the nature of the relationship between progranulin and microglia.
First, the team generated genetically modified mice that lack progranulin. They then monitored how the brains of these mice responded to toxins, comparing this reaction to a control group.
"As expected, the toxin destroys neurons in both sets of mice -- but the progranulin-deficient mice lost twice as many neurons as the control group," said Lauren Herl Martens, a Gladstone and UCSF graduate student and the study's lead author. "This showed us that progranulin is crucial for neuron survival. We then wanted to see whether a lack of progranulin itself would injure these cells -- even in the absence of toxins."
In a petri dish, the researchers artificially prevented microglia from secreting progranulin and monitored how these modified microglia interacted with neurons. They observed that a significantly greater number of neurons died in the presence of the progranulin-deficient microglia when compared to unmodified microglia.
Other experiments revealed the process' underlying mechanism. Microglia are the CNS's first line of defense. When the microglia sense toxins or injury, they trigger protective inflammation -- which can become toxic to neurons if left unchecked. Dr. Farese's team discovered that progranulin works by tempering the microglia's response, thereby minimizing inflammation. Without progranulin, the microglia are unrestricted -- and induce prolonged and excessive inflammation that leads to neuron damage -- and can contribute to the vast array of symptoms that afflict sufferers FTD and other fatal forms of brain disease.
"However, we found that boosting progranulin levels in microglia reduced inflammation -- keeping neurons alive and healthy in cell culture," explained Dr. Farese. "Our next step is to determine if this method could also work in live animals. We believe this to be a therapeutic strategy that could, for example, halt the progression of FTD. More broadly, our findings about progranulin and inflammation could have therapeutic implications for devastating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and MS."
Other scientists who participated in this research at Gladstone include Sami Barmada, PhD, Ping Zhou, MD, Li Gan, PhD and Steve Finkbeiner, MD, PhD. Funding came from a variety of sources, including the Consortium for Frontotemporal Dementia Research, the ALS Association and the National Institutes of Health.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/rKDvv4xMY7o/121008134220.htm
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 4, 2012) ? Dramatic shifts in the planet's climate and geography over millions of years changed the course of evolutionary history for conifer trees, according to a Yale paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Yale researchers examined the fossil record and genetic makeup of 489 out of more than 600 living conifer species and discovered that while most conifers belong to ancient lineages, most Northern Hemisphere species, including the majority of pines and spruces, appeared within the past 5 million years.
They argue that the migration of tree species and the contraction and expansion of their ranges in response to glacial cycles led to isolated populations and the formation of new species, especially in mountainous environments where conifer diversity is high.
"Extreme climatic shifts through time may have favored the replacement of older lineages with those better adapted to cooler and drier conditions," said Andrew Leslie, the study's co-author and a Yale postdoctoral associate, "resulting in high turnover rates and the disproportionate loss of ancient lineages."
The researchers also found that the lineages of existing conifers in the Southern Hemisphere are millions of years older than their counterparts in the Northern Hemisphere, and believe it is owing to fragmented ranges and mild, wetter habitats that favored their survival.
"The evolutionary history of conifers reflects a complex set of environmental interactions," said Peter Crane, a co-author, professor of botany and dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. "Nevertheless, we found large-scale and consistent differences between the diversification of southern and northern conifer clades."
The majority of existing conifer species belongs to lineages that diversified during the Cenozoic Era, over 65 million years. Conifers such as firs, hemlocks, larches, pines, spruces (Pinaceae family), junipers and cypresses (Cupressoideae) are found across the Northern Hemisphere, whereas evergreens in the Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae families and Callitroideae subfamily are found primarily in Argentina, Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand.
Michael Donoghue, a co-author of the study and Sterling Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, said temperate rainforests and broadleaf evergreen forests were common before the Pleistocene Epoch, which spanned 2.5 million years and ended 11,000 years ago, and are still present in New Zealand and in parts of Australia and South America.
"These now-fragmented habitats are among those in which older conifer lineages adapted to warmer or wetter climates and have survived at high diversity," he said. "The evolutionary histories of organisms are shaped by many factors, but this study suggests that global-scale geographic features can leave an unexpected imprint in the way in which groups evolve and diversify."
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BERLIN (AP) ? The parent company of T-Mobile USA says it is merging its cell phone business with MetroPCS Communications.
Deutsche Telekom AG says its board of directors and the supervisory board have approved the merger Wednesday. It says the board of MetroPCS has also accepted the deal.
It says Deutsche Telekom will hold 74 percent of the new business. MetroPCS's shareholders will have the remaining stake and receive a payment of about $1.5 billion.
The companies confirmed they were in talks Tuesday. Analysts said the deal could shore up two struggling players in the U.S. wireless industry.
The combination with Dallas-based MetroPCS, which has 9.3 million subscribers, still leaves T-Mobile USA ? the country's fourth-largest cellphone company with 33.2 million subscribers ? trailing the market's No. 3, Sprint Nextel Corp.
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Pictured left to right: Ryan Polson, Robert Accorsi (Associate Professor of Sport Management and Recreation), Donna Watterson, Sammy DiTonno, Dr. Kenneth Wall (Associate Professor of Sport Management and Recreation), Eric Shine and Anthony Rioles.
Most people have aspirations to reach a certain pinnacle in their lives. These are often referred to as goals, and they provide individuals with a sense of direction and ignite them with an unwavering motivation and work ethic.
Unfortunately, many of these goals take extended periods of time and energy to achieve. For four Springfield College seniors majoring in Sport Management, they have already begun this process by taking small steps to reach their ultimate professional goal: to work in Major League Baseball.
Sammy DiTonno, Ryan Polson, Anthony Rioles, and Eric Shine recently completed a summer internship with the Keene Swamp Bats, a collegiate summer baseball team located in Keene, N.H. that plays in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL).
Consisting of many Division I college baseball players, the NECBL is a platform for players to showcase their skills and break into the majors. It is also an opportunity for students to get hands-on experience with the various administrative facets of running an organized sports team.
?We all have aspirations in baseball for our future career endeavors, and this was a huge resume builder,? Shine said.? ?We all felt it was important to get it under the belt.?
The four students were approached with the opportunity to complete the internship when the Swamp Bats Operations Manager, Donna Watterson, came to Springfield last spring to recruit potential interns for the summer.
While all Sport Management students are required to complete a 480-hour internship in order to graduate, the four decided to pursue the Swamp Bats internship not for class credit, but for the overall experience and preparation to land the 480-hour internship in the MLB.
?I think we all had aspirations as what we wanted to do for our internship for college credit since we all know it was going to do with baseball,? Rioles said. ?As a result, we decided to do something extra in baseball to help prepare for it.?
Dr. Kenneth Wall, a professor of the Sport and Recreation Management Department, visited the four students up in Keene during the summer to check in on how they were doing.
?I think it was a very good decision on the part on each one of these four students to take advantage of this experience,? Wall said.? ?Each of them [were] able to gain additional experience in a discipline that is related to sport management.?
The students began the internship in late May and finished in mid-August. During this time, they were given a multitude of responsibilities and assignments that their classwork prepared them for. Aside from daily game day operations when the Swamp Bats had home games, each student had specific duties.
DiTonno was in charge of birthday parties and arranging player appearances in the public. Shine ran a ?baseball buddies? program where youth sports teams would go onto the field before the game started. Rioles was responsible for a ?hire a Swamp Bat? program where players would go out and do odd jobs in the community. And Polson wrote sponsorship letters and solicited local businesses for raffle donations. While these jobs were different, the four interns would always be looking for ways to assist each other.
?We all helped each other out in different aspects,? Shine said.
?It was really a synergistic work group,? added Rioles.
In addition, each student was in charge of maintaining two sponsorships from surrounding businesses. They were able to gain an understanding as to how to establish professional relationships with and the importance of sponsorships in the sports field. More importantly, it was yet another area of sport management that they actively engaged with.
?The most rewarding part of the internship was our ability to touch on every aspect of sport management including marketing, customer service and public relations,? Rioles said. ?We got to see every single aspect of the administrative side.?
For Polson, the marketing and event management areas of the internship could even open up other doors for future jobs.
?We could all work or intern with an event management or marketing firm after this internship because we had so much practice with event management,? Polson said.
Aside from the relevant and practical experience in the field, the four students thoroughly enjoyed the culture of both the Swamp Bats and the city of Keene.
?That team is the center of Keene,? Rioles said.? ?So many people put so much weight into it.?
?It?s like a ghost town when there?s nothing going on other than the Swamp Bats,? DiTonno added.
There were several unique game nights during the summer that brought vibrancy to Keene, including a fireworks show on Independence Eve, a country concert occurring adjacent to the stadium before a game, and a Snapple sponsorship night where new Snapple flavors were being sampled.
Despite the fact that the Swamp Bats draw an average crowd of 1,500 people, the team is? a nonprofit organization run solely by volunteers, and only offers interns a small stipend at the end of the season. Yet, DiTonno, Polson, Rioles and Shine understand that the experience they gained was invaluable and will be resourceful in their future endeavors.
?Sometimes when you?re in a slump and in the grit of it, and you?re like ?what the heck, I?m not even doing this for college credit,? it can be tiring,? Rioles said. ?But it was totally worth it, and I?d do it again.?
?These students dedicated a summer to this experience,? Wall added. ?It may have seemed like a sacrifice at the time for them, but now that the experience is in the past, I think that each of them, along with the faculty members of the department, understand that this was an opportunity for them to gain experience and to be able to differentiate themselves in the future from other students from other schools who are not as proactive.?
They also know that they may have to take on similar internships or jobs before they can reach their goal of working in the MLB. Each of them still have to complete their 480-hour internship for college credit, but they understand it may not be with the MLB just yet.
?I?ll take an internship with any baseball team that?s willing to take me,? Polson said. ?We all want to be in the majors, but if I have to work with a double-A affiliate for a few years, then I?ll do that.?
Although the baseball industry is a business, the four students considered the entire Swamp Bats organization a second family to them. The Swamp Bats paid for their housing at Keene State College and many of the volunteers, including the president of the organization, would make food for them and invite them over for dinner.
?Towards the end of the summer they really opened up, and they took us into their own houses because we had to live with their families for the last two weeks, since kids were coming back to Keene State College,? Shine said.
Developing these lasting relationships and creating an extensive network, both on a personal and professional level, are crucial when applying to jobs in the sport and recreation field.
?Nothing happens overnight,? Wall said. ?I think that the experience will help them in terms of work ethic and networking opportunities.?
While it was a seemingly minuscule internship at first glance, the small steps taken by DiTonno, Polson, Rioles and Shine will ideally guide them to the MLB where they can live out their dreams. The Keene Swamp Bats, however, will always remind them of the hard work it takes to achieve a goal and the importance of long-term relationships.
?I can honestly say they?re another family that I have,? DiTonno said. ?I can always go to them for anything.?
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Source: http://scstudentmedia.com/2012/10/04/four-students-complete-summer-internship-with-keene-swamp-bats/
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I don't have any bits larger than 1/2", so it works great for me.
If I needed to go to 3/4", I'd get the 750.
If I needed to do spade bits, the new DDSB looks ok.
I'd probably skip the 350 or the xpa, because of the fixed sharpening angle.
So, Looking at all the models, I'd either go 500 or 750 if I was to do it over again, but still, probably the 500.
Source: http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?28534-Anybody-have-a-Drill-Doctor
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By Jonathan Terbush
Saturday, September 29, 2012 19:39 EDT
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President Obama has been such a big meanie president that he?s now making children cry.
That?s the implication of a new attack ad released last week by the conservative super PAC Americans for Job Security. In the ad, a female jogger pushing a baby stroller says that she goes running ?to forget? all the economic problems in America, like the fact that her husband has been laid off twice.
?I voted for Obama, but hope and change was just a slogan,? she says.
?The future is getting worse under Obama,? she adds, as the camera cuts to the child in the stroller, who is now crying.
The ad is part of a major TV offensive Americans for Job Security has planned for the final month before the November election. The group has put up $8.1 million to air the ad in half a dozen swing states that will be vital to either candidate?s opes of winning the election.
Watch the video below:
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheRawStory/~3/gQMOJsgxT_E/
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