Video: Maria's Observation: Payroll Tax Hike

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50437222/

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Lifeline for Pets Cat of the week:?Charlie? | Temple City Tribune

Charlie is an outgoing, wonderful boy, almost 3-yrs. old.
There?s nothing he likes more than petting and tummy rubs.
He loves everybody, too! He even gets along with most of our other cats.
He?s been with us for far too long, and really deserves a forever home.
Charlie?s video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WsNTywFa-k
Call Kathy at 626-797-1753
Lifeline For Pets website: www.lifelineforpets.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lifelineforpets.pasadena

?Charlie? -Courtesy Photo

Source: http://templecitytribune.com/in-the-community/around-town/lifeline-for-pets-cat-of-the-weekcharlie/

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Unlock Your Business's Potential With These Tips For Internet ...

Network marketing is a great business opportunity for someone with lots of energy and that yearns for success. Read on to learn about some simple, effective strategies you can use to get better results from joining a network.

You can advertise your site as a special club instead of a sales site. You can have more site traffic if people are communicating with others! This can increase the popularity and visibility of your website. You can also offer free graphics that people can use to advertise their membership which equates to free advertising.

Do you need an idea for marketing on the internet? Customers should never have to hunt to find what you?re selling. You should sell your niche on this page. They should know what they are selling when they get to that page. When they have to search around for the product, the viewer will get frustrated and leave.

Consider advertising your business online to increase its visibility. When you market your niche, you will see how much of a success it will create. This will allow you to reach customers that you may not have discovered in other ways.

You should think about mobile marketing. Customers can have the opportunity to subscribe to text alerts for sales or promotions. This up-and-coming form of advertising can really help your marketing campaigns.

You should learn to utilize HTML tags. These tags mark up the important content of your website and display it accordingly. Search engine crawlers see the page and make judgments based on the context of these tags. Be sure to highlight your critical keywords.

Be sensitive to how customers are reacting to your marketing materials so that you can better target future efforts. As soon as you?ve initiated an online promotion or event, be sure to monitor the responses of people on forums and blogs. Use their ideas and advice to help your business as well as to show them respect for their input.

Regardless of the size of your company, you should employ the use of a slogan and a logo. These two things help customers differentiate you from all the similar businesses out there. The right logo can burn itself into a visitor?s memory if written well. When customers are in the market for a particular product, the association they have made with your slogan may cause them to look up your company before making their purchase.

Design your banners to be subtle and not annoying to visitors to your website. You should try your best to make them look like they are clickable links to reach more content. Banners sometimes can turn away customers, so make sure that they are well placed.

Make use of these suggestions to help your company grow. They will help you build a stable foundation that you can use to expand in network marketing.

Source: http://www.cop15post.com/unlock-your-businesss-potential-with-these-tips-for-internet-marketing.html

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President Obama signs Video Privacy Protection bill, now Netflix can share to Facebook

Netflix has been lobbying hard for changes to a law that it believed barred it from sharing the videos users watch on social media services, and now the law has changed. After H.R. 6671 passed through Congress last year without objection, President Barack Obama signed it into law today. As it previously existed, the Video Privacy Protection Act would have required users to approve sharing of each title watched in writing. The amendment removes that restriction, and should see the Facebook features already on Netflix internationally available in the US, soon. Hit the source link to read the bill itself, whether you're increasingly wary of the reach of social media, or an Open Graph addict.

Filed under: HD, Facebook

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Source: Library of Congress, TheHill.com

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/10/netflix-facebook-vppa-signed-into-law/

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Mimicking a natural defense against malaria to develop new treatments

Dec. 27, 2012 ? One of the world's most devastating diseases is malaria, responsible for at least a million deaths annually, despite global efforts to combat it. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, working with collaborators from Drexel University, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Johns Hopkins University, have identified a protein in human blood platelets that points to a powerful new weapon against the disease.

Their work was published in this months' issue of Cell Host and Microbe.

Malaria is caused by parasitic microorganisms of the Plasmodium genus, which infect red blood cells. Recent research at other universities showed that blood platelets can bind to infected red blood cells and kill the parasite, but the exact mechanism was unclear. The investigators on the Cell Host and Microbe paper hypothesized that it might involve host defense peptides (HDP) secreted by the platelets.

"We eventually found that a single protein secreted when platelets are activated called human platelet factor 4 [hPF4] actually kills parasites that are inside red cells without harming the red cell itself," explains senior author Doron Greenbaum, PhD, assistant professor of Pharmacology, whose team studies innovative ways to fight malaria. The hPF4 targets a specific organelle of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite called the digestive vacuole, which essentially serves as its "stomach" for the digestion of hemoglobin. The investigators found that hPF4 destroys the vacuole with a deadly speed of minutes or even seconds, killing the parasite without affecting the host cell.

While host defense peptides appear to be attractive therapeutic agents, the expense of manufacturing this protein lessens its potential impact on the treatment of malaria. Greenbaum and colleagues set out to discover whether synthetic molecules mimicking the structure of HDPs could have similar beneficial effects against the Plasmodium parasite. After screening approximately 2000 small molecule HDP mimics (smHDPs) developed by biotech company PolyMedix, Inc. of Radnor, PA, Greenbaum and his team found that "all of the best hits had the same mechanism of action against Plasmodium parasites."

Like the natural hPF4 found in platelets, the most effective smHDPs tested targeted only infected red blood cells, attacking and destroying the parasite in exactly the same way, but with even greater potency and speed. "The smHDPs get into infected red cells and lyse or basically destroy the digestive vacuole or stomach of the parasite more rapidly than the hPF4 protein," Greenbaum notes. "The protein from platelets is about 25 times less potent, but the surprising thing is they act with the same mechanism. With ease, within seconds, they destroy the vacuole of the parasite."

Greenbaum's team settled on two compounds, PMX1207 and PMX207, for testing in mouse models of malaria. Both compounds significantly decreased parasitic growth and greatly improved survival rates, providing further confirmation of the potential of smHDPs as antimalarial agents. The work, Greenbaum says, shows that "we can translate a natural arm of the innate immune system in platelets to drug-like small molecules that we are honing to become potent, selective, potentially less toxic, and cheaper to make as an antimalarial."

Aside from their great effectiveness, smHDPs may have several other advantages over other antimalarial therapies. As Plasmodium inevitably adapts and becomes resistant to a particular drug therapy, the efficacy of that treatment decreases and survival rates drop. By mimicking the body's own natural defenses, the new HDP-centered approach could avoid that pitfall. "Certainly with malaria we've had a lot of problems in the last 20 years with resistance," Greenbaum explains. "One of the unique features of the synthetic HDPs is that studies show that pathogens have a difficult time generating resistance to them, because they attack membranes, not proteins. So they might be intrinsically more difficult to become resistant against."

Although Greenbaum's team focused mostly on the chronic red-blood-cell stage of malaria, their HDP-mimic also shows promise against other stages of the disease. "We think that the mimics would be useful as a transmission-blocking therapeutic," Greenbaum says. "In other words, you prevent transmission from human to mosquito and therefore back to human again. We have positive data for those two stages. It's becoming increasingly more important in antimalarial drug development that people think more and more about multistage inhibition."

The next step for Greenbaum's team is to further hone the selectivity and potency of the smHDP compounds, while developing them into drugs that can be orally administered. As Greenbaum explains, practical antimalarials need to be "taken as pills rather than having to be used intravenously, which is not going to be appropriate for treatment in endemic countries, especially in more rural environments."

Co-authors are Melissa S. Love, Melanie G. Millholland, Satish Mishra, Swapnil Kulkarni, Katie B. Freeman, Wenxi Pan, Robert W. Kavash, Michael J. Costanzo, Hyunil Jo, Thomas M. Daly, Dewight R. Williams, M. Anna Kowalska, Lawrence W. Bergman, Mortimer Poncz, William F. DeGrado, Photini Sinnis, and Richard W. Scott.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R44 AI090762-0; NIHT32GM08076; NIHT32AI007532; R01 AI056840); a Penn TAPITMAT Pilot Program; the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute; and a Gates Grand Challenges Exploration Program.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Journal Reference:

1. Melissa?S. Love, Melanie?G. Millholland, Satish Mishra, Swapnil Kulkarni, Katie?B. Freeman, Wenxi Pan, Robert?W. Kavash, Michael?J. Costanzo, Hyunil Jo, Thomas?M. Daly, Dewight?R. Williams, M.?Anna Kowalska, Lawrence?W. Bergman, Mortimer Poncz, William?F. DeGrado, Photini Sinnis, Richard?W. Scott, Doron?C. Greenbaum. Platelet Factor 4 Activity against P.?falciparum and Its Translation to Nonpeptidic Mimics as Antimalarials. Cell Host & Microbe, 2012; 12 (6): 815 DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2012.10.017

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/Az0RV2Wy5vY/121227130208.htm

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Scientists sequence genome of pathogen responsible for pneumocystis pneumonia

Dec. 26, 2012 ? Scientists have sequenced the genome of the fungus Pneumocystis jirovecii, an advancement that could help identify new targets for drugs to treat and prevent Pneumocystis pneumonia, a common and often deadly infection in immunocompromised patients. The study will be published on December 26, 2012 in mBio?, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The organism cannot yet be isolated and grown for study in the laboratory, so details about Pneumocystis pneumonia, the biology of P. jirovecii, and its pathogenicity are hard to come by. The genome sequence represents a wealth of new information for doctors and researchers tackling this disease.

Pneumocystis pneumonia is an opportunistic infection that strikes most often in individuals with diminished immune systems. The corresponding author of the study in mBio?, Philippe Hauser of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne, in Switzerland, says the disease gained importance in the 1980s.

"Recognized first among malnourished infants, P. jirovecii pneumonia became a public issue with the advent of the HIV epidemic," says Hauser. Today, the disease most commonly affects HIV-infected persons who are unaware of their status as well as solid organ transplant recipients and patients with hemato-oncologic or autoimmune diseases. Since the organism cannot be grown in the lab for study, researchers have long made do with studying P. jirovecii's lab-friendly relatives, species that infect animals and plants, in order to explore the secrets of the human disease.

"It is obviously better to study [P. jirovecii's] genes rather that those of Pneumocystis species from animal models. The genome has both medical and evolutionary interests for the scientific community," says Hauser.

Under normal circumstances, scientists sequencing the genome of a microorganism simply extract DNA from thick cultures of cells they grow in the lab. Since they were unable to grow P. jirovecii cells for their genomic DNA, Hauser and his colleagues took a different approach. They took a sample of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from an individual infected with Pneumocystis pneumonia, then concentrated the P. jirovecii cells using immuno-precipitation and created copies of the DNA in the sample using a technique called random DNA amplification. This mixture of DNA strands, from P. jirovecii, human, and other microbes from the lungs of the infected patient, was then sequenced using high throughput technologies.

According to Hauser and his colleagues, the fact that the sequence data represented DNA from many different species created the biggest challenge they faced. "The major challenge of the study was the in silico sorting of the reads out of a mixture representing the human host and different organisms present in the lung microbiome," he says. This challenge was met through a collaboration with Marco Pagni of the Vital-IT group of the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, who provided indispensable expertise and infrastructure.

Once the sorting task was accomplished, the researchers assembled the sequences into a genome and attempted to identify the functions of P. jirovecii's genes. This is the first time scientists have assembled the genome of a fungus from a mixed pool of DNA from a single source, often called a metagenome. Their analyses reveal a surprising fact: P. jirovecii is a parasite that must live within the human body to survive.

P. jirovecii lacks the genes necessary for creating some of the essential ingredients of life, a hallmark of obligate parasites, organisms that must rely on another creature for sustenance. "It implies that they need their host to provide these molecules. Thus, this has been quite an important finding which implied that human beings represent the reservoir of this pathogen," says Hauser. This is useful information, since it means that people are the only significant source of the organism and that both infected people and healthy carriers represent the only control points for limiting the spread of the disease.

The genome also shows that P. jirovecii apparently lacks the ability to make toxins and virulence factors, molecules that enable a microbe to invade and take advantage of its host. This makes sense, since P. jirovecii does not cause disease in healthy people, but only runs out of control when it is not confronted with an immune response.

In the study of infectious disease, access to the genome of a pathogen provides new information that can be pivotal in combating the diseases is causes. The hope is that the genome of P. jirovecii will lead to new advances in therapies for those suffering from Pneumocystis pneumonia. The current drugs of choice for treating Pneumocystis pneumonia are antifolates, but certain isolates of P. jirovecii have already developed resistance to antifolates, an ability that is very likely to spread. Now that the genome of P. jirovecii is assembled and available to researchers all over the world, scientists can tease out clues about the organism that will help identify targets for some badly needed new drugs.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Society for Microbiology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/_LiDeWUJJr4/121226080900.htm

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Central African Republic appeals for French help against rebels, Paris balks

BANGUI (Reuters) - The president of the Central African Republic appealed on Thursday for France and the United States to help push back rebels threatening his government and the capital, but Paris said its troops were only ready to protect French nationals.

The exchanges came as regional African leaders tried to broker a ceasefire deal and as rebels said they had temporarily halted their advance on Bangui, the capital, to allow talks to take place.

Insurgents on motorbikes and in pickup trucks have driven to within 75 km (45 miles) of Bangui after weeks of fighting, threatening to end President Francois Bozize's nearly 10-year-stint in charge of the turbulent, resource-rich country.

French nuclear energy group Areva mines the Bakouma uranium deposit in the CAR's south - France's biggest commercial interest in its former colony.

The rebel advance has highlighted the instability of a country that has remained poor since independence from Paris in 1960 despite rich deposits of uranium, gold and diamonds. Average income is barely over $2 a day.

Bozize on Thursday appealed for French and U.S. military support to stop the SELEKA rebel coalition, which has promised to overthrow him unless he implements a previous peace deal in full.

He told a crowd of anti-rebel protesters in the riverside capital that he had asked Paris and Washington to help move the rebels away from the capital to clear the way for peace talks which regional leaders say could be held soon in Libreville, Gabon.

"We are asking our cousins the French and the United States, which are major powers, to help us push back the rebels to their initial positions in a way that will permit talks in Libreville to resolve this crisis," Bozize said.

France has 250 soldiers in its landlocked former colony as part of a peacekeeping mission and Paris in the past has ousted or propped up governments - including by using air strikes to defend Bozize against rebels in 2006.

But French President Francois Hollande poured cold water on the latest request for help.

"If we have a presence, it's not to protect a regime, it's to protect our nationals and our interests and in no way to intervene in the internal business of a country, in this case the Central African Republic," Hollande said on the sidelines of a visit to a wholesale food market outside Paris.

"Those days are over," he said.

Some 1,200 French nationals live in the CAR, mostly in the capital, according to the French Foreign Ministry, where they typically work for mining firms or aid groups.

CEASEFIRE TALKS

Officials from around central Africa are due to meet in Bangui later on Thursday to open initial talks with the government and rebels.

A rebel spokesman said fighters had temporarily halted their advance to allow dialogue.

"We will not enter Bangui," Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, the rebel spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.

Previous rebel promises to stop advancing have been broken, and a diplomatic source said rebels had taken up positions around Bangui on Thursday, effectively surrounding it.

The atmosphere remained tense in Bangui the day after anti-rebel protests broke out, and residents were stocking up on food and water.

Government soldiers deployed at strategic sites and French troops reinforced security at the French embassy after protesters threw rocks at the building on Wednesday.

In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry said protecting foreigners and embassies was the responsibility of the CAR authorities.

"This message will once again be stressed to the CAR's charge d'affaires in Paris, who has been summoned this afternoon," a ministry spokesman said.

He also said France condemned the rebels for pursuing hostilities and urged all sides to commit to talks.

Bozize came to power in a 2003 rebellion that overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse.

However, France is increasingly reluctant to directly intervene in conflicts in its former colonies. Since coming to power in May, Hollande has promised to end its shadowy relations with former colonies and put ties on a healthier footing.

A military source and an aid worker said the rebels had got as far as Damara, 75 km (47 miles) from Bangui, by late afternoon on Wednesday, having skirted Sibut, where some 150 Chadian soldiers had earlier been deployed to try and block a push south by a rebel coalition.

With a government that holds little sway outside the capital, some parts of the country have long endured the consequences of conflicts in troubled neighbors Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo spilling over.

The Central African Republic is one of a number of nations in the region where U.S. Special Forces are helping local forces try to track down the Lords Resistance Army, a rebel group responsible for killing thousands of civilians across four African nations.

(Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-troops-protect-nationals-not-car-government-hollande-095315934.html

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