On a cold day, more than one hundred people came together for the fourth annual chili cook?off.
Agents from both Home and Woods Bros Real Estate put together their own recipes and competed for the title of having the best chili.
It's a fundraiser where all the money raised goes to the local American Cancer Society.
"We've had a lot of cancer within our organization and it's just affected so many families, so many agents, that we wanted to do something and this was our way of participating and trying to help find a cure," HomeServices of Nebraska CEO, Gene Brake said.
Three celebrity judges including Channel 8's Rod Fowler scored each of the soups.? The winner went home with a trophy and joins winners from the past years on a plaque.
Event organizers say the cook?off has grown every year.? Last year they raised nearly?3,000 dollars, and donated half to support an agent's transplant fund.
It's something they say they'll continue to do in the future to help find a cure.
"The fellowship is great, the charity is great and the chili is fabulous."
The winner this year is Karalyn Hoefer with her southwest chicken soup.
A?little more than?2,000 dollars was raised at Wednesday's event for the American Cancer Society.
Founded in 2011, Detroit-based startup UpTo set out on an important mission: Turn your daily calendar into a social network. Sure, social calender-ing may not reach out and grab you, but, when the startup launched its iPhone app last March, it seemed worthy of another chance. Event-sharing apps are hardly new (see Facebook, Eventbrite, etc. etc.), but UpTo is taking an approach that many can empathize with when it comes to the social experience around events.
This photo taken Feb. 27, 2013 shows Secretary of State John Kerry arriving at the Foreign Ministry in Paris. The U.S. is moving closer to direct involvement in Syria?s civil war with the delivery of non-lethal assistance directly to the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad?s regime. Officials say the decision to offer ready-made meals and medical supplies to the rebels may be a step toward eventual U.S. military aid, which the administration has so far resisted. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
This photo taken Feb. 27, 2013 shows Secretary of State John Kerry arriving at the Foreign Ministry in Paris. The U.S. is moving closer to direct involvement in Syria?s civil war with the delivery of non-lethal assistance directly to the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad?s regime. Officials say the decision to offer ready-made meals and medical supplies to the rebels may be a step toward eventual U.S. military aid, which the administration has so far resisted. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, left, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, pose for a photograph before their meeting at the Hotel Excelsior in Rome on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Rome, where talks will Syria be held, is the fourth leg of Kerry's first official overseas trip, a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry embraces his long time friend, U.S. Ambassador to Italy David Thorne, left, as Kerry arrives at Ciampino Airport, in Rome on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. where talks on Syria will be held. Rome is the fourth leg of Kerry's first official overseas trip, a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry disembarks at Ciampino military airport, in the outskirts of Rome, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Kerry will attend an international conference on Syria in Rome Thursday. The United States is looking for more tangible ways to support Syria's rebels and bolster a fledgling political movement that is struggling to deliver basic services after nearly two years of civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, right, as he arrives at Villa Madama in Rome, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Kerry will attend an international conference on Syria in Rome Thursday. The United States is looking for more tangible ways to support Syria's rebels and bolster a fledgling political movement that is struggling to deliver basic services after nearly two years of civil war, Kerry said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
ROME (AP) ? The United States and some European allies are edging closer to direct involvement in Syria's civil war with plans to deliver meals, medical kits and other forms of nonlethal assistance to the rebels battling President Bashar Assad.
The U.S., Britain, France and Italy aren't planning to supply the Free Syrian Army with weapons or ammunition. But moves are afoot to significantly boost the size and scope of their aid to the political and military opposition. Such decisions could be announced as early as Thursday at an international conference on Syria in Rome.
Britain and France are keen to give the rebels the means to protect themselves from attacks by Assad's forces, including Scud missiles fired in recent days against the city of Aleppo, U.S. and European officials say.
Assistance could mean combat armor, vehicles and other equipment not deemed to be offensive, the officials said. It could include training in battlefield medical care and the protection of human rights, they said.
For now, the Obama administration is advancing more modestly. It is nearing a decision whether to give ready-made meals and medical supplies to the opposition fighters, who have not received direct U.S. assistance.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was expected to announce the new contributions at the Rome conference, in addition to tens of millions of dollars intended for rule of law and governance programs.
The shifts in strategy are part of a step-by-step process that could lead to direct military aid to carefully screened members of the Free Syrian Army if the nearly 2-year conflict continues. Some 70,000 people have died in the fighting.
The European Union last week renewed an arms embargo against Syria for three months. But foreign ministers made clear that the decision could be reviewed while they look at ways to increase pressure on Assad to leave.
Washington has provided $385 million in humanitarian aid to Syria's war-weary population and $54 million in communications equipment, medical supplies and other nonlethal assistance to Syria's political opposition. The U.S. also has screen rebel groups for Turkey and American allies in the Arab world that have armed rebel fighters.
No U.S. dollars or provisions have gone directly to rebels. That decision reflects concerns about forces that have allied themselves with more radical Islamic elements since Assad's initial crackdown on peaceful protesters in March 2011.
Kerry said Wednesday in Paris that both the U.S. and Europe want a negotiated solution to the crisis and would speak to the leaders of the Syrian National Coalition about that. He also said the world must be prepared to do more to support the rebels and he accused Assad's government of engaging in "criminal behavior."
"We want their advice on how we can accelerate the prospects of a political solution because that is what we believe is the best path to peace, the best way to protect the interests of the Syrian people, the best way to end the killing and the violence," he said at a news conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
"That may require us to change President Assad's current calculation," Kerry said. "He needs to know that he can't shoot his way out of this. And so we need to convince him of that, and I think the opposition needs more help in order to be able to do that."
Fabius offered a similar assessment.
"The situation is unbearable and we need to find the means to a transition and for Assad's departure," he said. "We agree all of us on the fact that Mr. Bashar Assad has to quit."
Britain's Foreign Office also said it would increase its support for Syria's opposition.
The possibility of a sudden change in U.S. strategy comes as President Barack Obama begins a second term and Kerry succeeds Hillary Rodham Clinton as the top U.S. diplomat.
Freed from the constraints of a re-election campaign, administration officials say there is greater leeway now for new approaches than last year, when Obama rebuffed a plan by Clinton, then-CIA Director David Petraeus and then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to arm the Syrian rebels.
The administration remains cautious, officials say, and is resisting European pressure to expand military aid to include the kind of items that Britain and France are considering.
Few Americans want to see their country dragged into another war of complicated loyalties and sectarian rivalries in the Muslim world, a little more than a year after leaving Iraq and with 66,000 U.S. combat troops still in Afghanistan.
Administration officials say they don't have enough assurances that rebel units under the sway of Islamic fundamentalists won't turn their weapons on Israel or other U.S. allies and fragile states in the region.
Lebanon is torn by some of the same internal sectarian divisions as Syria and Jordan is struggling with its political reform path.
Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, warned on Wednesday that a victory by Syrian rebels would lead to more fighting in Iraq and a new haven for al-Qaida.
Greater instability in any of Syria's neighbors would pose a whole new set of problems.
Still, officials said the U.S. was considering a gradually upgraded involvement in Syria to bolster moderate forces within the rebel ranks and help the fledgling political opposition win greater backing among Syrians, especially minority groups that have remained largely loyal to Assad and his government.
Debate within the administration on how best to accomplish these goals has increased in recent months as diplomatic efforts have failed to end the war. The Syrian opposition insists that only weapons, intelligence support and other forms of military aid truly can tip the balance.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, urged the administration to consider lethal aid.
"We should want the best organized, the best equipped and most dominant groups in the opposition to be groups that are friendlier to our national interests," Rubio, a Florida Republican, said Wednesday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The position is similar to one Kerry held as a senator, and one he reminded reporters of this week when he proposed the creation of opposition safe zones and suggested providing rebels with U.S. weaponry.
But in his first month as secretary of state and on his first official trip overseas, the 2004 presidential candidate has been vaguer.
"We have a lot of ideas on the table, and some of them, I am confident, will come to maturity by time we meet in Rome," Kerry said this week. "Others may take a little more of a gestation period, but they're no less part of the mix and part of the discussion.
"What I can tell you is we are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind wondering where the support is or if it's coming, and we are determined to change the calculation on the ground for President Assad."
__
Klapper reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kenneth Thomas in Washington, Sylvia Hui in London, and Silvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
Feb. 26, 2013 ? A new study published in Biology Letters found that ship noise affects crab metabolism, with largest crabs faring worst, and found little evidence that crabs acclimatise to noise over time.
The team from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter found that crabs exposed to recordings of ship noise showed an increase in metabolic rate, indicating elevated stress. In the real world this could have implications for growth and, if the metabolic cost of noise causes crabs to spend more time foraging to compensate, could also increase the risk of predation.
Researcher Matt Wale from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences describes the study: "We used controlled experiments to consider how shore crabs of different sizes respond to both single and repeated exposure to playback of ship noise. Ship noise is the most common source of noise in the aquatic environment."
Explains Dr Andy Radford, Reader in Behavioural Ecology at Bristol: "We found that the metabolic rate of crabs exposed to ship noise was higher than those experiencing ambient harbour noise, and that larger individuals were affected most strongly. This is the first indication that there might be different responses to noise depending on the size of an individual."
If commercially important crabs and lobsters are affected by noise, these findings have implications for fisheries in busy shipping areas where large individuals may be losing out. Conversely, if reducing noise reduces metabolic costs, then quietening aquaculture facilities may lead to higher yields.
Dr Steve Simpson from the University of Exeter warned: "Since larger crabs are affected more strongly by noise this could have implications for fisheries in noisy areas. Also, many crustacean species, particularly prawns, are grown in aquaculture, so if acoustic disturbance has a metabolic cost then operational noise in farms may impact on growth, and quieter farms may be more profitable."
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Bristol.
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: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The recent run-up in gasoline prices has some economists ? including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke ? worried about the impact on consumer spending and the economy.
It?s a perennial concern. When gas prices spike, as they have done in the past few weeks, the extra money you pay at the pump forces you to cut spending on other things. That takes a bite out of overall consumer spending, which fuels roughly 70 percent of the U.S. economy. Slower spending means slower growth.
But the longer-term impact is not as great as some forecasters would have you believe. Here?s why:
Why is Chairman Bernanke soworried?
He?s concerned mostly because the economy isn?t growing as fast as it should be this far into an economic recovery. For reasons that most economists believe are temporary, the U.S. gross domestic product ground to a screeching halt in the last three months of last year. Bernanke and his Fed policy colleagues have been doing everything they can to get the economy moving ahead. But unemployment remains stubbornly high and near-zero interest rates don?t seem to be working.
In his Congressional testimony Tuesday on the state of the economy, Bernanke worried out loud that one reason for the slow growth is that higher gasoline prices ?are hitting family budgets.?
So how hard do budgets get hit by higher gas prices?
In the short term, gas price spikes can have an bigger impact than they should, largely because gasoline is one of the few commodity prices consumers track so closely. (Quick: how much does a loaf of bread cost at your local grocery store?)
An opinion poll conducted last week by the National Association of Convenience Stores found that 44 percent of consumers said that gas prices have a "great impact" in how they feel about the economy, up from the 38 percent who felt that way in January.
See? Bernanke?s right.
In the short-run, yes, a gas price spike can slow the economy ? a little. But over the long run, the impact is not all that great. To see why, we?re going to have to do a little math.
American drivers burn through about 350 million gallons of gasoline a day this time of year, at a cost of a little over $400 billion a year. Pump prices bottomed in December (as they usually do every year) at $3.32 a gallon and then shot up by 53 cents to an average of $3.85 a gallon nationwide, according to the latest Department of Energy figures. (We're using the data for all formulas, all grades.) This year, that seasonal rise has come earlier, and quicker, than usual.
If that increase held through the rest of the year, the hit to spending would be about a half percent of GDP. With an economy that?s only growing about 2 percent a year, that?s a fairly big number.
But that math doesn?t account of the savings consumers enjoy when gas prices fall. For the past three years, prices have bounced in a range between about $2.75 and $4.00 a gallon. The three-year average has been $3.43 a gallon. If you use that price as a starting point, the recent increase ? even if sustained for a full year ? would only knock about two-tenths of a percent from GDP.
Those numbers don?t look right. I?m paying a lot more than that at the pump, and it?s taking a big bite out of my paycheck.
Again, these are averages. For some people, the impact is much more severe. California drivers are paying $4.20 a gallon on average. If you live 30 miles from the nearest grocery store, you?re going to feel the impact of every extra penny a lot more than someone who commutes to work by subway.
Lower-income households feel the impact much more than those further up the income ladder. On average, roughly 5.5 percent of American household budgets go to pay for gasoline. But gasoline bills eat up a bigger portion of the weekly budget for those in the bottom quintile that for those at the top.
But gas prices hurt more than other price increases because I can?t cut back on driving.I have to get to work. What am I supposed to do?
You?re right. For most Americans, especially outside of major cities, gas price spikes are extremely painful because it?s very difficult to cut back in the short run. But over time, drivers can ? and do ? respond.
The long-term rise in gasoline prices over the past decade ? and the pain of sudden spikes ? is one of the biggest reasons that the consumption of gasoline has been falling since August 2007. Americans have been burning through about four percent less gasoline every year since then - even as the number of cars and trucks on the road continues to increase. Thanks to improvements in engine technology, higher-mileage government mandates and strong consumer demand for fuel-efficient cars and trucks, that trend is expected to continue.
Demand for those higher-mileage vehicles has, in turn, spurred a surge in consumer spending on new cars, a category has been an important source of strength for the U.S. recovery. That improvement in the overall mileage of the U.S. fleet has, in turn, helped offset the impact of gas price spikes.
Since bottoming in the first quarter of 2010, new car sales have zoomed ahead ? up nearly 60 percent to $103 billion in the final three months of 2012. About two-thirds of that money went to domestic car makers. Light truck sales have jumped 40 percent, to more than $140 billion for the latest quarter.
The boom in sales is coming partly because drivers deferred buying during the recession. But they?re also snapping up new models with better gas mileage that will continue to reduce consumption ? and blunt the economic impact of future gas price spikes.
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A woman charged with capital murder in Arizona testified on Monday that she sent flowers to her former boyfriend's grandmother days after killing him, which prosecutors said showed the lengths to which she went to cover her tracks.
Jodi Arias, 32, could face the death penalty if convicted of murdering 30-year-old Travis Alexander, whose body was found in the shower of his Phoenix area home in June 2008. He was shot in the face, stabbed 27 times and had his throat slit.
In graphic testimony about her relationship with Alexander, Arias has admitted to killing him but said it was in self defense after he attacked her when she dropped his camera while taking pictures of him in the shower. The prosecution has said she killed him in a jealous rage.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez told an Arizona court on Monday how, several days after the killing, Arias sent 20 white irises to Alexander's grandmother, who had helped to raise him in southern California.
"You went out of your way to contact Mr. Alexander's family, didn't you?" Martinez asked Arias. "You actually sent ... her irises ... and in addition to that you attached a note, right?" he added, saying the note indicated the grandmother was in her prayers.
"Yes," Arias replied, before Martinez shot back that she lied about feeling sympathy for Alexander's grandmother as "just a way to assuage your guilt."
"That wasn't my thought," Arias replied.
The testimony came on the second day of cross examination by the prosecution during which Martinez sought to depict Arias as a jealous schemer who tried to cover her tracks by lying to friends, family and police after killing Alexander.
CONTRADICTORY TESTIMONY
The court heard on Monday how, after Arias was arrested in July 2008, she gave a contradictory story to a detective investigating the killing, telling him that she was not present at Alexander's home on the day of his death.
Martinez confronted Arias with how she subsequently changed her story a day later after learning that her fingerprints and a photograph retrieved from Alexander's camera placed her at the scene of her lover's killing.
"You changed your story to comport with the forensic evidence that he was telling you about. ... You did not want any consequences regarding the killing of Travis Alexander, right?"
Arias said she was not "concerned about consequences."
Martinez also cast doubt on previous testimony in which Arias said that, after she told Alexander she was moving away from the Phoenix valley, he struck her with the back of his hand while they sat in a car.
He went over a journal entry Arias had written for that day in which she called Alexander her "best friend in the whole world" and noted that the couple had shared three "very tender kisses" before parting that day.
"This entry does not corroborate what you told us happened in the car ... does it?" he said. Arias agreed that it did not. She admitted there were no photographs, medical or police reports to back up her claim that Alexander struck her.
During aggressive cross examination, Martinez also questioned Arias about an alleged attempt she had made to kill herself with a razor in jail, following her arrest, in which she stopped after she "nicked" herself.
"You stopped because it stung. Can you imagine how much it must have hurt Mr. Alexander when you stuck that knife right into his chest, that really must have hurt right?"
Arias' attorney objected. Her eyes brimmed with tears, although she did not respond.
(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Richard Chang and Lisa Shumaker)
Feb. 25, 2013 ? While the phenomenon of superconductivity -- in which some materials lose all resistance to electric currents at extremely low temperatures -- has been known for more than a century, the temperature at which it occurs has remained too low for any practical applications. The discovery of "high-temperature" superconductors in the 1980s -- materials that could lose resistance at temperatures of up to negative 140 degrees Celsius -- led to speculation that a surge of new discoveries might quickly lead to room-temperature superconductors. Despite intense research, these materials have remained poorly understood.
There is still no agreement on a single theory to account for high-temperature superconductivity. Recently, however, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found a new way to study fluctuating charge-density waves, which are the basis for one of the leading theories. The researchers say this could open the door to a better understanding of high-temperature superconductivity, and perhaps prompt new discoveries of higher-temperature superconductors.
The findings were published this week in the journal Nature Materials by assistant professor of physics Nuh Gedik; graduate student Fahad Mahmood; Darius Torchinsky, a former MIT postdoc who is now at the California Institute of Technology; and two researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Explaining the basis for high-temperature superconductivity remains "the hardest problem in condensed-matter physics," Gedik says. But one way of getting a handle on this exotic state of matter is to study what happens to these materials near their "transition temperature," the point below which they become superconductors.
Previous experiments have shown that above the transition temperature, there is a peculiar state where, Gedik says, "the material starts to behave very weirdly": Its electrons act in unusual ways, which some physicists believe is caused by a phenomenon called charge-density waves. While the electron density in most conductors is uniform, Gedik explains, in materials with charge-density waves the density is distributed in a sinusoidal pattern, somewhat like ripples on a pond. But so far, such charge-density waves have only been detected in high-temperature superconductors under special circumstances, such as a particular level of doping (the introduction of atoms of another element onto its surface).
Some researchers have proposed that these waves are elusive in high-temperature superconductors because they fluctuate very rapidly, at speeds measured in picoseconds (trillionths of a second). "You can't see it with conventional techniques," Gedik says.
That's where Gedik's new approach comes in: His team has spent years perfecting methods for studying the movement of electrons by zapping them with laser pulses lasting just a few femtoseconds (or quadrillionths of a second), and then detecting the results with a separate laser beam.
Using that method, the researchers have now detected these fluctuating waves. To do this, they have selectively generated and observed two different collective motions of electrons in these waves: variation in amplitude (the magnitude of modulation of the waves) and in phase (the position of the troughs and peaks of the waves). These measurements show that charge density waves are fluctuating at an interval of only about 2 picoseconds.
"It's not surprising that static techniques didn't see them," Gedik says, but "this settles the question: The fluctuating charge-density waves do exist" -- at least in one of the cuprate compounds, the first high-temperature superconducting materials discovered in the 1980s.
Another question: What role, if any, do these charge-density waves play in superconductivity? "Are they helping, or are they interfering?" Gedik asks. To answer this question, the researchers studied the same material, with optimal doping, in which the superconducting transition temperature is maximized. "We see no evidence of charge-density waves in this sample," Gedik says. This suggests that charge-density waves are probably competing with superconductivity.
In addition, it remains to be seen whether the same phenomenon will be observed in other high-temperature superconducting materials. The new technique should make it possible to find out.
In any case, detecting these fluctuations could help in understanding high-temperature superconductors, Gedik says -- which, in turn, could "help in finding other [superconducting materials] that actually work at room temperature." That elusive goal could enable significant new applications, such as electric transmission lines that eliminate the losses that now waste as much as 30 percent of all electricity produced.
David Hsieh, an assistant professor of physics at Caltech, says the phenomena detected by this research "are known to be very difficult to detect," so this work "is a great technical achievement and a high-quality piece of research." By showing for the first time that the fluctuating charge-density waves seem to compete with superconductivity, he says, "It provides the insight that finding a way to suppress this fluctuating charge-density wave order may simultaneously increase" the temperature limits of superconductivity.
The work, which also included researchers Anthony Bollinger and Ivan Bozovic of Brookhaven National Laboratory, was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Darius H. Torchinsky, Fahad Mahmood, Anthony T. Bollinger, Ivan Bo?ovi?, Nuh Gedik. Fluctuating charge-density waves in a cuprate superconductor. Nature Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nmat3571
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The online ordering market for restaurants has a new competitor today. A startup called EatStreet has made it to Series A by targeting the secondary markets across the U.S. for its expansion. The $2 million round was led by Cornerstone Opportunity Partners, and includes participation from Great Oaks VC, Independence Equity, and the Wisconsin-based accelerator gener8tor.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Co has chosen AT&T Inc to provide high-speed wireless service for its 2015 car models, dropping its long-term provider Verizon Wireless.
OnStar - best known for connecting drivers to live operators who provide directions or summon emergency help after an accident - will start using AT&T in its 2015 models, which go on sale in mid-2014.
The companies will discuss their partnership on Monday at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.
GM is hoping to boost car sales and OnStar subscriptions by expanding its offering to include advanced applications such as video streaming for passengers for most of its Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models.
It is also looking into possibilities such as wirelessly sending customers alerts about possible engine problems or sending data or even video from a car to the owner's mobile device to show what's going on next to the vehicle in case of any problems, according to Phil Abram, a GM executive director.
For their part both AT&T and Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, have been ramping up efforts to expand their services beyond cellphones as they seek to continue growing in a market in which most people already have smartphones.
GM said that Verizon Wireless, which has been the company's wireless provider since 1996, would still support OnStar services for all existing GM vehicles and any new models that come out before the 2015 models are launched.
Abram declined to say exactly why the company was switching to AT&T but said that "AT&T's vision with what we want to do with the connected vehicle was very highly aligned."
Abram also declined to comment on the terms of the deal with AT&T or how the service will be priced. OnStar has more than 6 million customers in the United States, Canada and China and charges $18.95 a month for its most basic service, or $28.90 a month for its premium package.
AT&T already has wireless deals with car makers including Ford Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co .
But the OnStar agreement is its biggest deal so far, according to Glenn Lurie, president of the AT&T division that is dedicated to expanding wireless connections beyond phones.
"Economically we're very very happy with the deal," he said.
Lurie would not provide pricing details for the service but the OnStar subscribers could potentially add their car to an AT&T shared data plan, which allows customers to add multiple devices to a single account.
"You could see the car be another device in your portfolio of devices," Lurie said.
Such an arrangement could help improve the popularity of connected car services, according to Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said.
"It could lower the barrier to adoption if a customer could add their car as another device on their AT&T plan rather than having to opt in to OnStar and pay a separate bill every month," Golvin said.
Lurie said he expects roughly 20 million new cars sold from 2015 to 2018 to have wireless connections, citing an analyst estimate that roughly half of U.S. cars would be connected by 2016.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Richard Chang)
TROY, Ohio?The one-story, brick ranch-style home blends into the working-class neighborhood along Nutmeg Square in this western Ohio city, offering no signs of the terrible secrets it once concealed.
Its former owner will return to court in Dayton on Tuesday to be sentenced for guilty pleas to child rape and related charges in a haunting case that experts call unusual because the perpetrator was an adoptive father and the victims were three boys in his care. The pleas have all but ensured he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
The 40-year-old man, whom The Associated Press isn't naming to protect the children's identities, said in an interview that he had been a foster parent, youth basketball coach and substitute teacher for years without any problems. He said he didn't adopt the boys with bad intentions.
"I always wanted to protect kids," he said during one of two interviews at the Miami County Jail. "Somewhere along the line, things went wrong."
In an era of stunning cases of sexual abuse of young boys by respected authority figures?priests, Boy Scout leaders, an assistant coach at a famed college football program?the repeated rapes of boys by an adoptive father who also arranged for two other men to rape one adopted son shocked his unsuspecting neighbors, investigators and children's services officials.
"It was just devastating to hear about. It's really sad for the kids," said April Long, a mother of three who was
their next-door neighbor. She and other neighbors say they didn't suspect anything; the children played outside, and the man did neighborly things like pick up their mail or mow their lawn when they were away.
"You think: 'What could I have done? Is there something we missed that we should have seen?'" Long said, gazing at the home from her front porch lined with children's bicycles.
The single man was a foster parent for six other children before he began adopting children in the past three years. He adopted a brother and sister and an unrelated boy, and was in the process of adopting another boy, all ages 9 to 12, when authorities arrested him a year ago Sunday following an undercover sting that began when a detective looked into an online posting about "taboo sex."
Ohio officials don't believe there has been a comparable case in the state in recent years, and media reports over the past five years show only a handful of reported cases nationally in which adoptive fathers sexually abused children in their care. Child abuse by adoptive fathers is much rarer than by biological fathers, or by other male relatives and non-relatives, federal studies have indicated.
"This isn't a typical situation. It certainly isn't typical of people seeking adoption," said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. "Most abusers of this sort have an interest in a child during a certain period of their development. They are looking for opportunities where they can get access to the kids. They don't want to have custodial responsibility."
Fostering and adopting children meant passing background checks and other scrutiny, with home studies and follow-up visits by social workers.
"There can be terrible, horrific instances that no one at any level of government or the adoption system foresaw," Benjamin Johnson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, said of the case. "That can be a very difficult thing to reconcile ... and we think about that a lot."
The private adoption agency, Dayton-based Action Inc., has said little about the case other than to deny wrongdoing. The state reviewed its operations and noted some procedural violations but no reason to suspend or revoke the agency's license. All the children had been in Texas foster care before coming to Ohio through the agency, one of many that work through interstate agreements to find homes for some of the more than 100,000 children in foster care awaiting adoption at any given time in the United States.
The adoptive father said the three children appeared to be doing so well, he was asked by an agency employee to take a fourth.
The children were involved in sports, school and church and played with other children. They went trick-or-treating?snapshots from two Halloweens ago show the boys dressed as Green Lantern and Star Wars' Darth Maul and the girl as a princess. They had Xboxes, Wiis and other games and toys at home.
"I loved my kids and wanted the best for them," the man said.
He said he had been sexually abused as a child by a close family member and blames that for his feeling that he wasn't doing anything wrong when he began taking the boys into his bed in what he claimed was a way of showing love.
"I never forced the boys to do anything," he said. "That might not mean anything to anyone else, but it's important to me."
But his explanation doesn't account for subsequently inviting a man to their Troy home to rape one of the boys, and then taking the same boy to another man's home to be raped. He agreed that was wrong, although he stressed that he didn't prostitute the boy by getting anything in return.
Apparently, no child ever hinted at any problem when separated from him by case workers for interviews.
"I guess they just liked it there," the man said.
Police reported that when they interviewed the boy, then age 10, who had also been raped by the two other men, he began shaking, after initially refusing to confirm that anything wrong had happened.
He told police he "didn't want to be taken from this home and separated from his new brothers and sister," a police report stated.
After the man was arrested, the 9-year-old boy who hadn't been adopted yet was returned to Texas social services authorities, while the other three were placed in foster care in Ohio.
At a pretrial hearing last November, a child psychologist testified about some three dozen therapy sessions he had had with the 10-year-old boy, the Dayton Daily News reported.
"It is so traumatic within the security of my office, when he's laying on a sofa, hugging a bear, to talk about these things," said Gregory Ramey of The Children's Medical Center of Dayton.
The adoptive father has already been sentenced here to at least 60 years in prison. In Dayton, he is expected to be sentenced to at least 50 years, to run concurrently.
He said he agreed to plead guilty in hopes of sparing the children from having to testify, that it "was the last good thing I could do for them." In a jail interview, his eyes teared up and his voice choked as he said he was sorry for the pain he had caused them.
In a letter from jail, he wrote: "I've been able to protect my kids from everything and everyone, except myself."
????
Associated Press news researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report. Contact the reporter at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell.
????
Online:
U.S. Child Welfare Information: https://www.childwelfare.gov/can/statistics/stat?natl?state.cfm
Crimes against Children Research Center: http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/
It's gotten a bit drowned out in all the Note 8.0 fanfare, but there's another notable member of Samsung's Galaxy being shown off here at MWC 2013: the Xcover 2. Announced late this past January, the Android Jelly Bean (4.1.2) handset is a 4-inch ruggedized device made for active lifestyles. To that end, it bears IP certification for dust- and water-proofing (up to 30 minutes at a depth of one meter). Understandably, its spec load is modest, with a dual-core 1GHz processor (unspecified), 1GB RAM, 800 x 480 display, 4GB storage (expandable via microSD) and 1,700mAh battery.
Since the Xcover 2's meant to be taken outdoors, its body is rife with notches and grips -- so it won't slip out of your hand. The dimpled plastic back, similar to that on the Galaxy Nexus -- has a wrap-around illusion and can only be pried off by turning the lock at its base. Ports for microSD, SIM and 3.5mm headphone jack are all covered by protective flaps, as you'd imagine.
We couldn't get confirmation on the exact CPU inside the Xcover 2, but take our word for it: performance is sluggish. Effect any of the hard Android navigation keys on the bottom and you'll notice a bit of lag before the OS kicks into action. It's to be expected for a device of this nature -- most users eyeing the Xcover 2 likley aren't keen on top-end specs and high-performance. Samsung still hasn't clarified just where or when we'll be seeing the handset crop up, so stay tuned. In the meanwhile, check out our gallery below and brief video demo after the break.
Those of you looking for an inspiration boost might enjoy this video by iPhoneographer Jack Hollingsworth. All photos were shot and processed with an iPhone 5 during a trip covering several thousand miles all over India.
Beautiful and inspiring to say the least.
Now go out and shoot? Or stay in and peruse our iPhone photography tutorials.
A Perth, Western Australia teenager known online as ?SuperDae? recently had his family?s home raided by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.? The raid was over intelligence the young man, who is purportedly a hacker, had somehow acquired on the upcoming Xbox gaming system.? The FBI working with the Western Australia police seized many of the young man?s possessions, which included all of his computer equipment.? He is being accused of international corporate espionage.?
This raid came many months after the teen revealed information regarding the upcoming Xbox via his highly popular Twitter account.? Dylan, whose last name was withheld over privacy and age, is a highly popular social media user and has nearly 30 thousand followers on his Twitter account.? Dylan also posted online a new development kit for the ?Durango?, which is what the new Xbox design will be called.
The development kit is what companies receive from a video game maker to help them create and develop new games for their system.? Because of Dylan?s leak, it caused a lot of chatter in cyberspace with designers and other developers since this type of information is usually kept very secret.
Dylan told The West Australian press that the sudden raid was a highly charged and frightening experience to go through for his entire family.? He said when he heard the knock, the FBI were literally about to ram the door open.? The FBI also insinuated to him that he may very well be extradited to the U.S. depending on the outcome of the investigation.
The West Australian further confirmed that the raid did occur through the local WA police department.? When asked for more information regarding the FBI?s role in the ordeal, they refused comment, but did say that their tech crime investigation unit was involved in a type of multi-jurisdictional investigation into the alleged corporate espionage.
Dylan, a.k.a. SuperDae, considers himself to be a security consultant for any type of flaws found in programs or online sites.? He said that he only published the intelligence over the Durango Xbox to show that it was possible to do so.?? He claims that he was in contact with Microsoft over the flaws in their security, but he said he ceased communication when he felt they were only using him without any form of reimbursement or thanks.
It isn?t known at this time if Dylan will be extradited to the U.S. or if the espionage case will begin to grow.? His case has just begun to make the rounds on Twitter and the hash tag #FreeSuperDaE has also begun trending with the hacker community.?
A photograph of a purported iPad 5 case has appeared, and it again points to a redesigned in the form of the iPad mini. The case was obtained by 9to5Mac, apparently from it's manufacturer, Minisuit. Back in January, iMore created a rendering based on what we'd learned about the iPad 5 and its iPad mini-like design, and shortly thereafter some unverified pictures emerged of a supposed iPad 5 back plate bearing a very similar design. Just over a week ago, iMore created another rendering based on more information about the iPad 5.
If the case above is based on rumors and the previous backplates, then it ads little new to the discussion. If, however, it's based on additional information leaked from manufacturing sources in China, then it could prove interesting.
The case, as previously rumored, hints at an iPad 5 that's narrower in comparison to the current version. This would presumably be down to the narrower bezel design just like the iPad mini. The edges of the case are much squarer than the other case again this would line up with the design of the iPad mini. Looking at the bottom edge of the case, you can see a long cut out which would be for the speakers and Lightning connector. We would assume that the iPad 5 would finally have stereo speakers again like the iPad mini.
Leaks like these are nothing new and a lot of case manufacturers look to steal a march on their competition by obtaining information on next generation devices from supply chain sources. This is always going to be a gamble as Apple is notorious for keeping its devices under wraps until the last minute; or could change its mind on a design too.
Having said that, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the next-generation iPad 5 may be adopting the design cues of the iPad mini.
Feb. 22, 2013 ? A study published Feb. 21 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) provides clinical evidence of the safety and effectiveness of a new magnetic medical device to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Santiago Horgan, MD, professor of surgery at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and study co-author, was the first surgeon in the United States to implant the FDA-approved device.
"What we found is that the LINX magnetic device can solve GERD's underlying problem, a weak spincter," said Horgan, chief of minimally invasive surgery, UC San Diego Health System. "The device corrects an anatomical defect that allows acids to move up the throat. For my patients this has been an effective way to permanently treat this painful condition, improve their quality of life, and end the need for over-the-counter medications."
The LINX system is composed of a series of titanium beads, each with a magnetic core, that are connected to form a ring shape. It is implanted at the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), a circular band of muscle that closes the last few centimeters of the esophagus and prevents the backward flow of stomach contents.
As reported in the study, after sphincter augmentation with the LINX System, the majority of patients were able to substantially reduce or resolve their reflux symptoms, while eliminating use of their reflux medications such as proton pump inhibitors. Severe regurgitation was eliminated in 100 percent of patients, and nearly all patients (93 percent) reported a significant decrease in the need for medication. More than 9 in 10 patients (94 percent) reported satisfaction with their overall condition after having the LINX System, compared to 13 percent before treatment while taking medication.
Horgan said the device is an alternative to Nissen fundoplication which involves irreversibly wrapping the stomach around the esophagus. The LINX System allows surgeons to leave the stomach intact and support the weak sphincter with a small device that can be removed.
More than 20 percent of the U.S. population experiences the painful burning symptoms of GERD. For these 20 million Americans, the first line of defense is medication. GERD can cause both pain and injury to the esophageal lining and may lead to a precancerous condition called Barrett's esophagus. Symptoms of GERD include heartburn and regurgitation, often associated with the inability to sleep and dietary constraints.
The LINX system was studied in a controlled, prospective, multicenter trial involving 14 U.S. and European medical centers as part of the FDA approval process. The patients in the study reported suffering from reflux symptoms for a median of 10 years and taking reflux medications for a median of five years.
The LINX? Reflux Management System is manufactured by Torax Medical which funded the study.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California, San Diego Health Sciences.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Robert A. Ganz, Jeffrey H. Peters, Santiago Horgan, Willem A. Bemelman, Christy M. Dunst, Steven A. Edmundowicz, John C. Lipham, James D. Luketich, W. Scott Melvin, Brant K. Oelschlager, Steven C. Schlack-Haerer, C. Daniel Smith, Christopher C. Smith, Dan Dunn, Paul A. Taiganides. Esophageal Sphincter Device for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 2013; 368 (8): 719 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1205544
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.
In honor of the South Beach Wine and Food Festival that kicked off on Thursday, we're highlighting some of the most stunning weddings from the sunny Florida city. With an emphasis on sand, sun, color, and wildly glamorous details, these nuptials prove that you can create a variety of moods in the same setting. Some couples went with vintage-inspired looks while others chose Old Hollywood designs or bright, tropical themes, so take a look at these gorgeous South Beach weddings to gather ideas for your own big day!
Source: I Heart Weddings, Robert Rios Photography, and Michelle March Photography via Style Me Pretty
dealmac?, dealnews?, dealcam?, and dealram? are registered trademarks of dealnews.com Inc. dealnews.com Inc. disclaims responsibility for all content, including prices, specifications, and availability. Content is subject to change without notice. By using dealnews?, you agree to certain terms and conditions. Please see our privacy policy.
All material on this site prepared by dealnews? is protected by Copyright. ? 1997-2013 dealnews.com, Inc. All rights reserved. All other copyrights are reserved by their respective holders.
Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 gives you more ways to create and share dynamic presentations with your audience than ever before. Exciting new audio and visual capabilities help you tell a crisp, cinematic story that??s as easy to create as it is powerful to watch.
In addition, PowerPoint 2010 enables you to work simultaneously with other people or post your presentation online and access it from virtually anywhere using the Web or your smartphone. 1
Create extraordinary presentations
PowerPoint 2010 delivers new and improved tools to add power to your presentations.
Embed and edit video from within PowerPoint. Now you can add fades, formatting effects, bookmark scenes, and trim videos to give your presentations a professional multimedia experience. And since the embedded videos become part of your PowerPoint presentation, you don??t have to manage additional files when sharing with others.
Use new and improved picture editing tools??including versatile artistic effects and advanced correction, color, and cropping tools??to fine-tune every picture in your presentation to look its absolute best.
Add dynamic 3-D slide transitions and more realistic animation effects to grab your audience??s attention.
Manage presentations with tools that save time and simplify your work
It??s much easier to create and manage presentations when you can work the way you want.
Compress video and audio in your presentation to reduce file size for easy sharing and improved playback performance. The option to compress media is just one of many new features available from the new Microsoft Office Backstage?? view. Backstage view replaces the traditional File menu in all Office 2010 applications to provide a centralized, organized space for all of your presentation management tasks.
Easily customize the improved Ribbon to make the commands you need most accessible. Create custom tabs or even customize built-in tabs. With PowerPoint 2010, you??re in control.
Work together more successfully
If you are one of the many people who work with others on presentations and projects, PowerPoint 2010 is the perfect tool for you.
Broadcast your slide show to people in other locations, whether or not they have PowerPoint installed.2 Create a video of your presentation??including your transitions, animations, narration, and timings??to share with virtually anyone, any time after your live broadcast.
Use new co-authoring capabilities to edit the same presentation, at the same time, with people in different locations. You can even communicate as you work, directly from PowerPoint.3,4
If you work in a company running Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, this functionality can be used within the firewall. With Office Communicator now integrated throughout several Office 2010 applications, you can view presence information to see the availability of other authors and initiate instant message or voice calls directly within PowerPoint.
If you??re in a small company or using PowerPoint for home or school work, you can take advantage of co-authoring features through Windows Live. All you need is a free Windows Live account to simultaneously edit presentations with others. An instant messenger account (such as the free Windows Live Messenger) is required to view presence of authors and start an instant messaging conversation.
Access and share your content from more places
Your ideas, deadlines, projects, and work emergencies don??t always occur conveniently when you are at your desk. Fortunately, you now have the power to get things done when and where you need to, from the Web or even from your smartphone.1
Microsoft PowerPoint Web App is an online companion to Microsoft PowerPoint which enables you to extend your PowerPoint experience to the browser. View a high fidelity version of your presentations, make light edits, or view your presentation slide show. Use the familiar PowerPoint interface and some of the same formatting and editing tools, from almost any computer with a Web browser.3
Microsoft PowerPoint Mobile 2010 enables you to do light editing for your presentations and is especially designed for easy use on your Windows phone. You can even run your slide show right on your phone.5
Whether you??re creating the pitch of your career, working with a team on an important presentation, or getting work done on the run, PowerPoint 2010 gives you the power to work more easily and with more flexibility to accomplish your goals.
What It Is And Why You Need It:
Create extraordinary presentations
Manage presentations with tools that save time and simplify your work
Work together more successfully
Access and share your content from more places
1 Web and smartphone access require an appropriate device and some functionality requires an Internet connection. Web functionality uses Office Web Apps, which require a supported Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari browser and either SharePoint Foundation 2010 or a Windows Live ID. Some mobile functionality requires Office Mobile 2010 which is not included in Office 2010 applications, suites, or Office Web Apps. There are some differences between the features of the Office Web Apps, Office Mobile 2010 and the Office 2010 applications.
2 Requires Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or a Windows Live ID. To broadcast via SharePoint 2010, Office Web Apps must be installed.
3 Requires Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or a Windows Live ID.
4 Instant messaging and presence requires one of the following: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2; Windows Live Messenger, or another instant messaging application that supports IMessenger. Voice calls require Office Communications Server 2007 R2 with Office Communicator 2007 R2 or later or an instant messaging application that supports IMessengerAdvanced.
5 PowerPoint Mobile 2010 is not included in the Office 2010 applications or suites.
Approximately 150 federal and state law enforcement agents launched a massive raid on one of the biggest?perpetrators?of government fraud in America: The Scooter Store. Yes, that's right. The nation's largest provider of single-person electric vehicles and power chairs is the target of a federal investigation, probably because many of the people who ride around their "personal mobility?devices" don't actually need them.
Contact: Leigh MacMillan leigh.macmillan@vanderbilt.edu 615-322-4747 Vanderbilt University Medical Center
On the front lines of our defenses against bacteria is the protein calprotectin, which "starves" invading pathogens of metal nutrients.
Vanderbilt investigators now report new insights to the workings of calprotectin including a detailed structural view of how it binds the metal manganese. Their findings, published online before print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could guide efforts to develop novel antibacterials that limit a microbe's access to metals.
The increasing resistance of bacteria to existing antibiotics poses a severe threat to public health, and new therapeutic strategies to fight these pathogens are needed.
The idea of "starving" bacteria of metal nutrients is appealing, said Eric Skaar, Ph.D., MPH, associate professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. In a series of previous studies, Skaar, Walter Chazin, Ph.D., and Richard Caprioli, Ph.D., demonstrated that calprotectin is highly expressed by host immune cells at sites of infection. They showed that calprotectin inhibits bacterial growth by "mopping up" the manganese and zinc that bacteria need for replication.
Now, the researchers have identified the structural features of calprotectin's two metal binding sites and demonstrated that manganese binding is key to its antibacterial action.
Calprotectin is a member of the family of S100 calcium-binding proteins, which Chazin, professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry, has studied for many years. Chazin and postdoctoral fellow Steven Damo, Ph.D., used existing structural data from other S100 family members to zero in on calprotectin's two metal binding sites. Then, they selectively mutated one site or the other.
They discovered that calprotectin with mutations in one of the two sites still bound both zinc and manganese, but calprotectin with mutations in the other site only bound zinc. The researchers recognized that these modified calprotectins especially the one that could no longer bind manganese would be useful tools for determining the importance of manganese binding to calprotectin's functions, Chazin noted.
Thomas Kehl-Fie, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Skaar's group, used these altered calprotectins to demonstrate that the protein's ability to bind manganese is required for full inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus growth. The investigators also showed that Staph bacteria require manganese for a certain process the bacteria use to protect themselves from reactive oxygen species.
"These altered calprotectin proteins were key to being able to tease apart the importance of the individual metals zinc and manganese to the bacterium as a whole and to metal-dependent processes within the bacteria," Skaar said. "They're really powerful tools."
Skaar explained that calprotectin likely binds two different metals to increase the range of bacteria that it inhibits. The investigators tested the modified calprotectins against a panel of medically important bacterial pathogens.
"Bacteria have different metal needs," Skaar said. "Some bacteria are more sensitive to the zinc-binding properties of calprotectin, and others are more sensitive to the manganese-binding properties."
To fully understand how calprotectin binds manganese, Damo and Chazin with assistance from Gnter Fritz, Ph.D., at the University of Freiburg in Germany produced calprotectin crystals with manganese bound and determined the protein structure. They found that manganese slips into a position where it interacts with six histidine amino acids of calprotectin.
"It's really beautiful; no one's ever seen a protein chelate (bind) manganese like this," Chazin said.
The structure explains why calprotectin is the only S100 family member that binds manganese and has the strongest antimicrobial action, and it may allow researchers to design a calprotectin that only binds manganese (not zinc). Such a tool would be useful for studying why bacteria require manganese and then targeting those microbial processes in new therapeutic strategies, Chazin and Skaar noted.
"We do not know all of the processes within Staph that require manganese; we just know if they don't have it, they die," Skaar said. "If we can discover the proteins in Staph that require manganese the things that are required for growth then we can target those proteins."
The team recently was awarded a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AI101171) to advance their studies of calprotectin and how it works to limit bacterial infections and in other inflammatory conditions.
"Nature stumbled onto an interesting antimicrobial strategy," Chazin said. "Our goal is to really tease apart the importance of metal binding to all of calprotectin's different roles and to take advantage of our findings to design new antibacterial agents."
###
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (CA009582, HL094296, AI091771, AI069233, AI073843, GM062122). Skaar holds the Ernest W. Goodpasture Chair in Pathology; Chazin holds the Chancellor's Chair in Biochemistry and Chemistry and is director of the Vanderbilt Center for Structural Biology.
[ | 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.
Contact: Leigh MacMillan leigh.macmillan@vanderbilt.edu 615-322-4747 Vanderbilt University Medical Center
On the front lines of our defenses against bacteria is the protein calprotectin, which "starves" invading pathogens of metal nutrients.
Vanderbilt investigators now report new insights to the workings of calprotectin including a detailed structural view of how it binds the metal manganese. Their findings, published online before print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could guide efforts to develop novel antibacterials that limit a microbe's access to metals.
The increasing resistance of bacteria to existing antibiotics poses a severe threat to public health, and new therapeutic strategies to fight these pathogens are needed.
The idea of "starving" bacteria of metal nutrients is appealing, said Eric Skaar, Ph.D., MPH, associate professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. In a series of previous studies, Skaar, Walter Chazin, Ph.D., and Richard Caprioli, Ph.D., demonstrated that calprotectin is highly expressed by host immune cells at sites of infection. They showed that calprotectin inhibits bacterial growth by "mopping up" the manganese and zinc that bacteria need for replication.
Now, the researchers have identified the structural features of calprotectin's two metal binding sites and demonstrated that manganese binding is key to its antibacterial action.
Calprotectin is a member of the family of S100 calcium-binding proteins, which Chazin, professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry, has studied for many years. Chazin and postdoctoral fellow Steven Damo, Ph.D., used existing structural data from other S100 family members to zero in on calprotectin's two metal binding sites. Then, they selectively mutated one site or the other.
They discovered that calprotectin with mutations in one of the two sites still bound both zinc and manganese, but calprotectin with mutations in the other site only bound zinc. The researchers recognized that these modified calprotectins especially the one that could no longer bind manganese would be useful tools for determining the importance of manganese binding to calprotectin's functions, Chazin noted.
Thomas Kehl-Fie, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Skaar's group, used these altered calprotectins to demonstrate that the protein's ability to bind manganese is required for full inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus growth. The investigators also showed that Staph bacteria require manganese for a certain process the bacteria use to protect themselves from reactive oxygen species.
"These altered calprotectin proteins were key to being able to tease apart the importance of the individual metals zinc and manganese to the bacterium as a whole and to metal-dependent processes within the bacteria," Skaar said. "They're really powerful tools."
Skaar explained that calprotectin likely binds two different metals to increase the range of bacteria that it inhibits. The investigators tested the modified calprotectins against a panel of medically important bacterial pathogens.
"Bacteria have different metal needs," Skaar said. "Some bacteria are more sensitive to the zinc-binding properties of calprotectin, and others are more sensitive to the manganese-binding properties."
To fully understand how calprotectin binds manganese, Damo and Chazin with assistance from Gnter Fritz, Ph.D., at the University of Freiburg in Germany produced calprotectin crystals with manganese bound and determined the protein structure. They found that manganese slips into a position where it interacts with six histidine amino acids of calprotectin.
"It's really beautiful; no one's ever seen a protein chelate (bind) manganese like this," Chazin said.
The structure explains why calprotectin is the only S100 family member that binds manganese and has the strongest antimicrobial action, and it may allow researchers to design a calprotectin that only binds manganese (not zinc). Such a tool would be useful for studying why bacteria require manganese and then targeting those microbial processes in new therapeutic strategies, Chazin and Skaar noted.
"We do not know all of the processes within Staph that require manganese; we just know if they don't have it, they die," Skaar said. "If we can discover the proteins in Staph that require manganese the things that are required for growth then we can target those proteins."
The team recently was awarded a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AI101171) to advance their studies of calprotectin and how it works to limit bacterial infections and in other inflammatory conditions.
"Nature stumbled onto an interesting antimicrobial strategy," Chazin said. "Our goal is to really tease apart the importance of metal binding to all of calprotectin's different roles and to take advantage of our findings to design new antibacterial agents."
###
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (CA009582, HL094296, AI091771, AI069233, AI073843, GM062122). Skaar holds the Ernest W. Goodpasture Chair in Pathology; Chazin holds the Chancellor's Chair in Biochemistry and Chemistry and is director of the Vanderbilt Center for Structural Biology.
[ | 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.
Founded in 2011, Detroit-based startup 
The online ordering market for restaurants has a new competitor today. A startup called 
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 21-Feb-2013
Share ]