Apr. 9, 2013 ? Hardening of the arteries, or atherosclerosis, is the primary cause of heart disease. It is caused by calcium accumulation in the blood vessels, which leads to arteries becoming narrow and stiff, obstructing blood flow and leading to heart complications. Although many risk factors for atherosclerosis have been identified, the cause is not known and there is currently no way to reverse it once it sets in. In a new study published 9th April in the open access journal PLOS Biology, researchers have characterized the cells responsible for driving this calcium build-up in vessel walls.
The process of calcium accumulation in blood vessels resembles bone formation and involves maintaining a balance between bone-forming cells called osteoblasts and bone-destroying cells called osteoclasts. In the new study, Hyo-Soo Kim and colleagues characterize the origin of a population of vascular calcifying progenitor cells, and the potential of these cells to differentiate into different cell types.
"We show that vascular calcifying progenitor cells in the artery have the potential to become either osteoblasts or osteoclasts," said Dr Kim of Seoul National University. "And a certain chemical can push these cells towards becoming osteoclasts, which leads to the softening of the blood vessels."
The researchers sorted cells from the aortas of mice into two groups. Both groups originated from bone marrow and expressed a cell surface protein, called Sca-1, but only one group expressed another cell surface protein called PDGFR?. They found that the cells which only expressed Sca-1 could become either osteoblasts or osteoclasts, whereas the cells which expressed both Sca-1 and PDGFR? were committed to an osteoblastic lineage.
The team then treated the cells with a protein called PPAR?, which is known to promote the formation of osteoclasts and inhibit the formation of osteoblasts. When treated with PPAR?, only Sca-1 expressed cells preferentially differentiated into osteoclast-like cells. Furthermore, in vivo study demonstrated that, while bidirectional cells that were injected into mouse models of atherosclerosis increased the severity of calcium build-up in arteries, cells that were then treated with a drug activating PPAR? markedly decreased this effect and even reversed the calcification.
"These findings suggest that a subtype of calcifying progenitor cells offer a new therapeutic target for the prevention of calcification," said Dr Kim. "This opens up the possibility of new drug development to inhibit the hardening of the arteries, and thereby reduce the risk of heart disease."
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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? A Florida couple suspected of kidnapping their two sons from the woman's parents are in Cuba, authorities said Monday.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office received information that the Hakken family had arrived on the island nation, according to a news release. Investigators say they're working with the FBI and the U.S. State Department to verify their reports.
It wasn't immediately clear what, if anything, authorities could do to retrieve the family from Cuba.
A State Department official said the department is aware of the case and is in contact with local authorities. The official said a high priority is the welfare of U.S. citizens overseas, especially children "who are our most vulnerable citizens."
"The Department works with parents and foreign governments to resolve these difficult cases," the official said.
The sheriff's office alleges that Joshua Michael Hakken entered his mother-in-law's house north of Tampa early Wednesday, tied her up and fled with his sons, 4-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase.
Federal, state and local authorities had been searching by air and sea for a boat Hakken recently bought. The truck that Hakken, his wife Sharyn and the boys had been traveling in was found late Thursday, abandoned in a parking garage in Madeira Beach. Authorities say they had been looking up and down the entire Gulf coast from Pensacola to the Keys and the Intracoastal Waterway. An Amber Alert for the boys has been issued in Florida, Louisiana and other states.
The boys had been living since last year with their maternal grandparents, who were granted permanent custody Tuesday. Joshua Hakken lost custody of his sons last year after a drug possession arrest in Louisiana, and he later tried to take them from a foster home at gunpoint, authorities have said. Authorities have previously characterized the Hakkens as "anti-government."
The Hillsborough Sheriff's office has issued an arrest warrant for Joshua Hakken on charges of kidnapping and several other counts.
Microsoft's relatively often finding ways to encourage software development in various fields, and the company's latest venture has it setting footsteps near the Great Wall. According to a report by news agency Xinhua, the software (and hardware) company has reached a deal with China's Hainan government that will see it build an innovation center in this territory. Focusing on IT development and skills in tourism and agriculture, this new property will be the first of its type in China, and Microsoft has high hopes that the joint efforts can, aside from becoming a crossroads of knowledge, also "boost the region's efforts to become a major international tourist destination." Frankly, seeing as how the highly populated nation doesn't appear to be slowing down its all-around growth anytime soon, it wouldn't surprise us if Redmond decides to start setting up more of these in the years to come.
Apr. 8, 2013 ? There's an epic battle taking place that's not on the national radar: intercellular competition. While it's not an Olympic event, new research from UC Santa Barbara demonstrates that this microscopic rivalry can be just as fierce as humans going for the gold.
Christopher Hayes, UCSB associate professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, along with postdoctoral fellow Sanna Koskiniemi, graduate student James Lamoureux, and others, examined the role certain proteins, called rearrangement hotspots (Rhs), play in intercellular competition in bacteria. The findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Rhs proteins and related YD-peptide repeat proteins are present in a wide range of bacterial species and other organisms, including human beings, where they help establish communications between neurons in the brain when the visual system is developing. Hayes and his team found that Rhs proteins enable Dickeya dadantii 3937, a phytopathogenic bacterium causing soft rot diseases on many crops, to compete with members of its own kind through touch-dependent killing.
While Rhs have been recognized for more 30 years, their function has been enigmatic. This new research sheds light on the mystery. Rhs proteins possess a central repeat region, characteristically the YD-repeat proteins also found in humans, as well as variable C-terminal sequences, which have toxin activity. C-terminal regions are highly variable between bacterial strains even in the same species, indicating that a wide variety of weapons are deployed.
"Bacteria almost always have a different Rhs toxins," explained Hayes. "No one really knows why, but perhaps the toxins are rapidly evolving, driven by intercellular competition. In essence, these cells are fighting it out with each other. It's like an arms race to see who has the best toxins."
Cellular competition is analogous to that between humans and reflects a scarcity of resources. Like people, bacteria need a place to live and food to eat. "We think these systems are important for bacterial cells to establish a home and defend it against competitors," said Hayes. "In fact, bacteria have many systems for competition. And as we uncover more mechanisms for intercellular competition, we realize this is a fundamental aspect of bacterial biology."
These findings demonstrate that Rhs systems in diverse bacterial species are toxin delivery machines. "We have been able to show that gram-negative (Dickeya dadantii) as well as gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis) bacteria use Rhs proteins to inhibit the growth of neighboring bacteria in a manner that requires cell-to-cell contact," said Koskiniemi, the paper's lead author.
The toxic part of Rhs at the tip (the C-terminal region) is delivered into target cells after cell-to-cell contact. Some toxic tips destroy DNA and others destroy transfer RNA, which is essential for protein synthesis. These toxin activities help the bacteria expressing them to outcompete other members of the same species not carrying an antidote.
This work may help scientists design Rhs-based bacterial probiotics that kill specific pathogens but leave most normal flora unharmed. The research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health and by fellowships from the Carl Tryggers and Wenner-Gren Foundations.
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'Chat heads' feature missing from this developer build; full official app available for free on Friday
MoDaCo's Paul O'Brien has thrown together a trio of files with which you can get a half-working version of Facebook Home onto your phone -- five days before it'll be available to everyone as a free download.
We've played with it for a few minutes now, and it'll basically give you the look and feel of Facebook Home. But it doesn't quite match the performance (at least on our Nexus 4) that we saw on the HTC First, nor on the Galaxy Note 2 we used it on at Facebook's launch event lasts week. It's also lacking the "chat heads" messaging -- that's a huge part of Facebook Home. There's also no Google Search bar in the app drawer. That's consistent with the installed version of Facebook Home we used on a Galaxy Note 2 at Facebook HQ, but it's different than what you'll find on the HTC First. (Edit: Ah. There's a toggle for that in the settings, it seems.)
So, again, this is a dev version off a leaked ROM -- not the official release. If you're just dying to see what all the fuss is about (and, again, Facebook Home looks really nice), Paul's got full instructions at the link below.
Update: Looks like Facebook might have killed things on its end, as our Coverfeed has gone blank.
Legislation can curb discrimination against gays and lesbians in employment situationsPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Antidiscrimination laws can have a significant positive impact on how gays and lesbians are treated in employment situations, according to new research from Rice University. The study on public awareness of sexual-orientation employment-antidiscrimination laws is one of the first to provide empirical evidence for the likely impact of pending antidiscrimination legislation.
"In many U.S. states and localities (including much of Texas), gays and lesbians remain unprotected from employment discrimination," said Laura Barron, a 2008 Rice alumna and now personnel research psychologist for the U.S. Air Force and the study's lead author. "And in the debate over national antidiscrimination legislation, some lawmakers have sought to justify opposition to ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) by suggesting that antidiscrimination legislation would not effectively reduce discrimination if enacted. Our research findings directly dispute this claim."
The study revealed that:
Public awareness and support of sexual-orientation laws is heightened in communities with (versus without) antidiscrimination legislation.
Gay and lesbian job applicants experience significantly less interpersonal discrimination in areas with (versus without) this protective legislation, even when statistically controlling for religious and political views.
Training that informs interviewers that sexual-orientation employment discrimination is legal or illegal in their community directly affects their treatment of gay and lesbian applicants.
Mikki Hebl, professor of psychology at Rice and the study's co-author, said these findings have important implications for the current national debate on gay rights.
"Given the absence of conclusive evidence on the effectiveness of antidiscrimination laws, many elected officials have been hesitant to support ENDA and similar legislation," she said. "However, with these new findings, we believe that some lawmakers may feel compelled to reconsider their views on this topic."
The study was conducted in three parts.
In the first study, the researchers documented public awareness of sexual-orientation employment-antidiscrimination laws by contacting 111 households by phone in five cities in a major metropolitan area in the southwestern U.S. Two of these cities have citywide sexual-orientation antidiscrimination laws and three do not.
In the second study, study participants (recruited from Rice psychology classes) applied for 295 retail jobs in cities with and without legal protection within the same metropolitan area. The participants were instructed to wear hats that read "Texan and Proud" or "Gay and Proud," but they did not know which hat they were assigned to wear. The participants then entered businesses to inquire about employment opportunities and covertly audio-recorded their conversations with prospective employers. The interactions were evaluated on the basis of perceived friendliness, helpfulness and hostility by the study's participants and independent raters who later reviewed the audio recordings.
In the third study, the researchers conducted a lab experiment to determine if the effects of the second study were the same in a controlled setting free of outside influences. As part of a longer training on interviewing skills, 229 participants were told that employers could or could not legally discriminate based on sexual orientation. The participants then interviewed "applicants" (Rice students) whose resumes listed experience with a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender student organization and receipt of a gay and lesbian student award. The conversations were recorded and evaluated on the same criteria as the second study.
The researchers hope their findings will inform the legislative debate on gay rights by providing empirical evidence on the potential impact of national antidiscrimination legislation.
"This piece of research clearly demonstrates that regardless of your beliefs on gay rights, antidiscrimination legislation can be very effective in reducing interpersonal discrimination," Hebl said.
###
"THE FORCE OF LAW: The Effects of Sexual Orientation Antidiscrimination Legislation on Interpersonal Discrimination in Employment" will appear in an upcoming edition of Psychology, Public Policy and Law and is available online at http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2012-13791-001. The research was funded by Rice University, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the UCLA Williams Institute.
For more information, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at 713-348-6327 or david@rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Related Materials:
Rice University Department of Psychology: http://psychology.rice.edu/
Laura Barron photo (Credit: Rice University): http://bit.ly/12q8r7G
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Legislation can curb discrimination against gays and lesbians in employment situationsPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Antidiscrimination laws can have a significant positive impact on how gays and lesbians are treated in employment situations, according to new research from Rice University. The study on public awareness of sexual-orientation employment-antidiscrimination laws is one of the first to provide empirical evidence for the likely impact of pending antidiscrimination legislation.
"In many U.S. states and localities (including much of Texas), gays and lesbians remain unprotected from employment discrimination," said Laura Barron, a 2008 Rice alumna and now personnel research psychologist for the U.S. Air Force and the study's lead author. "And in the debate over national antidiscrimination legislation, some lawmakers have sought to justify opposition to ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) by suggesting that antidiscrimination legislation would not effectively reduce discrimination if enacted. Our research findings directly dispute this claim."
The study revealed that:
Public awareness and support of sexual-orientation laws is heightened in communities with (versus without) antidiscrimination legislation.
Gay and lesbian job applicants experience significantly less interpersonal discrimination in areas with (versus without) this protective legislation, even when statistically controlling for religious and political views.
Training that informs interviewers that sexual-orientation employment discrimination is legal or illegal in their community directly affects their treatment of gay and lesbian applicants.
Mikki Hebl, professor of psychology at Rice and the study's co-author, said these findings have important implications for the current national debate on gay rights.
"Given the absence of conclusive evidence on the effectiveness of antidiscrimination laws, many elected officials have been hesitant to support ENDA and similar legislation," she said. "However, with these new findings, we believe that some lawmakers may feel compelled to reconsider their views on this topic."
The study was conducted in three parts.
In the first study, the researchers documented public awareness of sexual-orientation employment-antidiscrimination laws by contacting 111 households by phone in five cities in a major metropolitan area in the southwestern U.S. Two of these cities have citywide sexual-orientation antidiscrimination laws and three do not.
In the second study, study participants (recruited from Rice psychology classes) applied for 295 retail jobs in cities with and without legal protection within the same metropolitan area. The participants were instructed to wear hats that read "Texan and Proud" or "Gay and Proud," but they did not know which hat they were assigned to wear. The participants then entered businesses to inquire about employment opportunities and covertly audio-recorded their conversations with prospective employers. The interactions were evaluated on the basis of perceived friendliness, helpfulness and hostility by the study's participants and independent raters who later reviewed the audio recordings.
In the third study, the researchers conducted a lab experiment to determine if the effects of the second study were the same in a controlled setting free of outside influences. As part of a longer training on interviewing skills, 229 participants were told that employers could or could not legally discriminate based on sexual orientation. The participants then interviewed "applicants" (Rice students) whose resumes listed experience with a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender student organization and receipt of a gay and lesbian student award. The conversations were recorded and evaluated on the same criteria as the second study.
The researchers hope their findings will inform the legislative debate on gay rights by providing empirical evidence on the potential impact of national antidiscrimination legislation.
"This piece of research clearly demonstrates that regardless of your beliefs on gay rights, antidiscrimination legislation can be very effective in reducing interpersonal discrimination," Hebl said.
###
"THE FORCE OF LAW: The Effects of Sexual Orientation Antidiscrimination Legislation on Interpersonal Discrimination in Employment" will appear in an upcoming edition of Psychology, Public Policy and Law and is available online at http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2012-13791-001. The research was funded by Rice University, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the UCLA Williams Institute.
For more information, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at 713-348-6327 or david@rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Related Materials:
Rice University Department of Psychology: http://psychology.rice.edu/
Laura Barron photo (Credit: Rice University): http://bit.ly/12q8r7G
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
[ | 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.
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Public release date: 8-Apr-2013
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