Motorola is running a little contest on Instagram, and the prize is a kick ass pair of S11-FLEX HD wireless headphones. They're promoting the contest as a little extra motivation while working out to help folks keep their New Years' resolutions (the S11-FLEX headset is sweatproof), but entering to win them is strictly a no-pain affair.
Just fire up Instagram on your phone (all the cool kids will use Android!), post a picture showing how wires get in the way and use the #howiflex tag. The contest ends January 31. It looks like an easy way to get a great Bluetooth headset, so give it a shot. You can grab Instagram from the Google Play link above if you need it, and you can find more information at Motorola's Facebook page.
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Molecular forces are key to proper cell divisionPublic release date: 21-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Janet Lathrop jlathrop@admin.umass.edu 413-545-0444 University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Studies led by cell biologist Thomas Maresca at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are revealing new details about a molecular surveillance system that helps detect and correct errors in cell division that can lead to cell death or human diseases
AMHERST, Mass. Studies led by cell biologist Thomas Maresca at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are revealing new details about a molecular surveillance system that helps detect and correct errors in cell division that can lead to cell death or human diseases. Findings are reported in the current issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
The purpose of cell division is to evenly distribute the genome between two daughter cells. To achieve this, every chromosome must properly interact with a football-shaped structure called the spindle. However, interaction errors between the chromosomes and spindle during division are amazingly common, occurring in 86 to 90 percent of chromosomes, says Maresca, an expert in mitosis.
"This is not quite so surprising when you realize that every single one of the 46 chromosomes has to get into perfect position every time a cell divides," he notes. The key to flawless cell division is to correct dangerous interactions before the cell splits in two.
Working with fruit fly tissue culture cells, Maresca and graduate students Stuart Cane and Anna Ye have developed a way to watch and record images of the key players in cell division including microtubule filaments that form the mitotic spindle and sites called kinetochores that mediate chromosome-microtubule interactions. They also examined the contribution of a force generated by molecular engines called the polar ejection force (PEF), which is thought to help line up the chromosomes in the middle of the spindle for division. For the first time, they directly tested and quantified how PEF, in particular, influences tension at kinetochores and affects error correction in mitosis.
"We also now have a powerful new assay to get at how this tension regulates kinetochore-microtubule interactions," Maresca adds. "We knew forces and tension regulated this process, but we didn't understand exactly how. With the new technique, we can start to dissect out how tension modulates error correction to repair the many erroneous attachment intermediates that form during division."
The cell biologists conduct their experiments inside living cells. In normal cell division, chromosomes line up in the center, where two copies of each chromosome are held together with "molecular glue" until signaled to dissolve the glue and divide. To oversimplify, each chromosome copy is then pulled to opposite poles of the cell, escorted in what looks like a taffy pull away from the center as two new daughter cells are formed.
During the split, molecular engines pull the copies apart along microtubule tracks that take an active role in the process that includes shortening microtubules by large, flexible scaffold-like protein structures called kinetochores that assemble on every chromosome during division. Maresca and colleagues say until this study revealed details, PEF's function as a kinetochore regulator has been underappreciated.
Overall, this well orchestrated process prevents serious problems such as aneuploidy, that is, too many chromosomes in daughter cells. Aneuploidy in somatic or body cells leads to cell death and is a hallmark of most cancer cells. But in eggs or sperm, it leads to serious birth defects and miscarriages.
In properly aligned division, microtubules from opposite spindle poles tug chromosome copies toward opposite poles, but they stick together with molecular glue until the proper moment. This creates tension at the kinetochores and stabilizes their interactions with microtubules. However, if attachments are bad, or syntelic, both copies attach to the same pole, leading to chromosome mis-segregation and aneuploidy if uncorrected. "Cells have a surveillance mechanism that allows them to wait for each for every chromosome to properly align before divvying up the chromosomes," Maresca says. "It's clear in our movies that the cell waits for the last kinetochores to correctly orient before moving forward."
To study this at the molecular level, Maresca and colleagues designed experiments to trick the cellular machinery into overexpressing the molecular engine that produces PEF. Surprisingly, this caused a dramatic increase in a type of bad kinetochore-microtubule interaction called syntelic attachments. They also fluorescently tag chromosomes, microtubules, kinetochores and the molecular engine kinesin with different colors to visualize interactions in real time using a special microscope at UMass Amherst able to image single molecules. Quantifying the amount of fluorescence of the force-producing molecular engine, they were able to assess the relative strength of the PEF in cells.
Maresca says, "We see the detection pathway preventing the molecular glue from dissolving until every chromosome is correctly aligned. The delay gives the cell time to correct errors. We propose that these bad syntelic attachments are normally very short-lived because they are not under proper tension. However, when we experimentally elevate PEF, tension is introduced at attachments that do not typically come under tension, essentially tricking the cell into thinking these chromosomes are properly aligned."
Plotting the percent of syntelic attachments versus the amount of PEF, Maresca and colleagues observed an error rate that plateaus at 80 to 90 percent, mirroring and supporting earlier work by others in different cell types. "In cells with elevated PEFs, the correction pathway is overridden, the detection mechanism is silenced and the result is disastrous because it leads to severe aneuploidy. This research has taught us about how an important molecular engine generates the PEF and how this force affects the accuracy of cell division."
###
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Molecular forces are key to proper cell divisionPublic release date: 21-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Janet Lathrop jlathrop@admin.umass.edu 413-545-0444 University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Studies led by cell biologist Thomas Maresca at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are revealing new details about a molecular surveillance system that helps detect and correct errors in cell division that can lead to cell death or human diseases
AMHERST, Mass. Studies led by cell biologist Thomas Maresca at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are revealing new details about a molecular surveillance system that helps detect and correct errors in cell division that can lead to cell death or human diseases. Findings are reported in the current issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
The purpose of cell division is to evenly distribute the genome between two daughter cells. To achieve this, every chromosome must properly interact with a football-shaped structure called the spindle. However, interaction errors between the chromosomes and spindle during division are amazingly common, occurring in 86 to 90 percent of chromosomes, says Maresca, an expert in mitosis.
"This is not quite so surprising when you realize that every single one of the 46 chromosomes has to get into perfect position every time a cell divides," he notes. The key to flawless cell division is to correct dangerous interactions before the cell splits in two.
Working with fruit fly tissue culture cells, Maresca and graduate students Stuart Cane and Anna Ye have developed a way to watch and record images of the key players in cell division including microtubule filaments that form the mitotic spindle and sites called kinetochores that mediate chromosome-microtubule interactions. They also examined the contribution of a force generated by molecular engines called the polar ejection force (PEF), which is thought to help line up the chromosomes in the middle of the spindle for division. For the first time, they directly tested and quantified how PEF, in particular, influences tension at kinetochores and affects error correction in mitosis.
"We also now have a powerful new assay to get at how this tension regulates kinetochore-microtubule interactions," Maresca adds. "We knew forces and tension regulated this process, but we didn't understand exactly how. With the new technique, we can start to dissect out how tension modulates error correction to repair the many erroneous attachment intermediates that form during division."
The cell biologists conduct their experiments inside living cells. In normal cell division, chromosomes line up in the center, where two copies of each chromosome are held together with "molecular glue" until signaled to dissolve the glue and divide. To oversimplify, each chromosome copy is then pulled to opposite poles of the cell, escorted in what looks like a taffy pull away from the center as two new daughter cells are formed.
During the split, molecular engines pull the copies apart along microtubule tracks that take an active role in the process that includes shortening microtubules by large, flexible scaffold-like protein structures called kinetochores that assemble on every chromosome during division. Maresca and colleagues say until this study revealed details, PEF's function as a kinetochore regulator has been underappreciated.
Overall, this well orchestrated process prevents serious problems such as aneuploidy, that is, too many chromosomes in daughter cells. Aneuploidy in somatic or body cells leads to cell death and is a hallmark of most cancer cells. But in eggs or sperm, it leads to serious birth defects and miscarriages.
In properly aligned division, microtubules from opposite spindle poles tug chromosome copies toward opposite poles, but they stick together with molecular glue until the proper moment. This creates tension at the kinetochores and stabilizes their interactions with microtubules. However, if attachments are bad, or syntelic, both copies attach to the same pole, leading to chromosome mis-segregation and aneuploidy if uncorrected. "Cells have a surveillance mechanism that allows them to wait for each for every chromosome to properly align before divvying up the chromosomes," Maresca says. "It's clear in our movies that the cell waits for the last kinetochores to correctly orient before moving forward."
To study this at the molecular level, Maresca and colleagues designed experiments to trick the cellular machinery into overexpressing the molecular engine that produces PEF. Surprisingly, this caused a dramatic increase in a type of bad kinetochore-microtubule interaction called syntelic attachments. They also fluorescently tag chromosomes, microtubules, kinetochores and the molecular engine kinesin with different colors to visualize interactions in real time using a special microscope at UMass Amherst able to image single molecules. Quantifying the amount of fluorescence of the force-producing molecular engine, they were able to assess the relative strength of the PEF in cells.
Maresca says, "We see the detection pathway preventing the molecular glue from dissolving until every chromosome is correctly aligned. The delay gives the cell time to correct errors. We propose that these bad syntelic attachments are normally very short-lived because they are not under proper tension. However, when we experimentally elevate PEF, tension is introduced at attachments that do not typically come under tension, essentially tricking the cell into thinking these chromosomes are properly aligned."
Plotting the percent of syntelic attachments versus the amount of PEF, Maresca and colleagues observed an error rate that plateaus at 80 to 90 percent, mirroring and supporting earlier work by others in different cell types. "In cells with elevated PEFs, the correction pathway is overridden, the detection mechanism is silenced and the result is disastrous because it leads to severe aneuploidy. This research has taught us about how an important molecular engine generates the PEF and how this force affects the accuracy of cell division."
###
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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.
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Every TV manufacturer that could haul itself to the home of gambling, sand and lost weekends wants you, needs you, to buy a 4K in the near future. The 3-D HDTV didn't pan out and now it's up to 4K ...
Posted by Ellee on Jan 5, 2013 in Blog | 1 comment
This is a guest post by former chaplain and anti-sex trafficking campaigner Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford, diversities and equalities consultant, theologian and human rights advocate, ordained priest and ?director of CCARHT a research centre on human trafficking in the UK.
Just when we thought that the Church of England had made its final assault on civil society?s sense of modernity and inclusion by failing to support women bishops, here comes another twist which is beyond belief.
The latest House of Bishops announcement effectively ends the ban on an openly gay man becoming bishop ? as long as he remains celibate, and repents of any gay sexual relationships which he might have engaged in before his appointment. This interrogation on sexual practice does not form part of the standard procedures for appointment for a ?straight? male bishop, and, as the Christian writer Symon Hill, also the associate director of the think-tank Ekklesia, noted in an interview with The Independent this week, ?the Church of England is still in the position of enforcing discrimination against both homosexual and female clergy.
?Unfortunately this is being presented as progress,? he said, ?but it?s really another announcement of discrimination It?s saying straight bishops can have sex but gay bishops can?t. Celibacy is a gift from God. Some people are called to it, others are not. It?s not a second best option for second best clergy.?
The Rt Revd Graham James, Bishop of Norwich, said by way of explanation of the extraordinary announcement, that ?The House (of Bishops) believed it would be unjust to exclude from consideration for the episcopate anyone seeking to live fully in conformity with the church?s teaching on sexual ethics or other areas of personal life and discipline.?
The challenge now is how the Church of England can engage in a mature manner and theological insight, rather than political expediency. It has engineered its own precipitous exclusion from the gay marriage legislation, with ?religious freedom? protected via a ?quadruple lock? announced by Culture Secretary Maria Miller. ?This lock was forged by the government as a response to the vociferous opposition religious leaders within the established and the Catholic churches, to the idea of offering the sacrament of marriage to same sex partners. The ?quadruple lock? effectively closes out the liturgy of the Church of England, its premises and its clerics from the performance of a marriage service for gay couples. The Equality Act itself will be altered so that a discrimination claim cannot be brought where there is a refusal on the part of any organisation or individual to marry a same-sex couple.
?Crime against nature? was an old English euphemism for sexual transgression. It is presumably these ?crimes? which an aspirant bishop will have to confess to, or deny having partaken of, as part of their assessment process, before an appointment can be made. The theological and ecclesial angst surrounding homosexuality on the part of religious leaders, emerges explicitly or implicitly in statements with a feint towards either the ?unnaturalness? of homophilia itself or its realisation in explicit sexual acts.
That would-be bishops who are gay must promise to stay celibate whether in a civil partnership or not in order to secure their appointment is an extraordinary and thoroughly unhelpful fudge. The fact that sexual congress is congruent with professed fidelity, which is what ?validates? sex for their ?straight? ?married? colleagues, and forms an integral part of building a relationship of companionship and self-giving love for any human being in a relationship configured by desire, regardless of sexual orientation, is ignored.
A theologically tuned-in leadership could find in all the recent energy emerging from gay and lesbian communities across the world, seeking parity in religiously or state sanctioned relationships a wonderful source of fresh insights into the ministry and praxis of their founder. After all, Jesus was not the offspring of a conventional heterosexual marriage, and his teaching on the nature of familial relationships was thoroughly disruptive of any model of ?nuclear patriarchal household? we might care to erect.
When we consider the nature of relationships now being entered into by gay people seeking parity through marriage, civil partnership, adoption and IVF rights, we see a vibrant display of what is an irreversible diversity, transforming wider society?s understanding of the legitimate relations of gender, sexuality and family. It is a pity that the leadership of the Church of England is currently struggling to find a way to interpret and bring any theological insight to how this diversity and life force streaming out of communities for too long silenced, degraded, humiliated, and demonised, is part of the movement of God?s creative, life affirming and transformational presence in the twenty first century.
It is simply not good enough for the Church to continue to play out at any level the transcript of ?loving the sinner but hating the sin?. ?Any conception of homosexuality as some form of ?abnormality? chosen or inflicted, is embedded in an outmoded view of homosexual orientation fixed somewhere in the latter half of the nineteenth century, when Karl Maria Kertbeny first coined the phrase in 1868.
It is time that the Church of England, and all other religious organisations, took note of what a range of scientific disciplines ranging from anthropology, zoology, neurophysiology and psychiatry has disclosed over the last century. Homosexual desire which plays a central part in configuring a homophilic man or woman is part of the normal distribution of human society.
It is time that the Church of England played straight with theology, science and its own demographic.? Some clergy, some laity, some theologians, some bishops, some churchwardens, some would be ordinands, and some archdeacons are gay. It is time to address the way we live now without having to provoke a fresh searing satire from the hands of a contemporary Trollope, or to enforce any further suffering, shadow living, early retirements, blocked participation, half-truths, inauthenticity or needless stress on those in our communities who are gay.? It is time to get over old shibboleths, surmount ignorance, acknowledge the Body?s grace, review the church?s position on gay marriage before it?s too late and ordain those to the Episcopacy whom God is calling from the splendid diversity of those created, male and female, straight and gay in God?s image, without further prejudice.
As the Stonewall poster campaign has been declaring for the last four years on billboards around the UK ? some people are gay, get over it.
Bonobos will readily share food, but they'll offer it up to a strange bonobo before they give it to a member of their known group. Sophie Bushwick reports
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Sharing is one of the hallmarks of human behavior: give me a cookie and I?m more likely to give you one later. But our bonobo cousins have an odd variation on the practice. They share with strangers before friends. The finding is in the journal PLoS ONE. [Jingzhi Tan and Brian Hare, Bonobos Share with Strangers]
Researchers tested bonobo sharing in experiments involving fourteen of the apes. All were born in the wild. In the primary experiment, bonobos were placed in a cage with food, and they could choose to admit either a known member of their group, a stranger, or both. In 51 trials, most bonobos shared the feast, but they let the stranger in first.
Why choose an outsider over a friend? In another experiment, the scientists found bonobos only shared when doing so led to a social interaction. Giving up some food to strangers lets these apes expand their social network. This behavior may have evolved to promote social tolerance, in contrast with chimps' sometimes deadly aggression against strangers. Which means that even when food is offered, there's still no such thing as a free lunch.
(Reuters) - Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett said on Wednesday he will ask a federal court to throw out the multimillion-dollar sanctions levied by the NCAA against Penn State University over the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal, saying the punishment threatens to cause devastating damage to the state's residents and economy.
The sanctions, which included an unprecedented $60 million fine, are "overreaching and unlawful," the governor said at a news conference in State College where the university is located.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body of U.S. collegiate sports, fined Penn State $60 million in July and voided its football victories for the past 14 seasons in a dramatic rebuke for its failure to stop Sandusky's sexual abuse of children.
"This was a criminal matter, not a violation of NCAA rules," Corbett said. He added that he believed the NCAA acted as it did because it benefited from the sizable penalty.
"These punishments threaten to have a devastating, long-lasting and irreparable effect on the state, its citizens and its economy," the governor said. "I cannot and will not stand by and let it happen without a fight."
The NCAA said it was disappointed by Corbett's move.
"Not only does this forthcoming lawsuit appear to be without merit, it is an affront to all of the victims in this tragedy - lives that were destroyed by the criminal actions of Jerry Sandusky," NCAA General Counsel Donald Remy said in a statement.
Sandusky, Penn State's former defensive coordinator, was convicted in June of 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years, some in the football team's showers. He is now serving a prison term of 30 to 60 years.
The scandal sparked a national discussion and awareness of child sex abuse, embarrassed the university and implicated top officials in the cover-up, including the late Joe Paterno, the legendary football head coach.
Corbett said a lawsuit, to be filed later on Wednesday, will ask a federal court to throw out all Sandusky-related sanctions against Penn State.
James Schultz, general counsel for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who will be handling the case for the governor, said the NCAA failed to follow its own bylaws in determining the penalties against Penn State.
Schultz said Corbett has the proper legal standing to sue the NCAA because he is acting on behalf of state residents and businesses "collaterally damaged" by the NCAA sanctions.
The sanctions hurt businesses and residents, particularly in State College where fall football weekends bring heavy visitor traffic, he said.
"In the wake of this terrible scandal, Penn State was left to heal and clean up this tragedy that was created by the few," Corbett said.
The university recently made the first payment of $12 million of the sanctions toward a national fund to support the victims of child abuse. Other sanctions included a ban on its football team from appearing in bowl games for four years.
According to the governor's office, Penn State football was the second most profitable collegiate athletic program in the nation in 2010-11 when it brought in $50 million, generating more than $5 million in tax revenue.
Penn State released a statement saying it was not party to the lawsuit and reiterated its commitment to comply with the NCAA sanctions.
The governor was asked about the report into the Penn State scandal produced by former FBI director Louis Freeh that was the basis of the NCAA sanctions. The report was scathingly critical of the university and said Penn State leaders covered up Sandusky's sexual abuse of children for years.
"The Freeh report is an incomplete report," Corbett said.
The family of Joe Paterno, who was fired by the Penn State board of trustees who said he failed to do enough when he was alerted to suspicions about Sandusky, said: "The fact that Governor Corbett now realizes, as do many others, that there was an inexcusable rush to judgment is encouraging."
The family, which took strong exception to the Freeh report, had said it was convening its own experts to review the case and the actions of the board and school administration. Paterno died a year ago of lung cancer.
His family said on Wednesday it expects to release its findings "in the near future."
The Sandusky scandal was revealed by a state grand jury convened in 2009 by Corbett, then Pennsylvania's attorney general.
Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, has vowed to probe Corbett's handling of the case. She has said that by convening a grand jury, Corbett failed to protect children by delaying prosecution for more than two years.
Corbett, a Republican, has said he welcomes an investigation into how he handled the case.
A poll of Pennsylvania voters in September found they had a poor view of his handling of the scandal as attorney general.
The Franklin & Marshall College survey noted only one in six registered voters thought he did an excellent or good job, and nearly two thirds thought he did a fair or poor job.
Also, more than half of respondents believed the NCAA sanctions imposed as a result of the Sandusky case were unfair.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Daniel Burns, Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Kenneth Barry and Claudia Parsons)
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