YOU paid for it, so you should be able to see it. On Sunday the US government said that all federally funded research results must be available for free online. The UK made a similar decision last year.
Most research papers are behind paywalls. Now all federal agencies that spend $100 million annually on research and development will have to make their results freely available by a specified time after initial publication. The US government suggests 12 months as a suitable delay. According to John Holdren, director of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy, this will improve access to information while still allowing publishers to charge for early access.
The movement towards open access has been accelerating. Last July the UK government announced that all publicly funded research will be available for free starting in 2014. Furthermore, 13,000 researchers are boycotting the academic publisher Elsevier ? owned by the same company as New Scientist ? in protest at its high prices.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Science free for all"
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One f the best features of having an Android phone is that you can install custom ROMs on your phone which brings in additional functions and features. But each time you install a new ROM, you will have to install your apps from start which is a real painful task. Recently we have covered about Carbon Backup app which allows you to take a backup of your apps and sync it across multiple devices with support for cloud storage.
Easy App Toolbox is yet another free tool for Android which allows you to take a backup of your apps. But unlike Carbon backup app, this one provides cloud storage integration in the free edition as well.
?
Once you install the app and run it, you can select the backup option. You can back it up to SD card, Google Drive, Dropbox or even PC. Then you can select the apps to backup and finish the process. To Restore you can do the same option from the main menu. Another useful feature of Easy App toolbox is that you can share the apk of any installed app to your friends.
Easy App Toolbox features:
Send your installed apps (APK files) to your friends
Backup and Restore your apps to/from Dropbox
Backup and Restore your apps to/from Google Drive
Backup and Restore your apps to/from Box.net
Backup and restore your apps to/from SD card
Backup your apps to your PC
View many detailed information about your installed apps (permissions, activities, services, files and folders, etc?)
South African Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius appears at the Magistrate Court in Pretoria on Feb. 19. His bail hearing continues Wednesday.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
A South African judge will hear more arguments Wednesday before deciding whether Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius should be denied bail and sent to a prison where other inmates have complained about ghastly conditions.
A day after prosecutors and the defense presented clashing accounts of how and why Pistorius fatally shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day, the two sides will spar over where he should spend the months before a trial.
South African legal experts say that after hearing from witnesses, the magistrate will be asked to evaluate the strength of the prosecution's case and consider whether the double-amputee is a flight risk, a danger to anyone, or likely to intimidate witnesses or destroy evidence.
"Personally, my view is he should get bail because he's got a fixed permanent residence, has no previous convictions, and owns assets in the jurisdiction of the court. He's disabled and easily recognizable," said Steve Tuson, a law professor at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
But bail could be a tough sell since the judge provisionally entered a charge of premeditated murder after Tuesday's hearing ? where Pistorius claimed he fired into his bathroom in a panic over a possible prowler, while prosecutors alleged he calmly put on his artificial legs before he stalked Steenkamp to the bathroom to kill her.
Unless the magistrate, Desmond Nair, downgrades the charge after Wednesday's hearing, or the defense convinces him there are extraordinary reasons Pistorius should remain free, the trail-blazing runner is headed to lockup.
Since his arrest, Pistorius, 26, has been held at a local police station, but that's unusual and it's expected he would be transferred to Pretoria's central prison to await further proceedings, experts said.
"It's not too pleasant," Marius du Toit, a South African defense lawyer who has also been a prosecutor and magistrate, said of the central prison.
"I've represented people from overseas who were incarcerated in our prisons. One lost 20 kilos because the food and conditions are so bad. He said, 'I've been in prisons all over Europe and I've never seen anything like this.'"
Two weeks before Pistorius' arrest, six inmates from the Pretoria prison petitioned the High Court to improve conditions, painting a grim picture of daily life behind its walls.
Their complaints included up to three inmates in single-person cells, dirty mattresses with no bedding, sweltering heat and poor ventilation, no time outside, rampant drug dealing and violent threats from fellow prisoners,?according to the Pretoria News.
The court has not ruled on the application, which the government planned to oppose, the newspaper said.
Du Toit said that Pistorius' high profile and disability could be grounds for some kind of accommodation if he is sent to prison, but added that officials will be loathe to give him special treatment because the decision to hold him at the police station before the bail hearing was questioned.
If he does wind up behind bars, he could be there for months before a trial and verdict -- which is delivered by a judge since jury trial were done away with in 1969.
Prosecutors and the defense team will be given time to marshal evidence before a trial date is set in stone, Tuson said.
Before the constitutional changes that accompanied the end of the apartheid era in South Africa, prosecutors could keep most of their case under wraps until trial. Now, they have to share all their evidence, Tuson said.
While U.S. trials are often delayed by endless haggling over what evidence is admissible at trial, in South Africa those decisions are made by the judge during the trial.
Tuson said the timeline from charge to verdict normally depends on the complexity of the case, the number of witnesses and how crowded the court docket is. Because the country's judicial system is so clogged, run-of-the-mill cases can face "horrible delays," he said.
Pistorius, however, could be fast-tracked due to the high-profile nature of the case. Tuson predicted the whole thing will be over in six months.
"Because of the media coverage, the state will push for this cases to be held as quickly as possible," du Toit said.
A South African court officially charged superstar runner Oscar Pistorius with killing his unarmed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, alleging he shot her three times through a locked bathroom door. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
Till now Google Inc was known as the best search engine, soon it expanded its services into the e-commerce sector by help merchants sell online.
But just don't be surprised if you see "Google-Stores" and we actually mean the brick-n-mortar kinds, in U.S cities by the end of 2013.
Taking a leaf out of its competitors books - Apple and Microsoft, Google too will sell its merchandise through retail stores as per an "extremely reliable source" report by 9to5Google. The first stores are expected to open in its European base, Dublin while American cities will have to wait till the holiday season.
Despite stories doing rounds, Google Inc's media wing has not definitely affirmed this report. The spokesperson issued a statement that "No final decision has been taken".
Currently Google sells most of its merchandise and services online with a handful of pop-up stores in collaboration with tech firms like Best Buy in U.S and Dixon's in the U.K.
However, this move is a clear indicator that for one it wants to compete effectively with its industry rivals. Secondly, it is a move to expand its business avenues outside its "Chrome Zones".
Even though both Apple and Microsoft are also effective "Soft Powers", but it is clearly Google that rules the roost when it comes to the Web. On the flip side, Google competitors are a notch higher when it comes to retail operations.
While Apple has roughly 400 stores, with 30 more in the tow by the year end, Microsoft too has 51 permanent and semi-permanent operational stores.
Seth Weintraub, 9to5Google's reporter suggests that "The mission of the stores is to get new Google Nexus, Chrome, and especially upcoming products into the hands of prospective customers. Google feels right now that many potential customers need to get hands-on experience with its products before they are willing to purchase. Google competitors Apple and Microsoft both have retail outlets where customers can try before they buy".
Google's road ahead is surely not totally difficult because it has a market reputation that customers identify with. With the introduction of its Project Glass, the retail outlets with the prospective product available for trial, will only add to consumer experience. The customers can are after all investing anywhere between $500 to $1,000 of their money into Google's technology.
This street-smart business strategy is yet another feather in Google achievements. But hopefully it will certainly not lead us away from its primary identity.
You can read the complete first report here.
Share with us your thoughts and opinions about Google's retailing ventures. Would you love to see such stores in your neighbourhood or do you still prefer the online version of Google marketing?
MONTREAL?Lallemand Health Solutions (LHS) announced five of its probiotic formulations have been granted health claims in the areas of digestive health, natural defenses and stress by Health Canada?s Natural Health Products Directorate (NHPD).
The new health claims are based on strong scientific and clinical data supporting each benefit and condition of use. This culminates many years of work and research in partnership with leading universities and hospitals.
The new health claims apply toward the following products: ProbioKid, which helps reinforce the body's natural defenses in children; Probio'Stick, which helps reduce stress-related gastrointestinal complications like nausea; Protecflor, which helps reduce the risk of traveler's diarrhea; Lacidofil, which helps reduce the risk of antibiotic associated diarrhea (AAD) and restores intestinal flora; and Lalflor, which helps reduce the risk of AAD.
The products already had been recognized by Canadian health authorities for their probiotic benefits with claims, such as ?probiotic to benefit health and/or confer a health benefit," or ?probiotic that contributes to a natural healthy gut flora."
Earlier this month, Lallemand, Inc. inaugurated its new Lallemand Health Solutions (LHS) division that consolidates the internationally recognized probiotic manufacturers Institut Rosell and Harmonium International. Lallemand Health Solutions is dedicated in bringing to its customers the highest-quality probiotic solutions produced within current GMP and ISO 9001 environments.
With 48-hours of spin and Republican criticism on its side, the Obama administration continued to back away from an immigration plan that leaked over the weekend. After USA Today reported on a leaked immigration bill that Obama's team was assembling as various factions on Capitol Hill worked on their own legislation, an unnamed administration official told NBC News that the White House was not "floating anything" and framed the leaked legislation as a backup plan. "The administration will be ready to move forward in the event the bipartisan process gets bogged down and is not able to produce a bill," the administration official said. "But our focus remains on supporting the congressional process."
RELATED: What the President's Path to Citizenship Looks Like
That's the right thing to say, since the leaders of said "congressional process" ? or at least the Republicans among them ? absolutely planned the Obama plan over the weekend. Rep. Paul Ryan accused the Obama administration of pursuing a "partisan advantage and not a bipartisan solution," while Sen. John McCain insisted that lawmakers were "making progress on a bipartisan basis." Sen. Marco Rubio went a stage further and said the plan was "half baked and seriously flawed," even "dead on arrival."
RELATED: Obama to Pitch Immigration Reform as a Money Saver
Before the White House had the chance to explain itself, The New York Times described the leaked information as "early drafts" of an immigration bill. Obama's chief-of-staff Denis McDonough explained on Meet the Press, "We are doing exactly what we said we would do, which is we'll be prepared in the event that the bipartisan talks going on the Hill ? which by the way we're very aggressively supporting ? if those do not work out, then we'll have an option that we'll be ready to put out there." That option?describes a new visa establishing "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" status that would let immigrants live and work in the United States and apply for legal permanent residency eight years later.?
RELATED: Rubio Fights the President's 'Half-Baked' Immigration Plan
How the draft of the bill got out remains a mystery. Former Obama chief-of-staff David Axelrod did say that it was a "mistake ??to disseminate [the draft] so widely in the administration that it got leaked." So maybe the Obama administration wanted it to be leaked? There's no way to know. And let us remind you that this is not an episode of House of Cards.
Over the years, Mophie has become synonymous with extending the iPhone's battery life. The outfit's range of battery-filled iPhone cases has garnered rave reviews across the industry, and even I religiously used one on an iPhone 3G. In more recent days, the company has cautiously expanded into a few new areas -- namely, building battery cases for non-Apple phones, and creating the contraption shown above. The Mophie Outride is an action-cam case that's designed to be strapped onto helmets, automobile hoods and any other place where your average X Games wannabe would look to capture extreme sports footage.
But, unlike the myriad rivals on the market today, the Outride doesn't actually include a camera. Instead, you're supposed to strap your iPhone 4 or 4S into it (an iPhone 5 model has yet to be announced), allowing the smartphone you already own to handle the bulk of the work. At first blush, it sounded like an ideal solution to me. After all, I'm generally in favor of convergence and consolidation, and as an avid traveler, having one less thing to carry (in this case, a dedicated camera) is a godsend. In practice, however, the Outride did little outside of convincing me that GoPro exists for a reason.
DescriptionTakahata dares to use Studio Ghibli?s color and technique not to depict fantasy, science fiction, or war, but to show the infinite value of an ordinary contemporary life, that of 27 year old Tokyo office worker Taeko. Flashing back and forth between Taeko?s youth in 1966 and her adult life in 1982, Only Yesterday delicately captures many aspects of Japanese life both past and present. Subtitled.
Web sitehttp://cinema.wisc.edu/series/sunday-screenings...
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Video conferencing technology has vastly improved over the last several years creating new market opportunities and opening a significantly larger addressable market compared with 2-3 years ago. As mentioned in Frost & Sullivan?s 2013 ?Best Practices Research Report,? Vidyo has developed a platform that enabled this growth, and has benefited from the innovations it has brought to the market. Among them is H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC).
The recent approval of H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 AVC and SVC Modes Version 1.0 specification from the Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCI Forum) is an important milestone for the entire industry.? It is the first step towards offering better video communication to customers by enabling them to deploy mixed-vendor solutions with confidence. The approved specification is also great news for Vidyo, as our customers have repeatedly asked for interoperability. The approval of this specification widens the doorway to seamless interoperability at the media level, as SVC is adopted by more and more vendors.
Vidyo has always been an advocate for SVC and, in fact, helped lay the initial groundwork for the original H.264 SVC specification. Vidyo engineers worked closely within standard development groups such as the ITU-T, MPEG, and the IETF, and even co-wrote parts of the SVC specifications. H.264 SVC technology folds seamlessly into today?s videoconferencing architectures and addresses several issues surrounding visual communications on unreliable networks.
H.264 SVC is an international standard. The large number of options and configuration choices, however, hinders interoperation between products from different vendors. The goal of the UCI Forum H.264 AVC & SVC Modes specification is to provide detailed guidance as to what operating modes and capabilities are required of both decoders and encoders, in order to enable interoperability. The specification that was just completed is the first step: it concerns the video bitstream format only and was developed as a joint effort of the membership of the H.264/SVC Task Group of UCI Forum. As a result, the H.264/SVC specification is not the product of a single vendor, but rather represents the consensus of several different H.264 SVC implementors.
As more companies realize H.264 SVC?s value in addressing market needs, you are sure to see the SVC adoption rise. In fact many companies have begun to adopt SVC in one form or another just this past year. Vidyo has been steadfast in its commitment to facilitating interoperability of the H.264 SVC standard for over six years. ?Our VidyoRouter?architecture, which features H.264 SVC and Adaptive Video Layering, is being embraced by more and more customers from a variety of markets due to the many unique benefits it offers: exceptional quality, highly scalable, affordable video conferencing, accessible via any network using any device, just for starters. We now have thousands of customers using Vidyo?s technology and our 3rd generation video communications products, who enjoy the benefits of this groundbreaking architecture every single day.
We are dedicated to continuing this pursuit into the future and to making this vital technology available to all. So keep an eye on H.264 SVC as more work is underway to enable interoperability at the transport and signaling levels.
For more information about the new H.264/SVC specification, click here. For more information about?SVC and Video Communications, click here. For more information about UCI Forum, click here.
????????????????????????????????????
Dr. Alex Eleftheriadis, is Chief Scientist and co-founder of Vidyo. Alex drives the technical vision and direction for Vidyo and also represents the company on standardization committees and technical advisory boards. He is an award-winning researcher, bringing over 19 years of research experience in video compression and communications to his role at Vidyo. Prior to Vidyo he was an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. Alex has more than 100 publications, holds 15 patents, has served as the Editor of the MPEG-4 Systems specification and Co-Editor of the H.264 SVC Conformance specification, and is currently Co-Editor of IETF?s RTP Payload Format for SVC.
NEW YORK (AP) - The American member of FIFA's executive committee who went public with bribery accusations against his boss two years ago said he won't seek re-election for a fifth term and will leave his position in May after 16 years.
Chuck Blazer is the most senior American official in world soccer but his departure was expected after his role in the scandal over presidential election candidate Mohamed bin Hammam.
"It is time for new faces with new energy to take over the responsibility of FIFA's leadership," the 67-year-old Blazer said Saturday in a statement.
In 2011, he said that CONCACAF president Jack Warner and Asian confederation head Mohamed bin Hammam attempted to bribe Caribbean delegates $40,000 each to vote for Bin Hammam in the FIFA presidential election. Warner's acting successor then tried to fire Blazer, setting off more disciplinary proceedings.
Warner resigned and officials from half of its 40 member countries were investigated by FIFA. Blazer left his job as general secretary of the continental federation for North America, Central America and the Caribbean in the fallout.
A contest to replace him at FIFA is expected between American federation president Sunil Gulati and Mexican president Justino Compean. Both are members of the CONCACAF executive committee. The election is scheduled on April 19 at the confederation's congress in Panama City. The winner will be installed into the FIFA board on May 31 in Mauritius.
In Panama, CONCACAF is expected to publish results of a forensic audit of its accounts commissioned after the longstanding Warner-Blazer leadership era ended.
Blazer was the target of widespread anger last year when members were told about the New York-based body's financial affairs. Though the American was credited with increasing CONCACAF's revenues since the 1990s, officials objected to contract commissions he received which were agreed to by Warner.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Rogers retires, comes out as gay
PST: Former U.S. international and MLS standout Robbie Rogers announced his retirement at age 25 on Friday, while simultaneously coming out as gay.
US official Blazer to leave FIFA executive seat
??NEW YORK (AP) - The American member of FIFA's executive committee who went public with bribery accusations against his boss two years ago said he won't seek re-election for a fifth term and will leave his position in May after 16 years.
Leaked draft legislation reportedly authored by the White House would be used as a backup proposal should negotiations fail in Congress over comprehensive immigration reform, administration officials said today.
White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough was asked about the USA Todaystory on political talk shows this morning. On ABC's "This Week," McDonough told Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl lawmakers would have to "make sure that it doesn't have to be proposed."
"Let's make sure that that group up there, the ' Gang of Eight,' makes the good progress on these efforts as much as they say they want to," McDonough said, referring to efforts of the Senate's bi-partisan working group.
The president has previously stated that his administration would be prepared to offer their own bill should Congress fail to reach consensus. Some details of the draft, which has not been finalized or released to Congress, match previous White House proposals including a 2011 immigration blueprint.
Also appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," host David Gregory asked him whether the draft signaled President Obama would drive any potential reform, over ongoing bipartisan work on Capitol Hill.
"The fact of this report, David, I think all it says to me is that we're doing exactly what we said we'd do," McDonough replied. "Which is that we'll be prepared, in the event that the bipartisan talks going on on the Hill - which by the way we are very aggressively supporting - if those do not work then we'll have an option that we are ready to put out there, as the president said in Las Vegas."
The newspaper says it obtained the unfinished bill from an anonymous administration official, one not authorized to disclose the information.
Analysis: Leaked immigration proposal puts pressure on Senate.
Among its particulars, if passed, would be the creation of a "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" status, that could be applied for by the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented residents. The new visa would allow its holders to legally live and work in the United States, as well as leave the country for short periods of time. After eight years visa holders who passed the program would be allowed to apply for full citizenship.
Earlier this month Democratic Gang of Eight members Sen. Richard Durbin and Sen Bob Menendez indicated the group was weighing similar a proposal that would extend the wait to 10 years. But Saturday a leading Republican in the group, Sen. Marco Rubio, immediately lambasted the White House version as "dead on arrival" in Congress.
"This legislation is half baked and seriously flawed," he said in a statement last night. "It would actually make our immigration problems worse. If actually proposed, the president's bill would be dead on arrival in Congress, leaving us with unsecured borders and a broken legal immigration system for years to come."
Rubio said Republicans had not been consulted regarding the hypothetical legislation. On ABC, McDonough denied the claim.
"We've been working with all the members up there [of the Gang of Eight.] We have our staff working this very aggressively with their staffs and with the members, and we're working this very aggressively, as you think we would with such a high priority for the country," he said.
USA Today's article states that immigrants who seek citizenship under the White House draft would first have to submit to biometric screening, pass a criminal background check, and pay fees for the visa. Successful bids could still be disqualified for crimes, including those that would equal one year in prison, or three separate 90-day sentences.
Also included in the document are undisclosed increases to the Border Patrol, expansion of Homeland Security technologies along the border, and the hiring of an additional 140 judges to handle immigration violations.
As of press time White House officials have refused to comment directly on the specifics of the report. On NBC another Republican on the Gang of Eight, Sen. John McCain, suggested the leak might have been planned as a bargaining position.
"I believe we are making progress on a bipartisan basis. I believe we can come up with a product," McCain said. "Leaks don't happen in Washington on accident. This raises the question many of us continue to worry about. Does the president want a result? Or does he want another cudgel to beat up Republicans so that he can get political advantage in the next election?"
ABC-Univision's Jordan Fabian contributed to this report.
Entering its twenty-third year, the Silver Skate Festival is the longest running winter festival in the City of Edmonton. The festival is rooted in the Dutch tradition of a love of the outdoors and the pleasure of experiencing the cultural and aesthetic beauty of winter but in recent years the festival has exploded into an extravaganza of art, culture, recreation and sports programming. This is no small feat and would not be possible without the support of our sponsors and in-kind contributors. Take the time to visit our sponsor page and support the businesses that support the Silver Skate Festival. It is amazing what we can accomplish together as a community. Festival Programming will include a wide variety of free events and activities to include free programming by River Valley Programming, our epic ice slide, family snow sculpting, figure skating demonstrations, roving performers, horse drawn sleigh rides, the Cessco Snow Sculpture Garden, Night Works in the Park: a multimedia extravaganza, the Silver Skate Folk Trail, two evenings of fire sculptures and our Heritage Village will feature a rich tapestry of heritage performers. Over 45000 people enjoyed the Festival in 2012 and the Silver Skate Festival has become the premier winter festival in the greater Edmonton area. With our diverse programming which offers something for everyone we anticipate attendance to exceed 50,000 at our 2013 festival.
View original content here: Feb 18, 2013 12:00 PM: Silver Skate Festival at William Hawrelak Park
Writing in the winter issue of Emory Magazine, President James Wagner rhapsodizes about the need for compromise in a politically turbulent society. He points out that the constitution was in itself a compromise. Another example he cites, is the Three-Fifths Compromise, which legally represented slaves as less than a person. He writes:
One instance of constitutional compromise was the agreement to count three-fifths of the slave population for purposes of state representation in Congress. Southern delegates wanted to count the whole slave population, which would have given the South greater influence over national policy. Northern delegates argued that slaves should not be counted at all, because they had no vote. As the price for achieving the ultimate aim of the Constitution-"to form a more perfect union"-the two sides compromised on this immediate issue of how to count slaves in the new nation. Pragmatic half-victories kept in view the higher aspiration of drawing the country more closely together.
He then goes on to explain that compromises, like the Three-Fifths Compromise, keep our country great. Let's think of a bunch of other compromises that he could have used instead of the one that is horrible and forever a stain on our nation:
- The Affordable Care Act
- Voting Rights Act
- Bicameral Legislature
- Do all homework, you get to watch The Simpsons
That took me two minutes.
Also, the whole piece is pretty much about why he's cutting back on the humanities:
At Emory of late we have had many discussions about the ideal-and the reality-of the liberal arts within a research university. All of us who love Emory share a determination that the university will continue trailblazing the best way for research universities to contribute to human well-being and stewardship of the earth in the twenty-first century. This is a high and worthy aspiration. It is tempered by the hard reality that the resources to achieve this aspiration are not boundless; our university cannot do everything we might wish to do, or everything that other universities do. Different visions of what we should be doing inevitably will compete. But in the end, we must set our sights on that higher goal-the flourishing liberal arts research university in service to our twenty-first-century society.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer has been dead for more than 18 years, but the murders and dismemberments of the 17 boys and men he killed, and sometimes ate, still haunt the living.
Documentary "The Jeffrey Dahmer Files," which opens in limited release in U.S. movie theaters on Friday, focuses on the lives of three people - Milwaukee Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen, Police Detective Patrick Kennedy and Dahmer's neighbor Pamela Bass - whose lives were indelibly changed.
Milwaukee-based filmmaker Chris James Thompson, 30, talked to Reuters about making the film. Dahmer was beaten to death by another inmate in prison in 1994, while serving 15 life terms.
Q: Do you have a personal connection to the Dahmer case?
A: I grew up in Madison which is an hour outside of Milwaukee. When I was 10, my parents divorced, which was right around the time that Dahmer (was in the news). I used to take the bus back and forth (between the two cities) and I remember people talking about it in Milwaukee very different than they talked about it in Madison.
Q: How so?
A: In Milwaukee, they talked about it like it was a flood or a disaster. It was a horrific event that affected many people around you. In Madison, people talked about it with a little bit of excitement, like it was entertainment. That stuck with me. It interested me how proximity works in something like this where the whole world is watching.
Being from Milwaukee, I thought it was important to give the people that actually lived the case an opportunity to tell their side. I wanted to tell a story of how (the Dahmer case) affected these people, and the ripple effect of what this guy did to the community.
Q: What did you discover?
A: Those that lived that disaster continue to live it. Our attention may go elsewhere, but they don't get to escape and move on. With Pat, it contributed to the problems he was having with his wife and they got divorced. Pam told me that not a week goes by that she doesn't think about this. Imagine being a neighbor to someone who is killing and eating people 40 feet away from where you sleep!
Q: Did it affect you as you were making the documentary?
A: The hardest part was being a year or two into (the shooting process) and realizing that I had set myself up to be focusing on a such a dark subject matter for so many hours in a day. I started to think, 'Why am I doing this? I should stop. I'm perpetuating a really miserable story that affected a lot of people in a negative way.'
Q: What kept you going?
A: When Pat, Pam and Dr. Jentzen shared the stories of what they had to live with - and still live with - I realized they can't just walk away. I owed it to them because they confided in me and trusted me and shared with me on my promise that I was telling their story in a broader perspective. To give up on that would be letting them down.
Q: Did you speak to Dahmer's family?
A: I got an email from a family member of his that lives in Australia. She wrote: 'Is there anything I can do to get you to stop making this movie?' She was worried that we were going to go on a continued smear campaign of his mom and dad as being the reasons Dahmer did what he did. I explained how we were telling the story through the perspective of these three people whose lives were changed because of it. Then she became receptive and wished us luck.
Q: What was the budget of the film?
A: I'll tell you this: the median salary in Milwaukee is about $33,000. I spent every disposable dollar I could get my hands on for four years. I funded it myself with no outside funding. I owe an enormous thank-you to the film-making community of Milwaukee who helped me do everything from shooting to editing to producing to lighting for free.
Q: Is it true you are donating 100 percent of the profits from this film to charity?
A: Yes. Any money I'll make I'm donating to a non-profit called Milwaukee Community Service Crops (which provides at-risk youth with tools necessary to be contributing members of the community.)
Q: Have you seen any profits?
A: No. The movie is still in the red. That's the sad part of the independent film-making ... But you never know. Digital is sort of the Wild West of avenues for moviegoers to see films. In 5, 10 or 20 years my film could get into the black. It would be especially sweet to be able to write (the Milwaukee charity) a check and maybe see some small positive thing come out of such a negative story.
(Reporting by Zorianna Kit; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Vicki Allen)
Lady Gaga is taking a break from touring for the sake of her health. After suffering an injury during a show that has gotten worse -- to the point where she can't walk -- the Mother Monster has been forced to cancel her Born This Way Ball Tour, concert promoter Live Nation announced on its website on Wednesday. Doctors have discovered a labral tear in her right hip.
An arsenal of more than 100 firearms, cash and armor has been found in a cave in northern California. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News
Deputies in northern California have discovered a massive cache of drugs, cars, and weapons, including a belt-fed machine gun and more than 100 pounds of marijuana, the Humboldt County Sheriff?s department announced on Wednesday.
A deputy uncovered the firearms on the 55-acre property of Ryan Floyd. They said 111 of them were stashed in a cave that had been camouflaged with rocks and brush; at least 20 of the weapons have been confirmed stolen, according to the sheriff?s office.
Among the weapons, many of which were loaded, was a fully automatic, World War II-era MG 42 caliber machine gun, along with a full belt of ammunition. Also in the cave were several assault-style rifles including Colt AR-15s, as well as sawed-off shotguns and Tech Nine and SKS assault weapons.
A number of the weapons are thought to be fully automatic, according to the sheriff?s office, and were fully loaded when found by a deputy.
?It was like enough for a small militia out there,? said Lt. Steve Knight of the Humboldt County Sheriff's office. ?As far as why he was holding onto this large quantity of weapons, that?s the one million dollar question.?
Humboldt County Sheriff's Office
Sheriff's deputies recover weapons from a cave in northern California.
Floyd is a longtime resident of the Humboldt County area, Knight said.
The man may have amassed the weapons with plans of selling them on the black market, said Sheriff Michael Downey. ?Based on what I saw, these were probably weapons obtained ... over the years either by theft or other means, and probably being sold on the black market somewhere along the way,? Downey said.
Also on the property in Garberville, Calif., deputies said they found jewelry that an area resident had reported stolen, according to the sheriff?s office, as well as stolen construction equipment including a tractor, a concrete cutter, an air compressor, and numerous chainsaws. Many of the items discovered had been reported stolen in the area, the sheriff?s office said.
A woman, Deanna McDonald, 33, and two small children were on the property at the time of the search, according to the sheriff?s office. Deputies issued McDonald, who is not supposed to own a gun, a notice for possession of a loaded weapon.
In previous searches of the property over the past week, police made numerous other discoveries of contraband. Law enforcement first became interested in Floyd, 30, on Feb. 2, when a deputy tried to pull over a black Chevy pickup that was driving erratically. The truck, later found to have been reported stolen from a burglarized home, was discovered empty by police after plunging down a hillside and crashing into a tree. Deputies began to look for Floyd and Oregon resident Honey Walsh, 29, as persons of interest.
Deputies and county Drug Task Force agents searched Floyd?s residence on Flint Rock Road in Garberville five days later, and arrested the man on an outstanding no-bail felony warrant for narcotics possession. He is being held without bail, Downey said. A preliminary probation search yielded 45 pounds of dried marijuana, more than $10,000 in cash, and heroin, along with scales and drug paraphernalia. Also found was a handgun, body armor, and numerous high-capacity magazines full of ammunition.
Humboldt County Sheriff's Office
Some of the weapons recovered in Garberville, Calif.
Police also reported finding evidence of numerous vehicles, including one that was confirmed stolen, according to a press release from the sheriff?s office.
A second man, 48-year-old Gregory Benson, was also arrested on the property during the Feb. 7 search for illegal possession of ammunition and a firearm by a prohibited person.
As police continued to scour the property, they found a stolen trailer, more bulletproof vests, methamphetamine, and more high-capacity magazines along with thousands of rounds of ammunition. They also found numerous empty gun holsters and rifle cases, leading them to suspect their might be more weapons on the property, and the discovery of the cave stash.
Downey said he encountered Floyd?s father Wally, now deceased, multiple times on the sprawling property about a decade ago on drug and theft charges.
?This is a piece of property I had been to numerous times surrounding the same type of criminal activity,? Downey said.
A total of 117 pounds of marijuana have been seized on the property. The investigation is ongoing, and the California Highway Patrol is assisting the sheriff?s office in determining whether any of the other vehicles discovered on the property had been stolen.
?There?s so much property out there, it?s hard trying to figure out what?s stolen and what?s not stolen,? Knight said.
While there's no dearth of video playing apps available on Android, French outfit Archos' $5 offering stands out as an especially feature-rich option. For those that shied away from the Archos Video Player just because of the outlay involved however, there's now a free version up for grabs. Supported by ads, it provides all the functionality of its premium cousin, including hardware-accelerated encoding, ability to play network content and online retrieval of movie information like posters and subtitles. Entertainment aficionados can snag the goods at the source link for the unarguable cost of zero, and likely spend the saved scratch on some high-definition bird-slinging action instead.
DETROIT ? Whether they?re in the same house or continents apart this Valentine?s Day, romantic partners have a lot of communication tools available to help them stay part of each other?s lives.
Technology can be very useful in maintaining romantic relationships despite temporal or geographic separation, said Katheryn Maguire, associate professor of communication in Wayne State University?s College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts.
However, she said traditional means of communication still are critical for handling the more complex issues that arise between partners.
?The idea of maintaining a romantic relationship at a distance coincides with the notion of face-to-face contact as being essential,? Maguire said. ?Without that physical contact, some would even question if it is a real relationship. But with the help of communication technologies, these relationships can survive and even thrive.?
She has studied the use of technologically mediated communication and believes that while there are similarities between distanced and proximal relationships when it comes to achieving mutual goals and tasks, sometimes communicating through technology can lead to unforeseen complications. Maguire?s recent work has focused on using TMC to maintain relationships, including those of wives whose husbands are serving overseas in the armed services.
Such long-distance relationships can lead to stress and coping issues, another focus of her research. Maguire?s best advice to couples trying to maintain such relationships is to ?hang in there.?
?When you know you?re only going to be apart for a set amount of time (like a year), that knowledge alone makes people more satisfied and enables them to say, ?I can do this,?? she said.
Maguire suggests that those in long-distance relationships find fun and creative ways to use technology, such as both parties reading the same book and then discussing chapters along the way online.?
?There are ways to use the technologies available to you,? she said. ?Take the channel that works for what it is you want to talk about. For just a quick ?hi? or ?I love you,? a text is great.?
Maguire is quick to add, however, that old-school methods still work to enhance the sense of connection.
?Letters, particularly handwritten, have more weight than TMC,? she said. ?They are gifts. You?re touching something the other person touched. And for something more serious, you probably need to have that phone conversation.?
Wayne State University is one of the nation?s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit www.research.wayne.edu.
What?s New: The 2014 Kia Sorento?s sheet metal is a disguise. Yes, it looks an awful lot like the 2013 Kia Sorento, and yes, the basic body panels and glass are the same. But Kia says this is nearly an all-new vehicle. Beneath the surface the Sorento shares a revised chassis with the new Hyundai Santa Fe. Torsional rigidity is said to be up by 18 percent, while both the strut front and multilink rear suspensions were calibrated to improve ride, noise isolation, and handling compared to the old Sorento. The more compact rear suspension now creates an extra 1.6 cubic feet of interior space too. Cargo space is unchanged, but every foot counts in a family wagon.
This significant refresh comes just three model years after Kia launched the Sorento as an all-new 2011 model. The company made the same move with the new Forte. Kia is keeping a hyper-competitive product cycle these days.
Under the hood, the Sorento moves to an all-direct-injected engine lineup. Gone is the old 175-hp 2.4-liter engine, along with the choice of a manual transmission. Instead, whether you tick the box for the standard 191-hp 2.4-liter four-cylinder or the 290-hp 3.3-liter V-6, a six-speed automatic comes along for the ride.
Tech Tidbit: Sorentos now use Magna?s Dynamax all-wheel-drive system. Kia codeveloped Dynamax and introduced it on the 2011 Sportage. It?s essentially a smart coupling that mounts to the front of the rear axle. The AWD system gathers information from vehicle sensors and the coupling, and then proportions torque with a multiplate clutch to the rear axle. Torque is metered out to the appropriate axle quickly and, through the use of vehicle sensors, the system can anticipate when the Sorento will need a little extra traction in foul weather or rearward torque to help reduce understeer. Speaking of handling, the system works with a new Torque Vectoring Cornering Control system. Don?t let the name get you too excited?it doesn?t vector torque mechanically like an expensive German sport sedan, but rather uses the brakes to help control torque across the rear axle.
Driving Character: Our loaded SX AWD model came packing the V-6 and felt quick scooting around traffic. From a standstill, though, the Sorento feels sluggish even though it will probably zip to 60 mph in about 7.5 seconds. There?s a bit of a lag between the time you pin the throttle and the moment the Sorento launches from a stoplight. It?s as if the engine, transmission, and AWD system must all check with base camp for approval. No matter: Once under way, the Kia has plenty of highway passing power.
On paper, the Sorento SX appears to be set up for switchbacks. All Sorentos come wearing suspension that?s 10 mm (0.39 inches) lower than the old one, and the SX gets standard 19-inch low-profile tires along with the company?s "Flexsteer" adjustable electric steering system. But bend the Sorento into a set of twisties at high speeds and it soon becomes clear that this Kia is out of its element. With a cabin full of kids, dogs, and mothers-in-law, you won?t be speeding anywhere except to the grocery store for more Honey Nut Cheerios.
The new Sorento delivers the most important driving characteristic a family needs?comfort. The new suspension system provides a ride that?s as plush as an air-spring-equipped Jeep Grand Cherokee. The SX comes packing a ton of luxury features including heated and ventilated leather front seats, heated steering wheel, rear air conditioning, and a power liftgate. Rear-seat passengers have plenty of space and optional seat heaters too.
However, climb into that third row on seven-seat models once, and you won?t do it again. This is no back seat for adults, unless they happen to hail from The Shire.
Favorite Detail: The Sorento?s dash has been heavily reworked and looks far more modern than before. But as tempting as it may have been for designers to replace old-school controls, they chose to keep the knobs. Two easy-to-use dials control the audio system and two more are there to adjust the climate control. Perhaps we?re Luddites, but sometimes simplicity is best.
Driver?s Grievance: The new Sorento is smoother, quieter, and drives better. But leaving the bodywork essentially unchanged from the old one seems odd. How will anyone notice the newness if it hardly looks different?
Bottom Line: The Kia Sorento has always been an exceedingly good value. That hasn?t changed. The top-level SX Limited, at just over $40,000, adds a litany of luxury features for thousands less than its competitors.
Yet don?t get used to the look of this Sorento. Kia product planners told PM that an even newer Sorento is coming along soon. While they didn?t specify a date, we got the impression that this 2014 model is a stopgap before something radical comes along, perhaps aping some of the style from the cool Cross GT concept that debuted at the Chicago Auto Show.
Slacker Radio has changed in a very significant way. Don't worry, the streaming music service?still offers compelling mix of customizable, curated channels, playlists, news and sports talk, and on-demand streaming. The change is to the site itself. Slacker has undergone a redesign that gives it a fresh look, simplified navigation, and a new "Music Guide" section which offers music industry-related news and videos. Long-time Slacker listeners may be left bewildered as they try to wrap their heads around the new layout, but newcomers?and those willing to explore?will find a lot to like.
A New Design, A Few Problems The revamped Slacker ditches the slick, black design that's been the service's face since its 2007 debut for a mostly white page that's interspersed with a soft blue. Although Slacker now looks like it could be "baby's first streaming music service," there are benefits to the new design. If, like me, you spend the majority of your day staring into the white void that is Microsoft Word, glancing over to a white Slacker is easier on the eye than the black one.
The tabbed area that contained the "Home," "Now Playing," "Create Your Own," and "Devices" sections are no more. Slacker has a new panel-driven interface that features large, square icons that make identifying items far simpler. The upper-most section that houses album art, song title, and playback controls crib elements from the Slacker iPad app's original design. The area is larger and easier to read, but it has a few issues. The volume control is positioned a bit too close to the "Up Next" preview square that lets you take a peek at an upcoming track. As such, I'd sometimes preview instead of adjusting the volume.
The slider itself is problematic, too. I actually had trouble raising and lowering the volume without accidentally muting the audio. It proved so frustrating that I left the player volume at maximum and used my PC's audio control to tweak the sound level. On the upside, I like that you can view artist info or lyrics by clicking the artist name or song title, respectively, but that requires some exploration to find. Unlike Slacker's previous design, the new build lacks an indentifying icon.
Customization and Discovery Slacker Radio has three main areas: "Slacker Stations," "Music Guide," and "My Music." Visiting/logging into Slacker takes you to Music Guide by default?don't worry, you can still play tunes there. Music Guide is a new information hub that fills you in on the latest music happenings and points you toward cool content. For example, Fall Out Boy?at the time of this writing?had just released a new single after a three-year hiatus. Music Guide prominently featured the band by providing a blog entry-like summary of the news and linking to the band's artist page where a bio, popular songs, albums, and featured videos live. It's a convenient way to discover music beyond the basic related songs you'll hear within your music stream. Fall Out Boy is touring, FYI.
Slacker Stations houses the services many news, talk, comedy, and music channels and displays them as large panels with eye-catching art design. There are over 40 top-level (including Alternative, Blues, Chill, Comedy) and multiple sub-genres within each. You can, of course, key in an artist name or song title into the search engine. Typing "Hendrix" and then clicking the search icon returned numerous results, but I liked that I could filter by artists, album, song, or station by clicking a tab to the right of the results.
My Music is where you'll find your playlists, custom stations, and recently played stations. The playlists and custom stations areas have large, hard to miss icons that let you build fresh playlists and custom stations. A diagram displays how you go about build either when you click the respective icons.
I fine-tuned my "The Wind Cries Mary" channel by clicking the "Fine Tune" icon, which is now located in the same area as the playback controls (the old Slacker design buried it in the settings menu). New fine tune options include a keyword stream that displays an artist's most popular songs and their relative number of songs based on the popularity and size of the keyword (color represents popularity and size represents number). Like the SiriusXM MySXM?beta I recently tested, Slacker Radio now has sliders that you can use to tweak playback metrics in the related artists, favorite songs, popular songs, and new/older song categories. Unlike SiriusXM MySXM, on the new slacker, the sliders remained the same from station to station. Still, the new customization options open the door to more tightly crafted custom stations.
As always, clicking the "Ban" icon prevents a song/artist from appearing. Clicking the heart-shaped "Favorite" icon, however, gave a song extra weight, causing Slacker to play it more frequently. You can also turn on/off Slackers DJ, ABC News, and ESPN updates.
Subscription Plans Slacker offers three listening plans for music fans. With Slacker's free, basic plan you can skip a maximum of six songs per hour and must endure audio advertisements. Subscribing to the $3.99 per month Slacker Plus lets you remove advertising, and skip an unlimited number of songs. The $9.99 Slacker Premium (which we used for this review) lets you cache stations, create stations based on a specific artist, and play songs and albums on-demand. The on-demand playback is easily the coolest feature, as you no longer have to wait for Slacker to serve up tracks; I simply keyed a song title into the search box and listened to my favorite tunes. Some songs, however, aren't available via on-demand due to licensing reasons.
Slacker Plus and Premium are more expensive than Pandora's $36 annual subscription, but its free, basic service gives you unlimited free streaming (Pandora will charge 99 cents for the remainder of the month once you pass 40 hours of listening). You can play an entire individual album?in sequence?from beginning to end, or rifle through all of an artist's tracks that are in the library.
Slacker's latest additions are excellent: ESPN, and ABC Radio's Men's Life and Women's Life channels. ESPN Radio streams live audio to listeners in select cities (Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York) that include not only the brand's staple shows (like Mike & Mike in the Morning), but sporting events as well (such as Wimbledon 2012). The Men's Life and Women's Life channels feature content from the likes of Car & Driver, Complex Magazine, and GQ. Here you'll find tips for night driving, easing a hangover, fashion advice, and more. The additions, when combined with ABC News and the four comedy channels, push Slacker into a realm beyond just streaming music; Slacker has become a streaming audio juggernaut that appeals to radio lovers of all types. Clicking the share button lets you share either a song or album to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, or email.
Music Selection, Sound Quality, and Mobile Apps Slacker streamed crisp, hiccup-free audio (at 128 Kbps) over my home and office network connections. Unless you're an audiophile, Slacker's sound quality will satisfy even when the audio is pumped through computer speakers. A Razer Star Wars The Old Republic headset revealed Slacker's excellent audio quality; bass lines were full and bouncy, and there was a good separation of high and low sounds.
Slacker also offers a wide selection of portable options. There are free apps available for the Android, BlackBerry, and iOS devices and, yes, they too receive the redesign. If you subscribe to a paid account, you can cache stations for offline playback.
Tune Into Slacker Radio Slacker's revamped Web design, quality streaming audio, on-demand access, live radio, and deep customization options make it the Editors' Choice pick among premium streaming audio services (despite the volume slider issues). Songza?remains our Editors' Choice among free services, thanks to its excellent music-discovery features, but if you love radio and don't mind opening your wallet for great music, Slacker is our Editors' Choice for premium streaming music services.
More Music Services & Players Reviews: ??? Slacker Radio (2013) ??? iHeartRadio ??? SoundHound (for iPad) ??? Pandora Radio (for iPad) ??? Apple iTunes 11 ?? more
FILE ? In this Jan. 24, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. As President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, Feb. 12, 2013, he presides over an economy much healthier than the one he inherited four years ago. Yet growth remains slow and unemployment high. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE ? In this Jan. 24, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. As President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, Feb. 12, 2013, he presides over an economy much healthier than the one he inherited four years ago. Yet growth remains slow and unemployment high. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
President Barack Obama bestows the Medal of Honor on retired Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha for conspicuous gallantry, Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Romesha's leadership during a daylong attack by hundreds of fighters on Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan led to award. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama is hardly the first president to hit the road to emphasize themes sounded in his State of the Union address. Nearly all recent presidents have done it.
Obama is observing the tradition with a three-day tour that will take him to Asheville, N.C., on Wednesday, Decatur, Ga., on Thursday and hometown Chicago on Friday.
The trips are an attempt to enlist public support in pressuring Congress on a range of issues Obama is pushing ? instead of embarking more directly on new partisan fights with lawmakers.
The annual address wasn't always the big deal it is today.
The tradition of delivering it to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber began with Woodrow Wilson, president from 1913-1921. But even then, it was usually delivered around noon. President Lyndon Johnson moved it to prime time.
"That changed the whole nature of the speech. Its audience now was the American people," says presidential scholar Stephen Hess. "(Senate Republican leader) Everett Dirksen said, if he can do it, we want it for the opposition, too. The three networks at the time said, 'Sure, why not?'"
Since presidents play to a crowd of millions with the annual speech, it seems natural for them to hit the hustings the next day to pound home their message. And it won't be hard for the White House to build audiences receptive to Obama's agenda on jobs, the budget, gun violence, immigration and climate change.
Of course, leaving Washington to present your case directly to the public doesn't always work.
Bill Clinton's travels to promote his health care proposals went nowhere.
And George W. Bush's travel after his 2005 State of the Union to rally support for his plan for private Social Security accounts to allow younger workers to put some of their payroll taxes in stocks or other investments flopped.
It didn't even garner much support among GOP lawmakers.
____
Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum
Contact: William Davis william_davis@med.unc.edu 919-962-3405 University of North Carolina Health Care
Chapel Hill, NC Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) hide within the worldwide human population. While dormant in the vast majority of those infected, these active herpesviruses can develop into several forms of cancer. In an effort to understand and eventually develop treatments for these viruses, researchers at the University of North Carolina have identified a family of human genes known as Tousled-like kinases (TLKs) that play a key role in the suppression and activation of these viruses.
In a paper published by Cell Host and Microbe on Feb. 13, a research team led by Blossom Damania, PhD, of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, found that suppressing the TLK enzyme causes the activation of the lytic cycle of both EBV and KSHV. During this active phase, these viruses begin to spread and replicate, and become vulnerable to anti-viral treatments.
"When TLK is present, these viruses stay latent, but when it is absent, these viruses can replicate" said Dr. Damania.
Patrick Dillon, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Damania's lab, led the study. Other co-authors included UNC Lineberger members Drs. Dirk Dittmer, Nancy Raab-Traub and Gary Johnson.
KSHV and EBV are blood-borne viruses that remain dormant in more than 95 percent of those infected, making treatment of these viruses difficult. Both viruses are associated with a number of different lymphomas, sarcomas, and carcinomas, and many patients with suppressed immune systems are at risk for these virus-associated cancers.
"The dormant state of these viruses is what makes it so hard to treat these infections and the cancers associated with these infections," said Dr. Damania.
Researchers have known that stimuli such as stress can activate the virus from dormancy, but they do not understand the molecular basis of the viral activation cycle. With the discovery of the link between these viruses and TLKs, Dr. Damania said that researchers can begin to look for the molecular actions triggered by events like stress, and how they lead to the suppression of the TLK enzymes.
"What exactly is stress at a molecular level? We don't really understand it fully," said Dr. Damania.
With the discovery that TLKs suppresses these viruses, Dr. Damania said that the proteins can now be investigated as a possible drug target for these virus-associated cancers. In its normal function in the cell, TLKs play a role in the maintenance of the genome, repairing DNA and the assembly of the chromatin, but there is a lot more to learn about the function of the TLKs, said Dr. Damania. One avenue of her lab's future research will investigate how TLKs function in absence of the virus.
"If we prevent this protein from functioning, and we combine this with a drug that inhibits viral replication, then we could have a target to cure the cell of the virus. If the virus isn't there, the viral-associated cancers aren't present," said Dr. Damania.
###
This research was supported by NIH grants CA096500, CA163217, and CA019014, and the UNC Lineberger training grant NIH T32CA009156. Dr. Damania is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Foundation Scholar and a Burroughs Wellcome Investigator in Infectious Disease.
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Contact: William Davis william_davis@med.unc.edu 919-962-3405 University of North Carolina Health Care
Chapel Hill, NC Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) hide within the worldwide human population. While dormant in the vast majority of those infected, these active herpesviruses can develop into several forms of cancer. In an effort to understand and eventually develop treatments for these viruses, researchers at the University of North Carolina have identified a family of human genes known as Tousled-like kinases (TLKs) that play a key role in the suppression and activation of these viruses.
In a paper published by Cell Host and Microbe on Feb. 13, a research team led by Blossom Damania, PhD, of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, found that suppressing the TLK enzyme causes the activation of the lytic cycle of both EBV and KSHV. During this active phase, these viruses begin to spread and replicate, and become vulnerable to anti-viral treatments.
"When TLK is present, these viruses stay latent, but when it is absent, these viruses can replicate" said Dr. Damania.
Patrick Dillon, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Damania's lab, led the study. Other co-authors included UNC Lineberger members Drs. Dirk Dittmer, Nancy Raab-Traub and Gary Johnson.
KSHV and EBV are blood-borne viruses that remain dormant in more than 95 percent of those infected, making treatment of these viruses difficult. Both viruses are associated with a number of different lymphomas, sarcomas, and carcinomas, and many patients with suppressed immune systems are at risk for these virus-associated cancers.
"The dormant state of these viruses is what makes it so hard to treat these infections and the cancers associated with these infections," said Dr. Damania.
Researchers have known that stimuli such as stress can activate the virus from dormancy, but they do not understand the molecular basis of the viral activation cycle. With the discovery of the link between these viruses and TLKs, Dr. Damania said that researchers can begin to look for the molecular actions triggered by events like stress, and how they lead to the suppression of the TLK enzymes.
"What exactly is stress at a molecular level? We don't really understand it fully," said Dr. Damania.
With the discovery that TLKs suppresses these viruses, Dr. Damania said that the proteins can now be investigated as a possible drug target for these virus-associated cancers. In its normal function in the cell, TLKs play a role in the maintenance of the genome, repairing DNA and the assembly of the chromatin, but there is a lot more to learn about the function of the TLKs, said Dr. Damania. One avenue of her lab's future research will investigate how TLKs function in absence of the virus.
"If we prevent this protein from functioning, and we combine this with a drug that inhibits viral replication, then we could have a target to cure the cell of the virus. If the virus isn't there, the viral-associated cancers aren't present," said Dr. Damania.
###
This research was supported by NIH grants CA096500, CA163217, and CA019014, and the UNC Lineberger training grant NIH T32CA009156. Dr. Damania is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Foundation Scholar and a Burroughs Wellcome Investigator in Infectious Disease.
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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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Dr. Alex Eleftheriadis, is Chief Scientist and co-founder of Vidyo. Alex drives the technical vision and direction for Vidyo and also represents the company on standardization committees and technical advisory boards. He is an award-winning researcher, bringing over 19 years of research experience in video compression and communications to his role at Vidyo. Prior to Vidyo he was an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. Alex has more than 100 publications, holds 15 patents, has served as the Editor of the MPEG-4 Systems specification and Co-Editor of the H.264 SVC Conformance specification, and is currently Co-Editor of IETF?s RTP Payload Format for SVC.
Writing in the winter issue of Emory Magazine, President James Wagner rhapsodizes about the need for compromise in a politically turbulent society. He points out that the constitution was in itself a compromise. Another example he cites, is the Three-Fifths Compromise, which legally represented slaves as less than a person. He writes:
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Public release date: 13-Feb-2013
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