Countdown to the introduction of a norovirus vaccine

Public release date: 17-Feb-2012
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Contact: Joseph Caspermeyer
Joseph.Caspermeyer@asu.edu
Arizona State University

Noroviruses are believed to make up half of all food-borne disease outbreaks in the United States, causing incapacitating (and often violent) stomach flu. These notorious human pathogens are responsible for 90 percent of epidemic nonbacterial outbreaks of gastroenteritis around the world.

On Friday, February 17, 2012 at 10:00 a.m., Charles Arntzen, ASU Regents' professor, and professor in the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the Biodesign Institute will deliver a lecture entitled Countdown to the Introduction of a Norovirus Vaccine. The talk will take place during the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Vancouver, BC.

Arntzen's lecture is part of a special topical seminar: NorovirusThe Modern Scourge of Food and Family.

The seminar title is well chosennoroviruses are extremely contagious, readily passing from person to person, particularly among those living in the closed quarters of dormitories, nursing homes, child care centers, military bases, and cruise ships. Infections can result from contact with virus particles dispersed in the air or from the ingestion of even tiny quantities of contaminated food. Further, even vigorous hand washing or the use of alcohol wipes or gels may be ineffective in combating norovirus transmission. Noroviruses can persist in a transmissible state for days or weeks even in those who are asymptomatic or are recovering from the disease.

Arntzen will speak about the prospects for a successful vaccine to prevent norovirus infection, based on Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), which are able to mimic actual noroviruses, stimulating a robust immune response, without producing disease symptoms. Due to the frequent mutation of noroviruses, vaccine candidates will need to be adaptable for alternate strains of the pathogenmuch the way current vaccines for influenza are modified to keep pace with viral evolution. New strategies for formulating and biomanufacturing such vaccines offer renewed hope for norovirus vaccine development in the near future.

Arnzen's lecture will take place in Room 220 (VCC West Building).

Charles Arntzen holds the Florence Ely Nelson Presidential Endowed Chair at Arizona State University and is a Professor at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Life Sciences.

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Public release date: 17-Feb-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Joseph Caspermeyer
Joseph.Caspermeyer@asu.edu
Arizona State University

Noroviruses are believed to make up half of all food-borne disease outbreaks in the United States, causing incapacitating (and often violent) stomach flu. These notorious human pathogens are responsible for 90 percent of epidemic nonbacterial outbreaks of gastroenteritis around the world.

On Friday, February 17, 2012 at 10:00 a.m., Charles Arntzen, ASU Regents' professor, and professor in the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the Biodesign Institute will deliver a lecture entitled Countdown to the Introduction of a Norovirus Vaccine. The talk will take place during the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Vancouver, BC.

Arntzen's lecture is part of a special topical seminar: NorovirusThe Modern Scourge of Food and Family.

The seminar title is well chosennoroviruses are extremely contagious, readily passing from person to person, particularly among those living in the closed quarters of dormitories, nursing homes, child care centers, military bases, and cruise ships. Infections can result from contact with virus particles dispersed in the air or from the ingestion of even tiny quantities of contaminated food. Further, even vigorous hand washing or the use of alcohol wipes or gels may be ineffective in combating norovirus transmission. Noroviruses can persist in a transmissible state for days or weeks even in those who are asymptomatic or are recovering from the disease.

Arntzen will speak about the prospects for a successful vaccine to prevent norovirus infection, based on Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), which are able to mimic actual noroviruses, stimulating a robust immune response, without producing disease symptoms. Due to the frequent mutation of noroviruses, vaccine candidates will need to be adaptable for alternate strains of the pathogenmuch the way current vaccines for influenza are modified to keep pace with viral evolution. New strategies for formulating and biomanufacturing such vaccines offer renewed hope for norovirus vaccine development in the near future.

Arnzen's lecture will take place in Room 220 (VCC West Building).

Charles Arntzen holds the Florence Ely Nelson Presidential Endowed Chair at Arizona State University and is a Professor at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Life Sciences.

###

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-02/asu-ctt020812.php

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London Session: BOE shifts its stance and Greek tail risks increase

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You can watch our latest London video blog here with even more analysis: ?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muYmHYUgL6I

There are two forces working on the markets right now: 1, central banks in simulative mode and 2, fragile recoveries and tail risk from Europe. Both have been out in force today. Earlier Eurozone economic data for Q4 2011 actually surprised to the upside, GDP contracted by 0.3%, better than the 0.4% fall that was forecast.?

France's economy managed to stay above water in the last three months of 2011, while Germany didn't contract as much as expected, although Italy slipped into a technical recession after its economy contracted 0.7% in Q4 after falling 0.2% in Q3. The market took the GDP data in its stride, after all everyone in the market expected weakness at the end of 2011 and now people want to know how quick the recovery will be in 2012. What was far more interesting were reports that French car maker Peugeot had apparently approached the ECB about EUR 1bn of loans that are backed by collateral. So has the ECB has replaced the entire banking system in Europe, or what?

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We don't know if this plan by Peugeot would be accepted, but it leads one to question the integrity of the ECB's balance sheet in the wake of the LTRO programme. It also suggests that some corporates would consider cutting out the middle man (the banks) and going straight to the source of the funding - the ECB. This is another way of admitting that Europe's banking sector is up the creek without a paddle, and the even though risk may be rallying post the ECB liquidity injection, banks in Europe are still in a critical state.

On the topic of central banks and liquidity the Bank of England presented its first Inflation Report of the year. The report came after some fairly depressing labour market data. Although the unemployment rate remained steady at 8.4% (the lowest level since 1995) the claimant count rate rose more than expected in January by 6.9k, vs. 3k expected. There are now 2.67 million people unemployed in the UK, which is an increase of 48,000 over the last 3 months. Added to that wage growth remains below the rate of inflation at 2% per year, which suggests that inflation will have to fall further to stimulate consumption.

The Inflation Report was slightly less downbeat compared to the November report. Although the Bank of England still expects inflation to fall below target in the medium-term, it doesn't expect the dip below 2% to be as deep as previous. It also added that the extent to which inflation will decline and the likely pace of moderation "remain uncertain". Added to that its growth forecast was revised higher with the growth recovery pushed forward to Q1 from Q2 and Q3 previously.? Some have taken this to mean that QE is not necessarily a given. However, BOE Governor King said that more stimuli is possible and even though the Bank owns close to a third of all UK Gilts it could still buy more.

He also added that any tightening ion policy would be detrimental to the overall economic recovery in the UK and since the bulk of public sector spending cuts won't come into force until 2013 and 2014 the Bank will need to maintain an accommodative stance for some time. The pound has traded in a very tight range today. GBPUSD has traded between 1.5680 and 1.5720, it is moving with overall risk appetite although the revisions higher to the BOE's inflation and growth estimates contained in its Inflation Report is limiting pound weakness. It also helped trigger the sell-off in EURGBP after it reached 0.8400 - a harsh resistance zone where EURGBP has faltered before.

Overall, the European session has been a bitty day, with no real trend noticeable and instead fairly tight ranges are prevailing. Whether or not risk can cling on is dependent on Greece. Read more below....

Greece watch:

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Europe is still dominating the markets for the wrong reasons. After it seemed like Greece had jumped through all the hoops necessary to release its next round of bailout funds, yesterday we heard that Greece had failed at the last hurdle. The Eurogroup meeting scheduled for 1700 GMT today has been downgraded to a teleconference after the head of the Eurogroup said that Greece had failed to meet all of the demands necessary to receive the next tranche of funds.

It appears that the latest stumbling block between Greece and its next tranche of funds (read welfare) from its Eurozone peers is down to EUR 300mn of extra cuts and getting signed requests from the leaders of Greece's major political parties that they would implement the cuts agreed regardless of the outcome of April's general election. This was a bone of contention, the centre right leader, at one point last night, refused to sign the agreement. The Europeans smell a rat, and after dealing with successive failures from Greece to meet fiscal targets it is refusing to give the country the money.

The latest update is that a bridging loan could be arranged for Greece that would cover its EUR 14.5 billion bond redemption coming up on 20^th March. However, the other EUR 115.5bn of funds wouldn't be released until after elections in April.? This is not exactly the outcome that the markets were waiting for as it increases uncertainty. Markets would like to know that Greece has enough liquidity to stay afloat for the medium-term, however so far that certainty has not been forthcoming.

The reason is that no one believes Greece will need just one more bailout. What happens when its latest EUR 130 billion of funds dry up? It's unlikely that Greece will be getting more funds from irate German, Dutch and Finnish politicians who barely hide their contempt for the Med nation.

It's not just Greek-fatigue that is bolstering markets as Athens continues to flounder, it's also because since 2010 banks across the world and in Europe have been reducing their exposure to Greece and its sovereign and private sector debt. Barclays announced results last week and it now only has GBP 13 million of exposure to Greece, which is nothing for a Bank the size of Barclays. Added to that BNP Paribas, the French lender, is exposed to the tune of EUR 1.6bn, which is about EUR 3 billion lower than at the end of 2010.

Thus, the markets are not reacting as they once were to negative headlines from Athens because they are less exposed and thus less sensitive to events in Greece. This is also the case for the economic future of the Eurozone. The core is outperforming the periphery and even France, who is also trying to reduce debt, managed to export its way to growth during the last three months of 2011 expanding by a modest 0.2%, while Greece saw its economy contract 7%.

So maybe there are legs to the argument that Greece matters less to the Eurozone now than it did before, and if the European leaders can negotiate an orderly default or exit for the Eurozone then it may only have a limited impact on markets. This may be why European stocks and even peripheral bond markets have proven to be fairly resilient to the current crisis in Athens.

Best Regards,

Kathleen Brooks| Research Director UK EMEA | FOREX.com

d: +44.(0).20.7429.7924 | f: +44.(0).20.7929.2010 | M: +44 (0) 7919.411.957? | e: kbrooks@forex.com| w: www.forex.com/uk

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Disclaimer: The information and opinions in this report are for general information use only and are not intended as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any currency or CFD contract. All opinions and information contained in this report are subject to change without notice. This report has been prepared without regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any particular recipient. Any references to historical price movements or levels is informational based on our analysis and we do not represent or warranty that any such movements or levels are likely to reoccur in the future. While the information contained herein was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, author does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness, nor does author assume any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss that may result from the reliance by any person upon any such information or opinions.

Foreign Exchange and other leveraged products involves significant risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Increasing leverage increases risk. Spot Gold and Silver contracts are not subject to regulation under the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act. Contracts for Difference (CFDs) are not available for US residents. Before deciding to trade forex, you should carefully consider your financial objectives, level of experience and risk appetite. Any opinions, news, research, analyses, prices or other information contained herein is intended as general information about the subject matter covered and is provided with the understanding that FOREX.com is not rendering investment, legal, or tax advice. You should consult with appropriate counsel or other advisors on all investment, legal, or tax matters. FOREX.com is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the US, by

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/299164/20120215/london-session-boe-shifts-stance-greek-tail.htm

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How You Can Survive Online Day Trading

von Israel Tenorio Abgelegt unter Money Beschlagwortet mit banks, day trader, dollars, gambling, hedge funds, managed accounts, Money, Mutual Funds, net worth, NYSE, riches, self employment, success, wall street, wealth 5. Februar 2012 @ 13:20

Although online trading is amongst probably the most promising forms of enterprises lately, a lot of individuals who have dared to engage into it have finished up broke. It is not for the reason that online trading just isn?t definitely capable of giving them the large income but because they?re not able to compete well in the trading industry and survive. There may very well be so many distinctive factors that a day trader could wind up out of cash in the day trading market; it may be that he doesn?t know the right strategies or that he doesn?t know the industry at all. Whether you are a day trader of your own investment or in an online stock trading business, it truly is pretty essential that you obtain a formal education regarding day trading initially ahead of getting into it.

Getting a formal or sufficient education about online trading might offer you all the knowledge and trading techniques you will need as a way to survive the business. You?ll be able to enroll in short term courses of 4 to six months becoming offered by most trading firms today. The short term classes would not just provide you with common knowledge concerning the day trading business but would also provide to enhance the trading techniques you already know. And if real estate investments in rio de janeiro apartments or homes interests you, there are courses for that also.

Trading firms have distinct approaches of educating aspiring traders to support them to develop into effective traders and rio de janeiro real estate investors. The first is naturally the selection to take short term classes of 4 to 6 months for all those who?re determined to pursue investing careers and can dedicate much more time learning how to overcome in this business.

The second may be the choice to discover from your house through online trading classes. It is a way of educating an aspiring day trader about the trading business; how it works and tips on how to survive it or perhaps master it. Online classes are a lot more handy techniques of teaching soon to be traders every thing about online stock trading, forex trading, real-estate investing and all other forms of trading business. It is also a great chance to acquire one of the reliable high frequency trading software platforms that will significantly help you in surviving the trading business. Online classes are suitable for all those who are somewhat busy with other careers while they are in the process of studying the trading business and would like a a lot more convenient time to study.

If a trader feels that he will not need to have a proper education concerning the trading business anymore, he can attend among the often held trading seminars by most trading firms to cater to those who need help surviving the business. Trading seminars contain strategies from skilled and productive traders who share their blessings of a successful trading career. The seminars are usually held for a day or a few hours in a day.

If you are amongst those people that finds it vital to pursue a trading business instead of their current jobs due to the fact they require a lot more income, you?ll want to obtain solutions to understand how o survive the business. By far the most effective way would be to acquire understanding from trading firms that have productive traders.

To incorporate a flourishing scalp trader enterprise, you must have training. This is extremely true for rio apartments for sale businesses likewise.

Source: http://www.cut-interest-rates.com/2012/02/05/how-you-can-survive-online-day-trading/

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Forex Currency Trading ? Which Of The Forex Currencies Have ...

You are here: Home / Forex / Forex Currency Trading ? Which Of The Forex Currencies Have Been Strongest In The Past 1 Year?

Source: http://www.financelearning.org/forex/forex-currency-trading-which-of-the-forex-currencies-have-been-strongest-in-the-past-1-year/

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Horse Racing Techniques ? Choosing the proper Horse ? tasty ...

Horse racing is as much as a wagering game as it is considered an activity, and horse racing tips will never be complete without tips to bet on the right horse. One would ideally want to have a system or a record database that can provide all of the necessary details over numerous parameters about a particular horse. Many people have worked to develop horse racing betting systems, a manual or software database giving racing details of every horse in the racing circuit which people can study to pick the correct equine they think would be likely to earn them bets. Such systems are present currently for the benefit of people looking for information on their own horse choices; however, there isn?t any such system that would guarantee a sure win every time.

Horse betting systems tend to be tedious to construct for the simple reason that they require an in-depth analysis of every horse and the enormous parameters that need to be incorporated to give a complete profile. For obvious reasons, itemizing more parameters will provide more details, and hence require generation of complex excel worksheets of data. As an alternative to this, software are available for the same purpose, and the numerous parameters available for use can be personalized individually to generate the best fit data according to a competition type or horse kind.

Some websites also provide horse racing data in terms of their ratings in various races; such information is available free of charge access by some web sites, while others require a regular membership for the same. The downloadable information is packaged with various variables that target providing relevant data required during horse race wagering.

Let?s have a look at some parameters used by the system to provide horse-selection information:

o The most important factor that will determine any horse?s chances of winning would have to be its own physical status. The physical statistics determine the actual fitness levels of any equine and can be readily in contrast to similar data of additional competitor horses.
o Horse racing systems often depend on financial aspects of the betting party. Hedging is a common practice used by many to deal with the doubt that is integral to horse racing. It may be described as an investment of wagering amounts in a certain way to limit loss.
o Arbitrage is another element which affects the likeliness of the horse to win or lose. It may be described in lay terms as placing a horse on the lower value, however simultaneously placing a very high value onto it at races.
o Jockey and trainer forms are also incorporated through certain betting systems when determining horse ranking.
o Drawing of lanes is sometimes considered through the betting systems as a factor that could affect a race?s outcome.

Therefore, having a reliable betting system allows its users in order to assimilate and update their database with relative ease and it is much less time consuming. The only downright downside to the system would be a fairly rigid nature of these systems, and one must bet their own selections on a daily basis else they would can easily be proven redundant.

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Source: http://tastyarticles.info/horse-racing-techniques-choosing-the-proper-horse.html

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Inspirational Self Improvement Quotes ? EraNostra

The universal truth prevails. ?There is always room for improvement?. And what?s better than improving yourself? Self improvement quotes have a bearing on our lives. Human beings need objectives so that we know where we are heading. We relentlessly seek out self-improvement and having objectives helps us realize our objectives. Every day when we get up, we know where we are heading and the craving to achieve something in life always pushes us further past any difficulty and obstruction that comes all along.

Self improvement quotes play an important part in our lives. They help us explore the different proportions of self-improvement ? its trials and troubles, its booty and purpose. A good way to start the day is by reading a few self-improvement quotes. Like our body, we need to nourish our mind with a daily dose of these quotes so that they become stronger and stronger. Eventually this can help us maintain a positive attitude in problem solving at our work place and maintain healthy relationships with others. When we feel depressed or feel like giving up on our goals, reading some of the self improvement quotes helps us remain motivated to succeed and remain inspired. This helps us in staying focused, determined and committed to being ourselves.

It is the individual responsibility of every one of us to demand the very best from ourselves. There?s no question that self improvement quotes can give what us that external flicker to retune our inner circuits. Everyone goes through ups and downs from time to time in life. It?s only natural. Everybody is prone to come under stress and pressure of day-to-day living and none, not even one of us, is invulnerable. The self improvement quotes help us deal with the challenges and obstacles we face each day, giving us strength and strengthening our thinking in our own abilities.

A regular reading of self improvement quotes can help raise our state of mind and reinstate our self-esteem. This all can happen just when we require it the most. Someone has rightly said ?Persons of high self-esteem are not driven to make them superior to others; they do not seek to prove their value by measuring themselves against a comparative standard. Their joy is being who they are, not in being better than someone else.?

Here is a small collection of selected self improvement quotes that would help in raising our confidence and could result in self-improvement:

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have mastered, you will never grow -C.R. Lawton

I?m going to get through this; I?m going to be fine. The power to do it is all in my mind ? Cindy Wagner

No one knows everything, but everyone can learn something ? Sean Gregory Derrick

Perfection does not exist, you can always do better and you can always grow ? Les Brown

The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen ? Lee Iacocca

Improve your business, your life, your relationships, your finances and your health. When you do the whole world improves ? Mark Victor Hansen

If you want further details on 2012 end of the world there is loads of information not outlined on this page, vist Author?s blog to discover more.

Tags: self improvement

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 4th, 2012 at 6:47 am and is filed under MUSIC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://www.eranostra.com/2012/02/04/inspirational-self-improvement-quotes/

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Inmate adds pig image to Vt. police cruiser decals

The state seal is seen on the side of a Vermont State Police cruiser Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012 in Middlesex, Vt. Some Vermont inmates have gotten the best of the state police by adding a pig to the state decal on their cruisers. One of the spots on the cow in the state crest has been changed to the shape of a pig, a derogatory term for police. The car decals are made by prisoners in St. Albans, who also make state stationary and license plates. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

The state seal is seen on the side of a Vermont State Police cruiser Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012 in Middlesex, Vt. Some Vermont inmates have gotten the best of the state police by adding a pig to the state decal on their cruisers. One of the spots on the cow in the state crest has been changed to the shape of a pig, a derogatory term for police. The car decals are made by prisoners in St. Albans, who also make state stationary and license plates. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

The state seal is seen on the side of a Vermont State Police cruiser Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012 in Middlesex, Vt. Some Vermont inmates have gotten the best of the state police by adding a pig to the state decal on their cruisers. One of the spots on the cow in the state crest has been changed to the shape of a pig, a derogatory term for police. The car decals are made by prisoners in St. Albans, who also make state stationary and license plates. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) ? A Vermont prison inmate who makes stationery and license plates has gotten the best of the state police by adding the image of a pig to the state decal on their cruisers.

One of the spots on the cow in the state crest has been changed to the shape of a pig, a derogatory term for police.

The 16-inch car door decals are made by prisoners in St. Albans.

Middlesex station commander Lt. Paul White tells The Burlington Free Press newspaper (http://bfpne.ws/wesdey) at least three of the altered decals are on cruisers at his barracks.

Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn says he learned of the altered decals Thursday and asked Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito to explain how it happened.

Flynn says about three dozen of the decals are on state vehicles. The state is going to remove them.

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Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-02-02-Police-Pig%20Prank/id-e24093a5c5504a79829b30b3dbc72a50

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Professor documents cancer battle in online videos (AP)

COLUMBIA, Mo. ? At first, David Oliver ignored the bump on his neck that he noticed while shaving. The medical school professor assumed it was calcified scar tissue from a previous surgery.

But the growth didn't go away, and his sore back grew more painful. A doctor's diagnosis confirmed the worst: He had a form of upper throat cancer called nasal pharyngeal carcinoma. It had spread to his lymph nodes and bones.

Then Oliver, who has spent a career teaching medical students and hospital workers how to care for dying patients, took an unusual step. He made a video to break the news to colleagues. And when the clip spread far beyond this Missouri college town, Oliver undertook a bigger mission: documenting his treatment in regular videos and promoting an unusually public conversation on medicine and mortality.

"If there was ever a time to be a good teacher, this is it," he said. "I've got a chance."

Oliver, a 69-year-old specialist on aging and a former health care executive, at first struggled to absorb the diagnosis in September. His cancer is considered treatable but not curable.

He wanted to avoid the inevitable stares from colleagues at the University of Missouri's medical school, even those whose jobs often required them to confront terminal illness. He knew there would be whispers in the hallway and uncertainty about how ? or even whether ? to discuss the disease.

Oliver's initial video was meant to "put them at ease when they saw me. I'm still David," he said. "I might have five years. I might have six months. But I want you to be comfortable."

The video quickly spread after Oliver's five adult children shared the three-minute clip with Facebook friends, who in turn shared it with their own friends. A short time later, he started a video blog and a YouTube site.

For his followers, the updates alone weren't enough. Questions soon followed.

A viewer from Japan, his stepdaughter's former study abroad teacher, wanted advice on how to comfort his own friend with cancer. Medical students probed for suggestions about patient care. A college professor in Florida asked permission to use the video in class.

A former Vietnam War protester who four decades ago entered the then-nascent field of gerontology, Oliver spent decades sharing lessons on how to die. Now, buoyed by the power of social media, he was showing others how to live.

Anyone who expected to feel sorry for Oliver was quickly disabused of that notion after watching his first diary entry. A die-hard Missouri Tigers fan, Oliver made sure to highlight the two "puke buckets" he planned to obtain for chemotherapy and radiation treatments: one emblazoned with the rival Kansas Jayhawks logo, the other bearing an Oklahoma Sooner, another foe.

Beyond the humor, Oliver realized his illness provided a chance to help prepare patients and their loved ones, to trade whispers for matter-of-fact observations, to push the conversation from the shadows into the virtual public square.

The second video installment featured Oliver getting his head shaved, his full crop of grayish-blond hair falling to the salon floor before the chemo drugs took their toll.

By the third video, his bald head was gleaming. Oliver stood behind a dozen pill bottles containing a wide range of drugs ? from the steroid dexamethasone to morphine. He talked about dealing with "chemo brain," the persistent mental fog that trails the otherwise lucid professor post-treatment.

In mid-December, a noticeably subdued Oliver appeared on camera to chronicle the 21 days between his three chemotherapy treatments to that point. He talked about the highs of the first few days, fueled by energy-boosting steroids that made him feel "ready to run a triathlon." Then comes the crash, Oliver explained, five days of agony marked by dizziness, diarrhea, constipation, mouth sores, confusion, tingling, hand cramps, rashes and disorientation.

"It's a trick," he said about the initial euphoria. "The Kryptonite comes. Superman is dead on the fifth day."

Ever the professor, he used a bar graph to illustrate his three-week cycles.

Four months of treatment have also given Oliver a window into modern health care from the patient's perspective. He hasn't liked all that he's seen, particularly the limited interaction between doctors and nurses. He makes sure that his caregivers are also watching his video dispatches.

"I'm in a position to be extremely critical while they're giving me treatment," Oliver said. "They consider me an advocate. They want me to help with their patient training."

Oliver, a former executive at Heartland Health System in St. Joseph, knows he can engage with his doctors on a level of familiarity that most patients cannot. That's another motivation for his videos, to help level the playing field.

"I'm not intimidated by physicians. I realize they are people like everybody else," he said. "They make mistakes like everybody else. ... This is my opportunity to talk about these flaws and disappointments."

As the disease lingers, he and his wife of 16 years, Debra Parker Oliver, must also plan for life after his death.

A few short months ago, that talk consisted mostly of retirement, visits with the grandchildren and their next ocean cruise. Now it means stressful sessions with financial advisers and making plans for his memorial service.

"I am not afraid to die," Oliver said. "I am a gerontologist. I know that none of us get out of this alive."

His wife, an associate professor and former hospice worker who also works in the family and community medicine department, is less certain.

"Maybe he's not afraid to die, but he's afraid of dying," she said, her husband by her side. "The idea of this man being confined to a bed, maybe not being able to speak, is much more scary than what you are willing to admit."

On a recent visit to the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, the couple received some encouraging news: A scan showed no visible lesions, meaning all were less than 1 centimeter in length. He will return later this month for two final rounds of chemotherapy followed by three months of freedom from medical procedures before getting another scan.

Best of all, the good news buys him time.

Time for a long-awaited cruise to Istanbul and Rome. Maybe time to travel to the NCAA basketball tournament in March to watch his beloved Tigers as the team seeks its first-ever Final Four berth.

The cancer is "still there. It will grow back," he said. "Eventually it will grow back and kill me."

No one knows how much time remains. If it's more than a year, he added, "we can produce a lot more videos."

___

Online:

David's Cancer Journey, http://dbocancerjourney.blogspot.com

___

Follow Alan Scher Zagier at http://twitter.com/azagier

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120202/ap_on_re_us/us_professor_cancer_videos

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Joe Carnahan Opens Up About 'Death Wish' Remake

Word came down earlier this week that director Joe Carnahan had already lined up his next project, hot off the success of his most recent, "The Grey." Carnahan is set to direct a remake of the Charles Bronson punk-killing classic "Death Wish."
News of the remake hit fans' ears and the world erupted in a [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/02/01/joe-carnahan-death-wish/

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Hiring Spree in NYC (Michellemalkin)

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U.S. Border officer fires gun in skirmish (Reuters)

TUCSON, Ariz (Reuters) ? A U.S. Border Patrol agent fired a gun while breaking up a drug-smuggling attempt on the Arizona-Mexico border, authorities said on Tuesday, possibly injuring at least one person in Mexico.

The incident occurred on Monday morning close to the border fence in Nogales, Arizona, the Border Patrol's Tucson sector said in a statement.

"A Border Patrol agent fired a service weapon east of Nogales while responding to illegal narcotics activity. Authorities are investigating claims that at least one subject was injured," the statement said.

It added that local, federal and international authorities were investigating the incident in the city, which flanks the namesake city of Nogales, in Mexico's northern Sonora state.

Manuel Johnson, a special agent with the FBI's Phoenix field office, said the incident was being treated as an assault on a federal officer.

Calls to Nogales Police Department seeking further details were not immediately returned on Tuesday.

The Nogales International newspaper cited Nogales Police Chief Jeffrey Kirkham saying he was told the Border Patrol agent fired in self defense after being pelted with rocks.

The newspaper said police in Nogales, Mexico, told a local radio station there that they had interviewed a man being treated for gunshot wounds to the abdomen and left forearm at the city's hospital.

Frustrated by tighter security on the U.S.-Mexico border, illegal immigrants and drug traffickers regularly pelt U.S. agents with rocks and other missiles.

Last January, a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Nogales was involved in a shooting that resulted in the death of a teenage boy trying to cross illegally into Arizona.

(Reporting By Tim Gaynor; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/us_nm/us_arizona_border

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U.S. panel defends call to censor bird flu studies

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO | Tue Jan 31, 2012 12:00pm EST

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A potentially deadlier form of the bird flu virus poses one of the gravest known threats to humans and justifies an unprecedented call to censor the research that produced it, a top U.S. biosecurity official said on Tuesday.

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) set off a furious debate in the scientific and public health communities in December when it asked the journals Nature and Science to censor two studies on new strains of the H5N1 virus that may make it more easily transmissible in people.

"The potential of this pathogen, in theory, exceeds anything else I can imagine," Paul Keim, acting chair of the NSABB, told Reuters in an e-mail.

Keim explained his personal decision to support censorship in this case in a commentary published on Tuesday in mBio, the journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The panel also published an explanatory piece in Nature and Science.

The panel cited fears that mutant versions of the H5N1 virus created by scientists at Erasmus Medical College in the Netherlands and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, could accidentally escape the lab or be used as a devastating form of bioterrorism.

The censorship decision was a first for the panel, and it drew scathing criticism from many researchers who say withholding the information will set scientists back in the search for potential treatments and hamper public health efforts to track the virus.

The researchers involved in the studies have agreed to a 60-day suspension of their work to allow governments and public health agencies to debate how it should best be handled. A meeting on the subject is scheduled for mid-February at the World Health Organization in Geneva.

Keim, who chairs the microbiology department at Northern Arizona University, said the panel considered evidence that bird flu kills about half the people it infects, a much higher mortality rate than the devastating 1918-19 outbreak of Spanish flu that killed up to 40 million people.

Making this deadly virus capable of easy transmission in people was "sobering," Keim wrote in mBio.

"A pandemic by such a pathogen could reasonably be concluded to cause such devastation that it should be prevented at all costs."

DOUBLE-EDGED RESEARCH

The NSABB was formed after a series of anthrax attacks in the United States in 2001. It advises the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies about "dual use" research that could serve public health but also be a potential bioterror threat.

The National Institutes of Health, which funded some of the research, agreed with the panel's assessment and made non-binding recommendations to Science and Nature to withhold key elements of the work.

Writing in Nature and Science, the NSABB panel said the "unprecedented recommendation" took into account the potential benefits of publishing the works and the harms that could follow. "Our concern is that publishing these experiments in detail would provide information to some person, organization or government that would help them to develop similar mammal-adapted influenza A/H5N1 viruses for harmful purposes."

"We believe that as scientists and as members of the general public, we have a primary responsibility 'to do no harm'," the panel wrote.

First detected in 1997 in Hong Kong, H5N1 has devastated duck and chicken flocks in Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Iran, and has reached the Middle East and Europe through wild birds.

So far, the virus cannot jump easily from person to person through airborne droplets, but scientists have been warning for years it could mutate into a deadlier flu strain.

Experiments done by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and The University of Tokyo, and Dr. Ron Fouchier from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam showed how it could happen. With just a few mutations, the teams made the virus easily transmissible between ferrets, which are used in the "lab to predict how flu viruses will behave in people.

In Fouchier's experiments, the virus proved to be highly transmissible and highly deadly in ferrets. In Kawaoka's experiment, the mutated virus was highly transmissible but not as deadly, raising questions about why the panel decided both papers should be censored.

In Nature, Keim answered questions about the Kawaoka paper in detail, saying that although the virus was not as deadly as Fouchier's, there were still risks.

"The fact that Kawaoka's specific virus and mutations might not be the feared H5N1 pandemic strain is not the point. It is that this laboratory created a virus that has now bypassed apparent barriers to evolution in the wild," Keim wrote.

"If this virus were to escape by error or by terror, we must ask whether it would cause a pandemic. The probability is unknown, but it is not zero."

Vincent Racaniello of Columbia University, who wrote a commentary in mBio opposing the panel's decision, points out that it is still not known whether the ferret-adapted virus in either experiment is lethal or transmissible among humans.

He said altering viruses so that they can live in lab animals is often used as a strategy for making a virus weaker and less suitable for living in people.

And Racaniello worries about the precedent of publishing parts of studies without revealing how the work was done, making it harder for other scientists to validate the work.

Keim said in an e-mail he agrees that ferrets are not 100 percent predictive of human disease, but that they are still the best model scientists have for predicting whether a flu virus will be capable of infecting people.

"To gamble that this model is wrong on this issue is very dangerous," Keim said. "Why would we risk a global pandemic saying that our best model is wrong?"

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Paul Simao)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/fcflrBZx7o4/us-birdflu-censorship-idUSTRE80U18E20120131

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London Bus Checker makes a stop on Android, wants to make London travel a bit easier

Anyone who lives in or has ever visited London will be well aware of the often nightmarish transportation around the city. A new app to stop by the Android Market, London Bus Checker, aims to take away some of the pain of using a bus in the Capital. 

We'll get the boring bits out of the way first: It is a paid app, setting you back a very reasonable £1.24. There is a "lite" version though which offers up a 30-day free trial before you have to open your wallet. 

The idea behind it is very simple, to provide anyone planning to use a bus in London with as much real time information as possible across the 20,000 bus-stops in the city. The implementation is what sets it apart though, as the information is pulled live from the Transport for London services which provides accurate, up to the minute data. 

The app will locate you via GPS, and then by selecting the relevant stop you can see live arrival/departure information, full route maps, and real time diversion and cancelation information. There's even a homescreen widget that you can set for your local stop and receive the same real-time information right there. 

Applications like this and Hailo (for taxis), are brilliant reasons why smartphones are fast becoming an everyday necessity. Hit the break for download links to the free 30-day lite version and a short promo video from the developers. 

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/zkIIUa00G4Y/story01.htm

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