microchip erudition: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Pitt team finds immunity protein that ramps up inflammation, and agents that can block it

Public release date: 31-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Chuck Finder
FinderCE@upmc.edu
412-996-5852
University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

Could improve treatments for pneumonia and other inflammatory conditions

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have discovered a new biological pathway of innate immunity that ramps up inflammation and then identified agents that can block it, leading to increased survival and improved lung function in animal models of pneumonia. They reported their findings today in Nature Immunology.

Pneumonia and other infections sometimes provoke an inflammatory response from the body that is more detrimental than the disease-causing bacteria, said senior author Rama Mallampalli, M.D, professor and vice chair for research, Department of Medicine, and director of the Acute Lung Injury Center of Excellence at Pitt.

"In our ongoing studies of pneumonia, we found infecting bacteria activate a previously unknown protein called Fbxo3 to form a complex that degrades another protein called Fbxl2, which is needed to suppress the inflammatory response," said Dr. Mallampalli, who is also chief of the pulmonary division of the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. "The result is an exaggerated inflammatory response that can lead to further damage of the lung tissue, multi-organ failure and shock."

The research team, led by Bill B. Chen, Ph.D., associate professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, conducted experiments in which mice that lacked the ability to make Fbxo3 were infected with a strain of Pseudomonas bacteria, and found that they had better lung mechanics and longer survival than mice that still made the protein.

Research team members Bryan J. McVerry, M.D., and Yingze Zhang, Ph.D., both of the Acute Lung Injury Center of Excellence, found that blood samples from 16 people who had sepsis, a condition of systemic inflammation, revealed higher levels of Fbxo3 and other inflammatory proteins and lower levels of Fbxl2 than samples from seven patients who did not have sepsis or lung infection.

Based on the structure of Fbxo3, the researchers developed a family of small molecules with the aim of inhibiting its activity. Administration of one of them, called BC-1215, led to reduced inflammatory markers and improved lung mechanics in mouse models of pneumonia and sepsis.

"The key is to find ways to help the body temper its inflammatory response so that it's able to kill the infectious agent without causing injury to healthy tissue," Dr. Mallampalli said.

"The F-box protein Fbxo3, and other related proteins, represent ideal targets for treatment of acute lung injury, because it controls the innate immune response, is upstream of important inflammatory signaling pathways, and is more selective than traditional drugs that regulate protein turnover," noted Mark T. Gladwin, M.D., chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Pitt School of Medicine.

The team is beginning to study the effects of BC-125 on other conditions of systemic inflammation, such as colitis and arthritis.

###

Co-authors of the paper include Tiffany A. Coon, Jennifer R. Glasser, Jing Zhao, Ph.D., Yutong Zhao, M.D, Ph.D., Chunbin Zou, Ph.D, Bryon Ellis, and Frank C. Sciurba, M.D., all of the Acute Lung Injury Center of Excellence, University of Pittsburgh.

The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; National Institutes of Health grants HL096376, HL097376, HL098174, HL116472, HL01916, and P50HL084948; and the American Heart Association.

About the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

As one of the nation's leading academic centers for biomedical research, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine integrates advanced technology with basic science across a broad range of disciplines in a continuous quest to harness the power of new knowledge and improve the human condition. Driven mainly by the School of Medicine and its affiliates, Pitt has ranked among the top 10 recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1998. In rankings recently released by the National Science Foundation, Pitt ranked fifth among all American universities in total federal science and engineering research and development support.

Likewise, the School of Medicine is equally committed to advancing the quality and strength of its medical and graduate education programs, for which it is recognized as an innovative leader, and to training highly skilled, compassionate clinicians and creative scientists well-equipped to engage in world-class research. The School of Medicine is the academic partner of UPMC, which has collaborated with the University to raise the standard of medical excellence in Pittsburgh and to position health care as a driving force behind the region's economy. For more information about the School of Medicine, see http://www.medschool.pitt.edu.

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Pitt team finds immunity protein that ramps up inflammation, and agents that can block it

Public release date: 31-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Chuck Finder
FinderCE@upmc.edu
412-996-5852
University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

Could improve treatments for pneumonia and other inflammatory conditions

"The key is to find ways to help the body temper its inflammatory response so that it's able to kill the infectious agent without causing injury to healthy tissue," Dr. Mallampalli said.

The team is beginning to study the effects of BC-125 on other conditions of systemic inflammation, such as colitis and arthritis.

###

About the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uops-ptf032713.php

David Boudia David Rakoff Bourne Legacy Chad Johnson London 2012 Soccer dwight howard Olympics closing ceremony

256 Shades Of Grey

I want a black and white computer, and I don't want it out of sheer, wanton weirdness. I actually think it's a good idea. Here's why.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/WgBl6Rz7Tpo/

What is a Jesuit nbc news pi day Samsung Galaxy S4 St Francis Anquan Boldin Pope Benedict

Turn That Frown Upside Down??.Adventures In Aerial Fitness ...

By Kim Evans

arielfitness I am an upbeat person who is usually in a good mood, but I did something that really made my day. On a recent visit to the Phoenix area, I took an aerial fitness class at Tough Lotus in Chandler AZ. According to owner instructor Marnie Valliere the class is a combination of yoga, Pilates, suspension training moves done using an aerial silk or hammock suspended from the ceiling. You will work your entire body in the 3-D space across all planes of motion, upper and lower body strength will increase, you can stretch a little deeper and have better balance.

Walking into the space you see a dozen or more hammocks suspended from the ceiling over a cheerful black and white checkered floor. Each person is instructed how to sit in the hammock to get used to being airborne. Marnie explains the philosophy behind the class, how you will benefit by lengthening your body, how you can move through a range of motion stretch better or further when you are not attached to the floor. She talked about spinal decompression, the vestibular system and how aerial fitness can benefit your balance and sense of motion. And so the class started.

In addition to the large hammock, there are loops of varying lengths to use with your feet or hands. We sat in the swing and put one foot in a sling and one two three we were off! It was important that we all lifted up at the same time so that we didn?t crash into each other. It was exhilarating to have all of the swings moving to and fro, creating a slight breeze. It was hard not to say ?Wheee!?

Marnie guided us through many moves, some with one foot on the ground, some up off the ground. It was so relaxing and freeing. Finally we moved to inverting in the swing. Wow?..that was fun, and a bit nauseating! We hung upside down for a while with our legs wrapped around the sling. We put our hands on the ground to stretch out. At the end of class we pulled the hammock from tip to toe and stretched out in the cocoon for quiet time. We all got out of our silks smiling.

As I went through the day, I realized that I felt pretty awesome.

As I went through the day, I realized that I felt pretty awesome. I felt loose, no pain and relaxed. Being in the swing was akin to swimming for me, another space where you can move freely and with ease. No wonder I enjoyed it.

I think this is a great complimentary training for stand up paddling. I confess, I have some issues with getting sea sick, and anything that I can do to help to acclimate my vestibular system and be more comfortable is something that I will continue doing. I was fine inverting, but shutting my eyes was not comfortable. I plan on taking aerial fitness classes again, and even buying a system to use at home. I also liked how my spine felt afterwards?..long and strong.

NOTE: It has been four days since I took the aerial fitness class at Tough Lotus. I was a little bit sore on Monday, but that is all gone today. And when I went to the pool for my swim I realized that I was loose and pain free. My swim was focused and strong. I think that aerial fitness got me back in alignment and worked out any kinks that I may have had. And that is even after sitting on a cramped airplane for four hours on Sunday. I found a place in the Grand Rapids area that has aerial yoga, and I am going to try that soon.

- Guest Author, Kim Evans, Tough Lotus

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/turn-that-frown-upside-down-adventures-in-aerial-fitness/

nfl 2012 schedule gmail down tim lincecum ryan oneal file taxes online tupac shakur sledge hammer

Common gene variants explain 42 percent of antidepressant response

Friday, March 29, 2013

Antidepressants are commonly prescribed for the treatment of depression, but many individuals do not experience symptom relief from treatment. The National Institute of Mental Health's STAR*D study, the largest and longest study ever conducted to evaluate depression treatment, found that only approximately one-third of patients responded within their initial medication trial and approximately one-third of patients did not have an adequate clinical response after being treated with several different medications. Thus, identifying predictors of antidepressant response could help to guide the treatment of this disorder.

A new study published in Biological Psychiatry now shares progress in identifying genomic predictors of antidepressant response.

Many previous studies have searched for genetic markers that may predict antidepressant response, but have done so despite not knowing the contribution of genetic factors. Dr. Katherine Tansey of Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London and colleagues resolved to answer that question.

"Our study quantified, for the first time, how much is response to antidepressant medication influenced by an individual's genetic make-up," said Tansey.

To perform this work, the researchers estimated the magnitude of the influence of common genetic variants on antidepressant response using a sample of 2,799 antidepressant-treated subjects with major depressive disorder and genome-wide genotyping data.

They found that genetic variants explain 42% of individual differences, and therefore, significantly influence antidepressant response.

"While we know that there are no genetic markers with strong effect, this means that there are many genetic markers involved. While each specific genetic marker may have a small effect, they may add up to make a meaningful prediction," Tansey added.

"We have a very long way to go to identify genetic markers that can usefully guide the treatment of depression. There are two critical challenges to this process," said Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. "First, we need to have genomic markers that strongly predict response or non-response to available treatments. Second, markers for non-response to available treatments also need to predict response to an alternative treatment. Both of these conditions need to be present for markers of non-response to guide personalized treatments of depression."

"Although the Tansey et al. study represents progress, it is clear that we face enormous challenges with regards to both objectives," he added. "For example, it does not yet appear that having a less favorable genomic profile is a sufficiently strong negative predictor of response to justify withholding antidepressant treatment. Similarly, there is lack of clarity as to how to optimally treat patients who might have less favorable genomic profile."

Additional research is certainly required, but scientists hope that one day, results such as these can lead to personalized treatment for depression.

###

Elsevier: http://www.elsevier.com

Thanks to Elsevier for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 45 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127522/Common_gene_variants_explain____percent_of_antidepressant_response

woolly mammoth belize resorts nikki minaj grammy performance shel silverstein niki minaj grammy performance grammys 2012 deadmau5

Star Trek: Into Darkness Will Have a NASA Ad for Real-Life Starfleet

Click here to read <em>Star Trek: Into Darkness</em> Will Have a NASA Ad for Real-Life Starfleet

Star Trek is every thing we hope space travel can be someday. Maybe we could do without all the universe-threatening disasters, but we're all hoping for a warp drive, or a tricorder, or a replicator. Until then, NASA is carrying the fire, and the 30-second NASA trailer that will play before Star Trek: Into Darkness aims to get you stoked about our current day, real-life Starfleet. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/6LZKvuZ2V8k/star-trek-into-darkness-will-have-a-nasa-ad-for-real+life-starfleet

nick swisher jaco san jose sharks humber perfect game ufc 145 fight card ufc145 chimpanzee

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Matt Lauer's Twitter Apology to Former Intern

Source:

cj wilson ellsbury brad pitt and angelina jolie brad and angelina herniated disc luke scott tom benson

Friday, March 29, 2013

Where did Saturn's rings come from? Mystery gets a new clue.

Saturn's rings are one of the most recognized features of the solar system, but scientists don't know how they got there. New data suggest they're older than some theories suggested.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / March 28, 2013

This image of Saturn and its rings was captured by the Cassini spacecraft.

Space Science Institute/JPL-Caltech/NASA/Reuters

Enlarge

New evidence from the US-European Cassini mission to Saturn suggests a very early birth for ices in Saturn?s spectacular system of rings and moonlets, dating back to shortly after the planet itself formed.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

The results deepen a mystery that has bedeviled Saturn watchers since Galileo first spotted what later would be interpreted as rings in 1610: How did the rings form? And, more recently, what sustains the ring system?

?No one actually knows why the rings can survive for 4.5 billion years,? says Scott Kenyon, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. ?At the moment, we don?t have a good model? that explains this longevity.

The apparently implausible life span of the ring system has led some researchers to propose that the system didn?t form shortly after the planet did.?

Instead, it might have formed perhaps 100 million years ago. The raw material for the rings and moonlets could have come from the debris spawned by a collision between close-in moons, or between a close-in moon and a comet.

But the recent-ring scenario has had a troubled existence.?

In 2007, for example, scientists reported evidence from Cassini?s Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer indicating that the rings had significant age differences and that the material in the rings was constantly being recycled as moonlets collided. Some of the debris later would form into new moonlets.?

That evidence didn?t support a single, recent violent encounter between objects as a source of material for the ring system.

Now, researchers using another of Cassini?s instruments, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), have uncovered further evidence for this recycling as they have mapped changes in the composition of the ring material and moonlets that form a 40,800-mile-wide band around the planet.

Perhaps more important, Cassini has uncovered far more water ice in the system than comets could deliver.

The system ?is very ice rich,? says Bonnie Buratti, a researcher at NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and a member of the VIMS team.

To Dr. Kenyon, the results showing ices throughout the system speak to a primeval origin.

?All of the stuff inside the really major moons is composed of the same stuff as the major moons,? he says. ?That?s really nice to know because that tells you the rings are 4.5 billion years old.?

But that still leaves the question of longevity.

Left to their own devices, the moonlets would migrate ever farther from Saturn, leaving the ring system within perhaps 100 million years or so.

Cassini has revealed that moonlets form from material that accretes at the outer edges of the rings, explains Phillip Nicholson, an astronomer at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and a member of the team reporting the VIMS results this week in the Astrophysical Journal.

One possible solution to the conundrum would be to give the ring system more initial mass than researchers have presumed.

Modeling work by Robin Canup, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., has suggested that some 2 million to 5 million years after it formed, Saturn had ? and devoured ? several moons the size of Titan, the planet?s largest existing satellite. But these other Titan-scale moons orbited too close to the planet to survive.

As they were drawn to their doom, the tidal forces Saturn exerted on the last victim stripped a thick icy crust and mantle from the moon?s rocky core. The ice broke up to begin forming a ring, while the core continued its death spiral into the planet.

Such a ring would have hosted far more mass than today?s rings do, according to the study, published in 2010.

The ring in the modeling also mimicked observed ring behaviors: losing mass over time while forming moons at the outer edges of the ring, for instance. The moons it formed were similar in mass to the icy moons out to and including Tethys.

The hope is that a knowledge of the composition of ring material and the moonlets in Saturn?s ring system will shed light on the ring-forming process.

Cassini launched as the Cassini-Huygens mission in October 1997 and began orbiting Saturn in July 2004. The following December, the spacecraft released the European Space Agency?s Huygens probe toward a successful landing on Saturn?s moon Titan. Since then, the orbiter has been touring the planet?s moons and rings, giving researchers an unprecedented look at the Saturn system.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/YDcKbK9a5PE/Where-did-Saturn-s-rings-come-from-Mystery-gets-a-new-clue

Green Coffee Bean Extract september 11 9/11 Memorial 911 masterchef Dictionary.com Chicago teachers strike

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Send Us Photos of Your Beautifully Cracked Smartphone Screens

Wired wants to see your artsy photos of a smartphone or tablet with a busted screen. Cracks, chips, complete obliteration -- if it's broken, we're interested. We'll gather the best photos and present them here for all to enjoy.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/H69oMZoCbtc/

Texas A Texas A&m cotton bowl Fiscal cliff deal kathy griffin jadeveon clowney orange bowl

Justices Show Reluctance for Broad Marriage Ruling (WSJ)

Share With Friends:

| Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295093770?client_source=feed&format=rss

ncaa tournament kids choice awards ncaa Miley Cyrus Twerk ncaa march madness cbs march madness bracket

Engineers enable 'bulk' silicon to emit visible light for the first time

Mar. 27, 2013 ? Electronic computing speeds are brushing up against limits imposed by the laws of physics. Photonic computing, where photons replace comparatively slow electrons in representing information, could surpass those limitations, but the components of such computers require semiconductors that can emit light.

Now, research from the University of Pennsylvania has enabled "bulk" silicon to emit broad-spectrum, visible light for the first time, opening the possibility of using the element in devices that have both electronic and photonic components.

The research was conducted by associate professor Ritesh Agarwal, postdoctoral fellow Chang-Hee Cho and graduate students Carlos O. Aspetti and Joohee Park, all of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Their work was published in Nature Photonics.

Certain semiconductors, when imparted with energy, in turn emit light; they directly produce photons, instead of producing heat. This phenomenon is commonplace and used in light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, which are ubiquitous in traffic signals, new types of light bulbs, computer displays and other electronic and optoelectronic devices. Getting the desired photonic properties often means finding the right semiconducting material. Agarwal's group produced the first ever all-optical switch out of cadmium sulfide nanowires, for example.

Semiconducting materials -- especially silicon -- form the backbone of modern electronics and computing, but, unfortunately, silicon is an especially poor emitter of light. It belongs to a group of semiconducting materials, which turns added energy into heat. This makes integrating electronic and photonic circuits a challenge; materials with desirable photonic properties, such as cadmium sulfide, tend to have poor electrical properties and vice versa and are not compatible with silicon-based electronic devices.

"The problem is that electronic devices are made of silicon and photonic devices are typically not," Agarwal said. "Silicon doesn't emit light and the materials that do aren't necessarily the best materials for making electronic devices."

With silicon entrenched as the material of choice for the electronics industry, augmenting its optical properties so it could be integrated into photonic circuitry would make consumer-level applications of the technology more feasible.

"People have tried to solve this problem by doping silicon with other materials, but the light emission is then in the very long wavelength range, so it's not visible and not very efficient and can degrade its electronic properties," Agarwal said. "Another approach is to make silicon devices that are very small, five nanometers in diameter or less. At that size you have quantum confinement effects, which allows the device to emit light, but making electrical connections at that scale isn't currently feasible, and the electrical conductivity would be very low."

To get elemental, "bulk" silicon to emit light, Agarwal's team drew upon previous research they had conducted on plasmonic cavities. In that earlier work, the researchers wrapped a cadmium sulfide nanowire first in a layer of silicon dioxide, essentially glass, and then in a layer of silver. The silver coating supports what are known as surface plasmons, waves that are a combination of oscillating metal electrons and of light. These surface plasmons are highly confined to the surface where the silicon dioxide and silver layers meet. For certain nanowire sizes, the silver coating creates pockets of resonance and hence highly confined electromagnetic fields -- in other words, light -- within the nanostructure.

Normally, after excitation the semiconductor must first "cool down," releasing energy as heat, before "jumping" back to the ground state and finally releasing the remaining energy as light. The Penn team's semiconductor nanowires coupled with plasmonic nanocavities, however, can jump directly from a high-energy excited state to the ground state, all but eliminating the heat-releasing cool-down period. This ultra-fast emission time opens the possibility of producing light from semiconductors such as silicon that might otherwise only produce heat.

"If we can make the carriers recombine immediately," Agarwal said, "then we can produce light in silicon."

In their latest work, the group wrapped pure silicon nanowires in a similar fashion, first with a coating of glass and then one of silver. In this case, however, the silver did not wrap completely around the wire as the researchers first mounted the glass-coated silicon on a sperate pane of glass. Tucking under the curve of the wire but unable to go between it and the glass substrate, the silver coating took on the shape of the greek letter omega -- ? -- while still acting as a plasmonic cavity.

Critically, the transparent bottom of the omega allowed the researchers to impart energy to the semiconductor with a laser and then examine the light silicon emitted.

Even though the silicon nanowire is excited at a single energy level, which corresponds to the wavelength of the blue laser, it produces white light that spans the visible spectrum. This translates into a broad bandwidth for possible operation in a photonic or optoelectronic device. In the future, it should also be possible to excite these silicon nanowires electrically.

"If you can make the silicon emit light itself, you don't have to have an external light source on the chip," Agarwal said. "We could excite the silicon electrically and get the same effect, and we can make it work with wires from 20 to 100 nanometers in diameter, so it's very compatible in terms of length scale with current electronics."

The research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Institutes of Health.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pennsylvania.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Chang-Hee Cho, Carlos O. Aspetti, Joohee Park, Ritesh Agarwal. Silicon coupled with plasmon nanocavities generates bright visible hot luminescence. Nature Photonics, 2013; 7 (4): 285 DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.25

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/U1h28iUkbn4/130327133517.htm

limp bizkit stations of the cross nike foamposite galaxy bill maher seabiscuit dingo nba all star weekend

Trees used to create recyclable, efficient solar cell

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Solar cells are just like leaves, capturing the sunlight and turning it into energy. It's fitting that they can now be made partially from trees.

Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University researchers have developed efficient solar cells using natural substrates derived from plants such as trees. Just as importantly, by fabricating them on cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) substrates, the solar cells can be quickly recycled in water at the end of their lifecycle.

The technology is published in the journal Scientific Reports, the latest open-access journal from the Nature Publishing Group.

The researchers report that the organic solar cells reach a power conversion efficiency of 2.7 percent, an unprecedented figure for cells on substrates derived from renewable raw materials. The CNC substrates on which the solar cells are fabricated are optically transparent, enabling light to pass through them before being absorbed by a very thin layer of an organic semiconductor. During the recycling process, the solar cells are simply immersed in water at room temperature. Within only minutes, the CNC substrate dissolves and the solar cell can be separated easily into its major components.

Georgia Tech College of Engineering Professor Bernard Kippelen led the study and says his team's project opens the door for a truly recyclable, sustainable and renewable solar cell technology.

"The development and performance of organic substrates in solar technology continues to improve, providing engineers with a good indication of future applications," said Kippelen, who is also the director of Georgia Tech's Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE). "But organic solar cells must be recyclable. Otherwise we are simply solving one problem, less dependence on fossil fuels, while creating another, a technology that produces energy from renewable sources but is not disposable at the end of its lifecycle."

To date, organic solar cells have been typically fabricated on glass or plastic. Neither is easily recyclable, and petroleum-based substrates are not very eco-friendly. For instance, if cells fabricated on glass were to break during manufacturing or installation, the useless materials would be difficult to dispose of. Paper substrates are better for the environment, but have shown limited performance because of high surface roughness or porosity. However, cellulose nanomaterials made from wood are green, renewable and sustainable. The substrates have a low surface roughness of only about two nanometers.

"Our next steps will be to work toward improving the power conversion efficiency over 10 percent, levels similar to solar cells fabricated on glass or petroleum-based substrates," said Kippelen. The group plans to achieve this by optimizing the optical properties of the solar cell's electrode.

Purdue School of Materials Engineering associate professor Jeffrey Youngblood collaborated with Kippelen on the research.

A provisional patent on the technology has been filed with the U.S. Patent Office.

There's also another positive impact of using natural products to create cellulose nanomaterials. The nation's forest product industry projects that tens of millions of tons of them could be produced once large-scale production begins, potentially in the next five years.

The research is the latest project by COPE, which studies the use and development of printed electronics. Last year the center created the first-ever completely plastic solar cell.

###

Georgia Institute of Technology: http://www.gatech.edu

Thanks to Georgia Institute of Technology for this article.

This press release has been viewed 39 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127472/Trees_used_to_create_recyclable__efficient_solar_cell

rob gronkowski Coughing eddie murphy Stephanie Bongiovi stanford football guy fieri Jill Kelley

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Professional Business Marketing ? Do Your Negotiation Prep with ...

What to Do When They Say ?No?

Victoria Pynchon
Contributor

Secrets of Super Negotiators ? Monetize Everything

Victoria Pynchon
Contributor

Super Secrets of Harvard Negotiators

Victoria Pynchon
Contributor

More Secrets of Super Negotiators: The Power of Small Talk

Victoria Pynchon
Contributor

Nederlands: Linked In icon

The OG of legal blogging,?Kevin O?Keefe of LexBlog, tells us today that LinkedIn just added better search capability and that?s good news for negotiators.

I know that LinkedIn is for business because I only go there when I have business energy left in my busy entrepreneurial day. When I?m relaxing, I scroll Facebook and Twitter to see what my friends and nearest colleagues are up to.

I?ve got 600 some Facebook friends, which makes Facebook my time-waster of choice because I can actually keep up. I?ve got 10,000+ ?followers? on Twitter and I suppose that?s good for my marketing efforts but, really, who can keep track.

Here?s what O?Keefe has to say about LinkedIn?s new search engine ability.

5.7 billion professionally oriented searches were done on LinkedIn last year. Every day we see millions of professionals find others and get found through LinkedIn search. Whether you?re searching for people, jobs, companies or groups, [LinkedIn] provide[s] the most relevant results based on your professional identity, your network, and how the people in your network engage with LinkedIn?(emphasis added).

via LinkedIn search upgrade : Big win for lawyers networking on LinkedIn.

Negotiation Prep on LinkedIn

Lax and Sebenius, the smartest guys in any negotiation room anytime, anywhere (3-D Negotiation a must-read) divide the bargaining task into three phases ? set up, sequencing, and table tactics. All three of these phases require research and your negotiation research just got a lot smarter with LinkedIn.

Set-Up is all about finding the right bargaining partners at the right time with the right interests. Before any negotiation, use LinkedIn to search the ?stakeholders? on the other side of the bargaining table.

You think you?re dealing with Mega-Billion-Corporation but really you?re dealing with individuals with their own individual agendas operating in a corporate culture with differing interests to be served. Often, the stakeholder with the green- or red-light authority is not at the bargaining table. He or she is often operating covertly to influence the people at the table.

You should first google the life out of Mega-Billion-Corporation to learn its contemporary interests ? how well did it perform last year? is it contracting or expanding? what are its greatest challenges in its market? how?s that market doing? is it facing bet-the-company litigation? has it had a shake-up at the top? is it rolling in profits? is it threatened by any pending legislation that might affect its business prospects?

Then go on over to LinkedIn and search for the members of its management team.

You might find that you haven?t got the right people at the table and it?s much better to suss that out early. As a mediator who?s helped hundreds of lawyers and their business clients settle litigation, I can tell you that you don?t want to hear, ?I don?t have the authority to do that? at the bargaining table.

It?s a deal killer.

Source: http://lowbrowse.org/do-your-negotiation-prep-with-linkedin.html

michael phelps Kerri Strug Ledecky Nadia Comaneci Rebecca Soni Snoop Lion London 2012 Table Tennis

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Sony Xperia ZL goes on pre-order for US customers, off-contract ...

The Xperia? ZL, the World's Most Compact Smartphone with a 5" Display, Comes to the US

--5" Full HD Reality Display with the highest* phone-to-screen ratio, powered by Mobile BRAVIA? Engine 2

--13MP camera with Exmor RS? for Mobile image sensor for HDR photos and videos

--Easy One-touch connections to wirelessly share music, photos, and videos across other NFC-enabled devices

--Sony's media applications deliver rich user experiences and instant access to entertainment services

ATLANTA, March 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Mobile Communications (USA), Inc. ("Sony Mobile") brings the Xperia? ZL to the US, offering consumers the best of Sony in a premium smartphone. The Xperia ZL is now available online for pre-sale at Sony Store and will soon be available through other select online retailers.

The Xperia ZL has all of the specifications expected from a premium smartphone and offers even more with best of Sony experiences. It combines a razor sharp 5" full HD (1920x1080p) Reality Display with an elegant and compact design. Intelligent camera features make taking high quality images easier than ever, and One-touch connections via NFC (Near field communication) allow the Xperia ZL to communicate with a wide range of NFC-enabled devices with a single tap.

Compact design
With Sony's expertise in design and craftsmanship, the Xperia ZL comes with subtly rounded edges, a curvature that fits naturally into the palm of your hand, and a compact layout that optimizes the iconic phone design.
The power button also has high functionality, as the average user is likely to touch it an estimated 76 times per day, and exemplifies the premium build and craftsmanship that has gone into the Xperia ZL.

Intelligent Sony Technology

Xperia ZL's Reality Display, powered by Mobile BRAVIA? Engine 2, brings Sony's long-standing TV expertise to the smartphone and delivers an immersive viewing experience with optimized colors, contrast, and clarity. Most smartphones available today have screen ratios of between 60 and 68 percent. Xperia ZL has been precision engineered for an exceptional viewing experience while maintaining a compact design, allowing the brilliant display-representing 75 percent of the overall footprint*-to take the spotlight.

Xperia ZL also shares capabilities with Sony digital cameras and features Exmor RS for mobile, the world's first image sensor with HDR** (High Dynamic Range) video for smartphones. HDR technology enhances clear images against strong backlight, enabling users to capture razor sharp pictures and videos, no matter the conditions.

Sony's One-touch functions enable consumers to easily share music, photos, and videos from their smartphone to an array of NFC-enabled Sony devices including speakers, headphones, and TVs. With the latest NFC-capable BRAVIA TV, simply touch the Xperia ZL to the TV remote control to instantly enjoy your photos or view the content of your phone's screen on a large TV screen. With an NFC-enabled headset or speaker, listen to the songs on your Xperia ZL with just a tap.

Xperia ZL also includes Battery STAMINA Mode that significantly improves the battery standby time by automatically shutting down battery-draining apps whenever the screen is off and starting them up again when the screen is back on.

Discover, enjoy and share entertainment with Sony's media applications

Sony media applications offer a consistent entertainment experience across a range of Sony devices. The "WALKMAN", Album, and Movies apps enable discovery of online and offline content through a single access point. Each application provides new ways to enjoy and share that content. The "WALKMAN" application provides access to all of your downloaded music, a library of 18 million songs to explore from Music Unlimited***, and Facebook social integration. The Movies application gives consumers access to over 100,000 movies and TV series from Video Unlimited***, while the Album application enables easy access to Facebook friends' photos-you can even browse photos by location.

Key features for Xperia ZL

5" 1080 x 1920p full HD Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA? Engine 2
13MP Fast Capture camera with Exmor RS for mobile, HDR video (1080p), Superior Auto and Noise Reduction to effortlessly capture razor sharp pictures and videos in any conditions
Battery STAMINA for improved standby time
NFC-enabled and Infra-red capable
1.5 GHz asynchronous quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2GB RAM
MSRP $759.99 (unlocked, Model C6506) and $719.99 (unlocked, Model C6502)
Available colors: Black, White, Red
Compatible network bands:
Model C6502 HSPA+: 1,2,4,5,8 and EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
Model C6506 LTE: 2,4,5,17 & HSPA+: 1,2,4,5,8 and EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
Xperia ZL will launch on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/25/sony-xperia-zl-goes-on-pre-order-for-us-customers-off-contract/

david choe national wear red day gunner kiel gunner kiel groundhog soulja boy punxsutawney phil

Monday, March 25, 2013

Vettel of Red Bull wins Malaysian GP

Red Bull driver Mark Webber of Australia, left, lifts his runner-up trophy while his teammate and the winner Sebastian Vettel of Germany applauds during the awarding ceremony for the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix at Sepang, Malaysia, Sunday, March 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany, right, and teammate Mark Webber of Australia spray champagne after the awarding ceremony for the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix at Sepang, Malaysia, Sunday, March 24, 2013. Vettel won the race and Webber finished second. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany, left, sprays champagne to Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton of Britain after the awarding ceremony for the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix at Sepang, Malaysia, Sunday, March 24, 2013. Vettel won the race and Hamilton finished third. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain goes off the track during the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix at Sepang, Malaysia, Sunday, March 24, 2013. (AP Photo)

Formila One drivers, from left, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel of Germany, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso of Spain, Ferrari's Felipe Massa of Brazil and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton of Britain race side by side during the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, Malaysia, Sunday, March 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

SEPANG, Malaysia (AP) ? Sebastian Vettel's 27th victory in Formula One didn't earn him a lot of admiration. He even had to apologize for it.

The three-time defending champion ignored team orders Sunday and overtook fellow Red Bull driver Mark Webber toward the end to win the Malaysian Grand Prix, having been told to stand down and cruise to a 1-2 finish.

The German's move left Webber fuming and had team officials remonstrating Vettel publicly after the race. Vettel apologized, but said he didn't realize he had been told to hold back.

"Mark should have won," said Vettel, who now leads the championship standings by nine points ahead of Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen. "I made a big mistake today and we should have stayed in the position. I messed up in that situation and took the lead from Mark and can see now he is upset. Apologies to Mark. The result is there and all I can say is that I didn't do it deliberately."

Webber refused to acknowledge his teammate after the race, and said he had been told by the team to keep a slower pace to save the tires to the end.

"Seb made his own decisions and he will have protection as usual and that's the way it goes," Webber said. "It's still very raw at the moment."

Asked if the fight had him reconsidering his role at Red Bull, Webber said he had "a lot of things going through my mind."

Vettel's decision to ignore team orders was made extra glaring by the fight for third place between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. In a similar situation, Rosberg was told repeatedly not to pass Hamilton, and obeyed ? giving the Briton his first podium finish with his new team.

"I don't feel spectacular sitting here. Nico deserved to be where I am right now," Hamilton said. "Obviously, the team thought for position in the championship it was logical to stay in the position we are in. I say congratulations to Nico. He drove a much smarter and controlled race than I did."

Vettel started from pole but Webber grabbed the lead on the ninth lap and stayed in front for much of the race. Vettel had complained over the team radio earlier that "Mark is too slow" and that they should let him pass. The team response was for the German to be "patient."

He clearly ran out of patience on the 46th lap, making an aggressive move with the cars almost touching as the German grabbed the lead ? with team officials immediately calling him "silly" over the radio.

Team Principal Christian Horner said Vettel's decision made for a "hugely uncomfortable" situation within the team.

"It's frustrating. Formula One is both a team and an individual sport and sometimes there is a conflict between a driver's desire and a team's interest," Horner said. "What happened today is something that shouldn't have happened. It's something that Sebastian has apologized for and it's something that we will discuss internally as a team."

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn had more success with his orders, after imploring Rosberg to back off from Hamilton who was struggling to make his fuel last. Brawn told Rosberg that "I want to bring these cars home," and the German complied. As Brawn congratulated him over the radio, Rosberg told him to "remember this one.'

Rosberg called it a "great day" for the team but acknowledged that the finish was not ideal.

"Of course, it was disappointing for me having to hold position but I understand the team's decision to safeguard our positions and to make sure that both cars got to the end with a strong team finish, especially in light of the tough times behind us," he said. "There are a lot of races to go and our performance today makes me look forward to fighting for more podium finishes in the future."

Hamilton earlier endured an embarrassing moment when he drove into his former team McLaren's pits before correcting himself and heading to Mercedes, which he joined ahead of this season.

The finish to the race could also cause grumblings from fans, who prefer to see the drivers duel it out for the win rather than having team orders decide the result.

"You know, it's not perfect," Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team executive director, said. "From the sporting point of view, it's not what people want to see nor what I want to see. But sometimes you have to make a call and you have to make decision and Ross did that to bring home third and fourth."

It was a disastrous day for Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who crashed out of the race on the second lap after damaging his front wing when he bumped Vettel a lap earlier. His teammate Felipe Massa started poorly but managed to finish fifth.

"Bad luck today, as always over 19 races will be compensated and we are ready to recover good points in the next race," Alonso tweeted.

McLaren's troubles also continued, as a botched pit stop dropped 2009 champion Jenson Button to 14th. The Briton then retired with two laps remaining while his teammate, Sergio Perez, finished ninth. The team has struggled with its new car with talk that it may swap it for last year's model.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-24-CAR-F1-Malaysian-GP/id-b4c565c2f35d44ca967bb34173bc002c

maryland lottery grand jury ozzie guillen fidel castro darvish george zimmerman website edmund fitzgerald uss enterprise

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Drones Keep Watchful Eye on Illegal Hunting

In England, using dogs to hunt foxes has been illegal since 2005, though that hasn't stopped a few hunting enthusiasts from flouting the law.

But the League Against Cruel Sports, a British animal-rights group, has a weapon of its own in the fight against illegal hunting: aerial drones.

The drones are equipped with video cameras that can record hunting activity on the ground. The league will turn over any evidence of any illegal hunts to police for prosecution, the BBC reports.

"There is a war in the countryside," Joe Duckworth, head of the league, said in a statement. "We are excited to be the first animal welfare charity in Great Britain to be exploring drone technology. We are confident that it will make a fantastic contribution to bringing wildlife criminals to justice."

The group obtained its drones from ShadowView, a nonprofit aerial surveillance and monitoring organization that offers services and technology to conservation, disaster relief and other groups, according to Care2.com.

This isn't the first time drones have performed conservation and environmental work: They've been used by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (a marine wildlife conservation group) and by the World Wildlife Fund to combat poaching in Africa, Care2 reports. [Satellites Gallery: Science from Above]

The reaction from British hunting groups to the league's drones has been unenthusiastic.

"We think this is a PR stunt, and the chances of the sort of drones being discussed ever providing evidence to support a prosecution against a hunt is very low," said Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance, an organization that supports legal hunts, as quoted in New Scientist.

"We think the danger might come from the reaction of animals, especially horses, to these drones if they ever try to follow a hunt," Bonner said.

There might also be a more direct sort of protest against the use of drones: In the United States, drones monitoring hunting activity have been shot out of the sky by hunters, according to New Scientist.

And though they may be intrusive, the use of drones ? even over private property ? is legal in the U.K., the United States and many other countries.

As long as the drone weighs less than 44 pounds (20 kilograms) and is flying more than 492 feet (150 meters) from a congested area, no special permission is needed in the U.K., according to the BBC.

In the United States, drones fly above an uneven patchwork of federal, state and local laws, most of which are outdated and offer no clear guidance regarding privacy or property rights, the Associated Press reports.

Follow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/drones-keep-watchful-eye-illegal-hunting-132510851.html

jetblue jetblue michelle malkin october baby sugarland 16 and pregnant ludwig mies van der rohe

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Fujifilm announces FinePix XP200 ruggedized camera, S8400W superzoom

Ready to hear about some mid-range Fujifilm point-and-shoots? Let's do this. The FinePix XP200 looks like the more exciting model of the bunch, so we'll start there. Available with red, purple, yellow, green, blue and orange glossy finishes, this ruggedized camera packs a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor with image stabilization, a 28-140mm lens, 3-inch, 920k-dot LCD, a 10-frames-per-second continuous shooting mode, 1080/60i video and built-in WiFi for pushing pics to a companion app. It's a ruggedized cam, so that means it's waterproof to 50 feet, freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10°C) and shockproof to 6.6-foot drops.

The other flavor is a superzoom model, or a "bridge camera," as manufacturers are calling them these days. The lens is the focus here, and this one's got a 24-1,056mm, 44x optic with a maximum aperture range of f/2.9 to f/6.5. There's also optical image stabilization and a Super Macro mode that lets you shoot subjects that are just 0.39 inch from the lens. There's a 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, sensitivity through ISO 12,800, 1080/60i video capture, a 10 fps continuous shooting mode and WiFi. You can preview images on the 3-inch, 460k-dot LCD or the 201k-dot electronic viewfinder. This model, the FinePix S8400W, comes in black and ships in May for $350. The XP200 will also ship in May, priced at $300. Read up on both in the PR after the break.

Filed under: Cameras

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/837riEjR6eI/

snl peter frampton smokey robinson smokey robinson Sandy Hook Elementary School Colors Cassadee Pope Victoria Soto

Appraisers are using false standards for comps- foreclosures ... - Zillow

How do you stop an appraiser from using recent sales in the area for "comps" to estimate the value of your home?

Very simple... Pay cash, and skip the appraisal.? And if selling?? Just don't bother to sell it.? Of course, if you die, it will still need an appraisal for estate tax purposes, even though there presently is no Estate tax for estates totaling less than $5 million.

If you believe there are more appropriate recently sold comps, you can have your agent give the appraiser your list... but when it comes right down to it, the appraiser is licensed to do the appraisal, and a Realtor and consumer are not.? And as a profession, they have standards of practice that they comply with.? If you don't like the appraisal, you could always pay several other appraisers for a different opinion.

(Zillow does not use "comps" in their estimating method, and they specifically excluded "distressed sales" from their modeling; but it is in no way an "appraisal").

Source: http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/Appraisers-are-using-false-standards-for-comps-foreclosures-short-sales-How-do-we-stop-this/484331/

islands 2013 nissan altima masters par 3 contest google augmented reality glasses wonderlic test texas tornado fantasy baseball

Police probe Texas link to Colorado prison chief killing

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - A high-speed car chase and shootout in Texas on Thursday may be connected to the slaying of the head of Colorado's prison system, who was gunned down at his home and may have been targeted for his work with law enforcement, police said.

Tom Clements, who was appointed two years ago as executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, was shot on Tuesday night at his home in a secluded wooded area near the town of Monument, 45 miles south of Denver.

The Denver Post identified the suspect as a paroled white supremacist prison gang member, Evan Spencer Ebel, citing unnamed state and federal officials. The Colorado sheriff's office leading the investigation would not confirm the identity and said the report could undermine their work.

Colorado authorities have said the slaying of Clements, who was killed as he answered his doorbell, may be linked to his high-profile position. They were investigating possible ties in the case to the Texas car chase, which might itself be tied to the death of a 27-year-old Denver pizza delivery man.

In Texas, authorities said the driver of the car in question shot and wounded a sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop, and then sped away down a local highway at speeds of over 100 miles per hour (161 km per hour).

"He was winging his left arm out the window with a pistol, just shooting at every police officer he could see," Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins told a news conference in Wise County, Texas. "He wasn't planning on being taken alive."

The car later smashed into an 18-wheel truck, and the man jumped out and began firing on police before he was shot by officers. Wise County Sheriff David Walker said the driver was brain dead after the shooting.

Pictures of the wrecked car showed that it had Colorado license plates, and authorities in that state said investigators were en route to Texas to follow up.

HIGH-PROFILE KILLING

Colorado authorities have not publicly named a suspect in the death of the 58-year-old Clements. They have said that investigators were mindful of Clements' long corrections career in Missouri and Colorado. He spent 31 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, where he became the No. 2 official.

"We are sensitive to the high-profile position in which Mr. Clements served and the fact there could be people who would target him based on his position," Lieutenant Jeff Kramer, spokesman for Colorado's El Paso County Sheriff's Office, said in a statement.

The Denver Post said Ebel, 28, a member of a white supremacist prison gang, the 211s, had been paroled in the Denver area.

However, the sheriff's office said it was "disappointing" that an anonymous law enforcement official would "reveal a suspect and describe a link which has not been investigated fully."

"Doing so undermines an active investigation and can have a negative impact on any future prosecution," the office said in a statement.

The killing prompted Colorado authorities to strengthen security for state officials, including stepped-up patrols at the governor's mansion, the state capitol and other state facilities, State Patrol spokesman Trooper Josh Lewis said.

Police have said the killing did not appear to be linked to any break-in or robbery attempt, and did not appear to be a random act of violence.

Authorities had said they were looking for a "boxy" two-door sedan seen idling near the house about 15 minutes before the first 911 call. The same car was reported a short time later traveling from the scene with a lone, unidentified occupant, they said.

A spokesman for the Denver police, Officer Carlos Montoya, said that investigators were also looking into possible connections between the Texas suspect and the killing of a Dominos pizza delivery man on March 17.

Police said that the delivery man, Nathan Leon, left on a call to deliver a pizza in Denver that day, but never made it to his destination. His vehicle was found near where he was to deliver the pizza and his body was later found miles away in the town of Golden. He had been shot and killed.

(Additional reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Writing by Cynthia Johnston and Tim Gaynor; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-probe-texas-colorado-prison-chief-killing-020226937.html

ryder cup Kate Middleton Bottomless the Pirate Bay Hotel Transylvania eagles nfl schedule 2012 Fox News Suicide