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Microbial Mules: Engineering Bacteria to Transport Nanoparticles and Drugs

News | Health

Bacteria are exquisite living machines that could one day deliver medicine to cells in the human body, if scientists overcome the numerous obstacles

By Ferris Jabr ?| March 29, 2012

PUNY PACK ANIMALS: Some scientists think they can coax bacteria to deliver nanoparticles and drugs into living human cells. Although promising, the research is preliminary. Image: Mattosaurus, Wikimedia Commons

Tiny robots that swim through our blood vessels attacking viruses and malignant cells have not quite crossed the line that separates science fiction from science?but there might be a way to jump-start their development.

Engineering nimble robots that are smaller than blood cells is extremely challenging. Rather than design them from scratch, some scientists have been experimenting with the idea of enlisting an army of sophisticated nanobots already at our disposal: the thousands of species of bacteria swarming inside our bodies right now. In recent years researchers have saddled microorganisms with useful nanoparticles and bits of DNA. Although the research is preliminary, some engineers and microbiologists see realizable potential. This week, at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in San Diego, biomolecular engineer David Gracias of Johns Hopkins University discussed the progress he and his colleagues have made in gluing nanoparticles to bacteria.

So far, Gracias and his colleagues have managed to decorate Escherichia coli with incredibly tiny beads, rods and crescents made from nickel and tin coated in gold. Each nanoparticle is about 300 nanometers in diamter, or three times the size of a particle of wood smoke. The researchers stuck the nanoparticles to the bacteria with antibodies, which are small, Y-shaped proteins that the immune system uses to identify foreign cells, viruses and harmful bacteria. Each antibody fits like a puzzle piece into an array of different proteins on the surfaces of invading pathogens; antibodies can also lock onto other antibodies?usually from a different species. Gracias and his colleagues first coated the nanoparticles with antibodies from goats and rabbits, and subsequently coated the bacteria in complementary antibodies. When they soaked the bacteria in a solution of the nanoparticles and heated the mixture, the beads, rods and crescents stuck to the bacteria, like so many Lucky Charms marshmallows clinging to the underside of a wet spoon.

Gracias and his teammates also devised a way to load bacteria with nanoparticles at tiny docking stations and release them on demand. First they covered small squares of silicon and gold with a field of Y-shaped antibodies, to which they attached small beads dotted with complementary antibodies. Then they introduced bacteria sporting another set of complementary antibodies to the awaiting beads?as expected, they clasped like Velcro. A wave of dissolving chemicals detached the bacteria and their cargo beads from the docking station.

Many bacteria saddled with nanoparticles were still able to move around freely, albeit not as quickly as their unencumbered brethren. Sometimes, though, the backpacking bacteria just spun in circles, apparently unable to move forward. "This is definitely a work in progress," Gracias says. "Right now we are mostly focusing on varying the size and shape of the nanoparticles and making sure they stick."

Such nanoparticles can be heated from afar with infrared light, destroying diseased tissue. Ultimately, Gracias dreams of coaxing bacteria to ferry spongy nanoparticles soaked in drugs and outfitting bacteria with tiny sensors that measure local temperature and pH or tiny tools that perform surgery on a single cell. Similar research by other scientists confirms the potential of engineered bacteria to deliver medical packages directly into living cells.

In earlier work, Demir Akin of Stanford University and his colleagues used antibodies and nanoparticles to attach molecules of DNA to weakened Listeria monocytogenes, which is a bacterium responsible for many cases of food poisoning. L. monocytogenes is an intracellular bacterium, which means it has evolved ways to get inside animal cells. Akin attached a luciferase gene?which codes for the enzyme that makes fireflies glow?to L. monocytogenes and injected the germs into living mice. Three days later the mice glowed under a specialized camera, confirming that not only had the bacteria entered the mouse's cells, the cell nuclei had incorporated the bacteria's cargo and expressed the gene. Akin designed the living microbots to release their DNA packages inside mammalian cells, where the pH is low (acidic) enough to dissolve the chemical bonds gluing the luciferase gene to the bacteria.

The advantage of L. monocytogenes is that it knows how to get into cells, but it would be risky to use even a weakened version as a medical workhorse because it makes people sick. E. coli, in contrast, are much more harmless, but not all strains have specific adaptations for entering cells. The key, says Douglas Weibel of the University of Wisconsin?Madison, is working with a harmless microorganism that is a strong swimmer and has no problem butting its way into mammalian cells. In an experiment they conducted largely for fun, Weibel, George Whitesides of Harvard University and their colleagues yoked nanosize polystyrene beads to a single-cell green alga called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Weibel and Whitesides successfully steered their "microoxen" by shining light on one side of the algal cells (algae move toward light).

After that, Weibel did not pursue the challenge of engineering microorganisms to ferry nanoparticles, but he remains fascinated by the ongoing research. "Bacteria have already figured out how to move around in the body," he says. "They have evolved amazing motility. They can sense changes in their environment and adapt, not only on a short timescale, but they can adapt genetically, too. Even if we can't get them to deliver things in the human body, they could be useful for transporting nanoparticles in the lab. Who knows what advances we'll have 50 years from now."

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Fossil Free: Microbe Helps Convert Solar Power to Liquid Fuel

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A new " bioreactor " could store electricity as liquid fuel with the help of a genetically engineered microbe and copious carbon dioxide. The idea--dubbed " electrofuels " by a federal agency funding the research--could offer electricity storage that would have the energy density of fuels such as gasoline. If it works, the hybrid bioelectric system would also offer a more efficient way of turning sunlight to fuel than growing plants and converting them into biofuel .

[More]

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A new breast cancer susceptibility gene

Public release date: 29-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Linda Aagard
801-587-7639
University of Utah Health Sciences

SALT LAKE CITY -- Mutations in a gene called XRCC2 cause increased breast cancer risk, according to a study published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The study looked at families that have a history of the disease but do not have mutations in the currently known breast cancer susceptibility genes.

Sean Tavtigian, Ph.D., a Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) investigator and associate professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah (U of U) is one of three co-principal investigators on the study, along with David Goldgar, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Dermatology at the U of U and an HCI investigator, and Melissa Southey, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

"We have added to the list of genes that harbour mutations causing breast cancer," said Tavtigian. "This knowledge will improve breast cancer diagnostics and add years to patients' lives. More important, relatives who have not been affected by the disease but carry the mutations will benefit even more. They can find out they are at risk before they have cancer and take action to reduce their risk or catch the cancer early."

XRCC2 may also provide a new target for chemotherapy. "A type of drug called a PARP inhibitor appears to kill tumor cells that have gene mutations in a particular DNA repair pathway. XRCC2 is in this pathway, as are BRCA1 and BRCA2. It's reasonably likely that a breast cancer patient who has a mutation in XRCC2 will respond well to treatment with PARP inhibitors," said Tavtigian.

According to Tavtigian, many breast cancer cases appear in families with a weak history of the disease. Only about 30 percent of the familial risk for breast cancer can be explained by a combination of mutations to and common sequence variation in the known breast cancer susceptibility genes. "So far most of the clinical diagnostic effort has been directed toward the very strong family history set of breast cancer cases and their close relatives," he said. "Our research looks at a population with a weaker family history, and as it turns out, a very rare gene mutation."

The researchers used a technology called exome capture massively parallel sequencing (exome sequencing), which shows the exact order of the nucleotides (the four building blocks of DNA) in all of the protein coding genes in the human genome. The ability of this technology to analyze the DNA of all of the genes in the genome in a single experiment, according to Tavtigian, makes it an amazingly powerful tool for genetic research. "We focused on the genes involved in a particular type of DNA repair, because most known breast cancer genes have been found there. That focused analysis allowed us to identify XRCC2 as a breast cancer susceptibility gene in individuals with a family history of breast cancer," says Tavtigian. "From the exome sequencing data, we found two different types of XRCC2 mutations that occur in breast cancer patients."

He explains that one type of mutation causes the gene to create an incomplete version of the protein. The resulting protein is usually dysfunctional. The other type occurs when a single amino acid in the protein is changed.

"It's a subtle change to the protein, but the resulting change in function could range anywhere from innocuous to even worse dysfunction than the incomplete protein causes," says Tavtigian. "Our sequence analyses suggest that we may have found the full spectrum of results in our study."

Further research is underway. "A worldwide effort has already been launched to figure out what fraction of breast cancer is due to mutations in this gene and how high the risk conferred by these mutations actually is," he says.

###

The article lists 30 co-authors from HCI, the U of U, and other research organizations based in North America, Australia, and Europe. The study was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (R01CA155767 and R01CA121245) plus several other worldwide research foundations. The study also benefited from resources gathered by the Breast Cancer Family Registry, the Kathleen Cuningham Foundation Consortium for Research into Familial Breast Cancer, and several other breast cancer research efforts taking place around the world.

The mission of Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah is to understand cancer from its beginnings, to use that knowledge in the creation and improvement of cancer treatments, to relieve the suffering of cancer patients, and to provide education about cancer risk, prevention, and care. HCI is a National Cancer Institute-Designated cancer center, which means that it meets the highest national standards for cancer care and research and receives support for its scientific endeavors. HCI is also a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of the world's leading cancer centers that is dedicated to improving the quality and effectiveness of care provided to patients with cancer. For more information about HCI, please visit www.huntsmancancer.org.

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 29-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Linda Aagard
801-587-7639
University of Utah Health Sciences

SALT LAKE CITY -- Mutations in a gene called XRCC2 cause increased breast cancer risk, according to a study published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The study looked at families that have a history of the disease but do not have mutations in the currently known breast cancer susceptibility genes.

Sean Tavtigian, Ph.D., a Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) investigator and associate professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah (U of U) is one of three co-principal investigators on the study, along with David Goldgar, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Dermatology at the U of U and an HCI investigator, and Melissa Southey, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

"We have added to the list of genes that harbour mutations causing breast cancer," said Tavtigian. "This knowledge will improve breast cancer diagnostics and add years to patients' lives. More important, relatives who have not been affected by the disease but carry the mutations will benefit even more. They can find out they are at risk before they have cancer and take action to reduce their risk or catch the cancer early."

XRCC2 may also provide a new target for chemotherapy. "A type of drug called a PARP inhibitor appears to kill tumor cells that have gene mutations in a particular DNA repair pathway. XRCC2 is in this pathway, as are BRCA1 and BRCA2. It's reasonably likely that a breast cancer patient who has a mutation in XRCC2 will respond well to treatment with PARP inhibitors," said Tavtigian.

According to Tavtigian, many breast cancer cases appear in families with a weak history of the disease. Only about 30 percent of the familial risk for breast cancer can be explained by a combination of mutations to and common sequence variation in the known breast cancer susceptibility genes. "So far most of the clinical diagnostic effort has been directed toward the very strong family history set of breast cancer cases and their close relatives," he said. "Our research looks at a population with a weaker family history, and as it turns out, a very rare gene mutation."

The researchers used a technology called exome capture massively parallel sequencing (exome sequencing), which shows the exact order of the nucleotides (the four building blocks of DNA) in all of the protein coding genes in the human genome. The ability of this technology to analyze the DNA of all of the genes in the genome in a single experiment, according to Tavtigian, makes it an amazingly powerful tool for genetic research. "We focused on the genes involved in a particular type of DNA repair, because most known breast cancer genes have been found there. That focused analysis allowed us to identify XRCC2 as a breast cancer susceptibility gene in individuals with a family history of breast cancer," says Tavtigian. "From the exome sequencing data, we found two different types of XRCC2 mutations that occur in breast cancer patients."

He explains that one type of mutation causes the gene to create an incomplete version of the protein. The resulting protein is usually dysfunctional. The other type occurs when a single amino acid in the protein is changed.

"It's a subtle change to the protein, but the resulting change in function could range anywhere from innocuous to even worse dysfunction than the incomplete protein causes," says Tavtigian. "Our sequence analyses suggest that we may have found the full spectrum of results in our study."

Further research is underway. "A worldwide effort has already been launched to figure out what fraction of breast cancer is due to mutations in this gene and how high the risk conferred by these mutations actually is," he says.

###

The article lists 30 co-authors from HCI, the U of U, and other research organizations based in North America, Australia, and Europe. The study was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (R01CA155767 and R01CA121245) plus several other worldwide research foundations. The study also benefited from resources gathered by the Breast Cancer Family Registry, the Kathleen Cuningham Foundation Consortium for Research into Familial Breast Cancer, and several other breast cancer research efforts taking place around the world.

The mission of Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah is to understand cancer from its beginnings, to use that knowledge in the creation and improvement of cancer treatments, to relieve the suffering of cancer patients, and to provide education about cancer risk, prevention, and care. HCI is a National Cancer Institute-Designated cancer center, which means that it meets the highest national standards for cancer care and research and receives support for its scientific endeavors. HCI is also a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of the world's leading cancer centers that is dedicated to improving the quality and effectiveness of care provided to patients with cancer. For more information about HCI, please visit www.huntsmancancer.org.

---

[ | 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/2012-03/uouh-anb032912.php

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How to use multitasking gesture navigation shortcuts on the new iPad

Multitasking gestures are quick, multitouch shortcuts for navigating around your iPad. You can enable or disable them in Settings (to avoid, for example, swiping in Fruit Ninja and suddenly ending

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/sU2ZREy6Yt8/story01.htm

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How Social Media is Used for Marketing Real Estate ...

Web-based-sales-and-marketing-service

How Social Media is Used for Marketing Real Estate

Article by Jim Lockerby

In the real estate boom of the ?90s, realtors could stick a sign in the ground and wait for prospective calls to pour in. Now, alas, home sales are much harder to earn. One real estate marketing tool many successful agents use is social media. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are now considered key components in all marketing ? real property is no exception. Below, we explore how realtors use these tools to vend properties. We also provide a competitive advantage by highlighting the most powerful ways to use social media as a real estate marketing tool. First, however, let?s think about why it should be such an effectual way of marketing real estate.

Social Media Offers both Expansive and Targeted Reach

The challenge of marketing real estate these days is getting your message in front of as many people as possible while especially focusing on those who are genuinely interested in your properties. Social media is a potent marketing tool because it is both far-reaching (you can place a public message on your profile) and targeted (you can send a message to just those people who might be interested).

Tricks to Market Properties

Step one in using these social sites as a real estate marketing tool is to set up a company profile at each networking site. Once your profiles are in order, start participating! It is not like traditional ?spray and pray? advertising. It is a two-way conversation. Don?t just post your listings ? interact with your followers and friends, as well. Your role is to ask questions, leave comments and provide useful information as an expert in your field. Some of the most prosperous real property organizations in the world succeed online by passing on tips that property owners and buyers will find invaluable. As an example, let?s say one of your clients posts a question to your Facebook page about closing costs. Take advantage of this opportunity to show your deep knowledge by posting a quick, info-packed video response. This kind of user-centric approach to marketing real estate on sites will earn you fans and sales.

Consider Corcoran Group In New York. They are enjoying booming web traffic and overall business thanks to a robust social online presence. All levels of employees, including CEO Pam Liebman, consistently provide helpful content through social media sites. Liebman herself regularly posts video responses to users? housing questions. Once a real estate social media page has been established, you can generate new business directly through your Twitter and Facebook pages, as Corcoran proves.

Syndicating Customized Listings on Facebook and Twitter

Some realtors? online posts are more engaging than others. A drab, static listing will get far less attention than an interactive, entertaining one. For example, some online services empower real estate agents to create customized home tour videos and eCards as real estate marketing tools. Utilizing such a service ensures that property listing information will be consistent across the web. Moreover, tour videos and eListings are easy to plaster all over the Internet, from Twitter to Craigslist to Facebook. A property tour video features a slideshow of pictures, particulars on each room, charming animation and music. Such packed, engaging content is much more likely to be shared by your social media followers, extending your social media reach even farther.

About the Author

If you?re looking for a useful real estate marketing tool, consider sending an eCard or setting up an online listing tour. Visit the website for ZingDing, the online realtor marketing specialists, at www.ZingDing.com to find online realtor listing tours, eCards and more.

retechulous.com ? We still see agents & brokers making these 3 HUGE mistakes with their online & offline real estate marketing efforts. Hopefully you?re not making these mistakes, but if you are I can assure it?s costing you 00?s and huge amounts of time. Check out our blog at realestatemarketing411.com.

Related Marketing Real Estate Articles

Source: http://business-voip-phones.mobi/?p=26743

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3 Tips For Expats & Cross-Cultural Relationships [EXPERT] | Deb ...

Don't let cultural differences get in the way of love!

Cross-Cultural encounters of the loving kind involve extreme compassion and empathy.

Living in a foreign country and enjoying a cross-cultural relationship can be one of the most rewarding ? and challenging ? experiences one could ever imagine. I never thought I'd be in one when I first went to France in my early twenties. However, the universe had other plans when in my first week of classes I laid eyes on the man who would be my husband for 27 years.

We were polar opposites in nearly every way. I was Jewish and from Los Angeles. He was Catholic from a small town of 4000. His English amounted to the beginners, "My tailor is rich" ... with a charming French accent, of course. He loved the mountains, skiing and snow while my idea of altitude was driving along Pacific Coast Highway a couple hundred feet above sea level in a convertible with the top down. What we shared were our astrological signs and deep love. Compatibility: In A Man's Eyes EXPERT

Yet, no amount of love can rid culture shock ? a tangible experience with distinct symptoms that can eventually wreak havoc on an unprepared couple or individual. Being married to a foreigner can be spicy and exhilarating, but when the exotic honeymoon is over and the rubber hits the road in the reality of everyday living, feelings of nostalgia, homesickness and loss may begin to loom heavily over many cross-cultural couples.

Thankfully there are ways to remedy the situation when emotions seem to take on bigger proportions far away from home. Here are 3 tips to help combat cultural collisions and nostalgia:

1. Honor your values. It is one thing to say, "When in Rome ..." and quite often difficult to accept the local ways of doing things. Usually, that is because a value is being challenged or a need isn't being met and we get frustrated with cultural miscommunication and differences.

Take stock of your values and determine which ones are being challenged. Some are much more important than others. Is it about how people relate to time and punctuality? Is it about socializing? Is it about education?? One Love, Two Cultures: Making It Work

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being very bothered by something and one not being bothered at all, evaluate how bothered you really are and what you can do to adapt or to let it slide. If you could rewrite the situation and turn it into a new movie, what would the scenario look like? Who would the actors be? What solutions might they come up with? How could the scenery change? How much negative energy do you really want to spend complaining about something you may not be able to change and that is just easier to go along with?

2. Be compassionate with your partner. You cannot make your partner happy if they are sad and homesick. However, you can greatly help them with their feelings by showing empathy and compassion.

For anyone who remembers being away at camp as a child or receiving a care package, you know how a taste of home can renew your spirits. Knowing that bouts of nostalgia are common will you help express empathy for someone suffering from homesickness. How Compassion Can Enrich Our Lives EXPERT

Source: http://www.yourtango.com/experts/deb-dutilh/3-tips-expats-and-cross-cultural-relationships-expert

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When taking out a bank loan you'll want to take into account tips on ...

It might seem to be that a bad credit score score is sufficient to ensure obtaining large particular loans is fantasy alternatively than truth. However the actuality is the fact that it is possible to have even a $10,000 personal mortgage with poor credit rating.

The rationale why it is the case is the fact every single loan provider is fascinated in one issue: receiving their income again, with interest. After all, personalized financial loans are often seen as challenges.

The good news is the fact you?ll find quite a few things which might be accomplished to greatly improve that amount of confidence for your loan company. So, by way of these measures, your odds of acquiring loan approval regardless of bad credit history are tremendously enhanced.

Give the Loan company Safety

The best strategy to safe a $10,000 personalized loan with poor credit rating is usually to offer some protection to the loan provider. This basically implies giving some collateral which is of equivalent price on the volume sought ? $10,000.

The chief benefit to giving collateral is the fact the personal personal loan becomes a secured bank loan, and for that reason a decreased interest rate is applied. So, the regular monthly repayments are decrease and more manageable.

Of course, the adverse position to keep in mind is the fact that by using collateral to have financial loan approval even with undesirable credit history, the particular merchandise is in danger. Should there at any time be considered a challenge with producing repayments, then it gets to be the home of the loan provider.

Consist of a Cosigner

The problem with collateral is the fact not absolutely everyone provides an one merchandise price enough to protected a $10,000 personalized bank loan with negative credit. But a cosigner removes that difficulty.

A cosigner commits to creating the required repayments need to the borrower fail to, which will help to convince creditors of personalized financial loans they will get their dollars back again.

However, the cosigner also requirements to become accepted through the financial institution in advance of there may be any possibility of acquiring personal loan approval in spite of bad credit score. The ideal candidate can have a fantastic credit score history and sufficient income being able to make the repayments must the necessity crop up.

Split the Mortgage Sum

A 3rd selection is usually to divide what is needed right into a quantity of smaller private loans. Getting a $10,000 particular mortgage with bad credit history is going to be really difficult, but smaller financial loans of possibly $2,000 or $3,000 can be secured significantly far more easily ? usually with no credit rating check out really applied.

But there are some features to keep in mind when obtaining 4 or five tiny personalized financial loans. Firstly, just about every loan stands on your own, which implies that every financial institution will probably use strain to have repayments created by the due date.

Also, it is vital to perform your calculations correctly. Five loans of $2,000 every could have five unique rates of fascination. This might signify that the general curiosity repayments are more than it could be on just one $10,000 personal loan. Needless to say, to secure mortgage approval even with bad credit score the additional price may need to be accepted.

Reimbursement schedules on each and every personal loan will also be essential. Only one $10,000 individual loan with bad credit rating will be structured merely, but obtaining several financial loans from unique loan companies suggests agreeing diverse schedules. A $1,five hundred payday cash advance, for example, could should be repaid in thirty times, whilst a $3,000 personal financial loan might have a 90-day deadline.

Typically periods it would not matter how very well you plan out your excavation challenge, you discover that you just operate into a shortage of gear available to handle needs with out working in excess of some time allotted. You then have to make the decision ? rent whatever you want or go forward and buy new tools.

It is not generally a transparent lower determination to make so let?s just take a glance at a number of factors that will come into perform.

Expenditures of Renting Excavation Tools.

With no doubt, rental firms rub their arms with glee specifically for expensive weighty equipment hire. A lot of them will rent the excavation tools to you personally on the each day or weekly basis which could demonstrate to be an extremely high-priced solution, particularly when the project is even more held up on account of other variables at the same time.

Renting excavation devices and off street dump trucks usually catch the attention of the highest rental costs inside the significant equipment market. You may be looking in a cost range of around $18,000 a month not together with any attachments or buckets you could possibly need to have. This can be in your finances if the organization is huge and profitable and also the undertaking is major sufficient but could establish to get outside of reach into an a lot less proven corporation. For anyone who is unsure where the next large tasks are coming from then renting tools could well be a wiser final decision than purchasing. You won?t very own the products nevertheless it is better than possessing it sitting around unused. You will not hold the fear either of having to fix it if it breaks down ? the rental retain company will tackle that obligation.

What exactly Concerning the Solution Of Acquiring Excavation Products?

If you are thinking which the gear you may need will likely be needed for further jobs, it makes sense to seriously look at purchasing the excavation tools that you need alternatively than renting it, specifically if you have numerous greater projects to the calendar.

Of course, using this solution you?ll be responsible for the regular provider, upkeep and repair with the excavation equipment you purchase. But acquiring that which you will need will most surely save you funds ultimately in case you do have all those additionally huge initiatives in the pipeline.

Eventually the choice is yours on no matter whether you purchase or rent but obviously you have to consider your finances very carefully and make the best final decision for your firm. When you seriously do not have the finances or money to purchase that which you will need, renting could well be the best choice obviously.

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Source: http://www.importcsv.eu/finance/when-taking-out-a-bank-loan-youll-want-to-take-into-account-tips-on-how-to-set-in-collaterol-as-a-way-to-obtain-the-best-possible-bank-loan

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Apple reportedly offers other handset makers a royalty-free license for nano-SIM

Apple is trying to take a little of the sting out of it's proposal for a nano-SIM standard by offering the rest of the industry a royalty-free license for the technology.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/gAkdqp-hXB0/story01.htm

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Officials: Iranian arms used against Syria protesters

Europe's attempts to punish Syria's brutal regime turned today to the British-born wife of President Assad. Asma al-Assad was banned from traveling to Europe and her financial assets were frozen. But the sanctions may be largely impotent, as a UK passport holder she can't be prevented from entering the UK. ITV's Paul Davies reports

By Reuters

WASHINGTON -- Iran is providing a broad array of assistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad to help him suppress anti-government protests, from high-tech surveillance technology to guns and ammunition, U.S. and European security officials say.

Tehran's technical assistance to Assad's security forces includes electronic surveillance systems, technology designed to disrupt efforts by protesters to communicate via social media, and Iranian-made drone aircraft for overhead surveillance, the officials said. They discussed intelligence matters on condition of anonymity.

---

"Over the past year, Iran has provided security assistance to Damascus to help shore up Assad. Tehran during the last couple of months has been aiding the Syrian regime with lethal assistance - including rifles, ammunition, and other military equipment -- to help it put down the opposition," a U.S. official said.

"Iran has provided Damascus (with) monitoring tools to help the regime suppress the opposition. It has also shared techniques on Internet surveillance and disruption," the official continued.

Syrians brave gunfire in anti-Assad protests

He added that Iran had also provided Assad's government with "unarmed drones that Damascus is using along with its own technology to monitor opposition forces."

Syria's rebel fighters are desperate for arms and ammunition. Members of the Free Syrian Army were forced from Idlib - one of the last rebel strongholds. ITN's John Irvine reports from outskirts of Idlib, the north western city which rebels surrendered last week.

Iranian security officials have also traveled to Damascus to advise Assad's entourage how to counter dissent, the official said. Some Iranian officials have stayed on in Syria to advise Assad's forces, he added.

Iran's multi-pronged security aid to Syria appears to have helped Assad's government in its increasingly violent campaign to hold on to power in the face of a year-long protest movement. The United Nations estimates 8,000 civilians have died in the conflict.

However, the U.S. and European officials said the Syrian government's survival is not totally dependent on continuing help from Tehran.

Assad's wife banned from traveling, shopping in EU

U.S. and allied official broadly agree that Assad's control remains solid. His opponents are hopelessly disorganized, the officials said, which may make it possible for the Syrian president and his entourage to hold onto power for years.

"At current levels Iranian aid is important but not really a game changer in the overall conflict," a U.S. official noted.

Paul Conroy, a photographer for the Sunday Times, was badly injured while on assignment in Syria and his colleague ? legendary war correspondent Marie Colvin was killed. Conroy joins NBC's Andrea Mitchell to reflect on the situation.

Iran has for decades been a patron to Syria, which has helped funnel aid and weapons to the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.

During the protests that followed Iran's disputed 2009 presidential election -- the biggest mass protests since the Islamic Republic's founding in 1979 -- Iranian authorities disrupted social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as cell phone networks.

Iran's internal crackdown reportedly has escalated since then.

Wounded Syrians recount horror of tank attacks

A European official said that the Iranians were providing Syrian security agencies with hardware and software that would help them disrupt efforts to organize protests inside Syria and efforts by anti-government elements to spread their message to supporters outside the country.

European suppliers
Officials said that Syria had also obtained some surveillance technology from European suppliers.

As protests against Assad's rule grew last year, the United States first raised the possibility that Iranian authorities were helping their Syrian counterparts suppress dissent.

Finally, UN reaches agreement over 'extremely dangerous crisis' in Syria

Last June the U.S. Treasury Department announced economic sanctions against two of Iran's most senior police officials for allegedly helping Assad's government crush protests.

The Treasury imposed U.S. economic sanctions on Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam and Ahmad-Reza Radan, chief and deputy chief of Iran's national police force, because their agency had "provided support to the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate and dispatched personnel to Damascus in April to assist the Syrian government in suppressing the Syrian people."

The Treasury alleged that Radan had traveled to Damascus to meet with Syrian security agencies, to whom he allegedly provided "expertise to aid in the Syrian government crackdown on the Syrian people."

Activist: Assad's crackdown turning peaceful Syrians into terrorists

U.S. officials said Iranian efforts to bolster Syria's surveillance capabilities have been supplemented by deliveries to Syria of Iranian-made unarmed surveillance drone aircraft.

Earlier this month a specialized website, The Aviationist, reported that a drone flying over the city of Homs, the site of recent violent clashes between government and opposition forces, had been identified as a "Pahpad" drone, which the website said meant "remotely piloted aircraft" in Farsi.

Saudi Arabia will deliver military equipment to Syrian rebels in an effort to stop the bloodshed. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

In February another specialized website, Open Source GEOINT, published freeze-frame images from what purported to be an amateur cameraman's video of a suspected drone flying over a Damascus suburb.

Iran vows to retaliate 'on the same level' to US or Israel attack

The website noted that some news reports had suggested that the United States was flying intelligence drones over Syria but that the drone in the pictures did not appear to be a U.S. model.

The website cited speculation that the drone might be of Iranian origin. Ynet News, an Israeli website, reported this month that Syria's defense industry produces drones that are technologically identical to Iranian-produced models and speculated that these domestically produced models were what Syrian security forces had deployed.

Report: 'I am the real dictator,' Bashar's wife says

However, a U.S. official said that some of Syria's drones had come directly from Iran.

Last weekend the Iranian news agency Fars announced that Iranian experts had produced what it called a "new type of drone" known as the Shaparak, or "Butterfly," which it said was "capable of carrying out military and border patrol missions."

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/24/10842227-iranian-weapons-help-bashar-assad-put-down-syria-protests-officials-say

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ALS Community Says Thanks

"ALS is one of those diseases that everyone has heard about, but few people know what a devastating disease it is for the one who has it and those who love them."

That's just one line from one of a stack of letters and emails I've had the pleasure of reading today. The people of the ALS community in Spokane took the time to say thank you for our stories highlighting the disease and the half-hour special we produced to show what's being done to help ALS patients here at home.

I don't do my job for the thank you notes or the pats on the back; I do stories like this to make a difference and highlight a need. Still, those thank yous are an incredible boost to morale on a Friday afternoon.

From Steve Gleason and Linda Sheridan to Dr. Scott Carlson and ALSSO president George Akers, every single person I have met in the course of researching and reporting on ALS has been incredibly gracious and open and wonderful. I wish I could have met all of them under different circumstances (it's no fun getting to know someone when talking about a devastating disease.) I absolutely learned something from every one of them and I want nothing more than to help each of them battle this ugly diagnosis.

If you want to see the ALS stories we've done, click here. If you want to donate to the various organizations, click here. If you missed our special last Sunday, you can watch it again next weekend. It airs Saturday March 31st at 4:30 pm.

Here are a few more of the comments. To those of you who took the time to write them, our thanks to you - a million times over.

"Having lost my husband to ALS nearly five years ago, I can tell you our group serves lots of ALS heroes."

"I was very weepy as I watched the special... It made me feel very good and yet sad at the same time. Good that all of our loved ones were honored in a way by your story, but sad for the sacrifice they all experienced in living, and dying, with ALS."

"We at ALSSO have lost family members or have members who have ALS and can be of help in the journey of those fighting the battle. You have greatly helped us by airing that program."

Source: http://downtownspokane.kxly.com/news/community-spirit/78401-als-community-says-thanks

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EU bans Syrian president's wife from travel, shopping

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union banned the wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from travelling to the EU or shopping with European companies in a move to stop her buying the Chanel dresses and Louboutin shoes she apparently craves.

The EU's latest round of sanctions, which also targeted the president's mother and sister, is notable for including Assad's London-born wife Asma, whose luxury shopping habit was laid bare this month in a cache of hacked emails.

She was once admired for her cosmopolitan glamour, but has over the past year turned into a hate figure for many Syrians, standing by her husband as he conducts a crackdown against a popular uprising in which thousands have been killed.

Assad has been the target of sanctions since May last year, but these have so far had little impact on his policies. Violence has intensified in Syria in recent weeks as pro-government forces bombard rebel towns and villages, looking to sweep their lightly armed opponents out of their strongholds.

After Friday's decision, EU border guards will refuse Asma entry if she tries to travel into the bloc, though Britain will have to allow her in if she uses a British passport.

"British nationals, British passport holders do obviously have a right of entry to the United Kingdom," Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

"But given that we are imposing an asset freeze on all of these individuals, and a travel ban on other members of the same family and the regime, we're not expecting Mrs. Assad to try to travel to the United Kingdom at the moment," he said.

A former investment banker, Asma al-Assad once cultivated the image of a serious-minded woman inspired by liberal values.

But she appears to have continued a life of luxury shopping and entertainment during the uprising against the four-decade rule of the Assad family, while according to the United Nations at least 8,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Emails she exchanged with her husband, obtained by Britain's Guardian newspaper, apparently showed they were buying pop music and luxury goods on the internet during the bloodshed.

MAKING SANCTIONS PERSONAL

Asma al-Assad, a 36-year-old mother of three, was shown to have a penchant for crystal-encrusted Christian Louboutin shoes and Chanel dresses from France.

Before the Syrian insurgency started a year ago, a glowing article in Vogue magazine described her as "a rose in the desert" and her household as "wildly democratic".

But that image has crumbled as the emails showed her spending tens of thousands of pounds on jewels, fancy furniture, and a Venetian glass vase from Harrods.

EU foreign ministers also added other Syrians to a list of those facing asset freezes and bans on travel to the bloc, and barred EU companies from doing business with two Syrian oil companies, EU officials said.

The decisions, which come into force on Saturday, follow 12 previous rounds of sanctions aimed at isolating Assad within Syria and cutting off his sources of finance. These included an arms embargo and a ban on importing Syrian oil into the EU.

"With this new listing we are striking at the heart of the Assad clan, sending out a loud and clear message to Mr. Assad: he should step down," Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the international community's objective was "a situation where Assad recognizes his responsibility, moves aside and we are able to see a genuine movement forward in Syria".

The international community has struggled to formulate a joint approach to Syria in the face of opposition from Russia and China to U.N. Security Council resolutions proposed by the West.

French foreign minister Alain Juppe called on the Syrian opposition to unite and present a plan to EU leaders. Such a move had been crucial for the Libyan opposition last year, and had helped galvanize Western support.

It is a priority "to convince the opposition to get together and organize itself. You can't win when you're divided," he said. "I make a reference to the National Transition Council in Libya, which came to Brussels to present its political roadmap, and that had a lot of impact to give it credibility. The Syrian opposition needs to do the same."

(Reporting By Sebastian Moffett; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-bans-syrian-presidents-wife-travel-shopping-161419386.html

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Robotic Wins Over Prostate Cancer | TopNews Arab Emirates

It seems that the medical industry will soon make a huge success in the treatment for prostate cancer and the patients of the illness will also be able to live their lives once again healthily after their surgeries.

The hopes of the sufferers of this type of cancer have rose with the news of successful removal of prostate from the body of the cancer patient, which the surgeons have removed recently with the help of robotic surgery.

The first Briton, who has got his new life by getting his prostate successfully removed by robotic surgery, is Mr. Stuart Ellis, a resident of Cheadle Hulme. Mr. Ellis?s surgery was ran at Stepping Hill Hospital in Greater Manchester, during which the team of surgeons used a handheld robotic device known as Kymerax to perform their keyhole surgery in order to efficiently deal with conditions including gastrointestinal, urological, and gynecological (the common ones that could rise during the surgery and have to handle immediately).

The surgeons at the Stepping Hill Hospital applause the articulated tip that the robot has been designed with to serve during the surgeries, which according to them can easily outperform human doctors and their efforts.

"It's the fusion of maintaining the feel and touch during an operation with the greater robotic articulation that makes it so special. This robot can do things not physically possibly with a human wrist and gives you the best of both worlds?, Mr. Neil Oakley, the hospital's leading urology surgeon told to BBC.

He added that the flexibility and not so expensive costs of the device are the main attractions of it. Kymerax is relatively very cheap than the other robotic surgeons in the medical industry, which enables the patient to save a big money as compared to the millions of pounds that are being spent over the others.

Source: http://topnews.ae/content/211006-robotic-wins-over-prostate-cancer

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Invisible to magnetism - Computers, Math, Science, and Technology

Magnetic cloak: Physicists create device invisible to magnetic fields

March 22, 2012
Magnetic cloak: Physicists create device invisible to magnetic fields

Enlarge

Sketch of the experimental setup. Image courtesy of J. Prat-Camps, C. Navau, A. Sanchez

Autonomous University of Barcelona researchers, in collaboration with an experimental group from the Academy of Sciences of Slovakia, have created a cylinder which hides contents and makes them invisible to magnetic fields. The device was built using superconductor and ferromagnetic materials available on the market. The invention is published this week in the journal Science.

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The cylinder is built using high temperature superconductor material, easily refrigerated with liquid nitrogen and covered in a layer of iron, nickel and chrome. This simple and accessible formula has been used to create a true invisibility cloak.

The cylinder is invisible to magnetic fields and represents a step towards the invisibility of light - an electromagnetic wave. Never before had a device been created with such simplicity or exactness in theoretical calculations, or even with such important results in the laboratory.

Researchers at UAB, led by ?lvar S?nchez, lecturer of the Department of Physics, came up with the mathematical formula to design the device. Using an extraordinarily simple equation scientists described a cylinder which in theory is absolutely undetectable to magnetic
fields from the outside, and maintains everything in its interior completely isolated from these fields as well.

The ferromagnet attracts magnetic field lines, the superconductor repels magnetic field lines and the superconductor-ferromagnetic bilayer cloaks a magnetic field. An object inside the cloak would be magnetically undetectable. Video courtesy of J. Prat-Camps, C. Navau, A. Sanchez
Equation in hand and with the aim of building the device, UAB researchers contacted the laboratory specialising in the precise measurement of magnetic fields at the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. Only a few months later the experimental results were clear. The cylinder was completely invisible to magnetic fields, made invisible whatever content was found in its interior and fully isolated it from external fields.

The superconductor layer of the cylinder prevents the magnetic field from reaching the interior, but distorts the external field and thus makes it detectable. To avoid detection, the ferromagnetic outer layer made of iron, nickel and chrome, produce the opposite effect. It attracts the magnetic field lines and compensates the distortion created by the superconductor, but without allowing the field to reach the interior. The global effect is a completely non-existent magnetic field inside the cylinder and absolutely no distortions in the magnetic field outside.

Magnetic cloak: Physicists create device invisible to magnetic fields
Enlarge

The ferromagnet attracts magnetic field lines (left), the superconductor repels magnetic field lines (middle), and the superconductor-ferromagnetic bilayer cloaks a magnetic field (right). An object inside the cloak would be magnetically undetectable. Image courtesy of J. Prat-Camps, C. Navau, A. Sanchez
Magnetic fields are fundamental for the production of electric energy - 99% of energy consumed is generated thanks to the magnetic camps within the turbines found in power stations - and for the design of engines for all types of mechanic devices, for new advances made in computer and mobile phone memory devices, etc. For this reason controlling this field represents an important achievement in technological development. Scientists are perfectly familiar with the process of creating magnetism. However, the process of cancelling at will is a scientific and technological challenge, and the device created by UAB scientists opens the way for this possibility.

The results of this research project also pave the way for possible medical applications. In the future, similar devices designed by UAB researchers could serve to block a pacemaker or a cochlear implant in a patient needing to undergo a magnetic resonance.

More information: Experimental Realization of a Magnetic Cloak, Science 23 March 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6075 pp. 1466-1468. DOI: 10.1126/science.1218316

ABSTRACT
Invisibility to electromagnetic fields has become an exciting theoretical possibility. However, the experimental realization of electromagnetic cloaks has only been achieved starting from simplified approaches (for instance, based on ray approximation, canceling only some terms of the scattering fields, or hiding a bulge in a plane instead of an object in free space). Here, we demonstrate, directly from Maxwell equations, that a specially designed cylindrical superconductor-ferromagnetic bilayer can exactly cloak uniform static magnetic fields, and we experimentally confirmed this effect in an actual setup.

Provided by Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

Source: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt193437.html

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Cameron to bring in minimum price for alcohol

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cameron-bring-minimum-price-alcohol-112311305.html

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Excitement Builds for 1st Private Spaceship Flight to Space Station

Anticipation and excitement over the first-ever launch of a private spaceship to the International Space Station next month is steadily building, astronauts and NASA flight controllers said Tuesday (March 20).

Private space company SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., is preparing to launch its Dragon capsule to the space station April 30. The unmanned capsule will be the first of a new fleet of commercial spacecraft being developed to deliver cargo to the station in the wake of the space shuttle retirement last year.

The Dragon capsule will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. If all goes well, it will fly up to the orbiting laboratory, conduct tests, and then dock there May 3.

"Our fingers are crossed for SpaceX to launch and successfully come to the space station," NASA astronaut Sunita Williams said during a news conference Tuesday. Williams is due to lift off atop a Russian Soyuz spacecraft July 15, along with a Russian cosmonaut and a Japanese astronaut, to serve on the space station's Expedition 32 and Expedition 33 missions.

If SpaceX's April test flight goes smoothly, another Dragon capsule will make the first official cargo delivery run in August, when Williams and her colleagues Yuri Malenchenko of Russia and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan will be aboard the outpost. [Gallery: Dragon, SpaceX's Private Spacecraft]

"We're really excited," said Williams, who will command the space station's Expedition 33 crew. "Aki and I actually went to California about a year ago for some training with SpaceX and had the opportunity to look around at the company and at what they were doing on the floor building the spacecraft. That was pretty awesome and to see a bunch of really excited engineers and scientists working on this spacecraft was great."

Hoshide agreed, saying he supports the development of the commercial space industry.

"Getting the commercial sector involved, I think it's a good thing," he said. "It opens up new doors. I'm looking forward to that very much."

Yet on the same day that astronauts lauded the private spaceflight rise, members of Congress expressed concerns over the safety and risk of new commercial vehicles during a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.

And SpaceX isn't the only company joining the new private space effort. In addition to the California company, NASA has awarded a contract to Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Va., under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.

Orbital's Cygnus vehicle could make its first launch to the space station on Sept. 1, with a docking Sept. 6, said NASA's space station program director Mike Suffredini.

But first, all eyes will be on SpaceX next month, as it prepares to make a significant step forward in the new partnership between NASA and the private sector. Still, the mission is still a test flight, and Suffredini emphasized that spaceflight is always a risky business.

"You want every flight to work exactly as you planned it, but we had initially planned on two demo flights, so if something happens during this flight regardless of what that is, we will learn, SpaceX will learn," Suffredini said. "We need to be careful not to assume that the success or failure of commercial spaceflight is going to hang in the balance of a single SpaceX flight."

And SpaceX isn't content to use Dragon for delivering only food and supplies. The company hopes to eventually upgrade its capsule and rocket system to carry people to orbit, including NASA crews to the space station.

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz.?Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/excitement-builds-1st-private-spaceship-flight-space-station-115008288.html

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Samsung announces ICS for the Galaxy Note will come in Q2, bring 'premium suite' apps

Samsung mobile has issued a press release all about the Galaxy Note and it's upcoming "Premium Suite" software upgrade. Sometime in Q2 of this year, Samsung expects to update the 5.3-inch Note to their version of Ice Cream Sandwich and bring better application support for the S pen as well as unnamed extra multimedia features. 

The three applications mentioned specifically are S Note, a tool that combines notes or drawings with other digital content as well as using "Shape Match and Formula Match applications that help correct and digitize geometric shapes and even solve numeric formulas hand-drawn with S Pen"; My Story, which appears to be an application that helps you design e-cards and notes with multimedia content; and of course Angry Birds Space -- the newest iteration of the Angry Birds franchise from Rovio. In addition, Angry Birds Space will be available (sans the extra-special Galaxy Note level) for all Galaxy Series devices. 

Of course the biggest draw for most of us will be the update to Android 4.0, which Samsung teased Note users about on Facebook earlier today. The version for the Note is said to include the features we've come to expect from ICS, including Android Beam and Face Unlock, as well as an "entirely new look and feel" to the Android operating system. The Q2 timeframe is coming up shortly, and International Galaxy note users are ready and waiting. Hopefully, the AT&T version follows quickly. Hit the break for the full press release.

More: Samsung's Angry Birds site

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/D0QzVsTb7jY/story01.htm

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General Mills profit dips as commodity costs rise

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/general-mills-third-quarter-profit-dips-111000639.html

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