ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2012) ? Changes in ocean and climate systems could lead to smaller fish, according to a new study led by fisheries scientists at the University of British Columbia.
The study, published September 30 in the journal Nature Climate Change, provides the first-ever global projection of the potential reduction in the maximum size of fish in a warmer and less-oxygenated ocean.
The researchers used computer modeling to study more than 600 species of fish from oceans around the world and found that the maximum body weight they can reach could decline by 14-20 per cent between years 2000 and 2050, with the tropics being one of the most impacted regions.
"We were surprised to see such a large decrease in fish size," says the study's lead author William Cheung, an assistant professor at the UBC Fisheries Centre. "Marine fish are generally known to respond to climate change through changing distribution and seasonality. But the unexpectedly big effect that climate change could have on body size suggests that we may be missing a big piece of the puzzle of understanding climate change effects in the ocean."
This is the first global-scale application of the idea that fish growth is limited by oxygen supply, which was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Daniel Pauly, principal investigator with UBC's Sea Around Us Project and the study's co-author.
"It's a constant challenge for fish to get enough oxygen from water to grow, and the situation gets worse as fish get bigger," explains Pauly. "A warmer and less-oxygenated ocean, as predicted under climate change, would make it more difficult for bigger fish to get enough oxygen, which means they will stop growing sooner."
This study highlights the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and develop strategies to monitor and adapt to changes that we are already seeing, or we risk disruption of fisheries, food security and the way ocean ecosystems work.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
William W. L. Cheung, Jorge L. Sarmiento, John Dunne, Thomas L. Fr?licher, Vicky W. Y. Lam, M. L. Deng Palomares, Reg Watson, Daniel Pauly. Shrinking of fishes exacerbates impacts of global ocean changes on marine ecosystems. Nature Climate Change, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1691
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This is a paid review.
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IRVING, Texas (AP) ? NFL officials ended their labor dispute with the league by approving a new eight-year contract with a 112-5 vote Saturday, then hustled off to the airport to get to work.
Next stop, stadiums around the country.
And, the officials hope, anonymity.
"The last Super Bowl that I worked, when we got in the locker room, I said, 'You know, the best thing about this game, nobody will remember who refereed this game,'" said Scott Green, president of the referees' association. "That's how we like to work."
The vote ended a labor spat that created three weeks of increasingly chaotic games run by replacement officials who drew criticism of everyone from the average fan to President Barack Obama.
"It was pretty much 'Come on in and vote,'" Green said. "We're going to talk football now. We're going to stop talking about CBAs and lockouts and now we're going to talk about rules and video and getting ourselves ready to work football games."
They may get ovations similar to the one bestowed on the crew that worked Thursday's Cleveland-Baltimore game with the tentative deal in place.
The referees met for about an hour and a half Friday night to go over the contract, then gathered for another 30 minutes Saturday morning before approving the contract.
"We are obviously pleased to hear it," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday.
Because they were aware of the financial parameters, most of the discussion by the referees involved non-economic issues such as year-round work and developmental squads, said Tim Millis, the association's executive director.
The deal came together quickly this week after an increasing chorus of complaints became impossible to ignore when a disputed touchdown call on the final play gave the Seattle Seahawks a victory over the Green Bay Packers on national television Monday night.
Many thought the ruling of a Seattle touchdown instead of a Green Bay interception was botched, and the labor dispute drew public comments from Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
By late Wednesday, the sides had a contract calling for refs' salaries to increase from an average of $149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013, rising to $205,000 by 2019. The current defined benefit pension plan will remain in place for current officials through the 2016 season or until the official earns 20 years' service.
The defined benefit plan will then be frozen. Retirement benefits will be provided for new hires, and for all officials beginning in 2017, through a defined contribution.
Beginning with the 2013 season, the NFL will have the option to hire a number of officials to work year-round. The NFL also can retain additional officials for training and development and assign those officials to work games. The number of additional officials will be determined by the league.
The officials that worked Thursday's Ravens-Browns game were cheered from the moment they walked onto the field. The difference between the regular crew and replacements was clear. The officials kept the game in control, curtailing the chippy play and choppy pace that had marred the first three weeks of the regular season.
"I think the thing we're most proud of is the lesson that we all learned," Green said. "If you're going to be in a professional league, you've got top-notch coaches, you need professional officials as well."
___
Online: http://bigstory.ap.org/NFL-Pro32 and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Austin was born on July 14, 1932 and passed away on Wednesday, September 26, 2012.
Austin was a resident of Pensacola, Florida.
Visitation Monday October 1, 2012, 5:00pm - 7:00pm at Heritage Gardens Funeral Home Rosary Service Monday October 1, 2012, 6:30PM at Heritage Gardens Funeral Home Mass of Christian Burial Tuesday October 2, 2012, 10:00am at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church Interment Tuesday October 2, 2012 at Heritage Gardens Cemetery.
WHEN Mexican police found a body in the woods it was burned beyond recognition, its DNA too damaged to be used for identification. Luckily, investigators were able to extract DNA from elsewhere - the digestive systems of maggots that had been feeding on the body. This is the first time that human DNA from a maggot gut has been analysed in this way to successfully identify a victim in a legal case.
Police suspected that the body was that of a woman who had been abducted 10 weeks earlier because they found her high-school graduation ring near the crime scene. But when forensic investigators failed to obtain a decent DNA sample from any of the body's tissues, they turned to a team of pathologists at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Le?n in San Nicol?s, Mexico.
Mar?a de Lourdes Ch?vez-Briones, Marta Ortega-Mart?nez and their colleagues dissected three maggot larvae collected from the body and extracted the contents of their gastrointestinal tracts. The human DNA they isolated allowed them to determine that the body was female. They then performed a paternity test between this DNA and that of the abducted woman's father. It revealed a 99.7 per cent chance that she was his daughter (Journal of Forensic Science, doi.org/jdv).
Although it is rare for a body to be so damaged that investigators would have to resort to this technique, there are other instances in which the process could be useful, says Jeffrey Wells of Florida International University in Miami. For instance, a maggot found in a car could be used as evidence that the vehicle had been used to transport a particular corpse.
The past decade has seen a lot of research on isolating human DNA from insects, says Martin Hall of the Natural History Museum in London, but it has only rarely been used in courts. Last year, DNA from the guts of maggots found on a headless corpse and on a head discovered nearby were used as evidence in a Chinese court that the body parts were from the same person (Tropical Biomedicine, vol 28, p 333).
Insects at crime scenes are too often ignored, says Hall. He hopes that the new paper will alert police and pathologists to their potential as crime-fighters.
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With less than six weeks to go before the election, a Fox News poll released Thursday has President Barack Obama leading Republican contender Mitt Romney by five points.
Forty-eight percent of likely voters said that if the election were held today, they would vote for the Democratic ticket, while 43 percent said they would vote for Romney and Paul Ryan. The numbers remain unchanged from the last time Fox polled earlier in September, which was the first time Obama had pulled ahead of Romney. 7 percent of likely voters said they remained undecided.
The poll of 1,208 likely voters, surveyed by live telephone interviewers from September 24 to September 26, adds to a growing body of polls showing Obama ahead.
This is the first time Fox has polled since Romney?s videotaped comments at a fundraiser went public ? where he told donors that 47 percent of Americans did not pay federal income taxes and were ?dependent? on government, and saw themselves as ?victims? who were ?entitled? to government services. Democrats have used the recording in several attack ads, but the poll found that 36 percent of likely voters found the statement to be ?mostly true,? and 27 percent believed it to be ?somewhat true.? Only 28 percent said it was ?not at all true.?
Asked whether they believed the average American was dependent on government services, 29 percent said the average american was ?highly dependent,? and 47 percent believed that person was ?somewhat dependent,? while just 18 percent that the average American was ?only slightly dependent,? and only three percent said that person was ?not at all dependent.?
But when asked to rate their own dependency, 37 percent of likely voters said they were ?not at all? dependent, 30 percent called themselves slightly dependent, 22 percent called themselves somewhat dependent, and only 9 percent called themselves highly dependent.
The Fox sample was 41 percent Democrats, 37 percent Republicans, 20 percent independents, and one percent declined to specify.
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When marketing online this refers to advertising of services through the Internet. Getting started in Internet marketing can be a daunting prospect. Fortunately, there is a great deal of useful information out there that makes it easy to get underway.
Make sure that your slogan and mission statement are visible on your site. This helps to make the web site more professional and communicate your intentions to your visitors. It can be an easy way for them to learn what services you provide.
Remember to utilize email to get the most from your business. Free newsletters are are a good way to keep your customers up to date on your products, as well as give them some interesting content to consider. The emails should be filled with interesting content; you do not want the recipients to perceive them as spam. By sending customers newsletters, you can stay in touch with them after they have left you site, thus, making them feel appreciated.
TIP! Try offering incentives to your customers so they will purchase products more frequently. For example, this could include expedited shipping, free shipping, or even complimentary wrapping.
It is always important to research various competitors if your internet enterprise is to succeed. Check out the websites of similar businesses and see what it is that they can improve upon. Differentiate your website by highlighting products or services that are not available on others.
Your affiliate marketing efforts should not be implemented without heavy forethought. Find a mentor, online or physical, that you have faith and trust in. Many veteran internet marketers give out free advice, and some mentor newbies for a fee. Find a previously proven system that works for you. It may start slow, but it is worth the time you put into it.
Affiliate marketing has a lot of similar characteristics as other consumer markets, but can also have dramatic differences in key areas. Maybe search engines won?t focus as much on title tags in the future. If this happens, you may need to put more work into other venues, like viral video marketing.
TIP! Do you want to market online? One great way is to create a way for your visitors to submit their email. Consider offering them a discount or a special promotion if they agree to be on your mailing list.
If you give yourself a title, people are going to listen and respect you. If you are the owner of a business you should be the CEO. If you do not own your business, find a creative title that evokes authority and power. End communications with your signature and your title.
Think about hosting a one-dollar sale for new clients. This could be a good way to launch your online business or to generate a buzz as you release a new product. People may also be more likely to add other products to their cart at the same time. Believe in what you sell!
Think of a free service you can offer your visitors. People may check out your site simply to take you up on your offer of something free and could even find something else that interests them. There are a variety of different free services that you can provide through your website.
TIP! Post new content to your site every week if possible. Visitors who arrive at a site and find that the latest information available was posted months or even years ago are going to draw the wrong conclusions about your business?s current state of affairs.
Being active in popular social media is an Web marketing must these days. Your Facebook page gives customers and clientele a great discussion area and onlookers will surely take notice and possible an interest in your products or services. You can easily chat informally with all your customers using your Twitter account.
How good is your service or product? If your product is sub-par, no amount of Web marketing will change that. Be sure that your product is a distinguishable one that stands out over that of your competitors.
Stick to the things that you advertise. Many readers will not trust the information that they read. When potential customers see good reviews, quality information and return policies that help back up your product or service, they will be more inclined to purchase. If you simple have text on your site with no way to back it up, then people will most likely look elsewhere.
TIP! The database that utilizes customer relationship management software ensures that your Internet marketing strategies are more successful. You can investigate what products are sold most often and consider than when you advertise.
It?s a great idea to customize your site?s 500 error page and make it a little more user-friendly. When this page appears, some of the code has stopped working. The page will say that there was a connection time out. There are much better methods for making users aware that you are working on the problem.
Fill your website with a wide range of descriptive, evocative words. Adjectives, used intelligently, will improve the item descriptions featured on your site. Develop your own unique vocabulary that will catch people?s attention. Tempt them to visit again to find out what you will say next.
Insert rich and original content into your site. You will attract search engines better by packing your site with loads of rich content. You not only have better results with the search sites, but your audience will be more satisfied with what they find when they visit your site.
TIP! If regular emails to customers and potential customers are part of your Internet marketing strategy, make sure to rotate the links you include in your emails. If you information is redundant you will likely bore your customers instead of encouraging them to purchase products.
User polls are a great tool to implement to the side of your content pages. Acknowledging and implementing your users? ideas helps to build a relationship with your audience.
Trust is vital to attracting and keeping customers. Utilize only information which is supported by documented evidence when designing and promoting your campaigns. Promote your products using only factual testimonials and statistics.
Customer follow up is essential. Ask your customers to write reviews or fill out surveys after they have a chance to try our your product.
TIP! You can always market your site as a place for social conversation instead of it being a business. This will keep customers coming back, rather than visiting once and leaving immediately.
Add content in the form of a blog or forum to prevent your website from becoming boring or irrelevant. Fresh information are preferred by search engines, if you lack this in your site, your ranking will go down. You could, for instance, write weekly articles on topics related to your products or services.
With the knowledge you?ve obtained from this article, you?re prepared to start Internet promotion. You can successfully market your products online by following the advice outlined here
Genetic sleuthing uncovers deadly new virus in AfricaPublic release date: 27-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi jason.bardi@ucsf.edu 415-502-4608 University of California - San Francisco
Global research effort identifies 'Bas-Congo' virus as the cause of small, isolated outbreak in 2009
An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before.
Described this week in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, the new microbe has been named Bas-Congo virus (BASV) after the province in the southwest corner of the Congo where the three people lived.
It was discovered by an international research consortium that included the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and University of California, Davis (UCD), Global Viral, the Centre International de Recherches Mdicales de Franceville in Gabon, the Institut National de Recherche Biomdicale, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Metabiota and others.
"Known viruses, such as Ebola, HIV and influenza, represent just the tip of the microbial iceberg," said Joseph Fair, PhD, a co-author and vice president of Metabiota. "Identifying deadly unknown viruses, such as Bas-Congo virus, gives us a leg up in controlling future outbreaks."
"These are the only three cases known to have occurred, although there could be additional outbreaks from this virus in the future," said Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF and director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, who spearheaded the UCSF effort to identify the virus. Chiu and his team continue to work on new diagnostics to detect the virus so that health officials in Congo and elsewhere can quickly identify it should it emerge again.
One odd characteristic of the Bas-Congo virus, Chiu said, is that while a number of other viruses in Africa also cause deadly outbreaks of acute hemorrhagic feverEbola virus, Lassa virus and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus to name a few the new virus is unlike any of them.
Genetically it is more closely related to the types of viruses that cause rabies, which are known to infect people with a very different sort of diseasea neurological illness that is uniformly fatal if untreated but may take months to develop.
An antibody test developed in this study was applied to the one patient who survived and to others who had come into contact with him. It suggested that the disease may be spread from person to person but likely originated from some other source, such as an insect or rodent.
The identity of this animal "reservoir" and the precise mode of transmission for the virus remain unclear and are currently being investigated by Metabiota and the central African members of the consortium through the PREDICT Project of USAID's Emerging Pandemic Threats Program.
How the New Virus Emerged
In the summer of 2009, a 15-year old boy in a small rural community called Mangala village suddenly fell ill and developed a bleeding nose, bleeding gums and bloody vomit. He rapidly worsened, dying within three days of the first signs of illness.
A week later, a 13-year old girl who attended the same school and lived in the same neighborhood as the boy came down with a similar, serious illness. She declined just as rapidly and also died within three days. One week after that, the male nurse who cared for this girl began showing the same symptoms, and he was transferred to a hospital in Boma, a nearby port city that sits along the Congo River upstream from Africa's Atlantic coast.
Members of the consortium, who had initiated a project to diagnose unusual cases of severe hemorrhagic fever, obtained blood samples collected from the nurse by the Congolese doctors and sent them to the laboratory of Eric Leroy, PhD, doctor of veterinary medicine at the Centre International de Recherches Mdicales de Franceville in Gabon. There the samples were tested for traces of any known virus, but nothing was found. The Metabiota scientists then solicited the expertise of Chiu at UCSF and Eric Delwart at the Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) in San Francisco to aid in the diagnosis.
The researchers ultimately identified a completely new virus as the cause of the mysterious illness through a powerful strategy for identifying novel pathogens known as "deep sequencing," in which millions of DNA sequences are generated from a clinical sample and then pieced together using computer algorithms combined with human analysis.
Distinct Attributes of Bas-Congo
The Bas-Congo virus belongs to a family of viruses known as the rhabdoviruses, a large family of viruses that infect plants, insects and mammals, including humans. The most famous member of this family is the virus that causes rabies. But even among the rhabdoviruses, Bas-Congo is something of an outlier, being very genetically distinct from other members of the family.
What's most unusual about this virus, though, said Chiu, is what it does to people.
No other rhabdoviruses are known to cause the acute, rapid and deadly hemorrhagic fever seen in the three cases in the Congo. Rabies, for instance, can be a deadly disease if untreated, but the course of rabies in humans is nothing like the rapid and deadly onset seen with the Bas-Congo virus. There is some precedent, however, for hemorrhagic disease from rhabdoviruses in the animal kingdom: fish rhabdoviruses are known to cause hemorrhagic septicemiaacute bleeding and deathin affected fish.
The third patient had enormous amounts of BASV in his bloodstream just two days after he fell illmore than a million copies in every milliliter of blood.
The BASV sequence was also used to design an antibody test for the virus, an effort led by Graham Simmons at the BSRI, another member of the consortium. Antibodies are blood immune proteins produced in response to an infection. The antibody test allowed the researchers to screen both the third patient with acute hemorrhagic fever and other people who had come into contact with the third patient, including the nurse who cared for him in the Boma hospital. High levels of BASV-specific antibodies were found in the third patient, establishing that he indeed had been infected with Bas-Congo virus. The same antibodies were also found in the second nurse, even though he never actually became sick.
"What this suggests is that the disease may be transmissible from person to personthough it's most likely to have originated from some other source," said Nathan Wolfe, PhD, founder and chairman of Global Viral, and a co-author on the paper. "The fact that it belongs to a family of viruses known to infect a wide variety of mammals, insects and other animals means that it may perpetually exist in insect or other 'host' species and was accidentally passed to humans through insect bites or some other means."
###
The article, "A Novel Rhabdovirus Associated with Acute Hemorrhagic Fever in Central Africa" by Gilda Grard, Joseph N. Fair, Deanna Lee, Elizabeth Slikas, Imke Steffen, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, Taylor Sittler, Narayanan Veeraraghavan, J. Graham Ruby, Chunlin Wang, Maria Makuwa, Prime Mulembakani, Robert B. Tesh, Jonna Mazet, Anne Rimoin, Travis Taylor, Bradley S. Schneider, Graham Simmons, Eric Delwart, Nathan D. Wolfe, Charles Y. Chiu, and Eric M. Leroy appears in the September 27, 2012 issue of the journal PLOS Pathogens. (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002924)
The research consortium includes San Francisco-based Global Viral, Metabiota, UCSF, BSRI, as well as researchers with the Centre International de Recherches Mdicales de Franceville in Gabon; the Institut de Recherche pour le Dveloppement in Montpellier, France; the Institut National de Recherche Biomdicale, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX; the University of California, Davis; the University of California, Los Angeles; Stanford University; and the Howard Hughes Medical Center.
This work was funded by support from Google.org, the Skoll Foundation, the government of Gabon, Total-Fina-Elf Gabon, and the Ministre des Affaires Etrangres et Europennes de la France, the U.S. Department of Defense Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, Division of Global Emerging Infections, Surveillance Operations (AFHSC GEIS) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (DTRA-CBEP), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats Program, PREDICT project. Additional funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health provided via grant numbers R01-HL083254, R01-HL105770, R56-AI089532, and R01-HL105704 and by an Abbott Viral Discovery Award.
* Global Viral was previously known as Global Viral Forecasting Initiative.
**Metabiota was previously known as Global Viral Forecasting Inc.
The contents of this release are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government and its agencies.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.
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.
Genetic sleuthing uncovers deadly new virus in AfricaPublic release date: 27-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi jason.bardi@ucsf.edu 415-502-4608 University of California - San Francisco
Global research effort identifies 'Bas-Congo' virus as the cause of small, isolated outbreak in 2009
An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before.
Described this week in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, the new microbe has been named Bas-Congo virus (BASV) after the province in the southwest corner of the Congo where the three people lived.
It was discovered by an international research consortium that included the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and University of California, Davis (UCD), Global Viral, the Centre International de Recherches Mdicales de Franceville in Gabon, the Institut National de Recherche Biomdicale, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Metabiota and others.
"Known viruses, such as Ebola, HIV and influenza, represent just the tip of the microbial iceberg," said Joseph Fair, PhD, a co-author and vice president of Metabiota. "Identifying deadly unknown viruses, such as Bas-Congo virus, gives us a leg up in controlling future outbreaks."
"These are the only three cases known to have occurred, although there could be additional outbreaks from this virus in the future," said Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF and director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, who spearheaded the UCSF effort to identify the virus. Chiu and his team continue to work on new diagnostics to detect the virus so that health officials in Congo and elsewhere can quickly identify it should it emerge again.
One odd characteristic of the Bas-Congo virus, Chiu said, is that while a number of other viruses in Africa also cause deadly outbreaks of acute hemorrhagic feverEbola virus, Lassa virus and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus to name a few the new virus is unlike any of them.
Genetically it is more closely related to the types of viruses that cause rabies, which are known to infect people with a very different sort of diseasea neurological illness that is uniformly fatal if untreated but may take months to develop.
An antibody test developed in this study was applied to the one patient who survived and to others who had come into contact with him. It suggested that the disease may be spread from person to person but likely originated from some other source, such as an insect or rodent.
The identity of this animal "reservoir" and the precise mode of transmission for the virus remain unclear and are currently being investigated by Metabiota and the central African members of the consortium through the PREDICT Project of USAID's Emerging Pandemic Threats Program.
How the New Virus Emerged
In the summer of 2009, a 15-year old boy in a small rural community called Mangala village suddenly fell ill and developed a bleeding nose, bleeding gums and bloody vomit. He rapidly worsened, dying within three days of the first signs of illness.
A week later, a 13-year old girl who attended the same school and lived in the same neighborhood as the boy came down with a similar, serious illness. She declined just as rapidly and also died within three days. One week after that, the male nurse who cared for this girl began showing the same symptoms, and he was transferred to a hospital in Boma, a nearby port city that sits along the Congo River upstream from Africa's Atlantic coast.
Members of the consortium, who had initiated a project to diagnose unusual cases of severe hemorrhagic fever, obtained blood samples collected from the nurse by the Congolese doctors and sent them to the laboratory of Eric Leroy, PhD, doctor of veterinary medicine at the Centre International de Recherches Mdicales de Franceville in Gabon. There the samples were tested for traces of any known virus, but nothing was found. The Metabiota scientists then solicited the expertise of Chiu at UCSF and Eric Delwart at the Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) in San Francisco to aid in the diagnosis.
The researchers ultimately identified a completely new virus as the cause of the mysterious illness through a powerful strategy for identifying novel pathogens known as "deep sequencing," in which millions of DNA sequences are generated from a clinical sample and then pieced together using computer algorithms combined with human analysis.
Distinct Attributes of Bas-Congo
The Bas-Congo virus belongs to a family of viruses known as the rhabdoviruses, a large family of viruses that infect plants, insects and mammals, including humans. The most famous member of this family is the virus that causes rabies. But even among the rhabdoviruses, Bas-Congo is something of an outlier, being very genetically distinct from other members of the family.
What's most unusual about this virus, though, said Chiu, is what it does to people.
No other rhabdoviruses are known to cause the acute, rapid and deadly hemorrhagic fever seen in the three cases in the Congo. Rabies, for instance, can be a deadly disease if untreated, but the course of rabies in humans is nothing like the rapid and deadly onset seen with the Bas-Congo virus. There is some precedent, however, for hemorrhagic disease from rhabdoviruses in the animal kingdom: fish rhabdoviruses are known to cause hemorrhagic septicemiaacute bleeding and deathin affected fish.
The third patient had enormous amounts of BASV in his bloodstream just two days after he fell illmore than a million copies in every milliliter of blood.
The BASV sequence was also used to design an antibody test for the virus, an effort led by Graham Simmons at the BSRI, another member of the consortium. Antibodies are blood immune proteins produced in response to an infection. The antibody test allowed the researchers to screen both the third patient with acute hemorrhagic fever and other people who had come into contact with the third patient, including the nurse who cared for him in the Boma hospital. High levels of BASV-specific antibodies were found in the third patient, establishing that he indeed had been infected with Bas-Congo virus. The same antibodies were also found in the second nurse, even though he never actually became sick.
"What this suggests is that the disease may be transmissible from person to personthough it's most likely to have originated from some other source," said Nathan Wolfe, PhD, founder and chairman of Global Viral, and a co-author on the paper. "The fact that it belongs to a family of viruses known to infect a wide variety of mammals, insects and other animals means that it may perpetually exist in insect or other 'host' species and was accidentally passed to humans through insect bites or some other means."
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The article, "A Novel Rhabdovirus Associated with Acute Hemorrhagic Fever in Central Africa" by Gilda Grard, Joseph N. Fair, Deanna Lee, Elizabeth Slikas, Imke Steffen, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, Taylor Sittler, Narayanan Veeraraghavan, J. Graham Ruby, Chunlin Wang, Maria Makuwa, Prime Mulembakani, Robert B. Tesh, Jonna Mazet, Anne Rimoin, Travis Taylor, Bradley S. Schneider, Graham Simmons, Eric Delwart, Nathan D. Wolfe, Charles Y. Chiu, and Eric M. Leroy appears in the September 27, 2012 issue of the journal PLOS Pathogens. (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002924)
The research consortium includes San Francisco-based Global Viral, Metabiota, UCSF, BSRI, as well as researchers with the Centre International de Recherches Mdicales de Franceville in Gabon; the Institut de Recherche pour le Dveloppement in Montpellier, France; the Institut National de Recherche Biomdicale, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX; the University of California, Davis; the University of California, Los Angeles; Stanford University; and the Howard Hughes Medical Center.
This work was funded by support from Google.org, the Skoll Foundation, the government of Gabon, Total-Fina-Elf Gabon, and the Ministre des Affaires Etrangres et Europennes de la France, the U.S. Department of Defense Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, Division of Global Emerging Infections, Surveillance Operations (AFHSC GEIS) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (DTRA-CBEP), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats Program, PREDICT project. Additional funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health provided via grant numbers R01-HL083254, R01-HL105770, R56-AI089532, and R01-HL105704 and by an Abbott Viral Discovery Award.
* Global Viral was previously known as Global Viral Forecasting Initiative.
**Metabiota was previously known as Global Viral Forecasting Inc.
The contents of this release are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government and its agencies.
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Google has an internal meme generator for all the inside jokes that Google employees have with each other. Which makes total complete sense. Of course Google would! The memes are pretty hilarious too—good guy Eric Schmidt, Missing Marissa Mayer, making fun of Facebook, cracks on Google benefits and more. More »
Registrations are now being accepted for the Watertown-Mayer Community Education Fall 2012 program. ?Community Education Catalogs have been distributed to all District 111 residents and available for pick up at the Watertown Mayer Schools or the Community Education Office at 313 Angel Ave. N.W., Watertown. Expand your horizon with lifelong learning for all ages including all your favorites: Early Childhood Family Education, Young Royals Preschool, Youth Enrichment and Recreation Programs, Kids? Company School Age Care for Preschool Child Care (Ages 3 to Kindergarten) and School Age Care (Grades K-6), KIPS Gymnastics, Aquatics, Driver?s Education, Adult and Senior Enrichment and Recreation Programs, Adult Basic Education/General Education Development and more. The Watertown-Mayer Recreation Center will offer expanded class opportunities to serve the wellness, recreation and fitness needs of community members.?Programs include Personal Training, Tabata Training, Early Bird Boot Camp in Mayer, Awesome Abs, Walk this Way, Zumba, On the Ball, Beginner Fitness Boot Camp, Weight Loss Challenge, Kettlebells, Women ? Weight & Hormones: Strategies for Fighting Fat after 40, Absolutely Abdominals, Morning Gentle Yoga, Multi-Level Yoga + Book Discussion Group, Gentle/Slow Flow Yoga, Blast into Basic Square Dancing, Kung Fu ? Wu Shu, Fall Co-Ed Volleyball League, Fencing, Photography, Adult Enrichment offers AARP ?Defensive Driving (8 hour and 4 hour course), Bone Builders (A free exercise program for Seniors), Adult & Infant Child CPR, Heartsaver CPR & AED, Cholesterol & Blood Pressure, ?Follow the Bone? Deer Cutting, Sign Language, Prepare Your Own Will, Dog Obedience, How to be a Smart Buyer in Today?s Market, How to Sell Your Home, Guitar Lessons, Nuno Felted Scarf, Felted Flowers, Felted Fingerless Gloves, Make Your 25 Greeting Cards, Stash of Cards, Quilling 101, Halloween or Fall Stained Glass Lamp, Stained Glass Planter or Pumpkin Pokes, Creative Cuisine is cooking up some awesome opportunities:? Appetizers ? Quick -Easy & Enticing, Lefse, Four Famous Ethnic Cookies, Parent/Child Beginning Cake Decorating, Farm to Table ? Seasons Foods Fall Harvest, Healthy Eating During the Holidays, and Gluten Free & Flourless Meals. Youth Enrichment Activities include: Intro to iPads for Parents, Parent & Student Driver Safety Course, Babysitting Course, Sign Language, Violin ? Guitar or Piano Lessons, Guitar Lessons, All New Magnificent Drawings with Young Rembrandts, Art Class After School Fun, Tow & 3D Art, Quilling 101, Quilling for Kids, Computer Explorers, Robotics: Star Wars Droids, Video Game Creation ? Nintendo Characters, Science Explorers? Radical Racers, Lego X ? Hammers & Ballerinas, Improv Express, Imagination Station, Comedy Improv ?Whose Line is It??, Dr. Seuss and Me. Youth Sports & Recreation activities include: Fall Indoor Soccer in Mayer, Winter Indoor Soccer, Skateboard Camps & Lessons, Kung Fu ? Wu Shu, Square Dancing, Fencing, Dance Crew, Flag Football, 5th & 6th Grade Beginner Volleyball, Punt, Pass & Kick Competition, KIPS Gymnastics, Driver Education (Classroom and Behind the Wheel), and Advantage Prep Courses (SAT/PSAT & ACT). For more information call 952-955-0280 or register online at www.wmcommunityed.com
Reported by ABC News Correspondent John Schriffen:
As an athlete, weekend warrior, or just a health enthusiast, we?ve all been there.? That point in a workout when your breathing becomes heavy, body feels weak, and that voice inside is screaming for you to stop. But there?s something that keeps you going. In my case, slumped over a spinning bike, it was a message written on my arm that gave me a jolt of energy every time I looked down.? It said #TeamRobin.
This weekend a group of us here at ABC News traded in our work clothes for workout gear to participate in a charity cancer spin class at SoulCycle in New York City.? Many in the packed room of about 80 people had their own reasons for being there.? For us, it was all about supporting our good friend Robin Roberts.
By now many of you know that Robin has been diagnosed with MDS, a rare blood disorder, and has had a bone marrow transplant.? But what you may not know is what she means to the ABC family. As a new correspondent I remember my first day on the set of ?Good Morning America.?? I was nervous, still finding my way through the winding hallways, and it was Robin who pulled me aside to personally congratulate me on joining the team. Her infectious smile and positive energy had an immediate calming effect.? It?s that genuine personal connection she forges with everyone she meets that made it so easy for Bianna Golodryga, Juju Chang, Bob Murphy, Sunny Hostin, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, producer Meredith Frost and the rest of our team to say yes, we will ride for Robin.
If you?ve never been to SoulCycle before (it was my first time), picture a warm, inviting space like a juice bar, where you feel healthy just walking in.? My sister Danielle and I were greeted with spin shoes, water, towels, and a locker.? Everything we needed to focus on a good workout.? After changing the team gathered and our co-leader Barbara Fedida, with marker in hand, wrote those inspirational words #TeamRobin on all of our arms.? Now we were ready to ride.
With the up-tempo music blasting and a little sweat going in the first 15 minutes we were all feeling pretty good.? But that was just the warmup.? All of a sudden our amazing instructor Nick Oram pulled his shirt off and yelled, ?Here we go, around the world!?
?Around the what?? I thought to myself.
While pedaling we stood up, then down, went side to side, coordinating our legs, bodies and arms just to stay on the bike.? As if that wasn?t hard enough, 20 minutes later we picked up weights for some bicep curls, shoulder presses, and, yes, more ab work.
It certainly helped being flanked by my co-workers, almost like the flying V from the movie ?The Mighty Ducks.?? Ginger Zee to my left, my sister and John Muller to my right.? In front, co-leader Sam Champion, Barbara, and David Muir, who looked like he could ride for hours.? But we still had 10 more minutes left in the class and I was spent.
That?s when I took another look down at my right arm.
Just the encouragement I needed to finish without giving up.
After 45 minutes, my shirt completely drenched, it was over.? We did it!? The entire room broke into applause, thanking our instructor and each other for reaching our goal.
In all, the day raised close to $10,000 for the American Cancer Society.? Personally it was a humbling experience to push my body to new limits and to be a part of such a great cause.? I would gladly do it all over again to support out emotional leader, Robin Roberts.
With so much drama around the?Maps app in the latest?iPhone software upgrade, people are excited about a report that Google should have a new iOS Maps app out by year's?end.
In iOS 6, Apple's newly released?mobile operating system upgrade, the Cupertino-based company decided to do away with the Maps app created by Google and replaced it with its own version. While the change has clear strategic advantages ? why should Apple give its chief competitor a featured spot on the iOS home screen ? people were justifiably riled up because?Apple's new Maps app is still in its infancy (despite being powered by TomTom's widely used?Tele Atlas maps).?
Though the furor got out of hand ? for most people, the maps work fine and the app brings a free turn-by-turn navigation service to the iPhone for the first time ? Apple's solution is not as solid as Google's well-established version. There were some pitchforks, there were some torches, and there were a lot of dramatic blog posts.
If people are finally calming down, it's at least in part to do with the fact that?they aren't limited to the apps which are built into iOS 6 as well as the likelihood that Google will develop a new?Maps app for iOS. And now, according to a report in the New York Times, that is indeed what is happening.
Google is building this app for the iPhone (and iPad), and is "seeking to finish by the end of the year," says the Times' report. The delay is in part due to the fact that Google wants to build a pretty 3-D version of its Maps for Apple users, says the report, and may consider combining the existing Google Earth app for iPhone with the new Maps app.
This information comes via "people involved with the effort who declined to be named because of the nature of their work," so naturally a small amount of?skepticism?should be maintained.
As far as any official word goes, all we know is that on Tuesday, during a press event in Tokyo, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt said that that the company had "not done anything yet" in regards to a Google Maps app for iOS.?This could easily to?posturing (why not sell a few more Android phones while the anger is high?).?
Any decision regarding whether a Google Maps app would be accepted into the Apple App Store would have to be made by Apple, Schmidt explained, according to Reuter's Kevin Krolicki, but since Apple permits many would-be competing apps from Google, Amazon and others, it seems likely that a Google?Maps app would go through just fine.?
So what do you do while twiddling your thumbs and waiting for Google to make its move (and for Apple to hopefully approve of that move)? You can use an alternative app?or the Web version of Google Maps.
Or you can just tough it out with Apple's new Maps app.
Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as investors sought a catalyst to justify further gains and the euro was under pressure on concerns about a bailout for debt-laden Spain.
The euro was about two cents from the 4-1/2-month peak posted against the U.S. dollar. Renewed worries about global growth also weighed on markets.
Earlier Wall Street had been buoyed by end-of-quarter buying by funds and a higher-than-expected reading of confidence among American consumers.
But as the day wore on in New York and major U.S asset manager BlackRock said the strong equity rally this year has run its course, the gains were erased and stocks declined.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 52.02 points, or 0.38 percent, at 13,506.90. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 8.53 points, or 0.59 percent, at 1,448.36. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 26.55 points, or 0.84 percent, at 3,134.23.
The MSCI world equity index was little changed at 336.288. European shares gained 0.4 percent.
"Any downdraft is going to be abbreviated with the recognition of the fact the Fed has effectively put a floor in the market, and it's not just the Fed, it's the ECB as well," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.
"What we are kind of dealing with here is a rudderless ship - there is no economic data to support any sort of robust buy activity."
U.S. stocks rose at the open after comments late on Monday from the president of the San Francisco Fed suggested the central bank was not done taking action to stimulate the economy. That overshadowed a pessimistic outlook from Caterpillar.<.n/>
U.S. stocks were also supported early by a private sector report showing U.S. consumer confidence jumped to its highest level in seven months in September.
"There are some incrementally positive consumer numbers and housing data," said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management LLC in Fort Lee, New Jersey, which oversees $3.6 billion. "It's in the face of a weaker forecast from Caterpillar, but it's difficult to get too upset about stuff they are talking about for 2015."
Caterpillar shares fell 3 percent. On Monday, Caterpillar Inc cut its 2015 profit outlook, warning that weaker commodity prices would result in a bigger-than-expected decline in demand.
NO HUGE BETS
U.S. data showed single-family home prices rose for a sixth month in a row in July, though the improvement was not as strong as expected.
The euro was also little changed at $1.2925.
The overall support for the single currency rally in recent weeks was the European Central Bank's offer to provide bailout funds to indebted governments - if they seek its help and are willing to accept tough conditions.
But investors were not making huge bets.
"Fears about Europe's situation remain among investors, with the focus mostly on Spain, but Greece is also still a concern," said Kimihiko Tomita, head of foreign exchange for State Street Global Markets in Tokyo.
At the center of market concerns is what happens next in Spain. The government is due this week to present its draft budget for 2013, outline new structural reforms for the economy and release the results of stress tests on the banking sector.
U.S. Treasury debt prices were mixed.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 7/32, with the yield at 1.6887 percent. The 2-year U.S. Treasury note was down 1/32, with the yield at 0.2703 percent.
GROWTH CONCERNS
After the recent central bank actions, many investors have become convinced that markets can rally further. But they believe any gains are highly dependent on signs the slowdown in the global economy has bottomed.
"The majority of central banks are in total, outspoken reflationary mode. That's a big story," said Didier Duret, chief investment officer at ABN Amro Private Banking in London.
(Reporting by Nick Olivari; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, Ryan Vlastelica, Richard Leong and Julie Haviv in New York and Richard Hubbard in London; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
The quality of life is determined by the way one takes care of their bodies. Stress and other mental strains affect the normal functioning of the nervous system and reduce the effect of the central nervous system on the overall functioning. Coupled with mental damage, sedentary lifestyle steals the activeness of the body making it habituated with life minus exercising. Regular workout sessions fuel the body with necessary flexibility and agility. With exercise as a part of the routine, the bones get decomposed and withered over a period of time. To enhance the effects of exercising on the bones, one must consume stipulated amounts of calcium, magnesium and other minerals that help enhance the quality of the skeleton. Arthritis and osteoporosis are ailments that occur in the body once it becomes age and wiry but these ailments have started occurring in middle-aged individuals. The reason for this drastic leap is the unhealthy choices like binging and improper lifestyle changes. The key to overall health lies in leading a life that is rich in nutrients and active in terms of physical activities. Joint pain supplement have been formulated to help the body overcome the tyrannies of bone related diseases by providing adequate nutrition.
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Public release date: 27-Sep-2012
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