Powerful Evidence for School Choice - Daniel J. Mitchell - Townhall ...

I expressed pessimism a few days ago about the possibility of replacing the corrupt internal revenue code with a flat tax. Either now or in the future.

But that?s an exception to my general feeling that we?re moving in the right direction on public policy. I?ve shared a list of reasons to be optimistic, even on issues such as ?Obamacare and the?Laffer Curve.

Education is another area where we should be hopeful. Simply stated, it?s increasingly difficult for defenders of the status quo to rationalize pouring more money into the failed government education monopoly. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, never has so much been spent so recklessly with such meager results.

That?s true regardless of whether Democrats are throwing good money after bad or whether Republicans are throwing good money after bad.

Fortunately, a growing number of people are realizing that the answer is markets and competition. That?s one of the reasons why we?re seeing progress all over the country. Policy makers have implemented varying degrees of school choice in states such as Indiana, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, and even California.

Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2013/04/23/powerful-evidence-for-school-choice-n1575545

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Best of Celebrity Tweets: Music Video Style!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/best-of-celebrity-tweets-music-video-style/

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The Naked Man Mystery Role In Boston - Business Insider

On Thursday night while police were hunting in Watertown, Mass. for bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, at one point they arrested a naked man who looks a lot like Tamerlan.

Police say the naked man is not Tamerlan, despite various conspiracy theories going around the Internet.

According to the official account, Tamerlan died after a shootout with cops, riddled with bullets and shrapnel before being run over by his brother who was fleeing the scene in an SUV.

Take a look:

The Watertown police department got back to us via email just to say that the naked man was not?Tamerlan Tsarnaev (pictured on right and in high-res here).

The shootout with the Tsarnaev brothers occurred on Laurel Street.?The journalist interviewed in this video describes naked man's capture near Nichols and Dexter, literally down the street from the shootout.

Naked man was apparently stripped, questioned, clothed, questioned some more, and reportedly let go. It's likely police stripped him because they were under citywide bomb threat and wanted to make sure he didn't have a suicide vest, but the police did not comment on that.

Needless to say, Business Insider is interested to hear Naked Man's personal story ? send any tips to tips@businessinsider.com.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-naked-man-mystery-role-in-boston-2013-4

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Sniffing out solutions for millions of Americans with smell loss

Apr. 21, 2013 ? Snot. It's not something most of us spend a lot of time thinking about, but, for a team of researchers in Washington, D.C., it's front and center.

Robert I. Henkin, founder of the Taste and Smell Clinic in is charmingly self-deprecating. He says with a chuckle that he's often called a "spit and snot doctor," but he knows all too well that for his patients -- those who no longer can appreciate the fragrance of fresh-cut grass or the intricacies of an herb-infused sauce -- such loss is no laughing matter.

"You might think: 'Oh well, you can still hear. You can still see.' But it's amazingly important to be able to taste and smell," Henkin says. "When you say 'hello' in (some parts of China), you don't say 'hello' -- you say 'Have you eaten yet?' In other words, the social aspects of being able to eat and enjoy that are critical, and to lose that -- you lose a significant part of life."

Henkin, who at the National Institutes of Health established the first clinical program to study taste and smell dysfunction, has spent the better part of his professional life trying to get the lay of the land when it comes to the fluids that contribute to those two senses. He and his team over the years have conducted countless experiments to figure out what makes up nasal mucus and saliva and how those components affect taste and smell.

"The thing to recognize is there are 21 million people in the United States who have some abnormality of smell function. That's an amazing number," says Henkin.

On Sunday, April 21, Henkin will present new research results at the Experimental Biology 2013 conference with the hope that attendees there also will take the mission seriously, build upon his findings and come up with new therapies for patients like his.

Henkin's newest work describes the concentrations of cytokines, molecules involved in cell signaling, in nasal mucus. He'll present his findings at the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which is being held in conjunction with the Experimental Biology 2013 conference.

"In a rather na?ve way, we went ahead and looked at these cytokines in nasal mucus because nobody's ever done it before," Henkin explains. This kind of strategy is par for the course for Henkin, who also was the first to report which proteins are present in saliva in 1978 and which proteins are present in nasal mucus in 2000. He emphasizes that "you can't understand the (disease) mechanisms unless you understand what's there."

"This whole role of nasal mucus -- what's there, how it works -- is something that (researchers) haven't really considered," he says. "It takes a dumb guy like me to go ahead and say 'OK, let's figure out what's there, and then we can see what we're going to do about it. It's a different approach."

What's so different about it? Henkin says most of his patients come to him as a last resort, because their primary physicians and even specialists can't offer any lasting solutions.

"The people who are interested in (smell loss) are primarily otolaryngologists, and they're trained as surgeons ? They're not trained to think about this" on the molecular level, Henkin says. "So they look at the nose, and if there's a polyp they'll take it out and say, 'Aha, there's the answer. We'll make the nasal cavity cleaner.' Well, these (molecular) structures in the nose that cause these problems are manifestations of some underlying disease process, which they've been trying to figure out for a while but haven't really succeeded."

Henkin's group has succeeded in restoring smell loss in many patients -- and sometimes by seemingly unconventional means. A few years back, they tested out a drug long used in asthmatics, theophylline, and they found that oral use could induce higher levels of a protein called cAMP in nasal mucus, which improved some patients' ability to smell. The team later found that administering a smaller dose intranasally produced a more profound effect.

Henkin says examples like that underscore the importance of understanding the molecular makeup of nasal mucus and the interactions within, rather than immediately turning to surgery or, another common practice, giving patients steroids.

"Because they've used these (steroids) to inhibit polyp formation in the nose, what happens is that in some people the smell comes back for a limited period of time. It may come back for a day or a week. And then when the drug wears off, they can't smell again," Henkin says. "We now understand a little bit about how that works -- how it affects those cytokines and other substances."

Cytokines are molecules that deliver information and induce some kind of response -- usually during immunological and inflammatory processes. Henkin's team found that in nasal mucus of patients with smell loss the concentration of anti-inflammatory cytokines was much higher than the concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines . This balance is important, he says, because the cytokine interleukin-6, which is pro-inflammatory, was particularly abundant.

"We'd looked at the literature and recognized that IL-6 is obviously elevated in a number of inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. As a matter of fact, with rheumatoid arthritis you commonly have smell loss," Henkin says. "We're trying to make these connections, you see, and understand the relationships in these underlying interactions -- to give people some idea (about) homeostasis in the nasal cavity, how it's occurring, what's in nasal mucus and how each of these substances plays a specific role in smell function."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), via Newswise.

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

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/5N55NUeUWDw/130421151622.htm

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Mass. mosque: Bomb suspect had 2 recent outbursts

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) ? When preachers told congregants at a mosque in November that it was appropriate for Muslims to celebrate U.S. holidays such as the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, a man who would later be a suspect in last week's the Boston Marathon bombing stood up to argue, the mosque said.

The Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center on Monday told about that outburst by Tamerlan Tsarnaev and provided more details on a second one two months later that the group had previously described.

The group said in its statement that Tsarnaev, who was pronounced dead on Friday after a shootout with police, was not a member of its Cambridge mosque but sometimes attended Friday services and daily prayers over the last year or so. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, who was captured Friday and charged Monday with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, showed up sometimes for prayers, the group said.

Two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Monday that the brothers were motivated by religion but appear not to be tied to any Islamic terrorist groups. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

Both mosque incidents happened after the older brother returned from a months-long trip to Russia last year. An aunt there said he was studying Islam but struggled to fit in.

The troublesome behavior first came in November, just before Thanksgiving, the mosque said. At a weekly prayer, a preacher gave a sermon saying it was appropriate for Muslims to celebrate American holidays. Tamerlan Tsarnaev stood up and argued that "celebration of any holiday was not allowed in the faith."

The preacher met with Tsarnaev and discussed the issue after the service.

In January, the mosque said Tsarnaev had a similar outburst.

This time, the sermon included praise for Martin Luther King Jr., and this time Tsarnaev shouted, calling the preacher a "non-believer" and "hypocrite" who was "contaminating people's minds." Congregants shouted back at him, telling him to leave, and he did.

Later, volunteer leaders of the mosque met with him and told him that he would not be welcome at service if he interrupted again. The group said he continued attending sometimes and did not cause any more problems.

___

Associated Press reporters Eileen Sullivan and Pete Yost in Washington and Arsen Mollayev in Makhachkala, Russia, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mass-mosque-bomb-suspect-had-2-recent-outbursts-014641792.html

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Boston mayor says authorities may never question bomb suspect

(Reuters) - Boston Mayor Tom Menino said on Sunday authorities may never be able to question the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, who lies seriously injured and unable to speak after eluding police for 24 hours.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was in "very serious" condition at a Boston hospital after being captured Friday night, Menino told ABC's "This Week" program.

"And we don't know if we'll ever be able to question the individual," he said without elaborating.

Tsarnaev's brother, Tamerlan, 26, was killed in a firefight with police earlier on Friday as officers hunted them for the twin blasts on Monday that killed three and injured 176.

U.S. Senator Dan Coats, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said it was questionable whether Tsarnaev would be able to talk again.

"The information that we have is that there was a shot to the throat," Coats told the ABC program.

"It doesn't mean he can't communicate, but right now I think he's in a condition where we can't get any information from him at all," said Coats, an Indiana Republican.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Vicki Allen and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-mayor-says-authorities-may-never-bomb-suspect-151354409.html

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They sing and they dance (oh way oh) (Unqualified Offerings)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/300552124?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Movie review: 'Starbuck' is fertile with gentle comedy | The Salt Lake ...

David (Patrick Huard, left) explains his problems ? as his past sperm donations have resulted in hundreds of "children" -- to his lawyer friend Paul (Antoine Bertrand) in the comedy-drama "Starbuck." Courtesy eOne

The Quebecois comedy "Starbuck" is a sex farce without the sex, which benefits from the low-key charms of star Patrick Huard.

Huard plays David Wozniak, a screw-up who works as a delivery driver for his family?s Montreal butcher shop. He?s in debt to shady mobsters and recently was dumped by his exasperated and pregnant girlfriend, Valerie (Julie LeBreton).

?

HHH

?Starbuck?

Opens Friday, April 19, at Broadway Centre Cinemas; rated R for sexual content, language and some drug material; in French with subtitles; 109 minutes.

He?s also just learned that a local fertility clinic, where 20-some years ago he made hundreds of sperm donations to earn extra money, is being sued by 142 of the 533 adult offspring of his genetic seed. They want to know the identity of their biological father, known only by the alias Starbuck. David must decide whether to go public or retain his anonymity as he discovers that his "children" include a soccer star, a junkie, an aspiring actor and a troubled Goth teen.

Director Ken Scott and his co-writer, Martin Petit, veer from broad comedy to tender drama as David deals with his problematic past and tries to mature in a hurry. Scott applies a gentle hand, allowing Huard?s hangdog comic attitude to shine through.

The film?s light touch is a rarity in Hollywood films and will probably be gone when Scott?s American remake, retitled "Delivery Man" and starring Vince Vaughn, arrives this fall.

movies@sltrib.com; www.sltrib.com/entertainment

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment2/56168604-223/starbuck-comedy-david-scott.html.csp

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IMF chief says global pro-growth policies needed (The Arizona Republic)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/299952523?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Man charged over Nigeria Christmas church bomb that killed 37

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian authorities charged a man on Friday with masterminding a 2011 Christmas Day bomb attack on a Catholic church in the capital that killed 37 people.

Security forces captured Kabiru Sokoto, the main suspect in the attack, in January 2012. He escaped a day later but was recaptured the following month.

In court on Friday he pleaded not guilty to charges of terrorism. Justice Adeniyi Ademola adjourned trial to May 2.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bombing of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja, which killed 37 people and wounded 57, in the deadliest of a series of attacks at Christmas.

The coordinated nature of the attacks suggested links between the home-grown Islamist movement and global jihadist groups operating across the Sahara.

Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language of largely Muslim northern Nigeria means "Western education is sinful," is loosely modeled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

Its fighters want an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria, a country of 170 million split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims. Its favourite targets are the police, politicians and Christians.

The group, or someone claiming to represent it, took responsibility for kidnapping a French family of seven in February, who French and Cameroonian authorities on Friday said had been released.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-charged-over-nigeria-christmas-church-bomb-killed-170440795.html

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iPad Still Dominates Tablet Ads With iPad Mini Gaining, Velti Finds

Mobile advertising firm Velti has released its monthly report on advertising impressions across its network. The iPad is far and away the leader when it comes to the tablet market, and is gradually chipping away share from the iPhone in terms of overall dominance among mobile ads. The iPad mini remains a much smaller factor, but is growing steadily, and on the Android side it’s pretty much all about the Kindle Fire. Velti’s data found that the iPad?accounted?for 91.6 percent of all tablet ad impression during the month of March, and only lost share to the iPad mini, which gained a full percentage point to come in at 6.2 percent during the month, firmly in second place. The Kindle Fire was the next strongest device, with a comparatively small piece of the pie at 1.6 percent. The Kindle Fire still dominates the Android tablet segment, however, with only the Galaxy Tab line of devices?anywhere?close. Amazon’s and Samsung’s tablets made up 73.4 percent and 26.2 percent of all Android tablet share, respectively. Among phones, the iPhone still leads the pack, with the iPhone 4 still leading all handsets with 13.3 percent of the impression share. iPhones?accounted?for eight of the top 10 devices, with the Samsung Galaxy S II and S III coming in at 8th and 10th place, respectively. Samsung is running away with the Android market in terms of ads served according to Velti’s figures, with 68.2 percent of all Android impressions. That’s no surprise given the company’s clear continued dominance in terms of hardware sales. In March, most mobile app usage took place during weekends, with a much greater deviation between Friday/Saturday/Sunday and the rest of the week than Velti had seen previously, which perhaps indicates that more people were settling down to do serious work during the month. Finally, Velti also saw click-through-rates continue to grow on Android and shrink on iOS. This means that despite having a much smaller share of overall ad impressions, the ones that are viewed on Android are more likely to convert into some kind of customers action. That may be due to the more relaxed rules about what types of advertising and campaigns can appear within Android apps vs. those on iOS. Stil, iOS was better in terms of eCPM, but the gap narrowed between it and Android, meaning iOS users resulted in just a little less revenue on average than did

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yW5GwOeTXlM/

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Twitter #Music comes to iOS and Web, will help you discover new tunes

Rosa Golijan , NBC News ? ? ? 2 hrs.

Twitter #Music, a service which'll help you discover tunes based on Twitter activity, doesn't exactly come as a surprise. The social network's been teasing this one for a while and the rumor mill's been steadily churning out its secrets. But, as of Thursday, the service is finally official and you'll be able to start using it on the Web or iOS shortly.

Twitter #Music relies on tweets and engagement to detect which songs and artists are particularly popular. In theory, you should be able to discover something of interest by scrolling through top charts or searching through songs shared by the people you follow. (Twitter #Music lets you see which songs and musicians your favorite artists listen to and follow as well, in case you're interested in that sort of thing.)

Twitter #Music grabs songs from iTunes, Spotify, and Rdio. You'll get previews from iTunes by default, but you can log into your Rdio or Spotify accounts to hear full tracks. (According to a post on Twitter's official blog, other music service providers will be added in the future.)

Twitter #Music will hit the Apple App Store at some point on Thursday and will slowly roll out to the Web, at music.twitter.com, as well. Initially it will only be available in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. (Don't worry, Android users and frequent movers: "Over time, we will bring the service to Android as well as to more countries," Twitter's Stephen Philips writes.)

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 herFacebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2adf762e/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cgadgetbox0Ctwitter0Emusic0Ecomes0Eios0Eweb0Ewill0Ehelp0Eyou0Ediscover0Enew0E1C950A40A66/story01.htm

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World stocks choppy as global economy wanes

BANGKOK (AP) ? Global stock markets were choppy Thursday as evidence of weakness in the global economy kept many investors at bay.

Markets were also cautious after disappointing U.S. corporate earnings on Wednesday, although there was some positive news in the U.S. Federal Reserve's so-called Beige Book. The survey, released late Wednesday, showed modest growth across the U.S.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent to 6,255.91. Germany's DAX added 0.3 percent to 7,552.25. France's CAC-40 rose 0.6 percent to 3,620.86.

Wall Street looked set for a rebound. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.2 percent to 14,579 and S&P 500 futures advanced 0.2 percent to 1,549.20.

Asian stock markets dropped, however, with investors in Hong Kong still feeling cautious due to a bird flu outbreak in eastern China and the rapid rise of Chinese government debt.

"Funds are still staying with those stock markets that are under monetary easing mode," said Kwong Man Bun, the chief operating officer at KGI Securities in Hong Kong. "Investors remain on sidelines to wait for signals that recent corrections have come to an end. So far this signal is not clear."

Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.3 percent to 21,512.52. Japan's Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.2 percent to close at 13,220.07.

South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.2 percent to 1,900.06. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slid 1.6 percent to 4,924.40. Benchmarks in Taiwan and New Zealand also fell. Mainland China, Thailand and the Philippines rose.

European economic indicators this week also raised concerns: Germany reported a drop in investor confidence while car sales have plummeted across the region. Labor market figures for the U.K. were also negative, suggesting the British economy is unlikely to stage a significant recovery in coming months.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday lowered its outlook for the world economy, predicting that government spending cuts will slow U.S. growth and keep the euro currency countries in recession this year.

The week got off to a bad start Monday, when China said its economic growth slowed in the first three months of the year to 7.7 percent, below the 8 percent level anticipated by markets. That caused U.S. stocks, energy and other commodities to plunge. Gold fell the most in 30 years.

On Wednesday, stock markets in the U.S. again turned sour on disappointing earnings from Bank of America. The bank has been mired in mortgage-related lawsuits related to its acquisition of Countrywide, which played a major role in the U.S. financial crisis by issuing subprime loans. Traders also began to worry about Apple Inc.'s sales after a supplier hinted at a slowdown in iPhone and iPad production.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 35 cents to $87.03 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped $2.04, or 2.3 percent, to close at $86.68 in New York on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3047 from $1.3014 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 98.18 yen from 97.84 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-stocks-choppy-global-economy-wanes-092050826--finance.html

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Best and worst times to start a fire

Public release date: 18-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Adam Voiland
301-614-6949
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, there are two distinct seasons: a wet season between December and March and a dry season between May and October. Reversals in the direction of prevailing winds are the driving force behind the seasonal shift.

If there are going to be bush fires in the area's tropical savannas, the best time is early in the dry season, when vegetation has dried enough to burn but is still wet enough that fires won't grow out of control. In April and May, fires usually burn themselves out within a few days. The worst time for fire is late in the dry season, when vegetation has dried to tinder and blazes tend to be uncontrollable, intense, and dangerous.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite acquired this image of dozens of managed fires in Kimberley on April 10, 2013. All of the fires were south and west of the Isdell River; some were burning in and near Windjana Gorge National Park, a popular tourist destination.

Although smoke plumes are visible, that's not how MODIS detected the fires. Rather, the instrument sensed thermal infrared energy radiating from the land surface. The heat is invisible in images like this, but the locations where MODIS detected fire are labeled with red outlines.

These prescribed burns are part of a program managed by the Australian government and by conservation groups. The Ecofire effort, ongoing since 2007, has the goal of reducing destructive late-season fires by increasing the number of early-season fires. The early fires tend to burn in a patchwork pattern that makes it easier for vegetation to reestablish itself afterwards. Late-season fires, in contrast, often sweep across the landscape and leave expansive burn scars that alter ecosystems for years.

The intent of Ecofire is to return the landscape to a burning regime that mirrors what happened in the past. For tens of thousands of years, aboriginal people in the region engaged in a practice known as "fire-stick farming." People intentionally lit fires in the early-season to encourage the growth of grasslands and to make it easier to locate and track animals for hunting. As traditional lifestyles have been replaced by modern ways of living, the number of early season fires has decreased and the number of destructive, later fires has increased.

###

References

Australian Wildlife Conservancy The EcoFire Approach. Accessed April 11, 2013.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy EcoFire: Managing fire in the Kimberley (Video). Accessed April 11, 2013.

Department of Environment and Conservation (2013, April 10) Active Prescribed Burns. Accessed April 11, 2013.

Savanna Explorer Fire in Australia's Tropical Savannas. Accessed April 11, 2013.

Savanna Explorer Fire Management in the Kimberley. Accessed April 11, 2013.

Further Reading

Earth Observatory (2013, April 5) Fire in Etosha National Park.

Earth Observatory (1999, October 22) Global Fire Monitoring.

Earth Observatory Global Maps: Fire.

NASA images by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.

---

[ | 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: 18-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Adam Voiland
301-614-6949
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, there are two distinct seasons: a wet season between December and March and a dry season between May and October. Reversals in the direction of prevailing winds are the driving force behind the seasonal shift.

If there are going to be bush fires in the area's tropical savannas, the best time is early in the dry season, when vegetation has dried enough to burn but is still wet enough that fires won't grow out of control. In April and May, fires usually burn themselves out within a few days. The worst time for fire is late in the dry season, when vegetation has dried to tinder and blazes tend to be uncontrollable, intense, and dangerous.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite acquired this image of dozens of managed fires in Kimberley on April 10, 2013. All of the fires were south and west of the Isdell River; some were burning in and near Windjana Gorge National Park, a popular tourist destination.

Although smoke plumes are visible, that's not how MODIS detected the fires. Rather, the instrument sensed thermal infrared energy radiating from the land surface. The heat is invisible in images like this, but the locations where MODIS detected fire are labeled with red outlines.

These prescribed burns are part of a program managed by the Australian government and by conservation groups. The Ecofire effort, ongoing since 2007, has the goal of reducing destructive late-season fires by increasing the number of early-season fires. The early fires tend to burn in a patchwork pattern that makes it easier for vegetation to reestablish itself afterwards. Late-season fires, in contrast, often sweep across the landscape and leave expansive burn scars that alter ecosystems for years.

The intent of Ecofire is to return the landscape to a burning regime that mirrors what happened in the past. For tens of thousands of years, aboriginal people in the region engaged in a practice known as "fire-stick farming." People intentionally lit fires in the early-season to encourage the growth of grasslands and to make it easier to locate and track animals for hunting. As traditional lifestyles have been replaced by modern ways of living, the number of early season fires has decreased and the number of destructive, later fires has increased.

###

References

Australian Wildlife Conservancy The EcoFire Approach. Accessed April 11, 2013.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy EcoFire: Managing fire in the Kimberley (Video). Accessed April 11, 2013.

Department of Environment and Conservation (2013, April 10) Active Prescribed Burns. Accessed April 11, 2013.

Savanna Explorer Fire in Australia's Tropical Savannas. Accessed April 11, 2013.

Savanna Explorer Fire Management in the Kimberley. Accessed April 11, 2013.

Further Reading

Earth Observatory (2013, April 5) Fire in Etosha National Park.

Earth Observatory (1999, October 22) Global Fire Monitoring.

Earth Observatory Global Maps: Fire.

NASA images by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/nsfc-baw041813.php

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Ill-Advised: Researchers Agree Puzzling New Bird Flu Should Be Taken Seriously

It's time to commit to memory a new combination of H and N influenza numbers. Since it arrived on the scene H7N9 has vexed researchers and shown it can be deadly to humans

By Helen Branswell

Scientists from China's national avian flu reference laboratory have found the virus by testing chickens in live animal markets. Image: Flickr/Povl Abrahamsen

An influenza A virus called H7N9 exploded onto the global infectious-diseases radar on April 1 when the World Health Organization revealed China had found three people infected with a new form of bird flu. Since then 77 cases (as of 1 P.M. EDT, April 16) have been confirmed, and the virus has spread from China?s largest megalopolis, Shanghai, and several surrounding provinces to the capital, Beijing, more than 950 kilometers to the north. And cases have proliferated at a startling pace: Infections with H7N9 have already outstripped the total number of H5N1 bird flu cases seen in all affected countries last year.

Whereas the new virus doesn?t seem quite as deadly as H5N1 (fatal in about 60 percent of known cases), it still packs a scary punch. To date 16 people have died from H7N9, and many others remain in critical condition. So far, at least, mild infections from this new strain are in the minority.

?This is very, very severe disease?and rapidly progressive,? Timothy M. Uyeki, an influenza epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, said last week after Chinese doctors published a report in The New England Journal of Medicine on the first three cases. ?It?s similar to H5N1, but it?s a little hard to make comparisons based upon three cases and limited data.?

The new virus has flu experts on high alert. Like H5N1, the H7N9 avian virus doesn?t appear to spread from person to person; researchers think it is jumping to humans from infected birds. But the latter has already acquired some genetic changes that suggest it is at least partially adapted to spreading among mammals. For instance, researchers have found a change at the receptor-binding site that dictates which types of cells it can infect?those found in birds or those found in the human upper airway, where seasonal flu viruses attach and invade. H7N9 is gradually becoming more adept at invading mammalian airways.

The World Health Organization is watching the situation closely. Given the mutations in the virus and the rapid accrual of cases, the agency is preparing for the worst. ?When you put it all together, this is a quite serious signal for us. And there?s nothing which has lessened the seriousness of that signal over the last few weeks,? says Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director general of health security and environment and the agency?s senior flu expert. The Geneva-based organization is working to determine what needs to be in place if H7N9 vaccines must be made and used as well as how quickly antiviral drugs could be deployed if the need arises.

The big question: Will H7N9 be like H1N1, the swine flu pandemic that took off with an explosive start in April 2009? Or will it be like H5N1, a virus that occasionally jumps from poultry to humans, posing a lingering threat?one which has yet to morph into a major public-health threat, but never goes away either.

It is too soon to tell which path the new virus will take. In fact, H7N9 has some qualities that may put it in a category all of its own. Topping the list is the virus?s low pathogenicity (?low path,? in flu-speak) in poultry. It doesn?t kill chickens and other domestic birds; at this point, it doesn?t even appear to make them sick. H5N1 is a high-path avian influenza virus?it wipes out poultry flocks. High-path viruses are hard on farmers, but dead birds at least help authorities locate the virus so they can attempt to eradicate it. In contrast, H7N9 is virtually invisible in the environment. Scientists from China?s national avian flu reference laboratory have found the virus by testing chickens and pigeons in live animal markets, but authorities still do not know how far this virus has spread or how many types of animals can be infected.

?This is a really, really going to be much more difficult to deal with," says David Halvorson, an avian influenza expert and professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. ?You don?t have this mortality to help guide you, so you have to run around looking for a virus in healthy [animal] populations. And then once you find it, what are you going to do? Chances are you?re going to have it all over the place. It?s way worse than a high-path virus."

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=3e426295c71421d973f316fea0eb0d80

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Looking for a small business accounting specialist ... - Flying Solo

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I have just started a new online business and I am looking for a Melbourne Accountant to help me set my business finances straight and help plan and grow my business finances for the future.

Please let me know of any recommendations you may have.

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Source: http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/forums/need-resource-got-good-referral/24885-looking-small-business-accounting-specialist.html

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IRL: Timbuk2's Commute Messenger and Fujifilm's EF-X20 flash

Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.

When he's not copy editing Engadget, Philip Palermo likes to write about his gadget collection. And that gadget collection includes an impressive pile of camera gear (like this and this and this). Now he's back, taking Fujifilm's EF-X20 flash for a spin alongside his X-E1. Meanwhile, Dan's found a bag spacious and compartmentalized enough to fit several days of clothing and all his trade show gear. Not an easy feat, folks.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/SB3ESn0z0Jw/

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Ill. GOP chairman survives latest ouster attempt (The Arizona Republic)

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American Volunteer En Route to Lebanon to Assist Syrian Refugee Families

Derek Locke, former business owner and resident of Dearborn Heights, Mich., is en route to Lebanon to deliver humanitarian aid to Syrian refugee families with international disaster relief organization, ShelterBox.

Sarasota, Florida (PRWEB) April 12, 2013

Derek Locke, former business owner and resident of Dearborn Heights, Mich., is en route to Lebanon to deliver humanitarian aid to Syrian refugee families with international disaster relief organization, ShelterBox.

Locke is a member of the ShelterBox Response Team (SRT), a group of highly-trained volunteers who work in the field to deliver boxes of aid?equipped with emergency tented shelter, stoves, blankets, water purification units and other tools?to families who lose their homes and possessions following a disaster such as earthquake, volcano, flood, hurricane, cyclone, tsunami or conflict.

Locke and his team will be working to distribute additional ShelterBoxes to Syrian families living in areas near Beirut. Since last fall, ShelterBox has been providing aid to families impacted by the Syrian conflict in Lebanon, Iraq Kurdistan, Jordan and Syria.

This is Locke?s third deployment as an SRT member. He delivered aid to families living in Peru and Nigeria last year following widespread flooding in both countries.

Response team members like Locke allow ShelterBox to respond to more than 25 disasters a year, often arriving within 48 to 72 hours.

ShelterBox is also currently providing aid to families affected by the Syrian conflict in Jordan, Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines and conflict in Myanmar.

ABOUT SHELTERBOX USA

Since 2000, ShelterBox has provided shelter, warmth and dignity following more than 200 disasters in over 85 countries. ShelterBox instantly responds to earthquake, volcano, flood, hurricane, cyclone, tsunami or conflict by delivering boxes of aid and other supplies. Each iconic green ShelterBox contains a disaster relief tent for an extended family, stove, blankets and water filtration system, among other tools for survival. ShelterBox?s American affiliate, ShelterBox USA, is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida. Individual tax-deductible donations to ShelterBox USA can be made at http://www.shelterboxusa.org or 941-907-6036.

# # #

Erin Holdgate
ShelterBox USA
941-907-6036 100
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/american-volunteer-en-route-lebanon-assist-syrian-refugee-192022953.html

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Vale Infants' School leadership criticised in validation report ? This Is ...

VALE INFANTS? leadership and management is ?less than proficient?, the school?s latest validation report has shown.

A summary of the report, which was released to parents yesterday, comes just weeks after an announcement from the Education Department that head teacher Jasmine Bynam had made the decision to step down.

Validators use a five-point scale to evaluate a school?s performance ? excellent, well developed, proficient, less than proficient and underdeveloped.

While pupils? enjoyment and achievement, teaching and assessment and curriculum were graded as proficient, the school?s self evaluation, leadership and evaluation and capacity to improve were marked as less than proficient.

The issues are highlighted as the main areas for school improvement.

Source: http://www.thisisguernsey.com/news/2013/04/13/vale-infants-school-leadership-criticised-in-validation-report/

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Ex-Credit Suisse trader pleads guilty in mortgage case

By Bernard Vaughan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Credit Suisse Group AG trader on Friday pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in a U.S. criminal case relating to the alleged inflation of subprime mortgage bond prices.

Kareem Serageldin, the Swiss bank's former global head of structured credit, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to falsify books and records at a hearing in Manhattan federal court. He faces up to five years in prison, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

"I made a terrible mistake and I deeply regret my conduct," Serageldin, 39, told U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.

Prosecutors had accused the British citizen of artificially boosting the prices of subprime mortgage-backed bonds between August 2007 and February 2008, when housing and credit conditions were rapidly deteriorating.

Overall, the price manipulation by Serageldin and others contributed to Credit Suisse's taking a $2.65 billion writedown in its 2007 year-end results, according to prosecutors. Credit Suisse has not been accused of wrongdoing.

In a statement, Serageldin portrayed a period of intense pressure as the housing crisis spooked financial markets in 2007 and 2008. In late 2007, Serageldin said he discovered that a portfolio of securities he oversaw was marked much higher than it could have been sold at the time.

He said he joined the scheme to protect his reputation within the bank as other groups were losing money.

"There was a lot of market turmoil with the bank," he said.

Two of his former Credit Suisse colleagues, David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, have already pleaded guilty. Higgs was a managing director and Siddiqui a vice president in the Swiss bank's investment banking division, according to prosecutors.

Eugene Ingoglia, a prosecutor at the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office, said at the hearing that evidence in the case includes recorded phone calls between New York and London, emails and interviews with cooperating witnesses.

Hellerstein peppered Serageldin with questions about whether his superiors may have known of the manipulation, at one point asking if management might have "closed their eyes to it."

Serageldin said it was "certainly possible" for management to have noticed, but he did not elaborate.

Bank spokesman Drew Benson declined to comment on the case.

Credit Suisse awarded Serageldin a bonus of $7 million in cash and stock in 2007, before it discovered the scheme, according to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office. The bank later rescinded the bonus.

Serageldin said that under the plea agreement he has agreed to forfeit about $1 million, which represents the after-tax cash portion of his 2007 bonus.

Under the agreement, the government dropped a charge of wire fraud and a charge of false books and records.

Serageldin was arrested in London last September and extradited to the United States earlier this year to face charges in the case.

The case is U.S.A. v. Serageldin, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-00090

(Reporting by Bernard Vaughan in New York; Writing by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Phil Berlowitz, Bernard Orr)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-credit-suisse-trader-pleads-guilty-mbs-pricing-161746586--finance.html

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Independent Obama group raises $4.8 million in first quarter

By Gabriel Debenedetti

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The advocacy group dedicated to promoting President Barack Obama's agenda said more than 100,000 donors pitched in to give it just under $5 million in the first quarter of 2013, as it publicized its fundraising numbers for the first time.

Organizing For Action, which operates independently from the White House, said Friday it would release its first-quarter numbers and the names of major donors later in the day.

An email from executive director Jon Carson to supporters said the group received contributions from 109,582 donors, averaging $44 per donation. This adds up to more than $4.8 million.

OFA came under fire in February after the New York Times reported that donors who gave $500,000 or more could attend quarterly meetings with Obama. This report sparked accusations that the group was selling access to president, a charge rejected by White House press secretary Jay Carney.

The group has focused mainly on immigration reform and tightening gun controls, two of Obama's priorities that Congress is grappling with.

The group was spun off of Obama's re-election campaign and launched in January as the president began his second term. It is the first independent effort of its type to support a sitting president.

OFA's chairman is Jim Messina, who managed Obama's re-election campaign. Carson is a former White House staffer who most recently directed the Office of Public Engagement.

(Reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Fred Barbash and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/independent-obama-group-raises-4-8-million-first-142224238.html

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Step up your speaking game in 6 steps - Business Management Daily

If you sense your presentations are falling short of inspirational and failing to rouse others to action, it?s probably time for a tuneup, says career and business advisor Beverly Flaxington, who offers six steps to a more powerful presentation.

1. Answer the ?why?? You need to answer several ?whys? before you can really start preparing your presentation, including why this topic, this timing, this audience.
2. Name the ?who?? You always want to tailor your message to your audience. If you?re speaking to one person or a small group, you can ask what they most want to know to help you structure your presentation.
3. Group your information. Organize the information into smaller themed groups, and then divide your presentation into sections that correspond with those groups.
4. Incorporate some context. You never want to leave your audience asking ?so what?? Present your information with explanations for why it matters to the people with whom you?re speaking.
5. Match your audience?s style. Is it a formal crowd or a more casual group? If you adjust your pace, tone, vocabulary and body language to fit the crowd they will be more receptive to your message. This is especially true when you?re speaking to an individual or small group.
6. Wrap it up with a clear close. Circle back to the top of your speech and end with what you hoped to inspire the audience to do, and make sure they?ve understood that expectation.

? Adapted from ?How can you improve your business presentations?? Beverly Flaxington, SmartBlog on Leadership.

Online resource: For more tips, check out "Tame your fears of public speaking: expert tips."

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At least 14 hurt in stabbing spree on Texas college campus, authorities say

As many as 14 people were hurt and two are in critical condition after calls flooded into 911 with reports of multiple people stabbed. NBC's Janet Shamlian reports.

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

At least 14 people were hurt Tuesday in a stabbing spree at a Texas community college apparently carried out by a student, authorities said. Sheriff?s officials said the suspect was in custody.

At least two victims were in critical condition. It was not immediately clear how severe the other injuries were. The stabbing happened at the CyFair campus of Lone Star College, in the Houston suburb of Cypress.

Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle

Life Flight personnel rush a stabbing victim off a helicopter at a Houston hospital after a stabbing spree Tuesday near Lone Star College in Cypress, Texas.

The school said the attack happened ?in and around? its health science building. Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said that authorities were not certain what the weapon or motive was. He said the suspect was 21 years old.

Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute said it had two patients in critical condition and six in all, including four flown there by helicopter.?Three patients were upgraded to good condition Tuesday evening?and one had been discharged.

A spokeswoman for another hospital, North Cypress Medical Center, said it had taken six stabbing victims who were in stable condition.

Two other victims were treated at the scene and declined to be taken to the hospital, the sheriff said.

The school closed for the day and ordered students to find shelter somewhere safe. Campus police caught the suspect, the Harris County Sheriff?s Office said. The school planned to open Wednesday.

The stabbing happened just after 11 a.m., a college official said. The school had warned students that a second suspect might be at large, but sheriff?s officials said later that they believed they had the only suspect in custody.

In January, three people were shot at a separate campus of the same college. A federal official said that those shootings appeared to be gang-related. A 22-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault.

The Lone Star system of colleges has 90,000 students in all.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 9, 2013 1:19 PM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a8599d0/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A90C176730A570Eat0Eleast0E140Ehurt0Ein0Estabbing0Espree0Eon0Etexas0Ecollege0Ecampus0Eauthorities0Esay0Dlite/story01.htm

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Predicting the next eye pathogen; analysis of a novel adenovirus

Public release date: 10-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary Leach
Mary_Leach@meei.harvard.edu
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

Research outlined in mBio

BOSTON (April 10, 2013) The ongoing dance between a virus and its host distinctly shapes how the virus evolves. While human adenoviruses typically cause mild infections, recent reports have described newly characterized adenoviruses that can cause severe, sometime fatal, human infections.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center report a systems biology approach to show how evolution has affected the disease potential of a recently identified novel human adenovirus. Their approach is based on the belief that understanding viral evolution and pathogenicity is essential to our capacity to foretell the potential impact on human disease for new and emerging viruses. Their study is now published in mBio.

Since the first adenovirus was characterized in 1953, 69 human adenoviruses (HAdVs) have been recognized as unique types. Analysis of whole-genome sequence data for existing and new HAdVs confirmed a critical role for homologous recombination in adenovirus evolution, leading to new and sometime serious human infections. The emergence of new HAdV types, with several associated with severe eye infection, promoted the investigators to apply a systems biology approach to try to predict the ocular tropism of a previously uncharacterized and highly novel HAdV, isolated by nasopharyngeal swab from a 4-month-old boy with several bronchiolitis.

A combined genomic, bioinformatics and biological analysis identified a unique deletion in a key protein of the viral capsid and further suggested the potential of the virus to cause severe ocular infection. The results point toward a possible approach for predicting pathogenicity for newly identified and recently emergent human pathogens.

###

The study was supported NIH grants EY013124, EY021558 and Ey014104, a Research to Prevent Blindness Senior Scientific Investigator Award, the Falk Foundation and the Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Fund.

About Massachusetts Eye and Ear

Mass. Eye and Ear clinicians and scientists are driven by a mission to find cures for blindness, deafness and diseases of the head and neck. After uniting with Schepens Eye Research Institute Mass. Eye and Ear in Boston became the world's largest vision and hearing research center, offering hope and healing to patients everywhere through discovery and innovation. Mass. Eye and Ear is a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and trains future medical leaders in ophthalmology and otolaryngology, through residency as well as clinical and research fellowships. Internationally acclaimed since its founding in 1824, Mass. Eye and Ear employs full-time, board-certified physicians who offer high-quality and affordable specialty care that ranges from the routine to the very complex. U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals Survey" has consistently ranked the Mass. Eye and Ear Departments of Otolaryngology and Ophthalmology as top five in the nation.

---

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

Public release date: 10-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary Leach
Mary_Leach@meei.harvard.edu
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

Research outlined in mBio

BOSTON (April 10, 2013) The ongoing dance between a virus and its host distinctly shapes how the virus evolves. While human adenoviruses typically cause mild infections, recent reports have described newly characterized adenoviruses that can cause severe, sometime fatal, human infections.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center report a systems biology approach to show how evolution has affected the disease potential of a recently identified novel human adenovirus. Their approach is based on the belief that understanding viral evolution and pathogenicity is essential to our capacity to foretell the potential impact on human disease for new and emerging viruses. Their study is now published in mBio.

Since the first adenovirus was characterized in 1953, 69 human adenoviruses (HAdVs) have been recognized as unique types. Analysis of whole-genome sequence data for existing and new HAdVs confirmed a critical role for homologous recombination in adenovirus evolution, leading to new and sometime serious human infections. The emergence of new HAdV types, with several associated with severe eye infection, promoted the investigators to apply a systems biology approach to try to predict the ocular tropism of a previously uncharacterized and highly novel HAdV, isolated by nasopharyngeal swab from a 4-month-old boy with several bronchiolitis.

A combined genomic, bioinformatics and biological analysis identified a unique deletion in a key protein of the viral capsid and further suggested the potential of the virus to cause severe ocular infection. The results point toward a possible approach for predicting pathogenicity for newly identified and recently emergent human pathogens.

###

The study was supported NIH grants EY013124, EY021558 and Ey014104, a Research to Prevent Blindness Senior Scientific Investigator Award, the Falk Foundation and the Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Fund.

About Massachusetts Eye and Ear

Mass. Eye and Ear clinicians and scientists are driven by a mission to find cures for blindness, deafness and diseases of the head and neck. After uniting with Schepens Eye Research Institute Mass. Eye and Ear in Boston became the world's largest vision and hearing research center, offering hope and healing to patients everywhere through discovery and innovation. Mass. Eye and Ear is a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and trains future medical leaders in ophthalmology and otolaryngology, through residency as well as clinical and research fellowships. Internationally acclaimed since its founding in 1824, Mass. Eye and Ear employs full-time, board-certified physicians who offer high-quality and affordable specialty care that ranges from the routine to the very complex. U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals Survey" has consistently ranked the Mass. Eye and Ear Departments of Otolaryngology and Ophthalmology as top five in the nation.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/meae-ptn041013.php

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