Basic Cake Decorating Supplies - Giulianas Restaurant & Food ...

Baking is a therapeutic hobby. It can relieve stress and it can also become a source of income if you are business-minded. However, before you can put up your own bakeshop, you must own a complete set of equipment such as the range of cake decorating supplies here. Without these tools you cannot bake your favourite cakes and pastries.

Themed cake pans are necessary if you want to bake cakes with special shapes. Instead of sticking with the traditional square, circle and triangle, be adventurous and try fancy shapes. A cake pan can make baking easier. Once you have it, there is no need to manually cut the cake to obtain the shapes and figures that you desire. For instance, if you are planning to bake an airplane-shaped cake, simply buy a cake pan with a shape of an airplane.

Your cake decorating supplies will not be complete without a piping bag and several tips. For a perfect decorating style, using different kinds of tip will be helpful. Buy the basic shapes for tips like star, heart, leaf and round. As you learn more about the intricate art of cake decoration, you will need additional tips and piping bags.

Colours and dusts come in various brands. Just pick a brand name that is guaranteed safe to be eaten. Some brands may contain chemicals that can harm one?s health. More so, you don?t have to buy all the available colours right away. Just shop for the basic hues and try to play with them by combining two colours or more.

Cutters and embossers are a must-have in your set of cake decorating supplies. Choose a stainless cutter to decorate your cake faster. There are many shapes to choose from like stars, gingerbread man, maple leaf, bunny head, etc. These tools allow you to create figures in a short time. No need to exert extra effort and to spend long hours in making a double heart-shaped or a star-shaped cake.

A nice cake decorating book should also be considered. While baking cakes you can use the book to get ideas and inspirations. Finally, keep your tools and supplies clean all the time and maintain a neat surrounding as you bake your cakes.

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Source: http://www.giulianasrestaurant.com/basic-cake-decorating-supplies-405.html

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Taliban poison, kill 17 Afghans in attack in east

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? An Afghan official says Taliban insurgents poisoned and killed 17 people in an overnight attack on a post manned by a government-backed militia in eastern Afghanistan.

Ghazni deputy provincial council head Abdul Jamhe Jamhe says the militants somehow infiltrated the outpost and poisoned those inside the compound before launching the Tuesday night assault. He says the assailants then shot the incapacitated men.

Provincial Gov. Musa Khan Akbarzada says 10 of those killed in Andar district were members of the government-backed Afghan Local Police group and the remaining seven killed were civilians who were friends of the local police. He says there was a conspiracy of some sort but declined to confirm if there was poison involved.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-poison-kill-17-afghans-attack-east-110229450.html

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Silver nanoparticles may adversely affect environment

Feb. 27, 2013 ? In experiments mimicking a natural environment, Duke University researchers have demonstrated that the silver nanoparticles used in many consumer products can have an adverse effect on plants and microorganisms.

Fifty days after scientists applied a single low dose of silver nanoparticles, the experimental environments produced about a third less biomass in some plants and microbes.

These preliminary findings are important, the researchers said, because little is known about the environmental effects of silver nanoparticles, which are found in textiles, clothing, children's toys and pacifiers, disinfectants and toothpaste.

"No one really knows what the effects of these particles are in the environment," said Benjamin Colman, a post-doctoral fellow in Duke's biology department and a member of the Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEINT).

"We're trying to come up with the data that can be used to help regulators determine the risks to the environment from silver nanoparticle exposures," Colman said.

Previous studies have involved high concentrations of the nanoparticles in a laboratory setting, which the researchers point out, doesn't represent "real-world" conditions.

"Results from laboratory studies are difficult to extrapolate to ecosystems, where exposures likely will be at low concentrations and there is a diversity of organisms," Colman said.

Silver nanoparticles are used in consumer products because they can kill bacteria, inhibiting unwanted odors. They work through a variety of mechanisms, including generating free radicals of oxygen which can cause DNA damage to microbial membranes without harming human cells.

The main route by which these particles enter the environment is as a by-product of sewage treatment plants. The nanoparticles are too small to be filtered out, so they and other materials end up in the resulting wastewater treatment "sludge," which is then spread on the land surface as a fertilizer.

For their studies, the researchers created mesocosms, which are small, human-made structures containing different plants and microorganisms meant to represent the environment. They applied sludge with low doses of silver nanoparticles in some of the mesocosms, then compared plants and microorganisms from treated and untreated mesocosms after 50 days.

The study appeared online Feb. 27 in the journal PLOS One.

The researchers found that one of the plants studied, a common annual grass known as Microstegium vimeneum, had 32 percent less biomass in the mesocosms treated with the nanoparticles. Microbes were also affected by the nanoparticles, Colman said. One enzyme associated with helping microbes deal with external stresses was 52 percent less active, while another enzyme that helps regulate processes within the cell was 27 percent less active. The overall biomass of the microbes was also 35 percent lower, he said.

"Our field studies show adverse responses of plants and microorganisms following a single low dose of silver nanoparticles applied by a sewage biosolid," Colman said. "An estimated 60 percent of the average 5.6 million tons of biosolids produced each year is applied to the land for various reasons, and this practice represents an important and understudied route of exposure of natural ecosystems to engineered nanoparticles."

"Our results show that silver nanoparticles in the biosolids, added at concentrations that would be expected, caused ecosystem-level impacts," Colman said. "Specifically, the nanoparticles led to an increase in nitrous oxide fluxes, changes in microbial community composition, biomass, and extracellular enzyme activity, as well as species-specific effects on the above-ground vegetation."

The researchers plan to continue to study longer-term effects of silver nanoparticles and to examine another ubiquitous nanoparticle -- titanium dioxide.

CEINT's research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University. The original article was written by Richard Merritt.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Benjamin P. Colman, Christina L. Arnaout, Sarah Anciaux, Claudia K. Gunsch, Michael F. Hochella, Bojeong Kim, Gregory V. Lowry, Bonnie M. McGill, Brian C. Reinsch, Curtis J. Richardson, Jason M. Unrine, Justin P. Wright, Liyan Yin, Emily S. Bernhardt. Low Concentrations of Silver Nanoparticles in Biosolids Cause Adverse Ecosystem Responses under Realistic Field Scenario. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e57189 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057189

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/EctQTz5Sylw/130227183528.htm

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Video: First Read Minute: Warning Sequester Ahead

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50958042/

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US 4Q bank earnings up 37 pct as lending rises

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Profits at U.S. banks jumped almost 37 percent for the October-December period, reaching the highest level for a fourth quarter in six years as banks continued to step up lending.

The figures are fresh evidence of the industry's sustained recovery more than four years after the financial crisis.

Banks earned $34.7 billion in the last three months of 2012, up from $25.4 billion a year ago and the highest for a fourth quarter since 2006, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported Tuesday. Sixty percent of banks reported improved earnings from the fourth quarter of 2011, the agency said.

The FDIC, created during the Great Depression to ensure bank deposits, monitors and examines the financial condition of U.S. banks.

For all of 2012, the agency said bank earnings rose 19 percent to $141.3 billion, the second-highest annual level ever.

The number of banks on the agency's "problem" list fell to 651 from 694. Banks had lower losses on loans in the fourth quarter and set aside almost 25 percent less to cover potential losses than in the final quarter of 2011.

"The improving trend that began more than three years ago gained further ground in the fourth quarter," FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said at a news conference. Still, "troubled loans, problem banks and bank failures remain at elevated levels, while growth in lending and revenue remains sluggish," he said.

Banks with assets exceeding $10 billion drove the bulk of the earnings growth in the October-December period. While they make up just 1.5 percent of U.S. banks, they accounted for about 82 percent of the industry earnings.

Those banks include Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. Most of them have recovered with help from federal bailout money and record-low borrowing rates.

Gruenberg noted that banks' profit from interest they charge has been eroded by historically low interest rates during the economic recovery. Banks' net interest income fell to $104.4 billion in the fourth quarter from $107.1 billion a year earlier. That was the lowest quarterly level since the final three months of 2009, the FDIC said.

The decline in interest income has made banks increasingly reliant on the fees they charge.

For the sixth time in seven quarters, banks' lending increased. It rose by 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter, led by growth in commercial and industrial loans, and credit cards. That shows banks are becoming less cautious, which could help the economy. More lending leads to more consumer spending, which drives roughly 70 percent of economic activity.

Home equity loans fell by 2.2 percent, however.

So far this year, three banks have failed. That follows 51 closures last year, 92 in 2011 and 157 in 2010. The 2010 closures were the most in one year since the height of the savings and loan crisis in 1992.

In the fourth quarter, the decline in bank failures allowed the insurance fund to continue to strengthen. The fund, which turned from deficit to positive in the second quarter of 2011, had a $32.9 billion balance as of Dec. 31, according to the FDIC. That compares with $25.2 billion at the end of September.

The FDIC is backed by the government, and its deposits are guaranteed up to $250,000 per account. Apart from its deposit insurance fund, the agency also has tens of billions in loss reserves.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-26-US-Bank-Earnings/id-3fe45345fdc747d082677679d97877ee

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Kayak PRO (for iPad)

An iPad makes a better traveling companion than a laptop for its incredible lightness, durability (no moving parts to snag or break), and the fact that TSA doesn't require you to pull it out of your bag when it goes through the x-ray machine. If you'll be on the road?or maybe just the next time you want to do a little armchair travel?get the Kayak PRO for iPad app (99 cents), one of the best travel search and booking apps in the App Store, and our Editors' Choice.

Kayak centralizes search, giving you tools to find flights, hotels, and cars from one convenient app. You can't do a single search for all three at once, the way you can on the website, but the app is a close second in terms of convenience. Sure, Orbitz offers the same basic functionality in its officially titled Orbitz Flights, Hotels, Cars iPad app (free, 4 stars), but it doesn't offer you the option of searching across other travel search sites, such as Priceline (which now owns Kayak) and Hotwire, to ensure you'll get the best price. Plus, Kayak's iPad app offers several other neat features that make it slightly more useful and fun to use than Orbitz's app. Plus, Kayak PRO presents a more streamlined and thoughtful interface that lets you move effortlessly between your flight, hotel, and car options. While Kayak did not in the past support direct payment processing, it does now, with the help of its partner Travelocity, letting you pay quickly and conveniently for plane tickets, as well as hotel and rental car reservations. Occasionally, Kayak sends you elsewhere to complete the purchase to get the best deal, but it's always a reputable site and the Web page loads within the Kayak app, rather than routing you through Safari?making for a clean and efficient experience.??

The 99-cent price tag on the Kayak PRO iPad app buys you an ad-free experience. Other than that, it is virtually the same as Kayak's free iPad app, a fact that surely some will begrudge.

Searching and Booking Flights, Hotels, Cars
The primary navigation in the Kayak PRO app happens from a tiny left rail, where you can jump between sections for searching flights, hotels, car reservations, and travel deals around the world. Two more sections, a flight tracker and "my trips" section, give the app even more utility. You can set up flight-tracking on multiple flights, which is especially helpful for frequent travelers as well as small business owners who need to keep track of their employees' flights?or their own.

The flight search supports one-way, round-trip, and even multi-city journeys. All the options appear quickly and are simple to navigate. When you hit the results page, finding a flight that fits your needs based on arrival or departure time, price, layover time, and so forth, is dead simple. Kayak really centralizes every bit of the travel search experience.

When you skip between sections, moving from a flight to a hotel search for example, Kayak remembers? your most previous dates and cities and auto-fills them into the search criteria. The hotel section and results page work much in the same manner as the flights, with appropriate filters to help you narrow down your options. One, however, a slider bar that lets you adjust how far from the city center a hotel can be, is difficult to maneuver at distances smaller than about 20 miles. Considering that many airports are in major cities, where the difference between one mile and five from the city center is huge, it's an area where Kayak could make some smart improvements.

Hotel listings come with photos when available and appear on an interactive map, but they don't include alternative accommodations (i.e., rental properties and rooms to let), like the kinds you'll find on Airbnb or HomeAway. Another travel search app for iPad, Hipmunk (free, 3.5 stars) can scout out a full-sized home or apartment rental, although similar to Kayak in its infancy, Hipmunk doesn't book the stay for you. You'll be pushed to another site to lay down your credit card.

The car search area works just as well as the others and includes all the major car rental companies. But the real strength of the app is its ability to glide you from one section to another quickly, so that you can secure your car at the same time as reserving your hotel room.

Extras and Oddities
If booking travel takes too much out of you, consider using the Kayak PRO iPad app just for kicks instead. From a map icon, you can search for travel across all known dates from any airport and see a list of the lowest prices Kayak can find. If you type in your airport of choice, Kayak displays a world map with pinpoints and prices based on a roundtrip fare. Tap on a pin for more information, and it'll show the dates of travel for the price found.

The only problem with this feature is that the prices aren't always what they seem. For example, just as I was ready to book my flight to the Abu Dhabi (only $810 roundtrip from New York!) I clicked through for complete flight details and watched as my bargain price skyrocketed to $1,026.A few times, the opposite happened, like when I spotted a reasonable $180 ticket between London Heathrow and Oslo, when in fact the final quote came in even lower at $173.

Kayak for Pro Travelers
I'll admit that I am a long-time Orbitz user, having booked on that site nearly since it first debuted. But Kayak has become a real contender in the travel search?and now booking?space, and its iPad app is a testament to the company's hard work. A thoughtful design and set of features that easily meet expectations keep Kayak PRO one of the most efficient apps for travelers, while a few little extras help it appeal to wanderlusters, too. Kayak PRO for iPad is PCMag's Editors' Choice for iPad travel search and booking apps. Pack Kayak PRO, and you won't go wrong.

More iPad App Reviews:
??? Orbitz Flights, Hotels, Cars (for iPad)
??? Kayak PRO (for iPad)
??? TurboTax for iPad
??? H&R Block for iPad
??? TaxACT Deluxe Tablet App (for iPad)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/xuU6DUSS-n0/0,2817,2415863,00.asp

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Here's Why You Should Code, a PSA By Chris Bosh, will.i.am, and Mark Zuckerberg

Code.org has a new internet PSA explaining why you should code. The answer to that is you'll get to eat food made by chefs, play ping pong in a hoodie, and will.i.am will call you a rockstar. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/5ZMjZFLz1rk/heres-why-you-should-code-a-psa-by-chris-bosh-william-and-mark-zuckerberg

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Allison Miller: 'You Don't Play Like a Girl': Queer in a Jazz World

All female musicians go through a hazing period, an eye-opening moment when they first observe the extracurricular activities and conversations that go down offstage in the music business. Thanks to my first drum teacher, Walter Salb, I got my hazing period over with at age 14. Walt always said, "If you can deal with me, then you can deal with anyone in this business." He was right! I didn't just learn how to play paradiddles from him. I learned how to curse like a sailor, volley and one-up sarcastic insults with speed and precision (with beer in one hand and a whiskey in the other) and demean women with vulgar prowess. I also learned how to "man up" and show no emotion. This was all fine and dandy with me. I loved it. I was a little tomboy drummer, obsessed with jazz, who hadn't quite discovered her sexuality. I would just hang out at Walt's house, practicing the drums, cursing, drinking, talking shit and listening to old jazz records. My sexist vulgarity quickly surpassed most of the boys'.

Time went on, and I went away to college, kept practicing those drums, honed my crassness, sharpened my drinking skills and enthusiastically discovered that I was a big fat homo. I now had two love affairs in my life: jazz and women. Historically, jazz and women make a classic combination. But being a woman and loving jazz and women? Not so classic. The dichotomy of the two felt absolutely ridiculous. I spent my days transcribing Miles Davis solos and my nights chasing girls. Let me make one thing clear: My sexuality, at this point, was absolutely one-dimensional. I had no awareness of feminism, equality or politics. I was interested in sex only, and I could still one-up the boys with a dirty joke.

After college I moved to the jazz capital of the world, New York City. I had no idea that it was also the gay capital of the world. How fabulous! I met gays unlike any gays I had ever encountered. Gays fighting for equal rights. Gays who were interested in more than just accumulating notches on their belts. I quickly got schooled in feminism, gay rights and gay subculture. Righteous queer female artists and activists flooded into my life: BETTY, Toshi Reagon, Ani DiFranco, Gloria Steinem, Animal, Melissa Ferrick, Indigo Girls, Staceyann Chin. I was taken to the mecca of all feminist festivals, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. I slowly but surely became a full-fledged lesbian feminist.

Now what was I to do with this new identity? How was it going to fit into my life as a touring jazz musician? The jazz world is a boys' club. How would I continue to play the music I loved while being a radical lesbian feminist? How was I supposed to be one of the boys when I was realizing how powerful I felt as a woman?

I began to feel oppressed while on the road playing the music I loved. I was starving for the company of like-minded feminists. I became increasingly aware of the damaging implications underneath every chauvinist comment or joke. I started feeling internal conflict and guilt if I participated in post-show examinations of the physical attributes or deficiencies of women we'd seen in the audience.

I went from actively participating in the dirty joke to keeping my mouth shut and feeling silenced and invisible, and from that to losing all humor and wanting to march on Washington every time anyone said anything, even complimentary things, about women. I didn't know how to be all of myself. How could I speak up without the fear of being the lesbian feminist buzzkill?

So, risking not being liked, I started speaking up and challenging men when they crossed that line from funny to sexist. Surprisingly, a lot of them were receptive to my challenges, and the ones who weren't just stopped calling me, which was fine by me. There are fewer of those guys than you would imagine. For the most part, the jazz world is not as conservative as I thought it was. But believe me, when someone needs to be called out, I'm happy to do it.

Today I know who I am. I am a fully integrated person. That's sort of the key to feeling like you "belong." I can be my whole self everywhere I go -- unapologetically. I'm at home in the jazz and the feminist communities. They aren't so separate for me now. I can exist happily in both -- and I need them both to exist.

Honestly, it's hard to be a woman in this business. I have to prove myself over and over again. So many people have said to me, "You don't play like a girl!" They think it's a compliment. But actually, I do play like a girl. This is what girls play like. People hear with their eyes: They see a "girl" and are surprised when they hear the power and prowess that they associate with "boys." By getting onstage and throwing down while looking the way I do, I am breaking stereotypes. I am a woman. I am a dyke. I am a tomboy. I play jazz.

?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-miller/you-dont-play-like-a-girl-queer-in-a-jazz-world_b_2769544.html

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Cell scaffolding protein fascin-1 is hijacked by cancer

Feb. 22, 2013 ? A protein involved in the internal cell scaffold is associated with increased risk of metastasis and mortality in a range of common cancers finds a meta-analysis published in Biomed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine.

The protein, fascin-1, is involved in bundling together the actin filaments which form the internal scaffolding of a cell and are involved in cell movement. Though it is absent, or only present at a low level in normal epithelial cells, several small studies have shown fascin-1 to be increased in many carcinomas, but its role in metastasis and mortality risk has been uncertain.

Researchers from the University of Bristol combined and reanalysed data from 26 studies looking at five different types of carcinomas. The meta-analysis showed that increased fascin-1 was associated with increased risk of mortality in breast, colorectal and esophageal carcinomas but not in gastric or lung carcinoma. It was also associated with disease progression in breast and colorectal carcinoma, but not lung carcinoma. It was associated with local and distant metastasis in colorectal and gastric carcinomas but there was no involvement of fascin-1 in metastasis of esophageal carcinomas.

These results show that the picture is not simple and that different types of cancer are affected in different ways. The story of fascin-1 not only provides a biomarker and potential avenue for research into anti-cancer therapy but also demonstrates the complexity of cancer.

Josephine Adams and Richard Martin who led this study said, "Our results show that fascin-1 is associated with several types of human carcinomas. The results will help focus further research into fascin-1 as a marker and potential target for cancer therapy to the most relevant types of carcinomas."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Vanessa Y Tan, Sarah J Lewis, Josephine C Adams and Richard M Martin. Association of fascin-1 with mortality, disease progression and metastasis in carcinomas: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Medicine, 2013 (in press) [link]

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/top_news/top_health/~3/NNO8Aq881R0/130225201820.htm

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Claire and Matt at Dunsborough Park ? Momentscaptured Blog ...

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

When I first met Claire and Mat at their home in South West London, I knew straight away that they were perfectly suited for each other. You know when you meet those couples who just seem to bounce off each other, have a great sense of humour between them and a watertight bond to go with it? These are those people. After a few meetings including a fun portrait shoot on the beach in Brighton, the wedding day came upon us. Claire was more nervous than I expected and surrounded by her lovely friends and sisters dressed in coral, she composed herself, and made her way in the bright sunshine to meet Matt.

A typical English countryside wedding, blue skies and lots of confetti, these two were obviously smitten and seemed at their most comfortable once they could stand side by side, which they did for the rest of the day. Retiring to the stunning private home at Dunsborough Park, the guests shaded themselves in the well groomed garden while we went for portraits around the extensive grounds

These two made our hearts swell when they were alone, so perfectly matched they are.

The evening was fun and relaxed, the weather perfect and the air crisp with late summer dusk. Certainly one of our favourites last summer. Congratulations you two x

Source: http://www.momentscapturedblog.com/?p=2057

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Netgear Centria (WNDR4720)

The Centria WNDR4720 is Netgear's offering in the crop of network devices that serve as both routers and Network Attached Storage (NAS). The WNDR4720 is a dual-band router and a NAS with 2TB of storage (Netgear also offers the WNDR4700; you need to supply your own drive). While the Centria is not a powerful performer as a router?and even weaker in performance as a NAS?the combined functionality makes it an attractive device for creating a robust home network. With this single device you have the means to deploy a wireless network, shared storage, multimedia streaming, and even backup.

The Centria is a competitor to Apple's Time Capsule, which is a NAS/router combo. Like the 2TB version of Time Capsule, the Centria is priced at around $300. Another competitor in the space is Synology's DS213air which also combines routing functionality with a NAS.

If you need a more powerful router than what the DS213air offers, the Centria is the better option of the two.? If you are mostly focused on NAS capabilities, then look to the DS213air.? One other caveat with the Centria: there are some issues with the Desktop Genie app you can install to manage it.

Specs
The Centria's design is the same boxy shape introduced with Netgear's R6300 router. This large device operates upright on a built-in stand. Design is one of the big drawbacks of the R6300, in my view. The bulky case makes placement options within an entertainment center, for example, limited.

The model I tested, the WNDR4720, is an N900 dual-band router with integrated 2TB of storage on a 3.5" SATA HDD. There are two USB 3.0 ports and an SD card slot. The Centria also has four Gigabit LAN ports and a Gigabit WAN port.

On the side of the case are three buttons: WPS, WiFi on/off, and a one-touch backup button. LEDs on the front correspond to each button and are lit when the buttons are activated. On the opposite side of the case is a door that opens to where the HDD sits. It's a bit of an effort of get your fingers around the HDD to pull it out. The drive's backplane sits so far deep into the Centria that it's somewhat difficult to ensure that the drive is seated properly. You'll know if it isn't if you don't see the HDD's LED light up green when the Centria is powered on.

There are also five more LEDs on the bottom front panel, one each, representing status of power, WAN connection, WiFi, HDD status, and USB device connection.

Centria Setup
The WNDR4720 ships with wireless networking pre-configured. In fact, the SSID and password are printed on a sticker affixed to the unit. As soon as I powered the Centria up, I saw two Netgear SSIDs?one for the 2.4 GHz radio and one for 5GHz, in Windows' listing of wireless networks.

You still want to go through the setup process to establish your WAN connection and make sure settings are the way you want. To do this, open a browser from a computer connected to the Centria, to the address routerlogin.net.? This kicks off the Netgear Genie setup wizard.

The setup process has been updated in Netgear's newer device line, as I first noticed when reviewing the R6300. I was impressed that the setup wizard elegantly avoided any possible IP address conflicts with my ISP assigned address by changing the router's IP addressing appropriately.

The setup wizard then checked my internet connection. I received confirmation that I was connected to the Internet and the interface displayed the router's settings including the wireless settings, the HDD state. The wizard then scanned for any connected USB devices.

Setup gives you the option of installing Netgear's newer management apps: the Desktop Genie, for monitoring and repairing your home network, and ReadyShare Vault?a backup app. While I'll dig deeper into each app in separate reviews, I did install the Desktop Genie, since it's relevant to managing the router functionality in the Centria. After installing the desktop version of genie, I encountered a few issues.

Genie Conflicts
When you install the Desktop Genie, you can use the shortcut to it on a desktop to get to the router's settings and monitoring tools. Typically, you would just open a browser to the IP address of the router, and use the device's management software for configuration, which is also called the Netgear Genie. The fact that both are named Genie is confusing.

Desktop Genie is a newer interface for Netgear products introduced in 2011. Instead of having to open a browser and go to the IP address of the device's interface, you can double-click the Genie shortcut on the desktop. The Desktop Genie has more features than the default Genie interface you get by typing in the IP address of the router in a browser.

I found Desktop Genie was problematic to use. When I first opened it, I was greeted with a Login Failed error message, despite the fact I could go into the browser-based interface using the same admin login and password. There was a little help icon to give me more information about the error. The additional information was that I was getting a login failure because "your Netgear router does not yet support all desktop genie features," and that is was something Netgear was working on.

There were areas within Desktop Genie I could access at times, and that I would then would get a login failure message in later tries. For instance, I was able to click a monitoring icon and see a nice real-time graph of my router traffic, but then when I clicked to go into wireless settings, I would get the failure notice.

?Desktop Genie became so prohibitive to continuing my review of the Centria that I closed it and did the rest of the review by just going to the Web interface of the router?the regular Genie, as I refer to it.

As mentioned, I'll dive deeper into the Desktop Genie in a separate review. The app has a lot of promising capability but functions like beta software when used with the Centria. This is despite the fact that the Desktop Genie webpage lists the Centria as a supported router.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/9mpbPEwY8Qc/0,2817,2415849,00.asp

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Apple Rejecting Apps Using Cookie-Tracking Methods, Signaling Push To Its Own Ad Identifier Technology Is Now Underway

Mobile app developers using a technology called "cookie tracking" (sometimes called "Safari flip-flop" or "HTML5 first party cookies") are starting to have their apps rejected by Apple's App Review team, we've heard from a few different industry sources.?With this method in place, Safari is opened upon first launch in order to read a cookie that may exist there from a user's past interactions with ads. In terms of the user experience, it's not ideal,?but it is one some app makers are utilizing?as an alternative to the deprecated UDID? - the unique device identifier which?Apple first announced plans to phase out?back in mid-2011.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/hu4o3e_Cg_0/

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Doing good is good for you: Volunteer adolescents enjoy healthier hearts

Feb. 25, 2013 ? Giving back through volunteering is good for your heart, even at a young age, according to University of British Columbia researchers.

For their study, published February 25 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, researchers from UBC's Faculty of Education and Department of Psychology wanted to find out how volunteering might impact physical health among adolescents.

"It was encouraging to see how a social intervention to support members of the community also improved the health of adolescents," says Hannah Schreier, who conducted this research during her doctoral studies at UBC.

Researchers split 106 Grade 10 students from an urban, inner-city Vancouver high school into two groups -- a group that volunteered regularly for 10 weeks and a group that was wait-listed for volunteer activities. The researchers measured the students' body mass index (BMI), inflammation and cholesterol levels before and after the study. They also assessed the students' self-esteem, mental health, mood, and empathy.

The volunteer group of students spent one hour per week working with elementary school children in after-school programs in their neighborhood. After 10 weeks they had lower levels of inflammation and cholesterol and lower BMIs than the students who were wait-listed.

"The volunteers who reported the greatest increases in empathy, altruistic behaviour and mental health were the ones who also saw the greatest improvements in their cardiovascular health," says Schreier, now a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of mortality in Canada and the United States. The first signs of the disease can begin to appear during adolescence. Previous studies show that psychosocial factors, such as stress, depression and wellbeing, play a role in the disease.

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

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Hannah M. C. Schreier. Effect of Volunteering on Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in AdolescentsA Randomized Controlled TrialVolunteering and Cardiovascular Disease Risks. JAMA Pediatrics, 2013; : 1 DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.1100

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/mind_brain/mental_health/~3/t9hBPGyOioE/130225162229.htm

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Samsung puts latest Exynos 5 Octa chip into a prototype tablet, we go hands-on (video)

The Exynos 5 Octa was definitely one of the biggest things to come out of CES. Given how well the regular dual-core Exynos V performs in the Nexus 10 and Chromebook, devices containing the souped-up Octa version could be really special. As you probably know already, we're looking at four Cortex-A15 cores for when you need raw performance for gaming or media creation, and then four energy-saving Cortex-A7 cores for less demanding tasks like surfing or watching video. We've just seen how fast and fluid this big.LITTLE core-switching technology is, courtesy of a Samsung reference tablet on show at ARM's booth at MWC -- check it out for yourself after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Samsung

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/samsung-exynos-octa-hands-on/

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Student volunteer auditors wanted | UoP News

The Environmental Team are looking for student volunteers to?audit?departments at the University who are taking part in the?Green Impact?scheme.

Green Impact?is an environmental accreditation scheme, designed to encourage, support and celebrate University departments in making environmental improvements. Staff volunteered to participate in the scheme and received a workbook outlining achievable environmental changes.

All departments participating in Green Impact will need an audit to verify their level of achievement? and this is where you come in.

Auditing

We are looking for volunteer auditors to visit departments and conduct audits on 14 March 2013. Each volunteer auditor will be fully trained on the criteria and what they need to audit through a?half-day of training.

A half-day training session will take place in the morning, there?s a break for lunch and then you go off in pairs and?audit departments.?An audit should take between one and two hours to complete depending on the size of the department.

Refreshments and lunch are provided.

What skills do I need?

No technical knowledge is needed and full training will be provided. All you need is an interest in environmental issues.

If you?re eager to get involved or if you have any further questions, please get in touch by emailing?Greenportsmouth@port.ac.uk.

?

Source: http://www.port.ac.uk/uopnews/2013/02/25/student-volunteer-auditors-wanted/

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Donaghey Scholars

The Donaghey Scholars Program is pleased to announce that we have a new Program Administrator! Dr. Jessica Scott joined our team last September, replacing Eileen Turan, who began a doctoral program at the University of Louisville.

Dr. Scott is an Arkansas native and a graduate of Benton High School. She studied anthropology and history at UALR and went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology and a Ph.D. in Environmental Dynamics from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. Along the way, Dr. Scott also gained business experience, working for The Walt Disney Company in Orlando,Florida, and Neiman Marcus in Dallas,Texas. She taught for four years at UA-Fayetteville, including 2 years of teaching exclusively in the Fulbright Honors College, and has spent the last 3 semesters teaching here at UALR.

Dr. Scott?s academic research improves our understanding of human evolution by reconstructing the ancient environments occupied by our ancestors millions of years ago. She has conducted research in South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Great Divide Basin in Wyoming. With fifteen peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals like The American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Mammalia, The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology and The Journal of Human Evolution, Dr. Scott is a respected scholar in her own field and we are very lucky to have her on board. In addition to her position in the Donaghey Scholars Office, Dr. Scott teaches Introduction to Physical Anthropology, Human Paleontology, Dental Anthropology, and Egyptology for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at UALR. This spring, she began teaching Science & Society II for the Scholars Program.

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Source: http://ualr.edu/donagheyscholars/2013/02/25/291/

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Firefox phones coming this summer

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Mozilla, the non-profit foundation behind the popular Firefox Web browser, is getting into phones. But it's not stopping at Web browsers ? it's launching an entire phone operating system.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based foundation said Sunday that phones running Firefox OS will appear this summer, starting in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela.

The Firefox OS will land in a crowded environment, where many small operating systems are trying to become the "third eco-system," alongside Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Together, those two account for 91 percent of smartphone sales, according to research firm IDC.

Mozilla Foundation has an ally in phone companies, who are interested in seeing an alternative to Apple and Google, particularly one coming from a non-profit foundation. Thirteen phone companies around the world have committed to supporting Firefox phones, Mozilla said, including Sprint Nextel in the U.S., though it gave no time frame for a release. Other supporters include Telecom Italia, America Movil of Mexico and Deutsche Telekom of Germany. DT is the parent of T-Mobile USA, but plans to sell Firefox phones first in Poland.

Phone makers that plan to make Firefox phones include Huawei and ZTE of China and LG of Korea. The first devices will be inexpensive touchscreen smartphones.

All the phones will run on chips supplied by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc., whose CEO Paul Jacobs appeared at Mozilla's press event Sunday in Barcelona, Spain, on the eve of the world's largest cellphone trade show.

The industry has seen various attempts to launch "open" smartphone operating systems, with little success. Jay Sullivan, vice president of products at Mozilla, said these failed because they were designed "by committee," with too many constituents to please. While developing and supporting the Firefox browser, Mozilla has learned to develop large-scale "open" projects effectively, he said.

He also said that putting quality third-party applications on Firefox phones will be easy, because they're based on HTML 5, an emerging standard for Web applications.

"Firefox OS has achieved something that no device software platform has previously managed - translating an industry talking shop into a huge commitment from both carriers and hardware vendors at its commercial launch," said Tony Cripps an analyst at research firm Ovum. "Neither Android nor Symbian ? the closest benchmarks in terms of broad industry sponsorship that we've previously seen ? have rallied the level of support that Firefox OS has achieved so early in its development."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-02-24-EU-TEC-Wireless-Show-Firefox-Phones/id-b9b15e9971834f4dbd14d39f64e9b171

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NYPD to work with Apple to track down stolen Apple iPhones and Apple iPads

Thefts of the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad have become so prevalent in the Big Apple, that cops have a name for it. "Applepicking" occured 4,000 more times in 2012 than in 2011 and single handedly was responsible for the rise in crime last year in New York City. Now, the cops have assigned a special team to work directly with Apple to get stolen devices back into the hands of victims. When an Apple mobile device is stolen, its unique IMEI number (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) is reported to Apple. Apple then can report back to New York's Finest the location of each device even if it is running on a different carrier than when it was originally purchased.One stolen Apple iPad was traced to the Dominican Republic and with the help of an NYPD intelligence officer stationed in Santo Domingo, the tablet was recovered. Another time, Apple helped the NYPD bust a guy selling stolen iPads by a bus stop. The cops say that 74% of stolen Apple devices end up popping up somewhere in the 5 boroughs. Unfortunately, most of the devices confiscated were sold to unknowing buyers who didn't know they were purchasing a stolen device. But the original owner does have the right to his Apple iPhone or Apple iPad, even if someone else bought it afterward. To prevent something like that from happening, your best bet is to buy an Apple device from a legitimate Apple dealer, or from Apple itself. We've already shown you what can happen if you trust someone in a parking lot trying to convince you to buy his iPad for a great price.

Kevin Mahaffey co-founder of cellphone security firm Lookout, said that the use of IMEI numbers were always seen as a key to busting handset and tablet thieves, but getting together with law enforcement had always been the hard part, until now. The wireless industry's own listing of stolen smartphones and tablets is not expected to be up and running until November.

source: NYPost

Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/NYPD-to-work-with-Apple-to-track-down-stolen-Apple-iPhones-and-Apple-iPads_id40131

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National Margarita Day: Drink Up!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/national-margarita-day-drink-up/

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Virtual GameBoy v3.7.5 for Android

Virtual GameBoy v3.7.5 for Android is released. Virtual GameBoy is a program that emulates the Nintendo GameBoy handheld on your computer. It runs GameBoy, Super GameBoy, and GameBoy Color games on PCs, Macs, PocketPCs, Unix boxes, etc. VGB also helps debugging GameBoy software without using a costly development system.

VGB emulates GameBoy handheld game consoles and their accessories. It will run GameBoy, GameBoy Pocket, GameBoy Color, and Super GameBoy games on your Android phone or tablet. VGB also supports the Pocket Printer, GameGenie cheat codes, and more. Please notice that VGB will not play GameBoy Advance games: you will need VGBA for that. VGB package itself does not contain any games. You should place your own game files onto the SD card before running VGB. Please, do not run any software you do not own with VGB. The author cannot and will not tell you where to find free GameBoy games.

Virtual GameBoy v3.7.5 for Android Changelog:
* Optimized File Selector to show large directories faster and without crashing.
* Now showing more file information when there is no screenshot.
* Fixed alphabetical index in the File Selector.
* Added Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening to the Cheatopedia.
* Added Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX to the Cheatopedia.

Download: Virtual GameBoy v3.7.5 for Android
Source: Here

Source: http://www.emucr.com/2013/02/virtual-gameboy-v375-for-android.html

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French actor Depardieu gets Russian home address

MOSCOW (AP) ? French actor Gerard Depardieu has a new permanent address in Russia.

Depardieu had sought Russian citizenship as part of his battle against a proposed super tax on millionaires in France. President Vladimir Putin granted him a Russian passport last month, and on Saturday he got it stamped with his address in the provincial city of Saransk.

Saransk is a city of 300,000 about 640 kilometers (400 miles) east of Moscow, known for its 18th-century churches. Depardieu was registered in an apartment belonging to his friend's relatives.

Showing his knowledge of Russian history, Depardieu likened himself to Yemelyan Pugachev, the chief of a peasant rebellion of the 18th century, saying: "I am like Pugachev: I am a peasant, and I want to be tsar of Saransk," according to Russia Today television.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-actor-depardieu-gets-russian-home-address-161033705.html

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LG Shows Off Wireless 4K Streaming, From Phone to TV

LG has been showing off the first example of wireless Ultra HD steaming at MWC: it can take video from a phone, playing at 1080p, upscale it on the fly, and show it off at 4K on a TV. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/vAYicmxRPkc/lg-shows-off-wireless-4k-streaming-from-phone-to-tv

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China acknowledges pollution-linked ?cancer villages?

China acknowledges pollution-linked ?cancer villages?

Saturday, February 23, 2013

By Jenny Johnson

The environment ministry in China has accepted the existence of ?cancer villages?, after years of assertions by academics and domestic media that polluted areas experience higher rates of the disease.

The use of the term in an official report, thought to be unprecedented, comes as authorities face growing discontent over industrial waste, hazardous smog, and other environmental and health consequences of years of rapid growth.

?Poisonous and harmful chemical materials have brought about many water and atmosphere emergencies... certain places are even seeing ?cancer villages?,? said a five-year plan that was highlighted this week.

The report did not elaborate on the phenomenon, which has no technical definition but gained prominence in domestic and foreign media after a Chinese journalist posted a map in 2009 pinpointing dozens of such ?cancer villages?.

The environment ministry acknowledged that in general, China uses ?poisonous and harmful chemical products? that are banned in developed countries and ?pose long-term or potential harm to human health and the ecology?.

Environmental lawyer Wang Canfa, who runs an aid centre in Beijing for victims of pollution, said it was the first time the ?cancer village? phrase had appeared in a ministry document.

?It shows that the environment ministry has acknowledged that pollution has led to people getting cancer,? he said. ?It shows that this issue, of environmental pollution leading to health damages, has drawn attention.?

A ministry official, who declined to be named, could not confirm whether it was the first time it had used the phrase, but said it had previously acknowledged the connection between the environment and human health.

Media reports about ?cancer villages? emerged as early as 1998.

Official sources such as government websites have altogether reported 241 such locations, a US-based geography professor said in a 2010 study.

The total reached 459 if accounts from ?unofficial? sites such as online portals were included, University of Central Missouri academic Lee Liu said in the US-based journal Environment.

The villages tended to be near major rivers, where people have congregated for generations but which also tended to attract industrial parks seeking easy access to water.

?Water contamination from industrial pollution is believed to be the main cause of cancer villages,? Liu wrote.

Cancer incidence has shot up 80% over the past three decades ? a period of breakneck economic growth ? to become the country?s most common cause of death, the China Daily cited the health minister as saying in 2010.

Today, 2.7m Chinese people die from cancer a year, the paper reported last month, citing the 2012 annual report from the Cancer Registry.

Frustration over industrial pollution has sparked several huge protests over the past year and forced officials to promise to shut plants.

Several days of thick smog that covered swathes of the country last month prompted a public outcry as well as rare criticism from state-run media and top government officials.

The pollution prompted a rise in hospital visits and forced flights to be cancelled as visibility dropped to as low as 100 metres.

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Source: http://feeds.irishexaminer.com/~r/ieworld/~3/kksIFP4UWiU/

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All personal, all business in fierce GOP opposition to Obama's pick of Hagel for Pentagon job

WASHINGTON - The fierce Republican opposition to President Barack Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary is personal and business.

The nasty fight long has been seen as a proxy for the never-ending scuffles between the Democratic president and congressional Republicans, with barely any reservoir of good will between the White House and lawmakers, and the GOP still smarting over the November election results.

Barring any surprises, the drawn-out battle over Hagel's nomination probably will end this coming week with his Senate confirmation. But his fellow Republicans have roughed him up.

A vote is expected on Tuesday.

In the weeks after Obama secured a second term, Republicans knocked out a presidential favorite, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, and dashed her secretary of state hopes over her widely debunked remarks about protests precipitating the assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya on Sept. 11.

Emboldened Republicans then set their sights on Hagel, whose GOP classification won him no points with the party.

The former two-term Nebraska senator was widely viewed as a political heretic. He disagreed with President George W. Bush over the Iraq war, stayed on the sidelines in the 2008 president race between Obama and the Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, and endorsed fellow Vietnam veteran and former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey in last year's Nebraska Senate race.

Republicans remember it well.

"There's a lot of ill will toward Sen. Hagel because when he was a Republican, he attacked President Bush mercilessly, at one point said he was the worst president since Herbert Hoover, said the surge (of U.S. troops in Iraq) was the worst blunder since the Vietnam War, which is nonsense, and was anti-his own party and people," McCain said in an interview on Fox News on the day Republicans stalled Hagel's nomination.

Hagel didn't help his cause with his past opposition to unilateral penalties against Iran, his comment about the influence of the "Jewish lobby" in Washington, his support for reducing the nation's nuclear arsenal and remarks that created widespread doubts about his backing for Israel.

His halting and uneven performance at his confirmation hearing also hurt his nomination.

McCain, one of Hagel's friends during their years in the Senate, would have been a crucial vote to help sway other Republicans to back the nominee. Instead, he is one of more than a dozen opposing Hagel.

"I think he will have been weakened, but having said that, the job that he has is too important," McCain told reporters Friday during a visit to Mexico. "I know that I and my other colleagues, if he's confirmed, and he very likely will be, will do everything we can to work with him."

The nomination fight also is about the business of re-electing Republicans in 2014. Challenging the Democratic president over his nominations and policies is clearly a winner with the conservative base, a point not lost on GOP incumbents wary of challenges from the tea party.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who's up for re-election next year, is getting high marks from Republicans for his relentless effort to get more information about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, and his fierce opposition to Hagel.

"Most people down here think he's dead-on in his arguments and hope that he continues to press the issues," said Warren Tompkins, a longtime GOP strategist.

The Libya attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans has been a political flashpoint for Republicans who accused the Obama administration of an election-year cover-up of a terrorist assault.

An independent review conducted by respected former diplomats failed to mollify the GOP, who demanded testimony from Hillary Rodham Clinton, secretary of state when the attack occurred, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Graham has been at the forefront in seeking emails, communiques and videos while threatening to delay both Hagel's nomination and that of CIA Director-nominee John Brennan, who also has become entangled in the Libya dispute.

During a stop in Easley, S.C., this past week, Graham insisted that his effort has nothing to do with politics.

"It's not because he's a Democrat and I'm a Republican," he said, referring to Obama. "It's because it really was system failure and we need learn from it. We have not gotten the information, and we're going to get it if I have to die trying."

The White House has agreed to give the Senate Intelligence Committee additional documents related to the Benghazi attack, according to a congressional aide said. The material includes emails between national security officials showing the debate within the administration over how to describe the attack.

Graham also has been intense in opposing Hagel, portraying the former GOP senator as an out-of-the-mainstream radical. Some of the toughest questions of Hagel during his confirmation hearing last month came from Graham, who seized on Hagel's "Jewish lobby" remark and asked him to "name one dumb thing we've been goaded into doing due to pressure by the Israeli, Jewish lobby."

Hagel was often tentative in his response in the face of GOP grilling.

"He's leading, he's governing," Glenn McCall, the chairman of the York (S.C.) County Republican Party and a GOP committeeman, said of Graham. "More and more I talk to Republicans ? and even those that are conservative Democrats ? I think folks are looking for leadership."

Both Tompkins and McCall cited a Winthrop University poll released last week that showed Graham with strong support from registered Republicans in the state, with 72 percent holding a favorable opinion of the senator.

It's a turnaround from several years ago when Graham's work with Democrats on climate change and immigration as well as his votes for Obama's nominees for the Supreme Court angered South Carolina Republicans, with some calling him out of touch and Charleston and Lexington counties voting to censure him over his bipartisan work.

"It might be the right thing to do ... but when you partner with Hillary Clinton or you partner with John Kerry, you're going to be looked upon with a lot of suspicion in South Carolina," Tompkins said. "You have to be careful who you dance with."

Kerry, a former Democratic senator from Massachusetts, has just replaced Clinton as secretary of state.

Graham still may face a primary challenge, but he and other GOP incumbents are determined to head off any conservative uprising as Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch successfully did in his 2012 race. They want to avoid the fate of the only GOP primary loser last year ? Indiana's longtime Sen. Dick Lugar.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican and a candidate next year, took the lead on the Senate floor to block a vote on Hagel on Feb. 14 and was one of 15 Republicans last week to call for Obama to withdraw the nomination.

Cornyn got a primary challenger last week.

___

Follow Donna Cassata on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DonnaCassataAP

Source: http://www.startribune.com/politics/192698881.html

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Flipping the 'off' switch on cell growth: Protein uses multiple means to help cells cope when oxygen runs low

Feb. 22, 2013 ? A protein known for turning on genes to help cells survive low-oxygen conditions also slows down the copying of new DNA strands, thus shutting down the growth of new cells, Johns Hopkins researchers report. Their discovery has wide-ranging implications, they say, given the importance of this copying -- known as DNA replication -- and new cell growth to many of the body's functions and in such diseases as cancer.

"We've long known that this protein, HIF-1?, can switch hundreds of genes on or off in response to low oxygen conditions," says Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., a molecular biologist who led the research team and has long studied the role of low-oxygen conditions in cancer, lung disease and heart disorders. "We've now learned that HIF-1? is even more versatile than we thought, as it can work directly to stop new cells from forming." A report on the discovery appears in the Feb. 12 issue of Science Signaling.

With his team, Semenza, who is the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Cell Engineering and Institute for Genomic Medicine, discovered HIF-1? in the 1990s and has studied it ever since, pinpointing a multitude of genes in different types of cells that have their activity ramped up or down by the activated protein. These changes in so-called "gene expression" help cells survive when oxygen-rich blood flow to an area slows or stops temporarily; they also allow tumors to build new blood vessels to feed themselves.

To learn how HIF-1?'s own activity is controlled, the team looked for proteins from human cells that would attach to HIF-1?. They found two, MCM3 and MCM7, that limited HIF-1?'s activity, and were also part of the DNA replication machinery. Those results were reported in 2011.

In the new research, Semenza and his colleagues further probed HIF-1?'s relationship to DNA replication by comparing cells in low-oxygen conditions to cells kept under normal conditions. They measured the amount of DNA replication complexes in the cells, as well as how active the complexes were. The cells kept in low-oxygen conditions, which had stopped dividing, had just as much of the DNA replication machinery as the normal dividing cells, the researchers found; the difference was that the machinery wasn't working. It turned out that in the nondividing cells, HIF-1? was binding to a protein that loads the DNA replication complex onto DNA strands, and preventing the complex from being activated.

"Our experiments answered the long-standing question of how, exactly, cells stop dividing in response to low oxygen," says Maimon Hubbi, Ph.D., a member of Semenza's team who is now working toward an M.D. degree. "It also shows us that the relationship between HIF-1? and the DNA replication complex is reciprocal -- that is, each can shut the other down."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. M. E. Hubbi, Kshitiz, D. M. Gilkes, S. Rey, C. C. Wong, W. Luo, D.-H. Kim, C. V. Dang, A. Levchenko, G. L. Semenza. A Nontranscriptional Role for HIF-1? as a Direct Inhibitor of DNA Replication. Science Signaling, 2013; 6 (262): ra10 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.2003417

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/most_popular/~3/XQflXj1NWK4/130223111517.htm

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