In March, Caleb and I will be heading to Las Vegas and drafting a team in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship Main Event. This is a league that has a $1400 buy in, pays out $5600 for winning your division, and can pay out $100k for winning the entire event. I'm looking for advice.
I first learned of this league from this New York Times article about an Idaho pig farmer winning over $300k over the past few years. I've never been to Vegas and so it seemed to me like a good excuse to go.
I'm under no illusion that Caleb and I can win the entire shebang, but I'd like to be competitive in our subdivision. So who does everyone trust for fantasy projections? Historically, I've leaned on the Baseball Prospectus projections, and I'm not sure that's served me well in the past (possibly I'm not using the projections to their fullest capabilities.) I also have a blind spot when it comes to rookies and younger players, getting too caught up in the hype and over drafting them.
So what would be your strategy for a standard 5x5 league like this? Also looking for any books, websites, or magazines anyone would recommend. I'll probably end up buying just about every preview magazine, but it would be nice to hear which ones come highly recommended. Thanks!
MEXICO CITY ? Mexico's political season opened last month in the western state of Michoacan, where the country's former ruling party scored a string of victories seen as a sign of its rising strength nationwide.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party's candidate defeated the sister of Mexico's president in the Michoacan governor's race. It also won a series of local contests, bolstering widespread predictions that this summer the PRI will retake the presidency itself, Mexico's highest office, after 12 years out of power.
But the highly touted victories in Michoacan were in potential jeopardy Wednesday after Mexico's highest electoral court overturned one of them partly because of a strange new form of political advertising ? a party logo emblazoned on a boxer's trunks.
Mexican welterweight Juan Manuel Marquez wore the PRI's green-white-and-red emblem on the left leg of his shorts in his match last month against Filipino Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Marquez lost the Nov. 12 bout, watched live by millions in Mexico. But after the PRI's victories in the next day's elections, the ruling National Action Party complained that the logo had violated a temporary ban on campaigning ahead of the vote, as well as a prohibition on campaigning abroad. It asked for local and statewide races to be overturned.
The federal electoral tribunal ruled in the PAN's favor on Wednesday in the case of the race for mayor of Morelia, the capital of Michoacan.
The court did not immediately release an explanation of the reasoning behind its decision, which requires the Morelia race to be run again on an as-yet-undetermined date over the next five months. But PAN officials said that they were hopeful that the same logic would apply to a pending decision on the governor's race.
The PAN and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party had also complained that Michoacan's powerful drug cartels had intimidated voters on behalf of the PRI. On the eve of the elections, one local cartel placed an advertisement in a newspaper in the town of La Piedad threatening citizens who voted for the PAN.
President Felipe Calderon has said in several public addresses that organized crime helped defeat his sister, Luisa Maria Calderon, and has described drug cartel meddling in elections as a potential national menace.
In addition, the PAN said in its complaint about the Morelia race that winning gubernatorial candidate Fausto Vallejo and Morelia mayoral candidate Wilfrido Lazaro had made unauthorized appearances on television to announce the end of their campaigns.
A high-ranking PAN official, Juan Molinar Horcasitas, said the party had made the same arguments in its appeal of the governor's race, and expected another victory in court.
"According to the law, in the same circumstances the same decision should be taken," he said. "It seems to me that, as a result, the electoral tribunal should annul the governor's race."
A new vote would be highly competitive and almost certain to draw in the national resources of the governing party, the PRI and the PRD in what could become a proxy presidential race.
"The Institutional Revolutionary Party reiterates its conviction that its candidate, Wilfrido Lazaro Medina, obtained a clear, resounding and legitimate victory," the party said in a statement. "The PRI feels that there weren't sufficient grounds to support the court's decision."
Marquez and his managers could not be reached for comment.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 29, 2011) ? Winters in the Gobi desert are usually long and very cold but the winter of 2009/2010 was particularly severe, a condition Mongolians refer to as "dzud." Millions of livestock died in Mongolia and the re-introduced wild Przewalski's horse population crashed dramatically. Petra Kaczensky and Chris Walzer from the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI) of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna have used spatially explicit loss statistics, ranger survey data and GPS telemetry to provide insights into the effect of a catastrophic climate event on wild horses, wild asses and livestock that share the same habitat but show different patterns of spatial use.
Their results are now published online in the international Journal PLoS ONE.
In Mongolia, extreme weather conditions -- droughts followed by cold and snowy winters -- occur at irregular intervals. However, the dzud of 2009/10 was the most extreme winter Mongolia had experienced in the past 50 years. Fifteen out of Mongolia's twenty-one provinces were declared disaster zones and over 7.8 million livestock, 17% of the national stock, are believed to have perished.
Przewalski's horses have been re-introduced intto Mongolia since 1992 and there are now free-ranging populations in Hustai National Park in central Mongolia and in the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area (SPA) in south-western Mongolia. Due to its special location at the fringe of the Dzungarian basin, flanked by high mountains, the Great Gobi B SPA received particularly high amounts of snowfall in the winter of 2009/2010. Most snow came with weather from the west and when the snow clouds hit the Altai Mountains on the eastern edge of the Great Gobi B SPA they discharged large amounts of snow, resulting in a strong east-west gradient in snow depth. The high, tightly packed snow made it hard for animals to gain access to the vegetation under the snow.
Herders in and around the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area were severely affected by the dzud and lost on average 67% of their livestock. Although herders are semi-nomadic, it was hard for them to escape the worst of the weather as competition for the available winter camps was high. Przewalski's horses were found to use three different winter ranges, two in the east and one in the west. Losses averaged 60% but mainly affected the groups wintering in the east, with the group in the west suffering almost no mortalities. As spatial use of Przewalski's horses is extremely conservative, groups did not attempt to venture beyond their known home ranges. In contrast, Asiatic wild asses seem to have suffered few losses. These animals roam over much larger areas than Przewalski's horses and are not restricted to any particular wintering areas. Petra Kaczensky, the first author on the PLoS paper, says that "wild asses were obviously able to outrun the worst of the dzud by moving west. The long-distance movements and shifts in range highlight how important it is to manage migratory or nomadic species on a landscape level, including multi-use areas outside of protected areas. Fragmentation of their range will reduce their flexibility and can easily result in local population crashes such as the one seen for the Przewalski's horses."
The severe effect of this localized catastrophic event was largely due to the small size and limited range of the present-day Przewalski's horse population. A large and continuous population would be much more robust as it could counteract local population lows or extinctions via re-colonization. The dzud winter of 2009/2010 is a textbook example of how vulnerable small and spatially confined populations are in an environment prone to fluctuations and catastrophes. Losses of this magnitude are difficult to model or predict. As long as populations remain small and spatially confined, their survival cannot be guaranteed, necessitating a long term conservation commitment to ensure the species' future. "The winter disaster really highlighted how dangerous it is to have all our eggs in one basket or in this case all the horses on a single pasture," says Petra Kaczensky.
"The national strategy for Przewalski's horse conservation in Mongolia should continue to aim at multiple re-introduction sites with spatially dispersed populations. Ideally the sites should cooperate closely and if necessary also exchange animals on a national as well as international scale. Such steps have already been initiated in Mongolia and the recent downlisting of the Przewalski's horse in the IUCN Red List from 'critically endangered' to 'endangered' shows that this strategy is paying off." Generally, it is not feasible, either technically or financially, to breed and re-introduce all endangered species, as has been done for the Przewalski?s horse. Chris Walzer explains, "More promising strategies involve timely science-based measures to reduce threats to fauna and flora. These may include the establishment of protected areas but it is also important to maintain natural spaces and structures that make multi-purpose landscapes 'permeable' for wildlife, so that wide-ranging species can roam, as Asiatic wild asses tend to do."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Veterin?rmedizinische Universit?t Wien.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Petra Kaczensky, Oyunsaikhan Ganbataar, Nanjid Altansukh, Namtar Enkhsaikhan, Christian Stauffer, Chris Walzer. The Danger of Having All Your Eggs in One Basket?Winter Crash of the Re-Introduced Przewalski's Horses in the Mongolian Gobi. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (12): e28057 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0028057
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.
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Vladimir Putin softened his tone towards the protesters who have staged the biggest political rallies of his 12-year rule, saying on Wednesday he was ready for dialogue with Russia's opposition but was at a loss for a leader to hold talks with.
Tens of thousands gathered in central Moscow on Saturday to protest against election results that gave Putin's United Russia party a majority in the lower house of parliament, or Duma. International monitors said the vote was marred by violations.
The demonstrators demanded a re-run of the election and a resignation of the Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov, Putin's close ally.
The Kremlin flagged a series of political reforms aimed at pacifying the opposition but said there will not be a re-run of the election.
Putin, who initially dismissed the demonstrators as paid agents seeking to destabilize Russia in the interests of its external foes, has been gradually changing his tone, admitting that protesters "also deserved respect."
"The dialogue should take place. In what form? I will think about it," Putin said when he visited the government's media centre to toast champagne with reporters ahead of the New Year holiday.
"They should formulate some kind of shared platform ... Who do we talk to?" he said, adding that popular anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny was one of the leaders but there also were others.
Putin has held two meetings with his former finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, seen by some opposition activists as the most acceptable face for dialogue among Putin's inner circle, to discuss the protests.
Putin denied he sent Kudrin to the December 24 demonstration to mediate between the protesters and authorities.
"Again about Kudrin. I did not send him there, he went himself, he is a grown-up boy," Putin said.
SECONDARY QUESTIONS
Putin, accused of being out of touch with the growing protest movement, has walked a thin line between questioning the opposition's credibility as a real political force and addressing protesters' concerns in the country of 140 million.
Despite his falling popularity ratings and the opposition movement gaining momentum, Putin - who became prime minister in 2008 after eight years as president - still looks set to win the March 2012 presidential election.
Russia's opposition, marginalized under Putin's tightly controlled political system, have been galvanized by the protests but have failed to unite behind a single leader.
Putin said the demonstrators were made up of a mix of marginalized liberal movements, communists and nationalists, who had so far failed to reach a common set of demands.
"Is there a common platform there? No there isn't," he said. "We need to talk to everybody about their claims, about their problems, but it requires some thinking."
Putin, who provoked outrage among opposition by saying he mistook white ribbons they wore for condoms, rebuked reporters for asking him "secondary" questions about the protests, saying his energy deals were more important.
"Instead of making up some secondary questions, you should think about what has just happened - we got a permission from Turkey to build the South Stream pipeline. Do you know that this is a big event in the European energy sphere," Putin said.
Turkey gave Russia permission on Wednesday to build the pipeline through its territory, supplying the missing piece needed by Moscow to secure markets for its gas in Europe.
Putin said he saw the economic downturn in the European Union, Russia's largest trade partner, and not the protests as the biggest problem for Russia next year, which can potentially aggravate the capital flight from the country.
"The markets are tightening, they (in Europe) do not have enough liquidity, they start pulling the money out of emerging markets, and the money trickle out from us as well," Putin said.
According to Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, ?it may be months before an investigation determines exactly what happened Friday night when a sheriff?s deputy hit and killed two pedestrians in Oildale.? Police who responded to the incident took the deputy to the hospital ? and arrested grieving relatives on the scene.
Daniel Hiler ran out of gas during an evening motorcycle ride in Oildale, California on December 16. While walking his bike to a gas station, the twenty-year-old father of two ran into a family friend named Chrystal Jolley. The pair was crossing a street at a widely-recognized intersection when they were fatally blindsided by a vehicle traveling at a speed well in excess of the posted speed limit. Despite the fact that darkness had descended, the driver hadn?t turned on his headlights. The victims were killed instantly.
Within minutes, police swarmed the scene, and arrests were made ? none of which involved the driver, Deputy John Swearengin of the Kern County Sheriff?s Office. The four people arrested were relatives of the victims, who got into what the Sheriff?s Office described as an ?altercation? with California Highway Patrol officers when they attempted to identify the victims.
It?s a new beginning for a Pleasant Grove family that survived the April 27 tornado.?
On Friday, the Myrick family, with the help of others, broke ground on a new home in the McDonald Chapel community.? The Myrick family has been through a lot the past year.?
?We had a baby, a little girl, that lived three months and died last year.? Recently we were involved in the tornado on April 27th.? We had several family members pass away," explained Chris Myrick.
By turning some dirt, the Myricks hope their luck may be turning around too.?
?We're being given a pretty awesome gift that's going to change our life.? A house of our own and I don't know what else to say," Myrick said.
The Myricks have never owned a home before.? The home they were living in that was destroyed by the April 27 tornado was a home they were renting.? When they got the deed to the property at 420 Roanoke Avenue, they were elated.?
?I'm excited we'll be able to have something of our own and being able to raise a family in it and share good times,? said Hannah Myrick, who is pregnant again with a baby girl they?ve named Rider Brooke.?
?I think it's been a long hard road and I hope the starting of building this house will turn things around and make things brighter for us," she said.
Volunteers of America is helping build the Myrick?s new home.?
?Volunteers of America live with this mantra:? there's no limits to caring,? said Rick Ousley, ?We're gonna build them a house and before Easter we'll have them a home to live in and they'll celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of hope for their family.??
Volunteers for America say the house will cost about $75,000. ?It will be built with volunteers and lots of donated materials.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said his country attaches great importance to the expansion of ties with all African nations, the local satellite Press TV reported on Monday 26th December.
Addressing a group of Iranian ambassadors to African countries on 25th December, Amir-Abdollahian said to promote ties with African countries is a major priority for Iran, adding that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has agreed to provide African countries with essential resources to facilitate their development and progress, said Press TV.
The deputy foreign minister also called on the ambassadors to speed up implementation of the ongoing Iranian cultural, economic and commercial projects based in Africa, according to Press TV.
Earlier this year, Ahmadinejad suggested an Iran-Africa joint fund should be set up and said the fund could contribute to the expansion of ties with African countries in various fields.
This leather case is designed specifically for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and is the perfect low profile, high protection solution for carrying or using your device. This stunningly attractive and unique case is the ultimate compliment to the classy look of your Galaxy Tab 10.1 snd has spaces for all the functions of your device, allowing you to maintain full functionality while in the case.
JCI online early table of contents: Dec. 27, 2011Public release date: 27-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Honey karen.honey@the-jci.org Journal of Clinical Investigation
EDITOR'S PICK
Another potential obstacle to developing an HIV vaccine
A clinical trial testing a candidate HIV vaccine known as the STEP study was halted in September 2007 after interim analysis indicated that the vaccine did not work. Moreover, subsequent analyses indicated that the vaccine made some individuals more susceptible to HIV, in particular individuals who had pre-existing immune effectors (antibodies) that recognized a component of the vaccine (adenovirus serotype 5 [Ad5]). A team of researchers led by Juliana McElrath, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, has now determined that individuals from the STEP study in whom they could detect large numbers of immune cells (T cells) responsive to Ad5 generated a less robust immune response to HIV than those who had few Ad5-responsive T cells prior to vaccination. More worryingly, the Ad5-responsive T cells were found to also respond to other adenoviruses that are being considered as vaccine components in place of Ad5. This finding implies that vaccines based on adenoviruses other than Ad5 might not be effective in individuals with large numbers of Ad5-responsive T cells. As noted by McElrath and colleagues, this is something that will have to be carefully evaluated in any future clinical trial of any adenovirus-based vaccine, not just Ad5-based vaccines and not just adenovirus-based vaccines for HIV.
In an accompanying commentary, Nelson Michael, at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Bethesda, expands on the implications of the work of McElrath and colleagues for HIV vaccine development.
TITLE:
Human adenovirus-specific T cells modulate HIV-specific T cell responses to an Ad5-vectored HIV-1 vaccine
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Julie McElrath
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA
Phone: 206 667-6704; E-mail: jmcelrat@fhcrc.org
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
Rare serotype adenoviral vectors for HIV vaccine development
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Nelson Michael
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Bethesda, MD, USA
Phone: 301-500-3601; E-mail: nmichael@hivresearch.org
EDITOR'S PICK
How obesity alters the brain area involved in body weight control
The number of people who suffer from one or more of the adverse complications of obesity, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease is rapidly increasing. Thus far, drugs designed to treat obesity have shown limited efficacy and have been associated with serious side effects. This is largely because we have limited understanding of the effects of obesity on our natural mechanisms of body weight control. For example, while great strides have been made in our understanding of how the brain controls our desire to feed, as well as the processes underlying the balancing of energy intake and expenditure, little is known about how the are altered by obesity. Two independent groups of researchers have now generated data that begin to address this issue.
In brief, a team of researchers led by Michael Schwartz, at the University of Washington, Seattle, has found that in both humans and rodents, obesity is associated with neuronal injury in an area of the brain crucial for body weight control (the hypothalamus). A second team of researchers, led by Jeffrey Flier, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, has determined that turnover of nerve cells in the hypothalamus is inhibited by obesity. Edward Lee and Rexford Ahima, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, pull together these seemingly disparate strands of research in an accompanying commentary, highlighting the many questions that need to be answered before it can be determined whether targeting the structural changes in the hypothalamus could provide a treatment for obesity and related diseases.
TITLE:
Remodeling of the arcuate nucleus energy-balance circuit is inhibited in obese mice
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Jeffrey Flier
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Phone: 617-432-1501; Fax: 617-432-3907; E-mail: jeffrey_flier@hms.harvard.edu
ACCOMPANYING ARTICLE
TITLE:
Obesity is associated with hypothalamic injury in rodents and humans
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Michael W Schwartz
University of Washington, South Lake Union Campus, Seattle, WA, USA
Phone: 206-897-5288; Fax: 206 897 5293; E-mail: mschwart@u.washington.edu
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
Alteration of hypothalamic cellular dynamics in obesity
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Rexford S. Ahima
University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Phone: 215-573-1872; E-mail: ahima@mail.med.upenn.edu
EDITOR'S PICK
Beneficial or not beneficial: that is the question for IL-1 inhibition in atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis is a disease of the major arterial blood vessels. It is one of the major causes of heart attack and stroke. The proinflammatory molecule IL-1 has been linked to atherosclerosis and a clinical trial has been launched in which an antibody specific for IL-1-beta is being studied for its effects on the severe clinical complications of atherosclerosis (i.e., heart attack and stroke). However, a team of researchers led by Gary Owens, at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, has now generated data in mice that raise potential concerns about this clinical trial Owens and colleagues find that IL-1 limits the features of advanced atherosclerosis that are linked to the severe complications of the disease in humans. In an accompanying commentary, Daniel Rader, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, acknowledges that the data generated by Owens and colleagues could lead to concern about the clinical trial of the antibody specific for IL-1-beta but cautions that mice are not men and suggests that we need to wait for the results of the ongoing clinical trial.
TITLE:
Genetic inactivation of IL-1 signaling enhances atherosclerotic plaque instability and reduces outward vessel remodeling in advanced atherosclerosis in mice
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Gary Owens
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Phone: 434.924.2652; E-mail: gko@virginia.edu.
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
IL-1 and atherosclerosis: a murine twist to an evolving human story
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Daniel J. Rader
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Phone: 215-898-4011; Fax: 215-573-8606; E-mail: rader@mail.med.upenn.edu
CARDIOLOGY
The protein TXNIP protects the heart
A heart attack occurs when the flow of blood to part of your heart muscle is blocked for long enough that some of the heart muscle is damaged. Prompt restoration of blood flow limits the size of the damaged area of heart muscle and reduces the patient's chance of dying. However, it also can cause additional damage to the heart muscle, a phenomenon referred to as ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury. There are currently no therapeutic approaches to effectively improve heart function after I-R injury. Emerging data suggest that the protein TXNIP could provide a new candidate therapeutic target, and clear rationale for this is now provided by the work of Richard Lee and colleagues, at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Of particular interest, Lee and colleagues found that mouse hearts lacking TXNIP showed greater recovery of function after I-R injury. Detailed analyses determined the mechanism underlying the beneficial effect of TXNIP deletion, and Bradford Berk and Oded Spindel highlight the importance of this in an accompanying commentary.
TITLE:
Deletion of thioredoxin-interacting protein in mice impairs mitochondrial function but protects the myocardium from ischemia-reperfusion injury
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Richard Lee
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Phone: 617.768.8272; Fax: 617.768.8270; E-mail: rlee@partners.org
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
Redox redux: protecting the ischemic myocardium
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Bradford Berk
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
Phone: 585-276-9801; Fax: 585-276-9830; E-mail: Bradford_Berk@urmc.rochester.edu
ONCOLOGY
Stopping the HuR(t) of inflammation-induced cancer
Chronic inflammation has a critical role in the development of several forms of cancers. For example, inflammation of the lung as a result of smoking cigarettes is associated with lung cancer while inflammation of the intestine in individuals with inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis is associated with colon cancer. Defining the mechanisms responsible for regulating inflammation is important for identifying potential therapeutic targets for inflammation-associated cancers. In this context, a team of researchers led by Dimitris Kontoyiannis, at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center "Alexander Fleming," Greece, has now demonstrated in mice that expression of the protein HuR in myeloid cells provides protection against the onset of damaging intestinal inflammation (i.e., colitis) and colitis-associated cancer. Kontoyiannis and colleagues therefore suggest that strategies aimed at enhancing HuR activity in myeloid cells might have therapeutic benefit to individuals with pathologic inflammation and inflammation-associated cancer.
In an accompanying commentary, Charles Chalfant and Jacqueline Shultz, at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, discuss both the clinical and biological implications of the data generated by Kontoyiannis and colleagues, highlighting the fact that we have much more to learn about the functions of HuR in distinct cell populations in vivo.
TITLE:
Myeloid cell expression of the RNA-binding protein HuR protects mice from pathologic inflammation and colorectal carcinogenesi
AUTHOR CONTACT:
DIMITRIS KONTOYIANNIS
Biomedical Sciences Research Centre (BSRC) "Alexander FLEMING" Institute, Vari, Attiki, GRC
Phone: 0030210 9654335; Fax: 0030210 9654955; E-mail: kontoyiannis@fleming.gr
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
The flip-flop HuR: part of the problem or the solution in fighting cancer?
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Charles Chalfant
Virginia Commonwealth University-School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA
Phone: 804-828-9526; E-mail: cechalfant@vcu.edu
NEPHROLOGY
Withstanding high pressure: a key role in the kidney for the protein CD151
A key function of our kidneys is to filter waste from our blood and to divert it into our urine. The filtration units in the kidneys are unique structures known as glomeruli. Key to the integrity of the filtration barrier in each glomerulus are specialized cells known as podocytes. A late event in many kidney diseases is scarring of the glomerulus, a condition known as glomerulosclerosis. Treatment with drugs known as ACE inhibitors often decreases the rate of progression of glomerulosclerosis to end-stage kidney disease. The mechanisms by which these inhibitors mediate their beneficial effects are incompletely understood. However, it has been suggested that they act, at least in part, by reducing blood pressure within each glomerulus and thereby pressure-induced loss of podocytes. A team of researchers led by Arnoud Sonnenberg, at The Netherlands Cancer Institute, has now confirmed in mice that tight adhesion of podocytes to the glomerular basement membrane is critical for maintaining glomerular integrity and provided evidence that suggests that ACE inhibitor reduce glomerulosclerosis, at least in mice with less tightly adherent podocytes, by reducing blood pressure within glomeruli. Roy Zent and Ambra Pozzi, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, highlight the importance of these data in an accompanying commentary.
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Arnoud Sonnenberg
The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, NLD
Phone: +31 20 512 1942; Fax: +31 20 5121944; E-mail: a.sonnenberg@nki.nl
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
Hold tight or you'll fall off: CD151 helps podocytes stick in high-pressure situations
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Roy Zent
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
Phone: 615-322-4632; E-mail: roy.zent@vanderbilt.edu
CARDIOLOGY
Starving hearts fail to function properly
There are about 5 million people in the US who suffer from heart failure. A person is said to suffer from heart failure when their heart is unable to pump sufficient blood to meet the needs of the body at normal filling pressures. It has long been suspected that the failing heart is starved of the fuel that the heart muscle cells need to function properly (i.e., it is "energy starved"), but this idea has never been proven. A team of researchers led by Robert Weiss, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, has now proven this idea in mice and in doing so identified a potential new target for preventing and treating heart failure.
TITLE:
Creatine kinasemediated improvement of function in failing mouse hearts provides causal evidence the failing heart is energy starved
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Robert G. Weiss
The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Phone: 410 955-1703; Fax: 410 955 5996; E-mail: rweiss@jhmi.edu
###
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JCI online early table of contents: Dec. 27, 2011Public release date: 27-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Honey karen.honey@the-jci.org Journal of Clinical Investigation
EDITOR'S PICK
Another potential obstacle to developing an HIV vaccine
A clinical trial testing a candidate HIV vaccine known as the STEP study was halted in September 2007 after interim analysis indicated that the vaccine did not work. Moreover, subsequent analyses indicated that the vaccine made some individuals more susceptible to HIV, in particular individuals who had pre-existing immune effectors (antibodies) that recognized a component of the vaccine (adenovirus serotype 5 [Ad5]). A team of researchers led by Juliana McElrath, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, has now determined that individuals from the STEP study in whom they could detect large numbers of immune cells (T cells) responsive to Ad5 generated a less robust immune response to HIV than those who had few Ad5-responsive T cells prior to vaccination. More worryingly, the Ad5-responsive T cells were found to also respond to other adenoviruses that are being considered as vaccine components in place of Ad5. This finding implies that vaccines based on adenoviruses other than Ad5 might not be effective in individuals with large numbers of Ad5-responsive T cells. As noted by McElrath and colleagues, this is something that will have to be carefully evaluated in any future clinical trial of any adenovirus-based vaccine, not just Ad5-based vaccines and not just adenovirus-based vaccines for HIV.
In an accompanying commentary, Nelson Michael, at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Bethesda, expands on the implications of the work of McElrath and colleagues for HIV vaccine development.
TITLE:
Human adenovirus-specific T cells modulate HIV-specific T cell responses to an Ad5-vectored HIV-1 vaccine
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Julie McElrath
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA
Phone: 206 667-6704; E-mail: jmcelrat@fhcrc.org
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
Rare serotype adenoviral vectors for HIV vaccine development
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Nelson Michael
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Bethesda, MD, USA
Phone: 301-500-3601; E-mail: nmichael@hivresearch.org
EDITOR'S PICK
How obesity alters the brain area involved in body weight control
The number of people who suffer from one or more of the adverse complications of obesity, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease is rapidly increasing. Thus far, drugs designed to treat obesity have shown limited efficacy and have been associated with serious side effects. This is largely because we have limited understanding of the effects of obesity on our natural mechanisms of body weight control. For example, while great strides have been made in our understanding of how the brain controls our desire to feed, as well as the processes underlying the balancing of energy intake and expenditure, little is known about how the are altered by obesity. Two independent groups of researchers have now generated data that begin to address this issue.
In brief, a team of researchers led by Michael Schwartz, at the University of Washington, Seattle, has found that in both humans and rodents, obesity is associated with neuronal injury in an area of the brain crucial for body weight control (the hypothalamus). A second team of researchers, led by Jeffrey Flier, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, has determined that turnover of nerve cells in the hypothalamus is inhibited by obesity. Edward Lee and Rexford Ahima, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, pull together these seemingly disparate strands of research in an accompanying commentary, highlighting the many questions that need to be answered before it can be determined whether targeting the structural changes in the hypothalamus could provide a treatment for obesity and related diseases.
TITLE:
Remodeling of the arcuate nucleus energy-balance circuit is inhibited in obese mice
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Jeffrey Flier
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Phone: 617-432-1501; Fax: 617-432-3907; E-mail: jeffrey_flier@hms.harvard.edu
ACCOMPANYING ARTICLE
TITLE:
Obesity is associated with hypothalamic injury in rodents and humans
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Michael W Schwartz
University of Washington, South Lake Union Campus, Seattle, WA, USA
Phone: 206-897-5288; Fax: 206 897 5293; E-mail: mschwart@u.washington.edu
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
Alteration of hypothalamic cellular dynamics in obesity
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Rexford S. Ahima
University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Phone: 215-573-1872; E-mail: ahima@mail.med.upenn.edu
EDITOR'S PICK
Beneficial or not beneficial: that is the question for IL-1 inhibition in atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis is a disease of the major arterial blood vessels. It is one of the major causes of heart attack and stroke. The proinflammatory molecule IL-1 has been linked to atherosclerosis and a clinical trial has been launched in which an antibody specific for IL-1-beta is being studied for its effects on the severe clinical complications of atherosclerosis (i.e., heart attack and stroke). However, a team of researchers led by Gary Owens, at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, has now generated data in mice that raise potential concerns about this clinical trial Owens and colleagues find that IL-1 limits the features of advanced atherosclerosis that are linked to the severe complications of the disease in humans. In an accompanying commentary, Daniel Rader, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, acknowledges that the data generated by Owens and colleagues could lead to concern about the clinical trial of the antibody specific for IL-1-beta but cautions that mice are not men and suggests that we need to wait for the results of the ongoing clinical trial.
TITLE:
Genetic inactivation of IL-1 signaling enhances atherosclerotic plaque instability and reduces outward vessel remodeling in advanced atherosclerosis in mice
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Gary Owens
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Phone: 434.924.2652; E-mail: gko@virginia.edu.
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
IL-1 and atherosclerosis: a murine twist to an evolving human story
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Daniel J. Rader
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Phone: 215-898-4011; Fax: 215-573-8606; E-mail: rader@mail.med.upenn.edu
CARDIOLOGY
The protein TXNIP protects the heart
A heart attack occurs when the flow of blood to part of your heart muscle is blocked for long enough that some of the heart muscle is damaged. Prompt restoration of blood flow limits the size of the damaged area of heart muscle and reduces the patient's chance of dying. However, it also can cause additional damage to the heart muscle, a phenomenon referred to as ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury. There are currently no therapeutic approaches to effectively improve heart function after I-R injury. Emerging data suggest that the protein TXNIP could provide a new candidate therapeutic target, and clear rationale for this is now provided by the work of Richard Lee and colleagues, at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Of particular interest, Lee and colleagues found that mouse hearts lacking TXNIP showed greater recovery of function after I-R injury. Detailed analyses determined the mechanism underlying the beneficial effect of TXNIP deletion, and Bradford Berk and Oded Spindel highlight the importance of this in an accompanying commentary.
TITLE:
Deletion of thioredoxin-interacting protein in mice impairs mitochondrial function but protects the myocardium from ischemia-reperfusion injury
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Richard Lee
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Phone: 617.768.8272; Fax: 617.768.8270; E-mail: rlee@partners.org
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
Redox redux: protecting the ischemic myocardium
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Bradford Berk
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
Phone: 585-276-9801; Fax: 585-276-9830; E-mail: Bradford_Berk@urmc.rochester.edu
ONCOLOGY
Stopping the HuR(t) of inflammation-induced cancer
Chronic inflammation has a critical role in the development of several forms of cancers. For example, inflammation of the lung as a result of smoking cigarettes is associated with lung cancer while inflammation of the intestine in individuals with inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis is associated with colon cancer. Defining the mechanisms responsible for regulating inflammation is important for identifying potential therapeutic targets for inflammation-associated cancers. In this context, a team of researchers led by Dimitris Kontoyiannis, at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center "Alexander Fleming," Greece, has now demonstrated in mice that expression of the protein HuR in myeloid cells provides protection against the onset of damaging intestinal inflammation (i.e., colitis) and colitis-associated cancer. Kontoyiannis and colleagues therefore suggest that strategies aimed at enhancing HuR activity in myeloid cells might have therapeutic benefit to individuals with pathologic inflammation and inflammation-associated cancer.
In an accompanying commentary, Charles Chalfant and Jacqueline Shultz, at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, discuss both the clinical and biological implications of the data generated by Kontoyiannis and colleagues, highlighting the fact that we have much more to learn about the functions of HuR in distinct cell populations in vivo.
TITLE:
Myeloid cell expression of the RNA-binding protein HuR protects mice from pathologic inflammation and colorectal carcinogenesi
AUTHOR CONTACT:
DIMITRIS KONTOYIANNIS
Biomedical Sciences Research Centre (BSRC) "Alexander FLEMING" Institute, Vari, Attiki, GRC
Phone: 0030210 9654335; Fax: 0030210 9654955; E-mail: kontoyiannis@fleming.gr
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
The flip-flop HuR: part of the problem or the solution in fighting cancer?
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Charles Chalfant
Virginia Commonwealth University-School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA
Phone: 804-828-9526; E-mail: cechalfant@vcu.edu
NEPHROLOGY
Withstanding high pressure: a key role in the kidney for the protein CD151
A key function of our kidneys is to filter waste from our blood and to divert it into our urine. The filtration units in the kidneys are unique structures known as glomeruli. Key to the integrity of the filtration barrier in each glomerulus are specialized cells known as podocytes. A late event in many kidney diseases is scarring of the glomerulus, a condition known as glomerulosclerosis. Treatment with drugs known as ACE inhibitors often decreases the rate of progression of glomerulosclerosis to end-stage kidney disease. The mechanisms by which these inhibitors mediate their beneficial effects are incompletely understood. However, it has been suggested that they act, at least in part, by reducing blood pressure within each glomerulus and thereby pressure-induced loss of podocytes. A team of researchers led by Arnoud Sonnenberg, at The Netherlands Cancer Institute, has now confirmed in mice that tight adhesion of podocytes to the glomerular basement membrane is critical for maintaining glomerular integrity and provided evidence that suggests that ACE inhibitor reduce glomerulosclerosis, at least in mice with less tightly adherent podocytes, by reducing blood pressure within glomeruli. Roy Zent and Ambra Pozzi, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, highlight the importance of these data in an accompanying commentary.
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Arnoud Sonnenberg
The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, NLD
Phone: +31 20 512 1942; Fax: +31 20 5121944; E-mail: a.sonnenberg@nki.nl
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
Hold tight or you'll fall off: CD151 helps podocytes stick in high-pressure situations
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Roy Zent
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
Phone: 615-322-4632; E-mail: roy.zent@vanderbilt.edu
CARDIOLOGY
Starving hearts fail to function properly
There are about 5 million people in the US who suffer from heart failure. A person is said to suffer from heart failure when their heart is unable to pump sufficient blood to meet the needs of the body at normal filling pressures. It has long been suspected that the failing heart is starved of the fuel that the heart muscle cells need to function properly (i.e., it is "energy starved"), but this idea has never been proven. A team of researchers led by Robert Weiss, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, has now proven this idea in mice and in doing so identified a potential new target for preventing and treating heart failure.
TITLE:
Creatine kinasemediated improvement of function in failing mouse hearts provides causal evidence the failing heart is energy starved
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Robert G. Weiss
The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Phone: 410 955-1703; Fax: 410 955 5996; E-mail: rweiss@jhmi.edu
###
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Government's intensified efforts to root out software piracy are bringing concrete benefits to software providers.
Kingsoft Corporation, China's renowned software company, posted sales of 130 million yuan during the first 11 months of this year, representing a sharp increase from annual sales of tens of millions of yuan in 2007.
"This also reflects that Chinese consumers have heightened awareness on copyright protection," said Liu Chao, Kingsoft's product director.
Kingsoft is not the only beneficiary.
Huang Yaohui, Adobe's general manager of the Greater China Region, said that the usage rate of authorized Adobe software in China has continuously increased due to the government's copyright protection efforts.
Huang said he is satisfactory with the current usage rate, though he declined to disclose the specific proportion of copyrighted Adobe software to pirated Adobe software in the country.
As early as in 2006, Chinese authorities had issued a statement requiring all governmental departments to buy computers installed with copyrighted software.
The government spent 1.07 billion yuan (169.84 m U.S. dollars) on purchasing copyrighted software during the 2007-2010 period, according to data from the Central Government Procurement Centre.
This year, China has organized teams of inspectors to canvass central and local government computers to ensure that all the departments are using authorized software, and stepped up inspections of software pre-installation on computers sold in the country.
Thanks to its continuous efforts, copyrighted software has already been installed in central government departments, and it will be popularized among local authorities next year, Chang Xiaocun, head of the market order department of the Ministry of Commerce, said Tuesday [20 December].
The pre-installed rate of authorized operating systems in factory-produced computers in China reached 98.08 percent in 2010, and the rate for some companies like Lenovo and Acer had hit 100 percent.
"Computers pre-installed with unauthorized software have long been a core problem for the software industry. We are glad to see such piracy is finally subsiding," said Han Jun, deputy director of the Technology Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Han said that with the country's stronger attempt to shift from imitation to innovation, the government will work harder to root out piracy, such as handing out hefty penalties to offenders.
The government's frequent campaigns against intellectual property infringement helped create a sound business environment and greatly boosted the development of the country's software industry.
CAXA, the country's largest provider of computer-aided design software, also reported buoyant sales in recent years.
"A domestic automaker bought 2,000 pieces of software from our company to replace its old ones," said Liu Aijun, CAXA technical director.
"As China increasingly becomes the software developer and seller, rather than just the user, people's views on piracy will change. They will not tolerate it any more," Liu added.
Consumers have shown preference to copyrighted software out of safety concerns, as unauthorized software often include computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses that permit outsiders to invade users' systems.
A rise in people's incomes in recent years also helped promote the use of authorized software in the country.
"Copyrighted software is becoming more affordable nowadays, so I feel less incentive to buy pirated pieces," a 28-year-old bank employee surnamed Zhang said.
Despite much progress China has made in combating software piracy, it still needs to do more to protect intellectual property rights and reduce trade frictions with other countries.
China should require government agencies to count software purchases as fixed assets subject to annual audits, and promote the use of licensed software among enterprises and individuals after pushing governments to use authorized software, said Chang Xiaocun.
Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 0745gmt 25 Dec 11
MANCHESTER, England (AP) -Despite the threat posed by Manchester City, Alex Ferguson insists he will resist calls for Manchester United to go on a spending spree in the January transfer window.
Going into Monday's Boxing Day matches, the defending champions are two points behind City, which has considerably outspent its neighbor in recent years and is now reaping the rewards as it sits at the top at Christmas for the first time since 1929.
Even though United has debts of around 460 million pounds ($718 million), Ferguson maintains that cash will be made available by the Glazer family, which owns the club.
"Contrary to what some people seem to be fixated about, money for a transfer is not a problem if I deem it necessary," Ferguson said.
The 69-year-old Scot delivered the message to fans in the matchday magazine for Monday's game against Wigan just weeks after United's surprise exit from the Champions League in the group stage.
"I am perfectly happy with the strength of our squad in terms of depth, quality and age range," Ferguson said. "I will not be swayed by the endless tweets and blogs urging the club to get busy in the transfer market next month. As far as I am concerned I am marching perfectly in step, true to my beliefs and principles.
"While recruiting some of the world's leading players can lift you into contention for honors, it doesn't necessarily take you all the way."
Winger Ashley Young this week joined an extensive injury list that includes center back Nemanja Vidic, midfielders Anderson and Tom Cleverley, and striker Michael Owen. Midfielder Darren Fletcher is also sidelined with a serious bowel disease with no date set for his return.
Any further injuries could yet persuade Ferguson to search for additions next month.
"Fortunes can fluctuate wildly - that's the football world," Ferguson said. "If a really top-class player became available, then we would go for him, or if we picked up any further serious injuries, it might be important to add to our squad."
City needs to shed players from its bloated squad - and payroll - in January to help the club comply with UEFA's new financial restrictions, so a repeat of the summer spending that included the 38 million pound (then $62 million) signing of Sergio Aguero is unlikely.
With 15 goals already this season, the Argentina striker has quickly established himself as City's most potent force.
"He is not tall but his strength is amazing," City manager Roberto Mancini said ahead of Monday's trip to West Bromwich Albion. "What is important at the moment is that he has improved our team."
Only Robin van Persie has scored more than Aguero in the Premier League this season, with the Arsenal striker on 16 goals compared to 13 for the City forward.
The Dutchman's goals have helped to haul Arsenal away from the relegation zone and back to within a point of the Champions League places.
Van Persie's goal in Wednesday's 2-1 win over Aston Villa saw him equal Thierry Henry's Arsenal record of 34 goals in a calendar year. The striker needs three goals in the remaining two games of 2011 to beat Alan Shearer's Premier League record of 36.
"He's an exceptional player, but what is very important for us is that over Christmas we win our games," manager Arsene Wenger said.
Arsenal hosts Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday and Queens Park Rangers on Saturday.
With Arsenal just a point behind and Tottenham two points ahead, Chelsea will be looking to avoid a third consecutive draw on Monday when it hosts London neighbor Fulham, which was routed 5-0 by Manchester United on Wednesday.
"I'm not going to be thinking that because they lost to Man United it will be easy for us," Chelsea striker Daniel Sturridge said. "Derbies are always difficult and they will want to bounce back against us."
Chelsea was held to a 1-1 draw on Thursday by Tottenham, which remains above its west London rival in third - its highest placing at Christmas since 1984 - ahead of Tuesday's match at Norwich.
Norwich is well clear of the relegation zone unlike the two other promoted sides - Swansea and QPR, who meet on Monday just four and two points clear from danger, respectively.
The bottom three is made up of teams from Lancashire. On Monday, bottom-place Blackburn is at Liverpool, 19th-place Bolton hosts Newcastle and Wigan is at Manchester United.
Also Monday, Everton goes to Sunderland and Stoke takes on Aston Villa.
---
Rob Harris can be reached at http://twitter.com/RobHarrisUK
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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ABUJA?? Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a wave of Christmas Day bombings on Sunday, including an attack on a Catholic church that killed at least 35 people.
Boko Haram spokesman Abu Qaqa claimed the bombings in a statement to the journalists' association of Maiduguri, capital of the group's heartland.
The Christmas Day attacks show the growing national ambition of Boko Haram, which is responsible for at least 491 killings this year alone, according to an Associated Press count. The assaults come a year after a series of Christmas Eve bombings in Jos claimed by the militants left at least 32 dead and 74 wounded.
The first explosion on Sunday struck St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, a town in Niger state close to the capital, Abuja, authorities said.
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The first explosion on Sunday struck St. Theresa Catholic Church just after 8 a.m. The attack killed 35 people and wounded another 52, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.
"We were in the church with my family when we heard the explosion. I just ran out. Now I don't even know where my children or my wife are,'' Timothy Onyekwere told Reuters. "I don't know how many were killed but there were many dead.''
"I want to know if my wife is dead or alive," a man yelled as he tried to enter the area holding dead and wounded.
Story: Clashes between sect, police kill 61 in Nigeria
Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency already has acknowledged it didn't have enough ambulances immediately on hand to help the wounded. Luguard also said an angry crowd that gathered at the blast site hampered rescue efforts as they refused to allow workers inside.
"We're trying to calm the situation," Luguard said. "There are some angry people around trying to cause problems."
President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south who is struggling to contain the threat of Islamist militancy, called the incident "unfortunate" but said Boko Haram would "not be (around) for ever. It will end one day."
The White House condemned the violent attacks, which it said appeared to be acts of terrorism.
"We condemn this senseless violence and tragic loss of life on Christmas Day," the White House said in a statement released from Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is vacationing.
"We have been in contact with Nigerian officials about what initially appear to be terrorist acts and pledge to assist them in bringing those responsible to justice," it said.
Jos, Yobe attacks
In Jos, a second explosion struck near a Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church, government spokesman Pam Ayuba said. Ayuba said gunmen later opened fire on police guarding the area, killing one police officer. Two other locally made explosives were found in a nearby building and disarmed, he said.
"The military are here on ground and have taken control over the entire place," Ayuba said.
The city of Jos is located on the dividing line between Nigeria's predominantly Christian south and Muslim north. Thousands have died in communal clashes there over the last decade.
There were also three attacks targeting a church, the police and army in Yobe in the north of the country, BBC News reported. Yobe has been at the center of clashes between militants and Nigeria's security forces, according to the BBC.
The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria's capital of Abuja had issued a warning Friday to citizens to be "particularly vigilant" around churches, large crowds and areas where foreigners congregate.
Residents of the northeastern city of Damaturu also reported two blasts but there were no details immediately available.
Several days of fighting in and around Damaturu between the sect and security forces already had killed at least 61 people, authorities said.
On Sunday, local police commissioner Tanko Lawan said two explosions had struck Damaturu, including a suicide car bombing. Lawan said that blast happened around noon, targeting the headquarters of Nigeria's secret police in the area. There was no immediate information about casualties, he said.
Video: Suicide bomber strikes U.N. in Nigeria (on this page)
In the last year, Boko Haram has carried out increasingly bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people.
Boko Haram, which is loosely modeled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for a Nov. 4 attack on Damaturu, Yobe state's capital, that killed more than 100 people. The group also claimed the Aug. 24 suicide car bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria's capital that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.
The sect came to national prominence in 2009, when its members rioted and burned police stations near its base of Maiduguri, a dusty northeastern city on the cusp of the Sahara Desert. Nigeria's military violently put down the attack, crushing the sect's mosque into shards as its leader was arrested and died in police custody. About 700 people died during the violence.
While initially targeting enemies via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes after the 2009 riot, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties.
Boko Haram has splintered into three factions, with one wing increasingly willing to kill as it maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia, diplomats and security sources say.
Sect members are scattered throughout northern Nigeria and nearby Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The iPad is Apple's tablet computer, unveiled in January, 2010, and launched in April, 2010. The second generation of the iPad -- the iPad 2 -- was unveiled on March 2, 2011. It will be available for sale in the U.S. on March... More ?
Dear Debt Adviser, I have more debt than I can handle, and I am enrolled in a debt management plan. However, my expenses still amount to more than I bring home, and the debt management agent knew this going in. They calculated my debt payment as $344 with the program, and they never advised as to whether I should file for bankruptcy. Should I have filed for bankruptcy instead? If I file for Chapter 7, would I have to include all of my debt including personal loans? -- Shirley
Dear Shirley, Slow down, Shirley! You have a lot going on here, so let's take things one at a time. First, you should not have been enrolled in a debt management plan if your income level does not allow for the monthly payment. Call the debt management agency as soon as possible, and ask to speak with a supervisor. Have them go over your case from start to finish. If a mistake as big as putting you in an unaffordable plan was made, other issues may have been overlooked as well. Find out if your payment can be lowered to what you can afford. Many agencies can offer a hardship debt management plan titled a "call to action," which lowers the interest rate on your credit card accounts to the lowest possible level. That may decrease your monthly payment enough to make the debt management plan work for you.
A reputable credit counseling agency will not enroll persons in a debt management plan unless the counselor has provided a spending plan that balances income and expenses. If you are having trouble meeting your monthly payment because you are not following the spending plan provided by the agency, then you have a decision to make. Either get back on track and spend only as the plan allows, or increase your income with a part-time job or other income source.
Second, as for bankruptcy advice, I'm not surprised the counselor didn't give you any. Only an attorney can give legal advice, and bankruptcy is a legal process. However, your counselor can and should go over the pros and cons of filing for bankruptcy and whether it would make sense for you to get a legal opinion for your particular situation.
Third, should you find you absolutely cannot afford to make your payment and want to explore bankruptcy, I recommend you contact an attorney who specializes in consumer bankruptcy. To qualify for a Chapter 7 filing (in which your debts are forgiven and not repaid) your income must be below the median income for your state.
You would typically include all your debt in a bankruptcy filing, but you can file a reaffirmation document for a particular debt(s) if you have a good reason for doing so. You and your attorney will have to sign the reaffirmation document that states you can afford to repay the debt and it will not be an undue hardship on your post-bankruptcy budget to continue to pay the debt you would like reaffirmed. Typically, unsecured debts would not be included in a reaffirmation, which would include personal loans. Most reaffirmations would be for car or mortgage loans. I'm not sure why you would want to reaffirm a personal loan, but if you can convince the court and your attorney that it would be in your best interest to do so, you could file a reaffirmation for the debt.
Lastly, you wanted to know if you should have filed instead of going on a debt management plan. My answer is that if the debt management plan can be made to work, you are usually better off. A bankruptcy can stay on your credit report for up to 10 years. A poor credit report may affect your ability to get a decent apartment, home or insurance for years to come. If you have no other way out, then you may have no choice but to file. Just be sure you consider all the potential ramifications before you decide.
Since the CRTC took a swipe at net neutrality a few years back, Bell Canada internet customers have maligned its P2P packet-shaping ways. From March 1st, however, users can file-share at the speeds nature (or your ISP) intended. In a letter to the aforementioned regulator, Bell points out that improvements to its network and the proliferation of video streaming mean that the more nefarious traffic just isn't denting its capacity like it used to. As such, the firm will withdraw all P2P shaping for both residential and wholesale customers. So, those ISPs buying their bandwidth from Bell could see the amount they need go up, and with talk of a capacity-based billing model, this could mean charges passed on to users. At least, for now, all that legitimate sharing you do will go unhampered.
According to Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, ?it may be months before an investigation determines exactly what happened Friday night when a sheriff?s deputy hit and killed two pedestrians in Oildale.? Police who responded to the incident took the deputy to the hospital ? and arrested grieving relatives on the scene.
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Public release date: 27-Dec-2011
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Dear Shirley,
