Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295796145?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
The Very Best New Home Improvement Tips | Kitchen Remodeling ...
How a person takes care of their home shows the type of person he is. Paying close attention to every detail and not making mistakes helps make home improvements so popular. To avoid intimidation, read this article in full.
Painting? Make sure to put drop cloths on the floor. People rarely recognize how hard it is to remove dry paint from carpet and other flooring. Putting a covering down is a simple, fast way to make a huge difference.
If you are putting cabinetry in your kitchen, pull out a level. Begin at the highest point of the kitchen and make a benchmark line where those cabinets will be placed. This will ensure they are level during installation.
It?s vital to have a good drill when you are doing home improvements. With a good drill, you can pre-drill a variety of surfaces to make installing screws easier. You can also screw in screws easily and quickly. The drill should be cordless and battery powered and come with a variety of attachments and differently sized bits.
TIP! Arrange garage items in plastic boxes to keep organized. Label all plastic organizers for stacking.
Don?t throw out your bedroom doors just because they?re dirty. Remove the door from its frame, then sand it down until you expose bare wood. Get some oil-based paint and apply with a roller. Change to more modern doorknobs, too.
Check out your deck come spring. There could be rotting wood that needs to be fixed. Taking time to perform this safety inspection will help you prevent mishaps during the summer months.
If you put a particular water heater blanket on the tank-style water heater you own, you can help it to work better. The blanket holds heat into the water heater so that it doesn?t have to work so hard to keep water warm.
Installing smoke alarms in your home and checking them regularly can significantly lower your homeowners? insurance premiums. The effect is more pronounced with older houses, because insurance companies assume ? rightly ? that more modern homes are built with more fire-resistant materials. And of course, besides saving you a few bucks, smoke alarms might just save your life.
TIP! Ceramic tiles can really lose luster over time. They can even look grungy.
Keep your air conditioning filters clean. If the filter gets clogged up, the air conditioning unit will have to work harder to cool your house, using up more energy. Additionally, it may cause the AC to run for extended and unnecessary periods of time. Really look towards changing out the filter once every month.
If hiring home improvement professionals, be certain the companies you are considering are legitimate. If it does all it?s business by phone, it probably isn?t a very reputable company. Choose a company with a great reputation.
When a contractor comes out to assess problems and begin work, a contract should be written. If you have a clear contract, you won?t be taken advantage of or surprised with unexpected charges. If you don?t have a contract in hand, you might end up a very dissatisfied consumer with little to no recourse.
An inside home improvement project may seem bothersome to those that dwell in the home. To do this effectively, do the tasks when nobody is around. This will minimize the amount of stress for everyone involved.
TIP! A very quick walk around your home once a month will indicate small and effective home improvements that you can make easily. Air leaks would be an example of this.
Home improvement can be challenging. This doesn?t necessarily mean it?s only for professionals. Anyone can have fun with them, no matter what their skill level. No matter what your level of skill, the tips below can be a big help.
Source: http://kitchenremodelingmichigan.com/home-improvement/the-very-best-new-home-improvement-tips/
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A+ Certification for Librarians: The Exam | Sweet Librarian
What is A+ Certification?
According to the CompTIA website, ?The CompTIA A+ certification is the starting point for a career in IT. The exam covers maintenance of PCs, mobile devices, laptops, operating systems and printers.?
More specifically, certification is confered after successful passage of two exams, 220-701 and 220-702, or 220-801 and 220-802, depending on when you schedule your exam. The 700 series is being offered until August 31, 2013 and covers Windows 2000, XP and Vista. The 800 series is an updated version of the exam which covers Windows 7 as well as tablet and mobile operating systems. The 701/801 exam covers the essentials, while the 702/802 covers practical applications of computer repair.
Each test is 90 minutes and includes 90-100 questions, with a varying passing grade of 75-78%, depending on the test section and version. Because the test is computerized, you?ll find out your score on the same day. The test costs $183 per section, for a total of $366 for certification.
Why should you get certified?
IT certifications are a great option for librarians who have an interest in or currently deal with technology. If your career aspirations lean toward jobs with ?emerging technology?, ?systems?, ?UXD?, ?web?, or ?automation?, but most of your knowledge come from job experience or you are ?self taught?, certifications can be a great way to add credibility to your resume.
A+ is a great broad-spectrum certification to start with, and CompTIA?s other certifications all use it as a foundation. You could go straight to Cisco for networking or Microsoft for OS-specific certifications, but if you?re looking for something applicable across a variety of operating environments, A+ is a good choice.
Why should you think twice before being certified?
Think twice before going for A+ Certification if you?re not willing to keep up with the continuing education requirements. Every three years you will be required to pay a $75 recertification fee and log 20 continuing education credits. These can be earned in a variety of ways, including:
- Achieve certification in another area offered by CompTIA (20 credits)
- Participate in a CompTIA or other IT training program (1 credit each, maximum 16 in a 3 year period)
- Complete college courses (10 credits per 3-4 credit hour course, 10 credits maximum in a 3 year period)
- Teach (2 credits per preparation hour and 1 credit per instruction hour, 10 credits maxiumum in a 3 year period)
- Present (2 credits per preparation hour and 1 credit per presentation hour, 10 credits maximum in a 3 year period)
- Attend presentations, events, seminars, conferences, etc. (1 credit per hour, 4 credits maximum in a 3 year period)
- Work experience (3 credits per year, 9 credits maximum in a 3 year period)
- Publish articles or blog posts (4 credits per article, 1 credit per blog post, 8 credits maximum in a 3 year period)
This can be a lot to commit to, in terms of both?time and money, but if you are dedicated to making IT a focus in your career, chances are good that you will be doing at least some of these things anyway. (And $75 every three years over the course of a 30 year career is less than $1,000? how much did you pay for your MLIS, again?)
Certification Process
CompTIA certification exams take place at authorized testing centers across the country. Here are the steps you?ll need to take to register for your exam:
- Choose whether you will take the 700 or 800 series (remember, if you choose the?700 series?you must pass BOTH exams before August 31st)
- Decide how much study time you will need ? Mike Meyers, author of the All-in-One CompTIA A+ Certification Exam Guide, recommends anywhere from 60 hours for experienced technicians to 200 hours for ?newbies?
- Go to the PearsonVUE website and search for a testing center in your area
- Sign up for a PearsonVUE account to register for your exams; you?ll receive a confirmation email within a few hours
- Use the calendar on the PearsonVue website (the link will be emailed to you) to decide on dates and times
- Pay up ? remember to check with your employer, who may offer discounts on the exams
- Get studying! Don?t forget to take practice exams!
Source: http://sweetlibrarian.com/2013/03/a-certification-for-librarians-the-exam/
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?The Korean Zombie,? Boston and Tito Ortiz: Where did they fall on the Cagewriter Hot or Not list?
It's been a slow week for MMA, but it's likely to pick up as we start an eventful April. In this last week of March, who was hot or who was not?
Hot ? Boston: According to a tweet from UFC president Dana White, the promotion is headed back to Boston, his hometown. Fox's new channel, Fox Sports 1, will get its first UFC event with this card, scheduled for Aug. 17.
Not ? Commissions: First, Nick Diaz's camp said his weigh-in at UFC 158 was mishandled by the commission in Quebec. Then, Andrei Arlovski's camp said there was a timing error at the World Series of Fighting 2 card that caused Arlovski to take extra damage. Commissions' doing things right is necessary for the sport to grow, so mistakes like these are worrisome.
Hot ? Chan Sung Jung, aka "The Korean Zombie:" He stood up to the UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre with a respectful dignity. Jung informed GSP, and much of the MMA world, about the symbolism behind the Rising Sun that the welterweight champion wore on his gi for UFC 158. GSP and Hayabusa, the company behind the gi quickly apologized. Jung handled the situation with quiet courage, and used it as a teachable moment. It was an impressive moment for both TKZ and GSP.
Not ? Tito Ortiz: The retired UFC legend is now working as the manager for Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, and he has a plan. Santos is fighting on next weekend's Invicta card, and he wants her to fight her next few fights in Invicta. Then on New Year's Eve, Ortiz wants Santos, who won't move down to bantamweight, to fight UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in the UFC.
"Cris has shown in Strikeforce, why she's so dominant, why women are afraid of her. She has three fights with Invicta, she will be the world champion and she will walk away a world champion. Like I said, New Year's Eve, let's make a super fight. Forget the title. Champion vs. champion, who cares about the title?"
That's a nice plan if you forget that Rousey has said she doesn't want to move up in weight, or that most of her 2013 is set. She will coach against the winner of Cat Zingano and Miesha Tate in the next edition of "The Ultimate Fighter."
Hot ? Fans: You're getting another Fan Expo. The UFC will host a Fan Expo in conjunction with UFC 162 in Las Vegas. Get your tickets here.
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Sandy Hook shooting survivors left homeless by fire
A Newtown, Conn., home destroyed by a fire this week was owned by a couple whose children survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in December.
Wednesday afternoon's fire left Hans and Audra Barth and their three children homeless, according to Monsignor Robert Wise, of St. Rose of?Lima Church. The American Red Cross has put them up in a hotel and the church is collecting donations for the family.
Two of their children attended Sandy Hook Elementary School, including a first-grader in teacher Kaitlin Roig's classroom,?the?Danbury News-Times?reported. Roig has been called a hero for barricading her students in a bathroom as the shooter killed 20 other first-graders and six educators.
For more, visit NBCConnecticut.com
Friends say the family lost everything in the fire, and their pet dog and several baby chickens died.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
By NBCConnecticut.com
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Look and feel your best with health-boosting beauty detox foods ...
Th? foods ??? eat n?t ?n?? play a role ?n h?w ??? feel, th?? ??n ???? impact th? way ??? look. An unhealthy diet ??n mean ???? skin, dry hair, brittle nails ?n? blemishes, ?m?n? a whole host ?f ?th?r problems.
Best beauty detox foods
W??re sharing ??m? ?f th? best foods ??? ??n eat t? boost n?t ?n?? ???r appearance b?t ???? ???r overall health.
W? ??k?? Kimberly Snyder, celebrity nutritionist ?n? author ?f Th? Beauty Detox Foods, t? share ??m? ?f th? healthiest ? ?n? m??t beauty-boosting foods ? t? add t? ???r diet.
Cabbage
Cabbage m??ht n?t b? pretty t? look ?t, b?t ?t ???? ?h?w th?t beauty-boosting foods don?t always h??? t? b? exotic ?r rare t? b? beneficial. ?Cabbage contains vitamins A, C ?n? E, m?k?n? ?t a ?r??t skin ?n? hair food,? ???? Snyder. ?It ?? n?t commonly known th?t cabbages actually contain ?b??t 11 percent more vitamin C th?n oranges b? weight, ?n? vitamin C ?? th? super anti-aging nutrient th?t helps heal ??m???? tissues ?n? boosts collagen production,? ?h? ??????n?. ?It?s ???? high ?n fiber, wh??h ?? ?m??rt?nt f?r ongoing cleansing, a critical component ?f boosting beauty.? Chop ?t ?nt? salads, add ?t t? stir-fries ?n? stir ?t ?nt? soups.
Turmeric
Turmeric ?? popping up ?n more ?n? more m??t-try lists due t? th? number ?f health benefits ?t offers. ?Turmeric keeps red blood cells fr?m clumping, promotes th??r formation, increases circulation ?n? aids ?n tissue healing,? ???? Snyder. ?B?????? ?t helps increase circulation via better blood flow, turmeric helps m?k? th? skin more glowing, supple ?n? healthy looking,? ?h? adds. ?Cleansed blood ???? helps prevent acne ?n? skin disorders.? U?? turmeric ?? a seasoning ?n sauces, marinades ?n? dressings.
Lemon
If ??? want clear, glowing ?n? blemish-free skin, m?k? sure lemons ?r? ??rt ?f ???r daily diet. ?Lemon aids w?th digestion b? increasing th? secretion ?f bile fr?m th? liver, wh??? ???? acting ?? a strengthening agent f?r th? liver?s enzymes. An? support t? th? liver, wh??h ?? ??r primary detoxifying organ, ?? going t? h??? clear up acne ?n th? long r?n,? ??????n? Snyder. ?Lemon ?? ???? a vitamin C-rich citrus fruit th?t helps bring a radiant glow t? ???r complexion, fighting wrinkles ?n? rejuvenating skin fr?m within. It ???? contains th? minerals calcium, potassium ?n? magnesium.? Sip warm lemon water ?n th? morning (?r through th? day) ?n? ??? lemon ?? a seasoning f?r seafood ?n? salad.
Th? food-beauty connection
Th? connection between food ?n? beauty ?? a strong one. J??t b? changing th? foods ??? eat, ??? ??n m?k? a b?? change ?n th? way ??? look ?n? feel. Beyond ???t numbers (counting calories, carbs, etc.), Snyder ???? th?t ?t?s ?m??rt?nt t? take ?nt? account h?w a food digests ?n ???r body (?f ?t ?? alkaline-forming ?r acid-forming, whether ?t ?? non-processed, contains fiber, etc.). ?Wh?n w? eat lots ?f acid-forming foods w? ?r??t? toxicity ?n th? body ?n? tend t? hold onto more weight. Alkaline-foods m?k? ??r body more alkaline, ?n? wh?n ??r body ?? more alkaline w? ?r? generally more b???t?f??, healthy ?n? balanced,? ?h? ??????n?. ?Th? truly alkaline foods ?r? fresh fruits ?n? vegetables, wh??h ?r? ???? loaded w?th fiber.?
Y?? ??n t??? a lot ?b??t a person?s diet b? th??r looks. Snyder meets many young women w?th faces th?t ?t?rt t? look hard ?n? lined ?t a f??r?? young age, something ?h? calls th? ???? skinny? look. ?It ?? n? surprise th?t m??t ??? ?f th?m ?r? eating a mostly acidic diet ?n?/?r ?r? constipated. Constipation ?? th? death ?f beauty; th? holding ?n ?f toxicity ?n? waste, wh??h th?n recirculate, wh??? space ?n th? body f?r oxygen t? flow through decreases,? ?h? ??????n?. ?Adding more fiber ?? critical. Th? easiest way t? ?? th?t ?? t? h??? a Glowing Green Smoothie ???r? day.? W? ??k?? Snyder t? share th? recipe (see below). Each 16-ounce serving supplies ??m??t 13.5 grams ?f fiber.
Beauty detox m??t-haves
Ready t? stock ???r fridge w?th th? best ?n beauty detox foods? Aside fr?m th? items already mentioned, Snyder shares a few ?th?r foods ?h? always h?? ?n hand.
Salad ingredients: Stock up ?n ??rk leafy greens ??k? kale, spinach ?r romaine, ?n? sprouts, ?? th?r? ?? n? excuse n?t t? toss together a q???k salad ?t lunch ?n? dinner.
Q???k dinner ingredients: Always keep lemons ?n hand, ?? well ?? quinoa, squash, sweet potatoes ?n? avocados. ?Th??? ?r? easy foods t? grab ?n? th?t store well f?r ?t ????t a few days, ?? ????re never ?n a h??? bind,? ???? Snyder. ?Y?? ??n always cook quinoa ?n 12 minutes ?n? eat a b?? salad w?th ?t ?? a simple dinner.?
Healthy snacks: If ??? ??k? t? snack, keep veggie sticks ?n? hummus ?r salsa around, ?r even ??m? gluten-free crackers.
?Stocking ???r house w?th th??? ????-f?r-??? ingredients means ????ll b? more willing t? snack ?n those wh?n ????re hungry. G? t? th? grocery store ?t ????t once a week.?
G?t glowing w?th th? Glowing Green Smoothie
Th? N?. 1 thing Snyder recommends t? ??? ?f h?r celebrity clients ?? t? ?t?rt drinking h?r Glowing Green Smoothie ???r? day f?r breakfast t? kick-?t?rt th??r healthier lifestyle. ?It?s such ?n easy way t? boost ???r beauty ???r? day ? ???r skin w??? ?t?rt t? glow. It?s packed w?th more greens th?n m??t people w???? ??t ?n ?n entire day, though th? fruit ?n? lemon h??? ?t taste yummy,? ?h? ????. ?Y???ll ingest a ?r??t deal ?f vitamins, enzymes, antioxidants ?n? minerals, plus ?t w??? give ??? a h??? boost ?f energy th?t ??? wouldn?t ??t fr?m a standard breakfast.?
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups water
1 head organic romaine lettuce, chopped
3-4 stalks organic celery
1/2 ?f a large bunch ?f spinach ?r 3/4 ?f a small bunch ?f spinach
1 organic apple, cored ?n? chopped
1 organic pear, cored ?n? chopped
1 organic banana
Juice ?f half ?f a fresh organic lemon
Optional:
1/3 bunch organic cilantro (stems OK)
1/3 bunch organic parsley (stems OK)
Directions:
Add th? water ?n? chopped head ?f romaine t? th? blender. Starting th? blender ?t low speed, mix until smooth.
Gradually moving t? higher speeds, add th? celery, apple ?n? pear. Add th? cilantro ?n? parsley ?? desired. Add th? banana ?n? lemon juice last.
Related Articles:
from your own site.
Source: http://mybodyhealth.net/look-and-feel-your-best-with-health-boosting-beauty-detox-foods/
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Harry Potter actor Richard Griffiths dies after surgery
LONDON (Reuters) - British actor Richard Griffiths, best known for his roles in 'Withnail and I' and the Harry Potter films, has died at the age of 65 after complications following heart surgery, his agent said on Friday.
Griffiths spent almost four decades in radio, film, on television and on stage, and received some of his industry's top awards for his role in Alan Bennett's play "The History Boys".
The portly actor filled the screen as the lascivious Uncle Monty in the cult 1987 film 'Withnail and I'.
But younger fans will remember him for his portrayal of a much crueler avuncular figure - Harry Potter's red-faced and bullying uncle Vernon Dursley.
Daniel Radcliffe, who played the boy wizard and performed with Griffiths in the stage play "Equus", said the veteran performer had encouraged and coached him and helped him get over his nerves.
"Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career ... any room he walked into was made twice as funny and twice as clever just by his presence. I am proud to say I knew him," Radcliffe said in a statement.
Griffiths' agent, Simon Beresford, described him as "a remarkable man and one of our greatest and best-loved actors". He said Griffiths died in hospital on Thursday.
The actor was born in Thornaby-on-Tees in Yorkshire, northern England, the son of a steelworker. Both his parents were deaf and he learned sign language to communicate with them.
After studying drama in Manchester, he worked in radio and theatre, building a reputation as a Shakespearean clown.
He reprised his role as teacher Hector in a film of "The History Boys" in 2006. One of his best known roles on television was a cookery-loving detective in "Pie in the Sky".
On stage, he was known for his intolerance of mobile phones ringing during performances, and halted plays several times to complain and even eject offending audience members.
Nicholas Hytner, director of Britain's National Theatre, said Griffiths' unexpected death would devastate his "army of friends".
"Richard Griffiths wasn't only one of the most loved and recognizable British actors - he was also one of the very greatest," Hytner said in a statement.
Griffiths was given an OBE in 2008 and is survived by his wife Heather.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/harry-potter-actor-richard-griffiths-dies-heart-surgery-130557398.html
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Rapper Lil Wayne says he's an epileptic
NEW YORK (AP) ? Lil Wayne says he's an epileptic and has had seizures for years.
In an interview with Los Angeles-based radio station Power 106 on Thursday, the 30-year-old rapper said epilepsy caused his most recent health scare earlier this month when he was rushed to a hospital. Wayne said he had three back-to-back seizures.
The Grammy winner says: "I've had a bunch of seizures, y'all just never hear about them."
Wayne says he "could've died" and that the recent seizures were a result of "just plain stress, no rest, overworking myself."
He released his 10th album, "I Am Not a Human Being II," this week. He'll embark on a 40-city tour in July with rappers T.I. and Future.
The New Orleans native, whose given name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., is one of the biggest stars not only of his genre but in all music.
___
Online:
http://www.youngmoney.com/
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rapper-lil-wayne-says-hes-epileptic-141915760.html
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Study: 'Waste heat' may economize CO2 capture
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Public release date: 28-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Jade Boyd
jadeboyd@rice.edu
713-348-6778
Rice University
Rice U. team seeks to optimize CO2 removal from power plant emissions
HOUSTON -- (March 28, 2013) -- In some of the first results from a federally funded initiative to find new ways of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal-fired power plants, Rice University scientists have found that CO2 can be removed more economically using "waste" heat -- low-grade steam that cannot be used to produce electricity. The find is significant because capturing CO2 with conventional technology is an energy-intensive process that can consume as much as one-quarter of the high-pressure steam that plants use to produce electricity.
"This is just the first step in our effort to better engineer a process for capturing CO2 from flue gas at power plants," said George Hirasaki, the lead researcher of Rice's CO2-capture research team. The researchers hope to reduce the costs of CO2 capture by creating an integrated reaction column that uses waste heat, engineered materials and optimized components. Hirasaki's team was one of 16 chosen by the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2011 to develop innovative techniques for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The team's first findings appear in two new studies that are available online this month in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Power plants fired by coal and natural gas account for about half of the CO2 that humans add to the atmosphere each year; these power plants are prime candidates for new technology that captures CO2 before it goes up in smoke. Each of these plants makes electricity by boiling water to create steam to run electric turbines. But not all steam is equal. Some steam has insufficient energy to run a turbine. This is often referred to as "waste" heat, although the term is something of misnomer because low-grade steam is often put to various uses around a plant. Rice's new study found that in cases where waste is available, it may be used to capture CO2.
Hirasaki, Rice's A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, said employing waste heat is just one example of a number of ways that Rice's team is looking to improve upon a tried-and-true technology for CO2 capture. That technology -- a two-phase chemical process -- has been used for decades to remove naturally occurring CO2 from natural gas.
In the first phase of the process, gas is piped upward through a vertical column while an ammonia-like liquid called amine flows down through the column. The liquid amine captures CO2 and drains away while the purified natural gas bubbles out the top of the column. In the second phase of the process, the CO2-laden amine is recycled with heat, which drives off the CO2.
"The CO2 that comes out of the ground with natural gas is under high pressure, while the CO2 at power plants is not," Hirasaki said. "There's also a greater volume of CO2 per unit mass at a power plant than at a natural gas well. For these reasons and others, the amine process must be re-engineered if it is to be cost-effective for CO2 capture at power plants."
A major challenge in adapting two-phase amine processing for power plants is the amount of heat required to recycle the amine in the second phase of the process. Using existing amine processing technology at power plants is impractical, because amine recycling would require as much as one-quarter of the high-pressure steam that could otherwise be used to drive turbines and make electricity, Hirasaki said. This phenomenon is known as "parasitic" power loss, and it will drive up the cost of electricity by lowering the amount of electricity a plant can produce for sale.
"It has been estimated that the use of current technology for CO2 capture would drive up the cost of electricity by 70 to 100 percent," said Rice graduate student Sumedh Warudkar, a co-investigator on the Rice University team. "In our study, we examined whether it would be possible to improve on that by using lower-value steam to run the amine recyclers."
To test this idea, Warudkar used a software package that's commonly used to model industrial chemical processes. One variable he tested was tailoring the chemical formulation of the liquid amine solution. Other variables included the type of steam used, and the size and pressure of the reactor -- the chamber where the flue gas flows past the amine solution.
"There's a great deal of optimization that needs to take place," Warudkar said. "The question is, What is the optimal amine formula and the optimal reactor design and pressure for removing CO2 with low-value steam? There isn't one correct answer. For example, we have developed a process in which the gas absorption and solvent heating occurs in a single vessel instead of two separate ones, as is currently practiced. We think combining the processes might bring us some savings. But there are always trade-offs. The Department of Energy wants us to investigate how our process compares with what's already on the market, and these first two studies are the first step because they will help us identify an optimal set of operating conditions for our process."
The results are encouraging. The research suggests that two elements of Rice's design -- optimized amine formulation and the use of waste heat -- can reduce parasitic power loss from about 35 percent to around 25 percent.
Additional research is under way to develop and test novel materials and a single integrated column that the team hopes can further economize CO2 capture by increasing efficiency and reducing parasitic power loss.
###
Study co-authors include Michael Wong, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of chemistry, and Ken Cox, professor in the practice of chemical and biomolecular engineering. The research is supported by the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory.
VIDEO is available at: http://youtu.be/-fi2gUbCPR8
High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at: http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/0325-CAPTURE-Hirasaki-lg.jpg
CAPTION: New research by Rice University's George Hirasaki (left) and Sumedh Warudkar suggests that process optimization will allow engineers to significantly reduce the "parasitic" power costs of removing carbon dioxide from the exhaust of coal-fired power plants.
CREDIT: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University
Copies of the two studies in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control are available at:
Paper I
Paper II
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Public release date: 28-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Jade Boyd
jadeboyd@rice.edu
713-348-6778
Rice University
Rice U. team seeks to optimize CO2 removal from power plant emissions
HOUSTON -- (March 28, 2013) -- In some of the first results from a federally funded initiative to find new ways of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal-fired power plants, Rice University scientists have found that CO2 can be removed more economically using "waste" heat -- low-grade steam that cannot be used to produce electricity. The find is significant because capturing CO2 with conventional technology is an energy-intensive process that can consume as much as one-quarter of the high-pressure steam that plants use to produce electricity.
"This is just the first step in our effort to better engineer a process for capturing CO2 from flue gas at power plants," said George Hirasaki, the lead researcher of Rice's CO2-capture research team. The researchers hope to reduce the costs of CO2 capture by creating an integrated reaction column that uses waste heat, engineered materials and optimized components. Hirasaki's team was one of 16 chosen by the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2011 to develop innovative techniques for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The team's first findings appear in two new studies that are available online this month in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Power plants fired by coal and natural gas account for about half of the CO2 that humans add to the atmosphere each year; these power plants are prime candidates for new technology that captures CO2 before it goes up in smoke. Each of these plants makes electricity by boiling water to create steam to run electric turbines. But not all steam is equal. Some steam has insufficient energy to run a turbine. This is often referred to as "waste" heat, although the term is something of misnomer because low-grade steam is often put to various uses around a plant. Rice's new study found that in cases where waste is available, it may be used to capture CO2.
Hirasaki, Rice's A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, said employing waste heat is just one example of a number of ways that Rice's team is looking to improve upon a tried-and-true technology for CO2 capture. That technology -- a two-phase chemical process -- has been used for decades to remove naturally occurring CO2 from natural gas.
In the first phase of the process, gas is piped upward through a vertical column while an ammonia-like liquid called amine flows down through the column. The liquid amine captures CO2 and drains away while the purified natural gas bubbles out the top of the column. In the second phase of the process, the CO2-laden amine is recycled with heat, which drives off the CO2.
"The CO2 that comes out of the ground with natural gas is under high pressure, while the CO2 at power plants is not," Hirasaki said. "There's also a greater volume of CO2 per unit mass at a power plant than at a natural gas well. For these reasons and others, the amine process must be re-engineered if it is to be cost-effective for CO2 capture at power plants."
A major challenge in adapting two-phase amine processing for power plants is the amount of heat required to recycle the amine in the second phase of the process. Using existing amine processing technology at power plants is impractical, because amine recycling would require as much as one-quarter of the high-pressure steam that could otherwise be used to drive turbines and make electricity, Hirasaki said. This phenomenon is known as "parasitic" power loss, and it will drive up the cost of electricity by lowering the amount of electricity a plant can produce for sale.
"It has been estimated that the use of current technology for CO2 capture would drive up the cost of electricity by 70 to 100 percent," said Rice graduate student Sumedh Warudkar, a co-investigator on the Rice University team. "In our study, we examined whether it would be possible to improve on that by using lower-value steam to run the amine recyclers."
To test this idea, Warudkar used a software package that's commonly used to model industrial chemical processes. One variable he tested was tailoring the chemical formulation of the liquid amine solution. Other variables included the type of steam used, and the size and pressure of the reactor -- the chamber where the flue gas flows past the amine solution.
"There's a great deal of optimization that needs to take place," Warudkar said. "The question is, What is the optimal amine formula and the optimal reactor design and pressure for removing CO2 with low-value steam? There isn't one correct answer. For example, we have developed a process in which the gas absorption and solvent heating occurs in a single vessel instead of two separate ones, as is currently practiced. We think combining the processes might bring us some savings. But there are always trade-offs. The Department of Energy wants us to investigate how our process compares with what's already on the market, and these first two studies are the first step because they will help us identify an optimal set of operating conditions for our process."
The results are encouraging. The research suggests that two elements of Rice's design -- optimized amine formulation and the use of waste heat -- can reduce parasitic power loss from about 35 percent to around 25 percent.
Additional research is under way to develop and test novel materials and a single integrated column that the team hopes can further economize CO2 capture by increasing efficiency and reducing parasitic power loss.
###
Study co-authors include Michael Wong, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of chemistry, and Ken Cox, professor in the practice of chemical and biomolecular engineering. The research is supported by the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory.
VIDEO is available at: http://youtu.be/-fi2gUbCPR8
High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at: http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/0325-CAPTURE-Hirasaki-lg.jpg
CAPTION: New research by Rice University's George Hirasaki (left) and Sumedh Warudkar suggests that process optimization will allow engineers to significantly reduce the "parasitic" power costs of removing carbon dioxide from the exhaust of coal-fired power plants.
CREDIT: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University
Copies of the two studies in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control are available at:
Paper I
Paper II
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/ru-sh032813.php
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Analysis: Austerity threatens EU's competitive edge in infrastructure
By Anthony Deutsch
BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe's carefully maintained autobahns, high-speed TGV trains and vast network of modern airports have long been the envy of the world.
But thanks to austerity budgets that are slashing infrastructure spending just as other parts of the world are ramping it up, that may not be true for much longer.
European infrastructure spending rose just 1.5 percent last year to $741 billion, compared to global growth of 4.5 percent and a 7.1 percent rise in the Asia-Pacific, according to data compiled by Marketline, a business information provider.
Spending in Europe will increase slightly over the next four years, to 4.3 percent growth by 2016, Marketline told Reuters, but will continue to significantly underperform the world average. Only the United States will do worse, with growth of just 1.8 percent seen in 2016.
Company executives, trade groups and even European Union officials themselves say the region is in danger of falling behind competitors, with possibly irreversible consequences.
"We are out of pace with other parts of the world. We are not rejoicing," said Harold Ruijters, who leads the Transport Commission's Trans European Network unit, which aims to connect Europe's fragmented railways, roads and airports.
Brussels' main infrastructure funding budget, the Connecting Europe Facility, was cut in the latest EU budget announced in February from an originally allocated 50 billion euros to 29.3 billion euros over the next seven years.
Broadband and digital infrastructure took the biggest hit, cut from 9.2 billion to just 1 billion euros.
The budget for spending on major transportation through 2020 was cut by 38 percent from 21 billion to 13 billion euros, forcing the Transport Commission to drop air and road projects, which will instead need to seek uncertain sources of commercial funding.
"We are dealing with a severely reduced budget. At the same time, during a time of crisis we are acknowledging that this was perhaps the best deal we could get," Ruijters told Reuters.
Several years of earlier austerity cuts in infrastructure have already started hurting Europe's competitive position, he said, citing railways and aviation as problem sectors.
Reduced budgets and the prospect of long-term weak economic growth in the bloc will make it virtually impossible to meet spending needs in the coming two decades, he said.
The financial reality is out of sync with the EU's long-term strategic goal of creating jobs, and increasing competitiveness and growth in a single European market, which the EU Commission had estimated would require 1.5 trillion euros of spending on transportation infrastructure by 2030.
"At the moment we have one of the best infrastructures in the world, but it is ageing and we have to invest billions just to keep it up. We are far away from completing the internal market, in all transportation modes," said Jurgen Thumann, head of Business Europe, a Brussels-based industrial lobby group.
"As other world regions are launching ambitious transport modernization and infrastructure investment programs, it is crucial that European transport continues to develop and invest to maintain its competitive position," Thumann told Reuters.
Currently 12 of the top 20 nations in a ranking by the World Economic Forum for 2012-2013 are in Europe.
But this year China will for the first time spend more on infrastructure than Europe, though per capita it is still a small fraction of what is spent in the United States and in Japan, Marketline said.
Pedro Rodrigues de Almeida, director of infrastructure studies at the World Economic Forum, concurred that even after the European economy recovers, which economists expect could happen as early as the second half of this year, essential spending will lag requirements for years to come.
"We will not recover the levels of construction expenditure that we had in 2007-2008, or just before the crisis, until around 2016. This is something that is going to take several years," he said.
WHERE'S THE MONEY
A decades-long trend of falling global public expenditure on infrastructure, from around 9.5 percent of gross domestic product in 1990 to 7 percent in 2005, has been driven by rising costs for pensions and health care, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Until the global financial crisis hit, the private sector had increasingly filled that gap.
Now, while there are plenty of investors such as pension funds or insurance companies who have money available, they are restricted in how that money can be invested to avoid too much risk and meet targets, meaning only a small percentage of their total funds may be allocated for infrastructure projects which often require billions over many years, if not decades.
The same applies for banks, which face tougher regulations over lending money.
The number of infrastructure projects to be financed fell eight percent last year, the first decline in a decade, the OECD said. Lending to European projects, including total debt and equity, slowed by nearly 39 percent to slightly more than $49 billion.
"The cost of Europe's infrastructure needs are so great they go beyond what is imaginable," an infrastructure investor who asked not to be named told Reuters.
"This will hurt Europe in the long run. It is inevitable."
STRUCTURAL UNDER-INVESTMENT
In Germany, which makes up 15 percent of total European infrastructure spending, 41.5 billion euros worth of projects will be started, continued or finished between 2011 and 2015, down from an initially budgeted 57 billion euros.
A spokesman for the German Ministry of Transport told Reuters the situation was one of "structural under-investment."
"There are so many projects waiting to be carried out, but there's no money there. We have succeeded in getting some more funding, but more is needed. We need it because this investment is important for jobs, the economy and prosperity of Germany."
A high-profile plan that may be dropped is the four-billion-euro French canal originally cited as one of 30 priority infrastructure projects backed by Brussels, which Paris has said it can now only afford if 30 percent is paid out of European funds.
The Seine-Nord canal is a 106-km, high-capacity waterway that will link Seine river to Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. It would relieve Europe's most congested transport corridor with more than 130 million tons of traffic per year.
Construction which was supposed to start next year was expected to create 4,500 jobs, with around 25,000 new permanent jobs between 2025 and 2030. Its future is highly uncertain as the French government reviews 245 billion euros worth of costly projects.
A Transport Ministry spokeswoman said two working groups were evaluating technical aspects, costs and financing options, with an outcome expected in April.
In Ireland, the transport budget for the period 2010-15 was reduced by almost 50 percent in just two years from 17.5 billion to eight billion euros.
Plans to give Dublin its first underground rail services - one to connect the airport to the city centre and another to link two existing rail lines - have been scrapped. The projects would have cost 2 billion euros, the government estimated.
Italy's parliament in December froze a 3.9-billion euro contract to build a road and rail bridge connecting Sicily to Italy's mainland, known as Ponte sullo Stretto di Messina.
Spain is budgeting 9.6 billion euros in public infrastructures in 2013, down 16 percent from a year earlier and down 36 percent from 2008, when 15 billion were targeted. Several major toll-road projects were pulled after going bankrupt due to over-spending.
That led to the halt of the construction of 14 luxury stations along the high-speed rail network, saving 3.5 billion euros, and the cancellation of a railway from Madrid to Lisbon.
TRANSPORT NETWORK
Trade within Europe, which has a population of more than 730 million and represents roughly 22 percent of the world's cargo by value, is expected to double in the coming decade.
Brussels said in a policy paper released before the recent budget cuts that 550 billion euros in high-priority projects were needed through 2020 to create a core transportation network to meet the increased demand.
The investment would connect 120 major ports and airports to rail, upgrade 15,000 km (9,300 miles) of rail tracks to high speed and remove 35 key cross-border bottlenecks. The region's railways use seven different gauges and only 20 major airports and 35 major ports are directly connected to the rail network.
The upgrades would not only make the distribution of goods faster and cheaper, but also be required to meet EU targets to reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent, halve conventional car use and shift 50 percent of long distance freight onto trains and ships by 2050.
Airline executives have been among the most outspoken about concerns that Europe risks losing its competitive position if it fails to implement these plans.
Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport plans to spend 2.1 billion euros between 2011 and 2015 on new facilities, for example, while Dubai said last year it plans to invest six billion euros in airport expansion by 2018 to boost capacity by 50 percent.
"Europe was a leader in terms of quality infrastructure," Air France-KLM chief executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta told Reuters. "I am very concerned about the future, especially airports. The amount of investment in other regions is incredibly high."
(Additional reporting by Victoria Brian in Berlin, Elena Berton and Gilles Guillaume in Paris, Conor Humphries in Dublin, Danilo Masoni in Milan and Jose Elias Rodriguez in Madrid; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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91% The Gatekeepers
All Critics (70) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (6)
The film and its talking head participants paint the picture in both broad strokes and fine detail.
Whatever one's political stripe regarding Israel, it's hard to dispute the impressions and perspective of the film's six eyewitnesses.
The level of candor here may not satisfy hard-liners of either stripe, but it can help viewers begin to formulate new questions about the philosophical, strategic and moral challenges of conflict, in particular "wars on terror."
Ultimately the movie feels evasive, and its flashy, digitally animated re-creations of military surveillance footage unpleasantly evoke the Call of Duty video games.
It offers startlingly honest insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from some of those who called the shots.
As a political testament, the result is revealing and important.
Moreh gets some startling confessions and insights from each man but also misses the opportunity to truly challenge his subjects on their regard for democracy, basic human rights and their own accountability.
Director Dror Moreh doesn't rest on his scoop
A powerful look inside the Israeli defense establishment
A deadly serious and detailed examination of and meditation upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Gatekeepers makes no attempt to find a silver lining.
The rule of surveillance is to keep quiet and let others do the talking. The Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers flips the script, to astonishing effect, giving voice to the retired directors of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.
An up-close and personal look at the psychology of war -- their war and, by extension, all war.
A riveting firsthand account of how legitimate security concerns can lead to policies considered extreme and even immoral by the people administering them.
Extraordinary...not only an engrossing first-hand account of Israel's Palestinian policies over time, but one that may have lessons to teach both Israeli leaders and other nations confronting those they identify as terrorists.
Unprecedented and deeply unsettling, it offers little hope for a lasting peace in that war-torn region.
For its candor and impact, deserves to be seen and discussed.
An often remarkable Israeli documentary about Shin Bet, the country's internal security agency.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_gatekeepers_2012/
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Protective prion keeps yeast cells from going it alone
Public release date: 28-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Matt Fearer
fearer@wi.mit.edu
617-452-4630
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (March 28, 2013) Most commonly associated with such maladies as "mad cow disease" and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, prions are increasingly recognized for their ability to induce potentially beneficial traits in a variety of organisms, yeast chief among them.
Now a team of scientists has added markedly to the job description of prions as agents of change, identifying a prion capable of triggering a transition in yeast from its conventional single-celled form to a cooperative, multicellular structure. This change, which appears to improve yeast's chances for survival in the face of hostile environmental conditions, is an epigenetic phenomenona heritable alteration brought about without any change to the organism's underlying genome.
This latest finding, reported in the March 28 issue of the journal Cell, has its origins in work begun several years ago in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Susan Lindquist. In 2009, Randal Halfmann, then a graduate student in Lindquist's lab, identified dozens of proteins in yeast that have the ability to form prions. That research greatly expanded the known universe of prion elements in yeast, but it failed to answer a key question: What function, if any, do these prions actually have?
In search of an answer, Halfmann, now a fellow the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and colleagues in the Lindquist lab attempted to exploit the fact that several of the prion-forming proteins they had identified acted to modify transcription of yeast genes. It stood to reason that if they could identify which genes were being regulated, they might be able to determine the prions' function.
"We looked at the five transcriptional regulators that are known to be prions in yeast, and we found that in fact, only one gene in the entire yeast genome was regulated by all five transcription factors," says Halfmann.
That gene, as it turns out, was FLO11, a key player in multicellularity in yeast. Indeed changes in FLO11 expression have been shown to act as a toggle, switching yeast from spherical to filamentous form. Halfmann notes that FLO11, which has been shown to be regulated by epigenetic elements, is also highly responsive to environmental stress. Knowing that the prion form of a protein is essentially a misfolded form of that protein, and that stressful conditions increase the frequency of protein misfolding and prion formation, the scientists began to consider the possibility that the prions themselves might be among the epigenetic switches influencing the activity of FLO11.
The group focused on one transcription factor known as mot3, finding that yeast cells containing the prion form of this factor, [MOT3+], acquired a variety of multicellular growth forms known to require FLO11 expression. This was a clear indication that prion formation was causing the differentiation of the cells and their subsequent cooperation. But what about the stress aspect of the hypothesis?
By testing yeast cells against a variety of stressors, the scientists discovered that exposure to a concentration of ethanol akin to that occurring naturally during fermentation increased [MOT3+] formation by a factor of 10.They also found that as the cells exposed to ethanol shifted their metabolism to burn surrounding oxygen through respiration, the prions reverted to their non-prion conformation, [mot3-], and the yeast returned to the unicellular state. In essence, prion formation drove a shift to multicellularity, helping the yeast to ride out the ethanol storm.
"What we have in the end is two sequential environmental changes that are turning on a heritable epigenetic element and then turning it off," says Halfmann. "And between those two changes, the prion is causing the cells to acquire a multicellular growth form that we think is actually important for their survival."
Lindquist, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has long argued that prions have played a vital role in yeast evolution and has amassed a body of strong supporting evidence.
"We see them as part of a bet-hedging strategy that allows the yeast to alter their biological properties quickly when their environments turn unfavorable," Lindquist says. She also theorizes that prions may play such roles beyond yeast, and her lab intends to take similar approaches in the hunt for prions and prion-like mechanisms that are potentially beneficial in other organisms.
For Lindquist lab postdoctoral scientist Alex Lancaster, who is also an author of the new Cell paper, these latest findings hint at a potentially novel approach to understanding basic mechanisms underlying the complexities of human diseases, including cancer, whose hallmarks include protein misfolding, epigenetic alterations, metabolic aberrations, and myriad changes in cell state, type, and function. Lancaster likens the opportunity to that of opening a black box.
"It's exciting to think that this could become another tool in the toolbox in the study of multicellularity," Lancaster says. "We know that some tumors are a heterogeneous population of cells and we know that tumor cells can evolve within in their environments to help ensure their own survival. This system could help us further understand the role of epigenetic inheritance within tumors and how it might be influencing cell-cell interactions and even affecting the effectiveness of drug therapies."
###
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Written by Matt Fearer
Full Citation:
"Heritable Remodeling of Yeast Multicellularity by an Environmentally Responsive Prion"
Cell, March 28, 2013
Daniel L. Holmes (1), Alex K. Lancaster (2), Susan Lindquist (2,3,4) and Randal Halfmann (1)
1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390-9038
2. Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
3. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
4. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 28-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Matt Fearer
fearer@wi.mit.edu
617-452-4630
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (March 28, 2013) Most commonly associated with such maladies as "mad cow disease" and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, prions are increasingly recognized for their ability to induce potentially beneficial traits in a variety of organisms, yeast chief among them.
Now a team of scientists has added markedly to the job description of prions as agents of change, identifying a prion capable of triggering a transition in yeast from its conventional single-celled form to a cooperative, multicellular structure. This change, which appears to improve yeast's chances for survival in the face of hostile environmental conditions, is an epigenetic phenomenona heritable alteration brought about without any change to the organism's underlying genome.
This latest finding, reported in the March 28 issue of the journal Cell, has its origins in work begun several years ago in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Susan Lindquist. In 2009, Randal Halfmann, then a graduate student in Lindquist's lab, identified dozens of proteins in yeast that have the ability to form prions. That research greatly expanded the known universe of prion elements in yeast, but it failed to answer a key question: What function, if any, do these prions actually have?
In search of an answer, Halfmann, now a fellow the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and colleagues in the Lindquist lab attempted to exploit the fact that several of the prion-forming proteins they had identified acted to modify transcription of yeast genes. It stood to reason that if they could identify which genes were being regulated, they might be able to determine the prions' function.
"We looked at the five transcriptional regulators that are known to be prions in yeast, and we found that in fact, only one gene in the entire yeast genome was regulated by all five transcription factors," says Halfmann.
That gene, as it turns out, was FLO11, a key player in multicellularity in yeast. Indeed changes in FLO11 expression have been shown to act as a toggle, switching yeast from spherical to filamentous form. Halfmann notes that FLO11, which has been shown to be regulated by epigenetic elements, is also highly responsive to environmental stress. Knowing that the prion form of a protein is essentially a misfolded form of that protein, and that stressful conditions increase the frequency of protein misfolding and prion formation, the scientists began to consider the possibility that the prions themselves might be among the epigenetic switches influencing the activity of FLO11.
The group focused on one transcription factor known as mot3, finding that yeast cells containing the prion form of this factor, [MOT3+], acquired a variety of multicellular growth forms known to require FLO11 expression. This was a clear indication that prion formation was causing the differentiation of the cells and their subsequent cooperation. But what about the stress aspect of the hypothesis?
By testing yeast cells against a variety of stressors, the scientists discovered that exposure to a concentration of ethanol akin to that occurring naturally during fermentation increased [MOT3+] formation by a factor of 10.They also found that as the cells exposed to ethanol shifted their metabolism to burn surrounding oxygen through respiration, the prions reverted to their non-prion conformation, [mot3-], and the yeast returned to the unicellular state. In essence, prion formation drove a shift to multicellularity, helping the yeast to ride out the ethanol storm.
"What we have in the end is two sequential environmental changes that are turning on a heritable epigenetic element and then turning it off," says Halfmann. "And between those two changes, the prion is causing the cells to acquire a multicellular growth form that we think is actually important for their survival."
Lindquist, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has long argued that prions have played a vital role in yeast evolution and has amassed a body of strong supporting evidence.
"We see them as part of a bet-hedging strategy that allows the yeast to alter their biological properties quickly when their environments turn unfavorable," Lindquist says. She also theorizes that prions may play such roles beyond yeast, and her lab intends to take similar approaches in the hunt for prions and prion-like mechanisms that are potentially beneficial in other organisms.
For Lindquist lab postdoctoral scientist Alex Lancaster, who is also an author of the new Cell paper, these latest findings hint at a potentially novel approach to understanding basic mechanisms underlying the complexities of human diseases, including cancer, whose hallmarks include protein misfolding, epigenetic alterations, metabolic aberrations, and myriad changes in cell state, type, and function. Lancaster likens the opportunity to that of opening a black box.
"It's exciting to think that this could become another tool in the toolbox in the study of multicellularity," Lancaster says. "We know that some tumors are a heterogeneous population of cells and we know that tumor cells can evolve within in their environments to help ensure their own survival. This system could help us further understand the role of epigenetic inheritance within tumors and how it might be influencing cell-cell interactions and even affecting the effectiveness of drug therapies."
###
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Written by Matt Fearer
Full Citation:
"Heritable Remodeling of Yeast Multicellularity by an Environmentally Responsive Prion"
Cell, March 28, 2013
Daniel L. Holmes (1), Alex K. Lancaster (2), Susan Lindquist (2,3,4) and Randal Halfmann (1)
1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390-9038
2. Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
3. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
4. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/wifb-ppk032713.php
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Pesticide combination affects bees' ability to learn
Mar. 27, 2013 ? Two new studies have highlighted a negative impact on bees' ability to learn following exposure to a combination of pesticides commonly used in agriculture. The researchers found that the pesticides, used in the research at levels shown to occur in the wild, could interfere with the learning circuits in the bee's brain. They also found that bees exposed to combined pesticides were slower to learn or completely forgot important associations between floral scent and food rewards.
In the study published today (27 March 2013) in Nature Communications, the University of Dundee's Dr Christopher Connolly and his team investigated the impact on bees' brains of two common pesticides: pesticides used on crops called neonicotinoid pesticides, and another type of pesticide, coumaphos, that is used in honeybee hives to kill the Varroa mite, a parasitic mite that attacks the honey bee.
The intact bees' brains were exposed to pesticides in the lab at levels predicted to occur following exposure in the wild and brain activity was recorded. They found that both types of pesticide target the same area of the bee brain involved in learning, causing a loss of function. If both pesticides were used in combination, the effect was greater.
The study is the first to show that these pesticides have a direct impact on pollinator brain physiology. It was prompted by the work of collaborators Dr Geraldine Wright and Dr Sally Williamson at Newcastle University who found that combinations of these same pesticides affected learning and memory in bees. Their studies established that when bees had been exposed to combinations of these pesticides for 4 days, as many as 30% of honeybees failed to learn or performed poorly in memory tests. Again, the experiments mimicked levels that could be seen in the wild, this time by feeding a sugar solution mixed with appropriate levels of pesticides.
Dr Geraldine Wright said: "Pollinators perform sophisticated behaviours while foraging that require them to learn and remember floral traits associated with food. Disruption in this important function has profound implications for honeybee colony survival, because bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food."
Together the researchers expressed concerns about the use of pesticides that target the same area of the brain of insects and the potential risk of toxicity to non-target insects. Moreover, they said that exposure to different combinations of pesticides that act at this site may increase this risk.
Dr Christopher Connolly said: "Much discussion of the risks posed by the neonicotinoid insecticides has raised important questions of their suitability for use in our environment. However, little consideration has been given to the miticidal pesticides introduced directly into honeybee hives to protect the bees from the Varroa mite. We find that both have negative impact on honeybee brain function.
"Together, these studies highlight potential dangers to pollinators of continued exposure to pesticides that target the insect nervous system and the importance of identifying combinations of pesticides that could profoundly impact pollinator survival."
This research is part of the Insect Pollinators Initiative, joint-funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Defra, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Scottish Government and the Wellcome Trust under the auspices of the Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal References:
- Mary J. Palmer, Christopher Moffat, Nastja Saranzewa, Jenni Harvey, Geraldine A. Wright, Christopher N. Connolly. Cholinergic pesticides cause mushroom body neuronal inactivation in honeybees. Nature Communications, 2013; 4: 1634 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2648
- S. M. Williamson, G. A. Wright. Exposure to multiple cholinergic pesticides impairs olfactory learning and memory in honeybees. Journal of Experimental Biology, 2013; DOI: 10.1242/jeb.083931
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_science/~3/UKb6bYahUk4/130327133347.htm
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