The secret's in the (robotic) stroke

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31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Kathleen Hamilton
hamilton@poly.edu
718-260-3792
Polytechnic Institute of New York University

NYU-Poly researchers tease out cues that impact schooling fish behavior

Brooklyn, New York Recent studies from two research teams at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) demonstrate how underwater robots can be used to understand and influence the complex swimming behaviors of schooling fish. The teams, led by Maurizio Porfiri, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NYU-Poly, published two separate papers in the journal PLOS ONE.

These studies are the latest in a significant body of research by Porfiri and collaborators utilizing robots, specifically robotic fish, to impact collective animal behavior. In collaboration with doctoral candidate Paul Phamduy and NYU-Poly research scholar Giovanni Polverino, Porfiri designed an experiment to examine the interplay of visual cues and flow cueschanges in the water current as a result of tail-beat frequencyin triggering a live golden shiner fish to either approach or ignore a robotic fish.

They designed and built two robotic fish analogous to live golden shiners in aspect ratio, size, shape, and locomotion pattern. However, one was painted with the natural colors of the golden shiner, the other with a palette not seen in the species. The researchers affixed each robot to the inside of a water tunnel, introduced a live golden shiner fish, and observed its interactions with the robot. While the robot's position remained static, the researchers experimented with several different tail-beat frequencies.

"When the fish encountered a robot that mimicked both the coloration and mean tail-beat frequency for the species, it was likeliest to spend the most time in the nearest proximity to it," Porfiri said. "The more closely the robot came to approximating a fellow golden shiner, the likelier the fish was to treat it like one, including swimming at the same depth behind the robot, which yields a hydrodynamic advantage," he explained.

While flow cues created by tail-beat frequency proved to be a critical trigger for shoaling behavior, coloration proved slightly dominant. "Even at tail-beat frequencies that were less than optimal for the live fish, the shiners were always more drawn to the naturally colored robot," Porfiri added.

Robot speed and body movement were the main focus of another study, also published in PLOS ONE, in which Porfiri teamed with NYU-Poly postdoctoral fellow Sachit Butail and graduate student Tiziana Bartolini. This time, the subject was the zebrafish, and the robot was a free-swimming unit with the coloration, size, aspect ratio, and fin shape of a fertile female member of the species.

The researchers placed the robot in a shared tank with shoals of live zebrafish, aiming to determine if the fish would perceive the robot as a predator, and whether visual cues from the robot could be used to modulate the fishes' social behavior and activity. The team used a remote control to drive the robot in a circular swimming pattern, while varying its tail-beat frequency. For comparison purposes, they also exposed the fish to the robot in a fixed position, beating its tail.

Experiments showed that while the zebrafish clearly did not perceive the swimming robot as one of their ownthey maintained greater distance from the robot than they did to each otherthe robot was still an effective stimulus for modulating their social behavior.

When the robot was held still in the tank, the live fish showed high group cohesion, along with a strong polarizationmeaning the fish were likely to be close to each other and oriented in the same direction. As the robot's tail-beat frequency increased, it had a profound impact on the group's collective behavior, causing a spike in the cohesion and a small but detectable decrease in polarizationthe fish largely milled together and even matched their speeds to that of the robot as it reached a certain tail-beat frequency.

"This shows us that the fish are responding to more than one stimulusit's not just the flow cues, it's the combination of visual and flow cues that influence the collective response," Porfiri said.

Porfiri is a leading researcher in the field of ethoroboticsthe study of robot-animal interaction. Studies like these advance multiple areas of science, including the development of an experimental animal model based on lower-order species such as fish, with robots providing a consistent, infinitely reproducible stimulus. The use of robots to influence collective animal behavior is also viewed as a potential means to protect marine wildlife, including birds and fish, in the wake of environmental hazard.

###

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Mitsui USA Foundation.

The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, and will become its School of Engineering in January 2014. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.

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

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

[


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]


Share

Contact: Kathleen Hamilton
hamilton@poly.edu
718-260-3792
Polytechnic Institute of New York University

NYU-Poly researchers tease out cues that impact schooling fish behavior

Brooklyn, New York Recent studies from two research teams at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) demonstrate how underwater robots can be used to understand and influence the complex swimming behaviors of schooling fish. The teams, led by Maurizio Porfiri, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NYU-Poly, published two separate papers in the journal PLOS ONE.

These studies are the latest in a significant body of research by Porfiri and collaborators utilizing robots, specifically robotic fish, to impact collective animal behavior. In collaboration with doctoral candidate Paul Phamduy and NYU-Poly research scholar Giovanni Polverino, Porfiri designed an experiment to examine the interplay of visual cues and flow cueschanges in the water current as a result of tail-beat frequencyin triggering a live golden shiner fish to either approach or ignore a robotic fish.

They designed and built two robotic fish analogous to live golden shiners in aspect ratio, size, shape, and locomotion pattern. However, one was painted with the natural colors of the golden shiner, the other with a palette not seen in the species. The researchers affixed each robot to the inside of a water tunnel, introduced a live golden shiner fish, and observed its interactions with the robot. While the robot's position remained static, the researchers experimented with several different tail-beat frequencies.

"When the fish encountered a robot that mimicked both the coloration and mean tail-beat frequency for the species, it was likeliest to spend the most time in the nearest proximity to it," Porfiri said. "The more closely the robot came to approximating a fellow golden shiner, the likelier the fish was to treat it like one, including swimming at the same depth behind the robot, which yields a hydrodynamic advantage," he explained.

While flow cues created by tail-beat frequency proved to be a critical trigger for shoaling behavior, coloration proved slightly dominant. "Even at tail-beat frequencies that were less than optimal for the live fish, the shiners were always more drawn to the naturally colored robot," Porfiri added.

Robot speed and body movement were the main focus of another study, also published in PLOS ONE, in which Porfiri teamed with NYU-Poly postdoctoral fellow Sachit Butail and graduate student Tiziana Bartolini. This time, the subject was the zebrafish, and the robot was a free-swimming unit with the coloration, size, aspect ratio, and fin shape of a fertile female member of the species.

The researchers placed the robot in a shared tank with shoals of live zebrafish, aiming to determine if the fish would perceive the robot as a predator, and whether visual cues from the robot could be used to modulate the fishes' social behavior and activity. The team used a remote control to drive the robot in a circular swimming pattern, while varying its tail-beat frequency. For comparison purposes, they also exposed the fish to the robot in a fixed position, beating its tail.

Experiments showed that while the zebrafish clearly did not perceive the swimming robot as one of their ownthey maintained greater distance from the robot than they did to each otherthe robot was still an effective stimulus for modulating their social behavior.

When the robot was held still in the tank, the live fish showed high group cohesion, along with a strong polarizationmeaning the fish were likely to be close to each other and oriented in the same direction. As the robot's tail-beat frequency increased, it had a profound impact on the group's collective behavior, causing a spike in the cohesion and a small but detectable decrease in polarizationthe fish largely milled together and even matched their speeds to that of the robot as it reached a certain tail-beat frequency.

"This shows us that the fish are responding to more than one stimulusit's not just the flow cues, it's the combination of visual and flow cues that influence the collective response," Porfiri said.

Porfiri is a leading researcher in the field of ethoroboticsthe study of robot-animal interaction. Studies like these advance multiple areas of science, including the development of an experimental animal model based on lower-order species such as fish, with robots providing a consistent, infinitely reproducible stimulus. The use of robots to influence collective animal behavior is also viewed as a potential means to protect marine wildlife, including birds and fish, in the wake of environmental hazard.

###

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Mitsui USA Foundation.

The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, and will become its School of Engineering in January 2014. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/pion-tsi103113.php
Tags: X Men Days Of Future Past   charlie hunnam   Malala Yousafzai   Costa Concordia   Theresa Vail  

Pumpkins replace politics at White House Halloween

WASHINGTON (AP) — Finally, the White House has pulled off a successful web launch.

Ghastly webs with giant black spiders adorned an orange-hued White House on Thursday, slithering down from the Truman Balcony along the South Portico, where haystacks and nearly 200 pumpkins dotted the lawn for the annual White House Halloween event.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, clad in orange and black, emerged in the evening to greet the zombies, wizards and superheroes waiting diligently to hear the president's response to an eerie query: Trick or treat?

It was treats — thousands of packages of jelly beans, dried fruit and White House Sweet Dough Butter Cookies — that the president and Mrs. Obama handed children as they walked across the South Lawn, past stilt-walkers, jugglers and a giant, transparent bubble housing Glinda the Good Witch, who brandished her magic wand in true Wizard-of-Oz fashion.

Fog billowed across the lawn, obscuring the Washington Monument in the distance as children and their parents mingled with White House staffers dressed as football players, vampires and princesses. A brass band of white-faced skeletons set the mood with creepy Halloween tunes, dancing as they played alongside a family of ghosts camped out near the area where the president's helicopter normally lifts off.

Even the president's dogs donned costumes — no, not the real Sunny and Bo, but topiaries carved from ribbons and pipe cleaners and dressed up, Bo as a pirate and Sunny as a sunflower.

The festivities marked the return of a favorite annual tradition at the White House that had to be scrapped last year. After three straight years of passing out goodies, rain or shine, Obama and the first lady canceled the event last year because of Superstorm Sandy, which had walloped the East Coast earlier in the week.

More than 5,000 people took part in this year's event, the White House said.

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

• Arts & Entertainment
• White House
• President Barack Obama
• Michelle Obama

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pumpkins-replace-politics-white-house-halloween-223031870.html
Category: Obama impeachment   fox news   obama speech   Arsenal   big brother spoilers  

Scientists capture most detailed picture yet of key AIDS protein

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31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Sarah Smith
sas2072@med.cornell.edu
646-317-7401
Weill Cornell Medical College

Finding represents a scientific feat and progress towards an HIV vaccine

NEW YORK (October 31, 2013) -- Collaborating scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and Weill Cornell Medical College have determined the first atomic-level structure of the tripartite HIV envelope protein -- long considered one of the most difficult targets in structural biology and of great value for medical science.

The new data provide the most detailed picture yet of the AIDS-causing virus's complex envelope, including sites that future vaccines will try to mimic to elicit a protective immune response.

"Most of the prior structural studies of this envelope complex focused on individual subunits, but we've needed the structure of the full complex to properly define the sites of vulnerability that could be targeted, for example with a vaccine," said Dr. Ian A. Wilson, the Hansen Professor of Structural Biology at TSRI and a senior author of the new research with biologists Drs. Andrew Ward and Bridget Carragher of TSRI and virologist and immunologist Dr. John Moore of Weill Cornell.

The findings were published in two papers in Science Express, the early online edition of the journal Science, on October 31, 2013.

A Difficult Target

HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, infects about 34 million people globally, 10 percent of whom are children, according to World Health Organization estimates. Although antiviral drugs are now used to manage many HIV infections, especially in developed countries, scientists have long sought a vaccine that can prevent new infections and would help perhaps to ultimately eradicate the virus from the human population.

However, none of the HIV vaccines tested so far has come close to providing adequate protection. This failure is due largely to the challenges posed by HIV's envelope protein, known to virologists as Env.

HIV's Env is not a single, simple protein but rather a "trimer" made of three identical, loosely connected structures with a stalk-like subunit, gp41, and a cap-like region, gp120. Each trimer resembles a mushroom and about 15 of these Env trimers sprout from the membrane of a typical virus particle, ready to latch onto susceptible human cells and facilitate viral entry.

Although Env in principle is exposed to the immune system, in practice it has evolved highly effective strategies for evading immune attack. It frequently mutates its outermost "variable loop" regions, for example, and also coats its surfaces with hard-to-grip sugar molecules called glycans.

Even so, HIV vaccine designers might have succeeded by now had they been able to study the structure of the entire Env protein at atomic-scale--in particular, to fully characterize the sites where the most effective virus-neutralizing antibodies bind. But Env's structure is so complex and delicate that scientists have had great difficulty obtaining the protein in a form that is suitable for atomic-resolution imaging.

"It tends to fall apart, for example, even when it's on the surface of the virus, so to study it we have to engineer it to be more stable," said Dr. Ward, who is an assistant professor in TSRI's Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology.
The key goal in this area has been to engineer a version of the Env trimer that has the stability and other properties needed for atomic-resolution imaging, yet retains virtually all of the complex structural characteristics of native Env.

Imaging Env

After many years in pursuit of this goal, Drs. Moore, Rogier W. Sanders and their colleagues at Weill Cornell, working with Drs. Wilson, Ward and others at TSRI, recently managed to produce a version of the Env trimer (called BG505 SOSIP.664 gp140) that is suitable for atomic-level imaging work--and includes all of the trimer structure that normally sits outside the viral membrane. The TSRI researchers then evaluated the new Env trimer using advanced versions of two imaging methods, X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy. The X-ray crystallography study was the first ever of an Env trimer, and both methods resolved the trimer structure to a finer level of detail than has been reported before.

"The new data are consistent with the findings on Env subunits over the last 15 years, but also have enabled us to explain many prior observations about HIV in structural terms for the first time," said Dr. Jean-Philippe Julien, a senior research associate in the Wilson laboratory at TSRI, who was first author of the X-ray crystallography study.

The data illuminated the complex process by which the Env trimer assembles and later undergoes radical shape changes during infection and clarified how it compares to envelope proteins on other dangerous viruses, such as flu and Ebola.

Arguably the most important implications of the new findings are for HIV vaccine design. In both of the new studies, Env trimers were imaged while bound to broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV. Such antibodies, isolated from naturally infected patients, are the very rare ones that somehow bind to Env in a way that blocks the infectivity of a high proportion of HIV strains.

Ideally an HIV vaccine would elicit large numbers of such antibodies from patients, and to achieve that, vaccine designers would like to know the precise structural details of the sites where these antibodies bind to the virus--so that they can mimic those viral "epitopes" with the vaccine.

"It's been a privilege for us to work with the Scripps' team on this project," said Dr. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell. "Now we all need to harness this new knowledge to design and test next-generation trimers and see if we can induce the broadly active neutralizing antibodies that an effective vaccine is going to need."

"One surprise from this study was the revelation of the complexity and the relative inaccessibility of these neutralizing epitopes," Dr. Julien added. "It helps to know this for future vaccine design, but it also makes it clear why previous structure-based HIV vaccines have had so little success."

"We found that these neutralizing epitopes encompass features such as the variable loop regions and glycans that were excluded from previous studies of individual Env subunits," said Dmitry Lyumkis, first author of the electron microscopy study, who is a graduate student at TSRI participating in the NIH-funded National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy. "We observed, too, that neutralizing antibody binding to gp120 can be influenced by the neighboring gp120 structure within the trimer--another complication that was not apparent when we were not studying the whole trimer."

Having provided these valuable structural insights, the new Env trimer is now being put to work in vaccine development. "We and others are already injecting the trimer into animals to elicit antibodies," Dr. Ward said. "We can look at the antibodies that are generated and if necessary modify the Env trimer structure and try again. In this iterative way, we aim to refine and increase the antibody response in the animals and eventually, humans."

###

Other contributors to the studies, "Cryo-EM structure of a fully glycosylated soluble cleaved HIV-1 Env trimer," and "Crystal structure of a soluble cleaved HIV-1 envelope trimer in complex with a glycan-dependent broadly neutralizing antibody," included TSRI's Natalia de Val, Devin Sok, Drs. Robyn L. Stanfield and Marc C. Deller; and Weill Cornell Medical College's Albert Cupo and Dr. Per-Johan Klasse. In addition to Drs. Wilson, Ward and Carragher, senior participants at TSRI included Drs. Clinton S. Potter and Dennis Burton.

The research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (HIVRAD P01 AI82362, R01 AI36082, R01 AI084817, R37 AI36082, R01 AI33292), the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM103310) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Neutralizing Antibody Consortium. IAVI has filed a patent that includes WCMC and TSRI authors on the development of the BG505 SOSIP.664 trimers as vaccine antigens.

Weill Cornell Medical College

Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with Houston Methodist. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.

Office of External Affairs

Weill Cornell Medical College

tel: 646.317.7401

email: pr@med.cornell.edu

Follow WCMC on Twitter and Facebook

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

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

[


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]


Share

Contact: Sarah Smith
sas2072@med.cornell.edu
646-317-7401
Weill Cornell Medical College

Finding represents a scientific feat and progress towards an HIV vaccine

NEW YORK (October 31, 2013) -- Collaborating scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and Weill Cornell Medical College have determined the first atomic-level structure of the tripartite HIV envelope protein -- long considered one of the most difficult targets in structural biology and of great value for medical science.

The new data provide the most detailed picture yet of the AIDS-causing virus's complex envelope, including sites that future vaccines will try to mimic to elicit a protective immune response.

"Most of the prior structural studies of this envelope complex focused on individual subunits, but we've needed the structure of the full complex to properly define the sites of vulnerability that could be targeted, for example with a vaccine," said Dr. Ian A. Wilson, the Hansen Professor of Structural Biology at TSRI and a senior author of the new research with biologists Drs. Andrew Ward and Bridget Carragher of TSRI and virologist and immunologist Dr. John Moore of Weill Cornell.

The findings were published in two papers in Science Express, the early online edition of the journal Science, on October 31, 2013.

A Difficult Target

HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, infects about 34 million people globally, 10 percent of whom are children, according to World Health Organization estimates. Although antiviral drugs are now used to manage many HIV infections, especially in developed countries, scientists have long sought a vaccine that can prevent new infections and would help perhaps to ultimately eradicate the virus from the human population.

However, none of the HIV vaccines tested so far has come close to providing adequate protection. This failure is due largely to the challenges posed by HIV's envelope protein, known to virologists as Env.

HIV's Env is not a single, simple protein but rather a "trimer" made of three identical, loosely connected structures with a stalk-like subunit, gp41, and a cap-like region, gp120. Each trimer resembles a mushroom and about 15 of these Env trimers sprout from the membrane of a typical virus particle, ready to latch onto susceptible human cells and facilitate viral entry.

Although Env in principle is exposed to the immune system, in practice it has evolved highly effective strategies for evading immune attack. It frequently mutates its outermost "variable loop" regions, for example, and also coats its surfaces with hard-to-grip sugar molecules called glycans.

Even so, HIV vaccine designers might have succeeded by now had they been able to study the structure of the entire Env protein at atomic-scale--in particular, to fully characterize the sites where the most effective virus-neutralizing antibodies bind. But Env's structure is so complex and delicate that scientists have had great difficulty obtaining the protein in a form that is suitable for atomic-resolution imaging.

"It tends to fall apart, for example, even when it's on the surface of the virus, so to study it we have to engineer it to be more stable," said Dr. Ward, who is an assistant professor in TSRI's Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology.
The key goal in this area has been to engineer a version of the Env trimer that has the stability and other properties needed for atomic-resolution imaging, yet retains virtually all of the complex structural characteristics of native Env.

Imaging Env

After many years in pursuit of this goal, Drs. Moore, Rogier W. Sanders and their colleagues at Weill Cornell, working with Drs. Wilson, Ward and others at TSRI, recently managed to produce a version of the Env trimer (called BG505 SOSIP.664 gp140) that is suitable for atomic-level imaging work--and includes all of the trimer structure that normally sits outside the viral membrane. The TSRI researchers then evaluated the new Env trimer using advanced versions of two imaging methods, X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy. The X-ray crystallography study was the first ever of an Env trimer, and both methods resolved the trimer structure to a finer level of detail than has been reported before.

"The new data are consistent with the findings on Env subunits over the last 15 years, but also have enabled us to explain many prior observations about HIV in structural terms for the first time," said Dr. Jean-Philippe Julien, a senior research associate in the Wilson laboratory at TSRI, who was first author of the X-ray crystallography study.

The data illuminated the complex process by which the Env trimer assembles and later undergoes radical shape changes during infection and clarified how it compares to envelope proteins on other dangerous viruses, such as flu and Ebola.

Arguably the most important implications of the new findings are for HIV vaccine design. In both of the new studies, Env trimers were imaged while bound to broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV. Such antibodies, isolated from naturally infected patients, are the very rare ones that somehow bind to Env in a way that blocks the infectivity of a high proportion of HIV strains.

Ideally an HIV vaccine would elicit large numbers of such antibodies from patients, and to achieve that, vaccine designers would like to know the precise structural details of the sites where these antibodies bind to the virus--so that they can mimic those viral "epitopes" with the vaccine.

"It's been a privilege for us to work with the Scripps' team on this project," said Dr. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell. "Now we all need to harness this new knowledge to design and test next-generation trimers and see if we can induce the broadly active neutralizing antibodies that an effective vaccine is going to need."

"One surprise from this study was the revelation of the complexity and the relative inaccessibility of these neutralizing epitopes," Dr. Julien added. "It helps to know this for future vaccine design, but it also makes it clear why previous structure-based HIV vaccines have had so little success."

"We found that these neutralizing epitopes encompass features such as the variable loop regions and glycans that were excluded from previous studies of individual Env subunits," said Dmitry Lyumkis, first author of the electron microscopy study, who is a graduate student at TSRI participating in the NIH-funded National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy. "We observed, too, that neutralizing antibody binding to gp120 can be influenced by the neighboring gp120 structure within the trimer--another complication that was not apparent when we were not studying the whole trimer."

Having provided these valuable structural insights, the new Env trimer is now being put to work in vaccine development. "We and others are already injecting the trimer into animals to elicit antibodies," Dr. Ward said. "We can look at the antibodies that are generated and if necessary modify the Env trimer structure and try again. In this iterative way, we aim to refine and increase the antibody response in the animals and eventually, humans."

###

Other contributors to the studies, "Cryo-EM structure of a fully glycosylated soluble cleaved HIV-1 Env trimer," and "Crystal structure of a soluble cleaved HIV-1 envelope trimer in complex with a glycan-dependent broadly neutralizing antibody," included TSRI's Natalia de Val, Devin Sok, Drs. Robyn L. Stanfield and Marc C. Deller; and Weill Cornell Medical College's Albert Cupo and Dr. Per-Johan Klasse. In addition to Drs. Wilson, Ward and Carragher, senior participants at TSRI included Drs. Clinton S. Potter and Dennis Burton.

The research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (HIVRAD P01 AI82362, R01 AI36082, R01 AI084817, R37 AI36082, R01 AI33292), the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM103310) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Neutralizing Antibody Consortium. IAVI has filed a patent that includes WCMC and TSRI authors on the development of the BG505 SOSIP.664 trimers as vaccine antigens.

Weill Cornell Medical College

Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with Houston Methodist. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.

Office of External Affairs

Weill Cornell Medical College

tel: 646.317.7401

email: pr@med.cornell.edu

Follow WCMC on Twitter and Facebook

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/wcmc-scm103113.php
Tags: penn state   Dylan Penn   thursday night football   september 11   megyn kelly  

The Best Eneloops, Get Paid To Download Apps, $20 Logitech [Deals]

These aren't just any rechargeable batteries from the best brand of rechargeable batteries, these are the Eneloop XX AA 2500mAh rechargeables- the best of the best. Any more Xs in there and we'd have to card you. Lowest price ever, look like a prop from X-Men, regenerate like Wolverine. [Amazon]

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ls5grO7Vi0w/the-best-eneloops-get-paid-to-download-apps-20-logit-1456056458
Related Topics: michigan football   glee   survivor   Nothing Was The Same Leak   Jack Nicholson  

ONE FC 12 set for November 15

Asia’s preeminent MMA promotion, ONE FC, will return to action on November 15 at the Stadium Putra in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for ONE FC 12. The fight card will be headlined by an inaugural welterweight title fight between Adam Kayoom and Nobutatsu Suzuki. The lineup will also feature the Malaysian featherweight final between A.J. Lias Mansor and Melvin Yeoh.

CEO of ONE FC Victor Cui stated, “MMA fans in Malaysia are about to be blown away by this fight card! It is stacked with the most exciting fighters from start to finish. I can’t tell you how excited I am that Malaysia has produced such elite talent and now they get to showcase their skills on the world stage on 15 November.”

ONE FC 12 will air live via online pay-per-view in the United States for $9.99 with the first two undercard bouts airing for free.

ONE FC 12 Fight Card:

• Inaugural Welterweight Title: Adam Kayoom vs. Nobutatsu Suzuki


• Malaysian Featherweight Final: A.J. Lias Mansor vs. Melvin Yeoh


• Gianni Subba vs. Chen Yun Ting


• Nik Harris vs. Zuli Silawanto


• Steven Durr vs. Samir Mrabet

Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/95601/one-fc-12-set-for-november-15/
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Google announces the Nexus 5 with Android 4.4, on sale today for $349 (hands-on)

It's about time. The Google-backed and LG-manufactured Nexus 5 is now really a reality, after countless rumors and leaks (a few of them coming from Google itself). The new device, which predictably boasts the latest and greatest version of Android known as KitKat (or 4.4, if you're so inclined), ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/GmurxsZkcQU/
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Pizza perfect! A nutritional overhaul of 'junk food' and ready-meals is possible

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Stuart Forsyth
stuart.forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk
44-141-330-4831
University of Glasgow

Pizza is widely regarded as a fully-paid up member of the junk food gang maybe even the leader at least the versions found on supermarket shelves or delivered to your door by scooter.

Historically, a few humble ingredients: bread, tomatoes and a little cheese, combined to form a traditional, healthy meal, but many of today's pizzas have recruited two dangerous new members to their posse salt and saturated fat.

However, pizzas and many other nutritionally-dubious foods can be made nutritionally ideal: A crowning example of 'health by stealth' according to scientists, who say it is possible to reformulate such foods to achieve public health goals, without upsetting their taste so they remain commercially successful for producers.

Professor Mike Lean, a physician and nutritionist in the School of Medicine at the University of Glasgow, said: "Traditional pizza should be a low-fat meal containing at least one portion of vegetables, so mainly made from ingredients associated with better cardiovascular health.

"However, to enhance shelf-life, commercial pizza recipes today include much more fat and salt than desirable. Until now, nobody has stopped to notice that many essential vitamins and minerals are very low or even completely absent. From a nutrition and health perspective, they are hazardous junk.

"Pizzas are widely consumed and regarded as meals in themselves, and yet their impact on human nutrition does not seem to have been studied."

The team of scientists, which also included Dr Emilie Combet, Amandine Jarlot and Kofi Aidoo of Glasgow Caledonian University, set out to ascertain the nutritional content and quality of contemporary pizzas and to demonstrate that pizza can be reformulated to make it the basis of a fully nutritionally-balanced meal.

A range of new pizza recipes was then developed, each containing 30% of all the nutrients required in a day: in other words, an ideal meal.

A total of 25 Margarita pizzas were analysed. They varied widely in calorie content, ranging from 200 to 562kcal. Few approached the 600kcal energy requirement that would make it a proper meal, so people may tend to eat something extra.

Perhaps surprisingly only six of 25 pizzas tested contained too much total fat (>35% total energy), with eight having too much saturated fat while only two boasting a desirable level (

The amount of sodium in most of the 25 pizzas was substantially over the recommended limit, with nine containing more than 1g per 600kcal serving.

Several pizzas had sodium levels well within the recommended limit but were not advertised as low-salt or low-sodium, indicating that recipes can be modified and remain commercially successful.

To constitute a healthy nutritionally-balanced meal, at least 45% of the energy intake should come from carbohydrates. Only five failed to meet this requirement, due to combined high fat and protein contents.

Vitamin and mineral content information was mostly absent from the packaging, with only five providing this information in detail, and three having basic information. None met the recommended value for iron, vitamin C and vitamin A. One met just the iron requirement and two the vitamin C requirement. Vitamin A requirement was met in four pizzas, and only one met calcium requirements.

Prof Lean said: "Some were really bad. While none of the pizzas tested satisfied all the nutritional requirements, many of the requirements were met in some pizzas, which told us it should be possible to modify the recipes to make them more nutritionally-balanced without impacting on flavour health by stealth, if you like."

To demonstrate how to do it, the researchers joined forces with an industrial food producer to modify a modern pizza recipe: reducing salt, adding whole-wheat flour, adding a small amount of Scottish seaweed to provide flavour, vitamin B12 and fibre, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and iodine, adding red peppers provided extra vitamin C.

The proportions of bread base to Mozzarella cheese was adjusted to correct the carbohydrate/fat/protein ratios and minimize saturated fat content. After cooking, it was finally analysed in the laboratory.

The team put the end result to a taste test with members of the public and both children and adults gave it the thumbs-up for taste and attractiveness.

The world's first nutritionally-balanced pizzas were subsequently marketed by food company Eat Balanced.com, and three flavours are available from various UK supermarkets.

Prof Lean said: "There really is no reason why pizzas and other ready meals should not be nutritionally-balanced. We have shown it can be done with no detriment for taste.

"Promoting 'healthy eating' and nutritional education have had little impact on eating habits or health so far, and taking so-called 'nutritional supplements' makes things worse.

"We can't all make entirely home-made meals, so it's about time that manufacturers took steps to make their products better suited to human biology, and we have shown then how to do it. Rather than sneaking in additives like salt, they could be boasting about healthier ingredients that will benefit consumers."

The study 'Development of a nutritionally-balanced pizza, as a functional meal designed to meet published dietary guidelines', is published in the journal Public Health Nutrition.

###

For more information contact Stuart Forsyth in the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 4831 or email stuart.forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

The study was supported by a 'First Step Award' (funding from the University of Glasgow and the Scottish Government) between the University of Glasgow and the industrial partner Eat Balanced Ltd. The authors wish to thank Fiona Alexander, UKAS research technician at Glasgow Caledonian University, and the input of Cosmo Tamburro at Cosmo Products Ltd. Posteriori to this project, ML has acted as scientific advisor for Eat Balanced Ltd and received a consultancy fee from the company.

---

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

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

[


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]


Share

Contact: Stuart Forsyth
stuart.forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk
44-141-330-4831
University of Glasgow

Pizza is widely regarded as a fully-paid up member of the junk food gang maybe even the leader at least the versions found on supermarket shelves or delivered to your door by scooter.

Historically, a few humble ingredients: bread, tomatoes and a little cheese, combined to form a traditional, healthy meal, but many of today's pizzas have recruited two dangerous new members to their posse salt and saturated fat.

However, pizzas and many other nutritionally-dubious foods can be made nutritionally ideal: A crowning example of 'health by stealth' according to scientists, who say it is possible to reformulate such foods to achieve public health goals, without upsetting their taste so they remain commercially successful for producers.

Professor Mike Lean, a physician and nutritionist in the School of Medicine at the University of Glasgow, said: "Traditional pizza should be a low-fat meal containing at least one portion of vegetables, so mainly made from ingredients associated with better cardiovascular health.

"However, to enhance shelf-life, commercial pizza recipes today include much more fat and salt than desirable. Until now, nobody has stopped to notice that many essential vitamins and minerals are very low or even completely absent. From a nutrition and health perspective, they are hazardous junk.

"Pizzas are widely consumed and regarded as meals in themselves, and yet their impact on human nutrition does not seem to have been studied."

The team of scientists, which also included Dr Emilie Combet, Amandine Jarlot and Kofi Aidoo of Glasgow Caledonian University, set out to ascertain the nutritional content and quality of contemporary pizzas and to demonstrate that pizza can be reformulated to make it the basis of a fully nutritionally-balanced meal.

A range of new pizza recipes was then developed, each containing 30% of all the nutrients required in a day: in other words, an ideal meal.

A total of 25 Margarita pizzas were analysed. They varied widely in calorie content, ranging from 200 to 562kcal. Few approached the 600kcal energy requirement that would make it a proper meal, so people may tend to eat something extra.

Perhaps surprisingly only six of 25 pizzas tested contained too much total fat (>35% total energy), with eight having too much saturated fat while only two boasting a desirable level (

The amount of sodium in most of the 25 pizzas was substantially over the recommended limit, with nine containing more than 1g per 600kcal serving.

Several pizzas had sodium levels well within the recommended limit but were not advertised as low-salt or low-sodium, indicating that recipes can be modified and remain commercially successful.

To constitute a healthy nutritionally-balanced meal, at least 45% of the energy intake should come from carbohydrates. Only five failed to meet this requirement, due to combined high fat and protein contents.

Vitamin and mineral content information was mostly absent from the packaging, with only five providing this information in detail, and three having basic information. None met the recommended value for iron, vitamin C and vitamin A. One met just the iron requirement and two the vitamin C requirement. Vitamin A requirement was met in four pizzas, and only one met calcium requirements.

Prof Lean said: "Some were really bad. While none of the pizzas tested satisfied all the nutritional requirements, many of the requirements were met in some pizzas, which told us it should be possible to modify the recipes to make them more nutritionally-balanced without impacting on flavour health by stealth, if you like."

To demonstrate how to do it, the researchers joined forces with an industrial food producer to modify a modern pizza recipe: reducing salt, adding whole-wheat flour, adding a small amount of Scottish seaweed to provide flavour, vitamin B12 and fibre, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and iodine, adding red peppers provided extra vitamin C.

The proportions of bread base to Mozzarella cheese was adjusted to correct the carbohydrate/fat/protein ratios and minimize saturated fat content. After cooking, it was finally analysed in the laboratory.

The team put the end result to a taste test with members of the public and both children and adults gave it the thumbs-up for taste and attractiveness.

The world's first nutritionally-balanced pizzas were subsequently marketed by food company Eat Balanced.com, and three flavours are available from various UK supermarkets.

Prof Lean said: "There really is no reason why pizzas and other ready meals should not be nutritionally-balanced. We have shown it can be done with no detriment for taste.

"Promoting 'healthy eating' and nutritional education have had little impact on eating habits or health so far, and taking so-called 'nutritional supplements' makes things worse.

"We can't all make entirely home-made meals, so it's about time that manufacturers took steps to make their products better suited to human biology, and we have shown then how to do it. Rather than sneaking in additives like salt, they could be boasting about healthier ingredients that will benefit consumers."

The study 'Development of a nutritionally-balanced pizza, as a functional meal designed to meet published dietary guidelines', is published in the journal Public Health Nutrition.

###

For more information contact Stuart Forsyth in the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 4831 or email stuart.forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

The study was supported by a 'First Step Award' (funding from the University of Glasgow and the Scottish Government) between the University of Glasgow and the industrial partner Eat Balanced Ltd. The authors wish to thank Fiona Alexander, UKAS research technician at Glasgow Caledonian University, and the input of Cosmo Tamburro at Cosmo Products Ltd. Posteriori to this project, ML has acted as scientific advisor for Eat Balanced Ltd and received a consultancy fee from the company.

---

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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/2013-10/uog-pp103113.php
Tags: happy halloween   Nexus 5   us open   Farmers Almanac   Derek Medina  

Egypt Islamists to rally ahead of Morsi's trial

AAA  Oct. 31, 2013 9:17 AM ET
Egypt Islamists to rally ahead of Morsi's trial
AP

FILE - In this Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013 file photo, a poster showing Egyptian Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, center, and former presidents Anwar Sadat, left, and Gamal Abdel-Nasser, right, is taped to an army armored vehicle on a bridge leading to Tahrir Square during celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of Egypt's Oct. 6 crossing of the Suez Canal during the 1973 war with Israel, in Cairo, Egypt. Under President Mohammed Morsi, his Islamist allies pushed through a constitution that alarmed many Egyptians with its new, stronger provisions for implementing Islamic Shariah law and carving out extensive power for the military. Now after Morsi’s ouster, it is the turn of liberal and secular politicians to amend the charter, but they are balking at reversing those changes, caught up in the country’s stormy politics. (AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013 file photo, a poster showing Egyptian Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, center, and former presidents Anwar Sadat, left, and Gamal Abdel-Nasser, right, is taped to an army armored vehicle on a bridge leading to Tahrir Square during celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of Egypt's Oct. 6 crossing of the Suez Canal during the 1973 war with Israel, in Cairo, Egypt. Under President Mohammed Morsi, his Islamist allies pushed through a constitution that alarmed many Egyptians with its new, stronger provisions for implementing Islamic Shariah law and carving out extensive power for the military. Now after Morsi’s ouster, it is the turn of liberal and secular politicians to amend the charter, but they are balking at reversing those changes, caught up in the country’s stormy politics. (AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell, File)

Egyptian workers inspect damages after pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters stormed the Al-Azhar Islamic university in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Hours after the arrest of Essam el-Erian, the deputy leader of the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, pro-Muslim Brotherhood student protesters stormed the administrative building of Al-Azhar Islamic university. They smashed windows and equipment while besieging the office of university's chief and other administrators. (AP Photo/Ahmed Abd El Latef, El Shorouk) EGYPT OUT

FILE - In this file photo taken Wednesday, July 3, 2013, military special forces stand guard at a street after Egypt's military chief says the president is replaced by chief justice of constitutional court in Nasser City, Cairo, Egypt. Under President Mohammed Morsi, his Islamist allies pushed through a constitution that alarmed many Egyptians with its new, stronger provisions for implementing Islamic Shariah law and carving out extensive power for the military. Now after Morsi’s ouster, it is the turn of liberal and secular politicians to amend the charter, but they are balking at reversing those changes, caught up in the country’s stormy politics. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-led coalition has called for mass demonstrations across the country starting Friday until the trial of the country's ousted president begins.

The trial of toppled President Mohammed Morsi is set to begin Nov. 4. Morsi, ousted in a July 3 coup, faces charges of inciting murder and violence in connection to deadly clashes outside presidential palace in December.

Some fear the trial will mark a new cycle of turmoil in Egypt. Since the coup, Egypt witnessed one of its worst bloodbaths when security forces violently cleared protest camps in Cairo, leaving hundreds dead and sparked weeks of unrest.

Morsi has been detained in undisclosed military facility since the coup. He has spoken twice to his family by telephone.

Associated Press



Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-31-Egypt/id-5a6ed8239e6e4eb780ccde4a600b0f15
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China, other Asians angry over embassy spy reports

In this photo taken Monday, Dec. 29, 2008, a man digs a trench near a mushroom shaped heating exhaust shaft near the newly constructed US embassy in Beijing, China. China and Southeast Asian governments demanded an explanation from the U.S. and its allies on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013 following media reports that American and Australian embassies in the region were being used as hubs for Washington's secret electronic data collection program. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

In this photo taken Monday, Dec. 29, 2008, a man digs a trench near a mushroom shaped heating exhaust shaft near the newly constructed US embassy in Beijing, China. China and Southeast Asian governments demanded an explanation from the U.S. and its allies on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013 following media reports that American and Australian embassies in the region were being used as hubs for Washington's secret electronic data collection program. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

SYDNEY (AP) — China and Southeast Asian governments demanded an explanation from the U.S. and its allies on Thursday following media reports that American and Australian embassies in the region were being used as hubs for Washington's secret electronic data collection program.

The reports come amid an international outcry over allegations the U.S. has spied on the telephone communications of as many as 35 foreign leaders.

A document from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, published this week by German magazine Der Spiegel, describes a signals intelligence program called "Stateroom" in which U.S., British, Australian and Canadian embassies secretly house surveillance equipment to collect electronic communications. Those countries, along with New Zealand, have an intelligence-sharing agreement known as "Five Eyes."

"China is severely concerned about the reports, and demands a clarification and explanation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Australia's Fairfax media reported Thursday that the Australian embassies involved are in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili in East Timor; and High Commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The Fairfax report, based on the Der Spiegel document and an interview with an anonymous former intelligence officer, said those embassies are being used to intercept phone calls and internet data across Asia.

In a statement, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said his government "cannot accept and strongly protests the news of the existence of wiretapping facilities at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta."

"It should be emphasized that if confirmed, such action is not only a breach of security, but also a serious breach of diplomatic norms and ethics, and certainly not in tune with the spirit of friendly relations between nations," he said.

The Snowden document said the surveillance equipment is concealed, including antennas that are "sometimes hidden in false architectural features or roof maintenance sheds."

Des Ball, a top Australian intelligence expert, told The Associated Press he had personally seen covert antennas in five of the embassies named in the Fairfax report.

He declined to go into further detail or specify which embassies those were. But Ball said what Der Spiegel has revealed is hardly surprising or uncommon. Many countries have routinely used embassies as bases to covertly listen in on phone calls, and reports of such surveillance have been public for decades, he said.

"We use embassies to pick up stuff that we can't pick up from ground stations here in Australia — and lots of countries do that," said Ball, a professor with the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

According to the Snowden document, the spying sites are small in size and staff. "They are covert, and their true mission is not known by the majority of the diplomatic staff at the facility where they are assigned," it said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment on the reports. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said only that the government had not broken any laws.

"Every Australian governmental agency, every Australian official, at home and abroad, operates in accordance with the law," Abbott told reporters. "And that's the assurance that I can give people."

Still, there was predictable outrage in the countries named in the document.

Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said his government viewed the allegations as a serious matter and would investigate whether the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur was being used for spying. The country's opposition party issued a statement Thursday urging the Malaysian government to lodge a protest with both the U.S. and Australian embassies.

Thailand's National Security Council Secretary-General, Lt. Gen. Paradorn Pattanathabutr, said the government told the U.S. that spying was a crime under Thai laws, and that Thailand would not cooperate if asked to help eavesdrop.

Asked about the Australian embassy allegations, he said Australians are not capable of doing such sophisticated surveillance work.

"When it comes to technology and mechanics, the U.S. is more resourceful and more advanced than Australia," he said. "So I can say that it is not true that the Australian embassy will be used as a communications hub for spying."

___

Associated Press writers Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur and researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-31-Asia-US-Spying/id-4fed2ce3688c4b3191aa38b2ec1e1877
Category: james taylor   Pretty Little Liars   Steam Controller   michael beasley   fox sports  

French president's chef says adieu

PARIS (AP) — France's presidential chef is retiring after four decades of culinary service, having fed five French presidents and peppered the steaks tartare of some of the world's most powerful leaders.

Bernard Vaussion, 60, was filled with emotion while cooking his last lunch for the President Francois Hollande on Thursday at the Elysee Palace. The farewell meal included raspberry millefeuille, a rich pastry. Hollande has a well-known sweet tooth and has been mocked for his portly figure.

"It's easy to work with Francois Hollande. There are not many things that he doesn't like. He's somebody who loves eating," said Vaussion.

He said that over the years the most important skill for the job — besides cooking — was the ability to adapt to the tastes of each French leader.

Francois Mitterrand loved seafood. Jacques Chirac preferred snails and sauerkraut. More recently, Nicolas Sarkozy caused a stink by rejecting French gastronomy and asked Vaussion to serve him a healthier menu based on fish, vegetables and salad. Sarkozy also drinks no wine — a revelation that initially caused controversy and offended Gallic pride.

France is one country where food and drink get political.

Sarkozy also said "non" to cheese and only allowed it on the menu during visits to Paris from a well-known cheese fan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Vaussion noted that Hollande, Sarkozy's successor, was his polar opposite in food as well as in politics.

Hollande is a hearty eater who enjoys gastronomy as an art of living. Cheese is, of course, back on the table, which may be one reason Hollande has visibly gained weight since his May 2012 election.

But the leadership is not the only cause of change.

France's economic crisis has taken its toll on the Palace menu, as the kitchen tries to cut expenses.

"Some luxury foods have disappeared from the menu, such as truffles and lobster," said Vaussion.

But the Elysee kitchen remains a place of note.

Underground and the size of two tennis courts, the famed kitchen is home to hundreds of copper pots that hark back to the time of 19th-century King Louis Philippe, France's last monarch. They're still in use.

As Vaussion retires, he will take with him insider information about the tastes of the famous. An example? Queen Elizabeth II loves foie gras.

__

Thomas Adamson contributed to this report

• Francois Hollande
• Elysee Palace
• Nicolas Sarkozy

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-presidents-chef-says-adieu-170013072.html
Tags: tesla   Teyana Taylor   Claire Danes   Daft Punk   indicted  

“Today Show” Throws Back to the 1980s and 90s for Halloween Edition

Ratings wars are fierce between network morning shows, and the “Today” hosts pulled out all the stops with their Halloween costume selections.

Matt Lauer donned a red swimsuit for his Pamela Anderson “Baywatch” impersonation with Carmen Electra and a David Hasselhoff-dressed Willie Geist, while Carson Daly teamed up with legendary actor Erik Estrada for some “Chips” action.

Always a ham, Al Roker got out his gold chains and cut-off camo top to play Mr. T, and Savannah Guthrie and Natalie Morales dressed as Laverne and Shirley.

And never ones to be left out of the fun, Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford also partnered for their costumes, playing Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/today-show/%E2%80%9Ctoday-show%E2%80%9D-throws-back-1980s-and-90s-halloween-edition-1074433
Similar Articles: Daylight Savings Time 2013   Pumpkin Carving Ideas   castle   Demi Lovato   Sean Sasser  

Lou Reed, iconic punk-poet, dead at 71

FILE - In this Jan. 17, 1996 file photo, Lou Reed takes the podium as the Velvet Underground, the group he once headed, is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony in New York s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Band mate John Cale is at left, and at right is Martha Morrison, accepting for late band member Sterling Morrison. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 17, 1996 file photo, Lou Reed takes the podium as the Velvet Underground, the group he once headed, is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony in New York s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Band mate John Cale is at left, and at right is Martha Morrison, accepting for late band member Sterling Morrison. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - In a Wednesday, Jan. 17, 1996 file photo, members of the band the Velvet Underground, from left, Maureen Tucker; Martha Morrison, attending for her late husband, Sterling Morrison; John Cale and Lou Reed pose backstage after their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/Joe Tabacca, File)

FILE - In a June 24, 2003 file photo, music icon Lou Reed has his hands imprinted as supporters cheer in the background as he is inducted into Hollywood's Rockwalk, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71.(AP Photo/Ric Francis, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009 file photo, Lou Reed performs at the Lollapalooza music festival, in Chicago. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/John Smierciak, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Lou Reed, the punk poet of rock n' roll who profoundly influenced generations of musicians as leader of the Velvet Underground and remained a vital solo performer for decades after, died Sunday age 71.

Reed died in Southampton, N.Y. of an ailment related to his recent liver transplant, according to his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, who added that Reed had been in frail health for months. Reed shared a home in Southampton with his wife and fellow musician, Laurie Anderson, whom he married in 2008.

Reed never approached the commercial success of such superstars as the Beatles and Bob Dylan, but no songwriter to emerge after Dylan so radically expanded the territory of rock lyrics. And no band did more than the Velvet Underground to open rock music to the avant-garde — to experimental theater, art, literature and film, to William Burroughs and Kurt Weill, to John Cage and Andy Warhol, Reed's early patron.

Indie rock essentially begins in the 1960s with Reed and the Velvets; the punk, New Wave and alternative rock movements of the 1970s, '80s and '90s were all indebted to Reed, whose songs were covered by R.E.M., Nirvana, Patti Smith and countless others.

"The first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years," Brian Eno, who produced albums by Roxy Music and Talking Heads among others, once said. "I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!"

Reed's trademarks were a monotone of surprising emotional range and power; slashing, grinding guitar; and lyrics that were complex, yet conversational, designed to make you feel as if Reed were seated next to you. Known for his cold stare and gaunt features, he was a cynic and a seeker who seemed to embody downtown Manhattan culture of the 1960s and '70s and was as essential a New York artist as Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen. Reed's New York was a jaded city of drag queens, drug addicts and violence, but it was also as wondrous as any Allen comedy, with so many of Reed's songs explorations of right and wrong and quests for transcendence.

He had one top 20 hit, "Walk On the Wild Side," and many other songs that became standards among his admirers, from "Heroin" and "Sweet Jane" to "Pale Blue Eyes" and "All Tomorrow's Parties." Raised on doo-wop and Carl Perkins, Delmore Schwartz and the Beats, Reed helped shape the punk ethos of raw power, the alternative rock ethos of irony and droning music and the art-rock embrace of experimentation, whether the dual readings of Beat-influenced verse for "Murder Mystery," or, like a passage out of Burroughs' "Naked Lunch," the orgy of guns, drugs and oral sex on the Velvets' 15-minute "Sister Ray."

An outlaw in his early years, Reed would eventually perform at the White House, have his writing published in The New Yorker, be featured by PBS in an "American Masters" documentary and win a Grammy in 1999 for Best Long Form Music Video. The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 1996 and their landmark debut album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico," was added to the Library of Congress' registry in 2006.

Reed called one song "Growing Up in Public" and his career was an ongoing exhibit of how any subject could be set to rock music — the death of a parent ("Standing On Ceremony), AIDS ("The Halloween Parade"), some favorite movies and plays ("Doin' the Things That We Want To"), racism ("I Want to be Black"), the electroshock therapy he received as a teen ("Kill Your Sons").

Reviewing Reed's 1989 topical album "New York," Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that "the pleasure of the lyrics is mostly tone and delivery — plus the impulse they validate, their affirmation that you can write songs about this stuff. Protesting, elegizing, carping, waxing sarcastic, forcing jokes, stating facts, garbling what he just read in the Times, free-associating to doomsday, Lou carries on a New York conversation — all that's missing is a disquisition on real estate."

He was one of rock's archetypal tough guys, but he grew up middle class — an accountant's son raised on Long Island. Reed was born to be a suburban dropout. He hated school, loved rock n' roll, fought with his parents and attacked them in song for forcing him to undergo electroshock therapy as a supposed "cure" for being bisexual. "Families that live out in the suburbs often make each other cry," he later wrote.

His real break began in college. At Syracuse University, he studied under Schwartz, whom Reed would call the first "great man" he ever encountered. He credited Schwartz with making him want to become a writer and to express himself in the most concrete language possible. Reed honored his mentor in the song "My House," recounting how he connected with the spirit of the late, mad poet through a Oiuja board. "Blazing stood the proud and regal name Delmore," he sang.

Reed moved to New York City after college and traveled in the pop and art worlds, working as a house songwriter at the low-budget Pickwick Records and putting in late hours in downtown clubs. One of his Pickwick songs, the dance parody "The Ostrich," was considered commercial enough to record. Fellow studio musicians included a Welsh-born viola player, John Cale, with whom Reed soon performed in such makeshift groups as the Warlocks and the Primitives.

They were joined by a friend of Reed's from Syracuse, guitarist-bassist Sterling Morrison; and by an acquaintance of Morrison's, drummer Maureen Tucker, who tapped out simple, hypnotic rhythms while playing standing up. They renamed themselves the Velvet Underground after a Michael Leigh book about the sexual subculture. By the mid-1960s, they were rehearsing at Warhol's "Factory," a meeting ground of art, music, orgies, drug parties and screen tests for films that ended up being projected onto the band while it performed, part of what Warhol called the "Floating Plastic Inevitable."

"Warhol was the great catalyst," Reed told BOMB magazine in 1998. "It all revolved around him. It all happened very much because of him. He was like a swirl, and these things would come into being: Lo and behold multimedia. There it was. No one really thought about it, it was just fun."

Before the Velvets, references to drugs and sex were often brief and indirect, if only to ensure a chance at radio and television play. In 1967, the year of the Velvets' first album, the Rolling Stones were pressured to sing the title of their latest single as "Let's Spend Some Time Together" instead of "Let's Spend the Night Together" when they were performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The Doors fought with Sullivan over the word "higher" from "Light My Fire."

The Velvets said everything other bands were forbidden to say and some things other bands never imagined. Reed wrote some of rock's most explicit lyrics about drugs ("Heroin," ''Waiting for My Man"), sadomasochism ("Venus in Furs") and prostitution ("There She Goes Again"). His love songs were less stories of boy-meets-girl, than ambiguous studies of the heart, like the philosophical games of "Some Kinda Love" or the weary ballad "Pale Blue Eyes," an elegy for an old girlfriend and a confession to a post-breakup fling:

___

It was good what we did yesterday

And I'd do it once again

They fact that you are married

Only proves you're my best friend

But it's truly, truly a sin

___

Away from the Factory, the Velvets and were all too ahead of their time, getting tossed out of clubs or having audience members walk out. The mainstream press, still seeking a handle on the Beatles and the Stones, was thrown entirely by the Velvet Underground. The New York Times at first couldn't find the words, calling the Velvets "Warhol's jazz band" in a January 1966 story and "a combination of rock 'n roll and Egyptian belly-dance music" just days later. The Velvets' appearance in a Warhol film, "More Milk, Yvette," only added to the dismay of Times critic Bosley Crowther.

"Also on the bill is a performance by a group of rock 'n roll singers called the Velvet Underground," Crowther wrote. "They bang away at their electronic equipment, while random movies are thrown on the screen in back of them. When will somebody ennoble Mr. Warhol with an above-ground movie called 'For Crying Out Loud'?"

At Warhol's suggestion, they performed and recorded with the sultry, German-born Nico, a "chanteuse" who sang lead on a handful of songs from their debut album. A storm cloud over 1967's Summer of Love, "The Velvet Underground & Nico" featured a now-iconic Warhol drawing of a (peelable) banana on the cover and proved an uncanny musical extension of Warhol's blank-faced aura. The Velvets juxtaposed childlike melodies with dry, affectless vocals on "Sunday Morning" and "Femme Fatale." On "Heroin," Cale's viola screeched and jumped behind Reed's obliterating junkie's journey, with his sacred vow, "Herrrrrr-o-in, it's my wife, and it's my life," and his cry into the void, "And I guess that I just don't know."

"'Heroin' is the Velvets' masterpiece — seven minutes of excruciating spiritual extremity," wrote critic Ellen Willis. "No other work of art I know about has made the junkie's experience so horrible, so powerful, so appealing; listening to 'Heroin' I feel simultaneously impelled to somehow save this man and to reach for the needle."

Reed made just three more albums with the Velvet Underground before leaving in 1970. Cale was pushed out by Reed in 1968 (they had a long history of animosity) and was replaced by Doug Yule. Their sound turned more accessible, and the final album with Reed, "Loaded," included two upbeat musical anthems, "Rock and Roll" and "Sweet Jane," in which Reed seemed to warn Velvets fans — and himself — that "there's even some evil mothers/Well they're gonna tell you that everything is just dirt."

He lived many lives in the '70s, initially moving back home and working at his father's office, then competing with Keith Richards as the rock star most likely to die. He binged on drugs and alcohol, gained weight, lost even more and was described by critic Lester Bangs as "so transcendently emaciated he had indeed become insectival." Reed simulated shooting heroin during concerts, cursed out journalists and once slugged David Bowie when Bowie suggested he clean up his life.

"Lou Reed is the guy that gave dignity and poetry and rock n' roll to smack, speed, homosexuality, sadomasochism, murder, misogyny, stumblebum passivity, and suicide," wrote Bangs, a dedicated fan and fearless detractor, "and then proceeded to belie all his achievements and return to the mire by turning the whole thing into a monumental bad joke with himself as the woozily insistent Henny Youngman in the center ring, mumbling punch lines that kept losing their punch."

His albums in the '70s were alternately praised as daring experiments or mocked as embarrassing failures, whether the ambitious song suite "Berlin" or the wholly experimental "Metal Machine Music," an hour of electronic feedback. But in the 1980s, he kicked drugs and released a series of acclaimed albums, including "The Blue Mask," ''Legendary Hearts" and "New Sensations."

He played some reunion shows with the Velvet Underground and in 1990 teamed with Cale for "Drella," a spare tribute to Warhol. He continued to receive strong reviews in the 1990s and after for such albums as "Set the Twilight Reeling" and "Ecstasy" and he continued to test new ground, whether a 2002 concept album about Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven," or a 2011 collaboration with Metallica, "Lulu."

Reed fancied dictionary language like "capricious" and "harridan," but he found special magic in the word "bells," sounding from above, "up in the sky," as he sang on the Velvets' "What Goes On." A personal favorite was the title track from a 1979 album, "The Bells." Over a foggy swirl of synthesizers and horns, suggesting a haunted house on skid row, Reed improvised a fairy tale about a stage actor who leaves work late at night and takes in a chiming, urban "Milky Way."

___

It was really not so cute

to play without a parachute

As he stood upon the ledge

Looking out, he thought he saw a brook

And he hollered, 'Look, there are the bells!'

And he sang out, 'Here come the bells!

Here come the bells! Here come the bells!

Here come the bells!'

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-27-Obit-Lou%20Reed/id-8d9f6625af7d48ec8144fe39baee9fe4
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