Monday, April 8, 2013

Retinoic acid gradient visualized for the first time in an embryo

Monday, April 8, 2013

In a ground-breaking study, researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan report a new technique that allows them to visualize the distribution of retinoic acid in a live zebrafish embryo, in real-time. This technique enabled them to observe two concentration gradients going in opposing directions along the head-to-tail axis of the embryo, thus providing long-awaited evidence that retinoic acid is a morphogen.

The report, published today in the journal Nature, puts an end to a long-standing debate around the presence of retinoic acid gradients across the vertebrate embryo, during the early stages of development. It also sheds light on the role of retinoic acid in tissue development.

Retinoic acid has been thought to be a morphogen, a signalling molecule that diffuses throughout the embryo switching genes on and off and imparting different cell fates depending on its concentration. However, retinoic acid concentration gradients had never been visualized because retinoic acid cannot be tagged with the commonly used 'green fluorescent protein' GFP, or GFP-like proteins, as label.

"Until now no one had succeeded in monitoring the concentration of retinoic acid in real-time in a live embryo, and there was no direct data proving the existence of a retinoic acid gradient in the vertebrate embryo, explains Dr. Miyawaki, who led the research.

In order to monitor the concentration of retinoic acid in live zebrafish embryos at the early stages of their development, Dr. Miyawaki and his colleague Dr. Shimozono developed a technique to tag the molecule that acts as receptor for retinoic acid with genetically-encoded, coloured fluorophores. Based on the principle of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), the tags allow them to visualize the presence of retinoic acid and quantitatively determine its concentration over time.

By combining this technique with pharmacological and genetic manipulations, Miyawaki and his team demonstrate the presence of two linear retinoic acid concentration gradients across the antero-posterior axis of the embryo, from the trunk area to the head and the tail. Their findings suggest that retinoic acid diffuses quickly, thus establishing stable and robust gradients that are resistant to external perturbations.

"A better understanding of the gradients of retinoic acid is essential for research into the patterns of tissue development. It is necessary if we ever want to control the development of three-dimensional tissue structures from induced pluripotent stem cells, for regenerative medicine for example," concludes Dr. Miyawaki.

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RIKEN: http://www.riken.jp/engn/

Thanks to RIKEN for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127627/Retinoic_acid_gradient_visualized_for_the_first_time_in_an_embryo

Hackers target Israeli government websites

JERUSALEM -- A weekend cyberattack campaign targeting Israeli government websites failed to cause serious disruption, officials said Sunday. The attacks followed warnings in the name of the hacking group Anonymous that it was launching a massive attack.

Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, of the government's National Cyber Bureau, said hackers had mostly failed to shut down key sites.

"So far it is as was expected, there is hardly any real damage," Ben Yisrael said. "Anonymous doesn't have the skills to damage the country's vital infrastructure. And if that was its intention, then it wouldn't have announced the attack ahead of time. It wants to create noise in the media about issues that are close to its heart," he said.

Posters using the name of the hacking group Anonymous had warned they would launch a massive attack on Israeli sites in a strike they called (hash)OpIsrael starting April 7.

Israel's Bureau of Statistics was down on Sunday morning but it was unclear if it was hacked. Media said the sites of the Defense and Education Ministry as well as banks had come under attack the night before but they were mostly repelled.

Israeli sites reported brief cyberattacks on the stock market website and the Finance Ministry website Saturday night. But the two institutions denied the reports.

Israeli media said small businesses had been targeted, and some websites' homepages were replaced by anti-Israel slogans. In retaliation, Israeli activists hacked sites of radical Islamist groups and splashed them with pro-Israel messages, media said.

Shlomi Dolev, an expert on network security and cryptography at Ben Gurion University, said attacks of this kind will likely become more common. "It is a good test for our defense systems and we will know better how to deal with more serious threats in the future," he said.

Dolev said Anonymous had declared on its forums that the main assault would be in the evening. Hackers have had little success in their attempts to take over and change Israeli sites so far and are planning "denial of service" attacks where sites are overwhelmed and communications are hindered.

He said Israel is well prepared to deal with the attacks. "This is a real battle. It is good training for our experts," he said.

Hackers have tried before to topple Israeli sites.

In January last year, a hacker network that claimed to be based in Saudi Arabia paralyzed the websites of Israel's stock exchange and national airline and claimed to have published details of thousands of Israeli credit cards.

A concerted effort to cripple Israeli websites during November fighting in Gaza failed to cause serious disruption. Israel said at the time that protesters barraged Israel with more than 60 million hacking attempts.

An official of the militant Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip praised the current attack. "God bless the minds and the efforts of the soldiers of the electronic battle," Ihab Al- Ghussian, Gaza's chief government spokesman, wrote on his official Facebook page.

Related:

North Korea Twitter, Flickr accounts hacked by Anonymous

Anonymous claims it stole 15,000 user records from North Korea site

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a6be558/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Chackers0Etarget0Eisraeli0Egovernment0Ewebsites0E1B9250A498/story01.htm

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Report: Anti-Semitic incidents surge in 2012

FILE - In this Monday, March 19, 2012 file photo, police officers gather at the site of a shooting where a gunman opened fire in front of a Jewish school in a city in Toulouse, southwestern France. Israeli researchers and Jewish leaders on Sunday reported 30 percent jump in anti-Semitic violence and vandalism last year, topped by a deadly school shooting in France, and expressed alarm about the rise of neo-Nazi parties in Hungary, Greece and other countries. (AP Photo/Bruno Martin, File)

FILE - In this Monday, March 19, 2012 file photo, police officers gather at the site of a shooting where a gunman opened fire in front of a Jewish school in a city in Toulouse, southwestern France. Israeli researchers and Jewish leaders on Sunday reported 30 percent jump in anti-Semitic violence and vandalism last year, topped by a deadly school shooting in France, and expressed alarm about the rise of neo-Nazi parties in Hungary, Greece and other countries. (AP Photo/Bruno Martin, File)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) ? Israeli researchers and Jewish leaders on Sunday reported a 30 percent jump in anti-Semitic violence and vandalism last year, topped by a deadly school shooting in France, and expressed alarm about the rise of far-right parties in Hungary, Greece and other countries.

Following a two-year decline in the figures, the annual report on worldwide anti-Semitic incidents recorded 686 attacks in 34 countries, ranging from physical violence to vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries, compared to 526 in 2011. The report was issued at Tel Aviv University, in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe.

The report linked the March 2012 shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, where an extremist Muslim gunman killed four, to a series of copycat attacks, particularly in France, where physical assaults on Jews almost doubled.

Researchers who presented the report at the university on Sunday said they had also found a direct correlation between the strengthening of extreme right-wing parties in some European countries and high levels of anti-Semitic incidents, as well as attacks on other minorities and immigrants.

They said Europe's economic crisis was fueling the success of parties like Jobbik in Hungary, Golden Dawn in Greece and Svoboda in Ukraine.

Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, called for strong action by the European Union, charging that governments ? particularly Hungary ?were not doing enough to curb these parties' activities and protect minorities.

"Neo-Nazis have been once again legalized in Europe, they are openly sitting in parliaments," said Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress.

Golden Dawn swept into Greece's parliament for the first time in June on an anti-immigrant platform. The party rejects the neo-Nazi label but is fond of Nazi literature and references. In Hungary, a Jobbik lawmaker has called for Jews to be screened as potential security risks. The leader of Ukraine's Svoboda denies his party is anti-Semitic but has repeatedly used derogatory terms to refer to Jews.

The report by the university's Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry found little correlation between the increase of anti-Semitic attacks and Israel's military operation in Gaza in November. While there was a spike in incidents at the time, it was much smaller in number and intensity than the one that followed the Toulouse attack, said Roni Stauber, the chief researcher on the project.

"This shows that the desire to harm Jews is deeply rooted among extremist Muslims and right-wingers, regardless of events in the Middle East," he said.

The release of the report was timed to coincide with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was starting Sunday at sundown.

__

On the net:

http://www.kantorcenter.tau.ac.il/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-07-ML-Israel-Anti-Semitism/id-aadaf0a6847b4183aa51da3cf8d9680a

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Gerard Butler & Madalina Ghenea: Rome Sightseeing Couple!

Gerard Butler and his girlfriend Madalina Ghenea take a romantic stroll on Saturday (April 6) in Rome, Italy.

Earlier in the day, the 43-year-old Scottish actor donned a colorful trench coat while meeting fans at Coin to promote his new flick Olympus Has Fallen.

PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Gerard Butler

?One moment like this makes the whole tour worth it,? Gerry tweeted on the same day, along with a pic. Check out the pic below!

The night before, Gerard and Madalina attended the premiere for Olympus Has Fallen.

15+ pictures inside of Gerard Butler and Madalina Ghenea taking in the sights of Rome?

Like Just Jared on Facebook

Source: http://www.justjared.com/2013/04/06/gerard-butler-madalina-ghenea-rome-sightseeing-couple/

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Wow, Watch This ATM Machine Get Blown to Bits and Pieces By Genius Thieves

If you're looking to steal money from an ATM, what do you do? Try to wheel it to your house and smash it until it opens? Continually rob people who try to take money out of the machine? Hmm, what about just blowing the freaking ATM up to smithereens with explosives. That's what these thieves did. The explosion was insane. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/oghIPEI7g1w/wow-watch-this-atm-machine-get-blown-to-bits-and-pieces-by-genius-thieves

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Monday, April 1, 2013

The importance of minimum viable products and user focus

The importance of minimum viable products and user focus

Michael Jurewitz, former developer tools evangelist at Apple, has been blogging up a storm this week, with two great pieces on two important subjects for developers. First is the idea of minimal viable products, or how much you need to build in order to be able to start selling your current work, and supporting your future work. Jury says:

You need to get your product out the door and into your user's hands. The very act of someone touching and using your product will inherently change what you think you know about it and how you envision people using it. You will change your mind, you will change your plans, and things you used to think were important will melt away and be replaced by other needs and priorities. Having real users is a formative event for a product and one you shouldn't artificially delay.

The second, not unrelated topic is user focus, or understanding how your product will provide a delightful user experience before you type character one on code. Jury again:

Focus on the user. Focus on their life, their problems, and how you are helping them. Put down that database, put down that web server, put down that Core Data model and think. No, this step doesn't involve code. Yes, for many of you this will feel foreign and scary, but focusing on the user is liberating. It frees you from your technical shackles and puts the world in real perspective. Your focus becomes the things that matter, the things that change people's lives. Technology is a hindrance when it doesn't get out of the way. Technology is a hindrance when it becomes the point, as opposed to the human experiences we are trying to improve.

Back in a past life, when I was working in product marketing, I used to think of roadmaps like season arcs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'd seen how Joss Whedon would graph out major character moments and beats on a white board, and I wanted that same sense of story, of major plot points, and of epic final releases that he brought to television.

In entertainment, you have to grab the audience. In software, you have to grab the user. Each major point release has to have something interesting in it, and it all has to build to the next major version number.

You can't and shouldn't blow the whole story in the first episode, and you can't and shouldn't blow all your features in a 1.0 release. You should create interest and get the job done, absolutely, but you should also leave people wanting more. And you should know how your next act, your 2.0 is going to premiere, and build towards it. (That's also how you attract and maintain press attention for your products, of course, because we're simply an extension of audience.)

Go read Jury's articles, then go make some more great stuff.

Sources: Jury, Jury



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/933Y90zWoDo/story01.htm

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Egyptian TV satirist appears before prosecutors

CAIRO (AP) ? A popular television satirist known as Egypt's Jon Stewart has appeared before prosecutors after an arrest warrant was issued against him for allegedly insulting Islam and the country's leader.

Several dozen supporters gathered outside the public prosecutor's office Sunday as Bassem Youssef, the host of the weekly show "ElBernameg" or "The Program," arrived a day after the warrant was first reported in the media.

Government opponents said the warrant against such a high profile figure, known for lampooning President Mohammed Morsi and the new Islamist political class, was an escalation in a campaign to intimidate critics. It followed warrants for five prominent anti-government activists accused of instigating violence.

Youssef tweeted a series of quips from the prosecutor's office. "They asked me the color of my eyes. Really," one read.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egyptian-tv-satirist-appears-prosecutors-101256553.html

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