Friday, March 29, 2013

How diabetes drug delays aging in worms

Mar. 28, 2013 ? A widely prescribed type 2 diabetes drug slows down the aging process by mimicking the effects of dieting, according to a study published today using worms to investigate how the drug works.

Following a calorie-restricted diet has been shown to improve health in later life and extend lifespan in a number of animals, ranging from the simple worm to rhesus monkeys. The type 2 diabetes drug metformin has been found to have similar effects in animals but until now it was not clear exactly how the drug delays the aging process.

Researchers supported by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council looked at the effects of metformin on C. elegans worms that were grown in the presence of E. coli bacteria, a relationship similar to that which humans have with the 'healthy' bacteria in our gut. They found that the worms treated with metformin lived longer only when the E. coli strain they were cultured with was sensitive to the drug.

Dr Filipe Cabreiro from the Institute of Healthy aging at UCL, who led the research, explains: "Overall, treatment with metformin adds up to 6 days of life for the worm which is equivalent to around a third of its normal lifespan. It seems to work by altering metabolism in the bacteria that live in the worm, which in turn limits the nutrients that are available to the worm host and has a similar effect to restricting the diet."

Bacteria living in the gut have an important role in helping the host organism to digest and extract nutrition from food. Defects in gut bacteria have been linked to metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer. It has also been suggested that gut bacteria may have an impact on the aging process, but this is the first study to suggest a mechanism for how this works.

The team used strains of E. coli with defects in genes that are linked to metabolism and tweaked the levels of nutrients available to tease out which metabolic pathways might be affected by the drug. They found that treatment with metformin disrupted the bacteria's ability to metabolise folate, a type of B-vitamin, and methionine, one of the building blocks of proteins. This limits the nutrients that are available to the worm and mimics the effects of dietary restriction to enable the worms to live longer.

However, when they added an excess of sugar to the diet, the team found that the life-extending effects of metformin were cancelled out. As the drug is used as a treatment for diabetes caused by elevated glucose levels in the blood, this finding is particular relevant for understanding how the drug works in people.

Professor David Gems, who directed the study, said: "We don't know from this study whether metformin has any effect on human aging. The more interesting finding is the suggestion that drugs that alter bacteria in the gut could give us a new way of treating or preventing metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes."

Metformin is currently one of the most widely prescribed drugs and the findings should help to inform how it is used in patients.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wellcome Trust, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Filipe Cabreiro, Catherine Au, Kit-Yi Leung, Nuria Vergara-Irigaray, Helena?M. Cochem?, Tahereh Noori, David Weinkove, Eugene Schuster, Nicholas?D.E. Greene, David Gems. Metformin Retards Aging in C.?elegans by Altering Microbial Folate and Methionine Metabolism. Cell, 2013; 153 (1): 228 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.02.035

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/tv-92dVqdys/130328125106.htm

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Shell faces new probe over Alaska drill program

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A fourth government probe is under way into Royal Dutch Shell's mishap-prone 2012 Alaska drilling season, this time for possible violations of international marine environmental rules, a U.S. Coast Guard official said on Wednesday.

The Coast Guard has asked federal prosecutors to consider taking action on possible violations of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) committed in the operations of Shell's Kulluk drillship, said Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo, head of the Coast Guard in Alaska.

Shell, which had planned to drill up to five wells offshore Alaska in 2012 and a similar number this year, has previously said it will pause its Alaska operations to regroup due to complications faced in the harsh northern environment, but it expects to resume drilling next year.

Ostebo said he had commissioned one investigation already launched into the December 31 grounding of the Kulluk and that the Coast Guard has forwarded findings of safety and environmental violations on the Noble Discoverer, Shell's other Alaska drillship, to U.S. prosecutors for possible enforcement action.

"Last week, I also referred a separate Kulluk investigation into potential MARPOL violations from 2012 to the Department of Justice for their review and potential follow-on action," Ostebo said at a field hearing convened by Senator Mark Begich.

Ostebo declined to comment further, with the review pending.

Shell's 2012 drill season had earlier been the subject of a 60-day review by the U.S. Department of Interior that concluded Shell was ill-prepared for Alaska's marine rigors, had not adequately overseen contractors and had committed other lapses.

Pete Slaiby, Shell's vice president for Alaska operations, declined at the hearing to speak about the investigations. He did note that drilling operations - the first in open waters in Alaska's Arctic in 15 years - were completed safely.

Shell had been planning last year to drill up to two wells in the Beaufort Sea, off northern Alaska, and up to three wells in the more remote Chukchi Sea, off northwestern Alaska.

But with equipment failures, permitting problems and sea-ice complications, Shell was only able to drill the top portions of one well in the Chukchi and one well in the Beaufort during the fall open-water season. It then moved its drillships and support vessels out of the Arctic.

The Kulluk, after escaping tow lines crossing the stormy Gulf of Alaska, grounded south of Kodiak Island on December 31. A week later, it was refloated and towed to a nearby bay.

The ship on Wednesday began its voyage to a Singapore shipyard for repairs, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said.

With two rigs out of service, Shell last month said it will pause its Alaska drilling operations in 2013.

It still expects to resume drilling in 2014, and may be joined in the Chukchi Sea by ConocoPhillips, which holds extensive leases in the basin.

Tommy Beaudreau, deputy Interior secretary and director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said ConocoPhillips could face different rules than those imposed on Shell.

Conoco plans to drill from a jackup rig rather than a floating drillship, so safety issues might be different from those with Shell, though regulators plan to be just as strict about the potential for loss of well control, Beaudreau said.

Control at the source is critical in the Arctic because of geographic remoteness, isolation, and sea ice, he said.

"We don't prescribe a one-size-fits-all solution to this issue. But we will be very demanding on this issue," said Beaudreau, who testified by teleconference.

Regulators required Shell to have a special barge with an oil-containment dome to respond to any blowouts. Shell was unable to get the dome and barge working right for 2012, so it was not allowed to drill into hydrocarbon-bearing zones.

(Writing by Braden Reddall; Editing by Tom Hogue)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shell-faces-probe-over-alaska-drill-program-040023973--finance.html

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Records provide new look at Ariz. shooting spree

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2011 file photo, Emergency personnel and Daniel Hernandez, an intern for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, second right, move Giffords after she was shot in the head outside a shopping center in Tucson, Ariz. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investigation of the shooting rampage were released Wednesday, March 27, 2013 marking the public's first glimpse into documents that authorities have kept private since the attack more than two years ago. (AP Photo/James Palka, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2011 file photo, Emergency personnel and Daniel Hernandez, an intern for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, second right, move Giffords after she was shot in the head outside a shopping center in Tucson, Ariz. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investigation of the shooting rampage were released Wednesday, March 27, 2013 marking the public's first glimpse into documents that authorities have kept private since the attack more than two years ago. (AP Photo/James Palka, File)

FILE - This photo released Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, by the U.S. Marshal's Service shows Jared Lee Loughner, who pleaded guilty in the Tucson, Ariz., shooting rampage that killed six people and left several others wounded, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investigation of the shooting were released Wednesday, March 27, 2013 marking the public's first glimpse into documents that authorities have kept private since the attack on Jan. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshal's Office, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2012 file photo, former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was seriously injured in the mass shooting that killed six people in Tucson, Ariz., in January 2011, is aided by her husband, Mark Kelly, as she speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence on Capitol Hill in Washington. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investigation of the shooting were released Wednesday, March 27, 2013 marking the public's first glimpse into documents that authorities have kept private since the attack. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - Emergency personnel attend to a shooting victim outside a shopping center in Tucson, Ariz. in this Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011 file photo taken where U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and others were shot as the congresswoman was meeting with constituents. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investigation of the Tucson shooting rampage that wounded former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords are being released Wednesday, March 27, 2013 marking the public's first glimpse into documents that authorities have kept private since the attack more than two years ago. (AP Photo/James Palka, File)

(AP) ? Documents released Wednesday detailing the shooting of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords show how the gunman had grown increasingly erratic and delusional in the months leading up to the rampage as he alienated friends and family and became paranoid that police were out to get him.

The roughly 2,700 pages included witness and survivor accounts from people who helped save Giffords' life after she was shot in the head outside a Tucson supermarket in 2011 during a meet-and-greet with constituents. Six people were killed and 11 others were wounded.

The files also provide the first glimpse into gunman Jared Lee Loughner's family. His parents have said nothing publicly beyond a brief statement after the attack, but records show they were trying to deal with a son who had grown nearly impossible to communicate with.

"I tried to talk to him. But you can't. He wouldn't let you," his father, Randy Loughner, told police. "Lost, lost and just didn't want to communicate with me no more."

"Sometimes you'd hear him in his room, like, having conversations," said his mother, Amy Loughner. "And sometimes he would look like he was having a conversation with someone right there, be talking to someone. I don't know how to explain it."

Randy Loughner said his 24-year-old son had never been diagnosed with mental illness. Despite recommendations from officials at Pima Community College, which expelled Loughner, that he undergo a mental evaluation, his parents never followed up.

However, Loughner's parents grew worried enough about their son that they drug tested him.

The results were negative, said Amy Loughner, who was particularly worried that her son might have been using methamphetamine.

She said Loughner had told his parents that he had not had a drink of alcohol in five months but that he had tried marijuana and cocaine in the past.

The father said his son kept journals, but they were written in an indecipherable script.

Several weeks before the shooting, Loughner visited Anthony George Kuck, who had known him since preschool. Kuck said he was alarmed to find he had shaved his head and was armed with a handgun.

"I kicked him out of my house because he showed me his gun," Kuck told police, adding that Loughner said he bought it for protection.

"I tried to talk to him about why it's not smart to have a gun," Kuck said. "He obviously didn't listen to me."

Kuck told police he had seen Loughner's mental state deteriorate over time, starting with drinking problems in high school, trouble with authorities and being kicked out of college, noting Loughner had gotten tattoos of bullets and a gun on his shoulder.

"I know he has some crazy thoughts where he ... just believes the government is corrupt, and he has all these assumptions on things, that he doesn't really know what he's talking about," Kuck told investigators.

While he never heard him mention Giffords "he just seemed to have some kind of ... hate for government," Kuck added.

Kuck's roommate, Derek Andrew Heintz, who has known Loughner since he was about 12, said he was cooking when Loughner showed up with a gun and removed it from his belt. It was loaded with 32 rounds.

He asked Loughner why he had the weapon. "There's no need for it here," Heintz told him.

"I just want to show you,'" Loughner replied.

Loughner then left Heintz with a souvenir ? one bullet.

On the day of the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting, a friend, Bryce Tierney, told investigators Loughner called him early in the morning and left a cryptic voice mail that he believed was suicidal.

"He just said, 'Hey, this is Jared. Um, we had some good times together. Uh, see you later.' And that's it," Tierney said.

He recalled for detectives a time when Giffords visited Pima Community College, where the two attended classes together.

Loughner asked her, "What is government and stuff?" Tierney said. "She couldn't give him the answer. ... I feel like he had ... something against Gabrielle Giffords."

Tierney also described Loughner's apparent spiral into madness, saying his behavior was growing strange "in a dark way." He said Loughner would send him text messages that he called "nihilistic ... the belief in nothing."

Onetime Loughner friend Zachary Osler also described the shooter's increasing isolation from his other friends and acquaintances in the years leading up to the shooting.

He explained how he worked at a sporting goods store where Loughner bought the Glock 9 mm handgun used in the shooting. He was questioned about seeing Loughner shopping there, sometime before Thanksgiving, and described his awkward encounter with the man.

"His response is nothing. Just a mute facial expression. And just like he, he didn't care," Osler told authorities.

Osler also told investigators he had grown uncomfortable with Loughner's strange personality.

"He would say he could dream and then control what he was doing while he was dreaming," Osler said.

Still, he said he was shocked to learn Loughner had carried out such an attack.

"And I was like, 'I know this person. Why would he do it? What would his motive be?'" he added, noting that Loughner had never mentioned Giffords in the past.

When he was arrested at the scene, Loughner was wearing peach-colored foam earplugs, authorities wrote in the documents. He was polite and cooperative as detectives began their hours-long initial interview.

As Loughner sat in restraints in an interview room, the conversation was confined mainly to small talk. Little was said over the first four hours. Loughner asked if he could use the restroom, then at one point complained he felt sore.

"I'm about ready to fall over," he said.

Giffords intern Daniel Hernandez described how constituents and others were lining up to see Giffords that morning. He helped people sign in and recalled handing the sheet on a clipboard to Loughner.

"The next thing I hear is someone yell, 'Gun,'" said Hernandez, who rushed to tend to Giffords' gunshot wound to the head.

"She couldn't open her eyes. I tried to get any responses from her. It looked like her left side was the only side that was still mobile," Hernandez told authorities. "She couldn't speak. It was mumbled. She was squeezing my hand."

Hernandez explained how he had some training as a nurse and first checked for a pulse.

"She was still breathing. Her breathing was getting shallower," he said. "I then lifted her up so that she wasn't flat on the ground."

The documents detailing the event and ensuing investigation had been kept private until being released by the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

News organizations seeking the records were repeatedly denied access in the months after the shooting and the arrest of Loughner, who was sentenced in November to seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years, after he pleaded guilty to 19 federal charges.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns cleared the way for the release of the records after Star Publishing Company, which publishes the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, sought their release. The judge said Loughner's fair-trial rights were no longer on the line now that his criminal case has resolved.

Loughner's guilty plea enabled him to avoid the death sentence. He is serving his sentence at a federal prison medical facility in Springfield, Mo., where he was initially diagnosed with schizophrenia and forcibly given psychotropic drug treatments.

Arizona's chief federal judge and a 9-year-old girl were among those killed in the rampage. Giffords was left partially blind, with a paralyzed right arm and brain injury. She resigned from Congress last year and has since started, along with her husband, a gun-control advocacy group.

The Star said it wanted the records because they contain information about how a mass shooting occurs, including how long it took Loughner to fire gunshots ? an issue raised by some advocates in the debate over high-capacity pistol magazines.

Phoenix Newspapers Inc., which publishes The Arizona Republic, and KPNX-TV had joined Star Publishing in the latest effort to get the records released after The Washington Post's initial request was denied in March 2011.

___

Associated Press writers Michael R. Blood and Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-27-US-Congresswoman-Shot-Records/id-78a0c10703834a8c841d598ed03fb583

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Dana White?s latest video blog shows he is a fan of shooting guns, riding motorcycles and apple-picking

With no fight this week, UFC president Dana White released a video blog that shows what he and his "idiot friends" do when visiting his place in Maine. Yes, there's plenty of NSFW language. Take a look and see what White and his friends are up to, including:

1. Talk one friend into trying the spiciest hot sauce ever.
2. Blow things up.
3. Shoot guns while calling each other a nickname for a cat.
4. Apple-picking, though it doesn't look like they're picking honeycrisp apples, the finest of all apple varieties.
5. Milk goats in a way that looks pretty uncomfortable for the goat.
6. Drive motorcycles.

And a little advice for Nick the Tooth. I was once told at an Indian restaurant, after eating very spicy food, that beer or soda pop are your best bets to cool a burning mouth.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/dana-white-latest-video-blog-shows-fan-shooting-164921000--mma.html

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Texas man convicted after husband cleared in wife's 1986 murder

By Monique Ching

(Reuters) - A Texas jury convicted a 58-year-old man on Wednesday in the 1986 murder of a woman near Austin whose husband previously was wrongfully convicted in the case and served 25 years in prison before being exonerated with the help of DNA evidence.

Jurors deliberated for about three hours in San Angelo before finding Mark Alan Norwood guilty of beating Christine Morton to death in bed in her home in Round Rock, north of Austin.

Norwood, from Bastrop, Texas, had been implicated in the case through blood and hair samples from a bandana found near the house the day after the murder.

Norwood was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted but is eligible for parole in 15 years.

The victim's husband, Michael Morton, served a quarter century behind bars before DNA evidence helped clear him in 2011 and connected Norwood to his wife's death.

"I've learned so much, I've been through so much," Michael Morton said after the jury reached its verdict.

Outside the courtroom, Morton embraced Norwood's family while a deputy transported a stoic Norwood to the Tom Green County jail.

Prosecutors made their case by showing similarities between the Morton case and the 1988 beating death of Debra Baker, an Austin woman. Norwood also is charged with murder in her death.

In both cases, the slain woman was found in bed with pillows covering her head. Both received six to eight blows to the head. One expensive item and cash were stolen from each home, but jewelry sitting in plain sight remained untouched.

Texas Department of Public Safety laboratory staff compared Norwood's DNA profile with DNA from a hair found in Baker's bed in 2011 and found him to be a possible candidate.

Norwood's family came to his defense.

"My son, first off, is innocent," said Dorothy Norwood, Mark Norwood's mother. "I know his character. He has had an interesting family life, but he has always been kind."

Connie Hoff, Norwood's sister who lives in California, added, "We understand Michael Morton's journey. Mark is experiencing what Michael went through. History is repeating itself."

The New York-based Innocence Project and Houston lawyer John Raley worked on Morton's behalf to get DNA testing done on the bandana found near the crime scene.

(Editing by Brendan O'Brien and Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-man-convicted-husband-cleared-wifes-1986-murder-025910951.html

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Steve Wozniak, Speaking To The Denver Apple Pi Club In 1984, On College Pranks, Building The Apple I & II, And The Apple Pledge Allegiance

vincepattonvideowoz"I pledge allegiance to the logo of corporate marketing in Cupertino. And to the computers for which it stands: One notion, under Jobs, indispensable, for hardware and software for all." Steve Wozniak, to the Denver Apple Pi Computer Club in 1984. And that video above is just a funny anecdotes. TUAW reader Vince Patton pointed the Apple fan site to 14 insightful videos he uploaded to YouTube of Steve Wozniak talking to the Denver Apple Pi Club in 1984. As TUAW notes, they're a treasure trove of first hand accounts into the formation of Apple, the creation of the Apple I and II, and Woz's college antics.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/g4BxKL00jEo/

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Cool Your Desk with a Pocket-Sized Air Conditioner

Cool Your Desk with a Pocket-Sized Air ConditionerCool Your Desk with a Pocket-Sized Air Conditioner
If your office is running the heater a little higher than you'd like, this DIY personal AC unit can keep you cool.

Weblog Philippine Stuffs shared this genius design based on evaporative cooling. If you've ever stepped out of a shower into a room with a fan, you know how chilling this effect can be. To make your own, just attach an old PC fan to a refrigerator deodorizer, then put a wet sponge inside the container. The fan sucks the warm air through the sponge, and blows the newly-cooled air out the other side. It won't cool an entire room, but if your desk is a little stuffy, this is a cheap way to stay comfortable without bothering coworkers.

Mini desktop aircon | Philippine Stuffs via Hack A Day

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/y33FWCqgRds/cool-your-desk-with-a-pocket+sized-air-conditioner

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