Fed's Rosengren: further easing "appropriate, necessary"

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 139 - 05.26.2012

Myriam and Brad get 2.0'd: the Engadget Mobile Podcasters go at it as a lean, mean, waterproof duo equipped with 41-megapixel sensors, upgraded globetrotting radios, and bootloaders as free as the wind. What can't they do? is the real question.

Hosts: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Tycho - Coastal Brake (Ghostly International)

00:00:55 - Samsung Galaxy S III review
00:39:10 - Samsung: 'Lawyers didn't design the Galaxy S III'
00:42:13 - Google officially closes deal for Motorola Mobility
00:42:30 - China clears Google acquisition of Motorola, eliminates last barrier to Googorola bliss (update)
00:51:55 - Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE pre-orders begin shipping to eager subs
00:57:34 - Sprint to begin shipping the HTC EVO 4G LTE for arrival 'on or around' May 24th, pre-orders get first dib
00:58:00 - HTC One X for AT&T gets unofficial bootloader unlock
01:27:58 - Facebook Camera hands-on
01:38:50 - Nokia 808 PureView impressions, camera showdown with the iPhone 4S and HTC One S
01:43:00 - The future for Nokia PureView: Possible slimmer models and 'not necessarily a 41MP sensor'
01:45:45 - Panasonic Eluga review
01:52:08 - Verizon purportedly giving DROID 4, RAZR and Rezound 'global' designation via software update (update: confirmed)

Hear the podcast

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 139 - 05.26.2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 May 2012 17:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cancer may require simpler genetic mutations than previously thought

ScienceDaily (May 25, 2012) ? Chromosomal deletions in DNA often involve just one of two gene copies inherited from either parent. But scientists haven't known how a deletion in one gene from one parent, called a "hemizygous" deletion, can contribute to cancer.

A research team led by Stephen Elledge, a professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and his post-doctoral fellow Nicole Solimini, has now provided an answer. The most common hemizygous deletions in cancer, their research shows, involve a variety of tumor suppressing genes called STOP genes (suppressors of tumorigenesis and proliferation) that scatter randomly throughout the genome, but that sometimes cluster in the same place on a chromosome. And these clusters, said Elledge, who is also a professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, tend to be deleted as a group. "Eliminating the cluster gives a bigger bang for the deletion buck," he said.

This finding is especially interesting in light of the two-hit model of cancer formation, which holds that both copies of a recessive gene need to be inactivated to trigger a biological effect. Thus the loss of a single tumor suppressor copy should have little or no influence on tumor cell proliferation because the remaining copy located on the other chromosome is there to pick up the slack.

Elledge's research points to a different hypothesis, namely that STOP genes in a hemizygous deletion aren't recessive but are instead haploinsufficient, meaning that they depend on two copies to function normally. "If a tumor suppressor is haploinsufficient, then a single gene copy lacks the potency needed to fully restrain tumorigenesis," Elledge explained, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. "So by removing clusters of haploinsufficient genes all at once, the cancer cell immediately propels its growth forward without having to wait for the other copies to also be lost."

Angelika Amon, a professor of biology at the Massachusetts of Technology, said she's surprised by the findings. "We've known from a lot of human syndromes that haploinsufficiency is widespread in the development of complex multicellular organisms," she said. "But these data show it's also critical for individual cells and cell proliferation."

The results also offer a different take on the two-hit model in carcinogenesis, Amon said. Being remarkably unstable, cancer cells can delete gene copies at every turn of the corner. If the loss of a single tumor suppressor copy provides no survival advantage for the tumor, then the tumor has no incentive to retain the cell with that deletion. But if the loss of that copy boosts proliferation, then the probability of a second hit later is greatly increased. "So haploinsufficiency is a way for the cancer cell to dramatically accelerate the acquisition of growth beneficial mutations," Amon said.

In other words, all it takes is a 50 percent reduction in gene activity for a cancer cell to grow. "That tells us it's a lot easier to get cancer than we might have hoped," Amon said.

According to Elledge, the number of hemizygotic deletions averages roughly six per tumor, with some tumors -- breast and pancreatic, for instance -- averaging up to ten. Each deletion involves 25 to 40 genes, many of them STOP genes, but also a few GO genes (growth enhancers and oncogenes) that enhance proliferation. That the STOP genes substantially outnumber their GO counterparts is important, Elledge explained, because it means cancer cells can tilt scales toward proliferation without also compromising it at the same time.

"The data reveal a lot of haploinsufficient players that have small effects individually, but large effects in combination," Elledge said. "Unfortunately, it's not easy to see how to take advantage of that chemotherapeutically."

What's important about the results, he emphasized, is that they open up new views on how tumors evolve. Moreso, they underscore the importance of proliferation as a fundamental feature of tumor growth, he added.

The challenge now, Elledge said, will be to find out which of the genes in a recurring deletion are haploinsufficient. "At the moment, we estimate roughly 25 percent," he said. "So these findings could also have important ramifications for other human diseases in addition to cancer."

This work was supported by grants from the NCI/NHGRI funded Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project, from the NIH (U54CA143798) to R.B. and by grants from the NIH, SU2C, and DOD.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard Medical School.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. N. L. Solimini, Q. Xu, C. H. Mermel, A. C. Liang, M. R. Schlabach, J. Luo, A. E. Burrows, A. N. Anselmo, A. L. Bredemeyer, M. Z. Li, R. Beroukhim, M. Meyerson, S. J. Elledge. Recurrent Hemizygous Deletions in Cancers May Optimize Proliferative Potential. Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1126/science.1219580

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.

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Kerouac's "On the Road" hits screen in Cannes debut

CANNES (Reuters) - The Bible of the Beat Generation, "On the Road" premiered at Cannes on Wednesday, taking more than five decades for the frenetic tale of liberation, masculinity and post-War America to play out its journey from novel to the big screen.

Furiously written on a typewriter over a three-week long creative binge in 1951, Jack Kerouac's On the Road is the seminal portrayal of "Beat" culture and its spiritual quest for expression.

The film version from Brazilian director Walter Salles ("Motorcycle Diaries") strives to capture the energy and drug-fuelled stream of consciousness of the original book.

Salles is helped by the casting of British actor Sam Riley as protagonist Sal Paradise, a stand-in for Kerouac himself, and U.S. actor Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty, a symbol of American virility and poster child for living in the moment.

"The only people who interest me are the mad ones," Paradise writes, and Moriarty fits the bill. The charming, adventurous con man becomes Paradise's alter ego, and their closely bonded friendship plays out across a series of road trips.

"It's about the loss of innocence, it's about the search for that last frontier they'll never find," Salles told reporters in Cannes. "It's about also discovering that this is the end of the road and the end of the American dream."

Kristen Stewart of "Twilight" fame plays Moriarty's young wife Marylou, Kirsten Dunst plays second wife Camille and Viggo Mortensen takes a turn as Old Bull Lee, who is based on William Burroughs.

Salles said he and the team had "enormous respect for Kerouac" which helped drive the process from the time Francis Ford Coppola bought the film rights to the book in 1979.

The idea of making On the Road into a movie languished "until Walter raised his hand and said I think I can make this movie," said Coppola's son, Roman, who is a co-producer. "It took 30 years but it was such a natural fit with Walter."

Most early reviews were negative.

"It feels long and tedious, as if we've dropped in on someone else's party without knowing or caring who these folks are, knocking back the whisky and barbiturates as regularly as they're knocking off each other," wrote London magazine Time Out's Dave Calhoun.

British newspaper The Telegraph called the film a "tedious loop of beatnik debauchery" while the Evening Standard said it "seems to lack the mad passion of Jack Kerouac's ferocious and extraordinary writing."

ROAD MOVIE

Drugs, sex and jazz are central to On the Road, as the lead characters' quest for freedom of body and mind take them to black jazz clubs, flop houses, migrant camps and rail depots.

"A road movie I think is what made me into a film maker and I'm very loyal to it," Salles told the press.

He said he found parallels between Kerouac's search for inspiration through jazz and bebop as he wrote his novel in an improvisational style and the job of the director.

"You always have to be on the lookout for what you find along the way, it's a way of creating fantastic images."

Salles' camera captures America's vastness - and the promise of something new around the corner - from the lights of New York to the hills of San Francisco and the long expanse of flat road and endless sky in between.

But as the sun fades on the brief and bright explosion of the characters' lives, age and responsibility intrude.

"This high we're on is a mirage," character Carlo Marx tells Paradise and Moriarty.

For a look at Cannes' 2012 lineup, click here: http://link.reuters.com/vav28s

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Hhgregg fiscal 4Q profit jumps on insurance payout

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Clemson research to advance archaeological iron conservation

Public release date: 23-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Stphanie Crett
scrette@clemson.edu
843-744-2974
Clemson University

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. Scientists with the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the Clemson University Restoration Institute will receive a share of a $235,000 grant from the National Park Service's Preservation Technology and Training Program to improve metals conservation in a sustainable way.

The Clemson researchers will receive $24,000 to investigate the applicability of ion-exchange technology for metal conservation.

Awards were selected and the assistance agreements will be administered by the Park Service's National Center for Preservation Technology and Training in Natchitoches, La. The center strives to create new technologies and training opportunities to preserve prehistoric and historic resources throughout the United States.

The National Park Service awarded the grants and agreements under Title IV of the National Historic Preservation Act. The Service received 42 grant applications, which underwent peer review and a national panel review. Eleven institutions were selected for awards.

Clemson's grant application was submitted by research scientist Stphanie Crett, research engineer Nestor G. Gonzalez-Pereyra and conservator Liisa Nsnen, who will conduct the research.

The research team's goal is to develop a simple and effective method to improve the desalination treatments traditionally used on archaeological iron conservation. The team will apply ion-exchange technologies to selectively remove chloride and other ions from caustic solutions without significantly affecting pH.

Conservation treatment protocols continuously require re-evaluation so that best-practice techniques reflect contemporary scientific capabilities, Crett said. As such, frequent meshing of the conservator's skills with those of the materials science and chemistry profession is imperative.

"The primary objective of this project is to design and implement an improved treatment protocol that is effective, fast, reversible, sustainable, safe and in accordance with conservation ethics," Crett said.

The research team will apply ion-exchange systems to separate chloride salts from caustic solutions traditionally used to stabilize archaeological metal.

A recirculating and regenerating system will be devised, which will accelerate the treatment of iron artifacts and use significantly less caustic solution, therefore reducing handling and health and safety issues to a minimum.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Public release date: 23-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Stphanie Crett
scrette@clemson.edu
843-744-2974
Clemson University

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. Scientists with the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the Clemson University Restoration Institute will receive a share of a $235,000 grant from the National Park Service's Preservation Technology and Training Program to improve metals conservation in a sustainable way.

The Clemson researchers will receive $24,000 to investigate the applicability of ion-exchange technology for metal conservation.

Awards were selected and the assistance agreements will be administered by the Park Service's National Center for Preservation Technology and Training in Natchitoches, La. The center strives to create new technologies and training opportunities to preserve prehistoric and historic resources throughout the United States.

The National Park Service awarded the grants and agreements under Title IV of the National Historic Preservation Act. The Service received 42 grant applications, which underwent peer review and a national panel review. Eleven institutions were selected for awards.

Clemson's grant application was submitted by research scientist Stphanie Crett, research engineer Nestor G. Gonzalez-Pereyra and conservator Liisa Nsnen, who will conduct the research.

The research team's goal is to develop a simple and effective method to improve the desalination treatments traditionally used on archaeological iron conservation. The team will apply ion-exchange technologies to selectively remove chloride and other ions from caustic solutions without significantly affecting pH.

Conservation treatment protocols continuously require re-evaluation so that best-practice techniques reflect contemporary scientific capabilities, Crett said. As such, frequent meshing of the conservator's skills with those of the materials science and chemistry profession is imperative.

"The primary objective of this project is to design and implement an improved treatment protocol that is effective, fast, reversible, sustainable, safe and in accordance with conservation ethics," Crett said.

The research team will apply ion-exchange systems to separate chloride salts from caustic solutions traditionally used to stabilize archaeological metal.

A recirculating and regenerating system will be devised, which will accelerate the treatment of iron artifacts and use significantly less caustic solution, therefore reducing handling and health and safety issues to a minimum.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

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How Online Retailers Use An Age-Old Economic Theory To Boost ...

Maybe you?ve been in a position similar to the one Hemant Bhargava, a business professor at the University of California, Davis, found himself in as he redecorated his home. As he?recounted to Adam Davidson for a New York Times piece, Bhargava found a chandelier on Amazon for $750. He then found the same product on a lesser-known website for $100 less, but still opted to pay more for the same product.

Bhargava?s purchase is a textbook case of signaling, a way in which consumers can feel secure in a purchase even when there is no objective information to base that security on. And, as the Internet becomes an increasingly complex marketplace, we can expect more signaling, as well as dramatic shifts in traditional rules of the economic theory.

?There has been quite a bit of social psychology research conducted on what is called ?social proof,? meaning that people look to what others do before they take a particular action - in this case, buying a product [or] service,? said Jeff Kear, who runs the Denver-based branding and marketing firm Kear Stevens. ?Social proof still works very well on the Internet.?

And it?s not just choosing Amazon over a startup or opting to use Google over a lesser-known startup. If you?ve ever chosen dinner based on Yelp reviews, bumped a DVD to the top of your Netflix queue based on the star rating or researched a car purchase in online forums, you?ve been influenced by signaling.

Signals Help Shoppers Fight Information Overload

Davidson notes that in classical economic theories, signaling works better in marketplaces where users don?t have access to reliable information. But in the modern economy, signaling tends to work better in marketplaces where users have access to too much information - a marketplace like the Internet, which can make Calcutta look tranquil.

?The Internet is, among other things, a massive, chaotic marketplace. Too much information, it turns out, is a lot like no information,? Davidson wrote, noting most people simply don?t have the time to research or comparison shop on every single purchase.

Signals That Work: Celebrity and Non-Celebrity Endorsements

Pepsi paid Nicki Minaj a lot of money to be their celebrity spokeswoman. Pepsi does not expect us to believe that she is suddenly an expert on carbonated beverages. Under the rules of signaling, Minaj is bling: her contract proves that Pepsi has enough money to hire her, which, by extension, proves a lot of people buy Pepsi products.

But we don?t always need a celebrity to convince us to buy online or off. Often proof (or perceived proof) that someone like us bought and enjoyed the product is enough to get us to make a purchase.

?Ads that contain a short testimonial and even a picture of the person providing the testimonial still draw quite well over more generic, benefit-oriented messaging, simply because a third-party is providing proof of the legitimacy of the product,? Kear said.

Signals To Avoid: The Dollar Sign

Putting a dollar sign and prices in a Google keyword ad is a time-honored trick to convey value, but a recent University of Iowa study is worth noting: the study found that ads with dollar signs and prices were more likely from companies offering inferior products and poor customer service.

?We found that merchants that can?t compete on service attract customers using the lure of a good deal,? said Gautam Pant, a professor of management sciences in the Tippie College of Business. ?If you?re a retailer with a low reputation, you use what you have, and price is the best thing they have to attract customers.?

Photo of Nicki Minaj by?s_bukley?/ Images from?Shutterstock.com

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