A coalition of 100 investors announced plans to build a "Chinese-controlled economic zone" populated by skyscrapers and luxury residences. Their new city will be in Kenya, but the goal is to "match the glamour of Dubai." What would motivate investors to go to the trouble of building a massive new city in a country other than their own? It's pretty simple, actually.
C Spire customers had to wait months after the initial launch to get the Galaxy S 4, but they won't have to be nearly so patient with the Galaxy S5. The southern US carrier has revealed that it will be carrying Samsung's Android flagship in May, just...
Tetris is turning 30 (yes, thirty!) in June, so some folks threw it one epic pre-birthday party at Philly Tech Week's kickoff event this April 5th. What'd they do, you ask? They used the 29-story Cira Centre building as a screen to play an enormous...
Whether you're looking for new poses to learn or just getting started with yoga, these are the best yoga apps for iPad
What are the best iPad apps for practicing yoga on the go or AirPlaying programs to your TV? Yoga is a great form of exercise to help you lose weight, reduce stress, and enhance flexibility. One of the best things about yoga is that you can do it virtually anywhere. That's especially true with the iPad, whether you want to practice poses or complete workouts, and whether you're a yoga master or just getting started, there's something for everyone. The App Store has many yoga app options, but which ones are the very best?
Pocket Yoga
Pocket Yoga is filled with all kinds of yoga poses for you to practice and learn. You can either view them and the purpose of each on your own or perform classes. As you complete workouts you will earn in-app karma points that you can use to unlock new environments.
If you want a challenge and an app you can learn and excel with, check out Pocket Yoga.
Yoga Studio comes with HD video classes built right in and almost 300 poses. You can also create your own classes if you'd like and save them for later. Use the scheduling tool to make sure you never miss a yoga session. From beginners to mastering harder techniques and poses, Yoga Studio does a great job of spanning both areas.
If you want the best videos and tutorials, check out Yoga Studio.
Yoga.com Studio breaks out yoga in a way that real people who may not have much contact with it can understand. The main menu is presented like a beautiful magazine cover that is yours to explore. There are over 300 poses and video classes to choose from. You can also specify what goals you want to achieve and Yoga.com studio presents you with classes that help. For example, if you're trying to eliminate back pain, there are sessions available specifically for that.
If you want to target specific areas or eliminate focused kinds of pain, look no further than Yoga.com Studio.
The main focus on Daily Yoga is to help people wanting to lose weight or eliminate pain. Daily Yoga features both HD videos that show detailed steps of poses as well as companion music. There are over 40 yoga sessions available and 300 poses. You can subscribe via in-app purchase for even more content as well.
If you want to get into a regular routine in order to lose weight or relieve stress and pain, Daily Yoga is a safe bet.
For those that want to just start a yoga workout with zero effort, there's Simply Yoga. Instead of giving you lists of poses and classes to choose from, just select the duration and a few other things and start your workout. That's it. No more, no less. The design isn't so great but the videos are high quality and explain poses very well.
For straight forward yoga classes, nothing else — check out Simply Yoga.
There are two types of people in this world: those who like the convenience of autofill, and those who don't think a browser should double as a PA. For the former group, Google's updating its mobile Chrome apps today, and autophilics will be pleased to hear the feature is being added to iOS, with form data from other devices synced up for immediate use. Chrome for Android received autofill abilities earlier this year, but today's update should "further streamline online forms" to save you a little bit more time. Retailers need to adopt this "faster checkout flow" on their end (Betabrand is in from the get-go), but with the holidays coming up, we're sure several sites will want to make those last-minute purchases as painless as possible. Now, we're off to order some Catan socks.
Contact: Gregory Poon gpoon@wsu.edu 509-335-8341 Washington State University
From malaria to cancers and immune-related diseases
PULLMAN, Wash. A class of drugs used to treat parasitic infections such as malaria may also be useful in treating cancers and immune-related diseases, a new WSU-led study has found.
Researchers discovered that simple modifications to the drug furamidine have a major impact on its ability to affect specific human proteins involved in the on-off switches of certain genes.
"This was rather unexpected, given how relatively simple the molecules are that we modified and how difficult it has been to affect these proteins," said Gregory Poon, pharmaceutical scientist at Washington State University.
The proteins known as transcription factors regulate the expression of genes in a highly coordinated and intricate manner, making them attractive targets for therapeutic drugs. But it has proven difficult to design drugs to affect them, Poon said.
"For this reason, they have been called undruggable," he said. "Recently, however, scientists have been making headway in targeting these transcription factors with drugs, and now our results suggest this class of drugs can be a useful addition to the arsenal."
Furamidine belongs to a family of drugs known as heterocyclic dications. The drug has a long history of use in serious parasitic diseases such as malaria, African sleeping sickness and PCP, a common infection in HIV/AIDS.
"There is tremendous knowledge and experience with using furamidine and related drugs in humans, so these drugs have an important advantage over other classes of drugs that are relatively behind in clinical experience," Poon said.
Poon collaborated with researchers at Georgia State University. The team found that derivatives of furamidine can target a specific transcription factor known as PU.1.
PU.1 is a major factor in development and function of the human immune system, and it plays important roles in diseases such as some leukemias, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. PU.1 is also a member of a large family of related transcription factors, known as ETS, that is involved in a broader range of cancers and other diseases.
"I am fortunate to be working with some of the best people in this area," Poon said, referring to his collaborators, Dave Boykin and David Wilson of Georgia State University. "The challenge now is to fine-tune this class of drugs to make them as specific as possible to other ETS-family transcription factors as well."
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Their research is supported by the WSU College of Pharmacy and by the National Institutes of Health at Georgia State University.
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Researcher finds potential new use for old drugs
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
12-Nov-2013
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Contact: Gregory Poon gpoon@wsu.edu 509-335-8341 Washington State University
From malaria to cancers and immune-related diseases
PULLMAN, Wash. A class of drugs used to treat parasitic infections such as malaria may also be useful in treating cancers and immune-related diseases, a new WSU-led study has found.
Researchers discovered that simple modifications to the drug furamidine have a major impact on its ability to affect specific human proteins involved in the on-off switches of certain genes.
"This was rather unexpected, given how relatively simple the molecules are that we modified and how difficult it has been to affect these proteins," said Gregory Poon, pharmaceutical scientist at Washington State University.
The proteins known as transcription factors regulate the expression of genes in a highly coordinated and intricate manner, making them attractive targets for therapeutic drugs. But it has proven difficult to design drugs to affect them, Poon said.
"For this reason, they have been called undruggable," he said. "Recently, however, scientists have been making headway in targeting these transcription factors with drugs, and now our results suggest this class of drugs can be a useful addition to the arsenal."
Furamidine belongs to a family of drugs known as heterocyclic dications. The drug has a long history of use in serious parasitic diseases such as malaria, African sleeping sickness and PCP, a common infection in HIV/AIDS.
"There is tremendous knowledge and experience with using furamidine and related drugs in humans, so these drugs have an important advantage over other classes of drugs that are relatively behind in clinical experience," Poon said.
Poon collaborated with researchers at Georgia State University. The team found that derivatives of furamidine can target a specific transcription factor known as PU.1.
PU.1 is a major factor in development and function of the human immune system, and it plays important roles in diseases such as some leukemias, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. PU.1 is also a member of a large family of related transcription factors, known as ETS, that is involved in a broader range of cancers and other diseases.
"I am fortunate to be working with some of the best people in this area," Poon said, referring to his collaborators, Dave Boykin and David Wilson of Georgia State University. "The challenge now is to fine-tune this class of drugs to make them as specific as possible to other ETS-family transcription factors as well."
###
Their research is supported by the WSU College of Pharmacy and by the National Institutes of Health at Georgia State University.
[
| 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.
The UFC returns to action tonight, November 9, with UFC Fight Night 32 live from the Goiania Arena in Goiania, Goiás, Brazil. MMAFrenzy will have full coverage of tonight’s card beginning with the preliminary card and continuing through tonight’s main event between Dan Henderson and Vitor Belfort.
Be sure to stay tuned to MMAFrenzy for full coverage of tonight’s card including recaps, play-by-play, and more. Tonight’s action will begin at 5:15PM with the start of tonight’s preliminary card.
UFC Fight Night 32 Results:
Main Card (FOX Sports 1 8PM ET)
Vitor Belfort vs. Dan Henderson
Cezar Ferreira vs. Daniel Sarafian
Rafael Cavalcante vs. Igor Pokrajac
Brandon Thatch vs. Paulo Thiago
Ryan LaFlare vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
Jeremy Stephens def. Rony Jason via KO (headkick) at 0:40 of Round 1
Preliminary Card (Online Stream 5:15PM ET)
Sam Sicilia def. Godofredo Pepey via TKO (punches) at 1:42 of Round 1
Omari Ahkmedov def. Thiago Perpetuo via KO (punches) at 3:31 of Round 1
Thiago Tavares def. Justin Sals via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:38 of Round 1
Adriano Martins def. Daron Cruickshank via submission (straight armbar) at 2:29 of Round 2
Dustin Ortiz def. Jose Maria via TKO (strikes) at 3:19 of Round 3
This was an election night that should have been sponsored by the Acela, Amtrak’s premium train running from Boston to Washington. This was politics Thirteen Original Colonies-style where most of the voters in key races live within an easy drive of the Atlantic Ocean. The obsession to find national meaning in the results is like betting the rent money on a crooked roulette wheel because it’s the only game in town.
The two governor’s races on the docket (New Jersey and Virginia) came out as expected, but less definitively than the pre-election buzz suggested. In Virginia, former national Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe eked out a narrow win over state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in a vitriolic race that made many voters wish for a none-of-the-above line on the ballot. As a measure of disaffection, Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis picked up 7 percent of the vote and, according to exit polls, garnered 16 percent support among voters under 30.
Despite some polls showing that Chris Christie would be re-elected as New Jersey's governor by a two-to-one margin, he came nowhere near equaling the 70 percent share of the vote rung up by moderate Republican incumbent Tom Kean in 1985. In her concession speech, Barbara Buono, Christie’s ignored and under-funded Democratic challenger and a state senator, rightfully complained about her “onslaught of betrayal from our own party.”
Tuesday night’s results provided fodder for everyone’s political talking points.
Liberals could crow about new left-of-center mayors in New York and Boston. The Obama White House could point to McAuliffe’s victory margin in the Northern Virginia suburbs where pain from the government shutdown was disproportionately felt. And Republicans could take comfort in Christie’s big win in a blue state.
But, in truth, little from the Acela Election will matter much in next year’s congressional elections, let alone in 2016.
That’s not a surprise. Elections in odd-numbered year rarely have predictive value about the future, except when they do. The 2009 gubernatorial victories of Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell in Virginia could be seen in retrospect as harbingers of swing-state disillusionment with Obama, which erupted with the Republican House takeover in 2010.
But the model for an off-year election with lasting national reverberations was a special Senate election in Pennsylvania in 1991. Democrat Harris Wofford, appointed as the temporary replacement when Republican Senator John Heinz died in a plane crash, stunned the political world when he romped home with a 10-point victory over popular former GOP Gov. Richard Thornburgh.
A year before Bill Clinton ended the 12-year GOP lease on the Oval Office, The New York Times called Wofford’s victory “a stunning upset that will raise the hopes of Democrats and the fears of Republicans facing elections next year.” James Carville and Paul Begala, soon to be architects of Clinton’s 1992 victory, got their big break by running Wofford’s 1991 campaign. And, by the way, Wofford’s central issue was national health insurance, a crusade that was to put its imprint on both the Clinton and Obama administrations.
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Chris Christie never made any secret that his 2013 goal was to use a gubernatorial re-election landslide as a springboard to a 2016 presidential bid. Any doubts on that score should have been erased when Christie — in defiance of logic and at a cost of $12 million to New Jersey — scheduled a special Senate election in mid-October so the governor would not appear on the same ballot as Cory Booker, the popular Democratic mayor of Newark.
In hindsight, Christie’s obsession with his own re-election margin may have cost the Republicans a long-shot chance at a Senate seat. Booker, even though he won with 55 percent of the vote, proved to be a much weaker candidate than his press clippings would have suggested. It is possible that Christie’s coattails might have pulled GOP Senate candidate Steve Lonegan across the finish line in what would have been the biggest upset since Scott Brown won a Massachusetts Senate seat in a January 2010 special election.
George W. Bush, as Christie and his advisers undoubtedly know well, teed up his 2000 presidential race by winning re-election as Texas governor in 1998 by better than a two-to-one margin. Another model (although rarely invoked by Republicans) is Michael Dukakis who won re-election as governor of Massachusetts in 1986 with a lopsided 65 percent of the vote. Two years later, Dukakis was the Democratic nominee for president.
Of course, even though Christie did not meet those gold standards for popularity, he was romping home in a normally safe Democratic state. Yet for all the swooning this week over Christie’s 2016 presidential prospects, it is worth remember that most gubernatorial landslides provide little momentum on the road to the White House.
Jon Huntsman (re-elected Utah governor in 2008 with a whopping 78 percent of the vote) never made it beyond the 2012 New Hampshire primary. And few people even remember that Bill Richardson (who won a second gubernatorial term in New Mexico by a better than two-to-one margin in 2006) ran for president in 2008.
These are, to be sure, flawed examples. Huntsman left Utah to serve as Obama’s first ambassador to China, a credential that did little to endear him to 2012 GOP voters. And Richardson ended up as an asterisk in 2008, in part because he had the bad luck to compete for the nomination against both Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The truth is that there is no automatic formula for running for president. Christie — who defies every bland-is-better and svelte-is-swell dictum of modern politics — would be a formidable 2016 contender no matter what his victory margin was over Buono. Christie’s 2013 vote totals will be about the 812th most important factor that will determine whether the New Jersey governor corrals the 2016 Republican nomination.
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You have to squint really hard into the fading autumn sunlight over the Hudson River to find national significance in Bill de Blasio’s election as New York City’s first Democratic mayor in two decades. De Blasio’s ultimate victory was all but foreordained when he won the low turnout primary in September (about 600,000 New Yorkers voted in a city of 8 million) as the candidate who appeared to represent the biggest break from imperious certainties of Mike Bloomberg.
The failure of Republican Joe Lhota, a former aide to Rudy Giuliani who headed the transit authority, to make inroads in this Democratic city should not be surprising. Giuliani himself was narrowly elected over a weak Democratic incumbent (David Dinkins) in 1993 largely because of fears of crime and urban decay. Bloomberg won re-election the last time around in 2009 with a weak 51 percent of the vote after spending more than $100 million of his own money.
All de Blasio’s victory proved was that it is hard to be a Republican in New York unless the city is facing a grave crisis or you happen to have a net worth of $31 billion (the latest Forbes magazine estimate of Bloomberg’s wealth). While de Blasio is a heart-on-his-sleeve liberal, he will move into the mayor’s residence at Gracie Mansion with only limited executive experience. That is the challenge facing New York’s incoming Democratic mayor, for as the disastrous rollout of Obamacare illustrates, good intentions are not enough when you are actually running the government.
Amid the euphoria of victory, de Blasio should remember an unpleasant truth that comes with one of the most demanding jobs in America. Since Brooklyn ceased to be a separate city in 1898, no mayor of New York has ever been elected to another office. Not Fiorello La Guardia, not John Lindsay, not Giuliani and probably not Bloomberg, an outgoing mayor without a political party or a logical next step.
There is an understandable impatience to decipher the national mood in a season when first the House Republicans (the government shutdown) and then the White House (launch of Obamacare) have undermined, and maybe even have forfeited, the trust of the voters. But sometimes politics is like the old-fashioned fortune-telling Magic 8 Ball delivering the Election Night message, “Reply hazy, try again.”
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