June 30, 2013 ? A protein first shown to function in the liver plays a crucial role in pregnancy in mice and has a key role in the human menstrual cycle, according to researchers at the University of Montreal. Mice that were genetically engineered not to produce the liver receptor homolog-1 (Lrh-1) molecule were unable to create the uterine conditions necessary for establishing and sustaining pregnancy, resulting in the formation of defective placentas. The researchers then showed that Lhr-1 was present in the human uterus and the essential processes related to the success of early gestation.
"We previously showed that Lrh-1 is essential for ovulation. Our newest studies have revealed that it is plays an important role in the uterus, raising the possibility that Lrh-1 deficiency contributes to human gestational failure," explained lead author Bruce Murphy, of the university's Animal Reproduction Research Centre. "We worked with mice before looking at human tissues. I believe it premature to propose determination of Lrh-1 in uterine biopsies as a diagnostic tool, but we are working on determining the receptor's pattern of expression across the menstrual cycle."
The researchers also looked at whether hormone replacement therapy might restore normal uterine functions in the mice. "Progesterone did not make a difference. Although hormone therapy allowed for the embryos to implant, we saw problems with the lining in the uterus, compromised formation of the placenta, fetal growth retardation and fetal death," Murphy said. "However, there are new Lrh-1 agonists and antagonists, currently in clinical trials to treat hepatic consequences of type II diabetes, and thus therapeutic intervention might be possible."
The study was published in Nature Medicine on June 30, 2013, and was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The US National Institutes of Health funded collaborators at Baylor University that contributed to the study.?
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Pasadena, CA ? NASA has decommissioned its Galaxy Evolution Explorer after a decade of operations in which the venerable space telescope used its ultraviolet vision to study hundreds of millions of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic time.
?GALEX is a remarkable accomplishment,? said Jeff Hayes, NASA?s GALEX program executive in Washington. ?This small Explorer mission has mapped and studied galaxies in the ultraviolet, light we cannot see with our own eyes, across most of the sky.?
A speeding star can be seen leaving an enormous trail in this image from NASA?s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Operators at Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, VA, sent the signal to decommission GALEX at 12:09pm PDT (3:09pm EDT) Friday, June 28th.
The spacecraft will remain in orbit for at least 65 years, then fall to Earth and burn up upon re-entering the atmosphere. GALEX met its prime objectives and the mission was extended three times before being cancelled.
Highlights from the mission?s decade of sky scans include:
Discovering a gargantuan, comet-like tail behind a speeding star called Mira.
Catching a black hole ?red-handed? as it munched on a star.
Finding giant rings of new stars around old, dead galaxies.
Independently confirming the nature of dark energy.
Discovering a missing link in galaxy evolution ? the teenage galaxies transitioning from young to old.
The mission also captured a dazzling collection of snapshots, showing everything from ghostly nebulas to a spiral galaxy with huge, spidery arms.
In a first-of-a-kind move for NASA, the agency in May 2012 loaned GALEX to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which used private funds to continue operating the satellite while NASA retained ownership. Since then, investigators from around the world have used GALEX to study everything from stars in our own Milky Way galaxy to hundreds of thousands of galaxies 5 billion light-years away.
In the space telescope?s last year, it scanned across large patches of sky, including the bustling, bright center of our Milky Way. The telescope spent time staring at certain areas of the sky, finding exploded stars, called supernovae, and monitoring how objects, such as the centers of active galaxies, change over time.
GALEX also scanned the sky for massive, feeding black holes and shock waves from early supernova explosions.
?In the last few years, GALEX studied objects we never thought we?d be able to observe, from the Magellanic Clouds to bright nebulae and supernova remnants in the galactic plane,? said David Schiminovich of Columbia University, New York, NY, a longtime GALEX team member who led science operations over the past year. ?Some of its most beautiful and scientifically compelling images are part of this last observation cycle.?
Data from the last year of the mission will be made public in the coming year.
?GALEX, the mission, may be over, but its science discoveries will keep on going,? said Kerry Erickson, the mission?s project manager at NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.
A slideshow showing some of the popular GALEX images is online at: http://go.nasa.gov/17xAVDd
JPL managed the GALEX mission and built the science instrument. The mission?s principal investigator, Chris Martin, is at Caltech. NASA?s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, developed the mission under the Explorers Program it manages.
Researchers sponsored by Yonsei University in South Korea and the Centre National d?Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France collaborated on the mission. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
Graphics and additional information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer are online at: http://www.nasa.gov/galex
Written By
Alan Buis NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
J.D. Harrington NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A senior Catholic cleric arrested in a plot to smuggle tens of millions of dollars into Italy controlled vast amounts of money and felt he could act with impunity because of his connections to the Vatican bank, according to a judge's investigative document.
In the latest blow to the Vatican's image, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, was arrested on Friday along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial broker.
The three had plotted to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland for a members of a family of ship-owners in southern Italy, an investigating magistrate told reporters on Friday.
The magistrate said the pivotal protagonist was Scarano, who worked until recently as a senior accountant in the Vatican's financial administration, and that he owned numerous pieces of property and had accounts in the Vatican bank.
A 48-page document in which Judge Barbara Callari approves magistrates' requests for the arrests, and which was obtained by Reuters, contains transcripts or summaries of wiretaps, emails, letters, checks and other results of police investigations.
It describes the development of a plot that reads like a spy novel, involving a private plane that was to collect the cash in Switzerland, burned cell phones, a shady financier and an allegedly corrupt secret service agent who promised to slip the money past customs.
In her report, Callari wrote that Scarano felt safe "thanks to his relations with the Vatican bank". She said the monsignor saw the IOR as "the only safe and rapid instrument for financial and banking operations that could evade - if not outright violate - laws against money laundering and tax evasion".
EMBARRASSMENT FOR POPE
The case came as an embarrassment to Pope Francis who, only two days earlier, set up a commission of inquiry into the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).
Scarano was for years a senior accountant APSA, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. Through APSA, he had ready access to the IOR and magistrates believe he had at least two personal accounts there.
The Vatican, which has pledged to cooperate with the magistrates, said Scarano was suspended several weeks ago when magistrates in Salerno put him under a separate investigation.
The arrests of Scarano, secret service agent Giovanni Zito and broker Giovanni Carenzio stemmed from a previous money laundering investigation by Rome magistrates into the IOR.
Magistrates have said there was no indication so far that the bank was directly involved in Scarano's attempt to smuggle the money into Italy for his rich friends.
But Italian newspapers speculated that Scarano may have been planning to use the bank to launder at least some of the Swiss money for his friends later.
The judge's report said the cash was in Swiss bank UBS. But it said it never left because Carenzio, the broker, did not carry out his part of the deal even though Zito, the secret service agent, had gone to Locarno in July, 2012 to pick it up.
In her report, Callari wrote that the investigations showed that Scarano had "very vast economic resources" and that "the prelate did not hesitate to use complicated stratagems and to involve many third parties to carry out financial operations without respecting norms against money laundering".
In the Salerno investigation, Scarano has been accused of attempting to launder money by taking 560,000 euros ($727,900) in cash out of his Vatican account and giving various amounts to friends in exchange for checks.
He then deposited the checks into an Italian bank account to pay off a mortgage on a property, his lawyer, Silverio Sica, told Reuters. Sica said well-off friends had donated money to Scarano in order for him to build a home for the terminally ill.
Scarano wanted to use that money to pay off his mortgage so he could sell a property in Salerno and use the proceeds to build the care home, Sica said, adding that Scarano would "clear everything up".
One Pakistani city has turned into a boom town by manufacturing and exporting a diverse array of products from bagpipes to replica Civil War uniforms. NBC's Amna Nawaz reports from Sialkot, Pakistan.?
By Amna Nawaz, Correspondent, NBC News
SIALKOT, Pakistan ? It's not a sound you expect to hear in Pakistan. And yet, here we stand, in the heart of the country's Punjab province, listening to the theme song from ?The Titanic? played on traditional bagpipes.
The Pakistani teenager serenading us with the soaring wails of this iconic Scottish instrument?was taught to play by his father, who was taught by his father before him.
And his bagpipe was made right here in Sialkot, a city of 3 million that's emerged as the world's leading manufacturer of the instrument. More than 100,000 locally made bagpipes are exported every year.
M.H. Geoffrey's factory is one of over a dozen in the city. His grandfather began the business when a British army officer, part of the colonial forces in the region in the 19th century, approached him to get his own bagpipe fixed.
"My grandfather not only fixed that one, he made?two more!" Geoffrey said.
Today, Geoffrey's company makes and exports nearly 3,000 bagpipes a year.
In a narrow, high-ceilinged room covered in sawdust and lit by an over-sized skylight, five workers squat before their lathes, expertly churning out intricately carved bagpipe parts. When the power goes out, as it often does in Pakistan, a single generator spurts to life, filling the room with a deafening hum.
Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images file
Ibrahim, the son of Farooq Ahmad, owner of the Imperial Bagpipe Manufacturing Company, tests a bagpipe at a bagpipe factory in Sialkot, Pakistan.
Every piece is handcrafted. Every bagpipe is hand-assembled. The cheapest bagpipes cost around $100; the most expensive, over $1,000. But Geoffrey, like many local businessmen, has also found other niche markets.
A combination of cheap textiles and skilled seamstresses prevalent in Sialkot led to the costume wing of his company. They now make, sell and export hundreds of replica U.S. Civil War uniforms every year.
The vintage, leather goods wing followed soon after ? manufacturing everything from footballs to cleats.
?Anything you need made? We can make it here. Anything at all,? Geoffrey said.
Sialkot is an anomaly in Pakistan?s economy. In a country where taxes aren?t regularly collected, power companies can?t produce sufficient electricity, and the currency continues to lose value, Sialkot?s business community decided to go its own way.
Ten years ago, business leaders pooled their resources to construct the nation?s first privately funded airport. It now boasts the country?s longest runway and more than 30 domestic and international flights a week. Last year alone, more than 6,000 tons of locally produced exports were flown out.
Those products run the gamut from bagpipes and costumes to medical instruments and sporting goods.
Companies around the world have long tapped into Sialkot?s manufacturing prowess for access to cost-effective, high-quality goods. Nike, Adidas and Puma all have contracts here. A walk down one main market street reveals over a dozen medical instrument and surgical supply storefronts, all selling local goods.
Sheikh Abdul Majid, the chairman of the local chamber of commerce, said Sialkot?s exports brought in more than $1.4 billion last year, and the local economy had grown by 10-15 percent every year for the last five years.
The IMF estimates the national economy, by comparison, may grow by just 3.5 percent this fiscal year. Across the country, fewer than a million Pakistanis pay income taxes.
Majid said?all local exports were taxed, with the money re-invested into the city.
Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images file
A Pakistani laborer prepares components to make bagpipes at a bagpipe factory in Sialkot, on April 14, 2011.
?We?ve fixed roads, built schools, even put in sewage systems with the money we?ve been able to bring in,? he said. ?And we plan to continue doing that, every year.?
For a new national government, elected largely on its promise to right an upended economy, the secrets to Sialkot?s success could prove useful.
Much voter frustration centered on 20-hour power cuts in parts of the country, a failure of the previous government to tackle corruption, and a lack of any clearly articulated plan to address either.
After just one month on the job, the new leaders? plans for emergency cash infusions to the power sector and increasing tax revenues are beginning to take shape. However, economists say an economic revival on a national level could take years.
Back in Sialkot, Geoffrey said business had never been better. Bagpipe sales now make up half of their revenue, and with the addition of online sales, his costume orders have grown exponentially.
?My sons are now learning the business, helping me to run it,? Geoffrey said. ?One day, this whole business will be given to the next generation ? the fourth generation to run it.?
Law enforcement officials have confirmed that Aaron Hernandez, who has been charged in the murder of Odin Lloyd, is also being investigated for two 2012 murders. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports and NBC legal analyst Lisa Bloom discusses the revelations.
By Richard Esposito and Erin McClam, NBC News
A third man was in custody Friday in Florida in an expanding murder investigation swirling around Aaron Hernandez, the star NFL tight end accused of orchestrating the shooting death of a friend.
Massachusetts State Police
Ernest Wallace, 41, known as ?Fish,? turned himself in in the Miami suburb of Miramar, police said. Massachusetts police had said they were seeking him as an accessory after murder, and that he was considered armed and dangerous. They were on their way to Florida to pick him up, NBC affiliate WHDH in Boston reported.
Hernandez, an All-Pro who was released by the New England Patriots after his arrest earlier this week, is charged with first-degree murder in the execution of the friend, Odin Lloyd. He was denied a second request for bail Thursday.
Sources told NBC News that he was being investigated in another case ? the drive-by killings of two men in Boston last year. The men were shot to death in an SUV after leaving a nightclub.
Hernandez, who is being held in a Massachusetts jail, lost a second endorsement deal Thursday. The Puma sportswear company, which signed Hernandez to a two-year deal in April, told CNBC it was ending the relationship ?in light of the current situation.? CytoSport, maker of the Muscle Milk supplement drink, dropped Hernandez as a pitchman last week.
Authorities have said Hernandez took part in Lloyd?s killing in the early hours of June 17 after summoning two friends from out of state. Lloyd?s body was found in an industrial park near Hernandez?s home in North Attleborough, Mass. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty.
Connecticut authorities said Thursday that they had charged another man in connection with Lloyd?s killing ? Carlos Ortiz of Bristol, the city where Hernandez grew up. He was charged as a fugitive and agreed to return to Massachusetts, authorities said.
Authorities have not spelled out the connection they believe Wallace and Ortiz have to the killing. They have said Lloyd was killed by two shots fired from someone standing above him, but they have not said who they believe pulled the trigger.
Ortiz was being held on $1.5 million bail. His public defender declined comment on Thursday.
Prosecutors say that text messages ? including from Lloyd to his sister when he was worried about his safety ? and surveillance video are part of their case against Hernandez. The judge who denied his second request for bail, Renee Dupuis of Superior Court in Fall River, described the state?s case as ?circumstantial but very, very strong.?
Prosecutors said they had uncovered four new pieces of evidence in less than 24 hours after searching a condo leased by Hernandez. They said they had found ammunition, a clip and a picture of Hernandez with a Glock handgun.
William McCauley, an assistant district attorney, also said that Hernandez had interfered with the investigation by home surveillance-camera video and instructing his girlfriend not to talk to investigators.
?The evidence of his guilt is overwhelming,? prosecutor William McCauley said.
Hernandez?s lawyers argued that he deserved bail because of his upstanding character and clean record, and because he was not a risk to flee. They noted that he stayed put last week, when rumors circulated that Hernandez was about to be arrested.
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This story was originally published on Fri Jun 28, 2013 10:10 AM EDT
QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Saturday the United States had asked him not to grant asylum for former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden in a "cordial" telephone conversation he held with Vice President Joe Biden.
Correa said he vowed to respect Washington's opinion in evaluating the request. The Andean nation says it cannot begin processing Snowden's request unless he reaches Ecuador or one of its embassies.
Snowden, who is wanted by the United States for leaking details about U.S. communications surveillance programs, is believed to still be at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow after leaving Hong Kong.
Praising Biden's good manners in contrast to "brats" in the U.S. Congress who had threatened to cut Ecuador's trade benefits over the Snowden issue, Correa said during his weekly television broadcast: "He communicated a very courteous request from the United States that we reject the (asylum) request."
Biden initiated the phone call, Correa said.
"When he (Snowden) arrives on Ecuadorean soil, if he arrives ... of course, the first opinions we will seek are those of the United States," Correa said.
A senior White House official traveling with President Barack Obama in Africa on Saturday confirmed the conversation had taken place.
The case has been a major embarrassment for the Obama administration, which is now facing withering criticism around the world for the espionage program known as Prism that Snowden revealed.
A German magazine on Saturday, citing secret documents, reported that the United States bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, which will likely add to the furor over U.S. spying efforts.
Correa has for years been at loggerheads with Washington on issues ranging from the war on drugs to a long-running environmental dispute with U.S. oil giant Chevron.
A leftist economist who received a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Correa denied he was seeking to perturb relations and said he had "lived the happiest days of my life" in the United States.
But he said the United States has not heeded Ecuador's request to extradite citizens sought by the law, including bankers he said have already been sentenced.
"There's a clear double standard here. If the United States is pursuing someone, other countries have to hand them over," Correa said. "But there are so many fugitives from our justice system (in the United States) ... and they don't return them."
TRAVEL DOCUMENT CONFUSION
Correa said Ecuador's London consulate issued Snowden an unauthorized safe-passage document, potentially as a result of communication with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is living in the London embassy after receiving asylum last year.
Assange said on Monday that Snowden had received refugee papers from the Ecuador government to secure him safe passage as he fled Hong Kong for Russia. Correa's government had originally denied this.
A "safe-pass" document published by U.S. Spanish-language media network Univision which circulated widely online purported to offer Snowden safe passage for the purpose of political asylum. The United States has revoked his passport.
"The truth is that the consul (overstepped) his role and will face sanction," Correa said during the broadcast.
The decision was "probably in communication with Julian Assange and out of desperation that Mr. Snowden was going to be captured, but this was without the authorization of the Ecuadorean government."
Correa's critics have in recent days accused him of letting Assange take charge of crucial foreign policy matters.
Assange, who is wanted in Sweden for questioning over sexual assault allegations, has not been able to leave the London embassy because Britain will not give him safe passage.
Snowden's lack of a valid travel document appears to be one of the primary obstacles to his leaving the transit area of the Moscow international airport. Without a passport, he cannot board a commercial flight or move through airport immigration, according to diplomacy experts.
Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino declined on Thursday to comment on whether Ecuador would send a government plane to pick Snowden up. But Correa has indicated he does not have plans to provide Snowden with transport to an embassy.
Correa scoffed at reports that he himself had been aware that the document was issued or was involved in the decision.
"They think I'm so dumb that I ordered our consul in London to write a safe passage document for a U.S. citizen traveling from Hong Kong to Russia. That's simply absurd," he said.
(Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal in Johannesburg; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Vicki Allen and Sandra Maler)
U.S. President Barack Obama, left, stands for a moment of silence for Nelson Mandela during an official dinner with South African President Jacob Zuma at the Presidential Guest House on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. President Barack Obama, left, stands for a moment of silence for Nelson Mandela during an official dinner with South African President Jacob Zuma at the Presidential Guest House on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama toast during an official dinner hosted by South African President Jacob Zuma at the Presidential Guest House on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave as they depart Waterkloof Air Base for a flight to Cape Town on Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Performers dressed in traditional Xhosa outfits dance at the wedding of Sbongiseni Tetani and his wife Charity from the Xhosa tribe, near the home of former South African president Nelson Mandela house in Qunu, South Africa, Saturday, June 29, 2013. President Barack Obama plans to visit privately Saturday with relatives of former South African President Nelson Mandela, but doesn't intend to see the critically ill anti-apartheid icon he has called a "personal hero." (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Sunday will announce a new initiative to double access to electric power in sub-Saharan Africa, part of his effort to build on the legacy of equality and opportunity forged by his personal hero, Nelson Mandela.
Obama, who flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town Sunday, will pay tribute to the ailing 94-year-old Mandela throughout the day. The president and his family will visit Robben Island, where the anti-apartheid leader spent 18 years confined to a tiny cell, including a stop of the lime quarry where Mandela toiled and developed the lung problems that are ailing him today.
The White House said Obama's guide during his tour of the island will be 83-year-old South African politician Ahmed Kathrada, who was also in captivity at the prison for nearly two decades and guided Obama on his 2006 visit to the prison as a U.S. senator. The president will also view the prison courtyard where Mandela planted grapevines that remain today, and where he and others in the dissident leadership would discuss politics, sneak notes to one another and hide writings.
Following the tour, Obama will deliver what the White House has billed as the signature speech of his weeklong trip at the University of Cape Town, an address that will be infused with memories of Mandela.
During that speech, Obama will unveil the "Power Africa" initiative, which includes an initial $7 billion investment from the United States over the next five years. Private companies, including General Electric and Symbion Power, are making an additional $9 billion in commitments with the goal of providing power to millions of Africans crippled by a lack of electricity.
Gayle Smith, Obama's senior director for development and democracy, said more than two-thirds of people living in Sub-Saharan African do not have electricity, including 85 percent of those living in rural areas.
"If you want lights so kids can study at night or you can maintain vaccines in a cold chain, you don't have that, so going the extra mile to reach people is more difficult," Smith said.
The U.S. and its private sector partners will initially focus its efforts on six African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, where Obama will wrap up his trip later this week. Former President George W. Bush, who supports health programs throughout the continent, will also be in Tanzania next week, and the White House did not rule out the possibility that the two men might meet.
Obama will also highlight U.S. efforts to bolster access to food and health programs on the continent. His advisers said the president sees reducing the poverty and illness that plague many parts of Africa as an extension of Mandela's example of how change can happen within countries.
The former South African president has been hospitalized in critical condition for three weeks. Obama met Saturday with members of Mandela's family, but did not visit the anti-apartheid icon in the hospital, a decision the White House said was in keeping with his family's wishes.
Obama's weeklong trip, which opened last week in Senegal, marks his most significant trip to the continent since taking office. His scant personal engagement has come as a disappointment to some in the region, who had high hopes for a man whose father was from Kenya.
Obama has visited Robben Island before as a U.S. senator. But since being elected as the first black American president, Obama has drawn inevitable comparisons to Mandela, making Sunday's visit particularly poignant.
The president said he's also eager to bring his family with him to the prison to teach them about Mandela's role in overcoming white racist rule, first as an activist and later as a president who forged a unity government with his former captors.
He told reporters Saturday he to "help them to understand not only how those lessons apply to their own lives but also to their responsibilities in the future as citizens of the world, that's a great privilege and a great honor."
Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said Mandela's vision was always going to feature prominently in the speech. But the former South African leader's deteriorating health "certainly puts a finer point on just how much we can't take for granted what Nelson Mandela did."
Harkening back to a prominent theme from his 2009 speech in Ghana ? his only other trip to Africa as president ? Obama will emphasize that Africans must take much of the responsibility for finishing the work started by Mandela and his contemporaries.
"The progress that Africa has made opens new doors, but frankly, it's up to the leaders in Africa and particularly young people to make sure that they're walking through those doors of opportunity," Rhodes said.
Obama will speak at the University of Cape Town nearly 50 years after Robert F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ripple of Hope" speech from the school. Kennedy spoke in Cape Town two years after Mandela was sentenced to life in prison.
On Friday a neighbor who contradicted what other witnesses have said about the struggle between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, was questioned as to how well he could really see in the dark. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming it was self-defense. NBC's Ron Mott reports.
By Elizabeth Chuck, Tom Winter and Rob Rivas, NBC News
A resident of the gated community where Trayvon Martin was killed told a Florida court Friday he saw the unarmed teen punching George Zimmerman before the two had a fatal confrontation in February of 2012.
Jonathan Good was watching TV with his wife at the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012, when a faint noise caught his attention, he told a Seminole County court Friday. When he heard more noise, he opened his sliding glass door, took a step outside, and spotted what "seemed like a tussle.?
??I could really only see one person, and I think I described it as possibly being some type of dog attack, because there are a lot of dogs that walk in that back area,? Good said.
But as the figures rolled a little closer to Good on the rainy evening, he realized it was two people.
?And then at one point I yelled out, ?What?s going on?? and ?Stop it,? I believe,? Good told the jury, who is seated for Zimmerman?s second-degree murder trial. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense.
Good only saw the two fighting for what he described as ?10 seconds, max?before running inside to call 911, but his eyewitness account of Martin?s final moments could prove crucial for jurors and investigators in the case.
Good didn?t recognize either men, and said one was straddling the other.
?I could tell the person on the bottom had a lighter skinned color,? Good said. Zimmerman is of white and Hispanic descent, and Martin is black. ?
When one straddled the other, the person on the bottom was ?face up,? he said.
?I think at that time is when I thought it was serious,? he said.
?OK. What made you think that?? prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda asked.
??'Cause it looked like there were strikes being thrown, or punches being thrown, but as I clarified, due to the lighting, it could have also been, you know, holding down. But there were arm movement[s] going downward,? Good said.
?And the arm movements that you describe, would that have been from the person on top?? De La Rionda asked. ?
?Correct,? responded Good.
Later, in cross-examination, defense attorney Mark O?Mara pressed Good for specifics of the confrontation.
?The person who you now know to be Trayvon Martin was on top, correct?? O?Mara asked.
?Correct,?Good said.
?And he was the one who was raining blows down on the person on the bottom, George Zimmerman, right??
?That?s what it looked like,? Good said.
Good added it was too dark to see many details, and said he was too far away. He also said he didn?t see either person slam the other?s head against concrete, something Zimmerman alleges Martin did and part of the reason he says he acted out of self-defense in shooting Martin.
But Good did say he later heard screams coming from one person, who he believed to be Zimmerman.
?If it was coming from on top it would have echoed off a wall instead of coming directly at me,? he said.
He added he couldn?t say for sure which person it was.
911 call played in court Good?s 911 call ? which he placed when he heard the gun go off ? was also played for the first time in court on Friday.
?Um, I?m pretty sure the guy?s dead out here. Holy sh*t,? he says to the 911 operator.
Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel pool via EPA
Eyewitness Jonathan Good watches prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda demonstrate possible fight positions of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin during the 15th day of the Zimmerman trial in Seminole circuit court, in Sanford, Fla., on June 28.
Martin?s parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, sat quietly during Good?s testimony. Fulton held ?Our Daily Bread,? a Christian monthly devotional, in her hand.
Parts of the cross-examination were decidedly antagonistic.
?Don?t really want to be here, do you?? O?Mara opened his cross-examination by asking. ?You were very reluctant to be involved in the case at all, correct??
Good agreed that he was one of the only witnesses who had requested anonymity and had not wanted to partake in the trial.
O?Mara questioned Good about a martial arts phrase he had used with police officers in his initial statement to describe Martin and Zimmerman?s fight.
?What you saw was the person on top in an MMA-style straddle position, correct? That was further described, was it not, as being ?ground and pound.? What is ?ground and pound? as you define it?? O?Mara asked.
?The person on top being able to punch the person on the bottom, but the person on the bottom also has a chance to get out or punch the person on top. It?s back and forth,? Good said.
O?Mara also demanded to know exactly what Good, who did not know either Zimmerman or Martin, saw that night, questioning him numerous times about his definition of being positioned in ?vertical? and ?horizontal? standings. Good, visibly annoyed at times, invited O?Mara to get down on his knees to demonstrate the positions he saw for the jurors, which the lawyer did.
Good is the next-door neighbor of Jenna Lauer, another resident at the Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community, who testified on Thursday. Lauer placed the 911 call that captured screams in the moments before Martin?s death. On Thursday, she told the court that she heard ?scuffling? that sounded like ?sneakers on pavement and grass? before she called 911.
Editor's note: George Zimmerman has sued NBC Universal for defamation. The company strongly denies the allegation.
Every week, a new and interesting human being tackles our decidedly geeky take on the Proustian Q&A. This is the Engadget Questionnaire.
In this week's edition of our regular answer sessions, Adobe's VP of Experience Design Michael Gough discusses digital sketching and six-fingered spies. Head to the other side of the jump to peruse those and a number of other topics in this coup d'état of queries.
CAIRO (AP) ? The youth group leading the campaign against Egypt's president says it has collected the signatures of 22 million Egyptians who want to remove the Islamist leader.
Mahmoud Badr, a leader of the Tamarod, or rebel, movement said Saturday that 22,134,460 Egyptians have signed the petition demanding President Mohammed Morsi's ouster.
Badr did not say whether there had been an independent audit of the signatures.
Morsi's supporters have long questioned the authenticity of the collected signatures.
The announcement came on the eve of massive protests planned by Tamarod, which started off the campaign saying it wanted to collect more signatures than the some 13 million votes Morsi won in his narrow 2012 victory in the presidential election.
During the week of the NFL?s Rookie Symposium, where life lessons are taught to the incoming class of rookies, there hasn?t been a shortage of conversation.
But the conversation keeps coming back to one guy, Aaron Hernandez.
Troy Vincent, the NFL?s senior vice president of player engagement, said it?s a topic that?s impossible to avoid.
?You know, there?s this pink elephant in the room .?.?. the Hernandez situation,? Vincent told players, via Rick Maese of the Washington Post. ?The media has every right to ask you a question about that situation. And you have every right not to engage in that conversation. It is what it is. ?
As part of the opening session for NFC rookies Wednesday night, a group of second-year players were on hand to tell the new guys about the transition. But the topic of Hernandez was never far away.
?A lot of people are afraid of the words, ?Oh man, you different,??? Colts tight end Dwayne Allen said. ?You damn right I?m different. You damn right I?m different. I got a lot more money in my pocket, and a lot more sense. That?s the way you got to go about it.
?If you just turn on your TV to ESPN, this is a brotherhood. This is a brotherhood. One of our brothers in trouble right now. It really hurts me, man. But one of our brothers is in trouble right now because he didn?t want to be different. You got to make a choice right now. .?.?.
?You?re not the same dude you was when you grew up. You different now. That doesn?t mean you can?t hang out with your boys, do things you used to do with your boys. You still do those, but you got to be smart about it, smart about your decisions, man.?
At that point the room of rookies fell silent.
With the Hernandez situation unfolding in front of them ? along with former Browns linebacker Ausar Walcott being arrested for attempted murder and Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent going back to jail for failing drug tests while awaiting trial for killing a teammate in a drunk driving crash ??the league doesn?t need many words.
They have examples, hopefully too many of them for the point to be missed.
TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry on Friday reported a quarterly loss and forecast an operating loss in the current quarter as results came in way below analysts' expectations, sending its shares tumbling 17 percent before the market opened.
The smartphone maker reported a net loss of $84 million, or 16 cents a share, in the fiscal first quarter ended June 1. That compared with a year-earlier loss of $518 million, or 99 cents a share.
Excluding one-time items, Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry reported a loss from continuing operations of $67 million, or 13 cents a share, on revenue of $3.1 billion. Analysts, on average, expected earnings of 6 cents a share, on revenue of $3.36 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S Estimates.
Shipments rose in the quarter, but the company gave no breakdown on how many of its smartphone sales came from the new BB10 devices. It is betting the new phones will help it win back some of the market share lost to aggressive competitors.
BlackBerry shares fell 17.2 percent to $11.98 in early U.S. trading.
(Reporting by Euan Rocha and Alastair Sharp; Editing by Janet Guttsman; and Jeffrey Benkoe)
Geraldo Rivera and Rush Limbaugh are using the Aaron Hernandez case to tell their audiences that the NFL is contributing to a decaying American culture.
Rivera appeared on FOX News and said that the NFL and player agents should do more to keep players like Hernandez out of trouble.
?I don?t know why the league who recruits these kids from the inner city, how they don?t have minders, how the agents who are collecting 10 percent of $40 million, where are they in all of this?? Rivera said. ?Why aren?t they mentoring these young men who are fatherless, many of them ? Ray Lewis and all of the rest. Michael Vick. Uh, you can count them. There?s a ton of them. They sign them because they?re superb athletes and do nothing to preserve their character and put them on the right road toward manhood. It?s really pathetic.?
Rivera gets a few things wrong here: Hernandez isn?t from the inner city, he?s from a middle-class subdivision in Bristol, Connecticut. Hernandez?s father died when he was 16, but it?s wrong to call him ?fatherless,? as Hernandez often spoke about the close relationship he had with his father. Also, Hernandez?s agent didn?t get ?10 percent of $40 million,? as NFL agents can get a maximum of 3 percent of a player?s income, and $40 million represents the total value of the contract Hernandez signed last year ? most of which he will never see.
And, of course, the NFL does do plenty to try to encourage players to conduct themselves like professionals not only on the field but off, starting with the rookie symposium and continuing with player development programs that are available to every player during and after their careers. The NFL?s track record isn?t perfect, but how could any employer be 100 percent sure that none of its employees get into trouble away from work?
Those problems aside, Limbaugh piggybacked on Rivera?s comments. Limbaugh has long criticized what he sees as ties between the NFL and gangs, saying in 2007, ?The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips.? Limbaugh indicated that he thinks it?s unfair that he was criticized for those comments while Rivera will probably get a free pass, but Limbaugh added that he thinks the Hernandez case demonstrates the problem with a gang culture in the NFL.
?This guy is a star player in the National Football League, a star player for the New England Patriots. This has the potential to blow the lid open on the NFL and gangs and the whole concept,? Limbaugh said.
Rivera also decided that he wanted to bring Tim Tebow into the story and compare the two former teammates.
?Ironically a college classmate at the University of Florida of Tim Tebow ? ironic, why? Because Tim Tebow, probably the most religious, straight-shooting ballplayer in the league,? Rivera said. ?And Aaron Hernandez, a kid, an ex-hoodlum. You can take the kid out of the hood you can?t take the hood out of the kid. He was a Bristol Blood, he was a gang banger.?
Unfortunately for Rivera, The Onion beat him to trying to turn the Hernandez story into a Tebow story.
Are you a tourism board, non-profit, government agency, university or research organization? Google wants you to help add 360-degree imagery with its nifty Street View Trekker, through a brand-new loan program. If you get the nod from GOOG, you'll have a chance to roam the Earth with the company's human-mounted camera equipment. The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau was tapped as the first volunteer -- the group is currently hard at work shooting popular attractions throughout the 50th state. Though the terms aren't entirely clear, we're willing to bet that Google's giving preference to bonafide orgs, rather than sending its pricey gear off with individuals. Still, if you've been dying to contribute to Maps, it never hurts to apply. To get started, just fill out the form at the source link below. Oh, and as you've probably already guessed, there's a 60-second video after the break, too.
In today?s episode of my Foundation series, serial entrepreneur Evan Williams talks candidly about his experiences building Blogger, Twitter, and his latest project, Medium. Ev recounts the early days of Twitter, shares what he?s learned about how to scale fast-growth products, and explains his philosophy about the power of collaboration.
What are the most expensive colleges? That depends what you mean by "most expensive." Are they the schools with the highest listed tuition ? the highest sticker price? Or those with the highest average net price ? what the typical student pays to attend after accounting for all expenses, but also all financial aid? What about different types of schools? Is it fair to compare public and private colleges?
Because there's no simple answer, under a 2008 law the Department of Education publishes different lists, and on Thursday released its latest annual update. Here are the top five in some of the main categories. The data are for 2011-2012.
Public four-year colleges with highest tuition, in-state
1. University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus $16,132
2. Pennsylvania State University ? Main Campus $15,984
3. University of New Hampshire ? Main Campus $15,250
4. University of Vermont $14,784
5. Colorado School of Mines $14,453
Private (not-for-profit) four-year colleges with highest tuition
1. Columbia University (N.Y.) $45,290
2. Sarah Lawrence College (N.Y.) $45,212
3. Vassar College (N.Y.) $44,705
4. George Washington University (District of Columbia) $44,148
5. Trinity College (Conn.) $44,070
Public four-year colleges with highest net price, in-state
1. Miami University-Oxford (Ohio) $22,210
2. Pennsylvania State University ? Main Campus $21,342
3. University of Guam $21,296
4. St. Mary's College of Maryland $20,521
5. Pennsylvania State University ? Altoona $20,457
Private (not-for-profit) four-year colleges with highest net prices
1. School of the Art Institute of Chicago $42,882
2. Ringling College of Art and Design (Fla.) $40,222
3. The Boston Conservatory $39,602
4. Berklee College of Music (Mass.) $38,814
5. California Institute of the Arts $38,802
___
Online: To see full lists, including lists of least expensive schools, along with other data visit http://collegecost.ed.gov/catc/Default.aspx . Additional data on individual schools available at http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
Follow Justin Pope on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/JustinPopeAP
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Hundreds of protesters marched to the U.S. embassy in South Africa on Friday in a peaceful protest against the impending visit by President Barack Obama.
The demonstrators opposed U.S. policy on Cuba, the war in Afghanistan, global warming and other issues. The rally in Pretoria was organized by trade unionists and members of the South African Communist Party.
The protesters want to raise public awareness and warn U.S. citizens about human rights violations committed by the Obama administration, which includes the non-closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison holding terrorism suspects, said campaign coordinator Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
"Their administration's government is not welcome, and is being received with antagonism," Ndlozi said. "Therefore they'll have to rethink the standards by which they hold their government."
Protesters carried signs that read: "No, You Can't Obama," a message inspired by the "Yes We Can" campaign slogan adopted by the president during his first run for election.
Obama and his family were expected to arrive in South Africa later Friday as part of a tour of three African countries. Their three-day trip includes a visit to Cape Town's Robben Island, where former President Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years imprisoned by the previous white racist South African government.
Demonstrators staged a similar protest outside the Parliament building in Cape Town where Obama's record on human rights and trade relations in Africa were questioned.
"He's coming here to plunder Africa and South Africa," protester Abdurahman Khan said. "He's coming for the wealth and resources, for the gold and the diamond mines, while the majority of Africans and South Africans are suffering."
Protesters also plan to rally Saturday at the University of Johannesburg's Soweto campus, where Obama will address students and receive an honorary law degree, and on Sunday at the University of Cape Town.
The U.S. Army?s semi-annual network tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., are spurring soldiers to adopt new tactics for the battlefield, officials said.
The so-called Network Integration Evaluations give troops the opportunity to test new radios, smart phone-like devices, satellite communications networks, software and other gear in a combat-like environment, the officials said. They?re helping to refine the service?s so-called tactics, techniques and procedures, or TTPs, for using the technology, they said.
?Over the last few NIEs, the network has become much more stable than it was ? so we are able to get at the TTPs and figure out mission command and do all that kind of stuff much more now than we have in the past, when we were really just trying to figure out the architecture,? Col. Beth Bierden, chief of the Network Integration Division at Brigade Modernization Command, said in an interview.
For instance, a new tactic was developed for soldiers using Nett Warrior, a smart-phone like device that displays maps with icons showing the position of forces, as well as nearby terrain and other combat-relevant intelligence, Bierden said.
?Soldiers love the Nett Warrior,? she said.
The program links troops using a handheld device called the Rifleman Radio, a single-channel radio that transmits voice and data communications running a high-bandwidth software package called Soldier Radio Waveform, or SRW.
?They call it tethering where they can give a team leader direction over Nett Warrior and do so without having to issue orders or talk to them,? Bierden said.
Tethering allows users of the system to send so-called ?graphic control measures,? essentially icons imposed over a digital map showing where units are in relation to surrounding terrain, obstacles or enemy forces, Bierden said.
?From the platoon leader talking to the squad leaders and the team leaders, they call this leaving ?bread crumbs? ? where they could put graphic control measures down and leave their intent,? she said. ?The whole platoon could see them down to the platoon leader level and really do TTPs regarding how that platoon works together using the Nett Warrior,? she said. ?Working through these TTPs is giving all kinds of capability that did not exist before.?
The technology allows troops to make mission adjustments more quickly and efficiently, Bierden said.
?That whole platoon leadership is seeing the same picture on their Nett Warrior device as they are moving toward the objective or doing a search,? she said. ?That platoon leader can really direct his squads and teams wherever they want to go.?
With another system called Warfighter Information Network ? Tactical Increment 2, or WIN-T, commanders were able to communicate while driving in armored trucks and other combat vehicles at a level that?s normally reserved for tactical operations centers.
The system is a mobile satellite communications and radio network engineered to integrate with tactical vehicles such as armored trucks, known as Mine Resistant Ambush Protected ? All Terrain Vehicles, or M-ATVs. It includes antennas and, in some cases, a small satellite dish mounted onto vehicles, giving commanders the ability to chat with other commanders, as well as digital maps and intelligence information, Bierden said.
The network system uses an application called Command Post of the Future, or CPOF, a constantly updated display showing pertinent combat and intelligence data. The application gives commanders the ability to lead missions while stopped or moving.
The system is designed to be ?self-healing,? meaning it can switch between a satellite connection to high-band radio as needed if, for instance, a line-of-sight connection is interrupted by terrain.
During testing, commanders had a soldier monitor the flow of data and alert the commander as needed, said Rickey Smith, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center ? Forward.
?There is a lot of complexity and challenge to mission command on the move,? he said. ?A commander?s got a lot going on. He?s got to know where his elements are and at the same time know what the enemy is doing. You have to manage the data elements in real time. One solution was to have another soldier take on the monitoring of the data and manage the data so that the commander is not stuck to the screen.?
After installing the second version of the system on wheeled vehicles, the Army plans to configure numerous tracked vehicles with the technology, Smith said.
The Army is developing another tactic to better unify operations and intelligence data, Bierden said. While much of the transitional work with this is still ongoing, the effort will more fully fuse technologies such as CPOF with the Army?s intelligence database called Distributed Common Ground System ? Army, or DCGS.
This effort involves moving toward what Bierden referred to as a web or cloud-based common operating environment, or COE. The term refers to a common set of standards so that emerging and new technologies can better integrate with existing systems. The effort will also integrate a host of web-applications and move operational and intelligence data onto a single server, she added.
The next evaluation, called 14.1 and slated for October of this year, will likely advance this effort in a substantial way, Bierden said.
?The TTPs will get better and they will be better integrated,? she said. ?We?re moving a lot of these operational applications onto one server to the intel standard, so that everything is integrated.?
Much of this gear is part of what the Army calls Capability Set 13, a suite of integrated networking technologies slated to deploy to Afghanistan this summer with the service?s 10th Mountain Division. Developers stay in close communication with the operational units receiving the gear so as to continually inform and refine TTPs, Bierden said.
?We will learn more TTPs from them [10th Mountain] and then incorporate that back into the process,? she said.
June 27th, 2013 | Comms, Gadgets and Gear, Ground, The Defense Biz | 1 Comment
Tagged as: Army, Nett Warrior, Network Integration Evaluation, NIE, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, WIN-T
Facebook's always working on improving its mobile apps, and doing so for Android has proven to be a unique challenge. To aid in Android development, Facebook's starting up a new beta testing program for the main FB app to help identify bugs and get user feedback before each monthly release. You see, Facebook has found that the huge diversity of hardware and OS software in the Android ecosystem makes it difficult to find every bug and issue with new releases when using only internal folks (and their limited number and kinds of devices) as testers. Thankfully, at I/O this year, Google announced a new framework that allows app builders to create a Google Group for beta testers and allow those testers to download beta versions of apps from the Play Store.
Facebook has created just such a group and wants Android users the world over to sign up as beta testers. To get in on the dogfooding action, folks simply need to sign up for the Google group, then opt-in to become a beta tester and head over to Google Play to download the app. Additionally, Facebook has created its own FB group to facilitate discussion between testers and devs, and while it wants folks to join, it's not a requirement. Once you're on the app's beta version, you need only use the app as you normally would. Reporting bugs is easy: just tap the new "Report Bug" icon in the settings menu, and the necessary information will get sent to Zuckerberg's crew. The best news? The program starts today at noon, and you'll be able to download the newest Facebook app beta directly.
Type 2 diabetes patients transplanted with own bone marrow stem cells reduces insulin usePublic release date: 28-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Miranda cogcomm@aol.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair
Putnam Valley, NY. (June 28 2013) A study carried out in India examining the safety and efficacy of self-donated (autologous), transplanted bone marrow stem cells in patients with type 2 diabetes (TD2M), has found that patients receiving the transplants, when compared to a control group of TD2M patients who did not receive transplantation, required less insulin post-transplantation.
The study appears as an early e-publication for the journal Cell Transplantation, and is now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/ct0920bhansali.
"There is growing interest in the scientific community for cellular therapies that use bone marrow-derived cells for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and its complications," said study corresponding author Anil Bhansali, PhD professor and head of the Endocrinology Department at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education in Chandrigarh, India. "But the potential of stem cell therapy for this disease is yet to be fully explored."
While there is growing interest in using stem cell transplantation to treat TD2M, few studies have examined the utility of bone marrow-derived stem cells. By experimenting with bone marrow-derived stem cells, the researchers sought to exploit the rich source of stem cells in bone marrow.
Their study aimed at evaluating the efficacy and safety of autologous bone marrow-derived stem cell transplantation in patients with T2DM and who also had good glycemic control. Good glycemic control emerged as an important factor in the transplantation group and in the non-transplanted control group.
Cell transplantation had a significant impact on the patients in this study as those administered cells demonstrated a significant reduction in insulin requirement. A significantly smaller reduction in the insulin requirement of the control group was also observed but a "repeated emphasis on life style modification" was believed to be a contributing factor in this effect.
According to Dr. Bhansali, the strength of their study included the inclusion of a homogenous patient population with T2DM which exhibited good glycemic control, and the presence of a similar control group that did not get cell transplants.
"The efficacy and safety of stem cell therapy needs to be established in a greater number of patients and with a longer duration follow-up," concluded Bhansali and his co-authors. "The data available so far from animal and human studies is encouraging, however, it has enormous limitations."
The researchers recommended determining which type of stem cells -hematopoietic, bone marrow or placenta-derived - might be best to treat T2DM. In addition, they said that post-transplantation patients needed close monitoring for the development of neoplasia as stem cells - whether multipotent or pluripotent - have the potential for malignant transformation.
They concluded that "autologous bone marrow-derived stem cell therapy in patients with T2DM results in significant decrease in insulin dose requirement."
###
Contact:
Dr. Anil Bhansali
Email: anilbhansaliendocrine@rediffmail.com
Citation: Bhansali, A.; Asokumra,P.; Walia, R.; Bhansali, S.; Gupta, V.; Jain, A.; Sachdeva, N.; Sharma, R. R.; Marwaha, N.; Khandelwal, N. Efficacy and Safety of Autologous Bone Marrow Derived Stem Cell Transplantation in patients with Type 2 Diabetes mellitus: A randomized placebo-controlled study. Cell Transplantation.
Appeared or available online: April 2, 2013
The Coeditors-in-chief for CELL TRANSPLANTATION are at the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Center for Neuropsychiatry, China Medical University Hospital, TaiChung, Taiwan. Contact, Camillo Ricordi, MD at ricordi@miami.edu or Shinn-Zong Lin, MD, PhD at shinnzong@yahoo.com.tw or David Eve, PhD at celltransplantation@gmail.com
News release by Florida Science Communications http://www.sciencescribe.net
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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.
Type 2 diabetes patients transplanted with own bone marrow stem cells reduces insulin usePublic release date: 28-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Miranda cogcomm@aol.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair
Putnam Valley, NY. (June 28 2013) A study carried out in India examining the safety and efficacy of self-donated (autologous), transplanted bone marrow stem cells in patients with type 2 diabetes (TD2M), has found that patients receiving the transplants, when compared to a control group of TD2M patients who did not receive transplantation, required less insulin post-transplantation.
The study appears as an early e-publication for the journal Cell Transplantation, and is now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/ct0920bhansali.
"There is growing interest in the scientific community for cellular therapies that use bone marrow-derived cells for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and its complications," said study corresponding author Anil Bhansali, PhD professor and head of the Endocrinology Department at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education in Chandrigarh, India. "But the potential of stem cell therapy for this disease is yet to be fully explored."
While there is growing interest in using stem cell transplantation to treat TD2M, few studies have examined the utility of bone marrow-derived stem cells. By experimenting with bone marrow-derived stem cells, the researchers sought to exploit the rich source of stem cells in bone marrow.
Their study aimed at evaluating the efficacy and safety of autologous bone marrow-derived stem cell transplantation in patients with T2DM and who also had good glycemic control. Good glycemic control emerged as an important factor in the transplantation group and in the non-transplanted control group.
Cell transplantation had a significant impact on the patients in this study as those administered cells demonstrated a significant reduction in insulin requirement. A significantly smaller reduction in the insulin requirement of the control group was also observed but a "repeated emphasis on life style modification" was believed to be a contributing factor in this effect.
According to Dr. Bhansali, the strength of their study included the inclusion of a homogenous patient population with T2DM which exhibited good glycemic control, and the presence of a similar control group that did not get cell transplants.
"The efficacy and safety of stem cell therapy needs to be established in a greater number of patients and with a longer duration follow-up," concluded Bhansali and his co-authors. "The data available so far from animal and human studies is encouraging, however, it has enormous limitations."
The researchers recommended determining which type of stem cells -hematopoietic, bone marrow or placenta-derived - might be best to treat T2DM. In addition, they said that post-transplantation patients needed close monitoring for the development of neoplasia as stem cells - whether multipotent or pluripotent - have the potential for malignant transformation.
They concluded that "autologous bone marrow-derived stem cell therapy in patients with T2DM results in significant decrease in insulin dose requirement."
###
Contact:
Dr. Anil Bhansali
Email: anilbhansaliendocrine@rediffmail.com
Citation: Bhansali, A.; Asokumra,P.; Walia, R.; Bhansali, S.; Gupta, V.; Jain, A.; Sachdeva, N.; Sharma, R. R.; Marwaha, N.; Khandelwal, N. Efficacy and Safety of Autologous Bone Marrow Derived Stem Cell Transplantation in patients with Type 2 Diabetes mellitus: A randomized placebo-controlled study. Cell Transplantation.
Appeared or available online: April 2, 2013
The Coeditors-in-chief for CELL TRANSPLANTATION are at the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Center for Neuropsychiatry, China Medical University Hospital, TaiChung, Taiwan. Contact, Camillo Ricordi, MD at ricordi@miami.edu or Shinn-Zong Lin, MD, PhD at shinnzong@yahoo.com.tw or David Eve, PhD at celltransplantation@gmail.com
News release by Florida Science Communications http://www.sciencescribe.net
[ | 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.
Pasadena, CA ? NASA has decommissioned its Galaxy Evolution Explorer after a decade of operations in which the venerable space telescope used its ultraviolet vision to study hundreds of millions of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic time.
In a first-of-a-kind move for NASA, the agency in May 2012 loaned GALEX to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which used private funds to continue operating the satellite while NASA retained ownership. Since then, investigators from around the world have used GALEX to study everything from stars in our own Milky Way galaxy to hundreds of thousands of galaxies 5 billion light-years away.
?In the last few years, GALEX studied objects we never thought we?d be able to observe, from the Magellanic Clouds to bright nebulae and supernova remnants in the galactic plane,? said David Schiminovich of Columbia University, New York, NY, a longtime GALEX team member who led science operations over the past year. ?Some of its most beautiful and scientifically compelling images are part of this last observation cycle.?
In today?s episode of my 
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Public release date: 28-Jun-2013
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