REUTERS/Texas Department of Criminal Justice/Handout
Carl Henry Blue is seen in an undated handout photo from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The state of Texas is preparing to execute Blue for killing his former girlfriend in 1994 by dousing her with gasoline and setting her on fire.
By James B. Kelleher, Reuters
The state of Texas on Thursday executed a man convicted of killing his former girlfriend in 1994 by dousing her with gasoline and setting her on fire.
Carl Henry Blue, 48, was put to death by lethal injection at the state penitentiary at Huntsville, said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He was pronounced dead at 6:56 p.m. local time.
Blue was convicted of killing ex-girlfriend Carmen Richards-Sanders, 38, in her apartment in Bryan, Texas, as she was getting ready to leave for work.
His execution was the first this year in Texas, which leads the United States in executions, and the second in the country. Robert Gleason, 42, was electrocuted by the state of Virginia on January 16.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The rand fell through the psychologically key 9.0 level against the dollar on Wednesday as increasing negative sentiment towards South Africa's economy triggered stop losses on the currency.
Violent labour protests in Africa's largest economy have hit invest sentiment since late last year, triggering three credit rating downgrades.
The rand lost over 1.6 percent to 9.0001/dollar, its weakest in over nine weeks. Its next support level is the 3-1/2 year low of 9.01 hit in November.
"We've seen some stop-loss activity, so people are stopping on long rand positions on a technical breakthrough of the 8.88-8.89 level," said Duncan Howes, a trader at Absa Capital.
Light liquidity conditions and global demand for dollars added to the rand's woes, although the currency is unlikely to weaken further on Wednesday as other emerging market units had either stabilised or strengthened, Howes said.
The rand also has strong support at the 9 rand level, and it had pulled back to 8.96 by 1229 GMT on Wednesday but remained the biggest loser against the dollar in a basket of 20 emerging market currencies tracked by Reuters.
Analysts say the rand is in over-sold territory against the euro but any dips will be restricted by negative sentiment towards South Africa.
Euro/rand hit 12 rand, before retreating to 11.95 rand.
Government bond yields were up, with the long end of the yield curve rising the most. The benchmark 2026 yield gained 7 basis points to a two-week high of 7.32 percent, while the 2048 yield climbed 9 basis points to 8.39 percent.
"It's a very bearish view on South Africa all round. Today has seen a somewhat snowball effect of the recent mood, which has been to sell the rand against EM and the majors, and bonds are taking the brunt of this too," said Anisha Arora of 4Cast.
Headline inflation data released earlier in the session showed CPI accelerated to 5.7 percent in December, its fastest pace since May, causing a further sell-off in the bond market as investors interpreted the high print to mean inflation may push out of the Reserve Bank's (SARB) 3-6 percent target range.
After three days of deliberations on monetary policy, the Bank will announce a decision on the repo rate on Thursday.
Economists polled by Reuters expect the SARB will hold rates steady at 40-year lows to support struggling economic growth.
"Bonds were already weaker after CPI basically confirmed that the SARB will not move rates in the short- to medium-term horizon and the poor forex outlook has spread to local assets, igniting this sell off further," Arora said.
Jan. 22, 2013 ? Public acceptance of climate change's reality may have been influenced by the rate at which words moved from scientific journals into the mainstream, according to anthropologist Michael O'Brien, dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri. A recent study of word usage in popular literature by O'Brien and his colleagues documented how the usage of certain words related to climate change has risen and fallen over the past two centuries. Understanding how word usage affects public acceptance of science could lead to better science communication and a more informed public.
"Scientists can learn from this study that the general public shouldn't be expected to understand technical terms or be convinced by journal papers written in technical jargon," O'Brien said. "Journalists must explain scientific terms in ways people can understand and thereby ease the movement of those terms into general speech. That can be a slow process. Several words related to climate change diffused into the popular vocabulary over a 30-50 year timeline."
O'Brien's study found that, by 2008, several important terms in the discussion of climate change had entered popular literature from technical obscurity in the early 1900s.
These terms included:
Biodiversity -- the degree of variation in life forms within a given area
Holocene -- the current era of Earth's history, which started at the end of the last ice age
Paleoclimate -the prehistoric climate, often deduced from ice cores, tree rings and pollen trapped in sediments
Phenology -- the study of how climate and other environmental factors influence the timing of events in organisms' life cycles
Not every term was adopted at the same rate or achieved the same degree of popularity. Biodiversity, for example, came into popular use quickly in only a few years in the late 80s and early 90s. Other terms, like Holocene or phenology, have taken decades and are still relatively uncommon.
"The adoption of words into the popular vocabulary is like the evolution of species," O'Brien said. "A complex process governs why certain terms are successful and adopted into everyday speech, while others fail. For example, the term 'meme' has entered the vernacular, as opposed to the term 'culturgen,' although both refer to a discrete unit of culture, such as a saying transferred from person to person."
To observe the movement of words into popular literature, O'Brien and his colleagues searched the database of 7 million books created by Google. They used the "Ngram" feature of the database to track the number of appearances of climate change keywords in literature since 1800. The usage rate of those climate change terms was compared to the usage of "the," which is the most common word in the English language. Statistical analysis of usage rates was calculated in part by co-author William Brock, a new member of MU's Department of Economics and member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Note: A portion of O'Brien's experiment can be repeated using any computer with internet access.
1. Go to http://books.google.com/ngrams
2. Enter terms such as "climate change," "global warming," or "anthropogenic" and note how they have changed in usage over the past century.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
R. Alexander Bentley, Philip Garnett, Michael J. O'Brien, William A. Brock. Word Diffusion and Climate Science. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (11): e47966 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047966
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.
Chemists devise inexpensive, benchtop method for marking and selecting cellsPublic release date: 8-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mika Ono mikaono@scripps.edu 858-784-2052 Scripps Research Institute
LA JOLLA, CA January 8, 2013 - Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found an easier way to perform one of the most fundamental tasks in molecular biology. Their new method allows scientists to add a marker to certain cells, so that these cells may be easily located and/or selected out from a larger cell population.
The technique, which is described in a recent issue of the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, makes use of the tight binding of two proteins that are cheaply obtainable but are not found in human or other mammalian cells. As such, it has advantages over existing cell-marking techniques.
"This new technique is cheap, easy and sensitive," said TSRI Institute Professor Richard A. Lerner, who is the senior author of the new report. "The method should be useful in a variety of applications that require separating out certain types of cells."
Looking for a Better Way
The best-known cell marker in use today is GFP (green fluorescent protein), a jellyfish protein that emits a distinctive green light when illuminated by certain other light wavelengths. When scientists want to add a new gene to cells, for example to produce a therapeutic protein, they often construct a genetic sequence that also includes the GFP gene. Thus the cells that successfully produce the new protein will also produce GFP, whose fluorescence allows these cells to be identified and even sorted out from a larger population.
But fluorescence-based cell sorting is relatively expensive and cumbersome. Alternative cell-marking techniques use marker molecules to which antibodies or metals will bind tightly, but these are apt to have unwanted side effects on the cells that they mark. Lerner's team, led by first author Yingjie Peng, a postdoctoral fellow, set out to invent a better method.
The new method exploits a special property of chitinase enzymes, which evolved to break down chitina tough, sugar-derived material found, for example, in crab shells, squid beaks and the cell walls of fungi. In addition to a main chitin-breaking domain, chitinases have another active structure, a "chitin binding domain" (ChBD). "It makes a super-strong bond with chitin," said Peng. In recent years, scientists have begun to use this high-affinity binding of ChBD and chitin as a marker system, typically for selecting ChBD-tagged proteins in a lab dish. The new method uses ChBD to mark and select cells.
A Powerful Tool
In the basic technique, a new gene can be added to cells within a larger DNA vector that also includes the genetic sequences for ChBD and GFP. The ChBD molecule will be produced in such a way that it ends up being held on the outer surface of its host cell's plasma membraneand the GFP molecule will sit just inside the membrane. The GFP serves as a visual beacon, while the ChBD serves as a handy gripping point for cell selection.
After exposing a culture of test cells to this experimental ChBD-containing vector, the scientists was able to see, via the GFP tags, which cells were expressing them, and was able to select them out easily, with high sensitivity, using magnetic beads coated with chitin. "This is a relatively easy benchtop method," Peng said. Importantly, these selected cells could produce progeny cells that seemed normal and healthy.
Because the ChBD marker, in the vector, is produced in a way that anchors it to a cell's membrane, it also can serve as a powerful tool for selecting just the membrane fraction of a sample of cellular material. Peng and his colleagues demonstrated this using chitin beads to quickly isolate a pure fraction of membrane material from ChBD-marked test cells.
Cellulase enzymes, which break down the ubiquitous plant compound cellulose, also have a high-affinity cellulase-binding domain, which can be employed in the same way as the ChBD.
The scientists expect that the new cell-marking method will help to streamline another major molecular biology technique, which was pioneered by the Lerner laboratory in parallel with the group of Sir Gregory Winter at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Britain. This technique allows scientists to produce very large and diverse libraries of antibody arms, and to sift through them, or "pan"as gold miners pan for nuggetsfor those that might be of use, for example in therapies. ChBD-based markers should be useful in boosting the efficiency of this panning process, said Peng.
The Lerner laboratory is also investigating the potential use of ChBD-based cell marking in living animals, for example to track the fates of selected cell types throughout an animal's lifespan.
###
Those interested in using the new technology are invited to contact TSRI's Office of Technology Development, at (858) 784-8140 or through the department's webpage at http://www.scripps.edu/research/technology/contactus.html.
Other contributors to the study, "Engineering Cell Surfaces for Orthogonal Selectability," were Teresa M. Jones and Diana I. Ruiz of the TSRI Department of Chemistry, and Dae Hee Kim of the Scripps Korea Antibody Institute. For more information on the paper, see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201201844/abstract
The research was supported by a grant from Scripps Korea Antibody Institute.
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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.
Chemists devise inexpensive, benchtop method for marking and selecting cellsPublic release date: 8-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mika Ono mikaono@scripps.edu 858-784-2052 Scripps Research Institute
LA JOLLA, CA January 8, 2013 - Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found an easier way to perform one of the most fundamental tasks in molecular biology. Their new method allows scientists to add a marker to certain cells, so that these cells may be easily located and/or selected out from a larger cell population.
The technique, which is described in a recent issue of the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, makes use of the tight binding of two proteins that are cheaply obtainable but are not found in human or other mammalian cells. As such, it has advantages over existing cell-marking techniques.
"This new technique is cheap, easy and sensitive," said TSRI Institute Professor Richard A. Lerner, who is the senior author of the new report. "The method should be useful in a variety of applications that require separating out certain types of cells."
Looking for a Better Way
The best-known cell marker in use today is GFP (green fluorescent protein), a jellyfish protein that emits a distinctive green light when illuminated by certain other light wavelengths. When scientists want to add a new gene to cells, for example to produce a therapeutic protein, they often construct a genetic sequence that also includes the GFP gene. Thus the cells that successfully produce the new protein will also produce GFP, whose fluorescence allows these cells to be identified and even sorted out from a larger population.
But fluorescence-based cell sorting is relatively expensive and cumbersome. Alternative cell-marking techniques use marker molecules to which antibodies or metals will bind tightly, but these are apt to have unwanted side effects on the cells that they mark. Lerner's team, led by first author Yingjie Peng, a postdoctoral fellow, set out to invent a better method.
The new method exploits a special property of chitinase enzymes, which evolved to break down chitina tough, sugar-derived material found, for example, in crab shells, squid beaks and the cell walls of fungi. In addition to a main chitin-breaking domain, chitinases have another active structure, a "chitin binding domain" (ChBD). "It makes a super-strong bond with chitin," said Peng. In recent years, scientists have begun to use this high-affinity binding of ChBD and chitin as a marker system, typically for selecting ChBD-tagged proteins in a lab dish. The new method uses ChBD to mark and select cells.
A Powerful Tool
In the basic technique, a new gene can be added to cells within a larger DNA vector that also includes the genetic sequences for ChBD and GFP. The ChBD molecule will be produced in such a way that it ends up being held on the outer surface of its host cell's plasma membraneand the GFP molecule will sit just inside the membrane. The GFP serves as a visual beacon, while the ChBD serves as a handy gripping point for cell selection.
After exposing a culture of test cells to this experimental ChBD-containing vector, the scientists was able to see, via the GFP tags, which cells were expressing them, and was able to select them out easily, with high sensitivity, using magnetic beads coated with chitin. "This is a relatively easy benchtop method," Peng said. Importantly, these selected cells could produce progeny cells that seemed normal and healthy.
Because the ChBD marker, in the vector, is produced in a way that anchors it to a cell's membrane, it also can serve as a powerful tool for selecting just the membrane fraction of a sample of cellular material. Peng and his colleagues demonstrated this using chitin beads to quickly isolate a pure fraction of membrane material from ChBD-marked test cells.
Cellulase enzymes, which break down the ubiquitous plant compound cellulose, also have a high-affinity cellulase-binding domain, which can be employed in the same way as the ChBD.
The scientists expect that the new cell-marking method will help to streamline another major molecular biology technique, which was pioneered by the Lerner laboratory in parallel with the group of Sir Gregory Winter at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Britain. This technique allows scientists to produce very large and diverse libraries of antibody arms, and to sift through them, or "pan"as gold miners pan for nuggetsfor those that might be of use, for example in therapies. ChBD-based markers should be useful in boosting the efficiency of this panning process, said Peng.
The Lerner laboratory is also investigating the potential use of ChBD-based cell marking in living animals, for example to track the fates of selected cell types throughout an animal's lifespan.
###
Those interested in using the new technology are invited to contact TSRI's Office of Technology Development, at (858) 784-8140 or through the department's webpage at http://www.scripps.edu/research/technology/contactus.html.
Other contributors to the study, "Engineering Cell Surfaces for Orthogonal Selectability," were Teresa M. Jones and Diana I. Ruiz of the TSRI Department of Chemistry, and Dae Hee Kim of the Scripps Korea Antibody Institute. For more information on the paper, see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201201844/abstract
The research was supported by a grant from Scripps Korea Antibody Institute.
[ | 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.
(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc has fired Richard Cookson, chief investment officer of its private bank, as the company looks to cut costs, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
Citigroup will no longer rely on one person to lead the firm's investment strategy and will instead seek to "better leverage the existing in-house expertise across Citi," including its markets and banking research teams, Bloomberg said, citing an internal memo. (http://r.reuters.com/caw94t)
Chief Executive Mike Corbat named two company veterans to lead its institutional and consumer businesses on Monday and set lines of command to give him more direct responsibility for executives than his predecessor.
Cookson's dismissal was part of the job cuts the bank announced in December, Bloomberg said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bangalore; Editing by Richard Chang)
A $20,000 diamond ring found in a tanning salon in St. Charles, Mo., appears to be at the center of a legal dispute over "finders keepers." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch attempts to explain murky statutes revolving around found property versus stealing. After Bonnie Land found the expensive ring and agreed to return it weeks later, she was arrested. She subsequently sued the ring's owner for $66,500 alleging breach of contract as Land wasn't given the posted $3,000 reward money.
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Public release date: 8-Jan-2013
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