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রবিবার, ৩০ সেপ্টেম্বর, ২০১২
Australians Surge in Quest to Build Quantum Computer
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Teams based at the University of New South Wales have made advances toward building a quantum computer, which could help tackle a new class of problems.
A 10 Foot USB Cable Will Change Your Life [Daily Desired]
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Gene that causes a form of deafness discovered
ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2012) ? Researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have found a new genetic mutation responsible for deafness and hearing loss associated with Usher syndrome type 1.
These findings, published in the Sept. 30 advance online edition of the journal Nature Genetics, could help researchers develop new therapeutic targets for those at risk for this syndrome.
Partners in the study included the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Kentucky.
Usher syndrome is a genetic defect that causes deafness, night-blindness and a loss of peripheral vision through the progressive degeneration of the retina.
"In this study, researchers were able to pinpoint the gene which caused deafness in Usher syndrome type 1 as well as deafness that is not associated with the syndrome through the genetic analysis of 57 humans from Pakistan and Turkey," says Zubair Ahmed, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology who conducts research at Cincinnati Children's and is the lead investigator on this study.
Ahmed says that a protein, called CIB2, which binds to calcium within a cell, is associated with deafness in Usher syndrome type 1 and non-syndromic hearing loss.
"To date, mutations affecting CIB2 are the most common and prevalent genetic cause of non-syndromic hearing loss in Pakistan," he says. "However, we have also found another mutation of the protein that contributes to deafness in Turkish populations.
"In animal models, CIB2 is found in the mechanosensory stereocilia of the inner ear -- hair cells, which respond to fluid motion and allow hearing and balance, and in retinal photoreceptor cells, which convert light into electrical signals in the eye, making it possible to see," says Saima Riazuddin, PhD, assistant professor in UC's department of otolaryngology who conducts research at Cincinnati Children's and is co-lead investigator on the study.
Researchers found that CIB2 staining is often brighter at shorter row stereocilia tips than the neighboring stereocilia of a longer row, where it may be involved in calcium signaling that regulates mechano-electrical transduction, a process by which the ear converts mechanical energy -- or energy of motion -- into a form of energy that the brain can recognize as sound.
"With this knowledge, we are one step closer to understanding the mechanism of mechano-electrical transduction and possibly finding a genetic target to prevent non-syndromic deafness as well as that associated with Usher syndrome type 1," Ahmed says.
Other researchers involved in the study include Thomas Friedman, PhD, and Inna Belyantseva, MD, PhD, from the NIDCD; Suzanne Leal, PhD, and her team at Baylor; and Gregory Frolenkov, PhD, and his team at the University of Kentucky.
This study was funded by the NIDCD, the National Science Foundation and the Research to Prevent Blindness Foundation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Saima Riazuddin, Inna A Belyantseva, Arnaud P J Giese, Kwanghyuk Lee, Artur A Indzhykulian, Sri Pratima Nandamuri, Rizwan Yousaf, Ghanshyam P Sinha, Sue Lee, David Terrell, Rashmi S Hegde, Rana A Ali, Saima Anwar, Paula B Andrade-Elizondo, Asli Sirmaci, Leslie V Parise, Sulman Basit, Abdul Wali, Muhammad Ayub, Muhammad Ansar, Wasim Ahmad, Shaheen N Khan, Javed Akram, Mustafa Tekin, Sheikh Riazuddin, Tiffany Cook, Elke K Buschbeck, Gregory I Frolenkov, Suzanne M Leal, Thomas B Friedman, Zubair M Ahmed. Alterations of the CIB2 calcium- and integrin-binding protein cause Usher syndrome type 1J and nonsyndromic deafness DFNB48. Nature Genetics, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2426
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/hYjBWlh9qKg/120930142104.htm
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Wreck It Ralph Talking Toy From Upcoming Disney Movie: Boy Toy ...
Disney is coming out with a new movie on November 1st called Wreck-It Ralph and we had the chance to test out the toy for the main character ? Ralph. AKA Wreck It Ralph. 
He has two different modes: friendly and? not so friendly. There are two buttons in the back of the doll that the children can press to make the arms move on this talking toy. If you press the buttons at the same time, Wreck It Ralph starts?well?wrecking.
Check out the video and let me know what you think!
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Afghan forces also suffer from insider attacks
FILE - In this July 9, 2010 file photograph, an Afghan National Army soldier wears an ammunition belt around his neck during a joint patrol with United States Army soldiers from Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion of the 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, outside Kandahar City. U.S. military officials have noted that Afghan security forces are dying in insider attacks along with foreign troops, but so far, the Afghan government has not provided statistics on the number killed. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)
FILE - In this July 9, 2010 file photograph, an Afghan National Army soldier wears an ammunition belt around his neck during a joint patrol with United States Army soldiers from Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion of the 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, outside Kandahar City. U.S. military officials have noted that Afghan security forces are dying in insider attacks along with foreign troops, but so far, the Afghan government has not provided statistics on the number killed. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2009 file photo, U.S. Marine squad leader Sgt. Matthew Duquette, left, of Warrenville, Ill., with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines walks with Afghan National Army Lt. Hussein, during in a joint patrol in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. U.S. military officials have noted that Afghan security forces are dying in insider attacks along with foreign troops, but so far, the Afghan government has not provided statistics on the number killed. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghan Army Sgt. Habibullah Hayar didn't know it, but he had been sleeping with his enemy for weeks.
Twenty days ago, one of his roommates was arrested for allegedly plotting an insider attack against their unit, which is partnered with NATO forces in eastern Paktia province.
Afghan soldiers and policemen ? or militants in their uniforms ? have gunned down more than 50 foreign troops so far this year, eroding the trust between coalition forces and their Afghan partners. An equal number of Afghan policemen and soldiers also died in these attacks, giving them reason as well to be suspicious of possible infiltrators within their ranks.
"It's not only foreigners. They are targeting Afghan security forces too," said the 21-year-old Hayar, who was in Kabul on leave. "Sometimes, I think what kind of situation is this that a Muslim cannot trust a Muslim ? even a brother cannot trust a brother. It's so confused. Nobody knows what's going on."
The U.S.-led coalition said a NATO service member and an international civilian contractor were killed on Saturday in the latest such insider attack. The coalition said in a statement on Sunday that Afghan soldiers were also killed or wounded, but provided no other details about the attack in eastern Afghanistan.
Insider attacks are taking a toll on the partnership, prompting the U.S. military to restrict operations with small-sized Afghan units earlier this month.
The close contact ? with coalition forces working side by side with Afghan troops as advisers, mentors and trainers ? is a key part of the U.S. strategy for putting the Afghans in the lead as the U.S. and other nations prepare to pull out their last combat troops at the end of 2014, just 27 months away.
The U.S. military also has shown increasing anger over the attacks.
"I'm mad as hell about them, to be honest with you," Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday. "It reverberates everywhere across the United States. You know, we're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we're not willing to be murdered for it."
So far this year, at least 52 foreign troops ? about half of them Americans ? have been killed in insider attacks. The Afghan government has not provided statistics on the number of its forces killed in insider attacks. However, U.S. military statistics obtained by The Associated Press show at least 53 members of the Afghan security forces had been killed as of the end of August.
A U.S. military official disclosed the numbers on condition of anonymity because he said it was up to Afghan officials to formally release the figures. An Afghan defense official who was shown the statistics said he had no reason to doubt their accuracy.
Overall, the statistics show that at least 135 Afghan policemen and soldiers have been killed in insider attacks since 2007. That's more than the 119 foreign service members ? mostly Americans ? killed in such attacks since then, according to NATO.
Typically, foreign troops are the main targets, but Afghan forces also have been killed by comrades angry over their collaboration with Westerners and many more get killed in the crossfire, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said. He said the ministry did not have a breakdown of how many had been targeted or killed in gunbattles during the attacks.
In at least one instance, an Afghan police officer with alleged ties to militants, killed 10 of his fellow officers on Aug. 11 at a checkpoint in southwestern Nimroz province. An Afghan soldier also was killed on April 25 when a fellow soldier opened fire on a U.S. service member and his translator in Kandahar province, the southern birthplace of the Taliban.
Last year, a suicide bomber in an Afghan police uniform blew himself up May 28 in Takhar province, killing two NATO service members and four Afghans, including a senior police commander. And just a week before that, four Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests under police uniforms attacked a government building in Khost province, triggering a gunbattle that left three Afghan policemen and two Afghan soldiers dead. On April 16, an Afghan soldier walked into a meeting of NATO trainers and Afghan troops in Laghman province, blew himself up, killing five U.S. troops, four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter.
"It's difficult to know an attacker from a non-attacker when everybody is wearing a uniform, Hayar said.
The attacker was one of seven people rounded up earlier this month from various units within the Afghan National Army Corps 203, Hayar said. The corps covers the eastern Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika, Ghazni, Wardak, Logar and Khost.
"He was together with me in my room with some of my other colleagues. He had a long beard. We didn't know anything about him. We were living together, sleeping together," said Hayar, who has been in the Afghan army for 2 1/2 years.
He said the suspected infiltrator was identified after a Taliban militant arrested in Logar told his Afghan interrogators that members of the fundamentalist Islamic movement had infiltrated the corps and were planning imminent attacks. That prompted Hayar's superiors to start questioning soldiers in various units.
Hayar said his roommate's uneasy reaction raised suspicion, and investigators found Taliban songs saved to the memory card of his cell phone. He was then detained by Afghan intelligence officials and confessed he was a member of the Taliban and planned to stage attacks.
Hayar says he assumes his former bunkmate was probably going after foreign forces, but it makes him uncomfortable nevertheless.
"It's very hard to trust anybody ? even a roommate," he said. "Whenever I'm not on duty, I lock my weapon and keep the key myself. I don't put my weapon under my pillow to sleep because maybe someone will grab it and shoot me with my own weapon."
To counter such attacks, the U.S. military earlier this year stopped training about 1,000 members of the Afghan Local Police, a controversial network of village-defense units. U.S. commanders have assigned some troops to be "guardian angels" who watch over their comrades even as they sleep. U.S. officials also recently ordered American troops to carry loaded weapons at all time, even when they are on their bases.
Then, after a string of insider attacks, Allen this month restricted operations carried out alongside with small-sized Afghan units. Coalition troops have routinely conducted patrols or manned outposts with small groups of Afghan counterparts, but Allen's directive said such operations would no longer be considered routine and required the approval of the regional commander.
For their part, Afghan authorities have detained or removed hundreds of soldiers as part of its effort to re-screen its security forces. The Ministry of Defense also released a 28-page training booklet this month that advises soldiers not to be personally offended when foreign troops do things Afghans view as deeply insulting.
The booklet urges them not to take revenge for foreign troops' social blunders, such as blowing their noses in public, stepping into a mosque with their shoes on, walking in front of a soldier who is praying or asking about their wives.
"Most of the coalition members are interested to share pictures of their families. It is not a big deal for them. If someone asks you about your family, especially the females in your family, don't think they are disrespecting you or trying to insult you," the booklet says.
"That is not the case. By asking such questions, they are trying to show that they want to learn more about you. You can very easily explain to them that nobody in Afghanistan would ask, especially about wives or females in the family."
___
Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.
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শনিবার, ২৯ সেপ্টেম্বর, ২০১২
Voter registration problems widening in Florida
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) ? What first appeared to be an isolated problem in one Florida county has now spread statewide, with election officials in nine counties informing prosecutors or state election officials about questionable voter registration forms filled out on behalf of the Republican Party of Florida.
State Republican officials already have fired the vendor it had hired to register voters, and took the additional step of filing an election fraud complaint against the company, Strategic Allied Consulting, with state officials. That complaint was handed over Friday to state law-enforcement authorities.
A spokesman for Florida's GOP said the matter was being treated seriously.
"We are doing what we can to find out how broad the scope is," said Brian Burgess, the spokesman.
Florida is the battleground state where past election problems led to the chaotic recount that followed the 2000 presidential election.
The Florida Democratic Party called on the state to "revoke" the ability of state Republicans to continue to register voters while the investigation continues. Oct. 9 is the deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 6 presidential election.
"It is clear that the Republican Party of Florida does not have the institutional controls in place to be trusted as a third-party, voter registration organization," said Scott Arceneaux, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party.
The Republican Party of Florida has paid Strategic Allied Consulting more than $1.3 million, and the Republican National Committee used the group for work in Nevada, North Carolina, Colorado and Virginia.
The company said earlier this week that it was cooperating with elections officials in Florida. It initially said the suspect forms were turned in by one person, who has been fired.
"Strategic has a zero-tolerance policy for breaking the law," Fred Petti, a company attorney, said Thursday.
But late Friday the company put out a lengthy statement on its website and said that it was aware of questionable forms in other counties and that it confirmed in each of those counties that the problem was with "one individual." Strategic said it had more than 2,000 people working in the state of Florida.
Strategic insisted that it has "rigorous quality control measures" and it blamed the Republican Party of Florida for the decision by Republican National Committee to dump the company on Thursday.
"When the Republican Party of Florida chose to make likely libelous comments about our effort and stated that the Republican National Committee suggested us as the vendor, the RNC was put in the unenviable position of ending a long-term relationship for the sake of staying focused on the election," the company stated.
In Florida, it is a third-degree felony to "willfully submit" any false voter registration information, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
In recent years, Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature ? citing suspicious voter registration forms turned in by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN ? has cracked down on groups holding voter registration drives.
The League of Women Voters filed a federal lawsuit against some of the restrictions and Florida agreed earlier this month to drop a new requirement to turn in registration applications within 48 hours after they are signed. The state has reinstated a 10-day deadline.
The questionable forms tied to the Republican Party have showed up in South Florida, including Miami-Dade, as well as counties in southwest and northeast Florida as well as the Florida Panhandle.
Election officials in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties on Thursday handed over more than 100 suspect forms to local prosecutors. They did so days after officials in Palm Beach County also alerted prosecutors.
Ann Bodenstein, the elections supervisor for Santa Rosa County, said her staff started raising questions after an employee saw a form that changed the home address of a neighbor.
Paul Lux, election supervisor for Okaloosa County, said questionable forms in the Florida Panhandle appear to have all come from Strategic's effort based at the local Republican Party headquarters. He said his office has turned up dozens of suspect forms.
Lux said there have been forms that listed dead people and were either incomplete or illegible. He met with local prosecutors on Friday, but added that his staff was still going through hundreds of forms dropped off by Strategic employees.
Lux, who is a Republican, said he warned local party officials earlier this month when he first learned the company was paying people to register voters.
"I told them 'This is not going to end well,'" Lux said.
But Lux added that he did not blame the Republican Party of Florida.
"I can't place the blame on RPOF if they hired a firm and that firm wasn't following the rules they were given to follow," Lux said.
The state party filed the complaint against Strategic Allied Consulting with state election officials, who late Friday handed the case over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
An FDLE spokeswoman said the agency would not automatically open a criminal investigation, but would review to see if there were "possible criminal acts."
___
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Maine Sports Legends inductees include Hackett, Kiah, McNally ...
WATERVILLE, Maine ? Maine Sports Legends will honor 10 individuals as inductees into its Hall of Honors on Sunday, Oct. 7, at the Alfond Youth Center.
The inductees are Charles Lockhart (posthumous), Ralph Sweetser (posthumous), Woodrow ?Woody? Dunphy, Dave Maxcy, Albert F. Hackett, Dennis B. Kiah, Moe McNally, John Osbourne, Bob Bourget and Karol L?Heureaux.
The inductees were chosen by regional committees for their accomplishments and contributions to youth and sports in Maine. Their participation will aid in the Maine Sports Legends fundraising for eight scholar athletes who will each receive $500 awards.
The eight scholar-athletes are: Brooke M. LaBelle, Ashland; Isaac L. LaJoie, Presque Isle; Mary Carmack, John Bapst; Tyler Beardsley, Ellsworth; Hannah Chavis, Lawrence; Taylor James Watson, Maranacook; Jessica MacDonald, Bonny Eagle; and Shawn Grover, Cheverus.
The banquet begins at 12:30 p.m., following a social half hour which begins at noon. Tickets are $35 at reserved tables of eight and can be obtained by calling 622-1539 or by email to PaulMcClay@msn.com.
Sweetser was a member of the 1928 County champion Presque Isle High basketball team and captained the team to two straight EM titles and a state title in 1932. He also competed in track and field and set a state-meet record in the shot put. In his later years he became an outstanding golfer, winning many tournaments locally, statewide and in New Brunswick.
Dunphy, a longtime athlete, principal, educator and coach, graduated from Houlton High and attended Ricker College for two years before transferring to the University of Maine. He was a four-year starter on the varsity baseball team and was captain for the 1955 and 1956 seasons. Elected to the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996, he was an outstanding shortstop, making only two errors in two years at UMaine.
Maxcy, a former high school and college athlete, was a longtime educator, assistant principal and coach before his retirement. He lettered at Scarborough High School in track and field, cross country, swimming and basketball. He was a member of the freshman track team at Bates College, transferring to UMaine his sophomore year, where he lettered in both indoor and outdoor track and field. He coached high school and college teams in Presque Isle and was a teacher at Presque Isle from 1958 to 2006.
Lockhart helped promote athletics in Fort Fairfield and became one of the town?s biggest volunteers and fans. For 37 years, Lockhart was scorekeeper for the Fort Fairfield High School basketball games. A 1938 graduate of Fort Fairfield High School, he participated in cross country skiing, tennis and Alpine skiing. Later in life he was an avid golfer and a member of the Aroostook Valley Country Club. In 2001 the Fort Fairfield Athletic Complex Field was named for him.
Hackett, who was born in Milo and is a graduate of Milo High School and the University of Maine, started working with youngsters in the 1950s when he became recreation director for his hometown. He played baseball all four years at the university and basketball for two. He went on to teach and coach baseball and basketball at Foxcroft Academy and then went on to Schenck High School in East Millinocket, where he served as guidance director and assistant principal before returning to UMaine as assistant director of admissions.
Kiah is a Bangor native who began coaching at Brewer High School even before graduating from the University of Maine. He was an assistant football coach at Brewer in 1970. The John Bapst grad played football and baseball in high school and played football for one year and baseball for four at UMaine. He coached and taught at Foxcroft Academy and Brewer High School and held administrative positions at Hermon High and Brewer until retiring last June.
McNally, a Gardiner native and 1970 Gardiner High grad, has been teaching for 33 years. She played three sports in high school and four in college. She became Gardiner?s field hockey coach in 1979 and her teams went on to compile a record of 384-134-21 with four Eastern Maine titles and two state crowns. She is a founding member of the Maine State Field Hockey Association and also also coached basketball and softball at the high school.
Osbourne, a native of Hull, Yorkshire, England, settled in Waterville in 1957, and became a founder of soccer in the Waterville area. He volunteered to begin league play at the Boys Club in Waterville in the late 1950s and continued into the 1980s. He serves on the Heritage Circle, the Alfond Boys and Girls Club and YMCA of Greater Waterville.
Bourget began his coaching career in 1969 and in 1978 he served as director of recreation for Standish. He later became men?s soccer coach at Saint Joseph College while still serving as a teacher at Bonny Eagle High School, where he also coached boys? basketball, softball, soccer, boys and girls track and field and girls basketball. His soccer teams won more than 300 games and his girls basketball teams made four consecutive tournament appearances.
L?Heureux completed her 31st year as head women?s volleyball coach at UNE this past season. Her teams have won 616 matches and have made an appearance in the postseason tournament in each of the last 10 seasons. Twice during the early 1990s, L?Heureux?s teams qualified for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national tournament. She oversees UNE?s club sports programs.
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Legal language pivot of Ind. abortion drug fight
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? A legal loophole could become the latest weapon in the fight over abortion rights as opponents push Indiana to rewrite a law that defines abortion clinics so it includes facilities offering the procedure without surgery by prescribing a pill.
As many as eight other states could face similar battles over semantics.
The move would potentially affect women's health providers that previously have been untouched by laws meant to limit access to abortions. It's the latest fight over abortion rights in a state that passed the first law nationwide meant to deny Planned Parenthood federal funding for general health services.
Anti-abortion activists and abortion rights supporters alike expect the drug, marketed as Mifeprex, to be the subject of legislation in Indiana. But other states also may have to re-examine murky wording of laws regulating the drug.
Initially known as RU-486, the abortion pill was introduced in France in 1988, and gained approval of the Food and Drug Administration on Sept. 28, 2000. Thirty-nine states already have laws that in some way restrict the drug's use.
"In general terms, there need to be tighter regulations on the abortion pill," said Indiana Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, who earlier this year unsuccessfully sponsored a bill that would have added restrictions on drug-induced abortions in Indiana.
Indiana's dispute comes on the heels of a lawsuit over a 2011 Indiana law that would have denied Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions. A legal challenge is still wending its way through federal court.
Unsatisfied, Indiana anti-abortion activists are going after the abortion pill. Earlier this month, Indiana Right to Life asked the state to investigate whether a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lafayette is violating state law by performing abortions without a license.
Indiana law essentially defines abortion as the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. But to qualify as an abortion clinic under the law, a freestanding facility must perform surgical abortions.
Indiana Right to Life questioned whether the clinic, which administers Mifeprex, meets state standards for inspections and licensing that are required of other abortion clinics.
The attorney general's office said any investigation would be up to the Department of Health, who said the clinic isn't under its purview because it is not required to be licensed.
"We believe Indiana's abortion law is at conflict with itself and that Planned Parenthood is exploiting that conflict to expand its abortion business," said Mike Fichter, president and CEO of Indiana Right to Life. He said the organization believes medication abortions should fall under state licensing and inspection requirements.
Ten locations offer abortions in Indiana, Planned Parenthood of Indiana President Betty Cockrum said, including four Planned Parenthood clinics and six private offices. The Lafayette clinic is the sole clinic in the state that offers only medication abortion, she said.
"There is no argument that medication abortion is in fact an abortion," Cockrum said. But, she added, state law clearly defines an abortion clinic as a freestanding clinic where surgical abortions are performed. Lafayette is the sole clinic that offers only drug-induced abortions, she said.
Holdman said he thought the wording of Indiana's abortion law was ambiguous. Rules for the use of the abortion pill are "not like rules for other abortions," he said.
Indiana is one of four states, along with Louisiana, Maryland and Missouri, where the restrictions on abortion clinics are clearly limited to surgical abortion, Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager for the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, said in an email Friday. In five additional states, the law isn't clear, she said. Arizona and Arkansas both modified their laws in 2011 to apply to both medication and surgical abortion. The Institute is an abortion rights group focused on sexual and reproductive health research.
The procedure, which works during the first nine weeks of pregnancy, involves swallowing Mifeprex, known chemically as mifepristone. The pill causes an embryo to detach from the uterine wall, and a second pill, misoprostol, is used two days later to cause contractions and push the embryo out of the uterus.
Nationally, the drug is available only through clinics, hospitals and physicians, but women can complete the abortion process at home.
Fichter and Cockrum both said they expect Indiana legislators to take up regulation of Mifeprex early in 2013, and Holdman said he still believes the state should require that a woman see a doctor in person because of the drug's potentially dangerous side effects.
Six states already have similar requirements, according to the Guttmacher Institute, though National Right to Life gives the number as eight. But Right to Life wants to restrict the use of telemedicine to administer Mifeprex in every state, said Mary Spaulding Balch, the national organization's director of state legislation.
Abortion rights supporters oppose such a ban, saying it will reduce access to abortions for women in remote, rural areas.
A report released earlier this year by the Indiana State Department of Health found that nearly one in five abortions in 2010 was drug-induced. A 2011 study by the Guttmacher Institute ? based on 2008 data ? found the proportion of such procedures increased from 14 percent to 17 percent of all abortions between 2005 and 2008.
___
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Syria rebels struggle to advance in Aleppo offensive
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels said they were struggling to make headway against a barrage of government jet and artillery attacks in their latest attempt to take control of the country's largest city Aleppo after weeks of deadlock.
On the second day of an offensive they had billed as a "decisive battle", rebels also threatened to start fighting local Kurdish militants - a move which would further complicate a war that has already spilled over Syria's borders.
Fighters reached by telephone said they had been locked in hours of fierce combat in several neighborhoods of Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, on Friday.
Rebels armed with machineguns and homemade rockets said they faced a difficult task against a better-equipped enemy.
"We reached the middle of Suleiman al-Halabi and liberated some neighborhoods so I am still optimistic. But I'm worried about our organization. We can't force the regime out. At best, I think we can advance some of our positions," one fighter said, requesting anonymity.
Other rebels told Reuters one of their units had been surrounded. One fighter said some insurgent battalions were pulling out of the front line or had never joined the battle.
The 18-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began as peaceful protests but has descended into a civil war. More than 30,000 people have been killed, say activists.
Syria's government says it is fighting Islamist hardliners, adding that thousands of Arab and foreign fighters have entered the country from Turkey.
MORE TALK, LITTLE ACTION AT U.N.
World powers have been meeting at the United Nations this week but are divided over the crisis.
Russia, China and Iran back Assad and oppose any UN sanctions on Syria's leader.
Western countries and Arab states supporting the opposition remain unwilling to take forceful action, despite Qatar's calls for Arab intervention. Some western diplomats say they have been frustrated by what they see as a lack of clear command structure and coordination among the rebels.
One group of countries sympathetic to Syria's opposition is planning to hold another "Friends of Syria" meeting, but there was little prospect of that resulting in action against Assad.
"I just expect ideas to be presented. There will be no concrete plans," Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby told Reuters at the conference in New York.
Diplomats on Friday said that Carla del Ponte, the International Criminal Court's former chief prosecutor, will be named to join a UN investigation into abuses in Syria. Del Ponte was known for doggedly pursuing former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at the ICC. [ID:nL5E8KS58C]
Human rights investigators say state forces and some rebel groups have committed war crimes in Syria.
Inside Syria, neither side seems ready to put down its arms. Assad's forces have pounded rebel-held areas across the country, and clashes erupt daily. Yet both sides appear incapable of striking a decisive military blow.
A main international concern has been the security of Syria's chemical weapons sites. But U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta cited U.S. intelligence on Friday suggesting that the chemicals remained secure.
The rebels appear to be improving their reach. A bomb attack on Wednesday wrecked the army's command headquarters in the heart of Damascus, though no major officers were killed.
FIGHTING THE KURDS
The rebels also threatened to confront locally-based Kurdish militant groups who they said they suspected of supporting Assad.
They said the groups were linked to Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) which has been fighting for autonomy in neighboring Turkey.
One rebel leader issued a warning to the Kurds through the Facebook page for the Tawheed Brigade, the largest rebel unit in Aleppo.
"Tawheed Brigade leader Abdelqadir al-Saleh made a final request by phone to the PKK gangs, to drop their weapons immediately and not drag themselves into a losing battle that is not their fight," it said.
"Whoever carries arms in the face of the opposition battalions will find themselves under fire."
In Aleppo's Kurdish neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud, rebels said they had captured at least eight men from the shabbiha - as the pro-Assad militias are known. Some of the captives were killed, they said.
It was unclear if the victims were Kurds, a stateless ethnic group who stretch over much of the region and have so far been split over their support for the uprising.
(Reporting by Erika Solomon and Mariam Karouny; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrians-moved-chemical-weapons-boost-security-u-145411382.html
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Vatican opens public butler leaks trial
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? The Vatican opened the public trial of the pope's butler for allegedly stealing and leaking papal correspondence to a journalist, the most embarrassing scandal of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy.
Paolo Gabriele, a 46-year-old father of three, faces up to four years in prison if he is convicted of aggravated theft in the worst security breach in the Vatican's recent history. He has already confessed and asked to be pardoned by the pope ? something Vatican watchers say is a given if he is convicted.
His trial opened Saturday inside the austere, wood-trimmed courtroom of the Vatican tribunal, housed in a four-story palazzo inside the walls of Vatican City.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-opens-public-butler-leaks-trial-075133142.html
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Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv on the privatization of Jewish identity and ...
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Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv on the privatization of Jewish identity and the tycoons of religion
Ayelet Shani ("Haaretz," September 27, 2012)
Talking to: Rabbi Gilad Kariv, 39, attorney and executive director of the Movement for Progressive Judaism. Married and father of three. Lives in Ramat Gan. When: Monday, 11 A.M. Where: In his office at Beit Daniel, Tel Aviv.
Yeshayahu Leibowitz had a harsh saying about you Reform Jews. He said: ?It?s very nice and all, but it?s not religion.?
Leibowitz is my teacher and mentor, and I respect his views in many areas, but certainly not in the area of religion. In Leibowitz?s Judaism, God is in the center and then ? and this is something he said explicitly ? there is no question of moral judgment. The human being does something not because it is the right thing to do from a humane point of view, but because it is the right thing in terms of God?s will. Now Leibowitz can say what he likes, but the Torah is filled with commands to kill the other because of his otherness. That?s it. In every other sense, Leibowitz was a prophet for us all, and it?s a shame that, as is always the way with prophets, his prophecy remained a voice crying in the wilderness, certainly in regard to the occupation. There?s a marvelous essay by Ahad Ha?am called ?Priest and Prophet.? We are a society that produces priests, not prophets. We as a society move between falling in love and being heartbroken, between falling in love and betrayal. We crown kings and then pull the chair out from under them.
Kind of like a soap opera.
Yes. There?s a collapse of spirit, there aren?t enough prophets. To me, Judaism is not some magic solution. I believe in the importance of Reform Judaism, because in Israel there is a camp that is raping Judaism. And there?s no point in using the prettified language of reconciliation here. There is a direct connection between the book ?Torah Hamelech? and the recent lynch in Jerusalem. To get a group of youths to carry out such an attack on an Arab youth, it takes a good few years of dehumanization of the Arab. We started the month of Elul with a Molotov cocktail that burned an Arab family in the territories, and with an Arab young man lying in intensive care as a result of a pogrom.
The threshold is going up. All the time.
And here there is a planned, orchestrated, ideological effort that relies entirely on the distorted structuring of relations between religion and state in Israel, which gives these rabbis immunity, and budgets, and public positions and status. There is a grand project of dehumanization of whoever is not a Jew.
And of the other in general.
The Arab is number one, although now he has competition for that ranking ? from the migrant worker. While we?re sitting here in this air-conditioned office, refugees and their little children are in tents in Ketziot.
Like the concentration camps Leibowitz prophesied.
Yes. There is also a detention facility where dozens of African youths have been sitting for many months because no framework was found for them. We?ve negated their humanity, we?ve removed them from the circle of human beings whom we must treat with dignity. And then this fellow ? You know, I don?t want to use such words in talking about Eli Yishai ...
Feel free.
So this immoral man, on the day of the first expulsion flight to South Sudan, goes to Ben-Gurion Airport, takes the hands of refugees and waves them in a victory sign. And I said to myself ? you know, there?s a custom at the Seder, that when you recite the 10 plagues you dip your finger in wine and take out some drops.
And Abrabanel, who personally experienced the expulsion from Spain, and went from the heights of being an advisor to the king to the low of being a refugee, said that we do this to show that the cup of happiness is not full. That your redemption came at the cost of their troubles. This is also why on the seventh day of Passover we don?t say the full Hallel prayer, because the Egyptians drowned in the sea on that day. And then this is what this representative of Judaism does.
Instead of sitting in sackcloth and fasting on the day of the expulsion and saying, ?I think, as a leader, as a politician, that this is the right thing to do, but I also understand the moral cost and therefore I am fasting on this day.? And he?s fond of fast days, this minister is.
Maybe he doesn?t understand the moral cost.
We let him become Interior Minister and we cannot disavow all responsibility. How do you train your soul so that you do not become cruel? You have to understand that there is a price that you pay for this decision. Now the question is, what do you do with this price? Do you give it a place so that the next time you don?t act like an automaton? Within a few months, Israeli society, this society of refugees, whose entire DNA should be sensitive to this story, became uncaring and indifferent. A consequence of years of dehumanization of the other. Years of giving preference to every Jewish Israeli who speaks a chauvinistic and aggressive language, of ?You ?(God?) chose us,? without anything about man having been created in God?s image. Where were Jerusalem?s Orthodox rabbis after the lynch? The ones that think we need to remain in the territories. They should be going out to Zion Square, sitting there on the ground and tearing their clothes.
The secular, too, fit the bill here as ?the other.?
Of course. Look what Ovadia Yosef said, about how judges are evil and unfit to serve as witnesses. And on Sukkot, a parade of Israeli officials, including the president and the prime minister, will go to wish this man a happy holiday. And don?t let anyone tell me that it?s just a matter of political interests. This parade of groveling to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is a deep cultural matter, and one result is the parade of tycoons to the X-ray Rabbi and to Rabbi Pinto and all of those. Anyone who thinks this is just a political dance before Shas? 11 Knesset seats is mistaken.
So what it is about?
It?s about the self-negation of Israeli secularism, or Israeli liberalism, before what they perceive as something more authentic, something deeper. And in this sense a terrible process has occurred in the State of Israel.
Because of the identification of the state with religion? We feel guilty about our secularism?
Because we?ve privatized Jewish identity and put it in the hands of the tycoons of religion, such as Ovadia Yosef. There?s the famous story about the meeting between Ben-Gurion and the Chazon Ish, where the Chazon Ish said: ?It is known that when there is a narrow bridge, and on one side there is a full wagon and on the other side an empty wagon, the empty wagon will let the full wagon pass.? I?ve always thought that this was a somewhat problematic allegory, because chances are that if the bridge is going to collapse it will collapse with the full wagon on it. These visits to Ovadia Yosef reflect an adoption of the allegory of the full wagon and empty wagon by Israeli secularism, which deep down feels that it is an empty wagon. To me, any politician who makes a pilgrimage this Sukkot to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is committing an act that disqualifies him from leading the public.
You think that Shimon Peres, say, doesn?t get this? And yet he goes.
There?s something deeper here. Because of this collapse of spirit in the democratic and liberal camp, with our almost built-in difficulty in producing prophets, in producing philosophers, in producing ideologues, I think that there is self-negation. Just look at the superlatives that were heaped upon Rabbi Elyashiv after his death. A person who throughout his leadership showed a fierce hatred and deep scorn for all that you represent. What was this unbelievable fawning all about, as if he represents some ancient truth, some great source of wisdom? A person who preached hatred his entire life.
I wonder how much the alienation of post-modern life plays a part in this.
It certainly plays a part. Israeli secularism gazes with admiration upon this human stream of 100,000 people marching after the coffin of Rabbi Elyashiv. But this is 100,000 men. They won?t follow a woman?s coffin this way. So remember that this option is an oppressive option.
How did we get to the point where our wagon is empty?
The wagon is empty because it threw things off, not because it is empty by its very nature. The non-Orthodox side of the Zionist enterprise was a wagon filled with pioneering and with Jewish creativity and sharp Hebrew, and a full wagon in terms of vision and a sense of mission to establish a model society here.
So what is the process? Is the dilution and weakening because of divisiveness, or did it happen on its own?
If you?re an Orthodox believer, then what sustains this framework is the obligation that you follow. But if you live in a democratic, liberal world whose motto is: ?Make choices and manage your choices according to what is good for you,? then there is a built-in tension between that which connects and that which divides. Between the material and the intellectual or ethical. Materialism is not a dirty word, but in this tension between the individual and the material on the one hand, and the communal and the ethical on the other, we are at the end of an age in which the material and the individual are triumphing.
Over everything.
The tragedy of Israeli Judaism is the Orthodox monopoly. But it can?t be blamed for everything. The sacrifice of a deep bond with Jewish culture is one that we make. And this causes two very serious things, in my view. One is that it makes our wagon less full. I am the first to think that it?s better to drive a wagon that has in it values of wisdom, critical thinking, equality. Our wagon is filled first of all with 52 percent of the Israeli public, which sits in the front seats and not in the back. Why are there mehadrin bus lines? Because 50 percent of ultra-Orthodox women go out to work. And so the ultra-Orthodox establishment tells them ? okay, go to work, because someone has to earn a living, but on the way we?ll remind you where you really stand. Because, God forbid, as a result of your contact with secular people, the hierarchy that?s been imprinted in you might be upset. So there?s an attempt here to prevent a reaction. We non-Orthodox Israelis have to invest in loading up our wagon. Not only with Judaism but with other things. Look at our schools. What does the graduate of the state education system look like? Is this a renaissance man? Someone who has broad cultural knowledge?
Of course not.
So in the state-education system and the ultra-Orthodox education system, I don?t like what they fill the bookbag with, but the focus on values there is much more dramatic. If we don?t wake up, we?ll lose the battle.
You don?t think we?ve lost it already?
No.
You really are an optimistic Jew.
Yes. Yes, because I truly believe that wisdom and critical thinking and education and freedom of choice and self-fulfillment ? that these are stronger forces in the end. I once talked about this with Amos Oz. The ultra-Orthodox world?s success is the secret of its collapse. The demographic growth, the political standing ? these are what will make it impossible for the old ultra-Orthodox world to survive.
That?s the opposite of what is generally thought. Can you explain what you mean?
This thing is too big for the ultra-Orthodox control mechanisms, which kept the ultra-Orthodox behind the walls of the ghetto, to succeed.
Because too many mines have already been buried there.
Yes. The larger the population gets, the stronger and more sophisticated the control mechanisms need to be, even if they?re not governmental, even if they?re just psychological. This story is steadily crumbling. Much of the extremism that we?re seeing is a reaction, just as has always happened. No argument is as untrue and easy to refute than the one that says that until the modern age Judaism was monolithic and maintained a united front. Contrary to the Orthodox myth, it wasn?t Judaism?s stagnation that preserved it. Just the opposite ? Judaism survived because this people had the ability to preserve a deep and vital and authentic connection to what we inherited from previous generations. In prayers, language, customs, lifestyle, beliefs, folklore, and at the same time to always be in a process of movement, of renewal, of change.
The wandering Jew.
Yes. The wandering Jew isn?t just someone who wandered from one land to another, but someone who knew how to move. Rabbi Yehuda Halevi wrote the Kuzari in Arabic. Maimonides wrote the Guide to the Perplexed in Arabic. [Martin] Buber, Rosenzweig ? the most important books in Jewish philosophy in the modern age were not written only in Hebrew. Also Herzl?s ?State of the Jews? and ?Altneueland.? So this whole idea that something there is more authentic, more worthy, is our disaster, because we don?t see that our wagon is not filling up. The loss of prayer, for example, is a very sad thing. Leah Goldberg prayed, Yehuda Amichai prayed. I?m not blaming the secular parents ? when the kid comes and says, they taught us about the siddur in school, then all the antennae that are on guard against missionaries and religious coercion suddenly shoot up. And rightly so, because this is what is happening in Israel. There is religious coercion, there is corruption of the religion.
The ones you say are corrupting religion would say that you are the one doing that.
True. But you know what we have to our credit? That we do not try to impose our way on others by force of law. We don?t claim that we have the truth and that others are sinners. We are ready to subject ourselves to critical thinking and to self-examination. Despite everything, I am optimistic because I think that what?s happening on the other side cannot endure.
I?d never thought about it that way.
Now the question is what do we do with this? Do we let the reactionary forces lead? There?s a lack of action. Gideon Sa?ar is considered to be a reasonably good Education Minister, right? But consider how throughout his whole tenure nothing has genuinely been done about the matter of the core curriculum. Last Sunday, 50,000 ultra-Orthodox pupils entered exempted schools that receive half their funding from the state and yet do not teach the core subjects at all. And because they receive half a budget, they sit in dilapidated and dangerous buildings, in conditions that none of us would want to see our children studying in. What have we done? We?ve put them in a trap of ignorance and poverty. And because there is no state-Haredi education today, the state-religious education system is becoming more extreme. Why aren?t the exempted schools being shut down? In the past three years, we?ve nearly doubled our number of communities. We?re not a large movement, but more and more Israelis are realizing that if we don?t become proactive, if we don?t retake command ? in our egalitarian, open and critical-thinking way, then our wagon will not be full enough and the wagon coming from the opposite direction will just run us off the road.
How did a boy from north Tel Aviv grow up to be a rabbi?
I grew up in a secular family that voted Labor. My first political phase was sort of rightist, Orthodox. As a 12th-grader I used to correspond with Yosef Burg. There was a debate over who would be the right?s candidate for president. And I wrote to the Mafdal leader telling him to run for president.
Where did that come from?
Hard to say. For as long as I can remember, I?ve been very attracted to the traditional thing. For me, to go see my great-grandmother, who was ultra-Orthodox, in Jerusalem, was incredible. My grandfather and grandmother lived in Tzahala and we were with them every weekend. They were secular. I started going to synagogue alone, as early as second grade. I was the kid of the Orthodox synagogue in Tzahala, and I was happy there. Intellectually, emotionally, as part of the community.
Did you have social problems?
No, not at all. I did the whole popular thing ? head of student council in elementary school and high school, young coordinator in the Scouts and head of the leadership council.
It?s like a mutant gene.
Yes. I grew up in a super-secular environment, a home that was never anti-religious, but where there was bread every Passover. My parents ? until I started going ? had never set foot in a synagogue. I started going to synagogue on my own, I started studying intensively. I remember going with my mother when I was in fourth grade and picking out Jewish books and then sitting and studying alone at home. I started eating kosher.
A double life.
Yes, that?s one of the arguments, that Reform Judaism is a Judaism of convenience. And I don?t understand where this bizarre idea comes from that religion has to equal suffering. What in our education about religion makes us think that religion has to be filled with agony and suffering?
That?s not exactly the question. The question is what is the essence of religion. What are we here for? Are we here to serve some lofty purpose, or is the lofty purpose supposed to serve us? Is this a kind of buffet Judaism where I can just pick and choose what pleases me?
I?m through apologizing. Whoever wants to call it buffet Judaism, be my guest. So yes, I do continually make a choice as to what I take on my plate. I dearly hope that my choice to be a member of a community, to be a man of faith; someone who studies and observes mitzvoth is not related only to what?s pleasant for me and serves needs that are very focused on the here and now, but to what I should do. To what the society around me should do.
Where does faith fit in to the story?
At the synagogue here upstairs, one of the walls is decorated with the verse from Micha ? ?Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your Lord? ... In other words, the most meaningful outward expression of our Jewish life should be in
doing justice and acts of kindness. In these challenging times we live in, faith is something that is personal and intimate, and also something that involves questioning. I have a very hard time with people whose faith is followed by an exclamation mark. For me, faith is first of all the foundation upon which rests the recognition of man?s free will, of his obligation to be a moral person, to see the other.
How far does it go? Does God exist?
I?m a believing person. I believe that behind the word God there is something real. I can?t give you a whole neat two-hour lecture here about what God is. It is truly beyond my comprehension. But I feel God?s presence in the imperative for morality, for justice, for seeing the other, for acknowledging the equal value of every person.
Are you ready to acknowledge the possibility that God may not exist? What if I said to you ? I want to join your community but I want you to know that I don?t think God exists. Would you be ready to accept me?
Yes. Absolutely. I have no problem praying in a community in which there are people who believe and people who don?t. People who believe with an exclamation point scare me more than people who say in a gentle way ? I don?t believe.
Is there any red line for acceptance into this community?
The conditions for entry into this club is first of all the desire or the commitment to the Jewish people and to the future of Judaism. But there are other conditions, too. A racist person has no place in our community. You won?t find a Reform community that will decide to restore the mehitza ?(divider?) between men and women, or prohibit women from being called up to the Torah. It?s not that everything is permitted, just come on in.
Perhaps you?re an imaginary community, in certain ways?
No. We just believe in a communal life that, by choice, is less stringent than the traditional models. I?m telling you just the opposite ? I want to be in a community where one person drives on Shabbat and another doesn?t. I think strength based on homogeneity is rotten to the core. Either it collapses in on itself or it constantly needs to swallow up more victims in order to justify itself.
How liberal are you? Would it be fine with you to officiate at your daughter?s wedding to another woman?
Yes. I marry same-sex couples.
Your daughter.
My daughter?
Yes.
Yes, yes.
Totally fine with it?
If I think it?s good for her, then yes. Strange as it may sound, the more challenging question as far as I?m concerned is what would happen if my daughter came to me and said that her true love was a non-Jew. That would be a more challenging question in terms of my liberalism.
And what would you do?
First of all, I would respect her choice. It would make me sad, because I am very dedicated to the continuity of the Jewish people, but I would do everything to see that, despite her choice, Judaism would play a very significant role in her life and in the lives of my grandchildren. But yes, it would be hard for me.
This may be a little simplistic, but try to explain to me a particular choice. For example, why do you drive on Shabbat?
Because driving on Shabbat helps me very much to fulfill and achieve things that, without them, Shabbat wouldn?t be Shabbat for me. For example ? to get to the Shabbat meal with my family, or to our synagogue. I could walk to the Orthodox synagogue near my house, but there?s nothing for me there with my daughters and my wife. These are essential layers of my religious Shabbat. For me, not driving on Shabbat doesn?t add anything to the holiness of the day. My approach is to ask what are the values, what are the ideas, what are the reasons for keeping this thing called Shabbat, and what is the right way to do it. And I go to the tradition.
And what do you conclude?
I am humbled by 4,000 years of Jewish creativity. I think that despite major mishaps along the way, humanity is progressing morally. The whole Orthodox theory is the opposite. A famous Haredi saying is ?If our forefathers were angels, then we are as human beings. And if they were as human beings, then we are as donkeys. And if they were as donkeys, we are as grasshoppers.? A theory of decline over the generations. And we say ? if despite the experience that our forefathers bequeathed to us, and the ability of one generation to learn from another, we are still declining, then something in this whole story of human civilization isn?t working. I think that even though technology today gives man much more extreme tools for wreaking destruction, from a moral perspective, humanity is progressing. Too slowly, very slowly, but progressing. Look, I am willing to attest to many big challenges for Reform Judaism. For example, the question of boundaries. If everyone chooses, then what is the boundary? The question of commitment. Let?s be honest, too many of our people don?t take commitment, and knowledgeable choice, to the fullest.
It?s just very easy to board this wagon, and for all the wrong reasons. You take a lot and give a little.
It?s easy to be a free-rider, I admit. But this exists in Orthodoxy too.
In Orthodoxy the price is higher. Even if it?s just for show.
There?s always a trade-off. As the head of the Reform Movement, my greatest concern is the attempt to make the Reform community in Israel more meaningful, deeper, more involved in society ? for a Reform rabbi to be able to preside over weddings in Israel, for our conversions to be accepted, and for the ultra-Orthodox to learn a core curriculum. You?re asking me if I prefer the existing reality, with all its drawbacks, or to choose between these two extremes of all or nothing. My problem with the Orthodox Shabbat is not that it?s forbidden to squeeze out a rag. It?s something else entirely. It?s the fact that the halakha says that you [violate Shabbat] to save a Jew?s life, but not a non-Jew?s life. The thought that I?m a Reform Jew rather than an Orthodox Jew because I find some of the mitzvoth inconvenient is bullshit. I?m not willing to accept that a woman cannot be a rabbi, I?m not willing to accept the concept of ?You chose us? in its Orthodox sense. Anyone who thinks that there aren?t plenty of sources in Judaism that say God commanded us to hate the non-Jew is mistaken. In Judaism there are peaks of humanity and abysses of hate. The question is what you choose.
Related Sections | Judaism
Source: http://wwrn.org/articles/38194/
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Immunologists find a molecule that puts the brakes on inflammation
ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2012) ? We couldn't live without our immune systems, always tuned to detect and eradicate invading pathogens and particles. But sometimes the immune response goes overboard, triggering autoimmune diseases like lupus, asthma or inflammatory bowel disease.
A new study led by University of Pennsylvania researchers has now identified a crucial signaling molecule involved in counterbalancing the immune system attack.
"The immune response is like driving a car," said Christopher Hunter, professor and chair in the Department of Pathobiology in Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine. "You hit the accelerator and develop this response that's required to protect you from a pathogen, but, unless you have a brake to guide the response, then you'll just careen off the road and die because you can't control the speed of the response."
The research to characterize this immune system "brake" was led by Hunter and Aisling O'Hara Hall, a doctoral candidate in the Immunology Graduate Group. Additional Penn collaborators included scientists from the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute's Department of Biology and the Perelman School of Medicine's Department of Medicine. Researchers from Merck Research Laboratories, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Harvard Medical School and Janssen Research and Development also contributed to the work, which was published in the journal Immunity.
"Healthy people have these cells -- you have them, I have them -- that are called Tregs," or regulatory T cells, Hunter said. "If you don't have them you develop spontaneous inflammation and disease."
Different forms of regulatory T cells operate as the brakes on various kinds of inflammation, but, until now, scientists hadn't been certain of how these Tregs became specialized to do their particular jobs.
Hall, Hunter and colleagues decided to follow up on a molecule called IL-27. Scientists used to think IL-27 played a role in causing inflammation, but, in 2005, a team of Penn researchers, including Hunter, found the opposite; it was actually involved in suppressing inflammation. Thus, when mice that lack IL-27 are challenged with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, they develop overwhelming inflammation.
"We never worked out how it did that, but it was a paradigm change at the time," Hunter said.
In the new study, the researchers delved deeper into IL-27's role. They found that exposing regulatory T cells to IL-27 promoted their ability to suppress a particular type of inflammation. The Penn-led team also demonstrated that they could rescue infected IL-27-deficient mice by giving them a transfusion of regulatory T cells. This finding suggests that IL-27 is required to produce the Treg cells that normally keep inflammatory responses in check during infection.
"Very surprisingly, we were able to show that the Tregs could ameliorate the pathology in this system," Hall said. "We don't think this is the only mechanism by which IL-27 limits immune pathology, but it sheds light on one mechanism by which it could be functioning."
Further experiments showed that Tregs express a different suite of genes in the presence of IL-27 as compared to another molecule that has been implicated in this process, interferon gamma, or IFN-?. The researchers' findings indicate that the two molecules have division of labor when it comes to suppressing inflammation: IL-27 seems to be important in helping control inflammation at the site of inflammation, whereas IFN-? appears more significant in the peripheral tissues.
"At the site of inflammation, where you're getting your pathology, that's where IL- 27 is important," Hall said.
With a new understanding of how IL-27 may cause a class of Tregs to become specialized inflammation fighters, researchers have a new target for ameliorating the unwanted inflammation associated with all kinds of autoimmune conditions.
"Now we have a molecular signature that may be relevant in inflammatory bowel disease, in multiple sclerosis, in colitis and Crohn's disease, in rheumatoid arthritis, in lupus," Hunter said.
Next on tap, the team plans to study IL-27 in the context of asthma, lupus and arthritis.
In addition to Hall and Hunter, the authors included Beena John, Claudia Gonz?lez Lombana, Gretchen Harms Pritchard, Jonathan S. Silver, Jason S. Stumhofer, Tajie H. Harris, Elia D. Tait Wojno, Sagie Wagage and Philip Scott of Penn Vet's Department of Pathobiology; Daniel P. Beiting, David S. Roos and Sara Cheery of the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute Department of Biology; Steven Reiner, formerly of the Penn Department of Medicine; Cristina M. Tato and Daniel Cua of Merck Research Laboratories; Yasmine Belkaid, Guillaume Oldenhove, Nicolas Bouladoux and John Grainger of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease; Laurence A. Turka of Harvard Medical School; and M. Merle Elloso of Janssen Research and Development.
The study was supported by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Institutes of Health.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pennsylvania.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Aisling?O?Hara Hall, Daniel?P. Beiting, Cristina Tato, Beena John, Guillaume Oldenhove, Claudia?Gonzalez Lombana, Gretchen?Harms Pritchard, Jonathan?S. Silver, Nicolas Bouladoux, Jason?S. Stumhofer, Tajie?H. Harris, John Grainger, Elia?D.?Tait Wojno, Sagie Wagage, David?S. Roos, Philip Scott, Laurence?A. Turka, Sara Cherry, Steven?L. Reiner, Daniel Cua, Yasmine Belkaid, M.?Merle Elloso, Christopher?A. Hunter. The Cytokines Interleukin 27 and Interferon-? Promote Distinct Treg Cell Populations Required to Limit Infection-Induced Pathology. Immunity, 2012; 37 (3): 511 DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2012.06.014
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