Arthritis research: Mouse model of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis discovered

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2012) ? Researchers at Western University have made a breakthrough that could lead to a better understanding of a common form of arthritis that, until now, has eluded scientists.

According to The Arthritis Society, the second most common form of arthritis after osteoarthritis is "diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis" or DISH. It affects between six and 12 percent of North Americans, usually people older than 50. DISH is classified as a form of degenerative arthritis and is characterized by the formation of excessive mineral deposits along the sides of the vertebrae in the neck and back. Symptoms of DISH include spine pain and stiffness and in advanced cases, difficulty swallowing and damage to spinal nerves. The cause of DISH is unknown and there are no specific treatments.

Now researchers at Western University's Bone and Joint Initiative, with collaborator Doo-Sup Choi at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota have discovered the first-ever mouse model of this disease. The research is published online in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

"This model will allow us for the first time to uncover the mechanisms underlying DISH and related disorders. Knowledge of these mechanisms will ultimately allow us to test novel pharmacological treatments to reverse or slow the development of DISH in humans," says corresponding author Cheryle S?guin of the Skeletal Biology Laboratories and the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

Graduate student Derek Bone, working under the supervision of pharmacologist James Hammond, was studying mice that had been genetically modified to lack a specific membrane protein that transports adenosine when he noticed that these mice developed abnormal calcification (mineralization) of spinal structures.

Changes in the backbone of these mice were characterized by an interdisciplinary team which included: Sumeeta Warraich, Diana Quinonez, Hisataka Ii, Maria Drangova, David Holdsworth and Jeff Dixon. Their findings established that spinal mineralization in these mice resembles DISH in humans and point to a role for adenosine in causing abnormal mineralization in DISH.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Western Ontario, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Sumeeta Warraich, Derek B. J. Bone, Diana Quinonez, Hisataka Ii, Doo-Sup Choi, David W. Holdsworth, Maria Drangova, S. Jeffrey Dixon, Cheryle A. S?guin, James R. Hammond. Loss of equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) in mice leads to progressive ectopic mineralization of spinal tissues resembling diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) in humans. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 2012; DOI: 10.1002/jbmr.1826

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/top_news/top_health/~3/Xitl2OF7Jfg/121203150014.htm

Foo Canoodle Isaac path Tropical Storm Isaac path Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Isaac Path Isaac Hurricane

Athens city guide | Travel & Leisure - Teagerttadam77s blog - Odell ...

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Source: http://odellfischer.typepad.com/blog/2012/12/athens-city-guide-travel-leisure-teagerttadam77s-blog.html

legionnaires disease underwear bomber unclaimed money godspell media matters hana taylor momsen

The Fox Delusion Continues (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/267864104?client_source=feed&format=rss

sprint britney spears At&t Wireless 9/11 Jerry Lawler godaddy andy murray

How to use iTunes 11's new features (and?restore?the old look)

16 hrs.

Thorin Klosowski , Lifehacker

Apple released its newest version of iTunes, and it's a complete overhaul to the entire program. As you'd?expect, that means there are a few cool (somewhat) hidden features. Here are some we've found especially helpful.

With any new iteration of software you're bound to have a bit of a learning curve as you get used to it.?iTunes? 11?is no different, and the first thing you're greeted to when you launch it is a completely different main screen. The big news with iTunes 11 is the new interface, but hidden beneath that is some pretty cool functionality you might not notice at first glance.

Yes, you can get the old iTunes look back (sidebar and all)
Let's start with what we're guessing is most people's main gripe: it looks different. It's true, it does, and if you're not a fan of browsing your music library with giant covers, and navigating drop-down menus, iTunes 11 is a bit annoying. The good news? You can get the old look back:

• Get the sidebar back by clicking View > Show Sidebar (or hitting Alt+Cmd+S).
• Get the status bar back by clicking View > Show Status Bar (or hit Command+/).
• Click Songs in the top bar, and sort by Artist for the traditional list view.

Now, iTunes 11 should look about the same as iTunes 10.

Scan iTunes gift cards with your camera
Entering?in the code from a gift?certificate is always a bit annoying. With iTunes 11, all you need is a camera:

• Head into the iTunes Store, and Click "Redeem" at the bottom of the screen under the "Manage" list (or?click this link)
• Click "Use Camera"
• Hold your gift card up to the camera and wait for it to register.

That's it! No more fumbling around typing a random string of letters and numbers together.

Expanded view replaces cover flow
Cover Flow is gone in iTunes 11 and it's replaced with the new "Expanded View." When you're viewing your library by Albums, simply select an album, and you get an expanded view right there with all the album info. It works a lot better than Cover Flow and makes it so you can quickly view album info without leaving the place you're at. You can either click the album art again, or the "X" in the right corner to make it go away.

Also, a fun fact: Expanded View uses the album artwork as a background for the view (see image at right), so it creates a different background for each album. You can disable this if you want under iTunes > Preferences > General Preferences. Just uncheck the "Use custom colors for open albums, movies, etc" box.

The 'up next' feature is actually awesome?
Ever have those moments where you're listening to a song and it reminds you of another song? You don't want to stop the song playing, but you do want to cue up the song you're thinking of. That's what "Up Next" lets you do. Instead of creating playlists for everything, you can create on-the-fly playlists of songs or albums.

You can do this from anywhere. Just right-click an album, artist, or song, click "Add to Up Next" and it's added to the queue. You can also click "Play Next" instead to add it to the top of the queue. To see what's in your queue, click the list button in the middle of iTunes, and to view the previously played tracks, click the little clock icon. "Up Next" replaces iTunes DJ/Party Shuffle, so if you're looking for those, you won't find them.

Your place is now saved across devices?
If you use a bunch of Apple products, say, an iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, one of the best new features in iTunes 11 is that it saves your progress in your media across all devices through iCloud. So, if you pause a movie, TV show, podcast, audiobook, or iTunes U file on your desktop, you can pick up right where you left off on another device.?

MiniPlayer is more functional
In older versions of iTunes, the MiniPlayer didn't do much except allow you to pause or skip tracks. Now, MiniPlayer allows you to search for new tracks, add new songs to the "Up Next" queue, and even control AirPlay volume.

To enable MiniPlayer, just click the window icon in the top right corner and iTunes will shrink down. When you mouse over the window, you can control playback or search for new tracks. Otherwise, it displays the currently playing track.

Preview history tracks what you listen to in the store?
The iTunes Store now tracks everything you listen to in its preview history panel. When you're in the store, click the list icon in the top right corner, and you're shown all the stuff you listened to recently. You can hit "Clear" to get rid of everything in the list Also worth noting is that provided you're signed in with iCloud, your previewed tracks on all your devices will sync here. So, if you preview a song on your iPhone, it will show in your preview history in iTunes.?

Search is now universal?
This isn't the most earth-shattering of news, but in iTunes 11 you have two main search areas: the store and your library. That's it. In previous versions you had to search separately for video, music, or podcasts. Now, it searches your entire local library, or the iTunes store for everything.

Also nice is the instant search results you get. Start typing a search, and iTunes starts delivering you results. Select what you want, and you're taken there directly. It's simple, but it works really well.

Apps get a list view for easy trimming
One of the most annoying things to do in older versions of iTunes was trimming down the apps downloaded on your computer. You had to do it in the Apps panel with large icons that seemed to take forever to load. Now you can do it with in a List View, and it supports the same basic sort options you get with music (Date Added, Purchase Date, Size, etc).

All you need to do is select the Apps tab, then click "List." This should come in really handy when you're cleaning out old apps you don't use anymore. Reader?shafnitz points out?this view has been around a little while, but if nothing else it's more prevalent now.

More from LifeHacker

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/how-use-itunes-11s-new-features-bring-back-old-itunes-1C7361026

Tammy Baldwin house of representatives paul ryan michele bachmann donald trump Election 2012 map Election Results Map

The Best Supplements to Enhance Your Fitness and Health | Elite ...

There are hundreds of supplements available on the market that make promises of being the best supplements for fitness and health. Aside from the fact that many don?t live up to their claims, consumers also have to sort through the flurry of information on each of them in order to conclude which will actually benefit them. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, this task can be challenging as not all products are created equal and many are tailored to produce specific results. The first thing that should be considered when choosing a supplement is gender. Men and women?s bodies are vastly different in genetic make-up and thus will respond to products differently. Typically the fitness goals of men will differ from women?s and this too will impact which supplements will work for them as opposed to women.

For Men

Multivitamins

Whether male or female, one supplement that should be incorporated into any fitness regime is a multivitamin. The key here is to choose a multivitamin that is tailored for men?s bodies and that means choosing one that has an elevated amount of iron and calcium. Iron and calcium are essential when building muscle mass and bone density and they are also helpful in fighting off heart disease.

Choose a vitamin that has as many vitamins and nutrients as possible but don?t choose one that promises more than 100% nutritional value as these are gimmicky, more expensive and won?t provide any additional benefits.

Protein

Rarely do people take in as much protein as they need, even when they think they do. Protein tablets are important in any fitness regime because it not only benefits muscles but it also helps to keep you full longer so you won?t snack in between meals. If possible choose a protein that is in powder form because it will dissolve quicker than a pill or capsule and they also have an abundance of amino acids which helps with muscle injury recovery and will strengthen muscles quicker. Choose a soy or whey based protein power.

Creatine

Creatine is a dream come true for men who are looking to build muscle mass quickly and research shows that it will assist in muscle building and healing the fibers within muscles caused by long, excessive workouts. Most nutritionists recommend three to six grams per day after each workout and you can increase that amount up to twenty grams within a reasonable amount of time.

Fish Oil

Fish oil supplements are loaded with omega 3?s and has a long history of helping the body fight off heart disease. They also have a ton of anti-inflammatory components which will assist your joints in their flexibility, help to decrease muscle aches and inflammation and help muscles heal faster.

These fatty acids are found in lean fish such as salmon and tuna as well as some nuts. If your diet already has a steady stream of these foods, you may not need an additional supplement, but few people get the recommended dose which is 300 to 1200 mg per day.

For Women

Multivitamins

Women also need a multivitamin as it will replace or offer any nutritional deficiencies that you may have and be lacking from your diet. As with men, choose one that has no more 100% nutritional value but make sure that it includes a decent amount of vitamin C and D as well as folic acid and magnesium as these are the vitamins most women are lacking in and can ward off heart disease, osteoporosis and illnesses like dementia.

Flax Seed

This is a great supplement for men as well as women but it is often chosen more by women because of the low cost and because it boasts of improving mental acuity; something that is very attractive to busy women with a lot on their plate. Flax Seed has many properties that earns it a place as a top contender for health and fitness. These include helping to lubricate joints and muscles which improves flexibility and decreases the risk of injuries, as well as metabolism boosting qualities for those looking to shed a few pounds. Flax seed has also been known to thwart heart illness and improve cardiovascular health because it contains fatty acids.

Calcium

Although most people think about bones when speaking of calcium, many new studies are showing positive results regarding calcium and weight loss, something many women contend with. It is now thought that calcium not only strengthens bones, but it also helps break down some of the fatty foods we eat and assists them in passing through the body easily, thereby increasing weight loss.

For more articles go to http://ehpfit.lifestyleezine.com

Source: http://ehpfit.com/uncategorized/the-best-supplements-to-enhance-your-fitness-and-health/

foo fighters nikki minaj grammys album of the year grammy red carpet grammy award winners the band perry

Friday Food Trip: TWG Tea Manila ? Sandiestar

I finally got to try TWG Tea (dubbed the finest luxury tea brand in the world), established in Singapore back in 2007. TWG is short for The Wellness Group, known for having the largest tea collection in the world! Their Manila store has about 450 tea selections at any one time!

Here?s a small portion of the dining area. Really comfortable, old-fashioned seats, and crisp, white table tops to match the china.

I took a little field trip around the restaurant while waiting for the food. Check out their wide range of products! They have everything from tea to sweets to tea pots.

More about the mouth-watering macarons later. Of course I wouldn?t have left the place without trying a few!

For now, here?s a look at my lovely tea cup.

TWG?s isn?t very hollow so you can take your tea a little at a time. The 1837 incorporated into their branding is representative of the time when tea trade was formalized in Singapore.

How cute is their teapot? We got a pot of Caramel Tea (PhP195) to share. I liked the slightly sweet aftertaste of the tea. If you aren?t really into the stark bitter taste of tea, I would recommend this particular flavor. (Oh, hi!)

Sugar crystals are available for when you want to add more sweetness to your drink!

We started off dinner with a helping of TWG?s?Aviator Salad (PhP455) ? pan-seared chicken supreme,?Romaine lettuce, garlic croutons, fresh Parmesan shavings topped with a poached egg and a touch of seaweed tossed in a light spiced sauce infused with Comptoir des Indes Tea.??

This was a very good salad, if not a little overpriced. I liked how the ingredients came together with the help of the tangy sauce. Serving size is good for 2-3 persons if you have other dishes to share.

Here?s their?Sautee of Beef (PhP585) ? braised beef ragout served with Burgubdy red wine sauce infused with Singapore Breakfast Tea, shallots and bouquet garnish accompanied with steamed?potatoes and baby carrots.

This was essentially mechado, for those who are familiar with the Pinoy dish. It probably had a more upscale taste to it, but it was, at the end of the day, plain old mechado. Haha!

The beef was great to pair with dinner rolls, which were served to us as if straight out of the oven. You can ask for more, if you like. (I did. HAHA)

And my favorite part of dinner: dessert! TWG?s tea-infused macarons are my new favorites now! I like that they aren?t crumbly and overpowering at all. So delightful with a warm cup of tea!

We got the following flavors (priced at PhP50 a piece):?Camelot Tea and Praline,?Napoleon Tea and Caramel,?Earl Grey Fortune and Chocolate, and?Lemon Bush Tea.?

Other flavors include: 1837 Black Tea and Blackcurrant,?Moroccan Mint Tea,?Bain de Roses Tea, and?Grand Wedding Tea, Passion Fruit and Coconut. Cannot wait to try those!

And here?s me with my?Napoleon Tea and Caramel?macaron, my favorite of the bunch. Our server referred to it as a salted caramel treat, and that?s exactly what it was!

I would give this dinner three of five superstars. I?m convinced you can get the same quality food cheaper someplace else. It?s just the macarons I would keep coming back for in this particular line-up.

I would, however, like to try out any of their Tea Time Set Menus, described as follows:

• 1837 (Php325) -?TWG Tea from their extensive tea list, served hot or iced. Choice of 2 freshly baked scones or muffins served with TWG Tea jelly and whipped cream or?1 patisserie from their trolley.

• Chic (PhP500)?-?TWG Tea from their extensive tea list, served hot or iced. A petite selection of three finger sandwiches ? Vegetarian Set, Royal, Set, Imperial Set.?Choice of 2 freshly baked scones or muffins served with TWG Tea jelly and whipped cream or 1 patisserie from their trolley.

• Fortune (PhP650) -?TWG Tea from their extensive tea list, served hot or iced. A choice of warm toasted sandwich ? TWG Tea Croque Monsieur, TWG Tea Croque Provence, TWG?Tea Croque Imperial. Choice of 2 freshly baked scones or muffins served with TWG Tea jelly and whipped cream or 1 patisserie from their rolley. A choice of 3 macarons.

Perhaps?my TWG Tea Manila experience would?ve been more enjoyable had I come in for the tea and pastries alone. But there?s always a next time, right? So?I?m gonna go all McArthur on you, TWG Tea Manila! I will be back!

Check out related blog posts:

TWG Tea Manila?|?G/F Greenbelt 5, Legazpi St, Legazpi Village, Makati City

Source: http://sandiestar.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/friday-food-trip-twg-tea-manila/

bruce arians the misfits hook troy miracle andy whitfield kennedy

In the word world, coding is the new black

By Virginia Heffernan

Great news: The New Yorker is hiring!

What are the requirements, you ask, to work at the greatest literary magazine in the English-speaking world? Do you need to have gone to Princeton and edited the august literary magazine The Nassau (b. 1848) before you were 22? Should you have edited Toni Morrison for a decade and done the definitive translation from the Turkish of Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk?s short stories?

No. Not even close.

You need to know computer code.

Or?rather?it would be ideal if you could code. And we know what that means. Your job at the literary magazine would not be fixing commas or assigning foreign stories. It would be running tech projects.

Nicholas Thompson, the editor of The New Yorker website, posted the tantalizing job listing on Friday. And just so you know, he didn?t whisper it at the Yale Club or the Round Table of the Algonquin Club. He didn?t try to see if someone?s clever ex-boyfriend from the Harvard Crimson and The New Republic wanted it first. Instead, Thompson posted the New Yorker staff opening to Twitter. And this is what he said: ?Hiring a digital project manager. Help us at @NewYorker run cool, ambitious tech projects. Ideally, code too. Ping me.?

If you?re making media in this world?prose, journalism, photography, graphics?you ought to know how to code. And you don?t need to type up a letter extolling the legacy of Janet Malcolm and E.B. White on buttery letterhead. Just ping @nxthompson.

Literary work?editorial work?is now computer work. We?ve known it, on some level, for years. But now it?s right there in the job descriptions. And Thompson?s might not have been such a striking tweet if it didn?t come two weeks after Wired magazine announced a new editor in chief. An eloquent TED talker from MIT with three best sellers about digital literacy and neuroplasticity?

No?not a writer at all. A creative director and project manager?a visual type, clean-shaven, in scarlet-and-pumpkin-colored textiles. Scott Dadich looks nothing like a hacker and he looks nothing like a writer. Because he?s not: He comes from, you got it, product design. His product was Wired?s extraordinary ?digital magazine??its iPad app. Three years ago, using Apple?s then-new platform, Dadich was able to put word and image in a digital disco and actually sell tickets. He became known in media circles as the savior of Cond? Nast?s floundering digital side.

Just to drive the savior point home, Evan Smith, Dadich?s old boss at Texas Monthly, told the New York Observer in 2010 that he considered Dadich ?some sort of combination of Jesus and Pele? in the realm of magazine design. When Dadich assumed the helm of Wired in mid-November, he said, ?I look forward to finding new opportunities to delight and surprise the Wired community, both with the stories we tell and in the ways in which we tell them.?

The stories we tell and how we tell them. The content is the form. And how we tell stories?distribute them, display them, monetize them even?is inextricable from the stories themselves.

What?s the lesson in this for the rest of us? Those of us who aim to make media?whether it?s music, magazines or movies? We must overcome our occupational allergy to product design and marketing and then, as soon as possible, we must learn computer code.

Whether we call it photography or prose or TV or graphics the media we now make is code. The Internet speaks in code; it thinks in code; it moves in code; it looks like code; its strength and value is code. When we write in English for the Internet, as I am now, we are making frosting rosettes and pretending we?re making cakes.

Writers and photographers must learn the new form, the same way that long-line poets of the past century had to learn short-line lyric poetry, because that?s what fit around the cartoons in The New Yorker. The same way Victorian scribblers working for daily papers had to cut their rambling sentimental stories and make room for ads. The same way, when television first appeared, playwrights had to drop their habit of blocking and drama and compose teleplays for three cameras.

We have to internalize what works and doesn?t work online, so that we don?t keep pitching articles that belonged in Time magazine in 2005, or albums that belonged on college radio in 1997. We do that, and then we expect technologists to cram them into new formats?apps or Internet radio or YouTube.

Writing code will be as much or more a part of making media as creating headlines and releasing singles. And, for the right people, who like being on the right side of history, it will be just as creative and much more fun.

Correction, 5:27 p.m. ET Nov. 30, 2012: A previous version of this column stated incorrectly that the New Yorker job was part of the magazine?s editorial staff. The new hire will work for the magazine?s digital staff.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/the-new-media-priesthood--the-word-people-now-work-for-the-code-people--211811636.html

oakland raiders Jessica Lange NFL scores week 3 kat dennings Steve Sabol Yom Kippur 2012 Aaron Paul