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Americans? sympathy for Israel is at a 22-year high, according to Gallup figures released on Friday, just five days ahead of Barack Obama?s first visit to Israel as president. In figures gleaned from the polling organization?s early February World Affairs poll, 64 percent of Americans say their sympathies ?in the Middle East situation? ? Gallup?s term for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace talks ? lie more with the Israelis than with the Palestinians. Just 12% favor the Palestinians.
People unfriendly to Israel used to say that Israel was only popular in the U.S. because pro-Israel forces had managed to stifle debate by preventing mainstream sources from publishing critical articles. That turns out not to be true now, if it ever was. From the New York Times op-ed page to a best-seller by Walt and Mearsheimer to Joe Klein?s columns to campus ?Israel Apartheid Weeks? to dozens and dozens of blogs, it?s actually pretty hard for anyone at all interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict to avoid reading strong criticism of Israel, even if they tried. One would certainly be hard-pressed to argue that debate is being meaningfully ?stifled.?
One thing that puzzles me is that if you read just about any online piece about Israel, whether from a mainstream newspaper or a blog, the comments sections are filled with anti-Israel invective. Even many pro-Israel blogs attract many anti-Israel commenters (see, e.g., this blog), and liberal pro-Israel blogs are in fact dominated by them. Given the statistics recounted above, I find this an odd situation. Is there any other issue where public opinion leans so far to one side, but on-line comments slant so heavily the other way? Are there really that many people who feel so strongly about the other side (and not any other burning issues in their world) that they devote a fair amount of their time to mostly-unread blog comments? Or is it a small group that basically scours the internet for Israel-related material, and spend basically all their waking hours writing anti-Israel invective?
Discovery could yield treatment for cocaine addictsPublic release date: 15-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andy McGlashen andy.mcglashen@cabs.msu.edu 517-355-5158 Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Scientists have discovered a molecular process in the brain triggered by cocaine use that could provide a target for treatments to prevent or reverse addiction to the drug.
Reporting in the Journal of Neuroscience, Michigan State University neuroscientist A.J. Robison and colleagues say cocaine alters the nucleus accumbens, the brain's pleasure center that responds to stimuli such as food, sex and drugs.
"Understanding what happens molecularly to this brain region during long-term exposure to drugs might give us insight into how addiction occurs," said Robison, assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and the Neuroscience Program.
The researchers found that cocaine causes cells in the nucleus accumbens to boost production of two proteins, one associated with addiction and the other related to learning. The proteins have a reciprocal relationship -- they increase each other's production and stability in the cells -- so the result is a snowball effect that Robison calls a feed-forward loop.
Robison and colleagues demonstrated that loop's essential role in cocaine responses by manipulating the process in rodents. They found that raising production of the protein linked to addiction made animals behave as if they were exposed to cocaine even when they weren't. They also were able to break the loop, disrupting rodents' response to cocaine by preventing the function of the learning protein.
"At every level that we study, interrupting this loop disrupts the process that seems to occur with long-term exposure to drugs," said Robison, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City before joining the faculty at MSU.
Robison said the study was particularly compelling because it found signs of the same feed-forward loop in the brains of people who died while addicted to cocaine.
"The increased production of these proteins that we found in the animals exposed to drugs was exactly paralleled in a population of human cocaine addicts," he said. "That makes us believe that the further experiments and manipulations we did in the animals are directly relevant to humans."
Robison said the growing understanding of addiction at the molecular level could help pave the way for new treatments for addicts.
"This sort of molecular pathway could be interrupted using genetic medicine, which is what we did with the mice," he said. "Many researchers think that is the future of medicine."
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Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
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Discovery could yield treatment for cocaine addictsPublic release date: 15-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andy McGlashen andy.mcglashen@cabs.msu.edu 517-355-5158 Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Scientists have discovered a molecular process in the brain triggered by cocaine use that could provide a target for treatments to prevent or reverse addiction to the drug.
Reporting in the Journal of Neuroscience, Michigan State University neuroscientist A.J. Robison and colleagues say cocaine alters the nucleus accumbens, the brain's pleasure center that responds to stimuli such as food, sex and drugs.
"Understanding what happens molecularly to this brain region during long-term exposure to drugs might give us insight into how addiction occurs," said Robison, assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and the Neuroscience Program.
The researchers found that cocaine causes cells in the nucleus accumbens to boost production of two proteins, one associated with addiction and the other related to learning. The proteins have a reciprocal relationship -- they increase each other's production and stability in the cells -- so the result is a snowball effect that Robison calls a feed-forward loop.
Robison and colleagues demonstrated that loop's essential role in cocaine responses by manipulating the process in rodents. They found that raising production of the protein linked to addiction made animals behave as if they were exposed to cocaine even when they weren't. They also were able to break the loop, disrupting rodents' response to cocaine by preventing the function of the learning protein.
"At every level that we study, interrupting this loop disrupts the process that seems to occur with long-term exposure to drugs," said Robison, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City before joining the faculty at MSU.
Robison said the study was particularly compelling because it found signs of the same feed-forward loop in the brains of people who died while addicted to cocaine.
"The increased production of these proteins that we found in the animals exposed to drugs was exactly paralleled in a population of human cocaine addicts," he said. "That makes us believe that the further experiments and manipulations we did in the animals are directly relevant to humans."
Robison said the growing understanding of addiction at the molecular level could help pave the way for new treatments for addicts.
"This sort of molecular pathway could be interrupted using genetic medicine, which is what we did with the mice," he said. "Many researchers think that is the future of medicine."
###
Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Hedge fund CR Intrinsic Investors will pay more than $600 million in what federal regulators are calling the largest insider trading settlement ever.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm with insider trading in 2012, alleging that one of its portfolio managers illegally obtained confidential details about an Alzheimer's drug trial from a doctor before the final results went public and made trades from that information.
The SEC said Friday that the fund agreed to settle the charges and the parties neither admit nor deny the charges.
"The historic monetary sanctions against CR Intrinsic and its affiliates are a sharp warning that the SEC will hold hedge fund advisory firms and their funds accountable when employees break the law to benefit the firm," George S. Canellos, acting director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in a statement.
The SEC said in its complaint that Sidney Gillman, a doctor who moonlighted as a medical consultant, tipped CR Intrinsic portfolio manager Mathew Martoma with safety data and eventually negative results in the trial of the drug made by drug firms Elan Corp. and Wyeth two weeks before they were made public in 2008. Martoma and CR Intrinsic then caused several hedge funds to sell more than $960 million in Elan and Wyeth securities in a little more than a week.
The commission amended its complaint Friday to add S.A.C. Capital Advisors and four hedge funds managed by CR Intrinsic and S.A.C. Capital as defendants, saying they each received ill-gotten gains from the scheme.
The settlement is subject to the approval of a U.S. District Court judge. It does not settle charges against Martoma, whose case is still in litigation
It was one of multiple settlements reached Friday by the SEC. The SEC also settled charges against Sigma Capital Management for $14 million. Sigma allegedly profited illegally from early information about the earnings of two technology companies.
The cases stem from a long-running probe of insider trading by hedge funds, many of which are affiliated with S.A.C. Capital.
CR Intrinsic was an affiliate of S.A.C. A separate S.A.C. affiliate fund allegedly benefited from Sigma's actions.
S.A.C. said in a statement Friday that it is happy to put these matters with the SEC behind it.
"This settlement is a substantial step toward resolving all outstanding regulatory matters and allows the firm to move forward with confidence," the company. "We are committed to continuing to maintain a first-rate compliance effort woven into the fabric of the firm."
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Daniel Wagner in Washington contributed to this report.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? Bruce Springsteen is playing a note of caution about his political influence over Australian economic policies.
Springsteen and his E Street Band opened their Wrecking Ball Tour to enthusiastic reviews in Brisbane, the hometown of Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan, who revealed in a speech last year that The Boss had long been his political inspiration.
Swan said the New Jersey-born working-class hero's musical railings against inequality echoed his own public battle against Australian billionaire mining tycoons who oppose his tax reforms.
When told at a news conference Thursday that Swan had cited his musical idol as an influence on his center-left government's economic policies, Springsteen urged caution.
"Really? You better watch out there," Springsteen joked. "I'm not sure how good I am with my money."
He added, "I hope it's been a positive influence, that's all I can say."
Swan was named by banking magazine Euromoney as the world's finance minister of the year for 2011 for helping steer Australia clear of recession during the global economic meltdown. He is attending the final two-week session of Parliament in Canberra before he releases his annual budget blueprint on May 14 and has revealed that the annual ritual involves him playing Springsteen's hit single "Born to Run."
Swan said Springsteen's 1975 breakthrough album "Born to Run," as well as subsequent albums "Darkness on the Edge of Town," ''The River," ''Born in the U.S.A" and "Nebraska," talked about the shifting foundations of the U.S. economy before the subject became topical.
"If I could distill the relevance of Bruce Springsteen's music to Australia, it would be this: Don't let what has happened to the American economy happen here," Swan said.
Swan said Springsteen is also the favorite musician of Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Swan is expected to see the concert with his family in Brisbane on Saturday. His office could not immediately confirm his plans on Thursday.
He has concerts in Sydney, Melbourne and rural Victoria state before heading to Europe in late April.
Mar. 15, 2013 ? The cyanobacterium Synechocystis produces toxins that often lead to its own demise. The biologists Stefan Kopfmann and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hess from the University of Freiburg have determined the logic governing this mechanism.
Their findings have been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) and PLoS ONE.
The cyanobacterium Synechocystis produces several toxins. However, most of the time they cannot become active because the unicellular organism usually only produces them together with an antitoxin that neutralizes their poisonous effect. This is a trick of nature: The genes for the toxin and the antitoxin are located together on a plasmid, i.e. a fragment of DNA that exists independently of the actual bacterial chromosome. In contrast to the toxin, the antitoxin is not very stable. When a cell loses the plasmid during cell division, both of the genes are lost. Since the toxin is more stable than the antitoxin and is thus effective for a longer period of time, these cells eventually die off. Hence, the toxin-antitoxin pairs constitute a natural selection mechanism that sees to it that only cells which retain the plasmid survive.
The plasmid pSYSA of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis has not one but seven different systems of this kind and is thus well protected. The reason for this is because in addition to the genes for the seven toxin-antitoxin pairs, the plasmid pSYSA possesses the genetic information for a bacterial immune system. If the plasmid with this system gets lost in cell division, several toxins thus see to it that the bacterium is killed. The fact that the genes responsible for it are combined with a high amount of toxin-antitoxin pairs indicates that this system has special significance for the cyanobacterial cell.
The project is supported by funding from the German Research Foundation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Albert-Ludwigs-Universit?t Freiburg.
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Journal References:
S. Kopfmann, W. R. Hess. Toxin-Antitoxin Systems on the Large Defense Plasmid pSYSA of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2013; 288 (10): 7399 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M112.434100
Ingeborg Scholz, Sita J. Lange, Stephanie Hein, Wolfgang R. Hess, Rolf Backofen. CRISPR-Cas Systems in the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 Exhibit Distinct Processing Pathways Involving at Least Two Cas6 and a Cmr2 Protein. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e56470 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056470
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Public release date: 15-Mar-2013
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