Yesterday was National Day of Action to demand a Better Economy, A Green Economy. I went to the Green Homes Renewable Energy Festival. Here is how I participated.
Go Green! Vote Green!
Visit Green for All for More information and to get involved. Sign the the I'm Ready Petition that will passed along to our Elected Officials.
Abell 1689, shown in this composite image, is a massive cluster of galaxies located about 2.3 billion light years away that shows signs of merging activity. Hundred-million-degree gas detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown as purple in this image, while galaxies from optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope are colored yellow. The X-ray emission has a smooth appearance, unlike other merging systems such as the Bullet Cluster or MACS J0025.4-1222. The temperature pattern across Abell 1689 is more complicated, however, possibly requiring multiple structures with different temperatures.
The long arcs in the optical image are caused by gravitational lensing of background galaxies by matter in the galaxy cluster, the largest system of such arcs ever found. Further studies of this cluster are needed to explain the lack of agreement between mass estimates based on the X-ray data and on the gravitational lensing. Previous work suggests that filament-like structures of galaxies are located near Abell 1689 along our line-of-sight to this cluster, which may bias mass estimates using gravitational lensing.
If you live in the St. Louis, Missouri Metro Area below is a list of Green Jobs Now Day of Action Events.
University City , MO
National Public Lands Day - 09/27
Other National Public Lands Events see my previous post.
St. Louis, MO
Green Jobs Now March and Rally- 09/27
St. Louis, MO
Green Homes & Renewable Energy Festival- 09/27
(I’m going to this one, so maybe I’ll see you out!)
Litchfield, IL
Green Jobs Now- 09/27
If you participate, let me know about it.
Have a great weekend.
This annual event:
This is a special day within the bigger celebration of International Polar Year (IPY)- 2007-2009. IPY is a huge, multi-national research and educational awareness effort to bring attention to the importance of and the decline of precious Polar Ecosystems. This quarter’s International Polar day focuses on People – The People of the Polar Regions.
I’ll admit my own shortcomings. I don’t know much about the people of the Polar regions. So, I really appreciate the educational materials provided by the website. I read them and now I know that people of Arctic regions face many of the same challenges that we do – public health, raising families, maintaining communities, and adapting in the natural world. Please check out the materials. If you are an educator please conduct these activities with your students. Or if you are a parent or after-school youth leader, please consider these activities to keep your children busy and mentally active. They are a great resource.
Discussion Activity
People Summary
Finally, check out my other posts about International Polar Year.
I even launced a Virtual Balloon to mark my participation in this event. Will you launch yours, too.
Cone Flowers losing their petals and turning brown at an urban prairie garden at Chicago's Lurie Garden in Millenium Park.Nearly a decade ago, while it was being tested as an immunosuppressive agent to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients, the drug rapamycin was also discovered to have anti-tumor properties. Since then, several rapamycin analogs known as mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) inhibitors have been tested in clinical trials for the treatment of various types of cancer.
But despite promising early results, mTOR inhibitors have proven less successful than originally expected.
Now research led by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) identifies a previously unrecognized problem faced by these agents when it comes to attacking cancers. ... [T]he new findings show that at the same time that rapamycin analogs are halting tumor growth by inhibiting the mTOR protein complex 1 (mTORC1), they are activating the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathway -- thereby encouraging cancer cell survival.
Numerous studies have established a causal link between aberrant mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activation and tumorigenesis, indicating that mTOR inhibition may have therapeutic potential. In this study, we show that rapamycin and its analogs activate the MAPK pathway in human cancer, in what represents a novel mTORC1-MAPK feedback loop. ... We further show that rapamycin-induced MAPK activation occurs in both normal cells and cancer cells lines and that this feedback loop depends on an S6K-PI3K-Ras pathway.
[P]harmacological inhibition of the MAPK pathway enhanced the antitumoral effect of mTORC1 inhibition by rapamycin in cancer cells in vitro and in a xenograft mouse model. Taken together, our findings identify MAPK activation as a consequence of mTORC1 inhibition and underscore the potential of a combined therapeutic approach with mTORC1 and MAPK inhibitors.
In the second study, Cory Abate-Shen and colleagues, at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Piscataway, show that simultaneous inhibition of the mTOR and MAPK signaling pathways inhibited the in vitro growth of prostate cancer cell lines and the in vivo growth of prostate tumors in a mouse model of prostate cancer.
The AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (AKT/mTOR) and ERK MAPK signaling pathways have been shown to cooperate in prostate cancer progression and the transition to androgen-independent disease. We have now tested the effects of combinatorial inhibition of these pathways on prostate tumorigenicity by performing preclinical studies using a genetically engineered mouse model of prostate cancer. We report here that combination therapy using rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR, and PD0325901, an inhibitor of MAPK kinase 1 (MEK; the kinase directly upstream of ERK), inhibited cell growth in cultured prostate cancer cell lines and tumor growth particularly for androgen-independent prostate tumors in the mouse model.
 | Arkaitz Carracedo, Li Ma, Julie Teruya-Feldstein, Federico Rojo, Leonardo Salmena, Andrea Alimonti, Ainara Egia, Atsuo T. Sasaki, George Thomas, Sara C. Kozma, Antonella Papa, Caterina Nardella, Lewis C. Cantley, Jose Baselga, Pier Paolo Pandolfi (2008). Inhibition of mTORC1 leads to MAPK pathway activation through a PI3K-dependent feedback loop in human cancer Journal of Clinical Investigation DOI: 10.1172/JCI34739 |
A shot of a Mexican farmer washes his spring onion crop in a river containing sewage.Fresh produce from wastewater is a summary or web release (written in real people language) produced by the Environmental, Science & Technology Journal.
In urban areas were people depend on food being produced and transported from elsewhere, the cost to eat can get prohibitive. Even here in the US, we're beginning to feel the pressure. So, urban farming is an ideal (cost-effective) way for people to feed themselves and make some extra money selling extras to others. Water is still an important and often limiting factor. And in poorer nations, mass amounts of "clean water" just isn't necessarily available. You use what you've got. Industriousness is the provider of many. You see, waste water is filled with nutrients. Plants can take in alot of those chemicals and use them to grow strong and tall. Plus, waste water is free. I mean, it hasn't been treated with chemicals to make it potable or worth drinking. So it doesn't cost anything to use it.
I hope this gives you another reason to remember to wash your fruits and veggies off before eating them
DNLee
Hurricane Ike has been devastating. Even as far away as the Midwest, we had some 'residual' damage, flooding, power outages, and deaths.But natural disasters like this storm also separate families from the their pets, not to mention the lives of many companion and homeless animals. The Houston SPCA and other area animal agencies are hard-at-work with animal rescues.
The Houston SPCA has activated its Animal Response Hotline. Operators will be accepting lost and found animal reports, rescue reports and offering other animal related information. The hotline will be staffed from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call notes are available so those who call in after hours may leave a message which will be returned first thing in the morning.
The number is 713-435-2990.
We don't think about how wildlife fares during storms. But think about it. Many trees are taken down or damaged during storms and this forever changes the urban forestry landscape in an area. It is often the old trees that fall and do the most damage - the same trees that serve as historical and important shelter sites, food resources, territory boundaries, and ecological landmarks for urban wildlife. With flooding, animals retreat to trees or little pockets of dry land or rooftops. These dry places are little islands, often providing no shelter or food, forces animals to huddle in close proximity that they are not accustomed to. Fighting and predation often result. And the food is gone, drowned in water, and starvation becomes a reality.
For the most part wildlife tends to be okay after such disasters. But I'm speaking in overall terms. In other words, the population should bounce back and everything will be fine after a while. But on an individual scale, there is always lost: shelters, refuges or hiding places, and scarcity of food. And it's usually the most vulnerable that don't fair so well - the sick and ailing, old, and the young.
Ike's Smallest Victims - This is a video of the urban wildlife that were also victims of Hurricane Ike. Wildlife Rehab and Rescue are sheltering over 200 baby squirrels and a flying squirrel who were injured in Hurricane Ike at the Houston SPCA. Video by Meg Loucks. September 14, 2008.
(A baby squirrel being hand-fed milk formula by a volunteer.)
He hypothesized that birds with larger black bibs were in better condition and better fed than birds with smaller black bibs. He fed birds different types of diets – high and low quality diets – and later measured the size of their bibs. Better fed birds, the ones in better condition did have larger black bibs.
In nature this can be a very important difference. Birds in better condition are able to secure better territories and mates so that they can have more babies. Considering how much some people like to feed birds and put out bird feeders, we may actually be contributing to the overall better quality of birds in our neighborhoods.
This dramatic image of the galaxy Messier 83 was captured by the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory, located high in the dry desert mountains of the Chilean Atacama Desert. Messier 83 lies roughly 15 million light-years away towards the huge southern constellation of Hydra (the sea serpent). It stretches over 40 000 light-years, making it roughly 2.5 times smaller than our own Milky Way. However, in some respects, Messier 83 is quite similar to our own galaxy. Both the Milky Way and Messier 83 possess a bar across their galactic nucleus, the dense spherical conglomeration of stars seen at the centre of the galaxies.
This very detailed image shows the spiral arms of Messier 83 adorned by countless bright flourishes of ruby red light. These are in fact huge clouds of glowing hydrogen gas. Ultraviolet radiation from newly born, massive stars is ionising the gas in these clouds, causing the great regions of hydrogen to glow red. These star forming regions are contrasted dramatically in this image against the ethereal glow of older yellow stars near the galaxy's central hub. The image also shows the delicate tracery of dark and winding dust streams weaving throughout the arms of the galaxy.
| N. Yoshida, K. Omukai, L. Hernquist (2008). Protostar Formation in the Early Universe Science, 321 (5889), 669-671 DOI: 10.1126/science.1160259 |
Aren't they just cute and adorable? [photo credit: flynnroad.net/pix/vole/images/babies%207.JPG] And they are also monogamous, So researcher Dr. Larry Young from Emory (and yes, I do know of him. I haven't met him personally, but I gave him -his lab) many of my prairie voles last year when my studies were complete --- so there's a fewer than 6 degrees of separation, here....just go with me). Back to the Story. Dr. Young studies psychology and using animal models to duplicate some aspects of human behavior. This research looks at the biological underpinnings of monogamy and perhaps fidelity. Read the story, it's quick and easy so interesting.
My research with voles looks at how the family dynamics of this species influence how the young ones grow up and behave later in life. I am analyzing the results as at this moment (literally, no kidding), so I'll be quite happy to share it with you all in a few short weeks when I defend. Yeah!
In the meantime here are some pictures of me at work with the voles. Though I catch wild voles in the field, I raise them in lab and study them there.
Currently, IPS cells can be created by reprogramming adult cells through the use of viruses to transfer four genes (Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4) into the cells' DNA. The activated genes then override the adult state and convert the cells to embryonic-like IPS cells.
However, this method poses significant risks for potential use in humans.
First, the viruses employed in the process, called retroviruses, are associated with cancer because they insert DNA anywhere in a cell's genome, thereby potentially triggering the expression of cancer-causing genes, or oncogenes. Second, c-Myc is a known oncogene whose overexpression can also cause cancer. For IPS cells to be employed to treat human diseases such as Parkinson's, researchers must find safe alternatives to reprogramming with retroviruses and oncogenes.
Earlier research has shown that c-Myc is not strictly required for the generation of IPS cells. However, its absence makes the reprogramming process time-consuming and highly inefficient.
To bypass these obstacles, the Whitehead researchers replaced c-Myc and its retrovirus with a naturally occurring signaling molecule called Wnt3a. When added to the fluid surrounding the cells being reprogrammed, Wnt3a promotes the conversion of adult cells into IPS cells.
Here we show that adult mouse neural stem cells express higher endogenous levels of Sox2 and c-Myc than embryonic stem cells, and that exogenous Oct4 together with either Klf4 or c-Myc is sufficient to generate iPS cells from neural stem cells. These two-factor iPS cells are similar to embryonic stem cells at the molecular level, contribute to development of the germ line, and form chimaeras. We propose that, in inducing pluripotency, the number of reprogramming factors can be reduced when using somatic cells that endogenously express appropriate levels of complementing factors.
To distinguish adult stem cells from pluripotent cells, Loring’s team compared the gene activity of about 150 stem cell samples of various types, including reprogrammed cells, embryonic stem cells and neural stem cells. Out of this comparison popped 299 interacting genes that form what the researchers call a pluripotency network, or PluriNet. Measuring the activity of these genes could reliably distinguish the different kinds of stem cells, the team reports.
We report here the creation and analysis of a database of global gene expression profiles (which we call the 'stem cell matrix') that enables the classification of cultured human stem cells in the context of a wide variety of pluripotent, multipotent and differentiated cell types. Using an unsupervised clustering method to categorize a collection of ∼150 cell samples, we discovered that pluripotent stem cell lines group together, whereas other cell types, including brain-derived neural stem cell lines, are very diverse. Using further bioinformatic analysis we uncovered a protein–protein network (PluriNet) that is shared by the pluripotent cells (embryonic stem cells, embryonal carcinomas and induced pluripotent cells). Analysis of published data showed that the PluriNet seems to be a common characteristic of pluripotent cells, including mouse embryonic stem and induced pluripotent cells and human oocytes. Our results offer a new strategy for classifying stem cells and support the idea that pluripotency and self-renewal are under tight control by specific molecular networks.
