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Images of Greece

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:06:26 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Achilles Heel Of HIV Found?

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:54:51 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: “Unlike the changeable regions of its envelope, HIV needs at least one region that must remain constant to attach to cells. If this region changes, HIV cannot infect cells. Equally important, HIV does not want this constant region to provoke the body’s defense system. So, HIV uses the same constant cellular attachment site to silence B lymphocytes - the antibody producing cells. The result is that the body is fooled into making abundant antibodies to the changeable regions of HIV but not to its cellular attachment site. Immunologists call such regions superantigens. HIV’s cleverness is unmatched. No other virus uses this trick to evade the body’s defenses.”
Paul’s group has engineered antibodies with enzymatic activity, also known as abzymes, which can attack the Achilles heel of the virus in a precise way. “The abzymes recognize essentially all of the diverse HIV forms found across the world. This solves the problem of HIV changeability. The next step is to confirm our theory in huma

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston believe they have uncovered the Achilles heel in the armor of the virus that continues to kill millions.

The weak spot is hidden in the HIV envelope protein gp120. This protein is essential for HIV attachment to host cells, which initiate infection and eventually lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS. Normally the body’s immune defenses can ward off viruses by making proteins called antibodies that bind the virus. However, HIV is a constantly changing and mutating virus, and the antibodies produced after infection do not control disease progression to AIDS. For the same reason, no HIV preventative vaccine that stimulates production of protective antibodies is available.

The Achilles heel, a tiny stretch of amino acids numbered 421-433 on gp120, is now under study as a target for therapeutic intervention.

Tags: aids, hiv

Love More Powerful Than Sex

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:40:15 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Ok, I am the world's most hopeful romantic! I've never had sex with anyone I wasn't emotionally attracted to, so even though this is an older article, I believe it's true, especially for me, but maybe it's just my addiction to dopamine *LOL*

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Sex and romance may seem inextricably linked, but the human brain clearly distinguishes between the two, according to a new study. The upshot: Love is the more powerful emotion.

The results of brain scans speak to longstanding questions of whether the pursuit of love and sex are different emotional endeavors or whether romance is just warmed over sexual arousal.

Romance seems to steep in parts of the brain that are rich in dopamine, a chemical known to affect emotions. These brain regions are also linked by other studies to the motivation for rewards.

The study also revealed that as a romance matures, so does the mind.

"Romantic love is one of the most powerful of all human experiences," said study member Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University. "It is definitely more powerful than the sex drive."

Tags: i, will, always, believe, in, love

Tips from Thomas Edison on Living Optimistically

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:26:32 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks:

Dr. Martin Seligman, the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, and author of Learned Optimism, has studied optimists and pessimists for 25 years. His research has found:

Optimists

* Less depression than pessimists
* Better results than pessimists in most areas of life
* Longer lifespan
* Healthier than pessimists
* Better than pessimists at work and in school
* More friends and better social lives

Pessimists

* More depression than optimists
* Inertia rather than activity in the face of setbacks
* Feels bad subjectively–blue, down worried, anxious
* Poor physical health
* Self-fulfilling; pessimists don’t persist in the face of challenges and thus fail more frequently, even when success is attainable
* Even when pessimists turn out to be right, they still feel worse than deluded optimists

Clip Source: lifedev.net

Brighten up your life: 3 Tips from Thomas Edison on Living Optimistically

Clip Source: lifedev.net

1) There is no such thing as a failure- there are only unexpected outcomes which will provide valuable guidance for future work

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. -Thomas Edison

2) Decide with full commitment to accomplish something

Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point when it looks impossible, and gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -Thomas Edison

3) Look on the bright side of everything

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. -Napoleon Hill

Tags: thomas edison, edison, tips, list, optimism, happiness, howto

Language Without Numbers: Amazonian Tribe Has No Word To Express 'One,' Other Numbers

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:36:06 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: However, the MIT team decided to add a new twist--they started with 10 objects and asked the tribe members to count down. In that experiment, the tribe members used the word previously thought to mean "two" when as many as five or six objects were present, and they used the word for "one" for any quantity between one and four.

This indicates that "these aren't counting numbers at all," said Gibson. "They're signifying relative quantities."

He said this type of counting strategy has never been observed before, although it may also be found in other languages believed to have "one," "two," and "many" counting words.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

An Amazonian language with only 300 speakers has no word to express the concept of "one" or any other specific number, according to a new study from an MIT-led team.

The team, led by MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences Edward Gibson, found that members of the Piraha tribe in remote northwestern Brazil use language to express relative quantities such as "some" and "more," but not precise numbers.

It is often assumed that counting is an innate part of human cognition, said Gibson, "but here is a group that does not count. They could learn, but it's not useful in their culture, so they've never picked it up."

The study, which appeared in the June 10 online edition of the journal Cognition, offers evidence that number words are a concept invented by human cultures as they are needed, and not an inherent part of language, Gibson said.

Tags: language, counting, numbers

15 Creative Architectural Designs for the Future

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:33:19 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: features.cgsociety.org

Tags: art, future, design

Mechanism Behind Mind-body Connection Discovered

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:47:25 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: The study reveals how stress makes people more susceptible to illness. The findings also suggest a potential drug target for preventing damage to the immune systems of persons who are under long-term stress, such as caregivers to chronically ill family members, as well as astronauts, soldiers, air traffic controllers and people who drive long daily commutes.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Immune cells (stained blue) end in protective caps called telomeres (stained yellow) that are shorter in the elderly -- and in persons suffering chronic stress. A new UCLA study suggests cortisol is the culprit behind premature aging of the immune system in stressed-out people.

Every cell contains a tiny clock called a telomere, which shortens each time the cell divides. Short telomeres are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging. Previous studies show that an enzyme within the cell, called telomerase, keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and ability to continue dividing.

UCLA scientists found that the stress hormone cortisol suppresses immune cells' ability to activate their telomerase. This may explain why the cells of persons under chronic stress have shorter telomeres.

Tags: mind, body, health, stress

Prolific spammer goes to jail

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:06:40 GMT

clipped by: Fast T friend

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A Brooklyn man was sentenced to more than two years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty last year to sending unsolicited "spam" emails to about 1.2 million subscribers of Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX) America Online.

At a hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan sentenced Adam Vitale to 30 months in prison, to be followed by three years supervised release. He also was ordered to pay restitution of more than $183,000 to AOL.

"The spamming is serious criminal conduct," the judge said. "This is not a teenager engaging in child's play."

David Touger, Vitale's lawyer, called the prostitution allegations " ridiculous."

"Yes, Mr. Vitale was a prolific spammer," Touger said. "That's all he was."

Tags: spam

Unusual Animals

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:55:56 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: thanks to Shar52870

Clipmarks |

Images of Greece

Achilles Heel Of HIV Found?

Love More Powerful Than Sex

Tips from Thomas Edison on Living Optimistically

Brighten up your life: 3 Tips from Thomas Edison on Living Optimistically

Language Without Numbers: Amazonian Tribe Has No Word To Express 'One,' Other Numbers

15 Creative Architectural Designs for the Future

Mechanism Behind Mind-body Connection Discovered

Prolific spammer goes to jail

Unusual Animals

Gitmo torture: No sleep for 50 days

Gitmo Prisoner Faced 50 Days of Sleep Deprivation

Surveillance camera identifies people by race

Art project illustrates the all-too-possible

The Web Gallery of Art

A New Clue to Predicting Earthquakes

Self-Assembling Tissues