When it comes to genetic code, researchers prove optimum isn't always best

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Imagine two steel springs identical in look and composition but that perform differently because each was tempered at a different rate.

A team of researchers including a Texas A&M University molecular biologist has shown that concept ? that the speed of creation affects performance ? applies to how a protein they studied impacts an organism's circadian clock function. This discovery provides new insights into the significance of the genetic code for controlling the rates at which critically important proteins are synthesized, and could lead to better understanding of cancers and other diseases.

"Living organisms' inner clocks are like Swiss watches with precisely manufactured spring mechanisms," said Matthew Sachs, a professor in the Texas A&M Department of Biology. "For example, if you fast-temper a critical spring, the watch may be unable to keep time, as opposed to slow-tempering it. It's not just about the composition of the components, such as which alloy is used. It's about the manner in which the components are made. Our research says the genetic code is important for determining both composition and fabrication rate for a central component of the circadian clock, and that the fabrication rate also is critical. And that's essentially a discovery."

The team, which is led by Yi Liu, a researcher in the Department of Physiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, was perplexed when it found a paradoxical result years ago: that optimizing the use of codons (a sequence of three nucleotides that form a unit of genetic code in a DNA or RNA molecule) specifying an essential biological clock component actually abolished the organism's circadian rhythms.

The group's research indicates that the protein in the fungal genus Neurospora they studied, frequency, performs better when the genetic code specifying it has non-optimal codon usage, as is normally found. However, when the genetic code is deliberately altered so that codon usage is optimized, clock function is lost. The reason for this is that non-optimal codon usage slows translation of the genetic code into protein, allotting the frequency protein the necessary time to achieve its optimal protein structure. The team's results also demonstrate that genetic codons do more than simply determine the amino acid sequence of a protein as previously thought: They also affect how much protein can be made as well as the functional quality of that protein.

"We found that less is more, in many cases," Liu said.

Because many genetic diseases are the result of improperly functioning proteins, Sachs says knowledge about how proteins are made and why they have impaired functions is critical to understanding almost all diseases.

"Understanding gene expression is crucial for understanding cancer and other diseases, because ultimately many of these processes involve either mutations of genes or altered expression of genes," said Sachs, who was asked by Liu to help on the research because of his translational expertise in Neurospora.

###

The research was selected for Advanced Online Publication (AOP) in the prestigious journal "Nature." To read the complete paper, go to http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11833.html.

Texas A&M University: http://www.tamu.edu

Thanks to Texas A&M University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126899/When_it_comes_to_genetic_code__researchers_prove_optimum_isn_t_always_best

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'Scud-type' missile said to kill 20 in Syria

AMMAN (Reuters) - A Syrian missile killed at least 20 people in a rebel-held district of Aleppo on Tuesday, opposition activists said, as the army turns to longer-range weapons after losing bases in the country's second-largest city.

The use of what opposition activists said was a large missile of the same type as Russian-made Scuds against an Aleppo residential district came after rebels overran army bases over the past two months from which troops had fired artillery.

As the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, now a civil war, nears its two-year mark, rebels also landed three mortar bombs in the rarely-used presidential palace compound in the capital Damascus, opposition activists said on Tuesday.

The United Nations estimates 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict between largely Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's supporters among his minority Alawite sect. An international diplomatic deadlock has prevented intervention, as the war worsens sectarian tensions throughout the Middle East.

A Russian official said on Tuesday that Moscow, which is a long-time ally of Damascus, would not immediately back U.N. investigators' calls for some Syrian leaders to face the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Moscow has blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions that would have increased pressure on Assad.

Casualties are not only being caused directly by fighting, but also by disruption to infrastructure and Syria's economy.

An estimated 2,500 people in a rebel-held area of northeastern Deir al-Zor province have been infected with typhoid, which causes diarrhea and can be fatal, due to drinking contaminated water from the Euphrates River, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

"There is not enough fuel or electricity to run the pumps so people drink water from the Euphrates which is contaminated, probably with sewage," the WHO representative in Syria, Elisabeth Hoff, told Reuters by telephone.

The WHO had no confirmed reports of deaths so far.

BURIED UNDER RUBBLE

In northern Aleppo, opposition activists said 25 people were missing under rubble of three buildings hit by a several-meter-long missile. They said remains of the weapon showed it to be a Scud-type missile of the type government forces increasingly use in Aleppo and in Deir a-Zor.

NATO said in December Assad's forces fired Scud-type missiles. It did not specify where they landed but said their deployment was an act of desperation.

Bodies were being gradually dug up, Mohammad Nour, an activist, said by phone from Aleppo.

"Some, including children, have died in hospitals," he said.

Video footage showed dozens of people scouring for victims and inspecting damage. A body was pulled from under collapsed concrete. At a nearby hospital, a baby said to have been dug out from wreckage was shown dying in the hands of doctors.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Opposition activists also reported fighting near the town of Nabak on the Damascus-Homs highway, another route vital for supplying forces in the capital loyal to Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since the 1960s.

Rebels moved anti-aircraft guns into the eastern Damascus district of Jobar, adjacent to the city centre, as they seek to secure recent gains, an activist said.

"The rebels moved truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns to Jobar and are now firing at warplanes rocketing the district," said Damascus activist Moaz al-Shami.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told a news conference a U.N. war crimes report, which accuses military leaders and rebels of terrorizing civilians, was "not the path we should follow ... at this stage it would be untimely and unconstructive."

Syria is not party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC and the only way the court can investigate the situation is if it receives a referral from the Security Council, where Moscow is a permanent member.

(Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Jason Webb)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-scud-type-missile-said-kill-20-aleppo-045528584.html

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Miami receives notice of allegations

Missouri head coach Frank Haith encourages his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Florida on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, in Columbia, Mo. Missouri won the game 63-60. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)

Missouri head coach Frank Haith encourages his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Florida on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, in Columbia, Mo. Missouri won the game 63-60. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)

Miami coach Jim Larranaga reacts to a play by Virginia during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Coral Gables, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Miami won 54-50. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) ? Miami finally received its notice of allegations from the NCAA, which accused the school of having a "lack of institutional control" for not monitoring the conduct of a booster who provided thousands of dollars in cash, gifts and other items to football and men's basketball players.

The allegations arrived on Tuesday. The institutional-control charge is typically one of the most severe the NCAA can bring after an investigation of rules violations.

The NCAA declined comment Tuesday night, a day after revealing that it was erasing some elements of its case against Miami because the information was obtained in impermissible ways.

"We deeply regret any violations, but we have suffered enough," Miami President Donna Shalala said in a statement announcing the university had received notice from the NCAA.

A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press about the lack of institutional control charge, and that several former members of Miami coaching staffs are named in the notice of allegations, including Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith, who was with the Hurricanes from 2004-11.

"I did get a notice of allegation," Haith said after Missouri beat Florida Tuesday night. "Contrary to what was reported (weeks ago), there was no unethical conduct in my notice of allegation. And it is just an allegation, so we get a chance to defend ourselves."

Next up: The sanctions phase, where Miami's penalties will be decided. The Hurricanes have already self-imposed several sanctions, including sitting out two bowl games and a conference football championship game. Shalala said Monday she believes those punishments should be enough.

This saga started in September 2010, when the university told the NCAA that convicted Ponzi scheme architect and former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro made allegations to the school against former players. Shapiro said he interacted mostly with football players and recruits, as well as a significantly smaller number of men's basketball players.

Shapiro is serving a 20-year prison term for masterminding a $930 million fraud scheme.

"Many of the charges brought forth are based on the word of a man who made a fortune by lying," Shalala wrote. "The NCAA enforcement staff acknowledged to the University that if Nevin Shapiro, a convicted con man, said something more than once, it considered the allegation 'corroborated' ? an argument which is both ludicrous and counter to legal practice"

Miami wants to get through the sanctions portion of the process as quickly as possible. But typically, it takes about three months for a hearing, and then can take several weeks ? if not months ? more for the penalties to be handed down. The sides coming to a settlement beforehand is another possibility.

Shalala said Miami will work diligently to prepare a response to the allegations within 90 days.

"We trust that the Committee on Infractions will provide the fairness and integrity missing during the investigative process," Shalala wrote.

Miami and the NCAA have gone back and forth on the wording of the notice of allegations for several weeks, and the long-awaited letter was nearly delivered last month. That's when the NCAA acknowledged that some mistakes were made by its own enforcement department. And that resulted in some allegations coming out of the letter.

It also led to yet another delay in the process, which many at Miami believe has dragged on for way too long.

"This cannot end quickly enough," Miami coach football Al Golden said earlier this month.

Virtually all the allegations revolve around football and men's basketball, though several other sports are mentioned for extremely minor reasons. Three former Miami assistant coaches are also alleged to have been in violation of what's commonly known as NCAA 10.1, which covers the "principles of ethical conduct."

Within about six months of Miami originally bringing the information it had on Shapiro forward, an NCAA investigation was quietly underway, and the story became widely known in August 2011 after Shapiro provided Yahoo Sports with details of what he claimed to have given dozens of athletes, recruits and coaches over an eight-year period.

Among the gifts Shapiro alleged to provide: Memorabilia, cash amounts both large and small, dinners, strip-club trips, prostitutes, and even an abortion.

Shalala, however, labeled most of those alleged benefits as "sensationalized media accounts."

"Despite their efforts over two and a half years, the NCAA enforcement staff could not find evidence of prostitution, expensive cars for players, expensive dinners paid for by boosters, player bounty payments, rampant alcohol and drug use, or the alleged hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts given to student-athletes, as reported in the media," Shalala wrote. "The fabricated story played well ? the facts did not."

Several Miami football and men's basketball players have either served suspensions, paid restitution or both in the past two years after their involvement with Shapiro was discovered. Apparently upset with how people he thought were friends turned their back on him following his conviction for the Ponzi operation, Shapiro vowed that he would take down the program, and his attorney ? a Miami alum ? was willing to help the NCAA's cause.

Documents released Monday by the NCAA showed that Shapiro's attorney, Maria Elena Perez, offered to assist investigators working the Miami case by using subpoena power to depose witnesses under the guise of a bankruptcy case. NCAA enforcement officials accepted her offer, even feeding her questions to ask for at least one of the depositions, and records show they paid at least $19,000 for her work ? though she billed them for three times that much.

"Had I realized I was dealing with, what is in my opinion ... such an incompetent regulatory institution, I would have never allowed Mr. Shapiro to have had any type of contact with the NCAA ? period," Perez wrote in a text message to AP.

Shawn Eichorst, the Nebraska athletic director who held the same role at Miami for some of the NCAA probe, declined comment. Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt, who was the AD at Miami for some of the time when Shapiro was a booster, did not respond to a request for comment.

Shalala also said former Miami athletic director Paul Dee, who held the job before Hocutt, also was not interviewed by the NCAA before his death in May 2012. Dee also was a member of the NCAA's committee on infractions, most notably when sanctions ? including a two-year bowl ban, scholarship reductions and vacating victories ? came down against Southern California in 2010, stemming from improper benefits given to then-Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush by sports marketers. Dee chaired the committee at the time, then saying "higher-profile players require higher-profile monitoring."

"The NCAA enforcement staff failed, even after repeated requests, to interview many essential witnesses of great integrity who could have provided firsthand testimony, including, unbelievably, Paul Dee, who has since passed away, but who served as Miami Athletic Director during many of the years that violations were alleged to have occurred," Shalala wrote. "How could a supposedly thorough and fair investigation not even include the Director of Athletics?"

Any allegations that came from those depositions were taken out of the Miami case, the NCAA said on Monday when it unveiled the scope of its alliance with Perez and acknowledged that missteps were made. The NCAA's vice president of enforcement, who oversaw the Miami probe, has been ousted, and some investigators who worked the case are also no longer with the association.

That prompted Miami to lash out strongly at the NCAA on Monday, with Shalala saying "the lengthy and already flawed investigation has demonstrated a disappointing pattern of unprofessional and unethical behavior."

The NCAA declined comment Tuesday about Shalala's remarks, which included a demand that Miami not face any additional sanctions.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-20-Miami-NCAA%20Investigation/id-60d02b0638d341018799390703e3944f

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GOP lawmakers don?t fear political impact of sequester taking effect

By Molly K. Hooper - 02/19/13 05:00 AM ET

House GOP lawmakers say they do not fear political blowback if Congress fails to prevent $85 billion in automatic spending cuts from triggering in two weeks.

The cuts known as the sequester are almost certain to hit the Pentagon and non-defense discretionary spending on March 1, and congressional Republicans and the White House are focused more now on avoiding blame for the cuts than preventing them.

That creates a challenging environment for House Republicans, given President Obama?s use of the bully pulpit, which he used to build pressure on them during last year?s fight over the ?fiscal cliff.?

Already the White House warns that the cuts will reduce loan guarantees to small businesses, end Head Start funding for 70,000 children and leave 373,000 seriously mentally ill people without treatment.

It says there will be fewer food inspections, raising the potential for a food-borne illness outbreak, and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will need to eliminate grants for firefighters and emergency personnel.

All of these dire warnings set up the potential to blame Republicans for economic ills or emergencies that occur in the sequester?s wake, regardless of whether they are directly caused by the $85 billion in cuts.

Rank-and-file Republicans say they?re not worried their leverage could be cut once the spending cuts are triggered, though they acknowledge Obama is a tough political adversary.

?It?s hard to compete with the bully pulpit that the president has,? acknowledged Rep. Bruce Lamborn (R-Colo.).

But he and other Republicans see the sequester as the best way possible to actually reduce government spending, which they see as the biggest threat to the nation. They are also ready to note the spending cuts will also affect their own offices.

?The bigger concern is what is good for the country,? said Lamborn, who will have to lay off one of his own staffers because of the sequester.

Republicans are also getting ready to battle by reminding voters it was the White House that conceived of the sequester ? the $1.2 trillion in deficit-reductions, including lower interest payments, that were included as part of the deal in 2011 to raise the debt ceiling.

The cuts were meant to serve as an incentive for a supercommittee of lawmakers to produce a different deficit-reduction plan. If the supercommitte failed, sequester would happen, and it was designed to impose painful cuts on both defense and non-defense spending so that both Republicans and Democrats would feel political pain.

?It was his [Obama?s] idea - we know that there are elections coming in 2014 - we know that the president and the party will be all out to reclaim the House, but we have acted in good faith so the president can put all this on Republicans all he wants but that's just not the fact,? sophomore Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said in an interview with The Hill.

Conservative groups have also kept pressure on lawmakers, urging them not to waiver from their stance and predicting political advantage from the cuts taking effect.

?If [Republicans] don't shy away from this, if they don't run from their own shadows and they don't [buckle] at the last minute, I think it's a battle they can win,? conservative Heritage Action spokesman Dan Holler said.

?The reason [Republicans] lose the battling war to the president so often is they can't get themselves on a clear path as to where they want to go - this is pretty easy, this is law,? he added.

With the cuts set to take effect on March 1, there is little time left for Washington to shut off the sequester.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has called for the Senate to act first to halt the sequester, expressing frustration that the upper chamber did not move on House bills from the previous Congress that sought to replace the across-the-board axe with targeted cuts.

Senate Democrats unveiled a bill last week that would replace the sequester with $110 billion in deficit reduction, but also includes $55 billion in new tax revenues.

The bill includes a measure to impose a minimum 30 percent tax on millionaires, modeled after the "Buffett" rule, named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, a proponent of higher tax rates on the wealthy.

Those tax provisions are unlikely to pass the GOP House, and Democrats are prepared to charge that Republicans rejected a sequester replacement to protect tax breaks for the wealthy.

?It's a losing argument for Republicans ... when you've seen clearly that the American people believe in having the wealthy pay their fair share in order to fund the things that are important to all of us - FBI, Border Patrol - all sorts of things that matter on a daily basis,? said Andy Stone, spokesman for the Democratic-affiliated House Majority PAC. "That's why this is a losing prospect for them.?

Democrats also contend that pressure from business groups wary of financial uncertainty once the sequester kicks in could cut GOP leverage and bring Republicans back to the table.

"We?re going to be hearing more and more from businesses who are going to be impacted, from people who are going to be furloughed, who won?t be able to pay their mortgage, impacting the housing market again," Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said last week.

But with the toll on the economy uncertain, one House Democrat cautions that neither side may gain politically if sequestration takes effect.

?I think we'll all get blamed as I think is probably appropriate because I think it's a terrible way to govern," said Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.). "I think there is more time being spent right now trying to figure out who's going to catch the blame than trying to fix it."

---

Source: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/283683-gop-lawmakers-dont-fear-political-impact-of-sequester-taking-effect

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Microsoft's Outlook takes aim at Google's Gmail

FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2009 file photo, the Microsoft logo is seen at the company's exhibit at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Microsoft is so confident it has the Internet's best email service that it is about to spend at least $30 million to send its message across the U.S. starting Tuesday Feb. 129, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)

FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2009 file photo, the Microsoft logo is seen at the company's exhibit at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Microsoft is so confident it has the Internet's best email service that it is about to spend at least $30 million to send its message across the U.S. starting Tuesday Feb. 129, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Microsoft is so confident it has the Internet's best email service that it is about to spend at least $30 million to send its message across the U.S.

The barrage begins Tuesday when Microsoft's twist on email, Outlook.com, escalates an assault on rival services from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., AOL Inc. and a long list of Internet service providers.

As part of the process, all users of Microsoft's Hotmail and other email services operating under different domains such as MSN.com will be automatically converted to Outlook.com by the summer, if they don't voluntarily switch before then. All the old messages, contacts and settings in the old inboxes will be exported to Outlook.com. Users will also be able to keep their old addresses.

Email remains a key battleground, even at a time when more people are texting each other on phones.

People still regularly check their inboxes, albeit increasingly on their smartphones. The recurring email habit provides Internet companies a way to keep people coming back to websites. It gives people a reason to log in during their visits so it's easier for email providers to track their activities. Frequent visits and personal identification are two of the keys to selling ads, the main way most websites make money.

That's why Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have been retooling their email services in recent months.

After keeping Outlook.com in a "preview" phase since July 31, Microsoft Corp. is ready to accept all comers.

To welcome new users, Microsoft is financing what it believes to be the biggest marketing blitz in the history of email. Outlook.com will be featured in ads running on primetime TV, radio stations, websites, billboards and buses. Microsoft expects to spend somewhere between $30 million to $90 million on the Outlook campaign, which will run for at least three months.

The Outlook ads will overlap with an anti-Gmail marketing campaign that Microsoft launched earlier this month. The "Scroogled" attacks depict Gmail as a snoopy service that scans the contents of messages to deliver ads related to topics being discussed.

The Gmail ads are meant to be educational while the Outlook campaign is motivational, said Dharmesh Mehta, Outlook.com's senior director.

"We are trying to push people who have gotten lazy and comfortable with an email service that may not be all that great and help show them what email can really do for them," said Mehta.

By Microsoft's own admission, Hotmail had lost the competitive edge that once made it the world's largest email service. The lack of innovation left an opening for Google to exploit when it unveiled Gmail nearly nine years ago.

Gmail is now the industry leader, although estimates on its popularity vary.

Google says Gmail has more than 425 million accountholders, including those that only visit on smartphones and other mobile device. The latest data from research firm comScore, which doesn't include mobile traffic, shows Gmail with 306 million worldwide users through December, up 21 percent from the previous year. Yahoo's email ranked second with 293 million users, a 2 percent decrease from the previous year, followed by Hotmail at 267 million users, a 16 percent decline from the previous year.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., is counting on Outlook.com to catapult the company back to the top of the email heap. During the preview period, Outlook attracted 60 million accountholders, including about 20 million that defected from Gmail, according to Microsoft. Comscore listed Outlook with 38 million users through December.

The new features being introduced in Outlook include: the ability to send massive files, including hundreds of photos at a time, in a single email; address books that automatically update new contact information that connections post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; and about 60 percent fewer ads than Hotmail.

None of these features are revolutionary. Google already has been giving its users the option to switch to a new version of Gmail that also allows for larger files to be sent in a single email. And address books in Gmail already fetch new contact information posted on Google Plus, although it doesn't yet mine Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Google declined to comment on Outlook.com. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., plans to convert all of its Gmail users to its redesigned format within the next few months.

Yahoo, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. revamped its email service late last year in an effort to provide a more consistent experience on personal computers and mobile devices.

Outlook.com is the latest in a series of major product leases from Microsoft, which has been struggling to regain the cachet that once made it the world's most valuable technology company.

Now, both Apple Inc. and Google are worth more because they have been growing far faster than Microsoft as their products win more fans. Apple's biggest gains have come from the iPhone and IPad, while Google has been benefiting from its dominance in Internet search and its widely used Android software for mobile devices.

Microsoft has been trying to catch up with a major makeover of its Windows operating system, new smartphone software and a tablet computer called Surface. Like Outlook.com, all those products have been backed by expensive marketing campaigns in recent months.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-19-Microsoft-Outlook/id-6a136bd27596400a9129c004e1fd6e37

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Top 100 arms makers' arms sales fall in 2011: study

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Arms sales by the 100 biggest weapons makers fell for the first time since the mid-90s in 2011 as economies slowed and military equipment purchases were reduced for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, a leading think-tank said on Monday.

Sales totaled $410 billion, a 5-percent fall adjusted for currency swings, from $411 billion in 2010, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which carries out independent research on international security, armaments and disarmament said in a statement.

SIPRI, which has been compiling the list since 1989, does not include Chinese-based firms due to lack of available data.

"Austerity policies and proposed and actual decreases in military expenditure as well as postponements in weapons program procurement affected overall arms sales in North America and Western Europe," it said in a statement.

"The drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan and the sanctions on arms transfers to Libya also played a role."

Spending fell for the first time since the mid-90's, when defense spending had been falling after the end of the Cold War, said Susan Jackson, a researcher at SIPRI.

Sales growth had already slowed in 2010, to 1 percent from 8 percent in 2009, as the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq held back demand.

To the extent arms makers are affected by economic swings, many are late-cyclical as they have long delivery times and long-running contracts with governments.

Of the firms monitored by the group in 2011, 74 were based in the United States and western Europe, generating 90 percent of the sales, roughly unchanged from 2010.

The top spots were little changed from 2010 with U.S. firm Lockheed Martin still the biggest, U.S. Boeing , overtaking British BAE Systems as number two, and General Dynamics overtaking Northrop Grumman as number four.

SIPRI said a strong recent trend among big arms makers was diversification into cyber-security - protecting computers and networks against intrusions and attacks - as public spending in this area remained a privileged area in Western countries despite budget austerity.

"Diversifying into cybersecurity enables arms-producing companies to widen their civilian customer base, e.g. to reach governmental agencies or private operators of critical infrastructures, and at the same time develop technical competences for electronic warfare for the military market," it said.

In the 2002-2011 period, arms sales by the top 100 firms grew 51 percent, SIPRI said.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Jason Webb)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-100-arms-makers-arms-sales-fall-2011-230441867--finance.html

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Going green - Holistic Health - Medicine Blog - timesunion.com ...

If you?re thinking this is going to be a post about ecology or even about getting ready for next month?s St. Patrick?s Day, guess again.

What I?m talking about are the greens that you dine on.? The leafy, crunchy, delicious morsels that are absolutely essential to a healthy diet, and that we don?t get quite enough of in the SAD (Standard American Diet)

Back in ancient times when early man wandered the earth , they grazed as they went.? One article mentioned we may have consumed as much as six pounds of leaves in a day.? With all that walking we were hungry, and our eyes were no doubt attracted to the beautiful color of the foliage. ?I can hear them now, walking through the prehistoric landscape: ?Ugh?.. Ummmm?.tasty?.ummm. ?

Well, we still need those greens for optimal health.? The USDA recommends 3 cups per week.? Calorie for calorie, greens pack the most concentrated form of nutritional punch of any food.? They contain abundant minerals such as iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium.? As far as vitamins go,? they are rich in K,C, E, and B ? all necessary for everything from blood clotting, to building strong bones, reducing inflammation, and the prevention of diabetes.

Then there are the phytonutrients . Neither vitamin, nor minerals, these chemicals found in plant foods carry names like beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, and their presence in our diet can help ward off disease, and mitigate the damage aging may do to our eyes, skin and other cells.

Trying to manage weight gain?? Get more greens in your diet! Low in carbs, high in fiber,? they are slow to digest and have a high satiety value in addition to their nutritional benefits.

Best of all ? they are delicious!

There?s lots of choices out there:? kale, collards, spinach, arugula, swiss chard, mustard greens, escarole and rapini, just to name a few.? When choosing remember the darker the green color, the higher the vitamin content.

Tossing fresh greens with a little unsaturated oil such as olive or canola, or serving greens with fish or nuts will help the body absorb vitamin A and K ? both of which are fat-soluable. You can just lightly saute greens in olive oil, a smidge of garlic for a simple, wonderful preparation.

One word of caution about greens:? make sure to wash them thoroughly before eating as they can frequently be a cause of food-born illness.? I wash mine again, even if the bag says they?ve been ?triple-washed?, just to be on the safe side.? Not a bad idea to choose organic for greens as well.

So, put those greens on your grocery list with a big exclamation point!

Looking for a tasty recipe that?s easy to fix and delightful to enjoy?? Here?s one for a lovely soup which a friend shared with me a while back.? Even if you choose to go completely vegetarian switching out the chicken stock for vegetable broth, the lentils give this soup plenty of protein.

Lentil, Spinach and Lemon Soup (serves 4 with leftovers)

Ingredients:

Olive oil

2 shallots, chopped

1 rosemary stalk

1 cup red lentils, rinsed and picked over

3 medium potatoes, quartered and sliced into bite-sized pieces

1 quart chicken (or vegetable) broth

1 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed

3 handfuls fresh spinach, stems removed and chopped

juice of 1 lemon (plus some zest if you really like it lemony)

salt and pepper to taste

In a medium-sized pot, heat a bit of olive oil, and cook the shallots for a few minutes.? Add the garlic and rosemary.? Cook for another few minutes, until fragrant and soft.? Add the lentils, and cook, stirring, for another few minutes.? Add the potatoes, broth, and fennel seeds.? Simmer, covered for 20 minutes until potatoes are soft and soup is creamy. ?Stir in the spinach and lemon, and serve hot.

Bet our prehistoric ancestors would have walked an extra mile or two for a bowl of this!

Source: http://blog.timesunion.com/holistichealth/going-green/11055/

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