Penn research using frog embryos leads to new understanding of cardiac development

During embryonic development, cells migrate to their eventual location in the adult body plan and begin to differentiate into specific cell types. Thanks to new research at the University of Pennsylvania, there is new insight into how these processes regulate tissues formation in the heart. A developmental biologist at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, Jean-Pierre Saint-Jeannet, along with a colleague, Young-Hoon Lee of South Korea's Chonbuk National University, has mapped the embryonic region that becomes the part of the heart that separates the outgoing blood in Xenopus, a genus of frog. Xenopus is a commonly used model organism for...

Read more »

Signaling pathway reveals mechanism for B cell differentiation in immune response

An article in Science Signaling by researchers at the RIKEN Research Center for Allergy and Immunology (RCAI) has clarified for the first time the mechanism governing differentiation of B cells into antibody-producing plasma cells. The finding establishes a role for the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway in B cell differentiation, a key step toward the development of B cell-targeted drugs for treatment of autoimmune diseases and allergies. As the only cells in the body that produce antibodies, B cells play an essential role in the immune system's defense against bacteria and viruses. Differentiation of B cells into...

Read more »

Researchers create functioning synapse using carbon nanotubes

Engineering researchers the University of Southern California have made a significant breakthrough in the use of nanotechnologies for the construction of a synthetic brain. They have built a carbon nanotube synapse circuit whose behavior in tests reproduces the function of a neuron, the building block of the brain. The team, which was led by Professor Alice Parker and Professor Chongwu Zhou in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, used an interdisciplinary approach combining circuit design with nanotechnology to address the complex problem of capturing brain function. In a paper published in...

Read more »

PGI to Get a New Director by Month End

The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) is all set to get a new institute director. The Institute Body (IB) has forwarded names of Dr.Y K Chawla, Dr. Amod Gupta and Dr. Raj Bahadur to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) which is headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The decision will be taken in the 29th April meeting of the committee. The meeting of the special selection committee under the chairmanship of Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was conducted on Thursday which finalized on the 3 names. The PGI Governing Body will also finalize the promotion and selection of the Institute's faculty...

Read more »

Gather Bit-by-bit Info on Breast Cancer Treatment

A recent study has found that women who gather bit by bit information about breast cancer treatment and take some time to decide about the treatment regime are more likely to take wiser decisions than those who end up making all decisions in haste. Researchers studied whether asking women to make a series of simpler choices instead of one complex decision would help them understand when aggressive post-surgery therapies like chemotherapy would actually yield larger benefits. The researchers found that the women who were not good with numbers got confused when offered with as few as four treatment options at once. They chose chemotherapy regardless...

Read more »

Seaweed shake may help you lose weight: Study

London: Want to shed those extra kilos? Have a glass of seaweed shake every morning, as scientists say it will suppress your hunger pangs and help you feel full for a long period. Researchers at the Unilever Research & Development inVlaardingen, the Netherlands, found that adding the seaweed extract alginate to a chocolate milkshake reduces hunger of study participants by nearly 30 per cent. Harry Peters, who led the research, said: "Many differentdiets and diet programmes can be effective in reducing weight. "However, many subjects fail to adhere to these diets andthe reduction in weight is therefore not achieved or maintained," Peters...

Read more »

Mallika Sherawat's Tea With President Obama

Bollywood's sex symbol Mallika Sherawat met with US President Barack Obama on Thursday in Los Angeles. Mallika was invited to have tea with the US President. According to reports, President Obama has asked Mallika to invite him to the premiere of her soon-to-release film Politics of Love, Barack, a rom-com on the 2008 presidential elections. Mallika had shifted her base to Los Angeles to try her luck in Hollywood, the Murder girl has now returned to Bollywood and will be seen in Dhamaal...

Read more »

Samsung files lawsuits against Apple

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. said it is suing Apple Inc. for patent rights violations, only days after Apple sued Samsung for the same reason. Samsung is accusing Apple of violating its rights to 10 smartphone and computer patents. The company filed lawsuits Thursday in Seoul, Tokyo and Mannheim, Germany. The lawsuits come only days after Apple sued Samsung in a California court. Apple alleges Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones and tablet computers copy Apple’s popular iPad and iPhone. The lawsuits are the latest in a long string of patent disputes among phone makers. In recent years Apple, Microsoft...

Read more »

Apple, Google, and Location: Is It All About Advertising?

Politicians and privacy experts demanded answers of Google and Apple Friday following the discovery that smartphone software from the tech giants regularly transmits information about a user's whereabouts back to the companies. Both Google and Apple remained mum about why the data is sent. But Apple may already have tipped its hand in explaining one reason the iPhone phones home: advertising. The company's iAd network, launched last July, quite regularly receives location data from its gadgets, stores it in massive databases -- and uses the information to send just the right ad to your cellphone. "Information is transmitted securely to the...

Read more »

Amazon failure takes down sites across Internet

NEW YORK — Amazon.com struggled Friday morning to restore computers used by other major websites such as Reddit as an outage stretched beyond 24 hours. Though better known for selling books, DVDs and other consumer goods, Amazon also rents out space on huge computer servers that run many websites and other online services. The problems began at an Amazon data centre near Dulles Airport outside Washington early Thursday. On Friday morning, Amazon's status page said the recovery effort was making progress, but it couldn't say when all affected computers would be restored. Most of the sites that were brought down by the outage on Thursday were...

Read more »

Central bank rider to Enam-Axis deal

RBI objects to Bhansali’s induction to the bank’s board The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved, in principle, Axis Bank’s acquisition of select businesses of Enam Securities, but objected to the induction of Vallabh Bhansali, co-founder and chairman of the broking company, on the bank’s board. Bhansali’s induction on the bank’s board as an independent director was a part of the deal. “Other terms of the RBI’s in-principle approval include the stipulation that no shareholder of Enam Securities acquiring shares of Axis Bank under the scheme of arrangement would be eligible for being a director on the board of the bank,” the bank said...

Read more »

Toyota's auto production to recover by year-end

TOKYO,   -- Toyota Motor Corp. announced Friday that its production levels would begin to approach optimal levels by November or December. The world's largest automaker has been severely hamstrung following the March 11 quake and tsunami damaging the automaker's facilities in Japan and power shortages forcing its factories to slash electricity usage. Toyota stated that levels of production in Japan will normalize around July and their overseas operations in August, with efforts to get production back on track completed by the end of the year. "I visited the affected areas several times," said Toyota President Akio Toyota at a press...

Read more »

Reliance net up 25 % at Rs.20,286 crore

Reliance Industries has reported a net profit of Rs. 20,286 crore for the year ended March 31, 2011, against Rs. 16,236 crore in the previous year, a rise of 25 per cent. For the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011, the company reported a 14 per cent rise in net profit at Rs. 5,376 crore against Rs. 4,710 crore in the year-ago period. The board of directors has recommended a dividend of Rs. 8 per share of Rs. 10 each, aggregating Rs. 2,772 crore, including dividend distribution tax. The turnover for the year ended March 31, 2011, was Rs. 258,651 crore, an increase of 29 per cent over the previous year. Exports were higher by 33 per cent...

Read more »

India And China Are Rising: Obama

Washington : US President Barack Obama today said that America needs to adapt to a changing world wherein countries like India and China are rising and areas like the Middle East are becoming less stable. “We were seeing changes around the world—countries like China and India rising; areas like the Middle East becoming less stable; the world shrinking because of technology, much of it invented right here in this region,” Obama said in his remarks at a fund raising event in San Francisco. “So I think we understood that we were going to have to adapt in some fundamental way in order to make sure that our kids and our grandkids ended up inheriting...

Read more »

US To Give Pak 85 Mini-Drones

Islamabad   The United States will provide Pakistan with 85 small ‘Raven’ drone aircraft, a U.S. military official said on Thursday. This is supposed to be a key step to meeting Islamabad's calls for access to U.S. drone technology. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to disclose the cost or model of the non-lethal, short-range aircraft, which are manufactured by the U.S.-based AeroVironment Inc. Meanwhile, in another fresh Drone attack on early Friday morning, a US Drone killed at least seven people after it fired five missiles at a compound housing Taliban militants in Spinwam, 40 km northeast of Miranshah...

Read more »

Obama Approves Use Of Armed Drones In Libya

Washington:  President Barack Obama has approved the use of armed drones in Libya, authorizing U.S. airstrikes on ground forces for the first time since America turned over control of the operation to NATO on April 4.It also is the first time that drones will be used for airstrikes since the conflict began on March 19, although they have routinely been flying surveillance missions, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at a Pentagon briefing Thursday. He said the U.S. will provide up to two 24-hour combat air patrols each day by the unmanned Predators.Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said...

Read more »

Draft Lokpal Bill Expected To Be Ready By June 30: Moily

Bangalore  : The government intends to complete the draft of the Lokpal Bill by June 30 and table it in the monsoon session of parliament, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said today. With allegations levelled against some civil society members of the joint committee on the Lokpal bill, Moily said “we should not give more credence to such allegations.  Arguments and counter-arguments should not dilute such an important step”. “What is important is the dedication, willingness and determination to table the important bill. When the government is determined to table the bill, all others should cooperate”, Moily said. To another question, Moily said the draft bill would be formulated by all the members of the joint committee. “All their views will be taken into account and the...

Read more »

Polling Begins For Second Phase In West Bengal

Kolkata : Polling began this morning in 50 constituencies for the second of the six-phase Assembly elections in West Bengal in which an electorate of 93.33 lakh will decide the fate of 293 candidates.  Tight security arrangements are in place for peaceful polling in 22 constituencies in Murshidabad, 17 in Nadia and 11 in Birbhum, having a total of 11,531 polling stations. Some of the prominent candidates whose fortunes will be decided are Abhijit Mukhkerjee, son of Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee from Nalhati seat, Panchayat minister and CPI(M) leader Anisur Rahaman, former High Court Judge Nure Alam Chowdhury, a Trinamool Congress...

Read more »

Rajesh Talwar 'Misled' The Judiciary, CBI Tells Apex Court

New Delhi : In another twist to the Aarushi -Hemraj double murder case, the CBI has accused dentist Rajesh Talwar of forging documents, concealing facts and misleading the Supreme Court to get relief from prosecution in the trial court. In an affidavit filed before the apex court, CBI’s superintendent Neelabh Kishore alleged that Rajesh, in his appeal against the trial court, had deliberately taken a false plea that he was released on bail in July 2008 which was totally contrary to facts. A bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar which took on record the affidavit after it was mentioned by the CBI counsel said it would take up...

Read more »