Occupy protest resurfaces in Oakland after lull

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan surveys damage to City Hall on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Oakland, Calif., following an Occupy Oakland protest Saturday. After a confrontation with police, demonstrators gained entrance to City Hall where they burned an American flag, broke glass and toppled a model of City Hall. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan surveys damage to City Hall on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Oakland, Calif., following an Occupy Oakland protest Saturday. After a confrontation with police, demonstrators gained entrance to City Hall where they burned an American flag, broke glass and toppled a model of City Hall. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Occupy Oakland protestors burn an American flag found inside Oakland City Hall during an Occupy Oakland protest on the steps of City Hall, Saturday, January 28, 2012, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

A defaced bust of former city councilmember Frank Ogawa sits outside Oakland, Calif., City Hall on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, following an Occupy Oakland protest Saturday. After a confrontation with police, demonstrators gained entrance to City Hall where they burned an American flag, broke glass and toppled a model of City Hall. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Police officers stand near graffiti while guarding Oakland, Calif., City Hall on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, following an Occupy Oakland protest Saturday. After a confrontation with police, demonstrators gained entrance to City Hall where they burned an American flag, broke glass and toppled a model of City Hall. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Police move in on Occupy Oakland protesters on Oak Street and 12th Street as tear gas gets blown back on them in Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. An unlawful assembly was declared as occupiers planned to take over an undisclosed building. (AP Photo/The Tribune, Bay Area News Group) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? It started peacefully enough: A midday rally at City Hall and a march. But as the day wore on, Oakland was hit by the most turbulent protests in weeks as Occupy demonstrators clashed repeatedly with police, leaving more than 400 people arrested.

The demonstrations in downtown Oakland broke a lull that had seen just a smattering of people taking to Oakland's streets in recent weeks for occasional marches that bore little resemblance to the headline-grabbing Occupy demonstrations of last fall.

That all changed Saturday with clashes punctuated by rock and bottle throwing by protesters and volleys of tear gas from police, and a City Hall break-in that left glass cases smashed, graffiti spray-painted on walls and an American flag burned.

AP photos showing the flag burning ? including images of masked protesters touching off the blaze, a woman urging protesters not to burn it, and another of an officer stomping out the fire ? drew attention on social networking sites.

At least three officers and one protester were injured. Police spokesman Sgt. Jeff Thomason said there were more than 400 arrests on charges ranging from failure to disperse to vandalism,

On Sunday, Oakland officials vowed to be ready if Occupy protesters try to mount another large-scale demonstration. Protesters, meanwhile, decried Saturday's police tactics as illegal and threatened to sue.

Mayor Jean Quan personally inspected damage caused by dozens of people who broke into City Hall. She said she wants a court order to keep Occupy protesters who have been arrested several times out of Oakland, which has been hit repeatedly by demonstrations that have cost the financially troubled city about $5 million.

Quan also called on the loosely organized movement to "stop using Oakland as its playground."

"People in the community and people in the Occupy movement have to stop making excuses for this behavior," she said.

Saturday's protests ? the most convulsive since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November ? came just days after the announcement of a new round of actions. The group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the Port of Oakland for a third time, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

After the mass arrests, the Occupy Oakland Media Committee criticized the police's conduct, saying that most of the arrests were made illegally because police failed to allow protesters to disperse. It threatened legal action.

"Contrary to their own policy, the OPD gave no option of leaving or instruction on how to depart. These arrests are completely illegal, and this will probably result in another class action lawsuit against the OPD," a release from the group said.

Deputy Police Chief Jeff Israel told reporters late Saturday that protesters gathered unlawfully and police gave them multiple verbal warnings to disband.

Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the Occupy protests. Police officials say they were in "close contact" with the federal monitor during the protests.

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately. Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

Caitlin Manning, an Occupy Oakland member, believes that Saturday's protest caught the world's attention.

"The Occupy movement is back on the map," Manning said Sunday. "We think those who have been involved in movements elsewhere should be heartened."

In Oakland, social activism and civic unrest have long marked this rough-edged city of nearly 400,000 across the bay from San Francisco. Beset by poverty, crime and a decades-long tense relationship between the police and the community, its streets have seen clashes between officers and protesters, including anti-draft protests in the 1960s that spilled into town from neighboring Berkeley.

Dozens of officers, who maintained guard at City Hall overnight, were also on the scene Sunday.

"They were never able to occupy a building outside of City Hall," Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said Sunday. "We suspect they will try to go to the convention center again. They will not get in."

Jordan defended his officers' response to the protesters on Saturday.

"No we have not changed our tactics," Jordan said. "The demonstrators have changed their tactics, which forces us to respond differently."

Quan, who faces two mayoral recall attempts, has been criticized for past police tear-gassing, though she said she was not aware of the plans. On Saturday, she thought the police response was measured.

She also said she hopes prosecutors will seek a stay-away order against protesters who have been arrested multiple times.

"It appears that most of them constantly come from outside of Oakland," Quan said. "I think a lot of the young people who come to these demonstrations think they're being revolutionary when they're really hurting the people they claim that they are representing."

Saturday's events began when a group assembled outside City Hall and marched through the streets, disrupting traffic as they threatened to take over a vacant convention center.

The protesters then walked to the convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and "destroying construction equipment" shortly before 3 p.m., police said. The number of demonstrators swelled as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging up to 2,000 people, although city leaders say that figure was much closer to several hundred.

A majority of the arrests came after police took scores of protesters into custody as they marched through downtown, with some entering a YMCA building, Thomason said.

One of those taken into custody at the facility was KGO radio reporter Kristin Hanes.

Though she was released after about 25 minutes, Hanes said she was "angry that they put a reporter in zip-tie handcuffs."

Oakland police didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about her arrest.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-30-Occupy%20Oakland/id-c86aa202319041168d3a3e917d44b4c7

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Palestinian Authority suspends plans to raise taxes (Reuters)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) ? The Palestinian Authority announced on Sunday it was suspending plans to raise income tax that have sparked widespread protests but said it was still seeking ways to cut costs in 2012 to plug a gap resulting from lower-than-expected foreign aid revenues.

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said earlier this month that the Palestinian Authority was planning to double the income tax rate to 30 percent as part of efforts to cut the budget deficit to $750 million in 2012, from $1.1 billion a year earlier.

"He (Fayyad) will ask the ministerial council at its next meeting on Tuesday to suspend collection of tax advances set on the basis of the new tax bracket," Fayyad's office said in a statement.

The Western-backed Fayyad sparked protests in various parts of the West Bank when he announced plans to double income tax on high earners from 15 percent, while more companies and other entities would have to pay tax on their operations.

Government spending would also be cut and some of the Palestinian Authority's 153,000 public sector workers might be forced into early retirement.

The Authority's growing financial difficulties coincide with a period of political uncertainty for the Palestinians, where peace talks with Israel are in limbo and long-running attempts to end a feud between rival factions in the West Bank and Gaza floundering.

Fayyad had promised to stand down to help Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and its Islamist Hamas rival in Gaza set up a new unity government. But with no agreement in sight, he has proceeded with a 2012 budget estimated at $3.5 billion and warned that sacrifices will be needed.

After running up a $350-million-deficit in 2010, the Palestinian Authority plunged $1.1 billion into the red in 2011.

The Palestinians had planned for foreign aid of about $1 billion in 2011, but Fayyad said just under $750 million had arrived.

Financial support from the United States, the European Union and Arab states allows the PA to pay the salaries of the public workers, including teachers and security forces.

However, the United States abruptly cut off funding last year after Abbas made a bid for recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

Officials say more than $150 million of U.S. aid is frozen. The U.N. statehood bid has ground to a halt, with the Palestinians failing to get enough backing to secure a vote in the Security Council.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta, Writing by Sami Aboudi)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/wl_nm/us_palestinians_taxes

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Iran offers to extend UN nuclear inspection (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? Iran's top diplomat offered Monday to extend the current visit of U.N. nuclear inspectors and expressed optimism their findings would help ease tensions despite international claims that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.

The comments by Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, reported by Iran's official news agency, underscored efforts to display cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency team and downplay the expectations of a confrontation atmosphere during the three-day visit that began Sunday.

The IAEA mission is the first to Iran since a report in November that suggested some of the Islamic Republic's alleged experiments ? cited in intelligence documents ? can have no other purpose than developing nuclear weapons. The current inspection team includes two senior weapons experts, hinting that Iran may be prepared to discuss specific points on the claims it seeks to develop warheads after three years of rebuffing U.N. calls for answers.

Salehi, attending an African summit in Ethiopia, repeated remarks that he was "optimistic about the results of the visit" without offering more details. He also told Turkish state television that the U.N. mission could be "extended if necessary," according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

The findings from the visit could greatly influence Western efforts to expand economic pressures on Iran over its uranium enrichment ? which Washington and allies fear could eventually produce weapons-grade material. Iran has declined to abandon its enrichment labs, but claims it seeks to fuel reactors only for energy and medical research.

Asian powers ? which buy the bulk of Iran's oil ? have resisted appeals to join Western boycotts and financial sanctions aimed at Iran's critical oil industry.

India's finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told reporters Sunday in Chicago that cutting off Iranian oil would be too great a blow for the Indian economy. About 12 percent of India's oil imports reportedly come from Iran, making Iran its second-largest supplier after Saudi Arabia.

The U.N. team has made no public comments since leaving Vienna, the headquarters for the watchdog agency.

But Iranian media said the team is likely to visit an underground enrichment site near Qom, 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Tehran, which is carved into a mountain as protection from possible airstrikes. Earlier this month, Iran said it had begun enrichment work at the site, which is far smaller than the country's main uranium labs but is reported to have more advanced equipment.

The IAEA team also wants to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of working on a weapons program. The team also plans to inspect documents related to nuclear work and secure commitments from Iranian authorities to allow future visits.

It remains unclear how much Iran will cooperate or is willing to disclose. Iran has accused the IAEA in the past of security leaks that expose its scientists and their families to the threat of assassination by the U.S. and Israel.

Oil prices have been driven higher in recent weeks by Iran's warnings that it could block the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, the route for about one-fifth of the world's oil. Last week, the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, joined by French and British warships, entered the Gulf in a show of strength against any attempts to disrupt oil tanker traffic.

On Monday, Iran's state TV reported the development of laser-guided artillery shells capable of hitting moving targets. The report did not give details on specifications of the shell. It could not be independently verified.

Iran occasionally announces the production and testing of military equipment, ranging from torpedoes to missiles and jet fighters.

The country's military has run a program dating from 1992 which aims at self-sufficiency in producing modern weaponry.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear

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Getting Weird (talking-points-memo)

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SUMO-snipping protein plays crucial role in T and B cell development

Saturday, January 28, 2012

When SUMO grips STAT5, a protein that activates genes, it blocks the healthy embryonic development of immune B cells and T cells unless its nemesis breaks the hold, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports today in Molecular Cell.

"This research extends the activity of SUMO and the Sentrin/SUMO-specific protease 1 (SENP1) to the field of immunology, in particular the early lymphoid development of T and B cells," said the study's senior author, Edward T. H. Yeh, M.D., professor and chair of MD Anderson's Department of Cardiology.

SUMO proteins, also known as the small ubiquitin-like modifiers or Sentrin, attach to other proteins in cells to modify their function or to move them within a cell. SENP1 is one of a family of six proteins that snips SUMO off of SUMO-modified proteins. SUMOylation (SUMO modification) of proteins has been implicated in development of cancer, heart and neurodegenerative diseases, among others.

The team first analyzed the role of SENP1 in the development of lymphoids in mice and found it is heavily expressed in precursor cells, the early stages of B and T cell development.

Working with genetically modified mice they developed that lack SENP1 gene expression, Yeh and colleagues found the mouse embryos had severe defects in their T and B cells, white blood cell lymphocytes that identify and fight infection.

SUMO pins STAT5 in the nucleus

Subsequent experiments led them to STAT5, a transcription factor known to play critical roles in the development and function of immune cells. Transcription factors work in the cell nucleus, activating gene expression by connecting to a gene's promoter region.

"STAT5 works in a cycle, moving from the cytosol of a cell into the nucleus to activate genes and then back out to the cytosol," Yeh said. "We found that when STAT5 is SUMOylated in the nucleus it gets trapped there when there's no SENP1 to remove SUMO."

The team found that SUMO muscles in on two other signaling events that govern STAT5 activity - phosphorylation and acetylation.

SUMO inhibits STAT5 signaling

STAT5 is activated in the cell cytosol when the JAK tyrosine kinase attaches a phosphate group at a specific site on the STAT5 protein. This transformed STAT5 crosses the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to transcribe genes.

The team found that SUMO attaches to STAT5 close to its phosphorylation site and that cells lacking SENP1 have increased SUMOylation and decreased phosphorylation.

SUMOylation vs. acetylation

In addition to phosphorylation, acetylation of STAT5 has been shown to be essential for STAT5 to cross the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to enhance gene transcription. Yeh and colleagues found that SUMO competes directly with acetyl groups for the same binding site, inhibiting acetylation.

"Without SENP1 to remove SUMO, STAT5 can't be acetylated or phosphorylated and can't be recycled for use again," Yeh said. "We discovered that SENP1 controls lymphoid development through regulation of SUMOylation of STAT5."

Since Yeh's lab discovered SUMOylation in 1996, SUMO has been found to alter the function of thousands of proteins.

Yeh is hosting the 6th International Conference SUMO, Ubiquitin, UBL Proteins: Implications for Human Diseases Feb. 8-11 in the Dan L. Duncan Building at MD Anderson. Yeh organizes the meeting every other year.

"There used to be so little known about SUMO. Now, a protein is assumed to be SUMOylated until proved otherwise," Yeh said.

###

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: http://www.mdanderson.org

Thanks to University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117155/SUMO_snipping_protein_plays_crucial_role_in_T_and_B_cell_development

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Hazanavicius wins at Directors Guild for 'Artist' (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? The Directors Guild of America Awards are the latest Hollywood film honors to go silent.

Hollywood's top filmmakers group presented its feature-film honor Saturday to Michel Hazanavicius for his silent film "The Artist," giving him the inside track for the best-director prize at the Academy Awards.

"I really love directors. I really have respect for directors. So this is really very moving and touching for me," said Hazanavicius, whose black-and-white silent charmer has cleaned up at earlier Hollywood honors and could emerge as the best-picture favorite at the Feb. 26 Oscars.

The Directors Guild honors are one of the most-accurate forecasts for who might go on to take home an Oscar. Only six times in the 63-year history of the guild awards has the winner failed to win the Oscar for best director. And more often than not, whichever film earns the directing Oscar also wins best picture.

French filmmaker Hazanavicius, whose credits include the spy spoofs "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" and "OSS 117: Lost in Rio," had been a virtual unknown in Hollywood until "The Artist." His throwback to early cinema centers on a silent-era star whose career crumbles when talking pictures take over in the late 1920s.

First-time nominee Hazanavicius won over a field of guild heavyweights that included past winners Martin Scorsese for "Hugo" and Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris." Past nominees David Fincher for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and Alexander Payne for "The Descendants" also were in the running.

Accepting his nomination plaque earlier in the ceremony from his stars in "The Artist," Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, Hazanavicius recalled his childhood education in great cinema, including Hollywood classics such as "Red River" and "Rio Bravo."

Hazanavicius said he felt he was being welcomed by the Directors Guild for a language they had in common: cinema.

"Maybe you noticed, but I'm French. I have an accent. I have a name that is very difficult to pronounce," Hazanavicius said. "I'm not American, and I'm not French, actually. I'm a filmmaker. ... I feel like I'm being accepted by you not as Americans but as filmmakers."

James Marsh won the film documentary prize for "Project Nim," his chronicle of the triumphs and trials of a chimpanzee that was raised like a human child. It was the latest major Hollywood prize for Marsh, who earned the documentary Academy Award for 2008's "Man on Wire."

Scorsese went zero-for-two at the guild awards. He also had been nominated for the documentary award for "George Harrison: Living in the Material World."

Robert B. Weide won the TV comedy directing award for an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," while Patty Jenkins earned the TV drama prize for the pilot of "The Killing."

The award for TV movie or miniseries went to Jon Cassar for "The Kennedys."

Other television winners were:

? Reality programming: Neil P. DeGroot, "The Biggest Loser."

? Musical variety: Glenn Weiss, "The 65th Annual Tony Awards."

? Daytime serials: William Ludel, "General Hospital."

? Children's programs: Amy Schatz, "A Child's Garden of Poetry."

? Commercials: Noam Murro.

At the start of the ceremony, Guild President Taylor Hackford led the crowd in a toast to one of his predecessors, Gil Cates, the veteran producer of the Oscar broadcast who died last year.

The Directors Guild awards were the first of two major Hollywood honors this weekend. The Screen Actors Guild hands out its prizes Sunday.

___

Online:

http://www.dga.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_ot/us_directors_awards

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Exxon selling Japanese subsidiary in $3.9B deal (AP)

Exxon Mobil Corp. is selling its Japanese refining and marketing business to partner TonenGeneral Sekiyu K.K. in a deal valued at $3.9 billion.

TonenGeneral Sekiyu will buy 99 percent of the shares of Exxon Mobil Yugen Kaisha, which refines and sells fuel and lubricants, the Japanese refiner said. Exxon Mobil's stake in TonenGeneral will drop to 22 percent from 50 percent.

Exxon Mobil said the deal, announced Sunday, will result in a refining and marketing business "better positioned to meet Japan's energy needs."

Large oil and gas companies have been shedding refining operations in recent years, especially in developed markets where demand for gasoline and diesel has been weak. Tightening car and truck fuel economy rules are expected to keep demand for fuels low for years to come.

Marathon Oil spun off its refining operations last July. This summer ConocoPhillips also plans to split itself in two, separating its refining operations from its more profitable oil and gas exploration and production business. BP and Shell are selling refineries in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Exploring and producing oil and gas is generally more profitable than refining crude into gasoline and diesel. It offers investors a chance for faster growth. Also, oil prices are high and are expected to remain so, which has helped producer profits and funded a boom in new exploration.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_bi_ge/us_exxon_japan

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Economy picked up pace as 2011 ended

Paul Sakuma / AP

Chevy Malibus are shown at a car dealership in San Jose, Calif. An increase in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, was largely driven by pent-up demand for motor vehicles in the fourth quarter.

By msnbc.com staff and wire

U.S. economic growth picked up speed in the final three months of 2011, expanding at the fastest pace in 1-1/2 years, according to new data released Friday.

The latest U.S. gross domestic product data show the economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the October-December quarter, the Commerce Department said -- a sharp acceleration from the 1.8 percent clip of the prior three months and the quickest pace since the second quarter of 2010.

It was, however, a touch below economists? expectations for a 3.0 percent rate. Also,?businesses aggressively restocking their shelves and weak spending on capital goods hinted at slower growth in early 2012.

?The economy ended 2011 on a fairly positive note, but the composition of growth in the last quarter is not favorable for growth early this year,? said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Sweet made the comments before the report was released. For the whole of 2011, the economy grew 1.7 percent after expanding 3 percent the prior year.

Growth in the fourth quarter got a temporary boost from the rebuilding of business inventories, which was the fastest since the third quarter of 2010, after they declined in the third-quarter for the first time since late 2009.

Inventories increased $56.0 billion, adding 1.94 percentage points to GDP growth. Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a tepid 0.8 percent rate, a sharp step-down from the prior period's 3.2 percent pace.

The robust stock accumulation suggests the recovery will lose a step in early 2012.

Also pointing to slower growth, business spending on capital goods was the slowest since 2009, a sign the debt crisis in Europe was starting to take its toll.

Vote: Will the economy continue to accelerate?

Expectations of soft growth led the Federal Reserve on Wednesday to say it expected to keep interest rates at rock bottom levels at least through late 2014.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank, which forecast growth this year in a 2.2 percent to 2.7 percent range, was mulling further asset purchases to speed up the recovery.

The Fed warned the economy still faced big risks, a suggestion the euro zone debt crisis could still hit hard.

?The Fed is attempting to shield the economy from a potentially more severe recession in Europe,? said Sweet. ?Even though the economy improved last quarter there are a number of headwinds and a lot of uncertainty surrounding Europe, emerging markets and also U.S. fiscal policy.?

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the World Economic Forum in Davos the U.S. economy still faced big challenges.

?We're still repairing the damage done by the financial crisis. On top of that we face a more challenging world. We have a lot of challenges ahead in the United States,? Geithner said.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, stepped to a 2 percent rate from the third-quarter's 1.7 percent pace -- largely driven by pent-up demand for motor vehicles.

The Japanese earthquake and tsunami had disrupted supplies early in the year, leaving showrooms bereft of popular models.
Spending was also lifted by moderate inflation.

A price index for personal spending rose at a 0.7 percent rate in the fourth-quarter, the slowest increase in 1-1/2 years, after rising at a 2.3 percent pace in the July-September period.

A core inflation measure, which strips out food and energy costs, increased at a 1.1 percent rate after rising 2.1 percent in the third quarter.

The increase last quarter was the smallest in a year and put this measure well below the Fed's 2 percent target.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10249993-economy-ended-2011-at-a-healthy-pace

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Japan, Russia to boost ties despite islands row

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and his counterpart Koichiro Gemba, smile before a joint press conference in Tokyo, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia have agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation but made no progress on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute over islands off northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and his counterpart Koichiro Gemba, smile before a joint press conference in Tokyo, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia have agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation but made no progress on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute over islands off northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, shakes hands with his counterpart Koichiro Gemba prior to their meeting in Tokyo Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and his counterpart Koichiro Gemba, right, attend their meeting in Tokyo, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, speaks during a joint press conference with his counterpart Koichiro Gemba in Tokyo, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia have agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation but made no progress on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute over islands off northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks during a joint press conference with his counterpart Koichiro Gemba, not in the photo, in Tokyo, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia have agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation but made no progress on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute over islands off northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

TOKYO (AP) ? The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia agreed Saturday to strengthen economic and security cooperation but made no progress on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute that has kept the two nations from concluding a peace treaty.

Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba and visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the two countries need to address the row over islands off northeastern Japan in a calm manner. Gemba said resolving the dispute and forging a peace treaty officially ending their hostilities in World War II is "more necessary than ever."

Both men sought to downplay the dispute and focus on ways the two nations could expand their ties.

"As the security situation in the Asia-Pacific undergoes major changes, the Japan-Russia relationship has taken on new importance," Gemba said at a joint news conference following what he called a "fruitful" two-hour meeting.

"We reaffirmed that we want to strengthen our cooperation in security, defense and economic matters, particularly energy modernization," he added.

Lavrov welcomed the increased trade between the two nations, which grew last year to 2.45 trillion yen ($31 billion).

"We want our international cooperation to expand," Lavrov said.

The two sides signed an agreement to simplify visa procedures to boost visitors and business interaction, particularly from Japan to Russia.

Ties between Japan and Russia soured in late 2010 when Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian president to visit the disputed islands, called the southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan. They were seized by Soviet troops in the closing days of World War II, but Japan says they are part of its territory.

The islands are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and are believed to have oil, natural gas and mineral deposits.

"Resolving this problem and concluding a peace treaty is more necessary than ever," Gemba said. "But unfortunately ... our positions are different. We hope to resolve this through dialogue."

Lavrov said tackling the matter would have to wait until a new leader is chosen in Russia's presidential election on March 4.

"Both countries need to address the row over the islands in a calm manner without getting emotional or critical," he said.

Lavrov and Gemba were to discuss North Korea over a working lunch in the second part of their meeting. Japan and Russia are among six nations involved in long-stalled talks offering aid for North Korean nuclear disarmament.

Asked about North Korea, Lavrov said Moscow has information that the talks will "possibly resume." He did not elaborate.

North Korea, which is undergoing a leadership transition, appears to be pushing for a resumption of the talks, but the U.S. and its allies want it to first show it is serious about previous disarmament commitments. South Korea and China are the other countries involved in the talks.

Lavrov also said Russia would support Japan's efforts to press North Korea on its abduction of Japanese citizens.

After years of denials, North Korea said in 2002 that it had kidnapped 13 Japanese to train its spies. It returned five abductees but claimed the rest had died. Japan disputes that and says as many as 12 Japanese may still be captive in the North.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-28-AS-Japan-Russia/id-a717aaf042d94b92b205b59aa4546c76

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Student charged in Utah school bomb plot (AP)

ROY, Utah ? The two teens had a detailed plot, blueprints of the school and security systems, but no explosives. They had hours of flight simulator training on a home computer and a plan to flee the country, but no plane.

Still, the police chief in this small Utah town said, the plot was real.

"It wasn't like they were hanging out playing video games," Roy Police Chief Gregory Whinham said Friday. "They put a lot of effort into it."

Dallin Morgan, 18, and a 16-year-old friend were arrested Wednesday at Roy High School, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, after a fellow student reported that she received ominous text messages from one of the suspects.

"If I tell you one day not to go to school, make damn sure you and your brother are not there," one message read, according to court records. "We ain't gonna crash it, we're just gonna kill and fly our way to a country that won't send us back to the U.S.," read another message.

While police don't have a motive, one text message noted they sought "revenge on the world."

The suspects say they were inspired by the deadly 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo., and the younger suspect even visited the school last month to interview the principal about the shootings and security measures.

However, one suspect told authorities it was offensive to be compared to the Columbine shooters because "those killers only completed 1 percent of their plan," according to a probable cause statement.

The teens had so studied their own school's security system that they knew how to avoid being seen on the facility's surveillance cameras, authorities said.

Whinham said the "very smart kids" had spent at least hundreds of dollars on flight simulator programs, books and manuals, studying them in anticipation of carrying out their plan to bomb an assembly at the 1,500-student high school.

While authorities said the suspects believed they could pull it off, experts said, it would have been a long shot.

Royal Eccles, manager at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport, about a mile from the school, said it would have been nearly impossible for the students to steal a plane or get the knowledge to fly one using flight simulator programs.

"It's highly improbable," Eccles said. "That's how naive these kids are."

Whinham said authorities searched two homes and two cars and found no explosives, but added that police continue to search other locations. The chief said it appeared that "a key component of their plan was not developed."

"I wouldn't want to say that they don't have it or that they weren't ready for it," he said. "I'm just saying that we haven't found anything that says they were ready for it yet."

Whinham said it appeared the suspects, who have no criminal history, also had prepared alternate attack plans, but he declined to elaborate. He also declined to say whether any firearms were found during their searches.

"Most houses have firearms in them," he said. "This is the state of Utah."

While authorities have said they have not found any explosives, they charged Morgan on Friday with possession of a weapon of mass destruction.

The basis for the charge wasn't immediately clear, though one of the elements of that offense is conspiracy to use a weapon, not necessarily possessing one. Prosecutors say they are considering additional charges.

Morgan has been released on bond, pending a court hearing Wednesday. The 16-year-old, whom The Associated Press isn't naming because he's a minor, remained held pending further court hearings.

Whinham said he knew both suspects personally, given the small size of the suburban Utah town of roughly 36,000 people. He said he had met with both of the suspects' parents and they were "devastated."

The 16-year-old suspect's father declined comment Friday, and no one answered the door at Morgan's home.

The plot "was months in planning," said Whinham, who also noted Morgan told investigators the 16-year-old had previously made a pipe bomb using gun powder and rocket fuel.

In Colorado, Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis confirmed Friday he met with the 16-year-old suspect on Dec. 12 after the teenager told him he was doing a story for his school newspaper on the shootings.

DeAngelis said he frequently gets requests from students doing research on the shootings, and the request from this one wasn't unusual.

"He asked the same questions I get from many callers and visitors asking about the shooting," DeAngelis said. He said the student wanted details about the shooting, the aftermath and the steps taken since then to protect the school.

Police said the student told them Roy school officials would not allow him to write the story.

DeAngelis said he was shocked when he got a call from Utah police on Wednesday asking if he had met with the youth. He said the interview raised no red flags but that he would do things differently with future requests.

"This was definitely a wake-up call. This is the first time this has happened," DeAngelis said.

Police credit the suspects' schoolmate with helping foil their plan, though Whinham said the school didn't have any assemblies set, and the suspects revealed no specific dates to pull off the attack.

Sophomore Bailey Gerhardt told The Salt Lake Tribune she received alarming text messages from one of the suspects and alerted school administrators.

"I get the feeling you know what I'm planning," read one of the messages, according to court records. "Explosives, airport, airplane."

___

Associated Press writer Steven K. Paulson in Denver contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_us/us_school_bomb_plot

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Sen. Sessions on Obama, Reid: ???We have no leadership??? (Daily Caller)

Top Democrats have abdicated their leadership role and are ignoring the nation?s budget problems because they?re focused on their 2012 election campaigns, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions told The Daily Caller.

?We?re heading towards the most predictable crisis in our history,? said Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate?s budget committee,??and we have no leadership.?

The Democrats will instead use their control of the Senate to make the GOP look bad, Sessions predicted.

?I doubt they?ll propose to raise the capital gains [rate] ? but they?ll talk about it and complain about it, and try to make it look like Gov. [Mitt] Romney did something wrong? by paying his capital-gains taxes properly, he told TheDC.

?They?ve made a calculation that they?ll lay the responsibilities on us to be the [budget] naysayers, the worriers and hand-wringers, and they?ll put on the bright robes of hope and progress,? Sessions warned.

President Barack Obama didn?t address the impending budget disaster in his State of the Union speech, and he?s ignoring it in his re-election campaign, observed Sessions, whose status as part of the GOP minority?prevents him from calling hearings or forcing votes.

Since Obama was inaugurated, Congress has approved $4 trillion worth of economic stimulus via deficit spending. In those three years the accumulated deficit has exceeded $15 trillion, equal to the entire annual value of the U.S. economy.

Economic growth has stalled, the nation?s credit rating has been downgraded, and millions of Baby Boomers have signed up for Social Security and Medicare.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is also refusing to pass a budget, Sessions said, because that would force his members to vote on GOP proposals.

The Democratic Senate hasn?t produced a budget bill for the last three years, ensuring the budgets are assembled without the senators having to vote on amendments.

The leading Democrat on the budget committee, North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, has promised that the committee will, in fact, produce a budget for 2012.

But there?s no guarantee that any budget will be debated on the Senate floor, even though some Democratic senators are worried enough about the nation?s finances to push for a budget debate, Sessions explained.

?If Harry Reid really works it hard, he?s proven he can hold his members [in check], and he does not want to have a vote on this,? he said.

The budget-writing process is important, he insisted, because it would ?commit them to a plan for the future for America, and it shows just how much they want to raise taxes [and] increase spending, and how much the debt is going to increase.?

For example, in a Senate floor debate, ?you have 50 hours of full debate, and you can have an unlimited number of amendments, and it allows the minority party to bring forth their ideas [about] how to fix the nation,? he said.

The Democrats are avoiding budgetary issues because their political priorities are too unpopular to pass, he added. ?I think they know their [Senate] majority is endangered if they advocate openly and publicly and on the record, for items [they favor] that raise the debt and raise spending.?

The president also ignored the impending disaster in his Jan. 24 State of the Union speech, Sessions said.

?Every issue where he had a serious disagreement [with the public], he had some language saying he agreed with the American people, but then he would go on to stick by his regulatory and other [spending] plans? It was a craftily crafted speech,? Sessions quipped.

The Democrats? strategy of obfuscation is hard to understand, Sessions told TheDC. ?I can?t imagine it would be successful, because there was great momentum in the last election for a confrontation with our surging debt.?

In the October election, he added, ?the big spenders took a shellacking, I thought the administration and the Democratic Senate would respond to that.?

But the Democrats, he claimed, haven?t risen to the occasion.

This year, ?it appears their political strategy is that they?re going to talk about hope and not talk about realities. ? That is a deep failure of leadership.?

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Sun Unleashes Strongest Flare Yet of 2012 (SPACE.com)

This story was updated at 4:13 p.m. EST.

A massive solar flare ? the strongest one so far this year ? erupted today (Jan. 27) from the same active region of the sun that triggered a raging solar tempest earlier this week.

The solar flare was rated an X1.7-class eruption, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). X-class flares are the most powerful type of solar storm, with M-class storms falling within the mid-range, and C-class flares being the weakest.

Several spacecraft, including NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Solar Heliospheric Observatory, observed the solar eruption, which occurred at 1:37 p.m. EST (1837 GMT). The flare unleashed a wave of charged particles, called a coronal mass ejection, but space weather experts said it was not aimed at Earth.

The flare exploded from sunspot 1402, a region on the sun that has been particularly active lately. Earlier this week, a separate blast from the same region sent a cloud of charged particles toward Earth and sparked the strongest radiation storm since 2003.

"It's a great week for Space Weather!" wrote Dean Pesnell, SDO Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in a blog update.

This time, however, the flare was not fired off while the sunspot region was facing Earth, according to Spaceweather.com. Still, an ensuing radiation storm is possible and will continue to be monitored.

"Region 1402 is Alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" explained officials from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center on Facebook. "Another huge X-ray event is in progress."

When a powerful X-class flare is aimed directly at Earth it can sometimes cause disruptions to satellites in space and power grids and communications infrastructure on the ground. Strong flares and coronal mass ejections can also pose potential hazards to astronauts on the International Space Station.

In response, NOAA has issued radio blackouts and a radiation storm warning while the sun storm is in progress.

"This warning is in effect for the next 24 hours," agency officials said in a statement.

Presently, the radiation levels appear to be climbing, but the effects of this solar storm are not expected to be worse than earlier this week, said Doug Biesecker, a physicist at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

"The radiation storm will almost certainly be weaker," Biesecker told SPACE.com. "The coronal mass ejection seems to be headed well away from Earth, which is good because this one seems like a bigger beast than the last one, but that's still preliminary."

Solar storms can also amp up auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), which can create stunning light shows for skywatchers at high latitudes.

The sun's activity ebbs and flows in an 11-year cycle. Currently, the sun is in the midst of Solar Cycle 24, and activity is expected to ramp up toward the solar maximum in 2013.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120127/sc_space/sununleashesstrongestflareyetof2012

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AZ Gov. Brewer Angrily Lectures President Obama (Little green footballs)

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Student-friendly Lenovo ThinkPad X130e available now for $429

The last time we heard about the inexpensive and student-friendly ThinkPad X130e, it was being snatched up by the eager school districts. That move ultimately pushed back the rig's planned ship date, but fortunately Lenovo seems to have caught up with the demand for its rugged miniature. In case you need a mind refresh, the X130e is sporting an 11.6-inch HD LED display, 250GB for all your storage needs, four gigs of RAM and your choice of an AMD Fusion or i3 processor at its Core (see what we did there?), just to mention a few goodies. Those of you who've been counting the days to get your hands on the $429 entry-level ThinkPad can finally do so at the source link below.

[Thanks, Andrew]

Student-friendly Lenovo ThinkPad X130e available now for $429 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/26/lenovo-thinkpad-x130e-available-now/

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Conservative North Florida voters: Romney's too rich (CNN)

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Pat Sajak: Vanna White and I did 'Wheel' drunk (omg!)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The "Wheel of Fortune" wasn't the only thing spinning for Pat Sajak and Vanna White back in the day.

Sajak said in an interview on ESPN2 this week that the long-time game show team would occasionally walk over to a nearby restaurant for "two or three or six" margaritas during a break in taping early "Wheel of Fortune" shows in California. Sajak has hosted the show since 1981, and White joined him a year later.

Although he joked that he had "trouble recognizing the alphabet" for shows taped after the margarita stops, no one ever said anything to them.

Now that he's older, Sajak said he couldn't do that anymore.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_pat_sajak_vanna_white_did_wheel_drunk213647027/44318950/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/pat-sajak-vanna-white-did-wheel-drunk-213647027.html

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Obama: US must reclaim values of fairness for all (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Keeping the American dream alive has become "the defining issue of our time," President Barack Obama says. He's using Tuesday night's State of the Union address to draw a stark election-year line with Republicans over how to keep the United States from eroding further into a nation of haves and have-nots.

In excerpts of his speech released in advance, Obama attacked income equality and offered his own economic revival plan built upon boosting manufacturing, energy and education. He warned Republicans in Congress that he will fight them if they try to obstruct him or restore an economy gutted by "outsourcing, bad debt and phony financial profits."

Driving everything about the speech: Jobs, including Obama's own. He was essentially making his case for re-election as he spelled out where he wants to take the country.

Obama was making his pitch to a bitterly divided Congress and to a country underwhelmed by his handling of the economy. Targeting anxiety about a slumping middle class, Obama was calling for the rich to pay more in taxes. Every proposal was to be underlined by the idea that hard work and responsibility still count.

"No debate is more important," Obama said in the excerpts released by the White House ahead of the 9 p.m. EST speech.

"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules," the president said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_state_of_the_union

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[OOC] Teen Heroes 2

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Video: McConnell's State of the Union Preview

Sen Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican Leader, (R-KY) discusses what he hopes to hear from President Obama in his State of the Union address, and whether he expects divisiveness to continue in Congress.

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Listen to the silence in your lives, pope says (Reuters)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) ? Pope Benedict is asking people to stop amid the noise and haste and listen to the sounds of silence in life.

Benedict dedicated the theme of his message for the Catholic Church's World Day of Communication to the relationship between silence and words.

"Silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist," he said in the message.

"In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves," he said.

Benedict, who is a shy and quiet man himself, said that today "silence is a precious commodity" in a world with a "surcharge of stimuli and data."

"It is often in silence, for example, that we observe the most authentic communication taking place between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other," he said.

Joy, anxiety, and suffering can all be communicated in silence, sometimes more powerfully than with words and silence often gives people a chance to listen -- to God, to themselves and to others.

In short, the pope is asking everyone to turn down the noise, reflect, evaluate and analyze.

"For this to happen, it is necessary to develop an appropriate environment, a kind of 'eco-system' that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images and sounds," he said.

But he said the world of social communications was not always the problem and could also be part of the solution.

Benedict said there were "various types of websites, applications and social networks" which can help people find time for reflection and authentic questioning.

The Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Communications is marked on May 20. The message is intended for parishes around the world to prepare for the best way to celebrate it locally.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/lf_nm_life/us_pope_silence

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Researchers report fundamental malaria discovery

Monday, January 23, 2012

A team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease.

The researchers show how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels. Strategies that prevent this host-targeting process will block disease.

The research findings appear in the Jan. 20 edition of the journal Cell, the leading journal in the life sciences. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Malaria is a blood disease that kills nearly 1 million people each year. It is caused by a parasite that infects red cells in the blood. Once inside the cell, the parasite exports proteins beyond its own plasma membrane border into the blood cell. These proteins function as adhesins that help the infected red blood cells stick to the walls of blood vessels in the brain and cause cerebral malaria, a deadly form of the disease that kills over half a million children each year.

In all cells, proteins are made in a specialized cell compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) from where they are delivered to other parts of the cell. Haldar and Bhattacharjee and collaborators Robert Stahelin at the Indiana University School of Medicine- South Bend (who also is an adjunct faculty member in Notre Dame's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry), and David and Kaye Speicher at the University of Pennsylvania's Wistar Institute discovered that for host-targeted malaria proteins the very first step is binding to the lipid phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, PI(3)P, in the ER.

This was surprising for two reasons. Previous studies suggested an enzyme called Plasmepsin V that released the proteins into the ER was also the export mechanism. However, Haldar, Bhattacharjee and colleagues discovered that binding to PI(3)P lipid which occurs first is the gate keeper to control export and that export can occur without Plasmepsin V action. Further, in higher eukaryotic cells (such as in humans), the lipid PI(3)P is not usually found within the ER membrane but rather is exposed to the cellular cytoplasm.

Haldar and Bhattacharjee are experts in malaria parasite biology and pathogenesis. Stahelin is an expert in PI(3)P lipid biology, and David and Kaye Speicher are experts in proteomics and a method called mass spectrometry.

###

University of Notre Dame: http://www.nd.edu

Thanks to University of Notre Dame for this article.

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