Mary McCormack apparently didn't appreciate what she saw "in plain sight." Married to Smash director Michael Morris for ten years, the actress, 45, allegedly threw Morris out of their Los Angeles home late Sunday -- shortly before photos emerged of Morris making out with his former series star Katharine McPhee in a parking lot, Page Six reports.
The In Plain Sight star shares three young kids with Morris, and reportedly ejected him from their house after Morris informed her that the incriminating photos were set to go online. Page Six also claims that Morris attempted to buy the makeout snapshots himself to avoid the scandal.
McPhee herself is also taken: The 29-year-old American Idol runner-up wed producer Nick Cokas, 47, back in 2008. The paper claims that she and Cokas have been amicably separated.
Reps for all parties involved did not return requests for comment. NBC's Smash was canceled last spring after two lowly rated seasons. McCormack's latest series, NBC's Welcome to the Family, was canceled earlier this month after just three weeks on the air.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — About 20,000 Cambodian opposition supporters on Friday wrapped up a three-day demonstration to petition foreign embassies and the U.N. for intervention in what they claim was a rigged election.
While the international community is very unlikely to intervene in Cambodia's domestic affairs, the rallies served to highlight the opposition's demand for an independent probe into the July 28 poll, which it says returned Prime Minister Hun Sen to power illegitimately.
Throngs of cheering demonstrators marched through the capital this week as they delivered petitions to the French, British, U.S., Australian, Russian, Japanese, Indonesian and Chinese embassies and to the U.N. human rights office. The rallies ended peacefully.
Official election results extended Hun Sen's 28-year rule and gave his party 68 seats in parliament, compared to 55 for the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party. The party says it was cheated out of a victory and that it will boycott parliament until the government has met its demands.
According to the petition — which the opposition says was thumb printed by 2 million people — the Cambodian government's failure to investigate election irregularities and its inauguration of the National Assembly without the opposition "take Cambodia back to a one-party system of governance."
The three-day demonstration coincides with the 22nd anniversary of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords on Cambodia, which laid the groundwork for U.N.-sponsored elections after the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge and years of civil war that followed. The countries that received opposition petitions were all signatories to the 1991 Accords.
The government denies election fraud, and has rejected opposition demands for an independent investigation. It maintains that its inauguration of a new parliament in September was legitimate and has filled parliamentary commissions with ruling party members.
Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said that intervention from abroad was "not going to happen." Moreover, he said, seeking outside help was counterproductive to building democracy from within Cambodia.
"By going abroad, you're actually re-confirming this attitude of we need to depend on the U.N. jumping out of the sky, out of a plane or whatever, to rescue us," he said.
The Australian embassy said in a statement Friday that it had received the petition and that its ambassador, Alison Burrows, "urged both parties to continue their dialogue including on electoral reform."
Juliette Kayyem (above) is still running for Massachusetts governor, even though Martha Coakley has entered the race. That's a good thing.
Courtesy U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
When Juliette Kayyem made it clear she was running for Massachusetts governor this summer, local and national women’s groups raced to support her. Kayyem had never run for any office before, but she was an expert in national security and terrorism who had worked in the Obama administration. Her inexperience could be an asset, her supporters figured, as she could appeal to a younger generation of voters. All was going well until mid-September when Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general who’d lost to Scott Brown in the 2010 Senate race, announced that she would also be entering the race for governor.
“I just don't think there's room for another smart female in this race," Shannon O'Brien, a former state treasurer who lost the governor’s race to Mitt Romney in 2002, said on Boston Public Radio about Kayyem. Local political blogs also assumed that Kayyem would “defer” to Coakley. And Emily’s List, a fundraising group that supports pro-choice women candidates, shifted its support to Coakley within a few days of her entering the race, then gently encouraged Kayyem to get out of the running and lend her support to Coakley as well. (Kayyem would not confirm any communication. But a source from Emily’s List confirmed that there had been a call and described it as a “suggestion, not anything like a demand.”)
Often in politics there is an automatic, unspoken, assumption that only one woman can run at a time. For example, stories about Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren that speculate about whether she will or won’t run for president, generally take it as a given that Warren can’t possibly enter the Democratic primary if Hillary Clinton decides to run. But why is this the automatic assumption? Warren is an utterly different kind of politician with a distinct biography and a passionate following. She and Clinton have even had substantive disagreements in the past about bank regulation, one of Warren’s central issues. Nobody ever told Howard Dean to get out of the race because John Kerry was running. What law dictates that there can be only one woman per major race at a time?
Hanna Rosin is the founder of DoubleX and a writer for the Atlantic. She is also the author of The End of Men. Follow her on Twitter.
This one-woman only instinct is left over from an age of tokenism, when the political imagination could only accommodate a single red suit in a sea of gray. But as more women get into politics, a lot of local primaries include more than one woman. The one woman strategy also assumes that all women candidates are fighting for the votes of women, so the prospect of having two of them adds up to a zero sum game for both. But as Christine Quinn’s failed run for New York mayor showed, this assumption is outdated. Women don’t necessarily vote for other women, especially not in heavily Democratic regions. They spread their votes fairly evenly among the candidates they like.
“I think the advocates for more gender balance are succeeding faster than they recognize, as there are just so many talented women now in the pipeline,” says John Walsh, who is leading Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s political operation. “I think it’s just time to adjust and say—while it’s not mission accomplished yet, not at all—the dynamic is such that gender competition should not be such a problem, and should be allowed to run it course.”
A recent study empirically disproves the idea that a political culture can only tolerate one woman candidate at a time. The study looks at the effects of one woman’s election on the elections of subsequent women (not women running against each other but women in different races). What it found was a “multiplier effect”—more women winning in state legislative offices, for example, breeds more women everywhere else, particularly in larger and more heavily Democratic states. While the study doesn’t specifically address two women running in the same race, it confirms something that should be obvious: Having more women visibly involved in politics gets us used to having more women in politics. (The second generation of the New Hampshire matriarchy is a perfect example of the multiplier effect in action).
In one important way Emily’s List decision to support one woman over another in certain races has had a beneficial effect. Sometimes the women they don’t support stay in the races anyway, and go on to distinguish themselves as something other than a typical “woman’s” candidate. Emily’s List tends to run fairly traditional but unthreatening feminist campaigns. Their campaign ads like this one, for Alison Grimes, who is running against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, tend to feature kids or grandmothers, domestic scenes and nods to feminist accomplishments. Even Wendy Davis, their star candidate at the moment, seems to have undergone a makeover, her hair blown out, and her smiling self surrounded by kids.
But not having the support of Emily’s List frees up a woman to run her own way. Kayyem, for instance, chose to disregard the suggestion that she “defer” to Coakley, and stay in the race. As a result she’s running a much less typically Emily’s List campaign. On her campaign page, for instance, she features almost no pictures with her family, although she is a married mother of three school age children. She doesn’t talk all that much about feminist issues such as abortion, figuring that in that state, most candidates who win are pro choice. She talks a lot about keeping the state safe from terrorist attacks and about the need for a generational shift in politics, all with a decidedly post-feminist attitude. “I am not running because I’m a woman,” she told me, “and I will surely lose if I think that’s why people should support me.”
Jess McIntosh, a spokeswoman for Emily’s List, said the group in no way follows a one woman strategy but instead makes strategic decision in every race. In the Massachusetts governor’s race, for example, Coakley is well known and the obvious front-runner (although Kayyem raised more money in September, the last month for which figures were reported.) In a special election in Illinois involving three women, the group watched the race to make sure no serious male contender would emerge but otherwise stayed out of it. And in Hawaii, the group has alternately supported Colleen Hanabusa or Mazie Hirono over the years, depending on each woman’s prospects in that particular race. “It depends on each race,” says McIntosh. “Our goal is to get more women in office, so we support the woman who is the strongest and we get involved where our help can make a difference.” In future races, for example, the group might support Kayyem, she says.
Maybe the disconnect between what Emily’s List says they are doing and what they seem to be doing comes from outdated expectations. In the early days Emily’s List operated like a political sisterhood. A strong woman candidate was a rare breed, and the group might have been able to support most of them. But now, universal admission to the sisterhood is no longer possible. In another Massachusetts House race to fill Ed Markey’s old seat, for example, the group chose Katherine Clark over Karen Spilka, who was polling second in the primaries, leaving many in the Spilka camp annoyed that the group was effectively spending its money to keep one pro-choice woman out of the race at the expense of another. But like all interest groups, Emily’s List had to make a choice, right? So let them make their pragmatic decisions but leave the other female candidates alone. Let the candidate who isn’t chosen think of this as business as usual, and not be wounded or disappointed. Let the expectation of a political sisterhood die. And may the best woman win.
The best apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that are sure to get you and your family in the Halloween spirit
Halloween is right around the corner and that means candy, trick or treat, scary movies, and lots of other traditions. There are lots of apps available for both iPhone and iPad that focus on the Halloween season as well. From games to recipe apps to books you can share with your children, there's something for everyone. Here are our current favorite App Store apps to celebrate the Halloween season!
Plants vs Zombies
Every year around Halloween I always feel the urge to play through Plants vs Zombies on my iPad. Nothing says Halloween like zombies roaming around your front yard. This year you can play not only the original Plants vs Zombies, but Plants vs Zombies 2! I personally prefer the original game but for those that don't mind freemium models, both are awesome games and something the whole family is sure to enjoy.
LIMBO is not only a spooky game that's perfect for Halloween time, it's an amazing game with gorgeous graphics. If you like puzzle games, you'll love LIMBO since it's pretty much a series of physics based games bundled into one. What will really grab your attention more than anything is the amazing interface and how well LIMBO is designed. It may not be appropriate for young children but if you're looking for a spooky game for yourself, LIMBO is an excellent choice. LIMBO is a universal purchase for both iPhone and iPad.
Angry Birds Seasons isn't just fun for Halloween, it's fun for every season. With specific level packs for pretty much any season you can imagine, Angry Birds Seasons is one that's sure to keep adults and kids alike entertained. New updates to seasons bring power packs and other interactive items too so if you haven't picked up an Angry Birds game in a while, now is a great time to check one out!
Charlie Brown is a fan favorite around lots of different holiday seasons and Halloween is no exception. It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a great story that many of us were read as children. Now you can get it directly on your iPhone and iPad. The best part is it's interactive. It's great for young children to read along with and explore on their own, or together with you.
Part of the fun of Halloween is the candy and treats that come with it. The Foodie app updates regularly to feature recipes that are fun for every season and Halloween is no exception. Whether you're looking for fun recipes to do with the kids or drink recipes for an adult party, Foodie's got them all. Along with detailed instructions, each recipe is accompanied by beautiful images too. I've found Foodie to be a great resource for every season so it may just be something you want to keep on standby for the upcoming holiday season as well.
Your favorite Halloween apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac?
These are our favorite apps and games to celebrate the Halloween season with our friends and family but we know you guys are just as good at digging up apps as we are. If you've found any extra spooky or fun apps that really show off the Halloween season, let us know what they are in the comments!
Arcade Fire just released its entire album Reflecktor on YouTube. And it's basically one, big 85-minute lyric video. The album is officially out October 29.
NPR Music will broadcast a special live performance by the band the night before the album release date, from Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, beginning at 10 p.m. ET.
BERLIN (Reuters) - The online retailer Jumia, a would-be African Amazon, is betting that it can propel the continent's rising middle class consumers out of the street markets and straight onto its websites, missing out the department stores and shopping malls in between.
The key, it says, is the smartphone, already helping much of Africa's economy brush aside the continent's lack of reliable transport or fixed phone and Internet connections.
Take Lagos, Nigeria's teeming commercial hub.
"Most of the people have phones, but there are only three malls for 20 million inhabitants," Jumia's French co-founder, Jeremy Hodara, told Reuters from in a telephone interview from the city.
"It is a unique time. People are hungry for consumption. It is the right time to leapfrog over 'offline'."
For now, e-commerce is still in its infancy in most of Africa.
Even in South Africa, the continent's most technologically advanced country, the research firm World Wide Worx estimates e-commerce sales were just 4 billion rand ($409 million) last year, or about $80 per internet user.
Even Spain, which has a similar population size but is an e-commerce laggard by European standards, had online sales of 6.7 billion euros ($9.25 billion) last year - albeit with a per capita GDP almost four times that of South Africa.
Amazon, the world's biggest Internet retailer, has no local operations in Africa and only ships to South Africa, although delivery charges make it a pricey option.
But the phenomenon seems set to take off. One market research firm suggests that Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, will have almost tripled its online purchases in just three years to more than $1 billion by 2014.
LOOKING FOR A HEAD-START
Jumia is one of the firms trying to get a head-start in that market, not yet profitable but spending heavily, following Amazon's model, to grab market share and establish its brand.
The web information company Alexa, which is owned by Amazon, says Jumia is the 22nd most visited site in Nigeria, slightly behind its local e-commerce rival Konga at rank 20.
Launched only 16 months ago by Rocket Internet, the German venture capital group behind the booming European online fashion retailer Zalando and South African e-seller Zando, it now claims more than 150,000 page visits per day.
It operates in Nigeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Egypt and Kenya, offering up to 100,000 different items from sale from its local warehouses, and plans to expand to other African countries before the year is out, although it is not yet saying where.
Hodara, a 31-year-old French business graduate who cut his teeth at consultants McKinsey, said the fact that the World Retail Congress picked Jumia as "Best new retail launch" this month, rather than best in e-commerce, showed its potential.
"We are in a game to become the biggest retailer of Africa, not the biggest e-commerce player," he said. "If you look at the U.S., e-commerce is 15 percent of retail. We think that in Africa ... e-commerce is going to be 40, 50, 60 percent."
Developers are rushing to build more malls to serve Africa's rapidly expanding middle class, but are struggling to keep pace with the demand for more consumption. Often, they are hampered by hefty costs and the difficulty of securing land titles, not to mention the kind of security issues highlighted by the deadly attack on a high-end Nairobi mall last month.
AFRICANS NO LESS DEMANDING
Jumia, whose main investors are emerging markets telecoms group Millicom and Sweden's Kinnevik, promises to deliver products ranging from fashion to consumer electronics in one to five days, even to remote villages.
That pledge has proven a big draw, particularly in gridlocked megacities such as Lagos, where Jumia has recruited its own fleet of scooter drivers to beat the traffic. It now employs some 1,000 staff, 95 percent of them Africans.
"People are as demanding as in London or the U.S. If you say you will deliver tomorrow at 5, and it's 5.15, they call you like crazy. You cannot do less because it's Africa. It has to be as good as in New York," Hodara said.
"If doesn't work perfectly, they are afraid it is a scam."
Most customers pay cash on delivery at first, using credit cards only once they trust Jumia.
Kinnevik Chief Executive Mia Brunell said she was impressed with how the company was dealing with challenges such as the fact that some customers might not even have a formal address.
"When you find solutions to logistics and payment problems, you really create loyal and satisfied customers," she said.
Hodara predicted that Jumia would be profitable within 12-18 months.
But he said it was too early to say if the firm would then consider a stock market listing, saying it could also end up as a division of Millicom.
"It is hard to predict. Things are going so fast. At the moment, 200 percent of our brain is on building the business," he said.
Sarah Ball, a victim of cyber bullying during her high school years, sits for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Spring Hill, Fla. Ball, now a student at a nearby community college, maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable", an anti-bullying page and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)
Sarah Ball, a victim of cyber bullying during her high school years, sits for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Spring Hill, Fla. Ball, now a student at a nearby community college, maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable", an anti-bullying page and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)
Sarah Ball, a victim of cyber bullying during her high school years, poses for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Spring Hill, Fla. Ball, now a student at a nearby community college, maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable", an anti-bullying page and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)
Sarah Ball, a victim of cyber bullying during her high school years, sits for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Spring Hill, Fla. Ball, now a student at a nearby community college, maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable", an anti-bullying page and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)
Grapic shows opinion poll on online bullying; 2c x 5 inches; 96.3 mm x 127 mm;
WASHINGTON (AP) — More young people are reaching out to family members after being harassed or taunted online, and it's helping. At least a little.
A poll released Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV found incidents of "digital abuse" are still prevalent but declining somewhat. It found a growing awareness among teenagers and young adults about harm from online meanness and cyberbullying, as well as a slight increase among those willing to tell a parent or sibling.
The findings come a week after two Florida girls, ages 12 and 14, were arrested on felony charges for allegedly bullying online a 12-year-old girl who later killed herself by jumping off a tower at an abandoned concrete plant.
"I feel like we're making progress. People should be encouraged," said Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and professor at Florida Atlantic University.
The AP-NORC/MTV poll found that some 49 percent of all teenagers and young adults in the United States say they have had at least one brush with some kind of electronic harassment, down from about 56 percent in 2011. Of those who have encountered an incident, 34 percent went to a parent — compared to 27 percent just two years ago. And some 18 percent — up from 12 percent in 2011 — asked a brother or sister for help.
When asked what helped, 72 percent of those encountering digital abuse said changing their email, screen name or cell number, while 66 percent said talking to a parent. Less than a third of respondents found retaliation helpful, while just as many said it had no effect and 20 percent said getting revenge actually made the problem worse.
Girls were more likely than boys to be the targets of online meanness — but they also are more likely to reach out for help.
Sarah Ball was a 15-year-old high school sophomore at Hernando High School in Brooksville, Fla., when a friend posted on Facebook: "I hate Sarah Ball, and I don't care who knows."
Then there was the Facebook site dubbed "Hernando Haters" asking to rate her attractiveness, the anonymous email calling her a "waste of space" and this text that arrived on her 16th birthday: "Wow, you're still alive? Impressive. Well happy birthday anyway."
It wasn't until Ball's mom, who had access to her daughter's online passwords, saw the messages that Ball told her everything.
"It was actually quite embarrassing to be honest," remembers Ball, now an 18-year-old college freshman. But "really, truly, if it wasn't for my parents, I don't think I'd be where I'm at today. That's for sure."
The poll also indicated that young people are becoming more aware of the impact of cyberbullying. Some 72 percent, up from 65 percent in 2011, said online abuse was a problem that society should address. Those who think it should be accepted as a part of life declined from 33 percent to 24 percent.
Hinduja credits school programs that are making it "cool to care" about others, and increased awareness among adults who can help teens talk through their options, such as deactivating an account or going to school administrators for help in removing hurtful postings.
That was the case for Ball, whose parents encouraged her to fight back by speaking up. "They said this is my ticket to helping other people," Ball said.
With their help, Ball sent copies of the abusive emails, texts and Facebook pages to school authorities, news outlets and politicians and organized a local anti-bullying rally. She still maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable," and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying.
Ball said she thinks if other teens are reaching out more for help, it's as a last resort because so many kids fear making the situation worse. That was one reason Jennifer Tinsley, 20, said she didn't tell her parents in the eighth grade when another student used Facebook to threaten to stab and beat her.
"I didn't want them to worry about me," Tinsley, now a college student in Fort Wayne, Ind., said of her family. "There was a lot of stress at that time. ... And, I just didn't want the extra attention."
According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, every state but Montana has enacted anti-bullying laws, many of which address cyberbullying specifically. Most state laws are focused on allowing school districts to punish offenders. In Florida, for example, the state legislature this year passed a provision allowing schools to discipline students harassing others off campus.
In Florida's recent cyberbullying case, the police took the unusual step of charging the two teen girls with third-degree felony aggravated stalking. Even if convicted, however, the girls were not expected to spend time in juvenile detention because they didn't have criminal histories.
The AP-NORC Center/MTV poll was conducted online Sept. 27 through Oct. 7 among a random national sample of 1,297 people between the ages of 14 and 24. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. Funding for the study was provided by MTV as part of its campaign to stop digital abuse, "A Thin Line."
The survey was conducted by the GfK Group using KnowledgePanel, a probability-based online panel. Respondents are recruited randomly using traditional telephone and mail sampling methods. People selected who had no Internet access were given it for free.
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Associated Press Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.
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Follow Anne Flaherty on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneKFlaherty
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Online:
AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research: http://www.apnorc.org
Michael Arndt is no longer writing the script for Star Wars: Episode VII.
Screenwriting duties are being taken over by Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and by J.J. Abrams, who is already on board as director.
"I am very excited about the story we have in place and thrilled to have Larry and J.J. working on the script," Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in a post on StarWars.com. "There are very few people who fundamentally understand the way a Star Wars story works like Larry, and it is nothing short of incredible to have him even more deeply involved in its return to the big screen. J.J. of course is an incredible storyteller in his own right. Michael Arndt has done a terrific job bringing us to this point and we have an amazing filmmaking and design team in place already prepping for production."
Arndt has been working on Star Wars even before Disney announced it was buying Lucasfilm in October 2012, writing a 40- to 50-page treatment for Episode VII. The announcement also contained the news that Disney was planning new movies in the Star Wars universe, including Episode VII, with a 2015 release planned. Then in late 2012, Arndt was formally hired to write the screenplay.
While George Lucas is considered the author of the stories for the Star Wars movies, the screenplays for both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were written with collaborators.
Kasdan and Leigh Brackett collaborated on the script for Empire -- considered by many fans and most critics to be the best story of all the Star Wars movies -- and also worked with Lucas on Return.
The Episode VII script news was announced on StarWars.com, which also revealed the below-the-line crew that Abrams has assembled, which includes Dan Mindel, the director of photography behind Abrams' Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness.
Also on board are production designers Rick Carter (Lincoln, Avatar) and Darren Gilford (Oblivion, TRON: Legacy), costume designer Michael Kaplan (Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Fight Club), special effects supervisor Chris Corbould (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception), sound designer Ben Burtt(Wall-E, Star Wars: Episodes I-VI), re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom (Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan), supervising sound editor Matthew Wood (The Master, There Will Be Blood) of Skywalker Sound, and visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett (Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith) of Industrial Light & Magic.
Physicists decode decision circuit of cancer metastasis
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
24-Oct-2013
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Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Rice U. research reveals 3-way genetic switch for cancer metastasis
Cancer researchers from Rice University have deciphered the operating principles of a genetic switch that cancer cells use to decide when to metastasize and invade other parts of the body. The study found that the on-off switch's dynamics also allows a third choice that lies somewhere between "on" and "off." The extra setting both explains previously confusing experimental results and opens the door to new avenues of cancer treatment.
The study appears online this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Cancer cells behave in complex ways, and this work shows how such complexity can arise from the operation of a relatively simple decision-making circuit," said study co-author Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at Rice's Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and adjunct professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice. "By stripping away the complexity and starting with first principles, we get a glimpse of the 'logic of cancer' -- the driver of the disease's decision to spread."
In the PNAS study, Ben-Jacob and CTBP colleagues Jos Onuchic, Herbert Levine, Mingyang Lu and Mohit Kumar Jolly describe a new theoretical framework that allowed them to model the behavior of microRNAs in decision-making circuits. To test the framework, they modeled the behavior of a decision-making genetic circuit that cells use to regulate the forward and backward transitions between two different cell states, the epithelial and mesenchymal. Known respectively as the E-M transition (EMT) and the M-E transition (MET), these changes in cell state are vital for embryonic development, tissue engineering and wound healing. During the EMT, some cells also form a third state, a hybrid that is endowed with a special mix of both epithelial and mesenchymal abilities, including group migration.
The EMT transition is also a hallmark of cancer metastasis. Cancer cells co-opt the process to allow tumor cells break away, migrate to other parts of the body and establish a new tumor. To find ways to shut down metastasis, cancer researchers have conducted dozens of studies about the genetic circuitry that activates the EMT.
One clear finding from previous studies is that a two-component genetic switch is the key to both the EMT and MET. The switch contains two specialized pairs of proteins. One pair is SNAIL and microRNA34 (SNAIL/miR34), and the other is ZEB and microRNA200 (ZEB/miR200).
Each pair is "mutually inhibitory," meaning that the presence of one of the partners inhibits the production of the other.
In the mesenchymal cell state -- the state that corresponds to cancer metastasis -- both SNAIL and ZEB must be present in high levels. In the epithelial state, the microRNA partners dominate, and neither ZEB nor SNAIL is available in high levels.
"Usually, if you have two genes that are mutually limiting, you have only two possibilities,"
Ben-Jacob said. "In the first case, gene A is highly expressed and inhibits gene B. In the other, gene B is highly expressed and it inhibits A. This is true in the case of ZEB and miR200. One of these is 'on' and the other is 'off,' so it's clear that this is the decision element in the switch."
SNAIL and miR34 interact more weakly. As a result, both can be present at the same time, with the amount of each varying based upon inputs from a number of other proteins, including several other cancer genes.
"One of the most important things the model showed us was how SNAIL and miR34 act as an integrator," Ben-Jacob said. "This part of the circuit is acted on by multiple cues, and it integrates those signals and feeds information into the decision element. It does this based upon the level of SNAIL, which activates ZEB and inhibits miR200."
In modeling the ZEB/miR200 decision circuit, the team found that it operates as a "ternary" or three-way, switch. The reason for this is that ZEB has the ability to activate itself by a positive feedback loop, which allows the cell to keep intermediate levels of all four proteins in the switch under some conditions.
Ben-Jacob said the hybrid, or partially on-off state, also supports cancer metastasis by enabling collective cell migration and by imparting stem-cell properties that help migrating cancer cells evade the immune system and anticancer therapies.
"Now that we understand what drives the cell to select between the various states, we can begin to think of new ways to outsmart cancer," Ben-Jacob said. "We can think about coaxing the cancer to make the decision that we want, to convert itself into a state that we are ready to attack with a particularly effective treatment."
The cancer-metastasis results correspond with findings from previous studies by Ben-Jacob and Onuchic into the collective decision-making processes of bacteria and into new strategies to combat cancer by timing the delivery of multiple drugs to interrupt the decision-making processes of cancer.
"At CTBP, we allow the underlying physics of a system to guide our examination of its biological properties," said Onuchic, CTBP co-director and Rice's Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy and professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and cell biology. "In this case, that approach led us to develop a powerful model for simulating the decision-making circuitry involved in cancer metastasis. Going forward, we plan to see how this circuit interacts with others to produce a variety of cancer cells, including cancer stem cells."
The research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and the Tauber Family Funds at Tel Aviv University. Lu is a postdoctoral researcher at CTBP, and Jolly is a graduate student in bioengineering. Levine is co-director of CTBP and Rice's Karl F. Hasselmann Professor in Bioengineering. Ben-Jacob is also the Maguy-Glass Professor in Physics of Complex Systems and professor of physics and astronomy at Tel Aviv University.
This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
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Physicists decode decision circuit of cancer metastasis
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
24-Oct-2013
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Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Rice U. research reveals 3-way genetic switch for cancer metastasis
Cancer researchers from Rice University have deciphered the operating principles of a genetic switch that cancer cells use to decide when to metastasize and invade other parts of the body. The study found that the on-off switch's dynamics also allows a third choice that lies somewhere between "on" and "off." The extra setting both explains previously confusing experimental results and opens the door to new avenues of cancer treatment.
The study appears online this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Cancer cells behave in complex ways, and this work shows how such complexity can arise from the operation of a relatively simple decision-making circuit," said study co-author Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at Rice's Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and adjunct professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice. "By stripping away the complexity and starting with first principles, we get a glimpse of the 'logic of cancer' -- the driver of the disease's decision to spread."
In the PNAS study, Ben-Jacob and CTBP colleagues Jos Onuchic, Herbert Levine, Mingyang Lu and Mohit Kumar Jolly describe a new theoretical framework that allowed them to model the behavior of microRNAs in decision-making circuits. To test the framework, they modeled the behavior of a decision-making genetic circuit that cells use to regulate the forward and backward transitions between two different cell states, the epithelial and mesenchymal. Known respectively as the E-M transition (EMT) and the M-E transition (MET), these changes in cell state are vital for embryonic development, tissue engineering and wound healing. During the EMT, some cells also form a third state, a hybrid that is endowed with a special mix of both epithelial and mesenchymal abilities, including group migration.
The EMT transition is also a hallmark of cancer metastasis. Cancer cells co-opt the process to allow tumor cells break away, migrate to other parts of the body and establish a new tumor. To find ways to shut down metastasis, cancer researchers have conducted dozens of studies about the genetic circuitry that activates the EMT.
One clear finding from previous studies is that a two-component genetic switch is the key to both the EMT and MET. The switch contains two specialized pairs of proteins. One pair is SNAIL and microRNA34 (SNAIL/miR34), and the other is ZEB and microRNA200 (ZEB/miR200).
Each pair is "mutually inhibitory," meaning that the presence of one of the partners inhibits the production of the other.
In the mesenchymal cell state -- the state that corresponds to cancer metastasis -- both SNAIL and ZEB must be present in high levels. In the epithelial state, the microRNA partners dominate, and neither ZEB nor SNAIL is available in high levels.
"Usually, if you have two genes that are mutually limiting, you have only two possibilities,"
Ben-Jacob said. "In the first case, gene A is highly expressed and inhibits gene B. In the other, gene B is highly expressed and it inhibits A. This is true in the case of ZEB and miR200. One of these is 'on' and the other is 'off,' so it's clear that this is the decision element in the switch."
SNAIL and miR34 interact more weakly. As a result, both can be present at the same time, with the amount of each varying based upon inputs from a number of other proteins, including several other cancer genes.
"One of the most important things the model showed us was how SNAIL and miR34 act as an integrator," Ben-Jacob said. "This part of the circuit is acted on by multiple cues, and it integrates those signals and feeds information into the decision element. It does this based upon the level of SNAIL, which activates ZEB and inhibits miR200."
In modeling the ZEB/miR200 decision circuit, the team found that it operates as a "ternary" or three-way, switch. The reason for this is that ZEB has the ability to activate itself by a positive feedback loop, which allows the cell to keep intermediate levels of all four proteins in the switch under some conditions.
Ben-Jacob said the hybrid, or partially on-off state, also supports cancer metastasis by enabling collective cell migration and by imparting stem-cell properties that help migrating cancer cells evade the immune system and anticancer therapies.
"Now that we understand what drives the cell to select between the various states, we can begin to think of new ways to outsmart cancer," Ben-Jacob said. "We can think about coaxing the cancer to make the decision that we want, to convert itself into a state that we are ready to attack with a particularly effective treatment."
The cancer-metastasis results correspond with findings from previous studies by Ben-Jacob and Onuchic into the collective decision-making processes of bacteria and into new strategies to combat cancer by timing the delivery of multiple drugs to interrupt the decision-making processes of cancer.
"At CTBP, we allow the underlying physics of a system to guide our examination of its biological properties," said Onuchic, CTBP co-director and Rice's Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy and professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and cell biology. "In this case, that approach led us to develop a powerful model for simulating the decision-making circuitry involved in cancer metastasis. Going forward, we plan to see how this circuit interacts with others to produce a variety of cancer cells, including cancer stem cells."
The research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and the Tauber Family Funds at Tel Aviv University. Lu is a postdoctoral researcher at CTBP, and Jolly is a graduate student in bioengineering. Levine is co-director of CTBP and Rice's Karl F. Hasselmann Professor in Bioengineering. Ben-Jacob is also the Maguy-Glass Professor in Physics of Complex Systems and professor of physics and astronomy at Tel Aviv University.
This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
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Relatives of Westgate attack victim Mitul Shah observe a list of names of some of those who died at a memorial service marking one month since the Sept. 21 terrorist attack in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday.
Ben Curtis/AP
Relatives of Westgate attack victim Mitul Shah observe a list of names of some of those who died at a memorial service marking one month since the Sept. 21 terrorist attack in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday.
We begin with the fallout from the leaks over the National Security's Agency surveillance operations.
Germany has summoned the U.S. ambassador over allegations the NSA spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel called President Obama on Wednesday to demand an explanation over the allegations, which were revealed by Der Spiegel. Obama denied the German chancellor was targeted.
The German news report is the latest embarrassment for the U.S., which earlier this week found itself trying to explain a report in the French newspaper Le Monde that the NSA had monitored millions of French phone records during a 30-day period.
Kenya's police chief David Kimaiyo says journalists will be arrested and prosecuted for reporting on the apparent looting by Kenya Defence Forces personnel at Nairobi's Westgate Mall during the siege there last month.
The newspaper reported that Kimaiyo accused journalists of "provoking propaganda" and inciting citizens against authorities with their reporting. The newspaper says:
"The Inspector-General's announcement is the latest in a sustained assault on press freedom in Kenya in recent months, which has seen the tabling in Parliament of bills giving government control over media operations."
The military says soldiers weren't looting, but were, in fact, carrying water in shopping bags.
But The Associated Press reports that security camera footage its reporters saw appeared to show armed forces looting a store during the four-day siege that began Sept. 21. At least 67 people were killed in the attack by Islamists militants.
Canada mostly was unharmed during the global economic crisis, but a gloomier outlook prompted the country's central bank to put on hold a planned increase of a key interest rate. And that decision is upsetting pension funds, insurers and banks.
"For anybody who is in the business of saving money, this is not good news," Jim Leech, CEO of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, told the newspaper. "It will be tougher and tougher for people to save money to meet their retirement needs. And it doesn't matter if you're in a defined benefit [pension plan] or defined contribution pension plan or your own RRSP, your savings rates are going to be low."
Long-term interest rates in Canada began rising this year, boosting the country's pension funds. Those funds have struggled over the past decade because of low interest rates. The newspaper cited data as saying the average Canadian pension plan was 88 percent funded as of Sept. 30; it was at 69 percent at the start of the year.
The newspaper reported that insurers expressed relative confidence with the Bank of Canada's decision while commercial banks also saw a silver lining: low mortgage rates.
Finally, police in Singapore are investigating an incident at a bus stop on Tuesday in which a man spat at two women following a dispute over cutting in line.
A video of the incident was posted on Facebook where it went viral, the newspaper reported.
Singapore's public transport operator SMRT reminded passengers that "that inappropriate behaviour is not tolerated and will be reported."
Caffeine and free Wi-Fi are a potent recipe for productivity. It’s what lures you and many other telecommuters to spend serious work time in convenient coffee shops. But whether you’re just getting out of the office or the sidewalk café is your office, working in a public space has some special challenges. These tips will help you stay safe and productive.
1. Stake out your turf
Before you put down your coffee, consider the location of your temporary office. Is it too close to the door? Too far from the restroom? Right under a vent that pumps out freezing-cold air? Discomfort and distractions will hamper your productivity. Don’t be shy about asking to share a table. Other telecommuters, in particular, understand that it’s part of the social contract of working in a public place. And be sure to bring a jacket or sweater that you can drape over your chair to hold your spot.
2. Power up
Whether your device is a laptop, a hybrid, or a tablet, its battery must be able to keep up with you. If you plan to work remotely a lot, consider investing in a laptop that carries one of Intel’s new Haswell processors—which offer significantly better battery life than their Ivy Bridge predecessors—or using a power-efficient tablet instead of a traditional laptop.
Image: Robert CardinNew laptops based on Intel's Haswell processors offer the longer battery life you need at a cafe.
If you plan to settle in for more than a few hours, bring a power cord. Most retail establishments that provide free Wi-Fi allow customers to plug into the outlets, too. Of course, that means finding a seat near an outlet. If the outlets are all taken, and you have a power emergency, ask a better-situated patron if you can take a turn with the outlet.
3. Be wary of free Wi-Fi
One of the main attractions of Starbucks and similar retailers is their free Wi-Fi. Starbucks is in the midst of switching from AT&T to Google as its service provider. The new Google service is 10 times faster (or more, in areas served by Google Fiber gigabit broadband). If your neighborhood Starbucks has already made the switch, you’ll have even more incentive to work from that location.
In most cases, though, the adage “you get what you pay for” applies—so you shouldn’t rely on free Wi-Fi to support a business-critical videoconference. At the very least, make sure that you have a reliable Plan B—such as using a 4G/LTE smartphone, tablet, or hotspot—for network connectivity in a pinch. Most mobile devices can allow other devices to connect over Wi-Fi and share the cellular data connection, and the wireless providers offer dedicated mobile hotspots that do the same thing. Bear in mind, though, that using your smartphone or tablet as a Wi-Fi hotspot will consume data from your cellular data plan.
4. Bring a headset
Working in a café means contending with the din of multiple conversations, hissing espresso machines, and baristas announcing triple no-foam lattes. All that ambient noise will muddy your phone calls and video chats. To ensure clear communications, bring a noise-canceling headset like the Plantronics Rig.
ROBERT CARDINNoise-canceling headphones can help you focus—and handle business calls—without background noise.
Even if you’re just planning to put your head down and power through some documents, you may benefit from using ear buds or headphones either to chill to some music while you work or to dampen surrounding sound.
Finally, be considerate of other patrons. They don’t want to hear you drone on about quarterly reports, so if you know you have a call on which you’ll be presenting or talking a lot, work from home instead.
5. Stay secure
It’s easy to lose touch with your environment when you’re focusing intently on a task, but remember to keep a close eye on your briefcase, purse, and other belongings. The retailer is not responsible for your stuff and has no liability if it gets stolen.
The Targus Defcon CL can secure your laptop or other mobile device to a handy chair or table.
If you have to use the restroom, either ask someone to keep an eye on your stuff for you, or pack it all up and set up shop again when you return. The pitfalls of those two options are obvious, so the best solution may be a laptop lock like the Targus Defcon CL to secure your hardware to the table.
Even if your laptop is secure, don’t forget to take things like your wallet and car keys with you when you leave your seat.
Another aspect of physical security involves making sure that others can’t see your display, especially if you’re typing sensitive information such as a password or a credit-card number. You can invest in privacy screen film that minimizes the display’s range of functional viewing angles, so people can’t peek at it from the next table. You should also be aware of people behind you who may be looking over your shoulder.
Network sniffers can use apps like DroidSheep to see what everyone's up to on a public Wi-Fi network.
As for digital security, when you’re connecting to the public Wi-Fi network, make sure that you’re connecting to the right one. Criminals sometimes set up rogue open wireless networks with familiar-looking SSID names to dupe users into connecting to them—making it that much easier for the attacker to monitor and intercept all traffic.
Even if you’re connected to the correct wireless network, be careful what you do online. Most public Wi-Fi networks are not secured, so anyone within range can capture the traffic. Even on a Wi-Fi network that requires a password, your activity may be exposed to other computers connected to that network. Think twice (or three or four times) before logging in to sensitive sites when you’re using a public Wi-Fi network. You should connect to business resources via VPN, and make sure that other sites you visit use secure, HTTPS connections.
Following on from this weekend's International Archaeology Day, Gizmodo thought we'd take a quick look at some of the uses of digital technology in discovering, researching, and documenting historic sites, from the ancient to the comparatively recent, from the urban to the rural. It's our own day of archaeology here on the site.
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio (center), with House GOP leaders, speaks briefly to reporters on Oct. 1. Joining Boehner are (from left) House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the Republican conference chairwoman.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio (center), with House GOP leaders, speaks briefly to reporters on Oct. 1. Joining Boehner are (from left) House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the Republican conference chairwoman.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
How badly did the recent fiscal fight go for the GOP?
Here's one hint: Prominent Republican pollster Bill McInturff opens his "after action report" on the government shutdown with a quote from Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu on the skills needed in picking the terrain of battle: "He who knows them not, nor practices them, will surely be defeated."
McInturff then goes on to catalog the woes the party has suffered over the previous month. "Defunding" President Obama's health care law, the original goal of the showdown, actually got less popular over time. Voter sentiment shifted to support Democrats for Congress. And approval ratings for Republicans have plummeted — to below 30 percent, nationally.
"There's no question that the Republican Party brand and the public perception of Congress are at historic lows," McInturff said in an interview with NPR.
McInturff is the Republican half of the bipartisan polling team for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, but this report was done for his clients and colleagues. He said it was drawn from those joint polls, but that he also used some data from Gallup polling.
One section titled "Why it happened" features bar graphs showing the ideological range of the House over time, from most liberal to most conservative. In 1982, 344 of the 435 members fell between a broad swath bounded by "most liberal Republican" and "most conservative Democrat." Three decades later, that number has shrunk to just 11 members.
McInturff also points to a lack of "long term" institutional knowledge in Congress –- 47 percent of the House and 44 percent of the Senate have only been in office since the start of the Obama administration five years ago.
By further way of explanation for the push to get rid of Obama's signature achievement, McInturff has a page titled "Understanding the world through the view of Republican members of Congress in their districts." While in the country as a whole, Obama's approval rating is within a few points of his disapproval, in the 233 Republican districts Obama's numbers are 37 approve to 57 percent disapprove. And while the nation as a whole prefers a Democratic-controlled Congress by nearly double digits, the exact opposite is true in the Republican districts.
This helps explain one of McInturff's forecasts for the coming months: "Do not expect much change in how Congress functions and the level of likely paralysis that continues to lay ahead."
Another of McInturff's predictions offers some comfort to Republicans worried about the possible consequences of the government shutdown: "The significant shifts in attitude today are not a predictor, though, of whether the shutdown will end up truly impacting the 2014 election."
There is, after all, more than a full year between now and Election Day 2014.
"In America, the big story of today is rarely the big story a year from now. Whether it be the impeachment votes against President Clinton in 1999 that everyone presumed would be hugely consequential in the next election, the Democrats not voting for the use of force in the two Iraq wars — all of these were perceived at the time to be game changers for the next election, and none of them mattered," McInturff said, pointing out that over the past two months, the story of the day has moved from Syria to the shutdown to the health care law's website. "By next October, there will be national events, world events — there will be things of such consequence that it is very unlikely that the October campaigns of 2014 are going to be dealing with what happened in the shutdown of 2013."
S.V. Dáte edits politics and campaign finance coverage for NPR's Washington Desk.
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Image: Robert CardinNew laptops based on Intel's Haswell processors offer the longer battery life you need at a cafe.
Network sniffers can use apps like DroidSheep to see what everyone's up to on a public Wi-Fi network.
