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text:
The EA Blackstix has a springy flex pattern and the V2 foil is designed to build speed and drive in smaller waves. This template is well balanced with a medium tip, making the EA Blackstix one of our most popular fins for medium sized surfers in softer conditions.
Blackstix have a flexible Carbon Fiber tip that loads up and releases energy for generating speed when you need it. These are the lightest fins in the Futures line.
A V2 Foil is a V. Foil and Flat Foil blend. It takes the best speed generating attributes of the V. (at the base) and transitions into a flat foil in the tip for a controlled release in critical turns. Try the V2 foil if you are transitioning from flat sided fins. The benefits of the V. foil base will be noticeable but the change for your muscle memory will not be too drastic.
- Size: Medium
- Fins in set: 3
- Outline: Eric Arakawa
- Material: Black Stix 3.0 (RTM)
Tech Specs
Center Fin:
- Height: 4.57 in, 11.60 cm
- Base: 4.40 in, 11.20 cm
- Area: 15.16 sq in, 97.81 sq cm
Side Fins:
- Height: 4.57 in, 11.60 cm
- Base: 4.40 in, 11.20 cm
- Area: 15.16 sq in, 97.81 sq cm
- Futures Fins - EA Blackstix 3.0 - Orange Best small wave finsReview by nacho nacho
RatingThese are great summer-time fins that work super well in bad to average surf. Also don't be tricked by the sizing. These are on the cusp of size large fins so if you're a bigger guy you can still ride these.(Posted on 11/26/2016) 2016-11-26
- Futures Fins - EA Blackstix 3.0 - Orange Awesome! Review by Monty Monty
RatingThese fins have been great with a short board on days the swell in smaller! Very flexible, which helps my board maneuver turns and drop in's perfectly! Highly recommended(Posted on 11/23/2015) 2015-11-23
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Returns are easy! We understand that in some situations returns or exchanges may be necessary. We also want you to be stoked on your purchase. If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase you may return it for a full refund, or exchange within 30 days of receiving your order. Items must be in new condition with original tags and packaging.
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subset: commoncrawl


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I'd love to hear from you. Please use the form below to contact me.
If you are interested in booking me for a speaking event, please choose that option below. I am available for a limited number of engagements due to priorities at home. But will prayerfully consider invitations.
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Tamasha is set to release this month and the movie has already garnered much attention. Let's blame the eye candy star cast Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor and the remarkable director Imtiaz Ali. The buzz around the movie has been going on for a year and now finally it will hit the theaters this month.
It's apparent that a movie with former lovers like Deepika and Ranbir -- also B-town heartthrobs-is set to get the center of stage. But we are happy that Deepika and Ranbir has gotten over their differences unlike other B-town exs who are always at each other's throat.
With the movie promotions and post promotion work, it is a common phenomena to spot a star cast of the movie together and we spotted Deepika and Ranbir at the Prithivi Theater, Mumbai.
Ranbir was cool and composed. He wore a black sweatshirt with black cigarettes pants paired with grey sneakers.
Deepika, on the other hand, wore white cotton dress. She smartly paired the Indian dress with distressed denim jacket and white shoes.
So what do you think of their looks?
For More Images Click Here


text:
Defending Champ Louisville Returning to Sweet 16
ORLANDO, Fla.--Louisville didn't need a big game from Russ Smith to get back to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Luke Hancock scored 21 points and the defending national champions shrugged off a cold shooting performance to beat Saint Louis 66-51 on Saturday and advance to the round of 16 for the third straight year.
The fourth-seeded Cardinals (31-5) shot under 45 percent, had 19 turnovers and only got 11 points from Smith, their star. It didn't matter with the fifth-seeded Billikens (27-7) going 0 for 15 from 3-point range and struggling to take care of the basketball.
Louisville moves on the Midwest Regional semifinals in Indianapolis against either No. 1 seed Wichita State or No. 8 seed Kentucky. The unbeaten Shockers and Wildcats meet Sunday in St. Louis.
Saint Louis, which has never been to the Sweet 16, lost in the third round for the third consecutive year. Dwayne Evans led the Billikens with 16 points and Atlantic 10 player of the year Jordair Jett finished with 15.
Chris Jones made a couple of huge shots and scored 11 points for Louisville. Montrezl Harrell put a punctuation mark on the victory with a dunk that enabled him to finish with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino improved to 50-16 in the NCAA tournament, including 41-6 when his team is the higher seed. The Cardinals are in the round of 16 for the 20th time, matching Kansas and trailing only North Carolina (25), Kentucky (24) and Duke (23).


text:
KEAM Answer Key
A notice has been released by Commissioner of Entrance Examinations, Kerala as KEAM Answer Key to organize Kerala
Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Entrance Exam. This competitive test will be held in the month of April. If you want to appear in this exam then submit online application form on or before the last date i.e. February.
Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Entrance Exam. This competitive test will be held in the month of April. If you want to appear in this exam then submit online application form on or before the last date i.e. February.
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KEAM Answer Key Quick info
Name of organization
Commissioner of Entrance Examinations
Name of Examination
Kerala Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Entrance Exam
Exam Date
In the month of April
Page Info
KEAM Answer key
Examine below furnished entire details: We are advising you to examine this webpage till end to get desired data.
About Answer Key: Answer key of any exam publishes after few days of exam. It displays all accurate answers of the exam. All those contestants who will be appeared in Test, this page will evident direct link for them.
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text:
Original paper
A comparative study of beech leaf breakdown, energetic content, and associated fauna in acidic and non-acidic streams
Dangles, O.; Guérold, F.
Archiv für Hydrobiologie Volume 144 Number 1 (1998), p. 25 - 39
49 references
published: Dec 22, 1998
DOI: 10.1127/archiv-hydrobiol/144/1998/25
ArtNo. ESP141014401002, Price: 29.00 €
We performed an eight-month study on beech litter breakdown and caloric content in two headwater streams characterized by different degrees of acidification (mean pH = 4.5 and 7.2). We also compared macroinvertebrate colonization of the leaves in the two streams. Beech leaf breakdown rate was 9 times slower under acidic conditions, which is a decrease greater than in other records from the literature. In both streams leaf caloric content decreased as litter decomposition proceeded but was always lower in the non-acidic one. Furthermore, results of energy loss per litter basket showed that the acidified stream was energetically inefficient when compared with the circumneutral stream. Gammarus fossarum dominated the shredder assemblage in leaf packs placed in the circumneutral stream. Gammarus was lacking in the acidified stream where Leuctra assumed greatest importance. This suggests that the absence of an efficient shredder, G. fossarum may have partly accounted for the slow leaf breakdown and the resulting accumulation of leaf litter in the acidified stream.
Gammarus • Leuctra • beech • accumulation • leaf litter • acidification


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- Please select a date to see the proper prices!
Description of the accommodation:
Rooms, services 150 comfortably furnished rooms are offered by Vacation Inn Phoenix to guests looking for accommodation in Phoenix. The exact scope of services offered by Vacation Inn Phoenix (including those for an extra fee) is available on the information sheet below.
Payment Credit card guarantee or advance bank card payment may be necessary for finalizing your reservation, depending on the exact room, date and price.
Arrival, opening hours The personnel speaks English.
Vacation Inn Phoenix rooms Rooms
- Please select a date to see the proper prices!
Accommodation services
- Pool (Outdoor - seasonally open)
Pet friendly
Hairdryer, Fridge, Desk in the room, Microwave oven, Tea/coffee-maker


text:
Skip to comments.Doctor at focus of anthrax probe files charges against family
Posted on 10/01/2004 9:54:57 AM PDT by TownCryer
POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. -- The family of Dr. Kenneth Berry, whose homes were raided in August during the FBI's anthrax investigation, fought outside a motel because it cracked under the pressure of the federal inquest, a lawyer said Friday.
"The great pressure of being scrutinized by the federal government as a responsible party for the anthrax mailings I think would be enough to cause stress for the average citizen," said Clifford Lazzaro, Berry's lawyer.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
"The great pressure of being scrutinized by the federal government as a responsible party for the anthrax mailings I think would be enough to cause stress
The first two paragraphs of this story are just about unintelligible.
Yes, they are. I've seen several AP articles recently that make me wonder if they're using high school students as writers now. *roll eyes*
Why did Anthrax expert go mad and attack family members so violently?
08 Aug 2004
Dr Kenneth Berry, a bioterrorism expert whose houses and car are being searched by the FBI, was involved in a bizarre incident last Thursday when he attacked a teenage girl, apparently quite violently, at a motel near his home.
An off-duty policewoman, Elizabeth Goeckel, who saw the whole thing, said I'd just finished checking in and I heard screaming. A teenage girl was running into the lobby and a man was chasing her.
He was hitting her and she was screaming for help. Then he tackled her onto the ground, and I went over and grabbed his arm so she could get out from under him.
She was fighting to get away. I told her to just go outside, and that's when I used force to restrain him with the help of a man from the motel.
"A woman ran in - his girlfriend or wife - screaming that he had just thrown her and her child down into the street.
Dr. Berry was charged with four counts of assault.
Dr. Berry is a bioterrorism expert More
FBI queried ex-neighbors of anthrax probe figure
By Luis Fabregas and Reid R. Frazier
Saturday, August 7, 2004
FBI agents have questioned the former Fayette County neighbors of a UPMC-McKeesport doctor linked to a federal investigation of the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks.
The agents did not mention anthrax when asking about Dr. Kenneth Berry two months ago, but inquired about the physician's attitude toward the government, Tim Kovach, 42, of Masontown, said Friday.
"They said they were here for a job check, but I knew (different)," said Kovach, who lives in a duplex neighboring the home where Berry for several years spent weekends. "Then at the end, they asked if he ever said anything against the government, and 'Did you ever witness him doing anything that would compromise the government?'"
Authorities investigating the anthrax attacks on Thursday searched two Wellsville, N.Y., homes used by Berry, a UPMC-McKeesport emergency room doctor and self-described bioterrorism expert. Hours later, Berry was charged with assault in a fight with four relatives at a seaside motel in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.
The physician has not been connected to the 2001 attacks and told police he had nothing to do with anthrax, Point Pleasant Beach police Chief Daniel DePolo said in a news conference yesterday.
Federal investigators wrapped up their daylong search of the Wellsville properties after dark, but would not reveal whether they had found anthrax, Mayor Brad Thompson said. Authorities would not say why the homes had been targeted.
"It's an ongoing investigation," said Jeff Killeen, the FBI spokesman in the Pittsburgh field office.
UPMC officials said Berry is employed by Emergency Resource Management, an arm of the hospital network. They declined to provide further information on Berry's employment, citing personnel policies.
Five people were killed and 17 fell ill in the fall of 2001, when envelopes laced with anthrax were mailed to government offices and news media.
Attempts yesterday to reach Berry by telephone and e-mail were unsuccessful.
Berry has worked at UPMC-McKeesport to supplement his income from working as director of emergency services at Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville, said William DiBerardino, who retired as Jones Memorial president in 2000.
An accomplished pilot, Berry flew a private plane from Philadelphia to Waynesburg, then drove to Masontown on weekends from 1993 to 1996 to visit his daughters, Nicole and Michelle, Kovach said. The physician has remarried since divorcing the mother of Nicole and Michelle, whose family lives in Masontown. He quit maintaining the duplex in 1996 or 1997, Kovach said.
When FBI agents came to the neighborhood on Smithfield Road in late May or early June, they asked whether Berry had been seen abusing family members, but did not mention anthrax, Kovach said.
Berry is the founder of Preempt Medical Counter-Terrorism, a business that trains medical professionals to respond to chemical and biological attacks. Berry in a 1997 interview with USA Today called for anthrax vaccines to be made "widely available to the population, starting in the major cities."
The physician in March received patent approval for a system to track chemical and biological agents in the air.
"He's a medical doctor who has a genuine, committed interest in bioterror issues," said David Levin, a professor at the University of Victoria in British Colombia, who is working with Berry on a proposal to test the system. Although they have spoken frequently over the telephone, Berry and Levin have not met.
"In the world of academics and science, you meet people all the time by the Internet and telephone and you have similar interests and you just sort of go with it," Levin said. "Who's to know whether he's a closet terrorist or not? You just don't make those kinds of assumptions."
Jones Memorial's DiBerardino said he ran into Berry, who was with his family, two weeks ago at a concert in a New York park.
"He didn't seem any different," DiBerardino said. "He's always very pleasant."
DiBerardino said he and Berry talked about flying -- a common interest for both. Berry also has a license to fly commercial jets, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
"He was a little different in that he was interested in airplane crashes and bioterrorism," DiBerardino said. "As far as I know, he's a decent guy, a decent doctor, but who knows? I have no reason to think he's into anything."
The physician's father, William Berry, of Newtown, Conn., told his hometown newspaper, The Star-Ledger, that his son was exhausted and upset over the house searches. He also said his son knows Dr. Steven Hatfill, a government scientist whom authorities have described as a "person of interest in the case."
Hatfill, who once worked at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., has denied any wrongdoing and sued Attorney General John Ashcroft and other officials, saying his reputation was ruined. The lawsuit is pending. Berry's Web site says he presented a bioterrorism paper at Fort Detrick in January 1997.
"Hey, here's a guy being shafted by the FBI," William Berry said of his son. "It's just buying time because they have nothing on anthrax. You are looking at a setup."
Berry was released yesterday from Ocean County Jail after posting $10,000 bail on the assault charges against his relatives. He complained of illness and vomiting while in police custody, authorities said. One of the relatives was taken to a hospital for treatment, police said.
Federal agents showed up unannounced early Thursday at a one-bedroom apartment on Maple Street in Wellsville, where Berry had been a tenant, said the owner of the Victorian home, Barry Dunne. The landlord described Berry as a courteous man whom he saw only occasionally.
Dunne said Berry was his tenant in the upstairs apartment for about four months in 2001. Dunne bought the home in August 2001.
"He looked a little worn out, like most doctors," said Dunne, 43.
Dunne said Berry told him he was getting married, then moved out.
Berry has used Preempt to foster his interest in training emergency workers to respond to chemical and biological attacks. During a presentation in Sweden in June, Berry used a map of Pittsburgh to explain some of his work.
The company Web site also refers to him as president of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians. A spokeswoman for a different group, the American College of Emergency Physicians, said the group that Berry belongs to is not recognized by the American Medical Association. Berry has held a medical license to practice in Pennsylvania since 1984.
Berry is an aviation medical examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration, which means he gives physicals to those applying for pilots' licenses.
This is a very peculiar story. I remember reading in a local newspaper (the Greensburg PA Tribune Review) that this Dr. Berry was an emergency room doc at UPMC McKeesport, and that he had contacted some other 'expert' about patenting some bio preventative measures with him (Berry). But the 'expert' claimed he had never worked with him. From memory, they also searched his family home(s)...and that this guy, Berry, did not live in the McKeesport area but that he used to fly his own plane into the area (from NY) when he worked locally. Very, very strange.
Doctor target of anthrax probe
Works at UPMC McKeesport
Saturday, August 07, 2004
By Byron Spice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The doctor whose homes in upstate New York and on the Jersey shore were searched by FBI agents investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks is a family physician and self-styled bioterrorism expert who works in the UPMC McKeesport emergency department.
Dr. Kenneth M. Berry, 48, is employed by Emergency Resources Management Inc., a subsidiary of UPMC that provides staffing for emergency rooms in 10 hospitals in the region. A UPMC McKeesport emergency room employee acknowledged he worked there.
On Thursday, federal agents searched two homes in Wellsville, N.Y., where Berry lives or has lived, as well as his parent's cottage in Ocean Beach, N.J. An FBI spokesman said the searches by agents from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service were part of the anthrax probe, though he declined to say what the agents were seeking or identify what was seized.
From 1996 to 2001, Berry worked in the emergency department at Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville and was medical director of the department for a time. But he resigned in October 2001 and no longer has privileges at the hospital.
UPMC spokeswoman Jane Duffield would only confirm that Berry worked for the UPMC subsidiary and would not say when he began working there.
William DiBerardino, who retired as administrator of Jones Memorial in 2000, said Berry used to work occasional shifts in Pittsburgh emergency rooms back then to make extra money. Filling in as temporary physician staff, a practice known as locum tenens, is a common practice for many physicians and many hospitals employ them, he noted.
In 1997, Berry established an organization called Preempt Medical Counter-Terrorism Inc. to train emergency medical personnel on how to respond to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons attacks.
Dr. Michael Allswede, who specializes in medical response to bio-chemical attacks at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and is a consultant to the FBI, said he barely knew Berry.
"I met him one time for about a half hour three years ago," Allswede said. "I don't have any idea what he's doing."
He said he had no idea why federal agents involved in the anthrax case are now interested in Berry.
Anthrax-laced envelopes were mailed in the fall of 2001 to government and news media offices, killing five people and sickening another 17.
In 2002, the U.S. government had identified Dr. Steven Hatfill, a former government bioweapons expert,as a "person of interest" in the case. Hatfill, who once worked at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., has denied any wrongdoing and has sued the government, saying his reputation was ruined.
Berry's father, William C. Berry, told The Star-Ledger of Newark that his son knew Hatfill. He also maintained that the FBI is unfairly targeting his son.
"Hey, here's a guy being shafted by the FBI," Berry said from his home in Newtown, Conn. "It's just buying time because they have nothing on anthrax. You're looking at a setup."
After the raids on his homes yesterday, Berry was arrested at the White Sands Oceanfront Resort and Spa in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., on four counts of simple domestic assault. Police said he punched his girlfriend and her daughter. He subsequently posted $10,000 bail.
The New York Times reported that Berry said he did not know why agents had searched his property.
"We are at a very dangerous crossroads in American history," Berry said.
According to his organization's Web site, Berry graduated from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in Montserrat in 1983. Berry has had a Pennsylvania medical license since 1984. His license, which expires in December, is in good standing and he has had no disciplinary actions against him here.
Two daughters of Berry live in Masontown, Fayette County.
Tim and Dorothy Kovach, who lived next door to Berry when the doctor had rented a duplex on Smithfield Road eight years ago, said FBI agents visited their house about two months ago inquiring about Berry.
The agents told them they were doing a background check for a job.
"We never had trouble with him," Tim Kovach said yesterday. "I can't believe he would end up like this.
"For all I knew, he was an ear doctor. That's all he told us."
The Kovachs said that Berry lived in Masontown for three years, but that he was usually there only on weekends.
"It was like the wind. He blew in and out," said Tim Kovach.
Berry's Web site says he was president of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians. But a spokeswoman for the American College of Emergency Physicians yesterday emphasized that Berry's organization is not recognized as a certifying organization by the American Medical Association.
Berry is board-certified as a family physician, not an emergency physician, she said.
The Preempt Web site indicates that the organization sponsored three educational conferences in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., from 1997-99. The site also notes that he gave a talk on bio-defense in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June.
In March, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Berry a patent on a computerized surveillance system that combines weather data and reports of human symptoms in an area to determine if certain chemical, biological or nuclear hazards are present.
In the late 1990s, Berry was quoted in a smattering of news reports about terrorism. In a 1997 USA Today story, for instance, Berry was quoted as saying, "We ought to be planning to make anthrax vaccine widely available to the population, starting in the major cities."
Strange guy. anyway I object to the public arena persecution of this guys. All the searches were tipped off to the press, like was done with Hatfill.
surely there's other suspects, so why the public dog and pony show for these two?
Thanks for the ping!
I'm anxiously awaiting with bated breath the upcoming FBI announcement on how that case in coming along and whether this is really an ironclad deadline, or one of those indefinitely extensible deadlines.
I'm not sure, but I think that now that we're fully upon the upcoming election, we're not going to be hearing too much about "Amerithrax" anymore and this whole thing is going to be very quietly and conveniently swept under the rug.
"we're not going to be hearing too much about "Amerithrax" anymore and this whole thing is going to be very quietly and conveniently swept under the rug."
That would be a pity. A lumpy rug is not only unsightly, it's a trip and fall hazard - don't you think?
How is life at Merck treating you?
Dunno about links or websites and I sure as hell wouldn't take any stock in Merck. Have you read the papers?
Please, Mr. "Truthsayer", go away and don't come back you sick puppy. You're not a true Freeper or a conservative (I highly doubt you're even a Republican), and you've already been banned from here numerous times for posting under multiple identities.
"posting under multiple identities."
Now there's a case of the pot calling the kettle black if there ever was one.
Listen to me you sick, pathetic loser, I'm not posting under multiple identities, we've already been through this tired routine before. If you still don't believe me, we can ping the Admin Mod on it yet again, and what will happen is you'll just get banned from here again and I'll still be here, because I'm a real Freeper.
Actually, you've written in your journal - "John Shelley's Journal" - that you've been banned a number of times. The terms "sick", "pathetic" & "loser" are perennial favorites and the least offensive of your expletives. Time to make another "donation", is it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


text:
Christmas trees can make an appearance in bedrooms too with this clever design idea.
If space for a tree is tight, miniature box trees look super smart wrapped up in fabric such as velvet and placed on your bedside table. Don't forget to put a small dish underneath the pot to catch any water.
Like this? Then you'll loveUnusual Christmas tree ideas


text:
"It is the responsibility of the government and the regulators to protect people from such fraudulent schemes," said Subbarao, who demits office in a week's time.
As per the media reports, Subbarao suggested a two-pronged approach: spreading awareness about dubiousness of such schemes among the investors, and deepening financial inclusion so that the common people's savings are routed to the formal financial system.
Recently, the high-profile Saradha Group in West Bengal went bust, putting the hard-earned money of thousands of investors in jeopardy.
Dion Global Solutions Ltd.


text:
Hi Everyone,
I'm running a research study at the moment and part of that includes an online card sort using OptimalSort. If you have ten minutes to spare, can you please do this activity for me?
Sorry, it won't link-ify itself! If I open it up to link it to the activity it may record this as a 'participant' who abandoned the activity and mess with my results. Please just copy and paste the link into your browser or go to my twitter profile: @AshleaMcKay
It's fun and easy and responses are anonymous.
As with any study, please don't discuss your answers in front of people who haven't completed it yet. Happy to take any questions via PM
Thanks in advance,
Oh now it wants to be a link....
Not what I was expecting..
Good job! I just submitted mine. =)
Done. That was fun.
Thanks everyone! Optimal Workshop was recruiting participants for me as well and I've reached my target of 40 completed responses and I've closed the survey down Will let you know what comes of it
Hey Ash, great article :). Cool to see the reasons for the sort, and what came out of it!
Thanks Natalie!
Yeah, that's super cool! How fascinating.
Thanks Hawk!


text:
Burdwan, Dec. 6: A theatre owned by the Durgapur Steel Plant was shut down by the provident fund commissioner today after the private firm that ran it failed to pay up dues to its employees.
Chitralay, the only theatre inside the steel town, was handed over to the private operator on lease in 1989.
According to the regional provident fund commissioners office in Durgapur, Sivkumar Sau had failed to deposit Rs 52,000, his part of the provident fund contribution for 2000-2001.
Sau, however, said he had deposited Rs 18,000 at the commissioners office a week ago. I had also asked for a month to pay up the pending amount. They sealed the hall without notice, he said.
A DSP spokesman said the plant had nothing to do with the running of the hall.


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- J.Balakrishnan
- 2005
The problem of self-tuning a system to the Hopf bifurcation in the presence of noise and periodic external forcing is discussed. We find that the response of the system has a non-monotonic dependence on the noise-strength, and displays an amplified response which is more pronounced for weaker signals. The observed effect is to be distinguished from… (More)
- J.Balakrishnan
- 2003
A path-integral formalism is proposed for studying the dynamical evolution in time of patterns in an artificial neural network in the presence of noise. An effective cost function is constructed which determines the unique global minimum of the neural network system. The perturbative method discussed also provides a way for determining the storage capacity… (More)
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text:
Welcome to NJ Pain & Spine
At NJ Pain & Spine, our pain management practitioners treat each patient individually. Using the latest equipment and innovative procedures to diagnose pain, the practitioners determine a plan to meet the patients needs. We assemble the appropriate interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals who can best help our patient's. This approach allows our pain management physicians a full spectrum of treatment options.
We know that understanding and effectively managing pain can be challenging. The impact of pain requires an understanding of the whole person; that is, the mind, body and spirit. Since you may have consulted several medical professionals already, you are well aware of the difficulty in receiving adequate pain diagnosis and care. We are glad you have chosen us as your TEAM to treat your pain effectively. We are committed to providing a pain management program that will meet your needs. Our integrative approach utilizes "conventional" treatments such as medications, fluoroscopic injections, physical therapy or surgery.
Patients We Help
We use the latest state of the art procedures to give our patient's the highest quality care. Patient's with the following conditions can benefit from visiting our clinics:
- Back and neck pain, including herniated discs, spinal stenosis, tumors and fibrositis
- Chronic abdominal pain and pelvic pain
- Complex regional pain syndrome (also known as reflex sympathetic dystrophyor RSD)
- Muscle and joint pain
- Disorders of the nervous system, including shingles and trigeminal neuralgia (facial pain)
- Cancer pain
- Intractable spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injuries
- Pain associated with osteoporosis and vertebral compression fractures


text:
The FBI destroyed a file on Barack Obama's grandfather, the man who selected Communist Frank Marshall Davis to be the future president's mentor during his growing-up years in Hawaii.
Obama with his grandparents
"The FBI confirms that a file was maintained on Obama's grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham," states Cliff Kincaid, the journalist who runs the public policy group, America's Survival, Inc. (ASI). "This is a troubling development in the effort to understand the Marxism that drives Obama's policies as president today."
Advertisement - story continues below
In correspondence with Kincaid, available at usasurvival.org, the FBI says the file was destroyed in 1997. The FBI made the admission after Kincaid complied with a request to verify the identity of Dunham and the fact that he was deceased.
Dubbed "Gramps" by Obama, Dunham has been depicted in news reports as a patriot who served in the U.S. Army in World War II. But he had a close relationship with Communist Party USA (CPUSA) member Frank Marshall Davis in Hawaii, who reportedly drank and smoke pot with Dunham.
TRENDING: Military Hero Sings Anthem During Thanksgiving Game, Fans Notice NFL Player's Actions on the Sidelines
Davis was not only a communist but a pornographer who wrote a semi-biographical novel about having sex with a 13-year-old girl. He mentored Obama for as many as nine years of his young life in Hawaii.
Read More: By Christian Newswire, Canada Free Press
Advertisement - story continues below


text:
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Military.com provides this discounts information as a service to our members. We make every effort to ensure accuracy but are not liable for the availability of discounts provided by a third party.


text:
Fat-specific protein 27 (FSP27) plays a pivotal role in controlling the formation of large lipid droplet and energy metabolism. The cellular levels of FSP27 are tightly regulated through the proteasomal ubiquitin-mediated degradation. However, the upstream signals that trigger FSP27 degradation and the underlying mechanism(s) have yet to be identified. Here we show that AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation by AICAR (5-amino-1-β-d-ribofuranosyl-imidazole-4-carboxamide) or phenformin induced the ubiquitination of FSP27 and promoted its degradation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. The levels of FSP27 protein could be maintained by either knocking down AMPKα1 or blocking proteasomal pathway. Moreover, AICAR treatment induced multilocularization of LDs in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, reminiscent of the morphological changes in cells depleted of FSP27. Furthermore, mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis identified heat shock cognate 70 (HSC70) as a novel binding protein of FSP27. The specific interaction was confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation of both ectopically expressed and endogenous proteins. Importantly, knockdown of HSC70 by small interference RNA resulted in increased half-life of FSP27 in cells treated with a protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (CHX) or AICAR. However, silencing of the E3 ubiquitin ligase CHIP (COOH terminus of HSC70-interacting protein) failed to alter the stability of FSP27 protein under both conditions. Taken together, our data indicate that AMPK is a negative regulator of FSP27 stability through the proteasomal ubiquitin-dependent protein catabolic process. Promotion of FSP27 degradation may be an important factor responsible for the beneficial effect of AMPK activators on energy metabolism.
- fat-specific protein 27
- AMP-activated protein kinase
- heat shock cognate 70
adipose tissue plays a central role in the development of obesity, which occurs when energy intake exceeds its expenditure. There are two types of adipose tissue, white adipose tissue (WAT) for energy storage and brown adipose tissue (BAT) for energy consumption to support heat production (9). White adipocytes, characterized by a large unilocular lipid droplet (LD), are responsible for the intracellular storage of triglycerides (TGs) in the fed state and provision of fatty acids as an energy substrate via lipolysis for other tissues in response to fasting. Brown adipocytes, on the other hand, contain numerous smaller LDs along with a large number of mitochondria and high oxidative activity. Enlargement of LDs or adipocytes in WAT contributes to the development of obesity and related insulin resistance (10, 13, 32). Thus, the induction of fat-burning brown adipocyte-like capacity in white adipocytes may represent a potential therapeutic strategy to combat obesity and its related disorders.
Recent studies have implicated AMPK as a potential target for inducing "BAT-like phenotype" in WAT (6). For example, it was demonstrated recently that WAT metabolism was remodeled toward energy dissipation through 5-amino-1-β-d-ribofuranosyl-imidazole-4-carboxamide (AICAR)-induced AMPK activation (7, 38). Specifically, prolonged AMPK activation by AICAR caused increases in the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receceptor (PPAR)γ, PPARα, and PPARδ in isolated rat epididymal adipocytes. Higher expression of PPARγ coactivator-1α and carnitine palmitoyl transferase-1b was accompanied by an increase in fatty acid oxidation in these cells. Moreover, a separate study indicated that mice injected with AICAR showed increased uncoupling protein 1 expression and induced accumulation of brown adipocytes within the WAT (40). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the effect of AMPK activation on the WAT plasticity have remained incompletely defined.
Fat-specific protein 27 (FSP27), a member of the cell death-inducing DFF45-like effector family, is a LD-associated protein expressed abundantly in the WAT (16, 17, 19). FSP27 possesses a profound role in maintaining the integrity of large unilocular LDs and the function of WAT as a TG storage organ. Whereas overexpression of FSP27 in nonadipocyte cells often results in enlarged LDs with increased capacity to store TGs, knockdown of FSP27 in mature white adipocytes leads to the appearance of smaller multilocular LDs as well as enhanced lipolysis (14–16, 30, 37, 42). In the liver, increased FSP27 expression is also causally linked to the enhanced hepatic TG accumulation and formation of LDs in ob/ob mice and fasted wild-type mice (24, 41). Mice with FSP27 deficiency exhibit multilocularization of LDs, upregulation of mitochondrial activity, and eventual acquirement of brown adipose-like properties in the WAT. These animals are also resistant to diet-induced obesity, hepatic steatosis, and insulin resistance (29, 39). In humans, treatment of obese patients with a very low-calorie diet causes a reduction of FSP27 expression in WAT (23). FSP27 protein is known to be rapidly degraded and has a short half-life of less than 2 h (28, 31), making the modulation of its stability a potential therapeutic approach for the treatment of metabolic diseases.
In the present study, we have obtained evidence that AMPK activation plays a critical role in the control of protein stability of FSP27. We show that prolonged AMPK activation promotes FSP27 degradation through the proteasomal pathway and induces multilocularization of LDs in adipocytes. We also provide evidence that heat shock cognate 70 (HSC70) is a new FSP27-interacting protein and is required for mediating the degradation of FSP27 downstream of AMPK activation.
Antibodies and reagents.
Antibodies against phosphorylated acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)α, AMPKα, COOH terminus of HSC70-interacting protein (CHIP), and ubiquitin were purchased from Cell Signaling Technology. Anti-perilipin 1 antibody was purchased from Abcam. Anti-ABHD5 (α/β-hydrolase domain-containing protein 5) antibody was purchased from Proteintech Group, and anti-β-actin and anti-FLAG antibodies were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich. Anti-HSC70 antibody was obtained from BD Bioscience. The rabbit antibody against FSP27 was a gift from Dr. Cynthia Smas (University of Toledo). Horseradish peroxidase-linked secondary antibodies were purchased from Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories. The protease inhibitor minitablets were obtained from Roche Diagnostics. The RNeasy Plus Mini Kit was purchased from Qiagen. Reagents for tissue culture and Bodipy 493/503 were obtained from Invitrogen. AICAR, phenformin, cycloheximide (CHX), insulin, dexamethasone and 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine, chloroquine, cycloheximide, MG132, oligomycin, and epoxomicin were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.
Cell culture.
Mouse 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were maintained in high glucose DMEM supplemented with 10% newborn calf serum, 100 U/ml penicillin G sodium, and 100 U/ml streptomycin sulfate. Differentiation to adipocytes was induced by treatment of postconfluent cells with 10% FBS, 1 μg/ml insulin, 0.25 μM dexamethasone, and 0.5 mM isobutyl-1-methylzanthine. The differentiation medium was withdrawn 3 days later and replaced with DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS and 1 μg/ml insulin. After 2 days in insulin-containing medium, the cells were then cultured for 2 more days in DMEM containing 10% FBS.
Adenoviral infection of adipocytes.
Recombinant adenoviruses coding murine FSP27 containing COOH-terminal FLAG tag under the control of a cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter were custom generated by Vector Biolabs. A CMV-null virus (Ad-null) was also obtained for use in control experiments. Infection of differentiated adipocytes was performed as described previously (43). Briefly, Ad-FSP27 or Ad-null was diluted to 5 × 107 pfu/ml in serum-free DMEM containing 5.0 μg/ml polybrene and preincubated for 5 min at room temperature. Differentiated adipocytes plated in six-well dishes were washed once with PBS, and 1.5 ml of preincubated virus mix was added to each well. Cells were centrifuged at 800 g for 1 h at room temperature, followed by incubation at 37°C. Four hours later, fresh DMEM containing 10% FBS (1.5 ml/well) was added, and cells were incubated for another 48 h before use.
siRNA-mediated knockdown.
The following double-stranded stealth siRNA oligonucleotides (Invitrogen) were used: for mouse HSC70, 5′-GCGUAGGUUUGAUGAUGCUGUUGUU-3′ (sense) and 5′-AACAACAGCAUCAUCAAACCUACGC-3′ (antisense); for mouse CHIP, 5′-AGAAGUGCGCCUUCACAGACUGCCC-3′ (sense) and 5′-GGGCAGUCUGUGAAGGCGCACUUCU-3′ (antisense); for mouse AMPK, 5′-UCUCUUUCCUGAGGACCCAUCUUAU-3′ (sense) and 5′-AUAAGAUGGGUCCUCAGGAAAGAGA-3′ (antisense); for mouse FSP27, 5′-GCACAAUCGUGGAGACAGAAG-3′ (sense) and 5′-UCUUCUGUCUCCACGAUU-3′ (antisense). Control oligonucleotides with comparable guanine-cytosine (GC) content were also from Invitrogen. Four nanomoles of mixed oligonucleotides were delivered into cells via electroporation using a Bio-Rad Gene Pulser II at 950 μFaraday and 160 V, as described previously (43). Three days later, cells were processed for designated assays.
Immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation.
Tissues or 3T3-L1 cells were lysed in a buffer containing 50 mM Tris·HCl (pH 7.4), 135 mM NaCl, 10 mM NaF, 1% Nonidet P-40, 0.1% SDS, 0.5% sodium deoxycholate, 1.0 mM EDTA, 10% glycerol, and 1× Complete protease inhibitor mixture. The lysates were clarified by centrifugation at 20,000 g for 10 min and then mixed with an equal volume of 2× SDS sample buffer. The solubilized proteins were resolved by SDS-PAGE and transferred to nitrocellulose membranes. Individual proteins were blotted with primary antibodies at appropriate dilutions. Peroxide-conjugated secondary antibodies were incubated with the membrane at a dilution of 1:5,000. The signals were then visualized using ECL substrate (Pierce).
For immunoprecipitation, cells were lysed in a buffer containing 50 mM Tris·HCl (pH 7.4), 135 mM NaCl, 10 mM NaF, 1% NP-40, 1 mM EDTA, and protease inhibitors. The clarified lysate was allowed to mix with anti-FLAG M2 gel (Sigma-Aldrich) or protein A/G plus agarose (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) containing HSC70 antibody at 4°C for 4 h. Following extensive washes with the same lysis buffer, the agarose was mixed with 1× SDS sample buffer, and proteins were detected by immunoblotting analysis.
RNA extraction and real-time PCR.
Total RNA was isolated from 3T3-L1 cells using the RNeasy Plus Mini Kit according to the manufacturer's instructions. cDNA was synthesized from total RNA by Long Range reverse transcriptase (Qiagen) with oligo(dT). For quantification of FSP27 expression, real-time PCR was performed using SYBR Green PCR Master Mix (Invitrogen) on an Applied Biosystems 7900 HT Real-Time PCR System. The following PCR primer were used: for FSP27, sense 5′-GTGTTAGCACCGCAGATCG-3′ and anti-sense 5′-CACGATTGTGCCATCTTC-3′; for β-actin, sense 5-′CTAAGGCCAACCGTGAAAAG-3′ and anti-sense 5-′ACCAGAGGCATACAGGGACA-′3. Data were analyzed using the comparative cycle threshold (ΔΔCT) method. The mRNA levels of genes normalized to β-actin were presented as relative to the control. PCR product specificity was verified by postamplification melting curve analysis and by running products on an agarose gel.
Immunofluorescence staining and confocal microscopy.
Adipocytes were maintained at proper densities on glass coverslips placed in six-well dishes. After the fixation with 3% paraformaldehyde in PBS for 15 min followed by permeabilization with 0.5% Triton X-100 in PBS for 5 min, cells were quenched with 100 mM glycine in PBS for 20 min and blocked with 1% BSA in PBS for 1 h. The cells were then exposed to anti-FLAG or HSC70 antibodies for 2 h at room temperature. Following three washes with PBS, the cells were incubated for 1 h with 1% BSA-PBS containing Alexa Fluor secondary antibodies. Samples were mounted on glass slides with Vecta shield mounting medium and examined under the Zeiss LSM 510 inverted confocal microscope.
In-gel digestion and mass spectrometry.
The immunoprecipitated samples were resolved by 4–15% 1D-SDS-PAGE. The proteins were then visualized by Coomassie blue staining (Sigma-Aldrich). Then, the gel portions were excised, destained, dehydrated, dried, and subjected to trypsin digestion overnight. The resulting peptides were desalted and analyzed by on-line HPLC on a linear trap Quadru pole Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance.
Animal experiments.
Ten-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) and maintained in the animal facility at Mayo Clinic Arizona. All mice had free access to water and were fed a chow diet (no. 5001; Test Diet). Mice were injected intraperitoneally with vehicle (PBS) or AICAR (1 g/kg). Six hours later, epididymal fat was collected for immunoblotting analysis. The protocol was approved by the Mayo Clinic Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
Statistical analysis.
Values are expressed as means ± SD. Statistical significance was evaluated by two-tailed unpaired Student's t-test. Differences were considered significant at P < 0.05.
AMPK activation decreases protein level of FSP27.
Since both AMPK activation and FSP27 ablation led to brown-like phenotypes in white adipocytes, we asked whether AMPK would be involved in the control of FSP27 expression. In differentiated 3T3-L1 white adipocytes, treatment with AICAR caused a time-dependent decrease in the levels of endogenous (Fig. 1A) as well as ectopically expressed FSP27 (Fig. 1B). The ectopic expression was achieved by infection with a recombinant adenovirus (Ad-FSP27-FLAG) that encodes mouse FSP27 with a COOH-terminal FLAG epitope tag under the control of a CMV promoter. Similar effects were observed when cells were treated with phenformin (Fig. 1, C and D), another pharmaceutical activator of AMPK. By contrast, neither AICAR nor phenformin affected the protein levels of perilipin 1 and ABHD5, two well-known LD-associated proteins (Fig. 1, B and D). Both AICAR and phenformin increased the phosphorylation of AMPKα and its target ACC (acetyl-CoA carboxylase) (Fig. 1, E and F), confirming the successful activation of AMPK. In addition, energy depletion by treatment of cells with an ATP synthase inhibitor, oligomycin, also activated AMPK and decreased the protein levels of FSP27 (Fig. 1G). Importantly, AICAR exhibited no significant influence on the mRNA levels of FSP27 (Fig. 1H). Thus, AMPK activation induced by different pharmaceutical compounds leads to decreased protein level of FSP27 in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
AMPKα1 is involved in the regulation of FSP27 protein level.
AMPKα1 was reported to be the major isoform of the AMPK catalytic α-subunit in adipocytes, accounting for ∼90% of the total AMPK activity (4, 21). To investigate whether AMPK mediates AICAR/phenformin-induced downregulation of FSP27 expression, we performed siRNA-mediated gene silencing to deplete AMPKα1 in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Compared with the transfection with control siRNA, only about 50% of AMPKα1 remained in cells transfected with an AMPKα1-specific siRNA (Fig. 2, A and C). Importantly, AMPKα1 knockdown markedly inhibited AICAR/phenformin-induced phosphorylation of AMPKα subunit and a typical AMPK subunit ACC, demonstrating an effective blockade of AMPK activation by AICAR/phenformin. In cells treated with control siRNA, treatment with AICAR and phenformin reduced the protein levels of FSP27-FLAG by ∼80 and 40%, respectively (Fig. 2, B and D). However, in cells treated with AMPKα1 siRNA, FSP27-FLAG experienced reductions by only 32 and 17%, respectively. These results suggest that AICAR and phenformin induce the downregulation of FSP27 protein expression specifically via the activation of AMPK.
AMPK activation induces FSP27 degradation via ubiquitin-dependent proteasomal pathway.
Next, we determined whether the protein level of FSP27 could be maintained by prevention of protein degradation. As shown in Fig. 3, A–D, addition of the proteasomal inhibitor, MG-132 or epoxomicin, blocked the degradation of FSP27 in 3T3-L1 adipocytes treated with AICAR. By contrast, a lysosomal protease inhibitor chloroquine was incapable of preventing such turnover (Fig. 3, E and F). To examine potential ubiquitination of FSP27, we infected cells with either Ad-FSP27-FLAG or a control null virus (Ad-null). Following a 2-h treatment with AICAR, FSP27-FLAG was immunoprecipitated and then subjected to anti-ubiquitin immunoblotting analysis. As expected, AICAR caused a decrease in the amount of FSP27 protein isolated from cells infected with Ad-FSP27 (Fig. 3G). However, FSP27 ubiquitination was increased in AICAR-treated cells compared with control cells. Thus, our data suggest that AMPK activation promotes FSP27 ubiquitination and degradation through the proteasomal pathway.
HSC70 specifically interacts with FSP27.
To uncover the mechanism by which the protein stability of FSP27 is regulated, we searched for the potential interacting protein(s) of FSP27 by combining the usage of coimmunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry-based protein identification methods. We expressed FSP27-FLAG protein in 3T3-L1 adipocytes via infection with Ad-FSP27-FLAG. As control, cells were infected with Ad-null. Following anti-FLAG immunoprecipitation and resolution on SDS-PAGE, SYPRO Ruby staining revealed the presence of a single, specific band at ∼73 kDa in FSP27-FLAG precipitates (Fig. 4A). Mass spectrometry analysis identified the corresponding protein as HSC70, which was confirmed by anti-HSC70 immunoblotting (Fig. 4B). Anti-HSC70 immunoprecipitation followed by anti-FSP27 immunoblotting confirmed that a specific interaction also existed between the endogenous proteins (Fig. 4C). It is well known that FSP27 is a LD-associated protein. Figure 4D shows that FSP27-FLAG localized at the surface of LDs in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Interestingly, although it was mainly distributed scatterly or diffusely in the cytosol of control cells, HSC70 was recruited to the surface of LDs in the presence of overexpressed FSP27-FLAG. Taking together, these data indicate that HSC70 is a specific FSP27-binding protein.
HSC70 mediates AICAR-induced FSP27 degradation.
HSC70 is a member of the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) family and serves as a molecular chaperone to promote correct folding of nascent polypeptides or target proteins for degradation (3, 26). To test whether HSC70 would mediate FSP27 degradation, we silenced HSC70 expression via the HSC70-specific siRNA in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Compared with the endogenous protein levels in cells transfected with a GC-matched control siRNA, ∼50% of HSC70 was present in cells transfected with HSC70-specific siRNA (Fig. 5A). Upon treatment of cells with cycloheximide to block protein synthesis, endogenous FSP27 experienced a rapid turnover in the control cells with a 1-h half-life, whereas in HSC70 knockdown cells the protein was relatively stable without significant degradation within 2 h (Fig. 5, A and B). Similarly, the half-life of ectopic FSP27 was determined to be 0.5 and 1.5 h in control and HSC70 knockdown cells, respectively(Fig. 5, C and D). In addition, FSP27 was highly unstable in the presence of AICAR and experienced a >85 and 97% reduction after 3 and 6 h, respectively (Fig. 5, E and F). However, in HSC70 knockdown cells, FSP27 stability was dramatically improved with a reduction of 25 and 63% after the AICAR treatment for 3 and 6 h, respectively (Fig. 5, E and F). Thus, HSC70 plays a critical role in the regulation of FSP27 protein stability and its degradation in response to the AMPK activation.
The effect of CHIP on FSP27 degradation.
CHIP (COOH terminus of HSC70-interacting protein) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that commonly forms a preubiquitination complex with HSC70 and its client proteins targeting for degradation (25, 27). To determine whether CHIP mediates the degradation of FSP27, we overexpressed FSP27-FLAG in adipocytes where expression of endogenous CHIP was reduced via siRNA-mediated knockdown. Interestingly, CHIP did not affect FSP27 degradation in the presence of either CHX (Fig. 6A) or AICAR (Fig. 6C). Thus, we conclude that CHIP is not involved in FSP27 degradation.
AICAR induces multilocularization of LDs.
FSP27 plays an important role in maintaining the integrity of large unilocular LDs. Next, we determined whether the degradation of FSP27 by AICAR would similarly affect the LD morphology as the FSP27 depletion. Consistent with our previous report (42), FSP27 knockdown produced a plenty of small LDs and fewer large droplets compared with the untreated control cells (Fig. 7, A and B). Interestingly, control cells treated with AICAR exhibited a reduction in the size of large LDs (>20 μM) along with a dramatic increase in the number of small LDs (<5 μM), indicating that AICAR induces multilocularization of LDs reminiscent of that produced by FSP27 knockdown. In addition, AICAR treatment was unable to further increase the number of small LDs in the FSP27-depleted cells. Furthermore, it was reported previously that AICAR treatment in mice increases the number of smaller LDs in WAT along with production of brown-like adipocytes (40). Figure 7, C and D, showed that a single intraperitoneal injection of AICAR in C57BL/6J mice decreased FSP27 protein levels in WAT. Taken together, these results suggest that AICAR may promote FSP27 degradation and induce multilocularization of LDs both in vitro and in vivo.
FSP27 promotes lipid exchange between the smaller and larger LDs and is essential for the formation of the unilocular LDs in white adipocytes (11, 37). In this study, we demonstrate that AMPK, a crucial sensor of energy status, promotes ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of FSP27 protein in differentiated adipocytes. We show that HSC70, a chaperon protein, associates with FSP27 and plays an important role in the degradation of FSP27. Our results thus provide a novel mechanism for the regulation of FSP27 protein stability.
AMPK plays a pivotal role in cellar lipid/energy metabolism. Activation of AMPK induced by its agonists (AICAR, phenformin, etc.) has been demonstrated to ameliorate obesity, promote lipid oxidation. and improve insulin sensitivity (1, 5, 8, 34, 44). A previous report has also shown that the chronic treatment of mice with AICAR causes the multilocularization of LDs in white adipocytes and the browning of WAT (40). Considering that these phenotypes are resonant with those caused by the ablation of FSP27 in mice, we speculated that a functional link might exist between these two key regulators of energy metabolism. Indeed, we found that both AICAR and phenformin activated AMPK and decreased both the endogenous and ectopic protein levels of FSP27 in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. That knockdown of AMPKα1 significantly prevented such an effect of AICAR and phenformin proves the specific involvement of AMPK in the regulation of FSP27 stability. Moreover, reminiscent of the LD morphological changes incurred by FSP27 depletion (11, 14, 15, 29, 39, 42), AMPK activation induced by AICAR led to multilocularization of LDs in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, implying a causal role for AMPK-induced FSP27 degradation. Multilocularization of LDs is a hallmark of brown and brown-like adipose tissue and is associated with higher mitochondrial oxidative capacity. In this regard, both FSP27 deletion and AMPK activation have been demonstrated to induce the browning of WAT along with enhanced energy metabolism. Injection of AICAR in mice reduced FSP27 protein content in the WAT (Fig. 7, C and D) as well as induced the browning of WAT (40). Therefore, we speculate that induction of FSP27 degradation and subsequent multilocularization of LDs may be one of the key mechanisms responsible for AMPK-induced browning of WAT.
Further studies demonstrated that AICAR reduced FSP27 stability through promoting its degradation via the ubiquitin-proteasomal pathway. The mass spectrometry analysis identified HSC70 in the FSP27-FLAG immunoprecipitates, offering the first piece of evidence that HSC70 is likely to be a FSP27-interacting protein. Coimmunoprecipitation later confirmed the specific interactions between both ectopically expressed and endogenous proteins. Consistent with the well-recognized notion that FSP27 is a LD-associated protein, our immunofluorescence staining experiment showed that a majority of ectopic FSP27 was located at the surface of LDs in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. The finding that the ectopic FSP27 was able to drive the endogenous HSC70 onto lipid droplets further strengthens our conclusion about the specific interaction between FSP27 and HSC70.
HSC70 is a member of the HSP70 family. Unlike canonical heat shock proteins, HSC70 is constitutively expressed and serves as a molecular chaperone to promote correct folding of nascent polypeptides/proteins or target its clients for degradation under nonstress conditions (20, 22, 36). Our results indicate that HSC70 is responsible for the short half-life of FSP27 protein as well as for mediating the degradation of FSP27 downstream of the AMPK activation. That FSP27 protein was more stable in AICAR-treated cells where HSC70 was knocked down strongly suggests that HSC70 associates with FSP27 and thereby targets it for degradation in response to the AMPK activation. Moreover, the E3 ubiquitin ligase responsible for FSP27 degradation remains to be identified. CHIP is a dual-function cochaperone/ubiquitin ligase that targets a number of Hsp70/90-associated proteins, including the glucocorticoid receptor, androgen receptor, Smad1/4, and ErbB2 for ubiquitination and degradation (2, 18, 35, 45). However, CHIP is unlikely the E3 ubiquitin ligase for FSP27, since knockdown of CHIP elicited no effect on FSP27 degradation in response to either blockade of protein synthesis or activation of AMPK. A separate study has shown that spartin, a protein truncated in the neurological disease Troyer syndrome, recruits and activates the E3 ubiquitin ligase atrophin-1-interacting protein 4 (AIP4) onto LDs, leading to the ubiquitination and degradation of droplet-associated proteins (46). It remains to be determined whether spartin/AIP4 is involved in the turnover of FSP27 protein mediated by HSC70.
In conclusion, we have found that AMPK activation can promote FSP27 degradation in adipocytes in a HSC70-dependent manner. The degradation of FSP27 by AMPK activation is associated with multilocularization of LDs as well as the browning of WAT in mice. The current study thus uncovers a novel mechanism underlying the beneficial effects of AMPK activators in the treatment of metabolic diseases.
This work was supported by research grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK-089178) and the American Diabetes Association (1-10-JF-30) to J. Liu.
No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the authors.
X.Z. and J.L. conception and design of research; X.Z., B.L.H., X.X., and A.M.S. performed experiments; X.Z., B.L.H., X.X., and J.L. analyzed data; X.Z. and J.L. interpreted results of experiments; X.Z. prepared figures; X.Z. drafted manuscript; J.L. edited and revised manuscript; J.L. approved final version of manuscript.
- Copyright © 2014 the American Physiological Society


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JRF Biochemical Technology Vacancy @ Madurai Kamraj University: Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) is a public university in India located in Madurai city in southern Tamil Nadu, India. It was established in 1966 and has about 130,000 students in 18 schools comprising 72 departments, and 109 affiliated colleges.
JRF Biochemical Technology Vacancy @ Madurai Kamraj University
Job Title: Junior Research Fellow
No. of Posts: One
Project Title: "Immunotherapeutic potential of biologically contained food grade Lactobacillus planatarum WCFS1 displaying peanut allergen on allergy induced experimental mice
Emoluments: Rs. 25,000/- + (20% HRA)/pm
First class in M.Sc. Biochemistry/ Biochemical Technology/ Biotechnology/ Genomics/ Microbiology or in any other discipline relevant to Life Science. Candidates who have qualified for NET examination, conducted by CSIR/UGC/ICMR and/or with prior research experience will be given preference.
How to Apply:
Eligible candidates should send two copies of their application with complete Bio-Data enclosing attested copies of mark sheets, certificates, publications and testimonials to the following address
Dr. G.S. Selvam
Professor and Head
Department of Biochemistry
School of Biological Sciences
Madurai Kamraj University
Madurai – 625021
Application Deadline: 25th November 2016
View Original Notification: http://mkuniversity.org/direct/notification_2016/SBS_08112016.pdf


text: If you download a voice dialer from the market, will it replace or interfere with the stock one? i'm afraid that if I didn't like it and uninstall it, I won't have a dialer or maybe a corrupt stock dialer. I'm just afraid to tinker with the preintalled apps as my teck knowledge is nowhere as deep as most guys on here. thanks


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Miami's defensive persistence forced another opponent to score below their season average, but only two Canes scored in double figures in their 58-54 loss at Clemson Tuesday night.
Rod Hall scored 14 points and had six assists to lead Clemson.
With the win, the Tigers (19-10, 10-7 Atlantic Coast) can clinch the fifth seed in the ACC tournament with a win Saturday over Pittsburgh. Clemson was picked to finish 14th in the league before the season started. The Tigers can also win 11 league games for the first time in 61 ACC seasons.
The Tigers, the second best free throw shooting team in the league, missed back-to-back 1-in-1s in the final minute. But Landry Nnoko blocked a shot that could have pulled the Hurricanes within two and Jaron Blossomgame pulled down an offensive rebound on Harrison's miss to let the Tigers hold on.
Rion Brown led Miami (15-15, 6-11) with 21 points. Erik Swoope also scored 14, the senior's fourth straight game in double figures. The Hurricanes will likely need a win Saturday over Wake Forest to get an ACC tournament bye.
Miami's first points came at the 19:04 mark on a Garrius Adams layup. Erik Swoope's 14 points extended his scoring in double-figures streak to four games, the longest of his career.
Nine of Miami's twelve players have registered at least five starts. Garrius Adams is the only Cane to start every game (30). James Kelly scored two points in his return to the Canes rotation. It was the Junior's first game since 2/15/14 against Virginia Tech.
Rion Brown scored in double-figures (21) for the 12th straight game and 24th time this season and Garrius Adams and Rion Brown are enjoying the fruits of their labor, building on their personal season highs.
SOURCE: Miami Athletics


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text: On Wednesday 25 April 2007 8:37 am, Kathy Evans wrote: > Jedd, Thank you for the suggestions....seems like stuff I can actually > start on. Can I grow fruit trees in clay soil in the understory of > oak/hickory forest? You can grow anything anywhere .. well, for varying values of anything and anywhere. If it's an old oak forest, you'll probably find the soil is fairly rich in humus, relatively acidic, and has been broken up to some extent by root activity. In theory, about 25% of a tree's roots break down every year - though I think recent research has bumped that estimate down a tad. In any case ... if the forest is to stay, you may have troubles planting things under it, partly because of the acidity and mostly because of the competition for water, nutrients, and sunlight. I have no first hand experience with a clay soil .. only with clay pans about 1-2 metres deep beneath a sandy loam. Clay has all kinds of interesting attributes. A good book on soil is a handy resource -- check out Steve Solomon's excellent online library of reference books @ http://www.soilandhealth.org/ In very general terms, you probably want to look at deep penetrating crops (comfrey, daikon radish, etc) & lime variants (maybe) to break up the clay, planting your trees on a raised mound of non-clay soil, introducing lots of organic matter into the soil (this is not as hard as it sounds - you provide the mulch, worms do the work), and if your rainfall is quite high you may want to look at diverting water away from the roots of new trees for a few years with some small amount of (manual) earthworks. As lbsaltzman suggests, selection of trees, or more specifically the rootstocks, is important too - increases chance of success for the plants and reduces your workload. Take that a bit further - you can find plants that enjoy (or at the very least, tolerate) almost any environment -- got boggy acidic soil? Try blueberries. I think also cranberries, but check their requirements on acidity. Part of any design is finding things that match your environment, as well as managing your environment to suit the things you want to grow. I don't know of any good resources (yet) where you can type in your climate and soil types, and get a listing of plants that would do well in your area. A few years ago it would have made sense to wander the neighbourhood and look at what other people were having success with .. but, in my part of the world at least, this would now merely encourage you to plant buffalo lawn and agapanthus. > only speak for myself but I wonder if that holds some people back from > getting into it, because it's such a huge body of knowledge and a lot of > what I see has to do with major design projects.book Rosemary Morrow & Rob Allsop's book - 'Earth User's Guide to Permaculture' is a good one if you can find it in your part of the world. I haven't read the [new] second edition, but the first had a running story of two sites, one small & one large, through it that clearly identified how transferable the theories and approaches are between different scaled projects. I'm sure they've maintained that approach, given it was very effective. As to your annoyed trees - each spring in my area we typically get a late frost that mildly irritates my figs (but remember, figs are weeds) and confuses my mulberries (typically the last to burst, strangely) - and they always bounce back. Some or all of the crop is lost, but the trees aren't. Mind you, I was eating mulberries off my tree a few weeks ago - and it's mid-autumn in my part of the world. Jedd.


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Photos shot by Harley Weir for The Pop Magazine SS16
So far my favourite editorial of 2016! Russian beauty Natalia Vodianova´s special allure has been captured so well by Harley Weir.
All photos in courtesy of Masayoshi Sukita
David Bowie has left us. And as a tribute I would like to make a post about him. Not a post about his music, because I will not pretend that I'm one of those people who have admired him since I was little (don't get me wrong, his music is genius!). Instead I will tribute his way of pushing boundaries in terms of sartorial choices, that is with honesty the area he has inspired me personally.
He acted exactly like he wanted, he executed crazy ideas no one else would have dared to execute. Newthinking. Bold. A role model (obs: if one look away from the drug abuse) and a legend that will always be remembered. His memory will still be wandering with us through generations, via the impact he made on fashion, music and culture. Rest in peace.
All photos by Finnish genius Arni Rafael Minkkinen.
Photos by Josh Olins for WSJ Magazine December 2015
Heading for a short but lovely weekend-trip to Marrakech in less than three weeks. CAN`T wait to wear sandals and soak up some precious sun rays! Mr. Autumn and myself are not on a good note. Currently all snuggled up at home, trying to get some warmth after work. The London temperature certainly gets to your bone..
Happy Friday!


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Air Travel to Switzerland
As a country with four official languages, surrounded by four countries in the heart of Europe, Switzerland is an internationally blended nation, anchored by its high-end cosmopolitan cities. The country's European sophistication is matched by its natural beauty, from the Swiss Alps in the far north to the massive Lake Geneva in the west and the balmy, palm-tree lined beaches of Ticino in the south. Getting to most parts of Switzerland from the U.S. is not difficult, although depending on where you depart from, it can take up to a full day to reach Switzerland.
Travel Requirements
To travel to Switzerland, you must have a U.S. passport that will be valid for at least three months beyond your trip. Because both Switzerland and the U.S. are parties to the Schengen Agreement, allowing for free travel within Europe, you are not required to obtain a visa to enter the country, as long as you are staying for no more than 90 days. You must make arrangements with the Embassy of Switzerland if you plan on staying longer, or you risk being fined when you leave.
Switzerland Cities
Switzerland's largest cities have major international airports that you can easily get to from the U.S. Travel time will depend on where you go. Zurich, Switzerland's largest city, is a German-speaking cosmopolitan destination and the gateway to the Swiss Alps. On the western tip of the country, the French-speaking city of Geneva is famous for its lake, chocolate production and watch industry. Many international organizations also call Geneva home. In the northwest, Basel, Switzerland's third largest city sits on the Rhine river and holds many of the country's cultural landmarks and treasures. Other cities, such as Bern, the capital of Switzerland, and Lugano, in the Italian-speaking eastern region, have smaller, regional airports with fewer flights available, though you can still get there by air.
Departing the U.S.
You can get to Switzerland from any international airport in the country. A number of airlines travel between U.S. cities and Swiss cities, including American Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, SWISS, Air Canada and Lufthansa. Non-stop flights to Zurich and Geneva are available from some East Coast cities, including New York City and Washington, D.C. If you are traveling from the central U.S. or the West Coast, expect at least one or two layovers before reaching Switzerland.
Arrival in Switzerland
When you arrive at your destination city in Switzerland, you will be led to customs, where your passport will be checked and stamped. You also may have to declare any items that exceed Switzerland's duty-free allowance. You will likely be given a form detailing anything that should be declared on the plane. Once you and your bags are cleared for customs, you can make your way to the arrivals area. All the major airports in Switzerland have information booths on transportation and taxi stands that can get you to your final destination.
Photo Credits
- Sam Robinson/Photodisc/Getty Images
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By Enise Olding
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The sun is shining at Elk Lake and in one of the sheltered picnic areas people are stirring great pots of bubbling chili on a series of portable stoves. There are salads under wraps, the fixings for hotdogs are assembled and a Bundt cake along with other desserts waits alongside the plates, cups and napkins. While the tempting food is prepared, some members of the Victoria Golden Rods and Reels Club sit in the sunshine and enjoy lively conversation, others are making their way up from the nearby lakeside and some are still hauling their boats out of the lake. Now and then, there's the glimpse and gleam of a fresh caught rainbow trout and some snatches of conversation: "I had two in the boat and I made a fisherman's mistake and put them back in - never caught any more." And, "I don't eat fish." And, "if the fish don't come, then it's not that exciting, but I love the fresh air."
But what has a chili cook-off competition or an evening's presentation about a trip to Antarctica, have to do with fishing? Everything - ask any members – there's more to fishing than, well, just fishing.
Back in 1977 the Victoria Golden Rods and Reels started out as a fishing and social club with a goal, amongst others, to encourage retired people to enjoy outdoor recreation. As a result, members pour equal amounts of energy into the fishing and social aspects of the club. Combining a love and respect for the outdoors with social activities ensures all members can participate and get involved. As their Web site indicates, "the club has a multi-faceted approach. Members include fresh and saltwater fishermen and women, stream fishers and fly fishers. Fishing techniques and ideas are shared. Fly tying techniques are taught in a social context, with good food and wine, at a member's house."
The story of how Sandy and Art Raven joined the club is typical: "We liked to fish and were looking for something interesting to do and found this club. We just love the people," they say. "Everyone is active and supportive - as far as clubs go, you're lucky if you get one-third of the people out, but with this club, everybody goes to everything. And, we make sure they are okay if we haven't seen them for a while," says Sandy, who is on the social committee and manages the club's website; Art is president of the club.
Dennis Gedney, the current vice-president, used to hear all about the club from his neighbour. He was working, at the time, but his neighbour was retired. "I really envied my neighbour," he says, "he would tell me about the companionship within the club and the fishing, and how great it was. As soon as I retired, the first thing I did was join."Others heard about the club by way of pamphlets, the newspaper or from a list of local clubs. Many arrived from out of the province or out of the country to take up retirement in the Victoria area and wanted to get back in touch with the outdoors, with the fishing they'd enjoyed years ago, or simply to become involved in an active and varied social group.
Shirley has been a member for two years and through her husband, Ray, a 19-year member, she participated in many of the club's activities. "I came to enjoy the social part of it," she says, "we have a nice Christmas dinner, there are potluck suppers and going on trips - so I joined too."The club meets each Tuesday at the Silver Threads Hall on Douglas Street, Victoria. "As part of the meeting, there is almost always a guest speaker or film. We have a vast range of speakers," says Club Secretary Barry Proud. They include members sharing their interesting life stories, local experts on fly tying techniques, estate planning, representatives from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, university professors covering topics of general interest, travel and the outdoors. While Elk Lake is a popular local spot for club members, organized camping is another way the group appreciates the outdoors. Each spring and fall a small group heads out to Buttle Lake for five days of camping. Other popular destinations include Langford Lakes, Sooke River, Salmon Point and China Creek, and Cluxewe. And there are always opportunities to expound on past fishing experiences while waiting for the fish of the day to cook over the campfire.
The more serious side of the club has them tackling various projects, involving themselves in education and participating voluntarily in a broader range of conservation and wildlife activities. In previous years, the club helped clean up O'Donnell Creek, which flows into Elk Lake. And they helped build a sanitary station and wheelchair accessible dock for fishing at the lake. More recently, club members were in Sooke at a Cub Scout camp. "Eight of us tried to teach over 200 cubs how to fish," says Barry Proud. "We were going all day with three stations taking about eight cubs each at a time. At times, utter chaos reigned with lines in trees and rods all tangled up. We are all now recovering, but the cubs had lots of fun."
Today, before eating and then voting on their favourite chili, the official weighing of the day's catch is undertaken; long-time member John Edge's 1 lb 6 oz [680 g] catch nudged out two contenders. Back in 1988, friends told John about "this great club," so he went to a meeting. "I would never have been a person to join a club, but I joined this one," he says. "Within two weeks, I was heading up a fish feeding project in Goldstream," he laughs. John later became president for five years and was on the executive until this year. He says there are open companionships in the club, "people say 'anybody want to go with us' and anyone really is welcome. People help one another out." With hundreds of years of combined fishing experience, the Victoria Golden Rods and Reels is the perfect place for everyone to learn how to fish or hone their skills. As their Web site says: "whether one comes to learn fishing techniques, or to find a fishing partner, or to enjoy the camping trips, or to participate in the conservation activities, or to listen to the inspirational speakers, one is sure to find friendship, companionship and a further enriched lifestyle."
As the sun-kissed, well-fed, cheery group deliberate on the merits of various chili recipes, the words of Dennis Gedney might well sum up the satisfaction that comes from being part of the Victoria Golden Rods and Reels. "I like the companionship. I like the serenity and the quiet of the lake. It is complete wilderness. The solitude. When I am fishing, there is nothing else on my mind and the cares of the world are gone."
Sidebar:New members are welcome and for more information:Art Raven 250-478-9444Arlene Darlington 250-658-4987www.goldenrodsandreels.comwww.crd.bc.ca/parks/elkbeaver
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Bris 21:10 15 Jan 2004
The thruput rate of USB 2 is 480Mbps and IDE is about one quarter of that but a DVD burner will be less than either so whether you go for an external or internal drive is really down to cost. If you go for an external drive and you have USB 1 you will need to install a USB 2 PCI card in a spare slot in your PC (assuming you have one)as USB 1 only has a thruput rate of 12 Mbps (too low). Belkin do one for around £25 try this.. click here
Hope this helps.


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David Halberstam's masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the Vietnam tragedy, with a new Foreword by Senator John McCain.
The most comprehensive saga of how America became involved in Vietnam. . . . [I]t is also The Iliad of the American empire and The Odyssey of this nation's search for its idealistic soul.


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