Mutant protein may allow flu to kill

It's one of the biggest mysteries in flu: why is it a mild infection in some people, and a killer in others? The 2009 pandemic flu often caused no symptoms at all, yet was deadly in some people. Some of those cases, it now appears, may be down to a protein that normally stops some viruses from invading cells ? but which is mutated in some people.

Paul Kellam of the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, and colleagues bred mice with a mutation that stopped them making a protein called IFITM3. This is normally made by cells in response to interferon, an immune signalling chemical that turns on antiviral defences. We know these are important in flu ? the virus only packs 10 genes, and one is devoted to opposing interferon.

Strains of flu that do not normally make mice very sick ? including the 2009 pandemic virus ? left mice without IFITM3 at death's door. The virus penetrated deeper into their lungs, replicated 10 times more, and induced severe pneumonia, just like bad cases of pandemic flu.

Perhaps most tellingly, people in intensive care with severe pandemic or even seasonal flu in the UK were 17 times more likely than Europeans in general to carry a mutant, non-functional gene for IFITM3.

Most of the people with severe flu didn't have the mutant, but "that isn't really surprising", says Kellam, as "many other factors affect the severity of the disease". But IFITM3 seems significant, given its effect in mice and people ? and in cultured human cells, where it reduced viral replication. The team even found that IFITM3 has become more common in humans since 10,000 years ago, just when we are thought to have first caught flu, from livestock.

The protein affects viruses ? which are normally taken up by the cell inside a bubble of membrane ? including dengue and West Nile as well as flu. It stops them reaching the cell nucleus, and instead routes them to waste disposal. The finding suggests that a drug that mimics IFITM3 might fight all those viruses ? or at least that people who make the mutant form should be prioritised for vaccination.

Meanwhile, more basic biological functions can sometimes save us from flu. An analysis of 193 children who caught the deadly H5N1 bird flu found that, as usual with flu, not everyone had a runny nose. Kids under 5 who did, however, were nearly 10 times less likely to die. The study was published last week.

Journal reference: Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10921

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1dcab056/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn216240Emutant0Eprotein0Emay0Eallow0Eflu0Eto0Ekill0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

james jones james jones black forest aladdin ufc 144 fight card ufc 144 results acura nsx

Huawei MyTouch for T-Mobile, meet Mr. Blurrycam

So the rumors about Huawei pushing out a duo of T-Mobile MyTouch devices just got a little beefier, now that the real deal has actually been given the Mr. Blurrycam treatment. Above and below are images grabbed by TmoNews that show off the non-QWERTY model, which are expected to come running on Android 2.3.6 and taking advantage of a WVGA display. While the two mid-range devices will be the next in line to bear the MyTouch name, they'll also be known as the U8680 and U8730 elsewhere. If you enjoyed these pics, don't wait to click on the source link for more.

Continue reading Huawei MyTouch for T-Mobile, meet Mr. Blurrycam

Huawei MyTouch for T-Mobile, meet Mr. Blurrycam originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  TmoNews  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/qTGbQKNpBTU/

gary johnson gary johnson stephen curry girl with the dragon tattoo hes just not that into you hes just not that into you kawasaki disease

Surprise! Study finds internet worth a lot of money, is responsible for 4.7 percent of US economy

Ever wondered how much the interwebs contribute to the Uncle Sam's bottom line? Thanks to the Boston Consulting Group, now you don't have to. It's estimated the net contributes a cool $684 billion is to the US gross domestic product. That's roughly 4.7 percent of US GDP, the same tranche as its effect on Japan's economy, but less than the 5.5, 7.3 and 8.3 percent clocked in by China, South Korea and the United Kingdom, respectively. And per the report, the internet is just getting started, with future growth expected to hit eight percent on average by 2016 for developed countries, and well north of 20 percent in booming economies like those of Argentina and India. Hit the source for the full report.

Surprise! Study finds internet worth a lot of money, is responsible for 4.7 percent of US economy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mashable  |  Boston Consulting Group  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/8IoWk_lzHmA/

oscar predictions the lion king nba all star game 2012 academy awards 2012 nominations academy awards independent spirit awards 2012 jan brewer

Best SEO Writing Tips to Boost Online Business

Always use SEO writing tips if you are having an online business. Words can make and can demolish the reputation of a company.? Good content will always compel the search engine to rank it in the top ranking.? SEO Content writer should be well aware about how the search engine works? Search engine crawls the pages of website and index the words or phrases. So while writing the content, the writer should think from the point of the target audience that what they will think while their search for the relevant website.

The content should be simple, understandable and easily reachable to the viewers.? For getting your website on top ranking in the organic search than there is a need to do its optimization.

Here are the best SEO tips; by following them one can boost his online business:

*On-page:? The first and foremost requirement for getting your website in search engines top ranking is-?make it according to the search engine? as it can be easily crawled.

Basically, it is good to follow Google web master guidelines. There are certain On-page factors that should be considered while designing web site. These are
a. ?Title
b. ?H1,H2, H3 tags
c. ?Description
d. ?Image optimization
e. ?No broken links
f. ?Robots. Txt
g. ?Link structure
h. ?Site map etc

*Keywords:? An utmost care should be taken while choosing the keywords for your website. In case of new web site, highly competitive keywords should be given less preference as they will bring a great competition, and will set you least in the search engine ranking. So try to use long tail keywords For ex, If you are providing taxi service in Delhi then keyword should be ?taxi services in Delhi? rather than ?taxi services? . This will increase the chances to get your website on the top ranking.

*Original article: By writing original articles, one is automatically moving towards the SEO writing tips.? Make sure that your content should be 95 to 100 percent original as search engine can easily recognize a copied content. So be smart while writing but not over smart.

*Web Content: Content is the king for website. While designing the content writer should think from the point of the viewer. Stress should be given to simple, unique, realistic words on your website so that they can easily reachable and understandable to the target audience.

*Blog Creation: For making the website popular and attracting more and more traffic , need should be given on the blog writing. In this a company should create a blog for its website and do a regular post in it as it will make your blog search engine friendly.

*Social Sharing: Social bookmarking & Forum posting are the ways to increase the back links of your website

Always try to bring innovation in your writing and by following above mentioned tips you can easily optimize your website as per the liking of search engine.
?

Source: http://business.ezinemark.com/best-seo-writing-tips-to-boost-online-business-7d34dac2c71f.html

neil degrasse tyson davy jones death born this way foundation lytro camera lytro camera andrew brietbart us soccer

Create the Magic Customer Service Initiative Relaunches for 2012 ...

March 1st, 2012 by Ennis Chamber

In preparation for the tourist season and ahead of St. Patrick?s Day, Ennis Chamber and Ennis Development Forum in association with KT Sullivan & Associates, are re-launching the Create The Magic Initiative.? Create The Magic was launched in March 2011 in recognition of tough economic times for local businesses and their customers. ?It is an initiative which has challenged business owners and employees to work together to really listen to their customers and raise the bar on their service offering. ?It is intended to bring positive energy, pride and success into the community and enable Ennis and Clare to be the first out of recession and to be considered the friendliest town and county in Ireland. ?The initiative has since broadened to encompass collaborative marketing initiatives to increase local and tourist shopping to sustain and grow Ennis and County Clare businesses and employment.? This is achieved through training programmes for owners/managers and frontline staff as well as networking events where businesses share their knowledge and experiences.? To date over 30 businesses including nearly 200 staff have undertaken the training.? The type of businesses participating in the initiative has ranged from hospitality, services, retail, trades, and professional services; any is applicable to any business from any sector who deal directly with customers.? Those businesses that have participated have all experienced a deeper awareness of customer service within their businesses and many have seen measurable improvement in their relationships with customers, staff and overall business due to the initiative.

In their quest to entice consumers to ?shop locally? business must realise that Customer Care and Employee Engagement is their biggest competitive advantage.? In this economy consumers are looking for more than good value and a fair price. ?The global Customer Service bar is being raised every day. ?Many people living in the area or travelling through County Clare are experiencing customer service all over the world. ?The intention of the initiative is to help businesses stay ahead of the curve by enhancing their service offering and employee engagement to give consumers an ?experience? they cannot get elsewhere. ?This will ultimately add to the profitability of every business and to the viability of the local business community. ?Trainer Kathleen Sullivan of KT Sullivan & Associates added: ?Create The Magic is both an initiative and a forum that provides business and company owners with world class ideas, a plan and a forum to enhance their service offering, engage and inspire their employees and take advantage of a fantastic business network.?

Any business interested in knowing more about the initiative is invited to attend the next Networking and Information Event in the Temple Gate Hotel on Wednesday 7^th February from 6.15pm-8pm.? Cost of the event is just ?5 to cover refreshments served on the night and those attending will receive an insight into current customer service trends and learnings from Kathleen Sullivan.? This event will also welcome back all existing businesses who are part of the initiative.? Participating businesses will be on hand to provide feedback on what this initiative has done for their business.

Training for any new businesses and further training for existing businesses will take place the following week, Tuesday 13^th, Wednesday 14^th and Thursday 15^th of March, with afternoon and evening sessions. ?Full details of the training will be given at the Networking and Information Event, however if any interested business is unable to attend on the night, they are still welcome to participate in the initiative and training by contacting the Ennis Chamber.

To make a booking for the Networking and Information Night please contact Ennis Chamber on 065-6842988 or email: events@ennischamber.ie

Source: http://www.ennischamber.ie/create-the-magic-customer-service-initiative-relaunches-for-2012/

kraken lizard lick towing megatron richard simmons war of 1812 war of 1812 jeffrey eugenides

For Those Who Have An Online Or Offline Business You Will ...

Posted on March 1, 2012 by pope12

If you have been reading up on quality backlinks, then you could have a good understanding of what is out there on the web. But what is useful for you will hinge on a few variables. You can find good sites to read that you can depend on, however not everything you need is necessarily in one place. Yes, it can be frustrating when you think you have all you need, but you really do not. To be sure, even the best online experts sometimes get stumped when looking for special kinds of information. You can feel free to add the following info about this topic into your research findings.

Whether you have a business in the real world or a web based business you?re going to discover that there are plenty of advantages to Internet Marketing and advertising. Many little business owners decide to market their business and they don?t even know there are plenty of available benefits. When it comes to marketing any kind of business you will discover that it?s a difficult thing to do, and also the same goes for Internet Marketing and advertising. You are also going to find a in relation to any kind of advertising and marketing whether online or offline persistence, money and also plenty of work is involved. You should also be aware that Internet Marketing and advertising is something which can not only promote a web based business but it can also market a real world business.

The Internet has turned into a place where many people turn to when they want to connect with their friends and family or even do a certain amount of shopping at their favorite store. Because they don?t have to travel and mainly because things are so much cheaper on the internet, plenty of people are doing plenty of their shopping on the internet. Because of this you ought to comprehend that the Internet is actually a wonderful way to market just about any type of business or product. Putting your products online can boost the number of sales and profits and revitalize your business. Loads of mom and pop shops are putting their products on the internet, namely Ebay, and they are finding great success with increasing their income using this technique.

An additional reason offline businesses are turning to the online world for marketing is simply because it can be much cheaper than making use of common offline marketing. You must comprehend that putting your product on eBay or creating a web site to sell your product from is much cheaper when compared with radio or TV Advertising. An additional benefit of Internet advertising and marketing is that customers each day can reach into the millions. For those who have a well known product that plenty of people on the internet may wind up finding your website mainly because they are searching for your product. I should also point out that you?ll be producing more income mainly because people are actually searching for your product.

Every day of the year you can be opened, if you have a web based store, and that?s a great advantage. Something else you might have to do is simply compare the different prices of marketing that you could get for traditional offline marketing and compare that to Internet Advertising. The above really only just begins to scratch the surface of what is offered concerning build backlinks. Take a look at what is happening on your end, and that may help you to perfect what you need. The most innocuous details can sometimes hold the most important keys as well as the greatest power. The best approach is to try to envision the effects each point could have on you. The latter half of our discussion will center on a couple highly relevant issues as they concern your possible situation. Never before has it been easier to begin a business, and that?s all due to the Internet, and right away, you can reach millions of customers. You can contact customers immediately and also take orders by making use of email, which is actually an instant form of communication. And if you possess some sort of business where you have plenty of competition you?re going to discover that having a presence online is going to help you beat that competition.

One final thing that I ought to point out is that in relation to marketing online you will discover that there are plenty of different methods in which this can be accomplished. An additional great thing about marketing on the internet is that you can build an e-mail list and wind up building a long lasting relationship with your customers. So no matter what your advertising and marketing, you will discover that marketing on the internet will be a wonderful method to improve your customer base and create more income.

This entry was posted in auto.

Source: http://drgupope.org/?p=605

kawasaki disease texas longhorns texas longhorns francesca woodman kennedy center honors neil diamond danny gokey

Samsung Galaxy S II now available on US Cellular, arrives in stores tomorrow

As we predicted last week, the Galaxy S II will arrive in US Cellular stores tomorrow, March 1, with online availability beginning today. The award winning smartphone will cost you $229.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two year contract (you'll get another $100 off if you're a new customer), and will surf on the carrier's 3G network rather than its soon-to-launch LTE wavelengths. 

It's the same Galaxy S II you've grown to love, complete with a 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 1.2 Ghz dual-core Exynos processor, and 16 GB internal storage. It's shipping with Gingerbread, and US Cellular hasn't made its Android 4.0-update plans clear as of yet, though we're hoping they'll keep on top of it. 

Those of you who've been patiently waiting can grab yours today at the source link, or sit tight and head into a US Cellular retail location tomorrow. 

Source: US Cellular

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Iw0r5weCQAk/story01.htm

internet censorship sveum benetton ads cornucopia best buy black friday deals thanksgiving crafts matt cassel