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Friday, April 5, 2013

Army employee shot, killed at Fort Knox in Ky.

This Aug. 18, 2010 image provided by the U.S. Army shows the Chaffee Gate entrance to Fort Knox. An Army civilian employee was shot and killed in a parking lot at Kentucky's Fort Knox on Wednesday, and investigators were seeking to question a man in connection with the shooting, authorities said. Army officials said in a news release late Wednesday April 3, 2013 that the victim was an employee of the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, which handles personnel actions for soldiers. The shooting occurred in a lot outside the command. The victim was transported to the Ireland Army Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead. (AP Photo/US Army)

FORT KNOX, Ky. (AP) ? An Army civilian employee was shot and killed in a parking lot at Kentucky's Fort Knox, and investigators were seeking to question a man in connection with the shooting, authorities said.

Army officials said in a news release late Wednesday that the victim was an employee of the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, which handles personnel actions for soldiers. The shooting occurred in a lot outside the command. The victim was transported to the Ireland Army Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

"Special Agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command are investigating a personal incident and not a random act of violence," said Chris Grey, spokesman for the independent Army investigative agency.

The identity of the victim was being withheld pending notification of family.

Police were seeking to speak with a person of interest in the case. The news release identified him as a 5-foot, 9-inch black man who is American and is believed to be using a black Yamaha motorcycle for transportation.

Fort Knox police received a 911 call about the shooting at about 5:40 pm., the news release said.

As a security measure, the post's gates were locked down at about 5:50 p.m. About an hour later, the main gate was fully reopened, but due to enhanced security measures, those coming and going were advised to expect delays.

Fort Knox spokesman Kyle Hodges said late Wednesday that the post remained on a heightened security alert, but said officials don't believe the person of interest was still on post.

He said he could not comment on whether the victim was targeted, or whether the shooting may have been related to his work. He also couldn't say what type of weapon was used.

The FBI dispatched two agents to Fort Knox and is assisting in the investigation, said Mary Trotman, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Louisville.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-04-Fort%20Knox%20Shooting/id-c49c8226a9814be49359b67c4b8c63dc

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Potential therapy for human prion disease

Apr. 3, 2013 ? Human diseases caused by misfolded proteins known as prions are some of most rare yet terrifying on the planet -- incurable with disturbing symptoms that include dementia, personality shifts, hallucinations and coordination problems. The most well-known of these is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which can be described as the naturally occurring human equivalent of mad cow disease.

Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have for the first time identified a pair of drugs already approved for human use that show anti-prion activity and, for one of them, great promise in treating these universally fatal disorders.

The study, led by TSRI Professor Corinne Lasm?zas and performed in collaboration with TSRI Professor Emeritus Charles Weissmann and Director of Lead Identification Peter Hodder, was published this week online ahead of print by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new study used an innovative high-throughput screening technique to uncover compounds that decrease the amount of the normal form of the prion protein (PrP, which becomes distorted by the disease) at the cell surface. The scientists found two compounds that reduced PrP on cell surfaces by approximately 70 percent in the screening and follow up tests.

The two compounds are already marketed as the drugs tacrolimus and astemizole. Tacrolimus is an immune suppressant widely used in organ transplantation. Tacrolimus could prove problematic as an anti-prion drug, however, because of issues including possible neurotoxicity.

However, astemizole is an antihistamine that has potential for use as an anti-prion drug. While withdrawn voluntarily from the U.S. over-the-counter market in 1999 because of rare cardiac arrhythmias when used in high doses, it has been available in generic form in more than 30 countries and has a well-established safety profile. Astemizole not only crosses the blood-brain barrier, but works effectively at a relatively low concentration.

Lasm?zas noted that astemizole appears to stimulate autophagy, the process by which cells eliminate unwanted components. "Autophagy is involved in several protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases," she said. "So future studies on the mode of action of astemizole may uncover potentially new therapeutic targets for prion diseases and similar disorders."

The study noted that eliminating cell surface PrP expression could also be a potentially new approach to treat Alzheimer's disease, which is characterized by the build-up of amyloid ? plaque in the brain. PrP is a cell surface receptor for A? peptides and helps mediate a number of critical deleterious processes in animal models of the disease.

The first author of the study, "Unique Drug Screening Approach for Prion Diseases Identifies Tacrolimus and Astemizole as Antiprion Agents," is Yervand Eduard Karapetyan of The Scripps Research Institute. Other authors include Gian Franco Sferrazza, Minghai Zhou, Gregory Ottenberg, Timothy Spicer, Peter Chase, Mohammad Fallahi, Peter Hodder and Charles Weissmann of The Scripps Research Institute.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Scripps Research Institute.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Y. E. Karapetyan, G. F. Sferrazza, M. Zhou, G. Ottenberg, T. Spicer, P. Chase, M. Fallahi, P. Hodder, C. Weissmann, C. I. Lasmezas. Unique drug screening approach for prion diseases identifies tacrolimus and astemizole as antiprion agents. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1303510110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/D8wf0tOnTHw/130403154305.htm

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Newspaper publishes photo of Pistorius in blades

In this photo taken March 24 2013, shows Olympian athlete Oscar Pistorius running on the track at the University of Pretoria South Africa. The photo was taken by a pupil from the Voortrekker High School in Pietermaritzburg while on a hockey tour in Pretoria. A South African newspaper published the grainy cellphone image of Pistorius at a running track in his carbon fiber blades Thursday as the Olympian?s agent said his return to training was now imminent, but denied he was already in training. (AP Photo/Lisa Smith)

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2012 file photo, South Africa's Oscar Pistorius competes during Men's 100m T44 round 1 at the 2012 Paralympics in London. A judge in South Africa says Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, can leave South Africa to compete in international competition, with conditions. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2013 file photo, olympian Oscar Pistorius stands following his bail hearing in Pretoria, South Africa. A judge in South Africa says Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, can leave South Africa to compete in international competition, with conditions. (AP Photo/File)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? A South African newspaper published a grainy cellphone photograph of Oscar Pistorius at a running track in his carbon fiber blades Thursday as the Olympian's agent said his return to training was now imminent ? but denied he was already in training.

The Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper had the image of what it said was Pistorius, who was charged with murder for the Valentine's Day shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, on the front page of its Thursday edition.

In the photograph ? taken by a high school student from a bus passing by the track ? the double amputee is seen from some distance wearing his blades and dark lycra running clothes and is walking on a track with his hands on his hips.

The photo was taken on March 24 by teenager Lisa Smith, her field hockey coach said, when their team was visiting the University of Pretoria where Pistorius' regular practice facility is.

The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that Pistorius had been at the track in the South African capital city on the day of the photograph.

It was the first time Pistorius had put his blades on since he shot dead Steenkamp in his home in the early hours of Feb. 14, his agent, Peet van Zyl, told the AP later on Thursday.

Pistorius was only "having a jog around the track," the agent said, as the newspaper claimed sources had told it the Olympic 400-meter runner and Paralympic champion had begun full training at the university on March 21. Van Zyl disputed that and said neither he nor Ampie Louw, Pistorius' coach and the man who controls his training sessions, were present at the track on the day the photograph was taken.

Field hockey coach and school sports director Charmaine Koekemoer said she was driving the bus past the track at around 10.15 a.m. on the Sunday morning when members of her Hoerskool Voortrekker girls hockey team started shouting "There's Oscar, there's Oscar!" from the back.

Student Smith then took the photo on her BlackBerry, Koekemoer said. It shows Pistorius in the distance with the bars of a metal fence in the foreground. He is the only person in the shot.

"The kids were very excited," Koekemoer told the AP. "That was the excitement, seeing a world icon in real life. It was nothing to do with his case.

"We didn't see him running around the track. He was just walking to the 100 meter end line down the final stretch. It looked like he was going to take his blades off."

The single photo, a grainy image taken through the black fence and showing Pistorius walking on the far side of the track, was accompanied by a front-page story in Beeld under the headlines "Oscar is back on the track" and "In training with other athletes."

Pistorius' management team was expecting the photo to be published, Van Zyl said, after Pistorius had told them he had visited his track with some Australian athletes on the day a little under two weeks ago. Koekemoer ? who was visiting with her students from the eastern city of Pietermaritzburg ? said there were other athletes around Pistorius when they saw him.

Neither Pistorius' coach nor his agent knew about the track visit until afterward, Van Zyl said.

But while Pistorius wasn't yet in a training routine, the agent said, his return could be any day now. The image of the world's most famous disabled athlete back on his unmistakable running blades was likely now to become more and more common again.

"He might get up this morning and call (coach) Ampie (Louw) and say he wants to be at the track at one o'clock," Van Zyl said. Van Zyl also said Pistorius' desire to start training again did not show disrespect to the family of Steenkamp.

Pistorius denies murder in the Valentine's Day killing of model Steenkamp, saying he mistook her for a nighttime intruder in his home. His next scheduled court appearance is June 4, when prosecutors say they intend to serve indictments.

___

Follow Gerald Imray at www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-04-OLY-Pistorius-Shooting/id-8ce9bd85cdbc4d788ec4aaf9600e315c

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Hubble sees J 900 masquerading as a double star

Apr. 2, 2013 ? A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows Jonckheere 900 or J 900, a planetary nebula -- glowing shells of ionized gas pushed out by a dying star. Discovered in the early 1900s by astronomer Robert Jonckheere, the dusty nebula is small but fairly bright, with a relatively evenly spread central region surrounded by soft wispy edges.

Despite the clarity of this Hubble image, the two objects in the picture above can be confusing for observers. J 900's nearby companion, a faint star in the constellation of Gemini, often causes problems for observers because it is so close to the nebula -- when observation conditions are bad, this star seems to merge into J 900, giving it an elongated appearance. Hubble's position above the Earth's atmosphere means that this is not an issue for the space telescope.

Astronomers have also mistakenly reported observations of a double star in place of these two objects, as the planetary nebula is quite small and compact.

J 900's central star is only just visible in this image, and is very faint -- fainter than the nebula's neighbor. The nebula appears to display a bipolar structure, where there are two distinct lobes of material emanating from its center, enclosed by a bright oval disk.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/kMnYyBDbXrY/130402101919.htm

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Transformers 4 Will Be a Chinese Co-Production

Here's a very simple lesson in Hollywood economics. When someone makes a movie that grosses comfortably over a hundred million dollars in some other, non-US territory, the studio responsible will do whatever it takes to maximize the presence of the sequel in that same territory. And so it comes as no surprise to learn that with Hollywood in general casting lusting eyes at the massive Chinese market and with Michael Bay's Transformers 3 grossing $165 million in the Chinese mainland, the upcoming Mark Wahlberg starring Transformers 4 will be an official Chinese co-production.

The trade off is pretty much a no brainer from a production standpoint. In exchange for including some Chinese cast - cast always being a secondary concern in these films anyway - and shooting in some Chinese locations, the producers get direct investment from China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises while also guaranteeing that the film can be released wide across the country without the hassle of having to be selected as one of the limited number of foreign productions allowed in via the restrictive import laws.

Sure, the China Movie Channel is a government organization run directly by SARFT - responsible for film censorship, among other things - but, hey. Nobody seems to watch these things for story, either, so it's not like it really matters what requirements may be placed there, right?

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927162/news/1927162/

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