Dec. 31, 2012 ? Much has been made of our ancestors "coming down out of the trees," and many researchers view terrestrial bipedalism as the hallmark of "humanness." After all, most of our living primate relatives -- the great apes, specifically -- still spend their time in the trees. Humans are the only member of the family devoted to the ground, living terrestrial rather than arboreal lives, but that wasn't always the case.
The fossil record shows that our predecessors were arboreal habitu?s, that is, until Lucy arrived on the scene. About 3.5 million years ago in Africa, this new creature, Australopithecus afarensis, appeared; Lucy was the first specimen discovered. Anthropologists agree that A. afarensis was bipedal, but had Lucy and her legions totally forsaken the trees? The question is at the root of a controversy that still rages.
"Australopithecus afarensis possessed a rigid ankle and an arched, nongrasping foot," write Nathaniel Dominy and his co-authors in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "These traits are widely interpreted as being functionally incompatible with climbing and thus definitive markers of terrestriality," says Dominy, an associate professor of anthropology at Dartmouth.
But not so fast; this interpretation may be a rush to judgment in light of new evidence brought to light by Dominy and his colleagues. They did what anthropologists do. They went out and looked at modern humans who, like Lucy, have feet adapted to terrestrial bipedalism, and found these people can still function as effective treeclimbers.
Co-authors Vivek Venkataraman and Thomas Kraft collaborated with Dominy on field studies in the Philippines and Africa that inform their PNAS paper. Venkataraman and Kraft are Dartmouth graduate students in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD program in the Department of Biological Sciences, and are supported by National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships.
The studies in Uganda compared Twa hunter-gatherers to their agriculturalist neighbors, the Bakiga. In the Philippines, the researchers studied Agta hunter-gatherers and Manobo agriculturalists. Both the Twa and the Agta habitually climb trees in pursuit of honey, a highly nutritious component of their diets. They climb in a fashion that has been described as "walking" up small-diameter trees. The climbers apply the soles of their feet directly to the trunk and "walk" upward, with their arms and legs advancing alternately.
Among the climbers, Dominy and his team documented extreme dorsiflexion -- bending the foot upward toward the shin to an extraordinary degree -- beyond the range of modern "industrialized" humans. Assuming their leg bones and ankle joints were normal, "we hypothesized that a soft-tissue mechanism might enable such extreme dorsiflexion," the authors write.
They tested their hypothesis using ultrasound imaging to measure and compare the lengths of gastrocnemius muscle fibers -- the large calf muscles -- in all four groups -- the Agta, Manobo, Twa and Bakiga. The climbing Agta and Twa were found to have significantly longer muscle fibers.
"These results suggest that habitual climbing by Twa and Agta men changes the muscle architecture associated with ankle dorsiflexion," write the scientists, demonstrating that a terrestrially adapted foot and ankle do not exclude climbing from the behavioral repertoire of human hunter- gatherers, or Lucy.
In their conclusions, the Dartmouth team highlights the value of modern humans as models for studying the anatomical correlates of behavior, both in the present and in the dim past of our fossil ancestors.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Dartmouth College. The original article was written by Joseph Blumberg.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Vivek V. Venkataraman, Thomas S. Kraft, and Nathaniel J. Dominy. Tree climbing and human evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208717110
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The Seahawks won! That's the good news. The not-as-good-but-not-that-bad news is that Seattle did not improve it's playoff seeding and will probably spend all of their time in the postseason on the road. Road Trip! *plays Holiday Road*
We don't know as of this writing if the Seahawks play the Redskins or Cowboys but we know when they play the Redskins or Cowboys. Here is the full playoff schedule:
Wild Card Round
Saturday, January 5th, 2013:
(6) Bengals at (3) Texans: 1:30 PST on NBC
(6) Vikings at (3) Packers: 5:30 PST on NBC
Sunday, January 6th, 2013:
(5) Colts at (4) Ravens: 10:00 AM PST on CBS
(5) Seahawks at (4) Winner of Cowboys/Redskins 1:30 PM PST on FOX
Divisional Round
Saturday, January 12, 2013:
(1) Broncos host lowest-remaining AFC seed, 1:30 PM PST
(1) Falcons host lowest-remaining NFC seed, 10:00 AM PST
(2) Patriots host highest-remaining AFC seed, 1:30 PM PST
So Seattle will be playing next Sunday, the last game of the first round. If they advance, it will all depend on what happens between the Packers and Vikings, but a rematch with the 49ers in two weeks is possible.
Follow Field Gulls throughout the playoffs for Seahawks coverage. I am also on Twitter if you please.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The top leaders in both parties on the House and Senate Agriculture committees have agreed to a one-year extension of the 2008 farm bill that expired in October, a move that could head off a possible doubling of milk prices next month.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow indicated that the House could vote on the extension as early as Sunday evening, though House leaders have not yet agreed to put it on the floor. In addition to the one-year extension that has the backing of the committees, the House GOP is also considering two other extension bills ? a one-month extension and an even smaller bill that would simply extend dairy policy that expires Jan. 1.
Expiration of those dairy programs could mean higher prices at the grocery store within a few weeks. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Americans face the prospect of paying $7 for a gallon of milk if the current dairy program lapsed and the government returned to a 1948 formula for calculating milk price supports.
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday afternoon that Republican leaders had not decided how they would proceed on the farm extension. Boehner has pushed back on passage of a new five-year farm bill for months, saying there were not enough votes to bring it to the House floor after the House Agriculture Committee approved it in July. The Senate passed its version of a farm bill in June.
The prospect of the higher milk prices has motivated some action. The bipartisan extension also includes disaster assistance to farmers affected by a lingering drought this year, along with extensions to other farm programs that expired in October.
Instead of just extending current dairy policy, the extension bill includes an overhaul of dairy programs that was in both the Senate and House committee bills. The new dairy programs include a new, voluntary insurance program for dairy producers. Those who choose that new program would also have to participate in a market stabilization program that could dictate production cuts when oversupply drives down prices ? an idea that hasn't gone over well with Boehner.
In July, he called the current dairy program "Soviet-style" and said the new program would make it even worse. Large food companies that process and use dairy products have backed Boehner, saying the program could limit milk supplies and increase their costs.
Stabenow blamed Boehner for getting to the point where an extension is the only option. "The lack of action by the House Republican leadership has put us in a situation where we risk serious damage to our economy unless we pass a temporary extension," she said.
One of the reasons Boehner has balked at bringing up a farm bill is disagreement in his caucus over how much money should be cut from food stamps, which make up roughly 80 percent of the half-trillion-dollar bill's cost over five years. House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., has unsuccessfully pushed his leadership for months to move on the legislation despite the disagreement over food aid.
On Sunday, Lucas said he hoped the extension would pass both chambers quickly as GOP leadership mulled their options.
"It is not perfect, no compromise ever is, but it is my sincere hope that it will pass the House and Senate and be signed by the president by January 1," he said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., retreats to a closed-door meeting with fellow Democrats as he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., work to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Senate and House leaders rushed to assemble a last-ditch agreement to stave off middle-class tax increases and possibly delay steep spending cuts in an urgent attempt to find common ground after weeks of gridlock. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., retreats to a closed-door meeting with fellow Democrats as he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., work to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Senate and House leaders rushed to assemble a last-ditch agreement to stave off middle-class tax increases and possibly delay steep spending cuts in an urgent attempt to find common ground after weeks of gridlock. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, center, arrives at his office in the Capitol as he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Neveda, try to negotiate a legislative solution to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, arrives at his office in the Capitol as he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Neveda try to negotiate a legislative solution to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona walks between the Senate chamber and the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, as Democrats and Republicans try to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Clouds roil over the White House in Washington on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, as Washington has less than 48 hours to avert the ?fiscal cliff,? a series of tax increases and spending cuts set to take hold on Jan. 1. Republican and Democratic negotiators in the Senate were hoping to reach a deal to avoid going over the cliff on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The top Senate negotiators on the effort to prevent the government from going over the "fiscal cliff" offered a pessimistic assessment Sunday, barely 24 hours before a deadline to avert tax hikes on virtually every American worker. But negotiations continued, with Vice President Joe Biden taking on a new role.
With the two sides differing on the income threshold for higher tax rates and how to deal with inheritance taxes, among other issues, talks between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appeared to have broken down. A McConnell spokesman said the Kentucky Republican reached out to Biden, a longtime friend, in hopes of breaking the impasse.
Republicans withdrew a long-discussed proposal to slow future cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients as part of a compromise to avoid the cliff. Democrats said that proposal had put a damper on the talks, and Republican senators emerging from a closed-door GOP meeting said it is no longer part of the equation.
Aides said the two sides remained at odds over the income threshold for higher tax rates, tax levels on large estates and whether Democratic demands for new money to prevent a cut in Medicare payments to doctors and renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed should be financed with cuts elsewhere in the budget. The aides demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
At stake are sweeping tax hikes and across-the-board spending cuts set to take effect at the turn of the year. Taken together, they've been dubbed the fiscal cliff, and economists warn the one-two punch ? which leaders in both parties have said they want to avoid ? could send the still-fragile economy back into recession.
Reid said he's been in frequent contact with President Barack Obama, who in a televised interview blamed Republicans for putting the nation's shaky economy at risk.
"We have been talking to the Republicans ever since the election was over," Obama said in the interview that was taped Saturday and aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." ''They have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers."
"The mood is discouraged," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with Democrats. He said he would be shocked if there was a deal Sunday. "The parties are much further apart than I hoped they'd be by now."
The pessimistic turn came as the House and Senate returned to the Capitol for a rare Sunday session. Reid and McConnell had hoped to have a blueprint to present to their rank and file by mid-afternoon.
"I'm concerned with the lack of urgency here. There's far too much at stake," McConnell said. "There is no single issue that remains an impossible sticking point ? the sticking point appears to be a willingness, an interest or courage to close the deal."
Reid said he is not "overly optimistic but I am cautiously optimistic," but reiterated that any agreement would not include the less generous inflation adjustment for Social Security.
"We're willing to make difficult concessions as part of a balanced, comprehensive agreement, but we'll not agree to cut Social Security benefits as part of a small or short-term agreement," Reid said.
McConnell and Reid were hoping for a deal that would prevent higher taxes for most Americans while letting rates rise at higher income levels, although the precise point at which that would occur was a major sticking point.
Obama had wanted to raise the tax rate on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000 from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. In talks with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, he offered to raise that threshold to $400,000.
The estate tax issue was particularly tricky since several Democrats, including veterans like Max Baucus of Montana, disagree with Obama's proposal to increase the top estate tax rate from 35 percent to 45 percent.
Republicans said Democrats pressed to turn off more than $200 billion in the across-the-board spending cuts over the coming two years. This so-called sequester is the punishment for last year's deficit "supercommittee" to strike a deal.
Hopes for blocking across-the-board spending cuts were fading and Obama's proposal to renew the 2-percentage-point payroll tax cut wasn't even part of the discussion.
Obama pressed lawmakers to start where both sides say they agree ? sparing middle-class families from looming tax hikes.
"If we can get that done, that takes a big bite out of the fiscal cliff. It avoids the worst outcomes. And we're then going to have some tough negotiations in terms of how we continue to reduce the deficit, grow the economy, create jobs," Obama said in the NBC interview.
Gone is the talk of a grand deal that would tackle broad spending and revenue demands and set the nation on a course to lower deficits. Obama and Boehner were once a couple hundred billion dollars apart on a deal that would have reduced the deficit by more than $2 trillion over 10 years.
Republicans have complained that Obama has demanded too much in tax revenue and hasn't proposed sufficient cuts or savings in the nation's massive health care programs.
Obama upped the pressure on Republicans to negotiate a fiscal deal, arguing that GOP leaders have rejected his past attempts to strike a bigger and more comprehensive bargain.
"The offers that I've made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me," Obama said.
Boehner disagreed, saying Sunday that the president had been unwilling to agree to anything "that would require him to stand up to his own party."
The trimmed ambitions of today are a far cry from the upbeat bipartisan rhetoric of just six weeks ago, when the leadership of Congress went to the White House to set the stage for negotiations to come.
But the deal in the works Sunday was not meant to settle other outstanding issues, including more than $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years, divided equally between the Pentagon and other government agencies. The deal also would not address an extension of the nation's borrowing limit, which the government is on track to reach any day but which the Treasury can put off through accounting measures for about two months.
That means Obama and the Congress are already on a new collision path. Republicans say they intend to use the debt ceiling as leverage to extract more spending cuts from the president. Obama has been adamant that unlike 2011, when the country came close to defaulting on its debts, he will not yield to those Republican demands.
Meanwhile, a senior defense official said if the sequester were triggered, the Pentagon would soon begin notifying its 800,000 civilian employees that they should expect some furloughs ? mandatory unpaid leave, not layoffs. It would then take some time for the furloughs to begin being implemented, said the official, who requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the internal preparations.
Lawmakers have until the new Congress convenes to pass any compromise, and even the calendar matters. Democrats said they had been told House Republicans might reject a deal until after Jan. 1, to avoid a vote to raise taxes before they had technically gone up, and then vote to cut taxes after they had risen.
___
Associated Press writers David Espo, Robert Burns, Julie Pace, Jim Kuhnhenn and Michele Salcedo contributed to this report.
The 11th Conference of the European Sociological Association will be held 28-31 August, 2013 in Torino, Italy.
The Research Network Sociology of Religion (RN34) has issued its call for papers. The call includes joint sessions with Sociology of Culture, Society and Sports, Sociology of Emotions, Qualitative Methods, and Sociology of Migration. (Visit http://www.esareligion.org/)
Abstract submission opens on 12 December 2012 and closes 1 February 2013.
Call for Papers RN34 ? Sociology of Religion Coordinators: Anne-Sophie Lamine? anne-sophie.lamine@misha.fr University of Strasbourg, France Heidemarie Winkel? hwinkel@uni-potsdam.de University of Postdam, Germany
Religion has often been understood as a response to personal, social or cultural crisis. Classical scholars, such as Peter L. Berger and Max Weber, pointed out that it provides a theodicy of good and evil ? an account that gives ultimate meaning in a meaningless world. Religions, Stark and Bainbridge (1985) contend, are other-worldly compensators for individuals in crisis ? for those who are deprived from this-worldly rewards. Even advocates of the secularization thesis often acknowledge that crisis and rapid social change in society temporarily motivate the popularity of religion (Bruce 1997). But religion, once considered to be in crisis under the secularizing powers of modernity, is alive and well in Europe. More than that: religion seems to thrive on what can now be called the crisis of modernity. Modern science, the nation state, capitalism, unrestricted consumption and the globalizing economy, have lost much of their credibility and plausibility in many European countries. In this cultural climate, the voices of traditional religious groups grow louder whereas, some say, we are witnessing a massive turn to holistic forms of spirituality (e.g., Campbell 2007). The atheist-secular worldview is more than ever contested by a fraction of Muslims, Christian creationists, Buddhists and other religious groups while a mirror-like process of anti-identification gives rise to alarmist discourses about the return of religions and particularly on the danger of the ?islamization of Europe?. Religion has once again become salient in the re-formation of identity and the construction of imagined communities: uprooted from tradition, modern individuals in identity crisis search for new (religious) values and meanings whereas some European nation states align themselves with their Christian heritage, long-standing traditions and religious pasts. Religion, then, can not easily be understood as the ?irrational? Other of modernity ? it is instead a common and valid response to the growing crisis of modernity. Jurgen Habermas (2005), once a furious critic of religion, argued from this perspective that intellectuals should include religious partners in the ?rational? conversation about modernity since both share a growing critique on the maladies of modernity. Motivated by these observations, the Research Network Sociology of Religion calls for papers on crisis, critique and change in relation to religion.
Particularlypapers are welcomed that discuss the following topics: 01RN34. Studies dealing with religion in crisis, i.e. the way religious traditions such as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and the like ? re-structure their organizations, beliefs, and practices and adopt, negotiate or resist processes of modernization, secularization and disenchantment.
02RN34. Studies dealing with the ways religion provides answers to existential crisis and, particularly, the crisis of modernity ? i.e. how and why Islam, Christianity and other religious-spiritual groups formulate a critique of and alternative to modern science, capitalism, mass-consumption and individualism.
03RN34. Studies dealing with the way crisis increases the salience of religious identities and cultural polarization, i.e., in what particular ways religion gives meaning in everyday life and if, how and why religious identity-formations induce processes of inclusion and exclusion; social cohesion and religious conflict.
04RN34. Studies focusing on the way religion changes the modern world in Europe and beyond, i.e., how rapid social changes motivate the appeal and popularity of religion and if, how and why such religions transform private and public domains in Europe.
05RN34. Sociology of religion (open)
07JS28JS34. RN34 Joint session with RN07 Sociology of Culture and RN28 Society and Sports Sport and religion/spirituality (Chairs: Davide Sterchele; Stef Aupers & Hubert Knoblauch)
Whereas the analogy between sport and religion has been criticized by many scholars mainly because of the lack (or low relevance) of the transcendent dimension in traditional sport practices, the recent sociological elaborations of the concept of spirituality seems to provide new interesting tools for interpreting the emerging forms of bodily movement. At the same time, the study of the analogies between traditional sports and institutionalized religions still generates relevant sociological insights.
In order to contribute to these streams of analysis and to open new horizons for further studies, the ESA research networks ?Sociology of Culture?, ?Society and Sports?, and ?Sociology of Religion?, invite potential contributors to submit abstracts to the joint session on ?Sport and religion/spirituality?. The session will thus provide a forum for exchange and sharing among sociologists of culture, sport and religion, who deal with these themes from different but overlapping perspectives.
RN34 web-page : http://www.esareligion.org/ 07JS34. RN34 Joint session with RN07 Sociology of Culture Cultures of Religion ? Religious Cultures (Chairs: Hubert Knoblauch & Regine Herbrik) ?Religious Culture is quite frequently used, particularly in the French context (?culture religieuse?) relating both, to the general as well as to the specific religious patterns of culture. It may serve well not only to address empirical questions concerning the increasing cultural significance of religion within Europe as well as globally; it may also connect recent theoretical approaches in the sociology of culture on the one hand with approaches in the sociology of religion. For the joint session we invite, therefore, contributions addressing both empirical as well as theoretical issues concerning ?religious cultures?.
11JS34. RN34 Joint session with RN11 Sociology of emotions Affects and Emotions in the Field of Religion (Chairs: Stef Aupers & C?cile Vermot) Generations of scholars of theology and religious studies have viewed affects, emotions, and religion as closely related issues. What can be said about the certain shapes, characteristics and forms of this relationship in present times? How far is the research on emotions especially crucial for the understanding of religious life in Europe and for the coexistence, or even living together, of different confessions? What role do ?emotional regimes? (Riis/Woodhead) or ?feeling rules? (Hochschild) play with regard to the formation of emotional cultures both in religious groups and communities and with regard to the quest for salvation or spirituality of individual persons?
20JS34. RN34 Joint session with RN20 Qualitative Methods Qualitative Research on Religion(Chairs: Regine Herbrik & Bernt Schnettler) We also encourage participants to present papers concerned with methodological questions related to the specific problems of empirical research in the Study of Religions. Can we transfer methods from other fields of research to the sociology of religion or do we need special, field-specific methods? What can we learn from methods used in neighbouring disciplines? Which sets of methods can be recommended for empirical analyses targeting micro-macro issues in understanding religion? What role does the gender issue play in this? We are especially interested in papers reporting empirical research finding in the sociology of religion using qualitative research methods in combination with methodological reflections.
34JS35. RN34 Joint session with RN35 Sociology of Migration Migrant religions as a challenge to European identities (Chairs: Berta Alvarez-Miranda & Heidemarie Winkel) Already in classical sociological theory, religion functioned as a looking glass of change in times of crisis. At present, migrant religions are challenging and contributing to a critique of European identities. How do various European contexts accommodate migrant religions? What are the experiences, attitu?des and demands of their followers? How does the treatment of matters related to Islam inform on European identities and their current transformations? What conceptual and empirical tools does socio?logical analysis offer for the understanding of the varieties of internal and external religious critique?
Although industrial and commercial properties are constantly appearing on the market, they don?t get preferential market listings the same way regular homes do. You need to know how to search to find commercial properties, and this article can provide you with the best way to do this.
To ensure that you receive quality service when searching for commercial property, find a company which cares for their customers. If you don?t, you might wind up suffering over the long haul for an otherwise preventable error.
Social media is an important tool for keeping brokers and investors appraised of your services. After completion of a transaction, you should work to cultivate an online presence.
Look for the biggest buildings within your price range when you?re considering commercial investments. Managing five units might seem far less complicated than fifty, but the work that you put into financing and setting up lease agreements will be the same no matter how many units you manage. Both require commercial financing, and a larger building will cost less to finance per unit.
Commercial loans require the borrower to order the appraisal. Banks do not allow the appraisal to be used at a later time. Therefore, to protect yourself and keep your commercial loan on track, order the appraisal yourself.
Before you purchase a property, talk to a tax advisor. Such an expert can inform you of what a building will cost you, and the tax impact of your income from a property. Utilize the advice given to you by your tax adviser in order to locate a property in an area where your investment will incur the least taxes.
Bear in mind that, with any newly written lease, rent considerations and strategies will be essential to the future of your investment. Have an exact rental amount in mind before you discuss your property with a potential tenant. This can help you keep targets and set a benchmark for your investment.
Look for the motivated sellers. Find sellers, particularly those that want to get rid of a property below the market?s value. Until you find a deal in real estate by a very motivated seller, nothing in real estate can happen.
Your new space may need improvements before you can occupy it. The changes don?t have to be extensive. You may just want to repaint or rearrange furniture. The renovation project can get larger and could consist of knocking down, moving or building walls to make the floor plan usable. Negotiate payment for these improvements ahead of time, and attempt to have the landlord pay at least part of the costs.
You should try to understand the NOI metric. To maximize your success, keep your numbers in the positive values.
Check out the state of the environment around your property. You are ultimately responsible for disposing of environmental waste from your building. Are you considering buying a property within a flood zone, which can effect your insurance, storm water drainage and possibly impede future growth potential? Think twice. Call some agencies that assess the enviornment and find out what is up with the area your property is in.
Know what your goals are when you are purchasing commercial property. One important thing to have clear up front is whether you are thinking of using it for your personal business or if you, instead, want to lease out the property. As you prepare to seek out a new commercial property, you should first set very specific goals and requirements.
When considering properties for your investment portfolio, abide by the principles of feng shui. A space that is open and not cluttered is one of the principles id feng shui that buyers like.
Before choosing a real estate broker, you need to know how they negotiate. Inquire into their specific credentials and training; do not be afraid to ask for references. You should also make sure that they use ethical methods and know how to get the best deals. It is also completely appropriate to seek examples of their past efforts to strike real estate deals for other clients.
Be sure you position yourself well when it comes to negotiating any lease for commercial real estate, you want to do things like decrease what could be considered as a default event. Decreasing these will prevent tenants from performing a default on the lease after your negotiations. A default is frustrating and costly.
Buying a larger property is great for a variety of reasons. Having more units in the same property gives you more profit potential without much more work. Properties with fewer than ten units are often harder to sell, since many investors believe that more units mean more money.
You should put an ad out for your commercial real estate when it is on sale, do it locally and out of town. Do not assume that only local investors will be interested. There are many private investors who buy property outside of their area if the price is affordable.
There are differences between brokers in the commercial real estate field. A full service broker works with both the tenants and the landlord. Some agents represent only the tenants. If you intend to rent rather than buy, retaining the services of the latter type of broker may benefit you, as tenant-only brokers know what works when representing tenants.
Visit the commercial real estate properties that you are interested in. It?s a good idea to hire a building contractor to come with you and do on-the-spot inspections of properties you are considering. Start the negotiations, and make the necessary preliminary proposals. Carefully look over any counteroffers you receive before you make your final choice, whatever that may be.
If there is more then one property you are considering, acquire the house survey checklist for each one during your site tour. Accept responses to the initial proposals, but don?t go further than that unless you inform the property owners. Don?t hesitate to let it be known that you are entertaining other options. This may ensure that you get a much more viable deal.
Know what your specific needs are prior to starting your commercial real estate hunt. You should write down the features you are looking for, such as size or settings.
Be sure to negotiate on the fact of what you are, the seller or buyer. Make it clear that you wish to be heard and refuse to accept an unfair price.
When buying rental properties, avoid the difficulties involved with smaller properties. Experienced investors advise buying complexes with over 10 units. No situation is the same as another, and proper reseal should help you reach a knowledgeable decision regarding any purchase.
When you are pursuing an investment in commercial real estate, finding the right type is only the start of the process. Dealing with commercial property takes knowledge and action; therefore, it is very important to learn all you can prior to seeking out your property.
Weigh all of the information available in regards to Property Overseas for Sale. Understand the many facets of Property Overseas for Sale by slowly building up your knowledge of the subject. After you have all the pertinent information, you will be able proceed with any plans you might have.
In this image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke rises from buildings from heavy shelling in Homs, Syria, on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)
In this image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke rises from buildings from heavy shelling in Homs, Syria, on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)
In this image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke rises from buildings from heavy shelling in Homs, Syria, on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian rebels stepped up their siege of a military base in north of the country Friday as government warplanes bombed surrounding areas to support the defenders, activists said.
The fighting around Mannagh airbase near the Turkish border came as foreign ministry officials in Ankara said two Syrian air force generals had defected and crossed the border.
Rebels have been advancing in different areas in northern Syria, capturing several bases in and around the embattled city of Aleppo in recent weeks.
"The fighting did not stop all night around Mannagh airport," said Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed. He added that Syrian military warplanes bombed rebel positions around the camp in an attempt to take the pressure off the base.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels reached the edge of the air base late Thursday and that heavy fighting continued into Friday.
The Observatory and Saeed also reported heavy clashes between troops and rebels in an around the Palestinian refugee camp of Handarat in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and commercial center, which opposition fighters have been trying for six months to capture.
Meanwhile, Russia's foreign minister said Moscow has proposed talks with the main Syrian opposition coalition, even though it had previously criticized Western countries for recognizing the group.
Sergey Lavrov told reporters that Russia has contacted the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces through the Russian Embassy in Egypt and "we expressed readiness to conduct a meeting" with coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib.
The opposition leader al-Khatib quickly delivered an apparent snub: "If we don't represent the Syrian people why is he inviting us?" He called on Russia to demand that President Bashar Assad step down, "a main condition in any negotiations."
"The Syrian people haven't heard one fair word from Russia to the Syrian people, especially to the children, innocent people and civilians who are killed every day with Russian weapons," al-Khatib said in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV.
Russia has been one of Assad's strongest supporters and used its veto right alongside China at the U.N. Security Council to protect its old ally from international sanctions.
It has increasingly sought to distance itself from the Syrian strongman with top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, making comments that suggest Russia is resigned to Assad losing power.
However, Russia continues to oppose calls for Assad's ouster, and has criticized Western countries for recognizing the opposition coalition, formed in November, as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. Moscow says this runs counter to agreements seeking to promote political transition in Syria.
In Beirut, airport officials said the U.N. envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi left Lebanon to Dubai on his way to Moscow where is expected to discuss the Syria civil war with Russian officials later this week.
In Turkey, foreign ministry officials said Friday that the two defecting generals were "regional Syrian Air Force commanders" and are now in a camp where army defectors stay in the country.
They refused to give the generals' identities or say how they escaped from Syria. They spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to talk to the press.
The defection comes days after the commander of Syria's military police Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal defected to Turkey. Al-Shallal is among the most senior members of Assad's military to defect.
Dozens of Syrian generals have defected since the country's crisis began in March 2011.
In other parts of the country, the Observatory reported fighting and shelling in areas including some neighborhoods of the capital Damascus, its suburbs, the central province of Hama and Homs and the region of Quneitra on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Observatory reported heavy clashes in the southern province of Daraa, mostly in the town of Busra al-Harir, and the Tel Shehab area near the border with Jordan.
Syrian rebels are fighting a 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad's regime. Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed in the crisis, which began with pro-democracy protests but has morphed into a civil war.
____
Associated Press Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The State Department has closed its embassy in the Central African Republic and ordered the ambassador and his diplomatic team to leave the country as rebels there continue to advance and violence escalates, U.S. officials said Thursday.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, said that at the State Department's request, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had directed U.S. Africa Command to evacuate U.S. citizens and designated foreign nationals from the U.S. Embassy in Bangui "to safe havens in the region."
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. Embassy had temporarily suspended operations, but not diplomatic relations with the country.
"This decision is solely due to concerns about the security of our personnel and has no relation to our continuing and long-standing diplomatic relations" with the Central African Republic, Ventrell said in a statement.
Shortly after announcing the evacuation Thursday, the State Department warned U.S. citizens against travel to the Central African Republic, saying it could not "provide protection or routine consular services to U.S. citizens" and urging Americans who have decided to stay to "review their personal security situation and seriously consider departing" on commercial flights. Four days earlier, the State Department had issued a warning recommending against travel to the country and authorizing its non-emergency personnel in Bangui to leave.
U.S. officials said about 40 people were evacuated on an U.S. Air Force plane bound for Kenya. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the details of the operation.
The departure of Ambassador Laurence Wohlers and his staff comes as the president of the Central African Republic on Thursday urgently called on France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching this capital city, but French officials declined to offer any military assistance.
Rebels have seized at least 10 towns across the sparsely populated north, and residents in the capital of 600,000 people fear insurgents could attack at any time.
The developments suggest the Central African Republic could be on the brink of another violent change in government, something not new to the impoverished country. The current president, Francois Bozize, himself came to power nearly a decade ago in the wake of a rebellion.
Speaking to crowds in Bangui, Bozize pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France, Central African Republic's former colonial ruler.
About 200 French soldiers are already in the country, providing technical support and helping to train the local army, according to the French defense ministry.
French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that France wants to protect its interests in Central African Republic and not Bozize's government. Paris is encouraging peace talks between the government and the rebels.
President Barack Obama late last year sent about 100 U.S. special operations forces to the region ? including Central African Republic ? to assist in the hunt for Joseph Kony, the fugitive rebel leader of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army. Forces have been hunting the elusive warlord in Central African Republic, South Sudan and Congo.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
China has opened up its domestic sat-nav network to commercial use across the Asia-Pacific region.
Beidou - named after the Chinese word for the Big Dipper constellation - offers an alternative to the US's global positioning system (GPS).
It had previously been restricted to the Chinese military and government.
A spokesman said that Beidou is targeting a 70-80% share of the Chinese market in related location services by 2020.
The China Satellite Navigation Office added that by that time it also intended the service to be available across the globe.
Growth plan
Chinese officials say that Beidou can identify a user's location to 10m (33ft), their velocity to within 0.2 metres per second, and clock synchronisation signals to within 50 nanoseconds.
At present the receiver chips cost several times more than their GPS equivalents.
However - assuming prices fall - the Chinese government believes manufacturers will want to build them into equipment alongside those made for the US system, to offer users improved coverage.
Six satellites are already in orbit, but officials said they planned to add a further 40 to the system over the next decade, according to a report by China Daily.
Satellite launches
Organisers have estimated that the market for transport, weather, and telecom spin-off services from Beidou's signals could be worth 200bn yuan ($32bn; ?20bn) by 2015.
However, it is widely thought another motivation for the project is China's desire not to be reliant on a foreign-operated system that could be turned off at a time of conflict,
The country recently showed off domestically-built drone aircraft at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, which would be reliant on such location data to operate.
Beidou is one of a growing number of alternatives to GPS under development.
Russia is developing the Glonass system for both civilian and military use.
It has 23 operational satellites in orbit. However, a recent report by Russia Today suggested the country's defence ministry had reservations about the project after a corruption scandal and technical problems.
The EU is also working on its own network - Galileo. It began sending test signals from its third satellite at the beginning of the month - a minimum of four are necessary to lock onto a location.
Meanwhile, UK defence company BAE Systems is working on Navsop - a system that relies on hundreds of existing signals including those used for radio, TV, wi-fi and mobile phones.
It suggests that when completed the system could offer "superior performance" to more expensive dedicated navigation satellite networks. However, it has not announced a launch date.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration's chief environmental watchdog, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, is stepping down after a nearly four-year tenure marked by high-profile brawls over global warming pollution, the Keystone XL oil pipeline, new controls on coal-fired plants and several other hot-button issues that affect the nation's economy and people's health.
Jackson, the agency's first black administrator, constantly found herself caught between administration pledges to solve controversial environmental problems and steady resistance from Republicans and industrial groups who complained that the agency's rules destroyed jobs and made it harder for American companies to compete internationally.
The GOP chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Fred Upton, said last year that Jackson would need her own parking spot at the Capitol because he planned to bring her in so frequently for questioning. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for her firing, a stance that had little downside during the GOP primary.
Jackson, 50, a chemical engineer by training, did not point to any particular reason for her departure. Historically, Cabinet members looking to move on will leave at the beginning of a president's second term.
"I will leave the EPA confident the ship is sailing in the right direction, and ready in my own life for new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference," she said in a statement. Jackson gave no exact date for her departure, but will leave after Obama's State of the Union address in late January.
In a separate statement, Obama said Jackson has been "an important part of my team." He thanked her for serving and praised her "unwavering commitment" to the public's health.
"Under her leadership, the EPA has taken sensible and important steps to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, including implementing the first national standard for harmful mercury pollution, taking important action to combat climate change under the Clean Air Act and playing a key role in establishing historic fuel economy standards that will save the average American family thousands of dollars at the pump, while also slashing carbon pollution."
Environmental groups had high expectations for the Obama administration after eight years of President George W. Bush, a Texas oilman who rebuffed the agency's scientists and refused to take action on climate change. Jackson came into office promising a more active EPA.
But she soon learned that changes would not occur as quickly as she had hoped. Jackson watched as a Democratic-led effort to reduce global warming emissions passed the House in 2009 but was abandoned by the Senate as economic concerns became the priority. The concept behind the bill, referred to as cap-and-trade, would have set up a system in which power companies bought and sold pollution rights.
"That's a revolutionary message for our country," Jackson said at a Paris conference a few months after taking the job.
Jackson experienced another big setback last year when the administration scrubbed a clean-air regulation aimed at reducing health-threatening smog. Republican lawmakers had been hammering the president over the proposed rule, accusing his administration of making it harder for companies to create jobs.
She also vowed to better control toxic coal ash after a massive spill in Tennessee, but that regulation has yet to be finalized more than four years after the spill.
Jackson had some victories, too. During her tenure, the administration finalized a new rule doubling fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. The requirements will be phased in over 13 years and eventually require all new vehicles to average 54.5 mpg, up from 28.6 mpg at the end of last year.
She shepherded another rule that forces power plants to control mercury and other toxic pollutants for the first time. Previously, the nation's coal- and oil-fired power plants had been allowed to run without addressing their full environmental and public health costs.
Jackson also helped persuade the administration to table the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought carbon-heavy tar sands oil from Canada to refineries in Texas.
House Republicans dedicated much of their time this past election year trying to rein in the EPA. They passed a bill seeking to thwart regulation of the coal industry and quash the stricter fuel efficiency standards. In the end, though, the bill made no headway in the Senate. It served mostly as election-year fodder that appeared to have little impact on the presidential election.
Stowers study hints that stem cells prepare for maturity much earlier than anticipatedPublic release date: 27-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gina Kirchweger gxk@stowers.org 816-806-1036 Stowers Institute for Medical Research
KANSAS CITY, MOUnlike less versatile muscle or nerve cells, embryonic stem cells are by definition equipped to assume any cellular role. Scientists call this flexibility "pluripotency," meaning that as an organism develops, stem cells must be ready at a moment's notice to activate highly diverse gene expression programs used to turn them into blood, brain, or kidney cells.
Scientists from the lab of Stowers Investigator Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D., report in the December 27, 2012 online issue of Cell that one way cells stay so plastic is by stationing a protein called Ell3 at stretches of DNA known as "enhancers" required to activate a neighboring gene. Their findings suggest that Ell3 parked at the enhancer of a developmentally regulated gene, even one that is silent, primes it for future expression. This finding is significant as many of these same genes are abnormally switched on in cancer.
"We now know that some enhancer misregulation is involved in the pathogenesis of solid and hematological malignances," says Shilatifard. "But a problem in the field has been how to identify inactive or poised enhancer elements. Our discovery that Ell3 interacts with enhancers in ES cells gives us a hand-hold to identify and to study them."
In 2000, Shilatifard identified Ell3 as the third member of the Ell (for "Eleven-nineteen lysine-rich leukemia gene") family of elongation factors, proteins that increase the rate at which genes are expressed. "At the time, we didn't think much of Ell3 because it was highly expressed in testes," says Shilatifard, noting that then people thought that sperm were merely vessels used to carry paternal DNA to an egg and that associated factors would have little relevance to the regulation of future gene expression in the resulting embryo.
But a few years back, a curious Open University graduate student working in the Shilatifard lab, Chengqi Lin, started exploring a potential function for the neglected gene by initiating a global search for regions occupied by Ell3 in the genome of mouse embryonic stem cells. His search in collaboration with a bioinformatician in the Shilatifard lab, Alexander S. Garruss, revealed that Ell3 sits on more than 5,000 enhancers, including many that regulate genes governing stem cell maturation into spinal cord, kidney, and blood cells.
"What was interesting was that Ell3 marked enhancers that are active and inactive, as well as enhancers that are known as "poised," says Lin, referring to a transition state from inactive to active. "That indicated that Ell3's major function might be to prime activation of genes that are just about to be expressed during development."
The fact that silent genes can be "primed" for expression was no surprise: researchers knew that the enzymatic machine that copies DNA into the RNA blueprint for proteinsa protein called Pol IIoften pauses at the start of a gene, presumably revving its engine in preparation to jump across the genetic start gate in response to a developmental signal. However, Shilatifard and colleagues showed several years ago that paused Pol II is not a prerequisite for rapid transcriptional induction.
The surprise came when researchers used a molecular trick to deplete mouse ES cells of Ell3 and then did a "genomic" survey. They found that paused Pol II vanished from the start sites of many genes in Ell3-deficient cells. This means that not only does Ell3 preferentially mark stem enhancers, but also that its presence there is necessary to keep an idling Pol II ready for action.
Most of the current study defines how, when the developmental time is right, enhancer-bound Ell3 cooperates with components of a big-boss elongation factor called the Super Elongation Complex to release Pol II from the start gate, allowing the expression of genes required for stem cell differentiation. Critical among those findings is their observation that mouse stem cells depleted of Ell3 failed to activate genes expressed in mature cell types.
These results alone are cause for any lab to start chilling the champagne, yet a surprising coda to the study, leaves readers with yet another revelation. Collaborating with Fengli Guo, Ph.D., head of the Stowers electron microscopy core, the team prepared highly magnified images of mouse sperm and observed that both Ell3 and Pol II were present, in sperm nuclei.
In mammals, gene expression regulated by Pol II, a process known as transcription, does not begin until the formation of a single-celled zygote, that is, well after the union of sperm and egg germ cells. "It is very significant that Ell3 and other factors that regulate transcription are found in sperm," says Lin, the study's first author. Lin is cautious in interpreting this finding, "but it would be very exciting to further investigate whether transcription factors found in sperm could contribute to the decondensation of sperm chromatin or even further gene activation after fertilization by serving as epigenetic markers."
Shilatifard is also cautious as questions remain to be explored, among them whether Ell3 and Pol II actually contact DNA inside sperm or whether similar processes occur in unfertilized eggs and function in this process. Nonetheless, he feels this finding has fundamental implications, not only for development, but also for where he's going next.
"This work has opened up a whole new area of research in my lab," says Shilatifard, who has in the last decade focused on aberrant gene expression associated with leukemia. "If we find that transcription factors bind to specific regions of chromatin in germ cells, I may focus on germ cells in the next few decades. This would open a huge door enabling us to determine the role of these factors in early development."
###
Zhuojuan Luo, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Shilatifard lab, also contributed to the study.
Funding for the study came from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, the National Institutes of Health (Shilatifard R01CA89455 and R01CA150265), and Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.
About the Stowers Institute for Medical Research
The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a non-profit, basic biomedical research organization dedicated to improving human health by studying the fundamental processes of life. Jim Stowers, founder of American Century Investments, and his wife, Virginia, opened the Institute in 2000. Since then, the Institute has spent over 900 million dollars in pursuit of its mission.
Currently, the Institute is home to nearly 550 researchers and support personnel; over 20 independent research programs; and more than a dozen technology-development and core facilities.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Stowers study hints that stem cells prepare for maturity much earlier than anticipatedPublic release date: 27-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gina Kirchweger gxk@stowers.org 816-806-1036 Stowers Institute for Medical Research
KANSAS CITY, MOUnlike less versatile muscle or nerve cells, embryonic stem cells are by definition equipped to assume any cellular role. Scientists call this flexibility "pluripotency," meaning that as an organism develops, stem cells must be ready at a moment's notice to activate highly diverse gene expression programs used to turn them into blood, brain, or kidney cells.
Scientists from the lab of Stowers Investigator Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D., report in the December 27, 2012 online issue of Cell that one way cells stay so plastic is by stationing a protein called Ell3 at stretches of DNA known as "enhancers" required to activate a neighboring gene. Their findings suggest that Ell3 parked at the enhancer of a developmentally regulated gene, even one that is silent, primes it for future expression. This finding is significant as many of these same genes are abnormally switched on in cancer.
"We now know that some enhancer misregulation is involved in the pathogenesis of solid and hematological malignances," says Shilatifard. "But a problem in the field has been how to identify inactive or poised enhancer elements. Our discovery that Ell3 interacts with enhancers in ES cells gives us a hand-hold to identify and to study them."
In 2000, Shilatifard identified Ell3 as the third member of the Ell (for "Eleven-nineteen lysine-rich leukemia gene") family of elongation factors, proteins that increase the rate at which genes are expressed. "At the time, we didn't think much of Ell3 because it was highly expressed in testes," says Shilatifard, noting that then people thought that sperm were merely vessels used to carry paternal DNA to an egg and that associated factors would have little relevance to the regulation of future gene expression in the resulting embryo.
But a few years back, a curious Open University graduate student working in the Shilatifard lab, Chengqi Lin, started exploring a potential function for the neglected gene by initiating a global search for regions occupied by Ell3 in the genome of mouse embryonic stem cells. His search in collaboration with a bioinformatician in the Shilatifard lab, Alexander S. Garruss, revealed that Ell3 sits on more than 5,000 enhancers, including many that regulate genes governing stem cell maturation into spinal cord, kidney, and blood cells.
"What was interesting was that Ell3 marked enhancers that are active and inactive, as well as enhancers that are known as "poised," says Lin, referring to a transition state from inactive to active. "That indicated that Ell3's major function might be to prime activation of genes that are just about to be expressed during development."
The fact that silent genes can be "primed" for expression was no surprise: researchers knew that the enzymatic machine that copies DNA into the RNA blueprint for proteinsa protein called Pol IIoften pauses at the start of a gene, presumably revving its engine in preparation to jump across the genetic start gate in response to a developmental signal. However, Shilatifard and colleagues showed several years ago that paused Pol II is not a prerequisite for rapid transcriptional induction.
The surprise came when researchers used a molecular trick to deplete mouse ES cells of Ell3 and then did a "genomic" survey. They found that paused Pol II vanished from the start sites of many genes in Ell3-deficient cells. This means that not only does Ell3 preferentially mark stem enhancers, but also that its presence there is necessary to keep an idling Pol II ready for action.
Most of the current study defines how, when the developmental time is right, enhancer-bound Ell3 cooperates with components of a big-boss elongation factor called the Super Elongation Complex to release Pol II from the start gate, allowing the expression of genes required for stem cell differentiation. Critical among those findings is their observation that mouse stem cells depleted of Ell3 failed to activate genes expressed in mature cell types.
These results alone are cause for any lab to start chilling the champagne, yet a surprising coda to the study, leaves readers with yet another revelation. Collaborating with Fengli Guo, Ph.D., head of the Stowers electron microscopy core, the team prepared highly magnified images of mouse sperm and observed that both Ell3 and Pol II were present, in sperm nuclei.
In mammals, gene expression regulated by Pol II, a process known as transcription, does not begin until the formation of a single-celled zygote, that is, well after the union of sperm and egg germ cells. "It is very significant that Ell3 and other factors that regulate transcription are found in sperm," says Lin, the study's first author. Lin is cautious in interpreting this finding, "but it would be very exciting to further investigate whether transcription factors found in sperm could contribute to the decondensation of sperm chromatin or even further gene activation after fertilization by serving as epigenetic markers."
Shilatifard is also cautious as questions remain to be explored, among them whether Ell3 and Pol II actually contact DNA inside sperm or whether similar processes occur in unfertilized eggs and function in this process. Nonetheless, he feels this finding has fundamental implications, not only for development, but also for where he's going next.
"This work has opened up a whole new area of research in my lab," says Shilatifard, who has in the last decade focused on aberrant gene expression associated with leukemia. "If we find that transcription factors bind to specific regions of chromatin in germ cells, I may focus on germ cells in the next few decades. This would open a huge door enabling us to determine the role of these factors in early development."
###
Zhuojuan Luo, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Shilatifard lab, also contributed to the study.
Funding for the study came from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, the National Institutes of Health (Shilatifard R01CA89455 and R01CA150265), and Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.
About the Stowers Institute for Medical Research
The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a non-profit, basic biomedical research organization dedicated to improving human health by studying the fundamental processes of life. Jim Stowers, founder of American Century Investments, and his wife, Virginia, opened the Institute in 2000. Since then, the Institute has spent over 900 million dollars in pursuit of its mission.
Currently, the Institute is home to nearly 550 researchers and support personnel; over 20 independent research programs; and more than a dozen technology-development and core facilities.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 27-Dec-2012
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