Cancer cells adapt nerve cell mechanisms to fuel aggressive tumor … – News-Medical.net

February 21, 2017 at 2:28 AM

How we think and fall in love are controlled by lightning-fast electrochemical signals across synapses, the dynamic spaces between nerve cells. Until now, nobody knew that cancer cells can repurpose tools of neuronal communication to fuel aggressive tumor growth and spread.

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report those findings in two recent studies, one in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and the second in Developmental Cell.

"Many properties of aggressive cancer growth are driven by altered cell signaling," said Dr. Sandra Schmid, senior author of both papers and Chair of Cell Biology at UT Southwestern. "We found that cancer cells are taking a page from the neuron's signaling playbook to maintain certain beneficial signals and to squelch signals that would harm the cancer cells."

The two studies find that dynamin1 (Dyn1) - a protein once thought to be present only in nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord - is also found in aggressive cancer cells. In nerve cells, or neurons, Dyn1 helps sustain neural transmission by causing rapid endocytosis - the uptake of signaling molecules and receptors into the cell - and their recycling back to the cell surface. These processes ensure that the neurons keep healthy supplies at the ready to refire in rapid succession and also help to amplify or suppress important nerve signals as necessary, Dr. Schmid explained.

"This role is what the cancer cells have figured out. Aggressive cancer cells have usurped the mechanisms that neurons use for the rapid uptake and recycling of neural transmitters. Instead of neural transmitters, the cancer cells use Dyn1 for rapid uptake and recycling of EGF (epidermal growth factor) receptors. Mutations in EGF receptors are drivers of breast and lung cancers," she said of the Developmental Cell study.

In order to thrive, cancer cells must multiply faster than nearby noncancerous cells. EGF receptors help them do that, she explained.

Cancer cell survival is another factor in disease progression. In the PNAS study, the Schmid lab found that aggressive cancer cells appear to have adapted neuronal mechanisms to thwart a key cancer-killing pathway triggered by activating "death receptors" (DRs) on cancer cells. Specifically, aggressive cancer cells appear to have adapted ways to selectively activate Dyn1 to suppress DR signaling that usually leads to cancer cell death.

"It is amazing that the aggressive cancers use a signaling pathway to increase the activity of EGF and also turn on Dyn1 pathways to suppress cancer death - so you have this vicious circle," said Dr. Schmid, who holds the Cecil H. Green Distinguished Chair in Cellular and Molecular Biology.

She stressed that less aggressive cancers respond to forms of chemotherapy that repress EGF signaling and/or die in response to the TRAIL-DR pathway. However, aggressive lung and breast cancer cells have adapted ways to commandeer the neuronal mechanisms identified in these studies.

The hope is that this research will someday lead to improved strategies to fight the most aggressive cancers, she said. Currently, her laboratory is conducting research to identify Dyn1 inhibitors as potential anticancer drugs using a 280,000-compound library in a shared facility at UT Southwestern.

"Cancer is a disease of cell biology. To grow, spread, and survive, cancer cells modify normal cellular behavior to their advantage. They can't reinvent the underlying mechanisms, but can adapt them. In these studies, we find that some cancer cells repurpose tools that neurons use in order to get a competitive advantage over nearby normal cells," she said.

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Stanford-developed nanostraws sample a cell’s contents without damage – Stanford University News

Cells within our bodies divide and change over time, with thousands of chemical reactions occurring within each cell daily. This makes it difficult for scientists to understand whats happening inside. Now, tiny nanostraws developed by Stanford researchers offer a method of sampling cell contents without disrupting its natural processes.

Nicholas Melosh, associate professor of materials science and engineering, developed a new, non-destructive system for sampling cells with nanoscale straws. The system could help uncover mysteries about how cells function. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A problem with the current method of cell sampling, called lysing, is that it ruptures the cell. Once the cell is destroyed, it cant be sampled from again. This new sampling system relies on tiny tubes 600 times smaller than a strand of hair that allow researchers to sample a single cell at a time. The nanostraws penetrate a cells outer membrane, without damaging it, and draw out proteins and genetic material from the cells salty interior.

Its like a blood draw for the cell, said Nicholas Melosh, an associate professor of materials science and engineering and senior author on a paper describing the work published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The nanostraw sampling technique, according to Melosh, will significantly impact our understanding of cell development and could lead to much safer and effective medical therapies because the technique allows for long term, non-destructive monitoring.

What we hope to do, using this technology, is to watch as these cells change over time and be able to infer how different environmental conditions and chemical cocktails influence their development to help optimize the therapy process, Melosh said.

If researchers can fully understand how a cell works, then they can develop treatments that will address those processes directly. For example, in the case of stem cells, researchers are uncovering ways of growing entire, patient-specific organs. The trick is, scientists dont really know how stem cells develop.

For stem cells, we know that they can turn into many other cell types, but we do not know the evolution how do they go from stem cells to, say, cardiac cells? There is always a mystery. This sampling technique will give us a clearer idea of how its done, said Yuhong Cao, a graduate student and first author on the paper.

The sampling technique could also inform cancer treatments and answer questions about why some cancer cells are resistant to chemotherapy while others are not.

With chemotherapy, there are always cells that are resistant, said Cao. If we can follow the intercellular mechanism of the surviving cells, we can know, genetically, its response to the drug.

The sampling platform on which the nanostraws are grown is tiny about the size of a gumball. Its called the Nanostraw Extraction (NEX) sampling system, and it was designed to mimic biology itself.

In our bodies, cells are connected by a system of gates through which they send each other nutrients and molecules, like rooms in a house connected by doorways. These intercellular gates, called gap junctions, are what inspired Melosh six years ago, when he was trying to determine a non-destructive way of delivering substances, like DNA or medicines, inside cells. The new NEX sampling system is the reverse, observing whats happening within rather than delivering something new.

Its a super exciting time for nanotechnology, Melosh said. Were really getting to a scale where what we can make controllably is the same size as biological systems.

Building the NEX sampling system took years to perfect. Not only did Melosh and his team need to ensure cell sampling with this method was possible, they needed to see that the samples were actually a reliable measure of the cell content, and that samples, when taken over time, remained consistent.

When the team compared their cell samples from the NEX with cell samples taken by breaking the cells open, they found that 90 percent of the samples were congruous. Meloshs team also found that when they sampled from a group of cells day after day, certain molecules that should be present at constant levels remained the same, indicating that their sampling accurately reflected the cells interior.

With help from collaborators Sergiu P. Pasca, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Joseph Wu, professor of radiology, Melosh and co-workers tested the NEX sampling method not only with generic cell lines, but also with human heart tissue and brain cells grown from stem cells. In each case, the nanostraw sampling reflected the same cellular contents as lysing the cells.

The goal of developing this technology, according to Melosh, was to make an impact in medical biology by providing a platform that any lab could build. Only a few labs across the globe, so far, are employing nanostraws in cellular research, but Melosh expects that number to grow dramatically.

We want as many people to use this technology as possible, he said. Were trying to help advance science and technology to benefit mankind.

Melosh is also a professor in the photon science directorate at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Child Health Research Institute, the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, Stanford ChEM-H and the Precourt Institute for Energy. Wu is also the Simon H. Stertzer, MD, Professor; he is director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Child Health Research Institute, Stanford ChEM-H and the Stanford Cancer Institute. Pasca is also a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Child Health Research Institute, the Stanford Neurosciences Institute and Stanford ChEM-H.

The work was funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, Stanford Bio-X, the Progenitor Cell Biology Consortium, the National Institute of Mental Health, an MQ Fellow award, the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation and the Child Health Research Institute.

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Deep learning predicts hematopoietic stem cell development – Phys.Org

February 21, 2017 What are they going to be? Hematopoietic stem cells under the microscope: New methods are helping the Helmholtz scientists to predict how they will develop. Credit: Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen

Autonomous driving, automatic speech recognition, and the game Go: Deep Learning is generating more and more public awareness. Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen and their partners at ETH Zurich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now used it to determine the development of hematopoietic stem cells in advance. In 'Nature Methods' they describe how their software predicts the future cell type based on microscopy images.

Today, cell biology is no longer limited to static states but also attempts to understand the dynamic development of cell populations. One example is the generation of different types of blood cells from their precursors, the hematopoietic stem cells. "A hematopoietic stem cell's decision to become a certain cell type cannot be observed. At this time, it is only possible to verify the decision retrospectively with cell surface markers," explains Dr. Carsten Marr, head of the Quantitative Single Cell Dynamics Research Group at the Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen's Institute of Computational Biology (ICB).

He and his team have now developed an algorithm that can predict the decision in advance. So-called Deep Learning is the key. "Deep Neural Networks play a major role in our method," says Marr. "Our algorithm classifies light microscopic images and videos of individual cells by comparing these data with past experience from the development of such cells. In this way, the algorithm 'learns' how certain cells behave."

Three generations earlier than standard methods

Specifically, the researchers examined hematopoietic stem cells that were filmed under the microscope in the lab of Timm Schroeder at ETH Zurich. Using the information on appearance and speed, the software was able to 'memorize' the corresponding behaviour patterns and then make its prediction. "Compared to conventional methods, such as fluorescent antibodies against certain surface proteins, we know how the cells will decide three cell generations earlier," reports ICB scientist Dr. Felix Buggenthin, joint first author of the study together with Dr. Florian Bttner.

But what is the benefit of this look into the future? As study leader Marr explains, "Since we now know which cells will develop in which way, we can isolate them earlier than before and examine how they differ at a molecular level. We want to use this information to understand how the choices are made for particular developmental traits."

In the future, the focus will expand beyond hematopoietic stem cells. "We are using Deep Learning for very different problems with sufficiently large data records," explains Prof. Dr. Dr. Fabian Theis, ICB director and holder of the Mathematical Modelling of Biological Systems Chair at the TUM, who led the study together with Carsten Marr. "For example, we use very similar algorithms to analyse disease-associated patterns in the genome and identify biomarkers in clinical cell screens."

Explore further: Enough is enoughstem cell factor Nanog knows when to slow down

More information: Buggenthin, F. et al. (2017): Prospective identification of hematopoietic lineage choice by deep learning. Nature Methods, DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.4182

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‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Meredith Gets Caught Between Alex & Riggs in ‘Civil War’ – Moviefone

"Grey's Anatomy" Season 13 finally has some semi-good news for Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo). ABC's scoop on Episode 15, "Civil War" sounds especially promising for fans who 1) want Meredith to get back in the hospital game after her suspension, and 2) want to see more of Meredith and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers). It's possible Mer and Alex may even get to work at the hospital at the same time again!

ABC just released details -- although not yet photos -- on "Civil War," and this time it doesn't sound like Eliza Minnick (Marika Dominiczyk) is the main focus of the war. Instead, there are multiple battlefronts, including a work (and love?) triangle between Meredith, Alex, and Nathan Riggs (Martin Henderson).

Here's ABC's tease for "Civil War," which airs Thursday, March 9:

"Richard, Jackson, April and Catherine tackle a grueling trauma case intensified by hospital politics. Amelia finally faces her feelings about Owen, and Meredith gets caught between Nathan and Alex over a patient."

Obvious question: Who gets to be Iron Man in this "Civil War"? On a slightly more serious note, it's good to see Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) might actually start talking to her own husband again. The rest of the episode sounds tense, but tense can be good (when it's not infuriating).

At this point, Episode 14 has yet to air. Here's the ABC synopsis for this Thursday's February 23 episode, called "Back Where You Belong":

"Alex returns to the hospital and discovers a lot has changed since he left. Meanwhile, Jo has to make a difficult decision on a case, and Arizona tries to distance herself from Eliza."

Here's that promo:Based on ABC's photos for this episode (including the shot above), it looks like Riggs and Maggie (Kelly McCreary) will be spending a lot of time together. Maybe they'll bond?

In case you're wondering about the week gap between Feb. 23's Episode 14 and March 9's Episode 15, it's because "When We Rise: The People Behind the Story" is airing from 8 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 2, before "When We Rise" airs from 9 to 11 p.m. There's no "Grey's" that week.

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Anatomy Lab Live: Review of Solihull show where fine dining and autopsies are on menu – Birmingham Mail

Solihull has played host to a new dinner show with real heart... and lungs, brains and intestines.

Because diners at the Village Hotel were offered an extra course with their meal - live dissection.

Welcome to Anatomy Lab Live, the brainchild of teacher Sam Piri, who was inspired to create this evenings infotainment after watching the delight of schoolchildren studying biology.

The event begins with a good dinner of salmon, served with roast potatoes, green beans and roasted butternut squash and carrots, followed by apple pie and custard or Eton mess - washed down with wine or lager.

The only clue of what is to come is an unsettling table centre piece, made up of medical waste sacks, syringes, and petri dishes.

After the food has been cleared away, a curtain is drawn back to reveal an operating theatre, complete with a body lying on a trolley, feet poking out from under a white sheet.

Dressed in full scrubs, pathologist Sam peels back the blanket and reaches carefully into the gaping chest.

There is a gasp from the audience as he pulls out the heart and lungs, holding them high for everyone to see, before setting them down on a stainless-steel table.

Former forensic science student Kellie Bown at the next table to me, is clearly enjoying herself. Its like the most macabre dinner party ever, she says.

Thankfully all is not quite as it seems - the body on the operating table is plastic, the insides pig organs, chosen because they are almost identical to humans.

The operating theatre is a decommissioned pathology laboratory from a Sheffield hospital, rebuilt inside the banqueting room at the Village Hotel in Solihull.

This is only the opening night in Birmingham, but the show is proving offally popular with tickets for Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle and Blackpool performances already sold out.

Sam dissects the brain, heart and lungs for the audience to see how they work. He explains the left lung is smaller than the right to make space for the heart and demonstrates by feeding a plastic tube into the lungs, then putting the other end to his pursed lips and blowing them up like a ballon.

He even brings the organs round to each table so we can get a closer look.

If things start getting a bit too much for people, they are free to walk out, get some fresh air and compose themselves, then come back in, he says.

The brains look like blotches of blancmange spilt on the tabletop and smell like the bin in a butchers shop. Suddenly Im glad we werent served pork for dinner.

I take a deep breath and lean in for a closer look but Kellie keeps her distance, covering her mouth and nose as her face turns the same shade of pale pinks as the pig brains.

I wasnt expecting to get so close, she admits. I dont mind looking at them, its the smell I cant stand. I dont eat meat!

Not everyone is so squeamish. During the mid-show interval 100 diners don rubber gloves to poke and prod the organs, even picking them up to pose for photographs.

Eve Hubbleday is here to indulge her fascination with anatomy and rummages around inside the body as if she was digging through the discount bin at the Next sale.

The 32 year-old, from Birmingham, says: Ive always been interested in the human body, but this is the first time Ive seen anything like this. The chance to get hands on was too good to miss.

Her fianc Tom Ruthven, 30, is president of Coventry University Occupational Therapy Society and is one of many students in the audience.

This is a great chance to see the inner workings of the human body after learning all the theory during our lectures, he says. Its is a lot more interactive than the stuff we do in the classroom.

Fellow society member Beth Waudby, 20, adds: And a lot more fun. Im really enjoying it.

The second half starts with Sam pulling out the stomach and intestines, which resemble a deep sea monster and smell equally foul.

Sam points to the gallbladder, the luminous bile inside glowing green. It looks like a dinosaur egg, thats the only way I can describe it, he says.

Then comes the pancreas which feels a bit like a bunch of grapes.

The intestines and other organs are bought from slaughter houses that kill 3,500 pigs each day to meet demand for pork, sausages and bacon.

Sams company Vivit Apparatus which is Latin for Living Machine has a special licence from the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) to put on these shows.

His team also use the organs and hand-drawn diagrams to explain how diseases like meningitis and strokes effect the body.

Sam says: With the NHS in crisis under unprecedented pressure, we want to educate people so they understand and can take ownership for their own health.

They even amputate a leg using an enormous pork thigh between the plastic torso and knee.

Medical student Alice Gwyn-Jones, 23, spends several minutes cutting through the flesh and bone with a giant hacksaw before Sam delicate carves it to show the audience the bone and artery.

Alice says: If this was a live patient, you would need to clamp the artery first to stop blood spurting everywhere.

At the end of the evening the discarded organs are tipped into the heavy duty yellow sacks labelled, Clinical waste for incineration only, to dispose of them safely.

Sams dad Kevin, the companys chief operating officer, says: Thats the worst part of the job, the smell is unbelievable. In summer its so bad we have to tape the bin lid shut.

With that I make my way home, taking time to digest everything I have learned before deciding Ill probably pass on those sausages I was intending to have for breakfast tomorrow.

*There are still a few tickets left for Anatomy Lab Live in London, Leeds, Plymouth, Exeter, and Cornwall at http://www.anatomylablive.co.uk.

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Anatomy Lab Live: Review of Solihull show where fine dining and autopsies are on menu - Birmingham Mail

Anatomy of jihad – The Nation – The Nation

The state has the work gloves on again to cut the revolting plantation down to size. The cordless reciprocating saw has all the power and velocity needed to chop down the smaller trees. If you attach a larger blade it can even reach out to cut down branches that are away from the base. But it never touches the roots.

The cross-section of a tree trunk tells you everything you need to know about its origins, nourishment, growth and demise. Dendrochronology is a comprehensive field of study on its own, but the anatomy of a tree trunk can be sufficiently understood through its five main components: bark, cambium, sapwood, growth rings and heartwood.

The bark protects the tree from the outside world; cambium produces new cells; sapwood transports water and minerals; growth rings highlight the age and the heartwood, at the core, defines the very nature of the tree. The concentric circles epitomised by the growth rings, and the various ingredients of the tree, help us study each section distinctly.

A cross-section of ideological violence shows similar concentric circles. Theres apologia shielding the inner structure, propaganda producing new adherents, ideologues propagating and justifying the violence, and the ideology at the core. The number of growth rings determines the extent to which the violent ideology has seeped to the branches.

The anatomy of armed jihad is all about studying these concentric circles: Mullah/madrassa, jihadism, Islamism, Muslim supremacy/takfir and the apologia that shields it all from the outside world. The latter could be anything, from using legitimate criticism of Western policies as smokescreen to claims that devotees at a religious shrine, or place of worship, were indulging in heresy and hence asking for trouble from brutal purists.

While the apologia, like any other gamut of excuses, ranges from the shameful to the criminal, its the other four parts of the jihadist structure that need to be carefully studied to curb this ideological savagery, which last week alone killed over 100 of our citizens, in all four provinces of Pakistan.

The mullah and the madrassa are the sapwood transporting the jihadist ideology to the various branches. While we lacerate those branches, the madrassa remains rooted. And it doesnt have to be uprooted all it needs is a revamp to sift the toxicity out of the ideology being distributed. That, in turn, needs state regulation and auditing for both funding and the curricula.

Even so, none of this is possible without an ideological substitute. For that one needs thorough dissection of jihad and restructuring of its core.

The ideological core of the tree bearing jihadist fruits is made of up three concentric circles, growing from supremacism to Islamism to eventually culminating in jihadism.

The idea that Islam is the most superior religion, and in turn Muslims the supreme people, is the foundation of jihad. While everyone believing in Muslim supremacy wouldnt necessarily take up arms to establish that superiority, the superstructure of jihad rests on Muslim domination over the rest of the world.

This concept, ubiquitous in the Muslim world, is the seed that grows into a beanstalk, elevating the vilest produce. At worst it lays the groundwork for massacre in the name of Islam, at best its anathema to religious tolerance and coexistence.

Unlike racial or ethnic supremacism, the religious superiority complex is often self-mutilating. In the case of Muslims, it doesnt rest with the establishment violent or otherwise of non-Muslim inferiority, it extrapolates into excommunication also known as takfir. When supremacy is attached to Muslims and Islam, its natural to put a ceiling on the identity and narrow down the scriptural interpretations.

This brings us to our second growth ring. Islamism, the idea that Islam should be imposed on a society or state, is the canonical corollary of Islamic supremacy. If an ideology has been divinely, and indubitably, established as superlative, does it not make sense to enforce it?

Of course, if mere preaching doesnt suffice and the state doesnt play ball on centralised propaganda, taking up arms to establish Islamic law is the next step. That is known as armed jihad, or jihadism, to separate it from other forms of struggles an individual might take up, without infringing upon the freedom of others.

The growth rings move from believing that Muslims are superior, to executing organised carnage for Islamic supremacy. And unfortunately, the vast majority of Muslims in our neck of the wood lie in one of these three concentric circles. The simple reason for this is the teaching of an unadulterated, literal version of Islam, which fails to incorporate modern thoughts into millennia old canonical texts. What is needed to be taught in madrassas and mosques is a diluted version that endorses pluralism through focus on individuality.

Were quick to distance ourselves from the jihadists, because most of us might not pick up a gun to murder someone over identity or belief. But wed involuntarily endorse Muslim or Islamic authority. And we, being the microcosm of the state we live in, are now watching the various institutions replicate the same.

Hundreds of alleged jihadists have been arrested in the aftermath of last weeks terror attacks. Hundreds of others have been killed. While the military action is important to nullify the immediate threat and those already indoctrinated with the genocidal ideology, but the action itself amounts to scratching the surface over and over again.

Deracination of jihad would need the state to eventually undo the privileges granted to its Muslim citizens, which form the raison detre for the spread of jihadism. A state that exercises takfir itself, or upholds Islam as the supreme religion through its Constitution, will never be able to muster the decisive victory against jihadism, till it rectifies its persistent howlers.

Instead of going on a chop-fest, the state would need to plant new trees and nourish their roots, if it wants better tasting fruit in the future. Sowing Islamic supremacy only yields jihad. Four decades of poisonous harvest shouldve made that clear.

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The anatomy of an energy crisis a pictorial guide, Part 2 – The Conversation AU

In the second in my series on the crisis besetting the National Electricity Market (NEM) in eastern Australia, I look at the tightening balance of supply and demand.

Australias NEM is witnessing an unprecedented rise in spot, or wholesale, prices as market conditions tighten in response to a range of factors.

As shown above, spot prices are typically highest in summer, due in large part to the way extreme heat waves stretch demand. The historical summer average across the NEM is around $50/MWhour. As recently as 2012, summer prices were as low as $30/MWhour. With only a few days to go in the 2017 summer, prices are averaging a staggering $120/MWhour on a volume-weighted basis. Many factors have played a role, including hot weather, and the drivers vary from state to state.

In South Australia, the high prices have been accompanied by a series of rolling black-outs culminating on 8th February. Spot prices are more than twice last summer, on a volume-weighted basis, and three times the summer before that. Volatility has increased markedly, as evidenced by the way the volume-weighted price has diverged from the averaged spot price.

But the price rises and security issues have not been restricted to South Australia, with Queensland and New South Wales experiencing steeper rises in percentage terms. Current Queensland volume-weighted prices are averaging $200/MWhour, some 300% above the long-term summer average.

On the 12th February new demand records were set in Queensland, with prices averaging $700/MWhour across the day. New South Wales narrowly averted load shedding on 10th February as temperatures and spot prices soared. So far, the exception has been Victoria, where summer prices have remain relatively subdued, at levels not far above the recent average.

Demand for electrical power varies over a range of time-scales, from daily, weekly to seasonal, as well as with longer-term economic trends. A key determinant in how much power is needed on any given day is the maximum daily temperature. As shown below, the maximum daily demand marks out a characteristic boomerang shape when plotted against maximum daily temperature. The boomerang bottoms out at temperatures of around 25C when air conditioning loads are at a minimum.

As illustrated above, demand increases significantly in response to heating loads as the weather cools below 20C and cooling loads as the weather warms above 30C. The difference in demand across the weather cycles can be substantial. For example, in South Australia the maximum daily demand varies from around 1500 megawatts on a day with a maximum temperature of 25C to around 3000 megawatts during heatwaves when the temperatures exceed 40C. With minimum daily loads under 1000 megawatts, this implies well over half the generation capacity in South Australia is for peaking demand, with much of it sitting idle most of the time waiting for extreme hot weather events. In an energy-only market like the NEM, such peaking capacity demands extreme pricing accompany its dispatch in order to recoup costs. In reality, to manage risks such capacity is normally hedged at a cap-contract of around $300/MWhour.

Similar patterns apply in other states, although in percentage terms the range is less severe. In Queensland the increase between 25 and extreme degree days, which top out at about 37C in Brisbane, is about 2000 megawatts or approx 30%.

A comparison of the figures above show some subtle but important differences in the South Australia and Queensland markets. Notably, the diagrams show that annual demand in Queensland has been rising progressively over the last four years, while it has been static in South Australia. The extreme weather of Sunday 12th February set a new demand record in Queensland, and well above any previous weekend day. In contrast, the 8th February peak in South Australia was lower than previous peaks. To understand why spot prices spiked to similar levels in the different regions requires a deeper dive into the local market conditions.

One reason for seasonal variability in prices is the natural variability in weather conditions, and particularly the frequency and intensity of heat waves. As illustrated below, the 2017 summer in Adelaide has been rather normal in terms of weather extremes, so far with only six days above 40C compared to seven last summer and thirteen in the 2014 summer. To date, the mean maximum is around 29.7C , more-or-less spot on the average over the last five years. As such weather variability would not seem to be the key factor driving the recent dramatic rise in spot prices.

The most significant change in the South Australian market last year was the closure in May of its last coal fired-power plant - Alintas 520 megawatt capacity Northern Power Station. Along with questions about long-term coal supply, Alintas decision to close had a lot to do with the low spot prices back in 2015.

Back then, spot prices were suppressed on the back of a fall in both domestic and industrial demand as well as the addition of new wind farms into the supply mix. As shown below, the rapid uptake of solar PV in South Australia had impacted the demand for grid based services, especially during summer, limiting price volatility, and affecting generator revenue streams via a lowering of forward contract prices. In combination, the conditions made for a significant excess in generating capacity, or capacity overhang.

Despite the falling average demand, and a changing load distribution, the peak demand during the recent heat wave reached above 3045 megawatts in the early evening of 8th February (at 6 pm Eastern Australian Standard Time). That was 340 megawatts lower than the all time South Australian peak of 3385 megawatts for South Australia on the 31st January 2011. The peak on February 8th was accompanied by a spot price of $13160/MWhour.

With the closure of Northern, any comparison with previous peak demand events should factor in any demand previously served by Northern Power Station. Before its closure Northern contributed around 420 megawatts power on average over the summer months. Without that supply available this year, the February 8th peak effectively exceeded the previous peak by around 80 megawatts in adjusted terms.

Queensland has experienced a hot summer with the maximum daily temperature in Brisbane reaching 37C for the first time since 2014, and an average daily maximum of 31.2C (at the time of writing). That is about one degree above the average of recent years. However, with only four days with a maximum temperature above 35C, compared to five in the summer of 2015, weather effects seem unlikely to fully account for the extraordinary rise in spot prices this summer.

In detail the Queensland market differs from other regions in the NEM in as much as it is the only region to have experienced significant demand growth in recent years. Mapping the change of demand growth over the years, by time of day, helps reveal the drivers for market tightening, as shown below firstly in absolute terms, and then in relative terms normalised against 2014.

Between 2009 and 2014, summer demand fell by about 400 megawatts (or 6%), with the greatest change occurring in the middle of day. This pattern is akin to the signal in South Australia shown above, and reflects how the growing deployment of domestic rooftop PV was revealed to the market as a demand reduction.

Since, 2014 summer demand has grown appreciably across all times of day, skewed somewhat towards the evening. Relative to 2014, demand is up by almost 800 megawatts across the board, and by as much as 1200 megawatts at 8 pm. The ~800 megawatt base increase in demand can be attributed in large part to new industrial loads associated with the commissioning of the LNG export gas processing facilities at Curtis Island.

In terms of extreme events, it is notable that February 12th this year set a new Queensland demand record at 5.30 pm of 9368 megawatts (at the half hour settlement period) with a spot price of $9005. This is extraordinary given it was a Sunday, a day which normally sees demand down several percentage points on corresponding weekdays with similar temperature conditions.

Victoria is the exception to the trend of rising spot prices, with the summer prices of 2017 not much above long term average. In part, the relatively subdued prices can be attributed to the absence of extreme heat in southern Victoria so far this summer. The mean maximum daily summer temperature in Melbourne stands at about 27C, slightly below average of the previous five years. So far there have been no days with temperatures above 40C, compared to eight in 2014 and four in 2016.

The dominant factor in subduing the Victorian markets prices is likely to be the ongoing fall in demand. In the year to 18th February, demand in Victoria fell by 200 MW. This follows a persistent reduction in demand that has seen a fall of almost 500 megawatts over the last three years, equivalent to 9% of average demand. As shown below, the contrast with Queensland is stark, and reflects significant reductions in industrial demand stemming from the closure of the Point Henry aluminium smelter in August 2014 (Point Henry consumed up to 360 megawatts) and more recently the reduced demand from the Portland smelter on the back of damage caused by an unscheduled power outage on December 1st, 2016. While power capacity in Victoria was reduced by the closure of the 150 megawatt Anglesea coal-fired power plant in August 2015, the cumulative demand reduction over the last decade has led to substantial capacity overhang. All that is set to change with the closure of the 1600 megawatt Hazelwood power station, slated for the end of March.

The figures shown in the previous sections reveal that peak demand events are stretching the power capacity of the NEM in unprecedented ways, for a variety of reasons. The tightening in the demand-supply balance is driving steep price rises that, if sustained, will have widespread repercussions. For example, a $20/MWhour rise in the Queensland spot price translates to a notional annual market value of $1 billion, that must eventually flow through the contract markets. With summer prices already more than $100/MWhour above last year, the additional costs to be passed onto energy consumers may well tally in the many billions of dollars.

In South Australia, the market tightening follows substantially the reduced supply stemming from the closure of the Northern Power Station.

In Queensland, the market tightening is being driven substantially by industrial loads such as the new LNG gas processing facilities. To the extent that the LNG industry is a significant driver, it is a heavy excise to pay for the privilege of exporting our gas resource. The makings for a policy nightmare, should the royalties from our LNG export be outweighed by the cumulative cost impacts passed on via our electricity markets.

It is important to note that the electricity market is designed so that prices fluctuate significantly in response to the normal capacity cycle, as capacity is added to or removed from the market following rises and falls in demand. In small markets, such as South Australia, the spot price fluctuations over the capacity cycle can be extreme, because the capacity of an individual large power plants can represent a large proportion of the native demand.

Although not large in terms of total capacity by Australian standards, Northerns 520 megawatt power rating represented around 40% of the South Australias median demand. That made Northern one of the Australias most significant power stations in terms of its regional basis size. Its withdrawal has dramatically and abruptly reduced the capacity overhang in South Australia. Spot prices were always going to rise as a consequence, because that is the way the market was designed. In addition, Northerns closure has also increased South Australias reliance on gas generation, and it has concentrated market power in the hands of remaining generators, both of which have had additional price impacts beyond the normal market tightening.

In both Queensland and South Australia, the rises in spot prices is signalling the growing tightness in the market. Under normal circumstances that should serve to drive investment in new capacity. The lessons of Northern show that any new capacity in South Australia will need to be responsive to the changing pattern of demand, unless the market rules are changed.

Further, both regions have questions about the adequacy of competition. Both are sensitive to the impacts of parallel developments in the gas markets, which have made gas-fired power production much more expensive in recent times. In the case of Queensland this is greatly exacerbated by the extra demand from the LNG gas production facilities. Finally, these insights have importance for predicting how the markets the will react to the impending close of the 1600 megawatt Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria, all topics I hope to consider in following posts in this series.

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The anatomy of an energy crisis a pictorial guide, Part 2 - The Conversation AU

Anatomy of a cyber attack explained at HIMSS17 | Health Data … – Health Data Management

In March 2014, Boston Childrens Hospital learned the worst possible security newsfrom a third-party vendor with no formal relationship to the facility.

That vendor told the pediatric facility that it had seen online documents threatening the hospital, as well as posted documents with information on physicians such as cell phone numbers, addresses and work locations. And the information also included details of Boston Childrens infrastructure, such as the main IP address of its organizational web site.

Any kid could find this stuff easily online, but it was clear someone was trying to damage the reputation of Boston Childrens, said Daniel Nigrin, MD, senior vice president and CIO in the division of endocrinology, during the Cybersecurity Forum at HIMSS17.

Then came a video from the activist hacking organization Anonymous, accusing the hospital of having tortured a child. Ive been a CISO for 16 years; this was a new one me, Nigrin recalled.

In particular, the charge from Anonymous centered on a teenage girl that the hospital determined was suffering from malnutrition. The case went to court, where a judges ruling removed the child from parental custody. The family fought the decision, and the controversy found its way to Anonymous, which decided that Boston Childrens needed to be taught a lesson.

We wondered if it was the real Anonymous; thankfully, the decision was to take the threat seriously, Nigrin said. The hospital convened an incident response team and starting forming contingency plans for an expected attack, which included going dark and cutting itself off from the Internet while assessing the systems and processes still necessary to keep the facility running.

Also See: Many organizations lack direction on cybersecurity

In the meantime, Boston Childrens contacted local police and the FBI, who were reluctant to step in proactively, and told hospital executives to get back to them if anything happened. Three weeks went by without incident, and the facility was hit with low-value distributed denial of service attacks that were handled. But then, tactics started to change as attacks increased in volume.

One week later on a Saturday night, the cat-and-mouse game ended with a dramatic uptick in attacks and a third party was engaged to help the hospital defend itself. The concerted Anonymous cyber attack started April 14 and ended on April 27. At its peak, the hackers were sending 30-day levels of malicious traffic in very short periods of time.

The teenage patient at the center of the controversy had long since been discharged, but Anonymous was demanding she be sent home, according to Nigrin. The group threatened the hacking of documents of the hospitals staff was coming next, with a HIPAA breach thereafter. Then, Boston Childrens saw a penetration of attacks across all organization web sites and ports, which were shut down, and also saw a massive influx of malware-laden emails100 times more than normaland because of the high volume, that some malware eventually would get through, so it shut down the email system temporarily.

Boston Childrens recontacted local and federal authorities, and this time, they were much more interested in what was happening, and told the hospital not to notify the press. While reporters were calling for information, the hospital was not responding. It didnt matter; reporters already knew. The top story in the next days Boston Globe read, Cyberattack Hits Childrens Hospital.

The hospital wasnt the only organization being attacked; an energy company that had sponsored an annual walkathon also was hit and advised to stop helping Boston Childrens. Then, within 36 hours, the attacks subsided. Boston Childrens gradually brought external facing web sites back on line after expensive penetration testing from a third-party vendor.

Before the attacks, Nigrin did not think a childrens hospital would be targeted, so you cannot assume you are above this, he warned colleagues. We were fortunate to have a three-week period to prepare.

In the current cyber environment, CISOs need to be much more aggressive, he asserted. You need to push through security measurestheres no excuses anymore. Were beyond allowing ourselves to get pushed by that pushback. Focus on the pain and millions of dollars that can be spend to end an organizational incident. I urge you to use this experience as a burning platform. If your organization is not paying attention, scream louder and ask them to talk to me.

Also See: 6 top IT security for 2017

The FBI later told Boston Childrens to pay attention to its audio-video conferencing systems, after the FBI itself was hacked by Anonymousthe group had been on calls and published transcripts, because the FBI calls had not been secure, Nigrin said.

After the attack, Boston Childrens conducted a round of security re-education and urged employees to be more observant. Soon after, that training was put to the test as the hospital was hit by phone phishing efforts.

The hospital had cyber insurance in place, but had to fight for coverage because the insurer contended what while there was an attack there was no breach. We argued that if we had not done what we did, we would have had a massive data breach, Nigrin said.

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Anatomy of a cyber attack explained at HIMSS17 | Health Data ... - Health Data Management

Infant Directed Singing Universal Behaviour with Positive Impacts – Net Newsledger

Mothers singing for their infants generates positive impacts

CORAL GABLES Family Mothers around the world sing to their infants in remarkably similar ways, and infants prefer these specialized songs, says Shannon de lEtoile. The tempo and key certainly dont need to be perfect or professional for mothers and infants to interact through song. In fact, infants may be drawn to the personalized tempo and pitch of their mother, which encourage them to direct their gaze toward and ultimately communicate through this gaze, added de lEtoile.

As one of the first records of human music, infant-directed singing permeates cultural boundaries and parenting traditions. Unlike other forms of caregiving, the act of mothers singing to infants is a universal behavior that seemingly withstands the test of time.

On the surface, the exchange between mother and child may seem standard, but to Shannon de lEtoile, professor of Music Therapy and associate dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, there is much more to the infant-directed song than meets the eyeand ear.

We know from previous research that infants have the innate ability to process music in a sophisticated manner, explained de lEtoile. Initially, I set out to identify infant behaviors in response to live infant-directed singing compared to other common maternal interactions such as reading books and playing with toys. One of the main goals of the research was to clarify the meaning of infant-directed singing as a human behavior and as a means to elicit unique behavioral responses from infants, she added.

Additionally, de lEtoile explored the role of infant-directed singing in relation to intricate bond between mother and infant. In an initial study, she filmed 70 infants responding to six different interactions: mother sings an assigned song, stranger sings an assigned song, mother sings song of choice, mother reads book, mother plays with toy, and the mother and infant listen to recorded music. The results were promising, but also raised additional questions.

High cognitive scores during infant-directed singing suggested that engagement through song is just as effective as book reading or toy play in maintaining infant attention, and far more effective than listening to recorded music, said de lEtoile. But what did the infant engagement tell us about the mothers role during the interaction? she questioned.

de lEtoile continued the study by focusing on the role of the caregiver during infant-directed singing by measuring the make-up of the song and the mothers voice.

Findings revealed that when infants were engaged during song, their mothers instincts are also on high alert, said de lEtoile. Intuitively, when infant engagement declined, the mother adjusted her pitch, tempo or key to stimulate and regulate infant response.

While the intuitive adjustment of the song or singing voice seemed natural to most of the mothers, de lEtoile was inclined to dig further. In a study published in theJournal of Music Therapy, she explored the acoustic parameters in the singing voices of mothers with post-partum depression.

The extraction and analysis of vocal data revealed that mothers with post-partum depression may lack sensitivity and emotional expression in their singing, stated de lEtoile. Although the infants were still engaged during the interaction, the tempo did not change and was somewhat robotic.

According to de lEtoile, for mothers with postpartum depression, infant-directed singing creates a unique and mutually beneficial situation. Through song, the infants are provided with much-needed sensory stimulation that can focus their attention and modulate their arousal. Simultaneously, mothers experience a much-needed distraction from the negative emotions and thoughts associated with depression, while also feeling empowered as a parent.

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Infant Directed Singing Universal Behaviour with Positive Impacts - Net Newsledger

Genetics and gaming, a strategist’s dream – Geektime – Geektime

Niche Animal Genes Image Credit: Niche

Warrior, hunter, gatherer, or breeder? What does your tribe lack? Theres a delicate balance to maintain in this game of survival

Too few gatherers and your hunters starve as they stalk their prey. Warriors who cant move quickly might not reach enemies in time to protect the tribe. Your gatherers must have the proper skill to acquire as much food as quickly as possible. Breeders can pass on the best or the worst genes to their brood, so being selective about who mates with whom is imperative. And dont forget, even your best specimens will eventually grow old and die, so you have to always keep the line going!

This is Niche: a genetics survival game. In this turn-based strategy game, you must strategically breed the best animals for the survival of the community. The objectives for your furry wards are to explore your island, find food, kill predators, and grow your tribe. Climate change and illness can wipe out your best specimens if youre not careful, and resource management is always at the forefront of your best strategies. If your animals cant eat, they cant do their jobs!

Where the game gets especially interesting is its genetics features. Animals can be good at picking berries, be able to move quickly, have a strong attack, be able to smell predators and prey, as well as have physically attractive characteristics, like different fur color, eye color, spots, stripes, antlers, etc. You have to worry about dominate and recessive genes, mutation, and even the problems that arise from incest.

Though it may sound complicated, Niches in-game menu makes it simple. You can always open an animals traits and genetics and see what they have you might want to pass on to a new spawn or what animals you may want to avoid letting others mate with so they dont pass on something detrimental to the group.

The game lends itself to a few different playstyles. There are those who want to explore the unknown, build the biggest tribe, breed the strongest or fastest animals, or want to do all of the above. There are several different biomes the animals can explore, such as grass, jungle, and water biomes. The islands in the game also have varying difficulties and complexities, so players can challenge themselves as much as they like.

Niche isnt only about being the strongest or the fastest, but having your tribe adapt to new opportunities, threats, and environments in order to survive. The game is truly unique and is one using a great combination of attractive game design and interesting biology. When I talked to Philomena Schwab, game designer, and marketing lead at Niche, she explained that she couldnt decide if she wanted to study biology or game design. This juxtaposition of seemingly incongruous interests blended beautifully into the creation of Niche.

Schwab doesnt work alone, though, and has explained that around this prototype, a crowd of biology nerds gathered and have been hard at work ever since. Their expertise and input are conspicuous as the team aimed to create a world that inspired its players not only to survive, but to create their own species, adapt them to their environment, and to base all their decisions on real genetics. As explained in the game description on Steam, players are introduced to the scientific mechanics of genetics (featuring dominant-recessive, co-dominant inheritance, etc). The game also features the five pillars of population genetics (genetic drift, genetic flow, mutation, natural selection, sexual selection). What sounds complicated is surprisingly user friendly. All knowledge is interwoven with the game-mechanics. This creates the effect of learning by playing.

Image Credit: Niche

What has stood out to me about the game throughout its development (other than the innovative gameplay experience itself) is the devotion of its fans already. On the Niche Facebook group, (which is closed to supporters and early-access players), there is an outpouring of praise and support of the game already. Niche has already inspired player artwork from sketches to digital paintings to sculptures. Additionally, the developers are also very engaged with the Facebook group, responding to and even sometimes implementing player suggestions, which just gets fans more excited to play and share strategies and discuss what theyd like to see come next. With such a solid following already, its exciting to imagine where this game will go.

Niche Family Tree Image Credit: Niche

This game got started on Kickstarter, and some of the many promises made to backers are the inclusion of prehistoric genes and interspecies breeding, so those updates are still on the horizon, along with streamlining of the game itself and scores of new features as production and development continues. They succeeded in pulling in nearly 5X of their $15,000 ask, raising $72,375 from 2,838 backers.

The game is available in its current form through Steam Early Access and full release is slated for July.

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Genetics and gaming, a strategist's dream - Geektime - Geektime