The "Megatron" rapper is set to perform in the country next week despite calls to quit the gig over the government's alleged human rights violations.

The rapper said she wanted to support women's and LGTBQ rights.

Human rights advocates have urged artists not to perform in the country because of its dismal human rights record.

The couple has been married for 31 years.

Myles stole the show with a towering blonde wig and shiny red mini-dress.

Review of 'A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century' by Jason DeParle

Welcome to the Resistance, Mooch. Better late than never.

velocityconf: @tsantero @garethr No, there's just a lot that goes into producing #velocityconf. Plus the chairs are getting ready for Santa Clara + NY! :)

Can you tell who’s who? No, nor can we.

Ciara offers pregnancy advice to expecting moms during the Covid-19 pandemic

Nicaragua

Hear about travel to the Western Sahara as the Amateur Traveler  talks to Francis Tapon about this disputed region as part of his trip to every country in Africa. 

Hear about travel to Santa Barbara, California as the Amateur Traveler talks to Heather Simon from wellplannedtravel.net about the "American Riviera".

Hear about travel to United Arab Emirates as the Amateur Traveler talks to travel writer Zora O'Neill about her recent trip to these small states on the Persian / Arabian Gulf.

Hear about travel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the Amateur Traveler talks to Keri Hedrick from ourglobetrotters.com and familytravel-middleeast.com about her adopted country.

At least 65,116 individuals have been "forcibly disappeared" by the Syrian government, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

'Hollywood' actor Samara Weaving lets us in on all of the movies and television she's been watching during quarantine.   Read more...

TL;DR: Give a meaningful gift during these difficult times with a Tribute Video Montage for $64.99, a 34% saving as of May 9.

A Zoom happy hour only goes so far.

If you're looking for a way to celebrate and send affection to your loved ones, regardless of the reason, check out Tribute Video Montage as an alternative to those wonky (and sometimes awkward) video calls. 

Sending a Tribute might just be one of the best morale-boosting presents you can send during these trying times. It's a way for friends and family to share their love and appreciation for someone they want to celebrate, whether for a major milestone, like a 50th anniversary or 30th birthday or just because. The platform is super easy to use and breaks a 10-hour process down to just 10 minutes. Read more...

Work(out) From Home is a weekly column where we review smart fitness machines and apps in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Thanks to technology, there are still plenty of ways to exercise if your gym is closed. Read more...

In a world focused on buzzword-driven models and algorithms, you’d be forgiven for forgetting about the unreasonable importance of data preparation and quality: your models are only as good as the data you feed them. This is the garbage in, garbage out principle: flawed data going in leads to flawed results, algorithms, and business decisions. […]

A couple of days ago, Thomas Dolby posted this video to Twitter and YouTube of a track called "Corona and the Pirate Twins," a spoof of his 1982 hit, "Europa and the Pirate Twins." The song is credited to Dolby Kids. Thomas included the following note:

"This is what my mischievous offspring have been getting up to during the Lockdown."

Here is the original video for "Europa..."

Bonus track:

And here is Thomas Dolby doing a touching home solo version of his achingly beautiful "Screen Kiss" from 1984's Flat Earth. He did it as a tribute to Matthew Seligman, the celebrated bassist who recently died of COVID-19. Seligman played bass on Dolby's recordings, including Flat Earth, and also played for Bowie, Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Murphy, and countless others. He was also a member of the Soft Boys.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

This Sunday, Weezer will cameo on The Simpsons and as a teaser, the band released their cover of "The Simpsons Theme" by Danny Elfman. From Rolling Stone:

In the new episode of The Simpsons, Weezer will play a cover band called Sailor’s Delight, which serves as the house act on a romantic cruise Homer and Marge are taking. Sailor’s Delight will “perform” a handful of tracks from Weezer’s 2019 self-titled record (also known as The Black Album) and their 2017 effort Pacific Daydream, while the episode will also boast the premiere of the band’s new song, “Blue Dream,” from their upcoming LP, Van Weezer.

A family in lockdown performs the Beatles' "Come Together." Read the rest

My pal Jake has been taking regular "cigar walks" (as he calls them) here in our lovely island city of Alameda, California. On those walks, he started spotting some creative flyers...

(I saved the best two for last...)

photos by Jake Schaffer, used with permission

Thanks, Susie! Read the rest

Ian McKee, founder and CEO of Singapore-based Vuulr, explains the value of blockchain technology—and the threat it poses to the structure of traditional digital advertising.

Part of the Going for gold promo for the BBC UK Homepage

The DML News App offers the best in news reporting.

The post JUST IN: Actress and leader of #MeToo movement accuses Bill Maher of sexually harassing her appeared first on Dennis Michael Lynch.

A beverage company in the U.S. is inviting moms to let out a ‘quaranscream’ this Mother’s Day on a designated ‘zero-judgement venting hotline’ for a chance to win its wine spritzers.

Tau is a microtubule-associated protein that plays a major role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other tauopathies. Recent reports indicate that, in the presence of crowding agents, tau can undergo liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS), forming highly dynamic liquid droplets. Here, using recombinantly expressed proteins, turbidimetry, fluorescence microscopy imaging, and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) assays, we show that the divalent transition metal zinc strongly promotes this process, shifting the equilibrium phase boundary to lower protein or crowding agent concentrations. We observed no tau LLPS-promoting effect for any other divalent transition metal ions tested, including Mn2+, Fe2+, Co2+, Ni2+, and Cu2+. We also demonstrate that multiple zinc-binding sites on tau are involved in the LLPS-promoting effect and provide insights into the mechanism of this process. Zinc concentration is highly elevated in AD brains, and this metal ion is believed to be an important player in the pathogenesis of this disease. Thus, the present findings bring a new dimension to understanding the relationship between zinc homeostasis and the pathogenic process in AD and related neurodegenerative disorders.

12 November 2019

Research Event

Event participants

Fadi El-Jardali, Professor of Health Policy and Systems, American University of Beirut
Moderator: Nadim Houry, Executive Director, Arab Reform Initiative

N. Leigh Anderson
Apr 1, 2004; 3:311-326
Research

Myriam Ferro
May 1, 2003; 2:325-345
Research

Amelia C. Peterson
Nov 1, 2012; 11:1475-1488
Technological Innovation and Resources

Jonathan C. Trinidad
Aug 1, 2012; 11:215-229
Research

Tamar Geiger
Mar 1, 2012; 11:M111.014050-M111.014050
Special Issue: Prospects in Space and Time

Joris J. Benschop
Jul 1, 2007; 6:1198-1214
Research

Ignat V. Shilov
Sep 1, 2007; 6:1638-1655
Technology

Jeffrey C. Silva
Jan 1, 2006; 5:144-156
Research

N. Leigh Anderson
Nov 1, 2002; 1:845-867
Reviews/Perspectives

The canonical pathway of eicosanoid production in most mammalian cells is initiated by phospholipase A2-mediated release of arachidonic acid, followed by its enzymatic oxidation resulting in a vast array of eicosanoid products. However, recent work has demonstrated that the major phospholipase in mitochondria, iPLA2γ (patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 8 (PNPLA8)), possesses sn-1 specificity, with polyunsaturated fatty acids at the sn-2 position generating polyunsaturated sn-2-acyl lysophospholipids. Through strategic chemical derivatization, chiral chromatographic separation, and multistage tandem MS, here we first demonstrate that human platelet-type 12-lipoxygenase (12-LOX) can directly catalyze the regioselective and stereospecific oxidation of 2-arachidonoyl-lysophosphatidylcholine (2-AA-LPC) and 2-arachidonoyl-lysophosphatidylethanolamine (2-AA-LPE). Next, we identified these two eicosanoid-lysophospholipids in murine myocardium and in isolated platelets. Moreover, we observed robust increases in 2-AA-LPC, 2-AA-LPE, and their downstream 12-LOX oxidation products, 12(S)-HETE-LPC and 12(S)-HETE-LPE, in calcium ionophore (A23187)-stimulated murine platelets. Mechanistically, genetic ablation of iPLA2γ markedly decreased the calcium-stimulated production of 2-AA-LPC, 2-AA-LPE, and 12-HETE-lysophospholipids in mouse platelets. Importantly, a potent and selective 12-LOX inhibitor, ML355, significantly inhibited the production of 12-HETE-LPC and 12-HETE-LPE in activated platelets. Furthermore, we found that aging is accompanied by significant changes in 12-HETE-LPC in murine serum that were also markedly attenuated by iPLA2γ genetic ablation. Collectively, these results identify previously unknown iPLA2γ-initiated signaling pathways mediated by direct 12-LOX oxidation of 2-AA-LPC and 2-AA-LPE. This oxidation generates previously unrecognized eicosanoid-lysophospholipids that may serve as biomarkers for age-related diseases and could potentially be used as targets in therapeutic interventions.

Hippo pathway signaling limits cell growth and proliferation and maintains the stem-cell niche. These cellular events result from the coordinated activity of a core kinase cassette that is regulated, in part, by interactions involving Hippo, Salvador, and dRassF. These interactions are mediated by a conserved coiled-coil domain, termed SARAH, in each of these proteins. SARAH domain–mediated homodimerization of Hippo kinase leads to autophosphorylation and activation. Paradoxically, SARAH domain–mediated heterodimerization between Hippo and Salvador enhances Hippo kinase activity in cells, whereas complex formation with dRassF inhibits it. To better understand the mechanism by which each complex distinctly modulates Hippo kinase and pathway activity, here we biophysically characterized the entire suite of SARAH domain–mediated complexes. We purified the three SARAH domains from Drosophila melanogaster and performed an unbiased pulldown assay to identify all possible interactions, revealing that isolated SARAH domains are sufficient to recapitulate the cellular assemblies and that Hippo is a universal binding partner. Additionally, we found that the Salvador SARAH domain homodimerizes and demonstrate that this interaction is conserved in Salvador's mammalian homolog. Using native MS, we show that each of these complexes is dimeric in solution. We also measured the stability of each SARAH domain complex, finding that despite similarities at both the sequence and structural levels, SARAH domain complexes differ in stability. The identity, stoichiometry, and stability of these interactions characterized here comprehensively reveal the nature of SARAH domain–mediated complex formation and provide mechanistic insights into how SARAH domain–mediated interactions influence Hippo pathway activity.

Leukocyte recruitment is a universal feature of tissue inflammation and regulated by the interactions of chemokines with their G protein–coupled receptors. Activation of CC chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2) by its cognate chemokine ligands, including CC chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2), plays a central role in recruitment of monocytes in several inflammatory diseases. In this study, we used phosphoproteomics to conduct an unbiased characterization of the signaling network resulting from CCL2 activation of CCR2. Using data-independent acquisition MS analysis, we quantified both the proteome and phosphoproteome in FlpIn-HEK293T cells stably expressing CCR2 at six time points after activation with CCL2. Differential expression analysis identified 699 significantly regulated phosphorylation sites on 441 proteins. As expected, many of these proteins are known to participate in canonical signal transduction pathways and in the regulation of actin cytoskeleton dynamics, including numerous guanine nucleotide exchange factors and GTPase-activating proteins. Moreover, we identified regulated phosphorylation sites in numerous proteins that function in the nucleus, including several constituents of the nuclear pore complex. The results of this study provide an unprecedented level of detail of CCR2 signaling and identify potential targets for regulation of CCR2 function.

Invitation Only Research Event

4 March 2020 , Volume 96, Number 2

Research Event

Event participants

Fadi El-Jardali, Professor of Health Policy and Systems, American University of Beirut
Moderator: Nadim Houry, Executive Director, Arab Reform Initiative

Research Event

Event participants

Maryam Jamshidi, Author, The Future of the Arab Spring: Civic Entrepreneurship in Politics, Art, and Technology Startups
Chair: Leonie Northedge, Research Associate, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House

Jennifer L. Macdonald
May 1, 2005; 46:1061-1067
Methods

Jorge H. Capdevila
Feb 1, 2000; 41:163-181
Reviews