THE wards are almost deserted. Few patients fill the beds. But this is not a story of institutional failure. On the contrary, the emptiness of the vast temporary Nightingale hospital in London is a shining tribute to how well the NHS has handled the coronavirus pandemic.

IT IS TIME that political interference with the police and the CPS ceased. One might have thought that after the ludicrous Operation Midland , the lesson had been learned.

Once he pads his resume, former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg can run again for a higher office, a letter to the editor says.

A statistical analysis of Indianapolis' homicides shows that young black males are four times more likely than others to be victims of homicide.

IndyStar's columnist and radio man Derek Schultz cover the Hoosiers, Boilermakers, Bulldogs and what disease concerns mean to fans

Coming-of-age story "Lady Bird" collects top prize in five Indiana Film Journalists Association categories.

Some ethics experts say Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard's push for coronavirus testing at Indianapolis lab Aria Diagnostics raises flags.

Donnelly and Braun campaigns focus on personal attacks

A long-stalled push to eliminate gerrymandering suddenly enjoys some momentum.

Daryn Wright has a résumé, and a routine, unlike any other girl in this weekend's state swimming and diving championships.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Crawling along the world's river bottoms, the larvae of the caddis fly suffer a perpetual housing crisis. To protect themselves from predators, they gather up sand grains and other sediment and paste them all together with silk, forming a cone that holds their worm-like bodies. As they mature and elongate, they have to continuously add material to the case -- think of it like adding rooms to your home for the rest of your life, or at least until you turn into an adult insect. If the caddis fly larva somehow loses its case, it's got to start from scratch, and that's quite the precarious situation for a defenseless tube of flesh. And now, the microplastic menace is piling onto the caddis fly's list of tribulations. Microplastic particles -- pieces of plastic under 5 millimeters long -- have already corrupted many of Earth's environments, including the formerly pristine Arctic and deep-sea sediments. In a study published last year, researchers in Germany reported finding microplastic particles in the cases of caddis flies in the wild. Then, last month, they published the troubling results of lab experiments that found the more microplastic particles a caddis fly larva incorporates into its case, the weaker that structure becomes. That could open up caddis flies to greater predation, sending ripple effects through river ecosystems. In the lab, the researchers found that the larvae chose to use two kinds of microplastics to build their cases, likely because the plastic is lighter than the sand, so it's not as hard to lift. The problem is that the cases with more plastic and less sand collapse more easily, weakening the larvae's protection from predatory fish, among other things. A more long-term concern is bioaccumulation. "A small fish eats a larva, a bigger fish eats the smaller fish, all the way on up, and the concentrations of microplastic and associated toxins accumulate over time," the report says. "The bigger predators that people eat, like tuna, may be absorbing those microplastics and the chemicals they leach." The study has been published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Boston dominated for most of four quarters but Indiana briefly took the lead in the final minutes behind Victor Oladipo and inspired defensive play.

A historic day in Washington as Barack Obama makes his inauguration speech. Take Away English has the details.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett strained to embody unity Thursday at a time when it would have been easy to perceive friction.

"You can see the fear in their faces," says medic as health workers in Yemen brace for Covid surge.

Your fan photos from around the world

1. Staying hygienic cuts down the use of antibiotics: study  ANI News
2. Post-Covid 19 hygiene practice can reduce risk of common infections: Study  The Indian Express
3. Everyday hygiene reduces need for antibiotics by 30 pc, says new paper  ANI News
4. View Full coverage on Google News

1. Netizens swoon over Sunil Lahri's son's handsomeness; a look at rare and unseen pics of the cast of Ramayan's family members  Times of India
2. Ramayan actor Dipika Chikhlia would love to play Kaikeyi, Sunil Lahri wishes to play Raavan’s role if...  Hindustan Times
3. Throwback: Ramanand Sagar had THIS condition for roping in Arun Govil for Ram’s role in Ramayan  PINKVILLA
4. Buoyed by Ramayans record-breaking run, Kapil Sharmas episode with stars to air again - Republic World  Republic World
5. Ramayan's Sita Dipika Chikhlia and Lakshman Sunil Lahri on making of the show  Hindustan Times
6. View Full coverage on Google News

They say fine wine only gets better with age. We think that the same principle applies to conservatism. And Donald Trump. I mean, come on. Does the man have Benjamin Button syndrome?

Enjoy a glass of your favorite..

Price: $19.95

The director of "The Irishman" has criticized "comic book movies," but these titles show that such adaptations might be a perfect fit for him.

From Ronald Reagan's "evil empire" to Mark Hamill battling Ivanka Trump.

The true star of “Resident Evil 3” is its supurb graphics engine.

Steenz and Bianca Xunise have entered a field that has long overlooked the voices of African American women.

Three years ago it was barely walking. Now, Atlas, the humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics is performing gymnastic routines that mimic professional athletes.

Boston Dynamics began began leasing their robotic dogs to the public this year. One of their first customers: The Massachusetts State Police.

The pop queen concludes her new music video with a call to sign a petition for the Senate passage of the Equality Act.

The latest immigration rule is based on obvious lies.

So far, I have explained the literacy environment, print awareness, and sight word teaching that were part of teaching my daughters to read, but phonics also played an important role.

strataconf: Get Practical Strategies & Tactics for Moving to Big Data http://t.co/qn4gKSyBvw Jun11 Webcast - Best of #Strataconf + Hadoop World 2012

strataconf: TUE June 11 Best of Strata Webcast: Practical Strategies & Tactics for Moving to Big Data http://t.co/qn4gKSyBvw from #Strataconf + HW2012

strataconf: Starts in 1 hour: Best of #Strataconf Webcast - 'Practical Strategies & Tactics for Moving to Big Data'. Watch at http://t.co/qn4gKSyBvw

Recently, The Washington Post published an article about the latest hostilities in the “reading wars.” I noticed it because the columnist, Jay Matthews, quoted from this blog.

Statistical methods are a key part of data science, yet few data scientists have formal statistical training. Courses and books on basic statistics rarely cover the topic from a data science perspective. The second edition of this popular guide adds comprehensive examples in Python, provides practical guidance on applying statistical methods to data science, tells you how to avoid their misuse, and gives you advice on what’s important and what’s not.

Data in the genomics field is booming. In just a few years, organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will host 50+ petabytes—or over 50 million gigabytes—of genomic data, and they’re turning to cloud infrastructure to make that data available to the research community. How do you adapt analysis tools and protocols to access and analyze that volume of data in the cloud? With this practical book, researchers will learn how to work with genomics algorithms using open source tools including the Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK), Docker, WDL, and Terra.

Recently, The Washington Post published an article about the latest hostilities in the “reading wars.” I noticed it because the columnist, Jay Matthews, quoted from this blog.

Marketing tactics change constantly. Each year new tactics become more impactful, and old ones fade into obscurity. Sticking to the same tactics is stale for your current customers and potential customers, too. Instead of just running the same growth tactics for years on end, it’s time to make a switch in 2020. Here are four unique growth tactics […]

The post 4 Unique Growth Tactics for 2020 appeared first on ReadWrite.

Last week an email hit my inbox with a simple and powerful sentiment. “I miss your writing,” it said. The person who sent it was a longtime reader of this site. I miss writing too. But there’s a reason I’ve been quiet here and on other platforms – I wrote a very short post about … Continue reading "Why Politics, Why Now?"

In a startling turn for a robot that has long haunted your dreams, Boston Dynamics' Spot has been tasked to encourage healthy behavior. 

According to the Straits Times, the robot "dog" has been assigned to patrol the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park in Singapore with the express purpose of encouraging social distancing. 

"Let's keep Singapore healthy," sounds a recording from the robot as it trots by two terrified people relaxing on a park bench in the above video. "For your own safety, and those around you, please stand at least one meter apart. Thank you."

Notably, Spot's jaunt is part of a two-week trial that began Friday. The robot will supposedly not collect any personal information on the people it admonishes.  Read more...

Three months ago, Apple released a new credit card in partnership with Goldman Sachs that aimed to disrupt the highly regulated world of consumer finance. However, a well-known software developer tweeted that he was given 20x the credit line offered to his wife, despite the fact that they have been filing joint tax returns and […]

Nicholas Love's Penguin Classics cover generator lets you upload an image and set type in humorous imitation of the label. It can also do the similar but inverted Oxford World Classics look. But sadly not the classic classics look.

Many excellent designs in this twitter thread; embedded here is my contribution. Read the rest

Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper believes Major League Baseball should relax its "dumb" rule preventing top players from competing in the Olympics.

Link building, according to a lot of digital marketers, is a very old and very traditional digital marketing method. However, just because it’s all that antiquated doesn’t mean it’s useless. In fact, we may consider link building as one of the most timeless yet most effective digital marketing strategies out there. Link Building: A Quick […]

The post 10 Quick Link Building Tactics For Beginners appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

*Guest Post* Many of my followers ask me how I travel so frequently and how do I manage my budget. I book my flight and hotel through FareoAir deals, I have been using this website for quite some time and I find their deals pretty good and economical. Anyhow, here is a collection of a few destinations which I find the best in terms of cuisine and suggest that you visit them if you are a food lover too.

Morocco

Want to know where you will find the best Berber cuisine? Well go to Morocco as it’s the best place on the planet for Berber cuisine. This means you get to eat your food in ancient medina towns served in tagine fragrant pots with delectable herbal teas. Plus you get to taste some of the North Africa’s freshest sea food.

India

Have you ever tried the spicy veggie Biryani? If no then a visit to India is must in Southern Kerala you will find delicious spicy veggie biryani. In Uttar Pradesh the thali platters of different food will amaze your taste buds and the smoked fish of Nagaland is scrumptious. Indian cuisine is without any doubt the most varied and has the most use of spices in it. It’s the perfect place to tease your taste buds.

Jamaica

We all like fresh food – and honestly speaking who doesn’t like fresh food? If you love fresh food too then Jamaica is the place to be. Stroll down in the Negril early morning an pick fresh plums from the branches of the trees before you settle at a rustic bamboo island hut for some fried salt water fish and ackee with a shot of rum. Delicious isn’t it.

New Zealand

Well the phrase surf and turf is perfect for New Zealand, it’s a strange combination of the finest Oysters from the Pacific Ocean and the highlander lamb cuts in the high-class restaurants of New Zealand with their traditional Maori style cooking. And yes how can I forget their wines, visit the cellars of Otago and you will never want to leave the place again.

Peru

Peruvian food is a true melting pot of multicultural flavors and cultures. In the last few years it has gained a reputation for being one of the finest fares on the culinary list of international favorites. Peruvian food is a little bit chinese, a little bit Japanese, Inca and Spanish thanks to the varied immigrant population of Japanese in this country - even Peru's leader is of Japanese descent. In Peru you can try many dishes like Cuy Asado (guinea pig), Lomo Saltado (the dish below) and Aji de Gallina (a thick testy chicken stew) from our Peruvian Food You Can't Miss on Your Machu Picchu Trip article.

Thailand

No food-lover will forget the food street of Bangkok, with its delicious variety of street food Thailand is another attraction that attracts many food lovers. They sell everything from coconut masaman, to Thai noodle soup and barbequed critters on sticks. Thailand is a place with a very different yet enticing food.

Italy

Yes at last my most favorite destination Italy. There is simply no denying that the Italians gave us the best food in the world Pizza and Pasta. Those crispy cheesy bases from the wooden ovens of Napoli are the best there is no denying in that. The roman kitchens also produce the finest cheese, aromatic coffees, fresh smoked fishes, and ligurian pesto and saffron risottos. All these dishes make Italy one of the best food destinations on the planet.

Manitoba’s unemployment rate nearly doubled between March and April, according to the monthly report from Statistics Canada released Friday morning.

17 June 2019

Telomeres are specific nucleoprotein structures that are located at the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes and play crucial roles in genomic stability. Telomere DNA consists of simple repeats of a short G-rich sequence: TTAGGG in mammals and TTTAGGG in most plants. In recent years, the mammalian telomeric G-rich repeats have been shown to form G-quadruplex (G4) structures, which are crucial for modulating telomere functions. Surprisingly, even though plant telomeres are essential for plant growth, development, and environmental adaptions, only few reports exist on plant telomeric G4 DNA (pTG4). Here, using bulk and single-molecule assays, including CD spectroscopy, and single-molecule FRET approaches, we comprehensively characterized the structure and dynamics of a typical plant telomeric sequence, d[GGG(TTTAGGG)3]. We found that this sequence can fold into mixed G4s in potassium, including parallel and antiparallel structures. We also directly detected intermediate dynamic transitions, including G-hairpin, parallel G-triplex, and antiparallel G-triplex structures. Moreover, we observed that pTG4 is unfolded by the AtRecQ2 helicase but not by AtRecQ3. The results of our work shed light on our understanding about the existence, topological structures, stability, intermediates, unwinding, and functions of pTG4.

The rapid emergence and dissemination of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains poses a major threat to public health. MRSA possesses an arsenal of secreted host-damaging virulence factors that mediate pathogenicity and blunt immune defenses. Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL) and α-toxin are exotoxins that create lytic pores in the host cell membrane. They are recognized as being important for the development of invasive MRSA infections and are thus potential targets for antivirulence therapies. Here, we report the high-resolution X-ray crystal structures of both PVL and α-toxin in their soluble, monomeric, and oligomeric membrane-inserted pore states in complex with n-tetradecylphosphocholine (C14PC). The structures revealed two evolutionarily conserved phosphatidylcholine-binding mechanisms and their roles in modulating host cell attachment, oligomer assembly, and membrane perforation. Moreover, we demonstrate that the soluble C14PC compound protects primary human immune cells in vitro against cytolysis by PVL and α-toxin and hence may serve as the basis for the development of an antivirulence agent for managing MRSA infections.

Carbon monoxide (CO) remains the most common cause of human poisoning. The consequences of CO poisoning include cardiac dysfunction, brain injury, and death. CO causes toxicity by binding to hemoglobin and by inhibiting mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase (CcO), thereby decreasing oxygen delivery and inhibiting oxidative phosphorylation. We have recently developed a CO antidote based on human neuroglobin (Ngb-H64Q-CCC). This molecule enhances clearance of CO from red blood cells in vitro and in vivo. Herein, we tested whether Ngb-H64Q-CCC can also scavenge CO from CcO and attenuate CO-induced inhibition of mitochondrial respiration. Heart tissue from mice exposed to 3% CO exhibited a 42 ± 19% reduction in tissue respiration rate and a 33 ± 38% reduction in CcO activity compared with unexposed mice. Intravenous infusion of Ngb-H64Q-CCC restored respiration rates to that of control mice correlating with higher electron transport chain CcO activity in Ngb-H64Q-CCC–treated compared with PBS-treated, CO-poisoned mice. Further, using a Clark-type oxygen electrode, we measured isolated rat liver mitochondrial respiration in the presence and absence of saturating solutions of CO (160 μm) and nitric oxide (100 μm). Both CO and NO inhibited respiration, and treatment with Ngb-H64Q-CCC (100 and 50 μm, respectively) significantly reversed this inhibition. These results suggest that Ngb-H64Q-CCC mitigates CO toxicity by scavenging CO from carboxyhemoglobin, improving systemic oxygen delivery and reversing the inhibitory effects of CO on mitochondria. We conclude that Ngb-H64Q-CCC or other CO scavengers demonstrate potential as antidotes that reverse the clinical and molecular effects of CO poisoning.

26 February 2020

Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Abdul Rahman Alageli, Associate Fellow, MENA Programme, Chatham House
Emaddedin Badi, Non-Resident Scholar, Middle East Institute
Tim Eaton, Senior Research Fellow, MENA Programme Chatham House
Valerie Stocker, Independent Researcher