NRA is among groups to meet Biden this week

A $20,000 diamond ring found in a tanning salon in St. Charles, Mo., appears to be at the center of a legal dispute over "finders keepers." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch attempts to explain murky statutes revolving around found property versus stealing. After Bonnie Land found the expensive ring and agreed to return it weeks later, she was arrested. She subsequently sued the ring's owner for $66,500 alleging breach of contract as Land wasn't given the posted $3,000 reward money.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nra-among-groups-meet-biden-week-182247035.html

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Most-used diabetes drug works in different way than previously thought

Monday, January 7, 2013

A team, led by senior author Morris J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD, the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor of Medicine, with the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, found that the diabetes drug metformin works in a different way than previously understood. Their research in mice found that metformin suppresses the liver hormone glucagon's ability to generate an important signaling molecule, pointing to new drug targets. The findings were published online this week in Nature.

For fifty years, one of the few classes of therapeutics effective in reducing the overactive glucose production associated with diabetes has been the biguanides, which includes metformin, the most frequently prescribed drug for type 2 diabetes. The inability of insulin to keep liver glucose output in check is a major factor in the high blood sugar of type 2 diabetes and other diseases of insulin resistance.

"Overall, metformin lowers blood glucose by decreasing liver production of glucose," says Birnbaum. "But we didn't really know how the drug accomplished that."

Imperfectly Understood

Despite metformin's success, its mechanism of action remained imperfectly understood. About a decade ago, researchers suggested that metformin reduces glucose synthesis by activating the enzyme AMPK. But this understanding was challenged by genetic experiments in 2010 by collaborators on the present Nature study. Coauthors Marc Foretz and Benoit Viollet from Inserm, CNRS, and Universit? Paris Descartes, Paris, found that the livers of mice without AMPK still responded to metformin, indicating that blood glucose levels were being controlled outside of the AMPK pathway.

Taking another look at how glucose is regulated normally, the team knew that when there is no food intake and glucose decreases, glucagon is secreted from the pancreas to signal the liver to produce glucose. They then asked if metformin works by stopping the glucagon cascade.

The Nature study describes a novel mechanism by which metformin antagonizes the action of glucagon, thus reducing fasting glucose levels. The team showed that metformin leads to the accumulation of AMP in mice, which inhibits an enzyme called adenylate cyclase, thereby reducing levels of cyclic AMP and protein kinase activity, eventually blocking glucagon-dependent glucose output from liver cells.

From this new understanding of metformin's action, Birnbaum and colleagues surmise that adenylate cyclase could be a new drug target by mimicking the way in which it is inhibited by metformin. This strategy would bypass metformin's affect on a cell's mitochondria to make energy, and possibility avoid the adverse side effects experienced by many people who take metformin, perhaps even working for those patients resistant to metformin.

###

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/

Thanks to University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126152/Most_used_diabetes_drug_works_in_different_way_than_previously_thought

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US family builds Haiti orphanage for daughter

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ? An American family who lost their daughter in a massive earthquake in Haiti three years ago has finished building an orphanage in her memory.

The parents of Britney Gengel, Leonard and Cherylann, led about 150 family and friends, including U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, in a solemn ceremony Saturday at the Be Like Brit orphanage in the coastal town of Grand Goave.

"It was a beautiful ceremony and had a great dedication," said Leonard Gengel, 52, of Rutland, Massachusetts.

The brick-and-mortar homage cost about $1.8 million to build, all raised through donations. The 19,000-square-foot (nearly 1,800-square-meter) facility has seismically resistant walls and a medical clinic.

Built in the shape of a letter "B," the orphanage will house 33 boys and 33 girls, representing the number of days Britney's body lay under the rubble.

Gengel was a 19-year-old sophomore at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, who had gone to Haiti to hand out meals for a Christian charity. She died when the hotel where she was staying, the Montana, collapsed.

On Saturday, Haiti will mark the 3rd anniversary of the earthquake that officials say killed more than 300,000 people and displaced more than a million others. The disaster is regarded as one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-06-CB-Haiti-Orphanage-Memorial/id-e85ce887c74446b39540dc74bdde1ec7

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Dilute Tortoiseshell - Bonnie - Medium - Adult - Female - Cat ...

Dilute Tortoiseshell - Bonnie - Medium - Adult - Female - Cat

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Egypt fires finance, interior ministers before IMF visit

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi fired his finance and interior ministers, cabinet sources said on Saturday, in a government reshuffle he had promised to assuage public anger at an economic crisis.

General Mohamed Ibrahim will replace Ahmed Gamal El-Din as interior minister and Al-Mursi Al-Sayed Hegazy takes the finance ministry job from Mumtaz al-Saaed.

Egypt's pound, 10 percent down since the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, lost more than 3 percent against the dollar in the week ending on Thursday, hitting a record low as fears grew over its rapidly shrinking foreign currency reserves.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it is sending its Middle East and Central Asia director, Masood Ahmed, to discuss a postponed $4.8 billion loan agreement and "possible IMF support for Egypt" with officials on Monday.

Loan talks were delayed last month at Cairo's behest because of unrest in which 11 people died and hundreds were injured in anti-Mursi protests.

State-run Egyptian newspaper Akhbar Al-Youm said earlier on Saturday that Ahmed would meet Mursi, Prime Minister Hashim Kandil and other top officials.

BROTHERHOOD MINISTERS

State news agency MENA said 10 new ministers would be sworn in on Sunday for portfolios including electricity, environment, communications and transport.

According to cabinet sources, at least three of the new ministers are from Mursi's Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood group.

"The Brotherhood new ministers are the ones handling the portfolios of transport, local development and supplies," one cabinet source said.

A Brotherhood official, who asked not to be named, declined to say how many of the new ministers are from the Brotherhood but said that the finance minister is "considered close to us due to his field of experience in Islamic finance".

A spokesman for the main opposition bloc, The National Salvation Front, said the group was still studying the new appointments and would give its reaction to the moves later.

Egypt's opposition youth group, April Six, said in a statement that the changes were not enough and "will not solve (Egypt's problems)".

Most opposition groups had asked for the whole cabinet to be sacked and replaced by one that would include more technocrats and represent all political parties. (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Yasmine Saleh; Writing by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-replace-finance-interior-ministers-agency-171355810--business.html

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Target ad campaign puts food in the spotlight

This screen grab provided by Target shows an advertisement from the company featuring a model interacting with baking products. Target is pushing its food, laundry detergent and other groceries in a national ad campaign that pokes fun at high-fashion advertising by featuring models interacting with everyday products. (AP Photo/Target)

This screen grab provided by Target shows an advertisement from the company featuring a model interacting with baking products. Target is pushing its food, laundry detergent and other groceries in a national ad campaign that pokes fun at high-fashion advertising by featuring models interacting with everyday products. (AP Photo/Target)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Is Target's grocery aisle ready for its close up?

Target is pushing its food, laundry detergent and other groceries in a national ad campaign that pokes fun at high-fashion advertising by featuring models interacting with everyday products.

In one ad, a model in a white dress and high heels struts by blueberry muffin and cake mix boxes that explode in different colors. Then she crushes an egg with her hand.

"Dominate that PTA bake sale," a voiceover whispers. "The Everyday Collection. By Target."

The campaign is part of a larger move by Target, better known for its cheap-chic clothing and home goods, to focus more on its grocery-store aisle. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other Target competitors also have been expanding their selection of groceries to lure more customers into stores.

For its part, Target has been expanding its grocery selection, particularly with investments in its "P-Fresh" fresh-food section. Out of its 1,782 stores, about 1100 have an expanded fresh food layout and more than 250 have a full grocery store.

With that push complete, Target decided the time was right to put the focus on its groceries, but in a way that still plays on Target's fashion know how, said chief marketing officer Jeff Jones.

Target, with ad agency Mono in Minneapolis, created the tongue-in-cheek campaign that treats groceries and home products like fashion accessories in a photo shoot. Spending is undisclosed on the ad campaign, but it will include eight TV ads that will run throughout 2013. In addition to TV spots and newspaper inserts, it will include eight TV spots, three radio ads, and digital short films that will run as banner ads online.

One TV ad shows an $11.99 bottle of Tide laundry detergent and a model in a white dress dancing fancifully.

"We all yearn for something," says a voiceover as bubbles float by the model. "And that something is the other sock."

The campaign "creates a foil for what people are used to seeing for grocery advertising," said Jones. "It combines the design ethos and fashion creditability that Target has with the idea that it also has great grocery items at a great price."

Target's ad campaign comes as the retailer faces some challenges.

On Thursday, Target reported that revenue at stores open at least one year was flat in December ? a key holiday sales period. The company, based in Minneapolis, blamed the decline in part on weakness in sales of merchandise such as furniture and electronics.

Target, which has been successful in the past by pairing up with upscale designers who create lines of products that it can sell for a limited time, also recently was dinged by bad publicity for its collaboration with posh retailer Neiman Marcus. The line debuted Dec. 1 and included 50 products from 24 designers, including a $70 Marc Jacobs scarf and a $500 Alice + Olivia bike.

But the merchandise was criticized for being too expensive, among other things, and all remaining items in that collection were marked down 70 percent off on Jan. 1. That's quite a reversal from its Missoni collection a year ago, which was so popular demand caused Target's Web site to crash.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-04-Target-Marketing/id-0432e5cbc33940dea657e84977d4b1f7

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Frannywanny : a food and travel blog: Staycation Files : Acaci in ...

What's a great staycation without good food?

Actually,? whenever Paul and I are having a staycation we rarely leave the hotel and instead take the opportunity to check out the different food establishments available inside. During our stay at Acacia Hotel, they only had one F&B establishment called Acaci. This is apart from the lobby and the poolside that also serves drinks and some light snacks.

Located at the mezzanine level of the hotel, I was impressed by the size of the restaurant. To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to be very big. However, the restaurant has a capacity of about 150 guests at the very least.

We had our dinner date at Acaci a few hours after checking in. Note that I just came from a full day cooking class where I've been inhaling butter, eggs and pasta for more than 5 hours and Paul and I even ate the three pasta dishes that I made. We just rested for about an hour and there we were seated at Acaci ready for our dinner buffet. Oh boy!

Here are the different sections available:
- Japanese : sushi, sashimi, kani salad
- Chinese : dimsum, noodle soup station
- Italian : pasta

- Cold Cuts and Appetizers : chilled seafood, different cold cuts and our favorite the salmon gravlax!
- Fresh Salad
- Breads and Cheese
- Main Dishes (a mix of different international dishes) - Carving : that night they had lamb and roast beef - Dessert We started with the Japanese section as our table was strategically located right beside it. Paul and I filled our first plate with fresh salmon sashimi, kani salad and more veggie salad.

I later moved on to the cold cuts station where I happily enjoyed the salmon gravlax which they freshly slice out in front of you. I always have this with some capers, lemon and dill sauce. Yum!

Paul, on the other hand, moved on to fill his second plate with some blanched shrimps and marinara sauce. This is his buffet essential and he only considers a buffet good if they have this. After the salmon gravlax, I quickly glanced over the cheese station but decided to skip this as all they had were hard cheeses. Where's my brie and camembert? :( Given that, I had my last plate which was filled with a slice of roast beef, some more sushi and tempura.

We normally can eat way more than this but given that our tummies were already half-filled even before dinner began and we have a swim scheduled a few hours after that, it was then wise to just eat within our limits that evening.

I simply capped my meal off with a stick of marshmallow covered with chocolate sauce from the fondue. Delicioso!

The morning after

After our heavy dinner that evening followed by a quick night swim, you can just imagine how good our sleep was that night. Since swimming allowed us to burn off most of the calories that we took in the day before, we also woke up with growling tummies ready for a hearty breakfast ahead. So, off we went back to Acaci for our complimentary breakfast buffet. We arrived 30 minutes before breakfast ends and luckily, almost all stations were still complete with food. I began my meal with a bowl of cereals as I didn't want to shock my tummy with the oily and meaty dishes first. Yep, as you can see, I take very good care of my tummy! My motto is: happy tummy, happy Frannywanny! Paul continued to tease me of my "feeling healthy" phase as he zoomed straight towards the Pinoy breakfast station. He happily filled his plate with garlic rice, corned beef, sausages and tapa. He commented that the food was very good and he liked the tapa and sausages very much. As soon as I finished my bowl of cereals, I took his lead and tried the bacon, sausages, corned beef, ham and some hash browns. I love love love hash browns and Acaci's version comes quite close to McDonald's.

They also have the same breads and cheese selection, the salmon gravlax also made a second appearance as well as the dessert choices. All these we skipped out on as we somehow felt that they were exactly the same ones as the night before. Also we were quite pleased with the ones that we had that morning.

Acaci has one of the lower hotel buffet rates in town, for only Php. 995 your meal comes with a complimentary drink (pandan juice or iced tea for dinner / fresh juices for breakfast). While I hope they can still add more to the selections, we were both happy with the two meals that we had at Acaci and would love to go back for more someday.

Visit Acaci at the Acacia Hotel -- 5400 East Asia Drive corner Commerce Avenue, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, Muntinlupa City. Call them at 720-2000 for reservations.

Source: http://www.frannywanny.com/2013/01/staycation-files-acaci-in-acacia-hotel.html

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