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Thursday, January 31, 2013
This Photo Was Taken Using a Camera Made From Popsicle Sticks
FRANCE CONQUERS TIMBUKTU | Weekly World News
French forces took Timbuktu and put an end to 10 months of al Qaeda rule in the historic desert city.
French forces took Timbuktu and put an end ?to ten months of al Qaeda rule in the historic desert city.
The French rolled into with red wine and baguettes and within a mere ten hours the city of Timbuktu was singing Josephine Baker songs and putting on their own burlesque shows.
Helicopters maintained watch over the city, which houses a treasure trove of antiquities and historical documents. As of nightfall Monday, there had been no combat. ?But many of the local citizens were seen wearing berets.
The Obama administration had agreed to provide air and ground support, but the French declined. ??We can fight without Americans. ?We are stronger than Americans,? said French leader Gerard Depardieu.
?The town has been effectively taken without any clashes,? Col. Thierry Burkhard, a French military spokesman, said at a briefing in Paris. ??We will be setting up cafes and piano bars within days.?
The assault came less than two days after French forces took control of the airport and surrounding areas of the northern city of Gao, one of the cities that militants have occupied since they seized control of Mali?s north in April.
Here are the French leaders at a meeting in Timbuktu:
Timbuktu, which was a major Saharan trading hub in the Middle Ages and has attracted travelers for centuries, endured 10 months of rule by militias backed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.
French Soldiers face al Qaeda:
The majority of the city?s 50,000 residents have fled, said Malian Ministry of Defense spokesman Diarran Kone. ?Woody Allen, however, is planning on heading to the city to make his next film.
To retake Timbuktu, a French plane landed paratroopers along the city?s northern side and then they all sat on a hill and smoked cigarettes, which confused the citizens of Timbuktu. ?And then? the French pulled out their baguettes.
The rest is history?
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Source: http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/54332/france-conquers-timbuktu/
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Israel to Transfer Tax Funds to Palestinians
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Source: www.nytimes.com --- Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Reversing an earlier decision, Israel has decided to transfer the revenues collected last month on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to help ease the economic crisis there. ...
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
US Steel shrinks 4Q loss to $50M
US Steel reported a smaller fourth-quarter loss as carmakers and other manufacturers used more steel, and it said shipments should rise in the current quarter.
The steel industry has been buffeted by an inconsistent global economy. On Monday, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that overall orders for durable goods rose 4.6 percent in December. But a key gauge of business investment plans rose just 0.2 percent.
"We continue to be challenged by uncertain global economic and steel market conditions," Chairman and CEO John P. Surma said.
The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker lost $50 million, or 35 cents per share for the most recent quarter. A year ago it lost $211 million, or $1.46 per share.
The most recent loss would have been 41 cents per share if not for a favorable settlement of a contract dispute. The result was much better than the loss of 70 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue fell 6.9 percent to $4.49 billion. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $4.33 billion.
The biggest turnaround happened in flat-rolled steel, which is used for cars and heavy equipment. After an operating loss of $72 million a year ago, that segment turned in an $11 million profit in the most recent quarter. Shipments rose 3.7 percent to 3.9 million tons. The larger shipments helped offset a price decline of $20 per ton, to $721.
That helped offset a decline in profits from tubular steel, which is used more by the energy industry. Shipments declined 15.6 percent to 407,000 tons. Pricing fell 5 percent to $1,624 per ton. End users reduced drilling and delayed purchases, and tough competition from steel importers drove down prices, the company said.
For the first quarter, the company said it expects a slight improvement in its European and tubular segments. Tubular volume should pick up, but pricing will be lower.
Its flat-rolled segment will be near breakeven. Steel buyers in North America are still cautious. Spot orders are picking up slightly and spot pricing should rise, but those benefits may be offset by lower prices under long-term contracts, the company said.
For all of 2012, the company lost $124 million, or 86 cents per share. In 2011 it lost $53 million, or 37 cents per share. Revenue fell 2.8 percent to $19.33 billion.
Shares of Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. fell 28 cents to $23.44 in early trading.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-steel-shrinks-4q-loss-50m-131526121--finance.html
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The Note's Must-Reads for Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The Note's Must-Reads are a round-up of today's political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com
Compiled by ABC News' Jayce Henderson, Amanda VanAllen and Jordan Mazza
IMMIGRATION: ABC News' Ted Hesson: " 3 Flashpoints in the New Senate Immigration Reform Blueprint" A bipartisan group of senators unveiled a framework for immigration reform today, balancing out pro-immigrant reforms like a path to citizenship for the undocumented with provisions for increased immigration enforcement on the border and in the workplace. LINK
The Hill's Alexander Bolton: " Landscape shifts on immigration" A bipartisan group of senators on Monday said the political landscape for immigration reform has changed, boosting their hopes for passing a bill. Recent elections have changed his party's view on immigration, said Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona who led an unsuccessful push to reform the nation's immigration laws in 2006 and 2007. LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Michael Memoli, Noam Levey, and Brian Bennett: " Senators unveil bipartisan immigration plan, but opposition looms" As they announced their framework for comprehensive immigration reform, leading senators from both parties declared Monday that the politics of the long-stalled debate had shifted after Republican candidates failed to win significant support from the growing Latino electorate in November. But many conservatives made clear they rejected that contention. They remain deeply skeptical of any plan that would create a way for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country to become citizens. LINK
The Washington Times' Stephen Dinan: " Immigration plan mirrors 2007's" Powered by the results of the November elections, a bipartisan group of top senators on Monday floated the latest proposal to overhaul the nation's shattered immigration system - but acknowledged they are at the earliest stages of what is a fragile balancing act. Led by Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, the eight lawmakers said they want to give all illegal immigrants instant legal status, to expand pathways for legal immigration and to enact more border security. LINK
USA TODAY's Susan Davis and Martha T. Moore: " Immigration plan could be long-term boon to GOP" A renewed bipartisan push to rewrite U.S. immigration laws presents Republicans with their clearest opportunity to make up lost ground with one of the fastest growing forces in American politics. LINK
The Washington Post's David Nakamura and Rosalind S. Helderman: "Obama to announce his immigration reform plan, said to be more liberal than Senate effort" The Obama administration has developed its own proposals for immigration reform that are more liberal than a separate bipartisan effort in the Senate, including a quicker path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, people with knowledge of the proposals said. President Obama is expected to provide some details of the White House plans during a Tuesday appearance in Las Vegas, where he will call for broad changes to the nation's immigration laws. LINK
The Boston Globe's Maria Sacceheti: " Obama, senators prepare immigration plans" As President Obama unveils his latest plan to overhaul the nation's beleaguered immigration system Tuesday, advocates for immigrants in Massachusetts and nationwide are mobilizing to seize what they say is their best chance in almost three decades to secure a path to US citizenship for more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. LINK
Politico's Manu Raju: " Schumer, McCain: immigration's odd couple" A few days after Republicans took an electoral beating from Hispanic voters, Sen. Lindsey Graham made a phone call to Sen. Chuck Schumer. The South Carolina Republican wanted to restart the stalled talks with Schumer on immigration from a couple years back. But this time, he noted, his closest Senate friend was ready to reengage in the emotionally charged issue: John McCain. LINK
GOP: The New York Times' Michael D. Shear: " Bipartisan Plan Faces Resistance in G.O.P." At Tommy's Country Ham House, a popular spot downtown for politics and comfort food, not much has changed since 2007, the last time conservatives here made it crystal clear to politicians how they felt about what they see as amnesty for people who entered the country illegally. "What we need to do is put them on a bus," said Ken Sowell, 63, a lawyer from Greenville, as he ate lunch recently at the diner. LINK
SANDY RELIEF: The Wall Street Journal's Andy Grossman: " Senate Approves Bill on Sandy Aid" A $50.5 billion aid package to help Northeastern states rebuild after superstorm Sandy won Senate approval Monday evening, clearing the last major congressional hurdle before heading to the president, who said he would sign it. LINK
ABC NEWS VIDEO: " Immigration Changes on the Way" LINK
BOOKMARKS: The Note: LINK The Must-Reads Online: LINK Top Line Webcast (12noon EST M-F): LINK ABC News Politics: LINK George's Bottom Line (George Stephanopoulos): LINK Follow ABC News on Twitter: LINK ABC News Mobile: LINK ABC News app on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad: LINK
Also ReadSource: http://news.yahoo.com/notes-must-reads-tuesday-january-29-2013-084020560--abc-news-politics.html
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Islet transplant may slow progression of atherosclerosis
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Sherri McGinnis Gonzlez
smcginn@uic.edu
312-996-8277
University of Illinois at Chicago
Minimally invasive islet transplantation for patients with type 1 diabetes achieves insulin independence and reverses the progression of atherosclerosis in the first few years after transplant, according to a University of Illinois at Chicago study.
The research is published in the February issue of the journal Diabetes Care and is available online.
Patients with diabetes, particularly women, have a substantial increased risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, according to previous research. However, future cardiac events may be prevented with intensive glycemic control.
In the current longitudinal study, UIC researchers looked at changes over time in carotid intima-media thickness, or CIMT -- a marker for atherosclerosis -- in a group of type 1 diabetes patients without kidney disease or previous cardiovascular events.
"This is the first study to look at what happens to diabetes-related cardiovascular complications after islet cell transplantation alone without kidney transplant," said Kirstie Danielson, assistant professor in the UIC College of Medicine and School of Public Health, and lead author of the study, who noted that previous research has focused on metabolic changes and glycemic control after transplant.
The 15 adults (two men and 13 women) suffered from type 1 diabetes for more than five years and had hypoglycemic unawareness despite best efforts to manage insulin levels. The patients received a total of 27 islet transplants (one to three transplants each) and were followed from one to five years after their first transplant. CIMT was measured before and approximately every 12 months after the first islet transplant.
The researchers found a significant decrease in CIMT one year after islet transplant. The CIMT measures started to progress again -- slightly more than they would in healthy individuals without diabetes -- between 12 and 50 months. At 50 months, post-transplant the CIMT measures were still lower than pre-transplant levels, Danielson said.
"The decline of CIMT we saw at one year is not generally seen in patients with diabetes," said Danielson, who attributes the improvements to better glycemic control achieved through islet transplantation and better management of cholesterol, or lipid levels, post-transplant.
All 15 patients achieved insulin independence after receiving one to three islet transplants at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. At the end of the current study, 11 patients were insulin free, three remained on insulin but at greatly reduced doses, and one patient withdrew from the trial because of islet graft loss.
The next step would be to replicate these results in a larger trial, Danielson said.
###
Co-authors include Dr. Jose Oberholzer, Dr. Enrico Benedetti, Dr. Alessandra Mele, Dr. Meirigeng Qi, Joan Martellotto and Katie Kinzer from the UIC College of Medicine, Dr. Betul Hatipoglu from the Clevelend Clinic, and Dr. Bruce Kaplan from the University of Arizona.
The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System provides comprehensive care, education and research to the people of Illinois and beyond. The UI Health System includes a 495-bed tertiary hospital; the University of Illinois at Chicago Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Applied Health Sciences, School of Public Health and the Jane Addams College of Social Work; 22 outpatient clinics located in Chicago; 12 federally qualified health centers throughout the city; and Colleges of Medicine and affiliated health care facilities in Urbana, Peoria and Rockford.
For more information: The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 28-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Sherri McGinnis Gonzlez
smcginn@uic.edu
312-996-8277
University of Illinois at Chicago
Minimally invasive islet transplantation for patients with type 1 diabetes achieves insulin independence and reverses the progression of atherosclerosis in the first few years after transplant, according to a University of Illinois at Chicago study.
The research is published in the February issue of the journal Diabetes Care and is available online.
Patients with diabetes, particularly women, have a substantial increased risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, according to previous research. However, future cardiac events may be prevented with intensive glycemic control.
In the current longitudinal study, UIC researchers looked at changes over time in carotid intima-media thickness, or CIMT -- a marker for atherosclerosis -- in a group of type 1 diabetes patients without kidney disease or previous cardiovascular events.
"This is the first study to look at what happens to diabetes-related cardiovascular complications after islet cell transplantation alone without kidney transplant," said Kirstie Danielson, assistant professor in the UIC College of Medicine and School of Public Health, and lead author of the study, who noted that previous research has focused on metabolic changes and glycemic control after transplant.
The 15 adults (two men and 13 women) suffered from type 1 diabetes for more than five years and had hypoglycemic unawareness despite best efforts to manage insulin levels. The patients received a total of 27 islet transplants (one to three transplants each) and were followed from one to five years after their first transplant. CIMT was measured before and approximately every 12 months after the first islet transplant.
The researchers found a significant decrease in CIMT one year after islet transplant. The CIMT measures started to progress again -- slightly more than they would in healthy individuals without diabetes -- between 12 and 50 months. At 50 months, post-transplant the CIMT measures were still lower than pre-transplant levels, Danielson said.
"The decline of CIMT we saw at one year is not generally seen in patients with diabetes," said Danielson, who attributes the improvements to better glycemic control achieved through islet transplantation and better management of cholesterol, or lipid levels, post-transplant.
All 15 patients achieved insulin independence after receiving one to three islet transplants at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. At the end of the current study, 11 patients were insulin free, three remained on insulin but at greatly reduced doses, and one patient withdrew from the trial because of islet graft loss.
The next step would be to replicate these results in a larger trial, Danielson said.
###
Co-authors include Dr. Jose Oberholzer, Dr. Enrico Benedetti, Dr. Alessandra Mele, Dr. Meirigeng Qi, Joan Martellotto and Katie Kinzer from the UIC College of Medicine, Dr. Betul Hatipoglu from the Clevelend Clinic, and Dr. Bruce Kaplan from the University of Arizona.
The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System provides comprehensive care, education and research to the people of Illinois and beyond. The UI Health System includes a 495-bed tertiary hospital; the University of Illinois at Chicago Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Applied Health Sciences, School of Public Health and the Jane Addams College of Social Work; 22 outpatient clinics located in Chicago; 12 federally qualified health centers throughout the city; and Colleges of Medicine and affiliated health care facilities in Urbana, Peoria and Rockford.
For more information: The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/uoia-itm012813.php
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2 Science Projects to Receive Billion-Euro Award
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The winners of the European Commission?s awards are a project to imitate the brain and one to develop new materials for information technology.
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Monday, January 28, 2013
Secure Your Business for Data Privacy Day - Security
I'd like to tip my hat to Dwight Silverman, whose blog not only alerted me to Data Privacy Day, but who also offers some excellent advice as to what individuals can do to further secure their private data. You'll find a lot of good material in that article, covering passwords, social media activity, credit reports, and more. Even if you think you're familiar with this information, I'd suggest reading Silverman's piece, as it links to some very useful resources.
One of these resources, in fact, is StaySafeOnline.org. It's powered by the National Cyber Security Alliance, a not-for-profit whose stated mission ?is to educate and therefore empower a digital society to use the Internet safely and securely at home, work, and school, protecting the technology individuals use, the networks they connect to, and our shared digital assets.? The website offers a wealth of resources, information, and tips, not just for individuals but for businesses. I used their site as a resource for the rest of the information in this article.
The first step you should take in evaluating your firm's data security is to assess your risk.? If you're a small company, you might be surprised to learn that you're at greater risk of getting hacked than a large company. You might think a hacker would consider your firm to be small potatoes compared to the Amazons of the world, but criminals know that small companies can't afford the resources to protect their data that large corporations can ? thus making them tempting targets.
And what do hackers do once they break into your company's network? ?If cybercriminals can breach a small business and steal credentials (banking accounts, email access, etc.) they can use that information to steal money directly, create attacks on your customers and work their way around the business ecosystem in other nefarious ways,? StaySafeOnline explained.
To assess your company's online risk, consider some of the following questions: do you have a formal written Internet security policy for your employees? Do you have any policies in place regarding how your employees use social media? Do you have a privacy policy with which your employees must comply when handling customer information? Do you offer training to your employees regarding the Internet and online security? Do your employees understand the potential risks of using USB devices in the workplace? Are all of your machines completely wiped of their data before disposal?
After assessing your company's risk, you can move on to making its data (and the data of your customers and employees) more secure. StaySafeOnline offers plenty of advice on that, but one great way to do this is with employee training. Such training should at least include the following five simple tips.
First, make sure your employees know what they are and are not allowed to install and keep on their work machines. Put rules in place ? and enforce them. ?Unknown outside programs can open security vulnerabilities in your network,? StaySafeOnline notes. As a side note, they can also make computers function less efficiently, which leads to calls to the IT department (and costs valuable time). In a previous job, when I shared an office with an elderly co-worker who didn't understand why she couldn't have whatever she wanted on her computer, I saw this happen more than once.
Second, teach your employees how to follow good password practices. Passwords should be long and contain a mix of upper case and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Users should change their passwords regularly and keep them private. Until someone comes up with something better, they're still the best way an individual can keep data secure.
Third, make sure your employees know not to open suspicious links in email, posts, tweets, online ads, messages, or attachments. Make sure they also understand that a link isn't necessarily safe just because they know the source; a friend's email account could have been hacked, for instance. Spend some time explaining your company's spam filters and how to use them to your employees, as well.
Fourth, data security covers more than just protecting sensitive information from hackers. It also means preventing the loss of data. Teach your employees to back up their work, and tell them how often they need to do so ? or if? you do automatic backup at your office, make sure your employees know what they need to do to make sure their important data is saved.
Finally, a computer behaving ?strangely? can be a hint that it has been compromised ? so ?Your employees should be encouraged to keep an eye out and say something if they notice strange happenings on their computer,? according to StaySafeOnline. And remember, no one is totally immune. Back in August, Matt Honan?got spectacularly hacked and lost a lot of personal data...and he's a tech blogger, so you know he was doing what he could to secure himself. It could have been much worse, but he noticed his computer behaving oddly, and was able to work with Amazon and Apple to save at least some of his data.
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Source: http://www.devshed.com/c/a/Security/Secure-Your-Business-for-Data-Privacy-Day-60038/
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Senate immigration reform backers seek quick action
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of senators who have agreed on an immigration reform plan said on Monday they hope to move quickly with legislation giving 11 million illegal immigrants a chance to eventually become American citizens.
The four Democrats and four Republicans released the outline of a comprehensive immigration reform effort - one with plenty of details missing - that still must be turned into legislation.
At a news conference on the proposal, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York, one of the eight working on the initiative, said he hoped it could be passed by the Senate in late spring or early summer.
In an attempt to build support among lawmakers, the Senate proposal would couple immigration reform with enhanced security efforts aimed at preventing illegal immigration and ensuring that those foreigners here temporarily return home when their visas expire.
A Republican member of the group, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said he hoped for an overwhelming vote of support in the Senate, which could enhance chances of a bill passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
But Graham also warned, "If for some reason we fail in our efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform, I do believe it will be many years before anyone is willing to try and solve this problem."
The plan, which faces an uncertain future in Congress, was unveiled a day before President Barack Obama was to give a policy speech on immigration in Nevada.
With Republicans regrouping after November elections in which they failed to garner significant support from Hispanic voters, there are other indications immigration reform could be on a fast track in the newly convened 113th Congress.
A bipartisan group in the House also is close to unveiling its own immigration proposals, according to the congressional source with knowledge of the reform efforts.
The source said the House group could detail its outline either later this week or next week.
No one expects an easy path for any of the proposals, which are still being developed and lack detail.
The last comprehensive revision of the nation's immigration law was in 1986. Numerous efforts since then have encountered stiff resistance, especially from the conservative wing of the Republican Party, which as recently as the Republican presidential primary races in 2012 opposed anything resembling an "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants.
"When you legalize those who are in the country illegally, it costs taxpayers millions of dollars, costs American workers thousands of jobs and encourages more illegal immigration," warned Republican Representative Lamar Smith, who is the former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
With the electoral power of Hispanic voters growing rapidly, however, leading Republicans have been urging conservatives to rethink both their positions and their rhetoric.
The Senate group included Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed his support for the effort.
Under its proposal, undocumented immigrants would be allowed to register with the government, pay a fine, and then be given probationary legal status allowing them to work.
Ultimately, they would have to "go to the end of the line" and apply for permanent status.
The White House praised the group's efforts but warned that Obama would not be satisfied until there was meaningful reform. The president "will continue to urge Congress to act until that is achieved," a White House spokesman said.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington and Tim Gaynor in Arizona; Editing by Fred Barbash and Doina Chiacu)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bipartisan-senate-group-proposes-broad-immigration-plan-103529891.html
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THE RESET: Guns, immigration topping week's agenda
FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2011 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at the Newseum in Washington. In an opinion piece published Sunday Jan. 27, 2013 in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Rubio wrote that the existing system amounts to "de facto amnesty," and he called for "commonsense reform." (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2011 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at the Newseum in Washington. In an opinion piece published Sunday Jan. 27, 2013 in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Rubio wrote that the existing system amounts to "de facto amnesty," and he called for "commonsense reform." (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
John Crossen, of Montoursville, with Big John's Guns, closes a case of handguns during the Allentown Gun Show Sunday morning at the Rodeway Inn Conference Center in South Whitehall Township, Pa. Jan. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/The Express-Times, Matt Smith)
FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2013 file image taken from video and provided by CBS, President Barack Obama, center, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speak with ?60 Minutes? correspondent Steve Kroft, left, in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington. The interview will air Sunday, Jan. 27 during the ?60 Minutes? telecast on CBS. (AP Photo/CBS, File)
A week into his second term, President Barack Obama is temporarily turning from perpetual political fights over the national debt, government borrowing, spending and taxing to tackle two other big issues: immigration and gun-law overhaul.
With Congress delaying a debt limit showdown until May 18, the White House postponing its annual budget submission until March and House Speaker John Boehner struggling to maintain Republican unity, this could be the time to strike.
National public opinion polls show a majority of Americans now support easing immigration laws and tightening federal gun restrictions.
That's not to say either fight will be easy. Both immigration and guns remain hot-button issues in Congress
The president met Monday with police chiefs from three towns that experienced mass shootings in 2012: Aurora, Colo.; Oak Creek, Wis., and Newton, Conn. "We recognize that this is an issue that elicits a lot of passion all across the country," Obama said.
He hopes public outrage over recent shootings strengthens his hand on curbing gun violence.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan Senate group Monday presented a new framework for overhauling the nation's immigration laws, including a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already here. Obama presses his case for immigration-law changes Tuesday in Las Vegas.
The White House also believes the political math of last November's election ? in which Obama won overwhelming Hispanic support ? helped soften GOP opposition to liberalizing immigration laws.
"What's changed, honestly, is that there is a new ... appreciation on both sides of the aisle ? including maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle ? that we have to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday on ABC.
Even so, the new Senate immigration proposal could face strong opposition in the Republican-controlled House.
And despite growing public support for gun curbs, the pro-gun lobby remains a potent force.
___
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Leading Democrat: Gun control faces uphill climb
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who's leading the push to restore an assault weapon ban, acknowledged on Sunday that the effort faces tough odds to pass Congress and she blamed the nation's largest gun-rights group.
Feinstein, D-Calif., on Thursday introduced a bill that would prohibit 157 specific weapons and ammunition magazines that have more than 10 rounds. The White House and fellow Democrats are skeptical the measure is going anywhere, given lawmakers who are looking toward re-election might fear pro-gun voters and the National Rifle Association.
"This has always been an uphill fight. This has never been easy. This is the hardest of the hard," Feinstein said.
"I think I can get it passed because the American people are very much for it," Feinstein said of the measure that follows a similar measure she championed into law 1994 but expired a decade later.
She acknowledged, however, the NRA's political clout.
"They come after you. They put together large amounts of money to defeat you," Feinstein said.
She also said the group was a pawn of those who make weapons.
"The NRA is venal. ... The NRA has become an institution of gun manufacturers," she said.
The NRA disputed her characterization.
"The NRA is a grass-roots organization. We have more than 4 million dues-paying members and tens of millions of supporters all across this country. Our political power comes from them. Decent and logical people would understand that," spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to take up the proposal on Wednesday and hear from the NRA's CEO and senior vice president, Wayne LaPierre. Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., who was shot in an assassination attempt, also plans to testify.
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2012, said Congress should focus on the causes of violence and not the weapons alone.
"We need to look beyond just recycling failed policies of the past. ... Let's go beyond just this debate and make sure we get deeper. What's our policy on mental illness? What's going on in our culture that produces this kind of thing? You know, we need to have that kind of a discussion and debate," Ryan said.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also urged lawmakers to consider mental health issues.
"When I hear some of this conversation, I think that we're looking at symptoms, we're not looking at the root causes," she said. "And I understand the senator's passion for this, but I got to tell you, an assault ban is not the answer to helping keep people safe."
New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who favors the assault weapons ban, expressed skepticism that it would be returned to law.
"It's probably a heavy lift in Congress," he said.
In the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. In December, President Barack Obama has pushed to expanded background checks, restoring the assault weapons ban and banning high-capacity ammunition magazines. But members of his own party may thwart his hopes.
Feinstein appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation" and CNN's "State of the Union." Ryan was on NBC's "Meet the Press." Blackburn and Kelly were on CBS.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/leading-democrat-gun-control-faces-uphill-climb-160828132--politics.html
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Deadly smoke, lone blocked exit: 230 die in Brazil
A woman cries over the coffin of a victim at a gymnasium where bodies were brought for identification in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. (AP Photo/Nabor Goulart)
A woman cries over the coffin of a victim at a gymnasium where bodies were brought for identification in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. (AP Photo/Nabor Goulart)
A man stands around coffins containing the remains of victims after the bodies were identified at a gymnasium in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. A fast-moving fire roared through the crowded, windowless Kiss nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, within seconds filling the space with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers who gasped for breath and fought in a stampede to escape.(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Relatives and friends mourn on the coffin containing the remains of a fire victim at a gymnasium where bodies were brought for identification in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. A fast-moving fire roared through the crowded, windowless Kiss nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, within seconds filling the space with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers who gasped for breath and fought in a stampede to escape.(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Relatives and friends carry the coffin of a victim out of a gymnasium where bodies where brought for identification in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. A fast-moving fire roared through the crowded, windowless Kiss nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, within seconds filling the space with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers who gasped for breath and fought in a stampede to escape.(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Family members and friends stand around coffins containing the remains of victims after the bodies were identified at a gymnasium in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. Officials counted more than 230 bodies that were brought for identification to the gymnasium in Santa Maria,(AP Photo/Nabor Goulart)
SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) ? A fast-moving fire roared through a crowded, windowless nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, filling the air in seconds with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers, many of whom were caught in a stampede to escape.
Inspectors believe the blaze began when a band's small pyrotechnics show ignited foam sound insulating material on the ceiling, releasing a putrid haze that caused scores of university students to choke to death. Most victims died from smoke inhalation rather than burns in what appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.
Survivors and the police inspector Marcelo Arigony said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club. Brazilian bars routinely make patrons pay their entire tab at the end of the night before they are allowed to leave.
But Arigony said the guards didn't appear to block fleeing patrons for long. "It was chaotic and it doesn't seem to have been done in bad faith because several security guards also died," he told The Associated Press.
Later, firefighters responding to the blaze initially had trouble getting inside the Kiss nightclub because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance," Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper.
Authorities said band members who were on the stage when the fire broke out later talked with police and confirmed they used pyrotechnics during their show.
Police inspector Sandro Meinerz, who coordinated the investigation at the nightclub, said one band member died after escaping because he returned inside the burning building to save his accordion. The other band members escaped alive because they were the first to notice the fire.
"It was terrible inside ? it was like one of those films of the Holocaust, bodies piled atop one another," said Meinerz. "We had to use trucks to remove them. It took about six hours to take the bodies away."
Television images from Santa Maria, a university city of about 260,000 people, showed black smoke billowing out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who attended the university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at the hot-pink exterior walls, trying to reach those trapped inside.
Bodies of the dead and injured were strewn in the street and panicked screams filled the air as medics tried to help. There was little to be done; officials said most of those who died were suffocated by smoke within minutes.
Within hours a community gym was a horror scene, with body after body lined up on the floor, partially covered with black plastic as family members identified kin.
Outside the gym police held up personal objects ? a black purse, a blue high-heeled shoe ? as people seeking information on loved ones crowded around, hoping not to recognize anything being shown them.
Teenagers sprinted from the scene after the fire began, desperately seeking help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms. Many of the victims were under 20 years old, including some minors. About half of those killed were men, about half women.
The party was organized by students from several academic departments from the Federal University of Santa Maria. Such organized university parties are common throughout Brazil.
"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.
The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.
Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit some sort of flare that started the conflagration.
"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."
Guitarist Rodrigo Martins told Radio Gaucha that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2:15 a.m. "and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning."
"It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it," he said. "When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working."
He confirmed that accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.
Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a hospitalized victim. He said earlier that the death toll was likely made worse because the nightclub appeared to have just one exit through which patrons could exit.
Officials earlier counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in Santa Maria, which is located at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.
Federal Health Minister Alexandre Padhilha told a news conference that most of the 117 people treated in hospitals had been poisoned by gases they breathed during the fire. Only a few suffered serious burns, he said.
Brazil President Dilma Rousseff arrived to visit the injured after cutting short her trip to a Latin American-European summit in Chile.
"It is a tragedy for all of us," Rousseff said.
Most of the dead apparently were asphyxiated, according to Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who went to the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.
Beltrame said he was told the club had been filled far beyond its capacity.
Survivors, police and firefighters gave the same account of a band member setting the ceiling's soundproofing ablaze, he said.
"Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room, and I would say that at least 90 percent of the victims died of asphyxiation," Beltrame told the AP.
"The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit. At least 50 bodies were found inside a bathroom. Apparently they confused the bathroom door with the exit door."
In the hospital, the doctor "saw desperate friends and relatives walking and running down the corridors looking for information," he said, calling it "one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed."
Rodrigo Moura, identified by the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.
Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer declared a 30-day mourning period, and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said officials were investigating the cause of the disaster.
The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.
Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.
In 2004, at least 194 people died in a fire at an overcrowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Seven members of a band were sentenced to prison for starting the flames.
A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, killed 152 people in December 2009 after an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches.
Similar circumstances led to a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people in the United States. Pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling of a Rhode Island music venue.
The band performing in Santa Maria, Gurizada Fandangueira, plays a driving mixture of local Brazilian country music styles. Guitarist Martin told Radio Gaucha the musicians are already seeing hostile messages.
"People on the social networks are saying we have to pay for what happened," he said. "I'm afraid there could be retaliation".
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Sibaja reported from Brasilia. Associated Press writers Stan Lehman and Bradley Brooks contributed to this report from Sao Paulo.
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Sunday, January 27, 2013
AP Source: Titans interested in hiring Williams
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? Gregg Williams may be a step closer to returning to the NFL after being suspended indefinitely for his role in the Saints' bounty program.
Titans coach Mike Munchak has talked with Williams and is interested in adding him to his Tennessee staff, said a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke Sunday to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the Titans do not discuss personnel moves until they are finalized.
Before the Titans could hire Williams, he must be reinstated by the league. Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended him indefinitely for his role in the New Orleans Saints bounty program, and NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Sunday the league has not yet addressed Williams' potential reinstatement.
Munchak did not immediately answer a message left by the AP on Sunday. The Titans coach has not talked with the media about his team since the day after the season ended.
How quickly the league considers reinstating Williams may take at least a week with the San Francisco 49ers arriving in New Orleans on Sunday to kick off festivities leading up to the Feb. 3 Super Bowl.
Williams is the only coach or player who has yet to return to the NFL in the wake of the bounty scandal.
Goodell just lifted the suspension for New Orleans coach Sean Payton on Tuesday, nearly two weeks earlier than expected. Saints general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for eight games and assistant head coach Joe Vitt for six. Four current or former Saints players were also suspended after an investigation found the club had a performance pool offering cash rewards for key plays, including big hits. The player suspensions eventually were overturned.
Williams was the Saints defensive coordinator from 2009-11 and was hired by St. Louis in January 2012 by former Titans coach Jeff Fisher before being suspended indefinitely in March 20112. Williams' son, Blake, also was on Fisher's staff as the Rams' linebacker coach ? but his contract was not renewed earlier this month.
Munchak has known Williams since 1990. Munchak was playing for the then-Houston Oilers when Williams became an assistant coach with the team. They also coached together with the Oilers; Munchak oversaw the offensive line starting in 1994 and Williams rose from defensive assistant to coaching special teams, then linebackers and finally defensive coordinator.
Williams left the Titans to become head coach of the Buffalo Bills in 2001 before becoming defensive coordinator with the Washington Redskins from 2004-07. He also was defensive coordinator in Jacksonville in 2008 before being hired by the Saints in 2009.
Williams also has a relationship with Munchak's current defensive coordinator, Jerry Gray. When Williams left for Buffalo, Gray went with him and served as Williams' defensive coordinator with the Bills.
Even though Gray currently has the job, the Titans' defense needs help and Munchak will be coaching for his job in 2013 after going 6-10 in his second season as head coach. One reason for the losing record was Tennessee's inability to stop anyone; the Titans set a franchise record allowing 471 points in 2012. The only change Munchak has made to his defensive staff was letting linebackers coach Frank Bush go and moving Chet Paralavecchio into the job from assisting with special teams.
In Williams' last season with the Titans, Tennessee ranked first in the NFL in fewest yards allowed, first in passing yards allowed and third in rushing defense. The Titans also set a franchise-record for fewest points allowed with 191 with an aggressive defense.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-titans-interested-hiring-williams-164240212--nfl.html
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Saturday, January 26, 2013
P53 mutation hinders cancer treatment response
Jan. 25, 2013 ? Scientists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) have discovered the workings of the gene that has been hindering treatment response in cancer patients. This discovery was made after 5 years of studying the mutant form of the p53 gene, the major tumor suppressor in humans, which is generally found mutated in over 50% of all type of human cancers.
The dominant-negative (DN) effect of the mutant p53 gene in cancers was found to affect the outcome of cancer treatment modalities. DN effect is a phenomenon whereby one copy of mutant p53 that exists in cancer cells inhibits the tumor suppressor activity of the other wild-type p53 copy when they co-exist. The result is that a patient may either have poor response or earlier relapse of tumours after their treatment.
The research findings is significant in that it offers hope to improve cancer treatment outcomes by selectively inhibiting mutant p53's DN effect through several methods by generating selective and specific inhibitory molecules specific for some of the common hot-spot p53 point mutations. There are currently no drugs or compounds that can alleviate DN effects of mutant p53.
In order to understand the specific roles of mutant p53 DN properties in regulating acute treatment response and long-term tumourgenesis, a team of five researchers led by NCCS Prof Kanaga Sabapathy, the Principal Investigator in the Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Head of the Division of Cellular & Molecular Research from NCCS, carried out experiments by generating genetically engineered knock-in mouse strains expressing varying levels of mutant p53. The results showed that DN effect is observed after acute p53 activation by a variety of chemotherapeutic drugs and irradiation, thereby affecting anti-cancer treatment. This breakthrough came after five years of intensive research.
It was found that mutant p53 have DN effects in a cell-type and dose-dependent manner, especially during acute p53 activation where p53 levels are elevated. Based on the above observations, efforts to generate specific inhibitors for the common hot spot p53 point mutations are underway. The inhibition of mutant p53 expression in cells carrying a wild-type and mutant p53 alleles can improve response to chemotherapeutic drugs.
In a further study, the researchers also questioned the possibility of the mutant p53 acquiring new functions (or Gain of Function) to drive carcinogenesis, transforming normal cells to cancerous cells. Their investigation comparing cells from genetically engineered mouse strains expressing 2 different types of p53 mutations: the R172H mutation versus the R246S mutation, which showed that Gain of Function (GOF) was found only in the former. This showed that GOF of mutated p53 is specifically dependent on mutation-type but not across all kinds of genetic mutations, highlighting diversity in properties of the different types of p53 mutations, thereby indicating that mutations found in human cancers can behave differently, and thus, need to be carefully assessed prior to treatment.
Thus, the existence of mutant p53 certainly has a negative impact on cancer treatment, whether it is through DN effect or GOF. Prof Sabapathy said that the team is now embarking on more research to determine the possibility of targeting mutant p53 without affecting wild-type p53 in human cells, paving way to clinical trials in the future to test the efficacy on cancer therapeutic response.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/EAuE68IgufU/130125111331.htm
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Reference: ereviews | January 2013
e?reviews: Feminism
From Christine de Pisan?s 1405 work Le Livre des Trois Vertus or The Book of Three Virtues advising women how to deal with constant misogyny (available via Adam Matthew Digital?s Defining Gender) to Bora Chang?s essay ?Defining Young Feminism Today?My Personal Journey to Activism? in Women?s Health Activist (included in Contemporary Women?s Issues from Gale Cengage Learning), these sources relate the details, challenges, frustrations, and triumphs of feminism?s long narrative. One source?The Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs?even tells both sides of the story, providing fascinating (if incredible) antifeminist tracts.
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CONTENT?Born in 1854, Aletta Jacobs was the first Dutch women to complete a medical education and (following a trip to England to witness firsthand the efforts to undermine women?s medical studies in that country) she became the first female practicing physician and psychologist in the Netherlands.
With support from the Dutch General Trade Union, she taught hygiene and childcare techniques to impoverished women and established what some consider the first birth-control clinic. Denied the right to vote, she joined and ultimately became head of the Dutch Association for Woman?s Suffrage. Her efforts helped to bring about the Hague Conference of 1915, which led to the formation of the Women?s International League for Peace and Freedom.
In the midst of all this, Jacobs and her husband, C.V. Gerritsen, began gathering an extensive collection of published materials that documented the evolution of a new feminist consciousness and articulated their commitment to the struggle for women?s rights. They also made room for tracts that argued forcefully against the equal treatment of women, giving the collection the kind of rich balance that is suited to impartial research. Ultimately, Jacobs, Gerritsen, and the subsequent curators of their collection assembled more than 4,700 books, pamphlets, and periodicals?in 15 languages?from sources all over Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. The collection mainly includes publications dating from 1543 up until the Gerritsens concluded their work in 1945, although we also found periodical issues and annual reports published as recently as the mid-1970s.
The Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs is comprised of two segments?the Monograph Language Series (which makes up about 75 percent of the material) and Periodical Series (making up the remaining 25 percent).
The monographs include some 4,000 books and pamphlets, grouped by language. Half of these titles are in English, giving students and researchers a sweeping view of the history of feminism and of the long battle for the right to vote in the English-speaking world.
German-language titles make up nearly a quarter of the monographs; these document the activities of women?s rights organizations, women and socialism, and the feminist orientation of the Jewish and Swiss segments of the population. The 734 French titles cover women in the military and the law, and include works on the influence of women on French literature and on reforms in women?s legal, civil, and economic rights. There are nearly 500 titles in 12 languages other than English and German. A brief, English-language summary accompanies most of the monographs in the collection.
The Periodicals Series segment of Gerritsen is unique in terms of its inclusion of titles both supporting and opposing feminist points of view. There are 137 English-language titles in this segment, 59 titles in German, 24 in French, 20 in Dutch, and 25 in a smattering of other languages. For the critical years from 1860 to 1900, Gerritsen is unparalleled in the thoroughness of its coverage, and every effort was made to provide as complete a run of every periodical title in the collection.
USABILITY?Gerritsen employs the Chadwyck-Healey interface, which enables users to perform a quick search on any keyword in the books or periodicals sections of the database or in the full collection. The search button links to an advanced-search template where users may again limit the search to a specific segment of the resource by clicking on the appropriate radio button. Search template options include keyword, keyword in title, author, publisher, place of publication, language, and date range. Alternatively, search terms may be easily selected from a standardized list and added to the search strategy.
Additional book search options include a keyword search of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH); users may also select the formal LCSH from a list. These steps are also possible with the 12 broad categories of the custom Gerritsen Index: Bibliography; Biography and Autobiography; Education and Professional Training; Feminism; History and Social Condition; Opinions, Satires, Anecdotes, and Aphorisms; Physiology of Women; Political and Social Reform; Psychology of Women; Women and Employment; Women and Religion; and Women and the Arts. Here, for example, a keyword search on ?satire*? would bring up the 192 book titles in the database classified with the term Opinions, Satires, Anecdotes, and Aphorisms. A keyword search of the term?women?in this index would bring up results from five different Gerritsen categories.
Additional periodical search options include title keyword search or selection of a specific title from a list. Users may refine such a search by checking one or more article types, including editorial cartoon, letter, obituary, poetry, recipe, and statistics.
Browsing of Monographic titles is done using LC Subject Heading or via the Gerritsen Index Terms. The latter provides an instant sense of the subject themes the collection emphasizes?History and Social Conditions offers 1662 titles, for example, which is twice as many as the second largest category, Feminism.
Most of the Gerritsen index terms are also hierarchical, giving researchers access to more specific subcategories, which in turn are grouped by language. Under Physiology of Women, for example, are sub-sets including antifeminist tracts (?Women?s Unfitness for Higher Coeducation?), Medical information (?Madre Natura Versus the Moloch of Fashion: A Social Essay,? which blames the poor health of many women on the ?foolish dictates of fashion?), and profeminist pieces (?Science and Suffrage: An Inquiry into the Causes of Sex Differences,? a 1909 tract that ?uses the theory of evolution to argue that women are biologically superior to men?).
Gerritsen users can take advantage of Boolean and proximity operators, truncation and wildcards, and phrase searching using quotation marks to tailor their search strategies with a considerable degree of sophistication.
Documents are available as both TIFF images and PDFs. Search results may be marked for emailing, printing, or downloading, and saved to the researcher?s personal archive. Results may also be sorted by relevance, author, title, or by date in either direction.
PRICING?Pricing for the Gerritsen Collection is based on a variety of a variables including FTE and other products purchased. An academic library serving 5,000 students could expect to spend about $5,000 per annum. Free trials are available to institutions.
VERDICT?The Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs contains materials (and periodical runs in particular) that are extremely hard to come by, making it a treasure trove for researchers who want to delve into four centuries worth of primary sources on all aspects of women?s and feminist issues. The beauty of Gerritsen is that it tells both sides of that story.
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CONTENT?Adam Matthew Digital here merges extensive collections of primary-source documents. Ephemera, pamphlets, college records and exam papers, commonplace books, diaries, letters, ledgers, account books, educational practice and pedagogy materials, government papers, personal journals, and receipt books come from 21 contributing libraries and are complemented by a selection of original essays from international scholars. Additionally, the resource includes a rich array of published material such as periodicals, illustrated writings on anatomy, midwifery, art and fashion, poetry, novels, ballads, drama, literary manuscripts, travel writing, and conduct and advice. The result is a comprehensive resource for teaching and conducting interdisciplinary gender-studies research in literature, history, sociology, and education.
The broad thematic areas listed in Defining Gender include: Conduct and Politeness, Domesticity & the Family, Consumption & Leisure, Education & Sensibility, and The Body. Within these boundaries, users will find materials on a wide array of key topics, including advice (for both men and women), anatomy, arranged marriage, beauty, bullying, chastity, diet, domesticity, dress, education, etiquette, health, midwifery, modesty, parental influence, recipes, religion, sexuality, submissiveness, and vanity.
The Bodleian Library at Oxford, the British Library in London, the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales, the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, the Women?s Library at London Metropolitan University, and a number of other institutions contributed materials to Defining Gender.
USABILITY?Site navigation is simple and straightforward. There are tabs for accessing the contents of the resource?Essays, Documents, Biographies, Chronology?along with a set of housekeeping type tabs?Introduction, FAQs, Teaching, Help, and Microfilm Index.
The essays, which are original to the database, help introduce its themes and provide links directly to the underlying primary-source content. They are quite substantial. For example, ?Art and the Body: Representation and the Nude? by Dr. Rosemary Betterton of the Institute for Women?s Studies at Lancaster University runs some 5,300 words in length, and includes 32 endnotes along with multiple links to images in the collection.
Documents are arranged by the five thematic sections and then alphabetically by title. The title lists are not so long that browsing them becomes a chore, and in fact, there?s something that?s at least a little bit pleasurable in scanning the list and seeing a things such as ?Beauty and How to Keep It, by a Professional Beauty?; ?My Grandfather?s Pocket-Book?; and ?Rugby Rhymes, Rough and Ready.?
Document quality varies to some degree, which should not be surprising. On a Mac, whether using Safari or Firefox, enlarging the image size more than once (which was often necessary to make the text readable) makes the page image drift out of the frame and it is not obvious how to maneuver the image so all of it can be viewed. Some of the documents are hand-written, as well, which could represent a considerable challenge for untrained researchers, as there is no accompanying text version available in this collection.
Defining Gender offers only a simple, quick-search box for entering search terms, but users have a range of capabilities at their disposal: Boolean operators (AND, OR, and AND NOT), proximity operators, phrase searching using quotation marks, and wildcards and truncation. There are buttons leading to the names and topics lists, and a drop-down menu under the search box enables the restriction of results to a specific century. Even in the tight quarters of the single search box we were able to execute a search on (virtu* OR piety) AND (women or female) limited by pull-down menu to only the 18th century, which produced 20 documents distributed among all four thematic sections.
The Teaching tab links to pragmatic information on topics such as creating links to this resource from course pages, copying, fair use, and proper citation practices.
PRICING?Adam Matthew uses a banded pricing structure to determine discounts and payment plans for institutions of all sizes. The one-time price for Defining Gender, 1450-1910 ranges from $7,500 to $25,000. Free, four-week trials are available to universities, colleges, academic institutions, and libraries. Once a trial is active, access may be openly disseminated across the institution.
VERDICT?With its uncomplicated and entirely effective user interface, Defining Gender puts four-and-a-half centuries? worth of rare and intriguing primary-source materials into the hands of students and researchers engaged in the exploration of gender-studies themes across a wide range of academic disciplines.
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CONTENT?This multidisciplinary database brings together articles pertaining to women?s lives from mainstream periodicals, ?gray? literature, and the alternative press. With full-text coverage approaching 100 percent, the resource includes English-language titles from East and West Africa, Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean, North America, and Europe.
CWI draws on more than 2,300 sources including books and book reviews, mainstream journals and magazine articles, alternative media outlets, pamphlets, grassroots political and social groups, nongovernmental research institutions, newsletters, government agencies, research reports and other material from domestic and international organizations.
Updated weekly, subject coverage includes activism, domestic violence, pay equity, politics, reproductive rights, employment and the workplace, legal status, family life, sex education, and health and sexuality. The earliest records in CWI date back to 1990, with ?comprehensive? coverage beginning in 1992.
USABILITY?Contemporary Women?s Issues records are indexed by 17 categories, including subject area, 230 geographic regions, article type, and publication type. Searching is rather basic?as is the interface and navigation?with options to search full-text, enhanced titles, article author, or book author. Advanced searching is done using pull-down menus for selecting indexed terms.
The resource provides more than 150 different subject areas to choose from, including abortion, adoption, breastfeeding, family planning, feminism, gender equity, lesbian studies, parenting, pornography, etc. All articles are indexed by subject and include a thesaurus developed to accurately categorize the subjects and concepts represented in the database. The controlled vocabulary indexes (subject area and geographic region) are available through multi-select text boxes. Searchers may select multiple subject areas from a scrolling controlled-vocabulary window and restrict to a specific country or geographic region and combine them by clicking on the appropriate Boolean operator.
CWI?s single search mode looks a little dated with all the system?s capabilities packed together onto one screen, but the various searchable elements are clearly labeled, and most users, both novice and pro, should negotiate this interface with little effort.
We wanted to explore the availability of current content and chose searches such as ?paul ryan,? retrieving 11 records, including ?The War on Women: Why It?s Not Just an Election Issue?It?s Personal,? from?Curve, ?Election 2012: Doctors Decide: Physicians from Both Sides Weigh In,? from?OB-GYN News, and ?Social Darwinism returns,? from a July 2012 issue of?The Progressive. A subject search on mortality, limiting to the geographic area of Afghanistan or Iran, and the keyword?children, retrieved five research reports from?Bulletin of the World Health Organization?and the journal?Herizons, complete with tables, survey data, and references.
Matters are somewhat simplified with a highly visible ?not U.S.A.? check box. Limiting by article or publication type is available via pull-down menus. Finally, users may restrict searching to one or more specific sources via a linked table. The system supports Boolean and proximity operators as well as nesting and automatic stemming.
Like the search screen, the results list is not an aesthetic showpiece. Date, title (with a checkbox for marking selected sources), source, and word count are displayed in simply formatted rows and columns. The full text itself is presented without any graphics.
Export tools include print, email, and download, and users can bookmark articles with durable urls.
Given the competition with other similar products that cover women?s issues from an alternative media perspective (Alt-Press Watch, GenderWatch), the interface seems limited. There are no suggested subject topics, ?More like this? and linked index fields, easy browsing of source titles with full publication details, subject content, export options to citation management software, search history, etc.
PRICING?Pricing is based on an institution?s full-time enrollment or the size of the population served. Annual subscriptions start at $888.
VERDICT?While the interface is a little lacking, this database?s chief advantage is that it focuses on rarely indexed ephemeral literature from grassroots organizations, along with hard-to-find newsletters and NGO research reports that are not typically available in academic or public libraries. Recognizing the reasonable pricing, institutions with women?s or gender studies programs and curriculum will be interested in the wide range of content that is so effectively compiled into a single collection.
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CONTENT
Never more opportune than during this post-election period?with media attention on the 18-point gender gap that largely contributed to the president?s reelection?Facts On File?s American Women?s History Online covers the gender gap and more. Its material spans 500 years that includes nine historical periods relevant specifically to women?s history.
A user-friendly interface contains thousands of linked entries. The biographies section discusses everyone from tribal leaders, philanthropists, and religious missionaries to contemporary novelists, poets, and playwrights. ?Events and Topics? describes captivity narratives, fertility during the colonial period, Daughters of Temperance, the National Women?s Rights Convention, forming of the Daughters of Bilitis, the introduction of the Bill of Rights for Women, the rise of black feminism, and the antifeminist campaign of the ?80s. Primary-source material, meanwhile, includes landmark legislation, Supreme Court cases, and women?s liberation movement documents, with excerpts and full-text titles such as ?An Act Concerning the Dowry of Widows, Connecticut (1672)?; ?Manifesto of the Nebraska Men?s Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage?; Margaret Sanger?s ?A Moral Necessity for Birth Control?; Shirley Chisholm?s ?Equal Rights for Women? address; and Dan Quayle?s infamous ?Murphy Brown/Family Values Speech (1992).? Time-line entries are also provided; these come from?Encyclopedia of Women?s History in America. Maps and charts such as ?Comparison of Female and Male Population by State (1800),? ?Nations That Granted Women Suffrage before the U.S.,? and ?Abortion Rate by Race (1990?2003)? are a further boon to researchers.
Content is organized via ?Topic Centers,? a group of selected entries specifically chosen to provide a broad, inclusive look at an era or demographic group, and that include overview essays and coverage of important events and topics, key people, and primary-source documents. With titles such as ?1492?1774: Native Societies and Colonization of the Americas? to ?1980?Present: Contemporary Issues and Conflicts,? Topic Centers feature rich content on, for example, Native women, the Salem witch trials, and contemporary subjects such as riot grrls, abortion, and RU-486.
Examples from the source list?with some of these items included in their entirety and others excerpted?includes?Encyclopedia of Women?s History in America;?Great Supreme Court Decisions:?Roe?v.?Wade; the ?Women of Achievement? series; the ?Facts On File Encyclopedia of Black Women in America? series;?A to Z of American Women Writers;?Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics;?American Biographies: American Social Leaders and Activists; and?Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature.
The welcome screen features an ?Editor?s Selection of the Month? section, with the current presentation a lengthy biography of Grace Hopper, one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and developer of the first compiler for a computer programming language. Also prominent is a ?Focus on History through Video? section, with a varying array from nearly 120 historical videos covering such topics as women?s right to vote, domestic life in the United States, Anita Hill?s 1991 senate testimony, pointers on selling Tupperware, and marketing to 1950s housewives.
Updated monthly, the resource includes general ?Timelines by Era,? as well as ?Timelines by Topic? on women in politics, the history of reproductive rights and technology, and the suffrage movement.
USABILITY?It is evident from the extensive content recounted above that American Women?s History Online offers a wide range of valuable material. Users can begin their research in a multitude of ways either utilizing a basic or advanced search across all content, browsing through the nine main categories (each allows for further refinement by topic and time period), and/or checking the Topic Center Index to get an overview of the subject matter. To further refine a topic, biography browse includes narrowing by occupation (activists, warriors, rebels, and more); and primary sources by 17 document types (address, court decision, resolution, etc.).
Browsing through the biographies of modern feminists, we examined entries on Susan Brownmiller, Andrea Dworkin, Shulamith Firestone, and Betty Friedan. Additional content for each selected biography includes related biographies, events and topics, and documents.
Export options include save, email, or print. Creating a personal account allows users to save items to a personal folder for more than the current session. Records have a persistent URL and full citations are available, with ?how to cite? information for Chicago Manual of Style; MLA, 7th Edition; and APA styles.
All navigation and search features are available throughout the session, as is access to?The Facts On File Student?s Dictionary of American English, search history, and cross-searching other Facts On File history databases, if the library is a subscriber.
PRICING?Prices start at $410 per year for K-12 schools of fewer than 500 students; $650 for public libraries with up to 15,000 cardholders; and $500 for academic libraries. Free, 30-day trials are available.
VERDICT?An intuitive interface combined with the interesting collection of material helps to make this resource attractive to all levels of users. Easy access to primary-source material is always in demand with our undergraduate students and Topic Centers are an outstanding option for those looking to get a feel for the content and subject matter. The organization scheme offers beginning users a starting point for their research while advanced search?with its exact phrase and limiting features?allows those in the know to quickly locate specific primary-source documents.
E-SHORT TAKES
Archives Unbound
Gale Cengage Learning; http://gdc.gale.com/archivesunbound/
Archives Unbound is an impressive, expanding set of ?topically-focused? digital collections of historical documents. It supports a wide range of interdisciplinary research and the diverse study needs of both scholars and students alike. A sampling of collections relevant to this review includes:
Feminism in Cuba, 1898?1958 Compiled from Cuban sources, this trove spans the period from Cuban independence to the end of the Batista regime. The collection sheds light on Cuban feminism; women in politics; literature by Cuban women; and the legal status of Cuban women.
Women?s Issues and Their Advocacy Within the White House, 1974?1977 documents the evolution of the position of Special Assistant to the President for Women, who advised the President on women?s issues, handled White House liaison with women?s organizations, and oversaw the work of the Office of Women?s Programs. The resource includes meeting minutes, briefing papers, correspondence, draft presidential remarks, etc.
Women Organizing Transnationally: The Committee of Correspondence, 1952-1969 includes gendered aspects of Cold War liberalism, the United States government?s propaganda operations, women?s relationships to U.S. foreign policy, etc.
International Women?s Periodicals, 1786-1933: Social and Political Issues includes significant and least-widely held periodicals produced during this time period.
GenderWatch
ProQuest; proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/genderwatch.shtml
GenderWatch includes a diverse combination of sources that focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of issues, both historically and today. It covers topics such as sexuality, feminism, eating disorders, daycare, birth control, and women?s social and societal roles. The content extends back to 1970 for some publications, and users can search the database as a valuable repository of important historical perspectives on the evolution of the women?s and men?s movements; gay, lesbian, and transgendered communities; family studies; and changes in gender roles over the years. The more than 300 publications include scholarly journals; popular magazines; newspapers; newsletters; regional publications; conference proceedings; books; and NGO, government, and special reports. A sampling of scholarly titles includes?Advancing Women in Leadership,?Asian Journal of Women?s Studies,?Columbia Journal of Gender and the Law, and?Feminist Studies.
Women and Social Movements in the United States
Alexander Street Press; http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/
Organized as a chronology of the history of women in social movements in the United States between 1636 and 2000, this rich collection currently includes 110 document projects and archives with almost 4,200 documents and 56,000 pages of additional full-text documents, by more than 2,200 primary authors. The database also includes book, film, and website reviews, news from the archives, and teaching tools with lesson ideas and document-based questions.
Users can browse by bibliography, documents, people, chronology, subjects, movements, and more. Each year sees the addition of a further 5,000 pages of materials. Subscription options include Basic and Scholars, the latter adding a digital archive of 90,000 pages of publications of federal, state, and local Commissions on the Status of Women between 1961 and 2005; an online edition of the five-volume biographical dictionary,Notable American Women (1971?2004); and a dictionary of social movements and organizations.
Women?s Studies Encyclopedia
Greenwood Electronic Media (GEM) ABC-CLIO; http://gem.greenwood.com/products/
Organized within 17 broad subject categories including activism, feminism, gender roles, race and ethnicity, and violence and incarceration, Women?s Studies Encyclopedia offers more than 700 alphabetically listed entries from ?Abolitionism? to ?Zhenotdel,? with nearly 50 countries or regions having dedicated entries. Subcategories include antifeminist movements; aging and end-of-life issues; family structure; gender and society; women of color; emotional violence; sexual violence; pregnancy and maternity; and poverty. Prepared by 425 scholars from all disciplines, the reference offers a thorough analysis of women and society throughout history and around the world, with extensive bibliographic sources for individual entries, as well as a comprehensive general bibliography. Although rather dated?the original print source was published in 1997?the online version offers a wealth of additional information via an extensive and current external listing of links, organized according to the equivalent 17 subject categories.
Women?s Studies International?
EBSCO Publishing; ebscohost.com/academic/womens-studies-international
With the latest scholarship in feminist research included, Women?s Studies International integrates nine databases on women?s studies, women?s issues, and gender-focused scholarship from throughout the world. Files include ?Women Studies Abstracts (1984-)?; ?Women?s Studies Bibliography Database?; ?Women?s Studies Database?; ?New Books on Women & Feminism (1987-)?; ?Women of Color and Southern Women 1975-1988,? and annual supplements (1989-); ?WAVE: Women?s Audiovisuals in English: A Guide to Non-print Resources in Women?s Studies?; ?Women, Race and Ethnicity: a Bibliography?; ?Women?s Health and Development: An Annotated Bibliography?; and other databases and print publications.
Updated quarterly, coverage generally extends from 1972 (some is earlier) to the present. Nearly 800 core sources include journals, newspapers, newsletters, bulletins, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, reports, theses, dissertations, NGO studies, websites, and grey literature. More than 2,000 periodical titles are indexed, allowing users to find relevant articles on a wide range of subject matter from a feminist perspective.
Gail Golderman (goldermg@union.edu) is?electronic Resources Librarian and Bruce Connolly (connollb@union.ued) is Reference & Bibliographic Instruction Librarian, Schaffer Library, Union College, Schenectady, NY
Source: http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2013/01/reference/ereviews/reference-ereviews-january-2013/
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