‘Always online’ DRM makes things a lot easier for game creators but ultimately, more frustrating for gamers.
Read the link for the full story.
Kalos explains that the technique works much like a vaccine, training
the immune system to target cancer cells, just as inoculations coax it
to fight off viruses.
To do this, researchers isolated
immunological T-cells from the blood of the three leukemia patients and
genetically reprogrammed them using a virus vector that inserted a new
gene into their DNA.
This gene coaxed the T-cells to
create an antibody — known as chimeric antigen receptor or CAR — that
would specifically target structures on the surface of cancer cells.
The newly armed T-cells were then
injected back into the respective patients where they sought out and
bound themselves to the cancer cells and killed them.
More importantly, however, the
reprogrammed hunters caused other T-cells to multiply each time they
attacked, creating more killers with each slain cancer cell.
“Within three weeks the tumours had
been blown away, in a way that was much more violent than we ever
expected,” Dr. Carl June, a senior study author, said in a statement.
“In addition to an extensive capacity
for self-replication the infused T-cells are serial killers. On average
each infused T-cell led to the killing of thousands of tumour cells,”
said June, a University of Pennsylvania pathologist.
It’s estimated the scant number of
T-cells originally injected into the patients killed more than two
pounds of tumour cells in each of the men, whose blood and bone marrow
were replete with cancer.
After a year, microscopic analysis of their blood could find no trace of cancerous cells, Kalos says.
“I am still trying to grasp the
enormity of what I am part of and of what the results will mean to
countless others with (leukemia) or other forms of cancer,” one of the
patients, none of whom were named, said in a written statement.
Kalos says it appears that, like a
vaccine, the T-cells also left the patients with a lingering protection,
which would reactivate the immunological attack if cancer returned.
“If leukemia does come back, those T-cells (appear to be) armed and ready to eliminate it,” he said.
While both anger and sarcasm improved an observer’s attention to
detail, focus and speed in solving simple analytic problems, being
exposed to anger limited their ability to deal with more complex
problems that involved mental creativity, the team found. Sarcasm on the
other hand boosted their creative juices.
“When they were exposed to anger, it created ‘prevention motivation,’
or the motivation to avoid unpleasant situations or pain,”
Miron-Spektor told the Star. “It demonstrated that if you are
exposed to your boss yelling at your colleague, you will try to avoid
similar situations by working harder.”
Prevention motivation forces the brain to narrow the scope of its
attention, focusing only on relevant information and exclude unrelated
and distracting issues, according to the paper.
Because of its humorous tone, sarcasm elicits less fear in listeners
while stimulating the brain by forcing it to decipher the literal
meaning of what the speaker is saying along with the underlying
hostility of the message.
“I would like to stress that (the positive creative result) is
compared to anger. It is not that sarcasm is a good thing, period. It is
good compared to anger, but too much sarcasm and can be problematic,”
Miron-Spektor told the Star.
“There is never any harm in receiving another dose of measles, mumps
and rubella vaccine if you simply do not know,” King said. Extra doses
are generally not considered harmful, she said.
Later this year the province is rolling out an integrated infectious
disease and immunization registry, called Panorama, which will compile
existing data and create a vaccination database accessible by health
professionals and, one day, the public. The project is expected to take
years, and eventually link to other provincial systems.
King called Panorama, related to the broader eHealth program, a
“really important advancement” in public health and emergency
preparedness.
To be fully vaccinated requires two doses of the measles, mumps and
rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is publicly funded and delivered for free
to Ontario residents. The province provides 14 vaccines against 17
illnesses. Those born before 1970 probably became immune to those
illnesses by exposure.
Measles is highly contagious, spread by contact, coughing and
sneezing. Symptoms of measles include rash, high fever and watery eyes.
Mumps, a viral infection of the salivary glands, is rare. Symptoms of
the mumps include swelling and pain in the side of the jaw, fever,
headache, fatigue, and loss of appetite.
To find more information on publicly available vaccines, visit the health ministry’s fact sheet online.
CIUT, U of T's community radio station at St. George campus, has fired its manager over an unspecified issue.
The station's Board of Directors voted to cancel then-station manager
Brian Burchell's contract last Monday. Ken Stowar is now the station
manager in addition to his previous role as program director.
“We've asked Ken Stowar to serve at least until the annual general
membership meeting in March,” said Gage Averill, chair of CIUT's Board
of Directors.
Stowar said Averill asked him about accepting the position on September 27.
“[Averill] asked if I would consider stepping in as the acting station manager, and I said yes.”
Stowar added that Burchell was dropped because of an audit issue.
“[Burchell was] requested to work in cooperation with internal audits
of the University of Toronto and as to what that is about specifically,
I really have no idea,” said Stowar. “I was just asked to step in and
here's why.”
U of T's spokesperson said the university is unable to give any
additional information. Averill said he could not specify what exactly
led to the change, but explained it had to do with another company
managed by Burchell.
“We had a process of review over the last few months and decided to
terminate the contract with a company that Brian Burchell runs that had
management contracts for CIUT,” said Averill.
Burchell is publisher of Gleaner Community Press. Averill said he
wasn't sure if this is the company in question, and that it was
registered as a set of digits followed by "Ontario Inc."
Burchell did not respond to requests for comment. CIUT completed its week-long fall membership drive yesterday.
CommentsStowar isn't any better than Burchell. He's
fired almost all the paid staff in order to replace them with his own
cronies and has cut back on original spoken word by killing Take 5.
Stowar is unpopular with volunteers and is making the same mistakes that
led to the divisions at CKLN. Let's hope the Board hires someone else
as station manager or CIUT's days are numbered. - Susan F. Fe 13, 2011 at 02:46 AM
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If you dig a bit further, I'm sure you'll
find that Mr.Burchell has committed a number of crimes against his
listenership. Let's hope he doesn't get away with it.- Joseph A. Dec 1, 2010 at 04:50 PM