By Simon Evans DENVER, Colorado, March 23 (Reuters) - Furious Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto said it was an "embarassment to football" that Friday's World Cup qualifier with the United States was played in strong snow, while his federation promised to make an official protest. The U.S. won 1-0 but Pinto was riled the game was played on a snowy field with a covering that became deeper as the game wore on. "It was an embarrassment to football, disrespectful to the game," an animated Pinto told reporters. ...
We were excited and honored when the administration at Northeastern University asked us to help judge its RISE:2013 Research, Innovation and Scholarship Expo. The event, held at the physical education center on the school's Boston campus, brings together an incredibly diverse array of research projects covering a impressive number of fields, including physical and life sciences, engineering, humanities, arts & design, computer and information sciences, health sciences, law, business and social sciences.
As you might imagine, scoring works across such a diverse array of concentrations is no easy task. We did, however, manage to pull out a handful of projects that will no doubt be of particular interest to our own readership. The list includes the use of a Kinect camera and PC for physical rehabilitation, the 3D printing of embedded electrical technologies, a Lego set that helps bridge the gap between crustacean and robot and a device that employs an Arduino board and video games to help stroke victims recover motor skills. Check out a video of all of the above just after the break.
LONDON (AP) ? Broadway sensation "The Book of Mormon" has landed in London, to a warm reception from theatergoers and mixed notices from critics
Reviewers delivered their verdicts on the show Friday, after an opening night that counted celebrities including "Homeland" star Damian Lewis and Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon among the audience.
The exuberantly profane show by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and "Avenue Q" composer Robert Lopez tells the story of two Mormon missionaries sent to spread the word in Uganda.
Most critics praised the production's skill and energy, though the Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer said "its mixture of satire and syrup ultimately proves repellent."
Daily Mail critic Quentin Letts was even less enthusiastic: "I tired of it after 10 minutes."
And the Guardian's Michael Billington judged it "mildly amusing. ... a safe, conservative show for middle America."
Reviewers were full of praise for stars Gavin Creel and Jared Gertner as the young missionaries Elder Price and Elder Cunningham. Libby Purves in The Times loved the "big belting numbers, witty lyrics and joyfully athletic dances," but was troubled by the show's message.
She said the musical, "beneath its jollity, is morally null and ? without seeming to notice it ? racist."
"I don't see any Ugandans wanting to" see it, she said. "Even though the dances are great."
The Independent's Paul Taylor was more positive, saying: "I absolutely loved it ? albeit slightly guiltily."
Several critics compared the show unfavorably to "Jerry Springer: the Opera," a British musical that drew angry protests from some Christians.
Far from picketing "The Book of Mormon," the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took out three pages of ads in the program, telling audience members: "You've seen the play ... now read the book."
"The Book of Mormon" won nine Tony Awards in 2011, including best musical, and is a hot ticket in London, where it is sold out through July at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
Among audience members at one preview performance was Prime Minister David Cameron, who was seen laughing heartily throughout.
Stone was impressed the prime minister had attended.
"That would not happen in America," he said. "A politician just wouldn't come to ... they just wouldn't be seen near our (stuff). No way. If you want to get elected, you don't go near Matt and Trey."
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Associated Press writer Hilary Fox contributed to this report.
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Online:
Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless
In this week's Ask A VC, Comcast Ventures' Managing Director Michael Yang sat in the hot seat to talk about his passion for digital healthcare, and much more.
CHICAGO (AP) ? The city of Chicago has begun informing teachers, principals and local officials about which public schools it intends to close under a contentious plan that opponents say will disproportionately affect minority students in the nation's third largest school district, teachers said Thursday.
Chicago Public Schools hasn't said how many schools or students will be affected, but administrators identified up to 129 schools that could be shuttered, although the total number is expected to fall short of that number. The district says many of those schools don't serve enough students to justify remaining open, and that the closures will help it deal with a $1 billion budget shortfall and better allocate its resources to students.
The pending closures have been the subject of highly charged community meetings all over the city. Critics say that, among other things, the closures will threaten the safety of students who may have to cross gang boundaries if their schools are closed and that they will cause major inconveniences for families.
Chicago is among several major U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, Washington and Detroit, among others, to use mass school closures to reduce costs and offset declining enrollment.
The issue has led to yet another clash between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Teachers Union over the direction of the city's schools. A strike by the union's 26,000 teachers last fall idled roughly 350,000 students for seven days, and Emanuel has clashed with the union over his push to lengthen the school day.
At Lafayette Elementary, a school in the Humboldt Park neighborhood where 95 percent of its 483 students come from low-income families, the principal read teachers a letter from the district Thursday saying the school is among those it plans to close, said teacher Rosemary Maurello.
Sandra Leon, who was picking up her two grandchildren from kindergarten at Lafayette, wept as she spoke to reporter about the plans, which she heard about from their teacher in a tearful phone call.
"It's been so good for our kids. This school is everything," said Sandra Leon, whose children also attended the school.
The message read to Lafayette teachers said a final decision would be made in May after more community meetings are held and budget plans are reviewed. But Maurello said letters and information packets were already being sent to parents, and the district's message to teachers included a mention of specific plans to move the Lafayette students to another school about 10 blocks away.
"It sounds like a done deal to me," Maurello said.
Like many teachers, she is worried about where her students will end up. As a tenured teacher, the contract allows her to follow her students to their new school, but she wonders if some of them will opt to go to other schools instead.
The district has plans for community organizations to help students get to their new locations safely, but Maurello wonders how long that will last.
"I truly believe that it's going to be chaos," she said.
Many of the schools targeted for possible closure are in parts of south and west Chicago that are beset by gang violence and that have the highest homicide rates, leading to concerns for the safety of students who might have to enter areas farther from home to get to their new schools. Chicago registered more than 500 homicides last year for the first time since 2008.
That violence has hit areas like North Lawndale, where 59-year-old Eular Hatchett walks her 13-year-old nephew, DaVontay Horace, to school to ensure he gets there safely.
"Our parents know about this area," she said. "They don't know about those other areas. If they send him way north or way south, I'm not going to do that. It's too dangerous."
When she dropped her nephew off at Henson Elementary on Thursday, teachers were coming out of a meeting looking distraught and with their heads down, leading her to suspect that it's among those that will close. The teachers told her and others that they weren't permitted to talk about it.
For some of the affected children, it would be the second time in recent years that they've been displaced. When Chicago closed many of its public housing high-rises in recent years, school closings followed.
Many teachers and parents expressed anger and frustration at how the news of the school closures trickled out, leaving some to agonize over rumor and conjecture, instead learning the list of schools in one official announcement.
"In a word, the approach was brutal. It's certainly not deserved by these parents and these kids," said Mary Visconti, the director of the Better Boys Foundation, a youth organization in Lawndale.
A member of the City Council who represents the area, Michael Chandler, told a community gathering that he was informed Wednesday night of two Lawndale schools that will be closing, but he didn't name them.
Chicago Public Schools has until March 31 to announce which of the 129 schools it will close.
After published reports late Wednesday said the announcement would occur Thursday, a CPS spokeswoman said she could not confirm that information. The district released a one paragraph statement from CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett that reiterated that the announcement would be soon.
"For too long children in certain parts of Chicago have been cheated out of the resources they need to succeed in the classroom because they are in underutilized, under resourced schools," Byrd-Bennett said in the statement.
The district did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The list will not be final until the Chicago Board of Education votes on it in late May.
The Chicago Teachers Union, which has vigorously fought the closure plans, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will honor the community of Newtown and the memory of those killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School when the teams play opening day April 1 at Yankee Stadium.
Pregame ceremonies include a joint honor guard of Newtown police and firefighters, and a moment of silence at which time a list of the victims' names will be recognized on the center-field scoreboard.
"On opening day, we will reflect upon more important things and the play the game to honor the community of Newtown," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. "Since the day of the tragedy, our hearts and thoughts have been with those who were affected."
The Yankees and Red Sox will wear a special ribbon on their uniforms. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has asked that all other 28 major league teams wear the ribbon during their opening games.
"Months have passed, yet we are still trying to come to grips with this incomprehensible tragedy," Red Sox principal owner John Henry said in a statement. "As our teams look to face each other on opening day, we will stand united in support of the families affected as we remember and honor those who were lost."
Approximately 3,000 people from Newtown will be invited to the ballpark for New York's July 7th game against Baltimore on "Newtown Day at Yankee Stadium."
Findings to help in design of drugs against virus causing childhood illnessesPublic release date: 21-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emil Venere venere@purdue.edu 765-494-4709 Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - New research findings may help scientists design drugs to treat a virus infection that causes potentially fatal brain swelling and paralysis in children.
The virus, called enterovirus 71, causes hand, foot and mouth disease and is common throughout the world. Although that disease usually is not fatal, the virus has been reported to cause fatal encephalitis in infants and young children, primarily in the Asia-Pacific region.
Currently, no cure exists for the infection.
New findings show the precise structure of the virus bound to a molecule that inhibits infection. The findings are detailed in a paper appearing this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"These results provide a structural basis for development of drugs to fight enterovirus 71 infection," said Michael G. Rossmann, Purdue University's Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences.
Rossmann is co-author of a paper with Purdue postdoctoral research associate Pavel Plevka; research scientist Rushika Perera; postdoctoral research associate Moh Lan Yap; Jane Cardosa, a researcher at Sentinext Therapeutics in Malaysia; and Richard J. Kuhn, a professor and head of Purdue's Department of Biological Sciences.
The researchers had previously used a technique called X-ray crystallography to determine the virus's precise structure. A small molecule called a "pocket factor" is located within a pocket of the virus's protective shell, called the capsid. When the virus binds to a human cell, the pocket factor is squeezed out of its pocket resulting in the destabilization of the virus particle, which then disintegrates and releases its genetic material to infect the cell and replicate.
Researchers led by Rossmann have developed antiviral drugs for other enteroviruses such as rhinoviruses that cause the common cold. The drugs work by replacing the pocket factor with a molecule that binds more tightly than the real pocket factor, inhibiting infection.
In the new work, the researchers obtained a near-atomic-scale resolution three-dimensional structure of enterovirus 71 binding with an inhibitor called WIN 51711.
"We show that the compound stabilizes the virus and limits its infectivity, probably through restricting dynamics of the capsid necessary for genome release," Rossmann said. "Our results provide a structural basis for development of antienterovirus 71 capsid-binding drugs."
At a resolution of 3.2 angstrom, the images show nearly atomic-scale structural features.
Hand, foot and mouth disease, an infection most common among young children, sometimes arises in a daycare setting. Of the 427,278 cases of the disease recorded in mainland China between January and May 2010, 5,454 cases were classified as severe, with 260 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
###
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
Sources: Pavel Plevka, 765-494-8712, plevka@purdue.edu
Michael Rossmann, 765-494-4911, mr@purdue.edu
Richard J. Kuhn, 765-494-4407, kuhnr@purdue.edu
Rushika Perera, perera@purdue.edu
Related website:
Michael Rossmann: http://www.bio.purdue.edu/molecular_biosciences/directory.php?refID=81
ABSTRACT
Structure of Human Enterovirus 71 in Complex with a Capsid-Binding Inhibitor
Pavel Plevkaa,1, Rushika Pereraa,1, Moh Lan Yapa Jane Cardosab, Richard J. Kuhna, and Michael G. Rossmanna*
aDepartment of Biological Sciences, Purdue University
bSentinext Therapeutics, Malaysia
* To whom correspondence should be addressed: mr@purdue.edu
Human enterovirus 71 is a picornavirus causing hand, foot and mouth disease that may progress to fatal encephalitis in infants and small children. As of now, no cure is available for enterovirus 71 infections. Small molecule inhibitors binding into a hydrophobic pocket within capsid viral protein 1 were previously shown to effectively limit infectivity of many picornaviruses. Here we report a 3.2--resolution X-ray structure of the enterovirus 71 virion complexed with the capsid-binding inhibitor WIN 51711. The inhibitor replaced the natural pocket factor within the viral protein 1 pocket without inducing any detectable rearrangements in the structure of the capsid. Furthermore, we show that the compound stabilizes enterovirus 71 virions and limits its infectivity, probably through restricting dynamics of the capsid necessary for genome release. Thus, our results provide a structural basis for development of antienterovirus 71 capsid-binding drugs.
[ | 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.
Findings to help in design of drugs against virus causing childhood illnessesPublic release date: 21-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emil Venere venere@purdue.edu 765-494-4709 Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - New research findings may help scientists design drugs to treat a virus infection that causes potentially fatal brain swelling and paralysis in children.
The virus, called enterovirus 71, causes hand, foot and mouth disease and is common throughout the world. Although that disease usually is not fatal, the virus has been reported to cause fatal encephalitis in infants and young children, primarily in the Asia-Pacific region.
Currently, no cure exists for the infection.
New findings show the precise structure of the virus bound to a molecule that inhibits infection. The findings are detailed in a paper appearing this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"These results provide a structural basis for development of drugs to fight enterovirus 71 infection," said Michael G. Rossmann, Purdue University's Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences.
Rossmann is co-author of a paper with Purdue postdoctoral research associate Pavel Plevka; research scientist Rushika Perera; postdoctoral research associate Moh Lan Yap; Jane Cardosa, a researcher at Sentinext Therapeutics in Malaysia; and Richard J. Kuhn, a professor and head of Purdue's Department of Biological Sciences.
The researchers had previously used a technique called X-ray crystallography to determine the virus's precise structure. A small molecule called a "pocket factor" is located within a pocket of the virus's protective shell, called the capsid. When the virus binds to a human cell, the pocket factor is squeezed out of its pocket resulting in the destabilization of the virus particle, which then disintegrates and releases its genetic material to infect the cell and replicate.
Researchers led by Rossmann have developed antiviral drugs for other enteroviruses such as rhinoviruses that cause the common cold. The drugs work by replacing the pocket factor with a molecule that binds more tightly than the real pocket factor, inhibiting infection.
In the new work, the researchers obtained a near-atomic-scale resolution three-dimensional structure of enterovirus 71 binding with an inhibitor called WIN 51711.
"We show that the compound stabilizes the virus and limits its infectivity, probably through restricting dynamics of the capsid necessary for genome release," Rossmann said. "Our results provide a structural basis for development of antienterovirus 71 capsid-binding drugs."
At a resolution of 3.2 angstrom, the images show nearly atomic-scale structural features.
Hand, foot and mouth disease, an infection most common among young children, sometimes arises in a daycare setting. Of the 427,278 cases of the disease recorded in mainland China between January and May 2010, 5,454 cases were classified as severe, with 260 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
###
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
Sources: Pavel Plevka, 765-494-8712, plevka@purdue.edu
Michael Rossmann, 765-494-4911, mr@purdue.edu
Richard J. Kuhn, 765-494-4407, kuhnr@purdue.edu
Rushika Perera, perera@purdue.edu
Related website:
Michael Rossmann: http://www.bio.purdue.edu/molecular_biosciences/directory.php?refID=81
ABSTRACT
Structure of Human Enterovirus 71 in Complex with a Capsid-Binding Inhibitor
Pavel Plevkaa,1, Rushika Pereraa,1, Moh Lan Yapa Jane Cardosab, Richard J. Kuhna, and Michael G. Rossmanna*
aDepartment of Biological Sciences, Purdue University
bSentinext Therapeutics, Malaysia
* To whom correspondence should be addressed: mr@purdue.edu
Human enterovirus 71 is a picornavirus causing hand, foot and mouth disease that may progress to fatal encephalitis in infants and small children. As of now, no cure is available for enterovirus 71 infections. Small molecule inhibitors binding into a hydrophobic pocket within capsid viral protein 1 were previously shown to effectively limit infectivity of many picornaviruses. Here we report a 3.2--resolution X-ray structure of the enterovirus 71 virion complexed with the capsid-binding inhibitor WIN 51711. The inhibitor replaced the natural pocket factor within the viral protein 1 pocket without inducing any detectable rearrangements in the structure of the capsid. Furthermore, we show that the compound stabilizes enterovirus 71 virions and limits its infectivity, probably through restricting dynamics of the capsid necessary for genome release. Thus, our results provide a structural basis for development of antienterovirus 71 capsid-binding drugs.
[ | 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.
In this week's Ask A VC, Comcast Ventures' Managing Director ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sREtetblfG47WwcgywxReQegLGcmrEV61B6IA_O4nRl9YVa5k6b2tOHlNNM1P26xibSwWiCbqL-is9cZoM2WDK8E0ZOisXwHCsTyc-1S8=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 21-Mar-2013
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