WASHINGTON ? The House has passed a $1 trillion-plus catchall budget bill paying for day-to-day operations of 10 Cabinet departments and averting a government shutdown, while Senate talks on renewing a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits reached a critical phase.
The 296-121 vote to approve the spending measure represented a rare moment of bipartisanship in a polarized Capitol. The Senate's top Republican, meanwhile, raised the stakes in the showdown over the payroll tax cut, insisting he won't back a compromise extension unless the bill includes language aimed at forcing construction of a Canada-to-Texas pipeline.
As negotiations on the payroll tax bill proceeded Friday, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, "I will not be able to support the package that doesn't include the pipeline."
The GOP's pipeline demands added uncertainty to efforts by McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to quickly reach a deal on a bill renewing payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.
Negotiators on the payroll tax measure worked behind closed doors Friday in hopes of sealing agreement on how to pay for the measure. Simply extending the current 2 percentage point payroll tax cut would cost $120 billion, while extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and preventing a cut in Medicare payment to physicians would add tens of billions of dollars more.
A House-passed version of the payroll tax bill would give President Barack Obama 60 days to decide whether to build the proposed, 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline.
Obama, with the support of congressional Democrats, has announced he will delay that decision until after next year's elections, citing a need to study the impact the pipeline would have on sensitive lands in Nebraska. Obama has threatened to reject a payroll tax bill if it includes language easing work on the pipeline.
The postponement would let Democrats avoid having to choose between two of the party's core constituencies: environmentalists who oppose Keystone and some unions who covet the jobs it would produce.
But McConnell and other Republicans say the project would create thousands of jobs. The company's developer, TransCanada, says it could produce up to 20,000 jobs, while critics say the figure would be fewer than 3,500, including less than 1,000 that would be permanent.
After passing the catchall spending bill House leaders sent their members home until Monday or later, planning to return when the Senate produces a payroll tax cut measure for the House to vote on.
The way was smoother for the compromise spending bill, which passed on a 296-121 vote. It would fund 10 Cabinet-level departments, such as the Pentagon and the Department of Education, and dozens of smaller agencies. It would finance everything from U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to veterans' services, and from airport security inspections to Congress' own operations.
Reid and McConnell said that even if only the House had approved the spending bill by midnight Friday, the Obama administration agreed there would be no federal shutdown. For extra measure, the House also passed two stopgap spending bills, one to fund the government for a single day and the other for a week.
Agreement on the spending legislation was reached after Republicans agreed to drop language that would have blocked Obama from easing rules on people who visit and send money to relatives in Cuba. But a GOP provision will stay in the bill thwarting a 2007 law, passed during President George W. Bush's administration, on energy efficiency standards that critics argued would make it hard for people to purchase inexpensive incandescent light bulbs.
This year's 4.2 percent payroll tax rate will jump back to its normal 6.2 percent on Jan. 1 unless action is taken by Congress. Few lawmakers want to be blamed for a tax increase that would affect 160 million people.
Extended benefits for long-term jobless people will also expire Jan. 1 without congressional action.
That same day, a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements to doctors would take effect unless lawmakers act, a reduction that could convince some doctors to stop treating Medicare patients.
Obama and congressional Democrats have proposed dropping next year's payroll tax rate to 3.1 percent, but an extension of this year's 4.2 percent rate seems likely to prevail. The payroll tax is the major source of financing for Social Security.
Obama also wants to leave in place the current maximum of 99 weeks of benefits for the long-term unemployed. A payroll tax cut bill approved by the House reduces that total by 20 weeks, which the administration says would cut off 3.3 million individuals. Democrats are hoping to soften if not reverse what's in the House version.
Even without the Keystone pipeline dispute, bargainers had still not reached agreement on how to extend a payroll tax cut through 2012, with major disagreements remaining over how to finance the package.
The spending bill advanced after Democrats blocked a series of GOP assaults on Environmental Protection Agency regulations, though the agency's budget absorbed a cut of more than 3 percent.
GOP leaders did succeed in delays in regulations of coal dust and eliminating federal funding of needle exchange programs.
War costs would be $115 billion, a $43 billion cut from the previous year.
BEVERLY HILLS (Reuters) ? Silent movie "The Artist" painted a pretty picture at the Golden Globe nominations on Thursday, leading all movies with six nods overall including best film comedy or musical in the race to Hollywood's Oscars.
Following "The Artist" among top nominees for the key film awards were "The Descendants," starring George Clooney as a man struggling to keep his family together, and civil rights movie "The Help" with five nods each, including both in the key category of best film drama.
Joining "Descendants" and "The Help" among the films vying for top drama director Martin Scorsese's 3D "Hugo" and Steven Spielberg's "War Horse," baseball movie "Moneyball" and Clooney's political film "The Ides of March."
"I see great versatility, there is a variety of subjects being brought up in a variety of formats," said Aida Takla-O'Reilly, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which gives out the Golden Globe Awards.
The Golden Globes, which are voted upon by roughly 90 members of the HFPA, are among the most widely watched honors programs leading up to the Oscars in February.
But unlike the Oscars, Golden Globe movie nominations are grouped into two categories -- dramas and musicals or comedies -- where "The Artist" faces competition from director Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris," cancer comedy "50/50," box office hit "Bridesmaids" and "My Week with Marilyn,' starring Michelle Williams in the role of screen siren Marilyn Monroe.
SILENCE IS GOLDEN
"The Artist," an almost entirely silent movie shot in black-and-white and made in the same way as movies were before the "talkies," has captured the hearts of Hollywood award voters and critics this year with its tale of a silent-era star and his romance with a budding actress.
Along with best film musical or comedy, it earned nods for its star, French actor Jean Dujardin, supporting actress Berenice Bejo, director and writer Michel Hazanavicus and musical score, and the media exposure it will earn from being the top Golden Globes nominee should lure fans to box offices.
"The Descendants" and "The Help," similarly have wowed critics, and both films boosted their chances at Oscars by a strong showing at Thursday's Golden Globe nominees.
Along with best film drama, "Descendants" scored nominations for Clooney as best actor and Alexander Payne for directing and writing, among its honors. "The Help" earned several of its other nominations in acting categories including Viola Davis for best actress in a drama and Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain for supporting actress.
Joining Davis in the race for best dramatic actress are perennial favorite Meryl Streep portraying Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady," Glenn Close playing a woman masquerading as a male butler in "Albert Nobbs," newcomer Rooney Mara for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Tilda Swinton in dark film, "We Need to Talk About Kevin."
In the race for best dramatic actor, Clooney will square off against Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover in "J. Edgar," Michael Fassbender portraying a sex addict in "Shame," Brad Pitt in "Moneyball" and Ryan Gosling for "The Ides of March."
In another key category, best director, Payne and Hazanavicius take on masters Scorsese ("Hugo") and Allen ("Midnight in Paris,") along with Clooney for political film "The Ides of March."
Foreign language film nominees were Angelina Jolie's Bosnian war movie "In the Land of Blood and Honey," Chinese movie "The Flowers of War," Belgian film "The Kid with a Bike," Iran's "A Separation," and Spanish movie "The Skin I Live In."
The Golden Globe Awards will be given out in a gala ceremony on January 15, hosted by British comedian Ricky Gervais and telecast live on the NBC network.
Last year, Gervais ruffled many of the actors in the audience and members of the HFPA with some sarcastic jokes about the reputation of the awards show, but was invited back to emcee the event again this year.
HFPA president Takla-O'Reilly made light of last year's performance at the nominations on Thursday, calling Gervais a "naughty, naughty schoolboy."
(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Stem cell research in the UK reaches significant milestonePublic release date: 6-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Katherine Barnes katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk 44-020-784-83076 King's College London
King's College London researchers produce the first animal product-free clinical grade human embryonic stem cell lines intended for public benefit
Stem cell scientists at King's College London will today (Tuesday 6 December) announce they have submitted to the UK Stem Cell Bank (UKSCB) their first clinical grade human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines that are free from animal-derived products, known as 'xeno-free' stem cells.
The cells, which have the potential to become the 'gold standard' lines for developing new stem cell-based therapies, will be the first deposited in the UKSCB based at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, under arrangements that will ensure they are freely accessible to the wider research community. The expectation is that these cells will be grown and processed by the UKSCB to provide stem cell stocks that will be used for clinical research and treatment to benefit patients.
Researchers say this is a significant milestone; this first batch of cells is the culmination of nearly ten years of research funded strategically by the Medical Research Council (MRC) that will keep the UK at the forefront of regenerative medicine.
Embryonic stem cells can be grown in the laboratory indefinitely while retaining their capacity to develop into specialised cell types, such as nerve or heart muscle cells, which can then be used in clinical trials. More than 20 'research grade' stem cell lines have been provided by King's to the UKSCB since it derived the first research grade hES cell lines in the UK in 2003, but the challenge to date has been to establish appropriate derivation and growing conditions for the cells without the presence of any animal products, such as porcine enzymes, bovine serum or mouse feeder layers.
Clinical use of hES cells is already being explored in a number of phase 1 safety trials, such as spinal cord injury and macular degeneration. However, the hES cell lines used in these trials were reclassified from 'research grade' to 'clinical grade' for specified short-term clinical studies in selected disease states, as a matter of expediency. This route is not considered appropriate for the future of cell therapy because of the expense of the required testing and reclassification, and the significant risk of using cell lines derived on unqualified feeders, using unqualified reagents under undocumented environmental conditions in the embryology and stem cell labs and storage facilities. While it might be reasonable to incur additional risks for these early pioneering studies, it is not reasonable to accept these risks for the long-term future of cell therapy. Therefore the highest standard of xeno-free lines are urgently needed, and the development of these lines by King's represents a major step forward.
The hES cells were grown from frozen embryos donated by patients who had previously undergone IVF treatment and no longer wished to use their remaining stored embryos. These embryos would otherwise have been discarded in line with HFEA requirements.
The work took place in the purpose-built stem cell laboratory at King's, in collaboration with the Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, as part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre, and licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and the Human Tissue Authority (HTA). The laboratory is compliant with Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP).
The team developed a comprehensive methodology and standards for derivation of the xeno-free hES cell lines that will be appropriate for studies in human subjects after suitable additional testing and processing by the UKSCB. Developed in line with these rigorous standards, researchers, physicians and industry can be reassured of the reliability of the seed stock the essential base for translational applications. It is hoped that these standards will be recognised across academia, future users and policy agencies operating in and monitoring the field.
As the research that underpinned this work was funded by the MRC, the decision has been taken to submit these to the UKSCB for open-access therapeutic use for the public good. A number of additional xeno-free lines will follow shortly from King's and from the stem cell team at the University of Manchester/Central Manchester NHS Trust, who have been similarly supported by MRC and have also developed clinical grade hES cells to submit to the UKSCB in the same way.
Professor Peter Braude, Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, King's College London; former director of the Stem Cell Programme and the Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis Programme, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, said:
'This is a significant achievement of the team, one which we have been working towards for many years with the support of the University, our local hospital, and most importantly the Medical Research Council. We have succeeded where many substantial commercial companies have not. Many more xeno-free lines should follow, which demonstrates the validity and foresight of this and previous governments in this important endeavour.'
Dr Dusko Ilic, Senior Lecturer in Stem Cell Science at King's, said:
'I'm pleased that we have finally been able to supply the UK Stem Cell Bank with well-characterised hES cell lines for public use, and can therefore contribute to the ongoing consolidation of the UK as a leading international player in the stem cell field. In the future, patients hoping for the benefit of regenerative medicine for serious medical conditions caused by illness, injury and ageing, can expect improved progress on cures or amelioration from hES cell-based therapy.'
Dr Rob Buckle, Head of Regenerative Medicine at the MRC, said:
'The MRC is delighted that this investment into regenerative medicine research is beginning to bear fruit. The development of xeno-free hES cells lines is a major step forward in the field as it paves the way for 'gold standard' clinical-grade cell lines suitable for use in humans. This is essential in demonstrating proof-of-concept for stem-cell therapies, which have the potential to treat many diseases that currently have no effective cure. Furthermore, the distribution of these high quality and ethically-sourced lines through the UK Stem Cell Bank will ensure these are widely available to the research community as we seek to accelerate progress in this area.'
Dr Glyn Stacey Head of the UK Stem Cell Bank, based at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, a centre of the Health Protection Agency, said:
'These lines will be an important resource to fulfill our plan to make available a panel of characterised and tested clinical grade lines within the next three years. The process of testing will be rigorous and not all cells lines received will make the grade. We will need significantly more lines submitted to reach these targets, especially those that are to be made available for universal use.'
Professor Daniel Brison, Scientific Director of the IVF unit at St Mary's and Co-Director of the Manchester stem cell group, said:
'This is the first step towards a number of clinical lines from King's and from ourselves which should reframe and enhance the initiative established in the UK, and lead the way to important new therapies in regenerative medicine.'
###
Notes to editors:
An early online paper on the methodology and standards developed by King's College London for the derivation of xeno-free hES cells is available from Cytotherapy, the official journal of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (http://www.celltherapysociety.org)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22029654
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS World University Rankings), and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,500 students (of whom more than 9,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,000 employees. King's is in the second phase of a 1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly 450 million.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.
Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's and St Thomas' NHT Foundation Trust
The Assisted Conception Unit has world-leading expertise in the field of fertility and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and an international reputation for excellence and research. Guy's and St Thomas' is one of the biggest NHS Trusts in the UK, providing a million patient contacts in acute and specialist hospital services every year. http://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk
King's Health Partners
King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: http://www.kingshealthpartners.org.
Medical Research Council
For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including one of the first antibiotics penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. http://www.mrc.ac.uk
The Health Protection Agency
The Health Protection Agency is an independent UK organisation that was set up by the government in 2003 to protect the public from threats to their health from infectious diseases and environmental hazards. In April 2013, subject to the usual approvals procedures for establishing new bodies, the Health Protection Agency will become part of a new organisation called Public Health England, an executive agency of the Department of Health. The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), a centre of the HPA, is the global leader in the field of biological standardisation, responsible for developing and producing over 90% of the International Standards in use around the world to assure the quality of biological medicines. The UK Stem Cell Bank (UKSCB) was established at the NIBSC to provide an ethically sourced repository of human embryonic, foetal and adult stem cell lines as part of the UK governance for the use of human embryos for research. Its role is to provide quality controlled stocks of these cells that researchers worldwide can rely on to facilitate high quality and standardised research. It is also ready to prepare stocks of 'clinical grade' cell lines as seed stocks for the development of therapies. UKSCB provides an international leader in banking human stem cell lines and plays a key role in numerous European and broader international stem cell research projects. The UKSCB provides stem cell lines and other research reagents but does not supply human tissues or cord blood. To find out more, visit our website: http://www.hpa.org.uk or follow us on Twitter@HPAuk.
[ | 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.
Stem cell research in the UK reaches significant milestonePublic release date: 6-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Katherine Barnes katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk 44-020-784-83076 King's College London
King's College London researchers produce the first animal product-free clinical grade human embryonic stem cell lines intended for public benefit
Stem cell scientists at King's College London will today (Tuesday 6 December) announce they have submitted to the UK Stem Cell Bank (UKSCB) their first clinical grade human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines that are free from animal-derived products, known as 'xeno-free' stem cells.
The cells, which have the potential to become the 'gold standard' lines for developing new stem cell-based therapies, will be the first deposited in the UKSCB based at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, under arrangements that will ensure they are freely accessible to the wider research community. The expectation is that these cells will be grown and processed by the UKSCB to provide stem cell stocks that will be used for clinical research and treatment to benefit patients.
Researchers say this is a significant milestone; this first batch of cells is the culmination of nearly ten years of research funded strategically by the Medical Research Council (MRC) that will keep the UK at the forefront of regenerative medicine.
Embryonic stem cells can be grown in the laboratory indefinitely while retaining their capacity to develop into specialised cell types, such as nerve or heart muscle cells, which can then be used in clinical trials. More than 20 'research grade' stem cell lines have been provided by King's to the UKSCB since it derived the first research grade hES cell lines in the UK in 2003, but the challenge to date has been to establish appropriate derivation and growing conditions for the cells without the presence of any animal products, such as porcine enzymes, bovine serum or mouse feeder layers.
Clinical use of hES cells is already being explored in a number of phase 1 safety trials, such as spinal cord injury and macular degeneration. However, the hES cell lines used in these trials were reclassified from 'research grade' to 'clinical grade' for specified short-term clinical studies in selected disease states, as a matter of expediency. This route is not considered appropriate for the future of cell therapy because of the expense of the required testing and reclassification, and the significant risk of using cell lines derived on unqualified feeders, using unqualified reagents under undocumented environmental conditions in the embryology and stem cell labs and storage facilities. While it might be reasonable to incur additional risks for these early pioneering studies, it is not reasonable to accept these risks for the long-term future of cell therapy. Therefore the highest standard of xeno-free lines are urgently needed, and the development of these lines by King's represents a major step forward.
The hES cells were grown from frozen embryos donated by patients who had previously undergone IVF treatment and no longer wished to use their remaining stored embryos. These embryos would otherwise have been discarded in line with HFEA requirements.
The work took place in the purpose-built stem cell laboratory at King's, in collaboration with the Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, as part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre, and licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and the Human Tissue Authority (HTA). The laboratory is compliant with Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP).
The team developed a comprehensive methodology and standards for derivation of the xeno-free hES cell lines that will be appropriate for studies in human subjects after suitable additional testing and processing by the UKSCB. Developed in line with these rigorous standards, researchers, physicians and industry can be reassured of the reliability of the seed stock the essential base for translational applications. It is hoped that these standards will be recognised across academia, future users and policy agencies operating in and monitoring the field.
As the research that underpinned this work was funded by the MRC, the decision has been taken to submit these to the UKSCB for open-access therapeutic use for the public good. A number of additional xeno-free lines will follow shortly from King's and from the stem cell team at the University of Manchester/Central Manchester NHS Trust, who have been similarly supported by MRC and have also developed clinical grade hES cells to submit to the UKSCB in the same way.
Professor Peter Braude, Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, King's College London; former director of the Stem Cell Programme and the Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis Programme, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, said:
'This is a significant achievement of the team, one which we have been working towards for many years with the support of the University, our local hospital, and most importantly the Medical Research Council. We have succeeded where many substantial commercial companies have not. Many more xeno-free lines should follow, which demonstrates the validity and foresight of this and previous governments in this important endeavour.'
Dr Dusko Ilic, Senior Lecturer in Stem Cell Science at King's, said:
'I'm pleased that we have finally been able to supply the UK Stem Cell Bank with well-characterised hES cell lines for public use, and can therefore contribute to the ongoing consolidation of the UK as a leading international player in the stem cell field. In the future, patients hoping for the benefit of regenerative medicine for serious medical conditions caused by illness, injury and ageing, can expect improved progress on cures or amelioration from hES cell-based therapy.'
Dr Rob Buckle, Head of Regenerative Medicine at the MRC, said:
'The MRC is delighted that this investment into regenerative medicine research is beginning to bear fruit. The development of xeno-free hES cells lines is a major step forward in the field as it paves the way for 'gold standard' clinical-grade cell lines suitable for use in humans. This is essential in demonstrating proof-of-concept for stem-cell therapies, which have the potential to treat many diseases that currently have no effective cure. Furthermore, the distribution of these high quality and ethically-sourced lines through the UK Stem Cell Bank will ensure these are widely available to the research community as we seek to accelerate progress in this area.'
Dr Glyn Stacey Head of the UK Stem Cell Bank, based at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, a centre of the Health Protection Agency, said:
'These lines will be an important resource to fulfill our plan to make available a panel of characterised and tested clinical grade lines within the next three years. The process of testing will be rigorous and not all cells lines received will make the grade. We will need significantly more lines submitted to reach these targets, especially those that are to be made available for universal use.'
Professor Daniel Brison, Scientific Director of the IVF unit at St Mary's and Co-Director of the Manchester stem cell group, said:
'This is the first step towards a number of clinical lines from King's and from ourselves which should reframe and enhance the initiative established in the UK, and lead the way to important new therapies in regenerative medicine.'
###
Notes to editors:
An early online paper on the methodology and standards developed by King's College London for the derivation of xeno-free hES cells is available from Cytotherapy, the official journal of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (http://www.celltherapysociety.org)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22029654
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS World University Rankings), and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,500 students (of whom more than 9,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,000 employees. King's is in the second phase of a 1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly 450 million.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.
Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's and St Thomas' NHT Foundation Trust
The Assisted Conception Unit has world-leading expertise in the field of fertility and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and an international reputation for excellence and research. Guy's and St Thomas' is one of the biggest NHS Trusts in the UK, providing a million patient contacts in acute and specialist hospital services every year. http://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk
King's Health Partners
King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: http://www.kingshealthpartners.org.
Medical Research Council
For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including one of the first antibiotics penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. http://www.mrc.ac.uk
The Health Protection Agency
The Health Protection Agency is an independent UK organisation that was set up by the government in 2003 to protect the public from threats to their health from infectious diseases and environmental hazards. In April 2013, subject to the usual approvals procedures for establishing new bodies, the Health Protection Agency will become part of a new organisation called Public Health England, an executive agency of the Department of Health. The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), a centre of the HPA, is the global leader in the field of biological standardisation, responsible for developing and producing over 90% of the International Standards in use around the world to assure the quality of biological medicines. The UK Stem Cell Bank (UKSCB) was established at the NIBSC to provide an ethically sourced repository of human embryonic, foetal and adult stem cell lines as part of the UK governance for the use of human embryos for research. Its role is to provide quality controlled stocks of these cells that researchers worldwide can rely on to facilitate high quality and standardised research. It is also ready to prepare stocks of 'clinical grade' cell lines as seed stocks for the development of therapies. UKSCB provides an international leader in banking human stem cell lines and plays a key role in numerous European and broader international stem cell research projects. The UKSCB provides stem cell lines and other research reagents but does not supply human tissues or cord blood. To find out more, visit our website: http://www.hpa.org.uk or follow us on Twitter@HPAuk.
[ | 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.
FILE - In this June 13, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney participate in a presidential debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Suddenly Mitt Romney is fighting a two-front political war. The Republican presidential contender has skated along for much of the year as GOP challengers surged and faded, but now he faces an unexpected, more serious threat from Newt Gingrich _ just as Barack Obama's team is sharpening its criticism of Romney, the president's likeliest foe next fall. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)
FILE - In this June 13, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney participate in a presidential debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Suddenly Mitt Romney is fighting a two-front political war. The Republican presidential contender has skated along for much of the year as GOP challengers surged and faded, but now he faces an unexpected, more serious threat from Newt Gingrich _ just as Barack Obama's team is sharpening its criticism of Romney, the president's likeliest foe next fall. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Suddenly Mitt Romney is fighting a two-front political war.
The Republican presidential contender has skated along for much of the year as GOP challengers surged and faded. But now he faces an unexpected, more serious threat from Newt Gingrich ? just as Barack Obama's team is sharpening its criticism of Romney, whom the president's aides view as his likeliest foe next fall.
With only a month before the Iowa caucuses kick off the nominating fight, Gingrich's rise has forced Romney's campaign to evaluate a new reality: He no longer has the luxury of staying above the Republican primary fray, avoiding tough questions about his own record and hammering Obama at will while essentially ignoring his GOP rivals.
Well aware of the new challenge, Romney has started fighting back against two opponents from opposite ends of the political spectrum ? no easy feat ? while also defending himself from continuing criticism of reversals, equivocations and shifts on a range of issues.
What does he have to say now about Gingrich?
"He's a lifelong politician," Romney declared this week, signaling his intention to go after the former House speaker and long-time Washington insider in hopes of knocking him off course. Romney also is set to air his first television commercials on Friday in Iowa, where polls show Gingrich and him locked in a tight race. It's another indication of how seriously Romney is taking the Georgian's rise.
Romney also has started subtly contrasting his character with Gingrich's once rocky private life. He said on Fox News that he's a person "who has devoted his life to his family, to his faith, to his country."
At the same time, Romney intends to keep the heat on Obama, convinced that his best chance at clinching the GOP nomination is to persuade Republican primary voters that he's the strongest candidate to take on the Democratic incumbent on their biggest issue, the economy, next fall.
Romney's response was swift when the Democratic National Committee rolled out TV ads this week attacking Romney for flip-flopping on a series of issues, including abortion and health care.
The Republican's team quickly organized conference calls with top supporters in about a dozen states ? a demonstration of organizing power meant to serve as a warning to both Gingrich and Obama.
"They don't want to see me as the nominee, that's for sure," Romney chided in response to the ads. "It shows that they're awfully afraid of facing me in the general election. They want to throw the primary process to anybody but me, but bring it on. We're ready for them."
Obama's aides privately say they see Romney as the Republican most likely to win the party's nomination and they have been flummoxed that no GOP rival has gone after him aggressively. By stepping up the heat, the president's aides hope to bloody Romney so he emerges from the GOP fight as a damaged nominee. Or, in what many Democrats view as a less-likely scenario, the Republicans would pick a candidate who would be weaker in the general election.
Gingrich has advantages of his own, in the primary fight or a general election. He's universally known within the GOP with broad grassroots support, and he has a deep grasp of policy issues.
But he lacks any significant campaign organization after his staff resigned en masse in June. His fundraising dried up, and his campaign is still paying off debts from earlier this year. He also carries personal baggage ? including two divorces and acknowledged infidelity ? that could turn off conservative Republicans in Iowa, where voters will first choose among Romney, Gingrich and their rivals. And he has some political problems, having backed proposals now considered conservative apostasy such as an individual mandate for Americans to buy health insurance.
All that opens the way for Romney to employ a strategy he used as other, more conservative alternatives to him have risen and fallen over the past six months. As in those cases, Romney's campaign expects the media to shine a light on Gingrich's long record. The campaign also has spent much of the year compiling research to criticize rivals who rise to challenge him ? and never stopped plotting for Gingrich despite the former speaker's summer problems.
Romney allies say his campaign started picking up early on Gingrich's surge by noting he was frequently the second choice among Republicans who preferred a different conservative candidate to the former Massachusetts governor.
Either by coincidence or by design, other candidates also have started helping Romney.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian-leaning candidate with a big bank account, rolled out a blistering online video this week ? that may eventually end up on TV ? accusing Gingrich of "serial hypocrisy." The spot showed Gingrich alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic boogeyman to Republicans.
But time is not on Romney's side as it was when other rivals ? Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and businessman Herman Cain among them ? enjoyed bursts of momentum only to fall after missteps.
Until now, Romney's biggest challenge this year had come from Texas Gov. Rick Perry. He entered the race in August, months after signaling he probably would run. That gave Romney's campaign plenty of time to prepare. When Perry immediately rose to the top of polls, Romney castigated him as a career politician, much as he's doing with Gingrich now. If that didn't work, Romney still had four months before the Iowa caucuses to try to take Perry down. It helped that Perry was unknown to much of the primary electorate, so Romney could help define him in voters' minds.
Perry ended up fading without Romney having to seriously engage for much more than week.
But only four weeks remain before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, and Gingrich, who has risen steadily in polls nationally and in early voting states, already is known nationally. That will make it much more difficult for Romney to define him.
Still, Romney is counting on his superior campaign organization, which is designed to keep him in the race for the long haul by winning significant numbers of key convention delegates even if he loses in a particular state.
As Romney faces more scrutiny in the coming weeks, one of his main challenges will be to keep his well-known defensiveness in check.
For the better part of a year, his campaign has executed a steady strategy vastly different from his reactive, aggressive and unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. So far, Romney has been able to watch his rivals cut each other down on the debate stage and elsewhere, while he has barely been forced to defend himself. He kept his cool as one conservative rival after another rose to potentially challenge his long-held position as the GOP field's most plausible nominee.
But there are signs that Romney's temper may be rising along with the pressure of waging two political fights.
In a Fox News interview this week, anchor Bret Baier pressed Romney on being on both sides of issues, including climate change, immigration, abortion and gay rights. And Romney appeared irritated, telling Baier: "Your list is just not accurate. So, one, we're going to have to be better informed about my views on issues."
The coming weeks will tell whether Romney can withstand the scrutiny ? and wage two fights at once.
FILE - This Nov. 5, 2011 file photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General shows former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, who sexually abused a boy more than 100 times, then threatened his family to keep him quiet about the encounters, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 that details new accusations not included in criminal charges against him. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, File)
FILE - This Nov. 5, 2011 file photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General shows former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, who sexually abused a boy more than 100 times, then threatened his family to keep him quiet about the encounters, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 that details new accusations not included in criminal charges against him. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, File)
Penn State President Rodney Erickson, left, responds to a question as Acting Executive Vice President and Provost Rob Pangborn, center, and Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Simons look on during a town hall forum organized by students at the university's main campus, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in State College, Pa. The event served as an open discussion between students and the administration about the school's recent sexual abuse scandal, which has resulted in the departures of school President Graham Spanier and longtime football coach Joe Paterno. (AP Photo/John Beale)
Penn State President Rodney Erickson speaks at a town hall forum organized by students at the university's main campus, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in State College, Pa. The event served as an open discussion between students and the administration about the school's recent sexual abuse scandal, which has resulted in the departures of school President Graham Spanier and longtime football coach Joe Paterno. (AP Photo/John Beale)
Penn State President Rodney Erickson, left, responds to a question as Acting Executive Vice President and Provost Rob Pangborn, center, and Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Simons look on during a town hall forum organized by students at the university's main campus, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in State College, Pa. The event served as an open discussion between students and the administration about the school's recent sexual abuse scandal, which has resulted in the departures of school President Graham Spanier and longtime football coach Joe Paterno. (AP Photo/John Beale)
Penn State President Rodney Erickson, right, gives his opening remarks as T.J. Bard, president of the University Park Undergraduate Association, and Peter Khoury, president of The Council of Commonwealth Student Governments, look on during a town hall forum organized by students at the university's main campus, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in State College, Pa. The event served as an open discussion between students and the administration about the school's recent sexual abuse scandal, which has resulted in the departures of school President Graham Spanier and longtime football coach Joe Paterno. (AP Photo/John Beale)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? Penn State will donate $1.5 million in bowl proceeds to a pair of groups that work with sex-crime victims, a gesture aimed at healing the school's battered image in the wake of child sex charges against a former assistant football coach.
University President Rod Erickson promised the donation the morning after he and other administrators faced pointed questions at a student-organized town hall forum.
Erickson told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that the Big Ten bowl revenue, which usually goes back to the athletic department, will go instead to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
"This presents an excellent opportunity for Penn State to raise the national visibility of this issue," Erickson said. "Our students and fans are focused on a cause to play for, to cheer for."
Also Thursday, Jerry Sandusky's lawyer said he has not discussed pleading guilty with his client and that the former coach continues to maintain he is innocent of the charges against him.
Joe Amendola said he would consider "possible alternatives" with Sandusky if new charges are filed that involve more victims than the eight boys covered by the 40 pending criminal counts, but that Sandusky has never considered a plea in his case. Sandusky, 67, is awaiting a preliminary hearing.
Amendola said the topic of a guilty plea came up as a "what if" question from a reporter about potential additional charges.
"My answer to the 'what if' question was analogous to saying, if weather forecasters were predicting a blizzard next week, which they are not, I would have to at least consider the possibility of postponing my scheduled trip to Philadelphia," Amendola said in an email.
In another development, lawyers for a young man described in a grand jury report as a victim of sexual abuse by Sandusky said Thursday they had settled a legal action regarding a charity's assets.
Harrisburg attorneys Ben Andreozzi and Jeffrey Fritz said the settlement protected the claim their client plans to assert to the assets of The Second Mile, a nonprofit for at-risk children Sandusky founded in 1977.
"We intend to initiate a civil lawsuit seeking damages from the organizations and individuals responsible for the sexual assaults upon our clients," the lawyers said in a release. "However, our priority at this time is to support our clients, including Victim No. 4, who will be testifying against Mr. Sandusky at the preliminary hearing."
Andreozzi and Fritz said that under terms of the settlement, The Second Mile has agreed to obtain court approval before transferring assets or closing and give their client the ability to weigh in before a judge regarding any distribution of assets.
The Second Mile released a statement calling the agreement a reiteration of its existing legal liabilities and saying it does not include a finding of liability.
The Second Mile said earlier this week that its donors should consider giving their money instead to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, the latest sign that the charity may not be around much longer. The Second Mile said its December programs would go on as scheduled, however.
The Wednesday night forum on Penn State's main campus came on the heels of fresh sex abuse allegations against Sandusky, who was accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a young boy more than 100 times after meeting him through his charity.
The state police commissioner has criticized school leaders for failing to do more to alert authorities to the allegations, and Erickson told about 450 attendees at a crowded auditorium at the student union building that ethics would be raised "to a new level so that everyone at the university understands not just the legal thing to do, but the moral thing to do, so that we learn to do the right thing the first time, every time."
Students appeared grateful to get answers more than three weeks after Sandusky was charged Nov. 5, hopeful it would aid in the arduous healing process.
"I think this is a good start for a lot of good things that can happen at the university," said student Andrew Comes, 21, following the two-hour forum. "It's a singularly bad event, but there can still be positive repercussions and good things happening from it."
Administrators sought to reassure students worried about the unintended ramifications of the scandal, such as the reputation of a Penn State degree.
After several questioners mentioned they felt shamed by the scandal, vice president Henry Foley, as part of an answer about the school's top three priorities, told students to focus on academics and to "recognize that none of you are guilty. ... You may feel shame, but none of you are guilty. Just keep doing what you came here to do."
The scandal has resulted in the departures of head coach Joe Paterno and university President Graham Spanier. Athletic Director Tim Curley has been placed on administrative leave, and Vice President Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the university's police department, has stepped down.
Schultz and Curley are charged with lying to the grand jury and failure to report to police. They also maintain their innocence and have a preliminary hearing later this month.
Erickson told reporters after the forum that Spanier was on sabbatical and that as a tenured faculty member would have the right to teach if he so desired.
Several students also asked about the treatment of Paterno, who was the only school leader fired in the scandal's aftermath. Erickson said afterward he could not offer a detailed answer because it was the trustees' decision.
He reiterated there was no truth to Internet-fueled rumors that Paterno's statue outside Beaver Stadium would be removed or that the Paterno name would be removed from the campus library for which the Paterno family has donated millions of dollars.
"At some appropriate time down the road, I'm sure there will be an opportunity to also reflect on the many years of service Joe and (wife Sue Paterno) provided the university and the many good things that they've done for Penn State," Erickson said, eliciting brief applause.
Googler Daniel Russell knows how to find the answers to questions you can't get to with a simple Google query. In his weekly Search Research column, Russell issues a search challenge, then follows up later in the week with his solution-using whatever search technology and methodology fits the bill. This week's challenge: Who was the sailor who discovered an Antarctic island with connections to India?
Here's the short answer:
WHO: Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen de Tr?marec (in 1772)
WHAT: Kerguelen Islands, deep in the southern Indian Ocean
WHAT IS CONNECTION WITH INDIA: Kerguelen's rocks are very similar to ones found in northeast India near the Rajmahal Traps (those hills I mentioned). The traps were formed by a geologic hotspot that initially formed in Gondwana. As the plates shifted over time, the hotspot emitted a series of eruptions that left underwater ridges and plateaus over time. As the surface shifted, this hotspot gave birth to both the Rajmahal Traps, underwater features like the Ninety East Ridge and the Kerguelen Islands.
Now, the longer answer... How did I search this one out?
When I first heard about this problem, all I knew was that the discoverer was 18th century French. A few searches like [ French privateer island discovery ] I finally found that it was the Kerguelen Islands (after a few false starts?there were, after all, other islands discovered by the French?R?union, Mayotte, etc.).
When trying to find out what the connection was between Kerguelen and India I read an article about the Kerguelen Plateau. That's the microcontinent ("once covered in conifers") that's now underwater 1 - 2 km underwater. That got me to thinking about possible geological connections between the plateau and the striking ridges in the Indian ocean.
From there it was a quick search for [ Kerguelen Plateau ] which led me to the Wikipedia article about the plateau. A bit of reading about the Kerguelen hotspot, a quick finding that the Kerguelen hotspot has produced basaltic lava for about 130 million years and has also produced the Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, the McDonald Islands, and the Ninetyeast Ridge. The very last line of that article suggests a connection with India.
Following a search for [ Kerguelen India hotspot ] leads pretty quickly to a nice article at PhysOrg.com detailing the connection between the two. Here's my simplified diagram:
As the plates move around above the hotspot, a line of volcanoes and basaltic flood plains (what become plateaus) forms in a line above.
And as reader Hans pointed out,this is wonderfully documented in the article "Ar(40)/Ar(39) Geochronology of the Rajmahal Basalts, India, and Their Relationship to the Kerguelen Plateau" (J. Petrology, v43, n 4, p 1141-1153, 2002)
Bathymetric map of Indian Ocean (from SRTM30_plus via Wikipedia). Note the striking ridge (Ninety East Ridge) pointing nearly due north from Antarctica to the Bay of Bengal.
Postscript: I think I the challenge was harder for me than for you! When I started, I didn't even know where the islands were! Just figuring out that they were in the Indian Ocean took me 15 minutes. So when I wrote this question, I gave several people a head start?they cleverly shortcut the whole search problem with a query of [ Antarctic Islands India ] which gets you to the Keguelen Islands pretty easily. Well, as I say, it's an open-internet search challenge.
But in the next few weeks we'll make the problems a little more difficult?until we're ALL super searchers!
Search on!
Wednesday Search Challenge (November 30, 2011) Answer: Who Discovered These Antarctic Islands, and What's It Got to Do with India? | SearchReSearch
Daniel M. Russell studies the way people search and research?an anthropologist of search, if you will. You can read more from Russell on his SearchReSearch blog, and stay tuned for his weekly challenges (and answers) here on Lifehacker.
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Googler Daniel Russell knows how to find the answers to questions you can't get to with a simple Google query. In his weekly Search Research column, Russell issues a search challenge, then follows up later in the week with his solution-using whatever search technology and methodology fits the bill. This week's challenge: Who was the sailor who discovered an Antarctic island with connections to India? 