The risks of H7N9 infection mapped

Public release date: 3-May-2013
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Contact: Hilary Glover
hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com
44-020-319-22370
BioMed Central

A map of avian influenza (H7N9) risk is presented in Biomed Central's open access journal Infectious Diseases of Poverty today. The map is comprised of bird migration patterns, and adding in estimations of poultry production and consumption, which are used to infer future risk and to advise on ways to prevent infection.

As of today, there have been 127 confirmed cases of H7N9 in mainland China with 27 deaths. A lack of information about the virus and its mode of transmission has led to public concerns that H7N9 could be a pandemic waiting to happen.

To quantify the risk of this happening scientists from the Hong Kong Baptist University and Chinese University of Hong Kong have generated a map of H7N9 risk in eastern China. The map is based on the northwards migratory patterns of birds (from the 4th February to the end of April) using environmental and meteorological data over the same 12 weeks - from Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu, to Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang.

The distribution of potentially infected poultry was also included in the model. The majority of early cases of H7N9 were found in Shanghai, but Shanghai is not a big poultry exporter so the model shows limited transmission via this route. In contrast, Jiangsu distributes poultry to Shanghai, Zhejiang, and beyond.

Prof Jiming Liu who led the study explained, "By basing our model on wild bird migration and distribution of potentially infected poultry we are able to produce a time line of the estimated risk of human infection with H7N9. The preliminary results of our study made a prediction of bird flu risk which could explain the pattern of the most recent cases. By extending the model we will be able to predict future infection risks across central and western China, which will aid in surveillance and control of H7N9 infections. Since the effect of poultry-to-poultry infection is not really understood it may become necessary to regulate the activity of poultry markets."

Prof Xiao-Nong Zhou from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention who was also involved in this study commented, "We are continuing to work on research into the sources of infection of H7N9 and the mode of transmission. However so far there is no evidence of the sustained human-to-human transmission required for a pandemic to occur."

###

Media Contact

Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Mob: +44 (0) 778 698 1967

Notes

1. Inferring the potential risks of H7N9 infection by spatiotemporally characterizing bird migration and poultry distribution in eastern China
Benyun Shi, Shang Xia, Guo-Jing Yang, Xiao-Nong Zhou and Jiming Liu
Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2013, 2:8 doi:10.1186/2049-9957-2-8
http://www.idpjournal.com/content/pdf/2049-9957-2-8.pdf

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

2. Infectious Diseases of Poverty is an open access, peer-reviewed journal publishing topic areas and methods that address essential public health questions relating to infectious diseases of poverty. These include various aspects of the biology of pathogens and vectors, diagnosis and detection, treatment and case management, epidemiology and modeling, zoonotic hosts and animal reservoirs, control strategies and implementation, new technologies and application. Transdisciplinary or multisectoral effects on health systems, ecohealth, environmental management, and innovative technology are also considered.

3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral

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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: 3-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Hilary Glover
hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com
44-020-319-22370
BioMed Central

A map of avian influenza (H7N9) risk is presented in Biomed Central's open access journal Infectious Diseases of Poverty today. The map is comprised of bird migration patterns, and adding in estimations of poultry production and consumption, which are used to infer future risk and to advise on ways to prevent infection.

As of today, there have been 127 confirmed cases of H7N9 in mainland China with 27 deaths. A lack of information about the virus and its mode of transmission has led to public concerns that H7N9 could be a pandemic waiting to happen.

To quantify the risk of this happening scientists from the Hong Kong Baptist University and Chinese University of Hong Kong have generated a map of H7N9 risk in eastern China. The map is based on the northwards migratory patterns of birds (from the 4th February to the end of April) using environmental and meteorological data over the same 12 weeks - from Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu, to Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang.

The distribution of potentially infected poultry was also included in the model. The majority of early cases of H7N9 were found in Shanghai, but Shanghai is not a big poultry exporter so the model shows limited transmission via this route. In contrast, Jiangsu distributes poultry to Shanghai, Zhejiang, and beyond.

Prof Jiming Liu who led the study explained, "By basing our model on wild bird migration and distribution of potentially infected poultry we are able to produce a time line of the estimated risk of human infection with H7N9. The preliminary results of our study made a prediction of bird flu risk which could explain the pattern of the most recent cases. By extending the model we will be able to predict future infection risks across central and western China, which will aid in surveillance and control of H7N9 infections. Since the effect of poultry-to-poultry infection is not really understood it may become necessary to regulate the activity of poultry markets."

Prof Xiao-Nong Zhou from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention who was also involved in this study commented, "We are continuing to work on research into the sources of infection of H7N9 and the mode of transmission. However so far there is no evidence of the sustained human-to-human transmission required for a pandemic to occur."

###

Media Contact

Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Mob: +44 (0) 778 698 1967

Notes

1. Inferring the potential risks of H7N9 infection by spatiotemporally characterizing bird migration and poultry distribution in eastern China
Benyun Shi, Shang Xia, Guo-Jing Yang, Xiao-Nong Zhou and Jiming Liu
Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2013, 2:8 doi:10.1186/2049-9957-2-8
http://www.idpjournal.com/content/pdf/2049-9957-2-8.pdf

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

2. Infectious Diseases of Poverty is an open access, peer-reviewed journal publishing topic areas and methods that address essential public health questions relating to infectious diseases of poverty. These include various aspects of the biology of pathogens and vectors, diagnosis and detection, treatment and case management, epidemiology and modeling, zoonotic hosts and animal reservoirs, control strategies and implementation, new technologies and application. Transdisciplinary or multisectoral effects on health systems, ecohealth, environmental management, and innovative technology are also considered.

3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral

---

[ | 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/2013-05/bc-tro050313.php

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Scientists Seek To Take The Measure of Antimatter

Copyright ? 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY.

Up next, another installment in the continuing quest to understand antimatter, that stuff that's supposed to be the opposite of matter. It's supposed to have been created during the Big Bang in equal amounts as normal matter, but for some reason, it's all disappeared. No one knows why - yeah, that stuff or actually that anti-stuff.

Well, when we last left our story just under two years ago, we talked with Jeffrey Hangst at CERN where researchers reported that they had been able to catch and trap antimatter particles, antihydrogen, keeping these particles confined in a trap for a 1,000 seconds, over 16 minutes. That's an eternity in the world of particle physics.

Having trapped the antimatter for a quantum eternity, scientists begin to study what they had in the bottle. And one of their questions they wanted to answer was, is antimatter so anti, what happens when you drop it? Will it fall up instead of down just like in the bizarro world? Well, here with me now to give an update on the project is Dr. Hangst. He's with us again. He's one of the authors on the paper published this week in the journal Nature Communications. It takes a first look to try to measure the gravitational mass of the particles. Welcome back to the program, Dr. Hangst.

JEFFREY HANGST: Thank you. It's always a pleasure to be with you.

FLATOW: Did you really try to drop and see if it drops - it goes up instead of down?

HANGST: Absolutely. First, you have to hold on to it, which we've talked about earlier. So we hold this antihydrogen in a kind of a magnetic bottle. We can't allow it to touch the walls or touch any matter. So we've got it there. And in the course of our normal experiments, we release it intentionally. That's how we actually know that we had it. So we have all these data where we've released this antihydrogen atoms, and we have a detector that looks at where they annihilate when they hit the wall of our apparatus. So it actually measures the vertical position of where the atoms annihilate. So we went back and looked through all our data and said can we see any evidence of gravity in these measurements?

FLATOW: And you found?

HANGST: We found that we have a good technique for doing this now, which is to us a kind of a minor revolution that you can do this at all. So far, we don't have the sensitivity to say that they obey the normal law of gravity or that they look like they want to go up when you release them. But we know now that we can do these experiments and with improvement, we can actually make a determination as to whether they fall up or down.

FLATOW: Will someone do the experiment?

HANGST: Absolutely. The thing is, right now, CERN in general is shutdown. There's a period for making a maintenance and intervention improvement on the Large Hadron Collider, the LHC, which is the main business of CERN. So for the next year and a half, CERN is shut down. As soon as we can start to get some antimatter beam from CERN again, we'll continue to investigate this. But it's - we know how to get from point A to point B now.

This - what's interesting about this article is that we demonstrated that you can do this. And we know how to improve it so that in the coming years, we can actually make this determination.

FLATOW: If you were a betting man - and I'm not saying that you are - would you suppose that it does fall up?

HANGST: I'm paid not to bet, Ira.

(LAUGHTER)

HANGST: That's - we got to be very clear about this, OK? No metaphysics for me. I'm an experimentalist. I believe what I can measure. And until then, the jury is out.

FLATOW: Yeah. But the - I'll bet you the theoretical particle physicists would bet on this.

HANGST: Actually, I was quite surprised. One of the interesting things about publishing this result is that people contact us and say, actually, I have a theory, you know, a legitimate theory that's been published in reviewed articles that says that antimatter will fall up, that it must fall up. So one of the sort of side benefits of publishing this measurement, even though it's a bit premature in terms of making a real determination, is that these guys contact us and say, oh, yeah, I'm really interested in that. And I have a theory that says that it will go up. So it's within reach. That's what's so exciting about this.

FLATOW: I should give you some of the theories that we get over our...

(LAUGHTER)

HANGST: Oh, no. I think we are - we're on the same list, my friend.

(LAUGHTER)

HANGST: I get those all the time.

FLATOW: Only if Al Einstein was still around to talk about...

HANGST: Yeah, exactly.

FLATOW: Well, the last time we spoke to you, I just published this paper about holding the antihydrogen in a trap for thousandths of a second.

HANGST: That's right.

FLATOW: Have you gone passed any of that time?

HANGST: Actually, OK, yeah. We did one result that you've missed in the meantime. And that was to make actually the first measurement on an atom of antimatter, and that was kind of a nice thing. The way you trap antihydrogen is that it's a little bit magnetic. You can think of it as kind of a little compass needle that points along the magnetic field that we use to trap it. It has spin in atomic language, so what we do is shine some microwaves on that atom and flip the spin, turn it around. And when you do that, it jumps out of the trap, OK? So the compass needle pointing one way, it wants to be trapped. If you use the microwaves and flip it, then it goes out and you can detect that.

So that's actually the first ever quantum interaction with an antimatter atom. We did that - so we published that last year in, I think, March or April. So that was also, you know, our main goal in all of this is to study the structure of antihydrogen and compare it to hydrogen. So that was a big milestone for us to actually make a measurement on, you know, a number, a quantum number associated with an antimatter atom. So we've had a couple of good years.

FLATOW: Yeah. Does anybody still have any better idea of where all the antimatter went?

HANGST: No. There's no sort of smoking gun theory about that. So our philosophy is anytime you can get your hands on some antimatter, you should take a really careful look. And the best way to do that is with atomic physics techniques to look at the spectrum of antihydrogen. What kind of light does it like to absorb and emit? Is that the same color of light that hydrogen absorbs and emits?

So also in the meantime, we've built a new machine we call ALPHA-2, which is improved and upgraded, that will allow us to actually shine laser light on trapped antihydrogen. So when we come back online in 2014, we have a brand-new machine. We'll have some lasers to shine on it, and it's a really very exciting time for us.

FLATOW: Can you keep it trapped for longer than 16 minutes?

HANGST: You know, it's not really worth looking because it's long enough. We showed with the microwave experiment that that was long enough. I have to tell you, it's an incredibly boring experiment to do. You know, you trap your antihydrogen. You wait for 16 minutes and you release it. You know, go have a coffee or something while you're - it just doesn't tell you anything more that we really need to know right now.

FLATOW: Well, you know, that's not what happened in the movie.

HANGST: No, no, I understand.

(LAUGHTER)

HANGST: But you're talking to the real deal now, Ira. This is not about - there's no science fiction here.

FLATOW: When you have an antihydrogen and a hydrogen bumping into each other, they get annihilated, right?

HANGST: That's right.

FLATOW: But what happens if an antihydrogen bumps into something bigger - let's say a carbon atom?

HANGST: Yeah, well, in fact, what our(ph) antihydrogen atoms bump into when we release them is gold. The inside of our apparatus is gold-plated, so they're actually hitting gold nuclei. So what happens is the antiquarks in the antiproton finds some quarks in a gold nucleus and annihilate with those. The amount of energy released is about the same, right? You're annihilating the rest mass of the antiproton on the same rest mass of the quarks that make up the nucleus.

FLATOW: So does the gold get changed any way from...

HANGST: Not in any way that you would measure macroscopically, right, but - because we're talking about, we trap one atom at a time, right? So there's no macroscopic effect that you would be able to measure. But for us, that's a microscopically violent event, right? There's a lot of energy released, and we're pretty good at detecting that so we can actually see the energy release when you lose one atom of antihydrogen. By the way, you couldn't do that with hydrogen. If hydrogen hits the wall, nothing happens, right? So this is one way that antimatter is actually fun to work with.

FLATOW: When you shoot that radiation at it to flip it around, does it self-annihilate against the wall? Is that what happens?

HANGST: Yeah, what happens is the - it's trapped because of that little magnetic compass needle, if you will, always pointing in the right direction. If you flip it, it gets shoved out and then it annihilates, and you can see that. Or when you try to throw it away, it's not there anymore. That's another way to look at that measurement.

FLATOW: Last time when you were here, I asked you a question. I want to see if you remember what it was.

HANGST: OK.

FLATOW: Do you remember that question about any practical applications? And what did you say? Do you remember what you said?

HANGST: Yeah, I said practical applications are science fiction, that we just can't make enough antimatter to be useful. It would take longer than the age of the universe to accumulate macroscopic amounts of antimatter to make a weapon or a rocket fuel or something like that. So this is really pure research, right? We're looking at, you know, one or few atoms at a time. There's 10 to the 24th atoms in a macroscopic amount of hydrogen or antihydrogen, so we're just nowhere near there. But it's still a lot of fun.

FLATOW: Yeah. So the answer to the question of a practical application is still absolutely no.

HANGST: Yeah, nothing has changed there and...

FLATOW: That's good to hear.

HANGST: Yeah, you feel safer that way, actually.

FLATOW: Yeah. We like to hear knowledge for the sake of knowledge.

HANGST: Now, if you found some antimatter, you know, if someone found some antimatter out in the universe, that would be another interesting story.

FLATOW: Well, if we hear about it, we'll let you know.

HANGST: Yeah, call me up, man.

(LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: OK. All right. Thank you, Jeffrey.

HANGST: My pleasure.

FLATOW: Have a good weekend.

HANGST: You too.

FLATOW: Jeffrey Hangst is the spokesman for the ALPHA Collaboration at CERN. He's also professor of physics at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Copyright ? 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/03/180824404/scientists-seek-to-take-the-measure-of-antimatter?ft=1&f=1007

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Civil societies vow to block MPs pay demands | Capital News

Led by Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) Executive Director Atsango Chesoni, the group said the MPs were misleading Kenyans by claiming that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) did not consult them/ALI ALALE

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 3 ? Twenty two civil society groups are up in arms over the hefty pay demands by Members of the National Assembly saying they are misguided.

Led by Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) Executive Director Atsango Chesoni, the group said the MPs were misleading Kenyans by claiming that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) did not consult them.

Chesoni noted that MPs had two representatives championing their interests in the SRC who were consulted when the salaries of public servants were being reviewed.

Article 230 (2) of the Constitution sets out the structure of the SRC giving one slot in the 14 member Commission to a nominated person from the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) and another from the Senate.

?At a time when Kenyans are looking for a break from the past, legislators are hell bent on increasing their salaries through threats to the SRC. The timing and show of collective greed is in total disregard of the values of the Constitution,? she argued.

CRECO Executive Director Kawive Wambua said that after adding up the salaries and total allowances each MP would be pocketing about Sh1.2 million per month.

He said that they should stop crying wolf because their salaries had not been slashed as they had not yet occupied office when the rates were gazetted.

Wambua explained that even if their pay remained as it was they would each take home a gross of about Sh6.3 million annually which would then accrue to Sh31 million at the end of their five year term.

In five years, this will leave an approximate Sh11 billion dent in the Exchequer.

The PSC has already set aside Sh841.2 million as the total basic pay for MPs and the Speaker in the new financial year starting July 1.

?Basic salary is Sh395,000, vehicle fixed cost allowance is Sh336,000, car maintenance allowance is Sh247,000 and the house allowance is Sh70,000,? he claimed.

?They also have Sh60,000 entertainment allowance, Sh50,000 constituency allowance, Sh40,000 committee meeting allowance and Sh2,000 gym membership,? he said.

The civil societies accused the legislators of arm-twisting the SRC and cowing them into submission arguing that there was need to expend their energies into more serious national issues like insecurity, food and infrastructure development.

Parliament has already initiated a vigorous petition to send the SRC Commissioners home.

?The reasons so far stated by the legislators do not meet the standards for removal from office of members of the SRC,? argued Chesoni.

Transparency International-Kenya Executive Director Samuel Kimeu also reminded the legislators to deliver on the promises they made to the electorate before demanding for a hike.

He argued that it would be unfortunate if the Members reneged on their vows of service to Kenyans saying they should be recalled.

?We call upon all Kenyans to say no to this unconstitutional conduct and daylight robbery. Members of Parliament must be reminded that ?Bunge sio biashara?,? he said.

The 10th Parliament however almost took away the power of Kenyans to recall them when they amended the Elections Act.

A Member of Parliament can only be recalled after 24 months of being in office and 12 months before the next General Election.

The petitioner must also get 30 percent support from registered voters in that constituency in addition to 15 percent voters? support in all the wards in the constituency.

In addition to this, the petition must be taken to the High Court which will then confirm whether a recall is necessary. No time limit is given for this and it would take more than one year.

The petitioner must also deposit Sh500,000 with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Source: http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2013/05/civil-societies-vow-to-block-mps-pay-demands/

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Andy Dick on 'DWTS' exit: Carrie Ann's score hurt

TV

Michael Maloney TODAY contributor

9 hours ago

ABC

"Dancing With the Stars" has had its share of shocking saves on elimination nights over the years, but alas, funnyman Andy Dick benefit from one. After making valiant efforts for seven weeks, he and pro partner Sharna Burgess were sent home on Tuesday night?s results show.

"I think we were all hoping to be saved, but the odds were against us,? Burgess told TODAY in the post-show press line. ?Our scores were just too low."

Having earned only 17 points this week, the Dick's closest competitor on the scoreboard was soap star Ingo Rademacher, who had scored 22. That potentially surmountable gap widened when Rademacher and his pro partner, Kym Johnson, picked up an additional three points in a dance-off.

"The 5 we got from Carrie Ann (Inaba) on Monday really hurt us," Dick lamented to reporters after his ejection. "We?d never gotten one of those before."

Actually, Dick earned a 5 from head judge Len Goodman in the first week of the competition, but since then, his scores had improved -- until Monday night.

Related: 'Dancing's' Andy Dick sent home in emotionally charged episode

"She gave us that 5 compared to what other dancers were doing, not in comparison to our past dances," he said of Inaba's choice.

Dick singled out Inaba on-air for her low grade after he was told to leave. Does he harbor any hard feelings?

"I still love Carrie Ann," he said. "She responded to us the most (in the beginning). But then, in the end, she was the harshest."

The comic actor, who?s waiting for word on whether or not the sitcom pilot he shot for ABC last week will be picked up or not, said it?s going to be difficult giving up his dancing routine.

Related: 'Dancing' final four? The finale could see a shakeup

?Sharna and I are literally like a married couple,? Dick sighed. ?It?s going to be weird not seeing her every day.?

Dick and Burgess may not be learning any new dances together, but they are going to see each other. "We wanted one more week," he said. "But I?m still going to be here -- I?ll be sitting in the front row of next week?s show. Otherwise, it?d be like severing myself from my family. Now, I?ll be able to actually watch the dances."

Ironically, one of the dancers whom Dick will be watching next week is Burgess. She?s been tapped by Sean Lowe and Peta Murgatroyd to perform with them in the couple?s upcoming trio dance.

It won?t be the same, however, for Burgess.

"It?s been an amazing roller coaster," she said of her freshman stint as a pro dancer. "Andy and I bonded so much. I?m beyond proud of him. He?s overcome so many personal struggles. For me, it?s a greater honor to have been a part of that than winning a mirror ball trophy could be."

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/andy-dick-his-dancing-stars-ouster-carrie-anns-score-hurt-6C9693064

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Yahoo Acquires 4M-User ?To Do' App Astrid, Is Now In A Holding Pattern For 90 Days

"Happier, healthier,?more productive." That was the goal of mobile app Astrid, and now Yahoo is taking up the mission as it's just acquired the social productivity platform. Co-founded by a former Palantir engineer, Tim Su, AngelPad-backed Astrid says that it has four million users, who as of September 2012 logged 30 million plans on the platform.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DUKdGQUa5Y4/

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Substances in honey increase honey bee detox gene expression

May 1, 2013 ? Research in the wake of Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious malady afflicting (primarily commercial) honey bees, suggests that pests, pathogens and pesticides all play a role. New research indicates that the honey bee diet influences the bees' ability to withstand at least some of these assaults. Some components of the nectar and pollen grains bees collect to manufacture food to support the hive increase the expression of detoxification genes that help keep honey bees healthy.

The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

University of Illinois professor of entomology May Berenbaum, who led the study, said that many organisms use a group of enzymes called cytochrome P450 monooxygenases to break down foreign substances such as pesticides and compounds naturally found in plants, known as phytochemicals. However, honey bees have relatively few genes dedicated to this detoxification process compared to other insect species, she said.

"Bees feed on hundreds of different types of nectar and pollen, and are potentially exposed to thousands of different types of phytochemicals, yet they only have one-third to one-half the inventory of enzymes that break down these toxins compared to other species," Berenbaum said.

Determining which of the 46 P450 genes in the honey bee genome are used to metabolize constituents of their natural diet and which are used to metabolize synthetic pesticides became a "tantalizing scientific question" to her research team, Berenbaum said.

"Every frame of honey (in the honey bee hive) is phytochemically different from the next frame of honey because different nectars went in to make the honey. If you don't know what your next meal is going to be, how does your detoxification system know which enzymes to upregulate?" Berenbaum said.

Research had previously shown that eating honey turns on detoxification genes that metabolize the chemicals in honey, but the researchers wanted to identify the specific components responsible for this activity. To do this, they fed bees a mixture of sucrose and powdered sugar, called bee candy, and added different chemical components in extracts of honey. They identified p-coumaric acid as the strongest inducer of the detoxification genes.

"We found that the perfect signal, p-coumaric acid, is in everything that bees eat -- it's the monomer that goes into the macromolecule called sporopollenin, which makes up the outer wall of pollen grains. It's a great signal that tells their systems that food is coming in, and with that food, so are potential toxins," Berenbaum said.

Her team showed that p-coumaric acid turns on not only P450 genes, but representatives of every other type of detoxification gene in the genome. This signal can also turn on honey bee immunity genes that code for antimicrobial proteins.

According to Berenbaum, three other honey constituents were effective inducers of these detoxification enzymes. These components probably originate in the tree resins that bees use to make propolis, the "bee glue" which lines all of the cells and seals cracks within a hive.

"Propolis turns on immunity genes -- it's not just an antimicrobial caulk or glue. It may be medicinal, and in fact, people use it medicinally, too," Berenbaum said.

Many commercial beekeepers use honey substitutes such as high-fructose corn syrup or sugar water to feed their colonies. Berenbaum believes the new research shows that honey is "a rich source of biologically active materials that truly matter to a bee."

She hopes that future testing and development will yield honey substitutes that contain p-coumaric acid so beekeepers can enhance their bees' ability to withstand pathogens and pesticides.

Although she doesn't recommend that beekeepers "rush out and dump p-coumaric acid into their high fructose corn syrup," she hopes that her team's research can be used as the basis of future work aimed at improving bee health.

"If I were a beekeeper, I would at least try to give them some honey year-round," Berenbaum said, "because if you look at the evolutionary history of Apis mellifera, this species did not evolve with high fructose corn syrup. It is clear that honey bees are highly adapted to consuming honey as part of their diet."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Journal Reference:

1. W. Mao, M. A. Schuler, M. R. Berenbaum. Honey constituents up-regulate detoxification and immunity genes in the western honey bee Apis mellifera. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1303884110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/anM5Z0t_hQM/130501132051.htm

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Obama eyes higher profile role on immigration

President Barack Obama answers questions during his new conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 30, 2013. The president strongly suggested Tuesday he'd consider military action against Syria if it can be confirmed that President Bashar Assad's government used chemical weapons in the two-year-old civil war. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama answers questions during his new conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 30, 2013. The president strongly suggested Tuesday he'd consider military action against Syria if it can be confirmed that President Bashar Assad's government used chemical weapons in the two-year-old civil war. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's prospects for a sweeping legislative victory this year now rest almost solely on the immigration overhaul working its way through Congress. But immigration's tricky politics have created a dilemma for a president fighting for an issue he considers central to his legacy.

If Obama is too closely aligned with the legislation, it could scare away Republicans wary of appearing to hand the president a win. But if he stays on the sidelines and the overhaul runs into trouble on Capitol Hill, Obama likely will be criticized for not using his presidential powers to fight for votes, as he was following the recent failure of gun control measures he championed.

In the coming weeks the White House will test whether Obama can take on a more public role in the immigration debate after largely ceding the issue to Congress for much of the year. The president will ramp up his immigration-related travel this spring and summer, including a trip this week to Mexico and Costa Rica. The White House also is planning to use Spanish-language media to bolster public support for a comprehensive bill.

Still, Obama signaled during a White House news conference Tuesday that his primary talking point will be that he's backing a bill drafted by the Senate's so-called Gang of Eight, a group of four Democrats and four Republicans.

"I've been impressed by the work that was done by the Gang of Eight," Obama said. "The bill that they produced is not the bill that I would have written ? there are elements of it that I would change ? but I do think that it meets the basic criteria that I laid out from the start."

Immigration reform gained little traction in Congress during Obama's first term, in part because of opposition from GOP lawmakers. But the November election changed the political calculus for some Republicans, who watched Hispanic voters overwhelmingly side with Obama and Democrats as they increased their share of the national electorate.

At the request of the Gang of Eight, Obama kept a low-profile as the Senate working group set about the delicate task of crafting a draft bill earlier this year. The potential damage caused by White House involvement was underscored when a copy of Obama's own draft bill was leaked in February, raising suspicions among Republicans about his motivations and threatening to upend the effort.

But now that the Gang of Eight bill is public and is winning some Republican support, White House advisers say there's less risk in Obama taking on a larger public role in the debate too.

The focus on immigration in the capital comes as rallies are expected in dozens of cities around the country Wednesday in what has become an annual cry for easing the nation's immigration laws.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a favorite of conservatives and potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016, is one if the bill's architects, as is Arizona's Republican Sen. John McCain. And even in the Republican-led House, where an immigration overhaul faces a steeper challenger, the Gang of Eight measure has won praise from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

The bill would strengthen border security, allow tens of thousands of new high- and low-skilled workers into the country, require all employers to check their workers' legal status and provide an eventual path to citizenship for some 11 million immigrants now here illegally.

The measure is similar to the immigration principles Obama outlined in January during a visit to Las Vegas, his only immigration-focused trip of the year, though there are key differences. For example, the Senate bill makes the pathway to citizenship contingent on securing the border, which Obama opposes, and does not recognize gay couples, which Obama supports.

Many immigration advocates say they support Obama getting more involved in the debate as the draft bill weaves its way through the Senate Judiciary Committee, and likely to the Senate floor.

"He needs to be an advocate and push for the bill in the Senate to make sure this gets done," Eliseo Medina of the Service Employees International Union said of the president. "We need continued sustained pressure from all facets."

McCain also welcomed the prospect of a more proactive Obama, saying the president is committed to being heavily engaged. But the Arizona Republican, who has spoken with Obama about the immigration negotiations several times in recent weeks, added that the president "doesn't want to harm the passage of the bill either. And I believe him."

But some Republicans remain suspicious of the president's efforts and say he's trying to sink the bill in order to use the legislative failure for political gain.

"I think the president wants to campaign on immigration reform in 2014 and 2016," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in an interview with CBS News. "I think the reason the White House is insisting on a path to citizenship for those who are here illegally is because the White House knows that insisting on that is very likely to scuttle the bill."

Obama advisers insist he would rather be able to claim victory on the immigration overhaul that has eluded him than use a failure as leverage in the midterm elections ? a proposition that has no guarantee of working in his favor.

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Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-01-US-Obama-Immigration/id-7d3b796f974e4bbd8f6cdc01835bfd52

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