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SAO PAULO (AP) -A Palmeiras fan was declared brain dead on Tuesday, the second casualty from a confrontation involving nearly 500 people from rival groups last weekend.
The Sao Camilo hospital said the 19-year-old fan remains on a ventilator but will not recover after receiving head injuries in the fighting on Sunday. His name was not immediately released by the hospital.
On Sunday, 21-year-old Palmeiras supporter Andre Alves died after being shot in the head in the confrontation. Two other fans remain hospitalized, a 17-year-old with head injuries and a 23-year-old who was shot in the hip and needed surgery.
The announcement that the fan was brain dead came as authorities decided to close the headquarters of the rival fan groups involved in the fighting - Palmeiras' Mancha Verde and Corinthians' Gavioes da Fiel. The Sao Paulo state football federation indefinitely banned them on Monday from entering stadiums.
Authorities seized computers and other material that could bring more information about those involved in the fight, and detained several members suspected of participating in the confrontation. Iron bars and other possible weapons used in the brawl were also seized.
Police said one of Alves' brother, a vice president at the Mancha Verde, was shot in the leg during another fight last year.
The confrontation on Sunday raised concerns about escalating fan violence in Brazil, and authorities said they will have to take action to keep the fighting from spreading with the country staging the 2014 World Cup. Corinthians' stadium will host the World Cup opener in 2014.
"We are against this type of violence because everybody loses," said former Palmeiras player and current club director Cesar Sampaio, who attended Alves' funeral on Monday. "We have to take a stance to try to put an end to this right now."
There hadn't been a death linked to fan violence in Brazil since early last year, when a Corinthians supporter was killed after reportedly being ambushed by Palmeiras fans. Police believe Sunday's fight came in retaliation for that death, and Palmeiras supporters are already using social media networks to say they will avenge this weekend's killing.
Police were investigating reports that Sunday's fight was set up on the Internet. The Mancha Verde released a note saying the group was ambushed by the Corinthians supporters, but the Gavioes da Fiel denied the allegations.
The fans used iron bars, pieces of wood and rocks in the confrontation which lasted several minutes until riot police arrived to intervene. It happened several hours before the match between Corinthians and Palmeiras, several kilometers from the stadium.
There had been few incidents involving fan groups in the past few years, but several have been reported in recent months, including some between Corinthians and Palmeiras fans.
About a week ago, a 28-year-old fan of small club Guarani died from head injuries after fighting with Ponte Preta supporters in the city of Campinas, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Sao Paulo.
The death prompted authorities to ban the teams' fan groups from stadiums. The same measure was taken by authorities in the northeastern city of Salvador because of recent incidents involving Bahia fans. There were also fights in Goias state and in Rio de Janeiro recently.
Other South American nations have had to deal with fan violence. One man was killed and dozens were injured in two separate incidents in Colombia earlier this month.
---
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? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Colossal failure by US men
PST: The Americans had a huge leg up to begin with, as the whole tournament was (once again) hand-delivered to U.S. soil.
'I'm really excited just to show the world that side of me,' Pauly says of 'Jersey Shore' spin-off, premiering tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on MTV. By Gil Kaufman, with reporting by Sway Calloway
Pauly D Photo: Ian Spanier
After five seasons of "Jersey Shore," we know DJ Pauly D pretty well. He's the ultimate prankster who never beefs with anyone, takes crucial care of his beloved sneaker collection and has a crunchy blowout that defies all laws of physics.
But the Rhode Island kid has many more sides to show us, and he plans to put them all on display in his spin-off show, "The Pauly D Project." When asked what parts of his personality "Shore" watchers are missing out on, Pauly told MTV News' Sway, "Just how much I am all about my home, my family and my friends — you don't really see that."
In the show — which debuts tonight (March 29) at 10:30 p.m. ET, right after the reboot of "Punk'd" — viewers will tag along as Pauly hits Las Vegas for his DJ residency at the Palms Hotel and Casino with his whole crew in tow, including turntable inspiration Biggie, bodyguard Jerry and wingman Ryan. They'll also get to see Pauly go home to visit his friends and family and sign a mind-blowing record deal with the G-Note division of 50 Cent's G-Unit Records.
"Now you get to see me take my closest friends on the road with me from Rhode Island, and you get to see Rhode Island," he said. "I'm really excited just to show the world that side of me."
His hookup with 50 is already paying dividends, as the G-Unit General recently tapped Pauly to help out in the first commercial for the rapper's Street King energy drink. Pauly jumped in front of the camera with 50 and legendary comedian Joan Rivers for what the MC said was a "real oddball group" intended to target a wide range of potential audiences.
Don't miss the premiere of ""The Pauly D Project" tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on MTV, following the reboot of "Punk'd"! For continuing "Pauly" coverage, be sure to check in with MTV's Remote Control blog.
A big step today for both Nokia and Microsoft in its bid to be at the center of the huge smartphone growth currently underway in China and other emerging markets: Nokia today paired up with China Telecom to launch the Nokia 800C, the first CDMA Windows Phone to hit China, and the first of Nokia's Lumia line of high-end devices tailored specifically for that market. The two also said that it would be following this up with a lower-cost CDMA handset, the 610C, in Q2. This handset is especially crucial in testing whether Nokia will be able to retain its smartphone leadership in emerging markets as it continues its transition from Symbian to Windows Phone, and Android continues its low-cost march up the sales charts.
In case you didn't know, Buzzfeed's new tech site FWD is powered by a pair of evil and horrible trolls with ginger hair and no souls. Today, those evil and horrible trolls tried to take down our own Mat Honan over his tastes in music; particularly Cher and the Black Eyed Peas. While it's tough for me to defend listening to Cher (unless you're on multiple drugs and varieties of alcohol), listening to the Black Eyed Peas is ALWAYS defensible. More »
Nowadays, realtors can make their transactions with costumers and potential home buyers much easier and faster through online marketing. However, those who want to try online real estate marketing for the first time should consider some important things before jumping in to avoid failures and to make sure that they would full maximize the use of each tool on their advantage.
Interact with other Realtors by joining online forums. There are plenty of forums for real estate people offered online. Through forums you can?t only increase your online presence as a Realtor, but you can also learn more about real estate marketing and create new networks. Sometimes you might be invited to join gatherings hosted by a fellow Realtor.
Do not spend all your time thinking and doing real estate marketing when you?re online. Aside from real estate marketing you can use internet to do some market research as well. Online, you can find plenty of websites that offers anything about your target market from demographics to the economic status and age of the people whom you wish to sell your properties for sale.
Consider getting into social networking sites. You can join these social networking sites for free and all you have to do is to create an account from them.? You can find thousands of people online on these social networking sites almost every day, regardless of social class and age. People who are so busy as well prefer this way to stay connected with their social contacts.
Build up your credentials using the internet. You can use the internet to beef up your credentials by creating your personal blog site or a Real Estate Weber County website. It is better to create a website if your budget is enough which would need to pay for a domain and hosting in a monthly/yearly basis. Using free blogging platforms are also good way to post relevant information that can be used for your credentials. However, you need to put extra work to make your blog visible to your target audience. Website is easy to optimize and ranks fast by the search engines compared to a blog.
Real estate internet marketing is right now the most popular and effective way to sell properties at different target markets, no matter where you live.
Tags: blogging, forum, real estate, real estate agents, real estate internet marketing, real estate marketing, social media
New gene therapy approach developed for red blood cell disordersPublic release date: 27-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Richard Pietzak riz2008@med.cornell.edu 212-821-0560 New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College
Researchers say their method, tested in human cells, may offer the first viable approach to gene transfer in sickle cell anemia
NEW YORK (March 27, 2012) -- A team of researchers led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College has designed what appears to be a powerful gene therapy strategy that can treat both beta-thalassemia disease and sickle cell anemia. They have also developed a test to predict patient response before treatment.
This study's findings, published in PLoS ONE, represents a new approach to treating these related, and serious, red blood cells disorders, say the investigators.
"This gene therapy technique has the potential to cure many patients, especially if we prescreen them to predict their response using just a few of their cells in a test tube," says the study's lead investigator, Dr. Stefano Rivella, Ph.D., an associate professor of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He led a team of 17 researchers in three countries.
Dr. Rivella says this is the first time investigators have been able to correlate the outcome of transferring a healthy beta-globin gene into diseased cells with increased production of normal hemoglobin -- which has long been a barrier to effective treatment of these disease.
So far, only one patient in France has been treated with gene therapy for beta thalassemia, and Dr. Rivella and his colleagues believe the new treatment they developed will be a significant improvement. No known patient has received gene therapy yet to treat sickle cell anemia.
A Fresh Approach to Gene Therapy
Beta-thalassemia is an inherited disease caused by defects in the beta-globin gene. This gene produces an essential part of the hemoglobin protein, which, in the form of red blood cells, carries life-sustaining oxygen throughout the body.
The new gene transfer technique developed by Dr. Rivella and his colleagues ensures that the beta-globin gene that is delivered will be active, and that it will also provide more curative beta-globin protein. "Since the defect in thalassemia is lack of production of beta-globin protein in red blood cells, this is very important," Dr. Rivella says.
The researchers achieved this advance by hooking an "ankyrin insulator" to the beta-globin gene that is carried by a lentivirus vector. During the gene transfer, this vector would be inserted into bone marrow stem cells taken from patients, and then delivered back via a bone marrow transplant. The stem cells would then produce healthy beta-globin protein and hemoglobin.
This ankyrin insulator achieves two goals. First, it protects delivery of the normal beta-globin gene. "In many gene therapy applications, a curative gene is introduced into the cells of patients in an indiscriminate fashion," Dr. Rivella explains. "The gene lands randomly in the genome of the patient, but where it lands is very important because not all regions of the genome are the same." For example, some therapeutic genes may land in an area of the genome that is normally silenced -- meaning the genes in this area are not expressed. "The role of ankyrin insulator is to create an active area in the genome where the new gene can work efficiently no matter where it lands," Dr. Rivella says. He adds that the small insulator used in his vector should eliminate the kind of side effects seen in the French patient treated with beta-thalassemia gene therapy.
The research team also discovered that the insulator increases the efficiency by which the beta-globin gene is transcribed during the process of making the red blood cells. "We found the gene is integrated into cells which have not yet begun to make red blood cells, and when they do, the beta-globin gene is activated," Dr. Rivella says. "We showed that if the insulator is present, activation of the curative gene is more efficient. This provides more curative protein to red blood cells."
The study further provides evidence that the vector had different rates of efficiency depending on the beta-thalassemia mutation it was used in -- thus providing the basis for a predictive test in patients. The investigators tested 19 different beta-thalassemia samples comprising the two types commonly found in patients -- "beta-zero" cells that do not produce any beta-globin (forcing patients to receive blood transfusions throughout life), and "beta-plus" cells that produce suboptimal levels of hemoglobin. On average, they found that one copy of the vector in beta-zero cells produced 55 percent of the adult hemoglobin seen in normal individuals. Beta-plus cells, after treatment, produced hemoglobin comparable to a healthy individual, and were thus cured.
"The variable nature of the beta-thalassemia mutations suggests that some patients would be better candidates for gene therapy than others, and that success of gene therapy depends on the ability of a specific vector to make hemoglobin," Dr. Rivella says. "This is something we can test in advance using a little bit of a patient's blood -- which is quite extraordinary."
The issue in sickle cell anemia is very different, Dr. Rivella says. The hemoglobin protein is made in the right quantities, but it is not normal -- the red cell is shaped like a sickle and is abnormal in function. "One of the problem in gene therapy of sickle cell anemia is to add a new gene without increasing too much the total amount of protein, both normal and sickle. This would cause other problems," he says.
By treating eight cell specimens taken from sickle cell anemia patients, the investigators discovered that attaching the ankyrin insulator to a normal beta-globin gene increases the amount of normal beta globin protein while reducing the quantity of sickled protein. "The total amount of protein stays the same, which is very important," says first author Dr. Laura Breda, pediatric research associate at Weill Cornell Medical College.
The researchers say that their advances will likely make a substantial impact on a number of fields, including gene regulation and transfer and the design of gene therapy trials. "This study represents a fresh departure from previously published work in the field of gene therapy," Dr. Rivella says. The PLoS ONE article may be found online at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032345 after the embargo lifts.
###
The study was funded by the Cooley's Anemia Foundation (CAF), the Veneta Association for the Fight Against Thalassemia (Italy), the Carlo and Micol Schejola Foundation, the Children's Cancer and Blood Foundation, the Clinical and Translational Science Center, the Carlo and Micol Schejola Foundation, Telethon, and grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Co-authors include: Laura Breda, Carla Casu, Sara Gardenghi, Dorothy A. Kleinert, Robert W. Grady, and Patricia J. Giardina (Weill Cornell Medical College); Nicoletta Bianchi, and Roberto Gambari, from Universita' di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy; Luca Cartegni, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Mohandas Narla, Karina Yazdanbakhsh, from the New York Blood Center; Marco Musso, from Ospedali Galliera, Genova, Italy; Deepa Manwani, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Jane Little, from Montefiore Medical Center; Lawrence B. Gardner, from New York University, and Eugenia Prus, and Eitan Fibach, from HadassahHebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with the Methodist Hospital in Houston. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.
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New gene therapy approach developed for red blood cell disordersPublic release date: 27-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Richard Pietzak riz2008@med.cornell.edu 212-821-0560 New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College
Researchers say their method, tested in human cells, may offer the first viable approach to gene transfer in sickle cell anemia
NEW YORK (March 27, 2012) -- A team of researchers led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College has designed what appears to be a powerful gene therapy strategy that can treat both beta-thalassemia disease and sickle cell anemia. They have also developed a test to predict patient response before treatment.
This study's findings, published in PLoS ONE, represents a new approach to treating these related, and serious, red blood cells disorders, say the investigators.
"This gene therapy technique has the potential to cure many patients, especially if we prescreen them to predict their response using just a few of their cells in a test tube," says the study's lead investigator, Dr. Stefano Rivella, Ph.D., an associate professor of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He led a team of 17 researchers in three countries.
Dr. Rivella says this is the first time investigators have been able to correlate the outcome of transferring a healthy beta-globin gene into diseased cells with increased production of normal hemoglobin -- which has long been a barrier to effective treatment of these disease.
So far, only one patient in France has been treated with gene therapy for beta thalassemia, and Dr. Rivella and his colleagues believe the new treatment they developed will be a significant improvement. No known patient has received gene therapy yet to treat sickle cell anemia.
A Fresh Approach to Gene Therapy
Beta-thalassemia is an inherited disease caused by defects in the beta-globin gene. This gene produces an essential part of the hemoglobin protein, which, in the form of red blood cells, carries life-sustaining oxygen throughout the body.
The new gene transfer technique developed by Dr. Rivella and his colleagues ensures that the beta-globin gene that is delivered will be active, and that it will also provide more curative beta-globin protein. "Since the defect in thalassemia is lack of production of beta-globin protein in red blood cells, this is very important," Dr. Rivella says.
The researchers achieved this advance by hooking an "ankyrin insulator" to the beta-globin gene that is carried by a lentivirus vector. During the gene transfer, this vector would be inserted into bone marrow stem cells taken from patients, and then delivered back via a bone marrow transplant. The stem cells would then produce healthy beta-globin protein and hemoglobin.
This ankyrin insulator achieves two goals. First, it protects delivery of the normal beta-globin gene. "In many gene therapy applications, a curative gene is introduced into the cells of patients in an indiscriminate fashion," Dr. Rivella explains. "The gene lands randomly in the genome of the patient, but where it lands is very important because not all regions of the genome are the same." For example, some therapeutic genes may land in an area of the genome that is normally silenced -- meaning the genes in this area are not expressed. "The role of ankyrin insulator is to create an active area in the genome where the new gene can work efficiently no matter where it lands," Dr. Rivella says. He adds that the small insulator used in his vector should eliminate the kind of side effects seen in the French patient treated with beta-thalassemia gene therapy.
The research team also discovered that the insulator increases the efficiency by which the beta-globin gene is transcribed during the process of making the red blood cells. "We found the gene is integrated into cells which have not yet begun to make red blood cells, and when they do, the beta-globin gene is activated," Dr. Rivella says. "We showed that if the insulator is present, activation of the curative gene is more efficient. This provides more curative protein to red blood cells."
The study further provides evidence that the vector had different rates of efficiency depending on the beta-thalassemia mutation it was used in -- thus providing the basis for a predictive test in patients. The investigators tested 19 different beta-thalassemia samples comprising the two types commonly found in patients -- "beta-zero" cells that do not produce any beta-globin (forcing patients to receive blood transfusions throughout life), and "beta-plus" cells that produce suboptimal levels of hemoglobin. On average, they found that one copy of the vector in beta-zero cells produced 55 percent of the adult hemoglobin seen in normal individuals. Beta-plus cells, after treatment, produced hemoglobin comparable to a healthy individual, and were thus cured.
"The variable nature of the beta-thalassemia mutations suggests that some patients would be better candidates for gene therapy than others, and that success of gene therapy depends on the ability of a specific vector to make hemoglobin," Dr. Rivella says. "This is something we can test in advance using a little bit of a patient's blood -- which is quite extraordinary."
The issue in sickle cell anemia is very different, Dr. Rivella says. The hemoglobin protein is made in the right quantities, but it is not normal -- the red cell is shaped like a sickle and is abnormal in function. "One of the problem in gene therapy of sickle cell anemia is to add a new gene without increasing too much the total amount of protein, both normal and sickle. This would cause other problems," he says.
By treating eight cell specimens taken from sickle cell anemia patients, the investigators discovered that attaching the ankyrin insulator to a normal beta-globin gene increases the amount of normal beta globin protein while reducing the quantity of sickled protein. "The total amount of protein stays the same, which is very important," says first author Dr. Laura Breda, pediatric research associate at Weill Cornell Medical College.
The researchers say that their advances will likely make a substantial impact on a number of fields, including gene regulation and transfer and the design of gene therapy trials. "This study represents a fresh departure from previously published work in the field of gene therapy," Dr. Rivella says. The PLoS ONE article may be found online at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032345 after the embargo lifts.
###
The study was funded by the Cooley's Anemia Foundation (CAF), the Veneta Association for the Fight Against Thalassemia (Italy), the Carlo and Micol Schejola Foundation, the Children's Cancer and Blood Foundation, the Clinical and Translational Science Center, the Carlo and Micol Schejola Foundation, Telethon, and grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Co-authors include: Laura Breda, Carla Casu, Sara Gardenghi, Dorothy A. Kleinert, Robert W. Grady, and Patricia J. Giardina (Weill Cornell Medical College); Nicoletta Bianchi, and Roberto Gambari, from Universita' di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy; Luca Cartegni, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Mohandas Narla, Karina Yazdanbakhsh, from the New York Blood Center; Marco Musso, from Ospedali Galliera, Genova, Italy; Deepa Manwani, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Jane Little, from Montefiore Medical Center; Lawrence B. Gardner, from New York University, and Eugenia Prus, and Eitan Fibach, from HadassahHebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with the Methodist Hospital in Houston. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.
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A big step today for both Nokia and Microsoft in its bid to be at the center of the huge smartphone growth currently underway in China and other emerging markets: Nokia today paired up with China Telecom to launch the Nokia 800C, the first CDMA Windows Phone to hit China, and the first of Nokia's Lumia line of high-end devices tailored specifically for that market. The two also said that it would be following this up with a lower-cost CDMA handset, the 610C, in Q2. This handset is especially crucial in testing whether Nokia will be able to retain its smartphone leadership in emerging markets as it continues its transition from Symbian to Windows Phone, and Android continues its low-cost march up the sales charts.
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Public release date: 27-Mar-2012
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