ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new Prime Minister Enrico Letta pledged to push for a change to the European Union's focus on austerity and pursue growth and jobs in an inaugural speech on Monday laying out the priorities for his coalition government.
Speaking ahead of a confidence vote in the lower house, Letta said Italy could not afford to focus simply on trying to cut its huge public debt and needed a new emphasis on lifting the economy out of recession.
He will be backed by his own center-left Democratic Party, Silvio Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party as well as centrists led by former prime minister Mario Monti, with a second vote in the Senate on Tuesday.
"We will die of fiscal consolidation alone, growth policies cannot wait any longer," Letta said, noting that the country's economic situation remains "serious" after more than a decade of stagnation.
However he pledged to stick to Italy's budget commitments to its European Union partners, announcing he would visit Brussels, Paris and Berlin this week.
Financial market reaction to Letta's appointment and the end of months of political stalemate after last February's inconclusive election was positive, with bond yields falling and shares rising.
Italy's cost of borrowing dropped to its lowest since October 2010 at an auction of medium and long term bonds on Monday.
But Letta, who was pushed into a coalition with Berlusconi after the center-left fell short of a viable parliamentary majority in February, now faces a battle to maintain the unity of his government while passing potentially difficult reforms.
He paid tribute to two police officers shot by an unemployed man on Sunday as his cabinet was being sworn in and called for a calmer and more responsible political climate.
Responding to Berlusconi's demands for an unpopular housing tax to be scrapped, Letta said payments due in June would be halted prior to a wider overhaul of property taxes but he did not promise to abolish the tax altogether.
He also said he hoped an increase in sales tax, which would see the main rate rise from 21 percent to 22 percent planned for July, could be delayed.
In a speech laying out an ambitious program of reforms, Letta said the welfare system would have to be strengthened, taxes weighing on employment and young people would be cut and measures to get more women into the workforce would be passed.
He promised to change the current electoral law, which contributed heavily to the inconclusive election result in February and left Italy in political limbo for two months as the parties wrangled over forming a government.
He also said he would review the progress of reforms in 18 months' time and if he felt that he had been blocked by other parties he would not hesitate to assume the consequences, an apparent suggestion that he would resign.
(Additional reporting by Catherine Hornby, Gavin Jones, Steve Scherer, Naomi O'Leary)
Here are the terms of trades completed on Friday, April 26, the second day of the 2013 NFL Draft. All draft picks are 2013 selections unless otherwise noted:
The Titans acquired a second-round pick from San Francisco (No. 34 overall), sending second- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 40, 216) in 2013 and a 2014 third-rounder to the 49ers. The Titans selected Tennessee wide receiver Justin Hunter at No. 34. The 49ers took Florida State defensive lineman Cornellius ?Tank? Carradine at No. 40.
The Chargers traded for the Cardinals? second-round pick (No. 38), giving up second- and fourth-round picks (Nos. 45, 110) to Arizona. The Chargers used selection No. 38 on Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te?o, while the Cardinals took LSU linebacker Kevin Minter at No. 45.
The 49ers acquired the Packers? second-round pick (No. 55). In return, San Francisco surrendered second- and sixth-round picks (Nos. 61, 173). The 49ers took Rice tight end Vance McDonald at No. 55. The Packers used the No. 61 choice on Alabama running back Eddie Lacy.
The Ravens traded for the Seahawks? second-round selection (No. 56). Baltimore sent Seattle second-, fifth- and sixth-round picks (Nos. 62, 165, 199) to complete the deal. The Ravens took Kansas State linebacker Arthur Brown with pick No. 56. Six picks later, the Seahawks selected Texas A&M running back Christine Michael at No. 62.
The Saints acquired a third-round selection from Miami (No. 82). In exchange, the Dolphins received two fourth-round picks (Nos. 106, 109) from New Orleans. The Saints took Georgia nose tackle John Jenkins at No. 82. The Dolphins would trade selection No. 109 to Green Bay.
The 49ers traded for the Packers? third-round choice (No. 88), surrendering third- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 93, 216) to Green Bay. With pick No. 88, San Francisco chose Auburn defensive lineman Corey Lemonier. The Packers would deal the 93rd selection to Miami (see next entry).
The Dolphins acquired a third-round pick from Green Bay (No. 93), giving up fourth-, fifth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 109, 146, 224). The Dolphins selected Utah State cornerback Will Davis at No. 93.
The Dolphins traded wide receiver Davone Bess and their fourth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 111, 217) to Cleveland. In return, the Browns sent the Dolphins fourth- and fifth-round picks (Nos. 104, 164).
The Saints traded running back Chris Ivory to the Jets in exchange for New York?s fourth-round pick (No. 106). The Saints dealt No. 106 in a package for pick No. 82, which was used on Georgia nose tackle John Jenkins.
I'm connecting the wires to the Air Handler in the Attic, i was told that I need a disconnect and there is only a 1/2" knockout on the top of the AHU. The disconnect i purchased will mount to the outside of the unit but what about the wire.
Do i need to run it in conduit between the disconnect and the AHU? do I need to run it in conduit to the disconnect and then to the AHU, can I just run the wire into the disconnect and then into the AHU without the conduit?
Apr. 24, 2013 ? Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers at EMBL have described the striking diversity of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that such start and end variation produces, even from the simple genome of yeast cells. Their findings, published today in Nature, shed new light on the importance of mRNA boundaries in determining the functional potential of genes.
Hundreds of thousands of unique mRNA transcripts are generated from a genome of only about 8000 genes, even with the same genome sequence and environmental condition. "We knew that transcription could lead to a certain amount of diversity, but we were not expecting it to be so vast," explains Lars Steinmetz, who led the project. "Based on this diversity, we would expect that no yeast cell has the same set of messenger RNA molecules as its neighbour."
The traditional understanding of transcription was that mRNA boundaries were relatively fixed. While it has long been known that certain parts of mRNAs can be selectively 'spliced' out, this phenomenon is very rare in baker's yeast, meaning that the textbook one gene -- one mRNA transcript relationship should hold. Recent studies have suggested that things aren't quite that simple, inspiring the EMBL scientists to create a new technique to capture both the start and end points of single mRNA molecules. They now discovered that each gene could be transcribed into dozens or even hundreds of unique mRNA molecules, each with different boundaries.
This suggests that not only transcript abundance, but also transcript boundaries should be considered when assessing gene function. Altering the boundaries of mRNA molecules can affect how long they stay intact, cause them to produce different proteins, or direct them or their protein products to different locations, which can have a profound biological impact. Diversifying mRNA transcript boundaries within a group of cells, therefore, could equip them to adapt to different external challenges.
The researchers expect that such an extent of boundary variation will also be found in more complex organisms, including humans, where some examples are already known to affect key biological functions. The technology to measure these variations across the entire genome as well as a catalogue of boundaries in a well-studied organism are a good starting point for further research. "Now that we are aware of how much diversity there is, we can start to figure out what factors control it," points out Vicent Pelechano, who performed the study with Wu Wei. Wei adds: "Our technique also exposed new mRNAs that other techniques could not distinguish. It will be exciting to investigate how these and general variation in transcript boundaries actually extend the functional capacity of a genome."
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Vicent Pelechano, Wu Wei, Lars M. Steinmetz. Extensive transcriptional heterogeneity revealed by isoform profiling. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12121
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? Mike Dunlap is one and done with the Charlotte Bobcats.
The Bobcats fired Dunlap as coach Tuesday after a single season.
The Bobcats went 21-61 under Dunlap, finishing with the second-worst record in the NBA ahead of only the Orlando Magic. Charlotte won just seven games in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, but tripling last season's victory total and a three-game winning streak to close the season weren't enough to save Dunlap's job.
Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins said he and general manager Rich Cho met with players and Dunlap before approaching owner Michael Jordan and asking him to make a coaching change.
"The change was allowed," Higgins said.
Dunlap struggled at times with game management, transitioning from the college game to the NBA and handling professional athletes, often benching veteran players for weeks at a time after they'd irritated him in some way.
Higgins said player input was "a part of the process, but not the only indicator."
During one point in the season Dunlap feuded with veteran guard Ben Gordon during a practice, and his micromanaging approach didn't always sit well with some of the more experienced players on the roster.
"I just don't think he was a great fit," general manager Rich Cho said. "Probably best that we go in a different direction."
In a statement Tuesday night, Dunlap took the high road, thanking Jordan and the entire organization for the opportunity as well as the fans for their support.
"I am very proud of the effort and hard work that the players demonstrated throughout the season," Dunlap said. "I am looking forward to the next chapter in my coaching career."
The move means the Bobcats will have a third head coach in three seasons.
The Bobcats hired Dunlap last June after he had been working as an assistant at St. John's, the first person to make a direct move from an assistant coach at the college level to a head coaching position in the NBA.
Dunlap replaced Paul Silas, who was fired after the Bobcats went 7-59 in 2011-12, the worst winning percentage in NBA history (.106).
The Bobcats got off to a surprising 7-5 start, but even Dunlap said at the time he "didn't trust" the record. The Bobcats would go on to lose 18 straight games and quickly regain their spot at the bottom of the NBA standings, where they would remain until closing with three wins and moving ahead of the Magic.
Higgins cited the team's inconsistent play as one of the reasons Dunlap was released.
"You can characterize the season in different buckets," Higgins said. "We started pretty strong and we finished pretty strong. But through the middle part of those two buckets we had some inconsistencies. So when Rich and I reviewed the season we came to the conclusion we needed a change."
Dunlap entered training camp with a desire to push his young players physically, and three- and four-hour practices became the norm. Dunlap talked early in the season about disrupting teams with three-quarter presses, but those plans were quickly abandoned.
The Bobcats were outscored by 757 points this season, more than any team in the NBA.
Defensively, the Bobcats allowed 102.6 points per game, the second-most in the league, and they were the NBA's worst shooting team at 42.5 percent.
After the season, Dunlap sounded like a man politicking to keep his job.
"I never thought that we were going to blink our eyes and have 35 wins," Dunlap said last week. "I thought it was always going to be a slog. We're slowly moving this thing around and again, what's perspective? The worst team in the history of the NBA (last season), all right, so how do you go from seven wins to, say, 40 wins? That's pretty tough to do."
The Bobcats interviewed 10 candidates last summer for the job.
Now that process will start all over.
"In the NBA, you're not surprised by a lot because so many different things happen," Higgins said of the decision. "It's the business."
With the Bobcats getting another top-five draft pick this year and having up to $21 million to spend under the salary cap, Higgins and Cho don't believe there will be a lack of interested candidates in the position.
"Since the release our cellphones have been blowing up," Higgins said. "It lets you know that there is interest in this job, a high level of interest."
Higgins said it's too early for a list of candidates but indicated he wants a coach who's a great leader, able to develop players and great with Xs and Os.
When asked if the team is looking for a candidate with more NBA experience this time around, Cho was non-committal.
"I don't want to pigeonhole ourselves," Cho said. "We want to find out the best fit."
The BeagleBone might be just the piece of kit for the DIY set itching to boot Linux in 10 seconds, but the freshly unveiled BeagleBone Black packs an even greater punch -- and the same speedy start times -- at just half the price of its predecessor. The $45 credit card-sized package totes a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 3D graphics accelerator, a pair of PRU 32-bit RISC CPUs, 2GB of built-in storage, a microSD slot and 512MB of RAM. Connectivity-wise, the canine-themed board carries support for USB, Ethernet, micro-HDMI and two 46 pin headers. Those pining for hardware flexibility can make use of the platform's existing "cape" hardware add-ons. Though it ships from Texas Instruments with Angstrom Linux on board, it's also tuned to support Android and Ubuntu, and arrives pre-loaded with the Cloud9 IDE. BeagleBone Black is already up for grabs in limited quantities, but it's expected to ship en masse by the end of May. Hit the second source link to start ordering, or head past the break for a video tour of the pint-sized computer.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Flights at Israeli flag carrierEl Al and two smaller airlines remained grounded for a second straight day on Monday due to a strike by workers protesting against a new open skies deal with Europe which they fear could cost them their jobs.
Nearly 50 El Al flights from Tel Aviv were cancelled on Monday, affecting some 15,000 passengers, although the airline's union did allow three flights to take off.
Israel's Manufacturers' Association, concerned over the impact the strike will have on foreign trade, urged the labor court to step in and order airline employees back to work. The court was expected to hear arguments later on Monday.
The Histadrut labor federation said it would shut Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israel's main airport, to all incoming and outgoing flights on Tuesday at 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) for four hours.
"There is no deadline for the strike to end," said Dafna Cohen-Nouriel, the Histadrut's spokeswoman.
Workers at El Al and smaller rivals Arkia and Israir started an open-ended strike at 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Sunday in protest over the cabinet's decision on Sunday to ratify an open skies aviation deal with Europe.
Supporters of the agreement - which goes into effect next April - say its relaxation of restrictions and quotas on flights between Israel and European Union countries will increase competition and help Israel's tourism and economy.
To help airlines prepare for the rise in competition, the agreement will be gradually phased in over the next five years.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid said he had instructed his staff to come up with a solution that would help Israeli airlines adjust to the new reality of open skies.
"Open skies is a done deal," he said. "It's a good agreement for Israel's citizens, the economy and tourism ... This strike has been unnecessary from the start and it still is."
But Israeli carriers and their workers' unions have concerns, mainly over steep security costs Israeli airlines pay which their competitors overseas do not.
The government pays 70 percent of Israeli airlines' security costs and will raise it to 80 percent, but that was not deemed enough. El Al paid $33 million for security in 2012.
"We appealed and are appealing to the Israeli government to act immediately to put in order the various issues that will enable fair and equal competition and above all the government's full participation in security costs for Israeli airlines," said Elyezer Shkedy, El Al's chief executive.
Cohen-Nouriel said that if Israeli carriers had to pay their security costs, El Al, Arkia and Israir's airfares would remain higher than competitors and could lead to their demise.
El Al's shares rebounded 2.5 percent on Monday after sliding 8.5 percent on Sunday.
An overwhelming majority of Senators just voted to cut the debate short and get a final vote on a controversial bill that will impose sales tax on purchases made on the Internet. Though support to move the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act forward jumped from less than 60 senators to 74 who voted to limit debate on Monday, the pro-Internet crew has a tough row to hoe. But based on the industry Goliaths at their back, companies like Wal-Mart and Amazon, and the recent change of heart by so many lawmakers, the bill looks like it stands a pretty good chance of making it to the president's desk. It helps that the Obama administration announced not long before the vote on Monday that it supports the curent version of the bill.
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But just because the bill suddenly has a lot of support from very powerful people, doesn't mean it's without opposition. Opponents of the bill include everyone from eBay, the Internet auction giant that's been mobilizing its millions of users against the bill, to Grover Norquists Americans for Tax Reform, a powerful anti-tax lobby with obvious libertarian?leanings. After Monday's change of heart in the Senate, those groups turned their gaze to the House, where there's still some hope if not to stop the bill than to amend it so that's not so sweeping.?
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The bill isn't really all?that sweeping in its current form, though. There are some failsafes to protect small business, like a rule that only requires an online retailer to collect tax if they bring in less than $1 million in revenue. (The Marketplace Fairness Act, meanwhile, would bring an estimated $22 billion to $24 billion in new tax revenue.)?These are the same business, the White House says, will benefit most from the bill since it "will level the playing field for local?small business?retailers who are undercut every day by out-of-state on-line companies." The National Governors Association, who favors the bill, similarly said that the current structure is favoring online retails and, as a result, "shuttering stores and undermining state budgets."
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Opponents beg to differ, but some are willing to meet half way. During the Senate's abbreviated debate on the bill, there are plans to introduce a three-word amendment that would limit the bill's reach to Internet sellers "in participating states." So if New Hampshire, the "Live Free or Die" state, doesn't want to impose a new tax, it doesn't have to. Regardless of what happens in the interim, the gist of this bill feels imminent. Jordan Weissman at The Atlantic calls it "common sense," and apparently, a growing group of lawmakers agree.
Investing can seem complicated, but it boils down to three basic principles.?
By Trent Hamm,?Guest blogger / April 20, 2013
A money changer shows some one-hundred U.S. dollar bills at an exchange booth in Tokyo. According to Hamm, understanding investing starts with understanding risk, return, and available assets.
Issei Kato/Reuters/File
Enlarge
Every investment you make requires you to balance three different factors.
Skip to next paragraph Trent Hamm
The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.
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The first factor is risk. How likely is it that you?re going to get the return you expect over the next year, or the next five years? Generally, lower risk is better.
The second factor is liquidity. How easy is it for you to get money out of that investment? The easier it is, the greater that investment?s liquidity. Generally, higher liquidity is better.
The third factor is return. How much do you expect to earn off of your investment over the next year? This is, of course, heavily tied into risk. Generally, higher returns are better.
Everything you invest in is going to require a sacrifice in one of these areas.
If you want high liquidity and low risk, you?re going to have a low return. You?re probably going to be putting your money into something like a savings account.
If you want low risk and high return, you?re going to have to give up liquidity. You?re probably going to be putting your money into something like real estate.
If you want high liquidity and high return, you?re going to have to take on some significant risk. You?re probably going to be putting your money into something like stocks.
There are different life situations that call on different investment options.
For example, if you want to have an emergency fund that will help you get through painful situations in your life without having to dive into debt or touch your retirement, you?re looking at something that?s high liquidity and low risk, which means you?ll have to accept a low return. Thus, it makes sense to keep an emergency fund in a savings account.
If you want to buy something and sit on that investment for a very long period while it earns you a fairly steady income, you?re going to want something with a low risk and a high return, which means you?ll have to sacrifice some liquidity. Thus, it makes sense for people to invest in rental properties to generate a steady income.
On the other hand, if you want to be able to invest in something that provides a great return, but also want the freedom to jump out of that investment quickly if something in your life changes or if something about that investment changes, you?re going to need something with high liquidity and a high return, which means you?re going to be adding risk to the mix. For many people, it makes sense to invest in stocks for the ease of rebalancing and selling them off.
These descriptions are very broad strokes, of course. Different people may have different opinions on how to specifically invest and so on.
The key thing to remember here is that your life is in the lead. You make investments based on what you actually need in your life above all else. The situation you?re in and what you need out of the investment will lead you to what you should be doing with your money.
Yes, it takes research and time, and yes, you?ll sometimes find contrasting viewpoints, but without a plan for your life before you invest, you?re likely to make a giant mistake, one that will cause you to have your money locked up tight when you need it or be facing a severe loss when you least expect it or be facing very small growth over a long period.
Figure out your life before you figure out your investments. If you know your goals first, the right investment becomes much more clear.
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on www.thesimpledollar.com.
Tom Cruise has had a rough time at the box office in recent years. Aside from the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, the A-lister hasn't registered an opening weekend north of $30 million since 2005's "War of the Worlds." That all changed with "Oblivion," which opened early overseas to strong ticket sales and debuted this weekend in [...]
It is Soap Dish time again and this week I am dishing all about the amazing Jeanne Cooper and her recent health crisis. It has been quite a week for The Young & The Restless icon but thankfully she is the road to recovery. About a week ago Cooper was hospitalized and her condition was critical. Although it was never officially confirmed as to what was causing her grave condition word on the street is that it was a very dangerous infections. Fans were kept up to date on Jeanne’s condition via Twitter thanks to her son?Corbin Bernsen. He asked for prayers for his mother during the time her condition was grave. He then again took to Twitter with the news that she had made huge progress. By the end of the week the legendary actress was taken out of the ICU but was still in the hospital. As a huge fan of not only the actress but the character she has played since before I was born,?Katherine Chancellor, I am thrilled that she is out of the woods. She is 84-years old after all so the fact that she is getting better and on her way to recovery. Again [...]
Apr. 18, 2013 ? Throughout decades of research on solar cells, one formula has been considered an absolute limit to the efficiency of such devices in converting sunlight into electricity: Called the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit, it posits that the ultimate conversion efficiency can never exceed 34 percent for a single optimized semiconductor junction.
Now, researchers at MIT have shown that there is a way to blow past that limit as easily as today's jet fighters zoom through the sound barrier -- which was also once seen as an ultimate limit.
Their work appears this week in a report in the journal Science, co-authored by graduate students including Daniel Congreve, Nicholas Thompson, Eric Hontz and Shane Yost, alumna Jiye Lee '12, and professors Marc Baldo and Troy Van Voorhis.
The principle behind the barrier-busting technique has been known theoretically since the 1960s, says Baldo, a professor of electrical engineering at MIT. But it was a somewhat obscure idea that nobody had succeeded in putting into practice. The MIT team was able, for the first time, to perform a successful "proof of principle" of the idea, which is known as singlet exciton fission. (An exciton is the excited state of a molecule after absorbing energy from a photon.)
In a standard photovoltaic (PV) cell, each photon knocks loose exactly one electron inside the PV material. That loose electron then can be harnessed through wires to provide an electrical current.
But in the new technique, each photon can instead knock two electrons loose. This makes the process much more efficient: In a standard cell, any excess energy carried by a photon is wasted as heat, whereas in the new system the extra energy goes into producing two electrons instead of one.
While others have previously "split" a photon's energy, they have done so using ultraviolet light, a relatively minor component of sunlight at Earth's surface. The new work represents the first time this feat has been accomplished with visible light, laying a pathway for practical applications in solar PV panels.
This was accomplished using an organic compound called pentacene in an organic solar cell. While that material's ability to produce two excitons from one photon had been known, nobody had previously been able to incorporate it within a PV device that generated more than one electron per photon.
"Our whole project was directed at showing that this splitting process was effective," says Baldo, who is also the director of the Center for Excitonics, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. "We showed that we could get through that barrier."
The theoretical basis for this work was laid long ago, says Congreve, but nobody had been able to realize it in a real, functioning system. "In this system," he says, "everyone knew you could, they were just waiting for someone to do it."
"This is the landmark event we had all been waiting to see," adds Richard Friend, the Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in this research. "This is really great research."
Since this was just a first proof of principle, the team has not yet optimized the energy-conversion efficiency of the system, which remains less than 2 percent. But ratcheting up that efficiency through further optimization should be a straightforward process, the researchers say. "There appears to be no fundamental barrier," Thompson says.
While today's commercial solar panels typically have an efficiency of at most 25 percent, a silicon solar cell harnessing singlet fission should make it feasible to achieve efficiency of more than 30 percent, Baldo says -- a huge leap in a field typically marked by slow, incremental progress. In solar cell research, he notes, people are striving "for an increase of a tenth of a percent."
Solar panel efficiencies can also be improved by stacking different solar cells together, but combining solar cells is expensive with conventional solar-cell materials. The new technology instead promises to work as an inexpensive coating on solar cells.
The work made use of a known material, but the team is now exploring new materials that might perform the same trick even better. "The field is working on materials that were chanced upon," Baldo says -- but now that the principles are better understood, researchers can begin exploring possible alternatives in a more systematic way.
Christopher Bardeen, a professor of chemistry at the University of California at Riverside who was not involved in this research, calls this work "very important" and says the process used by the MIT team "represents a first step towards incorporating an exotic photophysical process (fission) into a real device. This achievement will help convince workers in the field that this process has real potential for boosting organic solar cell efficiencies by 25 percent or more."
The research was performed in the Center for Excitonics and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. MIT has filed for a provisional patent on the technology.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by David L. Chandler.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
D. N. Congreve, J. Lee, N. J. Thompson, E. Hontz, S. R. Yost, P. D. Reusswig, M. E. Bahlke, S. Reineke, T. Van Voorhis, M. A. Baldo. External Quantum Efficiency Above 100% in a Singlet-Exciton-Fission-Based Organic Photovoltaic Cell. Science, 2013; 340 (6130): 334 DOI: 10.1126/science.1232994
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.
Apr. 17, 2013 ? Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a specific gene that regulates the heart's ability to regenerate after injuries.
The function of the gene, called Meis1, in the heart was not known previously. The findings of the UTSW investigation are available online in Nature.
"We found that the activity of the Meis1 gene increases significantly in heart cells soon after birth, right around the time heart muscle cells stop dividing. Based on this observation we asked a simple question: If the Meis1 gene is deleted from the heart, will heart cells continue to divide through adulthood? The answer is 'yes'," said Dr. Hesham Sadek, assistant professor of internal medicine in the division of cardiology, and senior author of the study.
In 2011, Dr. Sadek's laboratory showed that the newborn mammalian heart is capable of a vigorous, regenerative response to injury through division of its own cells. As the newborn develops, the heart rapidly loses the ability to regenerate and to repair injuries such as heart attacks.
The research team demonstrated that deletion of Meis1 extended the proliferation period in the hearts of newborn mice, and also re-activated the regenerative process in the adult mouse heart without harmful effect on cardiac functions. This new finding demonstrates that Meis1 is a key factor in the regeneration process, and the understanding of the gene's function may lead to new therapeutic options for adult heart regeneration. The findings also provide a possible alternative to current adult heart regeneration research, which focuses on the use of stem cells to replace damaged heart cells.
"Meis1 is a transcription factor, which acts like a software program that has the ability to control the function of other genes. In this case, we found that Meis1 controls several genes that normally act as brakes on cell division," Dr. Sadek said. "As such, Meis1 could possibly be used as an on/off switch for making adult heart cells divide. If done successfully, this ability could introduce a new era in treatment for heart failure."
According to the American Heart Association, almost 6 million people in the U.S. have heart failure, which occurs when the heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to support other organs. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study received support from the American Heart Association, the Gilead Research Scholars Program in Cardiovascular Disease, the Foundation for Heart Failure Research, and the National Institutes of Health.
The co-first authors of the study are Dr. Ahmed I. Mahmoud, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University; Dr. Fatih Kocabas, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at North American College; and Dr. Shalini A. Muralidhar, a postdoctoral research fellow II of internal medicine. Other researchers at UT Southwestern involved in the study are Wataru Kimura, a visiting senior researcher of internal medicine; Ahmed Koura, now a medical student at Ain Shams University in Egypt; Dr. Enzo Porrello, research fellow and faculty member at the University of Queensland in Australia; and Suwannee Thet, a research associate of internal medicine.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by UT Southwestern Medical Center.
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Journal Reference:
Ahmed I. Mahmoud, Fatih Kocabas, Shalini A. Muralidhar, Wataru Kimura, Ahmed S. Koura, Suwannee Thet, Enzo R. Porrello, Hesham A. Sadek. Meis1 regulates postnatal cardiomyocyte cell cycle arrest. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12054
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Apr 15 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $4,139,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,137,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,442,389 4. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,100,469 5. Steve Stricker $1,935,340 6. Phil Mickelson $1,764,680 7. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 8. Jason Day $1,659,565 9. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 10. Keegan Bradley $1,430,347 11. Charles Howell III $1,393,806 12. John Merrick $1,375,757 13. Russell Henley $1,331,434 14. Michael Thompson $1,310,709 15. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 16. Bill Haas $1,271,553 17. Billy Horschel $1,254,224 18. ...
The inconsolable crying some infants go through, known as colic, is associated with migraine headaches later in childhood, researchers report in the April 17 Journal of the American Medical Association. Luigi Titomanlio of Paris Diderot University and colleagues identified 208 children and teens, ranging in age from six to 18, who had been diagnosed at an emergency department with migraines. As a control group, the scientists found 471 children of matching ages who had shown up at emergency rooms for minor traumas. The researchers then obtained childhood histories for both groups.
While 73 percent of the migraine kids had had colic in infancy, only 27 percent of the controls had. Children with migraines were also more prone to childhood abdominal pain. An analysis of a separate group of children diagnosed with tension-related headaches showed no association with colic.?
Unconfirmed hypotheses link migraines with exposure as a baby to cow?s milk or a lack of breast-feeding in infancy, the authors note. Leon Epstein and Phyllis Zee of Northwestern University?s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, also writing in JAMA, point out that genetics seem to affect migraine risk and that disruption of the sleep-wake cycle can trigger migraines.
A genetic analysis of the avian flu virus responsible for at least nine human deaths in China portrays a virus evolving to adapt to human cells, raising concern about its potential to spark a new global flu pandemic.
The collaborative study, conducted by a group led by Masato Tashiro of the Influenza Virus Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo, appears in the current edition (April 11, 2013) of the journalEurosurveillance. The group examined the genetic sequences of H7N9 isolates from four of the pathogen's human victims as well as samples derived from birds and the environs of a Shanghai market.
"The human isolates, but not the avian and environmental ones, have a protein mutation that allows for efficient growth in human cells and that also allows them to grow at a temperature that corresponds to the upper respiratory tract of humans, which is lower than you find in birds," says Kawaoka, a leading expert on avian influenza.
The findings, drawn from genetic sequences deposited by Chinese researchers into an international database, provide some of the first molecular clues about a worrisome new strain of bird flu, the first human cases of which were reported on March 31 by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, the new virus has sickened at least 33 people, killing nine. Although it is too early to predict its potential to cause a pandemic, signs that the virus is adapting to mammalian and, in particular, human hosts are unmistakable, says Kawaoka.
Access to the genetic information in the viruses, he adds, is necessary for understanding how the virus is evolving and for developing a candidate vaccine to prevent infection.
Influenza virus depends on its ability to attach to and commandeer the living cells of its host to replicate and spread efficiently. Avian influenza rarely infects humans, but can sometimes adapt to people, posing a significant risk to human health.
"These viruses possess several characteristic features of mammalian influenza viruses, which likely contribute to their ability to infect humans and raise concerns regarding their pandemic potential," Kawaoka and his colleagues conclude in the Eurosurveillance report.
Kawaoka, a faculty member in the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine who also holds a faculty appointment at the University of Tokyo, explains that the majority of the viruses in the study ? from both humans and birds ? display mutations in the surface protein hemagglutinin, which the pathogen uses to bind to host cells. Those mutations, according to Kawaoka, allowed them to easily infect human cells.
In addition, the isolates from patients contained another mutation that allows the virus to efficiently replicate inside human cells. The same mutation, Kawaoka notes, lets the avian virus thrive in the cooler temperatures of the human upper respiratory system. It is in the cells of the nose and throat that flu typically gains a hold in a mammalian or human host.
Kawaoka and his colleagues also assessed the response of the new strain to drugs used to treat influenza, discovering that one class of commonly used antiviral drugs, ion channel inhibitors which effectively bottle up the virus in the cell, would not be effective; the new strain could be treated with another clinically relevant antiviral drug, oseltamivir.
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University of Wisconsin-Madison: http://www.wisc.edu
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Researchers discover biomarker for devastating intestinal disease found in early preterm infantsPublic release date: 15-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Feuer jim.feuer@cchmc.org 513-636-4656 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Researchers have discovered a biomarker that may help prevent a devastating intestinal disease that occurs in one of every 10 early preterm infants.
The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study may help prevent necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a condition primarily seen in preemies in which bowel tissue dies. The death rate approaches 30 percent. Survivors are at risk for short-bowel syndrome (caused by surgical removal of the small intestine) and neurodevelopmental disability.
The study is published in the journal Microbiome.
The research, led by Ardythe Morrow, PhD, shows that NEC is preceded by two distinct microbial imbalances in the digestive tract, suggesting that these imbalances "may provide highly predictive biomarkers of NEC," she says.
"Using a combination of early microbial factors, we obtained a predictive value for NEC exceeding 80 percent," says Dr. Morrow. "This requires validation in larger studies, but the findings are striking."
Dr. Morrow's main analysis looked at stool and urine samples collected from 32 infants prior to the onset of disease. The infants were born at less than 29 weeks gestational age.
Eleven of the 32 went on to develop NEC. In all of these cases, NEC was preceded by a dominance of certain types of bacteria in the intestinal tract either firmicutes in the first week of life or proteobacteria in the second week. Dominance of proteobacteria also occurred in half of those who did not develop NEC.
The team of investigators led by Dr. Morrow also identified a potential simple urine analysis that could help detect the bacterial dominance that occurs in advance of NEC. The research team will attempt to validate its findings in a national study and is studying approaches to prevent the occurrence of NEC in preterm infants.
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The study was funded in whole or in part with awards from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health (grant numbers R01HD059140, P01HD13021, and HD27853); National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health (grant numbers 5UL1RR026314-03, U54HG004969); National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health (HG005969); Danone Research (PLF-5972-GD); and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under contract number HHSN272200900018C.
About Cincinnati Children's
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is third in the nation in U.S. News and World Report's 2012 Best Children's Hospitals ranking. It is ranked #1 for neonatology and in the top 10 for all pediatric specialties. Cincinnati Children's is one of the top two recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health. It is internationally recognized for improving child health and transforming delivery of care through fully integrated, globally recognized research, education and innovation. Additional information can be found at http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org.
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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.
Researchers discover biomarker for devastating intestinal disease found in early preterm infantsPublic release date: 15-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Feuer jim.feuer@cchmc.org 513-636-4656 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Researchers have discovered a biomarker that may help prevent a devastating intestinal disease that occurs in one of every 10 early preterm infants.
The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study may help prevent necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a condition primarily seen in preemies in which bowel tissue dies. The death rate approaches 30 percent. Survivors are at risk for short-bowel syndrome (caused by surgical removal of the small intestine) and neurodevelopmental disability.
The study is published in the journal Microbiome.
The research, led by Ardythe Morrow, PhD, shows that NEC is preceded by two distinct microbial imbalances in the digestive tract, suggesting that these imbalances "may provide highly predictive biomarkers of NEC," she says.
"Using a combination of early microbial factors, we obtained a predictive value for NEC exceeding 80 percent," says Dr. Morrow. "This requires validation in larger studies, but the findings are striking."
Dr. Morrow's main analysis looked at stool and urine samples collected from 32 infants prior to the onset of disease. The infants were born at less than 29 weeks gestational age.
Eleven of the 32 went on to develop NEC. In all of these cases, NEC was preceded by a dominance of certain types of bacteria in the intestinal tract either firmicutes in the first week of life or proteobacteria in the second week. Dominance of proteobacteria also occurred in half of those who did not develop NEC.
The team of investigators led by Dr. Morrow also identified a potential simple urine analysis that could help detect the bacterial dominance that occurs in advance of NEC. The research team will attempt to validate its findings in a national study and is studying approaches to prevent the occurrence of NEC in preterm infants.
###
The study was funded in whole or in part with awards from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health (grant numbers R01HD059140, P01HD13021, and HD27853); National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health (grant numbers 5UL1RR026314-03, U54HG004969); National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health (HG005969); Danone Research (PLF-5972-GD); and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under contract number HHSN272200900018C.
About Cincinnati Children's
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is third in the nation in U.S. News and World Report's 2012 Best Children's Hospitals ranking. It is ranked #1 for neonatology and in the top 10 for all pediatric specialties. Cincinnati Children's is one of the top two recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health. It is internationally recognized for improving child health and transforming delivery of care through fully integrated, globally recognized research, education and innovation. Additional information can be found at http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org.
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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.
An 8-year-old Rohnert Park, Calif., boy nearly died of cardiac arrest after being struck by a baseball pitch Sunday. A husband and wife watching the youth league game were credited with saving his life
The boy, who was not identified, had stopped breathing and had no pulse, but emergency crews shocked his heart with a defibrillator and got it beating again. He was taken by helicopter to Oakland Children's Hospital and was in stable condition.
"I was right behind the plate and this kid got hit in the heart with the ball," 14-year-old umpire Trenton Starrett, told ABC's affiliate KGO. "He went to first, like he tripped once, and he got back up, and then fell again, and then he didn't get back up."
Medical experts say the boy would likely have died if the couple, who were off-duty paramedics, had not responded so quickly.
"Clearly everyone involved who put their hands on the boy saved his life," said Aaron D. Johnson, director of operations for the Cal Ripken Baseball League.
"He was down for 30 seconds before someone got onto him and did CPR for five minutes, and then the department of public safety arrived with a defibrillator," he told ABCNews.com.
"I have two small children, and you shouldn't have to worry about a kid in the batter's box with a helmet on," said Dr. Nicholas Kman, associate professor of emergency medicine at The Ohio State University Medical Center.
Calif. Teen Dies After Being Struck by Softball Watch Video
The boy experienced ventricular fibrillation, caused by commotio cordis, which translates from Latin to mean agitation of the heart, according to Kman.
The condition causes ventricular fibrillation and sudden death. Just last week, 16-year-old Taylor Dorman of San Diego died after taking a direct hit in the heart from a softball, according to ABC 15.
Dorman was in physical education class playing "over the line" -- a game similar to softball. Twenty minutes after the blow, he dropped to the ground.
Sudden death from commotio cordis occurs in about 200 children a year in the United States, according to a 2010 article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The condition is triggered by a "blunt, nonpenetrating, and often innocent-appearing unintentional blow to the chest without damage to the ribs, sternum, or heart (and in the absence of underlying cardiovascular disease)," according to the article.
The term commotio cordis was first used in the 19th century, but has been described by ancient Chinese martial arts specialists as "touch of death."
"It's thought that if the ball or projectile hits his chest wall at the right spot at the right timing of the heart, it causes arrhythmia," said Kman. "This happens in a normal heart, not a structurally impaired heart."
Commotio cordis is uncommon, but should always be considered an emergency, according to Dr. Benjamin Abella, director of clinical research in the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania. "It has a high mortality rate."
The chances of dying are greater without defibrillation. If blood flow is not restored quickly, death or brain damage can result.
"Commotio cordis commonly occurs in sporting situations," said Abella. "A baseball can be quite a strong projectile, and it's very important that the league coach and staff at a school be aware of this."
He said the condition can occur outside of sports, in industrial settings. A recent case of cardiac arrest involved a soldier in Iraq who was hit by a fire extinguisher in the chest.
SNOQUALMIE PASS, Wash. (AP) ? Authorities in Washington state say one woman has died and one man is still missing after a pair of spring avalanches struck separate groups hiking in the mountains each of Seattle.
King County Sgt. Katie Larson said rescuers carried a female snowshoer off of Red Mountain in blizzard-like conditions early Sunday. The woman was confirmed dead at the rescue base. She had been hiking with her dog near a group of a dozen other people when an avalanche hit Saturday.
A separate avalanche at Granite Mountain swept a group of three snowshoers more than 1,200 feet. Two men emerged, but a 60-year-old hiker from Kent, Wash., was still missing Sunday morning.
Larson said Sunday the search for that hiker has been suspended indefinitely due to the poor weather conditions.
The avalanches occurred as heavy snow fell near Snoqualmie Pass about 50 miles from Seattle.
this is all starting to feel 'real'. My severance has been approved so I will be leaving megacorp in August. I'm excited, happy as can be, and a bit scared that I'm jumping too soon (only get 85 - 90% success in FIRECalc and FIDO RIP). I also have some fluff in my numbers so I'm hoping at the end of the day the worst thing that happens is that I have to live on SSI alone at the age of 85 or 90 .... my mom does it, and her life isn't awful, so I know it can be done.
We started cleaning out the spare bedroom closets in our current home today. OMG what a bunch of useless cr&p in those closets ! The master bedroom closets will be tougher and we'll start on those next week.
Current home has his and her offices which is going to be REALLY hard to give up, but the only way I can ER is to downsize to reduce property taxes, homeowners insurance and maintenance costs. Not having a private pool is going to hurt a bit also, but I won't miss the expense !
We will be moving to a 55+ community with dozens of clubs, three 9 hole golf courses, and two community pools. House size will go from 2800 sq ft to 1400, which is smaller than even our first house was !
Don't know why I'm posting this ... guess I just want to share with people who have gone through the same or will be going through this process. As we continue to clean up I'll update the thread. Hopefully someone finds it useful.
I can't believe I'm really doing this .... and I really hope I don't freak out as I start seeing my portfolio deplete rather than grow.
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__________________ Working hard to achieve my dream of retiring at age 50 to join the class of 2013 ! Learning to reduce my fears (of my portfolio running dry) so I can really start to Live (and ER) !
Apr. 12, 2013 ? The company you keep in junior high school may have more influence on your smoking behavior than your high school friends, according to newly published research from the University of Southern California (USC).
The study, which appears in the April 12 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, identifies how friends' and parental influence on cigarette smoking changes from junior high to high school.
The research indicates that intervention targets to counteract friends' influence may have more of an effect in junior high than in high school, and that parents remain influential on smoking behavior through high school, indicating another possible intervention target, the researchers said.
"Based on social developmental model research, we thought friends would have more influence on cigarette use during high school than junior high school," said first author Yue Liao, M.P.H., Ph.D., a student in the department of preventive medicine's Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research (IPR) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "But what we found was friends have greater influence during junior high school than high school. We think the reason may be that friends' cigarette use behavior may have a stronger influence on youth who start smoking at a younger age. During high school, cigarette use might represent the maintenance of behavior rather than a result of peer influence."
Researchers analyzed the first seven waves of longitudinal data from 1,001 adolescents who participated in the Midwestern Prevention Project (MPP), a community-based substance abuse prevention program. Mary Ann Pentz, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine and director of the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Promotion, is the primary investigator of that trial, and a co-author of the current study. MPP is the longest running substance use prevention, randomized controlled trial in the U.S.; its multi-component community-based program is listed on several national registries for evidence-based substance use prevention. The full trial followed adolescents from age 11 to adulthood, specifically age 37. Participants were first observed in the seventh grade -- during junior high school -- and then again after six months, and then annually through the 12th grade, during high school. Students were asked to indicate the number of close friends and parents, or two important adults, who smoked cigarettes. They were also asked how many cigarettes they had smoked in the last month. The effects of friends' and parents' cigarette use on self-use were assessed from early to late adolescence in order to identify changes in trends and magnitude.
Results confirmed that overall, both friends' and parental cigarette use had significant effects on adolescents' cigarette use during both junior high school and high school. However, while friends' influence was generally higher in junior high school than in high school, parental influence remained relatively stable between these two periods, with a decreasing trend from 10th to 12th grade. This finding confirms previous research that suggests social units, such as school or community, may exert more influence on youth behavior than parents in high school.
The researchers also observed gender differences in friends' and parental influence. Friends' influence on cigarette smoking was greater for girls than boys during ninth and 10th grade. However, there was an increasing trend in friends' influence from ninth to 11th among boys whereas friends and parents had less influence on girls from 10th to 12th grade.
"Boys tend to foster friendship by engaging in shared behaviors, whereas girls are more focused on emotional sharing. So, it is possible that boys are adopting their friends' risky behaviors, like smoking, as the groups grow together over time," Liao said.
The observations from this study present opportunities for intervention and may help to guide the implementation of adolescent smoking prevention programs, Liao said.
"We observed a big dip in friends' effect on smoking behavior from eighth to ninth grade. Thus, the first year of high school represents an opportunity for interventions to counteract peer influence and to continue to target parents as their behavior remains influential through the end of high school," Liao said. "In addition, teaching students refusal skills during junior high school could be effective in decreasing cigarette use at the beginning of high school. Programs could also promote positive parenting skills to protect children from deviant peer influence."
Liao suggests future research on sibling effects for a more complete picture of familial influence. The current study assessed sibling behavior only during junior high school.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Southern California - Health Sciences, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Yue Liao, Zhaoqing Huang, Jimi Huh , Mary Ann Pentz , Chih-Ping Chou. Changes in Friends? and Parental Influences on Cigarette Smoking From Early Through Late Adolescence. Adolescent Health, 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.01.020
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) ? Eight days after allegedly being sexually battered while passed out at a party, and then humiliated by online photos of the assault, 15-year-old Audrie Pott posted on Facebook that her life was ruined, "worst day ever," and hanged herself.
For the next eight months, her family struggled to figure out what happened to their soccer loving, artistic, horse crazy daughter, whose gentle smile, long dark hair and shining eyes did not bely a struggling soul.
And then on Thursday, seven months after the tragedy, a Northern California sheriff's office arrested three 16-year-old boys on charges of sexual battery.
"The family has been trying to understand why their loving daughter would have taken her life at such a young age and to make sure that those responsible would be held accountable," said family attorney Robert Allard.
"After an extensive investigation that we have conducted on behalf of the family, there is no doubt in our minds that the victim, then only 15 years old, was savagely assaulted by her fellow high school students while she lay on a bed completely unconscious."
Allard said students used cell phones to share photos of the attack, and that the images went viral.
Santa Clara County Sheriff's Lt. Jose Cardoza said it arrested two of the teens at Saratoga High School and the third, a former Saratoga High student, at Christopher High School in Gilroy on Thursday. The names of the suspects were not released because they are minors.
Cardoza said the suspects were booked into juvenile hall and face two felonies and one misdemeanor each, all related to sexual battery that allegedly occurred at a Saratoga house party.
The lieutenant said the arrests were the result of information gathered by his agency's Saratoga High School resource officers. He said the investigation is ongoing, and Los Gatos police also continue looking into the girl's September suicide.
The Associated Press does not, as a rule, identify victims of sexual assault. But in this case, Pott's family wanted her name and case known, Allard said. The family also provided a photo to the AP.
The girl's family members did not comment and have requested privacy until a planned news conference Tuesday. Her father and step-mother Lawrence and Lisa Pott, along with her mother Sheila Pott, have started the Audrie Pott Foundation (audriepottfoundation.com) to provide music and art scholarships and offer youth counseling and support.
The foundation website alludes to the teen's struggles, but until now neither law enforcement, school officials nor family have discussed the sexual battery.
"She was compassionate about life, her friends, her family, and would never do anything to harm anyone," the site says. "She was in the process of developing the ability to cope with the cruelty of this world but had not quite figured it all out.
"Ultimately, she had not yet acquired the antibiotics to deal with the challenges present for teens in today's society."
On the day Pott died, Saratoga High School principal Paul Robinson announced her death, stunning classmates. Two days later other students and staff wore her favorite color, teal, in her honor.
Robinson wasn't immediately available for comment Thursday.
The Pott family is not alone.
In Canada on Thursday, authorities said they are looking further into the case of a teenage girl who hanged herself Sunday after an alleged rape and months of bullying. A photo said to be of the 2011 assault on 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons was shared online.
No charges initially were filed against four teenage boys being investigated. But after an outcry, Nova Scotia's justice minister appointed four government departments to look into Parsons' case.
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Public release date: 15-Apr-2013
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