Are you one of those people who are fed up of your own monthly cable bill? Do you want to watch HD channels right into your very own PC? With the cost of absolutely everything soaring up, the first thing you should do is find some things wherein you can save. And I can tell you, you should start with your monthly cable or satellite TV service. Now, you have the ability to get Satellite direct wherein you will pay for just a one time fee and you will received more channels than your actual cable or satellite service provider can provide you. Imagine, more channels any time and any where you want, worldwide channels! You will no longer miss your favorite sports event even if you are else where.
Satellite Direct ? Benefits
No monthly subscription ? unlike the ordinary cable or satellite TV provider, you are no longer required to pay for a monthly bill. Imagine you can save $100 every month.
No additional Hardware needed ? You don?t have to buy additional wiring?s, dish, receiver or any additional hardware to make it work.
Huge Worldwide TV Channels ? You can watch over 3500 HD channels worldwide directly into your own PC.
24/7 unlimited access ? no bandwidth limits
You get auto channel updates
Imagine, you can have a large collection of worldwide channels. In fact, your ordinary cable service provider got only quarter of Satellite Direct channels. You now have the power to get channels from all countries around the world. And you can forget all the hassles of waiting for installation, or hours on hold with the cable company.
I know that there are lots of the so called satellite TV to PC great deals online,but don?t fall on them. Sometimes they are giving you limited access to channels or worse they even ask you so much hidden fees that will end up you paying more and more. You should be wise enough to choose the one that will give you a lifetime satisfaction.
I choose Satellite Direct TV because it gives me the power to enjoy lifetime television, with 3500 HD Channels from the convenience of my own PC. It provides me with crystal clear picture and quality sounds that you usually don?t found on other TV on PC software. Added to that, they also have exceptional customer service that I really found very helpful.
Listings for Jacksonville Comcast cable system and subject to change without?notice. (*-indicates a channel only available on digital cable and satellite systems.)
Sports TV Channel Guide for the Jacksonville area
FRIDAY, AUG. 31
SOCCER Women's U-20 World Cup: United States vs. N. Korea, 6:20 a.m., ESPNU* UEFA Super Cup: Atletico Madrid vs. Chelsea, 2:30 p.m., FOXSOC* MLS: Colorado at Portland, 10:30 p.m., NBCSP
MOTORSPORTS Formula One: Grand Prix of Belgium, practice, 8 a.m., Speed Trucks: Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips 200, practice (tape), 1 p.m., Speed Sprint Cup: AdvoCare 500, practice, 2:30 p.m., Speed Trucks: Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips 200, qualifying, 4:30 p.m., Speed Sprint Cup: AdvoCare 500, qualifying, 6 p.m., Speed Trucks: Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips 200, 8 p.m., Speed
GOLF European PGA Tour: European Masters, 8:30 a.m., TGC PGA Tour: Deutsche Bank Championship, 2 p.m., TGC Web.com Tour: Mylan Classic (tape), 6:30 p.m., TGC
TENNIS U.S. Open, men's second and women's third round, 10:30 a.m., Tennis* U.S. Open, men's second and women's third round, 1 p.m., ESPN2 U.S. Open, men's second and women's third round, 7 p.m., ESPN2
FOOTBALL High school: Nease at Bartram Trail, 7 p.m., (1010 AM) High school: Middleburg at Bishop Kenny, 7 p.m., (92.5 FM) High school: St. Thomas Aquinas vs. Columbus, 7 p.m., FCSA* High school: Plaquemine at Brusly, 7 p.m., FCSC* High school: Duval Charter at Episcopal, 7:30 p.m., (600 AM), (103.7 FM) High school: St. Augustine at Trinity Christian, 7:30 p.m., (1420 AM) CFL: British Columbia at Montreal, 7:30 p.m., NBCSP College: N.C. State at Tennessee, 7:30 p.m., ESPNU* College: Boise St. at Michigan St., 8 p.m., ESPN High school: Hoover at South Panola, 8 p.m., CSS High school: Parker at Middleton, 8 p.m., FCSP*
BASEBALL MLB: Tampa Bay at Toronto, 7 p.m., Sun Sports MLB: N.Y. Mets at Miami, 7 p.m., FSN MLB: Baltimore at N.Y. Yankees, 7 p.m., MLB* Southern League: Jacksonville at Jackson, 8:05 p.m., (930 AM)
VOLLEYBALL College women: Stanford at Penn St., 8 p.m., BTN*
BASKETBALL WNBA: Tulsa at Minnesota, 8 p.m., NBA*
SATURDAY, SEPT. 1
GOLF European PGA Tour: European Masters, 7 a.m., TGC PGA Tour: Deutsche Bank Championship, 2 p.m., TGC Web.com Tour: Mylan Classic (tape), 6:30 p.m., TGC
SOCCER Premier League: Fulham at West Ham, 7:30 a.m., ESPN2 Premier League: Norwich at Tottenham, 10 a.m., FOXSOC* Premier League: QPR at Manchester City, 12:30 p.m., FOXSOC* Women's national teams: United States vs. Costa Rica, 2:30 p.m., NBC
MOTORSPORTS Formula One: Grand Prix of Belgium, qualifying, 8 a.m., Speed Nationwide: American Warrior 300, practice (tape), 11:30 a.m., Speed Sprint Cup: AdvoCare 500, practice, 2:30 p.m., Speed AMA Motocross: Steel City National, 3 p.m., NBCSP Nationwide: American Warrior 300, qualifying, 3:30 p.m., Speed Sprint Cup: AdvoCare 500, final practice, 5:30 p.m., Speed IndyCar: Baltimore Grand Prix, qualifying (tape), 6 p.m., NBCSP Nationwide: American Warrior 300, 7 p.m., ESPN2
FOOTBALL College: Notre Dame vs. Navy, at Dublin, 9 a.m., CBS College: Ohio at Penn St., Noon, ESPN College: Northwestern at Syracuse, Noon, ESPN2 College: Western Michigan at Illinois, Noon, ESPNU* College: Buffalo at Georgia, Noon, WJXT College: Appalachian St. at East Carolina, Noon, Sun Sports, FCSC* College: Troy at UAB, Noon, FCSP* College: Marshall at West Virginia, Noon, FX College: Miami of Ohio at Ohio St. , Noon, BTN* College: Elon at North Carolina, 12:30 p.m., Fox College: Fort Valley St. at Delta St., 1 p.m., CSS College: Richmond at Virginia, 3 p.m., FSN College: Miami at Boston College, 3:30 p.m., ABC College: Bowling Green at Florida, 3:30 p.m., ESPN, (930 AM) College: Southern Miss. at Nebraska, 3:30 p.m., ESPN2 College: Iowa vs. Northern Illinois, 3:30 p.m., ESPNU* College: Northern Iowa at Wisconsin, 3:30 p.m., BTN*, College: Tulsa at Iowa St., 3:30 p.m., Sun Sports, FCSA* College: Colorado St. vs. Colorado, at Denver, 4 p.m., FX College: Furman at Samford, 4:30 p.m., CSS College: Murray St. at Florida St., 6 p.m., (94.1 FM) College: Clemson vs. Auburn, at Atlanta, 7 p.m., ESPN College: North Texas at LSU, 7 p.m., ESPNU* College: Jackson St. at Mississippi St. , 7 p.m., Sun Sports College: Savannah St. at Oklahoma St., 7 p.m., FCSC College: Hawaii at Southern Cal, 7:30 p.m., Fox College: Texas St. at Houston, 8 p.m., CSS College: Indiana St. at Indiana, 8 p.m., BTN* Rutgers at Tulane, 8 p.m., CBSSN* College: Michigan vs. Alabama, at Arlington, Texas, 8:07 p.m., ABC College: Arkansas St. at Oregon, 10:30 p.m., ESPN College: Toledo at Arizona, 10:30 p.m., ESPNU* College: Oklahoma at UTEP, 10:30 p.m., FSN
TENNIS U.S. Open, third round, 11 a.m., CBSSN* U.S. Open, third round, Noon, CBS U.S. Open, third round, 7 p.m., Tennis*
BASEBALL MLB: San Francisco at Chicago Cubs, 1 p.m., WGN MLB: Philadelphia at Atlanta, 4 p.m., Fox MLB: N.Y. Mets at Miami, 7 p.m., FSN MLB: Chicago White Sox at Detroit, 7 p.m., WGN Southern League: Jacksonville at Jackson, 7:05 p.m., (930 AM)
BASKETBALL WNBA: Washington at New York, 4 p.m., NBA* WNBA: Chicago at Indiana, 7 p.m., NBA* WNBA: San Antonio at Phoenix, 10 p.m., NBA*
HORSE RACING Woodward Stakes, Forego Stakes, Bernard Baruch, 5 p.m., NBC
RODEO PBR: Winstar World Casino Invitational, 8 p.m., NBCSP
BOXING WBA/IBO middleweight title: Golovkin vs. Proksa, 9:45 p.m., HBO
Earlier this week, I posted the following to Facebook:
I later realized there was something I forgot to include, something that keeps me from reading more than any other thing: writing.
I would get a lot more reading done if I wrote less.
Which creates a huge problem, especially for someone who is working to get a writing career off the ground.
Shortly after I posted that, I stumbled upon a recent post by Brett McCracken. Brett and I crossed paths years ago when he worked for Relevant Magazine and published a couple of my non-fiction articles. Since then, he?s moved to L.A., become managing editor for Biola University?s Biola Magazine, and is now awaiting the publication of his second book. I?ve interviewed Brett a couple times on this blog.
Anyway, a couple weeks back, Brett posted a piece entitled To Everything There Is a Season, in which he explains why he needs to scale back on his blogging, and writing in general.
I?ve already confessed to Schizo-Blog. And Brett?s article, unintentionally,? produced a reboot of the familiar guilt. He offered four reasons why he needed to cut back on his blogging. The fourth was the one that really got me. He writes:
I want to read more than I write. Now that I?m done writing my new book, I?m intensely hungry to?read?the mountain of books that have been piling up. I also want to find time to read some of the other things being written online on any given day. It?s overwhelming to me how much I wish I could read but can?t (for lack of time).
Oh, how this hits home.
In my case, writing does not just mean writing fiction, but blog posts, Facebook posts, twitter updates, replying to commenters, emailers, and attempting to engage in the discussions of the writing community cyber friends.
This is hard to do working a 40 hour week outside the home.
Sadly, it?s my reading that takes the hit.
My ?mountain of books ? has since collapsed; it?s now measured in terms of its layers of sediment. ?Gee, I remembered when I wanted to read this!? The book is then Carbon-dated and returned to the shelf, fossilized in its virgin state.
Listen, blogging has become a huge part of my life. And I like doing it! It?s hard to imagine going through a week not wrestling over a post, ginning up some controversy, or watching the witty, intelligent comments unfold. (Have I mentioned lately how much I appreciate all those who regularly comment here?)? I?ve met SO MANY great people through my blog. But I fear that, at some point, I simply must flip things and read more than I write.
If I don?t, I have to wonder how long I can continue to write.
Question: If you?re a reader, do you read more than you write? Generally speaking, do you think writers should read more than they write? And if you?re an aspiring author, can you really afford to scale back writing and blogging and social networking just to keep up on your reading list?
And, oh, by the way, I?m on page 970-something of ?The Stand.?
In our days many overweight people try to get rid of some excess kilos. Many of these people don't get to the weight loss targets that they set. Some of the causes could be: setting unrealistic fat loss targets, choosing the wrong weight loss product(s) or ignoring the possibility of asking for the help of professionals. So how can you make your dieting journey a success?
Many people fail with their weight loss because they set unrealistic goals, make sure not to do this mistake.. If it took you a lot of time to gain all the extra pounds, you can't expect to shed off all the excess fats in a couple of months.
Many people start a weight loss plan without using the help of health professionals (like a doctor or a nutritionist). If you want your weight loss plan to succeed, consider using the help of such experts. That kind of health professionals should have a lot of knowledge and experience, use their expertise.
While you are creating your weight loss plan make sure to include the two basic parts: diet and exercise. In addition to the two main sub plans you can add an additional sub plan, a good diet supplement. Make sure that you pick the best weight loss pills you can find if you choose to use a weight loss pill.
The two main sub plans are important and they both should be included in your plan towards losing weight. You should not create a weight loss plan that consists of well balanced nutrition without fitness exercises or vice versa.
A diet plan needs to be well balanced and include all of the nutrients. Make sure not to exclude a nutrient from your diet plan completely as the human body needs all nutrients, including vitamins and minerals, in order to function as it should. Remember that no extreme diet is safer than a well balanced diet.
For many people that try to lose some weight, the fitness part of the plan is what makes them lose less weight than they need to. In order to make the fitness part of your weight loss plan effective, make sure that the fitness plan is balanced and include some rest too.
If it looks like you can't stick with your fitness plan, try to find creative ideas that are both fun and helpful for your fitness plan. Think about different types of sport that you like and try to find friends and family that play these sports and join in.
One good idea for those who get bored of ordinary fitness plans is video games that involve exercising. A nice variety of exercise video games can help you both enjoy a game and exercise at the same time. You can actually keep losing weight while playing video games, isn't it awesome?
We still need to discuss the third part which is not a must but can help in many cases. There is a huge variety of weight loss pills for you to choose from in the weight loss market today, many of those are sold over the counter. You can find top products online. What should you pay special attention to when choosing a weight loss supplement? You need the weight loss pill to work and you want to take it without worrying about negative treatment effects.
About the Author
Need help with choosing the best weight loss pills you can buy? Here is a weight loss pills comparison. Want more diet pills information? Proactol Plus reviews.
[More from Mashable: EA?s E3 Press Conference Brings New Games, Updates Existing Titles]
It's the retail version of a touchdown: Electronic Arts says it sold 900,000 units of its Madden NFL 13 video game in the 24 hours following its release Tuesday, a new company record for first-day game sales. In addition, EA reported record day one online usage.
People are talking about the game, too: The gamemaker said that since Madden launched, there have been 665,464 game-related social interactions on Facebook and Twitter in sum. The game has been mentioned every six seconds on Twitter on average.
[More from Mashable: Amazon Goes Social Shopping: What Quorus Hires Mean]
Overall sales on HD platforms are up 7% year-over-year, EA added.
So why is this year's upgrade of the franchise dong so well? Anthony Stevenson, EA Sports's director of marketing, told Mashable the company's goal each year is to add enough new technology to the game to make the prior game obsolete. "If there's not enough innovation, we're not doing our job," he said.
Aside from the updated rosters, the gameplay engine has been redone to leverage real-time physics.
There's another new feature for users with a Kinect Sensor on Microsoft's Xbox 360: When you yell at your TV using Better with Kinect, the players actually respond. Stevenson explains that you use your voice to call out plays, and watch the gameplay unfold.
Madden NFL 13 is available on Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Playstation Vita and PlayStation 3.
1. Madden NFL 2013
After more than 20 million fan votes, Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson will grace the cover of this year's edition of EA Sports's popular franchise, which will be released on August 28. Image courtesy of EA Sports.
Click here to view this gallery.
Have you bought or played the new Madden NFL 13 yet? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.
I am currently in the process of recruiting for a leading Hertfordshire based consumer services group currently in the process of going from strength to strength in the marketplace. My client has a Web hit base like no other and is a well-recognised global brand.
Reporting into a New Business Team Leader the successful candidate will be responsible for selling to new and existing clients across a selection of categories. You will be expected to meet and exceed personal revenue targets and meet individual KPI's.
We are looking for experienced new business sales professionals who have experience in working for a national media company. The successful candidate will have a solid consumer sales background and have worked in National Press/Online Radio or National Magazine. We are looking for ambitious, career thirsty self-starters who are looking for their next media sales position.
This is an ideal opportunity to join a leading household name who can offer fantastic career opportunities and very competitive financial rewards.
Carpet tiles are a extremely useful type of flooring with many unique advantages that sets them above regular carpeting. They are perfect for the house or for businesses and they conserve you a great deal of function whilst looking much better year spherical. Despite all this though, very few individuals it seems really consider carpet tile flooring when designing their home ? most likely because they are not conscious of it or not familiar with what it is. Here we will rectify that problem by looking at a selection of the benefits of carpet tiles and why they are this kind of a great addition to any home.
They Are Simpler to Clean: Carpets tiles are significantly simpler to thoroughly clean to than regular carpet ? merely because it is feasible to elevate them away from the carpet and thoroughly clean them yourself below the sink. That means that you can scrub them completely, use disinfectant, drench them, use boiling water and then allow them to dry out. You can even clean the underside of carpets tiles which you simply cannot do with other types of carpet simply because you cannot lift it up. With normal carpet you will have to vacuum completely as nicely as using regular carpet cleansing services that are a big upheaval and even then your carpet will appear dull and unclean much of the yr.
They Are Much more Hygienic: What this means is that your carpet tile flooring is much more hygienic than normal carpet. As you can elevate it up and thoroughly clean it completely that indicates you can eradicate germs, dirt and germs as nicely as washing things out this kind of as fleas and ticks. In other words your carpet will be as thoroughly clean as your clothing and all the way via, and this is extremely important if you want to lie down on it and allow your children do similarly.
You Can Keep Them: If you have normal carpet you are buying it just for that house. When you get up and transfer home that means leaving your carpets behind which is a large squander of money. Nevertheless with carpets tiles you can merely stack them up and take them with you ? and that means you can maintain them completely.
They?re Easier to Match: With carpets tiles all you require to do is to consider them and decline them down on the flooring exactly where you want them. As they are smaller sized they will easily match into location and you only require to cut the edge types to get them to fit below the skirting boards. You can do this your self in fact instead than having to pay for installation therefore conserving cash, and especially if you have an odd shaped space its perfect.
You Can Purchase Spares: Envision obtaining a new carpet and then tearing it the subsequent day. Annoying right? And all you can do is place a rug down and try not to believe about it. With carpet tile flooring though you just purchase spare tiles and then you can replace any that get damaged and no one will know.
Carpet tile flooring has a huge variety of advantages more than other types of flooring. Go to the links for carpet and tiles.
For more on Carpets Hampshire and Carpet Hampshire please see our website
Tropical storm Isaac is on the verge of becoming a Category 1 hurricane before it makes landfall, but forecasters say the biggest threat will be the rainfall and storm surge.
Forecasters have projected landfall as early as Tuesday night, a day short of the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. On Monday, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Isaac's similar path as Katrina and the anniversary was leaving much of the Gulf Coast on "a high level of anxiety."
Winds will be an issue initially when Isaac makes landfall with gusts up to 75-80 mph. Forecasters say the big threat with Isaac will be the storm surge around New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., where water might rise six to nine feet. The slow moving storm is forecasted to hover over the Gulf Coast and could punish coastal areas with up to 20 inches of rain, which was one of Louisiana's Gov. Bobby Jindal's main concerns on Monday.
As of 5 a.m. ET, the center of the storm was 125 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving northwest at 12 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
FEMA director Craig Fugate and the National Hurricane Center's Dr. Rick Knabb say there has been too much focus on New Orleans bracing for Isaac on the anniversary of Katrina.
"I think people need to understand this is not a New Orleans storm. This is a Gulf Coast storm," Fugate said today. Despite hurricane warnings extended across more than 330 miles from Louisiana to western Florida, all eyes are still on New Orleans as this will be its first big test since Katrina. Louisiana has set up shelters and stockpiled more than a million packaged meals, 1.4 million bottles of water and 17,000 tarps.
Since the levees failed seven years ago over $14 billion have been spent on the 133-mile long floodwalls, spillways, gates and pumps surrounding New Orleans. While officials say the city is more prepared now than they were in 2005, they're still taking no chances when it comes to evacuations.
Fugate and Jindal warned people in low lying areas to get out of Isaac's way.
"Today is the day," Jindal said Monday. "Today is the final day you should be taking any final precautions. If you want to evacuate, today is the day to do that."
Early Monday, 50,000 people had already evacuated from southeast Louisiana's St. Charles parish. In addition, 2,000 jail inmates have been moved out of Isaac's expected path.
Jindal said over 4,000 National Guardsmen will be mobilized in case of emergency, but said he does not anticipate having to activate contraflow highway rules for evacuation purposes.
Jindal said that President Obama called him Monday to say that the governor's request for a pre-landfall federal disaster declaration had been approved. The approval opens up federal funding to potentially help Louisiana cope with any damage.
"We are going to need help after the storm as well," Jindal said. "This is not going to be done just after the storm makes landfall or even just after the storm leaves Louisiana."
Isaac's slow pace means it "could actually cause more damage," the governor said.
He said the storm could batter areas with tropical winds for up to 36 hours and could dump more than a foot of rain while lingering over some areas.
Jindal said he is skipping the Republican National Convention in Florida where he was expected to speak because of Isaac. "I will not be speaking or attending the Republican National Convention in Florida. There is no time for politics here in Louisiana," he said.
Fugate warned that Isaac's biggest punch may land in Alabama or Mississippi. The National Hurricane Center said to expect a storm surge of at least six feet with the possibility it could reach up to 12 feet.
FEMA activated its command center in Atlanta Monday. Division Director Ginger Edwards says past disasters are driving prep for this storm.
"After every disaster we learn new lessons but you know we're constantly exercising with the states. We're planning with the states and just becoming more and more, more and more involved and more prepared," said Edwards.
Alabama and Mississippi have also declared a state of emergency.
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport said there are no flights scheduled for Tuesday and the airport will not be used as an evacuation shelter. People will not be allowed to stay in the terminal during the storm, the airport said in a statement on Monday.
Isaac will bring welcomed rain to states in the Mississippi River valley that have been in severe drought for much of the year.
ABC News' Max Golembo, ABC News Radio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Traditionally, expatriate managers have been treated from the organization?s perspective. However, as pointed out in one of my older blog posts, expatriation is a broad term that allows for several further classifications. For example, based on the locus of the transfer initiative ?traditional? corporation-assigned expatriates can be complemented by self-initiated expatriates. Although implying a wide range of international experiences, this classification still applies to a more conventional framework of employment where the individual?s career is meant to be fixed with one, or very few, employers. Hence, a company sends an employee on an international assignment at least with the prospect of successful repatriation and further career development within the company, while self-initiated expats choose to relocate to a foreign country and start building their career, hired under a local, host-county contract. Both scenarios implicitly assume some stability and career progression within one organization. However, in the past few decades the traditional career path has been changing, and by now the forces of globalization, reorganization and outsourcing have transformed businesses, increased competitive pressures and decisively shifted one?s career development responsibility from employers to individual employees. Today, one?s successful career is a matter of personal initiative and is quite likely to go beyond one organization.
Based on these notions, researchers (Banai & Harry, 2004; and Shaydulova & Banai, 2007) have introduced the term ?international itinerants?, to classify independent expatriates that are moving from place to place to develop an international career and not planning to go ?home?. In other words, contrary to the traditional path of progressing within one organization, these managers tend to build their professional career with multiple employers, meanwhile changing destinations and living the expatriate lifestyle. Banai and Harry (2004, pg. 100) defined them as ?professional managers who over their careers are employed for their ability, by at least two business organizations that are not related to each other, in at least two different foreign countries.?
International itinerants can be called a new breed of expatriates, suggesting a lower commitment to the employing organization, as by definition, international itinerants stay with one company for only a specific period of time and leave their organization in pursuit of a new job. An interesting question that arises here is whether the differences with traditional expatriates are due to personality characteristics (e.g. commitment; being more or less adventurous), or are a matter of opportunities and circumstances (e.g. no growth possibilities in the current company)?
The most recent exploratory study of international itinerants (Shaydulova & Banai, 2007) suggests that there are not many differences between international itinerants and traditional expatriates. The data of 138 respondents indicated that international itinerants have the same levels of organizational commitment, locus of control (belief about how much control one has over his/hers life), and instrumentality (belief that one?s efforts will pay off) as traditional expatriates. While this suggests the need to further explore possible differences based on stable personality characteristics (e.g. openness to change, adventurism), the authors propose that the lack of differences may indicate the important role of opportunities and circumstances.
Indeed, Banai and Harry?s (2004) primary description of international itinerants, among other career explanations such as being novelty seekers or possessing a unique expertise that can be transferred across cultures and organizations, includes the path of ?failed expatriates?. Specifically, the researchers argue that many of the international itinerants were originally employed by an international organization, and decided to remain abroad and venture on their own due to an unsuccessful repatriation. Based on my own research I believe that many employees will agree that repatriation may be even harder than the initial move abroad, and, contrary to expectations, overseas assignments may often have negative effects on one?s career. Indeed, employers often fail to plan an expatriate?s career path upon return home, and do not manage to make use of the new knowledge gained abroad. Moreover, the lack of assistance in re-adjusting to a changed work environment upon return may negatively influence the repatriate?s willingness to re-integrate into the home organization. As a result, foreseeing such difficulties and disappointments or experiencing them shortly upon return may lead expatriates to decide to leave the organization and try their luck in the already familiar host country or even another new destination.
Shaydulova and Banai (2007) note that if indeed a choice between staying with or leaving the initial employer is a matter of circumstance, there are some important managerial implications to account for. The current employer has the power to influence the individual?s choice in favor of the organization. Specifically, organizations can ensure more efficient repatriation, by planning it well ahead of the actual return home. Practically, companies can provide repatriation training, mentoring; they can also develop a clear career plan and ensure the efficient application of repatriates? new knowledge upon their return, which my own research? has shown to benefit not only the organization but also the individual.
A shift from keeping expatriates from becoming international itinerants to the explicit employment of international itinerants entails several advantages/disadvantages and implications to be discussed. This is something I will cover in one of my following posts.
Further reading:
Banai, M. & Harry, W. (2004). Boundaryless Global Careers : The International Itinerants. International Studies of Management and Organization, 34, 3, 96-120.
Shaydulova, A. & Banai, M. (2007). International itinerants and traditional expatriates : different breed or different circumstance? Southern New Hampshire University.
Live streams, video chats, curated tweets and fact-checking: This week?s Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. will be covered online like few political events before, as news networks try to outdo each other with the number of simultaneous live streams. Check out our complete guide.
The election season is getting into high gear with this week?s Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., where Mitt Romney is expected to become the party?s official presidential candidate. News networks will have a close eye on the event, but real political junkies will watch the entire event unfold live online, where numerous websites are providing live streams, video chats and fact-checking commentary.
The convention officially started Monday, but most of the scheduled program was postponed because of Hurricane Isaac. The convention is scheduled to end on Thursday, and an?updated schedule of the program?is available on the GOP?s website,
Check out our ultimate guide to following the RNC online:
We will update this list as other streams, sites and apps become available, so check back frequently throughout this week.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai displays a case containing a pen that belonged to former Afghanistan King Shah Amanullah Khan, who ruled the country from 1919 to 1929, during a ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 27, 2012. The pen will be transferred to the Afghan National Museum. (AP Photo/Ahmad Massoud / Xinhua, Pool)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai displays a case containing a pen that belonged to former Afghanistan King Shah Amanullah Khan, who ruled the country from 1919 to 1929, during a ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 27, 2012. The pen will be transferred to the Afghan National Museum. (AP Photo/Ahmad Massoud / Xinhua, Pool)
FILE - In this March 26, 2012 file photo, an Afghan policeman checks a man entering the provincial police station near the main gate of a joint civilian-military base where two British soldiers that were part of the NATO forces were killed in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan. An Afghan soldier shot and killed two British troops Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, at a NATO coalition base in southern Afghanistan before being gunned down by international forces, officials said. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq, File)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai holds a pen which belonged to former Afghanistan King Shah Amanullah Khan, who ruled the country from 1919, to 1929, during a ceremony where he received the pen from the King's daughter, Princess India of Afghanistan, at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 27, 2012. The pen will be transferred to the Afghan National Museum. (AP Photo/Ahmad Massoud /Xinhua, Pool)
FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011 file photo, Afghan men, right, walk past a U.S. soldier to attend a meeting in Washer district, Helmand province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan. Helmand was the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's surge, when he ordered 33,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan to help the military with a counterinsurgency plan. That plan hoped to turn the tide in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar and establish the governmental institutions that would allow the Afghan government to take control of the Taliban heartland. However, near-daily attacks by militants and increasingly frequent deadly violence against NATO troops by their Afghan allies highlight an embarrassing failure of Western policy: After nearly 12 years of military intervention, the country is not pacified. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq)
FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2012 file photo, an Afghan solider, left, stands guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province south of Kabul, Afghanistan. Helmand was the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's surge, when he ordered 33,000 additional U.S troops to Afghanistan to help the military with a counterinsurgency plan. That plan hoped to turn the tide in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar and establish the governmental institutions that would allow the Afghan government to take control of the Taliban heartland. However, insurgents beheaded 17 people at a party in a Taliban-controlled area, and an Afghan soldier killed two U.S. troops, bringing the two-day death toll Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, to about 30. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq, File)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Insurgents beheaded 17 people at a party in a Taliban-controlled area, and an Afghan soldier killed two U.S. troops, bringing the two-day death toll Monday to about 30.
Near-daily attacks by militants and increasingly frequent deadly violence against NATO troops by their Afghan allies highlight an embarrassing failure of Western policy: After nearly 12 years of military intervention, the country is not pacified. Once the United States and other countries pull out their troops, chaos seems almost certain to return and Taliban domination in large parts of the country is hardly implausible.
The beheadings occurred in southern Helmand, the same province where more than 100 insurgents attacked an Afghan army checkpoint and killed 10 soldiers.
Helmand was the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's surge, when he ordered 33,000 additional U.S troops to Afghanistan to help the military with a counterinsurgency plan. That plan hoped to turn the tide in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar and establish the governmental institutions that would allow the Afghan government to take control of the Taliban heartland.
Two years later, however, Helmand is still so lawless that Afghan government officials couldn't even go to the Taliban-controlled town where the beheadings were reported. Many Afghans in the south, the Taliban's birthplace and the home of the country's Pashtun speaking population, are leery of a government that many consider to be corrupt and ineffective.
The problem is compounded by a rapid reduction in American and international aid, which fueled most of the growth in the south in recent years. Afghanistan, one of the world's 10 poorest countries, has received nearly $60 billion in civilian aid since 2002. Now it stands to receive $16 billion, or about $4 billion a year, in the next four years. By comparison, the U.S. alone spent that much in 2010.
Analysts also say that a public worn down by a war that began just a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks no longer cares about Afghanistan, and that the war has slipped off the radar screens and is now considered by many to be over.
"The problem with this attitude is that Afghanistan ? or whatever the crisis may be ? has a life of its own. Men and women keep dying, and U.S. policies keep accelerating the centrifugal forces that are driving the country toward civil conflict, which may have profound implications for future regional and international security," said Sarah Chaynes, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in a commentary published Sunday.
"Choosing to ignore problems is rarely a good way to solve them," said Chaynes, who spent nearly a decade in Afghanistan and served as an adviser to the U.S. military.
Most of the problems are likely to surface in Helmand and the south, where most of the surge troops will be removed as part of a drawdown that will reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan from a peak of nearly 103,000 last year to about 68,000 in October. Other nations, including Britain, are also drawing down in the south, and nearly all foreign military forces are to leave the country by the end of 2014.
The forces are to be replaced by Afghan army and police units, but many have questioned the effectiveness of a force that has high desertion rates, is often poorly disciplined, and is supposed to reach a high of about 350,000 at the end of the year.
Another growing concern is the loyalty of the Afghan troops that the U.S. has spent more than $22 billion to train in recent years.
Insider attacks have been a problem for the U.S.-led military coalition for years, but they recently have become a crisis. There have been at least 33 such attacks so far this year, killing 42 coalition members, mostly Americans. Last year, there were 21 attacks, killing 35; and in 2010 there were 11 attacks with 20 deaths.
In the latest such attack, two American soldiers were killed in eastern Laghman province.
There were conflicting reports about whether the attack was intentional or accidental.
In Washington, a U.S. Defense Department official said the Afghan soldier fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Americans, and that this seemed to indicate that it was an intentional act. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an investigation is under way, said he was unaware of any indications that the shooting was accidental.
Noman Hatefi, a spokesman for the Afghan army corps in eastern Afghanistan, said a group of U.S. and Afghan soldiers came under an insurgent attack in Laghman province. He said the two Americans were killed when an Afghan soldier fell and accidentally discharged his weapon.
"He didn't do this intentionally. But then the commander of the (Afghan) unit started shouting at him, 'What did you do? You killed two NATO soldiers!' And so he threw down his weapon and started to run," Hatefi said.
The U.S. troops had already called in air support to help with the insurgent attack and the aircraft fired on the escaping soldier, killing him, Hatefi said.
The chief spokesman for NATO forces in the country said coalition forces were not pulling back from collaborating with the Afghans because of the attacks.
"We are not going to reduce the close relationship with our Afghan partners," Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz told reporters in the capital.
There were also conflicting reports about the other violence.
In the beheadings, a local government official initially said the victims were civilians at a celebration late Sunday involving music and dancing in Helmand's Musa Qala district. The official, Neyamatullah Khan, said the Taliban killed the partygoers for flouting the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants.
But a provincial government official said later that those killed were caught up in a fight between two Taliban commanders over two women, who were among the dead. Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial government, said shooting broke out during the fight. He said it was unclear whether the music and dancing triggered the violence and whether the dead were all civilians or possibly included some fighters.
Ahmadi said all of the bodies were decapitated, but it was not clear if they had been shot first.
The Taliban denied any responsibility for the attack, which was condemned by President Hamid Karzai, by the head of the U.S.-led NATO coalition, by the U.N. and by the European Union.
"No Talib have killed any civilians. Neither were Taliban commanders fighting each other. We don't know about this thing. Whether it happened or not, we were not involved," said Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi.
The Taliban have controlled large parts of Musa Qala, a district encompassing more than 100 villages, since 2001. They enforce the same strict interpretation of Islamic law that was imposed during Taliban rule of Afghanistan from 1996-2001.
U.S. Marines have battled the Taliban since they arrived in the region about two years ago. Although U.S. and foreign forces made significant gains in the south, insurgents still wield significant power in the area, and it is expected to increase as the Marines and other forces withdraw.
As a consequence, many Afghans and international observers have expressed concerns the Taliban will try to re-impose strict Islamic justice. Under the Taliban, all music and film was banned as un-Islamic, and women were barred from leaving their homes without a male relative as an escort.
Another sign that the Taliban may be returning in strength is the attack that killed 10 Afghan soldiers. The attack occurred late Sunday at a checkpoint in Helmand's Washir district, said provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi.
On Monday, a truck bomb in Kandahar, the south's largest city, killed two civilians and wounded the provincial police chief.
Kandahar provincial spokesman Jawed Faisal said the police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, was "slightly injured" but did not provide further details. He said the bomb appeared to have targeted Raziq, one of the most powerful men in Kandahar.
Faisal said 16 civilians were wounded in the blast.
___
Associated Press writers Heidi Vogt, Amir Shah, Rahim Faiez and Kay Johnson contributed from Kabul. Mirwais Khan reported from Kandahar, Afghanistan and Robert Burns from Washington.
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2012) ? Two opposing teams battle it out to regulate gene expression on the DNA playing field. One, the activators, keeps DNA open to enzymes that transcribe DNA into RNA. Their repressor opponents antagonize that effort by twisting DNA into an inaccessible coil around histone proteins, an amalgam called chromatin, effectively blocking access to DNA by enzymes that elongate an RNA strand.
Both teams maneuver by chemically modifying histones -- the activators by decorating histones with acetyl groups -- let's call them green flags -- causing them to loosen their grip on DNA. The repressors retaliate by marking histones with red flags, often methyl groups, which call in de-acetylase enzymes to clip off the green flags, restore the chromatin barrier and end that round of gene expression. Disturbing this biochemical balance lies at the heart of many diseases, particularly cancer.
Recently, the lab of Jerry Workman, Ph.D., investigator at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, reported in the journal Nature that a reserve of "pre-acetylated" histones sits on the chromatin sidelines ready to sub for histones whose green flags get clipped by repressors, a tactic aiding the activators called "histone exchange." In a companion study published in the Aug. 26, 2012 Advance Online Publication of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology the Workman lab now shows that a repressor called Set2 in yeast recruits a protein assistant to block the histone exchange. That study reveals a heretofore unknown mechanism to keep gene activation under control and ensure that erroneous transcription does not occur.
"Accurate gene expression is critical for normal cell function, and when this control is lost cells grow abnormally," says Workman. "These two studies identify mechanisms used by cells to regulate gene expression, which is important for our understanding of what goes wrong in diseases marked by unregulated cell growth, like cancer."
The study began when the group, in collaboration with Stowers proteomics experts Michael Washburn, Ph.D., and Laurence Florens, Ph.D., applied mass spectrometry analysis to identify any protein expressed in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that bound to chromatin in regions patrolled by Set2. Those regions were readily apparent by the presence of Set2's red flag methyl group planted in a specific histone protein interacting with DNA.
"We knew that Set2 added this mark in the middle and downstream parts of genes to recruit de-acetylases," says the study's lead author Michaela Smolle, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Workman lab. "But the proteomic search allowed us to cast a wide net for other proteins associated with that mark -- a bit like fishing."
Among the fish caught was a component of a yeast chromatin "remodeler" known as Isw1, providing circumstantial evidence that the Set2 red flag attracts Isw1 as well as de-acetylases. Additional genomic experiments evaluating the entire genome of a yeast mutant lacking Set2 supported that idea: not only were the red methyl flags missing but the chromatin landscape was devoid of Isw1 as well.
To assess Isw1's biological function the group exploited yet another yeast mutant, this one lacking the ISW1 gene itself. Microarray analysis of global transcription in ISW1 CHD1 mutants showed widely perturbed gene expression marked by aberrant expression of RNA snippets rather than complete transcripts. Biologists view the presence of such "cryptic transcripts" as indicators of cellular stress.
Analysis of acetylation and methylation patterns in chromatin of ISW1 mutants revealed the probable cause: mutants showed ramped up histone exchange activity marked by excessive levels green-flagged pre-acetylated histones along the length of many genes, a condition likely favoring initiation of truncated RNAs.
"Our work shows that the Set2 methylation mark plays two important roles to ensure that RNA transcription starts only at the beginning of the gene and not in the middle," says Workman. "On one hand, it recruits Isw1 to block incoming histones, and on the other it also recruits a deacetylase to remove any acetylation marks that might happen to have sneaked in."
The Workman lab uses yeast, fruit flies and mammalian cells to study multiple factors that activate and repress transcription. Thus far, they have characterized players in the repressive Set2 pathway primarily in yeast, in part because yeast represents an ideal organism for mutational analysis and has a fairly small genome -- 6,000 genes compared to the 25,000 or so in humans or mice.
Smolle notes that although yeast genomes are simpler, the principles that govern Set2 activity in yeast will likely hold true for its human counterparts, among them the human protein SETD2. "Yeast has a single methylase, while humans have several, and flies and humans have several Isw1-like proteins," she says. "While you cannot equate one with the other precisely, you can be reasonably sure that what happens in yeast happens in humans as well but tends to be more complicated."
Workman agrees, adding that these discoveries have significant implications for human disease. "Strikingly, the human homolog of Set2, SETD2, is implicated as a tumor suppressor in breast cancer and in renal carcinoma, and those cells are deficient in the SETD2 methylation mark," he says. "These findings strongly suggest that SETD2 could be important in controlling cell growth and preventing tumors. Thanks to yeast, we now know more about how Set2 does that."
In addition to Florens and Washburn, other contributors to the study include Swami Venkatesh, Ph.D., Hua Li, Ph.D., Ying Zhang, Ph.D., and Madelaine M. Gogol, all of the Stowers.
This work was supported by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and a grant from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences (R01GM047867).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stowers Institute for Medical Research, via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal References:
Michaela Smolle, Swaminathan Venkatesh, Madelaine M Gogol, Hua Li, Ying Zhang, Laurence Florens, Michael P Washburn, Jerry L Workman. Chromatin remodelers Isw1 and Chd1 maintain chromatin structure during transcription by preventing histone exchange. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2312
Swaminathan Venkatesh, Michaela Smolle, Hua Li, Madelaine M. Gogol, Malika Saint, Shambhu Kumar, Krishnamurthy Natarajan, Jerry L. Workman. Set2 methylation of histone H3 lysine?36 suppresses histone exchange on transcribed genes. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature11326
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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.
Grief is a state of emotional turmoil that results from the loss of something one holds as being valuable or something that plays an integral part in our day to day lives. Grief can result from:-
? Death of a close family member
? The breakup of a relationship
? Job loss
? The diagnosis of a terminal illness
? Bankruptcy
? A miscarriage
? Failure to realize a dream
? Death of a pet
? A traumatic experience
Of all possible causes of grief there is none that is more dramatic than the loss of a loved one.
How to determine the emotions associated with grief?
A number of emotions are associated with grief resulting from the loss of a loved one.
Different individuals tend to go through some emotions while skipping others. The emotions tend to occur more as a roller coaster than an actual sequence of emotions.
i. ? Shock/Denial: This is the inability to fully register that the loss has actually happened. In the loss of a loved one, an individual will often deny the reality of the death. This state might last from a few hours to several days.
ii. Anger: The anger associated with the loss can be directed to any number of persons or situations. In the case of the loss of a loved one, the anger might be directed to doctors, nurses, other family members, deceased, one own self or even God.
iii.
Guilt: One might blame him or herself for having not done anything to prevent the death or for not having been there when the death happened. The guilt is mainly due to unresolved issues.
iv. Sadness: This is exhibited by prolonged periods of weeping or in intermittent periods where the individual bursts uncontrollably into tears. This marks the onset of accepting the death.
v. Fear: Anxiety and fear arises as the individual contemplates the future. This might result in a state of panic especially in cases where the loss was that of a life partner, a sibling or a parent. The fear is also based on the realization of one?s mortality.
vi. Depression: This emotional state occurs when the individuals is unable to contemplate the future without the person who has died. The individual falls into a state of hopelessness. The individual losses all interest in all activities and self-isolation can occur.
It is worth noting that the above emotions are not the only ones exhibited during the period of grief. For instance in cases of the death of a loved one after prolonged suffering, the actual death might cause family members to experience a sense of intense relief. To better understand the grieving process you should consider visiting a psychologist in Brisbane if you happen to reside in Slacks Creek, Loganlea, Watershed, Edens Landing or Loganholme.
CBO's 'gloom' scenario means pushing the economy off the 'fiscal cliff' into recession. But deficits would plunge. 'Doom' means no recession but dangerous levels of debt.
By Roberton Williams,?Guest blogger / August 27, 2012
Congressional Budget Office projections suggest that the 'fiscal cliff' would push the US economy into recession, but deficits would plunge by 2016. Avoiding that scenario, however, could mean moving to dangerous levels of debt.
Congressional Budget Office
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The Congressional Budget Office?s?summer budget update?charts two undesirable paths for the nation?s economic and fiscal health next year. Call them Gloom and Doom.
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Gloom is what happens if the tax increases and government spending cuts scheduled to arrive in January actually occur. CBO says that would drive the economy back into recession in 2013 and push unemployment above 9 percent. But there?s some sunshine too: the federal deficit would drop sharply?by nearly half in 2013 alone?and would be under 1 percent of GDP by 2016 (dark blue bars in graph). The federal debt would decline from 73 percent of GDP this year to 59 percent in 2022. And the economy would resume growing in a year or so. Long-term gain for short term pain.
Doom occurs if Congress and the president agree to extend all of the expiring tax cuts and postpone the scheduled spending cuts for the next ten years. Short-term extension would prevent renewed economic collapse?the economy would maintain its slow growth and unemployment would continue its slow downward trend. But deficits would fall much less (the sum of the bars in the graph) and government debt would climb to nearly 90 percent of GDP in 2022.
Gloom and Doom aren?t new to the scene. Our recovery from the great recession has crawled at a painfully slow pace and any fiscal hit could stop it in its tracks. When faced with expiring tax cuts in 2010, President Obama and Congress agreed to extend the cuts through 2012, buying time for the recovery at a cost of two more annual deficits exceeding a trillion dollars. That set the stage for this year?s fiscal cliff.
Meanwhile we?ve had ample warning about our deficit and debt problems. Cutting taxes without controlling spending has proved to be a sure recipe for growing debt. Add burgeoning costs of Medicare and Medicaid, the demographic bulge of baby boomers collecting Social Security, and the cost of two wars, and the debt had to rise?and at an increasing pace. CBO has warned for years about the looming fiscal crisis, even before the recession piled on costs and slashed revenues.
We don?t really have to choose between Gloom and Doom. Combining smaller, well-timed parts of each would be a better alternative. We just need to figure out how to segue from not squelching our nascent economic recovery in the short run to accepting the fiscal discipline required to control deficits and bring down our national debt.
CBO?s update isn?t news. It?s just another reminder that we can?t continue to spend too much and tax too little, despite what presidential and congressional candidates might want us to think.
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 taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org.
Compound discovered that boosts effect of vaccines against HIV and fluPublic release date: 26-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: University of Oxford press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk 44-018-652-80530 University of Oxford
Novel vaccine additive to enhance the body's immune response shows promise in mice
Oxford University scientists have discovered a compound that greatly boosts the effect of vaccines against viruses like flu, HIV and herpes in mice.
An 'adjuvant' is a substance added to a vaccine to enhance the immune response and offer better protection against infection.
The Oxford University team, along with Swedish and US colleagues, have shown that a type of polymer called polyethyleneimine (PEI) is a potent adjuvant for test vaccines against HIV, flu and herpes when given in mice.
The researchers were part-funded by the UK Medical Research Council and report their findings in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Mice given a single dose of a flu vaccine including PEI via a nasal droplet were completely protected against a lethal dose of flu. This was a marked improvement over mice given the flu vaccine without an adjuvant or in formulations with other adjuvants.
The Oxford researchers now intend to test the PEI adjuvant in ferrets, a better animal model for studying flu. They also want to understand how long the protection lasts for. It is likely to be a couple of years before a flu vaccine using the adjuvant could be tested in clinical trials in humans, the researchers say.
'Gaining complete protection against flu from just one immunisation is pretty unheard of, even in a study in mice,' says Professor Quentin Sattentau of the Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford University, who led the work. 'This gives us confidence that PEI has the potential to be a potent adjuvant for vaccines against viruses like flu or HIV, though there are many steps ahead if it is ever to be used in humans.'
HIV, flu and herpes are some of the most difficult targets to develop vaccines against. HIV and flu viruses are able to change and evolve to escape immune responses stimulated by vaccines. There aren't any effective vaccines against HIV and herpes as yet, and the flu vaccine needs reformulating each year and doesn't offer complete protection to everyone who receives it. Finding better adjuvants could help in developing more effective vaccines against these diseases.
Most vaccines include an adjuvant. The main ingredient of the vaccine whether it is a dead or disabled pathogen, or just a part of the virus or bacteria causing the disease primes the body's immune system so it knows what to attack in case of infection. But the adjuvant is needed as well to stimulate this process.
While the need for adjuvants in vaccines has been recognised for nearly 100 years, the way adjuvants work has only recently been understood. The result has been that only a small set of adjuvants is used in current vaccines, often for historical reasons.
The most common adjuvant by far is alum, an aluminium-containing compound that has been given in many different vaccines worldwide for decades. However, alum is not the most potent adjuvant for many vaccine designs.
'There is a need to develop new adjuvants to get the most appropriate immune response from vaccines,' says Professor Sattentau, who is also a James Martin Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
The Oxford University team found that PEI, a standard polymer often used in genetic and cell biology, has strong adjuvant activity.
When included in a vaccine with a protein from HIV, flu or herpes virus, mice subsequently mounted a strong immune response against that virus. The immune response was stronger than with other adjuvants that are currently being investigated.
The team also showed that PEI is a potent adjuvant in rabbits, showing the effect is not just specific to mice and could be general.
Another potential advantage of PEI is that it works well as an adjuvant for 'mucosal vaccines'. These vaccines are taken up the nose or in the mouth and absorbed through the mucus-lined tissues there, getting rid of any pain and anxiety from a needle. Mucosal vaccines may also be better in some ways as mucosal tissues are the sites of infection for these diseases (airways for respiratory diseases, genital mucosa for HIV and herpes).
Professor Sattentau suggests that: 'In the best of all possible worlds, you could imagine people would have one dose of flu vaccine that they'd just sniff up their nose or put under their tongue. And that would be it: no injections and they'd be protected from flu for a number of years.
'It's just a vision for the future at the moment, but this promising adjuvant suggests it is a vision that is at least possible.'
###
Notes to Editors
* The body's immune system is made up of two arms: the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system. The adaptive immune system consists of the antibodies and immune cells (T and B cells) the body develops specifically to combat a particular foreign agent.
The innate immune system had been thought of as playing a more primitive, non-specific role in protecting against invaders like viruses and parasites. However, it is now realised that the innate immune system is essential in kicking off any immune response. It needs to be activated first to generate an adaptive immune response.
But the innate immune system doesn't just press the start button. It tailors the body's adaptive immune response, deciding on what particular mix of antibodies and T cells is needed and teaching them what to attack.
It is the adjuvants in vaccines that stimulate the innate immune system. So having the right adjuvant can help the body produce the most appropriate immune response to protect against future infection.
* The paper 'Polyethyleneimine is a potent mucosal adjuvant for glycoproteins with innate and adaptive immune activating properties' is to be published in the journal Nature Biotechnology with an embargo of 18:00 UK time / 13:00 US Eastern time on Sunday 26 August 2012.
* The study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, European Commission, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Dormeur Investment Service Ltd.
* Professor Sattentau is an investigator in the Jenner Institute at Oxford University and a James Martin Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, Oxford University.
* For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including one of the first antibiotics penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. www.mrc.ac.uk
* The Oxford Martin School is a unique interdisciplinary community within the University of Oxford. The School fosters innovative thinking, deep scholarship and collaborative activity to address the most pressing risks and realise new opportunities of the 21st century. It was founded in 2005 through the vision and generosity of James Martin, and currently comprises over 35 interdisciplinary research programmes on global future challenges. The Oxford Martin School's Director is Ian Goldin, Professor at the University of Oxford. http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk
* Oxford University's Medical Sciences Division is one of the largest biomedical research centres in Europe, with over 2,500 people involved in research and more than 2,800 students. The University is rated the best in the world for medicine, and it is home to the UK's top-ranked medical school.
From the genetic and molecular basis of disease to the latest advances in neuroscience, Oxford is at the forefront of medical research. It has one of the largest clinical trial portfolios in the UK and great expertise in taking discoveries from the lab into the clinic. Partnerships with the local NHS Trusts enable patients to benefit from close links between medical research and healthcare delivery.
A great strength of Oxford medicine is its long-standing network of clinical research units in Asia and Africa, enabling world-leading research on the most pressing global health challenges such as malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS and flu. Oxford is also renowned for its large-scale studies which examine the role of factors such as smoking, alcohol and diet on cancer, heart disease and other conditions.
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Compound discovered that boosts effect of vaccines against HIV and fluPublic release date: 26-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: University of Oxford press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk 44-018-652-80530 University of Oxford
Novel vaccine additive to enhance the body's immune response shows promise in mice
Oxford University scientists have discovered a compound that greatly boosts the effect of vaccines against viruses like flu, HIV and herpes in mice.
An 'adjuvant' is a substance added to a vaccine to enhance the immune response and offer better protection against infection.
The Oxford University team, along with Swedish and US colleagues, have shown that a type of polymer called polyethyleneimine (PEI) is a potent adjuvant for test vaccines against HIV, flu and herpes when given in mice.
The researchers were part-funded by the UK Medical Research Council and report their findings in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Mice given a single dose of a flu vaccine including PEI via a nasal droplet were completely protected against a lethal dose of flu. This was a marked improvement over mice given the flu vaccine without an adjuvant or in formulations with other adjuvants.
The Oxford researchers now intend to test the PEI adjuvant in ferrets, a better animal model for studying flu. They also want to understand how long the protection lasts for. It is likely to be a couple of years before a flu vaccine using the adjuvant could be tested in clinical trials in humans, the researchers say.
'Gaining complete protection against flu from just one immunisation is pretty unheard of, even in a study in mice,' says Professor Quentin Sattentau of the Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford University, who led the work. 'This gives us confidence that PEI has the potential to be a potent adjuvant for vaccines against viruses like flu or HIV, though there are many steps ahead if it is ever to be used in humans.'
HIV, flu and herpes are some of the most difficult targets to develop vaccines against. HIV and flu viruses are able to change and evolve to escape immune responses stimulated by vaccines. There aren't any effective vaccines against HIV and herpes as yet, and the flu vaccine needs reformulating each year and doesn't offer complete protection to everyone who receives it. Finding better adjuvants could help in developing more effective vaccines against these diseases.
Most vaccines include an adjuvant. The main ingredient of the vaccine whether it is a dead or disabled pathogen, or just a part of the virus or bacteria causing the disease primes the body's immune system so it knows what to attack in case of infection. But the adjuvant is needed as well to stimulate this process.
While the need for adjuvants in vaccines has been recognised for nearly 100 years, the way adjuvants work has only recently been understood. The result has been that only a small set of adjuvants is used in current vaccines, often for historical reasons.
The most common adjuvant by far is alum, an aluminium-containing compound that has been given in many different vaccines worldwide for decades. However, alum is not the most potent adjuvant for many vaccine designs.
'There is a need to develop new adjuvants to get the most appropriate immune response from vaccines,' says Professor Sattentau, who is also a James Martin Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
The Oxford University team found that PEI, a standard polymer often used in genetic and cell biology, has strong adjuvant activity.
When included in a vaccine with a protein from HIV, flu or herpes virus, mice subsequently mounted a strong immune response against that virus. The immune response was stronger than with other adjuvants that are currently being investigated.
The team also showed that PEI is a potent adjuvant in rabbits, showing the effect is not just specific to mice and could be general.
Another potential advantage of PEI is that it works well as an adjuvant for 'mucosal vaccines'. These vaccines are taken up the nose or in the mouth and absorbed through the mucus-lined tissues there, getting rid of any pain and anxiety from a needle. Mucosal vaccines may also be better in some ways as mucosal tissues are the sites of infection for these diseases (airways for respiratory diseases, genital mucosa for HIV and herpes).
Professor Sattentau suggests that: 'In the best of all possible worlds, you could imagine people would have one dose of flu vaccine that they'd just sniff up their nose or put under their tongue. And that would be it: no injections and they'd be protected from flu for a number of years.
'It's just a vision for the future at the moment, but this promising adjuvant suggests it is a vision that is at least possible.'
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Notes to Editors
* The body's immune system is made up of two arms: the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system. The adaptive immune system consists of the antibodies and immune cells (T and B cells) the body develops specifically to combat a particular foreign agent.
The innate immune system had been thought of as playing a more primitive, non-specific role in protecting against invaders like viruses and parasites. However, it is now realised that the innate immune system is essential in kicking off any immune response. It needs to be activated first to generate an adaptive immune response.
But the innate immune system doesn't just press the start button. It tailors the body's adaptive immune response, deciding on what particular mix of antibodies and T cells is needed and teaching them what to attack.
It is the adjuvants in vaccines that stimulate the innate immune system. So having the right adjuvant can help the body produce the most appropriate immune response to protect against future infection.
* The paper 'Polyethyleneimine is a potent mucosal adjuvant for glycoproteins with innate and adaptive immune activating properties' is to be published in the journal Nature Biotechnology with an embargo of 18:00 UK time / 13:00 US Eastern time on Sunday 26 August 2012.
* The study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, European Commission, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Dormeur Investment Service Ltd.
* Professor Sattentau is an investigator in the Jenner Institute at Oxford University and a James Martin Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, Oxford University.
* For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including one of the first antibiotics penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. www.mrc.ac.uk
* The Oxford Martin School is a unique interdisciplinary community within the University of Oxford. The School fosters innovative thinking, deep scholarship and collaborative activity to address the most pressing risks and realise new opportunities of the 21st century. It was founded in 2005 through the vision and generosity of James Martin, and currently comprises over 35 interdisciplinary research programmes on global future challenges. The Oxford Martin School's Director is Ian Goldin, Professor at the University of Oxford. http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk
* Oxford University's Medical Sciences Division is one of the largest biomedical research centres in Europe, with over 2,500 people involved in research and more than 2,800 students. The University is rated the best in the world for medicine, and it is home to the UK's top-ranked medical school.
From the genetic and molecular basis of disease to the latest advances in neuroscience, Oxford is at the forefront of medical research. It has one of the largest clinical trial portfolios in the UK and great expertise in taking discoveries from the lab into the clinic. Partnerships with the local NHS Trusts enable patients to benefit from close links between medical research and healthcare delivery.
A great strength of Oxford medicine is its long-standing network of clinical research units in Asia and Africa, enabling world-leading research on the most pressing global health challenges such as malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS and flu. Oxford is also renowned for its large-scale studies which examine the role of factors such as smoking, alcohol and diet on cancer, heart disease and other conditions.
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Traditionally, expatriate managers have been treated from the organization?s perspective. However, as pointed out in one of my older blog posts, expatriation is a broad term that allows for several further classifications. For example, based on the locus of the transfer initiative ?traditional? corporation-assigned expatriates can be complemented by self-initiated expatriates. Although implying a wide range of international experiences, this classification still applies to a more conventional framework of employment where the individual?s career is meant to be fixed with one, or very few, employers. Hence, a company sends an employee on an international assignment at least with the prospect of successful repatriation and further career development within the company, while self-initiated expats choose to relocate to a foreign country and start building their career, hired under a local, host-county contract. Both scenarios implicitly assume some stability and career progression within one organization. However, in the past few decades the traditional career path has been changing, and by now the forces of globalization, reorganization and outsourcing have transformed businesses, increased competitive pressures and decisively shifted one?s career development responsibility from employers to individual employees. Today, one?s successful career is a matter of personal initiative and is quite likely to go beyond one organization.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 26-Aug-2012
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