Cell sugar concentrations affect hyaluronan production and cancer growth

Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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Contact: Kirsi Rilla
kirsi.rilla@uef.fi
358-403-553-218
University of Eastern Finland

According to a recent University of Eastern Finland (UEF) study, elevated cell sugar concentrations increase the production of hyaluronan which, in turn, promotes cancer growth. Regulating the production of hyaluronan may be a way to prevent the spreading of cancer.

Hyaluronan is a long, linear carbohydrate polymer present in the human body. It forms a coating on the surface of many cells and plays a key role in fetal development and in the maintenance of normal tissue balance.

Under normal circumstances, hyaluronan promotes tissue healing; however, it can also maintain inflammation and promote the growth of cancer cells. Due to its high water retention capacity, hyaluronan is widely used in cosmetics and also in the medical sector, for example in the treatment of osteoarthritis symptoms and in eye surgery. Hyaluronan injected into the human body for treatment purposes is not associated with cancer risk.

Cells produce hyaluronan with the help of three cell membrane enzymes (HAS1, HAS2 and HAS3), and the production process also needs glucose derivatives.

Hyaluronan synthase 1, i.e. the HAS1 enzyme, is the least well known of the hyaluronan-producing enzymes, and yet its role in cancer malignity seems to be greater than previously thought. Published in Journal of Biological Chemistry, the UEF study showed that HAS1 requires a higher sugar concentration for the production of hyaluronan than HAS2 and HAS3. This finding may be significant for fighting cancer, as cancer cells are known to thrive on blood glucose. Increased glucose levels can lead to increased production of hyaluronan which, in turn, promotes cancer growth. Increased hyaluronan levels have also been found in diabetics with increased blood sugar levels. Diabetics are known to have a higher risk for breast cancer.

HAS1 also plays a significant role in inflammation, because growth factors associated with inflammation mediation, e.g., interleukins, can increase its activeness. This finding constituted part of the doctoral study of Lic. Med. Hanna Siiskonen, which was recently examined at the University of Eastern Finland.

By regulating hyaluronan levels, it may be possible to prevent the progression of cancer and other pathologies. The first clinical trials involving enzymes which break down hyaluronan have been able to slow down the growth and movement of cancer cells and to enhance the effectiveness of cancer drugs.

At the UEF Institute of Biomedicine, the research group of Professor Raija Tammi and Professor Markku Tammi has been studying hyaluronan for 25 years already, and the group's research is internationally renowned. The group focuses on cell biological mechanisms which regulate hyaluronan production. Together with its partners, the group has established a link between increased hyaluronan levels and a negative cancer prognosis in many cancer types, such as breast, prostate, colon, uterine, lung and ovarian cancer.

###

Further information about the research group is available at: http://www.uef.fi/biolaaketiede/ha

For further information, please contact:

Kirsi Rilla, PhD, Docent (Cell Biology)
University of Eastern Finland
School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine
Tel. +35840-3553218
email: kirsi.rilla@uef.fi

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kirsi Rilla
kirsi.rilla@uef.fi
358-403-553-218
University of Eastern Finland

According to a recent University of Eastern Finland (UEF) study, elevated cell sugar concentrations increase the production of hyaluronan which, in turn, promotes cancer growth. Regulating the production of hyaluronan may be a way to prevent the spreading of cancer.

Hyaluronan is a long, linear carbohydrate polymer present in the human body. It forms a coating on the surface of many cells and plays a key role in fetal development and in the maintenance of normal tissue balance.

Under normal circumstances, hyaluronan promotes tissue healing; however, it can also maintain inflammation and promote the growth of cancer cells. Due to its high water retention capacity, hyaluronan is widely used in cosmetics and also in the medical sector, for example in the treatment of osteoarthritis symptoms and in eye surgery. Hyaluronan injected into the human body for treatment purposes is not associated with cancer risk.

Cells produce hyaluronan with the help of three cell membrane enzymes (HAS1, HAS2 and HAS3), and the production process also needs glucose derivatives.

Hyaluronan synthase 1, i.e. the HAS1 enzyme, is the least well known of the hyaluronan-producing enzymes, and yet its role in cancer malignity seems to be greater than previously thought. Published in Journal of Biological Chemistry, the UEF study showed that HAS1 requires a higher sugar concentration for the production of hyaluronan than HAS2 and HAS3. This finding may be significant for fighting cancer, as cancer cells are known to thrive on blood glucose. Increased glucose levels can lead to increased production of hyaluronan which, in turn, promotes cancer growth. Increased hyaluronan levels have also been found in diabetics with increased blood sugar levels. Diabetics are known to have a higher risk for breast cancer.

HAS1 also plays a significant role in inflammation, because growth factors associated with inflammation mediation, e.g., interleukins, can increase its activeness. This finding constituted part of the doctoral study of Lic. Med. Hanna Siiskonen, which was recently examined at the University of Eastern Finland.

By regulating hyaluronan levels, it may be possible to prevent the progression of cancer and other pathologies. The first clinical trials involving enzymes which break down hyaluronan have been able to slow down the growth and movement of cancer cells and to enhance the effectiveness of cancer drugs.

At the UEF Institute of Biomedicine, the research group of Professor Raija Tammi and Professor Markku Tammi has been studying hyaluronan for 25 years already, and the group's research is internationally renowned. The group focuses on cell biological mechanisms which regulate hyaluronan production. Together with its partners, the group has established a link between increased hyaluronan levels and a negative cancer prognosis in many cancer types, such as breast, prostate, colon, uterine, lung and ovarian cancer.

###

Further information about the research group is available at: http://www.uef.fi/biolaaketiede/ha

For further information, please contact:

Kirsi Rilla, PhD, Docent (Cell Biology)
University of Eastern Finland
School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine
Tel. +35840-3553218
email: kirsi.rilla@uef.fi

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/uoef-csc022713.php

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My Strange Grandfather: Stop-Motion Animation By Dina ...

When Dina Velikovskaya, a student at the Russian State University of Cinematography, set out to make the heartwarming stop-motion video "My Strange Grandfather," she was already up against the odds. Puppet animation is no longer popular in her native country, a disheartening reality she described in an interview with Animateka: "Now in Russia it's forgotten. I don't know why. Maybe it's very difficult to make puppet stop-motion, puppet animation... maybe it's not contemporary now."

Velikovskaya was undeterred, however, and without any help from her university she taught herself to make the puppets that come to life in her poetic short film. It tells the story of a little girl and her nutty grandfather -- an absent-minded inventor who ventures up and down a windy beach in Russia collecting other people's trash. The tiny granddaughter is embarrassed by his quirky habits, that is, until one stormy night, when he builds an enormous, singing beast from the junk he has gathered.

Watch the gorgeous video above and let us know what you think of Velikovskaya's magical realism. Don't you wish there were more children's stories like this?

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/stop-motion-video-by-dina-velikovskaya-my-strange-grandfather_n_2759359.html

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Clever battery completes stretchable electronics package: Can stretch, twist and bend -- and return to normal shape

Feb. 26, 2013 ? Northwestern University's Yonggang Huang and the University of Illinois' John A. Rogers are the first to demonstrate a stretchable lithium-ion battery -- a flexible device capable of powering their innovative stretchable electronics.

No longer needing to be connected by a cord to an electrical outlet, the stretchable electronic devices now could be used anywhere, including inside the human body. The implantable electronics could monitor anything from brain waves to heart activity, succeeding where flat, rigid batteries would fail.

Huang and Rogers have demonstrated a battery that continues to work -- powering a commercial light-emitting diode (LED) -- even when stretched, folded, twisted and mounted on a human elbow. The battery can work for eight to nine hours before it needs recharging, which can be done wirelessly.

The new battery enables true integration of electronics and power into a small, stretchable package. Details will be published Feb. 26 by the online journal Nature Communications.

"We start with a lot of battery components side by side in a very small space, and we connect them with tightly packed, long wavy lines," said Huang, a corresponding author of the paper. "These wires provide the flexibility. When we stretch the battery, the wavy interconnecting lines unfurl, much like yarn unspooling. And we can stretch the device a great deal and still have a working battery."

Huang led the portion of the research focused on theory, design and modeling. He is the Joseph Cummings Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The power and voltage of the stretchable battery are similar to a conventional lithium-ion battery of the same size, but the flexible battery can stretch up to 300 percent of its original size and still function.

Rogers, also a corresponding author of the paper, led the group that worked on the experimental and fabrication work of the stretchable battery. He is the Swanlund Chair at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Huang and Rogers have been working together for the last six years on stretchable electronics, and designing a cordless power supply has been a major challenge. Now they have solved the problem with their clever "space filling technique," which delivers a small, high-powered battery.

For their stretchable electronic circuits, the two developed "pop-up" technology that allows circuits to bend, stretch and twist. They created an array of tiny circuit elements connected by metal wire "pop-up bridges." When the array is stretched, the wires -- not the rigid circuits -- pop up.

This approach works for circuits but not for a stretchable battery. A lot of space is needed in between components for the "pop-up" interconnect to work. Circuits can be spaced out enough in an array, but battery components must be packed tightly to produce a powerful but small battery. There is not enough space between battery components for the "pop-up" technology to work.

Huang's design solution is to use metal wire interconnects that are long, wavy lines, filling the small space between battery components. (The power travels through the interconnects.)

The unique mechanism is a "spring within a spring": The line connecting the components is a large "S" shape and within that "S" are many smaller "S's." When the battery is stretched, the large "S" first stretches out and disappears, leaving a line of small squiggles. The stretching continues, with the small squiggles disappearing as the interconnect between electrodes becomes taut.

"We call this ordered unraveling," Huang said. "And this is how we can produce a battery that stretches up to 300 percent of its original size."

The stretching process is reversible, and the battery can be recharged wirelessly. The battery's design allows for the integration of stretchable, inductive coils to enable charging through an external source but without the need for a physical connection.

Huang, Rogers and their teams found the battery capable of 20 cycles of recharging with little loss in capacity. The system they report in the paper consists of a square array of 100 electrode disks, electrically connected in parallel.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Northwestern University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Sheng Xu, Yihui Zhang, Jiung Cho, Juhwan Lee, Xian Huang, Lin Jia, Jonathan A. Fan, Yewang Su, Jessica Su, Huigang Zhang, Huanyu Cheng, Bingwei Lu, Cunjiang Yu, Chi Chuang, Tae-il Kim, Taeseup Song, Kazuyo Shigeta, Sen Kang, Canan Dagdeviren, Ivan Petrov, Paul V. Braun, Yonggang Huang, Ungyu Paik, John A. Rogers. Stretchable batteries with self-similar serpentine interconnects and integrated wireless recharging systems. Nature Communications, 2013; 4: 1543 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2553

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/8rXHnZdluCo/130226113828.htm

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Kerry urges Syrian opposition to attend Rome talks

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague, right, watches as US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, answers a reporter's question during a joint news conference following their meeting in central London, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. This is the first overseas trip for the US Secretary of State in his new role. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, pool)

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague, right, watches as US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, answers a reporter's question during a joint news conference following their meeting in central London, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. This is the first overseas trip for the US Secretary of State in his new role. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, walks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague as they leave Downing Street in London, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Kerry has kicked off his first official overseas trip by meeting with British leaders in London on the first leg of a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waves to the media as he leaves Downing Street in London, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Kerry kicked off his first official overseas trip by meeting with British leaders in London on the first leg of a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, accompanies British Foreign Secretary William Hague as they leave Downing Street in London, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Kerry kicked off his first official overseas trip by meeting with British leaders in London on the first leg of a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with British Prime Minister David Cameron before their meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, during Kerry?s first official trip overseas as secretary. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

LONDON (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged members of the Syrian opposition to turn up for talks in Rome this week, insisting that more help is on the way in their fight against President Bashar Assad.

Kerry was in London for the first leg of his debut overseas trip ? a hectic nine-country dash through Europe and the Middle East. The trip includes a Syrian opposition conference in Rome, which some members of the sharply divided Syrian opposition council have threatened to boycott.

A senior Obama administration official said Sunday that Kerry has sent his top Syrian envoy to Cairo in hopes of convincing opposition leaders that their participation in the conference in Rome is critical to addressing questions from potential donors and securing additional aid from the United States and Europe.

The Rome meeting on Thursday is the centerpiece of Kerry's nine-nation tour of Europe and the Middle East

"We are not coming to Rome simply to talk," Kerry said at a joint news conference with Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague. "We are coming to Rome to talk about next steps."

Kerry said he was sympathetic to the opposition's complaints that the international community had not done enough, and noted that as a senator he had called for the Obama administration to consider military aid to the Syrian opposition.

But he noted that he now is part of the administration and "and the president of the United States has sent me here ... because he is concerned about the course of events."

"This moment is ripe for us to be considering what more we can do," he said, adding that if the opposition wants results, "join us."

Administration officials have debated whether the U.S. should arm the rebels, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey having said they urged such a course of action. The White House has been unwilling to do so for fears the weapons could end up in the wrong hands. Currently, the U.S. provides only non-lethal support and humanitarian aid.

The United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's 2-year civil war, which began as an uprising against Assad's regime.

"We are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind, wondering where the support is, if it is coming," he said. ""We are not going to let the Syrian opposition not have its ability to have its voice properly heard in this process."

Kerry said the Syrian people "deserve better" than the violence currently gripping their country as he stood alongside Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Hague also stressed the need for action, saying an "appalling injustice" is being done to Syrian citizens.

"In the face of such murder and threat of instability, our policy cannot stay static as the weeks go by," Hague told the press conference. "We must significantly increase support for the Syrian opposition. We are preparing to do just that."

Associated Press writer Cassandra Vinograd contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-25-Kerry/id-3ac4b385ac74499dae7e8070e5fd3932

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Andy Rubin confirms 'no plans' for Google retail stores

If those Google retail rumors fuelled visions of whiling away some mall-time, thumbing at the latest Nexus gadgets in a parlor of their own, then Andy Rubin says keep dreaming. While there are some legitimate Google outposts to be found in stores, the Android chief has confirmed to journalists today that -- as far as he's concerned -- there's no need to explore bricks and mortar stores of their own. Rubin was adamant that there are no plans at this time -- and he's in a good position to know. The reason, however, isn't to do with the ageing model of retail, or a well pinned map of consumer behaviour patterns, with Rubin merely stating that he didn't think the Nexus line is quite at the stage that would warrant a store of its own, the same is true of it home-grown Chromebook devices. That's ok though, if you just gotta have that Nexus right now, there are still some options to explore.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Google

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Source: AllThingsD

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/b0zbCD3Fcuc/

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2 vortex trails with 1 stroke

Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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Contact: Iqbal Pittawala
iqbal@ucr.edu
951-827-6050
University of California - Riverside

UC Riverside research shows hovering hummingbirds generate two trails of vortices under their wings, challenging 1-vortex consensus

RIVERSIDE, Calif. As of today, the Wikipedia entry for the hummingbird explains that the bird's flight generates in its wake a single trail of vortices that helps the bird hover. But after conducting experiments with hummingbirds in the lab, researchers at the University of California, Riverside propose that the hovering hummingbird instead produces two trails of vortices one under each wing per stroke that help generate the aerodynamic forces required for the bird to power and control its flight.

The results of the study could find wide application in aerospace technology and the development of unmanned vehicles for medical surveillance after natural disasters.

The researchers used high-speed image sequences 500 frames per second of hummingbirds hover-feeding within a white plume (emitted by the heating of dry ice) to study the vortex wake from multiple perspectives. They also used particle image velocimetry (PIV), a flow-measuring method used in fluid mechanics, to quantitatively analyze the flow around the hummingbirds. PIV allowed the researchers to record the particles surrounding the birds and extract velocity fields.

The films and velocity fields showed two distinct jets of downwards airflow one under each wing of the hummingbird. They also revealed that vortex loops around each jet are shed during each upstroke and downstroke.

The researchers therefore propose in their paper published online last month in the journal Experiments in Fluids that the hummingbird's two wings form bilateral vortex loops during each wing stroke, which is advantageous for maneuverability.

"Previous studies have indicated that slow-flying bats and faster flying birds produced different structures in their wakes," said Douglas Altshuler, formerly an assistant professor of biology at UC Riverside, whose lab led the research. "We have been investigating the wake structure of hovering hummingbirds because this allows us to decouple the effects of different types of wings bat versus bird from different forward flight speeds.

Hummingbirds each weigh 2-20 grams. Because they can hover with high precision, they are able to drink nectar from flowers without any jiggling movement to their bodies. Besides using upstrokes and downstrokes, hummingbirds can rotate their wings. They can even flap their wings from front to back with a 180-degree amplitude.

"We began this study to investigate how the hummingbird used its tail while hovering," said Marko Princevac, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and a coauthor of the research paper. "After all, many insects also hover, but they have no tail. Instead, however, our research showed something interesting about the hummingbird's wings: the bilateral vortex structure. Hummingbirds hovering should cost a lot of energy but these birds are able to hover for long periods of time. Ideally, unmanned vehicles need to be operated with a very limited energy supply, which is why understanding how the hummingbird maximizes its use of energy is tremendously beneficial."

Sam Pournazeri, a former Ph.D. graduate student in Princevac's lab and a co-author on the paper, explained that in a downstroke, the air pressure difference developed as a result of wing movement creates flow from the bottom to the top of the wing. The result is a circular movement or vortex.

"Based on theories in fluid mechanics, this vortex should close either on the wing/body or create a loop around it," he said. "It's these loops that provide circulation around the wings and cause the hummingbird to overcome its weight. Hovering requires the bird to create a lift that cancels its body weight. Although the two-vortex structure we observed increases the hummingbird's energy consumption, it provides the bird a big advantage: a lot more maneuverability."

Next, the research team plans to study the hummingbird in a wind tunnel to closely observe how the bird transitions from hovering to forward motion, and vice versa.

"Current technology is not successfully mimicking how living things fly," Princevac said. "Drones don't hover, and must rely on forward motion. Research done using hummingbirds, like ours, can inform the development of the next generation of drones."

###

The research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Altshuler, now a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Paolo S. Segre, a former UCR graduate student working with Altshuler at the University of British Columbia, also participated in the study. Pournazeri and Segre contributed equally to the research.

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Iqbal Pittawala
iqbal@ucr.edu
951-827-6050
University of California - Riverside

UC Riverside research shows hovering hummingbirds generate two trails of vortices under their wings, challenging 1-vortex consensus

RIVERSIDE, Calif. As of today, the Wikipedia entry for the hummingbird explains that the bird's flight generates in its wake a single trail of vortices that helps the bird hover. But after conducting experiments with hummingbirds in the lab, researchers at the University of California, Riverside propose that the hovering hummingbird instead produces two trails of vortices one under each wing per stroke that help generate the aerodynamic forces required for the bird to power and control its flight.

The results of the study could find wide application in aerospace technology and the development of unmanned vehicles for medical surveillance after natural disasters.

The researchers used high-speed image sequences 500 frames per second of hummingbirds hover-feeding within a white plume (emitted by the heating of dry ice) to study the vortex wake from multiple perspectives. They also used particle image velocimetry (PIV), a flow-measuring method used in fluid mechanics, to quantitatively analyze the flow around the hummingbirds. PIV allowed the researchers to record the particles surrounding the birds and extract velocity fields.

The films and velocity fields showed two distinct jets of downwards airflow one under each wing of the hummingbird. They also revealed that vortex loops around each jet are shed during each upstroke and downstroke.

The researchers therefore propose in their paper published online last month in the journal Experiments in Fluids that the hummingbird's two wings form bilateral vortex loops during each wing stroke, which is advantageous for maneuverability.

"Previous studies have indicated that slow-flying bats and faster flying birds produced different structures in their wakes," said Douglas Altshuler, formerly an assistant professor of biology at UC Riverside, whose lab led the research. "We have been investigating the wake structure of hovering hummingbirds because this allows us to decouple the effects of different types of wings bat versus bird from different forward flight speeds.

Hummingbirds each weigh 2-20 grams. Because they can hover with high precision, they are able to drink nectar from flowers without any jiggling movement to their bodies. Besides using upstrokes and downstrokes, hummingbirds can rotate their wings. They can even flap their wings from front to back with a 180-degree amplitude.

"We began this study to investigate how the hummingbird used its tail while hovering," said Marko Princevac, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and a coauthor of the research paper. "After all, many insects also hover, but they have no tail. Instead, however, our research showed something interesting about the hummingbird's wings: the bilateral vortex structure. Hummingbirds hovering should cost a lot of energy but these birds are able to hover for long periods of time. Ideally, unmanned vehicles need to be operated with a very limited energy supply, which is why understanding how the hummingbird maximizes its use of energy is tremendously beneficial."

Sam Pournazeri, a former Ph.D. graduate student in Princevac's lab and a co-author on the paper, explained that in a downstroke, the air pressure difference developed as a result of wing movement creates flow from the bottom to the top of the wing. The result is a circular movement or vortex.

"Based on theories in fluid mechanics, this vortex should close either on the wing/body or create a loop around it," he said. "It's these loops that provide circulation around the wings and cause the hummingbird to overcome its weight. Hovering requires the bird to create a lift that cancels its body weight. Although the two-vortex structure we observed increases the hummingbird's energy consumption, it provides the bird a big advantage: a lot more maneuverability."

Next, the research team plans to study the hummingbird in a wind tunnel to closely observe how the bird transitions from hovering to forward motion, and vice versa.

"Current technology is not successfully mimicking how living things fly," Princevac said. "Drones don't hover, and must rely on forward motion. Research done using hummingbirds, like ours, can inform the development of the next generation of drones."

###

The research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Altshuler, now a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Paolo S. Segre, a former UCR graduate student working with Altshuler at the University of British Columbia, also participated in the study. Pournazeri and Segre contributed equally to the research.

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/uoc--tvt022513.php

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Lawmakers dispute records for private gun sales

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A dispute over whether to require record keeping for private gun sales is holding up a compromise between Republican and Democratic senators over expanding background checks for firearms transactions, one of President Barack Obama's top gun control priorities, people familiar with the private talks said Sunday.

Two GOP and two Democratic senators have been looking for a compromise on requiring more of the checks, currently required only for transactions by federally licensed dealers. Private transactions at gun shows, online and elsewhere are not covered by the system, which is designed to keep firearms from criminals, people with serious mental problems and others.

The senators have been bargaining quietly over ways to expand the checks to private sales. But Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a conservative who has taken a leading role in the talks, has opposed requiring record keeping for private transactions because of a concern it could lead to a national registry of gun owners, which is vehemently opposed by the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups.

Democrats say keeping records of private sales is the only way to ensure the checks are performed, and say fears of the creation of a federal gun registry are unfounded. They have offered to have gun manufacturers or other private entities, not the government, keep those records.

The talks were described by a Senate aide and a lobbyist who spoke on condition of anonymity because the senators' talks are private and considered extremely politically sensitive.

The other senators participating in the bargaining are liberal Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., moderate Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and moderate Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

An agreement involving the influential Coburn could be pivotal because it could pave the way for other Republicans to support a background check bill.

Coburn said Sunday that he opposed keeping records on "legitimate, law-abiding gun owners."

"All they have to do is create a record keeping and that will kill this bill," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

The bargainers are close to agreement on other parts of the background check compromise, including carving out exemptions for sales between close relatives and for people who have already been cleared to receive concealed carry permits. They are also working toward creating an appeals process for veterans initially denied guns because they have been treated for traumatic stress disorder.

Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., of the Senate Judiciary Committee is hoping his panel can begin writing gun control legislation this week, but that is considered likely to slip until the following week. His panel is expected to approve legislation on background checks and stiffer federal penalties against illegal gun trafficking.

It is unclear whether there will be enough votes to approve two other Obama priorities: bans on assault weapons and magazines carrying more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-24-Gun%20Control-Congress/id-87a46834b17e435185044038db6cf718

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Demi Lovato Releases 'Risk'-Filled 'Heart Attack'

Singer battles between letting go and leaving her defenses up on the single off her 2013 album release.
By Jocelyn Vena

Demi Lovato's cover art for "Heart Attack"
Photo: Hollywood

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702548/demi-lovato-heart-attack-single.jhtml

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Live from Mozilla's?MWC 2013 press event!

Mozilla has gone from having zero mobile presence to being a big name waiting in the wings pretty quickly. The powerful open-source browser only landed on Android in 2010 (and in a "pre-alpha stage"), while Firefox OS (formerly Boot to Gecko) made its debut roughly a year ago this week. So, twelve months after the big reveal, whats does Mozilla have in store for us at this Mobile World Congress? You'll just have to check back in at the time below to find out!

February 24, 2013 11:00 AM EST

Filed under: Software, Mobile

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/uSPZKPUGasY/

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Conservative favored in Cyprus presidential runoff

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? With Cypriots facing the specter of financial meltdown, the conservative candidate in a presidential election runoff was favored to beat his left-wing rival Sunday.

Opposition leader Nicos Anastasiades garnered 45.46 percent of the vote in the first round of voting, about 18 points more than Stavros Malas, who is backed by outgoing President Dimitris Christofias' communist-rooted AKEL party. The candidate who gets the simple majority in the second round will win the race.

The new president will be under pressure to quickly finalize a financial rescue package with the eurozone's other 16 countries, and the International Monetary Fund to keep the country solvent as the economy shrinks and state coffers run dry. He will face a tough battle convincing reluctant countries, especially Germany, that tiny Cyprus deserves help after its banks lost billions of euros on bad Greek debt.

Last year, Cyprus sought financial assistance of up to ?17 billion ($22.7 billion), a sum roughly equivalent to its annual gross domestic product, which has raised concerns whether the country would be able to pay back any loan. The country has been unable to borrow from international markets since mid-2011, and turned to long-time ally Russia last year for a ?2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) loan to keep it afloat.

Cyprus, a divided island of around 1 million people in the far eastern end of the Mediterranean, is one of the smallest members of the 27-nation European Union and faces deep political and economic problems.

In 1974, it was split into an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Decades of talks on resolving that division so far have gone nowhere, and dealing with the financial crisis now takes priority. Only the 545,000 eligible voters in the south can cast their ballots in the election.

The conservatives have capitalized on widespread discontent over what many view as five years of failed rule by Christofias. An Anastasiades campaign billboard reading "Could you stand another five years of the same?" plays to that discontent.

"Today's choice is twofold: one is to carry on with today's government and the dead ends that we face. The other is a choice for a new era," Anastasiades, 66, said after voting. "(Voters) will conscientiously choose the future of our county, either to go forward or stay in the past."

Malas, a political newcomer, urged voters to select "policies that will help our country to resist and to safeguard social cohesion."

"We are determining the future of our country in a Europe that is contemplating which course it will follow given this great economic crisis," he said.

Voters understand that financial recovery will be a long, tough struggle, regardless of who wins.

"Whoever wins today will have a difficult time to overcome all these problems, because of the mistakes of the past," said Maria Constantinou, 31. "But with the right policies now, things might get better for us with the president after this new one."

Economist Evangelos Loizides, 60, said: "Things are very, very difficult for us now. A solution won't come from the politicians. It'll come from the Cypriots themselves through their hard work."

Another voter expressed doubt whether either candidate can really deliver.

"Let me put it to you this way. I prefer a Ferrari, but I can only choose between a Mitsubishi and a Toyota," said 36-year-old Panayiotis, who didn't give his last name. "We could've had better choices, more options, but this is what we're presented with."

Eurozone leaders are expected to discuss a Cyprus bailout in the latter half of March. Some have voiced doubt whether Cyprus ? which contributes only 0.2 percent to the eurozone's economy ? is really worth saving, even though Cypriot and European Union officials have warned that allowing the country to fall would jeopardize the eurozone's fragile recovery.

Cyprus has already enacted deep public sector wage cuts and tax hikes under a preliminary bailout agreement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/conservative-favored-cyprus-presidential-runoff-121852541--finance.html

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Ancient Chompers Were Healthier Than Ours

Prehistoric humans didn't have toothbrushes. They didn't have floss or toothpaste, and they certainly didn't have Listerine. Yet somehow, their mouths were a lot healthier than ours are today.

"Hunter-gatherers had really good teeth," says Alan Cooper, director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA. "[But] as soon as you get to farming populations, you see this massive change. Huge amounts of gum disease. And cavities start cropping up."

And thousands of years later, we're still waging, and often losing, our war against oral disease.

Our changing diets are largely to blame.

In a study published in the latest Nature Genetics, Cooper and his research team looked at calcified plaque on ancient teeth from 34 prehistoric human skeletons. What they found was that as our diets changed over time ? shifting from meat, vegetables and nuts to carbohydrates and sugar ? so too did the composition of bacteria in our mouths.

Not all oral bacteria are bad. In fact, many of these microbes help us by protecting against more dangerous pathogens.

However, the researchers found that as prehistoric humans transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming, certain types of disease-causing bacteria that were particularly efficient at using carbohydrates started to win out over other types of "friendly" bacteria in human mouths. The addition of processed flour and sugar during the Industrial Revolution only made matters worse.

"What you've really created is an ecosystem which is very low in diversity and full of opportunistic pathogens that have jumped in to utilize the resources which are now free," Cooper says.

And that's a problem, because the dominance of harmful bacteria means that our mouths are basically in a constant state of disease.

"You're walking around with a permanent immune response, which is not a good thing," says Cooper. "It causes problems all over the place."

In addition to oral disease, those problems may include diabetes, obesity and even heart disease.

According to Cooper, bacteria make up approximately 90 percent of the cells in our bodies. He believes that we focus too much on ourselves and not enough on this so-called microbiome.

"We brush our teeth and we floss, and we think that we've got good oral hygiene. But [we're] completely failing to deal with the underlying problem," he says. "Ten years from now, I think we're going to find that the whole microbiome is a key part of what you get monitored for and treated for."

As for right now, Cooper suggests that one way to help return your microbiome to a healthier, more balanced state might be to cut out all of those processed carbs and start eating like our ancestors.

Sounds like he's another fan of the paleo diet.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/24/172688806/ancient-chompers-were-healthier-than-ours?ft=1&f=1007

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Beckham on PSG's squad to face Marseille on Sunday

PARIS (AP) ? David Beckham could make his debut Sunday with Paris Saint-Germain when the team faces rival Marseille.

The 37-year-old former England captain has not played since making his last appearance for Los Angeles Galaxy on Dec. 1. He's stepped up his training for the game at Parc des Princes on Sunday.

"Maybe he'll start, because he's fit to start," PSG coach Carlo Ancelotti said at a news conference on Saturday. "If he starts, he'll play in central midfield."

PSG leads second-place Lyon by three points and third-place Marseille by five heading into the matches.

Beckham is looking to win championships in four different countries, after titles with Manchester United, Real Madrid and the LA Galaxy.

He also could play in the French Cup game Wednesday at home against Marseille.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beckham-psgs-squad-face-marseille-sunday-193045554--sow.html

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Best apps to help you prepare your taxes

Melanie Pinola , Lifehacker ? ? ? 10 hrs.

Question: I'm getting ready to do my taxes soon and would like to know if there are any good mobile apps or websites that will make this less painful and stressful (besides the obvious tax prep tools, of course). Help me get all the stuff I need organized!

Answer: Ah, tax season. Just the thought of it gives some of us headaches. The good news is there are lots of free and inexpensive apps and tools that can greatly simplify this awful process, from getting organized to filing your return. Here's what we recommend.

Get your tax documents in order

If you have an uncomplicated return (one W2, for example, and take the standard deduction), congratulations: You don't have to worry much about organizing your tax records. For everyone else, though, managing the piles of receipts and other documents is a big part of the pain. Several apps can help with that.

Evernote: The Swiss Army knife of note taking and capture tools, Evernote excels at keeping your documents categorized into notebooks. You can set up a tax notebook and then either sub-notebooks or tags for different categories like income statements, interest earned, charitable contributions, and the like. Combine Evernote with compact scanner Doxie or ScanSnap, and you can quickly file your receipts in Evernote. Another strategy is to use webapp automation serviceIFTTT to automatically send any emails you tag in Gmail with a tax label to your Evernote tax notebook. Handy!

Shoeboxed: If scanning and managing all those papers isn't your thing, take a look at receipt scanning solution Shoeboxed. As we've previously mentioned, you can mail, email, or upload your receipts to Shoeboxed and they'll OCR and categorize the documents for you. You can export those receipts to popular tax programs, as well as Evernote, and mobile apps are available. A free account lets you store 5 documents per month, while premium plans starting at $9.95 give you more capacity.

Slice: Slice is a brilliant receipt and package tracking webapp and mobile app. It scans your Gmail for receipts and gives you an overview of your entire purchase history. Last year, I used the convenient listing to find tax-deductible receipts I had forgotten about.

Expensify (pictured right): If you can take deductible expenses like car mileage and meals and entertainment expenses when you travel for business, Expensify has your back. The mobile apps and web receipts extension capture all those stray receipts and attachments and can turn them into IRS-approved eReceipts. It's a great app for independent contractors.

Your personal finance program and financial accounts: Of course, don't forget to consult your personal finance tool, such as popular Mint or Quicken to see spending by category and find all those deductible expenses. Both can port your information to TurboTax.

Also, your year-end statements from your credit card or bank can also come in handy if you're hunting down your tax-related expenses. (American Express has an awesome searchable and sortable view of statements by category.)

TaxCaster by TurboTax (pictured right): Want a sneak peek at how much of a refund (or tax bill) you'll get this year? This free tax refund calculator will estimate your taxes based on your quick inputs. It's available online, for Android, and for iOS.

Bloomberg BNA Quick Tax Reference: This app for Android,iPhone, and BlackBerry gives you instant access to tax rates and other handy information, such as IRA limits, mileage rates, and more. It's developed for financial professionals, but also offers useful tools like quickly calculating your total tax.

TaxACT Central: A companion app to the popular, free tax filing service, TaxACT Central can answer your tax questions and keep you organized, with a convenient checklist of what you need to file. You don't have to use TaxACT for filing to make use of the Android or iPhone app.

File your taxes and monitor your refund

We generally recommend going to a tax professional unless you have a very simple return. If yours isn't complicated, though, mobile and desktop apps can streamline filing your return and tracking your refund.

TurboTax SnapTax (pictured right): You can file your taxes in as little as ten minutes using this simple Android and iPhone app. Snap a photo of your W2, answer a few questions, and file right from the phone or online. (Isn't the future great?) This app is only for those who: make under $100,000 ($120,000 if married); only have W2, interest, or unemployment income; and don't own a home. Free to try, but $24.99 to file both federal and state.

H&R Block also offers mobile tax apps. The 1040EZ for Smartphone prepares your simple federal and state returns for free on Android and iPhone. There's also a iPad app not limited to 1040EZ returns, with free federal filing for simple returns and an additional fee for state filing.

Of course, both of these tax services (and many others) have desktop and/or webapps. Not all tax preparation software will give you the same results, though.ConsumerSearch has rounded up reviews of the top four tax prep applications, and Get Rich Slowly has an excellent (yet older) price comparison of these solutions and services.

IRS2Go: From Uncle Sam himself, IRS2Go doesn't let you file taxes from the Android oriPhone apps, but you can check the status of your refund, get tax law updates, request a copy of your tax records in the mail, and watch IRS YouTube videos. (Perhaps not the most exciting download, but we are talking about the IRS and taxes here.)

Grab these apps and put them in a new tax organization folder and you'll be set for this tax season and beyond.

More from LifeHacker:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/best-apps-help-you-prepare-your-taxes-1C8506274

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Maksim Chmerkovskiy: Leaving Dancing With the Stars (For Real This Time)?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/maksim-chmerkovskiy-leaving-dancing-with-the-stars-for-real-this/

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Take in Stock Children of Lake and Sumter Counties receives funding from Insight Credit Union

TAVARES --?

Take Stock in Children of Lake and Sumter Counties has received $5,000 from Insight Credit Union to provide a two-year Florida pre-paid scholarship to an eligible student in the community.

Credit unions were founded on the philosophy of ?people helping people? and for over 75 years, Insight Credit Union has been committed to serving those in need in the communities where we live and work.

Take Stock in Children, a program of the Educational Foundation of Lake County, identifies financially at-risk students in the eighth grade, provides them with a mentor and an advocate and then rewards them at high school graduation with a college tuition scholarship.

Local money raised for scholarships is matched through the Florida Prepaid Foundation, thus doubling the impact on the community.

For information on volunteering, mentoring or becoming a donor for the organization, email weidnerg@lake.k12.fl.us, or log on to www.edfoundationlake.com.

Source: http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2013/2/23/take_in_stock_childr/?cid=rss

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Unnecessary Medical Procedures and the Dangers of Robot Surgery

Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that in a new report aimed at improving healthcare and controlling runaway costs, a coalition of leading medical societies has identified nearly 100 medical procedures, tests and therapies that are overused and often unnecessary. The medical interventions ? including early cesarean deliveries, CT scans for head injuries in children and annual Pap tests for middle-aged women ? may be necessary in some cases, but are often not beneficial and may even cause harm. 'We are very concerned about the rapidly escalating cost of healthcare,' says Dr. Bruce Sigsbee. 'This is not healthy for the country, and something has to be done.' Each of the specialty medical societies has provided a list of five procedures that physicians and patients should question about the overuse of medical tests and procedures that provide little benefit and in some cases harm. A 2012 report from the independent Institute of Medicine estimated total waste in the system at 30%, or $750 billion a year. 'Millions of Americans are increasingly realizing that when it comes to healthcare, more is not necessarily better,' says Dr. Christine K. Cassel." According to pigrabbitbear, it's the robots we should be wary of. He writes "'We are committed to helping victims of robot surgery receive the medical care and compensation they deserve. As both a lawyer and a licensed medical doctor, Dr. Francois Blaudeau has made it his mission to fight for the victims of traumatic complications as a result of botched robot surgery.' That's the opening salvo from the medical malpractice lawyers who run the slick fear factory of a website, BadRobotSurgery.com. According to the doctor-lawyers behind it?doctor-lawyers like Francois Blaudeau, MD, JD, FACHE, FCLM?'thousands of people have suffered severe and critical complications at the hands of surgical robots. In fact, 'robotic surgery has been linked to many serious injuries and severe complications, including death.'

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/QvB-ak2hmMk/story01.htm

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Review: HBO's 'Parade's End' has fine stiff upper lip

Anglophiles rejoice. "Parade's End" is about to begin and upper lips have never been more stiff, accents more clipped nor pure hearts more tortured.

HBO's five-hour adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's masterwork examination of the delusion, repression, nobility and romance of the British spirit is lush, a bit maddening and ? after formal introductions are made ? thoroughly addicting. Written by Tom Stoppard ("Shakespeare in Love") and directed by Susanna White with a bit too much fondness for mirrors, this mammoth undertaking set in the years prior to World War I deals with love, war, class and desperate personalities.

At its center is a brilliant if stubbornly proper aristocrat, Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch), who gets suckered into marrying a saucy socialite, Sylvia (Rebecca Hall), who is pregnant with a child that may or may not be his. Soon enough, Sylvia runs off to France for a fling with another man while Christopher quietly bears it.

But then he meets, and is smitten with, a lovely young suffragette, Valentine Wannop (the lovely young Adelaide Clemens). Christopher, of course, can't act on his affection ? he's a married man. And eventually Sylvia returns to her husband, dooming them both to a life of stiff cordiality at best.

This love triangle of distances continues even as Christopher goes off to war and finds hell in the trenches. The disconnect between propriety and reality keeps the miniseries on constant edge.

The entire cast is fine, but Hall steals the show. Her Sylvia is both impossibly cruel and yet somehow oddly sympathetic, a tortured creature from another time. In "Parade's End," the march of progress is both too slow and too fast for its characters to keep step.

tlong@detroitnews.com

twitter.com/toomuchTomLong

Source: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130222/ENT10/302220312/1457/ENT10

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Judge blocks shareholder vote on Apple proposal

NEW YORK (AP) ? A federal judge is blocking Apple from conducting a shareholder vote on a package of governance proposals, handing a victory to a rebel investor who is trying to persuade the company to share more of its cash with its investors.

U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in New York ruled Friday that Apple Inc. was wrong to bundle four amendments to its corporate charter into one proposal for a vote at next Wednesday's annual meeting. Shareholders should get to vote on the amendments separately, he said. Although the ruling was preliminary, before both sides had a chance to fully make their case, Sullivan said Apple was likely to lose. He granted dissident investors a preliminary injunction against Apple pending a full trial.

Apple will comply with Sullivan's order and withdraw the issue from the agenda of next week's meeting, said Steve Dowling, a spokesman for the Cupertino, Calif., company. It had appeared on the shareholder voting list as proposal No. 2.

"We are disappointed with the court's ruling," Dowling said. "Proposal No. 2 is part of our efforts to further enhance corporate governance and serve our shareholders' best interests."

Greenlight Capital, a hedge fund run by Wall Street maverick David Einhorn, sued Apple over the proposal because it would remove the board's ability to issue preferred stock without shareholder authorization. Einhorn wants Apple to issue "iPrefs," preferred shares with a guaranteed dividend, as a way of committing the company to sharing its massive profits with shareholders.

Einhorn has been trying to rally Wall Street to vote against the Apple proposal as a way of showing their displeasure with the company's capital-allocation policies. Right now, Apple hands only a small amount of its profits to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks. The rest of the money goes in the bank, where Apple's cash hoard amounted to $137 billion at the end of last year. That amount grows by about $40 billion every year, much of it from selling trend-setting gadgets such as the iPad and the iPhone.

Investors almost universally want Apple to hand out at least some of that cash, but Einhorn hasn't gotten much support for his "iPrefs" idea or his "No on Proposal 2" campaign.

Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company's proposal puts more power in the hands of shareholders, making it difficult to understand why a shareholder would fight it. Calling Greenlight's campaign a waste of time, Cook said Apple wouldn't squander money by mailing letters to shareholders to persuade them to vote for the proposal.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the country's largest pension fund, had said it would vote for Apple's proposal, because it would have strengthened shareholder rights. Among other measures, it would let shareholders vote against directors.

Apple's stock fell 31 cents to $450.50 in extended trading after the ruling came out.

"This is a significant win for all Apple shareholders and for good corporate governance," Greenlight said in a statement. "We are pleased the court has recognized that Apple's proxy is not compliant with (federal securities) rules because it bundles different matters in Proposal 2. We look forward to Apple's evaluation of our iPref idea and we encourage fellow shareholders to urge Apple to unlock the significant value residing on its balance sheet."

A company with excess cash will usually reward shareholders by raising its dividend or issuing a one-time dividend. It could also buy back more shares. Einhorn believes none of these routes would yield as much shareholder value as the iPrefs, because their 4 percent annual dividend yield would make them attractive to investors that otherwise wouldn't look at Apple shares, such as pension funds and endowments.

Greenlight has been an Apple shareholder since 2010 and has 1.3 million shares worth about $580 million.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-22-Apple-Investors/id-f9f011c33b6b48e8b3bb611644c67be5

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Judge denies Drew Peterson new trial, sentencing expected

By Kim Vatis and Lauren Petty, NBCChicago.com

After two days of witnesses, Will County, Ill., Judge Edward Burmila on Thursday denied a new trial for convicted wife murderer Drew Peterson.

The former Bolingbrook, Ill., police sergeant's current legal team argued Peterson should get a new trial, in large part, because Peterson's longtime lead attorney, Joel Brodsky, allegedly bungled the trial.

Much of a two-day hearing centered on a witness who was called by the defense but whose testimony ended up helping the prosecution.

Tom Gianni / AP

In this courtroom sketch, Drew Peterson, left, sits before Will County Judge Edward Burmila as his defense team sought to convince the judge to grant him a new trial at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., on Wednesday, Feb. 20. The new trial was denied Thursday.

Burmila is expected to immediately sentence Peterson on his murder conviction. Peterson, 59, faces a maximum 60-year prison term.

In court Wednesday, retired judge Daniel Locallo, who was not connected to the case, testified that "it was not a reasonable trial strategy" for Brodsky to call divorce attorney Harry Smith to the stand during the murder trial.

---

Smith testified that Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, told him her husband killed his third wife, Kathleen Savio, and that he warned Stacy she had to tell someone. Several jurors said that bombshell testimony led them to convict Peterson.

"Now the jury was able to hear Stacy having conversations with Mr. Smith about it might be used in her leverage against Peterson," Locallo said, recalling how Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow called the testimony a "gift from God."

Peterson was?found guilty in September of murdering Savio. He is also a suspect in Stacy Peterson's 2007 disappearance but has not been charged in that case.

Also on NBCChicago.com:?Full coverage of the Drew Peterson murder trial

During Wednesday's hearing, the judge asked Greenberg why he and other attorneys hadn't objected to Brodsky's call to put Smith on the stand.

"You were saying (to Brodsky that calling Smith) was a death knell, a stake in the heart (of your case) ... and you didn't express that to the court?" Burmila asked Greenberg.??
?
Greenberg responded by describing Brodsky's alleged heavy-handedness, saying about his management of Peterson's six-person legal team, "It was a dictatorship, judge."
?
Sitting in an overflow courtroom listening to Greenberg's comment, Brodsky groaned and shook his head.?
?
"It's fiction. It's an absolute bald-faced lie," Brodsky told a reporter during a break in the proceedings. He also repeated his assertion that Greenberg and the rest of the attorneys had not opposed calling Smith.

Brodsky took the stand a day earlier but was not asked a single question about the decision to make Smith testify.

"The record is clear that it was a bad decision. We don't need to ask him his opinion because we don't care what his opinion is," said attorney Steve Greenberg.

Brodsky strongly refuted the notion that putting Smith on the stand was his decision alone.

"Not only did they support it, they realized it was the only move we could make, and I even have emails from (Steve) Greenberg not only approving Smith being called, but actually suggesting a question or two that I ask him," Brodsky said.

To bolster their case, Greenberg and his colleagues on Tuesday called a court watcher who testified she overheard Greenberg pleading with Brodksy in a hallway to not put Smith on the stand.

"We need him,"?she remembered Brodsky replying.

"I don't know short of laying down in the courtroom and throwing my body around the feet of Harry Smith what more I could have done,"?Greenberg said outside the Will County Courthouse Tuesday.

Also on NBCChicago.com:?Sentencing up next in Jackson family saga

Legal experts say blaming Brodsky is a longshot because Brodsky was one of five attorneys representing Peterson during the trial.

Brodsky's ethics were also called into question Tuesday by a legal professor who testified Brodsky shouldn't have hired a publicity agent for a possible book deal. Additionally, Brodsky admitted on the stand he received thousands of dollars for television licensing rights.

As he left court Tuesday, reporters asked prosecutor James Glasgow what he thought of one former trial colleague, Brodsky, being questioned by another, Greenberg. He responded that he'd never seen anything like it.

Brodsky and Greenberg have sparred in a bitter public feud recently. Brodsky left Peterson's legal team in November. But Greenberg is still on it. Greenberg initially told the judge that Brodsky didn't want to take the stand. But the judge said Brodsky had no right to refuse and ordered Brodsky to testify.

The families of both Stacy Peterson, who disappeared in October 2007, and Savio were also on hand for Tuesday's proceedings.

"I miss my sister terribly. I'm hoping that he gets what is coming to him and I?hope he gets the max,"?said Savio's sister, Susan Doman. "I definitely don't think that there is going to be a new trial. ... I'm not going to even go there."

Separately, Brodsky withdrew from?a civil case filed by Savio?s sisters on behalf of her two children. The children have signed papers to dismiss the suit.

The Associated Press contributed to this NBCChicago.com story.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/21/17045469-judge-denies-drew-peterson-new-trial-sentencing-expected?lite

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