US seizes 2,200 pieces of artwork in NJ

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) ? The massive trove of artwork arrived in New Jersey last year from Texas on an 18-wheeler ? its contents a mystery.

After five days of inventory, the haul proved to be significant: more than 1,100 pieces of art, mostly works by some of the nation's most influential photographers, including Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston.

The valuable shipment was moved again to New York, but instead of being carefully exhibited in a home in Spain as planned, it ended up in the hands of federal authorities. By the end of an investigation, authorities had seized more than 2,200 works of art appraised at nearly $16 million.

On Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark announced a Feb. 22 court filing that alleges the artwork was purchased with money collected in a scheme that sold fake credits for renewable energy. The complaint seeks to force the owner to forfeit the works.

Authorities said they were seized from a warehouse in New York in July weeks after being moved from Newark and readied for shipment to Spain via Amsterdam. The works include numerous prints by Stieglitz, including one of his famous artist wife, Georgia O'Keefe, that sold for $675,000. An Edward Steichen print titled "Greta Garbo for Vanity Fair Hollywood" was purchased for $75,000.

Authorities allege the artworks' owner, Philip Rivkin, used money fraudulently funneled through his Houston-based company, Green Diesel, to buy the art. Rivkin has not been formally charged with a crime.

Kyle Sampson, a lawyer for Rivkin, said Friday he was aware the forfeiture action was filed.

"We have not received formal notice of the forfeiture action, but I am aware that a complaint has been filed," he told The Associated Press. "We've been working for some time with the EPA in an effort to resolve their concerns and any other outstanding issues there may be."

A lawyer for Green Diesel declined comment in an email message.

Rivkin was owner and CEO of Green Diesel and a company called Fuel Streamers. Authorities allege in the complaint that Rivkin and others claimed the companies produced, purchased and imported renewable fuel. But authorities say the fuel did not exist.

By federal standards, the national stock of gasoline and diesel must contain a certain percentage of renewable fuel. Authorities allege oil companies, including Shell and Exxon, have reported a total of $78 million in losses from buying fake renewables from Green Diesel.

According to the complaint, an unnamed assistant for Rivkin told authorities that Rivkin controlled all financial accounts. "Money would come in and he (Rivkin) would move it out," the assistant told authorities.

Authorities allege Rivkin used Green Diesel's bank account and other accounts to buy at least $18 million in artwork. Rivkin tended to buy his photographs in groups, making it difficult to trace individual purchases, but authorities said they have matched 1,590 pieces of art to one credit card and four bank accounts.

In April 2012, the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation to Green Diesel, alleging it improperly generated credits that track and boost renewable fuel production. Authorities claim Rivkin arranged to have the art shipped out the year before, after learning of the investigation.

An EPA spokesman did not return a call for comment.

According to the complaint, Rivkin's assistant said Rivkin started purchasing vintage photographs after receiving the "EPA money." Much of the artwork was shipped from Houston to Newark and eventually bound for Spain, authorities said.

The assistant traveled to Geneva and Barcelona with Rivkin, the assistant told authorities. Rivkin stayed in Spain and when the assistant returned to the U.S. noticed that Rivkin's office was cleaned out and numerous documents were shredded, authorities said.

___

Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton contributed to this story.

___

Follow Zezima at www.twitter.com/katiezez

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-01-US-Energy-Fraud-Artwork/id-aae52d50acb64bbca43cb0a392eaf0c0

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Effortless Strategies For Getting Your House In Order | Team ...

When you plan on organizing your home do not think it will be tricky, but you do need to commit to a certain amount of your time and energy. Initially, you will need to lay out a format and then allocate the time necessary to work on the project. Keep in mind there is no achievement too small to make an impact; even something like cleaning out one of your drawers. Our intent is to present some ways to help you organize your home as to lessen the stress and frustration caused by the chaos.

People use so much paper, in various forms, that it must be dealt with when your home gets reorganized. Paper is still a problem for a lot of people, even in the digital age of today. Think of some of the things that people get like, junk mail, catalogs, and newspapers. You need some kind of way to organize paper stuff, like mail, so you will always know where it is at. It doesn?t matter what you use, file folders, shoe boxes, or drawers, just anything that works. If you don?t have one already, you should get yourself a good paper shredder. To get rid of clutter more safely, the shredder will cut up your old financial statements, as well as bills, and other no longer needed documents. To get rid of other things and keep them from piling up, like catalogs or junk mail, you need to have either a box, or a recycling bin.

As you can clearly see, what you will find out about home organizing is some points are far more significant than others. But that can vary a bit, and it really just depends on how you want to use the information. But we are not finished, yet, and there is usually much more to be revealed. The balance of this read contains much more that will help your particular situation. What you are about to read will greatly enhance your knowledge, and we will go even beyond that point, too.

Quite often you will find that your home has clutter and disorganization, because you have a habit of buying things that get piled up. There are so many paperback books, along with magazines, and also the tabloids, and do you really have to buy them? These are items that tend to cause clutter around the house. Every item you purchase, you should really think about, especially if it is an electronic device, but even some kind of clothing. When you want to buy something, and you don?t need it right away, two weeks is the minimum time you should wait. It might be worth buying, if, after that amount of time, you still think that you need it. Anytime you can save money by not buying a product that you really didn?t need, that is a good thing, and if it keeps your house less messy, that is a bonus.

To change the entire atmosphere of your home, the one thing that will make a big difference, is to reorganize your kitchen. First of all, get rid of any appliances that don?t work or anything that?s broken or chipped that isn?t worth repairing. This can create some extra space, and it can also be a better feeling not to have to look at broken items. Anything in the refrigerator that has gone bad or won?t be eaten, throw away, and then do the same thing to all of the cupboards. Things will look much better if you rearrange everything that you are keeping, as you are discarding things. Keep the kitchen counters as clear as possible, so put away dishes, pots, pans and appliances when you?re done using them.

You have many options available to you when it comes to organizing your home. Even the slightest action taken to uplifting your living conditions, like removing a few items or a different arrangement; can make a huge addition to the look of your home. Anytime you can steer clear of disorder and keep your living space free of clutter, you will have a clearer way of thinking.

The author is an internet marketing specialist ? who writes on numerous home cleaning subjects corresponding to house cleaning Orlando, house cleaning Orlando and green cleaning services. Absolute Cleaning Concepts ? 45 N Magnolia Ave, Orlando FL 32801 (407) 849-0983

Source: http://alfonso.sisko-hosting.com/effortless-strategies-for-getting-your-house-in-order/

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Video: Sequester skirmish: Obama, congressional leaders meet

>>> good evening. i'm michael smerconish in for chris matthews . leading off tonight, who say frad of the big bad sequester? no one apparently. certainly not the financial markets with the dow near it's all-time high. in fact, both political parties maybe more okay with the big budget cuts than you'd think. the democrats get to cut the pentagon and protect their social programs and republicans get to cut spending. right now president obama is convinced republicans will pay the price for endangering the recovery while protecting the wealthy but what if he's wrong.

>>> also, let's go to the audio tape . now we can actually hear supreme court justice antonin scalia calling the voting rights act a quote racial entitlement. that one phrase has stirred the anger of who of his more liberal colleagues and may set up some big left/right confrontations.

>>> plus, the marn toward marriage equality just got a big boost. the obama administration has joined the fight urging the supreme court to overturn proposition 8 , california's ban on same-sex marriage.

>>> and look who just emerged from the mittness protection program, mitt romney , who has just done his first tv interview since the election. the question is do even republicans want to hear from him anymore?

>>> and, finally, let me finish with a vote for transparency where it matters the most.

>>> let's begin with the politics of those automatic spending cuts going into effect today. david corn is washington bureau chief for mother jones . michael steele is the former chairman of the rnc and both are msnbc political analysts. gentlemen, the president came out swinging at republicans today after his meeting with congressional leadership blaming them for the cuts that he referred to as dumb.

>> what's important to understand is that not everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away. the pain though will be real. so every time that we get a piece of economic news over the next month, next two months, next six months, as long as the sequester is in place, we'll know that that economic news could have been better if congress had not failed to act. and let's be clear, none of this is necessary. it's happening because a choice that republicans in congress have made. i have offered negotiations around that kind of balanced approach, and so far we've gotten rebuffed because what speaker boehner and the republicans have said is we cannot do any revenue. we can't do a dime's worth of revenue. so what more do you think i should do? i am not a dictator. i am the president.

>> and on the other end of pennsylvania avenue , we didn't hear much hopefulness coming from speaker boehner either. david gregory sat down with him for an interview that will air sunday on "meet the press. ".

>> as we sit here friday afternoon, you have emerged from a meeting at the white house . there is no deal. take me inside the room. what happened?

>> very nice, polite discussion, but i had asked the president and senator reid to come with a plan to replace the sequester. listen, we've known about this for 16 months. and yet even today there's no plan from senate democrats or the white house to replace the sequester. and over the last 10 months house republicans have acted twice to replace the sequester.

>> in the end you don't really see a pathway here that's open as you sit here.

>> if i did, the meeting at the white house this morning might have gone better.

>> michael steele what strikes me as significant is that this week there didn't seem to be any real effort to avoid this. it was all for show. they came in, what, tuesday through thursday. the house was gone by last night.

>> yeah.

>> so when did they cut it loose and decide, man, we can't save this?

>> weeks ago, weeks ago. this drama has been unfolding for, like the speaker said, 16 months, but everyone i think kind of came to a general conscientious, just let it happen and then we'll deal with it afterwards weeks ago. look, both sides have an opportunity here to move this thing forward. the president instead of having the meeting today could have had the meeting on monday. you know, sort of lead into what was going to happen at midnight tonight. that didn't happen. it's because everybody -- you set it up right. the democrats are going to, you know, they can say what they want about republicans on this. republicans got the defense cuts they want. you know, everybody is looking at the --

>> is it faux outrage then?

>> i don't think it's faux outrage in terms of the impact this is going to have. when the president says there are going to be some real consequences here, fewer food inspectors, 71,000 kids won't get into head start , maybe not until september, you know, 20% of salary cuts for federal workers impacting local economies . that's all very real. but i have to call out boehner because he's playing this sort of i think a dirtier game than the president. he goes, i just need a plan. give me a plan, mr. president. give me a plan, mr. senate majority leader. the democrats in the senate yesterday voted for a plan. it got 51 votes. it didn't pass because republicans filibustered. there is a plan. the president for 16 months has been pushing a plan. close tax loopholes and put that money to deficit reduction and have a different set of not indiscriminate cuts. that's his plan.

>> do you accept the criticism of boehner .

>> boehner keeps saying where is the plan. he just doesn't like the plan.

>> that may be true, but the house put two plans on the floor. they were voted on. they weren't voted on in the senate. you know, yeah, the senate voted --

>> their plan was to take all the cuts out in the military and put nem in social --

>> but, david, you have to start some place and the problems is democrats don't want to start where you need to start and that is having an honest conversation about what are you prepared to cut, david corn ? what are you prepared to cut, president obama ? what are you prepared to put on the table? we've given you $600 billion in january in new revenue with no cuts. so show me some cuts and then we can start talking about how serious you are.

>> 16 months ago the president against some of the desires of people within his own party did put things on the table. changed cpi for social security , medicare cuts. he did, and they came up with --

>> he used the words. he didn't put a plan. what was the specific amount of chain cpi? what was the number.

>> >> these were numbers passed between gene sperling and boehner 's office 37.

>> here is what i don't like. it suits each of their political objects tiffs. i want to use chuck todd . i have been saying it but he said it beautifully. he noted this in first read this morning. yes, both sides are kicking and screaming publicly, and yes these cuts will impact people's livelihoods but if you're a republican who wants to cut spending, you're getting your spending cuts. if you're a democrat who either wants to reduce defense spending or ensure that all the cuts aren't targeted only at social programs, you're getting your wish. this is perhaps the biggest reason why these cuts are going into effect, at the end of the day they were better than the alternative for republicans raising tax locals and eliminating loopholes, for democrats having the spinding cuts come exclusively from social spending . you're shaking your head. tonight republicans are already back in their districts and they're able to say we cut spendingd.

>> i absolutely agree with chuck. i think he's framed this perfectly. that's why i said they settled on this weeks ago. so all this drama and his tir ronnics, the world is coming to an end, kids won't get educated.

>> to go back to where i started, there was nothing consequential done because it suited their interests.

>> i agree with the political analysis but the problem we have is this is about the most immature way of approaching real problems that we have in this country. and i do believe -- you know, you can go to people like norm oranstein and thomas man who are centrists who say the conflicts within the republican's own side have made them tougher partners to get involved in a deal with the president and that's where we've been for the last two years, where we are now. bain ser asking for plans because he can't really cut a compromise.

>> let me put a period on this. we're not going to move beyond this conversation and the one we see unfolded this week until both sides realize each of them, their stuff stinks. the president's stuff stinks --

>> what's that going to take?

>> it's going to take the realization and i think it's going to be in 30 to 45 days when some of the cuts begin to trickle into the economy and people begin to feel it, that pressure is going to come back. the president is playing a real gamble here because i don't think this is all going to fall neatly on the republicans ' lap. this thing is going sto get spread on --

>> here is something else --

>> but if you look -- sorry, michael , but if you look at what the public says about how to solve that --

>> that's what they say today. let's see that they're saying in four weeks.

>> for 9 last year they have been --

>> guys, here is something that baffles me, it's what the market is doing. if the economy is going to feel the effects of the spending cuts, the markets sure haven't been scared yet. the dow closed just under 14,090 inching closer to the record of a little more than 14,164. i always think that these masters of the universe on wall street , they have it figured out, they're three steps ahead of us. why aren't they nervous?

>> didn't we learn in october 2007 that they're not always three steps ahead and they don't know what they're doing? they don't know what they're talking about? irrational exuberance? remember that? i think they have gotten used to the fact that washington has these manufactured crises. we have one cliff after another, and that they tend to sort of be worked out on a temporary basis. at pom point that might stop helping.

>> michael , whas your explanation?

>> it may stop happening but i think they've baked all of this into their form layings for the next few months. they know what's going to happen. we have fiscal cliff part deux or whatever you want to call it in the next few weeks. they know what the deal is. they're like let's ride this thing. when the boys and girls in the playground decide to come and do what they need to do --

>> i can't let the week end with the "a" team sitting on "hardball" without mentioning two boards, bob woodward . quickly the take on how that impacted this whole sfertion?

>> i'm in this business largely because of bob woodward , i was a big fan of his during watergate. i think it was unfortunate. he made too much of a deal over what gene wrote. it wasn't a threat. it was an apology. i think politico hyped it up because it makes good ratings, good for clicks and it became a temp pest in a teapot that evaporated just as right wing talk radio and tv was trying to make a big deal out of it.

>> what i didn't like was when woodward read allowed on politico from the e-mail he left out the words as a friend which i thought changed the whole meaning of it.

>> i'm sorry, i'm really sorry.

>> you ought to see my e-mail day to day . this is>> i have gotten treatment from the white house , this white house when they haven't like what i have said that is far worse than that. i would like to get notes like that.

>> michael , on the fundamental issue, woodward's the most credible of individuals to say, hey, this was the president's idea.

>> and that's the real rub for the white house and for everyone. this was the president's idea. it came from his economic team. so, okay, let's get past that --

>> everyone accepted it --

>> this is the point. the bottom line is when you got the left trashing bob woodward and the right embracing we're in a whole new landscape, folks.

>> thank you both for being here. michael steele and david corn . we appreciate you. coming up, we were stunned to read what supreme court justice antonin scalia had to say about the landmark voting rights act , that it's an example of a racial entitlement. now we can hear scalia speak for himself and the other justices who challenged him. this is "hardball," the place for politics. with the spark miles

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/hardball/51011836/

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Sequester blame game continues as government shutdown looms (cbsnews)

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Sandy's scars still visible on N.J. shore

The Jet Star roller coaster, in the ocean since Sandy, will be removed in coming days (Mark Wilson/Getty Image??

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J.?People have come from hundreds of miles away to see it, sneaking past the yellow caution tape and heavy police guard onto a closed beach still littered with jagged pieces of debris four months after Superstorm Sandy nearly swept away this tiny oceanfront town.

The Jet Star roller coaster, sucked from the Casino Pier amusement park into the Atlantic Ocean by the storm, has become an iconic image of the horror and destruction left in Sandy?s wake. There?s something hauntingly beautiful about the sight of a roller coaster submerged in the sea?the strange way its frame reflects off the water in the early morning light and how the waves expand and retract around it, as if it had been built there in the first place.

As Casino Pier finalizes plans to finally begin removing it from the ocean in coming days, the Jet Star, for many here, is a sad, if beautiful, reminder of everything Sandy has taken away in a city struggling to fight its way back.

?You look out there, and you just want to cry,? said Kathie Kirckof, a Seaside Heights resident who lost everything when her beachside home in nearby Ortley Beach was flooded by the storm. ?So many memories, just gone. All people want is just to feel normal again, yet it?s really anything but that here. It just feels eerie.?

Last weekend, Seaside Heights was forced to cancel one of its biggest winter attractions?the annual Polar Bear Plunge, a chilly swimming event that usually attracts thousands of people. But with the Jet Star and other debris in the water and the beach still closed, the Plunge was moved upstate to Long Branch?a disappointment to businesses that had been closed for weeks and hoped to see customers return.

Four months after the storm, efforts to rebuild Seaside Heights have been minimal at best. The old boardwalk, left in splinters by Sandy?s massive storm surge, has largely been carted away as the city last week began work on a new boardwalk it hopes to open by May, the kickoff of the summer tourist season, which is crucial to the city?s economy.

?We are going to have [the boardwalk] finished by May because we absolutely have to,? Seaside Heights Mayor William Akers told Yahoo News. ?Yes, it?s an ambitious schedule, but if we don?t do this it will be a huge blow, and we can?t take it. It would be economic suicide.?

There?s also a symbolic reason Akers and other Seaside Heights leaders are working so hard to revive the city. This summer, Seaside Heights turns 100 years old?a benchmark the city is determined to celebrate.

But the boardwalk is one of the few obvious signs of progress. Seaside Heights, made famous for its starring role in MTV?s reality show ?Jersey Shore,? feels like a ghost town. Just 16 blocks long?all of which is nestled along the ocean?the city is empty and still. There?s little traffic and almost no people except for an occasional smattering of tourists looking for a glimpse of the Jet Star or other storm damage along the boardwalk.

On one recent afternoon, the only cars on the street were about a half dozen police cruisers trying to keep people away from the closed beach area. ?It?s what we do all day,? one officer, who declined to be named because he wasn?t allowed to talk to the media, explained. ?We just chase the storm tourists away.?

One of those tourists was Dorothy Dabronski who, with her husband Stan, had driven from their home in Bayonne, N.J., to see the damage firsthand.

?I have been coming here for decades,? Dabronski said. ?I wanted to see for myself what it looked like.? Glancing around, she declared, ?It?s really sad.?

Around town, fewer than two dozen businesses have reopened in the aftermath of the storm as many continue to wait for insurance companies to answer their damage claims. A handful of bars are aiming to open next week, ahead of the city?s March 9 St. Patrick?s Day parade?an event that has long been one of the city?s biggest tourist weekends and has taken on a special air of significance this year as the town tries to get back to normal. But in a sign of how tenuous that commitment is, many of those buildings were still locked up last week, with no signs of life.

Some business owners have taken it upon themselves to try to earn the money needed to reopen. Along Ocean Terrace, the closest road to the beach, employees of Vinny's Games have set up a temporary booth to try to woo those passing by into playing a dart game involving balloons.

Joe Franzi, a manager at Vinny?s, explained they were trying to raise money to rebuild their stand along the boardwalk, which had been heavily damaged by the eight-foot storm surge. Recent business, Franzi said, has been ?pretty good some days and just OK on others.?

?There are a few people who walk by and stop in during the day, and some people just give us donations,? Franzi said. ?Little by little, we?re trying to get back to normal. It?s tough, but we?re trying. It?s good for people to see us trying. You want to make people feel good, to remind them of what having fun feels like. We need that.?

But, he admitted, it?s not always easy. Franzi, who lives in nearby Toms River and has worked the Seaside Heights boardwalk for 23 years, said he broke down when he first saw the damage after the storm and sometimes still gets emotional when thinking about what the city has lost.

?I just cried,? Franzi said. ?It?s hard to take. ... I know we'll rebuild, but it?s going to take awhile. And I wonder if it will be the same.?

Down the road, Captain Hook?s Bar reopened early last month after its building had been flooded by more than four feet of water and sludge from the surge. The owners had to replace almost everything?from the coolers behind the bar to the video games out front. The atmosphere, they said, hasn?t quite been the same.

?It?s been quiet,? said Kirckof, who tends bar at Captain Hook?s. ?We have some of our locals who come in, but a lot of people haven?t come back to the city?and may not come back. You just don?t know.?

Kirckof guessed that some customers were being scared off by the empty streets and heavy police presence?admitting her city looks more like a ?war zone? than the laid-back ?island community? it used to be. At the same time, she worried that people don?t understand the struggles that Seaside Heights still faces.

At her second job, as a hairdresser on the far side of Tom?s River in a more inland part of the state, Kirckof said many people she talked to ?had gone on with their lives? after Sandy and seemed unaware of the ?war zone feeling? that still engulfs Seaside Heights.

?I don?t mean to sound like I am whining, but we're all living by the skin of our teeth now. A lot of people were out of work for months. Flood insurance is a joke. We're replacing all of our belongings. It?s the worst thing I have ever gone through in my life,? Kirckof said. ?To see your friends and neighbors and the people you care about walking around like zombies, just blank stares because they're so traumatized, it?s hard. All we want is for things to go back to normal. But what is normal anymore for us?"

Even as May has emerged as an important benchmark for Seaside Heights and its future, Akers is the first to admit everything won?t be as it was in summers past. Along the boardwalk, where shops and eateries still remain boarded up, some vendors have been noncommittal about how soon they will be able to reopen. Around town, houses once rented as vacation homes remain washed off their foundations. Others that withstood the flood remain heavily damaged?empty since the storm.

Funtown Pier, the second of the two major amusement parks in town, won?t reopen until the summer of 2014. Meanwhile, officials at Casino Pier are aiming to have at least part of its park open by Memorial Day. But according to Toby Wolf, a marketing manager at the park, the pier won?t fully reopen until at least next summer, after the upper pier, where the Jet Star and four other rides were washed into the ocean, is rebuilt.

?It?s extremely important to us, as a company, to get people back to work,? Wolf said. ?It?s important to us as a business, but it?s also important to the city. The boardwalk is really the heart of the city.?

?Everywhere I go, people ask me if we will be ready, if the beach will be open, and my answer is that we will be,? Akers said, noting the extra pressure due to the town's 100th anniversary. ?After everything we went through with Sandy, this is a new beginning. We can do this. We have to do this."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/four-months-sandy-seaside-heights-struggles-sense-normal-153010102--finance.html

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Cell movement explained by molecular recycling

Feb. 28, 2013 ? Scientists at The University of Manchester have identified the method by which cells control the recycling of molecules, a process that is essential for them to move. The discovery provides researchers with a better understanding of how our bodies heal wounds.

Working under Professor Martin Humphries, the Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, Dr Mark Morgan and his team at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Matrix Research studied the role of integrins. These molecules are able to grab hold of the fibres surrounding the cell, like hands, allowing the cell to drag its self along. However, there are several types of integrin on the cell surface and they all have different properties which affect how quickly the cell can move.

Once they have been used by the cell, integrins are moved from the surface to a store inside the cell. When the time is right they are recycled back to the cell surface where they can bind with the surrounding fibres once again.

What the team uncovered is the method by which cells dynamically control the type of integrins that are recycled. They found that another molecule on the surface of the cell, called syndecan-4, is able to detect and interpret subtle changes in the cell's surroundings to decide how it should respond. By regulating where and when the different integrins are delivered to the cell surface, syndecan-4 precisely regulates cell movement and exploration.

Dr Morgan says: "Syndecan-4 plays a critical role in regulating wound healing, so ultimately, we hope that this work will inform the development of novel therapeutic strategies to improve wound healing."

Most cells in the body are able to crawl through the dense network of fibres that surround them. This migration process is essential for repairing wounds, tracking down infection and maintaining tissue function.

In order for a cell to move efficiently, it needs to precisely control which integrins are able to bind to the fibres. At certain times and places they need to bind strongly, whereas at other points they need to bind more weakly, and only when these processes are regulated appropriately can a cell migrate properly.

By studying the movement of fibroblast cells using sophisticated imaging techniques, Dr Morgan and the team identified the role of Syndecan-4. They found that it decodes the vast array of signals outside the cell and functions as a molecular switch to dictate whether the strong or weak binding integrins are recycled.

Dr Morgan explains: "When we changed the way Syndecan-4 senses the environment outside the cell, we were able to alter the way that it transmits signals into the cell and control integrin recycling. By manipulating the molecules in this way we found that we could either force the cells to move in a fast forward motion or stop altogether."

Their findings have been published in the journal Developmental Cell.

The next step will be to investigate how Syndecan-4 can be manipulated to control cell movement with a view to developing novel therapeutic strategies to improve wound healing. It will also be important to test whether this mechanism is involved in tumour progression and metastasis as disruptions in cell movement are often seen in cancer, as well as in vascular disorders and chronic inflammatory disease.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Manchester, via AlphaGalileo.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Mark?R. Morgan, Hellyeh Hamidi, Mark?D. Bass, Stacey Warwood, Christoph Ballestrem, Martin?J. Humphries. Syndecan-4 Phosphorylation Is a Control Point for Integrin Recycling. Developmental Cell, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2013.01.027

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/Q-d8Ol5EJkU/130228124045.htm

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Sony HQ in Tokyo Sold for Y111 Billion ? Real Estate Japan | Tokyo ...

Electronics giant, Sony Corp., announced that it has sold its Tokyo office building to Nippon Building Fund and to an unnamed Japanese institutional investor for 111 billion yen.

This decision came after the company announced that it was also planning to sell its office in Manhattan for more than $1 billion.

The Tokyo headquarters was completed in 2011 and the site where it was built was once known as the company?s ?holy land,? where also the Trinitron TV was launched.

The 25-story building houses 5,000 workers on Sony?s TV and audio division. Although the building was? officially sold to investors, Sony has made it clear that the division would remain in the central Tokyo building for 5 years?under a leasing agreement.

According to Sony representatives, the company is revamping its business portfolio and the sale of the building is part of this reorganization.? The corporate overhaul involves thousands of job cuts, the sale of its chemical division and an investment in Olympus to help maintain its place in the global market.

The company?s stock plummeted below 1,000 yen a share in the previous year for the first time since the Walkman was released. The stock has since come back, going up 3.56% at 1,338 yen on Thursday in Tokyo. Because of the strong yen, the slow demand on key export markets and the fierce competition from other firms outside Japan, Sony decided to take appropriate action, starting with corporate reorganization and reanalyzing their business strategies.

Source: JapanTodayPhoto by?mk7?via Creative Commons?

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Source: http://www.realestate.co.jp/2013/03/01/sony-hq-in-tokyo-sold-for-y111-billion/

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