The Helper

The natural world often provides the answer to unsolved medical problems. On this occasion, the solution to a challenge posed by cancer has come about from the immune system of camelids. A study headed by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), in Belgium, describes a number of therapeutic tools that have the capacity to block the activity of EGF, a growth factor that is dysregulated in cancer cells.

EGF (Epidermal Growth Factor) is a therapeutic target in cancer; however, no inhibitors have been found for it to date. The team of researchers is the first to identify a family of nanobodies—antibodies that are exclusive to camelids—derived from alpacas that are effective against EGF. In this regard, they have described the molecular mechanisms underlying the affinity and selectivity of these nanobodies in an article published in the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie.

"In spite of advances in treatments against the EGR receptor (EGFR) in patients, their efficacy decreases over time because patients develop resistance," explain Monica Varese and Salvador Guardiola, co-authors of the study and postdoctoral researchers at IRB Barcelona. "By taking advantage of an emerging biotech tool, nanobodies, we have been able to synthesise the first inhibitors with high affinity for EGF," they say.

IRB Barcelona produced the EGF protein and their Belgian colleagues administered it to alpacas. The immune...

Greetings Raiders, Tinkerers, Harbingers, and Wardens,

Over the past 15 years, the community created hostbots, mastered the arcane art of port forwarding, and passed down knowledge of the most popular maps. Self-solves, workarounds, and the resolute desire to keep friends playing; hallmarks of why we love this game and those of you actively contributing to its legacy.

We’ve been working on direct fixes to those server-based problems as we addressed issues that couldn’t be self-solved beyond the codebase like widescreen support, hardware cursor, anticheat, and balance.

We’re excited to bring these next evolutions in the restoration of online play over Battle.net.

Specific Changes & Improvements

• Maps will now be uploaded and downloaded from the cloud
• All custom games from all gateways are now visible in the lobby browser
• Port forwarding is no longer required to host your favorite map
• Encrypted network traffic

Bug Fixes

• Desyncs with certain custom maps resolved
• Custom sound files with meta data play again
• External links from Battle.net load
• Breath of Fire translated in Italian

Known Issues

• Cloud downloads for mac causes the game to freeze if connecting to a windows host.
• Arranged teams dont work (fix in progress)

Note: If you click through the updater UI too fast it might show a conflicting actions error. Please wait a little longer on the EULA screen to avoid the issue.

PTR Installer...

This is a 2-part news article about Nintendo's hottest craze on Twitter, Bowsette.

Who the Hell Is Bowsette and Why Is the Internet Obsessed With Her

If you've made it this far, it's already too late. The phenomenon known as Bowsette is dominating the internet and there's no turning back from the character created through a cruel morphing of Peach and Bowser.

Seriously, the Bowsette hybrid has gone on to inspire countless amounts of fan art, cosplay, and even a custom amiibo in just a matter of days. Most depict Bowsette as Peach donned with black apparel, spikes, two horns, and a strange affect that makes it hard to look away.

What makes this lunacy even more absurd is the fact that Bowsette is actually Bowser who has been transformed, seemingly leaving Peach out of the entire process.

So, how did it come to this? It all started with a short segment from this month's Nintendo Direct. During the announcement trailer for New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Toadette was revealed as a new playable character. Then, without warning, a new power-up known as the Super Crown made its first appearance. Touching it as Toadette will transform you into a Peach look-alike named Peachette and the implications of such a powerful item were...

Astronomers have discovered a planet twice the size of Earth orbiting the nearby star 40 Eridani — precisely where Star Trek character Spock’s home planet Vulcan supposedly lies.

Bo Ma at the University of Florida in Gainesville and his colleagues used a 1.3-metre telescope in Arizona to find the planet, which is about 8.5 times the mass of Earth and orbits its star every 42 days. That star, known as HD 26965 or 40 Eridani, is roughly the same age as the Sun, but slightly cooler and less massive. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wrote in 1991 that 40 Eridani is Vulcan’s home star.

40 Eridani is a triple star system, and the newfound planet orbits the system’s primary star, just as Vulcan purportedly does. At 5 parsecs (about 16 light years) from Earth, the star is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.

Like Earth, the planet may have a gassy atmosphere. However, it is a little too close to its star for life as we know it to prosper.

Source (Nature)

Commonly used household cleaners could be making children overweight by altering their gut microbiota, suggests a Canadian study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

The study analyzed the gut flora of 757 infants from the general population at age 3-4 months and weight at ages 1 and 3 years, looking at exposure to disinfectants, detergents and eco-friendly products used in the home.

Researchers from across Canada looked at data from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) birth cohort on microbes in infant fecal matter. They used World Health Organization growth charts for body mass index (BMI) scores.

Associations with altered gut flora in babies 3-4 months old were strongest for frequent use of household disinfectants such as multisurface cleaners, which showed lower levels of Haemophilus and Clostridium bacteria but higher levels of Lachnospiraceae. The researchers also observed an increase in Lachnospiraceae bacteria with more frequent cleaning with disinfectants. They did not find the same association with detergents or eco-friendly cleaners. Studies of piglets have found similar changes in the gut microbiome when exposed to aerosol disinfectants.

"We found that infants living in households with disinfectants being used at least weekly were twice as likely to have higher levels of the gut microbes Lachnospiraceae at age 3-4 months; when they were 3 years old, their body mass index was higher than children...

Encouraging children “to help,” rather than asking them to “be helpers,” can instill persistence as they work to fulfill daily tasks that are difficult to complete, finds a new psychology study.

The research, conducted by a team of New York University scientists, suggests that using verbs to talk about actions with children, such as encouraging them to help, read, and paint, may help lead to more resilience following the setbacks that they inevitably experience rather than using nouns to talk about identities—for example, asking them to be helpers, readers, or artists.

The results run somewhat counter to those of a 2014 study that showed asking children to “be helpers” instead of “to help” subsequently led them to help more.

The difference between the 2014 work and the new scholarship, both of which appear in the journal Child Development, is that the latter tested what happened after children experienced setbacks while trying to help, underscoring how language choice is linked to children’s perseverance.

“The new research shows how subtle features of language can shape child behavior in ways not previously understood,” explains Marjorie Rhodes, an associate professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and the senior author of the study. “In particular, using verbs to talk to children about behavior—such as ‘you can help’—can lead to more determination following setbacks than using nouns to talk about identities—for instance, ‘you can be a helper’.”...

For centuries millions of men and women around the world have waited patiently for the rightful chief of their ancient Scottish clan to be found.

But for the last 337 years no-one has been able to verify a claim to the title. That was until a genealogist promised his grandmother he would solve the mystery before he died.

Now a millionaire landowner has been announced as the chief of Clan Buchanan which has been without a head since 1681 after the 15th chief John Buchanan died, leaving no male heir or arrangements for his title to be passed on.

John Michael Baillie-Hamilton Buchanan, 60, who owns Cambusmore Estate near Callander, has been accepted as head of the clan thanks to the work of genealogist Hugh Peskett.

The 85-year-old, who famously traced President Ronald Reagan’s Irish ancestry in the 1980s, became a genealogist 50 years ago after his grandmother who was a Buchanan clanswoman herself urged him to find the rightful chief.

Decades of genealogical work has allowed Mr Baillie-Hamilton Buchanan, now known as The Buchanan, to verify the claim of chief.

Read more here. (The Telegraph UK)

Toddlers aged just 1 1/2 years prefer individuals whom other people yield to. It appears to be deeply rooted in human nature to seek out those with the highest social status. This motive might have evolved because being close to high-ranking individuals has given people access to resources, territory and mates.

They have only just learnt to walk and talk - and have only just started to develop social relationships with children of their own age. Yet, these tiny toddlers already use cues of social status to decide which people they prefer or would rather avoid. This has just been established by researchers from Aarhus BSS and the University of California, Irvine, through experiments carried out on toddlers aged 21 to 31 months.

Previous research has shown that even nine-month-old infants can grasp a simple conflict of interest. When two individuals block each other’s path, the infants will automatically assume that the largest person will defeat the smallest. Lotte Thomsen, professor of psychology at the University of Oslo and associate professor at Aarhus BSS, and her colleagues, established this.

Now researchers are taking it one step further by demonstrating how toddlers also themselves prefer to affiliate with the winners of these conflicts and avoid those who they have seen yield to others. The research results have recently been published in Nature Human Behavior in the article ”Toddlers prefer those who win, but not when they win by force”....

Switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy is an important and necessary step towards averting climate change. However, in our efforts to go green, we also need to be mindful of other consequences, both intended and unintended – and that includes how a mass deployment of renewable technology might affect its surrounding climate.

What if the Sahara desert was turned into a giant solar and wind farm, for instance? This is the topic of new research published in Science by Yan Li and colleagues. They found that all those hypothetical wind turbines and solar panels would make their immediate surroundings both warmer and rainier, and could turn parts of the Sahara green for the first time in at least 4,500 years.

The scientists behind the research looked at the maximum amount of solar and wind energy that could be generated in the Sahara desert and the transition region to its south, the Sahel. The two regions were picked as they are relatively plausible sites for such an enormous roll-out of renewable energy, being fairly near to substantial demand from Europe and the Middle East, while having limited other demands on the land. Both have substantial potential resources of wind and solar energy. Li and colleagues also suggest that The Sahel, in particular, could also benefit from economic...