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Medicine | explorehealthcareers.org

Posted on August 29, 2015 by Danzig

For more information on careers in this field, see the list on the right. For salary ranges, schooling requirements and more, check out the Career Explorer.

Physicians (M.D.s/D.O.s) diagnose illness and injury, prescribe and administer treatment and advise patients about how to prevent and manage disease.

There are two paths to becoming a doctor:allopathic medicine, which leads to an M.D. (medical doctor), or osteopathic medicine,which leads to a D.O. (doctor of osteopathic medicine).

To learn more about pursuing a career in allopathic medicine, see the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) site,www.AspiringDocs.org. To find accredited osteopathic medical schools, see theAmerican Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicinewebsite. The American Osteopathic Association includes an updated global map detailing theInternational Practice Rights for Osteopathic Physicians.

AAMC posts informativepodcastson topics of interest to students considering a career in medicine. AAMC also has anAsk the Expertscolumn that provides authoritative perspectives on issues related to becoming a doctor.

TheAmerican Medical Association(AMA) and theAmerican Osteopathic Association(AOA)also have helpful guidelines for anyone considering a medical career. Whether you opt to become an allopathic or osteopathic physician, you must take theMedical College Admission Test (MCAT)before applying to any med school program.

For a fascinating glimpse into the real-life experiences of seven doctors, see NOVA Online's special feature,"Doctors Diaries."

Note:The cost of earning a degree in medicine is high, but different avenues are available for funding your education. TheAssociation of American Medical Colleges also offers resources on itsFinancial Information, Resources, Services and Tools (FIRST) webpage.

Link:

Medicine | explorehealthcareers.org

Molecular Medicine Graduate Programs – Wake Forest School …

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Danzig

From its home within the Department of Internal Medicine Section on Molecular Medicine, the Molecular Medicine and Translational Science program trains PhD students in research to better understand human diseases at a molecular level and translate that knowledge to improved diagnostics, treatment, and disease prevention. The MMTS program includes scientists from all major basic science and clinical programs at Wake Forest University and was one of the first established molecular medicine programs nationwide. Beginning in 2011, MMTS joined four other complementary PhD programs in the Wake Forest University Graduate Schools Molecular and Cellular Biosciences track, where combined expertise will be utilized to enhance the depth of student learning and discovery.

To learn more about the MMTS degree programs and their requirements, or aboutthe program's accomplished faculty, please follow the links on the left.

Program Directors and Contacts

Director: John S. Parks, PhD,Professor Department of Internal Medicine Molecular Medicine Phone: 336-716-2145 Email:jparks@wakehealth.edu

Co-Director: Robert N. Taylor, MD, PhD, Professor Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Phone: 336-716-5451 Email: rtaylor@wakehealth.edu

Program Recruiter: Michael C. Seeds, PhD, Assistant Professor Department of Internal Medicine - Molecular Medicine Phone: 336-713-4259 E-mail: mseeds@wakehealth.edu

MMTS Policies and Procedures

MMTS Graduate Program Faculty

Molecular Medicine Journal Club

Molecular Medicine Graduate Programs - Wake Forest School ...

Cyborg & Miesha Tate — We Got Screwed … We Should Be …

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Danzig

We Got Screwed We Should Be Fighting Ronda 8/26/2015 12:45 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF

EXCLUSIVE

Cris "Cyborg" Justino says Ronda Rousey is straight DUCKING HER and has been for years -- and she's now calling out the UFC champ ... saying she wants the next fight.

Cyborg has been out in Philly with fellow MMA badass Miesha Tate to shoot the movie "Fight Valley: Knockaround Girls" ... when we asked how they felt about getting passed over for the main event at UFC 195.

Obviously, they weren't happy about it ... but both Tate andCyborg say they're ready to brawl with Rousey any time, any where.

"It's not my choice, it's her choice," Cyborg said ... "I'm ready. Let's go fight."

As for Tate, she says her rematch is just a matter of time -- "That day will come and we will see that fight again."

Rousey has to get through Holly Holm first ... who happens to be co-starring in the movie with Cyborg and Tate.

Maybe they can strategize together ...

See original here:

Cyborg & Miesha Tate -- We Got Screwed ... We Should Be ...

Nanobiotechnology – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted on August 27, 2015 by ev1

Nanobiotechnology, bionanotechnology, and nanobiology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology.[1] Given that the subject is one that has only emerged very recently, bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology serve as blanket terms for various related technologies.

This discipline helps to indicate the merger of biological research with various fields of nanotechnology. Concepts that are enhanced through nanobiology include: nanodevices (such as biological machines), nanoparticles, and nanoscale phenomena that occurs within the discipline of nanotechnology. This technical approach to biology allows scientists to imagine and create systems that can be used for biological research. Biologically inspired nanotechnology uses biological systems as the inspirations for technologies not yet created.[2] However, as with nanotechnology and biotechnology, bionanotechnology does have many potential ethical issues associated with it.

The most important objectives that are frequently found in nanobiology involve applying nanotools to relevant medical/biological problems and refining these applications. Developing new tools, such as peptoid nanosheets, for medical and biological purposes is another primary objective in nanotechnology. New nanotools are often made by refining the applications of the nanotools that are already being used. The imaging of native biomolecules, biological membranes, and tissues is also a major topic for the nanobiology researchers. Other topics concerning nanobiology include the use of cantilever array sensors and the application of nanophotonics for manipulating molecular processes in living cells.[3]

Recently, the use of microorganisms to synthesize functional nanoparticles has been of great interest. Microorganisms can change the oxidation state of metals. These microbial processes have opened up new opportunities for us to explore novel applications, for example, the biosynthesis of metal nanomaterials. In contrast to chemical and physical methods, microbial processes for synthesizing nanomaterials can be achieved in aqueous phase under gentle and environmentally benign conditions. This approach has become an attractive focus in current green bionanotechnology research towards sustainable development.[4]

The terms are often used interchangeably. When a distinction is intended, though, it is based on whether the focus is on applying biological ideas or on studying biology with nanotechnology. Bionanotechnology generally refers to the study of how the goals of nanotechnology can be guided by studying how biological "machines" work and adapting these biological motifs into improving existing nanotechnologies or creating new ones.[5][6] Nanobiotechnology, on the other hand, refers to the ways that nanotechnology is used to create devices to study biological systems.[7]

In other words, nanobiotechnology is essentially miniaturized biotechnology, whereas bionanotechnology is a specific application of nanotechnology. For example, DNA nanotechnology or cellular engineering would be classified as bionanotechnology because they involve working with biomolecules on the nanoscale. Conversely, many new medical technologies involving nanoparticles as delivery systems or as sensors would be examples of nanobiotechnology since they involve using nanotechnology to advance the goals of biology.

The definitions enumerated above will be utilized whenever a distinction between nanobio and bionano is made in this article. However, given the overlapping usage of the terms in modern parlance, individual technologies may need to be evaluated to determine which term is more fitting. As such, they are best discussed in parallel.

Most of the scientific concepts in bionanotechnology are derived from other fields. Biochemical principles that are used to understand the material properties of biological systems are central in bionanotechnology because those same principles are to be used to create new technologies. Material properties and applications studied in bionanoscience include mechanical properties(e.g. deformation, adhesion, failure), electrical/electronic (e.g. electromechanical stimulation, capacitors, energy storage/batteries), optical (e.g. absorption, luminescence, photochemistry), thermal (e.g. thermomutability, thermal management), biological (e.g. how cells interact with nanomaterials, molecular flaws/defects, biosensing, biological mechanisms s.a. mechanosensing), nanoscience of disease (e.g. genetic disease, cancer, organ/tissue failure), as well as computing (e.g. DNA computing). The impact of bionanoscience, achieved through structural and mechanistic analyses of biological processes at nanoscale, is their translation into synthetic and technological applications through nanotechnology.

Nano-biotechnology takes most of its fundamentals from nanotechnology. Most of the devices designed for nano-biotechnological use are directly based on other existing nanotechnologies. Nano-biotechnology is often used to describe the overlapping multidisciplinary activities associated with biosensors, particularly where photonics, chemistry, biology, biophysics, nano-medicine, and engineering converge. Measurement in biology using wave guide techniques, such as dual polarization interferometry, are another example.

Applications of bionanotechnology are extremely widespread. Insofar as the distinction holds, nanobiotechnology is much more commonplace in that it simply provides more tools for the study of biology. Bionanotechnology, on the other hand, promises to recreate biological mechanisms and pathways in a form that is useful in other ways.

Nanomedicine is a field of medical science whose applications are increasing more and more thanks to nanorobots and biological machines, which constitute a very useful tool to develop this area of knowledge. In the past years, researchers have done many improvements in the different devices and systems required to develop nanorobots. This supposes a new way of treating and dealing with diseases such as cancer; thanks to nanorobots, side effects of chemotherapy have been controlled, reduced and even eliminated, so some years from now, cancer patients will be offered an alternative to treat this disease instead of chemotherapy, which causes secondary effects such as hair lose, fatigue or nausea killing not only cancerous cells but also the healthy ones. At a clinical level, cancer treatment with nanomedicine will consist on the supply of nanorobots to the patient through an injection that will seek for cancerous cells leaving untouched the healthy ones. Patients that will be treated through nanomedicine will not notice the presence of this nanomachines inside them; the only thing that is going to be noticeable is the progressive improvement of their health.[8]

Nanobiotechnology (sometimes referred to as nanobiology) is best described as helping modern medicine progress from treating symptoms to generating cures and regenerating biological tissues. Three American patients have received whole cultured bladders with the help of doctors who use nanobiology techniques in their practice. Also, it has been demonstrated in animal studies that a uterus can be grown outside the body and then placed in the body in order to produce a baby. Stem cell treatments have been used to fix diseases that are found in the human heart and are in clinical trials in the United States. There is also funding for research into allowing people to have new limbs without having to resort to prosthesis. Artificial proteins might also become available to manufacture without the need for harsh chemicals and expensive machines. It has even been surmised that by the year 2055, computers may be made out of biochemicals and organic salts.[9]

Another example of current nanobiotechnological research involves nanospheres coated with fluorescent polymers. Researchers are seeking to design polymers whose fluorescence is quenched when they encounter specific molecules. Different polymers would detect different metabolites. The polymer-coated spheres could become part of new biological assays, and the technology might someday lead to particles which could be introduced into the human body to track down metabolites associated with tumors and other health problems. Another example, from a different perspective, would be evaluation and therapy at the nanoscopic level, i.e. the treatment of Nanobacteria (25-200nm sized) as is done by NanoBiotech Pharma.

While nanobiology is in its infancy, there are a lot of promising methods that will rely on nanobiology in the future. Biological systems are inherently nano in scale; nanoscience must merge with biology in order to deliver biomacromolecules and molecular machines that are similar to nature. Controlling and mimicking the devices and processes that are constructed from molecules is a tremendous challenge to face the converging disciplines of nanotechnology.[10] All living things, including humans, can be considered to be nanofoundries. Natural evolution has optimized the "natural" form of nanobiology over millions of years. In the 21st century, humans have developed the technology to artificially tap into nanobiology. This process is best described as "organic merging with synthetic." Colonies of live neurons can live together on a biochip device; according to research from Dr. Gunther Gross at the University of North Texas. Self-assembling nanotubes have the ability to be used as a structural system. They would be composed together with rhodopsins; which would facilitate the optical computing process and help with the storage of biological materials. DNA (as the software for all living things) can be used as a structural proteomic system - a logical component for molecular computing. Ned Seeman - a researcher at New York University - along with other researchers are currently researching concepts that are similar to each other.[11]

DNA nanotechnology is one important example of bionanotechnology.[12] The utilization of the inherent properties of nucleic acids like DNA to create useful materials is a promising area of modern research. Another important area of research involves taking advantage of membrane properties to generate synthetic membranes. Proteins that self-assemble to generate functional materials could be used as a novel approach for the large-scale production of programmable nanomaterials. One example is the development of amyloids found in bacterial biofilms as engineered nanomaterials that can be programmed genetically to have different properties.[13]Protein folding studies provide a third important avenue of research, but one that has been largely inhibited by our inability to predict protein folding with a sufficiently high degree of accuracy. Given the myriad uses that biological systems have for proteins, though, research into understanding protein folding is of high importance and could prove fruitful for bionanotechnology in the future.

Lipid nanotechnology is another major area of research in bionanotechnology, where physico-chemical properties of lipids such as their antifouling and self-assembly is exploited to build nanodevices with applications in medicine and engineering.[14]

This field relies on a variety of research methods, including experimental tools (e.g. imaging, characterization via AFM/optical tweezers etc.), x-ray diffraction based tools, synthesis via self-assembly, characterization of self-assembly (using e.g. dual polarization interferometry, recombinant DNA methods, etc.), theory (e.g. statistical mechanics, nanomechanics, etc.), as well as computational approaches (bottom-up multi-scale simulation, supercomputing).

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Nanobiotechnology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Genetic engineering news, articles and information:

Posted on August 27, 2015 by ev1

TV.NaturalNews.com is a free video website featuring thousands of videos on holistic health, nutrition, fitness, recipes, natural remedies and much more.

CounterThink Cartoons are free to view and download. They cover topics like health, environment and freedom.

The Consumer Wellness Center is a non-profit organization offering nutrition education grants to programs that help children and expectant mothers around the world.

Food Investigations is a series of mini-documentaries exposing the truth about dangerous ingredients in the food supply.

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NutrientReference.com is a free online reference database of phytonutrients (natural medicines found in foods) and their health benefits. Lists diseases, foods, herbs and more.

r/redheads on Imgur

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

Flawless chick showing off

image 37,980 views

Flawless girl laying on the ground

image 6,364 views

Amazing redhead on the couch

image 3,158 views

That's not what I meant by underwire

image 34,070 views

Do you like what you see?

image 5,338 views

Redhead Check - Black Garters Check - Sexy - Hell Yes

image 70,404 views

Gia Marie playing in the water [gif]

animated 16,771 views

What are you doing back there?

animated 101,666 views

Beautiful Redhead going Wild

animated 4,050 views

Running Her Fingers Through Her Hair

image 18,829 views

Justine Joli & Ashley Graham

image 7,061 views

Gorgeous redhead amateur in bath

image 11,463 views

naturally red in see-through lingerie

image 58,085 views

Red Fox

animated 120,735 views

Red, with a dusting of white

image 19,350 views

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r/redheads on Imgur

Unit 37: Short Talk – Planetology – 1-Language

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

Good morning everyone. My name is Professor Michael Andrews. On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to welcome you to Extrasolar Planetology, which is a new class being offered by the Astronomy Department this year.

About twenty-five years ago, there was no solid proof that other planets existed beyond our solar system. Most astronomers at that time felt that planets had to be out there, but they could not see them or prove they were there. Why? Simply put, planets are small and space is vast. Imagine trying to see a pea with a telescope from a hundred miles away, and you'll understand how hard it is to find planets that are light years distant.

Clearly, something changed, for we now have a class called Extrasolar Planetology. What changed? Well, mainly, instruments got better and sophisticated telescopes were put into space. As a result, astronomers began to find the proof that they had lacked before.

The very first good evidence for the existence of other planets came from observations of 'wobbling' stars. Using their high-tech instruments and space-based telescopes, astronomers found that some stars wobbled as they moved through space. What could be causing this the astronomers wondered? And then Eureka! The only likely explanation seemed to be that these stars were being affected by the gravity of unseen orbiting companions. In other words-planets!

And now, if you would please turn off the lights, I would like to show you some slides of a few of these wobbling stars.

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Unit 37: Short Talk - Planetology - 1-Language

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Nanomedicine and …

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

Impact Factor: 4.239 Read, cite the journal, or submit your paper to keep contributing to the success of WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology

NanoMedicine-2013 is a dedicated event for the nanotech community and aims to offer professionals in the field a multidisciplinary platform to learn more about the latest scientific updates and industrial standards. Nanomedicine-2013 will consist of six tracks covering current advances in many aspects of nano-medicine R & D and business. The conference will consist of keynote forum, panel discussions, free communication, poster presentations and an exhibition. Through these dynamic scientific and social events, you will have many opportunities to network and to form potential business collaborations with participants from all over the world.

From 2012 (Volume 4), access to the full content of WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology is through a subscription only. Subscribe here or use our easy online library recommendation form to recommend this title to your librarian today.

If your institution opted-in last year, you will retain access to content back to 2009, including all of our special collections.

Never miss an issue! Get the table of contents emailed to your inbox for free each time an issue is published online. Under Journal Tools:

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For the latest information and further resources related to WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology and other WIREs titles, please visit the WIREs website.

This WIREs website offers downloadable PowerPoint presentations of article figures in the Images tab of every article.

Readers may download slides in PowerPoint format for non-profit, educational use, provided the content is not modified and full credit is given to the author and publication.

Cold Spring Harbor Asia is pleased to announce the CSH Asia / ICMS (The International Cancer Microenvironment Society) Joint Conference on Tumor Microenvironment which will be held at the Suzhou Dushu Lake Conference Center in Suzhou, China. The conference will begin at 6:00pm on the evening of Tuesday November 13, and will conclude after lunch on Saturday November 17, 2012

Types of Gene Therapy Treatment | MD Anderson Cancer Center

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

Much of today's cancer research is devoted to finding missing or defective genes that cause cancer or increase an individual's risk for certain types of cancer. Gene research at MDAnderson has resulted in many important discoveries. We identified the mutated multiple advanced cancers gene (MMAC1) involved in some common cancers. We also performed the first successful correction of a defective tumor suppressor gene (p53) in human lung cancer. Current gene therapies are experimental, and many are still tested only on animals. There are some clinical trials involving a very small number of human subjects.

The potential benefits of gene therapy are two-fold:

The focus of most gene therapy research is the replacement of a missing or defective gene with a functional, healthy copy, which is delivered to target cells with a "vector." Viruses are commonly used as vectors because of their ability to penetrate a cells DNA. These vector viruses are inactivated so they cannot reproduce and cause disease. Gene transfer therapy can be done outside the body (ex vivo) by extracting bone marrow or blood from the patient and growing the cells in a laboratory. The corrected copy of the gene is introduced and allowed to penetrate the cells DNA before being injected back into the body. Gene transfers can also be done directly inside the patients body (in vivo).

Other therapies include:

Gene therapy is a complicated area of research, and many questions remain unanswered. Some cancers are caused by more than one gene, and some vectors, if used incorrectly, can actually cause cancer or other diseases. Replacing faulty genes with working copies also brings up ethical issues that must be addressed before these therapies can be accepted for preventing cancer. Talk to your cancer specialist about the implications of gene therapy.

Excerpt from:

Types of Gene Therapy Treatment | MD Anderson Cancer Center

Liberty, Tennessee – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

Liberty is a town in DeKalb County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 367 at the 2000 census and 310 at the 2010 census. Liberty's main street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 as the Liberty Historic District.[4]

Liberty was settled about 1797 by Adam Dale, an American Revolutionary War veteran from Maryland who built a mill on Smith Fork Creek.[5]

Much of Main Street in Liberty is included in an historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Properties in the historic district include the Liberty High School, built from limestone quarried in the area, and the Salem Baptist Church and cemetery.[6]

The evening of March 23, 1889, Liberty was hit by a tornado that uprooted trees and caused extensive damage to homes. A local church was completely destroyed. According to records, there were no fatalities reported.[7]

Liberty is located at 36018N 855822W / 36.00500N 85.97278W / 36.00500; -85.97278 (36.004959, -85.972816).[8]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.0 square mile (2.6km2), all land.

At the time of the 2000 census[2] there were 367 people, 160 households, and 112 families residing in the town. The population density was 354.5 people per square mile (136.2/km). There were 181 housing units at an average density of 174.8 per square mile (67.2/km). The racial makeup of the town was 97.28% White, 1.36% African American, 0.54% Asian, 0.54% from other races, and 0.27% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.82% of the population.

There were 160 households out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.4% were non-families. 27.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.70.

In the town the population was spread out with 22.1% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 29.7% from 25 to 44, 31.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 102.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.6 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $36,806, and the median income for a family was $42,031. Males had a median income of $27,750 versus $19,125 for females. The per capita income for the town was $19,856. About 17.8% of families and 25.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 52.1% of those under age 18 and 20.0% of those age 65 or over.

The town of Liberty is governed by a mayor and a board of aldermen, consisting of five members. Both the mayor and aldermen are elected by the citizenry in at-large elections.[12]

The "Allen Bluff Mule" is a painting of a mule on a limestone bluff on U.S. Route 70 in Liberty. Some residents say a local man named Lavader Woodard painted the mule; other residents contend that it was painted as an advertisement of a local stock farm. Dr. Wayne T. Robinson has claimed to be the original painter of the Liberty Mule:

In early October 1906, I climbed up the face of the Allen Bluff to a ledge and with some coal tar made a flat picture of a character from a famous comic strip of that day. Everybody remembers Maud, the mule. That was 51 years ago, and even though it has been exposed to the elements and to nearby earth-shaking explosions, erosion has dimmed it very little. On the same bluff is the name of Will T. Hale, which was inscribed about 85 years ago.[13]

By this account, Dr. Robinson painted the original mule while a 21-year-old college student inspired by Maud the Mule, from the Frederick Burr Opper comic strip And Her Name Was Maud.

In 2003, Liberty residents became upset that an expansion of U.S. 70 to a four-lane road could threaten the mule painting. The residents started a letter writing campaign to the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Supporters of the mule also placed signs along the roadway stating "Save the Mule." Ultimately the road expansion was far enough away from the mule, that it was never in any danger.

Liberty, Tennessee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Repeating Islands | News and commentary on Caribbean …

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

This article by Lizette Alvarez appeared inThe New York Times.

When Manuel Hernandez, a teacher in Puerto Rico, looked at the reasons to stay home or to take a chance on joining the ever-growing Puerto Rican diaspora in Central Florida, it was not a hard call.

I was fed up, Mr. Hernandez said of his life in San Juan, and my wife was fed up; frustrations were building.

So last October, Mr. Hernandez got off a plane and arrived here, a place best known for hosting Mickey Mouse and rodeos, but also increasingly seen as a faraway suburb of Puerto Rico, a trend that has quickened with the islands deepening economic morass.

Florida is now poised to elbow out New York as the state with the most Puerto Ricans close to one million, according to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at the City University of New York. Nearly 400,000 Puerto Ricans have settled in the Orlando area, and by some estimates, thousands continue to arrive monthly, a marked increase from a decade ago.

Not all the newcomers are from the island; a large number also hail from the Northeast and Chicago, spots they traded for the warm weather and more affordable lifestyle of Central Florida.

The migration the third and largest wave here in four decades and one that began several years ago is transforming a corridor of Central Florida that is increasingly viewed as economically powerful, culturally diverse and politically pivotal.

Puerto Rico has 78 municipalities, said Art Otero, a Kissimmee city commissioner who was born in San Juan and is running for mayor here, as he sat amid the bustle of the Melao Bakery, a popular pit stop formallorcas, the sugar-topped Puerto Rican sweet rolls. Now they say we will be the 79th.

As United States citizens, Puerto Ricans from the island, who generally favor Democrats but are less party conscious than their mainland brethren, can easily register to vote. And in the past two presidential elections they have turned out in large numbers, helping hand President Obama his victories in Florida. But they also helped elect Charlie Crist as governor when he was a Republican.

Their turnout and willingness to consider both parties make them a highly coveted group, a crucial swing vote in the nations largest swing state.

There is a large number of independents and people who vote on a candidates appeal; party affiliations mean less to them, said Edwin Melndez, the director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, which analyzed the most recent census data on the latest migration. The Puerto Rican vote here is not just captured by one party. The candidates have to talk to us.

Their growing numbers about 15 percent of the areas population in 2013 have also made it easier for them to organize and mobilize on issues that affect Puerto Rico, including a push for equity in Medicare and Medicaidon the island, and for changes that would provide for some debt relief through bankruptcy laws.

And they are gradually gaining a political foothold of their own in local commissions and the State Legislature, where there are six lawmakers of Puerto Rican descent, half of them Republicans. One state senator, Darren Soto, is running for an open seat in Congress.

The Puerto Rican stamp on the areas culture and work force is unmistakable. Typically bilingual to varying degrees, Puerto Ricans are often recruited for jobs, including those as doctors, teachers and engineers, but also to work at Disney World and in hotels.

Just two years ago, the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, seeing the growth in population, opened an office here to help Puerto Ricans resettle in the area.

Restaurants dishing out mofongo are no longer hard to find in this once low-key city, where Disney World rose from the swamp. Puerto Rican universities and companies, including those specializing in food, aviation and language training, are also moving into the area to cater to the newest arrivals.

But the surge of Puerto Ricans does not always make for an easy transition. Increasingly, it is also having an impact on schools and government service agencies, both of which are working to help absorb the latest arrivals, particularly those with children in schools.

As a result, schools are scrambling to hire more bilingual teachers (some of them also from Puerto Rico) and expand dual-language programs that can best suit Puerto Ricans. In the last month alone, the Osceola County School District, which is home to Kissimmee, registered more than 1,000 new students, many of them Puerto Ricans, said Dalia Medina, the director of the multicultural department for the school district.

We are a mini-Puerto Rico here, she said. We are now 58 percent Hispanic in the schools, and every year we have increased.

But in their rush to move to the Orlando area, complications sometimes arise, particularly for those with no jobs waiting for them, no invitations from relatives and insufficient cash to see them through. Finding affordable housing in the area, where rents are higher than in Puerto Rico, and ponying up deposits can pose a problem for many.

Some Puerto Ricans find themselves living week to week in run-down motels that line Kissimmees main artery because that is the only option, Mr. Otero said.

And many realize that their English, while passable in Puerto Rico, needs refining here, making it tricky to find jobs, said Betsy Franceschini, the head of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration office here. Her advice: Enroll in English classes.

Reports of people packing up and moving back to Puerto Rico appear to be on the rise, she said. Those that plan have better success, she said. Its a shock to those who did not do the research ahead of time.

Even when someone arrives with a good job and perfect English, the transition can be rocky. Mr. Hernandez, who was recruited from Puerto Rico, where he trained teachers to work for Osceola High School because of his specialty in teaching English language learners, wound up first sharing a mobile home with a stranger, then in two motels (including one with bedbugs) with his wife and child. He said other Puerto Ricans were also living in the motels.

His Osceola job offer had arisen unexpectedly, and he had just returned from an expensive vacation with his family, leaving little cash for deposits. Ultimately, he got help through a program called Families in Transition.

The living conditions were horrible in the motel, said Mr. Hernandez, who is originally from New York and has participated in a TEDx talk onteaching English as a second language.

But returning to Puerto Rico, where his career seemed frozen, raises were nonexistent and taxes were escalating, seemed unthinkable.

Now he is in a two-bedroom beautiful apartment across from the school, and the family is settling in nicely and his teaching career glimmers with promise.

I really believe that I am in the right place in the right time, he said.

For the original report go tohttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/us/central-florida-emerges-as-mainland-magnet-for-puerto-ricans.html?emc=edit_th_20150825&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=41473240

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Repeating Islands | News and commentary on Caribbean ...

Bootswatch: Cyborg

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

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Cyborg – Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

Cybernetic limbs.

A cyborg was a cybernetic organism; that is, a living organic sentient organism with mechanical prostheses. Often covered in synthflesh/synthskin, these prostheses served one or more of three purposes:

Cyborg also referred to creatures that were half-organic and half-droid. They were generally regarded as "soulless abominations". Cyberneticists were responsible for developing and creating cybernetic components.

Cyborgs with brain implants such as the BioTech Borg Construct Aj^6 were known to suffer from psychosis as a result of their enhancement, and consequently faced fear and prejudice from many beings.

Such cyborgs were not considered citizens under Imperial law, which required surgery to be sponsored by a corporation or government. The cyborg was then indentured to their sponsor. However, this did not seem to affect the cyborg Darth Vader's standing in the Empire. However, this was likely due to the fact that Vader's unique position as Palpatine's lieutenant made him exempt from most Imperial laws. Even the New Republic required them to undergo regular neural scans.

Cyborgs with large-scale enhancements (over half of their body) were faced with outright fear and derision, often forcing them into hiding. On some back-water worlds anti-cyborg sentiment was so strong that attempts at burying deceased "borgs" were often met with outbreaks of violence.

Many beings, especially spacers, had a prejudice against droids which they extended to cyborgs; they referred to cyborgs as "borgs."

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Cyborg - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki

Cyborg – Terminator Wiki – Terminator Genisys – Genisys …

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

A common cyborg, or "human-based" cyborg

An android with living tissues

T-888 HUD identifying Cameron Phillips as a cyborg

A cyborg (cybernetic organism) is an organism that is a self-regulating integration of artificial and natural systems.

The Series 8xx and 900 Infiltrators are made up of living tissue over metal endoskeletons, and have referred to themselves as "cybernetic organisms". Both Terminators and Resistance fighters have also occasionally used the phrase "cyborg" interchangeably with "cybernetic organism".[1][2]

Common usage of the term "cyborg" often implies that the biological components are human, although the term is not specifically that limited, a cyborg can consist of biological components of any living origin. Infiltrator models built by Skynet have used enhanced human tissue designed to prevent decay over prolonged missions.

With the exception of human-based cyborgs such as I825.M, the I-950 and the Hybrid, all Terminators are androids. With the addition of living tissue they gain the title of cyborg, despite the fact that models such as the T-800 (disambiguation) are capable of performing operations without their living tissue with no detriment to their performance. (However, keeping in mind that the T-800 series was designed for Infiltration rather than frontline duty.)

The Series 1000 and Series X Terminators, both use mimetic polyalloy rather than living tissue for their exterior (and interior in the case of the T-1000). Therefore, most traditional definitions would make them advanced androids, not cyborgs.

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Cyborg - Terminator Wiki - Terminator Genisys - Genisys ...

Cris Cyborg Fight News – MMA Fighting

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

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cyborg – University of Chicago

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

The OED defines a cyborg as "a person whose physical tolerances or capabilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by a machine or other external agency that modifies the body's functions; an integrated man-machine system." The term emerged as a blend of cyb[ernetic] - pertaining to Norman Weiner's cybernetics, "the entire field of control and communications theory, whether in the machine or animal" - ad org[anism] - "an organized body, consisting of mutually connecting and dependent parts constituted to share a common life." The cyborg was a human, but its non-human extensions make it something else entirely. Like Marshall McLuhan's "extensions of man," the cyborg represents the relationship between organic bodies and media technologies that extend either "bodies through space" or the "central nervous system itself" (3).

The figure of the cyborg depends on a systems-based understanding of organisms. The systems model draws an analogy between neural and cellular human physiology and the electronic circuitry of computers. The brain acts like the central processing unit of the body, directing and controlling the operation of its individual parts. A prosthetic can be incorporated into this system and the brain will interact and synthesize with the "machine of other external agency" to form a cyborg. The machine aspect of the cyborg is a medium for the communication of human consciousness and the organic body of the cyborg is a site of synthesis and integration.

As a hybrid creature, the cyborg has no parentage. In "A Cyborg Manifesto," Donna Haraway suggested that "the cyborg has no origin story in the Western sense" (151-52). However, the character of the cyborg originated out of the emergent field of cybernetics in the 1960's. Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline helped coin the term in 1960 as a concept that would "allow man to optimize his internal regulation to suit the environment he may seek" in outerspace (Clynes, 32). Along this line of history, cyborg creations are positive additions to the human body that improve upon its capabilities. Such instantiations of the cyborg might also include "anyone whose immune system has been programmed through vaccination to recognize the polio virus" (Gray, Mentor, Figueroa-Sarriera, 2-3). Along another line of history, the cyborg takes its origin from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein . Frankenstein's monster is often cited as the first cyborg (Gray, Mentor, Figueroa-Sarriera, 5). Not born of woman, Frankenstein assembled his monster on the operating table. The history of the cyborg as monster evokes modern society's "profound anxiety that we have lost control of, and may even be destroyed by, the technology we have created in the modern age (Gusterson, 109).

Thus, two dominant types of cyborgs emerge in their history: the cyborg as a reconceptualized post-human body and the cyborg as machine-controlled monster. Because the cyborg is a symbiotic relationship between human and machine and is equally faithful to its organic components and its machine attributes, its manifestations vary according to which aspect is attributed dominance or materiality. At the same time, representations of cyborgs deny clearly defined boundaries between human and machine. Yet, in defining the cyborg as a hybrid entity, the "integrated man-machine system" subsumes issues of control and dependence, communication and connection, hiding these in its technological structure. Thus, the cyborg is fundamentally ironic and contradictory (Haraway, 154). Its character is "a condensed image of both imagination and material reality" (150).

As a utopian fantasy, the cyborg body is an improved and superior body. Perhaps the most significant text in this history of the cyborg is Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto." Her "ironic political myth faithful to feminism, socialism, and materialism" develops the character of the cyborg as "a creature in a post-gender world; it has no truck with bisexuality, pre-oedipal symbiosis, unalienated labour, or other seductions to organic wholeness through a final appropriation of all the powers of the parts into a higher unity" (150). She conceives of the cyborg as the final end of humanity - the last stage of human evolution as the symbiosis of humans and their creations. For Haraway, the cyborg is an exemplar of the possibilities of creating communities through transcending boundaries and she argues for " pleasure in the confusion of boundaries" (150).

Cyborgs are both political reality and mythical, discursive subjects. As N. Katherine Hayles suggests, "cyborgs are simultaneously entities and metaphors, living beings and narrative constructions" ("The Life Cycle of Cyborgs: Writing the Posthuman," 152). The cyborg functions both really and fictionally as a way of reconfiguring identity in an era of emergent biotechnological possibilities and fractured subjectivities.

As a real body, the cyborg is a kind of posthuman. The posthuman model of the body situates consciousness as a "function of the organism, not an organ [i.e. the brain]" and repudiates the claim that the human has fixed boundaries (Pepperell 13). The cyborg body has the potential to think of the body more holistically. The virtualization of sense perception in a game powered by the human's central nervous system in David Cronenberg's eXistenZ might provide one example of a cyborg. But cyborgs also have the potential to improve the body. Cyborg humans with pacemakers, prostheses, or other "enhancements" have altered the functioning of the human body to restore, modify, or improve their capabilities.

Although real embodiments of the cyborg character certainly exist, theorists like Haraway and Hayles situate the cyborg as a subject position. Furthermore, as writers like Sherry Turkle and Sandy Stone acknowledge, human-machine interactions that articulate new subject positions based on human dependence on the machine interface, qualify as cyborg relations. These writers concentrate in particular on the possibilities of alternative identities on the Internet. Without the surgeries required for physical prostheses, the [screen , (2)] can act as a kind of prosthesis through which race, gender, age, and shape are rendered invisible (Turkle, 1995).

When these attributes are rendered invisible, however, the cyborg identity suffers the problem of disembodiment. Stone considers the problem of the disembodied subjectivity of cyborgs, who like the phone-sex workers in her study, are "everywhere and somewhere and nowhere, but almost never here in the positive sense" (Stone, 398). The manifestations of such a cyborg subject position cross-pollinate with the virtual figures of cyberspace - avatars and textual embodiments. Cyborg can be constructed as a way to reconfigure identity and to extend the possibilities of a human without a body, a body without organs. These cyborgs share a utopian mythology that situates the "human" as dominant in the machine-human relationship. The cyborg is a person with extensions or modifications, but the cyborg still has noticeable human traits.

The cyborg figure has not always been constructed so optimistically however. Ironically, "the cyborg is also the awful apocalyptic telos of the 'West's' escalating dominations of abstract individuation" (Haraway, 151). The cyborg as monster reflects modern terrors of technological power. The possibility of disposing of the body and situating consciousness inside the computer becomes the terror of the ghost in the machine. Automation takes over the machine-human hybrid system with potentially disastrous consequences. In 2001: A Space Odyssey , the computer HAL kills most of his spaceship's crew when he/it malfunctions and begins to think for him/itself. As Friedrich Kittler notes in Gramophone, Film, Typewriter , with only "a simple feedback loop... information machines bypass, their so-called inventors" (258). The dream of Artificial Intelligence and robotics, to create a mechanical body for the human brain, has the potential to liberate the idea of "human," but also has the risk of creating disaster and turning on humans.

Recent incarnations of mythical cyborg characters are often dangerous or violent. The replicants in BladeRunner and the Borg in Star Trek: The Next Generation are examples of cyborgs whose machine/computer half has gone awry. As the cyborg creature is about supplementing human deficiencies, disguising disabilities, and improving flaws, the terror of a cyborg creation that develops its own flaws is the nightmare of cyborg science. The fear of machines that control and destroy stands in opposition to the possibility of machines liberating consciousness from the human body and providing useful, powerful extensions to the body.

Various manifestations of machine-human symbiosis and hybridity have descended from the original Frankenstein monster. But not all cyborg monsters are as destructive as Frankenstein or the Terminator. Other cyborg creations endow humans with superpowers, as in comic books or cartoons, like Swamp-Thing or Spider-Man . Science-fiction writers, like Octavia Butler and William Gibson, have taken up the cyborg character as a way to imagine the possibilities of technologically enhanced human beings. More recent cyborg constructions include the bodies of Stelarc and Orlan, who both use technological systems to alter their physical boundaries. In his performance of the cyborg body Stelarc, sees a need to reposition the body "from the psycho world of the biological to the cyber zone of the interface and extension - from genetic containment to electronic extension" (560).

The character of the cyborg and its presence in contemporary culture reveals a mixture of pleasure and terror from the relationship between man and machine. Essentializing human as body or as mind determines in part how the cyborg character is constructed. Giving dominance to the machine or to the human (body or mind) determines how a particular instantiation of the cyborg will perform. Part utopic fantasy and part apocalyptic monster, part automaton and part autonomy, the cyborg is a synthesis - or perhaps a dialectic, as Hayles proposes in "Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers" - between pattern and randomness. Jessica Santone Winter 2003

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cyborg - University of Chicago

Forget Ronda Rousey: Tate, Holm and ‘Cyborg’ Come Together …

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

As a UFC champion and A-list celebrity, Ronda Rousey has a huge target on her, and three of the women looking to take her out happen to be getting awfully friendly right now. Check out this photo posted to Instagram on Monday:

The picture features Miesha Tate, Holly Holm and Cris "Cyborg" Justino in front of the famous Rocky statue in Philadelphia and was taken to promote the upcoming filmFight Valley: Knockaround Girls. The revenge-focused action flick will feature all three women, who are taking wildly different paths en route to Rousey.

Tate and Rousey had a bitter feud in 2012 ahead of their fight for the Strikeforce women's bantamweight title. While Rousey would win the bout in devastating fashion, bending Tate's arm backward, she remained close enough to Rousey to end up facing her again in 2013 following a mixed-gender season ofThe UltimateFighter. While she came up short yet again, a four-fight winning streak seemingly lined her up for a third shot at Rousey, but the UFC threw a huge curveball last week with the announcement that Holm would get the next shot at the title.

Holm has an impressive boxing pedigree, sporting a 33-2-3 record and a slew of titles. In MMA, she owns a perfect 9-0 record but has posted less-than-electrifying performances in the UFC, which has some fans unimpressed by the UFC 195 main event.

And, of course, Cyborg is in attendance. The Invicta FC featherweight champ has been in a war of words with Rousey for years nowand has become the ideal opponent for Rousey. While the UFC, Cyborg and Rousey have never come to terms on making a fight happen, any given contest involving one of them is immediately followed with a swirl of discussion about the whens and hows of a potential superfight.

The aforementioned Fight Valley movie is set to drop on December 7 (you can check out its IMDb page here). Who do you think has the best chance of knocking off Rousey at this point, fight fans?

‘Man of Steel’s Henry Cavill Hopes ‘Cyborg’ Will Be Next …

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

[Update: DC and Warner Bros. have officially announced aCyborg movie for 2020]

Well, it seems Warner Bros. and DC Comics have decided to shift from relative silence to some serious movie-making, if the buzz surrounding Batman vs. Superman and the Man of Steel Blu-ray release are any indication. And with the release of Zack Snyders first brick in the foundations of DCs universe into homes everywhere, more signs of whats to come are appearing.

It seems that of all the hints and dangling story threads left by Man of Steel, star Henry Cavill sees particular promise in Cyborg a character that could not only add to the shared universe, but act as the star player in the long-demanded Justice League movie.

Cavills comments arent as shocking as, say, confirmation that Flash and Wonder Woman will make cameos in Batman vs. Superman. But for DC fans up to date on the companys fiction, the writing is on the wall. The comments come from a brief clip of the Man of Steel Blu-rays behind-the-scenes content, with Cavill specifically asked which easter eggs from the film are his personal favorites:

On the extras on the Blu-ray, were going to get the opportunity to see Zacks references to other aspects of the DC Universe. Theres one obvious one which is now particularly obvious because of our next installment, which is involving Batman as well. We see Bruce Wayne Enterprises on the satellite in space. We also see some references to LexCorp. I actually have no further knowledge of this next story, but theres a good chance Lex is going to be introduced soon or at some stage.

The Wayne Enterprises satellite Cavill refers to was actually revealed before the movie even hit theaters, and for reasons clear to everyone, no longer needs to be investigated with Batman set to make his appearance in Snyders universe soon enough. Speculation over Lex Luthors presence in Batman vs. Superman is still completely unconfirmed, so fans, like Cavill, will have to wait and see.

But in a film filled to the brim with easter eggs for comic book fans, which one is Cavills personal favorite? The answer will certainly surprise, and could spell big things for the future of DCs movie universe:

What really intrigued me was Dr. Emil Hamiltons connection to S.T.A.R. Labs. Cyborg I think would make a wonderful character and an incredible bridge between both superhumans and humanity in a different way to Batman. So I dont know where hes going to come in or if hes going to come in, but thats one Im particularly excited about. Other references Im not too sure on, but well see where those lead. Those with keen eyes will see them.

It should be immediately pointed out that Cavill makes his ignorance of Zack Snyder and recently-crowned-DC-architect David S. Goyers plans for WBs next superhero movie quite plain. So this namedrop shouldnt be taken as a confirmation that Cyborg casting is underway.

That being said, Cavill has been right in the past, so we can attribute his knack for predicting Snyders intentions to telepathy, or having a sense of where the director is heading. We know Cavills dove headlong into comic books as research for Big Blue, so the fact that he singled out Cyborg in relation to S.T.A.R. Labs a catch-all covert group tied to just about everything else in the DC Universe could be a sign of some back-and-forth with Snyder, at least in passing.

For those unfamiliar, the actor is spot-on with his estimation that the character of Victor Stone a.k.a. Cyborg would bridge the gap between human and superhuman in a new way, and on that would fit quite well within WBs grounded approach.

The character has been a staple of both the Teen Titans and Justice League teams for decades, but as weve pointed out before, his new origin story concocted for DCs New 52 company-wide relaunch sends a clear message that DC is modernizing even their most iconic heroes. Now a high school football star, Vic falls victim to a horrific accident while visiting his father, a scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs (a location, Cavill points out, has already been established on screen).

With his body mutilated and death imminent, Vics father saves his life through radical means: injecting him with nanites, and fitting his broken body with metallic components and just about every piece of experimental technology on hand. The result is Cyborg, a tortured, confused young man terrified beyond belief.

Thats a story thats already straying from much of both Marvel and DCs existing cast, but Cyborg wasnt re-imagined as part of the New 52 for his own standalone series. Instead, DCs Chief Creative Officer (and gatekeeper of all things DC entertainment) Geoff Johns crafted a new origin story for Cyborg as part of the Justice League re-launch. Cyborg didnt just join the superhero team, but helped it form; in other words, helped kick off a story weve continuously pointed to as essentially a paint-by-numbers script treatment for the inevitable Justice League motion picture.

The biggest hurdle facing DC and Warner Bros. has always been pairing the grounded, realistic tone of their films with the more outlandish and beloved aspects of the comic books mythology. Man of Steel dealt with that challenge better than many predicted, but Cyborgs introduction would help bridge the gap even more. Thanks to one particular alien item grafted into his new body: a Father Box from Apokolips, the home of Darkseid.

In the comics, Earth soon falls under attack from the most villainous of DCs New Gods, forcing the various superheroes to join forces, and discover their strengths (and weaknesses) as a team. Cyborgs Apokoliptian tech helps them take the fight to Darkseid, making the most vulnerable and broken member the most important, and establishing DCs cosmic side.

So while Warner Bros. execs and scriptwriters may struggle to introduce the worlds most famous super-team to modern audiences, Geoff Johns essentially already has. And if Cavill is basing his assumption that Cyborg could be a character to get excited for on anything more than his imagination, WB may have taken note. Its still too early to know what Snyder and Goyer have in mind, but if theres smoke surrounding this character, then the fire may already be sitting on comic book store shelves.

What do you make of Cavills comments? Does it seem like Warner Bros. may have finally decided to follow DCs roadmap, or would you prefer to see Cyborg given the spotlight in one of the studios lower-budget superhero films? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Batman vs. Superman hitstheaters on July 17, 2015.

Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrew_dyce.

Source: Warner Bros

'Man of Steel's Henry Cavill Hopes 'Cyborg' Will Be Next ...

Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos secures release from Zuffa …

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Danzig

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WESTMINSTER, Calif. -- Former Strikeforce women's featherweight champion Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos has secured her release from Zuffa and plans a return April 5 against Ediane Gomes at Invicta FC 5.

"Cyborg" (10-1, 1 NC) has not fought since November 2011, when a 16-second knockout over Hiroko Yamanaka was overturned by the California State Athletic Commission because she tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.

The 27-year-old Brazilian is scheduled to fight Gomes (10-2) in a No. 1-contender fight for Invicta at 145 pounds.

"I'm very happy for this opportunity April 5," Santos said during a news conference Friday. "I know her. She's Braziliain. She's a tough girl."

The contest is slated to headline a pay-per-view from the Ameristar Casino Hotel in Kansas City. Invicta FC president Shannon Knapp left the door open to the card being broadcast online, on television, or both.

"We are working out details still," she said.

The winner earns a shot against Invicta FC featherweight champion Marloes Coenen. If "Cyborg" gets past Gomes (a top submission specialist ranked as high as No. 2 at 145), it would be a rematch of a 2010 Strikeforce title defense in which Santos stopped the Dutch fighter in the third round.

Fights with Gomes or Coenen fall flat next to a contest with UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, who defends her title for the first time Feb. 23 against Liz Carmouche. Santos emphasized that Rousey is the opponent she wants, making the 135-pound limit extremely problematic.

Because UFC isn't planning on extending women's weight classes beyond bantamweight, there is no place for Santos in the UFC if she can't make the weight. That reality and another failed round of negotiations led UFC president Dana White to announce this week that he was done trying to put "Cyborg" in the Octagon.

"'Cyborg' is essentially irrelevant right now," White said. "I mean, she really is. She's irrelevant. Go back, win some fights, get your name back, stay clean, stay off steroids, get your career back on track and we'll talk. But for her to think everybody should move around and jump through hoops for her is insane."

The fighter's new management team, Primetime 360, fronted by retired UFC champion Tito Ortiz and attorneys George Prajin and Anthony Lopez, amplified medical concerns about Santos' long-term health if she pursued Rousey at 135 pounds, and explained the UFC's desire to secure Santos to an eight-fight contract was unacceptable.

Said Santos: "Eight fights is too much."

"They wanted her to fight three fights in Invicta, fight in the UFC, sign an eight-fight contract basically with no direction on where the other four fights would take place," Prajin said. "I'm sorry. I can't let her sign that agreement."

Prajin said White's claim that a letter was sent to Zuffa on Santos' behalf declaring "I will die if I try to make 135" is inaccurate. "No one made a statement to that extent," he said.

Prajin described back-and-forth negotiations with UFC, which Ortiz said he handled personally with White. When Santos' management felt they had a deal lined up for three fights in Invicta leading to a possible super-fight in UFC against Rousey at 140 pounds, Prajin claimed UFC changed the deal the next day, which culminated with Rousey and White haranguing Santos as running scared.

"I'm never running," the fierce featherweight responded.

"I don't think she has to prove herself to anyone," Prajin said. "You can ask Gina Carano. You can ask all of her opponents. She has proven herself in the cage multiple times over and over again."

As far as White's concerned, Santos "wants nothing to do with Ronda."

"Cyborg" suggested that statements about her being afraid to fight Rousey have turned the matchup personal. To prove her point, Santos adorned a T-shirt that said, "Ronda will be my bitch."

"I really want to fight Ronda," Santos said. "The problem is because I can't drop to 135."

Ortiz suggested that Rousey, not his client, is being protected in this scenario. "If not [Zuffa] would have signed the deal we negotiated upon," he said. After thanking Zuffa for allowing Santos to fight outside the Octagon, Ortiz suggested Santos doesn't require a "promotion to push her name."

April's No. 1-contender bout against Gomes is the first of a three-fight deal between Santos and Invicta FC, which her team hopes will lead to a fight with Rousey next year.

Primetime 360 also vigorously defended Santos regarding her positive steroid test in California, labeling it a mistake in judgement because she had a hard time making 145 and the steroid helped with weight cutting. That fact, Ortiz said, indicates they are sincere about her inability to shed another 10 pounds to fight in Rousey's weight class.

"Cyborg" is willing to face random drug testing, according to her management.

"I think the UFC should be happy with our decision," Prajin said. "We didn't go to a competitor. We actually went to a company that's works with the UFC. She left a lot of money on the table by choosing this particular deal. But she chose this deal because of the flexibility."

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Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos secures release from Zuffa ...

Gene therapy | Cancer Research UK

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Danzig

Researchers are looking at different ways of using gene therapy, including

Some types of gene therapy aim to boost the body's natural ability to attack cancer cells. Our immune system has cells that recognise and kill harmful things that can cause disease, such as cancer cells.

There are many different types of immune cell. Some of them produce proteins that encourage other immune cells to destroy cancer cells. Some types of therapy add genes to a patient's immune cells to make them better at finding or destroying particular types of cancer. There are a few trials using this type of gene therapy in the UK.

Some gene therapies put genes into cancer cells to make the cells more sensitive to particular treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. This type of gene therapy aims to make the other cancer treatments work better.

Some types of gene therapy deliver genes into the cancer cells that allow the cells to change drugs from an inactive form to an active form. The inactive form of the drug is called a pro drug.

After giving the carrier containing the gene, the doctor gives the patient the pro drug. The pro drug may be a tablet or capsule that you swallow, or you may have it into the bloodstream.

The pro drug circulates in the body and doesn't harm normal cells. But when it reaches the cancer cells, the gene activates it and the drug kills the cancer cells.

Some gene therapies block processes that cancer cells use to survive. For example, most cells in the body are programmed to die if their DNA is damaged beyond repair. This is called programmed cell death or apoptosis. But cancer cells block this process so they don't die even when they are supposed to. Some gene therapy strategies aim to reverse this blockage. Doctors hope that these new types of treatment will make the cancer cells die.

Some viruses infect and kill cells. Researchers are working on ways to change these viruses so that they only target and kill cancer cells, leaving healthy cells alone. This sort of treatment uses the viruses to kill cancer cells directly rather than to deliver genes. So it is not cancer gene therapy in the true sense of the word. But doctors sometimes refer to it as gene therapy.

One example of this type of research uses the cold sore virus (herpes simplex virus). The changed virus is called Oncovex. It has been tested in early clinical trials for advanced melanoma, pancreatic cancer and head and neck cancers.

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Gene therapy | Cancer Research UK

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