HBO finally released a juicy full-length trailer for season six -- which teases "the beginning of the end" for our favorite supernatural hotties. Oh no!
Here are the highlights:
Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) is shirtless -- a lot.
Alcide (Joe Manganiello) is shirtless -- a lot.
Bill (Stephen Moyer) still has a God complex.
The humans, however, have other ideas about God's plan: They've declared war against the supes "to save the human race by eradicating the vampire race." Apparently, "it's time for humans to bite back" -- or as Jason (Ryan Kwanten) says, before he's hilariously shushed by Sookie (Anna Paquin) and company, "It's about damn time somebody did something about y'all!"
"Events have been set in motion -- it is the beginning of the end," the promo warns, in between scenes of "True Blood's" signature sex and violence.
"I can barely remember the last time I wasn't in danger," Sookie says. "I want my life back."
That's not going to be easy, especially with the appearance of the mysterious Warlow -- widely believed to be played by new cast member Rutger Hauer, who makes a brief cameo in the trailer set to Delta Rae's haunting " Bottom? of the River."
Season six of "True Blood" premieres Sunday, June 16 at 9 p.m. on HBO. Will you be watching?
Tell us what you think of the new promo on our Facebook page!
Researchers have discovered the mechanism behind one of the Ebola virus' most dangerous attributes: its ability to disarm the adaptive immune system.
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston scientists determined that Ebola short-circuits the immune system using proteins that work together to shut down cellular signaling related to interferon. Disruption of this activity, the researchers found, allows Ebola to prevent the full development of dendritic cells that would otherwise trigger an immune response to the virus.
"Dendritic cells typically undergo a process called 'maturation' when they're infected by a virus ? they change shape and present antigens on their surface that tell T-cells to attack that particular virus, thus generating an adaptive immune response," said UTMB professor Alexander Bukreyev, senior author of a paper on the discovery now online in the Journal of Virology. "But Ebola prevents dendritic-cell maturation and produces a severe infection without an effective adaptive immune response. We found that its ability to do this depends on several specific regions of two different proteins."
Bukreyev's research group made the discovery after a series of procedures that started with a clone of the Ebola Zaire virus strain. Working under maximum-containment conditions in a biosafety level 4 facility in UTMB's Galveston National Laboratory, the team introduced mutations into the virus' genetic code at four locations thought to generate proteins that affected immune response.
They then infected human dendritic cells with each of the resulting new strains and compared the results with those produced by unmutated Ebola Zaire. Each of the four new viruses, they found, was unable to suppress dendritic-cell maturation.
"We saw two very interesting things," Bukreyev said. "First, that these mutations restore maturation of dendritic cells very effectively, and second, that a mutation in even one of these genetic domains makes the virus unable to suppress maturation. That means that the virus needs multiple combined effects in order to undermine the immune system in this way."
Ebola's ability to evade the human immune response is one of the factors that accounts for its high mortality rate ? up to 90 percent in humans ? and the notoriety that it gained after its first appearance in Zaire in 1976, in an outbreak that killed 280 people. Zaire ? now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ? is the home country of Ndongala Lubaki, lead author on the paper and a postdoctoral fellow at UTMB.
###
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston: http://www.utmb.edu
Thanks to University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
Kaylee Johnson, Jamey Johnson, Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks at the funeral service for George Jones.
George Jones' public memorial service was one star-studded event.
The late country singer's life was remembered and celebrated Thursday at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, with numerous celebs sharing fond memories of Jones through eulogies as well as paying tribute to his legacy in the music industry by performing onstage.
Tanya Tucker, Randy Travis, the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Travis Tritt, Barbara Mandrell, Kid Rock, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Brad Paisley, Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Chesney, Wynonna and Alan Jackson all spoke or sang a song in Jones' memory, according to CMT.com.
NEWS: George Jones' funeral open to the public
Along with the celebs, thousands of Jones' fans lined up hoping to secure a seat in the Opry House, filling the theater's upper deck and outer flanks after friends and family were allowed to take their seats closer to the stage.
The speeches didn't skip over Jones' troubles, the times when he'd missed shows and struggled with alcohol and drugs. But the speakers also remembered a great performer who was loved by his fans.
Before performing an original tune titled "Best of Me," Kid Rock said, "Quite frankly, I know how difficult it can be to be with one of us. We give so much of our self to the people, to the fans, to the crowds and to the business that sometimes when you come home, it can be a little empty there because you don't have so much left to give. But no matter what we got of George Jones, (his wife Nancy) got the best of him."
NEWS: Celebs react to the country star's death
Jackson closed the ceremony as he emotionally sang Jones' signature song, "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Near the end, Jackson removed his cowboy hat as the Opry house joined him for the song's final line. "We love you, George," they said.
The 81-year-old star passed away at Vanderbilt University Medical Center last week, where he had been hospitalized since a week earlier after coming down with a slight fever and irregular blood pressure, however his immediate cause of death is still unknown.
May 3, 2013 ? Will we soon be forced to eat jellyfish? Since the beginning of the 2000s, these gelatinous creatures have invaded many of the world's seas, like the Japan Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, etc. Is it a cyclic phenomenon, caused by changes in marine currents or even global warming? Until now, the causes remained unknown. A new study conducted by IRD researchers and its partners, published in Bulletin of Marine Science, exposes overfishing as the main factor.
Jellyfish have free rein
Jellyfish predators, such as tuna and sea turtles, are disappearing due to overfishing. However, jellyfish are primarily taking advantage of the overfishing of small pelagic fish. Just like these cnidarians, sardines, herring, anchovies and more feed off zooplankton. Thus, they represent their main competition for food. In areas where too many of these fish are caught, they free up an ecological niche. Jellyfish now have free rein and can thrive. Furthermore, small fish eat the eggs and larvae of jellyfish. Therefore, under normal conditions, they regulate the population. In their absence, there is nothing to stop the proliferation of these gelatinous creatures.
Comparison as proof
In order to demonstrate the major role played by overfishing, researchers compared two ecosystems belonging to the same ocean current, the Benguela, which flows along the south of Africa. The first ecosystem is located off the coast of Namibia. Here, fish stock management measures are not very restrictive. The stocks are barely restored before fishing activities start up again. Jellyfish are currently colonising these coastal waters. The second ecosystem is located 1,000 km further south, off the coast of South Africa. Here, the opposite is true: fishing has been tightly controlled for 60 years. The jellyfish population has not increased.
Fisheries suffer the effects
A vicious circle is developing in affected areas. Under the water, the links in the food chain are much more flexible than on Earth: prey species can feed off their predators. As such, jellyfish devour larval fish. Their proliferation prevents the renewal of fishery resources. This invasive species in turn threatens fisheries. In Namibia, some 10 million tonnes of sardines in the 1960s made way for 12 million tonnes of jellyfish.
Jellyfish are the pet peeve of tourists. The sting of their poisonous filaments -- although seldom deadly -- is very urticant. Therefore, they put economic activities in many regions across the world at risk. This is particularly true in countries which depend on these resources, such as several developing countries.
This research work underlines the necessity of an ecosystemic approach towards the exploitation of the sea. In other words, the implementation of management measures which take into account all levels of the trophic network. According to scientists, this is the only way to prevent jellyfish from landing on our plates in the near future.
Did you know?
Jellyfish are made up of 98% water. They have neither a brain, nor a heart or teeth? And yet, they are fierce predators! They immobilise their prey with their poisonous tentacles.
The boom in jellyfish is observed across the entire planet. To date, however, there is no hard data on the increase in their global population.
There are hundreds of species of jellyfish which come in a great variety of colours, shapes and sizes, ranging from a few millimetres to several metres in diameter. The majority of them are carnivorous.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institut de Recherche pour le D?veloppement (IRD).
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Jean-Paul Roux, Carl D van der Lingen, Mark J Gibbons, Nadine E Moroff, Lynne J Shannon, Anthony DM Smith, Philippe M Cury. Jellyfication of Marine Ecosystems as a Likely Consequence of Overfishing Small Pelagic Fishes: Lessons from the Benguela. Bulletin of Marine Science, 2013; 89 (1): 249 DOI: 10.5343/bms.2011.1145
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Persistent pain after stressful events may have a neurobiological basisPublic release date: 2-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tom Hughes tahughes@unch.unc.edu 919-966-6047 University of North Carolina Health Care
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. A new study led by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers is the first to identify a genetic risk factor for persistent pain after traumatic events such as motor vehicle collision and sexual assault.
In addition, the study contributes further evidence that persistent pain after stressful events, including motor vehicle collisions and sexual assaults, has a specific biological basis. A manuscript of the study was published online ahead of print by the journal Pain on April 29.
"Our study findings indicate that mechanisms influencing chronic pain development may be related to the stress response, rather than any specific injury caused by the traumatic event," said Samuel McLean, MD, MPH, senior author of the study and assistant professor of anesthesiology. "In other words, our results suggest that in some individuals something goes wrong with the body's 'fight or flight' response or the body's recovery from this response, and persistent pain results."
The study assessed the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, a physiologic system of central importance to the body's response to stressful events. The study evaluated whether the HPA axis influences musculoskeletal pain severity six weeks after motor vehicle collision (MVC) and sexual assault. Its findings revealed that variation in the gene encoding for the protein FKBP5, which plays an important role in regulating the HPA axis response to stress, was associated with a 20 percent higher risk of moderate to severe neck pain six weeks after a motor vehicle collision, as well as a greater extent of body pain. The same variant also predicted increased pain six weeks after sexual assault.
"Right now, if an someone comes to the emergency department after a car accident, we don't have any interventions to prevent chronic pain from developing," McLean said. Similarly, if a woman comes to the emergency department after sexual assault, we have medications to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease, but no treatments to prevent chronic pain. This is because we understand what causes pregnancy or infection, but we have no idea what the biologic mechanisms are that cause chronic pain. Chronic pain after these events is common and can cause great suffering, and there is an urgent need to understand what causes chronic pain so that we can start to develop interventions. This study is an important first step in developing this understanding."
"In addition, because we don't understand what causes these outcomes, individuals with chronic pain after traumatic events are often viewed with suspicion, as if they are making up their symptoms for financial gain or having a psychological reaction," McLean said. "An improved understanding of the biology helps with this stigma," McLean said.
###
The study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of investigators from thirteen institutions. Co-lead authors on the study were Andrey Bortsov, MD, PhD, assistant research professor in the UNC Department of Anesthesiology, and Jennifer Smith, BS, a UNC medical student and former Doris Duke Fellow.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Persistent pain after stressful events may have a neurobiological basisPublic release date: 2-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tom Hughes tahughes@unch.unc.edu 919-966-6047 University of North Carolina Health Care
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. A new study led by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers is the first to identify a genetic risk factor for persistent pain after traumatic events such as motor vehicle collision and sexual assault.
In addition, the study contributes further evidence that persistent pain after stressful events, including motor vehicle collisions and sexual assaults, has a specific biological basis. A manuscript of the study was published online ahead of print by the journal Pain on April 29.
"Our study findings indicate that mechanisms influencing chronic pain development may be related to the stress response, rather than any specific injury caused by the traumatic event," said Samuel McLean, MD, MPH, senior author of the study and assistant professor of anesthesiology. "In other words, our results suggest that in some individuals something goes wrong with the body's 'fight or flight' response or the body's recovery from this response, and persistent pain results."
The study assessed the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, a physiologic system of central importance to the body's response to stressful events. The study evaluated whether the HPA axis influences musculoskeletal pain severity six weeks after motor vehicle collision (MVC) and sexual assault. Its findings revealed that variation in the gene encoding for the protein FKBP5, which plays an important role in regulating the HPA axis response to stress, was associated with a 20 percent higher risk of moderate to severe neck pain six weeks after a motor vehicle collision, as well as a greater extent of body pain. The same variant also predicted increased pain six weeks after sexual assault.
"Right now, if an someone comes to the emergency department after a car accident, we don't have any interventions to prevent chronic pain from developing," McLean said. Similarly, if a woman comes to the emergency department after sexual assault, we have medications to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease, but no treatments to prevent chronic pain. This is because we understand what causes pregnancy or infection, but we have no idea what the biologic mechanisms are that cause chronic pain. Chronic pain after these events is common and can cause great suffering, and there is an urgent need to understand what causes chronic pain so that we can start to develop interventions. This study is an important first step in developing this understanding."
"In addition, because we don't understand what causes these outcomes, individuals with chronic pain after traumatic events are often viewed with suspicion, as if they are making up their symptoms for financial gain or having a psychological reaction," McLean said. "An improved understanding of the biology helps with this stigma," McLean said.
###
The study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of investigators from thirteen institutions. Co-lead authors on the study were Andrey Bortsov, MD, PhD, assistant research professor in the UNC Department of Anesthesiology, and Jennifer Smith, BS, a UNC medical student and former Doris Duke Fellow.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
An interesting move :?Coursera Announces Professional Development Courses to Facilitate Lifelong Learning for Teachers
?Today we are extremely pleased to announce the launch of a teacher professional development category on Coursera. We believe that helping teachers improve their skills is an important contribution that we can make to the education of students everywhere. We are truly excited about the possibilities that having these courses available for free online, to be used independently or in a blended learning capacity, will open up for teachers, schools, and districts.Seven leading schools of education have joined this initiative, including the College of Education, University of Washington; Curry School of Education, University of Virginia; Johns Hopkins University School of Education; Match Education?s Sposato Graduate School of Education; Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University; Relay Graduate School of Education; and University of California, Irvine Extension.
Additionally, we welcome a new network of educational institutions and museums, including the American Museum of Natural History; The Commonwealth Education Trust; Exploratorium; The Museum of Modern Art; and New Teacher Center.? (read full article)
This one sounds intriguing to me:??Emerging Trends & Technologies in the Virtual K-12 Classroom? Check out the full list of the current/upcoming Teacher PD courses. Is there something you want to take? Can you get a group of colleagues to work through the course together? Form your own independent study group and do it!
Twenty to 25 homes in a Nashville, Tenn., neighborhood were evacuated after a Realtor who was prepping a home on the market for a viewing reportedly had quite a shock. The real estate agent discovered explosives in the crawl space of the home on Catspaw Court, according to Nashville TV station WSMV reported. According to the TV station, the devices were determined to be pipe bombs and a bomb squad was called in to remove the explosives. Another local TV station, WTVF, said authorities believed the devices were simulators, but WSMV reported that police later determined that they were hazardous.
According to WSMV, the previous owner of the home died suddenly and the house had been up for sale for more than a year. The TV station reported that the owner used to be a member of Nashville's Metro Bomb Squad, which could explain why there were explosives at the home. It was not clear, though, why the owner would have been allowed to transport explosive devices to his house.
Police reportedly kept surrounding neighbors out of their homes for five hours on Sunday night while authorities removed the explosives and concluded their on-scene investigation. Residents weren't allowed to return to their homes until 12:30 a.m. Monday morning, WSMV reported. The identity of the Realtor who found the explosives was not disclosed. WSMV reported that a person who had inspected the home just a month ago saw the devices but did not report them to police because that person didn't think there was a threat to public safety.
A similar stir occurred in 2011 when an irate Seattle homeowner facing eviction reportedly "booby-trapped" a home that was in foreclosure. Though in that incident, no actual explosives were found connected to the apparent tripwire. For other scary and odd discoveries in homes, see the gallery below.
See more on explosives in homes: Alleged Mass Shooter Evicted for 'Substantial Violation of His Lease' George W. Bush's Home Targeted by Alleged Terrorist Apartment Guru: My Neighbor Thinks I'm a Terrorist!
More on AOL Real Estate: Find out how to calculate mortgage payments. Find homes for sale in your area. Find foreclosures in your area. See celebrity homes.
Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uvk7u8H26QOKcATr8135y6rAKCWRl1rcV27kIiwUm2rIRhb9q86KohZ29Qr4ImUV2c_EWkthrmIXrxZtt6af_bmZ5Bv2cARstUZkfW1bs=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 2-May-2013
Share ] 
According to WSMV, the previous owner of the home died suddenly and the house had been up for sale for more than a year. The TV station reported that the owner used to be a member of Nashville's Metro Bomb Squad, which could explain why there were explosives at the home. It was not clear, though, why the owner would have been allowed to transport explosive devices to his house.