Aging gene found to govern lifespan, immunity and resilience

A nematode worm that has a bacterial infection (highlighted in green). Copyright: Dr Robin May, University of Birmingham

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) at the University of Birmingham have discovered that a gene called DAF-16 is strongly involved in determining the rate of ageing and average lifespan of the laboratory worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) and its close evolutionary cousins. DAF-16 is found in many other animals, including humans. It is possible that this knowledge could open up new avenues for altering ageing, immunity and resistance to stresses in humans. The research is published today (01 April) in PLoS ONE.

Dr Robin May, who led the research said: "Ageing is a process that all organisms experience, but at very different rates. We know that, even between closely related species, average lifespans can vary enormously.

"We wanted to find out how normal ageing is being governed by genes and what effect these genes have on other traits, such as immunity. To do that, we looked at a gene that we already knew to be involved in the ageing process, called DAF-16, to see how it may determine the different rates of ageing in different species."

Dr May and colleagues compared longevity, stress resistance and immunity in four related species of worm (see notes for details). They also looked for differences in the activity of DAF-16 in each of the four species and found that they were all quite distinct in this respect. And, importantly, the differences in DAF-16 corresponded to differences in longevity, stress resistance and immunity between the four species - in general higher levels of DAF-16 activity correlated with longer life, increased stress resistance and better immunity against some infections.
Dr May continued: "DAF-16 is part of a group of genes that drive the biological processes involved in ageing, immunity and responses to physical or environmental stresses. The fact that subtle differences in DAF-16 between species seem to have such an impact on ageing and health is very interesting and may explain how differences in lifespan and related traits have arisen during evolution."

The research in Birmingham is now moving on to look at the way in which DAF-16 coordinates a complex network of genes in order to balance the differing needs of an individual's immune system over time.

Professor Douglas Kell said: "Research using model organisms that uncovers the biology underpinning ageing gives us the opportunity to understand some of the mechanisms that determine how humans age in a healthy, or at least normal, way. It is very important to develop a good understanding of healthy ageing if we are to appreciate what happens to an older person's physiology when they become unwell or experience difficulties with everyday tasks such as recalling memories or moving around. Improving the healthspan to mirror increases in the lifespan is an important subject of BBSRC research."

Provided by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (news : web

Source: http://newscri.be/link/1060843

Irish banks on verge of collapse,

Irish Banks Need $43 Billion on ‘Appalling’ Lending 

By Dara Doyle and Colm Heatley

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Ireland’s banks need $43 billion in new capital after “appalling” lending decisions left the country’s financial system on the brink of collapse.
The fund-raising requirement was announced after the National Asset Management Agency said it will apply an average discount of 47 percent on the first block of loans it is buying from lenders as part of a plan to revive the financial system. The central bank set new capital buffers for Allied Irish Banks Plc and Bank of Ireland Plc and gave them 30 days to say how they will raise the funds.

“Our worst fears have been surpassed,” Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said in the parliament in Dublin yesterday. “Irish banking made appalling lending decisions that will cost the taxpayer dearly for years to come.”

Dublin-based Allied Irish needs to raise 7.4 billion euros to meet the capital targets, while cross-town rival Bank of Ireland will need 2.66 billion euros. Anglo Irish Bank Corp., nationalized last year, may need as much 18.3 billion euros. Customer-owned lenders Irish Nationwide and EBS will need 2.6 billion euros and 875 million euros, respectively.

‘Truly Shocking’

The asset agency aims to cleanse banks of toxic loans, the legacy of plunging real-estate prices and the country’s deepest recession. In all, it will buy loans with a book value of 80 billion euros ($107 billion), about half the size of the economy. Lenihan said the information from NAMA on the banks was “truly shocking.”
“The regulator is taking the bank system by the scruff of the neck,” said James Forbes, senior equity strategist at Irish Life Investment Managers in Dublin. “Allied Irish has a lot of work to do to avoid majority state ownership, Bank of Ireland less so.”

Allied Irish rose 10 percent to 1.37 euros as of 9:06 a.m. in Dublin. Bank of Ireland surged 26 percent to 1.62 euros. Credit-default swaps insuring both banks’ debts declined.

Allied Irish will sell its stakes in banks in the U.S. and Poland and said late yesterday this will meet a “substantial part” of its capital needs. It also plans a share sale.

Bank of Ireland said today it’s working to fill the capital deficit after posting a net loss of 1.46 billion euros in the nine months through December 2009. The lender expects to be able to raise most of the new capital privately, Chief Executive Officer Richie Boucher said.

Capital Target

Lenders must have an 8 percent core Tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength, by the end of the year, according to the regulator. The equity core Tier 1 capital must increase to 7 percent.

AIB’s equity core tier 1 ratio stood at 5 percent at the end of 2009 and Bank of Ireland’s at 5.3 percent. Those ratios exclude a government investment of 3.5 billion euros in each bank, made at the start of 2009.
“The banks are undergoing major surgery via NAMA,” financial regulator Matthew Elderfield said at a press conference in Dublin. “They need a transfusion now to speed their recovery and that of the economy.”

Credit-default swaps insuring Allied Irish Bank’s debt against default fell 6.5 basis points to 195.5, according to CMA DataVision prices at 8:45 a.m. Contracts protecting Bank of Ireland’s debt fell 7 basis points to 191 and swaps linked to Anglo Irish Bank’s bonds were down 3.5 basis points at 347.5.

Credit-default swaps pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a company fail to adhere to its debt agreements. A decline signals improving perceptions of credit quality.

State Aid

If Allied Irish can’t raise enough funds privately, the state will step in with aid, Lenihan said. It is “probable” the government will then end up with a majority stake, he said.

The banks “are in a better position today, but we also have to be cautious about thinking we are done and dusted here,” Forbes said.

Ireland may not be able to afford to pump more money into the banks. The budget deficit widened to 11.7 percent of gross domestic product last year, almost four times the European Union limit, and the government spent the past year trying to convince investors the state is in control of its finances.

The premium investors charge to hold Irish 10-year debt over the German equivalent was at 139 basis points today compared with 284 basis points in March 2009, a 16-year high.

Ireland’s debt agency said it doesn’t envisage additional borrowing this year related to the bank recapitalization. It is sticking to its 2010 bond issuance forecast of about 20 billion euros, head of funding Oliver Whelan said in an interview.

“The bank losses, awful as they are, represent a one-off hit. It’s water under the bridge,” said Ciaran O’Hagan, a Paris-based fixed-income strategist at Societe Generale SA. “What’s of more concern for investors in government bonds is the budget deficit. Slashing the chronic overspending and raising taxation by the Irish state is vital.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.net; Colm Heatley in Belfast at cheatley@bloomberg.net

Computer Scientists Develop a Comfortable and Secure Login Method

ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2010) — As most internet users know, it is often hard to remember or keep apart all the passwords and login names for one's different online accounts.

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Dr. Bernd Borchert, together with stu-dents at the Computer Science Department of Tübingen University, has tackled this issue. They developed a new method that saves the users not only the trouble of memorizing the passwords and login names, but also of typing them. All of this is managed by the user's smartphone.

Moreover, the new approach solves a common problem which many internet users choose to ignore: passwords can be tapped by so-called keyloggers, i.e. trojans on the computer a password is entered into, and could later be misused for criminal purposes. As Dr. Borchert's method does not rely on permanent passwords anymore, the problem of tap-ping becomes obsolete.

The new method was filed for patent application.

From the user's point of view, Borchert's approach works as follows: The user downloads the method's application software to his smartphone. For each account he wants to be managed by the app, he needs to go through a short initialization process on the smartphone. In order to access an account, the user can open the respective login page in a browser window on any computer. He will then be shown a 2D-code that he must scan with the smartphone's camera. After the data is processed by the app, the smartphone contacts the account server via internet. The server checks the data received, connects to the browser window on the computer and opens the user's account. Thus, the user gets into his account almost by magic -- he only has to scan the 2D-code. In order to prevent unauthorized persons from logging in to an account, e.g. in case the smartphone is stolen, the user may protect his most important accounts with an additional tap-proof password query.

A prototype of the new application software was programmed by computer science students -- the link below refers to the demonstration web page which also contains a short demo video. Appropriate apps already exist for some types of smartphone. The project team is currently looking for account providers willing to implement the method in order to offer it to their users.

Demonstration web page containing more information and links: http://www2-fs.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/~borchert/Troja/Open-Sesame/index.php?lang=en

Source: http://newscri.be/link/1058800