Key to school improvement: Reading, writing, arithmetic ... and character?

ScienceDaily (Dec. 30, 2011) ? A study of 20 elementary schools in Hawaii has found that a focused program to build social, emotional and character skills resulted in significantly improved overall quality of education, as evaluated by teachers, parents and students.

The concept includes organized activities to build character that go beyond more traditional rules or policies to control or punish problem behaviors. But it still takes only about an hour a week away from traditional education, and previous research has documented much lower numbers of suspensions, lower absenteeism, and better reading and math scores on standardized tests.

The latest study, being published by researchers from Oregon State University in the Journal of School Health, found for the first time that teachers believed this approach improved "overall school quality" by 21 percent, with parents and students agreeing in slightly smaller numbers. It was based on findings from racially and ethnically diverse schools, half using the program and half that did not.

"Improved social and character skills leave more time for teachers to teach, and students to learn and be more motivated," said Brian Flay, an OSU professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences. "What we're finding now is that we can really address some of the concerns in our schools by focusing more on character in the classroom.

"These are not new concepts, they're the kind of things that have always been discussed in families, church and social groups," Flay said. "A third-grade lesson, for instance, might be helping kids to understand how other people feel, to learn about empathy. That may seem simple, but in terms of educational performance it's important."

School quality, as defined in this research, includes a safe environment, involvement and satisfaction among individuals, student support, continuous improvement, standards-based learning and other features.

Past policies to curtail substance abuse, violent behavior and other problems have shown only limited results, researchers said in the study, in part because they don't address underlying issues such as student's sense of self and social attachment. The new trend being explored is what they call social-emotional and character development.

The program used in this research includes K-12 classroom curricula, a school-wide climate development component, teacher and staff training, parent and community involvement, continued positive reinforcement and other techniques.

Lessons include topics related to self-concept, physical and intellectual actions, managing oneself responsibly, getting along with others, being honest, and self-improvement.

The results have been impressive. Previously published results showed 72 percent fewer suspensions, 15 percent less absenteeism, and much better reading and math skills based on state tests. National tests showed a 9 percent improvement in these academic subjects.

"The current research supports the hypothesis that these programs can generate whole-school change and improve school safety and quality," the researchers wrote in their report. "The present study shows improvements in school quality were made by relatively underperforming schools."

The findings suggest that schools, districts, states and the federal government should consider policies and funding directed toward social and character programs of this type, the researchers said.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oregon State University.

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Journal Reference:

1. Frank J. Snyder, Samuel Vuchinich, Alan Acock, Isaac J. Washburn, Brian R. Flay. Improving Elementary School Quality Through the Use of a Social-Emotional and Character Development Program: A Matched-Pair, Cluster-Randomized, Controlled Trial in Hawai'i. Journal of School Health, 2012; 82 (1): 11 DOI: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00662.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111230134836.htm

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Samuel S. Epstein: Multiple Carcinogens in Johnson & Johnson's Baby Shampoo

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics must be congratulated for securing a 11/15/11 agreement with Johnson & Johnson "for reducing or gradually phasing out trace amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals" from Baby Shampoo, "one of its signature products." However, this agreement is limited and restricted to the U.S. market.

There are three carcinogenic ingredients in Johnson & Johnson's Baby Shampoo, dioxane, formaldehyde and nitrosamine. Dioxane is a well-recognized carcinogenic contaminant in alcohol ethoxylates, a group of four ingrediens -- laureths, oleths, polyethylene glycol and polysorbates. The second ingredient, quaternium, is a precursor of two carcinogens, formaldehyde and nitrosamine. Johnson & Johnson has committed to "reducing or gradual phasing out" dioxane and formaldehyde in their U.S., but not in their international, products. A third carcinogen, not recognized by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, is nitrosamine, also of quaterniums, besides other precursors.

However limited, Johnson & Johnson's response is in sharp and disturbing contrast to the silence of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This federal agency has still failed to enforce the explicit requirements of the 1938 Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. This directs the FDA to require that "the label of a cosmetic product shall bear a warning statement to prevent a health hazard that may be associated with the product."

The regulatory failure of the FDA extends to its failure to respond to the Cancer Prevention Coalition's extensively-documented 1996 Citizen Petition "Seeking A Cancer Warning On Cosmetic Products Containing (the carcinogen) Diethanolamine." FDA's regulatory failure extends still further to the Coalition's 2008 Petition, "Seeking A (ovarian) Cancer Warning On Talc Products Used By Premenopausal for Women's Genital Dusting." Both petitions, endorsed by leading cancer prevention experts, requested the FDA to ban or suspend approval of these products, which still pose an "imminent hazard," or minimally to require their labeling with a "caution" or other such warning. However, the FDA has still failed to respond.

Concerns on the cancer risks of talc, dioxane, formaldehyde, nitrosamine and ethylene oxide, besides other prohibited and restricted carcinogenic ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products, are not new. They were detailed in my 2001 "Unreasonable Risk: How To Avoid Cancer From Cosmetics and Personal Care Products," and 2009 "Healthy Beauty" books.

As published in the Feb. 25, 2011 Science Insider editorial, "Advancing Regulatory Science," FDA Commissioner Dr. Hamburg claimed that FDA's regulations must be based on "better predictive models -- functional genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics," rather than "high dose animal [carcinogenicity] studies -- unchanged for decades."

Dr. Hamburg's dismissal of standard carcinogenicity tests is bizarre. Their scientific validity has been endorsed by other federal regulatory agencies, the National Toxicology Program, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, besides the April 2010 President's Cancer Panel. Furthermore, as stipulated in the 1938 Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, the FDA is charged with regulating food, drugs and cosmetics based on standard toxicology and carcinogenicity tests. Moreover, the FDA is not charged with, let alone capable of developing irrelevant "tests that incorporate the mechanistic underpinnings of disease."

As warned by Senator Edward Kennedy at the 1997 Senate Hearings on the FDA Reform Bill, "The cosmetics industry has borrowed a page from the playbook of the tobacco industry by putting profits ahead of public health." This warning remains current.

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. is professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition; and former President of the Rachel Carson Trust. His awards include the 1998 Right Livelihood Award and the 2005 Albert Schweitzer Golden Grand Medal for International Contributions to Cancer Prevention. He is the author of over 270 scientific articles and 20 books on the causes and prevention of cancer, including the Unreasonable Risk Book: How To Avoid Cancer from Cosmetics and Personal Care Products, The Neways Story (2001, Environmental Toxicology), the groundbreaking The Politics of Cancer (1979, Doubleday Books), Healthy Beauty (2010, BenBella Books), and National Cancer Institute And American Cancer Society: Criminal Indifference to Cancer Prevention and Conflicts of Interest (2011, Xlibris Publishing).

CONTACT:
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition
Professor emeritus Environmental & Occupational Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health
Email: epstein@uic.edu
www.preventcancer.com

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samuel-s-epstein/johnson-baby-shampoo_b_1151807.html

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New Arrival

Oh, so this is where the new arrival post should go? In that case, my mistake. I have many names, most of them good. Call me what you like, but it doesn't mean I have to answer. I'm old enough to know better and too young to care. I like everyone, but cross my friends the wrong way and I'll eat you with a side of Fava Beans, to start. Otherwise, nice to meet all of you, and bear with me while I try to figure this stuff out. Also, presently, my "N" key likes to ignore me, just a forewarning.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/1yukVJOAszo/viewtopic.php

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'Home for the holidays' means adjustments for military family

Elysse Fleece had her Christmas traditions down.

Get the live tree on Black Friday, then decorate the heck out of it.

Hang the Christmas lights.

Play Christmas music nonstop.

Watch holiday movies with son Donnivan.

In Christmas of ?09 and ?10, the routine went as smoothly as a freshly Zambonied ice rink. This year, however, Elysse Fleece discovered a rough spot: her husband, John.

For the first time since 2008, Sgt. 1st Class John Fleece is home for the holidays, and, while they?re happy to be together, they admit it?s been an adjustment. She loves the constant backdrop of Christmas music. He?d doesn?t. She?s gotten used to picking out the tree and hanging the lights, so it was just second nature for her to leave him out of he picture.

?I?d start to pick up my duties; she wanted to push me out of the way,? said John, 32, who returned to the Pikes Peak area in May after spending most of the last two years in Iraq.

It?s a scenario that is likely taking place in military homes throughout the county as U.S. involvement in Iraq comes to an end and the presence in Afghanistan dwindles. According to the Air Force Times, the military divorce rate reached a new high in 2011, with 3.7 percent of marriages breaking up.

It?s understandable, said the Fleeces, who will be married seven years in May. When one spouse is deployed, the other still has to go on with life. Routines are established, traditions created. And in spite of all the technological advances like Skype and Facebook that have made it easier for military couples to stay in touch, it?s not the same as living under the same roof and being in tune with each other?s rhythms.

?It was hard to let him in,? Elysse said Sunday as she and John sat at their Widefield-area home, watching Donnivan and his cousins from Oregon bounce around with the excitement generated by new toys, clothing and a houseful of relatives. ?For me it was, ?this is how we do it.? ?

She was so accustomed to handing the lights, even though she doesn?t like heights, that she almost forgot to include John.

?I hung the lights for the last two years,? she said. ?It was just natural for me to do it. This year, I said, ?oh wait; I have a guy who will climb on the roof to do it.?

Elysse, 26, said the military does a good job cautioning families about the more dramatic problems, like PTSD, but not on the mundane issues that can turn into minefields.

?They don?t tell you how you?re going to get annoyed because he put the coffee cup in the wrong place,? she said. ?It?s the little things you?re going to have issues with. They really don?t stress that you have to adjust to everything.?

The good news for John and Elysse is that they both are open about the stresses of living together again and they?re willing to talk about the challenges.

?There was a lot of tension, and the only way to get through anything is communication,? John said. ?I?m actually a confronter.?

And so, they?re becoming masters in the art of compromise. The Christmas music has been toned down. She?s trying to fit his work schedule into hers.

?There?s a lot of give and take,? Elysse said.

The adjustments have been well worth the effort, the couple said. For the first time since 2008, John was together with his extended family as well as his wife and son. He didn?t have to put up with a choppy Internet connection to see his son decorate the tree or open presents.

?Now I?m seeing it in real life, and I like it,? John said. ?Being able to take part in it ? that?s the best gift.?

Source: http://www.gazette.com/articles/christmas-130750-donnivan-nonstop.html

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Japan nuclear crisis response riddled with problems

Japan's response to the nuclear crisis that followed the March 11 tsunami was confused and riddled with problems, including an erroneous assumption an emergency cooling system was working and a delay in disclosing dangerous radiation leaks, a report revealed Monday.

The disturbing picture of harried and bumbling workers and government officials scrambling to respond to the problems at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was depicted in the report detailing a government investigation.

The 507-page interim report, compiled by interviewing more than 400 people, including utility workers and government officials, found authorities had grossly underestimated tsunami risks, assuming the highest wave would be 6 metres. The tsunami hit at more than double those levels.

The report criticized the use of the term "soteigai," meaning "outside our imagination," which it said implied authorities were shirking responsibility for what had happened. It said by labelling the events as beyond what could have been expected, officials had invited public distrust.

"This accident has taught us an important lesson on how we must be ready for soteigai," it said.

Plant workers untrained to handle emergencies

The report, set to be finished by mid-2012, found workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that ran Fukushima Dai-ichi, were untrained to handle emergencies like the power shutdown that struck when the tsunami destroyed backup generators ?setting off the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chornobyl.

There was no clear manual to follow, and the workers failed to communicate, not only with the government but also among themselves, it said.

Finding alternative ways to bring sorely needed water to the reactors was delayed for hours because of the mishandling of an emergency cooling system, the report said. Workers assumed the system was working, despite several warning signs it had failed and was sending the nuclear core into meltdown.

The report acknowledged that even if the system had kicked in properly, the tsunami damage may have been so great that meltdowns would have happened anyway.

But a better response might have reduced the core damage, radiation leaks and the hydrogen explosions that followed at two reactors and sent plumes of radiation into the air, according to the report.

Sadder still was how the government dallied in relaying information to the public, such as using evasive language to avoid admitting serious meltdowns at the reactors, the report said.

Towns could have been evacuated sooner

The government also delayed disclosure of radiation data in the area, unnecessarily exposing entire towns to radiation when they could have evacuated, the report found.

The government recommended changes so utilities will respond properly to serious accidents.

It recommended separating the nuclear regulators from the unit that promotes atomic energy, echoing frequent criticism since the disaster.

Japan's nuclear regulators were in the same ministry that promotes the industry, but they are being moved to the environment ministry next year to ensure more independence.

The report did not advocate a move away from nuclear power but recommended adding more knowledgeable experts, including those who would have been able to assess tsunami risks, and laying out an adequate response plan to what it called "a severe accident."

The report acknowledged people were still living in fear of radiation spewed into the air and water, as well as radiation in the food they eat. Thousands have been forced to evacuate and have suffered monetary damage from radiation contamination, it said.

"The nuclear disaster is far from over," the report said.

The earthquake and tsunami left 20,000 people dead or missing.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/12/26/japan-nuclear-report.html?cmp=rss

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Pope urges end to Syria bloodshed, peace worldwide (AP)

VATICAN CITY ? Pope Benedict XVI called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in his Christmas message Sunday, an appeal for peace that was challenged by deadly attacks on Nigerian churches.

Benedict delivered his "Urbi et Orbi" speech (Latin for "to the city and to the world") from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica overlooking a sun-drenched piazza below, before thousands of jubilant tourists and pilgrims, and hundreds of colorful Swiss Guards and Italian military bands.

The 84-year-old pope, fresh off a late-night Christmas Eve Mass, said he prayed that the birth of Jesus, which Christmas celebrates, would send a message to all who need to be saved from hardships.

He cited refugees from the Horn of Africa and flood victims in Thailand, among others, and called for greater political dialogue in Myanmar, and stability in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa's Great Lakes region.

He said he prayed that God would help the Israelis and the Palestinians resume talks.

"May he bring an end to the violence in Syria, where so much blood has already been shed," he said.

The pope didn't mention the deadly blasts on churches in Nigeria, but the Vatican issued a statement denouncing the attacks as a sign of "cruelty and absurd, blind hatred" that shows no respect for human life.

Early Sunday, an explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria's capital of Abuja, and an emergency worker reported that 25 people were killed. A second explosion struck near a church in Nigeria's restive central city of Jos, while two other explosions hit the northeast state of Yobe.

There was no immediately claim of responsibility for either explosion, but Nigeria has suffered a wave of sectarian attacks blamed on the radical Muslim sect Boko Haram.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the Catholic church was praying for all Nigerians confronting "this terrorist violence in these days that should be filled with peace and joy."

The Vatican press office noted that Benedict's speech was prepared well in advance of the attacks.

After his speech, Benedict delivered Christmas greetings in 65 different languages, from Mongolian to Maori, Aramaic to Albanian, Tamil to Thai. He finished the list with Guarani and Latin, as the bells tolled from St. Peter's enormous bell towers.

In the West Bank, hundreds of Christian faithful, defying lashing rains and wind, celebrated Christmas Mass at Jesus' traditional birthplace of Bethleham on Sunday, spirits high despite the gloomy weather.

Worshippers dressed in their holiday best rushed under cover of umbrellas into St. Catherine's Church on Manger Square, leaving the plaza, with its 50-foot-tall (15-meter-tall) Christmas tree, deserted. The church was packed, and the overflow crowd waited eagerly in an arched corridor for a chance to enter.

Inside, supplicants, some dressed in the traditional attire of foreign lands, raised their voices in prayer, kissed a plaster statue of a baby Jesus and took communion. St. Catherine's is attached to the smaller Church of the Nativity, which is built over a grotto where devout Christians believe Jesus was born.

"Lots of pilgrims from around the world are coming to be here on Christmas," said Don Moore, 41, a psychology professor from Berkeley, Calif., who came to Bethlehem with his family. "We wanted to be part of the action. This is the place, this is where it all started."

With turnout at its highest in more than a decade, proud Palestinian officials said they were praying the celebrations would bring them closer to their dream of independence.

In Britain, the leader of the world's Anglicans, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said the summer riots in Britain and the financial crisis have broken bonds and abused trust in British society.

In his Christmas Day sermon, Rowan Williams appealed to those congregated at Canterbury Cathedral to learn lessons about "mutual obligation" from the events of the past year. He said Sunday "the most pressing question" now facing Britain is "who and where we are as a society."

"Bonds have been broken, trust abused and lost," he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111225/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_christmas

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Donald Trump Leaves GOP, Registers as Independent

Donald Trump continues to dabble with the idea of running for President, switching his voter registration from Republican to unaffiliated so he can run as an independent should he choose to enter the 2012 race.

Registered in New York, Trump filed the paperwork on Thursday and his spokesman Michael Cohen told NBC News of Trump?s decision on Friday.

He reiterated Trump?s oft-stated position on running ? he will run if the Republicans fail to nominate a candidate he believes can unseat Barack Obama.

Trump?s candidacy would not get under way for several months as he will wait until his reality show, ?The Apprentice,? concludes in May of 2012.

Also Read:?Donald Trump Says He Will Run for President ?- After 'Apprentice' Wraps

Trump had been planning on moderating with a Republican debate, but most of the candidates declined to participate because of Trump?s potential interest in running. Trump then pulled out.

Related Wrap Stories

Source: http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/donald-trump-leaves-gop-registers-independent-33919

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German Court Rules Muslim Student Disturbed the Peace by Praying (Time.com)

This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in S?ddeutsche Zeitung.

(MUNICH) -- Yunus M., an 18-year-old Muslim high school student at Diesterweg Gymnasium in Berlin, Germany, has failed in his fight for the right to pray in the public corridors at school. The latest decision concerns this individual case only, judges at the Federal Administrative Court emphasized. But should the plaintiff, who is near graduation, opt to pursue the matter, the only further legal recourse open to him is the Federal Constitutional Court.

The question that the case raises, however, remains: should Muslim students be able to pray openly at school?

Four years ago, Yunus M. and seven friends gathered in the school corridor to bow in the direction of Mecca. The school's director forbid them to do it again, and the case went through a local court, then a court of appeal, before being heard at the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. (See photos of Ramadan in the year of the Arab Spring.)

According to chief justice Werner Neumann, students have a fundamental right to pray at school. He said, however, that religious freedom has its limits if it threatens to cause social friction within the school, as was the case here. The court agreed with the position of the school, whose director stated that there had been repeated religious conflicts at the school, and that at an establishment where 90% of the students were not German it was impossible for them all to claim a right to pray there publically. In addition, the director stated, Yunus M. had been offered a space where he could pray privately.

A case-by-case issue?

The case had previously resulted in contradictory court decisions. In September 2009, the Berlin Administrative Court decided in favor of Yunus M., a ruling which the Administrative Appeals Tribunal overturned six months later.

The Berlin Administrative court called in jurist Matthias Rohe, an expert on Islam, who said that the Muslim boy's stance was a "plausible opinion in the spectrum of religious freedom" and that Yunus M. was not an extremist. The Appeals Tribunal called in a colleague of Rohe's, Tilman Nagel, who stated that even the prophet Mohammed had put off praying to make community life simpler.

Yunus M.'s case underscores a basic tension: Do state institutions have to accept strict, conservative, even fundamentalist practices when other interpretations are possible? (See the top 10 world stories of 2011.)

The Leipzig court avoided this debate by stressing the individual nature of its decision. For this the court earned praise from some Christian churches. Spokespersons for the Berlin-Brandenburg Evangelical Church and the Archdiocese of Berlin said the court's decision aligned with the freedom of religion guaranteed by the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Yunus M.'s lawyer said they were waiting for the written decision before deciding whether or not to go to the Supreme Court, a move he described, nevertheless, as unlikely.

Also from Worldcrunch:

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-- Die Welt

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-- S?ddeutsche Zeitung

See TIME's special report "The Middle East in Revolt."

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View this article on Time.com

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20111224/wl_time/08599210227700

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Softbank to quit on Myspace in Japan: report

Thu Dec 22, 2011 3:13pm EST

(Reuters) - Softbank Corp will quit its domestic social networking site business after just five years, liquidating a joint venture with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for the Japanese-language version of Myspace, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The 50-50 joint venture with U.S. media group News Corp will shut down at the end of January and be liquidated, the Nikkei reported. The Japanese-language service will be taken over by U.S. firm Myspace LLC, the newspaper added.

News Corp acquired Myspace for $580 million in 2005, when it was among the world's most popular websites, and the company's success in beating out rival Viacom Inc in a bidding war was viewed as a major victory for Murdoch.

However, since then Facebook eclipsed Myspace in popularity and in June, News Corp sold the website to advertising company Specific Media LLC and singer Justin Timberlake at a fraction of what it had paid.

News Corp continues to own its stake in the Japanese unit, the Nikkei said.

Launched in November 2006, Myspace's Japanese service tied up with record labels and sought to tout itself as a way for artists to reach fans. But it failed to offer attractive content, and had only signed up about 1.08 million users as of August, not even a 10th of Facebook's tally, the paper said.

(Reporting by Ritika Rai in Bangalore; Editing by Viraj Nair)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/22/us-softbank-idUSTRE7BL1O520111222?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

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Yemen national airline employees end strike

SANAA, Yemen?? Employees of Yemen's national airline, Yemenia Airways, ended a two-day strike Thursday after the country's new transport minister suspended the company's director over accusations of corruption.

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There has been a growing trend of strikes, involving industrial workers, students and even soldiers after the swearing in of a new national unity government this month. That followed the agreement of longtime Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down after months of protests.

The strikers have generally called for dismissal of longtime Saleh loyalists or officials perceived as corrupt.

The pilots union welcomed the decision of the transport minister to strip the authority of Abdel-Khalq al-Qadhi over the airline, calling it "brave." He is Saleh's son-in-law.

Thousands of striking workers wanted to see him put on trial over charges he misused the company's assets and drove it into bankruptcy.

The strike stopped all flights in and out of the country's two main airports, in the capital Sanaa and the southern port of Aden.

In other labor actions around the country, workers at a large cement factory in Hodeida have been on strike for three days, demanding the factory head be replaced for embezzling assets.

In a rare strike in the country's military, hundreds of soldiers from a brigade in the southern al-Daleh province prevented their commander from entering the camp, accusing him of corruption. The soldiers encircled the camp with armored vehicles, and soldiers to prevent the major general, a member of Saleh's tribe, from entering.

A defense ministry official, speaking on condition anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said negotiations with battalion officers were under way to resolve the crisis.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45765732/ns/travel-news/

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Transcriptional elongation control takes on new dimensions as researchers find gene class-specific elongation factors

ScienceDaily (Dec. 22, 2011) ? Life is complicated enough, so you can forgive the pioneers of DNA biology for glossing over transcriptional elongation control by RNA polymerase II, the quick and seemingly bulletproof penultimate step in the process that copies the information encoded in our DNA into protein-making instructions carried by messenger RNA.

In a new report appearing in the Dec. 23, 2011, issue of Molecular Cell, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research add not just a new layer, but a whole new dimension to transcriptional elongation control with evidence that for each class of genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II (Pol II), there exists a specific class of elongation factors.

The Stowers team, led by investigator Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D., discovered that ELL, short for eleven-nineteen lysine-rich leukemia, not only belongs to an assemblage of transcription elongation factors, which Shilatifard's lab had identified as the "Super Elongation Complex" (SEC) a few years ago, but also that ELL is part of a distinct "Little Elongation Complex" (LEC), which acts on a completely different class of genes transcribed by Pol II. Their findings illustrate that the elongation stage of transcription is a much more specific regulator of gene expression than previously believed.

"About fifteen years ago, transcriptional elongation control was not considered all that important for the regulation of gene expression," says Shilatifard of the standard biology textbook descriptions of RNA transcription, which assume that the molecular machinery that supported transcription elongation was one-size-fits-all. "Once RNA polymerase II departed from the promoter regions, it didn't matter all that much what happened next," he says.

Transcriptional elongation is the step following promoter clearance and the step before termination, and was considered to be largely unregulated. The old metaphor was a train running on tracks. "Polymerase is the train. It sat at the promoter -- which would correspond to the station," Shilatifard explains. "The polymerase train would leave the promoter/station and before long would arrive at the end of the gene. The process of the train traveling between the station and the endpoint of the gene -- is considered elongation."

The latest findings derail the train metaphor. "We have shown that there are specific classes of elongation factors for different classes of genes. Therefore, much more is involved than a train simply following a predestined track," he says. "Years ago, B.F. Goodrich (the tire company) advertised that, 'for every road, there is a tire'. What we are learning is that for every class of genes, there seems to be a specific class of elongation factors. The specificity of the complexes seems to control which classes of genes are transcriptionally regulated," says Shilatifard.

Edwin Smith, Ph.D., a research scientist in Shilatifard's lab, identified LEC in Drosophila cells while biochemically dissecting the proteins associated with theDrosophila homolog of the ELL protein. In human cells, where ELL is found within the SEC, it is required to induce the expression of a class of genes specific for the pathogenesis of a subtype of genes involved in acute leukemia.

This type of leukemia results when, through a process known as translocation, the mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene becomes fused to any of a number of seemingly unrelated genes. In earlier studies, Shilatifard's group found that many of MLL's fusion partners, including ELL, belong to the SEC. When MLL fuses with any of these unrelated partners, the whole SEC, much like an entourage, now follows MLL to its normal target genes misregulating their elongation and ultimately causing leukemia.

While humans have three ELL genes, fruit flies have only one ELL, but its structural similarity to the human ELLs suggested an evolutionarily conserved and vital function. To find out more about ELL's function in both creatures, Smith searched forDrosophila interaction partners in collaboration with Michael Washburn, Ph.D., and Laurence Florens, Ph.D., who head proteomics at the Stowers. They used their multi-dimensional protein identification technology, or MudPIT, to identify a set of relatively uncharacterized proteins in Drosophila that associate with the C-terminus of ELL in a complex the Shilatifard lab named the "Little Elongation Complex" or LEC.

When Smith knocked down LEC subunits in fruit flies and analyzed the global expression pattern defect with Alexander Garrett, Ph.D., a bioinformatician in the Shilatifard lab, they found that the expression levels of small nuclear RNA (snRNA) genes plummeted. Unlike other RNAs transcribed by RNA pol II, these snRNA molecules are not translated into proteins, instead they team up with proteins to form small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) known by the cheerful name of "snurps." They form the spliceosome, which edits messenger RNA after it is transcribed from DNA. Smith, Garrett, and Chengqi Lin, a graduate student in Shilatifard's laboratory, also demonstrated that this function of LEC is highly conserved from Drosophila to mammals.

"The specialization of the SEC and LEC complexes for mRNA and snRNA-containing genes, respectively, suggests the presence of specific classes of elongation factors for each class of genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II, which is of fundamental significance," says Smith.

"The next step is to figure out what other classes of genes use other classes of elongation factors. And what are the differential mechanisms of recruitment to RNA Polymerase II on different classes of genes? Once we get a handle on these distinct classes of genes, we hope to be able to modify different classes of genes by modifying these elongation factors." This would be new perspective regarding basic biology and clinical intervention, Shilatifard believes.

Researchers who also contributed to the work include Janet Thornton, Nima Mohaghegh, Deqing Hu, Anita Saraf, Selene K. Swanson, and Christopher Seidel of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, as well as Jessica Jackson and Joel C. Eissenberg in the Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri.

The study was supported in part by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and the National Cancer Institute.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

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Journal Reference:

1. Edwin?R. Smith, Chengqi Lin, Alexander?S. Garrett, Janet Thornton, Nima Mohaghegh, Deqing Hu, Jessica Jackson, Anita Saraf, Selene?K. Swanson, Christopher Seidel, Laurence Florens, Michael?P. Washburn, Joel?C. Eissenberg, Ali Shilatifard. The Little Elongation Complex Regulates Small Nuclear RNA Transcription. Molecular Cell, 2011; 44 (6): 954 DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2011.12.008

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111222133330.htm

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Use Siri on Your Mac (Sort Of) [IPhone Apps]

Air Dictate is a clever little app that ports the power of Siri over to the Mac. Kind of. It doesn't have any of the bells and whistles of Siri (don't go starting conversations!) but rather, uses the extremely accurate speech recognition engine in Siri to dictate text to your Mac. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/LZgPtyaDxmo/use-siri-on-your-mac-sort-of

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Obesity Linked to Higher Esophageal Cancer Death Rates (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Obese people who have had surgery to treat esophageal cancer are twice as likely to have a recurrence of the disease or die from cancer within five years as patients of normal weight, according to a new study.

In the study, published in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., suggested their findings could change the way some doctors treat obese patients with this type of cancer.

The investigators followed 778 people who had surgery for esophageal cancer and found that those who were classified as obese (a body mass index of 30 or higher) had a five-year survival rate of 18 percent. That survival rate jumped to 36 percent among people who were not overweight.

"Obesity is considered a risk factor in the development of this cancer, which is known to be both highly lethal and increasingly common," the study's lead investigator, Dr. Harry Yoon, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a Mayo news release. "But prior to this study, we did not really understand the impact of obesity in this upper gastrointestinal cancer."

The study authors pointed out that their findings applied only to nonsmokers who had their esophagus removed. Yoon added that previous research has linked obesity to greater risk for cancer as well as increased risk of death from other types of tumors because extra weight results in a chronic inflammatory state.

The researchers noted their findings could change the approach they take with obese patients with esophageal cancer.

"As an oncologist, I did not typically speak to my patients about excess body weight as part of their care, because we are more often concerned about weight loss and maintaining proper nutrition, but that may change," said Yoon. "It would be helpful to be able to offer patients some measures that they can take to possibly impact their prognosis."

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about obesity and cancer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111224/hl_hsn/obesitylinkedtohigheresophagealcancerdeathrates

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Source: http://twitter.com/cpen/statuses/150022425780822016

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Facebook Names Top Games of 2011 (Mashable)

Social gaming was a big trend in 2011 and we expect the market to continue to grow in 2012. Facebook, the biggest platform for social games, released its list of the most popular games of 2011. Unlike most year-end lists, this one actually has quite a few surprises. I fully expected CityVille, Zynga's hit social game, to top the list. Nope. According to Facebook's measurements, that honor belongs to Gardens of Time.

[More from Mashable: Facebook Wants You to Know How it Makes Money [VIDEO]]

In the update announcing the list, Facebook does say it is basing its ranking on "games that drew the most active users and received the highest user recommendations."

That probably accounts for some of the discrepancies we found against other Facebook app data sources, like AppData.com. According to AppData, CityVille is the most popular game with 48.8 million monthly active users. Conversely, Gardens of Time ranks much further down the list with 8.5 million monthly active users.

[More from Mashable: Digg Makes Sharing Its Links to Facebook Automatic]

Accounting questions aside, here are Facebook's ten most popular games of 2011:

1. Gardens of Time (by Playdom)
2. The Sims Social (by EA)
3. Cityville (by Zynga)
4. DoubleDown Casino (by DoubleDown Entertainment)
5. Indiana Jones Adventure World (by Zynga)
6. Words With Friends (by Zynga)
7. Bingo Blitz (by Buffalo Studios)
8. Empires & Allies (by Zynga)
9. Slotomania-Slot Machines (by Playtika)
10. Diamond Dash (by wooga)

What Facebook game got your attention this year? Let us know.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20111221/tc_mashable/facebook_names_top_games_of2011

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Paul emerges as outsider alternative in GOP race (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. ? Suddenly, Ron Paul is in contention to win the Iowa caucuses and do well in the New Hampshire primary two weeks before the first votes are cast, reflecting the fluidity of the Republican presidential race as well as the inability of the party's social conservative, tea party and establishment wings to coalesce behind a favored candidate.

Yet, while the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman is earning support for his tight-fisted fiscal positions, he's so out of step with the GOP mainstream on foreign policy and some domestic issues that even his most loyal aides doubt he can use his momentum to win the Republican nomination.

"I'm very much in the Republican tradition," Paul insisted Tuesday as he campaigned in New Hampshire before heading back to Iowa on Wednesday. "Very much in the American tradition."

True or not, this much is certain: Paul is having a major impact on the campaign. His outsider persona and refusal to acquiesce to the ways of Washington ? he's nicknamed "Dr. No" on Capitol Hill for voting against much legislation ? has earned him a loyal following that he's leveraged to build a strong organization in Iowa and elsewhere. The respect that has long eluded him in the party may finally be coming to him.

Still, it's questionable how far he can go.

"He can get 15 to 20 percent in a multi-candidate field but, just like in 2008, when the field gets down to three candidates, voters will focus more clearly and his support will wane," predicted Michael Dennehy, an unaligned GOP operative in New Hampshire. "And, fair or not, the majority of voters will not feel comfortable with their nominee being a 76-year-old man who generally comes across as a character in Grumpy Old Men."

Paul's rise comes as the final push to the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses begins and Newt Gingrich becomes the latest candidate to slide in a race where Republicans have struggled to settle on an alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The ferment underscores the degree to which Republicans remain sharply divided over whether to select with a nominee seen as more capable of beating President Barack Obama or one seen more as the Democrat's ideological opposite.

In another sign of the fissures in the GOP, board members of a prominent Iowa Christian organization, the Family Leader, on Tuesday chose not to endorse anyone in the presidential race after failing to rally behind any one of the several strict social conservatives campaigning in Iowa.

Instead, the group's president, Bob Vander Plaats, and another prominent social conservative, Chuck Hurley, president of the Iowa Family Policy Center, threw their personal support behind former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who is barely registering in polls.

"We've always said, the fear would be a fragmented vote, because we have a lot of good candidates," Vander Plaats said.

Separately, the national American Family Association on Tuesday endorsed the thrice-married Gingrich, the former House speaker. Gingrich helped the group raise money last year to campaign in Iowa against the retention of state Supreme Court judges who backed a 2009 ruling to allow gay marriage.

Tea party activists, many reluctant to support Romney, also have not rallied behind an alternative. The divide has prompted some prominent tea party groups to shift from the White House campaign and focus on influencing Capitol Hill.

With prominent social conservatives and the tea party divided chiefly among Santorum, Gingrich, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Paul has emerged as a leading contender in some Iowa polls, along with Romney and Gingrich. The divisions among cultural conservatives have allowed Paul to cobble together a coalition, made up of strict fiscal conservatives and independent-minded Republicans, that has grown since the fall.

All that is good probably news for Romney, who all year long has been considered the Republican most likely to win.

Still, Paul's rise also reflects Romney's inability to seal the nomination early by becoming the chosen one of the establishment. The former Massachusetts governor launched a bus tour in New Hampshire on Tuesday and appeared ever more assured that his plan to win that key early state was working.

Romney was emphasizing his distinctions with Obama, asserting he would create an "opportunity society" while the Democrat would bring a welfare-dependent "entitlement society" if given a second term.

Elsewhere in New Hampshire, Paul expressed confidence about his prospects for strong finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire: "I'm doing very well."

He also answered rivals who have started assailing him at every turn, a signal that they recognize he's become a threat. He gave them an opening last week when he said he would not consider a military strike against Iran if there was proof the country had a nuclear military capability.

That sparked a heated exchange with Bachmann, who has called Paul's position "dangerous" and is trying to revive her campaign by attracting some of the tea party activists drawn to Paul.

Gingrich also jabbed at Paul's position.

He said Monday: "I cannot understand a mindset of somebody who says, `Oh, they wouldn't do that with a nuclear weapon.' It strikes me that if they are willing to blow up a few of us, they would be thrilled to blow up a lot of us. And that's where I disagree."

A day later, Paul argued anew that his position was within the Republican mainstream "and very much on the side of emphasizing a strong national defense instead of intending that we can be the policeman of the world."

But his opposition to military intervention abroad stands in sharp contrast to GOP orthodoxy. Paul favors bringing all or almost all troops home from foreign bases, not just from conflict zones.

Influential Republicans here and elsewhere, including Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, have predicted Paul's position will keep a healthy share of GOP activists, who dominate the caucuses, from supporting him.

Among the skeptics is Rosie Ford, a 77-year-old retiree waiting to see Gingrich at a Mount Pleasant, Iowa, grocery store on Tuesday.

"I like Ron Paul," she said. "His ideas are very bold and I think we need bold right now. But his foreign policy kind of scares me. He's a little too bold on that."

While Paul's supporters are devout, he does not appear to be even a consideration for many Iowa caucusgoers.

A New York Times/CBS News poll taken in early December found him to be the second choice of only 3 percent of likely caucus-goers, a key consideration in the fluid race. The Des Moines Register's poll, taken about the same time, found him to be the second choice of 7 percent.

But a good showing in Iowa could propel Paul strongly into New Hampshire, where, unlike the caucuses, independent voters can participate.

"The challenge is greater than it is for Romney," said Drew Ivers, Paul's Iowa campaign director. "So we start at the beginning and try to get the dominos to tip. Though, he acknowledged: "After that, the numbers become a challenge."

___(equals)

Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey contributed to this report from Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_on_el_pr/us_the_ron_paul_factor

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U.S. Rolls Out Tough Rules on Coal Plant Pollution

Image: Scott Butner

(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled the first-ever standards to slash mercury emissions from coal-fired plants, a move aimed at protecting public health that critics say will kill jobs as plants shut down.

Facing fierce opposition from industry groups and lawmakers from coal-intensive states, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the benefits of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, will greatly outweigh the costs.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson revealed the rules, which have been about 20 years in the making, at a Washington, D.C., children's hospital. Mercury can harm the nervous systems of developing fetuses and infants and can enter the food stream through contaminated fish.

"By cutting emissions that are linked to developmental disorders and respiratory illnesses like asthma, these standards represent a major victory for clean air and public health," said Jackson, whose agency hopes to start enforcing the rules over the next several years.

While the rule mostly adhered to the tough proposal on mercury, arsenic, chromium and other pollutants made earlier in the year, there were some differences.

The rules will cost utilities about $9.6 billion annually, down more than $1 billion from the EPA's earlier estimate due to "flexibilities" that were added to the final regulation, the agency said.

The EPA also said it will push permitting authorities in the states and cities to make "broadly available" a fourth year for polluters to invest in technology needed to cut the emissions.

One of a raft of clean air standards the agency is launching, the mercury standards have divided the power industry.

Companies including Exelon and NextEra that generate most of their power with "clean" fuel sources such as nuclear, natural gas and renewables have supported the mercury standards, while those that get most of their power from coal, including American Electric Power and Southern have vigorously fought them.

The standards pleased environmentalists and public health advocates, an important part of President Barack Obama's voter base, who slammed his decision in September to delay a landmark rule on smog emissions.

Driving plant closings

While the EPA stressed the flexibility of the final rules, power industry lobbyists said the agency still did not allow enough time for compliance.

Scott Segal, a lobbyist at Bracewell & Giuliani, said the rules will result in the loss of more than 1.4 million jobs by 2020 as utilities are forced to shut old coal-fired power plants. He estimated that for every temporary job created in technologies to clean up power plants four higher paying jobs, often union ones, will be lost.

"The bottom line: this rule is the most expensive air rule that EPA has ever proposed in terms of direct costs," Segal said. "It is certainly the most extensive intervention into the power market and job market that EPA has ever attempted to implement."

Rob Patrylak, a managing director of Black & Veatch, a consulting, engineering and construction company, said of all the EPA clean air rules, the MATS rule will force the largest number of coal-plant retirements. Unlike other recent clean air standards, such the Cross State Air Pollution Rule that seeks to cut emissions that move downwind from power plants, the MATS rule does not allow utilities to trade pollution credits to comply.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=45dcfabbb7796e8d03daaec3c83b308f

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Drugmakers extend cut-price pneumonia vaccine deal (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are increasing sales of cut-price pneumonia vaccine to developing countries by more than 50 percent, marking the scale-up of an international program to protect millions of children.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) is buying an additional 180 million doses of Pfizer's pneumococcal vaccine Prevenar 13 and a similar quantity of GSK's Synflorix at a deeply discounted price of $3.50 a shot.

The two companies said on Friday they would supply the extra vaccine through 2023, building on an original commitment last year to supply 300 million doses apiece.

The GAVI Alliance, a public-private partnership set up in 2000 to speed the introduction of vaccines into the world's poorest countries, hopes to avert up to 7 million deaths by 2030 by giving the vaccines to infants and young children.

Pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, kills more than half a million children every year, the vast majority of them in poorer countries.

GSK's Synflorix protects against 10 strains of the streptococcus pneumoniae bacterium, while Pfizer's Prevenar 13 shot protects against 13 strains.

In exchange for large orders, GAVI has negotiated a low price with the two drug companies, which get $7 per dose for the first 20 percent and $3.50 for the remainder of their orders under a so-called Advance Market Commitment (AMC) scheme.

A Pfizer spokeswoman said $3.50 was more than a 90 percent reduction from prices charged in some industrialized countries.

The pneumococcal vaccination program was initially started a year ago in Nicaragua and has now been rolled out to 15 other countries in Africa and Latin America.

The latest agreement shows how momentum is building behind the GAVI program, even as experts worry about funding cutbacks in other areas of global health due to austerity measures in donor countries hit by the economic crisis.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world's largest financial backer of HIV treatment and prevention programs, said last month it was cancelling new grants for countries battling these diseases and would make no new funding available until 2014.

By contrast, GAVI secured a bigger-than-expected $4.3 billion in pledges from its donors last June, reflecting widespread acknowledgement of the value of its immunization work.

Overall, development assistance for health in all forms has continued to grow in 2011, although the rate of growth has slowed, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle said in a report this week.

It estimated that spending increased by 4 percent each year between 2009 and 2011, reaching a total of $27.7 billion, down from 17 percent between 2007 and 2008.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/hl_nm/us_drugmakers_pneumonia

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Oil above $94 on signs of improving US economy (AP)

SINGAPORE ? Oil prices rose above $94 a barrel Friday in Asia amid signs the U.S. economy is slowly improving, which could boost demand for crude.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was up 40 cents to $94.27 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell by $1.08 to settle at $93.87 on Thursday.

In London, Brent crude was up 43 cents at $104.03 on the ICE futures exchange.

Crude has dropped from $100 this week because of expectations Europe's debt crisis will trigger a recession next year and undermine global oil consumption. However, the U.S. economy has shown evidence of growth the last few months.

The government said that applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since May 2008. While manufacturing output fell last month after six straight months of steady gains, a regional report on Thursday showed manufacturing activity is rising this month in the Philadelphia area.

"We look for the oil market to move into a choppy, consolidation phase into the holiday period now that the euro appears to have stabilized for now amid a fresh flow of supportive U.S. economic guidance," energy consultant Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report.

In other energy trading on the Nymex, natural gas rose 1.1 cent to $3.14 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil gained 1.5 cents to $2.85 a gallon and gasoline futures added 2.2 cents to $2.52 a gallon.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

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Samsung Galaxy Note LTE Headed For AT&T Next Year

If you're the type of person who looks at a Galaxy Nexus and wonders why it couldn't be even bigger, then Samsung just might have a treat meant for you. According to PocketNow, Samsung will be bringing an LTE-capable version of Samsung's Galaxy Note to AT&T early next year.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/tzkSWwAOhqM/

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Woman set afire in elevator of her NYC building (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/176042719?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Mitt Romney's New Hampshire Nightmare (Time.com)

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney in Hudson, New Hampshire, December 11, 2011.

There are growing signs that the Republican primary campaign might be a long and muddy slog, a slow grind to accumulate delegates that doesn?t produce a nominee until spring or even summer; a contest more in the World War I style of Obama v. Clinton 2008 than the D-Day landing of George W. Bush 2000. But there?s also a scenario in which, one month from now, Mitt Romney suffers a blow so damaging that he might never recover: defeat in New Hampshire. For much of this year, Mitt Romney?s status as default front-runner in the Republican nomination fight rested in large measure on the assumption that he was a shoo-in to win the New Hampshire primary. Romney appeared to have everything going for him in the Granite State. He?d spent four years as governor of neighboring Massachusetts. He?d bought a lakefront house in the town of Wolfeboro, where he spent several months a year?effectively becoming a part-time state resident. He spent the bulk of 2011 mostly ignoring Iowa and focusing time and resources to the east. The polls painted a picture of total dominance: Romney has placed first in every New Hampshire survey cataloged by Real Clear Politics dating back to April.

Suddenly, however, New Hampshire is starting to look less like a Romney firewall and more like a burial ground. Several recent polls show Newt Gingrich, who a couple of months ago was running 30 or more points behind Romney, within 10 to 17 points of the New Hampshire leader. Newt has obvious momentum while Romney has sunk a few points from his October and November highs. Could ?Romney be on track to a disastrous New Hampshire defeat?

It?s possible. Flash back four years: By mid-2007, Romney held a durable New Hampshire lead. After a brief October run by Rudy Giuliani, Romney went into December leading the GOP pack by double digits. Then, at almost this precise moment in December of ?07, John McCain began a surge that would lead him to victory on primary night. Note that on this day exactly one cycle ago, the gap between Romney and McCain was only a few points narrower than the one that now exists between Romney and Gingrich.

Could Newt be this year?s McCain? There are some similarities. Both men are viewed as authentic and independent thinkers. Like McCain, Gingrich has won the backing of the state?s influential conservative newspaper, the New Hampshire Union Leader. ?The Union Leader does more than endorse and stand back; its editorials cheerlead repeatedly. And when the paper dislikes a candidate?and the Union Leader happens to dislike Mitt Romney a lot?it reminds its readers on a regular basis. (Sunday?s paper featured a fierce front-page editorial counterattacking? the ?desperate? anti-Newt remarks of former New Hampshire Governor and Romney surrogate John Sununu.)

Finally, like McCain, Newt stands to pick up supporters from other GOP candidates who are already fizzling out or who are likely to crater after dismal showings in Iowa. (Think Bachmann and Santorum. In 2008, McCain grew as Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani collapsed.)

Still, Newt has a lot of ground to make up and he is under attack from multiple directions. But he may have a critical ally. Jon Huntsman has basically been living in New Hampshire since the fall. He?s beginning to spend real money on television advertising there and has been inching up in the polls as a result. Huntsman?s political profile ? a temperamental moderate focused on economics over social issues, a wealthy former governor, and a Mormon to boot ? is quite similar to Romney?s. It stands to reason that if Huntsman gains more traction in New Hampshire, he might start peeling supporters away from Romney. No wonder Gingrich and Huntsman were able to sit for such a friendly one-on-one debate session in New Hampshire on Monday night. Huntsman was glad to bask in the new front-runner?s glow, while Newt is surely rooting for the former U.S. ambassador to China to help him topple Romney.

Not everyone sees the dynamics this way. Former New Hampshire Republican Chairman Fergus Cullen says he thinks Romney is likely to fend off Gingrich in the end. He is particularly skeptical that Huntsman, whom he admires, will steal votes from Romney. ?The people who are with Romney have a balanced view of him,? Cullen says. ?They know the good and the bad, and aren?t going to say, ?Hold it! What?s this you say about his health care plan in Massachusetts?? just don?t see them pulling away.?

Perhaps. But on primary day in 2008, Romney finished second at 28%, about five points behind his early December peak. Similar forces may be aligned against him this time. The good news is that changes to the Republican primary process, including the awarding of more delegates on a proportional basis, make a drawn-out primary campaign more likely, somewhat diminishing the role of the early states. Still, the psychology of a Romney defeat in New Hampshire would be disastrous, particularly if Gingrich wins Iowa and remains poised to romp in the following contest, South Carolina. Mitt Romney may find that, as was the case in 2008, recovering from a Granite State defeat will prove impossible. He has just under a month to ensure it doesn?t come to that again.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/time_rss/rss_time_us/httpswamplandtimecom20111213mittromneysnewhampshirenightmarexidrssnationyahoo/43902018/SIG=131f8cnoq/*http%3A//swampland.time.com/2011/12/13/mitt-romneys-new-hampshire-nightmare/?xid=rss-nation-yahoo

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