PFT: Gronkowski's deal now a shrewd move

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The Eagles? steep fall in 2012 cost Andy Reid his job and left Philadelphia picking higher (No. 4 overall) than any other NFC team in April?s draft. New head coach Chip Kelly inherits a solid core of talent,?but there are still some needs to address:?

Offensive tackle:?The Eagles could stand pat at this position and might fare well enough in 2013, given the quality of starters Jason Peters and Todd Herremans. Nevertheless, adding a young tackle would give the Eagles some offensive line flexibility this season and beyond. Peters, the left tackle, has Pro Bowl talent, but he?s coming off an Achilles injury, and he?s slated to make close to $10 million in 2014, per Rotoworld. What?s more, he?s 31 years old. Herremans, who?s roughly nine months younger than Peters, has the ability to slide back to guard from right tackle if a promising tackle enters the fold.

Quarterback:?Michael Vick enters the final year of his contract, and he will be 33 in June. Nick Foles, the top backup, was drafted for Reid?s scheme, not Kelly?s. While ex-Oregon standout Dennis Dixon is no stranger to Kelly and his offense, he hasn?t been much of a factor on the NFL level. In short, it would make sense for the Eagles to add at this position.

Outside linebacker:?The Eagles have some intriguing options at this position, with Connor Barwin, Trent Cole and Brandon Graham the top three. That said, the 30-year-old Cole has never played outside linebacker at this level, and his annual compensation is set to soar in 2015, according to Rotoworld figures. Graham is switching positions, too. Barwin notched 11.5 sacks two seasons ago but just three in 2012. Like offensive tackle, the Eagles could logically play their existing hand at this position, but they could also be tempted to add a prospect to the mix.

Cornerback:?The Eagles will have two new starters at this position with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie signing with Denver and Nnamdi Asomugha landing with San Francisco after his release. While Philadelphia signed Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher early in free agency to restock the ranks, adding another corner via the draft would not be unwise. If a team?s best-laid plans at this position don?t work out, the results can be tough to watch. The Eagles know this well.

Wide receiver: Yes, Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson are an above-average wide receiver tandem. However, Maclin is in the last year of his contract, and he will be only 26 at the start of ?the 2014 campaign. Considering his playmaking ability, production and relatively young age, Maclin could do very, very well for himself next offseason. Jackson, meanwhile, is slated to make close to $10 million in salary in 2014. There is no doubting his ability, but his consistency has sometimes left something to be desired.

How the Eagles approach this draft will be very interesting to watch. The?Eagles have undergone some serious organizational change, with Kelly replacing a successful head coach who had a heavy hand in the making of this roster. How will Kelly mesh some obviously skilled veterans with his first group of rookies?

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/08/in-hindsight-gronkowski-made-smart-move/related

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Google Fiber is officially coming to Austin, Texas

Hear that? It's Austin, being weird enough to add yet another reason to live within its city limits. As rumored, Google Fiber will be rolling down to one of Texas' most esteemed towns in the near future, joining the Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri metro as the only locales (so far) in the US of A offering the outfit's Fiber-based TV, phone and 1Gbps broadband services. Mum's the word on an exact rollout, but we'll update this post as we learn more.

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Amanda Bynes Gymnastics Class Drama: Star Escorted Out After Strange Behavior!

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3 More Cases of New Bird Flu Strain

Apr 8, 2013 12:32pm

A health worker prepares to take swab samples from ducks at Meijiang poultry wholesale market, April 8, 2013, in Changde, China. (Credit: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

Three new cases of the new bird flu strain, H7N9, have been reported in China, bringing the total number of cases to 21, according to the World Health Organization. Six of those who were infected have died, but no new deaths have been reported since Friday.

The new patients include a 59-syear-old Shanghai man who is in critical condition, and a 55-year-old Anhui?man who is in stable condition. Another new patient, a 67-year-old Shanghai?man, has a mild case, according to the WHO.

?They?ve already seen some changes that allow it to survive in people,? ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser told? ?Good Morning America.?? ?The big concern is could this become the next pandemic strain??

More than 530 close contacts of the H7N9 patients? have been monitored, according to the WHO.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is already working on a vaccine, using the virus?s genetic code? rather than the virus itself ? a first for the agency, according to Nancy Cox, head of the CDC?s influenza division.

Although H7N9 is more easily transmittable from birds to humans than the original bird flu strain, H1N1, Cox said she expects to see limited human-to-human transmission.

Since H7N9 is not as deadly to birds as it is to humans, it will be harder to track because there won?t be large bird kill-offs, Cox said.

?That?s very concerning because you can?t tell where it is without testing the birds directly,? Besser said.

On Friday, a Shanghai market where the virus was detected in pigeons halted live bird sales and slaughtered all poultry, amounting to more than 20,500 chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons, according to China?s? Xinhua News Agency.

?The key to controlling the number of H7N9 patients depends on whether the virus can spread among human beings,? said Wu Fan, director of the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and? Prevention, at a news conference last Friday, according to Xinhua. ?So far we haven?t found any cases that show this kind of virus can spread from people to people.?

SHOWS: World News

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/04/08/h7n9-bird-flu-update-21-infected-6-dead/

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Final chapter to 60-year-old blood group mystery

Apr. 7, 2013 ? Researchers have solved a 60-year-old mystery by identifying a gene that can cause rejection, kidney failure and even death in some blood transfusion patients. In this study, published in Nature Genetics online 07 April, they identified the gene that underlies the Vel blood group and will lead to the development of more reliable blood tests and reduce the risk for transfusion patients who lack this blood group.

Researchers have uncovered the gene at the root of a human blood group that has remained a mystery for the past 60 years. They showed that a genetic deletion on this gene is responsible for the lack of this blood group in some people.

With the discovery of the gene behind the Vel blood group, medical scientists can now develop a more reliable DNA test to identify people who lack this group. This will reduce the risk of severe, and sometimes life threatening, destruction of the Vel-positive donor red blood cells in patients with antibodies against Vel.

The genetic basis of nearly all 34 blood group systems has been resolved over the past century, but identification of the underlying gene of the Vel blood group has withstood persistent attempts since it was first identified 60 years ago. It is estimated that one in 5000 people are Vel-negative, and routine blood transfusions for patients with antibodies against Vel can lead to kidney failure and even death.

The discovery by the team would not have been possible without the colleagues from the blood transfusion services of Denmark, England and the Netherlands who undertook the Herculean effort of identifying the 65 individuals that lacked the Vel blood group by testing the red blood cells from nearly 350,000 donors with antibodies against Vel.

They then sequenced the coding fraction of the genomes of five donors who lack the Vel group to identify the underlying gene.

The team showed that the gene SMIM1 malfunctions in Vel-negative people. SMIM1 is found on chromosome 1 and specifies a small protein, five times smaller than the average human protein. This provides a direct explanation why a discovery by other routes has proven so challenging.

"It has been a remarkable feat to go from gene discovery to function in less than two months," continues Professor Ouwehand.

Current testing for Vel-negative people can be inaccurate but identifying this new role for the gene will make it easier to identify people who lack Vel. The Sanquin Blood Supply research laboratories in Amsterdam and the NHS Blood and Transplant Centre in Cambridge are currently working together to develop a new and affordable DNA test to efficiently identify people who lack the Vel group.

"We already knew of 75 genomic regions that are associated with the haemoglobin levels and other red blood cell traits, but we quickly realised that the SMIM1 gene identified in our study is the same as one of these associated regions," said Dr Pim van der Harst from Groningen University in the Netherlands who led the GWAS analysis for red cell traits in nearly 100,000 individuals. "We had already assumed that a gene in this region of chromosome 1 played a role in the life of red blood cells, but we now have conclusive evidence that it is SMIM1.

"We have shown that this gene controls a protein in the membrane of red blood cells. Switching off the SMIM1 gene in zebrafish showed a remarkable reduction in the number of red cells formed and caused anemia in the fish."

The team observed that the common variant identified by the red blood cell study has a strong effect on how well the SMIM1 gene functions. This not only explains why the level of the Vel blood group varies so extensively in the population, but is also makes it extremely plausible that the Smim1 protein influences haemoglobin levels of red blood cells.

A low haemoglobin level confers a risk of anemia, which is one of the most frequent reasons for an individual to visit their doctor. The team are pursuing further research to deduce how Smim1 protein regulates red blood cell formation.

"As the molecular machinery underlying red blood cell formation has been researched for decades in fish, mice and man, our discovery that a gene which was considered hypothetical until recently actually controls a red blood cell membrane protein with an important role in the regulation of haemoglobin levels is astonishing," says Professor Ellen van der Schoot from the Sanquin research laboratories in Amsterdam. "A better understanding of how the SMIM1 gene is regulated is important and this effort will greatly benefit from the Blueprint project which will be releasing its results on the biology of blood cells and their precursors this year"

"We have worked for nearly a decade to identify the donors across England that lack the Vel blood group so that we can provide matched and safe blood to patients with antibodies against Vel" says Mr Malcolm Needs from NHS Blood and Transplant in Tooting, London. "The discovery of the SMIM1 gene was achieved so quickly and it is truly amazing to see how medical genomics is changing the care landscape for NHS patients."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ana Cvejic, Lonneke Haer-Wigman, Jonathan C Stephens, Myrto Kostadima, Peter A Smethurst, Mattia Frontini, Emile van den Akker, Paul Bertone, Ewa Bielczyk-Maczy?ska, Samantha Farrow, Rudolf S N Fehrmann, Alan Gray, Masja de Haas, Vincent G Haver, Gregory Jordan, Juha Karjalainen, Hindrik H D Kerstens, Graham Kiddle, Heather Lloyd-Jones, Malcolm Needs, Joyce Poole, Aicha Ait Soussan, Augusto Rendon, Klaus Rieneck, Jennifer G Sambrook, Hein Schepers, Herman H W Sillj?, Botond Sipos, Dorine Swinkels, Asif U Tamuri, Niek Verweij, Nicholas A Watkins, Harm-Jan Westra, Derek Stemple, Lude Franke, Nicole Soranzo, Hendrik G Stunnenberg, Nick Goldman, Pim van der Harst, C Ellen van der Schoot, Willem H Ouwehand, Cornelis A Albers. SMIM1 underlies the Vel blood group and influences red blood cell traits. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2603

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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/mEf2XNqwUJc/130407133318.htm

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NFL, ex-players prep for battle over concussions

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? With perhaps billions of dollars at stake, a hearing Tuesday over concussion litigation filed against the NFL promises to be a brawl between legal heavyweights.

About 4,200 former players have sued the league. Some suffer from dementia, depression, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological problems. Others simply want their health monitored.

And a small number, including Ray Easterling and 12-time Pro Bowler Junior Seau, committed suicide after long downward spirals.

The players' lawyers accuse the NFL of promoting violence in the game and concealing known cognitive risks from concussions and other blows to the head. They hope to keep the litigation in federal court so they can use the discovery process to access NFL files ? and see what the league knew when.

"The NFL failed to live up to its responsibility: it negligently heightened players' exposure to repeated head trauma and fraudulently concealed the chronic brain injuries that resulted," the players' lawyers wrote in their latest brief, filed in January.

The NFL, with $9.2 billion in annual revenues, argues that the complaints belong in arbitration under terms of the collective bargaining agreement. The league insists it has always followed the best available science and made player safety a top priority.

"The rule in our league is simple: Medical decisions override everything else," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a speech last month at the University of North Carolina.

The NFL will be represented Tuesday by Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush who has fought gay marriage, gun-control measures and President Barack Obama's state health care mandates before the Supreme Court.

Players' lawyer David Frederick, an Obama ally, has taken consumer protection fights over investor fees and prescription drug warnings to the high court.

"They spend most of their time, Paul Clement and David Frederick, at the Supreme Court," said Paul Anderson, a Missouri lawyer who tracks the NFL litigation on his website, nflconcussionlitigation.com. "This is really a multibillion-dollar issue. That's why both parties went out and hired the best of the best."

Senior U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody of Philadelphia will hear the case and decide whether the lawsuits stay in federal court or are "pre-empted" by the collective bargaining agreements. Scores of related lawsuits around the country have been steered to her because she had been assigned the 2011 Easterling suit, the first to be filed.

If Brody sides with the players, she would then rule on some broader issues, which are expected to include hard-fought battles over the science of concussions and brain injuries, along with the players' claims of fraud and negligence. The cases would then be returned to their home states to resolve individual damage claims, based on each player's history.

If the NFL prevails, the players must seek individual arbitration awards. But no money is expected to change hands for years while the case plays out. Brody's ruling, which could take months, is likely to be appealed by the losing side.

Alternatively, she could issue a mixed ruling because of a six-year "gap," from 1987 to 1993, when there was no collective bargaining agreement in place. The NFL, eager to avoid discovery, has argued that those players were bound by previous contracts or contracts in effect when they later collected pensions.

Similarly, the league had no union contracts in place before 1968, but Anderson and others question whether those players have much of a case, since most of the scientific findings linking concussions to possible brain injuries emerged in the 1990s and later.

Goodell, in his UNC speech, called concussions "a global issue, not just a football issue."

He said the league has pledged $30 million to the National Institutes of Health for broad-based research on the brain, which he said affects tens of millions of people. And he said the latest players' contract sets aside another $100 million for research over the next decade.

The latest concussion study at the Boston University School of Medicine, released in January, looked at the donated brains of 85 people who had suffered head trauma in football, hockey, boxing or military combat. The study found 68 had evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease also found in Seau's brain after the popular player shot himself in May.

"This success comes at a price to the players who make the game great," Seau's parents said in their lawsuit, which was consolidated with the other Brody cases last month.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-08-US-NFL-Concussion-Lawsuits/id-aa639e734903489c8040be7586843fb1

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