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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

How to speed up your computer


Everyone has experienced a slow pc at some point in their life. It can be one of the most frustrating things in the world when it takes ages to open applications or perform simple tasks. There are things in which you can do to keep the speed of the pc in good condition.

Firstly the main thing to check for is the processor, a processor can only handle so much and once it reaches its peak there’s not much you can do. By upgrading this component you can guarantee that the performance will be increase but this may entail more components needing to be upgraded such as the mother board. You can check the diagnostics of your computer by typing ‘perfmon’ in the run utility located on the start menu.

Upgrading the processor can be a very costly task if you need to upgrade your mother board as well, always check before you buy anything so you are fully aware of what needs doing and how much it will cost you. If you’re on a budget there are other methods of speeding up the performance of your computer.

You need to ensure that your computer has sufficient memory in order to perform multiple tasks at the same time. If you were to have insufficient memory your computer would begin to use the hard disk space as memory, this will significantly slow down your pc as the hard disk runs at a much slower speed. You also have the potential to over work your processor as it will be reading and writing to the hard disk.

If you have an old hard disk then you are advised to upgrade that as the newer Serial ATA hard disks run at a much faster speed which will boost the performance of your pc. You have to ensure your computer is capable of having Serial ATA as not every processor can handle it.

If you are on a really tight budget and cannot afford to spend money upgrading components there are still ways you can slightly speed up the computer on a whole. You can go through the add/remove programs list and remove anything that you don’t need anymore, these programs are wasting space on your hard drive. The more space you have the more chance of your pc running smooth and problem free.

Always ensure you run the defrag tool on a regular basis to ensure that your hard drive isn’t clutter and will run at optimised speeds.


About the Author: Andy Tao

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Friday, October 5, 2007

Monday, October 1, 2007

GPCRs: Exploring New Paradigms


As one of the largest and most diverse protein families in nature, the G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily play important roles in a variety of biological and pathological processes such as development and proliferation, neuromodulation, angiogenesis, metabolic disorders, inflammation, and viral infection. Not surprisingly, it is one of the most targeted protein families in pharmaceutical research today (Schlyer 2006).

All members of this superfamily share a similar seven transmembrane domain, but are grouped on the basis of shared sequence motifs into the following broad classes:

Class A Rhodopsin-like
Class B Secretin-like
Class C Metabotropic glutamate/pheromone
Class D Fungal pheromone
Class E cAMP receptors
Frizzled/Smoothened
Vomeronasal receptors
Putative/unclassified

The pharmaceutical industry has focused on development of modulators to this protein family, but GPCRs also represent an attractive target as biomarkers. Recent studies have implicated endothelin receptors, chemokine receptors and lysophosphatidic acid receptors in tumorgenesis and metastasis, and a recent in silico analysis found a number of GPCRs that were up-regulated in various cancers which suggests not only targets of therapeutic value, but of diagnostic and prognostic value as well. A summary of these up-regulated receptors is below.

Lung cancer
Edg2, P2Y purinoceptor 6, PAR-2, PAR-3, GPR68
Breast cancer
CCR1, CXCR-4, PAR-2
Prostate cancer
Beta 2 adrenergic receptor, CXCR-3, CXCR-4, GPR68
Melanoma
Edg6, PAR-2, mGluR1
Gastric cancer
CXCR-4, P2Y purinoceptor 5
Lymphoma
Beta 2 adrenergic receptor, Edg1, CCR7

While research continues, it is evident that GPCRs are critical in countless biological functions--and disfunctions. While the emphasis is on their role in drug development, it is becoming increasingly clear that G-protein coupled receptors will play a critical role as indicators of disease with diagnostic and prognostic potential. IMGENEX carries over 900 IHC, WB, and flow validated GPCR antibodies. View our complete GPCRs antibody list grouped by class and family. Also see our complete list of Tissue Microarray slides--perfect for GPCR localization.


About the Author: IMGENEX India Pvt Ltd. the only biotech company in Orissa and one of its kinds in Eastern India. IMGENEX India started in Oct as an outsourcing branch of IMGENEX Corporation,San Diego, USA. Find out more information about GPCRs.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Are we "Livin" or just "Survivin"?


Apoptosis is regulated by death domain (DD) and/or caspase recruitment domain (CARD) containing molecules and a caspase family of proteases. A novel CARD domain containing protein was recently identified and designated ARC for apoptosis repressor with CARD (1). For more details read out the article:The inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family protects cells from self-execution by blocking the relentless caspase death cascade. IAPs bind to and inhibit activated caspases through their BIR domains. Some IAPs such as Livin also contain a RING domain that has E3 ubiquitin ligase activity and promotes the degradation of Smac/DIABLO through ubiquitination. Since Smac/DIABLO promotes apoptosis by inhibiting IAP-caspase interactions, degradation of Smac/DIABLO allows IAPs to more effectively block caspase activity thereby promoting cell survival.In general, members of the IAP family are highly expressed in several types of cancer. However, Survivin, an IAP that lacks a RING domain, definitely stands out among the family for its clear association with cancer. Abundantly expressed during development but scarce in normal adult tissues, Survivin is upregulated during tumorigenesis and associated with chemotherapy resistance and poor patient survival.IAPs are fast emerging as targets for potential diagnostics and therapeutics. For example, patients suffering from diverse cancers develop antibodies against Livin suggesting that Livin may be a novel diagnostic or prognostic tumor marker. Additionally, preclinical studies indicate that down-regulation of Survivin can sensitize tumor cells to chemotherapy, thereby increasing apoptosis and overall treatment response.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Vodafone prepares to battle Apple iPhone


With Apple claiming that the innovative iPhone has already reached the coveted 1 million unit sales point – less than three months since its June 29 launch – it’s safe to say that the touch-screen handset is already a storming success. Therefore, as the device’s European release looms, it’s perhaps unsurprising that network giant Vodafone is readying itself for war by spreading an impressive content offer before its customers.
With Apple apparently set to slip beneath the ‘exclusive carrier’ bed sheets with the O2 network for UK-based iPhone coverage, a rumour that could be officially confirmed before the close of the month, Vodafone has whipped the covers off a new deal that gifts users with music access for a mere £1.99 GBP per week, reports Channel 4 News.
Vodafone’s unlimited music download offer will certainly arrive as a boon for the network’s existing customers, though the Newbury-based company will likely be hoping the subsequent impact will attract a wealth of new users in the face of the considerable draw that O2 will revel in during the Christmas consumer rush.
For the £1.99 GBP per week charge, Vodafone customers will be given total access to any music held within the network, although widespread access for such a small amount will mean that track playback will be strictly limited to mobile phone handsets only. Users wishing to transplant music from their handsets to other digital devices will have to spend £0.99 GBP per song for the privilege.
Vodafone’s music downloads are to be delivered by Omnifone’s MusicStation via the Vodafone Live! Internet portal. More than 1 million songs will be made available from the likes of EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, which are the world’s four biggest music publishers.
In other news, a Vodafone spokesperson has revealed that the company will introduce some 19 new handset devices in the build up to Christmas. These devices will include 2 new BlackBerry offerings along with 15 third-generation (3G) Internet phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

Iphone software unlock finally in the wild


TODAY MARKS D-DAY for the legions of buyers keen to get their hands on an Iphone, but not so keen to sign up to two years of AT&T service - the day that the unlock hits the virtual shelves of retailers across the globe.
Iphone Sim Free, the company behind the unlock, has frustrated users over the past three weeks by demonstrating a software-based unlock - which doesn't require a user to take apart the Iphone - but then compounding delay after delay with bad communications and shadowy business practices.
However, the legions of Apple fanboys who have been taking them to task have, characteristically, changed themselves into fawning groupies as the software is distributed to Iphone users and has been proved to work in the 'real world'. The UK's very own Paul Taylor had the honour of being first man in line.
This means that any Joe can pick up an Iphone from an Apple store, run this software and plonk in a Vodafone or T-Mobile card with impunity - a kick in the teeth to the network which spent millions bending over backwards to meet Apple's specifications, not to mention the European networks still yet to launch.
The cost of the unlock - around $50 bought through a reseller - has angered those in the 'open hacking' community who have expected to see a free unlock developed by enthusiasts. They have promised to reverse engineer the Iphone Sim Free hack before the week is out and make it available for free.
Meanwhile, Apple claims to have sold its one millionth phone, keeping it on track for 10 million sales by the end of 2008.
With Iphone owners already a little 'touchy' about the new Ipod Touch, at least a carrier unlock is something to be happy about.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Google News to Host Wire Service Stories


Articles from the AP, AFP, U.K. Press Association, and the Canadian Press will appear directly in Google News pages.




Google Inc. took another step Friday in its continued attempts to improve its relationships with wire services, when it announced a program to host full articles from news agencies on Google News pages.
Google News, a site in which Google aggregates links to articles published on news outlets' Web sites, is generally valued by publishers who make money from online advertising and as such benefit from the traffic Google News sends to their sites.
But Google News has been a tougher sell for wire services, which generally make money by licensing their content to newspapers and magazines, and not by attracting readers to their own Web sites.
Agence France Presse (AFP), one of the world's largest wire services, sued Google for alleged copyright infringement on the News site. Although never publicly acknowledged, it's widely believed that the Associated Press threatened to file a similar lawsuit.
Although Google maintains that running hyperlinked headlines, text snippets and thumbnail images from news outlets in Google News is protected by the fair use principle, it eventually settled with AFP and signed a licensing agreement with it, as well as with AP.
Friday's announcement appears to be the first concrete result of those licensing agreements, although the AP deal is now more than a year old. The AFP settlement and agreement were announced in April.
Now, if they want, people will be able to read the original articles from AP, AFP, the U.K. Press Association and the Canadian Press in Google News pages. Google also entered into licensing agreements with the U.K. and Canadian wire services.
Previously, because wire services' Web sites typically feature either a small sample or none of their stories, the way to read their articles was go to the sites of their syndication clients, such as newspapers.
The new feature unveiled Friday is called "duplicate detection," which lets Google News identify the original source of a story that may appear in tens or hundreds of news outlet Web sites. If the source story is from one of the four news service agencies that Google has licensing agreements with, Google will display the story on a page that it hosts.
But the feature will benefit all types of news outlets, not just wire services. For example, if a New York Times story gets syndicated, Google News will know that it originally came from this newspaper.
For such outlets that have their own public Web sites, "duplicate detection" will simply let users click over to their sites, which is the traditional Google News model.
Removing duplicated articles opens up more room on Google News, leading to a better user experience, said Josh Cohen, Google News business product manager.
"Our goal with what we're launching today is to provide the best experience for our users and help our partners get credit for their content," he said.
Asked whether the hosting of full articles on Google News will weaken the fair-use protection claim, Cohen said that it will not. "We respect copyright laws. When we go beyond fair use, we enter into licensing agreements," he said.
The "duplicate detection" feature is already operational on the site, he said.

SOURCE : PC WORLD

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Nikon enlists new cameras, faces in battle vs Canon


Nikon Corp`s newest advanced cameras and a lineup of fresh faces will help it outrun rival Canon Inc in a scramble for loyal fans throughout Asia, Nikon executives said on Thursday. The precision-equipment maker said it would hold on to at least a 40 percent market share in Japan this year, while winning more customers in South Korea and China, helped by its new D300 and D3 digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, to go on sale in November. "This is the real thing," Nikon President Michio Kariya told a news conference, when asked how Nikon`s cameras were different from Canon`s new digital SLRs targeting the same mid- to high-end market. Nikon held a 47.5 percent market share in January-June, beating Canon`s 36.5 percent, Tokyo-based research firm BCN said. Nikon is pricing its D300 at around 230,000 yen ($1,980) with initial monthly production of 60,000 units. The D3, aimed at professionals, would sell for about 580,000 yen, with initial production of 8,000 a month. Earlier this week, Canon announced the launch of its EOS 40D model from August 31, and the EOS-1Ds Mark III for professionals from late November, vowing to regain its lead over Nikon by year-end. While Canon picked Oscar-nominated veteran Japanese actor Ken Watanabe to promote the EOS 40D, Nikon opted for younger faces, including South Korean actor Bi in South Korea and Taiwanese-American singer and actor Wang Leehom in China. "We want to attract young, hip users, especially in China," Nikon Operating Officer Yasuyuki Okamoto said. "If we do not somehow corner the China market, there is no future." Nikon expects to ship a total 3.2 million digital SLRs in the year ending March 2009, up from 2.6 million this business year. Shares of Nikon closed up 2.5 percent at 3,280 yen, while Canon, which announced a share buyback program, rose 5.9 percent to 6,260 yen.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

IBM Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition Software launched in India


Software giant IBM gas developed a speech recognition software in Hindi. The company hopes that this development will help physically challenged and less literate Hindi speakers to access information using a variety of applications.

Called the Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition technology, this software was developed by the IBM India Software Lab jointly with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.

The new IBM technology could help to provide a natural interface for human-computer interaction.

According to Dr. Daniel Dias, Director, IBM Indian Research Laboratory, the technology which helps transcribe continuous Hindi speech instantly into text form, could find use in a variety of applications like voice-enabled ATMs, car navigation systems, banking, telecom, railways, and airlines.

Besides, the technology could also enable C-DAC to ensure a high level of accuracy in Hindi translation in a number of domains like administration, finance, agriculture and the small-scale industry.
The IBM Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition software is capable of recognizing over 75,000 Hindi words with dialectical variations, providing an accuracy of 90 to 95%. What’s more; this software also has an integrated spellchecker that corrects spoken-word errors, enhancing the accuracy to a great extent.

The Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition Technology also integrates a number of user-friendly features such as the facility to convert text to digits and decimals, date and currency format, and into fonts which could be imported to any Windows-based application.

“IBM believes in taking high-end research to the benefit of the masses and bridging the digital divide through a faster diffusion process,” concluded Dias.

SOURCE : TECH SHOUT.COM

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Rare river dolphin 'now extinct'


Yangtze river dolphin (Image: Stephen Leatherwood)
An extensive survey of its habitat failed to find any sign of the baiji
A freshwater dolphin found only in China is now "likely to be extinct", a team of scientists has concluded.

The researchers failed to spot any Yangtze river dolphins, also known as baijis, during an extensive six-week survey of the mammals' habitat.

The team, writing in Biology Letters journal, blamed unregulated fishing as the main reason behind their demise.

If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years.

The World Conservation Union's Red List of Threaten Species currently classifies the creature as "critically endangered".

We have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet
Dr Sam Turvey,
Zoological Society of London

Sam Turvey of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), one of the paper's co-authors, described the findings as a "shocking tragedy".

"The Yangtze river dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20 million years ago," Dr Turvey explained.

"This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet."

If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years.

'Incidental impact'

The species (Lipotes vexillifer) was the only remaining member of the Lipotidae, an ancient mammal family that is understood to have separated from other marine mammals, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, about 40-20 million years ago.

The white, freshwater dolphin had a long, narrow beak and low dorsal fin; lived in groups of three or four and fed on fish.

The team carried out six-week visual and acoustic survey, using two research vessels, in November and December 2006.

"While it is conceivable that a couple of surviving individuals were missed by the survey teams," the team wrote, "our inability to detect any baiji despite this intensive search effort indicates that the prospect of finding and translocating them to a [reserve] has all but vanished."

The scientists added that there were a number of human activities that caused baiji numbers to decline, including construction of dams and boat collisions.

"However, the primary factor was probably unsustainable by-catch in local fisheries, which used rolling hooks, nets and electrofishing," they suggested.

"Unlike most historical-era extinctions of large bodied animals, the baiji was the victim not of active persecution but incidental mortality resulting from massive-scale human environmental impacts - primarily uncontrolled and unselective fishing," the researchers concluded.