SOFTWARE: May 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Vitamin C 'Cures' Mice With Accelerated Aging Disease

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2010) — A new research discovery published in the January 2010 print issue of the FASEB Journal suggests that treatments for disorders that cause accelerated aging, particularly Werner's syndrome, might come straight from the family medicine chest. In the research report, a team of Canadian scientists shows that vitamin C stops and even reverses accelerated aging in a mouse model of Werner's syndrome, but the discovery may also be applicable to other progeroid syndromes.

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Health & Medicine

People with Werner's syndrome begin to show signs of accelerated aging in their 20s and develop age-related diseases and generally die before the age of 50.
"Our study clearly indicates that a healthy organism or individuals with no health problems do not require a large amount of vitamin C in order to increase their lifespan, especially if they have a balanced diet and they exercise," said Michel Lebel, Ph.D., co-author of the study from the Centre de Recherche en Cancerologie in Quebec, Canada. "An organism or individual with a mutation in the WRN gene or any gene affected by the WRN protein, and thus predisposes them to several age-related diseases, may benefit from a diet with the appropriate amount of vitamin C."
Scientists treated both normal mice and mice with a mutation in the gene responsible for Werner's syndrome (WRN gene) with vitamin C in drinking water. Before treatment, the mice with a mutated WRN gene were fat, diabetic, and developing heart disease and cancer. After treatment, the mutant mice were as healthy as the normal mice and lived a normal lifespan. Vitamin C also improved how the mice stored and burned fat, decreased tissue inflammation and decreased oxidative stress in the WRN mice. The healthy mice did not appear to benefit from vitamin C.
"Vitamin C has become one of the most misunderstood substances in our medicine cabinets and food," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal. "This study and others like it help explain how and why this chemical can help to defend some, but certainly not all, people from premature senescence

Soon after the exciting discovery of a method to turn human adult cells into stem cells in 2007 came the frustration of actually trying to make that transformation efficient. In creating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, scientists typically only get 0.01 percent of a sample of human fibroblast (skin) cells to change. A group led by Duanqing Pei of the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health in China has found that a simple chemical can boost the efficiency by 100-fold—namely, vitamin C. The researchers can trigger the conversion to iPS cells by introducing genes or proteins to adult cells, typically with a virus. Once the cells become pluripotent, they have the ability to become any cell in the body, thereby offering the promise of repairing damaged organs and treating disease. But scientists have yet to come up with the ideal recipe. “It’s a worldwide effort to boost efficiency and make this more practical for much wider participation from the scientific community,” Pei says. In their effort, Pei and his group started with the realization that the factors that induce cells to become pluripotent were causing the cells to make the free radicals known as reactive oxygen species (ROS). “A high level of ROS is definitely very bad for the fibroblasts,” Pei notes, because it speeds cell death. To fight off the ROS, Pei’s team tested a variety of antioxidant chemicals in the cells’ growing medium. Experimenting with mouse cells, the group found that the petri dish containing vitamin C had 30 percent more mouse cells than the dish that did not, suggesting that the antioxidant helped to ward off the effects of aging. Surprisingly, vitamin C not only helped cells survive, but it also enhanced their progression to pluripotency. After 14 days, when cells start to become fully pluripotent, 10 to 20 percent of the mouse cells that were grown with vitamin C expressed genes associated with pluripotency, compared with only 0.1 to 0.2 percent of the colonies grown without vitamin C. The group saw a similar improvement in human fibroblast reprogramming, in which ascorbic acid boosted the conversion rate from 0.01 to 1 percent. The researchers, who published their findings in the December 24 Cell Stem Cell, also tested other antioxidants, but none boosted the development of pluripotency the way vitamin C did. That has lead Pei to believe that, in addition to ascorbic acid’s antioxidant property, an as yet unknown mechanism plays a role. And although more detailed analysis is needed, having vitamin C around does not seem to introduce negative cellular changes. “Overall, I think this is quite impressive progress,” remarks Kwang-Soo Kim, director of the Molecular Neurobiology Lab at Harvard Medical School. Although 1 percent may not seem all that efficient, it could be enough to push the field significantly. “We don’t need to generate 50 percent of the cells,” Kim says, “as long as we can reproducibly generate a sufficient number of iPS lines.”

Soon after the exciting discovery of a method to turn human adult cells into stem cells in 2007 came the frustration of actually trying to make that transformation efficient. In creating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, scientists typically only get 0.01 percent of a sample of human fibroblast (skin) cells to change.
A group led by Duanqing Pei of the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health in China has found that a simple chemical can boost the efficiency by 100-fold—namely, vitamin C.
The researchers can trigger the conversion to iPS cells by introducing genes or proteins to adult cells, typically with a virus. Once the cells become pluripotent, they have the ability to become any cell in the body, thereby offering the promise of repairing damaged organs and treating disease. But scientists have yet to come up with the ideal recipe. “It’s a worldwide effort to boost efficiency and make this more practical for much wider participation from the scientific community,” Pei says.
In their effort, Pei and his group started with the realization that the factors that induce cells to become pluripotent were causing the cells to make the free radicals known as reactive oxygen species (ROS). “A high level of ROS is definitely very bad for the fibroblasts,” Pei notes, because it speeds cell death. To fight off the ROS, Pei’s team tested a variety of antioxidant chemicals in the cells’ growing medium. Experimenting with mouse cells, the group found that the petri dish containing vitamin C had 30 percent more mouse cells than the dish that did not, suggesting that the antioxidant helped to ward off the effects of aging.
Surprisingly, vitamin C not only helped cells survive, but it also enhanced their progression to pluripotency. After 14 days, when cells start to become fully pluripotent, 10 to 20 percent of the mouse cells that were grown with vitamin C expressed genes associated with pluripotency, compared with only 0.1 to 0.2 percent of the colonies grown without vitamin C. The group saw a similar improvement in human fibroblast reprogramming, in which ascorbic acid boosted the conversion rate from 0.01 to 1 percent.
The researchers, who published their findings in the December 24 Cell Stem Cell, also tested other antioxidants, but none boosted the development of pluripotency the way vitamin C did. That has lead Pei to believe that, in addition to ascorbic acid’s antioxidant property, an as yet unknown mechanism plays a role. And although more detailed analysis is needed, having vitamin C around does not seem to introduce negative cellular changes.
“Overall, I think this is quite impressive progress,” remarks Kwang-Soo Kim, director of the Molecular Neurobiology Lab at Harvard Medical School. Although 1 percent may not seem all that efficient, it could be enough to push the field significantly. “We don’t need to generate 50 percent of the cells,” Kim says, “as long as we can reproducibly generate a sufficient number of iPS lines.”

Saturday, May 14, 2011

PostgreSQL 9.0.4

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system. It has more than 15 years of active development and a proven architecture that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, data integrity, and correctness.
It is fully ACID compliant, has full support for foreign keys, joins, views, triggers, and stored procedures (in multiple languages). It includes most SQL:2008 data types, including INTEGER, NUMERIC, BOOLEAN, CHAR, VARCHAR, DATE, INTERVAL, and TIMESTAMP.

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Latest updates

13 May 11 - Adobe Air 2.7.0.19460 RC 2
13 May 11 - SeaMonkey 2.1 RC 1
13 May 11 - Fraps 3.4.3
13 May 11 - ooVoo 3.0.4.37
13 May 11 - Flash Player 10.3.181.14 (Non-IE)

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Latest Version
47.13MB

Rainlendar 2.9 Beta 105

Rainlendar is a customizable calendar that displays the current month. It is a very lightweight application that doesn't use much system resources or take much space on your desktop.

Small and lightweight
Different type events can have different appearence
Supports Windows transparency
Synchronizes events between several clients
Localized for multiple languages
Shows an alarm when an event is due
Supports iCal files.
Shows Outlook's appointments
Includes a todo-list
Works also as Litestep plugin
Displays the current date in tray icon
Can stick to the desktop (i.e. doesn't hide with Show Desktop)
Hotkeys for quick access
Easy skinning with an UI

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Latest updates

13 May 11 - Adobe Air 2.7.0.19460 RC 2
13 May 11 - SeaMonkey 2.1 RC 1
13 May 11 - Fraps 3.4.3
13 May 11 - ooVoo 3.0.4.37
13 May 11 - Flash Player 10.3.181.14 (Non-IE)

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Latest Version
8.40MB

SmartFTP 4.0.1178.0

SmartFTP is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client which allows you to transfer files between your local computer and a server on the Internet. With its many basic and advanced features SmartFTP also offers secure, reliable and efficient transfers that make it a powerful tool.
SmartFTP can be used for:

Web site publishing and maintenance
Upload and download of images, documents, movie and music files
Share your files with your friends and coworkers
Backups of local or remote files

SmartFTP offers these features:

Quickly rename multiple files.
Search your hard drive in the Local Browser (Windows Vista and higher)

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Latest updates

13 May 11 - Adobe Air 2.7.0.19460 RC 2
13 May 11 - SeaMonkey 2.1 RC 1
13 May 11 - Fraps 3.4.3
13 May 11 - ooVoo 3.0.4.37
13 May 11 - Flash Player 10.3.181.14 (Non-IE)

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Latest Version
12.48MB

Adobe Air 2.6.0.19140

The Adobe® AIR, runtime enables you to have your favorite web applications with you all the time. Since applications built for Adobe AIR run on your desktop computer without a web browser, they provide all the convenience of a desktop application.
Companies like eBay and AOL are using Adobe AIR to create exciting new applications that allow you to use their services on your desktop.
In short, Adobe AIR means applications that are easier, more powerful, and more fun to use.
Be safe on the web: Adobe AIR helps ensure safe installations by requiring digital signatures on each AIR application that identify the application and its creator before you install.

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Latest updates

13 May 11 - Adobe Air 2.7.0.19460 RC 2
13 May 11 - SeaMonkey 2.1 RC 1
13 May 11 - Fraps 3.4.3
13 May 11 - ooVoo 3.0.4.37
13 May 11 - Flash Player 10.3.181.14 (Non-IE)

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This Version
12.20MB

Nero Burning Rom 10.6.10600

Nero is the next generation of the world's most trusted integrated digital media and home entertainment software suite. It features new cutting-edge functionality that makes enjoying digital media content simple.
This easy-to-use yet powerful multimedia suite, gives you the freedom to create, rip, copy, burn, edit, share, and upload online. Whatever you want - music, video, photo, and data - enjoy and share with family and friends anytime, anywhere.
With easy-to-use Nero StartSmart command center, your digital life has never been more flexible, feasible, and fun.
Nero Highlights:

Fast and easy rip, burn, Autobackup, and copy functions
Backup files to CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs
Copy, burn, share, upload, and create music mixes like a DJ
Quick photo and video upload to My Nero and other online communities
Watch, record, pause, and customize your live TV experience

Note: As of April 2010, Nero Burning ROM is no longer available on its own as a trial, but is part of the larger Nero Multimedia Suite.

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Latest updates

13 May 11 - Adobe Air 2.7.0.19460 RC 2
13 May 11 - SeaMonkey 2.1 RC 1
13 May 11 - Fraps 3.4.3
13 May 11 - ooVoo 3.0.4.37
13 May 11 - Flash Player 10.3.181.14 (Non-IE)

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Latest Version
79.04MB

iTunes 10.2.2 (32-bit)

iTunes is a free application for Mac and PC. It plays all your digital music and video. It syncs content to your iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV. And it's an entertainment superstore that stays open 24/7.