The La Vergne Police Department Criminal Investigations Division, along with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement?s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), arrested a murder suspect on Thursday, January 24, 2013. Mario Marraquin, age 41, is awaiting extradition to Houston, Texas to face homicide charges.
The charges stem from a cold case murder that occurred in 1994 in Houston. The name of the murder victim is not being released pending the Texas investigation. Marraquin was living at 826 LaVergne Lane for approximately 12 years under the assumed name of Cesar Cruz.
?HSI and its law enforcement partners will investigate and seek prosecution of criminals no matter how much time may have passed,? said Special Agent in Charge of HSI New Orleans Raymond R. Parmer Jr. ?Vigilance and persistence are the hallmarks of good investigative work, and criminals should be on notice through cases such as this that ?running out the clock? on justice simply isn?t an option.? Parmer oversees a five state area of operations to include Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
?This was a case of interstate and interagency cooperation,? said Detective Sergeant David Durham. ?Texas police and Homeland Security Investigations were able to identify Mr. Marraquin. La?Vergne detectives then obtained a fugitive from justice warrant to carry out the extradition process for him to be returned to Texas to face charges.?
Marraquin was booked through the Rutherford County Sheriff?s Office.? He faces an extradition hearing, scheduled January 30, through the Rutherford County court system.
Jan. 29, 2013 ? Older adults can improve their decision making and working memory simply by putting on a happy face, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that easy mood-boosters -- like giving people a small bag of candy -- helped seniors do significantly better on tests of decision-making and working memory.
This is the first study to show the power of positive moods in helping older people with these brain tasks.
"There has been lots of research showing that younger adults are more creative and cognitively flexible when they are in a good mood. But because of the cognitive declines that come with aging, we weren't sure that a good mood would be able to help older adults," said Ellen Peters, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
"So these results are good news. There are ways for older adults to overcome some of the cognitive declines that come with aging."
The study was done with Stephanie Carpenter of the University of Michigan; David V?stfj?ll of Link?ping University in Sweden; and the late Alice Isen, of Cornell University. It appears in the current issue of the journal Cognition and Emotion.
The study involved 46 adults aged 63 to 85. Half of them were put into a good mood by receiving a thank-you card and two small bags of candy, tied with a red ribbon, when they arrived at the lab for the experiment. The other "neutral mood" participants did not receive a card or candy.
The participants completed the study on a computer. Those who were induced into the positive mood had a background screen that was designed to help keep them feeling positive -- it featured smiling suns on a sky-blue background. The neutral-mood participants had a similar background, but with neutral round images with no face.
In the decision-making task, the participants were given $3 in quarters and presented with eight virtual decks of cards over the course of experiment. Each of the decks had a different pattern on its back so that participants could identify them. Four of the decks were "gain" decks, meaning that the participants won a quarter 75 percent of the time if they chose a card from that deck, while the other 25 percent they did not win or lose. The other four decks were "loss" decks, meaning they lost a quarter 75 percent of the time that they chose a card from the deck.
Participants could choose to accept or reject the top card of each deck that was offered to them. They were told the goal of the experiment was to win as much money as possible.
The researchers wanted to see how quickly and accurately the participants would learn which decks generally won them money, and which decks lost them money.
The findings were clear: older adults who were put into a good mood chose significantly better than those who were in the neutral mood.
These results are significant because this decision-making task was experiential, meaning that the participants knew nothing about the card values at the beginning of the experiment and had to learn through trial and error.
"We used an experiential task because real life is experiential," Peters said.
"For example, you meet a new person and she is like one of these decks of cards. You don't know anything about her and you have to learn if she is someone you can trust. What this study suggests is that people who are in a good mood are going to learn faster and make better decisions."
Later in the experiment, the researchers tested working memory -- how much information people can hold in their mind at any one time. Researchers read aloud a group of intermixed letters and numbers (such as T9A3) and participants were to repeat the group back in numeric and then alphabetic order (in this case, 39AT). The participants received groups with increasingly more letters and numbers.
Results showed that the older adults who were induced into a good mood scored better on this test of working memory.
"Working memory is important in decision making," Peters said.
"If you're working your way through different options, how much you can remember of each option -- and can therefore compare and contrast in your head -- has a big impact on how well you can make a decision."
A positive mood did not help these older adults on some cognitive measures, such as speed of processing or vocabulary.
Still, Peters said the results provide some good news for a fast-growing population segment in the United States.
"Given the current concern about cognitive declines in the aged, our findings are important for showing how simple methods to improve mood can help improve cognitive functioning and decision performance in older adults, just like they do in younger people."
The study was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Peters.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio State University. The original article was written by Jeff Grabmeier.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Stephanie M. Carpenter, Ellen Peters, Daniel V?stfj?ll, Alice M. Isen. Positive feelings facilitate working memory and complex decision making among older adults. Cognition & Emotion, 2013; 27 (1): 184 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2012.698251
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.
NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - "How I Met Your Mother" will be back for a ninth and final season that will reveal - finally - who the mother is.
CBS and 20th Century Fox Television announced Wednesday that the series would be back for one final go-round with series regulars Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan, as well as series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas.
For eight years, viewers have wondered about the identity of the titular mother - and she will finally be revealed in the final season.
"Through eight years, 'How I Met Your Mother' has mastered the art of leading-edge comedy, emotional water-cooler moments and pop culture catch phrases," said Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment. "We are excited for Carter, Craig, Pam Fryman and this amazing cast to tell the final chapter and reveal television's most mysterious mother to some of TV's most passionate fans."
A new role to develop games and applications using Windows 8 and to provide technical expertise to a growing team of mobile and game developers.
As a technical expert within our small, but growing team, you will be required to provide the team with technical expertise in Windows 8 and be prepared to share your experience to the benefit of the Company.
You will also be required to be fully involved in the total project life cycle of Windows 8 mobile application and game development, contributing from concept through design, development, testing and implementation.
We are looking for developers ?with a passion for gaming and experience of building games on other platforms, as well as experience with Windows 8.
SEATTLE (AP) ? So far, no one is suggesting checkpoints or fences to keep Washington state's legal pot within its borders.
But Gov. Jay Inslee insists there are ways to prevent the bulk smuggling of the state's newest cash crop into the black market, including digitally tracking weed to ensure that it goes from where it is grown to the stores where it is sold.
With sales set to begin later this year, he hopes to be a good neighbor and keep vanloads of premium, legal bud from cruising into Idaho, Oregon and other states that don't want people getting stoned for fun.
It's not just about generating goodwill with fellow governors. Inslee is trying to persuade U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder not to sue to block Washington from licensing pot growers, processors and sellers. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
"I am going to be personally committed to have a well regulated, well disciplined, well tracked, well inventory-controlled, well law-enforcement-coordinated approach," said Inslee, who is due to give Holder more details this week.
Keeping a lid on the weed is just one of the numerous challenges Washington state authorities and their counterparts in Colorado ? where voters also legalized pot use ? will face in the coming months.
The potential of regulatory schemes to keep pot from being diverted isn't clear. Colorado already has intensive rules aimed at keeping its medical marijuana market in line, including the digital tracking of cannabis, bar codes on every plant, surveillance video and manifests of all legal pot shipments.
But law enforcement officials say marijuana from Colorado's dispensaries often makes its way to the black market, and even the head of the Colorado agency charged with tracking the medical pot industry suggests no one should copy its measures.
The agency has been beset by money woes and had to cut many of its investigators. Even if the agency had all the money it wanted, the state's medical pot rules are "a model of regulatory overreach," too cumbersome and expensive to enforce, Laura Harris said in a statement.
Last fall, voters made Washington and Colorado the first states to pass laws legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and setting up systems of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores where adults over 21 can walk in and buy up to an ounce of heavily taxed cannabis.
Both states are working to develop rules for the emerging pot industry.
The Obama administration could sue to block the legal markets from operating, on the grounds that actively regulating an illegal substance conflicts with federal drug law. The DOJ is reviewing the laws but has given no signals about its plans.
It has never sued states like Colorado that have regulated medical marijuana, even though it could under the same legal principles.
Part of the DOJ's political calculus in deciding whether to sue is likely to be how well the department believes the two states can keep the legal weed within their borders. During a meeting with Inslee last week, Holder asked a lot of questions about diversion, Inslee said.
Alison Holcomb, who led Washington's legal pot campaign, said it's important to respect states that haven't legalized weed by not flooding their black markets. The first step, she said, is for the state to figure out how much pot should be produced, and then grant licenses accordingly.
"Excess supply creates incentive to divert outside the state," she said.
Washington's Liquor Control Board is planning a comprehensive survey to estimate how much marijuana is consumed in the state.
Inslee has boasted about the effectiveness of the State Patrol's highway interdiction program in stopping drug trafficking. Traditional police work, combined with inventory controls, will be key to clamping down on diversion, he said.
Digital tracking of the weights of marijuana shipments between processors and retailers would help make sure there isn't "10- to 20-percent shrinkage that's going to the black market," he said.
But even if the state can prevent bulk pot from being diverted, there's nothing to keep customers from walking into multiple stores, or returning to the same store, to collect more than their 1-ounce limit. Some traffickers could recruit many people to buy weed for them.
Tom Gorman, head of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug-Trafficking Area, said efforts to keep a lid on legal marijuana simply don't work.
Pot from Colorado's medical marijuana system ? often described as the most closely regulated in the world ? routinely makes its way into Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and points east, often from dispensaries that have sold out the back door, he said.
A brief law enforcement survey the organization conducted last summer turned up numerous cases in which suspects had made purchases at Colorado dispensaries before being busted in other states.
In the past two years, Colorado's medical pot regulators have levied 54 fines against licensed businesses, but have never revoked or suspended a license.
Matt Cook, the former director of Colorado's Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division, defended the "seed-to-store" regulations in the state.
Cook, who is applying for a job as a consultant to Washington's marijuana regulators, noted that at any time officials could check the digital records, pull the surveillance video or drop in for an inspection ? and the fear of getting busted keeps people in line.
Bob Hoban, whose law firm represents nearly 100 medical marijuana businesses in Colorado, agreed, and noted another incentive for dispensaries to behave.
"It's a cutthroat business," he said. "If somebody sees something unusual, they're going to provide a tip. ... There's just about as good of a safeguard as you can have for diversion in the state of Colorado, and a lot of that is Big Brother watching you."
___
Associated Press writer Kristen Wyatt in Denver contributed to this report.
___
Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle
Researchers find a better way to culture central nervous cellsPublic release date: 29-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kevin Stacey kevin_stacey@brown.edu 401-863-3766 Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] A protein associated with neuron damage in people with Alzheimer's disease is surprisingly useful in promoting neuron growth in the lab, according to a new study by engineering researchers at Brown University. The findings, in press at the journal Biomaterials, suggest a better method of growing neurons outside the body that might then be implanted to treat people with neurodegenerative diseases.
The research compared the effects of two proteins that can be used as an artificial scaffold for growing neurons (nerve cells) from the central nervous system. The study found that central nervous system neurons from rats cultured in apolipoprotein E-4 (apoE4) grew better than neurons cultured in laminin, which had been considered the gold standard for growing mammalian neurons in the lab.
"Most scientists assumed that laminin was the best protein for growing CNS (central nervous system)," said Kwang-Min Kim, a biomedical engineering graduate student at Brown University and lead author of the study, "but we demonstrated that apoE4 has substantially better performance for mammalian CNS neurons."
Kim performed the research under the direction of Tayhas Palmore, professor of engineering and medical science and Kim's Ph.D. adviser. Also involved in the project was Janice Vicenty, an undergraduate from the University of Puerto Rico, who was working in the Palmore lab as a summer research fellow through the Leadership Alliance.
The results are surprising partly because of the association of apoE4 with Alzheimer's. Apolipoproteins are responsible for distributing and depositing cholesterols and other lipids in the brain. They come in three varieties: apoE2, apoE3 and apoE4. People with the gene that produces apoE4 are at higher risk for amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, the hallmarks of Alzheimer's. But exactly how the protein itself contributes to Alzheimer's is not known.
This study suggests that outside the body, where the protein can be separated from the cholesterols it normally carries, apoE4 is actually beneficial in promoting neuron growth.
Growing new neurons
In the body, neurons grow in what's called an extracellular matrix (ECM), a protein-rich scaffold that provides cells with nutrients and a molecular structure in which to grow. To grow neurons in the lab, scientists try to mimic the ECM present in the body. Laminin is a common protein in the body's ECM, and studies have shown that laminin aids the growth of neurons from the peripheral nervous system (nerve cells that grow outside the brain and spinal cord).
It was largely assumed, Kim said, that because laminin was good for growing peripheral nerve cells, it would also be good for growing central nerve cells. That turns out not to be the case.
Kim was inspired to test the effects of apoE4 by a previous study that found that a mixture of apoE4 and laminin promoted CNS cell growth better than laminin alone. "The previous work hadn't tested the effects apoE4 by itself," Kim said. "So we started working on a side-by-side comparison of apoE4 and laminin."
Kim and his colleagues cultured rat hippocampal cells a model for mammalian CNS neurons in four different treatments: laminin, laminin and apoE4 mixed, apoE4 alone, and bare glass. They found that cells cultured in apoE4 alone performed substantially better than any other treatment. The apoE4 cells were more likely to adhere to the protein scaffold, which is necessary for proper growth. They also showed more robust growth of axons and dendrites, the wire-like appendages that enable neurons to send and receive nerve signals.
Laminin doesn't seem to be of much benefit at all for culturing CNS cells, according to the study. Cells cultured on laminin alone did not perform any better than cells cultured on bare glass.
That was another big surprise, Kim said, because laminin is so widely used in all kinds of neuron cultures.
A second part of the research looked at the chemical pathways through which proteins may enhance neuron growth. Previous work had found two neuron receptors, the gateways through which neurons interact with the outside world, that play a role in how external proteins trigger cell growth. However, when Kim blocked these two receptors, known as integrin and HSPG, he found that apoE4 still enhanced neuron growth. That finding suggests that neurons use an as yet unknown pathway to interact with apoE4.
"This discovery opens up a new target for researchers who are interested in identifying receptors that are important for spurring neural growth," Palmore said.
Application to neural prosthetics
Unlike other cells in the body, nerve cells tend not to regenerate after being damaged by disease or trauma. So researchers hope that they can eventually implant lab-grown cells in the body to treat trauma or neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.
"People are looking at all these different proteins to see if we can make a material a scaffold that to a neuron, looks and feels like their natural environment," said Palmore. "The finding that apoE4 is a better protein to add to neural scaffolds is a good breakthrough because most people have been using laminin for the central nervous system models, which turns out to be less than optimal."
###
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation (HRD-0548311) and the National Institutes of Health.
Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call 401-863-2476.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Researchers find a better way to culture central nervous cellsPublic release date: 29-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kevin Stacey kevin_stacey@brown.edu 401-863-3766 Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] A protein associated with neuron damage in people with Alzheimer's disease is surprisingly useful in promoting neuron growth in the lab, according to a new study by engineering researchers at Brown University. The findings, in press at the journal Biomaterials, suggest a better method of growing neurons outside the body that might then be implanted to treat people with neurodegenerative diseases.
The research compared the effects of two proteins that can be used as an artificial scaffold for growing neurons (nerve cells) from the central nervous system. The study found that central nervous system neurons from rats cultured in apolipoprotein E-4 (apoE4) grew better than neurons cultured in laminin, which had been considered the gold standard for growing mammalian neurons in the lab.
"Most scientists assumed that laminin was the best protein for growing CNS (central nervous system)," said Kwang-Min Kim, a biomedical engineering graduate student at Brown University and lead author of the study, "but we demonstrated that apoE4 has substantially better performance for mammalian CNS neurons."
Kim performed the research under the direction of Tayhas Palmore, professor of engineering and medical science and Kim's Ph.D. adviser. Also involved in the project was Janice Vicenty, an undergraduate from the University of Puerto Rico, who was working in the Palmore lab as a summer research fellow through the Leadership Alliance.
The results are surprising partly because of the association of apoE4 with Alzheimer's. Apolipoproteins are responsible for distributing and depositing cholesterols and other lipids in the brain. They come in three varieties: apoE2, apoE3 and apoE4. People with the gene that produces apoE4 are at higher risk for amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, the hallmarks of Alzheimer's. But exactly how the protein itself contributes to Alzheimer's is not known.
This study suggests that outside the body, where the protein can be separated from the cholesterols it normally carries, apoE4 is actually beneficial in promoting neuron growth.
Growing new neurons
In the body, neurons grow in what's called an extracellular matrix (ECM), a protein-rich scaffold that provides cells with nutrients and a molecular structure in which to grow. To grow neurons in the lab, scientists try to mimic the ECM present in the body. Laminin is a common protein in the body's ECM, and studies have shown that laminin aids the growth of neurons from the peripheral nervous system (nerve cells that grow outside the brain and spinal cord).
It was largely assumed, Kim said, that because laminin was good for growing peripheral nerve cells, it would also be good for growing central nerve cells. That turns out not to be the case.
Kim was inspired to test the effects of apoE4 by a previous study that found that a mixture of apoE4 and laminin promoted CNS cell growth better than laminin alone. "The previous work hadn't tested the effects apoE4 by itself," Kim said. "So we started working on a side-by-side comparison of apoE4 and laminin."
Kim and his colleagues cultured rat hippocampal cells a model for mammalian CNS neurons in four different treatments: laminin, laminin and apoE4 mixed, apoE4 alone, and bare glass. They found that cells cultured in apoE4 alone performed substantially better than any other treatment. The apoE4 cells were more likely to adhere to the protein scaffold, which is necessary for proper growth. They also showed more robust growth of axons and dendrites, the wire-like appendages that enable neurons to send and receive nerve signals.
Laminin doesn't seem to be of much benefit at all for culturing CNS cells, according to the study. Cells cultured on laminin alone did not perform any better than cells cultured on bare glass.
That was another big surprise, Kim said, because laminin is so widely used in all kinds of neuron cultures.
A second part of the research looked at the chemical pathways through which proteins may enhance neuron growth. Previous work had found two neuron receptors, the gateways through which neurons interact with the outside world, that play a role in how external proteins trigger cell growth. However, when Kim blocked these two receptors, known as integrin and HSPG, he found that apoE4 still enhanced neuron growth. That finding suggests that neurons use an as yet unknown pathway to interact with apoE4.
"This discovery opens up a new target for researchers who are interested in identifying receptors that are important for spurring neural growth," Palmore said.
Application to neural prosthetics
Unlike other cells in the body, nerve cells tend not to regenerate after being damaged by disease or trauma. So researchers hope that they can eventually implant lab-grown cells in the body to treat trauma or neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.
"People are looking at all these different proteins to see if we can make a material a scaffold that to a neuron, looks and feels like their natural environment," said Palmore. "The finding that apoE4 is a better protein to add to neural scaffolds is a good breakthrough because most people have been using laminin for the central nervous system models, which turns out to be less than optimal."
###
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation (HRD-0548311) and the National Institutes of Health.
Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call 401-863-2476.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Jan. 29, 2013 ? Thanks to cultural evolution, male Savannah sparrows are changing their tune, partly to attract "the ladies."
According to a study of more than 30 years of Savannah sparrows recordings, the birds are singing distinctly different songs today than their ancestors did 30 years ago -- changes passed along generation to generation, according to a new study by University of Guelph researchers.
Integrative biology professors Ryan Norris and Amy Newman, in collaboration with researchers at Bowdoin College and Williams College in the U.S., analyzed the songs of male Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichiensis) recorded over three decades, and found that the songs had changed distinctly from 1980 to 2011.
"The change is the result of cultural transmission of different song elements through many generations," said Norris.
Norris added that the change in tune resembles changes in word choice and language among humans.
"If you listen to how people used to talk in the 1890s and how we talk today, you would notice major differences, and this is the result of shifts in culture or the popularity of certain forms," he said. "The change in sparrow songs over time has occurred much the same way"
The sparrows, which live on Kent Island, N.B., in the Bay of Fundy, can generally sing only one song type that consists of several parts. Male sparrows learn that song early in their first year and continue to sing the same tune for the rest of their lives.
"Young male sparrows learn their songs from the birds around them," said Norris. "It may be their fathers, or it could be other older male birds that live nearby."
Each male sparrow has his own unique sound, added Newman.
"While the island's sparrows all sing a characteristic 'savannah sparrow song,' with the same verses and sound similar, there are distinct differences between each bird," she said. "Essentially, it is like karaoke versions of popular songs. It is the rise and fall in popular cover versions that has changed over time."
The research team found that, in general, each song has three primary elements. The first identifies the bird as a Savannah sparrow, the second identifies which individual is singing, and the third component is used by females to assess males.
Using sonograms recorded from singing males each breeding season, the researchers determined that, while the introductory notes had stayed generally consistent for the last 30 years, the sparrows had added a series of clicks to the middle of their songs. The birds had also changed the ending trill: once long and high-frequency, it is now shorter and low-frequency.
"We found that the ending trill of the song has become shorter, likely because female sparrows preferred this, because males with shorter trills had higher reproductive success," Norris said.
Kent Island has been home to the Bowdoin Scientific Station since it was donated by J. Sterling Rockefeller in 1932, and the birds have been recorded since the 1980s. Individual birds are also monitored throughout their lifetime.
"We know the identity and history of every single sparrow in the study population" said Norris, who has led the project with Newman since 2009. "To have 30 years of recordings is very rare, and it was definitely surprising to see such drastic changes."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Guelph.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Heather Williams, Iris I. Levin, D. Ryan Norris, Amy E.M. Newman, Nathaniel T. Wheelwright. Three decades of cultural evolution in Savannah sparrow songs. Animal Behaviour, 2013; 85 (1): 213 DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.10.028
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The first soldier to survive after losing all four limbs in the Iraq war has received a double-arm transplant.
Brendan Marrocco had the operation on Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, his father said Monday. The 26-year-old Marrocco, who is from New York City, was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009.
He also received bone marrow from the same dead donor who supplied his new arms. That novel approach is aimed at helping his body accept the new limbs with minimal medication to prevent rejection.
The military is sponsoring operations like these to help wounded troops. About 300 have lost arms or hands in the wars.
"He was the first quad amputee to survive" from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there have been four others since then, said Brendan Marrocco's father, Alex Marrocco. "He was really excited to get new arms."
The Marroccos want to thank the donor's family for "making a selfless decision ... making a difference in Brendan's life," the father said.
Surgeons plan to discuss the transplant at a news conference with the patient on Tuesday.
The 13-hour operation was led by Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, plastic surgery chief at Johns Hopkins, and is the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant done in the United States. Lee led three of those earlier operations when he previously worked at the University of Pittsburgh, including the only above-elbow transplant that had been done at the time, in 2010.
Marrocco's "was the most complicated one" so far, Lee said in an interview Monday. It will take more than a year to know how fully Marrocco will be able to use the new arms, Lee said.
"The maximum speed is an inch a month for nerve regeneration," he explained. "We're easily looking at a couple years" until the full extent of recovery is known.
While at Pittsburgh, Lee pioneered the novel immune suppression approach used for Marrocco. The surgeon led hand transplant operations on five patients, giving them marrow from their donors in addition to the new limbs. All five recipients have done well and four have been able to take just one anti-rejection drug instead of combination treatments most transplant patients receive.
Minimizing anti-rejection drugs is important because they have side effects and raise the risk of cancer over the long term. Those risks have limited the willingness of surgeons and patients to do more hand, arm and even face transplants. Unlike a life-saving heart or liver transplant, limb transplants are aimed at improving quality of life, not extending it.
Quality of life is a key concern for people missing arms and hands ? prosthetics for those limbs are not as advanced as those for feet and legs.
Lee has received funding for his work from AFIRM, the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a cooperative research network of top hospitals and universities around the country that the government formed about five years ago. With government money, he and several other plastic surgeons around the country are preparing to do more face transplants, possibly using the new minimal immune suppression approach.
Marrocco expects to spend three to four months at Hopkins, then return to a military hospital to continue physical therapy, his father said. Before the operation, he had been living with his older brother in a handicapped-accessible home on New York's Staten Island built with the help of several charities.
The home was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy last fall.
Despite being in a lot of pain for some time after the operation, Marrocco showed a sense of humor, his father said. He had a hoarse voice from a tube in his throat during the long surgery, decided that he sounded like Al Pacino, and started doing movie lines.
"He was making the nurses laugh," Alex Marrocco said.
___
AP writer Alex Dominguez contributed to this report.
Leaders of large organizations cannot meet regularly with every employee to reinforce important points. So a CEO needs to take creative steps to communicate to a far-flung workforce.
At Chipotle, the burrito chain, founder and co-CEO Steve Ells sends messages through multiple channels. He designs each restaurant to maximize interaction between customer and food preparer, which re??minds employees to connect with each visitor and deliver personal service.
As people give their order, employees maintain eye contact and rarely turn their backs. In competing fast-food joints, by contrast, employees often turn and walk away from the customer after taking an order.
Similarly, Ells commu?nicates the im??portance of serving fresh food by positioning his employees behind the counter grilling meat and stirring rice. Customers can see their dishes being prepared; if they order guacamole, employees are trained to say something like, ?It?s a good batch. I just made it.?
To convey the value of quality ingredients, Ells takes a minimalist ap??proach. He communicates powerful messages with few words. For example, he told managers that ?Chipotle was eliminating onion-?cutting machines in favor of having staffers cut each onion by hand. They knew this would be more time-?consuming, but Ells simply said, ?It tastes better.?
Ells faced a different kind of communication challenge in 2011 when he wanted the public to know Chipotle buys vegetables from local farms and supports sustainability in other ways.
So he commissioned a two-minute film called ?Back to the Start? to air on television during the Grammy Awards.
The story follows a farmer doing business locally. It contains no speaking, and the only promotion of Chipotle is as it ends?when the word appears on the side of a delivery truck. Viewers learn of Chipotle?s devotion to buying from local farms without feeling subjected to a preachy commercial.
? Adapted from ?America?s most inspiring CEOs,? A.J. Jacobs, www.esquire.com.
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Over the past few years, it seems like a troubling, synthetic trend is seeping back into popular music. It is hard to say whether that is a legitimate theory or my technophobia run wild or merely the craggy cynicism of someone growing older. But it feels like music?s blood is running thin, diluted by Auto-Tune and other computational heresies.
I expected something similarly anemic from Air Review?s first full album, Low Wishes, which will be released January 29, but discovered something more challenging to decipher. The premeditated, electronic meddling is there, but so also are several moments of lyrical mastery and even a few bars of melody that held my attention.
First, Low Wishes is much more organic overall than you would think. The earthy resonance of banjo and piano is mingled with programmable beats. There is a very delicate stacking of elements synthesized and real. The exactness of this science would be impressive if it did not sound so wearyingly sanitary. The words are eked out at a high, reedy distance, at times so taciturn you would swear you were sharing a room with an intercom. It is music perpetually held at arm?s length.
The prevailing theme of Low Wishes is the reality of growing older while struggling to realize a corresponding maturity. Singer Doug Hale laments that wisdom and character do not necessarily accompany age. In this way, the album preaches a relatable pathos whose sound has much in common with the indie, suburban anthems we now claim as rally cries. For sure, white kids pump their fists for their own particular reasons. But Air Review keeps from sailing over this cliff of melodrama by sticking to a sober maturity. As they confess on the title track, ?I?ve got no wishes now that I am old.?
Other standout tracks include ?America?s Son,? where our heritage of self-obsession is given a clever examination, and ?Waiting Lessons,? which evokes a longing for the Promised Land in the vein of Southern Spirituals. But these are belied by the more canned moments of Low Wishes, where the faintheartedness of the compositions drown out otherwise earnest ideas.
In the end, I can see Low Wishes being embraced. I have to live with the uncomfortable possibility that this is what the general public likes to hear. I have no doubt that Air Review?s music is charming enough to deserve the warm reception. If nothing else, Low Wishes is consistent in its aesthetic of being frustratingly pleasant, even if that aesthetic often feels like being hit in the face with a wet, Brawny towel.
My main contention is that Air Review has chosen a medium for their message that lacks concreteness. The band has been clear that they wanted to find a voice with Low Wishes distinct from their debut, brit-pop influenced EP. But there is a fine line between nuance and tip-toeing. Where Air Review has gone for the soft-sell, they have simply gone too soft. The musical and lyrical themes of Low Wishes are solid, even admirable, but they need a healthy dose of iron.
SEVARE, Mali (AP) ? Tuareg fighters in northern Mali say they have seized control of the strategic city of Kidal and seven other northern towns from Islamist extremists.
The website of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad ? the Tuaregs' name for northern Mali ? made the claim Tuesday.
It was not possible to independently verify the Tuareg movement's claim. The Tuaregs' statement comes as French and Malian forces say they control the fabled desert city of Timbuktu.
The Tuareg group said it is "fully subscribed to the fight against terrorist organizations" and will work with French troops.
But it "categorically refuses" to allow the return to the north of the Malian army, which it accuses of summary executions of civilians.
Considering the long-standing struggles of Yahoo as a business, its board of directors battles, and Scott Thompson's "ResumeGate", Yahoo (and its investors) have been in sore need of some good news. When beloved Google exec Marissa Mayer took the helm as CEO back in July, finally Yahoo had a cause for optimism. Today, Yahoo released its financial results for Q4 2012, which marked the end of Mayer's second full quarter at the helm and showed that new CEO's efforts to implement a turnaround are truly underway. For starters, the company showed the first signs of progress in that regard, with revenues coming in at $1.22 billion with non-GAAP EPS at 32 cents -- a 4 percent year-over-year increase.
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) ? At least eight bodies were pulled from a well in northern Mexico on Sunday near the site where 20 people went missing late last week, including members of a Colombian-style band, according to a state forensic official.
The Nuevo Leon State Investigative Agency was still working late into the night at the well in a vacant lot in the town of Mina near the northern city of Monterrey, and the body count could rise, said the official.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he w+as not authorized to discuss the case.
The official could not confirm whether the bodies belonged to 16 members of Kombo Kolombia and their crew, who were reported missing early Friday after playing a private show in a bar late Thursday in the next town, Hidalgo.
Authorities had been searching for two days when they came upon the well Sunday afternoon.
People living near the bar in Hidalgo municipality north of Monterrey reported hearing gunshots about 4 a.m. Friday, following by the sound of vehicles speeding away, said a source with the state agency. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by the news media.
The officials added that gunfire is common in the area, and said investigators found spent bullets nearby.
Relatives filed an official report about their missing loved ones on Friday, after they lost cellular telephone contact with them following the Thursday night performance. When family members went to the bar to investigate, they found the band members' vehicles still parked outside.
For three years, Kombo Kolombia has played a Colombian style of music known as vallenato, which is popular in Nuevo Leon state. Most of the group's musicians were from the area, and have held large concerts in addition to bar performances.
Nuevo Leon state officials said one of those missing is a Colombian citizen with Mexican residency.
Members of other musical bands, usually groups that performed "narcocorridos" celebrating the exploits of drug traffickers, have been killed in Mexico in recent years. But Kombo Kolombia did not play that type of music and its lyrics did not deal with violence or drug trafficking.
Sir Mix-a-Lot released ?Baby Got Back? in 1992. ?Jonathan Coulton covered ?Baby Got Back? in 2005 using a new (let us say, ?original,? both in the copyright sense of that word and in its ordinary but different everyday sense) arrangement. ?The TV show Glee provoked a controversy recently by performing a version of ?Baby Got Back? that sounds nearly identical to Coulton?s version.
The various possible worlds of the Internet are a-flutter over the alleged appropriation of Coulton?s work by the producers of Glee.
Read summaries of the controversy here, here, and here. ?The emerging consensus is that Glee may not have done anything wrong by the lights of copyright law, but stepped over the line ethically.
True? ?Let?s walk through the law first, then some ethics. ?There are few answers ahead, but perhaps some added ways of seeing through the mist.
As to the law:
What ?rights? does Coulton have in his cover of ?Baby Got Back?? ?This depends on how Coulton went about producing the cover.
Possibility 1 is that Coulton did what he claims the producers of Glee should have done: ?He went to Sir Mix-a-Lot and asked for permission. ?The musicians would have worked out a deal on rights, royalties, and so forth. ?In that deal they could have worked out whether Mix required that Coulton should have to assign Coulton?s publishing rights (rights in the newly-arranged version of the song) in the cover to Mix ? a deal that Mix could easily have insisted on. ?By contrast, Mix could have told Coulton to keep the publishing rights and instead pay Mix some amount of royalties ? or nothing at all. ?Again, all of the terms could have been worked out. ?Had Coulton asked.
Which, so far as I can tell, he did not. ?Coulton did not ask for Sir Mix-a-Lot?s permission to cover the song. ?Let?s stow that point away for later, when we come back to the question of whether Glee should have asked Coulton for his permission.
Possibility 2 is that Coulton obtained the right to cover ?Baby Got Back? by complying with Section 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act, which speaks to covers (sometimes known as ?mechanical licensing,? or ?mechanicals,? for historical reasons.) ?As most people in the musical world know, Section 115 is a great deal for many musicians who can?t afford to negotiate for rights to previously-released work. ?The cover artist has the legal right to make the cover without asking the owner of the copyright in the original song, so long as the cover artist complies with some accounting formalities (in terms of royalties to the original songwriter, the cover is not cost-free, but it is low cost) and so long as the cover does not change ?the basic melody or fundamental character of the work? (a legal standard that is virtually never challenged in court). ?In exchange for granting the cover artist low-cost access to source material, Section 115 disallows the cover artist from claiming any rights in the arrangement of the cover version as a derivative of the original ? unless the original songwriter agrees that he/she may. ?What that means, in plain English, is that ordinarily the cover artist gets no rights in the new arrangement used to produce the cover version. ?(Who gets those rights? ?Answer: ?Under Section 115, the arrangement falls into the public domain. ?The cover artist cannot claim it, because Section 115 says so, and the original songwriter cannot claim it, because the original songwriter is not its author.)
Possibility 3 is that Coulton obtained his rights to cover ?Baby Got Back? by licensing those rights from the Harry Fox Agency, or HFA, which acts on behalf of a very large population of songwriting copyright owners in administering some or all of their copyrights. ?An HFA license for a cover is in many ways similar to a Section 115 license, particularly in the sense that an HFA license specifically says that it grants rights that are no greater and no less than the rights that would have been applicable under Section 115.? In some ways an HFA license is not the same, because it is a contract between the original songwriter and the cover artist, rather than a legal grant authorized by Congress. ?But for our purposes the distinction is unlikely to matter. ?In both cases, the original songwriter is ordinarily not consulted in advance by the cover artist, except through the agency of HFA. ?My understanding is that Coulton used either Section 115 or an HFA license to produce his cover. ?That means that in all likelihood, he did not get Sir Mix-a-Lot?s permission. ?And he does not have any copyright in his arrangement.
That?s a summary of the law regarding the arrangement. ?There is one more bit of legality to consider, which is Coulton?s rights in the sound recording of his cover ? that is, the actual recording, rather than the arrangement. ?Section 115 does not say anything about rights in the recording, and in fact Coulton does have standing, at least, to make a claim about the recording. ?But that claim is relatively limited. ?The relevant statute is Section 114, which says in effect that a copyright owner has rights over the actual sounds as they are actually recorded (this would include samples as well as copies of the full recording). ?Soundalike recordings are specifically OK.
So, my conclusion, along with that of a lot of other law professors and copyright specialists, is that Coulton?s possible copyright claim is either very weak (maybe Glee copied his recording?) or nonexistent. ?You could argue that the law regarding covers is wrong, and should be changed (maybe cover artists should have independent rights in their arrangements). ?I don?t think so, but that?s fair territory for debate.
What?s more interesting, of course, is how the ground has shifted so quickly to the so-called ethics of the situation. ?Why didn?t the producers of Glee just pick up the phone? ?Wouldn?t that have been fair? ?Or at least the right thing to do?
American copyright law is well-known within the broad (and somewhat vague) setting of international copyright law for its rejection of most ethical arguments about copyright ownership and enforcement. ?In the US, copyright is mostly an economic construct; it is an engine for markets in copyrighted works, the means by which authors and publishers can profit by selling copies of copyrighted material, and access to it. ?But that conceptual framework has not stopped observers, including many legal scholars and copyright lawyers, from making appeals to the ethics of knowledge and information creation, distribution, and consumption. ?You can try to take copyright out of the ethical minefield, but you can?t take the ethical minefield out of copyright.
What ethical result in Coulton?s case, then? ?The answer, I think, depends on your underlying ethical framework.
One way to look at this situation is through Lockean goggles. ?We could say that Jonathan Coulton earned the right to profit from his creative labors, and he has a claim on the world at large for any use of his labor that unjustly deprives him of its value ? that is, that either deprives him of its value on terms to which he does not consent, or deprives him of its value without subjecting the use to a corresponding and more or less equivalent burden (which is to say, that the use might not be unjust if Coulton were paid, but that the user need not be the party that pays). ?In ethical terms, if not in legal terms, Glee?s actions are unjust, because Glee has profited (used Coulton?s arrangement) without paying a fair toll (whether in terms of permission or price or both) to Coulton.
The difficulty with this argument, it seems to me, is that Coulton is well-known in the musical world for having relied on voluntary contributions from fans and others to support his career. ?He offers his music to the world; the world takes; and if the world chooses, then the world sends him money. ?He?s relied on that model for many years, and he?s been pretty successful at it ? at least, successful enough that he was able to leave his ?day job? a while back.
Why does that complicate Coulton?s ethical claim? ?In my view, Coulton has not just participated in but has actively encouraged the development of a gift economy around his music. ?He gives it away. ?(I looked at his website; I didn?t see any evidence of limitations or restrictions on what people might do with the songs.) ?If we measure the justice of Coulton?s circumstance from the point of view of Coulton?s subjective valuing of his labors, then there is no injustice; Couton received exactly what he intended ? which is to say, nothing, both in terms of money and in terms of unquantifiable ?respect.? ?If we measure the justice of Coulton?s circumstance from the point of view of a more objective comparison of the value of Coulton?s labor and the benefit that Glee received, it?s difficult (though not impossible) to come to a different conclusion. ?(Perhaps Coulton?s complaint that he should have been consulted in advance represents the difference, which is minor in objective terms, but if we?re running some objective calculus, Glee?s side of the ethical ledger should include not only the relatively modest burden of making the call but also the relatively modest benefit of using the arrangement). ?My bottom line for the moment: ?If Coulton really did freely and willingly give away copies of his songs (i.e., in this case, arrangements), then I think that his ethical position ? in Lockean terms ? is pretty weak.
But there?s more.
A second and different way to look at Coulton?s ethical claim is through a set of reciprocity goggles. ?In that case, the gift character of Coulton?s work is a strength, not a weakness. ?In a lot of gift economies though far from all of them, the gift community is characterized by an ethos of reciprocity. ?One may not take something from the community as a gift without returning other material to the community as a gift, or (not and), one must pay forward the gift character of the material when ?re-gifting? it. ?(Creative Commons and open source licensing are, in part, examples of gift economies.) ? There are different flavors of this argument, too. ?Under one flavor ? once a gift, always a gift, let us say ? Coulton is in the ethical right, and Glee is in the ethical wrong: ?Glee took Coulton?s gift and re-purposed it commercially, exploiting the gift for money rather than re-gifting it as Coulton had in the first place. ?Under a different flavor ? treat others as you would have them treat you, which is a more Kantian flavor, let us say ? then Coulton is again on shaky ground: ?He did not ask Sir Mix-a-Lot for permission to use ?Baby Got Back,? and accordingly has little ethical standing when he (Coulton) turns around and demands that the Glee producers ask him for permission. ?To Coulton, one would say: ?What?s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
In short, it seems to me that Coulton?s ethical arguments have some strengths and have some weaknesses. ?Where he stands depends very much on where he sits.
Finally ? and if you?ve read this far, then thank you ? what, if anything, does this all mean? I think that the conclusion about ethics says it all: ?Nothing in the creative world is as straightforward as it seems, and when you combine that fact with the copyright world, a certain combustibility is almost inevitable. ?If it is evidence of nothing else, the Coulton/Glee blowup is evidence ?that there is virtually nothing that courts, Congress, and treaty makers can do to persuade artists, music lovers, commercial entertainment producers (among many other people) that they should think like copyright policymakers rather than as people of diverse human sensibilities.
One of the things that?s often baffled me is how personally people take their decision to own either an iOS or an Android device. Just look at the comments section on any tech site (or don?t, on second thought) and you?ll see enthusiasts trashing one another over their decision to buy the product of one for-profit corporation instead of the product of another for-profit corporation. It?s all very silly at first glance, but you have to consider that people aren?t just arguing about smartphones and tablets ? they?re arguing about what the future of computing will be.
[More from BGR: New PlayStation 4 details emerge: 8-core AMD ?Bulldozer? CPU, redesigned controller and more]
First, recall why Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson said Jobs wanted to declare ?thermonuclear? war against Google (GOOG) over Android in the first place: Because he believed that Google had ?stolen? Apple?s (AAPL) iOS interface and was spreading it around ?promiscuously? by letting any device manufacturer use it free of charge. For Jobs, this was an unforgivable sin because he thought it essentially debased all the hard work that Apple had put into building a tightly controlled software experience that could now be copied and bastardized by inferior OEMs that lacked the creativity and attention to detail that Jobs believed was critical to the future of the industry.
[More from BGR: Apple: ?Bent, not broken?]
And Jobs had very good reason to believe in this philosophy of controlling user experience on both the hardware and software end since it helped him remake Apple into the tech dynamo it is today. Apple fans love their devices? clean interfaces, their?comparatively?bug-free software and their sleek, high-quality hardware designs. None of this would have been possible if Jobs had decided to ?promiscuously? license out OS X or iOS to make a little extra cash ? he had a vision for how he wanted a computer to look, feel and function, and he executed it better than anyone in history.
Google, however, is much more interested in spreading its popular suite of mobile apps (Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, etc.) onto as many devices as possible. And just as Jobs had success in executing his vision for a controlled user experience, Google has been very successful in making sure that people rely on its apps as part of their daily lives. As a side benefit to everyone else, the rise of Android has also led to a bounty of low-cost smartphones and tablets that have brought the mobile Internet to people who might otherwise have been unable to pay top dollar for Apple?s assorted iOS products.
And this all brings us back to the reasons people feel so strongly about their loyalties to iOS and Android. iOS fans love?that?their products ?just work? and that they don?t have to deal with any of the unpredictability and inconsistency that?s inherent in the Android experience. Android fans, meanwhile, are willing to tolerate these things because they love the large variety of device types they have to choose from, as well as the ability to more customize Android to their own liking. Or put another way, preferring iOS to Android may come down to the age-old question of how much you?re willing to sacrifice freedom for security, and vice-versa.
So which approach is ?better?? It?s tough to say, although we can look at the drawbacks that each approach has from a business perspective. For Google the downside is that the Android experience becomes fragmented on multiple types of different devices that have huge variations in quality. Unlike with the iPhone, you can?t just go into a store and ask for an ?Android phone? and know precisely what to expect from it. What?s more, the freedom that Google gives OEMs to add their own skins onto the core Android experience means consumers must sift through horrors such as MotoBlur before they find a device they like.
For Apple, the downside isn?t as obvious, but it?s a much bigger potential threat. Put simply, Apple?s top-down approach to owning the software and hardware experience only works as long as Apple stays on top of its game. Think of it like this: If Samsung comes out with a crappy Android device, it doesn?t mean the end of the Android platform because it?s just as likely that another manufacturer such as HTC or LG will pick up the slack and make a device that succeeds ?where its rival?s had failed. But if Apple starts getting a reputation for making Apple Maps-style blunders, it won?t have a third party to come in and bail it out with a fresh set of ideas.
This is basically what happened with RIM (RIMM), which started falling behind toward the end of the last decade before completely falling apart over the past two years. That?s not to say that Apple is anywhere close to being in danger of a RIM-style collapse ? the company did sell almost 50 million smartphones last quarter after all ? but rather to show just how quickly an industry heavyweight can crumble under competitive pressure if it isn?t always on its toes. After all, remember that?RIM still had a 43% share of the American smartphone market just three years ago; today it?s fallen below 10%.
From this perspective, it?s easy to see why Jobs was so ruthlessly demanding of perfection from both himself and his employees during his life. After all, if you?re going to ask your users to sacrifice some freedom of choice (i.e., no Apple ?phablets?) in order to have the best and most consistent experience, then you?d better deliver all the time because they can turn on you very quickly if you don?t.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday named longtime foreign policy aide Denis McDonough as his new White House chief of staff, tapping a trusted loyalist to help drive his second-term agenda as he unveiled a major overhaul of senior staff.
Obama announced the appointment of McDonough, who had been widely tipped to fill the vacancy created by Jack Lew's nomination as Treasury secretary, at a ceremony in the White House's ornate East Room.
McDonough, a deputy national security adviser, takes on what is a mostly behind-the-scenes job but still considered one of Washington's most influential. The chief of staff acts as Oval Office gatekeeper and is a coordinator of domestic and foreign policymaking.
In more than half a dozen other high-level staff changes, Obama also moved White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer to the job of senior adviser and replaced Pfeiffer with his deputy, Jennifer Palmieri.
Pfeiffer is taking on the new role with Obama's announcement of the expected departure on Friday of senior adviser David Plouffe, a chief architect of the president's 2008 White House victory and his 2012 re-election.
Obama's choice of McDonough - whom the president lauded as "one of my closest and most trusted advisers" - holds to a pattern of picking confidants and allies as he shuffles his inner circle for his second-term.
McDonough, 43, started out with Obama when he was a freshman U.S. senator from Illinois and just beginning his rapid ascent on the national political scene.
McDonough, whose expertise is mostly in foreign policy, worked on Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and became a senior aide at the National Security Council when the president took office.
"Denis has played a key role in every major national security decision of my presidency: ending the war in Iraq, winding down the war in Afghanistan, and from our response to natural disasters around the world like Haiti and the tsunami in Japan, to the repeal of ?Don't Ask Don't Tell'," Obama said.
There had been some concern that McDonough's lack of a deep domestic policy background might be a handicap for him as chief of staff when fiscal matters, gun control and immigration are shaping up as Obama's top priorities. Obama has also signaled a possible push in the fight against climate change.
But McDonough's experience as a congressional staffer and the close contacts he retains on Capitol Hill were seen as a plus. He served as foreign policy adviser to former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle.
"Denis understands the importance of reaching across the aisle to deliver results for the American people," Obama said just four days after laying out an ambitious liberal agenda in his second inaugural address.
GENDER ISSUE
The promotion of Palmieri, who was a staffer in President Bill Clinton's White House, marks one of the first second-term appointments of a woman for a senior job as Obama has faced criticism for giving his most recent top nominations to men.
Pfeiffer, a longtime Obama aide, helped shape the president's public relations strategy in his first term and the re-election campaign, and is expected to remain a key tactician.
Another woman named was Assistant Attorney General for National Security Lisa Monaco, who was tapped to replace John Brennan as Obama's chief White House counterterrorism adviser, pending his confirmation as CIA director.
Rob Nabors, White House director of legislative affairs and a negotiator in last year's "fiscal cliff" talks with Congress, was named deputy White House chief of staff for policy. Tony Blinken, Vice President Joe Biden's national security adviser, was appointed one of Obama's deputy national security advisers.
McDonough's main competition for the chief of staff job was Ron Klain, former chief of staff to Biden.
The chief of staff job is a high-pressure one, and Obama's has been a through a series of them since taking office.
Rahm Emanuel, now mayor of Chicago, led Obama's White House in the first half of his first term during fights over the economic stimulus package and healthcare reform.
Bill Daley, a Commerce secretary under Clinton, served as Obama's second chief of staff, after an interim filled by aide Pete Rouse. Daley was not a part of Obama's campaign-connected inner circle, however, and left after a year in the job.
Lew took over from Daley, who returned to Illinois. A popular and low-key chief, Lew served as a deputy to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and as a budget director for Obama before taking his position in the West Wing.
(Additional reporting Roberta Rampton and Mark Felsenthal, Editing by Vicki Allen and Doina Chiacu)
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Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
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At Chipotle, the burrito chain, founder and co-CEO Steve Ells sends messages through multiple channels. He designs each restaurant to maximize interaction between customer and food preparer, which re??minds employees to connect with each visitor and deliver personal service.
Considering the long-standing struggles of Yahoo as a business, its board of directors battles, and Scott Thompson's 