New discovery permits rapid diagnosis and treatment of sepsis

Public release date: 30-May-2013
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Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that after severe trauma injuries or extensive burns, many neutrophils become defective and unable to move, which contributes to septic complications

Bethesda, MDDespite numerous advances in treating infections and disease, effective treatments for sepsis remain elusive. A new discovery published in the June 2013 issue of The FASEB Journal not only could help health care providers predict who is more and less likely to develop sepsis, but it also opens the doors to new therapies that actually address the root cause of the problem, rather than just managing the symptoms. This also has the potential to benefit patients suffering from influenza and other viral infections, as well as chronic inflammatory diseases such as periodontal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

"Addressing infectious and inflammatory complications early and effectively in burn and trauma patients remains a significant unmet clinical need," said Daniel Irimia, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the BioMEMS Resource Center and the Department of Surgery at Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston, MA. "This need is augmented by the difficulties of diagnosing infections early and the upsurge in frequency of multi-drug resistant bacteria."

To make this discovery, Irimia and colleagues studied two groups of rats with burn injuries and septic complications by designing a microfluidic assay to precisely measure the movement of isolated neutrophils. They found that the ability of neutrophils to move becomes progressively worse during the first week after the injury, and that a known compound, called resolvin D2, can restore neutrophil movement. Using neutrophil measurements as a guide, researchers optimized the parameters of the treatment, and as a result all treated animals survived, while all untreated animals died. This study suggests that measuring neutrophil motility could become a useful biomarker for the actual risk for septic complications in patients. Rather than relying on statistical data for each disease and patient group, measuring neutrophil movement could help personalize treatments for individual patients, resulting in better outcomes.

"Reports of patients contracting deadly secondary infections while in the ICU continue to increase," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "but doctors have to find out what's wrong, and find it out quickly. This research should lead to faster diagnosis and better treatments for burns and sepsis. It's an important step on the way to new therapeutics."

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Receive monthly highlights from The FASEB Journal by e-mail. Sign up at http://www.faseb.org/fjupdate.aspx. The FASEB Journal is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). It is among the most cited biology journals worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information and has been recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century.

FASEB is composed of 26 societies with more than 100,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Our mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to its member societies and through collaborative advocacy.

Details: Tomohiro Kurihara, Caroline N. Jones, Yong-Ming Yu, Alan J. Fischman, Susumu Watada, Ronald G. Tompkins, Shawn P. Fagan, and Daniel Irimia. Resolvin D2 restores neutrophil directionality and improves survival after burns. FASEB J June 2013 27:2270-2281; doi:10.1096/fj.12-219519 ; http://www.fasebj.org/content/27/6/2270.abstract

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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.

Public release date: 30-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that after severe trauma injuries or extensive burns, many neutrophils become defective and unable to move, which contributes to septic complications

Bethesda, MDDespite numerous advances in treating infections and disease, effective treatments for sepsis remain elusive. A new discovery published in the June 2013 issue of The FASEB Journal not only could help health care providers predict who is more and less likely to develop sepsis, but it also opens the doors to new therapies that actually address the root cause of the problem, rather than just managing the symptoms. This also has the potential to benefit patients suffering from influenza and other viral infections, as well as chronic inflammatory diseases such as periodontal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

"Addressing infectious and inflammatory complications early and effectively in burn and trauma patients remains a significant unmet clinical need," said Daniel Irimia, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the BioMEMS Resource Center and the Department of Surgery at Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston, MA. "This need is augmented by the difficulties of diagnosing infections early and the upsurge in frequency of multi-drug resistant bacteria."

To make this discovery, Irimia and colleagues studied two groups of rats with burn injuries and septic complications by designing a microfluidic assay to precisely measure the movement of isolated neutrophils. They found that the ability of neutrophils to move becomes progressively worse during the first week after the injury, and that a known compound, called resolvin D2, can restore neutrophil movement. Using neutrophil measurements as a guide, researchers optimized the parameters of the treatment, and as a result all treated animals survived, while all untreated animals died. This study suggests that measuring neutrophil motility could become a useful biomarker for the actual risk for septic complications in patients. Rather than relying on statistical data for each disease and patient group, measuring neutrophil movement could help personalize treatments for individual patients, resulting in better outcomes.

"Reports of patients contracting deadly secondary infections while in the ICU continue to increase," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "but doctors have to find out what's wrong, and find it out quickly. This research should lead to faster diagnosis and better treatments for burns and sepsis. It's an important step on the way to new therapeutics."

###

Receive monthly highlights from The FASEB Journal by e-mail. Sign up at http://www.faseb.org/fjupdate.aspx. The FASEB Journal is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). It is among the most cited biology journals worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information and has been recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century.

FASEB is composed of 26 societies with more than 100,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Our mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to its member societies and through collaborative advocacy.

Details: Tomohiro Kurihara, Caroline N. Jones, Yong-Ming Yu, Alan J. Fischman, Susumu Watada, Ronald G. Tompkins, Shawn P. Fagan, and Daniel Irimia. Resolvin D2 restores neutrophil directionality and improves survival after burns. FASEB J June 2013 27:2270-2281; doi:10.1096/fj.12-219519 ; http://www.fasebj.org/content/27/6/2270.abstract

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/foas-ndp053013.php

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China's entrepreneurs expand global presence

In this May 18, 2013 photo, Wan Long, chairman of Shuanghui International, speaks at the U.S.-China Cooperation Forum on Agricultural Investment in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan province. The force behind China's biggest takeover of an American company is the 71-year-old meat-packing entrepreneur dubbed "China's Chief Butcher" by the press who built an empire on his country's voracious appetite for pork. The $4.7 billion bid for Smithfield Foods by Wan, is another big step up for Chinese entrepreneurs who are emerging from the shadow of state-owned corporate giants and expanding on the global stage. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

In this May 18, 2013 photo, Wan Long, chairman of Shuanghui International, speaks at the U.S.-China Cooperation Forum on Agricultural Investment in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan province. The force behind China's biggest takeover of an American company is the 71-year-old meat-packing entrepreneur dubbed "China's Chief Butcher" by the press who built an empire on his country's voracious appetite for pork. The $4.7 billion bid for Smithfield Foods by Wan, is another big step up for Chinese entrepreneurs who are emerging from the shadow of state-owned corporate giants and expanding on the global stage. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

In this Friday, Feb. 24, 2006 photo, a worker loads boxes of foods at a freight station at the Shuanghui Group in Luohe city in central China's Henan province. The force behind China's biggest takeover of an American company is a 71-year-old meat-packing entrepreneur dubbed "China's Chief Butcher" by the press who built an empire on his country's voracious appetite for pork. The $4.7 billion bid for Smithfield Foods by Wan Long, chairman of Shuanghui International, is another big step up for Chinese entrepreneurs who are emerging from the shadow of state-owned corporate giants and expanding on the global stage. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

BEIJING (AP) ? The force behind China's biggest takeover of an American company is a 71-year-old meat-packing entrepreneur dubbed "China's Chief Butcher" by the press who built an empire on his country's voracious appetite for pork.

The $4.7 billion bid for Smithfield Foods by Wan Long, chairman of Shuanghui International, is another big step up for Chinese entrepreneurs who are emerging from the shadow of state-owned corporate giants and expanding on the global stage.

Under pressure to keep economic growth strong, the new government of President Xi Jinping has promised a bigger role and lighter regulatory burden to entrepreneurs who generate China's jobs and wealth. Still, it is unclear how far the ruling Communist Party is willing to go in making crucial changes including curbing the dominance of state industry.

"If these Chinese entrepreneurs who are highly capable are allowed to get on and do what they do best, we're going to see a lot more deals like this," said Charles Maynard, senior managing director of Business Development Asia, which advises companies on acquisitions. "Despite lots of hurdles, they are increasingly able to think globally and act globally."

Another private investor, Fosun International, bought a stake last year in Club Med and says it will team up with insurer AXA to acquire the rest of the French resort operator. Last year, a private firm set the current record for the biggest Chinese takeover of an American company when Wanda Group bought the AMC cinema chain for $2.6 billion.

China's private companies follow a different path from Western buyers pursuing acquisitions.

Cash-rich but inexperienced, they shop for brands, technology and skills to speed their development. Unlike Western buyers, which might lay off employees, Chinese companies keep them and sometimes hire more. Sweden's Volvo Cars expanded its workforce after it was acquired in 2010 by Chinese automaker Geely Holding Group.

"We were especially attracted to Smithfield for its strong management team, leading brands and vertically integrated model," said Shuanghui's Wan in the statement announcing this week's bid.

The purchase was endorsed by Smithfield's board but still require approval from shareholders and U.S. regulators.

Reflecting the sensitivity of Chinese acquisitions at a time of American complaints about computer hacking and market access, the companies said they would submit the proposed deal for a U.S. government national security review.

The announcement comes as President Barack Obama and China's Xi prepare to meet for the first time, overshadowed by mounting American frustration about a wave of cyber intrusions traced to China and possibly its military that targets government and commercial secrets. Obama is expected to press Xi to crack down on cybercrime.

The Chinese acquisition of a major food producer "is a bit concerning," said U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in a statement. He said regulators should look at what role the communist Beijing government plays in Shuanghui and whether the acquisition might affect national security.

Some, however, warn against linking the deal to strains in the U.S.-China relationship.

"This is just not the kind of deal that would or should rankle the U.S. government," said James Zimmerman, a lawyer in Beijing for the firm Sheppard Mullen and a former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, in an email.

"The U.S. government would do more harm than good if they use this transaction to leverage out of China better behavior on unrelated issues," said Zimmerman. "Promoting free trade and open investment only comes from setting an example."

Despite their role in driving growth, private companies like Shuanghui still are second-class corporate citizens behind state companies that benefit from monopolies and low-cost access to bank loans, land and energy.

The World Bank and other advisers have warned that model requires drastic change if China's growth is to stay strong. They say more industries have to be opened to private and possibly foreign competitors.

A statement by the Cabinet's planning agency on May 24 promised such change. But it consisted mostly of repeating previous pledges and gave no details of possible reforms. Those are likely to provoke fierce opposition from party factions that depend on state industry to supply money and jobs to reward their supporters.

Entrepreneurs' expansion abroad comes as China's explosive double-digit economic growth that powered their rise slows.

The slowdown is largely self-imposed as Chinese leaders try to nurture more self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumption instead of exports and investment. But consumer spending growth is slow. That has forced Beijing to prop up China's rebound from its deepest downturn since the 2008 global crisis with spending on building subways and other public works, which pumps still more money into state industry.

Growth of the world's second-largest economy is forecast at 7 to 8 percent over the next decade ? far above the low single digits expected from the United States and Europe but China's weakest performance since the '90s.

"They know this economy may have rough days ahead, so why not take their capital and diversify around the world?" said Jim McGregor, chairman for Greater China at consulting firm APCO.

State-owned oil and mining companies still account for China's biggest deals abroad, including multibillion-dollar investments in Australia, Africa and Latin American. In 2007, China's sovereign wealth fund bought a 9.9 percent stake in Morgan Stanley for $5.6 billion.

But smaller private companies are expanding in a wider array of industries including technology, manufacturing, food processing and real estate.

Bright Foods acquired a majority stake last year in Weetabix, which makes Alpen muesli. Hanergy Group, a builder of hydroelectric dams, bought two makers of solar panels ? MiaSole in California and Germany's Solibro.

Shuanghui's Wan, a former soldier, started his rise in 1985 when coworkers elected him manager of a slaughterhouse in his hometown of Luohe in central China.

The economy was in the early stages of then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping's reforms. The ruling party had begun allowing privately owned restaurants and other small businesses. Rolling back its "iron rice bowl" policies of jobs for life and nationwide wage standards, Beijing was starting to let companies pay employees for the first time based on their productivity.

According to Caixin, China's leading business magazine, Wan turned around his struggling slaughterhouse with such radical innovations for the time as operating three shifts around the clock, every day of the year. It said that in the first year the business swung to a profit of 5 million yuan (about $1.7 million at that time).

The company grew rapidly while undergoing repeated restructurings. It split into two competing companies at one point before reuniting. In 2006, its managers bought out the remaining state stake using money from investors including Goldman Sachs and Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings Ltd.

Today, the company is controlled through Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. in Hong Kong, of which Wan is chairman. The operating unit on the mainland, Shuanghui Investment and Development Co., says it is China's biggest meat processor, with annual sales in excess of 50 billion yuan ($8 billion) and more than 60,000 employees.

China consumes more than half the world's pork. That makes the tie-up with Shuanghui a possible boost to Smithfield by giving the American producer a readymade distribution network for its Armour, John Morrell and other brands as Chinese buy more processed and packaged meat.

Shuanghui's reputation was battered in 2011 when state television revealed its pork contained clenbuterol, a banned chemical that makes pork leaner but can be harmful to humans.

The company apologized and promised to improve quality ? a process that might benefit from an infusion of know-how from Smithfield.

"Pork in China is a vegetable. It's everywhere," said McGregor. "Good for China, trying to up its game on best practices."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-05-31-China-Global%20Entrepreneurs/id-7b99f7bbef3640f5b5d0c8ebffba0dcc

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Shazam launches on Windows Phone 8 with links to Xbox Music and free unlimited tagging

Shazam might claim over 300 million song-checkers already, but it's all about increasing that audience, and from today, that includes Windows Phone 8. The app has launched free on Microsoft's mobile OS, with the ability to tag directly from the home screen. Once it's recognized the track, Shazam can connect to both Xbox Music and Nokia Music services to pick up the full track for playback. Shazam also promises to recognize TV shows and ads through audio and offer up an "interactive second-screen experience," although there's scant detail on what that might involve. While the app is free, like its iOS and Android counterparts, it arrives with unlimited tagging, which should make it perfect for anyone that really can't remember who did that song. (It was probably Prince.)

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

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Source: Microsoft

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/96pwCNRJ4VE/

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Miguel Tweets: Black People are SO Judgmental!

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Did you hear the one about the iPhone with the 4x Super Retina display?

There's a rumor going around that Apple might be considering going to @4x -- a "Super Retina" for a future iPhone display. Apple went to @2x, from 320x480 at 163ppi to 640x960 at 326ppi for the iPhone 4 Retina display, and lengthened it to 640x1136 at the same 326ppi for the iPhone 5's 4-inch widescreen display. These days, however, Android phones are shipping with 1080x1920 (1080p) displays at well over 400ppi.

So, to leap ahead again, and to keep things just as easy on the apps as the last big density increase, in some theoretical universe Apple could just double again to @4X, right?

Well, I did the math on a 5-inch, @4x display back in January and here's how it works out:

That's how the various 5-inch iPhone options look when you compare them both in terms of pixel count (top) and physical scale (bottom), with an iOS standard touch-target grid overlay (44px). From left to right, the iPhone 5 (black), theoretical iPhone @3x (purple), theoretical iPhone @4x (red), theoretical iPhone with iPad display @2x (blue), with the HTC Droid DNA 1080p (green) thrown in for good measure.

Yes, HTC has made 1080p (1920x1080) phones at 440ppi, which while positively pornographic, show what's already out and on the market. If Apple decides it wants to exceed that the way the original Retina display exceeded other panels at the time, they'd have to skip 3x and go straight to 4x -- 2272x1280 at 522ppi.

It would require even more graphics processing power, more LED light, and more battery, and it would be absolutely batshit insane, but hey, we're considering all options here.

Going to 5-inches @4x probably isn't something within the current realms of technology, economics, or reason, however.

Going to to @4x with a 4-inch display, to put it just as bluntly, is even more batshit insane. Until humans grow hawk eyes, there's just no need. If an when Apple goes to 5-inches, maybe @3x will make sense, or maybe a more painful switch to the 1080p standard. Maybe there's even something in the Apple labs that does 2x Retina in a very different way than what's being reported right now...

Anyone actually want to see Super Retina display any time soon?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/MEeUTvD_gxM/story01.htm

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5 Ways Student Loans Can Hurt Middle-Class Kids - Mint

Student loans are supposed to help middle-class kids pay for a college education, but these days they can do more harm than good. It?s high time we did something about that.

If you imagine a world where the?federal government and private lenders?actually partner?with students, instead of treating them as a profit center, have I got a bridge investment deal for you.

Riddle me this: Why should middle-class students pay more for loans than is absolutely necessary, all the while padding the government?s coffers and?enabling state universities to build facilities?that the students will only get to use for four years?

The answer: they shouldn?t.

While no doubt there are more, here are five instances where middle-class kids are getting hosed on their student loans and student loan debt.

[Related Article:?The Ultimate Guide to Student Loans]

The $50 billion heist.

As Washington prepares for another epic battle over keeping federal Stafford loan rates at 3.4 percent rather than allowing them to double to 6.8 percent, an important fact goes overlooked: Stafford loans are already a?significant profit center for the feds.

Indeed, these loans earn Uncle Sam some 36 cents for every dollar it puts out. Bottom line:?the government will reap?$50.6?billion?in profit from federal student loans in 2013 alone.

So instead of arguing for weeks over whether we should hold the line on Stafford interest rates, perhaps the debate is better focused on how we might cut them to a level sufficient to cover administrative costs and provide a slight cushion.

That should help to make college more affordable for the middle class.

Student loans fund tuition inflation.

Average college debt has grown from?$9,188 in 1993?to$35,200 now.

Here?s the dirty little secret why colleges and universities charge so much: Because they can.?Their operating budgets are funded largely by student loans, which are repaid by students themselves.

So why?not?pay your college president?$3 million a year, spend $194 million to build or renovate a football stadium, or ?invest??$70 million in a pool?

Experts have suggested a panoply of solutions, including capping the maximum loan amount available to people who plan to pursue low-paying majors such as art history, or making student loans pay for education only, and not facilities like dorms, arenas or sports stadiums.

Whatever the solution, we have to stop this crazy cycle before it shuts the middle class out of college entirely.

[Related Article: Can You Really Get Your Credit Score for Free?]

Till death do us part?really!

You can never shake student loans, because unlike other types of loans they?cannot be discharged in bankruptcy?(with a few rare exceptions).

It doesn?t matter if you get laid off, are financially devastated by the illness or death of the family breadwinner or take up residence in your car. Student lenders will hound you until your last breath or they are repaid, whichever comes first.

This change to the bankruptcy laws was originally conceived to protect taxpayers, who otherwise would be on the hook if (and when) borrowers default on federal loans.

After years of aggressive lobbying, private lenders eventually won the same benefit, i.e., they have the same risk of not getting repaid: Essentially zero. Yet they still charge a premium.

Mitchell Weiss is a finance professor at University of Hartford and says he regularly?counsels students whose private loans?boast 12% or 15% interest rates. The same loan from the government costs a quarter of the price.

It?s the cornerstone of credit that interest rates are based on risk: the higher the risk that a borrower won?t pay a debt, the higher his or her interest rate.

Private lenders flout this rule, pumping more money into the higher education system and driving tuition inflation.

Maybe it?s time for private lenders to play by the rules. Lending means risk. If they are unwilling to accept that risk, perhaps they should open a chain of newsstands.

Limited tax benefit.

When you get a mortgage, the federal government allows you to deduct the interest on your taxes to help incentivize homeownership.

Having a well-educated population is no less important to our nation?s future than buying a house. We should demand that student loans get the same tax treatment.

Currently, only people who earn?below $75,000?can write off a portion of their student loan interest. That?s a problem.

If you graduated from an expensive school, you may owe $100,000 or more in student debt ? as much as many mortgages. But even if you get a good-paying job, you could face a crippling student loan payment every month.

It?s a slippery slope from there to a tepid economy, because if all of your money is going to pay rent and service student loan debt, you?re not going to be in a position to buy a house, a car, and/or all the other things that put ?consumer? into our consumer economy.

Let?s change this, and give student loans the same tax benefits that apply to mortgages.

[Related Article: How to Student Loans Affect Your Credit?]

Forbearance = Tightening the Screws.

Many people who are having trouble paying their student loans mistakenly assume that forbearance is just another word for free.

Weiss says he works with students all the time who believe all they have to do is fill out a form, and their payments magically go away.

In fact,?forbearance can cost student loan borrowers?a great deal of money. The entire time their loans are in forbearance, the interest keeps accruing, and is being added to the principal.?Over time, that can make even small loans balloon into Behemoths.

In many cases, forbearance is the only option most private student lenders offer distressed borrowers, even though they can offer other alternatives like loan restructure or modification.

But hey, why would they when bankruptcy rules essentially guarantee full repayment? Clearly, this needs to change.

First, eliminating the ?Render to Caesar what is Caesar?s? lending environment and allowing student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy will bring private student lenders to the bargaining table, cause them to offer a host of reasonable options and force everyone to make smarter choices.

Second, let?s expand the Pay As You Earn Repayment (PAYER) plan, the federal program that in many cases caps monthly student loan payments to a percentage of the borrower?s income.

We should include all private loans, as well as borrowers who are seriously behind on their payments. These are precisely the people in most dire need of help.

America has always been the land of ?What?s next?? Washington?s failure to adequately address suffocating student debt, where few have had any incentive to act differently, represents ?what was,? cripples millions of Americans and stifles economic growth.

This is an op-ed contribution to Mint.com and does not necessarily represent the views of the company.

?5 Ways Student Loans Can Hurt Middle-Class Kids? was written by?Adam Levin,?chairman and co-founder of?Credit.com?and?Identity Theft 911. His experience as former director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs gives him unique insight into consumer privacy, legislation and financial advocacy. He is a nationally recognized expert on identity theft and credit.

?

Source: http://www.mint.com/blog/planning/5-ways-student-loans-can-hurt-middle-class-kids-0513/

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Paul McCartney leaves guitar pick at Elvis' grave

Celebs

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper TODAY

7 hours ago

One musical icon reached out to another Sunday when former Beatle Paul McCartney visited Graceland and left one of his guitar picks on the grave of the late Elvis Presley.

McCartney was in Memphis to play a concert at FedEx Forum as part of his "Out There" tour. McCartney said that the pick was "so Elvis can play guitar in heaven," the Associated Press reports.

He also tweeted a photo of himself inside the mansion holding one of Presley's personalized guitars.

Although Sunday's visit to Graceland was believed to be the first time McCartney visited the historic home, Presley and The Beatles famously met in Los Angeles in 1965 for just four hours. Both McCartney and Beatle John Lennon often cited Presley as an influence, covering many of his songs. Presley died at Graceland in 1977.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/paul-mccartney-leaves-guitar-pick-elvis-presleys-grave-6C10088201

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Analysis: Syria contagion strikes deep into Lebanon

By Dominic Evans

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two rockets fired at Hezbollah-controlled southern Beirut bring Syria's escalating civil war deeper into the heart of Lebanon and closer to unrestrained regional conflict.

The two-year-old conflict in Syria has already tumbled into Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, exploded into deadly street fighting in its northern city of Tripoli and driven half a million refugees across the same porous border to escape the bloodshed.

But Sunday's rocket attack, which wounded five people in a Shi'ite neighborhood of Beirut, marked the first apparent targeting of Hezbollah's stronghold in the south of the capital and raised memories of years of civil war in the city.

The rockets struck hours after a defiant Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed that his guerrilla group, waging war alongside President Bashar al-Assad against Syrian rebels, was fighting for victory whatever the cost.

Both events were milestones in the creeping contagion of a conflict which has already killed 80,000 people within Syria's borders and fuelled sectarian tension from Beirut to Baghdad. It has sucked in regional rivals Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Iraq and Israel and polarized major powers - the U.S. and Europe siding with the opposition and Russia and China with Assad.

"It is hugely alarming. It points to the fact that there are a decreasing number of brakes that can be applied to this situation," said Julien Barnes-Dacey, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"It's spiraling out of control, moving deeper and deeper within Syria but clearly now across Lebanon and the region."

No one claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack but it was widely assumed to be a response to Nasrallah's speech by Syrian rebels or their sympathizers.

One Syrian rebel described it as a warning to Lebanese authorities to rein in the Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim group, which is armed and financed by Iran, or face further consequences.

WARNING TO REBEL BACKERS

By dropping any ambiguity about Hezbollah's determination to keep Assad in power, Nasrallah may have been laying down a marker to the Syrian leader's Western and Arab foes that any increase in support for rebels would be futile.

The European Union is considering whether to amend sanctions on Syria to allow EU states to send weapons to the rebels and a U.S. Senate panel voted last week to arm them - though it is not clear whether any such bill could ever get through Congress.

"The message Hezbollah is trying to send is a signal that both Iran and Hezbollah are willing to match any increase in support to rebel groups," said Ayham Kamel, Middle East analyst at the consultancy Eurasia Group.

"If the conflict is expanded, Hezbollah and Iran are willing to support the regime no matter where it leads".

Nasrallah's comments also follow weeks of counter-offensives by Assad's forces around the capital, in the southern province of Deraa and around the town of Qusair on the Lebanese border, which have strengthened Assad's hand ahead of planned peace talks which Damascus says in principle it is ready to attend.

Kamel said Hezbollah's impact on the Syria's civil war was not as dramatic as believed in some Western capitals and that reorganizing Assad's armed forces, most likely on the advice of his international allies, to confront the rebels had been a greater factor behind his recent battlefield gains.

"There has been a strategic plan to restructure the Syrian military and its divisions to make them more effective for urban warfare and to establish new forces," he said referring to units which had been formed out of local militias and which together added up to additional forces of tens of thousands.

"The restructuring is important ... the additional forces have been important, and I'd put Hezbollah third on that list. All are indispensable for the regime, but there are different levels," Kamel said.

The number of Hezbollah fighters in Syria so far was likely to be in the "low thousands", Barnes-Dacey said, with plenty more in reserve. Nasrallah himself said on Saturday Hezbollah could summon "tens of thousands" with a couple of words.

"I don't think Hezbollah would leave themselves exposed in their own backyard to secure Assad, but clearly they have a significant fighting force and could increase what they are sending to Syria to quite a large degree before they have to make those choices," Barnes-Dacey said.

Assad's Western foes are already reluctant to commit to intervention in Syria or military support for the rebels, who include al Qaeda-linked groups equally hostile to the United States and Europe as they are to the Syrian president.

Closer to Syria, Assad's enemies are less constrained.

Sunni Muslims from the Lebanese port of Tripoli cross into Syria to fight Assad while their city itself has endured a week of fighting in which 25 people have been killed, showing how Syria's neighbors can simultaneously suffer from the spread of its conflict and further fuel the fighting within its borders.

"When Hezbollah sent fighters to Syria and occupied Sunni villages, that provoked the Sunnis," said Sunni Muslim preacher Sheikh Salem Rafei, referring to the area around the Syrian border town of Qusair where Hezbollah fighters and the Syrian army are waging a week-long assault to drive out rebels.

"Our brothers in Qusair appealed for our help, so it was our duty to call on those who could do so to perform jihad to support them," Rafei told Reuters in Tripoli.

Banners in a Tripoli square celebrating the "martyrdom" of local fighter Ahmad al-Shihab in Qusair highlight how the two towns are effectively twin battlegrounds in the same war. "There's no doubt that what is happening in Tripoli is an echo of what is happening in Syria, especially Qusair," Rafei said.

LEAVE LEBANON OUT

Both Rafei and Nasrallah urged Lebanese fighters to keep their battle within Syria, reflecting near universal anxiety in Lebanon to avoid a repeat of its ruinous 1975-1990 civil war.

"Those who want victory for the Syrian regime and those who want victory for the opposition should go and fight in Syria instead. Leave Tripoli to itself," Nasrallah said on Saturday.

Lebanon, a Mediterranean state of 4 million people, made up of a mosaic of Christian, Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim sects, is struggling to cope with an estimated million Syrians including refugees, labourers and their families.

Still saddled with a heavy debt burden from its post-war reconstruction and suffering a sharp slowdown in economic growth, Lebanon is also in political limbo after the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati two months ago.

Mikati's successor, Tammam Salam, has so far failed to form a new government and squabbling over a parliamentary electoral law means next month's election will be delayed - threatening the country with political vacuum.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Sunday parliament should be extended for at least a year, since political stability was a priority if Lebanon was to overcome its security challenges.

"There is still some minimal level of commitment by the mainstream Sunni Muslim, Shi'ite Muslim and Christian parties not to let Lebanon become a battleground," Kamel said. "But this has become a regional conflict, so the risk of uncalculated scenarios has gone up."

For now, Hezbollah's unquestioned military ascendancy in Lebanon itself means that the group which fought Israel to a standstill in a 34-day war seven years ago is unlikely to face a sustained challenge from domestic rivals.

But its deepening war in Syria may prove more challenging than anything it faced in three decades fighting Israeli troops, said Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group.

"Hezbollah will soon realise that this conflict is far bloodier than anything it has seen before. This is a very deadly conflict. If they go all in, they will have huge losses".

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-syria-contagion-strikes-deep-lebanon-081518327.html

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Obama honors veterans by laying wreath, doing talk

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) ? President Barack Obama has laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in a visit to Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place for many American war heroes.

Obama rode by motorcade from the White House to the hallowed burial grounds in suburban Virginia on a sun-splashed, but cool spring holiday. Cannon fire was heard in the distance.

An Honor Guard stood at attention along the road that carried the president to tomb site. The headstones at the national cemetery were adorned with mini-American flags.

Appearing before a hushed crowd at the venerable cemetery, Obama strode with uniformed military officers to the site of the Tomb and set the wreath in place after the playing of the National Anthem.

The president was to give a speech following the wreath-laying.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-honors-veterans-laying-wreath-doing-talk-150708382.html

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi slams 2-child limit for Muslims

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, rights groups and Islamic leaders expressed dismay Monday over plans by authorities in western Myanmar to revive a two-child limit on Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing.

Over the weekend, authorities in strife-torn Rakhine state said they were restoring a measure imposed during past military rule that banned Rohingya families from having more than two children. Details about the policy and how it will be enforced have not been released, sparking calls for clarity and concerns of more discrimination against a group the U.N. calls one of the world's most persecuted people.

"If true, this is against the law," said Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Suu Kyi has faced criticism for failing to defend the Rohingya following two waves of deadly sectarian violence last year. She told reporters she had not heard details of the latest measure but, if it exists, "It is discriminatory and also violates human rights."

The policy applies to two Rakhine townships that border Bangladesh and have the highest Muslim populations in the state. The townships, Buthidaung and Maungdaw, are about 95 percent Muslim.

The order makes Myanmar perhaps the only country in the world to level such a restriction against a particular religious group, and is likely to bring further criticism that Muslims are being discriminated against in the Buddhist-majority country.

China has a one-child policy, but it is not based on religion and exceptions apply to minority ethnic groups. India briefly practiced forced sterilization of men in a bid to control the population in the mid-1970s when civil liberties were suspended during a period of emergency rule, but a nationwide outcry quickly shut down the program.

For years, the Rohingya in Myanmar have faced a variety of heavy-handed restrictions. They needed permission to travel outside their villages, couples were required to have permission to marry, and were then limited to having two children. Any offspring that exceeded the regulation were "blacklisted" and refused birth registrations, and denied the right to attend school, travel and marry, according to a report by the Arakan Project, a Thailand-based advocacy group for the Rohingya.

Longstanding hatred toward the Rohingya erupted last year into mob violence in which Rakhine Buddhists armed with machetes razed thousands of Muslim homes, leaving hundreds of people dead and forcing 125,000 to flee, mostly Muslims. The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has accused the government and security forces in Rakhine of fomenting an organized campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against the Rohingya.

Since the violence, the religious unrest has expanded into a campaign against Muslim communities in other areas, posing a serious challenge to President Thein Sein's reformist government as it attempts to implement democratic reforms after nearly half a century of harsh military rule.

Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing said over the weekend the policy was meant to stem population growth in the Muslim community, which a government-appointed commission last month identified as one of the causes of the sectarian violence. He said authorities have not determined how the measure will be enforced, but it will be mandatory.

Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch called the development "outrageous," noting that the commission's report stated that any form of population control must be "voluntary" and conform to human rights standards.

"When one ethnic group starts talking about birth control for another group, it's quite chilling," he said. "This is a step precisely in the wrong direction ? going exactly the wrong direction from reconciliation and respect for human rights."

Robertson expressed concern that the state government was trying to formalize what was previously more of a de facto practice.

"Now there is a movement to codify this by the state government," he said. "They're deepening the commitment of the government in these policies. It is a major step."

The government has not made any statement about the two-child policy since Rakhine state authorities quietly enacted the measure a week ago. Calls seeking comment from government spokesmen have not been returned.

Although Muslims are the majority in the two townships in which the policy applies, they account for only about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people.

Myanmar's government does not include the Rohingya as one of its 135 recognized ethnic minorities. It considers them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh says the Rohingya have been living in Myanmar for centuries and should be recognized there as citizens.

"This restriction violates human rights," said Nyunt Maung Shein, head of Myanmar's Islamic Religious Affairs Council. "Even if it existed under the military regime, it should be considered inappropriate under the democratic system."

He cautioned that the measure could backfire and inflame already tense relations in Rakhine state.

"The authorities should be very cautious," he said. "If this is a step to ease tension between the communities, it will not produce the desired effect."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/myanmars-suu-kyi-slams-2-child-limit-muslims-120918078.html

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Alpine PT is Once Again the Annual and Exclusive Physical Therapy ...

For the 6th consecutive year, ?Alpine Physical Therapy will?be the exclusive physical therapy sponsor of the?Missoula Marathon.? This prestigious sponsorship puts us face-to-face with runners of all skill levels, giving us opportunities to provide consultation to all participants and to present numerous training seminars for area marathoners.

Our team of 14 therapists provides both pre- and post-race massages for all Missoula Marathoners. In addition, we offer free injury consultations both before and after the race.

We offer a unique service for all runners called?The Runner?s Clinic, which is overseen by expert physical therapist, Kristi Moore, MSPT. Kristi is our sport biomechanics expert associated with high-mileage running.

Participants entering The Runner?s Clinic undergo 2-D video analysis of their stride, along with a comprehensive body and movement examination.? Integrating the 2-D video analysis with the clinical exam provides an exacting assessment for identifying running faults that can contribute to injury and impact performance.? The results of the examination form the basis of specific corrective exercises that you?ll begin learning and doing on day one!? For more information on The Runner?s Clinic, be sure to visit our website by?clicking here.

Gaining knowledge about your injury and what you can do to resolve it puts you ahead of the pack. We invite you to peruse The?Runner?s Clinic?section of our website for information on various injuries common to runners.? Gather additional information by clicking on the Patient Resources section of our website for news and information on these and other conditions runners face.

We have three locations in Missoula.

• Alpine Physical Therapy, North
  We are located at 2965 Stockyard Road in the North Reserve Business Center, just behind Carino?s.??406-541-2606.

• Alpine Physical Therapy, South
  We are located in the Peak Health & Wellness Center South on the corner of Highway 93 South and Blue Mountain Road.??406-251-2323.

• Alpine Physical Therapy, Downtown
  We are also located in the Peak Health & Wellness Center Downtown at 150 E. Spruce, Ste A.??406-549-0064.

All participants of the Missoula Marathon are provided free injury consultations with one of our physical therapists. Call?to schedule a free injury consultation or to schedule for The?Runner?s Clinic.

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Source: http://healthandfitness101.com/?p=3769&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=alpine-pt-is-once-again-the-annual-and-exclusive-physical-therapy-sponsor-of-the-missoula-marathon

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Syrian opposition shake-up falters ahead of peace conference

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A crisis in Syrian opposition ranks deepened on Monday when a Western and Arab-backed liberal bloc was offered only token representation in the Islamist-dominated Syrian National Coalition.

To the dismay of envoys of Western and Arab nations who have been monitoring four days of opposition talks in Istanbul, the 60-member coalition thwarted a deal to admit a bloc headed by opposition campaigner Michel Kilo with up to 22 new seats.

His group received an offer of only five seats after a session that stretched nearly to dawn, coalition sources said.

The move kept the coalition controlled by a faction loyal to Qatari-backed Secretary-General Mustafa al-Sabbagh, and a bloc largely influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. That group led resistance to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad's late father in the 1980s, when thousands of its members were tortured and executed.

Addressing the coalition, Kilo said, "We were talking about 25 names as the basis for our negotiations, then there was agreement on 22 and then the number dropped to 20, then to 18, then to 15, then to five.

"I do not think you have a desire to cooperate and hold our extended hand. ... We wish you all the best."

A source in the Kilo bloc said the group would hold a meeting in a few hours to decide whether to withdraw from the opposition conference.

Coalition spokesman Khaled Saleh described the outcome as "democratic," but said the coalition could discuss the expansion issue further.

The development occurred hours before the European Union is scheduled at a meeting in Brussels to discuss lifting an arms embargo that could allow weapons to reach rebel fighters in Syria who are seeking to oust Assad.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will also meet privately in Paris on Monday to discuss the details of a peace conference that could be held in Geneva in the next few weeks.

Washington has pressured the coalition to resolve its divisions and to expand to include more liberals to counter Islamists from dominating the coalition.

The Syrian revolt began in March 2011 with peaceful protests against Assad's autocratic rule that were met with military repression, leading to an armed insurgency.

The war has developed into a sectarian conflict pitting members of Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has controlled Syria since the 1960s, against members of the Sunni majority. At least 80,000 people have been killed.

With Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants now openly fighting alongside government troops in Syria, Saudi Arabia is keen to play a greater role in backing the Sunni-led opposition, opposition sources have said.

Qatar, the other main Arab player backing the revolt against Assad, had agreed to let Saudi Arabia play the primary role in opposition politics, and Riyadh had been expected to lead Gulf efforts to back a new provisional government financially, opposition sources said.

Significant expansion of the 60-member coalition would have lessened Qatar's influence on the opposition.

"What we have seen today is the work of Sabbagh, but I really do not see the wisdom of ticking off Saudi Arabia," a senior coalition source said.

'SYRIAN FIRST'

Sabbagh, who has played a main role in channeling money for aid and military supplies inside Syria, has been resisting a Saudi-supported plan to add members to the coalition, the sources said.

"Sabbagh has been told by Qatar that the Saudis are brothers and he should compromise. But he is a Syrian first and he will put the interest of the national opposition above everything," an ally of Sabbagh in the coalition said.

The coalition's meeting in Istanbul has been extended by two days to discuss the Geneva conference and a new leadership, including the fate of provisional Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto, who has not been able to form a provisional government since being appointed on March 19.

The coalition has been rudderless since the resignation of Moaz AlKhatib, a cleric who had floated two initiatives for Assad to leave power peacefully.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-opposition-shake-falters-ahead-peace-conference-034903016.html

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Cannes film festival draws to a close with cliffhanger ending

By Belinda Goldsmith

CANNES (Reuters) - The 2013 Cannes festival wraps up with a cliffhanger ending on Sunday, with uncertainty surrounding which film will be declared best picture after a 12-day frenzy of premieres, celebrities, rain and dramatic jewelry thefts.

Twenty films packed with sex, violence and emotional anguish are vying at the world's biggest cinema showcase for the Palme d'Or, one of the most coveted film awards after the Oscars.

Frontrunners include French director Abdellatif Kechiche's love story "La Vie d'Adele" (Blue is the Warmest Color) with its graphic lesbian sex scenes, and "Inside Llewyn Davis" about a struggling New York folk singer by the American Coen brothers.

Also on the short list are "La Grande Bellezza" (The Great Beauty) from Italy's Paolo Sorrentino, a magical ode to the decadence of Rome, and "Le Passe" (The Past), a tension-filled domestic drama by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi.

Choosing the winner of the top prize and other awards is a jury led by U.S. filmmaker Steven Spielberg with Australian actress Nicole Kidman and Oscar-winning director Ang Lee.

"It's been a good year at Cannes despite the terrible weather but it is harder than usual to predict the winner as there is no one stand-out film," critic Jay Weissberg from trade publication Variety told Reuters.

"La Vie d'Adele had everyone buzzing but its sex scenes could be too intimate for this jury. You are never quite sure what the jury will decide."

The jury members have mixed and mingled on the red carpet on Cannes' palm-lined waterfront with A-list stars from around the globe since the festival opened with Australian director Baz Luhrmann's lavish "The Great Gatsby" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

The 66th Cannes festival got off to a violent start with a brutal torture scene in Mexican drama "Heli" and with China's "Tian Zhu Ding" (A Touch of Sin) by Jia Zhangke, but the blood-letting in "Only God Forgives" by Denmark's Nicolas Winding Refn sharply divided critics.

STARS OUT IN FORCE

As usual at Cannes, sex was a key theme in many films, with French director Francois Ozon's "Jeune & Jolie" (Young & Beautiful) focused on a 17-year-old prostitute and celebrated director Roman Polanski's "La Venus a la Fourrure" (Venus in Fur) exploring a sexual power play between a writer and actress.

U.S. filmmaker Steven Soderbergh's "Behind the Candelabra" about the flamboyant pianist Liberace and his gay lover, played by Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, struggled to find funding in Hollywood but made it to the screen financed by Time Warner's HBO cable network.

Family anguish filled Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda's "Soshite Chichi Ni Naru" (Like Father, Like Son) about two boys swapped at birth while his contemporary, Takashi Miike, took on violence in police thriller "Wara No Tate" (Shield of Straw).

The Netherlands had its first film in the main competition with the menacing and surreal "Borgman" by Alex Van Warmerdam while one African film, "Grigris" by Chadian Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, was selected to join the field.

While cinephiles soaked up the varied selection on offer, celebrities galore descended on Cannes, the film industry's top marketplace where up to 40,000 film professionals buy, sell and fund films. They posed before the flash bulbs to promote their latest movies and build support for new projects.

"Hunger Games" actors Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth, David Hasselhoff, Jackie Chan and Keanu Reeves were among the actors in town to promote upcoming films.

Stars including Sharon Stone, Janet Jackson, and Shirley Bassey jetted in for the festival's most glitzy party, the amfAR AIDS charity gala, where three guests paid 3 million euros ($4 million) to go on a trip into space with DiCaprio.

With stars out in force so was security, but they still failed to stop two jewelry thefts worthy of a Hollywood movie.

A diamond necklace worth $2.6 million disappeared during a star-studded party held by Swiss jeweler De Grisogono while gems worth $1.4 million were stolen from Chopard jewelers when a safe was hacked out of the wall of a hotel room.

(Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cannes-film-festival-draws-close-cliffhanger-ending-001538128.html

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What If There's No Internet?

I email. I search. I shop. I Facebook. I stream. I Skype. Every year I seem to do these things a little bit more. Stroke by stroke, as I slip deeper into the Internet's embrace, I find myself wondering:

"What would happen if the Internet went away?"

Can it? It was famously built to be indestructible, with no center, no hub, no "off" or "on" switch. It is, after all, a creature of the U.S. Defense Department, designed, supposedly, to survive a global war.

I know, of course, that it's voluntary. People can shut down their websites, information can disappear; some domains can peel away; its ocean cables are vulnerable to attack, but as to knocking out the whole thing, is that possible?

In his book An Optimist's Tour of the Future, writer Mark Stevenson asked Vint Cerf, one of the original team of computer scientists who put the thing together, if there was any way to pull the plug, in spite of the fact that it doesn't have a plug. Here's Vint's answer:

If every internet service provider in the world decided one day just to shut down the routers, that would pretty much screw the Internet ... So the answer is, it's technically possible, but would require cooperative action that's extremely unlikely."

There are tens of thousands of service providers around the planet. It's hard to imagine them all doing anything in unison. But what if they were targeted? What if a talented cyber-attack team went in with the intent to take knock the whole system down? Could they?

"Well," says Vint, "there are hostile actions going on every day all the time and they're capable of rendering parts of the Net inoperable but I don't think the machine would stop in and of itself ... We launched the Internet in January 1983, and as far as I'm aware the entire system has never been shut down since."

But what if he's wrong? Scientist David Eagleman has imagined four ways the Internet might be severely compromised. The first threat on his list is a powerful solar flare, knocking out multiple satellites simultaneously. That's the scenario you'll see here, in this short French video, directed by Francois Ferracci.

It's Oct. 10, 2020. A couple is on a date. They've only recently met, he's crazy about her, and he's snapping (or digitally producing) thousands of pictures ? of her, of them, of Paris; he's the kind of lover who wants to record everything all the time. She's a little put off by his techie ardor, but he's obsessed ? until, all of a sudden, his gadget freezes. He can't take pictures any more. The images he got start ? they start to fade.

He's more than alarmed; he's paralyzed. She, however, she is going to teach him a lesson. With one simple gesture, she shows him something more permanent that the Internet. Something small and portable.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/05/25/186509291/what-if-there-s-no-internet?ft=1&f=1007

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China, Switzerland to seal free trade deal

GENEVA (AP) ? Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is in Switzerland to seal a free trade pact with the Alpine nation ? the first comprehensive agreement his country has reached with a major western economy.

Li met with Swiss officials in Zurich on Friday to conclude three years of negotiations.

In an op-ed published Thursday by Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Li said the deal showed China was committed to free trade.

Trade between the two nations topped $26 billion last year.

Switzerland is the first European stop on Li's inaugural trip abroad since taking office in March. He travels to Germany on Saturday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Concerns have grown recently about a possible trade war between China and the European Union over solar energy products.

Switzerland isn't an EU member.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-switzerland-seal-free-trade-deal-135809792.html

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Hubble reveals the Ring Nebula's true shape

Friday, May 24, 2013

The Ring Nebula's distinctive shape makes it a popular illustration for astronomy books. But new observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud around an old, dying, sun-like star reveal a new twist.

"The nebula is not like a bagel, but rather, it's like a jelly doughnut, because it's filled with material in the middle," said C. Robert O'Dell of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He leads a research team that used Hubble and several ground-based telescopes to obtain the best view yet of the iconic nebula. The images show a more complex structure than astronomers once thought and have allowed them to construct the most precise 3-D model of the nebula.

"With Hubble's detail, we see a completely different shape than what's been thought about historically for this classic nebula," O'Dell said. "The new Hubble observations show the nebula in much clearer detail, and we see things are not as simple as we previously thought."

The Ring Nebula is about 2,000 light-years from Earth and measures roughly 1 light-year across. Located in the constellation Lyra, the nebula is a popular target for amateur astronomers.

Previous observations by several telescopes had detected the gaseous material in the ring's central region. But the new view by Hubble's sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 shows the nebula's structure in more detail. O'Dell's team suggests the ring wraps around a blue, football-shaped structure. Each end of the structure protrudes out of opposite sides of the ring.

The nebula is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. In the Hubble image, the blue structure is the glow of helium. Radiation from the white dwarf star, the white dot in the center of the ring, is exciting the helium to glow. The white dwarf is the stellar remnant of a sun-like star that has exhausted its hydrogen fuel and has shed its outer layers of gas to gravitationally collapse to a compact object.

O'Dell's team was surprised at the detailed Hubble views of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring, which look like spokes in a bicycle wheel. These gaseous tentacles formed when expanding hot gas pushed into cool gas ejected previously by the doomed star. The knots are more resistant to erosion by the wave of ultraviolet light unleashed by the star. The Hubble images have allowed the team to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect. Astronomers have found similar knots in other planetary nebulae.

All of this gas was expelled by the central star about 4,000 years ago. The original star was several times more massive than our sun. After billions of years converting hydrogen to helium in its core, the star began to run out of fuel. It then ballooned in size, becoming a red giant. During this phase, the star shed its outer gaseous layers into space and began to collapse as fusion reactions began to die out. A gusher of ultraviolet light from the dying star energized the gas, making it glow.

The outer rings were formed when faster-moving gas slammed into slower-moving material. The nebula is expanding at more than 43,000 miles an hour, but the center is moving faster than the expansion of the main ring. O'Dell's team measured the nebula's expansion by comparing the new Hubble observations with Hubble studies made in 1998.

The Ring Nebula will continue to expand for another 10,000 years, a short phase in the lifetime of the star. The nebula will become fainter and fainter until it merges with the interstellar medium.

Studying the Ring Nebula's fate will provide insight into the sun's demise in another 6 billion years. The sun is less massive than the Ring Nebula's progenitor star, so it will not have an opulent ending.

"When the sun becomes a white dwarf, it will heat more slowly after it ejects its outer gaseous layers," O'Dell said. "The material will be farther away once it becomes hot enough to illuminate the gas. This larger distance means the sun's nebula will be fainter because it is more extended."

In the analysis, the research team also obtained images from the Large Binocular Telescope at the Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona and spectroscopic data from the San Pedro Martir Observatory in Baja California, Mexico.

###

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Thanks to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128391/Hubble_reveals_the_Ring_Nebula_s_true_shape

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Android 4.3 reportedly spotted on a Nexus 4 with new camera software (update: video)

We've already seen evidence confirming the existence of Android 4.3, and we now have our first shots that appear to show the OS running on an actual device. According to a member of the xda-developers forum, the phone above was spotted at the Thailand Mobile Expo currently taking place, with the about section of the OS and its familiar easter egg clearly indicating that it's Android 4.3 -- and still going by the Jelly Bean moniker. Of the three shots provided, the only one revealing any significant changes is the camera app, which sports some retooled controls that have been shifted to the side.

Update: A video has now turned up that offers a better look at the new camera interface. Check it out after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google

Comments

Via: Droid Life

Source: xda-developers

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/xvWDsdu8MbM/

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3D-printed tracheal splint supports baby's airways, saves life

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and nowhere was it more necessary than in the case of Kaiba Gionfriddo's life. The infant was born with a condition called tracheobronchomalacia that results in weakened support for the trachea, and his fate seemed all but decided until researchers at the University of Michigan proffered an unlikely solution: a 3D-printed tracheal splint. The splint was custom-made just for the child and designed to hold the trachea in place as the bronchus builds around it, giving it strength. In two to three years, the trachea will be able to stand on its own, and the polycaprolactone biomaterial used to create the splint will be absorbed into the body. After a successful operation, Kaiba was taken off ventilator support -- and he hasn't needed it since. From 3D-printed skull prosthetics to this recent innovation, it's clear 3D printing has a far more noble future than just making pizza.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: Gizmodo

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/RWHQBkRpzEM/

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