(Editor's note: An earlier version of this article led to a correction)
Eight armed and masked men made a hole in a security fence at the international airport in Brussels, Belgium, drove onto the tarmac and snatched millions of dollars' worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane without firing a shot, authorities said Tuesday.
The gang used two vehicles in their daring raid Monday, dragged the cache of stones and sped off into the darkness, said Anja Bijnens, spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutor's office.
Police found a burnt-out vehicle close to the airport later Monday night and said they were still looking for clues.
The heist was estimated at some $50 million in diamonds, said Caroline De Wolf of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.
"What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum," De Wolf told VRT network.
An airport spokesman said the robbers made a hole in the perimeter fence and drove up to the Swiss passenger plane, which was ready to leave.
The robbers got out of the car, flashed their weapons and took the loot from the hold, said airport spokesman Jan Van Der Crujsse. Without firing a shot they drove off through the same hole in the fence, completing the spectacular theft within minutes, he said.
Van Der Crujsse could not explain how the area could be so vulnerable to theft. "We abide by the most stringent rules," he said.
The Swiss flight, bound for Zurich and operated by Helvetic Airways, was canceled. Swiss, an affiliate of Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa AG, declined to comment on the heist, citing the ongoing judicial investigation.
The insurance for air transport ? handled sometimes by airlines themselves or external insurance companies ? is usually relatively cheap because it's considered to be the safest way of transporting small high value items, logistics experts say.
Unlike a car or a truck, an airplane cannot be attacked by robbers once it's on its way, and it is considered to be very safe before the departure and after the plane's arrival because the aircraft is always within the confines of an airport ? which are normally highly secured.
Philip Baum, an aviation security consultant in Britain, said the robbery was worrying ? not because the fence was breached, but because the response did not appear to have been immediate. That, he said, raised questions as to whether alarms were ringing in the right places.
"It does seem very worrying that someone can actually have the time to drive two vehicles onto the airport, effect the robbery, and drive out without being intercepted," Baum said.
That amount of time would also allow someone to board the plane, he said.
A decade ago the Belgian city of Antwerp, the world capital of diamond-cutting, was the scene of what was probably one of the biggest diamond heists in history, when robbers took precious stones, jewels, gold and securities from the high-security vaults at Antwerp's Diamond Center, yielding loot that police in 2003 estimated to be worth about $100 million.
Antwerp's Diamond Center stands in the heart of the high-surveillance diamond district where police and dozens of cameras work around the clock, and security has been beefed up further since the spectacular 2003 robbery.
This story was originally published on Tue Feb 19, 2013 4:13 AM EST
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A new pen that allows doodlers to doodle in the air aims to open the door of 3-D printing to anyone old enough to handle a pen with a scorching hot tip. No software or computers required. Even messy scribbles take on new dimensions.
The 3Doodler was launched today on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter by toy company WobbleWorks. As of this writing, $75 buys a pen and two bags of plastic ?ink.? For the sake of comparison, the MakerBot Replicator 2, a popular model among 3-D-printing hobbyists, retails for $2,199.
The new pen looks like a blackened cucumber and has the heft of an apple. It extrudes heated plastic that cools quickly and solidifies in the air. So, for example, draw a box on a piece of paper and then lift then pen upwards from the corners to make a 3-D cube.
Users can also doodle on paper then lift their designs off the page and keep adding to it. For those who need a guide, the company is releasing print-out stencil kits that allow users to trace designs such as an Eiffel Tower and then join the pieces together with the pen.
One word of caution: The pen?s tip can get as hot as 518 degrees Fahrenheit. The plastic is safe to touch once it leaves the pen, but WobbleWorks recommends the pen be kept out of reach of children under the age of 12.
To learn more, visit the Kickstarter page and check out the promotional video below.
? via The Next Web
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.
MOSCOW/VIENNA (Reuters) - What can man do to prevent Earth being hit by meteorites and asteroids?
Russia has found, to its cost, that it has no answers. But U.S. and European experts may be able to help with a few ideas that at first glance seem straight out of science fiction, including smashing spacecraft into asteroids, using the sun's rays to vaporize them, or blasting them with nuclear bombs.
That should come as some relief to the many worried Russians who want something done immediately, even though scientists say the explosion of a meteor over central Russia on Friday was a once-in-a-lifetime event.
"We must create a system to detect objects that threaten Earth and neutralize them," Dmitry Rogozin, a first deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry, wrote on Twitter.
For all their nuclear missiles, he said that neither the United States nor Russia could shoot down such meteors. Even President Vladimir Putin held up his hands, saying no country was able to protect against such events.
But there is hope for Russia as it looks for a solution. Last week's near miss from an asteroid half the size of a football field, the same day as the meteor explosion, has heightened awareness of the dangers Earth faces.
At a conference in Vienna on Monday, scientists said it was time for man to do more to spot objects hurtling towards the planet and to counter their threat.
LASER BEAMS AND GRAVITY TRACTORS
The European Union-funded NEO Shield consortium, whose aim is to investigate the best ways to deal with an object hurtling towards Earth, outlined some of its ideas in Vienna.
These included creating a "kinetic impactor" to fire a huge spacecraft into an asteroid to alter its path; another was making a "gravity tractor" by parking a big spacecraft near an object and using thrusters to lead it away by using the weak gravitational force as a cosmic tow-rope.
Exploding a nuclear device on or near an asteroid would be a method of last resort, it said.
A U.N. "action team" for dealing with near-Earth objects (NEOs) proposed setting up an International Asteroid Warning Network, plus advisory groups on mounting space missions to handle threats and planning for an impact disaster.
Timothy Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory which collects asteroid data, called for "rapid all-sky search capacity" using a space-based infrared survey to detect objects much faster than now.
The U.S. and European space agencies, NASA and ESA, warned that man should also prepare for impacts that are unavoidable - such as having procedures in place for wide-scale evacuations.
Detlef Koschny, responsible for near-earth object activity at the ESA's Space Situational Awareness program, said separately that it was now possible to determine possible impact zones with just a few hours' notice.
He cited the example of an object that hit the Sudan desert in 2008. It was spotted only 20 hours before it hit and the initial estimated impact zone of 2,000 km was narrowed down to an area of the desert within a few hours.
"In a similar case in the future, civil authorities would be able to tell the population in the narrowed-down area to stay away from windows, glass or other structures and stay indoors," he said in emailed comments to Reuters.
ESA experts in Darmstadt, Germany, plan to set up a survey to monitor the night sky using automated telescopes capable of spotting objects before they enter the atmosphere, he added.
"NOT OUT OF STAR TREK"
In California, scientists are working on a system to harness the power of the sun and convert it into laser beams that can destroy, evaporate or change the course of asteroids.
"This system is not some far-out idea from Star Trek," said Gary B. Hughes, a researcher and professor from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
"All the components of this system pretty much exist today. Maybe not quite at the scale that we'd need - scaling up would be the challenge - but the basic elements are all there and ready to go."
A University of Hawaii team of astronomers is also developing a system with small telescopes called ATLAS that would identify dangerous asteroids before their final plunge to Earth.
The team predicts the system will offer a one-week warning for a 50-yard (45-metre) diameter asteroid known as a "city killer" and three weeks for a 150 yard (137 meter)-diameter "county killer."
"That's enough time to evacuate the area of people, take measures to protect buildings and other infrastructure, and be alert to a tsunami danger generated by ocean impacts," said astronomer John Tonry.
Russian experts said, however, that constructing an early warning system would hardly be worth the money as such events are so rare - the last known meteorite strike on such a scale in Russia was reported in 1908.
One Russian expert estimated the cost of such a system would be $2 billion. Others put it higher.
"Also, spotting is one thing, but preventing impact is yet another thing," Igor Marinin, editor of a space journal published by Russian space agency Roscosmos, told Reuters.
Referring to the injury toll of almost 1,200 after Friday's meteor explosion, most of them cut by glass, he said: "Compared to the number of victims of car accidents or cancer every year, this affected relatively few people."
Back in Russia, some people are simply trusting in fate.
Konstantin Tsybko, a legislator from the city of Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountain region, said on Monday: "Chelyabinsk residents may feel safe because nothing like this will happen in the next few hundred years."
"This is the first town in the history of our civilization to come under a space attack, survive this attack, and survive it successfully," he said.
(Additional reporting by Victoria Bryan in Frankfurt, Irene Klotz in Miami and Sonia Elks in Moscow; Writing by Michael Shields and Timothy Heritage; Editing by Jason Webb)
Futurelearn, the U.K.'s first large-scale alliance between traditional higher education institutions aimed at testing the waters of MOOCs (massively open online courses), has bolstered the number of partners signed up to offer free courses. Five more universities are joining the original 12 announced last December, along with the British Library.
A spoon-billed sandpiper. One of the world's most critically endangered species, the 6-inch-tall (15 centimeters) bird faces extinction within 10 years.
By Becky Oskin LiveScience
This could be the first and last high-definition video of a spoon-billed sandpiper chick emerging from its nest.
One of the world's most critically endangered species, the 6-inch-tall (15 centimeters) bird faces extinction within 10 years, according to a statement from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which released the video. Only about 100 pairs were counted at its breeding grounds in the Russian Far East last year, and the population has declined 25 percent annually in recent years. (There were also 100 juveniles.)
The Cornell Lab sent videographer Gerrit Vyn to Chukotka, Russia, to document the sandpipers' sounds and behavior at a remote nesting site in 2011. The lab recently released the videos online to draw attention to the species' plight.
"The spoon-billed sandpiper is one of the most remarkable little birds on Earth, and it may go extinct before most people even realize it was here," John Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said in the statement. "We hope that with this priceless video footage we quickly connect people, conservation organizations and governments to these amazing birds, and galvanize an international conservation effort."
First moments of life One video captures the first moments of life as the tiny, fluffy, brown-and-white chicks stumble out of the nest, pecking for food. "They feed themselves from day one," Vyn said in the video. [Watch the chick hatching.]
Vyn camped out in?a tent and a blind, with only a sleeping bag for warmth, waiting for the eggs to hatch. "It was an incredibly exciting time for me, exciting and nerve-wracking waiting for three days in this windstorm for these four eggs to hatch," he said. Vyn filmed the only nest with eggs in 2011: The other 20 eggs were bred in captivity and the chicks released in Russia to make their 4,971-mile (8,000 kilometer) migration to Southeast Asia.
Much of the?bird's decline is due to habitat loss from development?and subsistence hunting along its migratory path and winter home in Southeast Asia seacoasts, scientists think. For example, the 20-mile-long (32 km) Saemangeum seawall in South Korea cut off 170 square miles (440 square km) of estuary and tidal flats, feeding grounds for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds and a primary stopping site for spoon-billed sandpipers. And shorebirds are a food source for people living along the coastal mudflats of Myanmar and other nearby countries, the Cornell Lab said in a statement.
Documenting a disappearing species Common foraging behaviors here on the breeding grounds are surprisingly different from the way they feed on the wintering grounds, according to the Cornell lab. On the breeding grounds, the birds feed on insects, especially midges, mosquitoes, flies, beetles and spiders, as well as grass seeds and berries. On the wintering grounds and during migration, they eat marine invertebrates, including polychaete worms and shrimp.
Another video?by Vyn shows a mated spoon-billed sandpiper pair foraging along the edge of a snowmelt pond in Chukotka.
Vyn also captured rarely seen courtship behavior between adult spoon-billed sandpipers. This video, shot during the first few days of a pair's seasonal courtship, includes an attempted copulation and a nest scrape display.
The spoon-billed sandpiper population in Russian has been tracked since 1977, when a survey estimated 2,500 breeding pairs in Chukotka. By 2003 the population had dropped to around 500 pairs. In 2008, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature listed the species as critically endangered on its Red List.
Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Democrats have pushed four of their gun control measures through a final vote in the House and on to the State Senate.
The day began with the Democratic-led House voting to ban large-capacity magazines, placing a limit of 15 rounds for firearms, and eight for shotguns. Lawmakers also passed a requirement for background checks on firearm sales between private parties.
Later in the afternoon, the House passed a bill to require gun buyers to pay for their own background checks and another to eliminate the concealed carry of weapons on college campuses.
Read full article
This article was posted: Monday, February 18, 2013 at 4:48 pm
The business ties between South Carolina and China will be the focus of a panel discussion this week in Columbia.
The third annual Sino-American Business Forum will take place from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Lumpkin Auditorium at the University of South Carolina?s Darla Moore School of Business.
The theme: ?Global Communication in Business Across China and North American Markets.?
The event, which is being co-sponsored by USC?s Confucius Institute, is free and open to the public.
David Hudgens, regional director of the Asia Pacific region of the Moore School?s Office of International Activities, said panelists will share personal insights on how communication serves as a bridge between two cultures and is a key to building stronger, more reliable business ties.
?We?re bringing together many different communities within South Carolina and the U.S. Southeast ? communities that are having greater and greater interaction with China as a marketplace and as a significant cultural influence shaping the contemporary global landscape,? Hudgens said in a statement.
South Carolina honorary trade ambassador Vivian Wong, founder and chairwoman of Pacific Gateway Capital, is among the scheduled speakers, Other panelists include: Luke Chan, a finance and economics professor at McMaster University in Ontario; Ke Liu, dean of the International Business School at the Beijing Language and Culture University; Michelle Wang, restaurateur and president of the M Gourmet Group in Columbia; Dirk Brown, director of the Moore School?s Faber Entrepreneurship Center; and Renee Matthews, principal of Eastpoint Academy in Columbia.
Jared Purcell | japurcell@mlive.com, February 16, 2013 5 a.m.
When the final buzzer sounded on the MLive.com Metro Detroit Game of the Week on Friday night, the Grosse Pointe South girls basketball team was a league champion for the fifith-straight time after its 56-42 over Utica Ford.
As impressive of a feat that is, South did not start receiving recognition has a top program until last year when it went all the way to the Class A state championship only to fall short by a single point.
The main the reason why South wasn't taken too seriously in the years prior was because it had spent years crawling up through the ranks of the various Macomb Area Conference divisions to ultimately become a team of envy.
How did that happen??A lot of that credit goes to South coach Kevin Richards.
When Richards took over the program for the 2007-08 season, the Blue Devils were coming off a 6-17 record the year prior and did not win a single game as part of the MAC White Division.
Quite simply, no one cared to pay attention to the Blue Devils. But almost immediately, a turnaround?occurred.
"When we took over at South, we were struggling," Richards said.??We went 11-10 in our first year and then we haven?t gone a season with less than 15 wins since. We?ve had some great kids. We?ve been very lucky.?
It?s not all luck, coach.
After the 11-5 campaign, South moved down to the MAC Blue Division and won two league title there. Then, Richards brought the program back up to the MAC White only to see the winning continue, taking two league titles in a row once again, along with a trip to the state title game.
After moving the program up the MAC Red, the highest division within the conference, South has shown that it is not done growing as a program after wrapping up the league title on Friday night. In fact, it is almost a been-there-done-that mentality for this once lowly program.
?You know, winning the league is nice,? Richards said. ?But we have set bigger goals.?
Still, with an 18-1 overall record and going 11-0 in the league so far with just one more division match left on Tuesday next week, even Richards can still be impressed by what his program accomplishes.
With division foes like Macomb Dakota and Utica Ford receiving votes in the Associated Press poll rankings, even peaking into the top 10 at certain times, South had its work cut out for it this season. But throw in a non-league schedule that included state and area powers Woodhaven, Canton, and Livonia Ladywood, South was going to make it hard on itself either way. South?s only loss of the year came to a team from Chicago (Whitney Young).
?It?s especially a nice accomplishment with how hard (it has been),? Richards said. ?We?ve had almost two or three teams every week in the AP top 10. That says a lot as far as out league. For us to be able to go through that, right now we?re 11-0 (in the league) with one game left.
?It says a lot about our kids and how hard they worked.?
It sure does, coach. In the bigger picture, it says much more about you.
When Sen. Orrin Hatch voted Thursday on the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary, his decision showed a surprising note of ambivalence lurking beneath the confrontational stance that Senate Republicans have taken to President Barack Obama's cabinet nominees.
Republicans stalled the Hagel nomination Thursday, using procedural move that has rarely been applied to cabinet choices. Democrats called it a historic act of obstruction.
Mr. Hatch, a Republican from Utah, said neither "yea" nor "nay" on the procedural motion, instead voting "present." Had he voted "yes," Mr. Hatch would have been the deciding vote to end debate on the ...
Just hours after the Carnival Triumph was towed in from the Gulf of Mexico and finally docked in Mobile, Alabama, Congress began asking questions of the U.S. Coast Guard on the incident, trying to find out whether there is a larger safety issue that needs to be reviewed involving large passenger vessels.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, fired off a letter to the Coast Guard Commandant, asking for a review of the incident and others that may be similar in the last six years involving large passenger vessels.
February 14, 2013
Admiral Robert J. Papp Jr. Commandant United States Coast Guard 2100 Second St. SW Washington, DC 20593
Dear Admiral Papp,
I write to share with you my deep concern regarding the currently unfolding incident involving the large passenger vessel Carnival Triumph. It is my understanding that on Sunday, February 10, 2013, as the Triumph was transiting Mexican waters roughly 100 to 150 nautical miles north of Merida, the vessel experienced an engine room fire and subsequent loss of power which has left more than 4,000 passengers and crew members adrift in the Gulf of Mexico. I have been horrified to read and hear the many accounts of unbearable living conditions aboard the ship, including lack of food and water, nonfunctioning and overflowing toilets in the ship's cabins, exposure of passengers and crew to raw sewage, an intolerable ship-wide stench of human waste, and blazing heat that has caused many passengers to seek refuge in makeshift shelters on the top deck.
This unfortunate situation is just the latest example in a long string of serious and troubling incidents involving cruise ships. As you are aware, last March in the wake of the Costa Concordia grounding off the coast of Giglio, Italy, I conducted a Commerce Committee oversight hearing to examine deficiencies in the cruise line industry's compliance with federal safety, security, and environmental standards, and to better understand the Coast Guard's role in conducting safety inspections and responding to marine incidents that occur aboard cruise ships. At that hearing, a clear pattern emerged with respect to how the cruise line industry conducts itself. As I remarked then, they seem to have two lives: one is at port, where the Coast Guard can monitor their operations; the other is at sea where, it appears, once they are beyond three nautical miles from shore the world is theirs. The Carnival Triumph incident only serves to further validate this view.
The incident also serves as a stark reminder of the importance of vigorous inspection and enforcement of cruise ship safety, security, and environmental requirements by the Coast Guard, in order to protect the lives of those onboard. I understand that the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board have already launched an investigation into the cause of the engine room fire that occurred onboard the Carnival Triumph. I look forward to the findings of this investigation and expect to be fully briefed as soon as the Coast Guard is able to do so.? In the interim, I ask that the Coast Guard provide this Committee with the following information:
How much do you anticipate the Coast Guard will spend in resources (including but not limited to a dollar amount and labor hours), to respond to and investigate the Carnival Triumph marine casualty?
How much has the Coast Guard spent in resources (including but not limited to a dollar amount and labor hours) to-date, to respond to and investigate the November 8, 2010, Carnival Splendor marine casualty, in which that ship suffered a similar engine room fire in Mexican waters that knocked out onboard air condition and water supply, and was subsequently towed under Coast Guard escort to port in San Diego, California?
When can we expect to receive a copy of the Coast Guard?s final report on the Carnival Splendor marine casualty investigation?
Please provide a detailed list of the number of large passenger vessel marine casualty investigations the Coast Guard has conducted or is conducting in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.? Please include vessel owners, operators, and names in this list.
Can and will the Coast Guard seek to be reimbursed by Carnival Corporation for the cost of responding to either the Carnival Splendor marine casualty or the Carnival Triumph marine casualty?
After a German privacy watchdog ordered Facebook to allow the use of fake usernames "immediately," an appeals court has said nein. While the protection body in the tiny state of Schleswig-Holstein argued that Facebook's ban on pseudonyms breached the nation's privacy laws, an administrative court in the region ruled that those laws don't apply to the company, since its European HQ is located in less-stringent Ireland. Facebook argued that requiring the use of real names protects its users, but the regulator said it'll appeal the decision all the same -- thus prolonging the social network's long-running Germanheadache.
Today's incident involving a falling meteor in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia has resulted in an estimated 500 injuries, and while people are scrambling to figure out exactly what has happened in this remote area of the country, 900 miles from Moscow and near the Ural mountains, some of the more remarkable footage so far has been video shot by ordinary people, specifically with dashboard cameras.
RICHMOND, Va. -- Washington Redskins general manager Bruce Allen said Thursday the team isn't considering a new nickname, adding that it's "ludicrous" to suggest that the franchise is trying to upset Native Americans.
"There's nothing that we feel is offensive," Allen said. "And we're proud of our history."
Opposition to "Redskins" has gained momentum following last week's symposium at the Smithsonian that was heavily critical of the use of the word, citing its history as an offensive term. Local columnists and commentators have called for the team to change its name in recent days.
The Redskins have responded with website postings featuring interviews with officials from the 70 high schools they say still called themselves "Redskins."
Speaking at the ceremonial groundbreaking for the team's new training camp facility, Allen also told reporters that Robert Griffin III was "progressing well" in rehabilitation from knee reconstruction surgery, but that the team doctors will ultimately decide whether the franchise quarterback will be ready in time for the start of the season.
Allen said the Redskins are still fighting the $36 million salary cap penalty levied by the league last year for excessive spending during the uncapped 2010 season. The first $18 million was docked last year, with the other $18 million hit coming when free agency starts next month.
"I think the penalty was wrong and it was unfair," Allen said. "There are plenty of things we can do."
He declined to go into specifics.
Allen also said the team is coming up with a plan to improve the Redskins' stadium field, which was torn up by the end of the season and prompted criticism from opposing players. He said the team missed an opportunity to re-sod during the season and would plan differently this year.
New submitter dovf writes "The Bad Astronomer analyzes incoming reports about the apparent meteoric fireball over Russia: 'Apparently, at about 09:30 local time, a very big meteor burned up over Chelyabinsk, a city in Russia just east of the Ural mountains, and about 1500 kilometers east of Moscow. The fireball was incredibly bright, rivaling the Sun! There was a pretty big sonic boom from the fireball, which set off car alarms and shattered windows. I'm seeing some reports of many people injured (by shattered glass blown out by the shock wave). I'm also seeing reports that some pieces have fallen to the ground, but again as I write this those are unconfirmed." This is the best summary I've found so far, and links to lots of videos and images. He also clarifies something I've been wondering about: 'This is almost certainly unrelated to the asteroid 2012 DA14 that will pass on Friday.'"
Leading RSV researcher publishes work at Le Bonheur Children'sPublic release date: 14-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hillary Welton hillary.welton@lebonheur.org 901-287-6030 Le Bonheur Children's Hospital
Memphis, Tenn. Studies at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., are advancing our understanding of how viruses, including RSV, replicate in humans, mutate to avoid the immune response and can be effectively treated.
John DeVincenzo, MD, medical director of Molecular Diagnostics and Virology Laboratories at Le Bonheur, and professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Biology at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has recently published three papers on this topic. DeVincenzo's lab is one of only two of its kind in the United States. His work has focused on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the most common cause of infant hospitalization, and his findings are leading the way towards the development of antiviral treatment strategies against the disease.
Summaries of the studies' findings include:
Complete viral RNA genome sequencing of ultra-low copy samples by sequence-independent amplification.
Nucleic Acids Research, 2012
Viruses change and mutate at rapid rates in virtually random fashion. These high mutation rates of viruses always occur while they replicate within their human hosts. Detecting these changes has been difficult, because mutations that do not help the virus survive and replicate are overwhelmed by mutations that do help. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to detect minute populations of viruses that have mutated and to differentiate these small subpopulations from the majority populations of these viruses. This study outlines new advanced methods and techniques to detect minute sub-populations of viruses within clinical samples obtained from humans. These new techniques can open up areas of research in these viruses and how they mutate to avoid detection and control by our immune systems. Researchers capture 96 to 100 percent of the viral protein-coding region of HIV, respiratory syncytial and West Nile viral samples from as few as 100 copies of viral RNA. Methods are scalable to large numbers of samples and capable of generating full or near full-length viral genomes from clone and clinical samples with low amounts of viral RNA, without prior sequence information and in the presence of substantial RNA contamination from the surrounding human cells.
Assessing modeled CO2 retention and rebreathing of a facemask designed for efficient delivery of aerosols to infants.
International Scholarly Research Network, 2012
New medicines for infant lung diseases, such as RSV, might require deposition of these medicines directly into the lung by infants breathing an aerosol. However, efficient masks that allow the safe delivery of these aerosols without causing the infants to re-breathe their own exhaled CO2 have not previously been developed. The researchers developed a new infant aerosol delivery mask. They then evaluated the mask using computational fluid dynamic models to see if it would both efficiently deliver aerosols and whether there was retention of exhaled CO2. Because RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) primarily is an infant disease, this device could be used for delivery of aerosol treatments of RSV in infants and children.
The promise and progress of RNA interference-based antiviral therapy for respiratory viruses.
Antiviral Therapy, 2012
In this invited review, DeVincenzo discusses the science behind RNA interference (RNAi) and the potential practical issues in applying this novel treatment technology against various respiratory viral diseases. DeVincenzo was the first to demonstrate that RNAi-based therapies could work in humans. One of his recent studies showed that RSV-infected lung transplant patients treated with the novel RNAi therapy improved long term lung function significantly better than did those treated with placebo, even when the patients were analyzed as long as six months later. This marks the first effective treatment of RSV in this vulnerable immune-suppressed population. Ongoing research directed by DeVincenzo is now moving experimental RSV therapies into children.
###
About Le Bonheur Children's Hospital
Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., treats more than 250,000 children each year in a 255-bed hospital that features state-of-the-art technology and family-friendly resources. Nationally recognized, Le Bonheur is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a "Best Children's Hospital." Serving as a primary teaching affiliate for the University Tennessee Health Science Center, the hospital trains more pediatricians than any other hospital in the state. For more information, please call (901) 287-6030 or visit lebonheur.org. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/lebonheurchild or like us at Facebook at facebook.com/lebonheurchildrens.
About the University of Tennessee Health Science Center
As the flagship statewide academic health system, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is focused on a four-tier mission of education, research, clinical care and public service, all in support of a single goal: to improve the health of Tennesseans. Offering a broad range of postgraduate training opportunities, the main campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UTHSC has additional College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy campuses in Knoxville, and a College of Medicine campus in Chattanooga. For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.
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Leading RSV researcher publishes work at Le Bonheur Children'sPublic release date: 14-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hillary Welton hillary.welton@lebonheur.org 901-287-6030 Le Bonheur Children's Hospital
Memphis, Tenn. Studies at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., are advancing our understanding of how viruses, including RSV, replicate in humans, mutate to avoid the immune response and can be effectively treated.
John DeVincenzo, MD, medical director of Molecular Diagnostics and Virology Laboratories at Le Bonheur, and professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Biology at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has recently published three papers on this topic. DeVincenzo's lab is one of only two of its kind in the United States. His work has focused on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the most common cause of infant hospitalization, and his findings are leading the way towards the development of antiviral treatment strategies against the disease.
Summaries of the studies' findings include:
Complete viral RNA genome sequencing of ultra-low copy samples by sequence-independent amplification.
Nucleic Acids Research, 2012
Viruses change and mutate at rapid rates in virtually random fashion. These high mutation rates of viruses always occur while they replicate within their human hosts. Detecting these changes has been difficult, because mutations that do not help the virus survive and replicate are overwhelmed by mutations that do help. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to detect minute populations of viruses that have mutated and to differentiate these small subpopulations from the majority populations of these viruses. This study outlines new advanced methods and techniques to detect minute sub-populations of viruses within clinical samples obtained from humans. These new techniques can open up areas of research in these viruses and how they mutate to avoid detection and control by our immune systems. Researchers capture 96 to 100 percent of the viral protein-coding region of HIV, respiratory syncytial and West Nile viral samples from as few as 100 copies of viral RNA. Methods are scalable to large numbers of samples and capable of generating full or near full-length viral genomes from clone and clinical samples with low amounts of viral RNA, without prior sequence information and in the presence of substantial RNA contamination from the surrounding human cells.
Assessing modeled CO2 retention and rebreathing of a facemask designed for efficient delivery of aerosols to infants.
International Scholarly Research Network, 2012
New medicines for infant lung diseases, such as RSV, might require deposition of these medicines directly into the lung by infants breathing an aerosol. However, efficient masks that allow the safe delivery of these aerosols without causing the infants to re-breathe their own exhaled CO2 have not previously been developed. The researchers developed a new infant aerosol delivery mask. They then evaluated the mask using computational fluid dynamic models to see if it would both efficiently deliver aerosols and whether there was retention of exhaled CO2. Because RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) primarily is an infant disease, this device could be used for delivery of aerosol treatments of RSV in infants and children.
The promise and progress of RNA interference-based antiviral therapy for respiratory viruses.
Antiviral Therapy, 2012
In this invited review, DeVincenzo discusses the science behind RNA interference (RNAi) and the potential practical issues in applying this novel treatment technology against various respiratory viral diseases. DeVincenzo was the first to demonstrate that RNAi-based therapies could work in humans. One of his recent studies showed that RSV-infected lung transplant patients treated with the novel RNAi therapy improved long term lung function significantly better than did those treated with placebo, even when the patients were analyzed as long as six months later. This marks the first effective treatment of RSV in this vulnerable immune-suppressed population. Ongoing research directed by DeVincenzo is now moving experimental RSV therapies into children.
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About Le Bonheur Children's Hospital
Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., treats more than 250,000 children each year in a 255-bed hospital that features state-of-the-art technology and family-friendly resources. Nationally recognized, Le Bonheur is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a "Best Children's Hospital." Serving as a primary teaching affiliate for the University Tennessee Health Science Center, the hospital trains more pediatricians than any other hospital in the state. For more information, please call (901) 287-6030 or visit lebonheur.org. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/lebonheurchild or like us at Facebook at facebook.com/lebonheurchildrens.
About the University of Tennessee Health Science Center
As the flagship statewide academic health system, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is focused on a four-tier mission of education, research, clinical care and public service, all in support of a single goal: to improve the health of Tennesseans. Offering a broad range of postgraduate training opportunities, the main campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UTHSC has additional College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy campuses in Knoxville, and a College of Medicine campus in Chattanooga. For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.
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DEAR ABBY: My daughters are attractive young women, both doing well in their professional careers. "Melanie," who is 27, is married to "Sam," an extremely attractive and successful man.My 30-year-old daughter, "Alicia," has been divorced for a year. Her marriage failed two years ago because she and her husband had an appetite for sex outside their marriage. While I was disturbed about that, I was horrified to learn that Melanie allows her sister to occasionally have sex with Sam.Melanie's argument is that Sam is less likely to cheat given this situation. ...
Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Tuesday, February 12, 2013 Pope Benedict XVI, who headed 1.2 billion Catholics for eight years after succeeding John Paul II in 2005, might have shocked many by announcing his resignation from the papal office but he he is not the only Pope to resign in the history of the Church. ...
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Four former Best Actress winners will converge on stage at this year's Oscar telecast, the show's producers said Wednesday.
Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon will present an award, although the show's producers were mum about whether or not they will take the stage together. If they do, it may mean a return to a format that was deployed and favorably received during the 2009 broadcast.
During that show, former winners of acting awards appeared on stage together to give short speeches praising each of the nominees. That was revived in a slightly modified form in the 2010 telecast, in which co-stars or celebrity friends of the various nominees were called on to pay tribute before the winner was announced.
Traditionally, the previous winner of an acting award reads out the nominees and hands out the statue without assistance.
Berry won the Oscar for her performance as a grieving widow in "Monster's Ball" (2001), Bullock for her work as a feisty housewife and football fan in "The Blind Side" (2009), Kidman for playing a depressive Virginia Woolf in "The Hours" (2002) and Witherspoon for channeling June Carter Cash in "Walk the Line" (2005).
Other previously announced Oscar presenters including Mark Wahlberg, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe and "Marvel's The Avengers" cast members Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo.
The Oscars will be hosted by Seth MacFarlane and will air on February 24.
In his Ph.D. thesis defended at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, Aingeru Remiro has developed a process to obtain hydrogen from bio-oil
This press release is available in Spanish.
The Ph.D. thesis of Aingeru Remiro-Eguskiza, a chemical engineer of the University of the Basque Country, deals with the quest for a process to produce hydrogen from bio-oil that has a lower impact on the environment than the process using current routes.
The gradual increase in the price of crude oil and the negative environmental consequences that its use entails are putting us on the threshold of a change of energy model that will need to be tackled over the coming decades. Faced with the obvious necessity of finding an energy alternative that will replace fossil fuels in the near future at least partially and in a gradual way, hydrogen is emerging as one of the alternatives.
Currently, hydrogen is obtained through various methods that require separating the hydrogen from other chemical elements like carbon (in fossil fuels) and oxygen (from water). The methods used for this purpose are not viable from an environmental or economic perspective, respectively, as far as the large-scale production of hydrogen is concerned.
The aim of this thesis was to contribute towards the laboratory scale development of a process for producing hydrogen from bio-oil by means of catalytic reforming using water vapour. Bio-oil is a heterogeneous mixture of wood-based oxygenated products, the catalytic transformation of which routinely entails problems of operability and deactivation of the catalyst. This is because when it is being heated, a fraction of the compounds that make up the bio-oil form a solid residue (the so-called pyrolytic lignin) which collects on the inlet pipes of the reactor and in the reactor itself. The bio-oil used for the research in the thesis was developed at an IK4-Ikerlan plant.
An in-house designed reaction unit
To solve the problems caused by the use of bio-oil, an in-house designed reaction unit was used and which comprises two stages: the thermal and the catalytic stages. In the thermal stage (in which the bio-oil is heated) the controlled deposition of the pyrolytic lignin takes place and this minimizes the operational problems and the deactivation of the catalyst. That way the compounds obtained in the thermal stage are more susceptible to being transformed.
In addition, a third stage has been incorporated into the process: the CO2 capture intended to intensify the production of H2 increases its purity and cuts the associated contaminating emissions. The process involves using an adsorber in the reaction bed and which is designed to capture the CO2. "When the CO2 is eliminated from the reaction bed, we are encouraging the displacement of the reaction equilibriums and, as a result, a greater yield and a greater output of hydrogen are obtained," explains Remiro.
In this context, he stresses that improvement in the CO2 capture in the reaction bed was verified when extremely pure hydrogen, close to 100%, was obtained and at a lower operating temperature with respect to the process minus the CO2 capture.
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A new technology for producing hydrogenPublic release date: 13-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
In his Ph.D. thesis defended at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, Aingeru Remiro has developed a process to obtain hydrogen from bio-oil
This press release is available in Spanish.
The Ph.D. thesis of Aingeru Remiro-Eguskiza, a chemical engineer of the University of the Basque Country, deals with the quest for a process to produce hydrogen from bio-oil that has a lower impact on the environment than the process using current routes.
The gradual increase in the price of crude oil and the negative environmental consequences that its use entails are putting us on the threshold of a change of energy model that will need to be tackled over the coming decades. Faced with the obvious necessity of finding an energy alternative that will replace fossil fuels in the near future at least partially and in a gradual way, hydrogen is emerging as one of the alternatives.
Currently, hydrogen is obtained through various methods that require separating the hydrogen from other chemical elements like carbon (in fossil fuels) and oxygen (from water). The methods used for this purpose are not viable from an environmental or economic perspective, respectively, as far as the large-scale production of hydrogen is concerned.
The aim of this thesis was to contribute towards the laboratory scale development of a process for producing hydrogen from bio-oil by means of catalytic reforming using water vapour. Bio-oil is a heterogeneous mixture of wood-based oxygenated products, the catalytic transformation of which routinely entails problems of operability and deactivation of the catalyst. This is because when it is being heated, a fraction of the compounds that make up the bio-oil form a solid residue (the so-called pyrolytic lignin) which collects on the inlet pipes of the reactor and in the reactor itself. The bio-oil used for the research in the thesis was developed at an IK4-Ikerlan plant.
An in-house designed reaction unit
To solve the problems caused by the use of bio-oil, an in-house designed reaction unit was used and which comprises two stages: the thermal and the catalytic stages. In the thermal stage (in which the bio-oil is heated) the controlled deposition of the pyrolytic lignin takes place and this minimizes the operational problems and the deactivation of the catalyst. That way the compounds obtained in the thermal stage are more susceptible to being transformed.
In addition, a third stage has been incorporated into the process: the CO2 capture intended to intensify the production of H2 increases its purity and cuts the associated contaminating emissions. The process involves using an adsorber in the reaction bed and which is designed to capture the CO2. "When the CO2 is eliminated from the reaction bed, we are encouraging the displacement of the reaction equilibriums and, as a result, a greater yield and a greater output of hydrogen are obtained," explains Remiro.
In this context, he stresses that improvement in the CO2 capture in the reaction bed was verified when extremely pure hydrogen, close to 100%, was obtained and at a lower operating temperature with respect to the process minus the CO2 capture.
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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.
Self-guidance, with personal finance, can be a challenging task with so many elements in motion whether it?s stress brought on through your job?s pay or managing your taxes. There are plenty of tools and services that will aid your progress through the financial ?muck? but the best beacon of clarity comes from your personal choices for managing (and getting out of) debt.
Education is the Light
Education is the key component to surviving financial insecurity.
You can?t predict life and the wild curveballs thrown at you but you can certainly prepare for the worst ? especially in your finances because all it takes is a little education on your part in order to gain a better command over your money.
You could go to a tax professional or you could grab the bull by the horns and take control:
Know your income ? Know how much you?re actually bringing home after taxes
Know your debts ? Know each and every expense that?s leaving your account
Set a schedule ? Plan when you will pay each bill, on time, so there?s no overlap
Choose a method ? Find a system that works for you in paying off your debt
Stay motivated ? Learn how to entertain yourself and feel comfortable with sacrifice
Seek support ? Lean on friends and family for support through the rough times
One of the best investments you can do, right now, is to take the afternoon to read through as much financial advice that you can handle. Consider purchasing a few of the best-selling, top-rated books on Amazon, talk to friends about finances, go onto forums and ask for suggestions about debt, or call government helplines that will give you traction toward debt-free living.
Your financial education will give you a guiding light from the darkness that is debt; tap into the wonderful, free resources plentifully available through this amazing tool we call the Internet and make the decision to escape the dark waters this very moment.
Financial Goals ? the Direction
Understand that the path to a debt-free existence comes from making hard sacrifices to your everyday routine. Yes, you will need to give up on many a vice, cut back on expenses, cancel subscriptions, and remove those financial ticks that are sucking at your wallet.
Set a financial goal:
Decide when you will be completely debt-free (the exact day)
Break down how you will achieve this goal
Write it down and stick it to the wall for a constant reminder
What you may want to consider is going through the tool provided by MyMoneyCheckup which is a free service offered by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling that will give you a realistic examination of your current standing with finances (and sensible actions to escape debt).
Go over to MyMoneyCheckup.org and proceed with the following:
Sign up for a free account (make sure you set a strong password)
Work your way through each of the questions on the ?quiz? and answer truthfully or as close as you can (this would be a good time to dig out your financial records)
Allow the tool to run the report and spend 30 minutes to 1 hour to examine the resources for those areas marked in red (the most important items) and then through the yellow.
If you?re a Spanish speaker, they just released a new version for your language.
Word of the wise: download and share the PDF-version of the report with your closest friends and family as they may have a wealth of wisdom to offer to handle these financial downfalls.
After you?re doing with the report, you should begin forming your budget with your new found education in finances. Lay out the important details of your income, savings, and expenses; use the financial calculator (presented after the report) to make appropriate changes to the budget.
From there, just keep working at it. Contribute a little more each chance that you can toward knocking down that debt. The first month or two will seem like hell because you?re missing out on so many fun activities but think of what will come about after the debt has been completely eliminated ? that?s right ? financial freedom.
Las Vegas, NV -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/12/2013 -- Worthington Energy Inc (PINK:WGAS) has dropped about 19 percent today and is trading at $0.02. The company?s highest in last 52 weeks is $0.60 and lowest traded value is $0.01. Today the Worthington Energy traded volume is close to 8 million whereas its average volume traded is 2.6 million.
Recently the Worthington Energy decided to update its shareholders about the status of the company?s Vermillion Block 179 asset. Worthington Energy has entered into agreement with Montecito Offshore. The company will be having 70 percent working interest with 51.9 percent of revenue interest in area of about 550 acre at Vermillion 179.
Worthington Energy management is optimistic about this new agreement and stated that $8.5 million loan has been approved by Ventana Group. According to terms of agreement, the credit will be utilized for the development, drilling, installation of equipment etc at Vermillion 179.
To find out what OTCMAGIC projects for Worthington Energy Inc for both short term and long term please click here: WGAS
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Futurelearn, the U.K.'s first large-scale alliance between traditional higher education institutions aimed at testing the waters of MOOCs (massively open online courses), has bolstered the number of partners signed up to offer free courses. Five more universities are joining the original 12 announced last December, along with the British Library.
Today's incident involving a falling meteor in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia has resulted in an ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u5fYVDwDogXTZasE3M9oxXwhyOfigGg-_09SPprkA4q6TznV1KGiYBsvSwxs3LkwKEVOg5ZM8baYq7MQzfldzJEfLankIPCH4gA2bGAd8=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 14-Feb-2013
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