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Sunday, June 16, 2013
Watch One of Cinema's Wildest Drug Trips in a Minute of Crazy Animation
Pope taps trusted prelate to oversee Vatican bank
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Francis took a first big step in reforming the troubled Vatican bank on Saturday by tapping a trusted prelate to help oversee its management, in a sign he wants to know more about its activities.
Francis signed off on naming Monsignor Battista Ricca as interim prelate of the Institute for Religious Works.
It's a key job that has been left vacant since 2011: The prelate oversees the bank's activities, attends its board meetings and, critically, has access to all its documentation. The prelate reports to the commission of cardinals who run the bank and is currently headed by the Vatican No. 2. That gives Ricca a near-direct line to the pope, serving as a bridge between the bank's lay managers and board members and its cardinal leadership.
Ricca is currently director of the Vatican hotel where Francis lives and other Vatican-owned residential institutes for clergy.
Technically the appointment was made by the bank's five-member commission of cardinals, headed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state. But the Vatican statement announcing the appointment made clear Francis had approved it, an indication that it was something Francis either initiated himself or strongly supported.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the interim nature of the appointment was a sign that Francis is still mulling how to reform the Vatican bureaucracy as a whole ? one of the major priorities set out by the cardinals who elected him pope in March.
Right before resigning, Benedict XVI named German aristocrat and financier Ernst von Freyberg as IOR president, filling a vacancy that had been left open for nine months following the remarkable ouster of Italian banker Ettore Gotti Tedeschi for alleged incompetence. Von Freyberg has said the bank's main problem is its reputation, not any operational shortcomings.
The Council of Europe's Moneyval committee, however, says otherwise. The committee, which helps member countries comply with international norms to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, gave the Vatican bank several poor or failing grades in its inaugural evaluation last year.
While praising the Vatican as a whole for making progress quickly, Moneyval said the bank's rules for customer due diligence, wire transfers and suspicious transaction reporting were insufficient. It said the bank needed an independent supervisor and must conduct a thorough risk assessment to ensure that it knew its clients and the risks it faces.
Vatican officials have recently revealed that six such transactions were flagged last year and another seven so far in 2013.
But the customer checks are only now getting underway, even though the Vatican pledged to Moneyval that they would be completed by December 2012. Von Freyberg has said they would be completed by the end of July.
The Vatican must submit a progress report to Moneyval in November.
The Vatican opened itself to the Moneyval evaluation process after signing a new European Union monetary agreement in 2009. Its aim is to shed the bank's image as a secretive tax haven and improve its reputation in global financial circles following a series of scandals, including a money-laundering investigation launched by Rome prosecutors in 2010.
In an interview this week, von Freyberg said his aim was to make the bank's activities more transparent, by publishing its annual report online on Oct. 1. He has hired a leading firm in the fight against money laundering, Promontory Group, to go over the bank's client base, a top-notch international law firm to review the bank's legal framework, and a fancy German public relations agency to help revamp the bank's image.
"I cannot comment on the past," von Freyberg said. "I am here now to take things in hand and we are doing this with great effort."
He said he had some of his own ideas about bank reform, but that the cardinals were the top decision-makers and that the mission of the IOR remained the same.
The Vatican bank was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage assets destined for religious or charitable works. Located in a tower just inside the gates of Vatican City, it also manages the pension system for the Vatican's thousands of employees.
The bank is not open to the public; its 19,000 clients include Holy See personnel, religious orders, prelates and diplomats accredited to the Holy See.
The Vatican bank's finances have long been shrouded in secrecy. Most famously, it was implicated in a scandal over the collapse of Italy's Banco Ambrosiano in the 1980s in one of Italy's largest fraud cases. Roberto Calvi, the head of Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 in circumstances that remain mysterious.
Banco Ambrosiano collapsed following the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans the bank had made to several dummy companies in Latin America. The Vatican had provided letters of credit for the loans.
While denying any wrongdoing, the Vatican bank agreed to pay $250 million to Ambrosiano's creditors.
In the 2010 money laundering case, Italian financial police seized euro23 million and Rome prosecutors placed the IOR's then-president, Gotti Tedeschi, and general director Paolo Cipriani under investigation for alleged violations of Italy's anti-money laundering norms in conducting a routine transaction from an IOR account at an Italian bank. The money was eventually unfrozen. The men technically remain under investigation but nearly three years on, haven't been charged.
But that isn't the only problem facing the IOR. Last year, under pressure from the Bank of Italy, JPMorgan closed its IOR accounts. And in December, again under pressure from the Bank of Italy, Deutsche Bank Italia halted its 15-year term providing electronic payment services to the Vatican, leaving the tiny city state cash-only. E-commerce operations only resumed at the end of May and still aren't fully operational, even though the Vatican announced in Februrary the problem had been resolved, The Associated Press reported earlier this week.
_____
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-taps-trusted-prelate-oversee-110932832.html
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Court ruling: a boost for renewables or can of worms?
Appeals court ruling will allow wind energy from the northern Plains to reach population centers in the Midwest. But the ruling may force states to rewrite their renewable portfolio standards, opening them up to attack. ??
President Obama speaks to media at a family farm in Haverhill, Iowa, in 2012 as wind turbines turn in the distance. A court has upheld a federal plan to apportion the cost of transmission lines so that wind energy can flow from sparsely populated areas of Iowa to more populated region of the Midwest.
Carolyn Kaster/AP/File
EnlargeLast week the 7th?Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a FERC plan to apportion costs of new transmission, designed primarily to carry wind from the sparsely populated parts of Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas into more populated parts of the MISO region, by spreading the cost of the transmission across ratepayers in the populated regions where the power would be delivered. The decision has been hailed as a victory for renewable energy. FERC's ability to structure recovery from a broad pool of ratepayers to support new transmission capacity for prime renewable development sites that have been undeveloped because they were too remote from existing transmission capacity will create opportunities for many new large scale wind, solar and geothermal developments. ??
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The ruling was challenged by utilities and regulators in Illinois and Michigan on the basis that each state had its own renewable energy mandate and within that mandate there was a preference to meet goals with in-state renewable generation. The argument followed that by forcing its ratepayers to carry these transmission costs FERC was effectively forcing the use of out of state renewable power. The key to the Court's decision was that it viewed the in-state limits as violating the Commerce Clause. In its simplest form the Commerce Clause ensures fairness in interstate commerce and in this case the in-state preference was viewed as creating an unfair advantage for in-state produced power over out-of-state produced power.
The potential ramifications of this decision on renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are significant. Most state RPS programs are structured with a bias for in-state renewable power production, and many (if not all) of these out-of-state restrictions may now be unenforceable.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Mysterious monument found beneath the Sea of Galilee
June 10, 2013 ? The shores of the Sea of Galilee, located in the North of Israel, are home to a number of significant archaeological sites. Now researchers from Tel Aviv University have found an ancient structure deep beneath the waves as well.
Researchers stumbled upon a cone-shaped monument, approximately 230 feet in diameter, 39 feet high, and weighing an estimated 60,000 tons, while conducting a geophysical survey on the southern Sea of Galilee, reports Prof. Shmulik Marco of TAU's Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences. The team also included TAU Profs. Zvi Ben-Avraham and Moshe Reshef, and TAU alumni Dr. Gideon Tibor of the Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute.
Initial findings indicate that the structure was built on dry land approximately 6,000 years ago, and later submerged under the water. Prof. Marco calls it an impressive feat, noting that the stones, which comprise the structure, were probably brought from more than a mile away and arranged according to a specific construction plan.
Dr. Yitzhak Paz of the Antiquities Authority and Ben-Gurion University says that the site, which was recently detailed in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, resembles early burial sites in Europe and was likely built in the early Bronze Age. He believes that there may be a connection to the nearby ancient city of Beit Yerah, the largest and most fortified city in the area.
Ancient structure revealed by sonar
The team of researchers initially set out to uncover the origins of alluvium pebbles found in this area of the Sea of Galilee, which they believe were deposited by the ancient Yavniel Creek, a precursor to the Jordan River south of the Sea of Galilee. While using sonar technology to survey the bottom of the lake, they observed a massive pile of stones in the midst of the otherwise smooth basin.
Curious about the unusual blip on their sonar, Prof. Marco went diving to learn more. A closer look revealed that the pile was not a random accumulation of stones, but a purposefully-built structure composed of three-foot-long volcanic stones called basalt. Because the closest deposit of the stone is more than a mile away, he believes that they were brought to the site specifically for this structure.
To estimate the age of the structure, researchers turned to the accumulation of sand around its base. Due to a natural build-up of sand throughout the years, the base is now six to ten feet below the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. Taking into account the height of the sand and the rate of accumulation, researchers deduced that the monument is several thousand years old.
Looking deeper
Next, the researchers plan to organize a specialized underwater excavations team to learn more about the origins of the structure, including an investigation of the surface the structure was built on. A hunt for artefacts will help to more accurately date the monument and give clues as to its purpose and builders. And while it is sure to interest archaeologists, Prof. Marco says that the findings could also illuminate the geological history of the region.
"The base of the structure -- which was once on dry land -- is lower than any water level that we know of in the ancient Sea of Galilee. But this doesn't necessarily mean that water levels have been steadily rising," he says. Because the Sea of Galilee is a tectonically active region, the bottom of the lake, and therefore the structure, may have shifted over time. Further investigation is planned to increase the understanding of past tectonic movements, the accumulation of sediment, and the changing water levels throughout history.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/YLd8oGJQ2HE/130610113010.htm
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Monday, June 10, 2013
2 out of 3 people face hunger as Haiti woes mount
BELLE ANSE, Haiti (AP) ? The hardship of hunger abounds amid the stone homes and teepee-like huts in the mountains along Haiti's southern coast.
The hair on broomstick-thin children has turned patchy and orangish, their stomachs have ballooned to the size of their heads and many look half their age ? the tell-tale signs of malnutrition.
Mabriole town official Geneus Lissage fears that death is imminent for these children if Haitian authorities and humanitarian workers don't do more to stem the hunger problems.
"They will be counting bodies," Lissage said, "because malnutrition is ravaging children, youngsters and babies."
Three years after an earthquake killed hundreds of thousands and the U.S. promised that Haiti would "build back better," hunger is worse than ever. And despite billions of dollars from around the world pledged toward rebuilding efforts, the country's food problems underscore just how vulnerable its 10 million people remain.
In 1997 some 1.2 million Haitians didn't have enough food to eat. A decade later the number had more than doubled. Today, that figure is 6.7 million, or a staggering 67 percent of the population that goes without food some days, can't afford a balanced diet or has limited access to food, according to surveys by the government's National Coordination of Food Security. As many as 1.5 million of those face malnutrition and other hunger-related problems.
"This is scandalous. This should not be," said Claude Beauboeuf, a Haitian economist and sometime consultant to relief groups. "But I'm not surprised, because some of the people in the slums eat once every two days."
Much of the crisis stems from too little rain, and then too much. A drought last year destroyed key crops, followed by flooding caused by the outer bands of Tropical Storm Isaac and Hurricane Sandy.
Haiti has had similarly destructive storms over the past decade, and scientists say they expect to see more as global climate change provokes severe weather systems.
Klaus Eberwein, general director of the government's Economic and Social Assistance Fund, said: "We are really trying our best. It's not like we're sitting here and not working on it. We have limited resources."
He attributed Haiti's current hunger woes to "decades of bad political decisions" and, more recently, to last year's storms and drought. "Hunger is not new in Haiti," Eberwein said. "You can't address the hunger situation in one year, two years."
In the village of Mabriole, Marie Jean, a 33-year-old mother of six, looked helpless as her naked son Dieufort sat cross-legged in the dirt, a metal spoon in hand that was more toy than tool. The 5-year-old boy barely looked 3, his gaze unfocused and glassy eyes lifeless. His stomach was distended.
Jean said she lost 10 goats and several chickens to Isaac. The goats could have sold for about $17 apiece, the poultry for about $2.80. She could have used the animals for food or the money to hold her over until the new harvest season.
"You depend on this, because it's all you have," Jean said.
Many people have been forced to buy on credit, or look for the cheapest food available while eating smaller and fewer portions. Some families have asked relatives to take care of their children, or handed them over to orphanages so they have one less mouth to feed, humanitarian workers say.
Political decisions already had hurt the ability of Haitian farmers to feed the country. One example: Prodded by the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton, Haiti cut tariffs on imported U.S. rice, driving many locals out of the market.
Eighty percent of Haiti's rice ? and half of all its food ? is imported now. Three decades ago, Haiti imported only 19 percent of its food and produced enough rice to export. Factories built in the capital at the same time did little to help: They led farmers to abandon their fields in the countryside in hope of higher wages.
At the same time, Haiti has lost almost all of its forest cover as desperately poor Haitians chop down trees to make charcoal. The widespread deforestation does little to contain heavy rainfall or yield crop-producing soil.
With so much depending on imports, meals are becoming less affordable as the value of Haiti's currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar. Haiti's minimum wage is 200 gourdes a day. Late last year, that salary was equivalent to about $4.75; today it's about $4.54 ? a small difference that makes a big strain on the Haitian budget.
One hard-hit area is Gauthier, an arid stretch between the dense capital of Port-au-Prince and the Dominican border a few miles (kilometers) to the east. It's among 44 areas identified by the government as "food insecure," meaning too many tables are bare.
Here, villagers tell of an elusive rainfall that stymied crop production and then the hurricane that followed.
"That is when the misery began," said pastor Estephen Sainvileun, 63, as he sat with friends in the shade of a rare tree.
Hurricane Sandy ravaged the bean crops, leaving a three-month gap until the harvest resumed in December. With no beans to sell, farmers couldn't buy rice, corn or vegetable oil.
"Some people eat by miracle," said Falide Cerve, 51, a part-time merchant and single mother of five.
That has hurt education, too. The Gauthier schoolhouse, with its tin walls and dirt floor, can hold 100 students, but only 43 enrolled. The children are too hungry to learn.
"They're too distracted, and I have to send them home," said Sainvileun, the pastor who runs the tiny schoolhouse.
Especially hurt are children in Haiti's hard-to-reach villages. Directly south of Gauthier is one of the most remote zones in Haiti. The area is one of craggy mountains, the highest in the country at 8,772 feet (2,674 meters). Only the sturdiest off-road vehicles can climb the steep, twisting and rocky roads.
Some villages, such as Anse-a-Boeuf on the southeastern coast, are solely accessible by foot or donkey.
On a recent oven-hot afternoon, a team of Associated Press journalists hiked down a hill, past a thicket of mangroves and into the beachside hamlet. They found several dozen children waddling among the wood huts with the usual signs of malnutrition.
"This child is not malnourished," insisted 45-year-old grandmother Elude Jeudy as she held in her arms 2-year-old Jerydson, naked and crying, too frail to stand a few minutes earlier. "I feed him."
The mother had left the little boy so she could find work in Belle Anse, a nearby village on the ocean.
Neighbor Wilner Fleurimond added: "People shouldn't be living like this."
Villagers say they vote for people they hope will improve their lives but in the end find disappointment.
"We vote for the deputy we know and nothing works," Fleurimond fumed. "We vote for the deputy we don't know and nothing works."
Shortly after taking office, President Michel Martelly launched a nationwide program led by his wife, Sophia, called Aba Grangou, Creole for "end hunger." Financed with $30 million from Venezuela's PetroCaribe fund, the program aims to halve the number of people who are hungry in Haiti by 2016 and eradicate hunger and malnutrition altogether by 2025. Some 2.2 million children are supposed to take part in a school food program financed by the fund.
Eberwein, whose government agency oversees Aba Grangou, said 60,000 mothers have received cash transfers for keeping their children in school. A half million food kits were distributed after Hurricane Sandy, along with 45,000 seed kits to replenish damaged crops, he said. Mid- to long-term solutions require creating jobs.
But the villagers in the Belle Anse area say they've seen scant evidence of the program, as if officials have forgotten the deaths in 2008 of at least 26 severely malnourished children in this very region. That same year, the government collapsed after soaring food prices triggered riots.
USAID has allocated nearly $20 million to international aid groups to focus on food problems since Hurricane Sandy, but villagers in southern Haiti said they have seen little evidence of that.
Despite the discrepancy, one public health expert said there's sufficient proof that at least some of the aid is reaching the population. Were it not, Richard Garfield said, Haiti would see mass migration and unrest.
"Overall aid has gotten to people pretty well. If aid hadn't gotten to people that place would be so much more of a mess," said Garfield, a professor emeritus at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and now a specialist in emergency response at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "You'd see starvation and riots ... The absence of terrible things is about the best positive thing that we can say."
Government officials concede that not all of the 44 areas have received food kits and other goods as part of the Aba Grangou program.
"It hasn't arrived here yet. It's nothing but rhetoric," said Jean-Marc Tata, a math and French teacher and father of two who lives in Mabriole.
His 18-month-old son's hair began to turn orange after Tropical Storm Isaac knocked down trees, chewed up crops and killed livestock, leaving the family with little to eat.
"We had beans that were ready to pick but everything was lost. This has been a major cause of malnutrition," Tata said in a courtyard ringed with stone homes.
Tata said he had given his son a cup of coffee with a bit of bread, his only meal so far that day as dusk began to fall. The day before: a single bowl of oatmeal.
Haiti in general and the mountain villages in particular have long suffered from chronic hunger. Child malnutrition rates have been high for years. The United Nations' World Food Program reports that nearly a quarter of Haiti's children suffer from malnutrition, though the figure is higher in places such as Guatemala and the Sahel region in Africa.
Isolation doesn't help. A doctor in Belle Anse said his hospital has treated five children who were diagnosed with malnutrition this year. He said more parents would come if they could afford transportation and hospital fees, or take away time from work to make the journey on foot.
"The future is really threatened here," Tata said. "Our life is really threatened here."
___
Associated Press videographer Pierre-Richard Luxama contributed to this report.
___
Trenton Daniel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/trentondaniel.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-3-people-face-hunger-haiti-woes-mount-074207335.html
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CNN trying new weekly nighttime talk show
This Nov. 28, 2008 file photo, George Stroumboulopoulos poses for a photograph after winning best host during the 23rd Annual Gemini Awards in Toronto. It's a safe bet that Stroumboulopoulos will be the first male CNN personality to wear two earrings and a skull ring from the same designer who made one for Keith Richards. Stroumboulopoulos, whose new nighttime talk show premieres Sunday, June 9, 2013 is more curious than dangerous, though. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
This Nov. 28, 2008 file photo, George Stroumboulopoulos poses for a photograph after winning best host during the 23rd Annual Gemini Awards in Toronto. It's a safe bet that Stroumboulopoulos will be the first male CNN personality to wear two earrings and a skull ring from the same designer who made one for Keith Richards. Stroumboulopoulos, whose new nighttime talk show premieres Sunday, June 9, 2013 is more curious than dangerous, though. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
NEW YORK (AP) ? It's a safe bet that George Stroumboulopoulos will be the first male CNN personality to wear two earrings and a skull ring from a designer who made one for Keith Richards.
Stroumboulopoulos, whose new nighttime talk show premieres Sunday, is more curious than dangerous, though.
The show gets a solid time slot for its debut, airing after the season finale of Anthony Bourdain's successful "Parts Unknown." Then it will settle into a regular spot on Fridays at 11 p.m. Eastern for the summer and, if things go well, maybe beyond.
It's part of CNN's attempt to branch out beyond news programming at certain times, represented most prominently by Bourdain's show. The effort started before the arrival of new network boss Jeff Zucker ? Stroumboulopoulos had his first contact with the network last summer before Zucker arrived ? but the enthusiasm continued with the change in management.
Stroumboulopoulos (STRAHM'-boo-lahp-yoo-lus) hosts a nightly talk show on the CBC in Canada, where his friendly style seems to encourage celebrities to talk.
"I hope that people pick up something new about the person I'm interviewing and find out a way to relate to them," he said. "I want them to find a connection."
For CNN, the show represents an old style for a new generation. Stroumboulopoulos, 40, said his interest in politics was fueled less by politicians than by listening to the Clash and Public Enemy. He's eager to interview Snoop Lion, the former Snoop Dogg, on his show because he considers him such an important figure in hip-hop.
Rap artist Wiz Khalifa, comic Martin Short and actor Keanu Reeves are the guests on his first show.
Other confirmed interviews for the show's 10-week run include Keanu Reeves, Martin Short, Betty White, Bill Maher, Sharon Stone and filmmaker Werner Herzog. The show will tape before a studio audience in Los Angeles.
Stroumboulopoulos said he's not gunning for the job of CNN's other general interview program, Piers Morgan, and said he likes the way Morgan conducts interviews.
For the moment, he'll fit the CNN show in with a schedule that includes the CBC show (which airs twice in the evening) and a weekly music and talk program he does for a CBS radio station.
"This is what I do," he said. "I don't even have any dependents in my life. I don't even have a plant."
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Advance in nanotech gene sequencing technique
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
The allure of personalized medicine has made new, more efficient ways of sequencing genes a top research priority. One promising technique involves reading DNA bases using changes in electrical current as they are threaded through a nanoscopic hole.
Now, a team led by University of Pennsylvania physicists has used solid-state nanopores to differentiate single-stranded DNA molecules containing sequences of a single repeating base.
The study was led by Marija Drndi?, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences, along with graduate students Kimberly Venta and Matthew Puster and post-doctoral researchers Gabriel Shemer, Julio A. Rodriguez-Manzo and Adrian Balan. They collaborated with assistant professor Jacob K. Rosenstein of Brown University and professor Kenneth L. Shepard of Columbia University.
Their results were published in the journal ACS Nano.
In this technique, known as DNA translocation measurements, strands of DNA in a salt solution are driven through an opening in a membrane by an applied electric field. As each base of the strand passes through the pore, it blocks some ions from passing through at the same time; amplifiers attached to the nanopore chip can register the resulting drop in electrical current. Because each base has a different size, researchers hope to use this data to infer the order of the bases as the strand passes through. The differences in base sizes are so small, however, that the proportions of both the nanopores and membranes need to be close those of the DNA strands themselves ? a major challenge.
The nanopore devices closest to being a commercially viable option for sequencing are made out of protein pores and lipid bilayers. Such protein pores have desirable proportions, but the lipid bilayer membranes in which they are inserted are akin to a film of soap, which leaves much to be desired in terms of durability and robustness.
Solid-state nanopore devices, which are made of thin solid-state membranes, offer advantages over their biological counterparts ? they can be more easily shipped and integrated with other electronics ? but the basic demonstrations of proof-of-principle sensitivity to different DNA bases have been slower.
"While biological nanopores have shown the ability to resolve single nucleotides, solid-state alternatives have lagged due to two challenges of actually manufacturing the right-sized pores and achieving high-signal, low-noise and high-bandwidth measurements," Drndi? said. "We're attacking those two challenges here."
Because the mechanism by which the nanopore differentiate between one type of base and another is by the amount of the pore's aperture that is blocked, the smaller a pore's diameter, the more accurate it is. For the nanopore to be effective at determining a sequence of bases, its diameter must approach the diameter of the DNA and its thickness must approach that of the space between one base and the next, or about 0.3 nanometers.
To get solid-state nanopores and membranes in these tiny proportions, researchers, including Drndi?'s group, are investigating cutting-edge materials, such as graphene. A single layer of carbon atoms in a hexagonal lattice, graphene membranes can be made a little as about 0.5 nanometers thick but have their own disadvantages to be addressed. For example, the material itself is hydrophobic, making it more difficult to pass strands of DNA through them.
In this experiment, Drndi? and her colleagues worked with a different material ? silicon nitride ? rather than attempting to craft single-atom-thick graphene membranes for nanopores. Treated silicon nitride is hydrophilic and has readily allowed DNA translocations, as measured by many other researchers during the last decade. And while their membrane is thicker, about 5 nanometers, silicon nitride pores can also approach graphene in terms of thinness due to the way they are manufactured.
"The way we make the nanopores in silicon nitride makes them taper off, so that the effective thickness is about a third of the rest of the membrane," Drndi? said.
Drndi? and her colleagues tested their silicon nitride nanopore on homopolymers, or single strands of DNA with sequences that consist of only one base repeated several times. The researchers were able to make distinct measurements for three of the four bases: adenine, cytosine and thymine. They did not attempt to measure guanine as homopolymers made with that base bind back on themselves, making it more difficult to pass them through the nanopores.
"We show that these small pores are sensitive to the base content," Drndi? said, "and we saw these results in pores with diameters between 1 and 2 nanometers, which is actually encouraging because it suggests some manufacturing variability may be okay."
###
University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews
Thanks to University of Pennsylvania for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128328/Advance_in_nanotech_gene_sequencing_technique
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Dagestan bombs kill four, two dead in shootout near Moscow
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - Two car bombs killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others on Monday in one of the bloodiest attacks this year in Dagestan, a turbulent province in Russia's North Caucasus region where armed groups are waging an Islamist insurgency.
Car bombs, suicide bombings and firefights are common in Dagestan, at the center of an insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet wars against separatist rebels in neighboring Chechnya.
Such attacks are rare in other parts of Russia, but in a separate incident in a suburb of Moscow on Monday, security forces killed two suspected militants alleged to have been plotting an attack in the capital and arrested a third suspect after a gunbattle.
One elite police officer was lightly wounded in the exchange of gunfire with the suspects - Russian citizens but trained in Afghanistan or Pakistan - who had holed up in a home in the town of Orekhovo-Zuyevo east of Moscow, authorities said.
Investigators initially said eight people had been killed by the successive blasts in Dagestan's provincial capital Makhachkala, but law enforcement and health officials later put the death toll at four and said about 40 people were wounded.
The explosions occurred with the space of a few minutes near the headquarters of the court bailiffs' service and appeared to have been detonated by remote control, said the federal Investigative Committee, a Russian state agency.
Twisted wreckage of a car could be seen near the building, which was cordoned off by police, and blackened chunks of metal lay in the street.
The Health Ministry said 35 people remained in hospital, including one child, a few hours after the blasts, which the Investigative Committee called a "terrorist act".
The main suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings in the United States, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, lived in Dagestan with his family about a decade ago and visited the region last year.
The visit by Tsarnaev, who was shot dead by U.S. police after the April 15 bombings that killed three people and wounded 264 others, is being scrutinized by U.S. investigators for signs of ties with insurgents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered law enforcement authorities to ensure insurgents do not attack the 2014 Winter Olympics next February in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, which is close to the North Caucasus.
All those wounded or killed were apparently caught by the second of Monday's explosions, a few minutes after the first, the investigators said.
Insurgents in the North Caucasus have often sought to increase casualties by setting off an initial blast to attract law enforcement officers and then detonating a second bomb.
Dagestan, an ethnically mixed, mostly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea, has become the most violent province in the North Caucasus, where insurgents say they are fighting to carve out an Islamic state out of southern Russia.
At least 405 people were killed in Dagestan in violence linked to the insurgency last year, according to the Caucasian Knot website, which tracks developments in the region.
Putin launched the second war in Chechnya as prime minister in 1999 and likes to take credit for preventing the region from splitting from Russia. But his 13 years in power have been marred by deadly attacks claimed by or blamed on the insurgents.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; editing by Timothy Heritage and Jon Hemming)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/car-bombs-kill-eight-russias-dagestan-investigators-120207347.html
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Single-cell transfection tool enables added control for biological studies
May 21, 2013 ? Northwestern University researchers have developed a new method for delivering molecules into single, targeted cells through temporary holes in the cell surface. The technique could find applications in drug delivery, cell therapy, and related biological fields.
Bulk electroporation -- a technique used to deliver molecules into cells through reversible nanopores in the cell membrane that are caused by exposing them to electric pulses -- is an increasingly popular method of cell transfection. (Cell transfection is the introduction of molecules, such as nucleic acids or proteins, into a cell to change its properties.)
However, because bulk electroporation applies electric pulses to a bulk cell solution, it results in heterogeneous cell populations and often low cell viability. To solve these problems, Northwestern University researchers have developed a novel tool for single-cell transfection.
The new method, called nanofountain probe electroporation (NFP-E), allows researchers to deliver molecules into targeted cells through temporary nanopores in the cell membrane created by a localized electric field applied to a small portion of the cell. The method enables researchers to control dosage by varying the duration of the electric pulses, which provides unprecedented control of cell transfection.
"This is really exciting," said Horacio Espinosa, James and Nancy Farley Professor of Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and one of the paper's authors. "The ability to precisely deliver molecules into single cells is needed for biotechnology researchers to advance the state-of-the-art in therapeutics, diagnostics, and drug delivery toward the promise of personalized medicine."
A paper describing the research, "Nanofountain Probe Electroporation (NFP-E) of Single Cells," was published May 7 in the journal Nano Letters.
NFP-E is based on nanofountain probe (NFP) technology developed in Espinosa's lab. The NFP-E chip consists of an array of microfabricated cantilever probes with integrated microfluidic channels. The probe has previously been used for high-speed nanopatterning of proteins and nanoparticles for drug delivery studies.
The new single-cell transfection application couples the probe with an electrode and fluid control system that can be easily connected to a micromanipulator or atomic force microscope for position control. This integrated system allows the entire transfection process and post-transfection cell response to be monitored by an optical microscope.
The NFP-E system is being developed for commercialization by iNfinitesimal LLC, a Northwestern spin-off company founded by Espinosa, and is expected to be available in late 2013.
The technique is proving to be extremely robust and multi-functional. Researchers have used the NFP-E chip to transfect HeLa cells with polysaccharides, proteins, DNA hairpins, and plasmid DNA with single-cell selectivity, high transfection efficiency (up to 95%), qualitative dosage control, and very high viability (up to 92%).
In addition to Espinosa, authors of the research paper include Wonmo Kang, Fazel Yavari, Majid Minary-Jolandan, Juan P. Giraldo-Vela, Asmahan Safi, Rebecca McNaughton, and Victor Parpoil. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/fvRiDBGoeR4/130521132223.htm
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Tuesday, May 21, 2013
CA-NEWS Summary
Harper under cloud after chief of staff resigns
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was under intense pressure on Monday to reassure voters that his administration is above reproach amid questions surrounding a secret check paid to Senator Mike Duffy. "There's been nothing under this prime minister's watch that's tied him so closely to such a massive ethical scandal. We need to see him show leadership," opposition New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Charlie Angus told a news conference.
Dagestan bombs kill four, two dead in shootout near Moscow
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - Two car bombs killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others on Monday in one of the bloodiest attacks this year in Dagestan, a turbulent province in Russia's North Caucasus region where armed groups are waging an Islamist insurgency. Car bombs, suicide bombings and firefights are common in Dagestan, at the center of an insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet wars against separatist rebels in neighboring Chechnya.
Hezbollah in big Syria battle, Obama 'concerned'
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas have fought their biggest battle yet for Syria's beleaguered president, prompting international alarm that the civil war may spread and an urgent call for restraint from the United States. About 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed on Sunday, Syrian activists said, along with 20 Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad during the fiercest fighting this year in the rebel stronghold of Qusair, near the Lebanon border.
Nigeria says has Islamists on defensive
MAIDUGURI (Reuters) - Nigeria claimed an early success for its military offensive against Islamist insurgents in the northeast on Monday, saying the militants' activities had been stifled by nearly a week of attacks on their bases. Military officers in the combat zone, deep in a semi-desert frontier region, said operations continued and that troops faced considerable opposition from well-armed Boko Haram fighters.
Mexican opposition dispute goes public, threatening reforms
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Divisions within Mexico's main conservative opposition party have erupted into a bitter public dispute that threatens to undermine the reform agenda of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Short of a majority in Congress, Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is likely to need support from the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, to see through plans to overhaul state oil giant Pemex and broaden the tax base.
Council of Europe tells Putin of concern over Russian NGO law
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - The head of the Council of Europe told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday he was concerned a law requiring non-governmental organizations which received funding from abroad to register as foreign agents could have a "chilling effect". Prosecutors have conducted a wave of inspections at the offices of all kinds of NGOs in Russia this year citing the law which critics say is part of a campaign to smother dissent against Putin during his third term as president.
Bomb attacks kill more than 70 Shi'ites across Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 70 people were killed in a series of car bombings and suicide attacks targeting Shi'ite Muslims across Iraq on Monday, police and medics said, extending the worst sectarian violence since U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011. The attacks increased the number killed in sectarian clashes in the past week to more than 200. Tensions between Shi'ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached a point where some fear a return to all-out civil conflict.
Gay marriage law strains UK Cameron's leadership, government
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron's flagship gay marriage policy deepened a rift in his own party on Monday after many of his own lawmakers defied him in a sign of growing strains on his leadership and his coalition government. Almost 40 percent of Cameron's 303 lawmakers in the lower house of parliament voted for an ultimately unsuccessful amendment that would have allowed registrars to refuse to perform gay marriage ceremonies if they objected.
Qatar: Arab Spring makes Israeli-Palestinian peace more pressing
DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar's emir, who has thrown his state's riches behind Arab uprisings, said on Monday that the emergence of 'people power' had put Arabs in direct confrontation with Israel and made a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more pressing. "We heard in the past that reform (in the Arab world) must wait until a peaceful settlement with Israel is achieved, but everybody should realize that such belief is now unfounded after the Arab Spring revolts," Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told a conference in the Qatari capital.
China offers India a 'handshake across the Himalayas'
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India and China will study new ways to ease tensions on their ill-defined border after an army standoff in the Himalayas, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday on his first official foreign trip. The number two in the Chinese leadership offered New Delhi a "handshake across the Himalayas" and said the world's most populous nations could become a new engine for the global economy if they could avoid friction on the militarized border.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-025303104.html
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japan stendhal: School speech therapy jobs - Mental Health ...
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Source: http://japan-stendhal.blogspot.com/2013/05/school-speech-therapy-jobs-mental.html
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Monday, May 20, 2013
YouTube Turns Eight Today
The youtube.com domain name was activated on February 14, 2005, and the first public preview of the site went live eight years ago today. So...birthday!
| |
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/kEHTZJIUeOU/youtube-turns-eight-today-508737205
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'Star Trek Into Darkness' Spoiler Special: Burning Questions Answered
Co-writer Damon Lindelof exclusively addresses the mysteries surrounding the blockbuster.
By Josh Horowitz
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Friars pound Nationals, force series split
By BERNIE WILSON
AP Sports Writer
Associated Press Sports
updated 7:26 p.m. ET May 19, 2013
SAN DIEGO (AP) - After losing to Stephen Strasburg on Thursday night and then blowing an extra-inning game Friday night, the San Diego Padres righted themselves rather nicely against the defending NL East champion Washington Nationals.
Andrew Cashner pitched 6 2-3 strong innings and Kyle Blanks and Will Venable homered off Dan Haren to lead the Padres to a 13-4 victory Sunday and a split of their four-game series.
"It's huge. They have probably one of the best rotations in baseball, let alone lineups," Cashner said. `'That's a really, really good team over there. After we lost the first two we definitely played better the last two games."
After Eric Stults outpitched Jordan Zimmermann on Saturday night, the Padres got to Haren early on Sunday. The Padres tied their season high in runs and their 15 hits against four Nationals pitchers were two short of their season high.
"It was good to bounce back in beating Zimmermann, who is arguably the best pitcher in the National League right now. That was a big win last night," San Diego manager Bud Black said.
"Then to come back today against Haren, who's a great competitor. We got to him early and got him there in the middle part of the game with a couple big swings. Good for our guys. It was a good win."
San Diego's Yonder Alonso homered off Drew Storen leading off the eighth to finish 3 for 4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. It was his sixth homer.
Everth Cabrera and rookie Jedd Gyorko each had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. Cabrera had three stolen bases to give him a major league-leading 18.
"We're swinging really good right now and we're seeing the ball so good right now," Cabrera said. "It feels great. I'm happy."
Cashner (3-2) allowed three runs and seven hits, struck out six and walked one.
He retired the first seven Nationals batters and the Padres jumped on Haren for three runs in the first.
"Cash carried that momentum all the way through the game," Black said. "I thought he did a nice job with the fastball-change combination. He wobbled very little. I thought he was in control of the game and pitched very well."
The Nationals have lost six of nine.
Haren (4-5) got off to a rough start by allowing three runs in the first inning and was gone after the fourth-run fifth. Haren allowed nine hits while striking out five and walking two.
With the Padres leading 3-2, Venable opened the fifth with a shot deep into the stands in right field, his sixth. Haren retired the next two batters before Alonso doubled to left-center and scored on Gyorko's single to left.
Blanks then lined Haren's next pitch an estimated 383 feet off the side of the Western Metal Supply Co. brick warehouse in the left-field corner for a 7-2 lead. It was his third.
"Way too many mistakes," Haren said. "I didn't feel good out there. I didn't have much. I made a bunch of mistakes in the first inning. I kept it close for a while but you can't keep leaving balls out over the plate to a professional lineup. I kept fighting myself. I was working behind in the count too much, which is a recipe for disaster."
The Padres scored three runs against Haren in the first on three hits and a walk. Carlos Quentin and Gyorko had RBI doubles and Alonso a sacrifice fly.
The Nationals pulled to 3-2 in the fourth on Ryan Zimmerman's two-run homer that went an estimated 414 feet into the second deck in left, his third. Steve Lombardozzi was aboard on a leadoff infield single after his hard smash went off Cashner's glove. Cashner was knocked backward by the impact. He stayed in the game.
The Padres scored five runs on four hits, two walks and a sacrifice fly off Ryan Mattheus in the seventh. Cabrera had a two-run single.
"Very disappointing," Washington manager Davey Johnson said. "I hate to even talk about that one today. We didn't pitch very well. We got back in the ballgame but Haren obviously didn't have his stuff. The bullpen didn't do it. Tough day."
NOTES: The Padres had a season-high five stolen bases. ... Washington's Adam LaRoche hit an RBI single in the seventh to extend his career-best hitting streak to 16 games. ... Nationals OF Bryce Harper sat out a second straight game with a bruised left knee from his collision with the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium last Monday night. .... Haren's poor start ended a string of nine consecutive games in which Washington starters allowed two or fewer earned runs. ... The Nationals open a three-game series at San Francisco on Monday night. LHP Zach Duke (0-0, 8.40) is scheduled to start against RHP Ryan Vogelsong (1-4, 8.06). Duke is slated to make his first start since July 10, 2011, at St. Louis. ... The Padres continue their homestand with a three-game series against St. Louis that starts Monday night. The Cardinals are scheduled to start RHP Shelby Miller (5-2, 1.40) vs. RHP Jason Marquis (5-2, 3.49).
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsGetty ImagesChooch's hammy a worry for Phils
HBT: Carlos Ruiz was lifted from Sunday afternoon?s game against the Reds after straining his right hamstring while running the bases in the bottom of the second inning.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51936146/ns/sports-baseball/
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Online Business System for Building Traffic - world's best businesses
Online Business System for Building Traffic
People can make sure that business will always offer people with great opportunity for anyone but people have to be ready with the strict competition which can be found today moreover in the internet era which is getting more and more familiar for many people all around the world. People should be more aware about this because they have to do some crucial steps for getting the business success. Building website is important but people also have to do various steps for?building traffic?to their business.
Traffic will mean anything for business because it means that there are more people who pay attention and have interest with their business. It will also mean that there are more people who can be potential customers of the business. People cannot ignore?building traffic?for their business of course because it can also be alternative yet useful method of marketing which can be found in this modern world. Maybe people think that SEO and many steps which they have to do for?building traffic?to their business is very complicated.
There is no need to worry about this because people can find the business system which is proven, legit, and of course profitable. It will be able to send people with buyer traffic within hours only.
Source: http://worldsbestbusinesses.com/online-business-system-for-building-traffic.html
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Sunday, May 19, 2013
Ex-NBA player stabbed, seriously injured in fight
FILE - In this July 3, 2005 file photo Predrag Danilovic, center, challenges for the ball with Antonello Riva, left during an basketball match, in Belgrade, Serbia. Danilovic, former basketball star who played for NBA?s Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks, has been seriously injured in a bar fight. Police say Danilovic was stabbed during a brawl early Saturday in a cafe in a residential part of the capital, Belgrade. Doctors say Danilovic underwent an operation after suffering serious injuries to his abdomen, head and arms. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, file)
FILE - In this July 3, 2005 file photo Predrag Danilovic, center, challenges for the ball with Antonello Riva, left during an basketball match, in Belgrade, Serbia. Danilovic, former basketball star who played for NBA?s Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks, has been seriously injured in a bar fight. Police say Danilovic was stabbed during a brawl early Saturday in a cafe in a residential part of the capital, Belgrade. Doctors say Danilovic underwent an operation after suffering serious injuries to his abdomen, head and arms. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, file)
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) ? Serbian police say Predrag Danilovic, who played for the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks, is seriously injured after being stabbed in a fight.
Police say Danilovic was hurt during a brawl early Saturday in a cafe in a residential part of the capital, Belgrade. Doctors say Danilovic underwent an operation to treat injuries to his abdomen, head and arms.
The reason for the brawl was not immediately known.
Danilovic is currently the general manager of Serbian basketball club Partizan Belgrade.
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Cancer patient: 'I'm the model case for why Obamacare' is needed ...
Dan Seco, 26, is undergoing chemotherapy treatment but lost his health insurance months before he was diagnosed. He?s hoping Republicans fail to repeal Obamacare.
It was a so-called ?scandal?-filled week for the Obama administration with Benghazi, the IRS and the AP dominating the chatter in the old, new and social medias. It was all?red meat for Republicans and righties everywhere are drooling.
?Nothing dissolves the bonds between the people and their government like the arrogance of power here in Washington,? Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday. ?And that?s what the American people are seeing today from the Obama administration, remarkable arrogance.?
Republicans will undoubtedly?be talking about these ?scandals? for months. But there?s a real scandal going on in Washington right now.
Republicans in Congress voted to repeal Obamacare for the 38th time on Thursday. And of course, the vote didn?t go down without a show.
?We see this coming just like the Titanic, we see that iceberg, only it`s not just in a mist,? said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. ?Shortly in front of our eyes, we have time to turn. And that?s why we are here. We?re here to make a turn from a train wreck.?
?It is a malignant tumor metastasizing on American liberty and must be ripped out by the rules and completely repealed,? said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.
But the Republican-led House is taking the phrase ?do nothing? to a whole new level. Out of the 138 days so far this year, Boehner?s House has been in session for only 51. And one of those precious days was wasted trying to take away your health care.
It?s estimated since Republicans took control of the House in January 2011, they?ve spent 15% of their time attempting to repeal Obamacare. But Boehner is trying to convince Americans it?s about jobs.
?These are the thousands and thousands of pages of Obamacare regulations,? Boehner said Thursday. ?And if we want jobs, we need to get rid of this because this is getting in the way of employers hiring workers around the country.?
But so far this year, there has not been one vote in the House on a jobs bill. Instead, it looks like the Republican master plan for job creation is taking health care away from 30 million Americans.
Meanwhile, there is another major health care story grabbing headlines this week. After undergoing genetic testing, actress Angela Jolie learned she had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer, and a 54% chance of developing ovarian cancer. With those odds, Jolie opted to have a double mastectomy in February. At this time, it?s still unclear whether Jolie will have her ovaries removed.
Jolie is brave but also very lucky. She had the means to undergo testing and take care of the problem before it got serious. But many Americans are in desperate need of health insurance. And it is literally a matter of life and death.
On May 11, MSNBC host Ed Schultz asked for a volunteer with cancer, but no health insurance, to come forward and share their experience. And he found a perfect example of why Republicans should leave Obamacare alone.
Dan Seco, 26, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma after he lost his health care.
Dan Seco, 26, is a freelance sports writer. He played by the rules his whole life. He worked hard, studied hard, went to graduate school and pursued a career as a freelance sports journalist.
As soon as Dan turned 26, he lost his health care, and as a freelance writer he didn?t have the money to buy private health insurance. Then after losing his health care, through no fault of his own, Dan was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma?back in February. So now Dan is facing the monumental task of figuring out how to pay for his cancer treatment.
Dan wanted to appear on The Ed Show Saturday, but he is undergoing another chemo treatment. The Ed Show offered to go to his hospital room to tape an interview, but his doctors didn?t want to risk Dan?s health (editor?s note: Dan?s brother Kyle Seco, who is raising money for Dan?s treatments, agreed to appear in his place on Saturday?s The Ed Show).
But Dan really felt it was important to tell you his story, so he called The?Ed Schultz Radio Show?on Friday.
?I?m currently in the hospital right now, I?m undergoing chemotherapy treatment. I?m about half way through with my current regime,? Dan told Schultz. ?I had health insurance up until my 26th birthday, which was last August. I was working for a travel company and I wanted to pursue my writing career full-time. And I took a little bit of a risk by not having health insurance, but I didn?t have any options really as a writer.?
Dan says he?s applying for Medicaid and relying on charity and the good-natured spirit of other people to help him out. Meantime, he and 30 million Americans are waiting for the benefits of Obamacare to kick in.
Dan?s story is like millions of other Americans. Thirty million people are waiting for Obamacare.
?I think I?m the model case for why Obamacare needs to pass and what it can do to help people in my situation, who are pursuing what they want to do with their life,? Dan said. ?And they need the care that they can?t afford. You pay out of pocket for some things like a PET Scan that shows how much cancer you have in your body, $14,000. Who has the money to pay for that??
Dan says he?s trying to comprehend why Republicans are spending so much time trying to repeal Obamacare.
?I can?t understand why someone would work against this type of policy, which is really going to make the lives of so many people so much easier,? said Dan. ?Even I find out I?m better by August, who knows that happens a year later, two years later, further down the road. The bottom line is, I need health insurance.?
To learn more about Dan and to help him in his battle against cancer, click here and give what you can.
Source: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/18/cancer-patient-im-the-model-case-for-why-obamacare-is-needed/
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New malaria test kit gives a boost to elimination efforts worldwide
May 17, 2013 ? A new, highly sensitive blood test that quickly detects even the lowest levels of malaria parasites in the body could make a dramatic difference in efforts to tackle the disease in the UK and across the world, according to new research published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
In two studies led by researchers in the UK and Switzerland, the new LAMP (loop-mediated isothermal amplification) test was compared to existing methods in London laboratories that deal with imported cases of malaria to the UK, and to diagnostic methods used in the field in Uganda, where malaria is a leading cause of illness and death.
The simple test, which can be performed by a non-specialist health worker and does not need refrigerating like other tests, requires a sample of blood to be processed and placed in a test tube with a reactive powder then heated. If the malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites are present, the tube glows green. The whole process takes less than an hour.
The first study, led in London by the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD), the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, compared LAMP to existing laboratory diagnostic methods on 705 blood samples of suspected imported malaria cases in the UK.
Dr Colin Sutherland, Clinical Scientist at HTD and Reader in Parasitology at the Malaria Reference Laboratory at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "According to data collected for Public Health England by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the UK treats at least 1,500 cases of imported malaria every year. Despite the very best efforts of the NHS, a handful of malaria related deaths still occur annually in UK hospitals. The new LAMP test for malaria performed very well when tested in the parasite reference laboratory at HTD, and correctly identified every malaria patient out of 705 malaria tests performed.
"An important advantage of LAMP is that non-specialist staff in any hospital in the UK will be able to accurately and rapidly detect the presence of malaria parasites, and immediately begin treatment without waiting for confirmation from local experts or specialist laboratories. This speed of diagnosis can make the difference between an uncomplicated episode of malaria that rapidly responds to treatment, and progression to severe disease, organ failure and heightened risk of death. It could also save the NHS a significant amount of money from having to treat the complications of malaria."
LAMP was faster than PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, which require specialised laboratory equipment, costly reagents and advanced training. It was also more accurate than microscopic examination of blood slides, which require a trained specialist to identify the malaria parasites.
In the second study, researchers from HTD, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Switzerland, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Uganda Ministry of Health, Kampala, looked at the accuracy of the test at a rural clinic in Uganda.
Blood samples from 272 patients with suspected malaria were tested using LA MP using a simple generator to provide electrical current. These results were compared with expert microscopy and PCR performed at central reference laboratories. LAMP detected cases of low-level malaria parasite infection that were missed by expert microscopy, and achieved accuracy similar to that of PCR down to very low levels. The researchers say these findings have important implications for eliminating malaria, which causes an estimated 660,000 deaths worldwide every year.
Dr Sutherland, who worked on both of the studies, said: "Patterns of malaria disease in Africa and elsewhere across the tropics are becoming much less predictable, and control of malaria needs an appropriate test to identify infected individuals in the populations at risk. These people may not display any malaria symptoms. We have begun using LAMP as a new tool for identifying "hot spots" of malaria infections which can be mopped up quickly through a combination of drug treatment, house spraying and distribution of bed-nets.
"LAMP will potentially contribute to saving many families and communities from the blight of a disease that keeps children from succeeding at school, prevents adults from growing food or working, holds back regional economies and exacts an annual death toll in the hundreds of thousands."
The LAMP malaria test will now be used in the Malaria Reference Laboratory at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to help identify imported cases of malaria in the UK as well as being used by health workers in the field in malaria endemic countries.
The LAMP malaria test is commercially available and was developed by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London and Eiken Chemical Company Ltd, Japan. The studies were funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of The Netherlands, and the UK Department for International Development.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/M9d7yJdth0c/130517102718.htm
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