WHO says new bird strain is "one of most lethal" flu viruses

By Sui-Lee Wee and Kate Kelland

BEIJING/LONDON (Reuters) - A new bird flu strain that has killed 22 people in China is "one of the most lethal" of its kind and transmits more easily to humans than another strain that has killed hundreds since 2003, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert said on Wednesday.

The H7N9 flu has infected 108 people in China since it was first detected in March, according to the Geneva-based WHO.

Although it is not clear exactly how people are being infected, experts say they see no evidence so far of the most worrisome scenario - sustained transmission between people.

An international team of scientists led by the WHO and the Chinese government conducted a five-day investigation in China, but said they were no closer to determining whether the virus might become transmissible between people.

"The situation remains complex and difficult and evolving," said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director-general for health security.

"When we look at influenza viruses, this is an unusually dangerous virus for humans," he said at a briefing.

Another bird flu strain - H5N1 - has killed 30 of the 45 people it infected in China between 2003 and 2013, and although the H7N9 strain in the current outbreak has a lower fatality rate to date, Fukuda said: "This is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses that we've seen so far."

Scientists who have analyzed genetic sequence data from samples from three H7N9 victims say the strain is a so-called "triple reassortant" virus with a mixture of genes from three other flu strains found in birds in Asia.

Recent pandemic viruses, including the H1N1 "swine flu" of 2009/2010, have been mixtures of mammal and bird flu - hybrids that are more likely to be milder because mammalian flu tends to make people less severely ill than bird flu.

Pure bird flu strains, such as the new H7N9 strain and the H5N1 flu, which has killed about 371 of 622 the people it has infected since 2003, are generally more deadly for people.

UNSETTLING

The team of experts, who began their investigation in China last week, said one problem in tracking H7N9 is the absence of visible illness in poultry.

Fukuda stressed that the team is still at the beginning of its investigation, and said that "we may just be seeing the most serious infections" at this point.

Based on the evidence, "this virus is more easily transmissible from poultry to humans than H5N1", he said.

Besides the initial cases of H7N9 in and around Shanghai, others have been detected in Beijing and five provinces. On Wednesday, Taiwan's Health Department said a businessman had contracted H7N9 while travelling in China and was in a serious condition in hospital.

Samples from chickens, ducks and pigeons from poultry markets have tested positive for H7N9, but those from migratory birds have not, suggesting that "the likely source of infection is poultry", said Nancy Cox, director of the influenza division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

John Oxford, a flu virologist at Queen Mary University of London, said the emergence of human H7N9 infections - a completely new strain in people - was "very, very unsettling".

"This virus seems to have been quietly spreading in chickens without anyone knowing about it," he told Reuters in London.

Flu experts say it is likely that more cases of human infection with H7N9 flu will emerge in the coming weeks and months, at least until the source of infection has been completely confirmed and effectively controlled.

Anne Kelso, the Melbourne-based director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza said there has been a "dramatic slowdown of cases" in the commercial capital of Shanghai, which has recorded most of the deaths, something she described as "encouraging".

After Shanghai closed down its live poultry markets in early April, there was an almost immediate decline in new H7N9 cases, she said. "The evidence suggests that the closing of the live poultry markets was an effective way to reduce the risks."

Even so, the WHO's China representative, Michael O'Leary, issued figures last week showing that half of the patients analyzed had no known contact with poultry.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/says-bird-strain-one-most-lethal-flu-viruses-072106064.html

Wreck It Ralph Movember USC shooting halloween chipotle lsu football lsu football

Einstein's gravity theory passes toughest test yet

Apr. 25, 2013 ? A strange stellar pair nearly 7,000 light-years from Earth has provided physicists with a unique cosmic laboratory for studying the nature of gravity. The extremely strong gravity of a massive neutron star in orbit with a companion white dwarf star puts competing theories of gravity to a test more stringent than any available before.

Once again, Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, published in 1915, comes out on top.

At some point, however, scientists expect Einstein's model to be invalid under extreme conditions. General Relativity, for example, is incompatible with quantum theory. Physicists hope to find an alternate description of gravity that would eliminate that incompatibility.

A newly-discovered pulsar -- a spinning neutron star with twice the mass of the Sun -- and its white-dwarf companion, orbiting each other once every two and a half hours, has put gravitational theories to the most extreme test yet. Observations of the system, dubbed PSR J0348+0432, produced results consistent with the predictions of General Relativity.

The tightly-orbiting pair was discovered with the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT), and subsequently studied in visible light with the Apache Point telescope in New Mexico, the Very Large Telescope in Chile, and the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands. Extensive radio observations with the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and the Effelsberg telescope in Germany yielded vital data on subtle changes in the pair's orbit.

In such a system, the orbits decay and gravitational waves are emitted, carrying energy from the system. By very precisely measuring the time of arrival of the pulsar's radio pulses over a long period of time, astronomers can determine the rate of decay and the amount of gravitational radiation emitted. The large mass of the neutron star in PSR J0348+0432, the closeness of its orbit with its companion, and the fact that the companion white dwarf is compact but not another neutron star, all make the system an unprecedented opportunity for testing alternative theories of gravity.

Under the extreme conditions of this system, some scientists thought that the equations of General Relativity might not accurately predict the amount of gravitational radiation emitted, and thus change the rate of orbital decay. Competing gravitational theories, they thought, might prove more accurate in this system.

"We thought this system might be extreme enough to show a breakdown in General Relativity, but instead, Einstein's predictions held up quite well," said Paulo Freire, of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Germany.

That's good news, the scientists say, for researchers hoping to make the first direct detection of gravitational waves with advanced instruments. Researchers using such instruments hope to detect the gravitational waves emitted as such dense pairs as neutron stars and black holes spiral inward toward violent collisions.

Gravitational waves are extremely difficult to detect and even with the best instruments, physicists expect they will need to know the characteristics of the waves they seek, which will be buried in "noise" from their detectors. Knowing the characteristics of the waves they seek will allow them to extract the signal they seek from that noise.

"Our results indicate that the filtering techniques planned for these advanced instruments remain valid," said Ryan Lynch, of McGill University.

Freire and Lynch worked with a large international team of researchers. They reported their results in the journal Science.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. J. Antoniadis, P. C. C. Freire, N. Wex, T. M. Tauris, R. S. Lynch, M. H. van Kerkwijk, M. Kramer, C. Bassa, V. S. Dhillon, T. Driebe, J. W. T. Hessels, V. M. Kaspi, V. I. Kondratiev, N. Langer, T. R. Marsh, M. A. McLaughlin, T. T. Pennucci, S. M. Ransom, I. H. Stairs, J. van Leeuwen, J. P. W. Verbiest, D. G. Whelan. A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary. Science, 2013; 340 (6131): 1233232 DOI: 10.1126/science.1233232

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/1WiPm0QUO_o/130425142250.htm

the river dr dog ke$ha earl csco big bend national park leon russell

Mammal and bug food co-op in the High Arctic

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Who would have thought that two very different species, a small insect and a furry alpine mammal, would develop a shared food arrangement in the far North?

University of Alberta researchers were certainly surprised when they discovered the unusual response of pikas to patches of vegetation that had previously been grazed on by caterpillars from a species normally found in the high Arctic.

U of A biology researcher Isabel C. Barrio analyzed how two herbivores, caterpillars and pikas, competed for scarce vegetation in alpine areas of the southwest Yukon. The caterpillars come out of their winter cocoons and start consuming vegetation soon after the snow melts in June. Weeks later, the pika starts gathering and storing food in its winter den. For the experiment, Barrio altered the numbers of caterpillars grazing on small plots of land surrounding pika dens.

"What we found was that the pikas preferred the patches first grazed on by caterpillars," said Barrio. "We think the caterpillar's waste acted as a natural fertilizer, making the vegetation richer and more attractive to the pika."

U of A biology professor David Hik, who supervised the research, says the results are the opposite of what the team expected to find.

"Normally you'd expect that increased grazing by the caterpillars would have a negative effect on the pika," said Hik. "But the very territorial little pika actually preferred the vegetation first consumed by the caterpillars."

The researchers say it's highly unusual that two distant herbivore species -- an insect in its larval stage and a mammal -- react positively to one another when it comes to the all-consuming survival issue of finding food.

These caterpillars stay in their crawling larval stage for up to 14 years, sheltering in a cocoon during the long winters before finally becoming Arctic woolly bear moths for the final 24 hours of their lives.

The pika does not hibernate and gathers a food supply in its den. Its food-gathering territory surrounds the den and covers an area of around 700 square metres.

The researchers say they'll continue their work on the caterpillar-pika relationship to explore the long-term implications for increased insect populations and competition for scarce food resources in northern mountain environments.

Barrio was the lead author on the collaborative research project, which was published April 24 in the journal Biology Letters.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Alberta, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. The original article was written by Brian Murphy.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. I. C. Barrio, D. S. Hik, K. Peck, C. G. Bueno. After the frass: foraging pikas select patches previously grazed by caterpillars. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (3): 20130090 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0090

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/apG4-pzYpt8/130424161114.htm

saturday night fever glamping forgetting sarah marshall taraji p. henson shuttle discovery bonnie raitt internal revenue service

Bangladesh factory collapses killing nearly 100

By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) - An eight-story building that housed garment factories and shops collapsed in Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing nearly 100 people and injuring more than a thousand, officials said.

One fireman told Reuters about 2,000 people were in the Rana Plaza building in Savar, 30 km (20 miles) outside Dhaka, when its upper floors slammed onto those below. An official at a control room set up to provide information said 96 people were confirmed dead and more than 1,000 injured.

The building collapse, which follows a November fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory on the outskirts of Dhaka that killed 112 people, has compounded concerns about worker safety and low wages in Bangladesh.

The two major incidents, and a third in January that killed seven people, could taint Bangladesh's reputation as a source of low-cost products and services and call attention to Western retailers and other companies that obtain products from the country.

Edward Hertzman, a textiles broker based in New York, whose clients include clothing manufacturers and retailers like PacSun, Oxford Industries and Fisham-Tobin, said pressure from U.S. retailers to keep a lid on costs continues to foster unsafe conditions.

Rescue workers try to rescue trapped garment workers in the Rana Plaza building which collapsed, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 24, 2013. A block housing garment factories and shops ... more? Rescue workers try to rescue trapped garment workers in the Rana Plaza building which collapsed, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 24, 2013. A block housing garment factories and shops collapsed in Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing nearly 100 people and injuring more than a thousand, officials said.REUTERS/Andrew Biraj (BANGLADESH - Tags: DISASTER BUSINESS) less? Following the Tazreen fire, giant U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it would take measures to alleviate safety concerns, while Gap Inc. announced a four-step fire-safety program.

Still, U.S. workers' rights groups say the push for low-cost production persists and encourages Bangladeshi factories to cut corners.

"It is going to take much more than retailers issuing press releases or paying compensation to victims," Hertzman said. "They're going to have to stop beating up the factories and start paying higher prices. That will allow the factories to raise wages and standards."

Wal-Mart said Wednesday it still could not determine whether a factory in the building that collapsed was producing goods for the company.

Wal-Mart has been a focus of attention since it emerged that it obtained products from the factory in Tazreen that caught fire in November. The Bangladeshi government subsequently confirmed workers' complaints about unsafe conditions, and also said the factory owner and supervisors prevented staff from leaving the premises after a fire alarm sounded.

The Tazreen accident raised questions about how much control Western brands have over their supply chains for clothes sourced from Bangladesh. Wages as low as $38.50 a month have helped propel the country to no. 2 in the ranks of apparel exporters.

A Wal-Mart supplier had subcontracted work to the Tazreen factory without authorization. Since then, Wal-Mart has said it is trying to get a better handle on its supply chain and to monitor safety at factories that produce its goods.

The website of a company called New Wave - which had two factories in the building - listed 27 main buyers, including firms from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada and the United States.

"It is dreadful that leading brands and governments continue to allow garment workers to die or suffer terrible disabling injuries in unsafe factories making clothes for Western nations' shoppers," Laia Blanch of the U.K. anti-poverty charity, War on Want, said in a statement.

U.S. children's clothing retailer Children's Place said that while New Wave had manufactured clothes for the company in the past, it hadn't at the time of the accident.

At the site of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, a frantic effort was underway to find and rescue victims. Television reports showed young women workers, some apparently semi-conscious, being pulled out by firefighters and troops.

Doctors at local hospitals said they were unable to cope with the number of victims brought in.

CRACKS IN BUILDING

"It looks like an earthquake has struck here," said one resident as he looked on at the chaotic scene of smashed concrete and ambulances making their way through the crowds of workers and wailing relatives.

"I was at work on the third floor, and then suddenly I heard a deafening sound, but couldn't understand what was happening. I ran and was hit by something on my head," said factory worker Zohra Begum.

Mohammad Asaduzzaman, who was in charge of the area's police station, said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building after a crack was detected in the block on Tuesday.

Annisul Huq, former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Reuters that the BGMEA noticed these cracks on Tuesday and asked the owner to take corrective steps.

"The owner should not have used the factory while the cracks had developed, but it was a day of 'hartal' yesterday and he probably got no engineers to look at it," Huq said.

Hartals, or strikes, have been a persistent problem in the country, creating uncertainties in the supply chain and bottlenecks for business operations.

Hertzman, the textiles broker, said the Tazreen fire has prompted his clients to pressure agents in the factories to be more accountable for safety.

"I've had two clients in the past two months who have said they need to go and inspect the factories in Bangladesh," said Hertzman. Hertzman did not want to name the clients but said one of them supplies apparel to Costco and the other supplies young men's clothes for retailers like Ross Stores, Sears and Macy's.

"Bangladesh is the longest lead-time country and a difficult country to work in, so the only way it becomes competitive is by offering the lowest (cost). That's the catch-22," he said.

"If the factories want to raise prices to make up for rising wages and costs, the buyers say, 'Oh why do we want to go to Bangladesh if I could go to China, Pakistan, Cambodia etc for a similar price?"

(Additional reporting by Andrew Biraj. Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Andrew Roche and Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/garment-factory-building-collapses-bangladesh-25-dead-tv-051140268.html

earl scruggs wrestlemania 28 game of thrones season 2 dierks bentley kenny chesney academy of country music awards brad paisley

Art as Food as Art: Caitlin Freeman and her ?Modern Art Desserts ...

Caitlin Freeman. Photo: Charles Villyard

Andy Warhol as Jell-O, Jeff Koons as a gilded white hot chocolate, and Cindy Sherman as a pink ice cream float dusted with glitter are just a few of the edible art concepts cooked up by Caitlin Freeman, an artist who creates confections and fancy snacks based on special exhibitions at SFMOMA. Her new book, ?Modern Art Desserts,? details recipes and stories from her self-made dream job: responding to art through food.

Freeman co-owned Miette pastry shops before opening the Blue Bottle Coffee bar at SFMOMA?s rooftop garden with her husband James. From Miette, she brought along artist and pastry chef Leah Rosenberg, and assistant Tess Wilson. The team?s desserts are innovative, creative and sometimes controversial. A cookie plate inspired by Richard Serra?s massive steel sculptures is likely the first dessert to have ever received a cease and desist letter.

Click on any photo to view full-sized images and activate the slideshow

Freeman credits painter Wayne Thiebaud with inspiring her to become a baker, and says the book is a love letter to him. Her favorite cakes to bake are buttercream party cakes, and that?s exactly what Thiebaud is known for painting. The two cake-loving artists haven?t met yet, but Freeman throws a birthday party for him every year at the cafe. Besides her most popular cakes modeled after works by Thiebaud and Piet Mondrian, 70 modern art desserts have been created over the past four years. Textile artist Ruth Laskey?s two-color weavings became conceptual sodas where flavors were assigned to each color, creating combinations like lemon soda with bay ice cubes, and bubblegum soda (made from Dubble Bubble gum concentrate) with violet ice cubes. Freeman was interested in the overlap between colors and flavors, a concept that went through some trial and error when she focused on Andy Warhol?s self portrait in green, blue, red, and yellow. She tried to make a Bloody Mary gel?e and explains, ?I didn?t want to use food coloring but I figured we could use blue curacao. We made Campbell?s tomato soup Jell-O, celery, horseradish and Worcester Jell-O, and it was revolting. It shouldn?t be a surprise, but that was the one recipe that didn?t really work out.? Her aversion to food coloring had to be overcome for her Mondrian cake, a chocolate ganache grid with primary-colored cake blocks, but she?s not the only one who is wary of unnatural-looking cake dye. She says, ?People easily gobble up the yellow and red, but often they?ll leave the blue square on the plate.?

Dessert is based on Garry Winogrand?s ?Kerrville, Texas? (1977). Photo: Willa Koerner.

Freeman?s latest concoction, inspired by a Gary Winogrand photograph, is an ambitious multimedia project. As she describes it, ?The piece we chose is these two people dancing on a platform that looks just like an ice cream cake. So we?re making this ridiculous multimedia cake that involves Stevie Wonder?s ?Sir Duke? playing from an MP3 player inside the plate, which happened to be the number seventeen song the year the photo was taken, and looks exactly like the song they would?ve been dancing to. We?ll have two images laser-cut as cake toppers that will be dancing on the cake.? The desserts are often conceptual, and sometimes literal, like the Jasper Johns-inspired grilled cheese that looks like his piece, Bread. As Freeman describes the project, ?The piece is a lead panel with a piece of bread on it, so we made a grilled cheese and served it on a to-scale board painted to look like lead. It was a giant, oversized board people would have to carry back to their table.? She likes that her creations can help make the art more accessible, and says that when she walks into a gallery of California painters, ?especially Diebenkorn and Thiebaud,? she often wants to take the paintings home, and says:

?Making desserts is my way of owning something, of really pretending that I?m stealing it, and making it my own.?

?Modern Art Desserts? was released this month by Ten Speed Press. Freeman?s Mondrian cakes will soon be available for purchase online (available for delivery, packed in dry ice). Keep up with her projects at modernartdesserts.com.

Photos of desserts reprinted with permission from Modern Art Desserts: Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, Confections, and Frozen Treats Based on Iconic Works of Art, by Caitlin Freeman, copyright (c) 2013. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc. Photo credit: Clay McLachlan (c) 2013

Related posts

Tags: andy warhol, blue bottle, blue bottle coffee, Caitlin Freeman. SFMOMA, cake, coffee, coffee roasters, food and wine this week, Gary Winogrand, james freeman, Modern Art Desserts, third wave coffee, Wayne Thiebaud

Category: baking and bakeries, bay area, Bay Area Bites Food + Drink, books, magazines, newspapers, chefs, cookbooks, dessert and chocolate, food art, writing, music, dance, food trends and technology, local food businesses, recipes, reviews, tea and coffee, tv, film, video, photography

Source: http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2013/04/23/art-as-food-as-art-caitlin-freeman-and-her-modern-art-desserts/

Banana Joe state of the union fat tuesday ash wednesday kate middleton marco rubio marco rubio

His Name Tells the Tale (Balloon Juice)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/300974729?client_source=feed&format=rss

Black Ops 2 Secede ben roethlisberger Diwali elmo Kevin Clash Walmart Black Friday 2012

?2million project aims to revolutionize the study of cancer cells in the lab

Public release date: 22-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katrina Coutts
k.coutts@qmul.ac.uk
Queen Mary, University of London

Researchers from Queen Mary, University of London have been awarded a 2.43million grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for a project which aims to revolutionise the field of cancer cell research by using bioengineering techniques to grow the first complex 3-dimensional human 'tumour microenvironment' in the laboratory.

Even at their earliest stages, human cancers are more than just malignant cells. Other cells and chemicals that normally support and protect the body are co-opted by the malignant cancer cells to actually help them grow and spread.

Research is increasingly pointing to the importance of not just targeting the malignant cancer cells but also this wider 'tumour microenvironment' for long-term cancer treatment.

In the CANBUILD project the multi-disciplinary team of scientists will be using the latest advances in tissue engineering, biomechanics, imaging and stem cell biology which they believe will make it possible to engineer, for the first time, a complex 3-dimensional human tumour in which the different cell types of the tumour microenvironment will communicate, evolve and grow in vitro (outside the body, in the laboratory).

The CANBUILD goal is to recreate the tumour microenvironment of human high-grade serious ovarian cancer, the subtype that leads to 70 per cent of all ovarian cancer deaths, but the research may have implications for several other cancers as well.

The vision is that this project will replace inadequate techniques where human cancer cells are grown in isolation on plastic surfaces. Success in the CANBUILD project may also provide better ways of testing new drugs that target the human tumour microenvironment.

Professor Fran Balkwill, from the Barts Cancer Institute, is Principal Investigator on the CANBUILD project. Professor Balkwill said: "About half the cells in a tumour are not cancer cells, but 'healthy' cells such as immune cells and fibroblasts which the cancer is somehow corrupting to help it grow and spread.

"It seems logical that the best long-term treatments will come from combining both therapies that target the cancer cells with something aimed at the wider tumour microenvironment which, while not cancerous cells themselves, are supporting the cancer's growth.

"Growing an in vitro model which contains all these types of cells will allow us to watch how the cells communicate and how the tumour grows, teaching us more about what is going on in this complex system and hopefully giving us a model we can test new drugs on."

The five-year research plan involves:

'Deconstruction' of the human ovarian cancer tumour microenvironment

Constructing the artificial scaffold, optimising growth of different cell types, and assembling the model

Comparison of the model to fresh human tissue

Investigating the roles of individual cells

Testing new treatments that target the tumour microenvironment

The ERC funding will also allow the team to communicate their research via Centre of the Cell, Queen Mary's award-winning science education centre, online resource, widening participation and outreach project.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 22-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katrina Coutts
k.coutts@qmul.ac.uk
Queen Mary, University of London

Researchers from Queen Mary, University of London have been awarded a 2.43million grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for a project which aims to revolutionise the field of cancer cell research by using bioengineering techniques to grow the first complex 3-dimensional human 'tumour microenvironment' in the laboratory.

Even at their earliest stages, human cancers are more than just malignant cells. Other cells and chemicals that normally support and protect the body are co-opted by the malignant cancer cells to actually help them grow and spread.

Research is increasingly pointing to the importance of not just targeting the malignant cancer cells but also this wider 'tumour microenvironment' for long-term cancer treatment.

In the CANBUILD project the multi-disciplinary team of scientists will be using the latest advances in tissue engineering, biomechanics, imaging and stem cell biology which they believe will make it possible to engineer, for the first time, a complex 3-dimensional human tumour in which the different cell types of the tumour microenvironment will communicate, evolve and grow in vitro (outside the body, in the laboratory).

The CANBUILD goal is to recreate the tumour microenvironment of human high-grade serious ovarian cancer, the subtype that leads to 70 per cent of all ovarian cancer deaths, but the research may have implications for several other cancers as well.

The vision is that this project will replace inadequate techniques where human cancer cells are grown in isolation on plastic surfaces. Success in the CANBUILD project may also provide better ways of testing new drugs that target the human tumour microenvironment.

Professor Fran Balkwill, from the Barts Cancer Institute, is Principal Investigator on the CANBUILD project. Professor Balkwill said: "About half the cells in a tumour are not cancer cells, but 'healthy' cells such as immune cells and fibroblasts which the cancer is somehow corrupting to help it grow and spread.

"It seems logical that the best long-term treatments will come from combining both therapies that target the cancer cells with something aimed at the wider tumour microenvironment which, while not cancerous cells themselves, are supporting the cancer's growth.

"Growing an in vitro model which contains all these types of cells will allow us to watch how the cells communicate and how the tumour grows, teaching us more about what is going on in this complex system and hopefully giving us a model we can test new drugs on."

The five-year research plan involves:

'Deconstruction' of the human ovarian cancer tumour microenvironment

Constructing the artificial scaffold, optimising growth of different cell types, and assembling the model

Comparison of the model to fresh human tissue

Investigating the roles of individual cells

Testing new treatments that target the tumour microenvironment

The ERC funding will also allow the team to communicate their research via Centre of the Cell, Queen Mary's award-winning science education centre, online resource, widening participation and outreach project.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/qmuo-pa042213.php

kelis dick clark dies ibogaine jamie moyer bone cancer hossa the cell

Spain central bank: recession continued in Q1

MADRID (AP) ? Spain's recession continued in the first three months of the year, with the economy shrinking by 0.5 percent, its seventh quarterly contraction, the Bank of Spain said Tuesday.

The central bank said that the first-quarter drop was somewhat milder than the 0.8 percent recorded in the final quarter of 2012. Compared with a year earlier, the economy was 2 percent smaller.

The central bank blamed the quarterly contraction on a further fall in consumer spending, which dropped 0.8 percent in the first quarter. The unemployment rate is 26 percent.

The bank has predicted the economy will contract 1.5 percent this year and only return to growth in late 2014.

Official figures by the national statistics agency will be reported on April 30.

The figures came as the country's Treasury successfully sold 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) in short-term debt with lower interest rates indicating growing investor confidence in the government's handling of the economy. Spain's borrowing costs have also fallen over the past few months following a pledge by the European Central Bank to buy up unlimited amounts of debt if asked by a country in need of help.

The Treasury sold 2.16 billion euros in nine-month bills at an average interest rate of 0.79 percent, compared with 1 percent in the last such auction March 19. It also placed 855 million euros in three-month bills at 0.12 percent, down from 0.29 percent last month.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spain-central-bank-recession-continued-q1-095102387--finance.html

steve appleton bishop eddie long madonna give me all your luvin video roseanne barr president green party day 26 new hunger games trailer

Social stress and the inflamed brain

Apr. 21, 2013 ? Depression is the leading cause of disability with more than 350 million people globally affected by this disease. In addition to debilitating consequences on mental health, depression predisposes an individual to physiological disease such as heart disease, and conversely heart disease increases the risk of depression. According to the World Health Organization by the year 2020 heart disease and depression will be the number one and number two leading causes of disability in developed countries. While the co-occurrence of these disorders is well recognized, an understanding of the underlying mechanisms that lead to this relationship are lacking.

Dr. Susan K. Wood, a Research Associate at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, investigates brain-related biomarkers for depression-heart disease comorbidity. She uses a rodent model of social stress likened to bullying in people that she has found to produce depressive-like behaviors and dysfunctional cardiovascular changes in a susceptible subset of rodents. Her previous work highlighted a role for the stress-related neurohormone corticotropin-releasing factor in rendering an individual vulnerable to stress-induced depression and heart disease. Intrigued by what other biomarkers may be distinct her latest study is the first to identify gene and protein expression differences in the brains of rodents that are either vulnerable or resilient to developing stress-induced depressive-like behaviors and cardiovascular dysfunction.

The study, conducted in male rats, compared expression of 88 genes involved in signaling within the brain between socially stressed and non-stressed rats. It revealed more than 35 genes in stressed rats that had altered expression compared with non-stressed controls. Many of the genes that were differentially expressed were related to inflammation. Follow-up studies measuring protein levels revealed that Interleukin-1? and Monocyte chemotactic protein-1, inflammatory markers known to play a role in depression and heart disease, were suppressed in the brains of the resilient subset of rats and Interleukin-1? was increased in the vulnerable group. Dr. Wood measured the gene and protein levels under resting conditions 24 hours after just 5 daily 30-minute exposures to social stress.

The identification of factors in the brain that distinguish susceptibility and resiliency to depression and heart disease comorbidity would be a major advance in predicting, preventing and treating these disorders. Dr. Wood is continuing these studies as an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine with the hope that these findings will uncover new targets to treat the mind and body.

Her findings will be presented April 21st, 2013 during Experimental Biology 2013 in Boston, MA.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/mental_health/~3/bG-TTU4qHd8/130421153839.htm

san francisco giants Medal of Honor Warfighter Richard Mourdock d t p zynga

Rizon Jet awarded 'Best Fixed Base Operator' and 'Best Charter ...

"The team at Rizon Jet has continued to forge higher standards, offering wholly better services and standing head and shoulders above the competition for this category," said the magazine's Feature Editor, William Owen. "The company's dedication to fantastic customer service and expansion is certainly the benchmark for others within the industry."

The Business Destinations Travel Awards are designed to showcase those companies whose products and services represent the pinnacle of the business travel industry. Unique in travel accolade platforms, the Business Destinations Travel Awards are chosen not by a select, elite panel of judges but rather by a vast and diverse cross section of primary users and purchasers of corporate travel that make up the magazine's readership.

Captain Hassan Al-Mousawi, Rizon Jet's CEO states; "Being passionate about all areas of our business and investing in our people will always remain one of our first priorities. It's not just the facility, but the people that make the difference. Our business in the Middle East and Europe continues to grow while new opportunities keep presenting themselves. Those recognitions are very stimulating and we are committed to maintain the momentum we have gained in terms of providing the highest service levels and we are pleased to set a new benchmark for our competitors."

Business Destinations is distributed to corporate travel executives and company travel buyers from Fortune 500 companies, MICE solution providers, members of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), as well as other influential members of the business travel community. The magazine's editorial board believes strongly that this exceptional recognition should be determined by the widest possible audience, whose first-hand experience of frequent travel is best suited to select the overall winners.

"The ratings come from important sections of our industry and add enormous weight to our credibility, which is something we treasure"; Hassan Al-Mousawi elaborates, "They are fantastic endorsements and a clear indication that we are getting things right when it comes to providing innovative and outstanding turnkey business aviation services."

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/rizon-jet-awarded-fixed-base-operator-338490

titanic ii babe ruth new jersey nets nba playoff schedule rondo morris claiborne mothers day gifts

Now may land on Google's home page, come to the web

While everyone else speculates about new Nexii and what sweet treat the next version of Android will be named after, we're anticipating some exciting news about Now at Google I/O. Specifically, that it might be coming to both iOS and the desktop. We've already seen quite a bit of evidence that the virtual assistant app will eventually land on Apple's mobile platform and maybe even Chrome. Newly discovered code in a Google page hints that it might just become part of the standard web search interface -- provided you opt to turn it on, of course. Source code for the page in testing encourages you to, "get started with Google Now," because it provides, "just the right information at just the right time." It also offers you the opportunity to change you home and work locations because, as the explanation goes, "Google Now uses your Home location to show relevant information like weather, traffic conditions, and nearby places." As you dig through you'll also find plenty of references to "now_card."

If Now becomes a standard part of the Mountain View lineup, regardless of platform, it could be huge for a company which already dominates the search market. Not to mention, it might satiate those seven people out there still mourning the loss of iGoogle. We won't know anything for sure until the wraps are taken off and have reached out to the company for comment, but we anticipate the response will be predictably non-committal.

Filed under: Internet, Google

Comments

Source: Google Operating System, Google

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/lGEH6i6vxok/

chuck colson ufc 145 results orrin hatch marlon byrd charles colson humber raffi torres

Illustrated History Of Heart Disease - Bodybuilding Forum Muscle Chat

All times are GMT +1. The time now is 08:22 AM.

Powered by vBulletin? Version 4.2.0
Copyright ? 2013 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.
SEO by vBSEO ?2011, Crawlability, Inc. All information contained within this site is for educational purposes only.
We do not endorse the Buying or selling of illegal substances nor do we promote the use of them.

Musclechat.co.uk takes no responsibility for any advertisers, thier content or products sold. All products sold by ANY advertisers are seen to be 'Research Items' only and not intended for Human Use

Source: http://www.musclechat.co.uk/training-health-nutrition-articles/38417-illustrated-history-heart-disease.html

denver nuggets new jersey devils torn acl derrick rose injury st louis news correspondents dinner i am legend

Biden says response to tragedies 'incredible'

Vice President Joe Biden delivers the keynote speech at the Michigan Democratic Party's annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Detroit, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)

Vice President Joe Biden delivers the keynote speech at the Michigan Democratic Party's annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Detroit, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)

Vice President Joe Biden delivers the keynote speech at the Michigan Democratic Party's annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Detroit, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)

DETROIT (AP) ? Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday said the strength of those devastated by the Boston Marathon bombing, Texas plant explosion and Connecticut school shooting is remarkable and proof that some good can come from carnage and pain.

"It showed the incredible resilience, heroism, commitment and love of the people who responded to these tragedies," Biden said at a major fundraiser for Democrats in Michigan, which could play a big role in the 2016 presidential election.

Biden's 50-minute speech in Detroit came at the end of a difficult week marked by violence, tragedy and a jarring defeat for the Obama administration on gun control. The vice president said he was amazed to see footage of marathon runners moving forward despite the explosions.

"I wondered what in the heck are they doing? Were they running away from harm? They were running through it. They were running to a hospital. They were running to help their fellow runners and citizens watching. It was an instinct, sort of stamped in our DNA," he told 1,500 gathered for the state Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner.

Biden, who has not ruled out a presidential bid in 2016, led the Obama administration's gun-control push. It was defeated Wednesday in the Senate.

The vice president credited Newtown, Conn., victims' families for reliving their losses over and over again while lobbying Congress to act.

He said senators told him not to ask for their vote because "even if we do this, it will never pass the House." Not one of the more than 15 Republican and Democratic senators he called gave him a "substantive reason" for opposing it, he said.

Five still voted for it and "believed that they may be writing themselves into the second edition of 'Profiles of Courage,'" he said.

Biden said winning back the Republican-controlled House in 2014 is crucial and that the American people are on the side of expanded background checks for gun purchases.

He turned his attention to more typical fare for such a political gala ? criticizing the GOP's budget proposals and talking up Democrats' vision for the middle class. He also criticized Michigan's new right-to-work law, which prohibits workers from having to pay union fees or dues.

"We know that the future of this country is going to continue to be built on the backs of the middle class. And we understand it was organized labor who built that middle class. Therefore labor must have a seat at the table, not this right to work for less," he said to loud applause.

Biden never mentioned the 2016 presidential election. Michigan could be important in the campaign because it could have one of the earlier Democratic primaries and is a traditional stronghold for Democrats. The party's candidate has won the past six presidential races in the state.

In May, Biden will keynote a Democratic fundraising dinner in South Carolina, which traditionally holds one of the first primaries of the season.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-20-Biden/id-cf2c503ed5c34b9db929bee4a4f7a93f

whitney houston funeral live stream kevin costner whitney houston whitney houston funeral live pat buchanan slither slither naacp

Election of Italy president opens door to new government

By Naomi O'Leary and Steve Scherer

ROME (Reuters) - The re-election of Italy's president has raised the prospect of an end to the two months of political stalemate that have followed the general election, with a move to form a government foreseen within days.

A broad agreement between traditional political groups on the left and right to re-elect Giorgio Napolitano handed the 87-year-old the leverage to pressure opposing parties to form a government or face a snap election.

The February election split parliament between the center-left, the center-right, and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, requiring at least two of them to forge an alliance to create a workable majority in parliament.

"It's clear that within the week an agreement on a government will be reached," said Rocco Buttiglione, a high-ranking member of the centrist Civic Choice group led by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti. "Napolitano is very strong right now and the parties are rather impotent."

Any government will be under pressure to address popular frustration with a prolonged recession in the euro zone's third-largest economy, which has scarcely grown in 20 years and is grappling with the worst unemployment in decades.

Napolitano, the first president in Italy's history to be asked to serve a second term, will likely spell out his strategy when he addresses parliament on Monday, but he made it clear before being re-elected that he favored the formation of a government to a potentially destabilizing new vote.

A source in the presidential palace told Reuters Napolitano could either hold a quick round of consultations starting on Tuesday or skip them altogether because he has already sounded out party leaders officially twice since the deadlock began.

Napolitano could ask a political figure - instead of a technocrat like Monti - to try to form a government as soon as Tuesday, and the source said the president's re-election meant that there was a clear intent to form a government rather than head toward another election.

But the idea of a right-left government was strongly criticized on Sunday by the leader of the 5-Star Movement, Beppe Grillo, who described the agreement to elect Napolitano as a desperate attempt to retain power by a discredited elite.

The 5-Star Movement had called on the center-left Democratic Party (PD) to back its candidate for president, left-wing academic Stefano Rodota. The PD instead joined center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi and Monti to support Napolitano.

Grillo, whose vow to kick out the old guard allowed his 5-Star Movement to win one in four votes in its first national election, called the presidential vote "a cunning little institutional coup".

Thousands of 5-Star Movement supporters gathered on Sunday at a rally to protest Napolitano's win, and then marched through Rome, some holding signs that read: "Napolitano is not our president".

PATH FORWARD

On Sunday, politicians and the Italian media quickly began speculating on who could lead the next government.

The PD, the biggest group in parliament, fell into disarray during the presidential vote when party rebels scuppered two candidates proposed by leader Pier Luigi Bersani, forcing him and the entire leadership to resign.

The chaos means the party may be eager to avoid a quick return to elections and more amenable to a broad coalition government, something it previously rejected.

"We need to form a political government, it can have experts or intellectuals in it as long as it is a political government," said Franco Marini, a PD founder and one of the party's candidates who failed to be elected president.

Newspaper reports named deputy PD leader Enrico Letta as one possibility both to lead the party and a government, or former prime minister Giuliano Amato.

"This government should be an improvement on the Monti government, with more politicians inside it so that the parties cannot criticize it when it pleases them like they did with Monti," Buttiglione told Reuters, adding that both Amato and Letta were credible possibilities for the premiership.

Bersani's departure could make way for his arch-rival, the ambitious 38-year-old mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, to emerge as the new party leader and future prime ministerial candidate.

"Now the PD has the chance to really change, without any fear, we'll try," Renzi said in a tweet after Napolitano won the vote.

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italys-grillo-denounces-party-deal-making-over-president-133922469.html

allen iverson jr smith chris anderson rondo suspended bay bridge band of brothers presidents

Mine disaster: Hundreds of aftershocks

Apr. 19, 2013 ? A new University of Utah study has identified hundreds of previously unrecognized small aftershocks that happened after Utah's deadly Crandall Canyon mine collapse in 2007, and they suggest the collapse was as big -- and perhaps bigger -- than shown in another study by the university in 2008.

Mapping out the locations of the aftershocks "helps us better delineate the extent of the collapse at Crandall canyon. It's gotten bigger," says Tex Kubacki, a University of Utah master's student in mining engineering.

"We can see now that, prior to the collapse, the seismicity was occurring where the mining was taking place, and that after the collapse, the seismicity migrated to both ends of the collapse zone," including the mine's west end, he adds.

Kubacki was scheduled to present the findings Friday in Salt Lake City during the Seismological Society of America's 2013 annual meeting.

Six coal miners died in the Aug. 6, 2007 mine collapse, and three rescuers died 10 days later. The mine's owner initially blamed the collapse on an earthquake, but the University of Utah Seismograph Stations said it was the collapse itself, not an earthquake, that registered on seismometers.

A 2008 study by University of Utah seismologist Jim Pechmann found the epicenter of the collapse was near where the miners were working, and aftershocks showed the collapse area covered 50 acres, four times larger than originally thought, extending from crosscut 120 on the east to crosscut 143 on the west, where miners worked. A crosscut is a north-south tunnel intersecting the mine's main east-west tunnels.

In the new study, the collapse area "looks like it goes farther west -- to the full extent of the western end of the mine, Kubacki says.

Study co-author Michael "Kim" McCarter, a University of Utah professor of mining engineering, says the findings are tentative, but "might extend the collapse farther west." He is puzzled because "some of that is in an area where no mining had occurred."

Kubacki says one theory is that the seismic events at the west end and some of those at the eastern end of the mine may be caused by "faulting forming along a cone of collapse" centered over the mine.

Kubacki and McCarter conducted the new study with seismologists Keith Koper and Kris Pankow of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations. McCarter and Pankow also coauthored the 2008 study.

Before the new study, researchers knew of about 55 seismic events -- down to magnitude 1.6 -- near the mine before and after the collapse, which measured 3.9 on the local magnitude scale and 4.1 on the "moment" magnitude scale that better reflects energy release, Kubacki says.

The new study analyzed records of seismometers closest to the mine for evidence of tremors down to magnitudes minus-1, which Kubacki says is about one-tenth the energy released by a hand grenade. He found:

- Strong statistical evidence there were at least 759 seismic events before the mine collapse and 569 aftershocks.

- Weak evidence there were as many as 1,022 seismic events before the collapse and 1,167 aftershocks.

"We've discovered up to about 2,000 previously unknown events spanning from July 26 to Aug. 30, 2007," Kubacki says, although some of the weak-evidence events may turn out not to be real or to be unrelated to the collapse.

The seismic events found in the new study show tremors clustered in three areas: the east end of the collapse area, the area where miners were working toward the mine's west end, and -- new in this study -- at the mine's west end, beyond where miners worked.

"We have three clusters to look at and try to come up with an explanation of why there were three," McCarter says. "They are all related to the collapse."

Some of the tremors in the eastern cluster are related to rescue attempts and a second collapse that killed three rescuers, but some remain unexplained, he adds.

Kubacki says most of the seismic activity before the collapse was due to mining, although scientists want to investigate whether any of those small jolts might have been signs of the impending collapse. So far, however, "there is nothing measured that would have said, 'Here's an event [mine collapse] that's ready to happen," McCarter says.

Kubacki came up with the new numbers of seismic events by analyzing the records of seismometers closest to Crandall Canyon (about 12 miles away). "We took the known seismic events already in the catalog and searched for events that looked the same," he adds. "These new events kept popping up. There are tiny events that may show up on one station but not network-wide."

"Any understanding we can get toward learning how and why mine collapses happen is going to be of interest to the mining community," Kubacki says.

McCarter adds: "We are looking at the Crandall Canyon event because we have accurate logs and very extensive seismic data, and that provides a way of investigating the data to see if anything could be applied to other mines to improve safety."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Utah.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/oYvwfkmW8CI/130419105158.htm

binders of women presidential debates Felix Baumgartner Little Nemo gawker Romney Bosses Day 2012

U.S Health Care System - Crohn's Disease Forum - Support group ...

Well first thing you need to look at is will your employer provide healthcare, what healthcare and at what cost to you. Also what does the plan your employer have cover is there a co-pay or max coverage. I pay 17 dollars a month for 100% everything unlimited, my brother pays 600.00 USD for insurance with co-pay and a cap. So plans very alot. If it is a job worth moving for they very well may have good insurance.

Most if not all states have some kind of welfare, or goverment paid healthcare. I am not familar with the details of this system, but basically people that are broke or don't make enough can apply for aid or completely free stuff. Hopefully someone can chime in that has more info. on this free stuff.

If it is good paying job without healthcare you can opt to get your own prvate coverage from various companies, this can be costly from what I know of having to purchase private insurance.

Lastly we have a new something I know basically nothing about it and it's 1000's of pages long, but Obamacare should be taking affect soon. I have no idea what this will or will not provide.

Source: http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=50310

Eddie Vanderdoes puppy bowl national pancake day bar refaeli Paul Harvey ihop Sasquatch 2013

Video: Flacco spends a day at Dairy Queen

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/51601902#51601902

gizmodo cnet iPhone 5 9-11 Chris Brown Tattoo Innocence of Muslims Clara Schumann

Who's Tired? Growing Number of People Get Too Much Sleep

Most people you know probably talk about not getting enough sleep, but the percentage of U.S. adults who sleep for more than nine hours a night is actually on the rise, a new study suggests.

Between 1970 and 2007, the percentage of survey participants who reported sleeping for more than nine hours over a 24-hour period increased from 28 percent in 1985 to 37 percent in 2007, the study found. The trend was seen in participants' reports of both their weekday and weekend sleep habits.

What's more, the percentage of people who slept for less than six hours a night decreased, from about 11 percent in 1985 to 9 percent in 2007, the researchers said.

"This turns the current concept of an increasingly 'sleep-deprived society' on its head," the researchers write in the March 22 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Although there's been lots of talk about society sleeping too little, not much attention has been paid to the problem of too much sleep. However, studies show that sleeping more than nine hours a night is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, thinking problems and premature death, the researchers said.

A 2010 study published in the journal Sleep also found that there has been no overall increase in the percentage of U.S. adults who sleep for less than six hours, although there was an increase among full-time workers.

The new study, conducted by researchers at the University of Sydney, examined information from surveys done in 10 countries which asked participants to record how much time they allocated to different tasks in a 24-hour period. The study included surveys from over three decades. (Surveys in each country were from a nationally representative sample of that country's population.)

The U.S. participants were about 1.5 times more likely to report sleeping for more than nine hours a night, and 15 percent less likely to report sleeping less than six hours, in 2007 compared to 1985.

The study found a similar trend in other countries ? Australia, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom all reported increases in the percentage of people who slept for more than nine hours a day (only Canada and Italy reported decreases). Sweden and the United Kingdom also saw decreases in the percentage of people who slept for more than six hours, while Italy and Norway had increases.

"One does hear again and again?that people are sleeping less than they used to. There's never been any good evidence for that," said Diane S. Lauderdale, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Chicago's Department of Health Studies, who was not involved in the study.

One reason it may seem like we're sleeping less is that, as we grow up, we do, in fact, sleep less than we used to in childhood or as teenagers. "It makes sense to people, because everybody has experienced that" as they mature, Lauderdale said.

However, it's important to note that the way people define "sleep" can be ambiguous, and it's possible that in the study, participants recorded how long they spent in bed, rather than how long they actually spent sleeping, the researchers said. People are probably sleeping for most, but not all, of the hours they indicated on the survey, Lauderdale said.

It's not clear if long sleep duration itself is responsible for poor health outcomes, or if it is a sign of other problems, such as depression or reduced physical activity. It's possible that people in the study who appeared to sleep for a long time actually had trouble sleeping, and so they stayed in bed for longer, Lauderdale said. More research is needed to investigate the link between long sleep duration and poor health, she said.

Pass it on: The percentage of people who sleep more than nine hours a night is on the rise.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on MyHealthNewsDaily.

Copyright 2013 MyHealthNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/whos-tired-growing-number-people-too-much-sleep-142844728.html

megga millions what is autism the giver march 30 rimm pauly d project adrienne rich

George Lucas set for June wedding date

By Sophie Schillaci, The Hollywood Reporter

Danny Moloshok / REUTERS

Mellody Hobson and George Lucas.

George Lucas will tie the knot with longtime girlfriend Mellody Hobson on June 29 at the Chicago Peninsula Hotel, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

PHOTOS: When you wish upon a Death Star: The surprising symmetry of "Star Wars" and Disney

The "Star Wars" creator became engaged to Hobson, head of the Chicago-based investment management firm Ariel Investments ltc. and chairman of Ariel Mutual Funds, in January of this year.

In late 2012, Lucas made headlines for selling Lucasfilm to Disney for $4.05 billion. In addition to Hobson?s financial expertise, for which she serves as a regular contributor on ABC?s "Good Morning America," ?she is also chairman of the board for DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. and is director of The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., Groupon Inc. and Starbucks Corporation.

PHOTOS: "Star Wars: Episode VII" by four top directors (cartoon)

It will be the first marriage for Hobson, 43, and the second for Lucas, 68.

Former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley will give the bride away at the summer ceremony.

A rep for Lucasfilm would neither confirm nor deny details of the nuptials.

Related content:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/18/17808379-george-lucas-reportedly-sets-june-wedding-date-to-mellody-hobson?lite

tesla model s Black Ops 2 Secede ben roethlisberger Diwali elmo Kevin Clash

MPAA movie ratings: New initiative to assist parents gets mixed reviews

Dubbed Check the Box, the movie ratings campaign is designed to give parents more and faster information about how a film got its rating. The White House had requested action along these lines.

By Gloria Goodale,?Staff writer / April 17, 2013

With concerns over real-life violence at a high pitch, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) says it wants to help, at least when it comes to the moviegoing experience.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

On Tuesday, the MPAA unveiled a new ratings initiative: Dubbed Check the Box, the campaign is designed to give parents more and faster information about how a film got its rating of PG or higher. All the various specifics about violence, language, or sexual content will now be prominently displayed alongside the letter rating in large type.

The newest changes to the letter system, which has been in place since 1990, were presented by the MPAA head, former Sen. Christopher Dodd. The changes are for parents, "so they can make the best choices about what movies are right for their children to watch," he said at CinemaCon, an annual trade gathering of some 5,000 theater owners in Las Vegas.

The updates to the ratings display come on the heels of specific request from the White House for stricter appraisals of movie and TV violence, as well as for help as parents try to monitor the violence children consume.

But the announcement is getting mixed reviews, at best.

?I am not sure that more specific MPAA ratings about violence will actually do anything, but I think it is a good idea,? writes Paul Schneider, chairman of the film and television department at Boston University, in an e-mail.

?The ratings have always concentrated on sexuality and language and have been very, very soft on violence,? he adds.

?Any information that is accurate is good for parents,? says Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council (PTC), a national advocacy group pushing for what he calls ?transparency, consistency, and accountability? from the entertainment industry.

However, he dubs the changes ?a distinction without a difference.? Mr. Winter suggests that the MPAA move is a public-relations effort to deflect scrutiny while ?continuing to pour toxic levels of violence into PG-13 films.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/WY9KtjRhn9A/MPAA-movie-ratings-New-initiative-to-assist-parents-gets-mixed-reviews

US weekly amelia earhart Sally Ride Ichiro minka kelly James Holmes court Rupert Sanders

Senate votes down Feinstein's assault-weapons ban (Los Angeles Times)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/299731821?client_source=feed&format=rss

pat burrell hilary rosen grilled cheese allen west north korea missile don t trust the b in apartment 23 world financial center