Apr. 9, 2013 ? Shingles vaccine is associated with reduction in both postherpetic neuralgia and herpes zoster, but uptake in the US is low.
A vaccine to prevent shingles may reduce by half the occurrence of this painful skin and nerve infection in older people (aged over 65 years) and may also reduce the rate of a painful complication of shingles, post-herpetic neuralgia, but has a very low uptake (only 4%) in older adults in the United States, according to a study by UK and US researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.
The researchers, led by Sin?ad Langan from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, reached these conclusions by examining the records of 766,330 Medicare beneficiaries* aged 65 years or more between 2007 and 2009.
They found that shingles vaccine uptake was extremely low -- only 3.9% of participants were vaccinated -- but was particularly low among black people (0.3%) and among people with a low income (0.6%).
Over the study period, almost 13,000 participants developed shingles and the vaccine reduced the rate of shingles by 48% (that is, approximately half as many vaccinated individuals developed shingles as those who were not vaccinated). However, the vaccine was less effective in older adults with impaired immune systems. The authors also found that vaccine effectiveness against post-herpetic neuralgia was 59%.
The authors say: "Herpes zoster vaccination was associated with a significant reduction in incident herpes zoster and [post-herpetic neuralgia] in routine clinical use."
They continue: "Despite strong evidence supporting its effectiveness, clinical use remains disappointingly low with particularly low vaccination rates in particular patient groups."
The authors add: " The findings are relevant beyond US medical practice, being of major importance to the many countries, including the UK, that are actively considering introducing the zoster vaccine into routine practice in the near future."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.
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Journal Reference:
Sin?ad M. Langan, Liam Smeeth, David J. Margolis, Sara L. Thomas. Herpes Zoster Vaccine Effectiveness against Incident Herpes Zoster and Post-herpetic Neuralgia in an Older US Population: A Cohort Study. PLoS Medicine, 2013; 10 (4): e1001420 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001420
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.
FILE - In this April 4, 2013 file photo, U.S. singer Beyonce and her husband, rapper Jay-Z, are surrounded by bodyguards as they tour Old Havana, Cuba. U.S. Treasury officials on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 said the trip by Beyonce and Jay-Z to Cuba was licensed as an educational exchange. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)
FILE - In this April 4, 2013 file photo, U.S. singer Beyonce and her husband, rapper Jay-Z, are surrounded by bodyguards as they tour Old Havana, Cuba. U.S. Treasury officials on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 said the trip by Beyonce and Jay-Z to Cuba was licensed as an educational exchange. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)
MIAMI (AP) ? U.S. Treasury officials say the trip by Beyonce (bee-AHN'-say) and Jay-Z to Cuba was licensed as an educational exchange.
Assistant Treasury Secretary Alastair Fitzpayne wrote in a letter Tuesday to congressional representatives that the famous hip-hop couple traveled to Cuba with a group authorized by the Office of Foreign Assets Control to promote people-to-people contact in Cuba.
The letter was released Tuesday by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (ih-lay-AH'-nah rahs LAY'-tih-nehn).
Ros-Lehtinen and U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (dee-AZ' bah-LART'), both Florida Republicans, had expressed concerns to the Treasury Department about the trip and wanted to know if it was licensed.
Beyonce and Jay-Z marked their fifth wedding anniversary in Havana last week. U.S. citizens are not allowed to travel to Cuba for mere tourism, though they can obtain licenses for academic, religious, journalistic or cultural exchange trips. The so-called people-to-people licenses were reinstated under the Obama administration.
Apr. 8, 2013 ? When renowned explorer Richard E. Byrd returned from the first-ever flight to the North Pole in 1926, he sparked a controversy that remains today: Did he actually reach the pole?
Studying supercomputer simulations of atmospheric conditions on the day of the flight and double-checking Byrd's navigation techniques, a researcher at The Ohio State University has determined that Byrd indeed neared the Pole, but likely only flew within 80 miles of it before turning back to the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen.
Gerald Newsom, professor emeritus of astronomy at Ohio State, based his results in part on atmospheric simulations from the 20th Century Reanalysis project at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The study appears in a recent issue of the journal Polar Record.
"I worked out that if Byrd did make it, he must have had very unusual wind conditions. But it's clear that he really gave it a valiant try, and he deserves a lot of respect," Newsom said.
At issue is whether Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett could have made the 1,500-mile round trip from Spitsbergen in only 15 hours and 44 minutes, when some experts were expecting a flight time of around 18 hours.
Byrd claimed that they encountered strong tail winds that sped the plane's progress. Not everyone believed him.
"The flight was incredibly controversial," Newsom explained. "The people defending Byrd were vehement that he was a hero, and the people attacking him said he was one of the world's greatest frauds. The emotion! It was incredibly vitriolic."
Newsom was unaware of the debate, however, until Raimund Goerler, now-retired archivist at Ohio State, discovered a flight journal within a large collection of items given to Ohio State by the Byrd family at the naming of the university's Byrd Polar Research Center. In 1995, Goerler opened a previously overlooked cardboard box labeled "misc." In it, he found a smudged and water-stained book containing hand-written notes from Byrd's 1926 North Pole flight and his historic 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, as well as an earlier expedition to Greenland in 1925.
Goerler looked to Newsom for help interpreting the navigational notes. "Given the strong opinions on both sides from people in the polar research community, we thought an astronomer who had no prior opinion about the flight would have the skills to do an assessment, and the neutrality to do it in an unbiased way," he said.
In fact, Newsom had helped teach celestial navigation during his early days as a graduate student, and still had an interest in the subject. With the help of current Byrd Polar archivist Laura Kissel, he pored over copies of the notebook and other related writings, including the post-flight report by Byrd's sponsors at the National Geographic Society.
Newsom was particularly curious about the solar compass that Byrd used to find his way to and from the pole. The compass was state-of-the-art for its time, with a clockwork mechanism that turned a glass cover to match the movement of the sun around the sky. By peering at a shadow in the sun compass, Byrd gauged whether the plane was heading north.
Among the artifacts in the Byrd Polar Research Center is a copy of the barograph recording made during the flight, showing atmospheric pressure. A small calibration graph was labeled with altitudes for different pressures, allowing Byrd to determine how high the plane flew throughout the flight. Byrd used the altitude to set a device mounted over an opening in the bottom of the plane, and with a stopwatch he timed how long it took for features on the ice below to move in and out of view. The stopwatch reading then gave the plane's ground speed.
Byrd could then calculate the distance traveled, and know when he and Bennett had traveled far enough to reach the pole. He would also be able to tell if a crosswind was nudging the plane off course. And he would have had to repeat the calculations every few minutes for the entire trip north.
The partially open cockpit would have been very loud, Newsom explained, so Byrd wrote messages in the book so Bennett could read his suggested course corrections. For example, there was a note from Byrd to Bennett asking for a three-degree correction to the west, to counter a crosswind.
The problem, Newsom quickly found, is that the notebook didn't contain any calculations of ground speed, only the results of the calculations. "I would have thought he'd have pages and pages of calculations," Newsom said. "Without that, there's no way of knowing for sure, but deep down there's a worry I have -- that he did it all in his head."
Newsom found that the barograph recording and calibration graph were remarkably small. A change of atmospheric pressure of one inch of mercury would equal only one quarter of an inch on the barograph record. "That's tiny," he said. "If Byrd was off by even a tenth of an inch on the barograph recording, then his altitude would be off 18 percent, and that means his ground speed would be off by 18 percent. And he had the same chance for error every time he took a reading throughout the flight."
Changes in the atmosphere at different latitudes meant that Byrd's calibration graph lost accuracy during the duration of the flight. Newsom calculated that this could have led Byrd to believe that he had reached the pole when he was still as much as 78 statute miles away, or caused him to overshoot the pole by as much as 21 statute miles.
As he wrote in the Polar Record paper: "This type of analysis by itself will not resolve any controversy over whether Byrd reached the pole. But it does indicate that he was considerably more likely to have ended up short of his goal than to have exceeded it."
Next, Newsom decided to test whether Byrd could have experienced strong tailwinds as he claimed, and to do that, the astronomer turned to an unbiased resource of his own: NOAA's 20th Century Reanalysis dataset.
Using U.S. Department of Energy supercomputers, NOAA calculated likely atmospheric conditions all over Earth for every six hours between 1870 and 2010. The data used a computer model that calculated 56 plausible scenarios for every six-hour interval, and the results of the 56 model atmospheres were averaged together to arrive at the most likely conditions.
The model winds did not appear consistent with what Byrd said, so Newsom examined each of the 56 scenarios individually, to see if even one of them allowed for strong tailwinds during the trip. They didn't.
"For the most part, he probably had a headwind going north, and a tailwind going south. But there's no evidence of the winds shifting as much as he described. Of course, the models are NOAA's best guesses for what the conditions were that day, not an actual measurement, so Byrd could have had strong tailwinds just like he said. But the simulations suggest that if he did have strong tailwinds that day, he was very lucky."
It's easy to forget, he continued, how difficult and dangerous navigation was before modern altimeters and GPS. Byrd was under a tremendous amount of pressure: he'd overloaded the plane with fuel to make sure he and Bennett wouldn't run out over the Arctic (they would likely have died in that circumstance), but the extra load made the plane hard to control; he had to calculate the plane's location constantly for nearly sixteen hours, in a screaming-loud cockpit while worried about frostbite; and partway through the trip, one of the plane's engines sprang an oil leak and seemed likely to stop working.
"That they returned at all is a major accomplishment, and the fact that they arrived back where they were supposed to -- that shows that Byrd knew how to navigate with his solar compass correctly," Newsom said.
And, since the plane was theoretically high enough to see nearly 90 miles to the horizon, Byrd may not have reached the pole, but even in the worst-case scenario, he almost certainly saw it through his cockpit window.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio State University. The original article was written by Pam Frost Gorder.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
G.H. Newsom. Byrd's Arctic flight in the context of model atmospheres. Polar Record, 2012; 49 (01): 62 DOI: 10.1017/S0032247412000058
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.
Ask a VC is back this week with Index Ventures' partner?Danny Rimer.?You can submit questions for Rimer either in the comments or here, and we?ll ask them during the show. Rimer, who is focused on investing in infrastructure software and services, joined Index Ventures in 2002 and helped established the firm's London office.
In mid-term doldrums, Canada's Conservatives hope to reboot
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Voter fatigue with Canada's ruling Conservatives and signs of stress within the government are putting Prime Minister Stephen Harper under pressure to freshen up his team and policies as the telegenic son of Pierre Trudeau starts snapping at his heels. Even though the election is 30 months away - in October 2015 - the next few months will be a critical time for Harper, given mounting evidence in opinion polls that the Conservatives risk losing power after what would be nearly a decade in office.
China warns against "troublemaking" on Korean peninsula
BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - China warned against "troublemaking" on its doorstep, in an apparent rebuke to North Korea, and the United States said it was postponing a missile test to help calm high tension on the divided Korean peninsula. The North, led by 30-year-old Kim Jong-un, has been issuing vitriolic threats of war against the United States and U.S.-backed South Korea since the United Nations imposed sanctions in response to its third nuclear weapon test in February.
Five die in Christian-Muslim clashes in Egypt
EL KHUSUS, Egypt (Reuters) - Five Egyptians were killed and eight wounded in clashes between Christians and Muslims in a town near Cairo, security sources said on Saturday, in some of the worst sectarian violence in Egypt for months. Christian-Muslim confrontations have increased in Muslim-majority Egypt since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 gave freer rein to hardline Islamists repressed under his rule.
Twelve Afghan civilians dead in air strike: Afghan officials
SHIGAL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Eleven children and a woman were killed by an air strike during a NATO operation targeting Taliban commanders in eastern Afghanistan, officials in the region said Sunday. Civilian deaths have been a long-running source of friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his international backers. Karzai has forbidden Afghan troops from calling for air strikes and NATO advise crews not to fire at or bomb in populated areas.
Afghan attacks kill U.S. diplomat, soldiers, others
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A car bomb blast killed five Americans, including three U.S. soldiers and a young diplomat, on Saturday, while an American civilian died in a separate attack in the east. The diplomat and other Americans were in a convoy of vehicles in Zabul province when the blast occurred, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.
Italy's center left divided over nemesis Berlusconi
ROME (Reuters) - Two months after placing first in a vote but falling short of winning power, Italy's main center-left party is still divided over whether to swallow its animosity and consider a government with its scandal-plagued nemesis, Silvio Berlusconi. Italy has been in limbo since a February election gave no bloc enough votes to govern alone. The center left won a majority in the lower house but not in the Senate, and a huge protest vote for the populist 5-Star Movement has split parliament three ways.
Powers and Iran fail to end nuclear deadlock in Almaty
ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers and Iran failed again to end the deadlock in a decade-old dispute over Tehran's nuclear program in talks that ended in Kazakhstan on Saturday, prolonging a standoff that could yet spiral into a new Middle East war. No new talks were scheduled but big power negotiators, who earlier this year were insisting that time was running out, were at pains to say the diplomatic process would continue.
Xi promises peaceful, prosperous China helping neighbors
BOAO, China (Reuters) - China's President Xi Jinping pledged on Sunday that change and peaceful development will power his country's economic rise and sustain growth within its borders and beyond. Stressing that peace was pivotal for the future of the world's second biggest economy, Xi appealed to business and political leaders to use diplomacy and dialogue to resolve disputes and allow wealth to spread and solve problems.
Sri Lanka to probe mass grave with more than 150 dead
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka is setting up a presidential commission to investigate a mass grave with the remains of more than 150 people, an official spokesman said on Sunday. Two reports submitted to a court last week said that the human remains, in the town of Matale 142 km (88 miles) north of the capital, dated back to the period 1986-1989 when Sri Lanka faced a Marxist insurrection.
Maduro plays up his bus-driver roots for Venezuela campaign
CARACAS (Reuters) - Gripping the wheel and grinning at passengers, acting President Nicolas Maduro drives a bus to campaign rallies before an election he hopes will let him steer Venezuela to six more years of hardline socialism. From banners all around him, the image of the man Maduro calls his "father," the late Hugo Chavez, beams beatifically and salutes.
April 1 marked the day when all of the UK?s police forces were working with Action Fraud which is now the central point of contact for people reporting fraud and financially motivated internet crime.
Action Fraud was launched nationally and will see members of the public being encouraged to report fraud and internet scams directly to Action Fraud via www.actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.
Since March 25, the four forces in the Yorkshire and Humber region have been working together to ensure that the new reporting system is adopted consistently across the region.
Action Fraud, run by the National Fraud Authority, will be the main agency for people to contact if they are a victim of a scam or fraud offence ? in terms of making reports and accessing support and prevention advice. Reports taken will be used to formulate a national picture as well as being passed on to forces for further investigation.
West Yorkshire Detective Superintendent Steve Waite, Head of Intelligence for Regional Operations said: ?Action Fraud will enable a better sharing of information about the nature and extent of fraud across the region and beyond which will assist all law-enforcement partners in tackling the various different types of fraud affecting our local communities and businesses.
?Here in Yorkshire and the Humber the Economic Crime Units within the four forces have been working together as well as with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to ensure we?re ready to go live with Action Fraud.
?People will still be able to report fraud to their local force, who will take action if a possible fraudster is at their door for example. In non-urgent situations however, they will be encouraged to contact Action Fraud as the most appropriate agency.?
Detective Inspector Andy Howard of West Yorkshire Police said: ?Fraud is a serious offence that affected nearly 5,000 people in West Yorkshire in 2011/12 and West Yorkshire Police have been working closely with Action Fraud here to ensure that the public of West Yorkshire will continue to receive a quality service in relation to the reporting and investigation of fraud and internet crime.
?Having Action Fraud as the main point of contact for people to report this type of crime to ? and contact for updates ? provides the public with an agency who will deal solely with fraud, so we hope people see this as a positive measure and a sign of our commitment to treating fraud seriously.
?People should always contact the police in an emergency, such as if they have a possible fraudster at their door. However Action Fraud will be the lead agency on Fraud from now on. The agency will take people?s information and details of their crime and compile investigations, working with the police to bring offenders to justice.?
Requests for crime updates or advice about fraud should also be referred to Action Fraud via action.fraud@nfa.gsi.gov.uk or in writing to: The Information Manager, FREEPOST, Action Fraud, UK.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Democrats have brought gun control legislation to the Senate floor amid a threat from conservative Republican senators to use delaying tactics to prevent formal debate from even beginning.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took the first procedural step to begin debate on Monday. He said Republicans owed relatives of the massacre of school children in Newtown, Conn., a vote on gun proposals, adding, "Shame on them."
The Nevada Democrat spoke shortly after receiving a letter from 13 conservative Republicans saying they would try to block Senate debate on the bill. The letter said gun curbs would violate the Second Amendment's right to bear arms, and the group indicated they would force Democrats to garner 60 votes to proceed ? a difficult hurdle in the 100-member chamber.
We have a feeling graphics artists are going to be begging their studios for Fusion-io's latest ioFX super-SSD. After receiving critical acclaim for its 460GB version, the company has today introduced a massively-speced 1.6TB variant at NAB. Despite the space increase, the new unit is not bigger than its older sibling. In related news, HP has also signed on to integrate ioFX into its HP Z 420, 620 and 820 all-in-ones, and it'll also give current workstation owners the option to simply add the card to their existing machines. Fusion won't be releasing any details about pricing for the 1.6TB ioFX just yet -- that'll remain under wraps until its released this summer. For now, movie makers can net the 460GB one for $2K (about $500 less that its release price). Full press release after the break.
post from Kmareka.com on 06 April 2013 02:00:36 PM. ? Kmareka.com
Reblogged from Climate Connections:
By Ryan Koronowski, April 2, 2013. Source: Think Progress
A technicality has spared Exxon from having to pay any money into the fund that will be covering most of the clean up costs of its Arkansas pipelinespill.
The cleanup efforts themselves took a sobering turn as crews found injured and dead duckscovered in oil.
The environmental impacts of an oil spill in central Arkansas began to come into focus Monday as officials said a couple of dead ducks and 10 live oily birds were found after an ExxonMobil Corp.
Read more? 335 more words
Scary pipeline oil spill in Arkansas.
Read The Full Article: http://kmareka.com/2013/04/06/exxons-duck-killing-pipeline-wont-pay-taxes-to-oil- spill-clean-up-fund/
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The woman, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, was 24 years old and had been staying on the New Beauty houseboat, one of hundreds of old British floating hotels on the side of Srinagar's celebrated Dal Lake, for 25 days.
The owner, G.M Shoda, said he and the victim had become friends and she was "like a daughter" to him.
The woman and the Dutch tourist were the only guests staying on the houseboat and had been sitting on the deck until midnight when she went to bed. Later, at around 2.30 in the morning, the owner's sons heard an argument and screams, and went to investigate. They said they saw the Dutch tourist leaving the houseboat in a traditional shikara rowing boat and that he capsized and swam to the shore. They then found the victim lying dead in a pool of blood in her room with multiple stab wounds.
Kashmir's Deputy Inspector-General, Afad ul-Mujtaba, told the Telegraph that a Dutch national, Richard De Wit, was arrested for the murder after police stopped a taxi in Qazi Gund, just under 50 miles from Srinagar, at around 4 am this morning.
Mr Mujtaba said reports that the victim had been raped were unconfirmed and that detectives would not know more until a post-mortem had been carried out. People convicted of rape and murder in India can face the death penalty. Last month India passed new tougher laws and sentences for sexual offences following the national outcry over the gang rape and murder of a 23 year old student in Delhi.
Since then two foreign tourists have been attacked, a Swiss woman who was gang-raped as she and her husband camped overnight during a cycling holiday in central India, and a British woman who jumped two floors from her Agra hotel room to flee an alleged sexual assault by the manager.
The police said the British victim and the Dutch suspect had not been friendly with each other and although they were both sitting on the houseboat deck last night [SAT], they had not spoken to each other. "The girl went to sleep at about 12 o'clock and the Dutch man was outside until 12.30am," Mr Mujtaba said. "After that everyone, including the houseboat owner and staff went to sleep. At around 2.30am, they [the owner and his son] heard some cries, possibly some quarrelling."
A knife was found near the victim's body and there was evidence that her room door had been forced open, police added.
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis directed the Vatican on Friday to act decisively on clergy sex abuse cases and take measures against pedophile priests, saying the Catholic Church's "credibility" was on the line. The announcement was quickly dismissed by victims' advocates as just more talk.
Clergy abuse victims have called for swift and bold action from Francis as soon as he was elected pope last month. Yet in his homeland, Roman Catholic activists had characterized him as being slow to act against such abuse in his years heading the Argentine church.
Friday's development left victims' advocates unimpressed.
"Once again, has have happened hundreds of times already, a top Catholic official says he's asking another top Catholic official to take action about pedophile priests and complicit bishops," said Barbara Dorris, an official of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a U.S.-based organization.
"Big deal. Actions speak louder than words. And one of the first actions Pope Francis took was to visit perhaps the most high-profile corrupt prelate on the planet, Cardinal Bernard Law, who remains a powerful church official despite having been drummed out of Boston for hiding and enabling crimes by hundreds of child molesting clerics," Dorris said in a statement.
The clergy child abuse scandals in many countries have drained morale and finances from the church, driving countless Catholics away, especially in Western Europe. Some dioceses have had to close parishes and take other drastic actions after paying out millions for counseling and other compensation to victims in cases settled in and out of court.
The Vatican's brief announcement about Francis' meeting Friday with the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ? the office that shapes and enforces policy on what to do about any abuse allegations and what happens to the abusers ? depicted Francis as urging assertive action to protect minors.
"The Holy Father in a special way urged that the Congregation, following the line sought by Benedict XVI, act decisively in sex abuse cases, above all promoting measures to protect minors, assistance for all those who in the past suffered such violence, necessary measures against the guilty," the statement said of Francis' meeting with Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller.
The Vatican quoted Francis as saying abuse victims were always present "in his attention and in his prayers."
On March 19 ? the day Francis was formally installed as pope ? an activist group in Buenos Aires urged him to apologize for what it called church protection for two priests later convicted of sexually assaulting children. Separately, a lawyer for some of the victims said the future pope, then-Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, had not met with or helped the abuse victims and contended that mid-level church officials who covered up the abuse haven't lost their jobs.
Bishop Accountability, a prominent church activist group, has described Bergoglio as being behind the curve in the Catholic Church's global struggle to deal with widespread cases of sex abuse by its clergy. It also has urged him to order his former diocese in Buenos Aires to release the complete files on the two abusive priests.
Many victims' advocacy groups contend that the late Pope John Paul II was too protective of clergy, and that a de facto policy of shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish or diocese to diocese held sway under his long papacy.
Benedict, his successor, was the first pope to meet with those who were sexually abused by clergy. In 2010, Benedict issued an apology to Ireland for chronic abuse there over several decades. He also ordered a drastic overall of a conservative religious order, the Legionaries of Christ, which was a favorite of John Paul, but whose founder sexually abused seminarians.
However, Benedict disappointed victims by not disciplining church higher-ups who had shielded the abusive priests.
Francis has set a tone of humility for his papacy and victims will be watching closely to see if he will meet with them, promote zero tolerance for abusers and perhaps issue an overarching church apology for the systemic cover-ups by church hierarchy in many countries.
As for the issue with Cardinal Law, Francis saw him the morning after his election as pope when he went to St. Mary Major's Basilica in Rome. Law, the disgrace former archbishop of Boston, had been named by John Paul to head the basilica, a plum post for aging clerics. Law later retired from that post.
Accused Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes listens at his arraignment in Centennial, Colorado in this file photo taken March 12, 2013.
By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News
A University of Denver psychiatrist treating movie-theater massacre defendant James Holmes warned police of "homicidal statements" Holmes made one month before the Aurora, Colo., attack, according to a search warrant unsealed Thursday.
Dr. Lynn Fenton reported to University of Denver Police in June that Holmes posed a threat to the public through violent comments he made to her, according to the newly released court documents.
She also advised police that Holmes had stopped seeing her but had begun threatening her via text messages.
Holmes is accused of killing 12 and injuring 70 in a gruesome attack on a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. on July 20.
According to the document, University of Denver Police alerted Aurora, Colo. authorities of the received threat shortly after the attack.
The search warrant also reveals that on July 12, shortly before the shooting, Holmes sent Fenton a notebook that contained burned $20 bills.
The documents were released late Thursday after a judge ruled?the arrest and search warrant affidavits?could be unsealed following a request from various media organizations.?
District Judge Carlos Samour said the information had largely already been made public during court proceedings. But both prosecuting and defense attorneys objected. ?
Holmes attorney's said they worried the release could hurt their client's chances at a fair trial. Prosecutors expressed concerns about the privacy of victims and witnesses.
Samour took over the case earlier this week after previous Judge?William Sylvester stepped down, unable to commit the time necessary to preside over a death penalty case. ?
On Monday,?prosecutors?announced they would seek the death penalty, despite the defense's offer to have Holmes plead guilty and serve a life sentence.?
DEAR ABBY: My husband, "Wade," and I went into a convenience store near our home that we frequent regularly. A new employee -- a pretty, much younger girl -- stared at Wade with an expression of recognition and surprise on her face. When I asked him what that was about, he laughed it off and said I was "imagining things."The next time we saw her, Wade acted nervous and started talking fast, as if trying to distract me. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact with her. She ignored me while obviously trying to lock eyes with Wade. ...
Police officers run in front of the Jackson, Miss. police station.
By Hasani Gittens, News Editor, NBC News
A deadly double shooting rocked the police headquarters in Jackson, Miss., Thursday night.
The incident began when cops brought a murder suspect to the headquarters building downtown to be interviewed Thursday afternoon, Jackson Police Chief Rebecca Coleman said.
As the suspect was being questioned in a room on the third floor, two shots rang out.
When other officers arrived, the suspect and one police officer were found shot dead, Coleman said.
Police supplied no more details late Thursday, saying the incident was still being investigated.
Local station WLBT reported that dozens of Jackson police officers could be seen crying and consoling each other around the building.
A press conference in Jackson, Mississippi confirms that both a cop and a murder suspect are dead. The incident occurred after the suspect was brought into police custody for questioning.
Apple?s (AAPL) recent decision to hire one of the leading engineers behind the Segway has some people speculating that the company is planning something big in the realm of robotics. John Morrell was set to become the director of Yale?s Center for Engineering Innovation & Design, however he promptly left the prestigious university when offered a position with Apple last year. Morrell is an expert on the interaction between humans and machines so it?s more likely than not that Apple wants his help working on a major robotics project.
[More from BGR: Anonymous threatens cyberwar on North Korea, steals 15,000 passwords]
?Since Apple discloses very little about upcoming projects, it?s anyone?s guess what Morrell is actually working on,? Ashlee Vance of Business Week explained. ?My roboticist friends think he must be working on something pretty fantastic to have quit the Yale post. My great hope is that he is indeed building a robot that transforms health care, or crafting the first mind-bending consumer 3D printer, or devising something far more spectacular.?
[More from BGR: Apple said to be giving iOS 7 a major UI overhaul]
Morrell?s hiring at Apple has reunited him with other members of the Segway team, such as former CTO Doug Field. Vance admits, however, that it?s possible Morrell may have ?become just another member of a giant consumer electronics company.? Most of his former colleagues are said to be working on Apple?s flagship devices and not some sort of Segway offshoot, while Morrell is believed to be working in the Mac software group.
With its share price plummeting in recent months and more than $130 billion in cash, Vance suggests that it may be time for Apple to begin investing more in research and development, especially with ?all-stars? such as Morrell on staff.
?A new TV could be a big win. So could a wristwatch. And since Apple is so darn secretive, it may once again surprise us all. It?s certainly possible that Apple has some top-secret skunkworks cooking up amazing things,? Vance concluded. ?It would be a shame if a company with hundreds of all-stars, such as Morrell, isn?t working on something more daring than the next gadget. Apple has so much cash on hand and imagination at the ready that it ought to be able to think up a truly bold idea worth its effort.?
NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Jason Clarke and Omar Sy will star in "Candy Store," an action thriller which "Traffic" scribe Stephen Gaghan co-wrote and will direct, Good Universe and Lionsgate announced on Thursday.
Gaghan's tale weaves together several different storylines all set in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Clarke, who just starred in "Zero Dark Thirty," will play a former secret agent who realizes a criminal syndicate he once battled has set up shop in his neighborhood. Clarke's character partners with a local cop to investigate.
Sy, who starred in French sensation "The Intouchables," will play a pimp involved in an intricate plot to harm Manhattan.
Good Universe, a finance, production and sales company founded by Mandate Pictures founders Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane, just partnered with Lionsgate on the film. Good Universe will handle international sales and start discussions at the Cannes Film Festival.
Liosngate will distribute the film in North America.
Gaghan will produce the film along with Allison Shearmur while Drake, Kahane, Nicole Brown, Allyn Stewart and Kipp Nelson will executive produce.
Effectiveness of a spray that greatly improves dry mouth sensation caused by anti-depressantsPublic release date: 3-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gerardo Gomez Moreno ggomez@ugr.es 34-958-249-025 University of Granada
Patients with dry mouth often have difficulty chewing, swallowing or even talking and their numbers have increased in recent years, due to a rise in taking medication, above all anti-depressants
Researchers from the universities of Granada and Murcia have confirmed the effectiveness of a spray containing 1% malic acid, which greatly improves xerostomy, or dry mouth, caused by anti-depressant drugs. This product, combined with xylitol and fluorides, in a spray format, stimulates saliva production in patients with this illness, thus improving their quality of life.
Xerostomy is a dry-mouth sensation that patients have, often caused by reduced salivary secretion or biochemical changes in the saliva itself. Patients with xerostomy often find difficulty in chewing, swallowing or even talking. It is a subjective sensation, whilst hyposalivation refers to an actual reduction in salivary flow, meaning that it is objective and, therefore, quantifiable.
As the main author of this study, University of Granada lecturer, Gerardo Gomez Moreno, explains, one of the main causes of dry mouth is the consumption of different medications. "There are over 500 drugs, belonging to 42 pharmacological groups, which can provoke xerostomy as a side effect. Those that are most related are anti-depressants, the prescription of which has increased over recent years, thus leading to a higher number of patients with xerostomy from taking anti-depressive drugs, above all in 45-50 year olds".
Clinical trial using 70 patients
The University of Granada research was carried out in a double-blind randomized clinical trial on 70 patients diagnosed with anti-depressant-induced xerostomy, split into two (2) groups. The first group of 35 patients took a sialogogue mouth spray (1% malic acid), while the second group also consisting of 35 patients received a placebo. Both products were applied on demand over two (2) weeks. To check the xerostomy both before and after applying both the product and the placebo, the researchers used a specific questionnaire, called the Dry Mouth Questionnaire (DMQ).
Dr. Gomez Moreno points out that are various therapeutic possibilities for treating xerostomy (sialogogues, salivary substitutes, other general treatments), "although the effectiveness of many of them are controversial. For example, some studies have described citric and malic acid as salivary stimulants, even though, for years, their use was rejected due to the possible de-mineralizing effect on tooth enamel". However, recent research has shown that there is a reduction in the potential de-mineralizing effect of malic acid when used in the correct concentration and when combined with xylitol and fluorides.
###
The University of Granada researchers, who belong to the "Pharmacological Research Group into Dentistry CTS-654", backed by the Andalusian Regional Government, have published their results in the latest edition of the Official American Journal on Depression and Anxiety.
References:
The efficacy of a topical sialogogue spray containing 1% malic acid in patients with antidepressant-induced dry mouth: A double-blind, randomized clinical trial
Gomez-Moreno, G , Aguilar-Salvatierra, A., Guardia, J., Uribe-Marioni, A., Cabrera-Ayala, M., Delgado-Ruiz, R.A., Calvo-Guirado, J.L. Depression and Anxiety
Volume 30, Issue 2, February 2013, Pages 137-142
The full article can be consulted at: http://sl.ugr.es/03zw
[ | 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.
Effectiveness of a spray that greatly improves dry mouth sensation caused by anti-depressantsPublic release date: 3-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gerardo Gomez Moreno ggomez@ugr.es 34-958-249-025 University of Granada
Patients with dry mouth often have difficulty chewing, swallowing or even talking and their numbers have increased in recent years, due to a rise in taking medication, above all anti-depressants
Researchers from the universities of Granada and Murcia have confirmed the effectiveness of a spray containing 1% malic acid, which greatly improves xerostomy, or dry mouth, caused by anti-depressant drugs. This product, combined with xylitol and fluorides, in a spray format, stimulates saliva production in patients with this illness, thus improving their quality of life.
Xerostomy is a dry-mouth sensation that patients have, often caused by reduced salivary secretion or biochemical changes in the saliva itself. Patients with xerostomy often find difficulty in chewing, swallowing or even talking. It is a subjective sensation, whilst hyposalivation refers to an actual reduction in salivary flow, meaning that it is objective and, therefore, quantifiable.
As the main author of this study, University of Granada lecturer, Gerardo Gomez Moreno, explains, one of the main causes of dry mouth is the consumption of different medications. "There are over 500 drugs, belonging to 42 pharmacological groups, which can provoke xerostomy as a side effect. Those that are most related are anti-depressants, the prescription of which has increased over recent years, thus leading to a higher number of patients with xerostomy from taking anti-depressive drugs, above all in 45-50 year olds".
Clinical trial using 70 patients
The University of Granada research was carried out in a double-blind randomized clinical trial on 70 patients diagnosed with anti-depressant-induced xerostomy, split into two (2) groups. The first group of 35 patients took a sialogogue mouth spray (1% malic acid), while the second group also consisting of 35 patients received a placebo. Both products were applied on demand over two (2) weeks. To check the xerostomy both before and after applying both the product and the placebo, the researchers used a specific questionnaire, called the Dry Mouth Questionnaire (DMQ).
Dr. Gomez Moreno points out that are various therapeutic possibilities for treating xerostomy (sialogogues, salivary substitutes, other general treatments), "although the effectiveness of many of them are controversial. For example, some studies have described citric and malic acid as salivary stimulants, even though, for years, their use was rejected due to the possible de-mineralizing effect on tooth enamel". However, recent research has shown that there is a reduction in the potential de-mineralizing effect of malic acid when used in the correct concentration and when combined with xylitol and fluorides.
###
The University of Granada researchers, who belong to the "Pharmacological Research Group into Dentistry CTS-654", backed by the Andalusian Regional Government, have published their results in the latest edition of the Official American Journal on Depression and Anxiety.
References:
The efficacy of a topical sialogogue spray containing 1% malic acid in patients with antidepressant-induced dry mouth: A double-blind, randomized clinical trial
Gomez-Moreno, G , Aguilar-Salvatierra, A., Guardia, J., Uribe-Marioni, A., Cabrera-Ayala, M., Delgado-Ruiz, R.A., Calvo-Guirado, J.L. Depression and Anxiety
Volume 30, Issue 2, February 2013, Pages 137-142
The full article can be consulted at: http://sl.ugr.es/03zw
[ | 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.
President Barack Obama speaks about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama speaks about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama listens as National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis S. Collins speaks about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama leaves the stage in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, after he spoke about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama announces the BRIAN, Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies proposal, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, East Room of the White House in Washington. The president is asking Congress to spend $100 million next year to start a new project to map the human brain in hopes of eventually finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer's. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed an effort to map the brain's activity in unprecedented detail, as a step toward finding better ways to treat such conditions as Alzheimer's, autism, stroke and traumatic brain injuries.
He asked Congress to spend $100 million next year to start a project that will explore details of the brain, which contains 100 billion cells and trillions of connections.
That's a relatively small investment for the federal government ? less than a fifth of what NASA spends every year just to study the sun ? but it's too early to determine how Congress will react.
Obama said the so-called BRAIN Initiative could create jobs, and told scientists gathered in the White House's East Room that the research has the potential to improve the lives of billions of people worldwide.
"As humans we can identify galaxies light-years away," Obama said. "We can study particles smaller than an atom, but we still haven't unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears."
Scientists unconnected to the project praised the idea.
BRAIN stands for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. The idea, which Obama first proposed in his State of the Union address, would require the development of new technology that can record the electrical activity of individual cells and complex neural circuits in the brain "at the speed of thought," the White House said.
Obama wants the initial $100 million investment to support research at the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation. He also wants private companies, universities and philanthropists to partner with the federal agencies in support of the research. And he wants a study of the ethical, legal and societal implications of the research.
The goals of the work are unclear at this point. A working group at NIH, co-chaired by Cornelia "Cori" Bargmann of The Rockefeller University and William Newsome of Stanford University, would work on defining the goals and develop a multi-year plan to achieve them that included cost estimates.
The $100 million request is "a pretty good start for getting this project off the ground," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health told reporters in a conference call. While the ultimate goal applies to the human brain, some work will be done in simpler systems of the brains of animals like worms, flies and mice, he said.
Collins said new understandings about how the brain works may also provide leads for developing better computers.
Brain scientists unconnected with the project were enthusiastic.
"This is spectacular," said David Fitzpatrick, scientific director and CEO of the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience in Jupiter, Fla., which focuses on studying neural circuits and structures.
While current brain-scanning technologies can reveal the average activity of large populations of brain cells, the new project is aimed at tracking activity down to the individual cell and the tiny details of cell connections, he said. It's "an entirely different scale," he said, and one that can pay off someday in treatments for a long list of neurological and psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, Parkinson's, depression, epilepsy and autism.
"Ultimately, you can't fix it if you don't know how it works," he said. "We need this fundamental understanding of neuronal circuits, their structure, their function and their development in order to make progress on these disorders."
"This investment in fundamental brain science is going to pay off immensely in the future," Fitzpatrick said.
Richard Frackowiak, a co-director of Europe's Human Brain Project, which is funded by the European Commission, said he was delighted by the announcement.
"From our point of view as scientists we can only applaud and say we will collaborate as much as possible," he said. "The opportunities for a massive worldwide collaborative effort to solve the problem of neurodegeneration and psychiatric disease will ... really become absolutely feasible," he said. "We need that."
Ocean acidification, which occurs as CO2 is absorbed by the world's oceans, is a source of concern for marine scientists worldwide. Studies on coral, mollusks, and other ocean denizens are helping to paint a picture of what the future might entail for specific species, should carbon emissions continue to increase.
In a new study published in Global Change Biology, University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science researchers Sean Bignami, Su Sponaugle, and Robert Cowen are the first to study the effects of acidification on the larvae of cobia (Rachycentron canandum). Cobia are large tropical fish that spawn in pelagic waters, highly mobile as they mature, and a popular species among recreational anglers.
The team reared cobia in tanks with different levels of CO2 saturation looking for effects on growth, development, otolith (ear stone) formation, swimming ability, and activity level during the vulnerable larval stage of these fish. They found that cobia showed remarkable resistance to end-of-century acidification scenarios in terms of growth, development, and activity. However, more extreme acidification scenarios caused reduced larval size and a 2-3 day delay in their development. The study also reports a significant increase in otolith size at the most mild acidification conditions reported to date.
"The larval period is a critical stage in the marine fish lifecycle and the ability of cobia larvae to withstand 'business-as-usual' scenarios of ocean acidification provides an optimistic outlook for this species. However, research on this topic is still limited and if our findings on otolith formation are any indicator, then these fish are not entirely resistant to acidification," said Bignami, a Marine Biology and Fisheries PhD candidate at UM.
The study is the first to report impacts of ocean acidification on a large, pelagic tropical fish species. "We need additional studies on study how fish, especially those that are ecologically and economically important, react to these environmental changes if we want to find ways to potentially mitigate the effects," Bignami added.
Cobia larvae used in this study were produced from broodstock raised at the UM Experimental Hatchery.
###
University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu
Thanks to University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science for this article.
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As the U.S. deploys a Navy missile destroyer in case of a launch by North Korea, the country's leader Kim Jong Un has abolished an armistice with South Korea and is now saying he will re-open a nuclear bomb facility that was closed in 2007. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
By Ian Johnston and Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned that the United States should be ?very concerned? by the level of ?provocation and bellicosity? emanating from North Korea, as the rogue communist state announced it was going to restart all its nuclear facilities.
Panetta told CNBC in an interview that the U.S., Japan and South Korea had to be ?very firm in sending them a message that we are going to do everything necessary to defend our security and defend our troops.? He said there was a danger of a "miscalculation" that escalated.
The North continued to make threats Tuesday, and said it would rebuild and restart nuclear facilities, including a reactor that can make one bomb's worth of plutonium a year.
Panetta said the amount of hostility emanating from Pyongyang was alarming.
?I think we've got to be very concerned about ... the level of provocation that North Korea is engaged in. They are in the process of testing ICBMs [Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles]. They've also been testing nuclear weapons,? he said.
NBC's Jim Maceda reports on U.S. Navy movements of destroyers into the Pacific amid threats from North Korea.
?The kind of provocation and bellicosity they're showing now with their rhetoric raises a lot of concern,? he added. ?It just means the United States and our allies Japan and South Korea have to be very firm in sending them a message that we are going to do everything necessary to defend our security and defend our troops.?
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took time out of an official visit to Andorra on Tuesday to say that the North Korean crisis had "already gone too far" and that he was "deeply troubled" by it.
"Nuclear threats are not a game," Ban said, adding that "things must begin to calm down" or they "could lead down a path that nobody should want to follow."
He closed his remarks by offering to facilitate peace talks, but how the North would react was not immediately clear. Ban was South Korea's foreign affairs minister before election to his UN post.
'Be very prepared' Panetta noted that over the last 50 or 60 years the North had gone through cycles of ?provocation? and ?accommodation.?
?A lot of this is aimed more probably on the internal situation in North Korea, aimed at improving the new leader's credibility, his credentials as a leader,? he said.
?But at the same time since they have capabilities and [are] developing those capabilities, I don't think we can take anything for granted. The U.S., South Korea and our other partners in that region have to be very prepared in the event that something could happen here. I think the greater likelihood is miscalculation and if they do something that escalates quickly that's the greater danger,? he added.
A spokesman for the North's General Department of Atomic Energy said restarting its nuclear facilities was part of efforts to resolve the country's acute electricity shortage, but also for "bolstering up the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity," the official Korean Central News Agency said, according to Reuters.
Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions that have infuriated its leaders and led to a torrent of threatening rhetoric. The United States has sent nuclear-capable bombers and stealth jets to participate in annual South Korean-U.S. military drills that the allies call routine but that Pyongyang claims are invasion preparations.
As North Korean state TV shows constant images of the army bombarding South Korea, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is saying his missiles are at the ready and has cut off emergency communications. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
KCNA kept up the rhetoric on its English-language site Tuesday, with an article headlined ?Intensified Anti-U.S. Action Called For.?
It quoted the ?North Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration? as saying in a statement that the joint U.S. and South Korean military exercise ?clearly proves that the U.S. imperialists' scenario to launch a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula at any cost has reached an extremely reckless phase of its implementation.?
?As already clarified by the DPRK [North Korea], gone are the days when it could have verbal exchange with them,? the statement said.
?To wage a merciless, just, retaliatory war is the only way of rooting out the source of the danger of a nuclear war on this land and build a peaceful and prosperous reunified thriving nation where all Koreans live together,? it added.
Reuters and NBC News' Andrea Mitchell and John Newland contributed to this report.
Related:
US Navy shifts destroyer in wake of North Korea missile threats
US official warns North Korea is no 'paper tiger'
Analyst: Threats are predictable, Kim Jong Un is not
This story was originally published on Tue Apr 2, 2013 4:39 AM EDT
Contact: A'ndrea Elyse Messer aem1@psu.edu 814-865-9481 Penn State
Increases in ground-level ozone, especially in rural areas, may interfere not only with predator insects finding host plants, but also with pollinators finding flowers, according to researchers from Penn State and the University of Virginia.
"Ozone pollution has great potential to perniciously alter key interactions between plants and animals," the researchers said in a recent issue of Environmental Research Letters.
The animal tested in this case was the striped cucumber beetle, a predator of cucurbits -- cucumber, squash, pumpkin and melons. These insects dine on the plants from the moment they emerge from the ground and when fruit forms, they eat that as well.
"Insects detect odor with olfactory receptors located on their antennae," said Jose D. Fuentes, professor of meteorology, Penn State. "These receptors sense plant-emitted volatile organic compounds in very small amounts -- as low as six molecules hitting an antenna."
However, ozone, which is a very reactive substance, degrades the volatile organic compounds when they mix to the point where they no longer stimulate the olfactory system.
Fuentes, working with John Zenker, Penn State undergraduate in meteorology, and T'ai H. Roulston, research associate professor and curator, Blandy Experimental Farm, University of Virginia, tested the beetles in an enclosed Y-tube apparatus so that the insect could choose which branch to take. Researchers collected the insects from pumpkin and squash plants. They tested the insects using buffalo gourd plants, a naturally growing wild gourd that likes semiarid areas.
Separate air streams flowed into the two branches of the Y-tube. Choices of air in each tube were ambient filtered air, ambient filtered air plus up to 120 parts per million ozone, ambient filtered air plus volatile organic compounds, or air plus up to 120 parts per billion ozone and volatile organic compounds from the plant. To obtain this mix, or only ozone or volatile organic compounds, that branch flowed either to a plant chamber or ozone generator or both.
The researchers tested the insects with all ambient air, with ambient air and ozone, with ambient air and volatile organic compounds, and with ambient air and a mix of ozone and volatile organic compounds. When presented with an ambient air or volatile organic compound airstream, the beetles chose the volatile organic compound tube 80 percent of the time.
"However, as the ozone levels increased, they chose the path to the flower less frequently," said Fuentes. "By the time the mix contained 80 parts per billion ozone, the beetles showed no preference for either tube."
The researchers also tested the beetles with volatile organic compounds and a mix of volatile organic compounds and ozone. At low ozone levels, the insects showed no preference, but as ozone levels increased, the insects increasingly preferred the ozone-free path. At 80 parts per billion, the beetles chose the volatile organic compounds without ozone significantly more often than the ozonized mixture.
While one might think that higher ozone levels in the lower atmosphere would improve crops because predator insects would be unable to find their hosts, the additional ozone would also interfere with mutualistic insect plant responses such as pollination.
###
The National Science Foundation supported this research.
[ | 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.
Contact: A'ndrea Elyse Messer aem1@psu.edu 814-865-9481 Penn State
Increases in ground-level ozone, especially in rural areas, may interfere not only with predator insects finding host plants, but also with pollinators finding flowers, according to researchers from Penn State and the University of Virginia.
"Ozone pollution has great potential to perniciously alter key interactions between plants and animals," the researchers said in a recent issue of Environmental Research Letters.
The animal tested in this case was the striped cucumber beetle, a predator of cucurbits -- cucumber, squash, pumpkin and melons. These insects dine on the plants from the moment they emerge from the ground and when fruit forms, they eat that as well.
"Insects detect odor with olfactory receptors located on their antennae," said Jose D. Fuentes, professor of meteorology, Penn State. "These receptors sense plant-emitted volatile organic compounds in very small amounts -- as low as six molecules hitting an antenna."
However, ozone, which is a very reactive substance, degrades the volatile organic compounds when they mix to the point where they no longer stimulate the olfactory system.
Fuentes, working with John Zenker, Penn State undergraduate in meteorology, and T'ai H. Roulston, research associate professor and curator, Blandy Experimental Farm, University of Virginia, tested the beetles in an enclosed Y-tube apparatus so that the insect could choose which branch to take. Researchers collected the insects from pumpkin and squash plants. They tested the insects using buffalo gourd plants, a naturally growing wild gourd that likes semiarid areas.
Separate air streams flowed into the two branches of the Y-tube. Choices of air in each tube were ambient filtered air, ambient filtered air plus up to 120 parts per million ozone, ambient filtered air plus volatile organic compounds, or air plus up to 120 parts per billion ozone and volatile organic compounds from the plant. To obtain this mix, or only ozone or volatile organic compounds, that branch flowed either to a plant chamber or ozone generator or both.
The researchers tested the insects with all ambient air, with ambient air and ozone, with ambient air and volatile organic compounds, and with ambient air and a mix of ozone and volatile organic compounds. When presented with an ambient air or volatile organic compound airstream, the beetles chose the volatile organic compound tube 80 percent of the time.
"However, as the ozone levels increased, they chose the path to the flower less frequently," said Fuentes. "By the time the mix contained 80 parts per billion ozone, the beetles showed no preference for either tube."
The researchers also tested the beetles with volatile organic compounds and a mix of volatile organic compounds and ozone. At low ozone levels, the insects showed no preference, but as ozone levels increased, the insects increasingly preferred the ozone-free path. At 80 parts per billion, the beetles chose the volatile organic compounds without ozone significantly more often than the ozonized mixture.
While one might think that higher ozone levels in the lower atmosphere would improve crops because predator insects would be unable to find their hosts, the additional ozone would also interfere with mutualistic insect plant responses such as pollination.
###
The National Science Foundation supported this research.
[ | 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.
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