Landrieu Primed to Lead Energy Panel ? If She Wins Reelection

It?s been 18 years since Louisiana saw one of its own lead the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, arguably the most important congressional panel to the energy-rich state.

Now, with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., announcing last week he is retiring after this session of Congress, Louisianans have another chance to lead Energy and Natural Resources with their Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, who faces a tough reelection in a red state that voted 58 percent in favor of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.

Landrieu is the third-most-senior Democrat on the Energy panel, after current Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon and Tim Johnson of South Dakota. But Johnson has already announced he is retiring after this Congress, and Wyden also happens to be the second-most-senior Democrat on the Finance Committee, considered one of the most powerful?and therefore coveted?panels in Congress. In the wake of this domino effect prompted by Baucus?s retirement announcement, Landrieu coould become the top Democrat on the Energy committee.

?I thought she was in good shape politically before the Baucus retirement,? said former Sen. Bennett Johnston, D-La., who chaired the Energy panel from 1987 to 1995. ?But I think since the Baucus retirement, it pretty much seals the deal. Louisianans understand how important the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is to the state.?

That?s a confident take on an outcome dependent on several big open questions. Will Democrats keep control of the Senate? Will the current chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee choose to take the Finance Committee gavel in 2014, as conventional wisdom suggests? Will chairing a congressional committee make a big difference in a political campaign, because voters could well care less about such inside-baseball issues and more about the economy generally? Will Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., try to maneuver around Landrieu?whose views on energy are more conservative than those of almost every other Democrat in the Senate?to ensure a more moderate Democrat gets the committee?s top spot?

With fewer than 200 days to go until Election Day 2013, it?s not too early to start speculating, but it is too early to confidently know the answers to any of these questions.

For her part, Landrieu is already articulating one of her key reelection platforms, and it?s intricately tied to her leadership on the Energy committee.

?Without sounding braggadocious, I?m indispensable in this effort to secure for Louisiana a significant and reliable string of revenue to save our coast,? Landrieu said in an interview with The Times-Picayune?about a week before Baucus announced his plans to retire.

Landrieu is implicitly referring to legislation she is sponsoring, along with Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, which would immediately direct to coastal states more than a third of the money companies drilling for oil and natural gas offshore pay to the federal government. Current law will direct this money to coastal states beginning in 2017. Landrieu says the additional money would be instrumental in restoring and maintaining Louisiana?s coastlines. Wyden has expressed an interest in pursuing her legislation this Congress, but it?s unlikely it will become law before Election Day 2013.

?She will be working to convince the people of Louisiana they have more to gain by having a moderate voice in Washington who has great seniority at this point than they do to elect a new senator and start all over again,? said Gordon Taylor, a principal at lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations who has worked in the Louisiana delegation for 12 years and knows Landrieu well.

Since her first election in 1996, Landrieu has never won more than 52 percent of the vote. And over the past 17 years, the state has become more Republican. Of the eight elected federal public offices in the state, six are held by Republicans, including Landrieu?s fellow senator, David Vitter, and the governor, Bobby Jindal. Most polling shows Landrieu slightly ahead of any of her potential challengers, including current Louisiana Republican Reps. Bill Cassidy and John Fleming and former Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report predicts it will be ?one of the more competitive contests of the cycle.? She also has more cash on hand than any of her challengers, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

The political dynamics of Landrieu?s reelection campaign could well rest on issues other than energy, despite the state?s dependence on the industry. Her recent vote in support of expanding background checks for guns, for example, could turn off voters in the deep-red southern part of the state. The prospect of becoming chair of the Energy committee could help more in her pocketbook than in voting booths.

?I?m sure it?ll help her raise money," said John Maginnis, a Louisiana strategist who writes a weekly political newsletter. "But I don?t know if it?s going to change the real composition of the race.?

TOMORROW: A look at the dynamics Landrieu must address if she does become the top Democrat on the Energy committee.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/landrieu-primed-lead-energy-panel-she-wins-reelection-132501481.html

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Italy's Letta launches government with call for growth

By James Mackenzie

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new Prime Minister Enrico Letta pledged to push for a change to the European Union's focus on austerity and pursue growth and jobs in an inaugural speech on Monday laying out the priorities for his coalition government.

Speaking ahead of a confidence vote in the lower house, Letta said Italy could not afford to focus simply on trying to cut its huge public debt and needed a new emphasis on lifting the economy out of recession.

He will be backed by his own center-left Democratic Party, Silvio Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party as well as centrists led by former prime minister Mario Monti, with a second vote in the Senate on Tuesday.

"We will die of fiscal consolidation alone, growth policies cannot wait any longer," Letta said, noting that the country's economic situation remains "serious" after more than a decade of stagnation.

However he pledged to stick to Italy's budget commitments to its European Union partners, announcing he would visit Brussels, Paris and Berlin this week.

Financial market reaction to Letta's appointment and the end of months of political stalemate after last February's inconclusive election was positive, with bond yields falling and shares rising.

Italy's cost of borrowing dropped to its lowest since October 2010 at an auction of medium and long term bonds on Monday.

But Letta, who was pushed into a coalition with Berlusconi after the center-left fell short of a viable parliamentary majority in February, now faces a battle to maintain the unity of his government while passing potentially difficult reforms.

He paid tribute to two police officers shot by an unemployed man on Sunday as his cabinet was being sworn in and called for a calmer and more responsible political climate.

Responding to Berlusconi's demands for an unpopular housing tax to be scrapped, Letta said payments due in June would be halted prior to a wider overhaul of property taxes but he did not promise to abolish the tax altogether.

He also said he hoped an increase in sales tax, which would see the main rate rise from 21 percent to 22 percent planned for July, could be delayed.

In a speech laying out an ambitious program of reforms, Letta said the welfare system would have to be strengthened, taxes weighing on employment and young people would be cut and measures to get more women into the workforce would be passed.

He promised to change the current electoral law, which contributed heavily to the inconclusive election result in February and left Italy in political limbo for two months as the parties wrangled over forming a government.

He also said he would review the progress of reforms in 18 months' time and if he felt that he had been blocked by other parties he would not hesitate to assume the consequences, an apparent suggestion that he would resign.

(Additional reporting by Catherine Hornby, Gavin Jones, Steve Scherer, Naomi O'Leary)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italys-letta-government-begins-life-climate-crisis-050501937.html

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LG unveils Optimus GK in Korea, brings G Pro features in a 5-inch package

Not tired of seeing different versions of the Optimus G? LG has just revealed another variant for Korean customers: the Optimus GK. Similar to the one-off Optimus G Pro it delivered in Japan on NTT DoCoMo, this handset has features pinched from the 5.5-inch Pro (1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 CPU, 2GB RAM) squeezed into a more-pocketable 5-inch frame. The 1080p screen here (440PPI) is Full HD IPS like the one we're expecting to see in AT&T's Optimus G Pro in a few days, matched a 3,100mAh battery, 16GB of storage, microSD slot and 13MP/2MP rear/front camera setup. This particular variant had been rumored to launch at MWC but is only now being announced for Korean carrier KT, we'll see how many more twists LG can wring out of the Optimus G platform before delivering a true sequel later this year.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG

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Source: LG Korea

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/28/lg-optimus-gk-5-inch-kt/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Hop, skip or jump? Study says no to all of the above

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Osteoarthritis, which affects at least 20 percent of adults in the United States, leads to deterioration of cartilage, the rubbery tissue that prevents bones from rubbing together. By studying the molecular properties of cartilage, MIT engineers have now discovered how the earliest stages of arthritis make the tissue more susceptible to damage from physical activities such as running or jumping.

The findings could help researchers develop tests to diagnose arthritis earlier in patients at high risk for the disease and also guide engineers in designing replacement cartilage. The results also suggest that athletes who suffer traumatic knee injuries, such as a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ? which gives them a greater chance of developing arthritis later in life ? should be cautious when returning to their sport following surgery.

"It's a clear signal to be careful of going right back out," says Alan Grodzinsky, an MIT professor of biological, electrical and mechanical engineering and senior author of a paper describing the findings in a recent issue of the Biophysical Journal. "Even though your knee may be stabilized, there's the possibility that deformation of cartilage at a high loading rate is still going to put it at risk."

Cartilage is packed with protein-sugar complexes known as aggrecans, each made of about 100 highly charged molecules called glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Those molecules protect joints by absorbing water and causing the tissue to stiffen as pressure is applied.

"The cartilage is a stiff sponge, filled with fluid, and as we compress it, fluid has to percolate through these closely spaced GAG chains," Grodzinsky says. "The GAG chains provide resistance to flow, so the water can't get out of our cartilage instantly when we compress it. That pressurization at the nanoscale increases the stiffness of our cartilage to high-loading-rate activities."

The MIT team set out to investigate how the molecular structure of GAG generates this stiffening over such a wide range of activity ? from sitting and doing nothing to running or jumping at high speed. To do this, they developed a new, highly sensitive type of atomic force microscopy (AFM), allowing them to measure how aggrecan reacts at the nanoscale to very high loading rates (the speeds at which forces are applied).

Conventional AFM, which generates high-resolution images by "feeling" the surface of a sample with a tiny probe tip, can also be used to subject samples to cyclic loading to measure their nanomechanical properties. But conventional AFM can apply only up to about 300 hertz (cycles per second). Hadi Tavakoli Nia, the lead author of the paper, and Iman Soltani Bozchalooi, both graduate students in mechanical engineering, developed a modified system that can apply much higher frequencies ? up to 10 kilohertz, frequencies relevant to impact loading of joints.

'A very floppy sponge'

Using this system, the researchers compared normal cartilage and cartilage treated with an enzyme that destroys GAG chains, mimicking the initial stages of osteoarthritis. In this early phase, collagen, which gives cartilage its structure, is usually still intact.

The researchers found that when exposed to very high loading rates ? similar to what would be seen during running or jumping ? normal cartilage was able to absorb fluid and stiffen normally. However, in the GAG-depleted tissue, fluid leaked out rapidly.

"That's what puts the collagen in trouble, because now this becomes a very floppy sponge, and if you load it at higher rates the collagen network can be damaged," Grodzinsky says. "At that point you begin an irreversible series of activities that can result in damage to the collagen and eventually osteoarthritis."

There is currently no good way to diagnose arthritis during those early stages, which are usually painfree. Many researchers are working to further improve magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to test for loss of aggrecan, while others are looking for blood or urine markers. If such a test existed, it would be especially useful for monitoring patients who have experienced an acute knee injury. It is estimated that at least 12 percent of all osteoarthritis cases originated with a traumatic joint injury, Grodzinsky says.

Researchers in Grodzinsky's lab are now working to identify possible drugs that might halt the loss of aggrecan, as well as designing tissue scaffolds that could be implanted into patients who need cartilage-replacement surgery. The new AFM system should be useful for testing these scaffolds, to see if cells grown on the scaffold can produce the necessary tissue stiffening at high loading rates.

"These two aspects are really important: preventing cartilage degradation after injury and, if the cartilage is already damaged beyond its ability to be repaired, replacing it," Grodzinsky says.

Other authors of the paper are Yang Li, a graduate student in biological engineering; Lin Han, a former MIT postdoc; Han-Hwa Hung, a research specialist in biological engineering; Eliot Frank, a principal research engineer in biological engineering; Kamal Youcef-Toumi, a professor of mechanical engineering; and Christine Ortiz, a professor of materials science and engineering and MIT's dean for graduate education.

###

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice

Thanks to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127800/Hop__skip_or_jump__Study_says_no_to_all_of_the_above

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More early wins for Abenomics, but Japan activity lags

By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kaori Kaneko

TOKYO (Reuters) - A small rise in Japanese exports, improving business confidence and surging investment flows demonstrated early successes for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's radical pro-growth strategy, but firms have yet to see signs of a sustained boost to economic activity.

Abe's push for aggressive fiscal and monetary policies to shock the world's third-largest economy back into life after two decades of stagnation has driven the stock market up and the yen down since November.

The shift in gears climaxed with the Bank of Japan's $1.4 trillion (917.6 billion pounds) stimulus plan announced on April 4 to virtually double the monetary base by the end of 2014.

Data on Thursday showed exports rose 1.1 percent in March from a year earlier, sentiment among manufacturers rose for a fifth straight month in April, and foreign investors bought a record amount of Japanese stocks last week as Abe's policy agenda, dubbed Abenomics, underpinned optimism for a recovery.

However, the data also showed a weaker yen is ramping up import bills, with Japan posting a record fiscal-year trade deficit of 8.17 trillion yen (54.8 billion pounds), and sentiment remains negative among manufacturers with many yet to see sizeable increases in orders or demand.

"The outlook is seen brightening as the yen has weakened, but it takes time before it leads to actual demand and orders," an electric machinery firm said in the Reuters Tankan poll, which measures sentiment among manufacturers.

WAITING FOR ORDERS

Since mid-November, the stock market has surged more than 50 percent and the yen has fallen more than 20 percent against the dollar.

That has certainly attracted the interest of foreign investors -- they bought a record 1.57 trillion yen ($16.1 billion) of Japanese stocks in the week to April 13, and bought 8.22 trillion since mid-November. Japanese investors, capitalising on the fall in the yen, are also bringing back funds from overseas.

Akira Inoue, head of global business development at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank's global fiduciary business department, said until recently foreign institutional investors had no interest in the Japanese market.

"Even after Japanese stocks' rally began late last year, many took a wait-and-see attitude. But the situation changed in March," Inoue said.

Business confidence has improved through Abe's first months in office, and the Reuters Tankan showed manufacturers' sentiment rose seven points to minus 4 in April. Further, firms expect it to turn positive in coming months.

However, they also say the real economy impact of Abenomics has been limited so far.

"The Reuters Tankan underlines rising expectations among Japanese firms for a brighter outlook, although the real economy is lagging behind those expectations," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

That is not unexpected -- it takes time for a weaker yen to boost exports and for the wealth effects of rising markets to flow through -- but the risk is if activity does not pick up, confidence in Abe and the economy could falter.

Another risk is that while policymakers can drive the yen lower to give a price advantage to Japan's exporters, they cannot control demand elsewhere.

Uncertainty about China's economy, Europe's ongoing troubles and a slow recovery in the United States all raise doubts about how much export demand can increase, whatever the yen's value.

"The broad picture remains intact as the weaker yen is having more of an impact on boosting imports than exports, while the recovery in the world economy, particularly China, is tepid," said Minami.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau; Writing by John Mair; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-exports-rise-weak-yen-helps-business-mood-004255258--business.html

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Mauritania says holding Canadian linked to suspected militants

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The North African nation of Mauritania says it has detained a Canadian citizen linked to two other Canadians who died while fighting with militants during an attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria in January.

The confirmation that Mauritania is holding the man, Aaron Yoon, follows a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation report that, before his arrest, Yoon had studied the Koran there with unidentified Americans and Europeans.

Bernard Colas, Mauritania's consul in Montreal, told Reuters on Friday that Yoon, from London, Ontario, was arrested months ago - before the Algeria attack - and is being held in connection with an investigation into "serious" matters. He declined to be more precise.

Colas said that Yoon was in good health and was being well treated. He said that Yoon had been visited by Canadian diplomats based in Morocco and that a lawyer was soon expected to be appointed to help Yoon prepare his defense.

Western security officials said it is likely some English-speakers from the United States and Europe, including Britain, had gone to North Africa to fight with militants.

Ray Boisvert, until recently a top official of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said North Africa was the "latest hot spot" to attract the interest of aspiring Western militants, not least because local militant groups are "awash with weapons and money."

Security officials say Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the most prominent North African militant group, has accumulated a large war chest by kidnapping westerners for ransom and engaging in other criminal activity, including drug trafficking.

While it is known as one of the countries where AQIM has operated, Mauritania also is the home of well-regarded Islamic seminaries where students can acquire a serious religious education. Such schools are not generically regarded by Western security agencies as training grounds for militants.

Confirmation of Yoon's detention comes a day after Canadian authorities confirmed the identities of two other English-speaking Canadians from London, Ontario, who took part in the January attack on a remote natural gas facility in Algeria, which investigators believe was led by notorious militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

About 70 people, including the two Canadians, died when Algerian troops stormed the Tigantourine desert gas plant.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police identified the two as Xristos Katsiroubas and Ali Medlej.

The CBC said Yoon went to school with the two dead men, and that Yoon, who was raised a Catholic, converted to Islam before graduating from high school. Canadian reports said Katsiroubas had converted from the Greek Orthodox faith to Islam.

London's Daily Mail newspaper reported in December that a British student, Ahmed Shaheen, had been detained on the border between Mauritania and Mali as he tried to cross the desert to join the ranks of AQIM.

The number of English-speaking would-be fighters who travel to French-speaking North Africa is thought to be much smaller than the number of English-speaking militants recently traveling to other conflict zones, notably Syria and Somalia.

Reuters reported recently that officials say that between 70 and 100 recruits from Britain, and others from the United States, are currently in Syria fighting President Bashar Assad. Many are aligned with Al Nusra, a group which Washington says is a front for the group Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mauritania-says-holding-canadian-linked-suspected-militants-080647934.html

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Taiwan, Hong Kong on Alert as Bird Flu Spreads in China

Taiwan, Hong Kong on Alert as Bird Flu Spreads in China

Taiwan, Hong Kong on Alert as Bird Flu Spreads in China

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Sony unveils 30-and 56-inch professional 4K OLED monitor prototypes, shipping in May

The 56-inch OLED TV Sony trotted out at CES may not be headed to the consumer market, but it is becoming a reality, at least in the professional sector. The company announced its A Series Trimaster EL monitors at NAB today, outing a 4,096 x 2,160 30-inch model as well as a 3,840 x 2160 56-inch display. Both panels boast of wide viewing angles and low color shift, promising accurate signal reproduction for industry professionals working with 4K content. No word yet on pricing, but professionals can look forward to upgrading sometime in May 2013. Hit the break for the official press release, item skus, and a quick break down of what products the A series will be replacing.

Filed under: Displays, HD, Sony

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/07/sony-unveils-professional-4k-oled-monitor-prototypes/

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Graduate glut spells underused skills and dissatisfaction for many

Apr. 4, 2013 ? Graduates are taking up jobs that don't fully use their skills and as a result are causing high turnover for employers, claims new research published today in the journal Human Relations, published by SAGE. The findings raise questions about today's high throughput in university education.

Policy makers in many developed and developing countries envisioned high-value economies supported in part by a highly-skilled and well-paid workforce. As a result, many nations have increased higher education (HE) access, assuming that employers will be able to use this larger bank of skills effectively. However, the number of skilled jobs has not matched the rising number of skilled workers, so that today's higher qualifications no longer guarantee graduates higher earnings, or further opportunities to use and develop knowledge and skills. Many graduates are now employed in 'intermediate' level jobs previously not regarded as graduate jobs.

Belgin Okay-Somerville from the University of Aberdeen and Dora Scholarios from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, have identified five areas where emerging (intermediately skilled) graduate occupations diverge from traditional graduate occupations:

1. "Graduateness" -- the extent to which skills associated with graduate jobs are used in emerging occupations;
2. How closely a graduate's skills match those required of the job;
3. Job content, in particular job control and opportunity for skill development;
4. Job security; and
5. Pay.

Together these indicators give a benchmark of job quality, which Okay-Somerville and Scholarios examined in a sample drawn from the 2006 UK Skills Survey. Of a sample of 7787 employees, 379 met the criteria for the study. These employees worked in managerial, professional or associate professional occupations, and had 5-15 years' post-degree work experience.

The new, emerging graduate occupations offered inferior skills utilization, job content, job security and pay. Not surprisingly these lower quality jobs, marked out by less opportunity for skill use and job control, led to graduates with lower job satisfaction and organizational commitment. No matter what the occupation, job content was the most important factor for satisfaction, commitment and well-being.

There is now an abundance of evidence that a substantial minority of graduates start their careers in non-graduate low-skill, low-pay occupations. Employment in emerging occupations may imply a step up, but does not compare with traditional graduate roles.

"Generally, the findings challenge the equating of job quality with wages at the economic policy-making level, and the high-skills, high-wages agenda, which has been prominent in the UK," says Okay-Somerville. "Acceptance of intermediately skilled jobs as 'graduate occupations' without interventions designed to make better use of graduates' skills may result in 'good jobs going bad' in the graduate labor market."

The authors say their research supports an emphasis on demand-side employer-based policies aimed at job design and work organization, and offers a picture of how graduates themselves perceive various elements of job quality. Active dialogue between employer practice and skills policies should help to create 'good' graduate jobs, and to make 'bad' graduate jobs better.

This research forms part of a Human Relations special issue on job quality which features articles on what is meant by job quality and why it matters to individuals, firms and to national wellbeing, drawing on contributions from international scholars and research.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by SAGE Publications, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. B. Okay-Somerville, D. Scholarios. Shades of grey: Understanding job quality in emerging graduate occupations. Human Relations, 2013; 66 (4): 555 DOI: 10.1177/0018726712465094

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/living_well/~3/1mRKDOnPtyM/130404122236.htm

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Exhaled breath carries a molecular 'breathprint' unique to each individual

Apr. 3, 2013 ? Stable, specific 'breathprints' unique to an individual exist and may have applications as diagnostic tools in personalized medicine. Bodily fluids contain lots of information about the health status of a person. Medical doctors routinely have blood and urine analysed in order to obtain hints for infectious and metabolic diseases, to diagnose cancer and organ failure, and to check the dose of medication, based on compounds present in these body fluids.

Researchers at ETH Zurich and at the University Hospital Zurich now propose to extend such analyses to breath, and in particular to take advantage of modern high-resolution analytical methods that can provide real-time information on the chemical composition of exhaled breath.

Unbiased Chemical Analysis of Breath

The scientists developed an instrument-based version of a principle that has been known for a long time in traditional Chinese medicine: TCM doctors draw conclusions about the health state of a patient based on the smell of the exhaled breath. It is also known that trained dogs and rats can distinguish the smell of the breath of people suffering from certain variants of cancer. In these cases the entire smell of the patient's exhaled breath is gauged, which can give rise to bias. The scientists, led by Renato Zenobi, professor at the Laboratory for Organic Chemistry, aim at eliminating this bias and identifying the chemical compounds in breath. Like this, doctors should be able to use specific compounds, which are present in breath at minute concentrations, for medical diagnosis.

Using mass spectrometry, these goals can be reached, as shown in a recent study where the ETH researchers analysed the exhaled breath of eleven volunteers. They found that the chemical "fingerprint" of exhaled breath, largely based on volatile and semi-volatile metabolites, shows an individual core pattern. Each volunteer was found to have his/her own characteristic "breathprint."

Stable Pattern

Using regular measurements extending over 11 days, the researchers could furthermore show that this metabolic "breathprint" stays constant. "We did find some small variations during the day, but overall the individual pattern stays sufficiently constant to be useful for medical purposes," says Pablo Martinez-Lozano Sinues, senior scientist in Zenobi's research group. If the measurements would show too large variations, they would not be useful for medical diagnosis.

To carry out these measurements, Zenobi and his colleagues modified commercial mass spectrometers, for example by adding a breath sampling inlet line that delivers exhaled breath from a mouth piece directly into the ion source of the instrument. Mass spectra showing peaks of roughly 100 compounds in breath can be easily and rapidly obtained in this fashion. The researchers were able to identify acetone, a product of the sugar metabolism. Most of the other signals present in the "breathprints" have not been assigned yet, which is something the scientists have on their to-do-list.

Chemical fingerprints of diseases

The next step the ETH chemists plan to take is not only to elucidate the personal breathprints of individuals, but to recognize characteristic patterns of diseases with the same technology. For this endeavour, they are collaborating with medical doctors at the Division of Pulmonology of the University Hospital Zurich. "If we find a consistent pattern in patients with a given lung disease, we can develop a diagnostic tool," explains Sinues. They believe that their chances are highest to find characteristic biomarkers in the exhaled breath of patients with lung diseases, which is why they focus on these disorders. In the future, they hope to extend their methodology to other groups of diseases.

Although the potential usefulness of analysing breath for medical diagnosis has been known, it is rarely done in academic medicine. "This might be due to the fact that existing methods for breath analysis are either rather slow, or are limited to a small number of compounds that they can detect," says Sinues.

Compared to analysis of blood or urine, a significant advantage of the approach the ETH researchers have taken is that the breath fingerprint is available within seconds after delivering the breath sample. Analysing urine or blood in a specialized laboratory usually takes a lot longer. Another advantage is that exhaling into the ion source of a mass spectrometer is completely non-invasive, i.e., there is no need to poke the patient with a needle (when a blood sample is taken). "Our goal is to develop breath analysis to the point where it becomes competitive with the established analysis of blood and urine," says Malcolm Kohler, professor at the University Hospital Zurich, and one of the co-authors of the study. Regular survey of breath could, for example, be used to obtain an early warning for healthy persons with a known risk for a certain disease. It is also imaginable to monitor the progress or the side effects of an on-going medical therapy.

For this method to be accepted in the clinic, the instrumentation has to be improved. The highly sensitive and accurate mass spectrometers that are currently used for these analyses are large and expensive. Zenobi: "Small, portable mass spectrometers already exist; if their performance can be improved, they will eventually find their way into clinics and doctor's offices."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by ETH Zurich, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Martinez-Lozano Sinues P, Kohler M, Zenobi R. Human Breath Analysis May Support the Existence of Individual Metabolic Phenotypes. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8(4): e59909 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059909

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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/top_news/top_health/~3/5MoT-aJz4wQ/130403200254.htm

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Heir to Johnson & Johnson fortune dies at 76

WARSAW, Poland (AP) ? She was a Polish farmer's daughter who emigrated to the United States, a maid who worked for a wealthy American heir, and a third wife who inherited much of the Johnson & Johnson fortune after a sensational court battle with her six stepchildren.

Barbara Piasecka Johnson, the widow of J. Seward Johnson Sr., heir to millions made from bandages, baby oil and pharmaceutical products, has died at age 76.

Johnson was best known for a nasty legal battle after her husband's 1983 death, a feud that pitted her against his six children from two previous marriages. She largely prevailed, emerging with about $300 million from a fortune worth more than $500 million.

A resident of Monaco and one of the world's richest women, Johnson used her wealth to become an art collector, amassing works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Gauguin and Raphael.

Her family announced her death Thursday in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, saying she died "after a long and serious illness" and that she will be buried April 15 in Wroclaw, the southwestern Polish city where she spent much of her youth.

Johnson died in Wroclaw, said Ricky Stachowicz, general counsel for BPJ Holding Corp., Johnson's Princeton, New Jersey-based private real-estate holding company. The cause of death was not being disclosed at the request of her family, Stachowicz said.

Barbara Piasecka, who went by the diminutive "Basia," was born in 1937 in Staniewicze, in an area of prewar eastern Poland that now lies in Belarus. Her family resettled after the war in Wroclaw, where she obtained a degree in art history.

She left communist Poland, studying for a time in Rome before arriving in 1968 in the United States with $100 and no knowledge of English. She got a job working as a cook and a maid in the Oldwick, New Jersey, estate of the Johnson & Johnson heir and his second wife of more than 30 years.

A year later, she left the family to take art courses at New York University, and Johnson Sr. rented an apartment for her in Manhattan and moved in with her.

In 1971, he divorced his second wife, the mother of two of his children, and married Piasecka eight days later. None of his children attended the wedding. At the time he was 76 and she was 34.

Johnson Sr., son of the founder of Johnson & Johnson, bequeathed most of his fortune of more than $500 million to Piasecka, largely excluding from his will both his children and Harbor Branch, an oceanographic research institute in Florida that he had founded.

The children contested the will, saying they did it on principle. They depicted their stepmother as a gold-digger who used fraud, threats and abuse to coerce her ailing 87-year-old husband into signing a new version of the will and said he was not of sound mind when he did so.

He signed it six weeks before he died of prostate cancer after having changed it many times in the preceding years, each time giving more and more of his estate to his third wife.

Johnson disputed the portrayal made by her husband's children. She said her late husband chose to leave them out of his will because he had given them trust funds years earlier. She also argued that he didn't want to leave them more money because he was disappointed by what she called their greed and "scandalous behavior."

A settlement was reached in 1986 under which she kept more than $300 million, with the remaining going to Johnson Sr.'s children, the oceanographic institute, taxes and legal fees.

Johnson was not known in her homeland until the fall of communism in 1989, when she stepped in and offered millions of dollars to save the bankruptcy-threatened shipyard in Gdansk that had been the center of Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa's pro-democracy Solidarity movement.

On one occasion she was given an enthusiastic welcome by workers at the massive shipyard, even though her plan to save it fell through.

A biography provided by her lawyer focused primarily on Johnson's philanthropic and art-related activities. It noted that her paintings are loaned to museums worldwide and that she set up the Barbara Piasecka Johnson Foundation in 1974 to help the sick and needy, including people with autism.

It said she donated her large art collection to her foundation to sell, and that proceeds went to help people with autism.

A funeral Mass is planned for April 15 in the Wroclaw cathedral, after which Johnson will be buried at a cemetery in the city, according to her death notice.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heir-johnson-johnson-fortune-dies-76-095336090--finance.html

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DNA transistors pave way for living computers

Computers made from living cells, anyone? Two groups of researchers have independently built the first biological analogue of the transistor ? an integral element of modern electronics.

It should make it easier to create gadgets out of living cells, such as biosensors that detect polluted water.

A transistor acts as a switch, converting electrical inputs into output signals via logic gates. Now, Drew Endy at Stanford University in California and colleagues have designed a transistor-like device that controls the movement of an enzyme called RNA polymerase along a strand of DNA, just as electrical transistors control the flow of current through a circuit.

A different enzyme acts as the input, which depending on the sequence of the logic gates, either stops or starts the flow of polymerase. The device can also amplify its flow, another important function of transistors, allowing them to power other components in the circuit.

Because combinations of transistors can carry out computations, this should make it possible to build living gadgets with integrated control circuitry.

A similar device has been built by Timothy Lu and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but amplification gives Endy's device the edge.

Such devices will be key building blocks in cellular machines, says Paul Freemont at Imperial College London, who was not involved in either study.

For example, bacterial cells are good at detecting pathogens or chemicals, such as heavy metals, says Freemont. By redesigning the circuitry that a bacterium uses to sense things, we could produce cheap biosensors that monitor water quality. "Underpinning all of that will be these foundational components, like in electronics," he says.

For Endy, the applications are limited only by our imagination. He suggests we could one day have living bridges or buildings constructed by the self-directed growth of their natural materials, controlled by internal biological circuits, or even tiny medical "submarines" with on-board DNA computers navigating the inside of our bodies.

Journal reference: Science, 10.1126/science.1232758

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Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2a41c048/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn233370Edna0Etransistors0Epave0Eway0Efor0Eliving0Ecomputers0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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RIP Political Scrapbook - Guy Fawkes' blog

10 days, zero posts; there is no sign of life over at Britain?s leading left-wing blog. Not even ? if their lefty pals are to be believed ? the death of the welfare state and the privatisation of the NHS could revive Political Scrapbook. Nor could IDS? ?53 petition or Osborne?s dodgy figures wake them from their blogging coma. The Scrapbook twitter account, posting tweets from ?the whole Scrapbook team?, has lain dormant for over a week. Rest in peace?

UPDATE:

Source: http://order-order.com/2013/04/02/rip-political-scrapbook/

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Game Changers: Will tech take over market research?

Robert Heeg

New tech-based entrants to the market research and information business are booming. Who are they? What services do they offer? And of course, for established research suppliers, will these newcomers replace us or work alongside us?

Like most industries, market research has been strongly affected by that big disruptor, the internet. The web has changed where consumers interact, and the swift advancements in online technology have allowed an overwhelming number of new players to enter the research and information business. Mostly software based, these firms supply market research online communities (MROCs), DIY software, digital qualitative, enterprise feedback management (EFM), voice of the customer (VOC), market research outsourcing and more.

Some of these new entrants cooperate with established research suppliers, others sell their products and services directly to clients. Some regard themselves very much as research companies, others don?t.

AbsolutData is?a consulting-oriented analytics and research firm with a number of Fortune 500 clients in a wide variety of industries across more than 40 countries. It provides data analytics and marketing research services, using its India centre as the primary delivery location.??AbsolutData CEO Anil Kaul explains that part of his business provides full-service marketing research, as well as support services such as analytics with survey data, online data collection and data tabulation. Yet, he notes, his firm differs from traditional suppliers in two ways: ?First, our deep focus on analytics means that we also work with other areas in an organisation, such as CRM and marketing effectiveness, and tend to weave marketing research into such areas. Second, our focus is on providing marketing research services on an on-going retainer basis, while leveraging our delivery team in India.?

Silent partner
Norway-based QuestBack certainly doesn?t regard itself as a market research company. They ?specialise in enterprise feedback?management? social CRM and market research panel, community and survey software solutions. They?partner with research companies, providing them with best-of-breed technology to help them deliver their services to their customers, says CEO Ivar Kroghrud. ?And in addition to our technology,? he continues, ?we do have in-house methodologists that work alongside our market research clients to help support their projects and optimise the results for their customers.?

Kroghrud likes to regard QuestBack as a silent partner to research companies. ?Our technology enables market research teams to conduct the most sophisticated research powered by state-of-the-art technology,? he says. ?This also means they spend less time on data collection and management, and can spend more time where they can add the most value ? interpreting the results and making insightful recommendations to their stakeholders ? thus ensuring they keep their seat at the business decision-making table.?

Answers in minutes
Passenger is a Los Angeles-based company that provides market research online communities and both?qualitative and quantitative reports covering the results of surveys, polls, segmentation, engagement tracking, online focus groups, digital ethnography, product sampling, customer trend analysis, and usage and attitude insights. Marketing manager Kareen Vilnai explains what sets Passenger apart from regular research suppliers: ?Through a highly engaged audience, our web and mobile software platforms capture insights faster than with other methods.?

GutCheck operates out of Denver, Colorado, and provides?on-demand community platform services and access to these targeted consumers for gathering rich qualitative feedback. Clients can utilise the platform on their own or GutCheck can find the answers for them. Its focus as a company is on providing innovative technology for the marketing and research industries. The platform can be leveraged by brands, agencies, moderators and indeed research firms, says CEO Matt Warta. ?In many cases, market research companies are GutCheck customers, leveraging our platform for their own clients. These research firms want the ability to leverage a qualitative platform that provides answers to business questions in minutes.?

Fraction of the cost
In addition to the technological developments, the rise of these firms was further boosted by the difficult economic climate of recent years. Many of these software- and online-based companies claim to offer a more affordable alternative to traditional research services. AbsolutData is based in the San Francisco Bay area, with local offices throughout the US and a delivery centre in New Delhi. This makes the company very competitive, stresses Kaul. ?Most of our team is located in India, which provides a cost advantage to our clients.? At Passenger, Vilnai makes a similar claim: ?Passenger online communities is a more affordable alternative to traditional market research services.?

GutCheck even give this promise a prominent place on its website, stating ?We understand budgets are tight.? That, coupled with a commitment to deliver ?answers in minutes, not weeks,? makes them a competitor for both established and newer, web-based suppliers. Warta doesn?t deny it: ?We are more affordable versus panels and communities, and we are a fraction of the cost of in-person methods.?

At QuestBack, Kroghrud offers another reason for the newcomers? success. ?Classically, market research teams have often managed different research platforms. This becomes very time consuming from a data-gathering perspective, when you are drawing from multiple channels for a single study. We offer a comprehensive, end-to-end platform that allows you to streamline and focus your research projects on one platform.?

Working together
Despite their competitiveness, all of these young companies claim to be complementary to traditional research suppliers, rather than replacements. Anil Kaul says that his AbsolutData often works with established research firms. ?Our retained model means that we tend to work on on-going projects and develop support teams for our clients. We do provide our analytics support services to traditional market research companies.? Kroghrud, too, claims that QuestBack commonly collaborates with market research services of all varieties and disciplines. ?We have over 100 research companies that utilise our software and services, and view us as a key underlying element in their ability to deliver.?

Passenger?s Kareen Vilnai says that it depends on the client. ?We typically work across departments, with researchers, analysts, brand and product managers being the most common users.? Warta claims that GutCheck is also complementary. ?Our platform is leveraged by market research agencies as well as brands.? He cites a study published in the Harvard Business Review that suggested that consumer data is only leveraged 11% of the time to make consumer-based decisions. ?The reason this is true is that most market research takes too much time and money to be a relevant option. We believe we have a platform that can take that number much higher, which creates opportunities for those in the research industry.?

Expansion
GutCheck?s revenue grew by nearly eight times in 2012, and it is expecting significant growth in 2013. AbsolutData grew faster than 40% year-on-year for the last few years. The company recently raised US $20 million in equity funding from Fidelity Growth Partners. ?We have plans to grow our business significantly, and are planning international expansion to open offices in London, Singapore and Dubai in January, 2013,? announces Kaul.

Passenger is growing more rapidly now than ever before, says Vilnai. ?In the next few months, we are releasing new products for enterprise communities and recruitment via Facebook, adding new features to our existing web products and expanding our mobile applications.? QuestBack, too, has been experiencing impressive growth year after year. For 2013, Ivar Kroghrud says his firm is focusing on supporting its customer base and continuing to launch incremental updates and new features to the platform. ?These will continue to deliver greater efficiencies for our market research customers, so that it is easier to both capture the intelligence they need and to generate impactful reports and get into them into the hands of those that matter to the business ? from the frontline employees to the chairman of the board.?

It looks like the research industry had better get used to having these tech-based suppliers around.

Source: http://rwconnect.esomar.org/2013/04/02/game-changers-will-tech-take-over-market-research/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=game-changers-will-tech-take-over-market-research

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