Christie: Obama kept every Sandy promise

HIGHLANDS, N.J. (AP) ? New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday that President Barack Obama "has kept every promise he's made" about helping the state recover from Superstorm Sandy.

Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program on the 6-month anniversary of the deadly storm, the Republican governor said presidential politics were the last thing on his mind as he toured storm-devastated areas with Obama last fall.

"The president has kept every promise he's made," said Christie, widely considered a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. "I think he's done a good job. He kept his word."

Christie's warm embrace of Obama after the storm angered some Republicans, who said it helped tip a close presidential election to the Democrat and away from Mitt Romney, who Christie endorsed and for whom he campaigned last fall.

Christie says he and Obama have fundamentally different views on governing. But he said the two men did what needed to be done for a devastated region.

"I've got a job to do," he said. "You wake up and 7 million of your 8.8 million citizens are out of power, you're not thinking about presidential politics."

Christie challenged his critics to put themselves in his shoes while dealing with the massive storm, predicting none of them would have done anything differently.

"I have a 95 percent level of disagreement with Barack Obama," Christie said. But that did not come into play while dealing with the storm.

"We saw suffering together," Christie said. "Everything the president promised me they'd do, they've done. I don't have any complaint this morning on the issue of disaster relief."

Sandy destroyed about 360,000 homes or apartment units in New Jersey, and some areas along the shore are still devastated.

Later Monday, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan is to appear with Christie at a press conference, where it is expected the secretary will announce federal approval of New Jersey's plans to spend more than $1.8 billion in federal grants on storm rebuilding and recovery.

"We'll start to see that aid start flowing this week," Christie said on the show. "We still have tens of thousands of families who aren't back in their homes. Job One is to get the grant program going."

Congress approved more than $60 billion in Sandy relief funds, most of it for New Jersey and New York, despite opposition from many Congressional Republicans who wanted to spend less.

___

Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/christie-obama-kept-every-promise-storm-aid-115719276.html

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Jiffy for Android: Always Know Exactly Where the Time Went

It's a busy life we lead?most of us, anyway. And between work, play, family time, rest, secret-other-family time, whatever it may be that you've got going on, making sure you're distributing your time evenly can be a challenge. The simple Android fix Jiffy is here to help.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/tfHALIc9QB0/jiffy-for-android-always-know-exactly-where-the-time-w-484862331

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Obama jokes about aging during 2nd term

President Barack Obama speaks at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Saturday, April 27, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama speaks at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Saturday, April 27, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Michael Douglas poses for a photo during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Saturday, April 27, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama talks with Michael Clemente, Executive Vice President of Fox News, the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Saturday, April 27, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama looks to the podium during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Saturday, April 27, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

First lady Michelle Obama, right, and late-night television host Conan O'Brien attend the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Saturday, April 27, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama joked Saturday that the years are catching up to him and he's not "the strapping young Muslim socialist" he used to be.

Obama poked fun at himself as well as some of his political adversaries during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner attended by politicians, members of the media and Hollywood celebrities.

Entering to the rap track "All I Do Is Win" by DJ Khaled, Obama joked about how re-election would allow him to unleash a radical agenda. But then he showed a picture of himself golfing on a mock magazine cover of "Senior Leisure."

"I'm not the strapping young Muslim Socialist that I used to be," the president remarked, and then recounted his recent 2-for-22 basketball shooting performance at the White House Easter Egg hunt.

But Obama's most dramatic shift for the next four years appeared to be aesthetic. He presented a montage of shots featuring him with bangs similar to those sometimes sported by his wife.

"So we borrowed one of Michelle's tricks," Obama said. "I thought this looked pretty good, but no bounce."

Obama closed by noting the nation's recent tragedies in Massachusetts and Texas, praising Americans of all stripes from first responders to local journalists for serving the public good.

Saturday night's banquet not far from the White House attracted the usual assortment of stars from Hollywood and beyond. Actors Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Claire Danes, who play government characters on series, were among the attendees, as was Korean entertainer Psy. Several Cabinet members, governors and members of Congress were present.

And despite coming at a somber time, nearly two weeks after the deadly Boston Marathon bombing and 10 days after a devastating fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, the president and political allies and rivals alike took the opportunity to enjoy some humor. Late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien headlined the event.

Some of Obama's jokes came at his Republican rivals' expense. He asked that the GOP's minority outreach begin with him as a "trial run" and said he'd take his recent charm offensive with Republicans on the road, including events with conservatives such as Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Michele Bachmann.

"In fact, I'm taking my charm offensive on the road -- a Texas barbeque with Ted Cruz, a Kentucky bluegrass concert with Rand Paul, and a book-burning with Michele Bachmann," Obama joked.

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson would have had better success getting Obama out of office if he simply offered the president $100 million to drop out of last year's race, Obama quipped.

And on the 2016 election, the president noted in self-referential irony that potential Republican candidate Sen. Marco Rubio wasn't qualified because he hasn't even served a full term in the Senate. Obama served less than four years of his six-year Senate term before he was elected president in 2008.

"I mean, the guy has not even finished a single term in the Senate and he thinks he's ready to be President," Obama joked.

The gala also was an opportunity for six journalists, including Associated Press White House Correspondent Julie Pace, to be honored for their coverage of the presidency and national issues.

The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza won the Aldo Beckman Award, which recognizes excellence in the coverage of the presidency.

Pace won the Merriman Smith Award for a print journalist for coverage on deadline.

ABC's Terry Moran was the winner of the broadcast Merriman Smith Award for deadline reporting.

Reporters Jim Morris, Chris Hamby and Ronnie Greene of the Center for Public Integrity won the Edgar A. Poe Award for coverage of issues of national significance.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-28-Obama-Correspondents/id-09d4febe6e4d4128a38db58294475600

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Floyd leaves start with muscle strain in right arm

Associated Press Sports

updated 7:26 p.m. ET April 27, 2013

CHICAGO (AP) - White Sox starting pitcher Gavin Floyd has left Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays in the third inning with a flexor muscle strain in his right arm.

Floyd threw a first-pitch strike to Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria with two outs in the third. A trainer and manager Robin Ventura then immediately came out of the dugout to check the right-hander.

Hector Santiago replaced Floyd.

Floyd entered Saturday's game 0-3 with a 4.98 ERA.

Ben Zobrist hit a two-run home run off Floyd in the first inning.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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At their best beyond nine

Extra-innings seem to suit the Diamondbacks just fine, as Arizona improved to 6-0 in extra-inning games this season on Saturday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51689855/ns/sports-baseball/

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Clipr sends pasted text to your phone via SMS with a press of a button

If you've ever wanted to send some text from your computer to your phone, you usually have to go with a dedicated app like Evernote, with a mobile app required at the other end. With the new version of Clipr for Mac, however, all you need to do is enter your phone number in the settings and the info will magically appear on your mobile device via SMS -- just press the command key when selecting a clip and away it'll go. Right now all major US carriers are supported, with the promise of more to come. For the uninitiated, Clipr is a clipboard manager that works with your computer's existing copy and paste system without any special key combos. Bear in mind that while the app itself is free, the aforementioned SMS feature costs $0.99 extra. Still, at least this particular clip-inspired helper looks to be a lot better than, you know, that other one.

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Clipr (Mac App Store)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/gPtU3t3mcHE/

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Longer days bring 'winter blues' -- for rats, not humans

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Most of us are familiar with the "winter blues," the depression-like symptoms known as "seasonal affective disorder," or SAD, that occurs when the shorter days of winter limit our exposure to natural light and make us more lethargic, irritable and anxious. But for rats it's just the opposite.

Biologists at UC San Diego have found that rats experience more anxiety and depression when the days grow longer. More importantly, they discovered that the rat's brain cells adopt a new chemical code when subjected to large changes in the day and night cycle, flipping a switch to allow an entirely different neurotransmitter to stimulate the same part of the brain.

Their surprising discovery, detailed in the April 26 issue of Science, demonstrates that the adult mammalian brain is much more malleable than was once thought by neurobiologists. Because rat brains are very similar to human brains, their finding also provides a greater insight into the behavioral changes in our brain linked to light reception. And it opens the door for new ways to treat brain disorders such as Parkinson's, caused by the death of dopamine-generating cells in the brain.

The neuroscientists discovered that rats exposed for one week to 19 hours of darkness and five hours of light every day had more nerve cells making dopamine, which made them less stressed and anxious when measured using standardized behavioral tests. Meanwhile, rats exposed for a week with the reverse -- 19 hours of light and five hours of darkness -- had more neurons synthesizing the neurotransmitter somatostatin, making them more stressed and anxious.

"We're diurnal and rats are nocturnal," said Nicholas Spitzer, a professor of biology at UC San Diego and director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind. "So for a rat, it's the longer days that produce stress, while for us it's the longer nights that create stress."

Because rats explore and search for food at night, while humans evolved as creatures who hunt and forage during the daylight hours, such differences in brain chemistry and behavior make sense. Evolutionary changes presumably favored humans who were more active gatherers of food during the longer days of summer and saved their energy during the shorter days of winter.

"Light is what wakes us up and if we feel depressed we go for a walk outside," said Davide Dulcis, a research scientist in Spitzer's laboratory and the first author of the study. "When it's spring, I feel more motivation to do the things I like to do because the days are longer. But for the rat, it's just the opposite. Because rats are nocturnal, they're less stressed at night, which is good because that's when they can spend more time foraging or eating."

But how did our brains change when humans evolved millions of years ago from small nocturnal rodents to diurnal creatures to accommodate those behavioral changes?

"We think that somewhere in the brain there's been a change," said Spitzer. "Sometime in the evolution from rat to human there's been an evolutionary adjustment of circuitry to allow switching of neurotransmitters in the opposite direction in response to the same exposure to a balance of light and dark."

A study published earlier this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found some correlation to the light-dark cycle in rats and stress in humans, at least when it comes to people searching on the internet for information in the winter versus the summer about mental illness. Using Google's search data from 2006 to 2010, a team of researchers led by John Ayers of San Diego State University found that mental health searches on Google were, in general, 14 percent higher in the winter in the United States and 11 percent higher in the Australian winter.

"Now that we know that day length can switch transmitters and change behavior, there may be a connection," said Spitzer.

In their rat experiments, the UC San Diego neuroscientists found that the switch in transmitter synthesis in the rat's brain cells from dopamine to somatostatin or back again was not due to the growth of new neurons, but to the ability of the same neurons there to produce different neurotransmitters.

Rats exposed to 19 hours of darkness every 24 hours during the week showed higher numbers of dopamine neurons within their brains and were more likely, the researchers found, to explore the open end of an elevated maze, a behavioral test showing they were less anxious. These rats were also more willing to swim, another laboratory test that showed they were less stressed.

"Because rats are nocturnal animals, they like to explore during the night and dopamine is a key part of our and their reward system," said Spitzer. "It's part of what allows them to be confident and reduce anxiety."

The researchers said they don't know precisely how this neurotransmitter switch works. Nor do they know what proportion of light and darkness or stress triggers this switch in brain chemistry. "Is it 50-50? Or 80 percent light versus dark and 20 percent stress? We don't know," added Spitzer. "If we just stressed the animal and didn't change their photoperiod, would that lead to changes in transmitter identity? We don't know, but those are all doable experiments."

But as they learn more about this trigger mechanism, they said one promising avenue for human application might be to use this neurotransmitter switch to deliver dopamine effectively to parts of the brain that no longer receive dopamine in Parkinson's patients.

"We could switch to a parallel pathway to put dopamine where it's needed with fewer side effects than pharmacological agents," said Dulcis.

The other researchers involved in the study, which was funded by grants from the Ellison Medical Foundation, were Pouya Jamshidi and Stefan Leutgeb of UC San Diego.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego.

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. D. Dulcis, P. Jamshidi, S. Leutgeb, N. C. Spitzer. Neurotransmitter Switching in the Adult Brain Regulates Behavior. Science, 2013; 340 (6131): 449 DOI: 10.1126/science.1234152

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/top_news/top_science/~3/jWxZHMiyj5c/130425142430.htm

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Forced exercise may still protect against anxiety and stress

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Being forced to exercise may still help reduce anxiety and depression just as exercising voluntarily does, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Past studies have shown that people who exercise are more protected against stress-related disorders. And scientists know that the perception of control can benefit a person's mental health. But it has been an open question whether a person who feels forced to exercise, eliminating the perception of control, would still reap the anxiety-fighting benefits of the exercise.

People who may feel forced to exercise could include high school, college and professional athletes, members of the military or those who have been prescribed an exercise regimen by their doctors, said Benjamin Greenwood, an assistant research professor in CU-Boulder's Department of Integrative Physiology.

"If exercise is forced, will it still produce mental health benefits?" Greenwood asked. "It's obvious that forced exercise will still produce peripheral physiological benefits. But will it produce benefits to anxiety and depression?"

To seek an answer to the question Greenwood and his colleagues, including Monika Fleshner, a professor in the same department, designed a lab experiment using rats. During a six-week period, some rats remained sedentary, while others exercised by running on a wheel.

The rats that exercised were divided into two groups that ran a roughly equal amount of time. One group ran whenever it chose to, while the other group ran on mechanized wheels that rotated according to a predetermined schedule. For the study, the motorized wheels turned on at speeds and for periods of time that mimicked the average pattern of exercise chosen by the rats that voluntarily exercised.

After six weeks, the rats were exposed to a laboratory stressor before testing their anxiety levels the following day. The anxiety was quantified by measuring how long the rats froze, a phenomenon similar to a deer in the headlights, when they were put in an environment they had been conditioned to fear. The longer the freezing time, the greater the residual anxiety from being stressed the previous day. For comparison, some rats were also tested for anxiety without being stressed the day before.

"Regardless of whether the rats chose to run or were forced to run they were protected against stress and anxiety," said Greenwood, lead author of the study appearing in the European Journal of Neuroscience in February. The sedentary rats froze for longer periods of time than any of the active rats.

"The implications are that humans who perceive exercise as being forced -- perhaps including those who feel like they have to exercise for health reasons -- are maybe still going to get the benefits in terms of reducing anxiety and depression," he said.

Other CU-Boulder authors include Katie Spence, Danielle Crevling, Peter Clark and Wendy Craig. All the authors are members of Monika Fleshner's Stress Physiology Laboratory in the Department of Integrative Physiology.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder, 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. Benjamin N. Greenwood, Katie G. Spence, Danielle M. Crevling, Peter J. Clark, Wendy C. Craig, Monika Fleshner. Exercise-induced stress resistance is independent of exercise controllability and the medial prefrontal cortex. European Journal of Neuroscience, 2013; 37 (3): 469 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.12044

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/strange_science/~3/t1WiQj6G-qk/130425160212.htm

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Intractable seizures halted with experimental treatment for rare pediatric 'Pretzel syndrome'

Apr. 24, 2013 ? With a better understanding of underlying mechanisms that cause a rare neurodevelopmental disorder in the Old Order Mennonite population, referred to as Pretzel syndrome, a new study reports that five children were successfully treated with a drug that modifies the disease process, minimizing seizures and improving receptive language.

The study, by researchers including experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The disease -- PSME or polyhydramnios, megalencephaly, and symptomatic epilepsy syndrome, commonly called Pretzel syndrome -- is caused by a double-deletion of a specific gene that encodes for STRADA. About 4 percent of Old Order Mennonite individuals in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York have a single copy of the deleted gene. When a double-deletion occurs, the loss of STRADA causes an activation of mTORC1 and, subsequently, the kinase p70S6K. This causes intractable seizures and results in limited cognitive development and language function, leaving PSME patients wheelchair-bound, mute and completely dependent.

When five children, ranging from 8 months old to nearly 5 years old, were given doses of a drug that inhibits mTOR, the drug Sirolimus (rapamycin) significantly reduced seizures. Four of the five patients have been seizure free for the last year; previously no PSME patients had achieved freedom from seizures, even while on anti-epileptic medication. Starting the drug by three months of age seemed to stave off seizures; one patient who started treatment early had a single seizure and another has had no seizures.

The use of this drug in Pretzel syndrome patients stems from earlier research showing that sirolimus was an effective treatment for a related and more common disorder, tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), which is also associated with seizures, altered brain structure and enhanced mTOR activation.

The research was conducted by a team including the study's senior author, Peter Crino, MD, PhD, now at Temple University School of Medicine and Shriners Pediatric Research Center; lead author and MD/PhD candidate Whitney Parker, and Ksenia Orlova, William Parker, Jacqueline Birnbaum, Marianna Baybis, Jetle Helfferich, and Kei Okochi from the Penn Epilepsy Center and Department of Neurology; Vera Krymskaya and Dmitry Goncharov from Penn's Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care division, and collagues from the University of Groningen School of Medicine in the Netherlands, as well as partners from the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pa., the Department of Biology in Franklin and Marshall College and Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, Pa.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NS045022, HL110551, GM008216) and the Penn-Pfizer Collaborative Program, and a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

1. W. E. Parker, K. A. Orlova, W. H. Parker, J. F. Birnbaum, V. P. Krymskaya, D. A. Goncharov, M. Baybis, J. Helfferich, K. Okochi, K. A. Strauss, P. B. Crino. Rapamycin Prevents Seizures After Depletion of STRADA in a Rare Neurodevelopmental Disorder. Science Translational Medicine, 2013; 5 (182): 182ra53 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3005271

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/top_news/~3/7W0mYtGC0Ww/130424160933.htm

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Death toll in Bangladesh building collapse at 175

Rescuers lower down a survivor from the debris of a building that collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. An eight-storey building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh?s capital on Wednesday, killing dozens of people and trapping many more under a jumbled mess of concrete. Rescuers tried to cut through the debris with earthmovers, drilling machines and their bare hands. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)

Rescuers lower down a survivor from the debris of a building that collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. An eight-storey building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh?s capital on Wednesday, killing dozens of people and trapping many more under a jumbled mess of concrete. Rescuers tried to cut through the debris with earthmovers, drilling machines and their bare hands. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)

Bangladeshi rescuers squeeze through a gap to help pull out survivors spotted in the debris of a building that collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. An eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh?s capital on Wednesday, killing dozens of people and trapping many more under a jumbled mess of concrete. Rescuers tried to cut through the debris with earthmovers, drilling machines and their bare hands. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)

Rescue workers use clothing to lower down survivors from the site of a building that collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. An eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh?s capital on Wednesday, killing dozens of people and trapping many more under a jumbled mess of concrete. Rescuers tried to cut through the debris with earthmovers, drilling machines and their bare hands. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)

Rescuers carry a survivor out from the debris of a building that collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. An eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh?s capital on Wednesday, killing dozens of people and trapping many more under a jumbled mess of concrete. Rescuers tried to cut through the debris with earthmovers, drilling machines and their bare hands. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)

People and rescuers gather after an eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Dozens were killed and many more are feared trapped in the rubble. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? With deep cracks visible in the walls, police had ordered a Bangladesh garment building evacuated the day before its deadly collapse, but the factories flouted the order and kept more than 2,000 people working, officials said Thursday. At least 175 people died when a huge section of the eight-story building splintered into a pile of concrete slabs.

The disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar came less than five months after a blaze killed 112 people in a garment factory and underscored the unsafe conditions faced by Bangladesh's garment workers, who produce clothes for brands worn around the world. Some of the companies in the building that fell say their customers include retail giants such as Wal-Mart.

Hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble in search of survivors and corpses, worked through the night and into Thursday amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers' relatives gathered outside the building, which housed numerous garment factories and a handful of other companies.

"Save us brother. I beg you brother. I want to live," moaned Mohammad Altab, a garment worker pinned tightly between two concrete slabs and next to two corpses.

"It's so painful here ... I have two little children," Altab said, his voice weak from exhaustion.

After the cracks were reported Tuesday, managers of a local bank that also had an office in the building evacuated their workers. The garment factories, though, kept working, ignoring the instructions of the local industrial police, said Mostafizur Rahman, a director of that paramilitary police force.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had also asked the factories to suspend work starting Wednesday morning, hours before the collapse.

"After we got the crack reports, we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed," said Atiqul Islam, the group's president.

On Thursday morning, the odor of rotting bodies wafted through holes cut into the building. Junior minister for Home Affairs, Shamsul Haque, said that by late Thursday morning a total of 2,000 people had been rescued from the wreckage.

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing army rescue teams, said the death toll had climbed to 175 as of Thursday afternoon.

Dozens of bodies, their faces covered, were laid outside a local school building so relatives could identify them. Thousands of workers' family members gathered outside the building, waiting for news, as thousands of garment workers from nearby factories took to the streets across the industrial zone in protest.

The garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers but it was not clear how many were in the building when it collapsed.

A clearer picture of the rescue operation is likely to be available by afternoon, officials said.

Searchers worked through the night to probe the jumbled mass of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and flashlights to people pinned inside.

"I gave them whistles, water, torchlights. I heard them cry," said fire official Abul Khayer late Wednesday, as he prepared to work late into the night.

Abdur Rahim, an employee who worked on the fifth floor, said a factory manager gave assurances that the cracks in the building were no cause for concern, so employees went inside.

"After about an hour or so, the building collapsed suddenly," Rahim said. The next thing he remembered was regaining consciousness outside.

On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that "the culprits would be punished."

Abdul Halim, an official with the engineering department in Savar, said the owner was originally allowed to construct a five-story building but he added another three stories illegally.

Local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner.

Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of the Dhaka district, identified the owner as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. Rahman said police were also looking for the owners of the garment factories.

Among the textile businesses in the building were Phantom Apparels Ltd., Phantom Tac Ltd., New Wave Style Ltd., New Wave Bottoms Ltd. and New Wave Brothers Ltd. According to their website, the New Wave companies make clothing for major brands including U.S. retailers The Children's Place and Dress Barn, Britain's Primark, Spain's Mango and Italy's Benetton. Benetton's communications department said in an email to The Associated Press that people involved in the collapse were not Benetton suppliers.

Jane Singer, a spokeswoman for The Children's Place, said that "while one of the garment factories located in the building complex has produced apparel for The Children's Place, none of our product was in production at the time of this accident."

Dress Barn said that to its knowledge, it had not purchased clothing from the factories involved since 2010. Primark, a major British clothing retailer, confirmed that one of the suppliers it uses to produce some of its goods was located on the second floor of the building.

In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, Primark said it was "shocked and deeply saddened by the appalling incident." It added that it has been working with other retailers to review the country's approach to factory standards and will now push for this review to include building integrity. Meanwhile, Primark's ethical trade team is working to collect information, assess which communities the workers come from and provide support "where possible."

Mango denied reports it was using any of the suppliers in the building. However, in an email statement to the AP, it said that there had been conversations with one of them to produce a batch of test products.

Kevin Gardner, a spokesman at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the second-largest clothing producer in Bangladesh, said the company is investigating to see if a factory in the building had been producing for the chain at the time of the collapse.

The collapse was even deadlier than the November factory fire that drew international attention to working conditions in Bangladesh's $20 billion-a-year textile industry. The country has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers, and the industry wields vast power in the South Asian nation.

The Tazreen factory in the fire lacked emergency exits, and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-25-AS-Bangladesh-Building-Collapse/id-85a03eea8c964d0bbe283b7a04b74186

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Galaxy S 4 launches tomorrow in South Korea, despite Samsung admitting supply issues

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Smitten with Samsung's Galaxy S 4? Well, if you're looking to pick on up right now, you'd best book a red-eye flight to South Korea, where it'll go on sale in the next 24 hours. The 5-inch 1080p flagship will arrive on all three of the country's main carriers, with an unspecified global roll-out following on Friday. Meanwhile, the company has also commented on "supply chain problems" affecting its roll-out of the S 4. In a statement to Sky News, Samsung said that initial supplies of the handset may be limited "due to overwhelming global demand" and its limited stock of memory components. The pinch is already being felt in the US, as both Sprint and T-Mobile reassess their launch dates in-store.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: Samsung Tomorrow, Sky News

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Significant step forward in combating antibiotic resistance

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Antibiotic resistance is a global problem. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that for tuberculosis alone multi-drug resistance accounts for more than 150,000 deaths each year. WHO warns of "a doomsday scenario of a world without antibiotics," in which antibiotic resistance will turn common infections into incurable killers and make routine surgeries a high-risk gamble.

Certain types of bacteria are a scourge of the hospital environment because they are extremely resistant to antibiotics and consequently difficult, if not impossible, to treat. This group of bacteria is classified as 'gram-negative' because their cells have a double membrane or outer layer, compared with gram-positive bacteria, which just have one outer layer.

Not only are these cells difficult to penetrate in the first instance, due to their double membrane, but they have effective 'pumps' which quickly reject anything that interferes with the activity of protein-building within the cell and the development of the protective cell wall.

This research, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, gives for the first time a clear insight into how these protein components of the pump work together to transport an antibiotic from the cell.

Examples of gram-negative bacteria include those which cause food poisoning, meningitis, gonorrhoea and respiratory problems. Since the antibiotic is an interfering agent, many of these pathogenic bacteria use the membrane pumps to transport the medication out of the cell.

The pumps are made up of three different proteins within the cell that work together to bring about the movement. Research lead, Professor Adrian Walmsley from Durham University's School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences explained:

"Patients with bacterial infections are often treated with antibiotics, but since many strains are resistant to one or more of these drugs, clinicians often try to bring such infections under control by prescribing a combination of different types of antibiotics in the hope that they will override the resistance mechanisms. This sometimes works, but other times it does not. Pumps exacerbate this situation by reducing the effective concentration of the drug inside the cell. "

"By investigating how these pumps function, we have been able to identify the molecular events that are involved in binding and transporting an antibiotic from the cell. This advance in our understanding will ultimately aid the development of 'pump blockers'. This is important because these pumps often confer resistance to multiple, structurally unrelated, drugs; which means that they could also be resistant to new drugs which have never been used before."

Dr Vassiliy Bavro from the the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham said: "This study greatly expands our understanding of the mechanistic aspects of the pump function, and in particular challenges our previous concepts of energy requirements for pump assembly and cycling. By elucidating the intricate details of how these essential nanomachines come together, it also provides a new working model of their functional cycle in general, paving the way to development of novel approaches to disrupting their function."

Dr Ted Bianco, Acting Director of the Wellcome Trust, said: "A world without antibiotics is a world where simple surgery becomes a life-threatening procedure, where a scratch from a rose might prove fatal, and where diseases like tuberculosis return with a ferocity not seen in Britain since the Victorian era. This is why fundamental research to understand the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance is so important. Only when we know what we're up against can researchers begin to design new antibacterial agents to help us win the war against bacterial infections."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Durham University.

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Journal Reference:

1. Thamarai K. Janganan, Vassiliy N. Bavro, Li Zhang, Maria In?s Borges-Walmsley, Adrian R. Walmsley. Tripartite efflux pumps: energy is required for dissociation, but not assembly or opening of the outer membrane channel of the pump. Molecular Microbiology, 2013; 88 (3): 590 DOI: 10.1111/mmi.12211

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/most_popular/~3/9lrScfLULdA/130424222554.htm

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LHCb Experiment Observes New Matter-Antimatter Difference

An anonymous reader writes "Matter and antimatter are thought to have existed in equal amounts at the beginning of the Universe, but today the Universe appears to be composed essentially of matter. By studying subtle differences in the behavior of particles and antiparticles, experiments at the LHC are seeking to cast light on this dominance of matter over antimatter. Now the LHCb experiment has observed a preference for matter over antimatter known as CP-violation in the decay of neutral B0s particles. The results are based on the analysis of data collected by the experiment in 2011."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/bn5QEyi5Guk/story01.htm

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Hundreds of tiny untethered surgical tools deployed in first animal biopsies

Apr. 23, 2013 ? By using swarms of untethered grippers, each as small as a speck of dust, Johns Hopkins engineers and physicians say they have devised a new way to perform biopsies that could provide a more effective way to access narrow conduits in the body as well as find early signs of cancer or other diseases.

In two recent peer-reviewed journal articles, the team reported successful animal testing of the tiny tools, which require no batteries, wires or tethers as they seize internal tissue samples. The devices are called "mu-grippers," incorporating the Greek letter that represents the term for "micro." Instead of relying on electric or pneumatic power, these star-shaped tools are autonomously activated by the body's heat, which causes their tiny "fingers" to close on clusters of cells. Because the tools also contain a magnetic material, they can be retrieved through an existing body opening via a magnetic catheter.

This image depicts an mu-gripper near the opening of an endoscopic catheter. Image credit: Evin Gultepe, Gracias Lab, Johns Hopkins University.

In the April print edition of Gastroenterology, the researchers described their use of the mu-grippers to collect cells from the colon and esophagus of a pig, which was selected because its intestinal tract is similar to that of humans. Earlier this year, the team members reported in the journal Advanced Materials that they had successfully inserted the mu-grippers through the mouth and stomach of a live animal and released them in a hard-to-access place, the bile duct, from which they obtained tissue samples.

"This is the first time that anyone has used a sub-millimeter-sized device -- the size of a dust particle -- to conduct a biopsy in a live animal," said David Gracias, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering whose lab team developed the microgrippers. "That's a significant accomplishment. And because we can send the grippers in through natural orifices, it is an important advance in minimally invasive treatment and a step toward the ultimate goal of making surgical procedures noninvasive."

Another member of the research team, physician Florin M. Selaru of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said the mu-grippers could lead to an entirely new approach to conducting biopsies, which are considered the "gold standard" test for diagnosing cancer and other diseases.

This photo shows dozens of dust-sized surgical grippers in a vial. Image credit: Evin Gultepe, Gracias Lab, Johns Hopkins University

The advantage of the mu-grippers, he said, is that they could collect far more samples from many more locations. He pointed out that the much larger forceps used during a typical colonoscopy may remove 30 to 40 pieces of tissue to be studied for signs of cancer. But despite a doctor's best intentions, the small number of specimens makes it easy to miss diseased lesions.

"What's the likelihood of finding the needle in the haystack?" said Selaru, an assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. "Based on a small sample, you can't always draw accurate inferences. We need to be able to do a larger statistical sampling of the tissue. That's what would give us enough statistical power to draw a conclusion, which, in essence, is what we're trying to do with the microgrippers. We could deploy hundreds or even thousands of these grippers to get more samples and a better idea of what kind of or whether a disease is present."

Although each mu-gripper can grab a much smaller tissue sample than larger biopsy tools, the researchers said each gripper can retrieve enough cells for effective microscopic inspection and genetic analysis. Armed with this information, they said, the patient's physician could be better prepared to diagnose and treat the patient.

This approach would be possible through the latest application of the Gracias lab's self-assembling tiny surgical tools, which can be activated by heat or chemicals, without relying on electrical wires, tubes, batteries or tethers. The low-cost devices are fabricated through photolithography, the same process used to make computer chips. Their fingerlike projections are made of materials that would normally curl inward, but the team adds a polymer resin to give the joints rigidity and to keep the digits from closing.

Prior to a biopsy, the grippers are kept on ice, so that the fingers remain in this extended position. An endoscopy tool then is used to insert hundreds of grippers into the area targeted for a biopsy. Within about five minutes, the warmth of the body causes the polymer coating to soften, and the fingers curl inward to grasp some tissue. A magnetic tool is then inserted to retrieve them.

Although the animal testing results are promising, the researchers said the process will require further refinement before human testing can begin. "The next step is improving how we deploy the grippers," Selaru said. "The concept is sound, but we still need to address some of the details. The other thing we need to do is thorough safety studies."

Further development can be costly, however. The team has applied for grants to fund advances in the project, which is protected by provisional patents obtained through the Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer Office. Biotechnology investors might also help move the project forward. "It is more a question of money than time as to how long it will take before we could use this in human patients," Selaru said

Along with Gracias and Selaru, the Johns Hopkins researchers who contributed significantly to the two journal articles were Evin Gultepe, Sumitaka Yamanaka, Eun Shin and Anthony Kalloo. Additional contributors were Kate E. Laflin, Sachin Kadam, Yoosun Shim, Alexandru V. Olaru, Berkeley Limketkai, Mouen A. Khashab and Jatinder S. Randhawa. The researchers are affiliated with the School of Medicine, the Whiting School of Engineering and the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology.

Funding for this research has come from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Flight Attendants Medical Research Institute and the Broad Medical Research Institute.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins University.

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

---

Journal References:

1. Evin Gultepe, Sumitaka Yamanaka, Kate E. Laflin, Sachin Kadam, YooSun Shim, Alexandru V. Olaru, Berkeley Limketkai, Mouen A. Khashab, Anthony N. Kalloo, David H. Gracias, Florin M. Selaru. Biologic Tissue Sampling With Untethered Microgrippers. Gastroenterology, 2013; 144 (4): 691 DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2013.01.066
2. Evin Gultepe, Jatinder S. Randhawa, Sachin Kadam, Sumitaka Yamanaka, Florin M. Selaru, Eun J. Shin, Anthony N. Kalloo, David H. Gracias. Biopsy with Thermally-Responsive Untethered Microtools. Advanced Materials, 2013; 25 (4): 514 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201203348

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/top_news/top_health/~3/gvhbrYrLy98/130423135845.htm

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FocusTwist app for iOS gives you Lytro-esque refocusable images

Arqball has just released the FocusTwist app for iOS that lets you selectively focus after taking an image -- without investing $400 in a Lytro light field camera. It works by automatically taking several shots with different focus points from your iPhone's camera, delivering the best results if you hold very still and have subjects in the near foreground and far background. You can then change focus by clicking different parts of the resulting image, which is hosted on the company's server and can be shared via a link. After playing with the app ourselves for a bit (see More Coverage link), we've got to admit we're stupidly hooked -- you can grab it at the source for $1.99.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Software, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Focus Twist (App Store)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/23/focustwist-iOS-app-lytro-refocusable/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Chaz Bono Sheds 60 Pounds, Disses Diets

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/chaz-bono-sheds-60-pounds-disses-diets/

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Earth Day founder's 'living' building signals new era of sleek sustainability

John Brecher / NBC News

An array of 575 solar panels covers the roof of the Bullitt Center, a role model for a new generation of sustainable, energy-efficient buildings.

By John Roach, Contributing Writer, NBC News

In cloudy, drizzly Seattle, Denis Hayes, the environmental activist who organized the first Earth Day in 1970, is pulling the wraps off a six-story office building that generates all of its electricity via an oversized rooftop array of solar panels.

A sun-powered building in Seattle is "formidable," Hayes told NBC News, but the Bullitt Center project aims to show it is possible in a visible, tangible manner that, in turn, makes an impact on the often invisible, slow-motion challenge of global climate change.

"When this whole [Earth Day] thing got launched in 1970, we had people walking around with gas masks and smokestacks were pouring out enormous impenetrable clouds of black smoke," said Hayes, who is now president of the Bullitt Foundation, which supports environmental causes.

Today, the sooty smokestacks and black clouds are largely gone, but our energy demands have never been greater, and the impacts of climate change are considered by environmental advocates to be?more and more apparent, ranging from extreme weather to growing food insecurity. As scientists toil to identify how our world is changing, the environmental movement will have to spend the next decades finding better ways to rally the world's citizens to address the new challenges.

Self-sustaining architecture
Hayes says the Bullitt Center addresses many of the environmental issues underpinned by global climate change. Take, for example, the building's 56,000-gallon basement cistern for storing captured rainwater. It's a seemingly odd fixture for a building in a city famous for its rain and amply supplied by water, stored in snow form, from the nearby Cascade Mountains.

John Stamets

The Bullitt Foundation, whose mission is to safeguard the environment, spent $18.5 million to construct this uniquely sustainable office building.

"There is not going to be enough water in the future," Hayes said. "There is going to be far less snowpack. The water is going to come in gushers and there is just no way to build additional reservoirs to capture it in the Cascades."

John Brecher / NBC News

Hayes, who co-founded Earth Day with Gaylord Nelson, now heads the Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation.

The solution? Build thousands of reservoirs in the basements of buildings, sufficient to hold water to meet the needs of the current and future residents of a city that studies suggest could grow by at least a million people in the next few decades ? potentially, many?climate refugees from the parched Southwest, noted Hayes.

The hope is that "by trying to build a building as best we could, that literally does everything right," the Bullitt Center will drive change in the building industry with the type of impact Tom's of Maine, a green personal care products company, had on Proctor and Gamble, an industry giant, Hayes said.

Given that buildings in the U.S. account for 39 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions, 65 percent of waste and 70 percent electrical use, adoption of the Living Building Challenge standards highlighted by the Bullitt Center could make life on Earth more sustainable by the middle of this century.

"If we can get a whole bunch of these other buildings built and we start eating up that market share, then we can begin to have changes that are not small incremental one inch here, five inches there, but a fairly profound impact," he explained. "At least, that's the theory."

Want to know more about the Bullitt Center? Read our feature story here, and check out our slideshow.

Rising food insecurity
But even if self-sustainable architecture really takes off, it can't solve all the environmental issues, Hayes noted. In particular, he worries about food security, at a time when rising prosperity around the world means a shift to more meat-heavy diets.?

The shift in diet is not the only issue, either. It may be hard enough to meet the basic needs of a hungry population, according to Lester Brown, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute and a leading thinker on global environmental issues.

"Agriculture as it exists today has evolved over an 11,000-year period of rather remarkable climate stability," he told NBC News. "If the climate system begins to change, suddenly the climate system and the agricultural system will no longer be in sync with each other. With each passing year, they will be more and more out of sync, making it difficult to just maintain production, much less to increase it."

The solution, Brown added, would be to escalate the problem?from the agriculture departments and ministries up to the very heads of state, who will need to grasp food's relationship to everything from energy policy to shifts in population.

And?in turn, world?leaders need to work together.?

"No one country can ensure food security on its own because we are talking about climate change being one of the keys here and that requires a global effort," Brown explained. "No country can stabilize its climate unilaterally; it takes a concerted international effort."

Rousing international cooperation
Building an international coalition to tackle global climate change is plausible, and happening, leading environmental scientists said Thursday during a panel discussion with recipients of the Tyler Prize, an environmental achievement award, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

For example, John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology and a Tyler Prize laureate in 2000, said that in both India and China "the leadership is fully aware of the damage already being done to their countries by climate change and they are fully aware that ultimately the problem cannot be solved without their participation."

That participation, he added, is already underway,?as exhibited by a Joint U.S.-China Statement on Climate Change posted on the Department of State's website earlier this month.

"Forceful, nationally appropriate action by the United States and China ? including large-scale cooperative action ? is more critical than ever," reads the statement. "Such action is crucial both to contain climate change and to set the kind of powerful example that can inspire the world."

Only time will tell if the statement is truly the beginning of something focused and concrete that puts the world on the path to tackling the biggest environmental issues of today and tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Hayes, on the 43rd anniversary of the first Earth Day rally, readies his new self-sustaining office building for the world to see, as he continues to search for ways to raise awareness about the environment.

"Somehow we have to take all of these issues ? and I don't have the magic formula ? and make them the most immediate concern," he said. "And I guess the reason for optimism is that sometimes stuff just happens. It is almost like a school of fish ? it is a biological phenomenon."

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, visit his website.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b014586/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C220C178185230Eearth0Eday0Efounders0Eliving0Ebuilding0Esignals0Enew0Eera0Eof0Esleek0Esustainability0Dlite/story01.htm

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Crests approaching in several towns in Midwest

CLARKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) ? An all-too-familiar springtime ritual is playing out around the nation's heartland this weekend as volunteers, National Guardsmen and even prison inmates join together in an effort to ward off fast-rising floodwaters.

Dire flooding situations dotted at least six Midwestern states following torrential rains this past week that dumped up to 7 inches in some locations. Record flooding was possible in some places as dozens of rivers overflowed their banks.

The floods and flash floods have forced hundreds of evacuations, closed countless roads, swamped farmland, shut down barge traffic on much of the upper Mississippi River and closed two Mississippi River bridges.

Several Mississippi River towns north of St. Louis were expected to see crests on Sunday, including hard-hit Clarksville, Mo.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/crests-approaching-several-towns-midwest-070600592.html

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Alternative therapies may help lower blood pressure

Apr. 22, 2013 ? Alternative therapies such as aerobic exercise, resistance or strength training, and isometric hand grip exercises may help reduce your blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association.

In a new scientific statement published in its journal Hypertension, the association said alternative approaches could help people with blood pressure levels higher than 120/80 mm Hg and those who can't tolerate or don't respond well to standard medications.

However, alternative therapies shouldn't replace proven methods to lower blood pressure -- including physical activity, managing weight, not smoking or drinking excess alcohol, eating a low sodium balanced diet and taking medications when prescribed, the association said.

High blood pressure -- a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke -- affects more than 26 percent of the population worldwide and contributes to more than 13 percent of premature deaths.

An expert panel assessed three alternative remedy categories: exercise regimens; behavioral therapies such as meditation; and non-invasive procedures or devices including acupuncture and device-guided slow breathing. The panel did not review dietary and herbal treatments.

"There aren't many large well-designed studies lasting longer than a few weeks looking at alternative therapies, yet patients have a lot of questions about their value," said Robert D. Brook, M.D., Chair of the panel and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "A common request from patients is, 'I don't like to take medications, what can I do to lower my blood pressure?' We wanted to provide some direction."

The alternative therapies rarely caused serious side effects and posed few health risks, but the analysis revealed some approaches were more beneficial than others and could be part of a comprehensive blood pressure-lowering treatment plan.

Brook and colleagues reviewed data published in 2006-11, including 1,000 studies on behavioral therapies, non-invasive procedures and devices, and three types of exercise (aerobic, resistance or weight training and isometric exercises, most commonly handgrip devices).

The studies also examined the effects of yoga, different styles of meditation, biofeedback methods, acupuncture, device-guided breathing, relaxation and stress reduction techniques.

The panel found:

• All three types of exercise reduced blood pressure. Walking programs provided modest benefit while, somewhat surprisingly, four weeks of isometric hand grip exercises resulted in some of the most impressive improvements -- a 10 percent drop in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. However, isometric exercise should be avoided among people with severely-uncontrolled high blood pressure (180/110 mm Hg or higher).
• Behavioral therapies such as biofeedback and transcendental meditation may help lower blood pressure by a small amount. However, there's not sufficient data to support using other types of meditation.
• Strong clinical evidence is also lacking to recommend yoga and other relaxation techniques for reducing blood pressure.
• There isn't enough evidence to recommend acupuncture for lowering blood pressure, particularly given the complexities involved in employing this treatment. However, device-guided slow breathing did prove effective in lowering blood pressure when performed for 15-minute sessions three to four times a week.

"Most alternative approaches reduce systolic blood pressure by only 2-10 mm Hg; whereas standard doses of a blood pressure-lowering drug reduce systolic blood pressure by about 10-15 mm Hg," Brook said. "So, alternative approaches can be added to a treatment regimen after patients discuss their goals with their doctors."

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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/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/ncqE2SZ3z1g/130422175710.htm

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Assad's forces kill 85 in Damascus suburb, activists say

By Gregory Blachier MONTE CARLO, April 21 (Reuters) - Current anti-doping measures in tennis are a "disaster" and the introduction of biological passports can only improve matters, world number six Tomas Berdych said. "The system right now... I don't know how it works with the others but with me, it does not work at all," the Czech told Reuters in an interview at the Monte Carlo Masters this week. "You have to say every single day... where you are. I've done this for three or four years already and I had only two tests out of the tournaments," Berdych said. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/assads-forces-kill-85-damascus-suburb-activists-171512130.html

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Air Force general, his wife die in small plane crash in Virginia

Major General Joseph D. Brown IV and his wife Susan D. Brown died Friday when the Cessna plane he was flying crashed near the Williamsburg-Jamestown Airport in Virginia.?

By Associated Press / April 21, 2013

The Air Force said Maj. Gen. Joseph D. Brown IV, 54, and his wife, Susan D. Brown, died Friday when the single-engine Cessna 210 he was flying?crashed. Joseph Brown was commandant of the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He formerly was assigned to U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base.

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"We are deeply saddened by the loss of Joe Brown and his wife, Sue," Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III said in a written statement Saturday.

"Joe and Sue dedicated their lives in service to our nation and their loss will be felt across our Air Force and joint team," they said.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the?crash?occurred at 4:53 p.m. Friday near the Williamsburg-Jamestown Airport, where the?plane?was supposed to land. The Browns' dog also was killed. There were no other passengers on the?plane, Geller said. No one on the ground was hurt and no buildings were damaged.

Brown's biography on the Air Force website says he was commissioned in 1980 after graduating from the ROTC program at Virginia Military Institute. He has received more than a dozen awards and commendations, including the NATO Meritorious Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star. He was a 1997 distinguished graduate of the National War College.

According to the biography, Brown served as the senior military assistant to the undersecretary of defense for policy, as executive officer to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and as deputy commander of the NATO Combined Operations Center in Eskisehir, Turkey. He was a command pilot with more than 4,300 hours, including combat time in Iraq.

Brown served as deputy director for nuclear operations for the U.S. Strategic Command for two years before being assigned to the National Defense University in October 2010. The Air Force describes the Eisenhower School as "the premier Department of Defense Joint Professional Military Education institution for national security resource management." The college awards its graduates a master of science degree in national resource strategy.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/o2Y1PZS7IOU/Air-Force-general-his-wife-die-in-small-plane-crash-in-Virginia

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