2 dead, 8 missing after freighter sinks off Greece

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? A cargo ship sank off southern Greece after colliding with another freighter Monday, leaving two Syrian seamen dead and eight others missing and spurring a large rescue operation, officials said.

The accident occurred before 7 am (0400GMT) some 78 miles (125 kilometers) southwest of the southern Peloponnese peninsula, a Merchant Marine Ministry statement said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collision between the Antigua-flagged Consouth and the Cook Islands-flagged Piri Reis in the Mediterranean Sea.

Weather conditions were good at the time, which facilitated rescue efforts involving coast guard vessels, merchant ships, a rescue helicopter and an airforce C-130 transport plane.

The Piri Reis, which was carrying a cargo of fertilizer to a Ukrainian port, sank, and seven of its crew of 17 Syrian seamen were rescued. Two bodies were pulled out of the sea a few hours after the collision.

The Consouth, sailing without freight from Turkey to Malta, had 16 Russian, Filippino and Polish seamen on board, all who were unhurt, the ministry said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-29-EU-Greece-Ships-Collide/id-225417dc9a1644eab1b82097ad2222b8

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Apple iPhone 5 (T-Mobile)

The iPhone 5 has finally come to T-Mobile, and if you're in the market for a?smartphone?from Apple, pay attention. T-Mobile's iPhone is the same iPhone 5 that you've seen elsewhere, with better voice quality at a lower price. That's a terrific combination for anyone currently shopping for an iPhone.

Revisiting the iPhone 5
Apple's phones don't vary much from carrier to carrier, as Apple doesn't allow any bloatware or changes in design. So take a look at my reviews of the iPhone 5 for Verizon Wireless and AT&T. T-Mobile gets the same metal-and-glass design, the same 4-inch screen, the same 8-megapixel camera, and most importantly, the same iOS 6 operating system, with its easy-to-use grid of icons and unbeatable array of apps.

It's worth noting the iPhone's particular strengths and weaknesses versus newer, leading Android phones like the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4, though. On a broad level, iOS is very easy to use, but much less customizable than Android is today.

In terms of hardware, the smaller screen is an obvious difference; at 1,136 by 640 pixels it's lower-resolution than the 1080p screens on competing phones, although it's hard to perceive the difference between the iPhone's 326 pixels per inch and the Galaxy S 4's 440ppi. The 4-inch screen size makes it more comfortable for one-handed use than some of today's larger phones, but people who prefer big touch keyboards or lots of real estate for webpages will be frustrated.

The phone's 1.3GHz Apple A6 processor doesn't match the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 models on raw benchmarks like Geekbench, but the iPhone 5 matched the Galaxy S 4 on the Browsermark Web browser benchmark and got close to Snapdragon-powered phones on the GLBenchmark graphics benchmark. The smaller screen helps with performance, of course, as the iPhone is only pushing about a third as many pixels as the 1080p phones do.

The one area where the iPhone falls definitively short is on battery life. Its 7 hours, 36 minutes of talk time and about 3 hours of HSPA+ video streaming is far short of the 10 hours, 50 minutes of talk time and 4 hours, 48 minutes of streaming on the Galaxy S 4. Bigger phones allow for bigger batteries.

Call Quality and Internet
Here's where we get to the differences with the T-Mobile version, because this is a new iPhone, just invisibly. Unlike on previous GSM iPhones, the T-Mobile iPhone unlocks HSPA+ 42 support on the 1700Mhz AWS band. Combine that with support for 1700MHz LTE as well, and you get an iPhone able to hit T-Mobile and AT&T networks nationwide, as well as foreign HSPA+ networks if unlocked.?

If you're buying an iPhone for T-Mobile, it is very, very important that you get one with 1700MHz HSPA+ support. All iPhones sold through T-Mobile should have the right bands, but I've heard that some Apple stores are still selling older units that don't support T-Mobile's frequency. Double check, because if you don't have AWS, you're in the slow lane.

Speeds were stunning, even without LTE. T-Mobile only officially has LTE in seven cities, but HSPA+ is nationwide. I got download speeds between 8-13Mbps in midtown Manhattan using Ookla's Speedtest.net app, which fulfill anyone's definition of 4G. Uploads on HSPA+ are slower, though, between 0.3 and 1.5Mbps. The company has said it will cover 100 million Americans with LTE by midyear and 200 million by the end of 2013.

Signal strength was good. I compared the iPhone 5 to a Galaxy S 4 in a weak signal area, and both phones lost their ability to make calls at about the same time.

This iPhone also supports HD Voice, which isn't on any other iPhone. For now, to make an HD Voice call you'll need to be talking to another HD Voice phone on T-Mobile, which means an iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy S 4, HTC One S, HTC One, or Nokia Astound.

Calls made from the iPhone 5 to a Galaxy S 4 with HD Voice had unusually rich voice tone, especially in the treble, although there was a touch of scratchiness high up in the audio range. Without HD Voice, calls showed a little bit of compression garble and background noise leakage in noisy areas. The speakerphone is nice and punchy, with just a touch of background hiss.

Overall, this is a fine voice phone, but not quite up to the Galaxy S 4's level in terms of clarity and noise cancellation. Compared to other iPhones across carriers, though, T-Mobile's model wins because of the clarity of HD Voice.

Service Plans
T-Mobile's real selling point is its service plans. Let's start with the price of the phone itself. T-Mobile sells the iPhone for $579 outright, with no contract, or $99 plus $20 per month for 24 months. On the three other major carriers, no-contract iPhones generally cost $649 and the two-year-contract versions cost $199 plus an invisible subsidy built into your service plan. Cricket is the only carrier with a much cheaper no-contract iPhone, at $499.99, but it's on a generally much slower network.

We crunched the numbers when T-Mobile announced the iPhone and found that T-Mobile's model is consistently cheaper than the three other major networks. Over two years on the sample plan we examined, you'd pay $2,160 for a T-Mobile iPhone, as opposed to $239.76 more on Sprint, $479.76 more on AT&T, and $480 more on Verizon.

T-Mobile's sticking point, of course, is coverage. While the carrier's network in major U.S. cities is generally very good, T-Mobile's network doesn't cover as many rural square miles as AT&T's and Verizon's, especially in regions like northern New England, northern Michigan, west Texas, and the Great Plains. As always, it's best to ask people who live near you how they're doing with T-Mobile service.?

Conclusions
Apple's iPhone line is more consistent across carriers than any other kind of phone. T-Mobile adds one major feature, HD Voice, and another compelling benefit, a low price. If you're shopping for an iPhone and T-Mobile's network runs well in your area, you'd be silly not to strongly consider this great new option.

The iPhone 5 falls short of Editors' Choice status on T-Mobile, though. While it's a great experience, simple and clean, the Samsung Galaxy S 4 (which we've reviewed for this carrier) and the HTC One (which we haven't tested on T-Mobile, but have evaluated the Sprint model) offer better screens, more customizability, and a bigger window on the world.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/y4aBHVPn8-k/0,2817,2418127,00.asp

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Lawmakers: Syria chemical weapons could menace U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons could be a greater threat after that nation's president leaves power and could end up targeting Americans at home, lawmakers warned Sunday as they considered a U.S. response that stops short of sending military forces there.

U.S. officials last week declared that the Syrian government probably had used chemical weapons twice in March, newly provocative acts in the 2-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. The U.S. assessment followed similar conclusions from Britain, France, Israel and Qatar ? key allies eager for a more aggressive response to the Syrian conflict.

President Barack Obama has said Syria's likely action ? or the transfer of President Bashar Assad's stockpiles to terrorists ? would cross a "red line" that would compel the United States to act.

Lawmakers sought to remind viewers on Sunday news programs of Obama's declaration while discouraging a U.S. foothold on the ground there.

"The president has laid down the line, and it can't be a dotted line. It can't be anything other than a red line," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. "And more than just Syria, Iran is paying attention to this. North Korea is paying attention to this."

Added Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.: "For America to sit on the sidelines and do nothing is a huge mistake."

Obama has insisted that any use of chemical weapons would change his thinking about the United States' role in Syria but said he didn't have enough information to order aggressive action.

"For the Syrian government to utilize chemical weapons on its people crosses a line that will change my calculus and how the United States approaches these issues," Obama said Friday.

But Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, said Sunday the United States needs to consider those weapons. She said that when Assad leaves power, his opponents could have access to those weapons or they could fall into the hands of U.S. enemies.

"The day after Assad is the day that these chemical weapons could be at risk ... (and) we could be in bigger, even bigger trouble," she said.

Both sides of the civil war already accuse each other of using the chemical weapons.

The deadliest such alleged attack was in the Khan al-Assal village in the Aleppo province in March. The Syrian government called for the United Nations to investigate alleged chemical weapons use by rebels in the attack that killed 31 people.

Syria, however, has not allowed a team of experts into the country because it wants the investigation limited to the single Khan al-Assal incident, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged "immediate and unfettered access" for an expanded investigation.

One of Obama's chief antagonists on Syria, Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., said the United States should go to Syria as part of an international force to safeguard the chemical weapons. But McCain added that he is not advocating sending ground troops to the nation.

"The worst thing the United States could do right now is put boots on the ground on Syria. That would turn the people against us," McCain said.

His friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also said the United States could safeguard the weapons without a ground force. But he cautioned the weapons must be protected for fear that Americans could be targeted. Raising the specter of the lethal bomb at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Graham said the next attack on U.S. soil could employ weapons that were once part of Assad's arsenal.

"Chemical weapons ? enough to kill millions of people ? are going to be compromised and fall into the wrong hands, and the next bomb that goes off in America may not have nails and glass in it," he said.

Rogers and Schakowsky spoke to ABC's "This Week." Chambliss and Graham were interviewed on CBS's "Face the Nation." McCain appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press."

___

Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Philip_Elliott

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-syria-chemical-weapons-could-menace-us-154735931.html

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Betaworks acquires Instapaper, promises continued development

If you're the sort who likes to catch up on web articles through a dedicated reader app, you're likely familiar with Instapaper and its lone creator, Marco Arment. His solo work makes for a cohesive experience and a great story, but it also involves a lot of strain -- enough so that Arment is selling majority control of the app to Betaworks, the owner of Bitly and Digg. Thankfully, this shouldn't represent a classic acquire-and-absorb deal that ultimately kills the original brand. Arment says he'll remain involved as an advisor, and the takeover is arranged with promises that Betaworks will add staff and continue building the read-it-later tool. While neither side has said just where they'll take Instapaper with more resources, there's a real chance that competitors like Pocket will feel some added pressure.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/25/betaworks-acquires-instapaper-promises-continued-development/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Politics on hold at the dedication of Bush library

DALLAS (AP) ? George W. Bush shed a sentimental tear. Barack Obama mused about the burdens of the office. Bill Clinton dished out wisecracks. Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush chimed in, too, on a rare day of harmony at the dedication of the younger Bush's presidential library that glossed over the hard edges and partisan divides of five presidencies spanning more than three tumultuous decades.

"To know the man is to like the man," Obama declared of his Republican predecessor, speaking Thursday before a crowd of 10,000 at an event that had the feel of a class reunion for the partisans who had powered the Bush administration from 2001 to 2009. Dick Cheney was there in a white cowboy hat. Condoleezza Rice gave shout-outs to visiting dignitaries. Colin Powell and Karl Rove were prominent faces in the crowd.

On this day, there was no mention of Iraq or Afghanistan, the wars that dominated Bush's presidency and so divided the nation. There were only gentle references to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And praise aplenty for the resolve that Bush showed in responding to the 9/11 terror attacks.

Clinton joked that the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center was "the latest, grandest example of the eternal struggle of former presidents to rewrite history." But he also praised Bush for including interactive exhibits at the center that invite visitors to make their own choices on major decisions that he faced.

Bush, 66, made indirect reference to the polarizing decision points of his presidency, drawing a knowing laugh as he told the crowd: "One of the benefits of freedom is that people can disagree. It's fair to say I created plenty of opportunities to exercise that right."

He said he was guided throughout his presidency by a determination "to expand the reach of freedom."

"It wasn't always easy, and it certainly wasn't always popular."

It was a day for family and sentimentality, Bush choking up with emotion at the conclusion of his remarks.

The 43rd president singled out his 88-year-old father, another ex-president, to tell him: "41, it is awesome that you are here today."

The elder Bush, wearing jaunty pink socks, spoke for less than a minute from his wheelchair, then turned to his son and quipped, "Too long?" He has a form of Parkinson's disease and has been hospitalized recently for bronchitis.

Just as the public tends to view presidents more kindly once they've left office, ex-presidents, too, tend to soften their judgments ? or at least their public comments ? with time.

Obama once excoriated Bush for his "failed policies" and "disastrous" handling of the economy, for expanding budget deficits, and for drawing the nation into war in Iraq.

On Thursday, he took a detour around those matters and instead praised Bush for his strength after 9/11, compassion in fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa, bipartisanship in pursuing education reforms and restarting "an important conversation by speaking with the American people about our history as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants."

If the country is eventually able to enact immigration changes this year, Obama added, "it will be, in large part, thanks to the hard work of President George W. Bush."

Obama said the living presidents make up an exclusive club ? but it's more like a support group for the men who have held the position.

"No matter how much you may think you are ready to assume the office of the presidency, it's impossible to truly understand the nature of the job until it's yours," Obama said. "And that's why every president gains a greater appreciation for all of those who served before them."

The other presidents struck a similar tone.

Clinton praised Bush for his efforts to combat AIDS in Africa, his work on global health and even for the paintings he's doing in retirement. And he said he'd gotten so close to the Bush family that there were jokes that "I had become the black sheep son."

Carter praised Bush for his role in helping secure peace between North and South Sudan in 2005 and the "great contributions you've made to the most needy people on earth."

Bush has kept a decidedly low profile since leaving office four years ago with an approval rating of just 33 percent. That figure has been gradually climbing and now is at 47 percent ? about equal to Obama's own approval rating, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released ahead of the library opening.

If politics was absent from the podium on Thursday, it was still a prominent subtext.

Those in attendance included a number of potential candidates for president in 2016 ? another Clinton (Hillary) and Bush (Jeb) among them.

George W. Bush in recent days played up the idea of his younger brother, the former governor of Florida, seeking the White House, telling C-SPAN, "My first advice is: Run."

Their mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, did the opposite.

"We've had enough Bushes," she said Thursday on NBC's "Today" show.

The presidential center at Southern Methodist University includes a library, museum and policy institute. It contains more than 70 million pages of paper records, 200 million emails, 4 million digital photos and 43,000 artifacts. Bush's library will feature the largest digital holdings of any of the 13 presidential libraries under the auspices of the National Archives and Records Administration.

A full-scale replica of the Oval Office as it looked during Bush's tenure sits on the campus, as does a piece of steel from the World Trade Center and the bullhorn that Bush used to punctuate the chaos at ground zero three days after 9/11. In the museum, visitors can gaze at a container of chads ? the remnants of the famous Florida punch card ballots that played a pivotal role in the contested 2000 election that sent Bush to Washington.

Laura Bush led the library's design committee, officials said, with a keen eye toward ensuring that the family's Texas roots were conspicuously reflected. Architects used local materials, including Texas Cordova cream limestone and trees from the central part of the state, in its construction.

___

Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP .

___

Associated Press writer Nancy Benac contributed from Washington.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/politics-hold-dedication-bush-library-200154350.html

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Tickets For Apple's WWDC 2013 Sell Out In Under 2 Minutes, Compared To 2 Hours In 2012

Tickets for Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference went on sale today at 10 AM Pacific, 1 PM Eastern, and as expected, sold out in record time, at just under 2 minutes. Tickets for the developer-focused event at San Francisco's Moscone West, which features presentations and one-on-one time with Apple's own in-house engineers, sold out in just two hours in 2012, in under 12 hours in 2011, and in eight days in 2010.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/KZOms9M4AI0/

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Global Center for Childhood Obesity Funds Projects to Improve ...

April 24, 2013

The Johns Hopkins Global Center on Childhood Obesity has awarded funding to two intervention projects aimed at preventing childhood obesity. The research is part of the third round of funding focused on ?rapid response projects.?

The Global Center on Childhood Obesity reviewed research proposals from around the world and selected the following:

Using Point of Sale (POS) Systems to Measure Changes in Purchases Before and After Environmental Interventions in Corner Stores

Principal Investigator: Allison Karpyn, PhD, The Food Trust, Philadelphia, Pa.
The Food Trust, through a partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health?s ?Get Healthy Philly program, has been at the forefront of a growing national movement to increase healthy food access in corner stores in low-income urban areas as an environmental strategy to reduce obesity. In 2012, The Food Trust worked with owners at five corner stores to install point of sale (POS) systems to measure product sales. The overall goal for this pilot study is to evaluate the efficacy of environmental interventions on corner store purchases, using the POS system.

This spring, The Food Trust and the Department of Public Health will implement a new Healthy Corner Store Certification policy, along with physical renovations to the store environment that will employ marketing and pricing strategies to increase healthier food and beverage sales. The Food Trust will utilize POS data from corner stores to examine customers? purchases, before and after implementation of policy and environmental interventions. These analyses will add to an understanding of the impact of corner stores on shopping patterns, dietary intake, and on overweight and obesity, leading to more informed decisions for implementing policies for childhood obesity prevention in underserved areas.

Examining the Outcomes of Collaborative Networks to Improve School Nutrition Environments

Principal Investigator: Donna Johnson, PhD, Department of Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.
Across the United States, school districts are working to improve failing wellness policies. In King County Washington, the county health department is funding a School Learning Network (SLN) that supports district nutrition directors in developing new school system food policies. This project will apply social network analysis to determine: the extent to which the SLN fosters the development of ties between directors and the characteristics of those ties; the extent to which the position of the directors in the network and the strength of their ties is related to the quality of district wellness policy revisions; and how best practices are diffused through the network. Data will be collected in the spring/summer of 2013 and one year later in 2014.

The Johns Hopkins Global Center for Childhood Obesity was established with a $16 million U54 cooperative agreement from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Global Center for Childhood Obesity emphasizes the integration of geospatial analysis with a systems science and transdisciplinary approach to childhood obesity, bringing together basic science, epidemiology, nutrition, medicine, engineering, and environmental and social policy research, among other fields, in an unprecedented, innovative way.

The Center will fund approximately 4 to 5 new research projects each year over the next several years.

For more information about the Johns Hopkins Global Center for Childhood Obesity, visit http://www.jhgcco.org

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health media contact: Tim Parsons at 410-955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.

Source: http://www.jhsph.edu/news/stories/2013/obesity-grants.html

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Bhutan votes in 2nd ever parliamentary poll

GAUHATI, India (AP) ? People in the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan were cementing their young democracy Tuesday by voting in the nation's second parliamentary election.

The remote nation of 700,000 had its first election in 2008 after the king voluntarily reduced the monarchy's role in running the country.

A total of 67 candidates were competing Tuesday for the 20 elected seats in the 25-member upper house. The five remaining seats are filled by royal appointment. The candidates were running without party affiliation.

However, five parties will contest polls for the more influential lower house, expected in June. Only two parties contested the 2008 election, when the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa won a landslide victory.

A royal decree issued before Tuesday's election asked "all voters to take their right and duty seriously."

Results were expected Wednesday.

About 5,000 officials were conducting the voting at 850 polling stations, many of them in hard-to-reach mountain villages, said Kunzang Wangdi, the chief election commissioner. Election officials had been using Indian Air Force helicopters to drop polling machines and officials at remote polling stations in the past few days, but severe rain and wind hampered their efforts, he said.

As the bad weather lifted somewhat Tuesday, the government was able to finish the job using commercial helicopters.

Bhutan had long been closed off to the rest of the world, but began reaching out in the 1960s. Foreigners and the international media were first admitted in 1974. Television finally arrived in 1999.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bhutan-votes-2nd-ever-parliamentary-poll-072326678.html

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Much Ado About Nothing Trailer: Watch Now!

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Looking for life by the light of dying stars

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Because it has no source of energy, a dead star -- known as a white dwarf -- will eventually cool down and fade away. But circumstantial evidence suggests that white dwarfs can still support habitable planets, says Prof. Dan Maoz of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy.

Now Prof. Maoz and Prof. Avi Loeb, Director of Harvard University's Institute for Theory and Computation and a Sackler Professor by Special Appointment at TAU, have shown that, using advanced technology to become available within the next decade, it should be possible to detect biomarkers surrounding these planets -- including oxygen and methane -- that indicate the presence of life.

Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the researchers' "simulated spectrum" demonstrates that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to be launched by NASA in 2018, will be capable of detecting oxygen and water in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet orbiting a white dwarf after only a few hours of observation time -- much more easily than for an Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star.

Their collaboration is made possible by the Harvard TAU Astronomy Initiative, recently endowed by Dr. Raymond and Beverly Sackler.

Faint light, clear signals

"In the quest for extraterrestrial biological signatures, the first stars we study should be white dwarfs," said Prof. Loeb. Prof. Maoz agrees, noting that if "all the conditions are right, we'll be able to detect signs of life" on planets orbiting white dwarf stars using the much-anticipated JWST.

An abundance of heavy elements already observed on the surface of white dwarfs suggest rocky planets orbit a significant fraction of them. The researchers estimate that a survey of 500 of the closest white dwarfs could spot one or more habitable planets.

The unique characteristics of white dwarfs could make these planets easier to spot than planets orbiting normal stars, the researchers have shown. Their atmospheres can be detected and analyzed when a star dims as an orbiting planet crosses in front of it. As the background starlight shines through the planet's atmosphere, elements in the atmosphere will absorb some of the starlight, leaving chemical clues of their presence -- clues that can then be detected from the JWST.

When an Earth-like planet orbits a normal star, "the difficulty lies in the extreme faintness of the signal, which is hidden in the glare of the 'parent' star," Prof. Maoz says. "The novelty of our idea is that, if the parent star is a white dwarf, whose size is comparable to that of an Earth-sized planet, that glare is greatly reduced, and we can now realistically contemplate seeing the oxygen biomarker."

In order to estimate the kind of data that the JWST will be able to see, the researchers created a "synthetic spectrum," which replicates that of an inhabited planet similar to Earth orbiting a white dwarf. They demonstrated that the telescope should be able to pick up signs of oxygen and water, if they exist on the planet.

A critical sign of life

The presence of oxygen biomarkers would be the most critical signal of the presence of life on extraterrestrial planets. Earth's atmosphere, for example, is 21 percent oxygen, and this is entirely produced by our planet's plant life as a result of photosynthesis. Without the existence of plants, an atmosphere would be entirely devoid of oxygen.

The JWST will be ideal for hunting out signs of life on extraterrestrial planets because it is designed to look into the infrared region of the light spectrum, where such biomarkers are prominent. In addition, as a space-based telescope, it will be able to analyze the atmospheres of Earth-like planets outside our solar system without weeding out the similar signatures of Earth's own atmosphere.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/ftCCORIXq54/130424112318.htm

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UKIP claims Thatcher mantle, has vote hope

By Andrew Osborn

LONDON (Reuters) - The leader of Britain's anti-European Union UK Independence Party said on Tuesday his movement was carrying the torch for the late Margaret Thatcher's views on Europe, saying he planned to cause a "political earthquake".

In his most detailed comments to date on his party's electoral strategy, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he hoped to build on surging poll ratings to make big gains in local elections on May 2, win European Parliament elections next year, and secure a "substantial number" of parliamentary seats in Britain in 2015.

The party holds no seats in the British parliament, but is represented in the European Parliament.

"There's a huge vacuum on the centre-right of British politics today and I think UKIP could be ... the catalysts over the course of the next few years for a really fundamental realignment of the way politics is structured in Britain," Farage told parliament reporters.

"I am leading a movement that is becoming a very successful modern different movement in British politics. My job is to change the entire nature of the national debate," he added, saying he hoped to alter the way the country was governed.

Once dismissed by Prime Minister David Cameron as "a party of fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists", UKIP has seen its poll ratings surge to 17 percent after tapping into growing public disenchantment with the EU and unease over immigration levels.

Farage wants Britain to leave the EU and to halt what he calls "open-door immigration". Although UKIP has 12 lawmakers in the 754-member European Parliament, it does not yet have any MPs in the British parliament.

Farage's views on Europe and immigration have caused problems for Cameron, the leader of the ruling Conservative party. Some of Cameron's own members of parliament feel he has become too liberal and should be pushing the same policies.

For many of them, Thatcher, who died on April 8 and was Britain's longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century, remains an idol. Farage told them he had inherited Thatcher's ideological legacy.

"I cannot believe that a young Margaret Thatcher leaving Oxford (University) today would join the Conservative Party. I think she'd come and get involved with UKIP," he said.

"On Europe yes we are the true inheritors of Thatcher."

Farage, who dined with media mogul Rupert Murdoch earlier this year, on Tuesday echoed Murdoch's views on press regulation and on the identity of a possible successor to Cameron - Michael Gove, the minister for education.

He pointed to Canada's Reform Party as a model for success, saying critics who said UKIP would never enjoy electoral success in Britain should look at what the Canadian protest party had achieved.

"We're not there yet by a long chalk but don't think it can't happen under a first-past-the-post system because in Canada it did," he said.

"The Reform Party was subjected to the same degree of mockery and derision, but they became the biggest party in the Canadian parliament in the 1990s. They then staged a masterful reverse takeover of what was left of the conservative party."

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/british-anti-eu-party-claims-thatcher-mantle-vote-212946405.html

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School resumes after Texas explosion

WEST, Texas (AP) -- Teachers waited outside Monday morning like it was the first day of school in this tiny Texas town, hoping that a welcoming handshake or pat on the shoulder would make up for the fact that nothing else was normal.

Five days after a massive blast at a local fertilizer plant killed 14 and ripped many of West's families from their homes, some students attended class in trailers behind damaged school buildings, while others were bused out of the city to once-abandoned campuses.

"They're aggravated. They're disappointed," Nickole Hayes said as she dropped her three daughters at a car dealership that served as a temporary bus stop. "They know they have to go back, but there's not a good way to be uprooted again."

Some parents took the day off to walk or drive their children to school. Classmates who hadn't seen each other for a few days talked and laughed ? with dozens of reporters and TV cameras chronicling their arrival.

"I'm just glad to get back to our routine," said 14-year-old Sofia Guerra, sitting in the car Monday morning with her mother, Erika, as they dropped her sister off at West Elementary School.

"It's unknown," she added. "We don't know what to expect."

Dozens of homes in the city of 2,700 people were damaged in Wednesday's explosion at West Fertilizer Co., and part of the town remains off limits. Authorities said Monday they are conducting a "slow and methodical" search of the site. And West Mayor Pro Tem Steve Vanek said restoring water and natural gas to the town could take weeks.

Counselors were in each classroom and available separately for students still dealing with the emotions of the blast ? almost everyone in the town knew someone killed, hurt or displaced. Some teachers who reported to work Monday had not been home since the blast, said Jan Hungate, assistant superintendent at West Elementary.

Her school had its normal bunch of pre-K through sixth-graders, but also set up trailers behind the building for intermediate students. Middle-and high-school students were bused from the dealership to a spruced-up vacant school in neighboring Connally district.

West and Connally are rivals ? or were until Wednesday night. Connally got to work almost immediately, as volunteers and staff painted hallways, scrubbed floors and stocked classrooms with supplies. Signs were planted along the route to the building: "Welcome West Trojans."

"To start school, they are ready," said Wesley Holt, a Connally district spokesman.

Holt said they also placed binders, notebooks and pens on each desk. Other districts donated furniture, and a food-service company prepared the cafeteria, he said.

"We honestly had to ask people to stop sending school supplies," Hungate said.

Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said state officials have offered to waive end-of-year tests and other requirements as needed. Hungate said the district was considering several options on testing.

Chad Rizo, father of 7-year-old Hunter, took the day off to walk his son to school. Rizo said his mother-in-law and several friends lost their homes and belongings.

While his son was excited to go to school with older friends, Rizo said the outside media attention would need to subside before things could return to normal.

"When West is left to clean up, that's going to hit home for a lot of people, I think," he said.

A housing complex, destroyed by a deadly fertilizer plant explosion, is pictured in the town of West, near Waco, Texas, April 21, 2013. Authorities said the death toll from the explosion on April 17, ... more? A housing complex, destroyed by a deadly fertilizer plant explosion, is pictured in the town of West, near Waco, Texas, April 21, 2013. Authorities said the death toll from the explosion on April 17, 2013 remained at 14 in West, a community of some 2,700 people, with 200 people injured. REUTERS/Michael Ainsworth/Pool (UNITED STATES - Tags: DISASTER ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE) less?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/school-resumes-tiny-texas-town-125302421.html

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Jason Heyward put on DL after appendectomy

DENVER (AP) ? Atlanta Braves right fielder Jason Heyward was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday after an appendectomy.

The team said late Monday that Heyward had surgery at Rose Medical Center in Denver.

Manager Fredi Gonzalez said before the opener of Tuesday's day-night doubleheader against Colorado that there was no set timetable for Heyward's return. The Braves recalled infielder Tyler Pastornicky from Triple A Gwinnett to fill Heyward's roster spot.

Heyward was off to a slow start, batting .121 with two homers and five RBIs. Still, the Braves began the day with a 13-5 record.

"A couple of days ago when we were in Pittsburgh, he felt like he had some stomach fires going," Gonzalez said, "and then it just kept getting more localized, moving to his right side."

After Monday night's game was postponed due to snow and the Braves returned to their hotel in Denver, Heyward called team trainers and said pain in his right side had become acute.

Team physician Dr. Joe Chandler examined Heyward, and tests revealed the problem with his appendix. Chandler accompanied Heyward to the hospital, with the Rockies medical staff helping smooth the admission process.

"Everything went well," Gonzalez said. "Dr. Chandler was here and he did a terrific job. The doctors from the Rockies helped out and got him into the hospital here. They got him in and got him out (of surgery) in about 45 minutes."

Gonzalez said he had a chance to visit with Heyward in the hospital before coming to the ballpark.

"He was in good spirits, beat up a little bit, as you can expect, from the surgery," Gonzalez said. "He's just drained."

Gonzalez expects Reed Johnson and Jordan Schafer will see time in right field in Heyward's absence. Johnson was scheduled to start Tuesday's opener.

Left fielder Justin Upton has played right field in the past.

"Justin is doing a great job in left field and why would I want to move him back for 10-12 days? He's getting used to that left-field position, so we'll just leave him there," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said Heyward may be discharged from the hospital as soon as Tuesday night but may remain in Denver for a day or two before flying back to Atlanta. Heyward won't be going with the team when it leaves after Wednesday's game for Detroit.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jason-heyward-put-dl-appendectomy-171628211--mlb.html

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Papo & Yo

Papo & Yo, a puzzle-platformer from Minority, crossed over to PC from PlayStation Network with grace. This tale of a boy and a monster takes places in an imaginative world filled with South American-style houses, reason-defying physics, and a heartfelt story that explores the relationship between child and parent.

Inspired by the creative director and writer?s childhood memories of an alcoholic, violent father, the player takes role of Quico, a young boy. Quico?s abusive dad makes him retreat into a fantasy world. With his robot toy, Luna, at his side, he meets Monster, a giant pink demon-like creature. Thrown together by circumstance, they face obstacles together to get through life (and the levels of the game).

The primary goal is to reach the next destination by turning magical keys and setting up platforms, often made up of houses. The surrealist environment responds to Quico?s actions when he turns keys or presses in gears: huts suddenly grow feet or wings and move, grass rolls up revealing an underground passage, and whole segments of the city bend and move like elastic Legos. Your imagination is the limit in this creative puzzler; setting objects to work is simple and wonderful to watch.

Jumping in Quickly
The keyboard and mouse set up works great for Quico: WSAD handles movement and the space bar controls jumping; the rest is handled with left and right mouse clicks. Papo & Yo's gameplay mostly revolves around activating all switches in an area to make a passage accessible. There?s lots of jumping, which works well, but collision detection hiccups can produce weird interactions with ledges or get Quico stuck in moving elements. But, for the most part, this never impaired the gameplay, and when I was stuck in the side of a rotating block, I managed to free myself. The platforming is rather simple, and Quico can?t grab onto ledges. In practice, this means that you only jump on mostly flat surfaces that are easy to distance-judge.

The game doesn?t offer much in terms of branching out or going astray from the prescribed path. Bigger areas have tons of hidden ledges and shelves, but they don?t often lead anywhere. Invisible walls are used frequently, which is a shame, since the game could have more creative borders. My natural curiosity to find hidden areas, or to go where I?m not supposed to, was not satisfied, although there is one form of an optional collectible in the game. ?Unfortunately, though, platform enthusiasts or seekers of secrets and hidden goodies may find the game a little dry in those aspects. Like a storybook, the game places you on a strictly set path.

Puzzles start off really simple, and get increasingly complex. The puzzles are a little simplistic in principle because most often, you just try to press each gear and turn every handle you see as though it?s a checklist. My favorite segment involved stacking houses on top of each other, then using a lever to make them bend in a certain direction to access more pieces, further extending the tower, until I was able to cross over to the next area. It?s a joy to watch the houses shift to Quico?s imagination ? it?s wondrous, inventive, occasionally jaw-dropping, and seamlessly integrated with gameplay. It gets even more interesting when the Monster comes into play.

The Boy and the Beast
The heart of the game lies at interacting with the beast, who is both an aid and antagonist. When asleep at specific spots, Quico can jump off his belly to reach higher ledges. Monster can be lured anywhere as long as you have yellow fruit that can be picked up and thrown ? for example, Monster may need to stand in a specific spot to activate a platform . Beware, though, of his addiction to poisonous frogs. Consuming one sends Monster into an uncontrollable, fiery rage, and if Quico is nearby, he?ll run right to him and attack. Emotions rise as the music turns from gentle South-American wind instruments to fast-tempo, crazed tribal beats with drums. This simulates something of a boss fight, where Quico solves some quick puzzles and avoid Monster in order to calm him. Through these mechanics, you learn to cooperate with the behemoth.

The story is the strongest point of the game. Quico finds solace and comfort in Lula, his toy-robot, and follows a mysterious girl who guides him, but when the friends clash with Monster, the relationship between Quico and the beast gets even more complicated. You learn to live with this difficult bond; it?s someone you will start to dislike, even hate, but still need and maybe even want to help. Although not a very outspoken protagonist, Quico shows his youthful optimism in that he doesn?t hate the beast even though it may hurt him or his friends. The game?s larger themes are revealed when you learn how this relates to Quico?s real life and his actual father, which Papo & Yo slowly reveals and develops. It truly tugs at your heart at many times, especially at the climactic, masterfully-executed finish.

The Moral of the Story
The visuals are a great component to the fanciful, Inception-like world, and Minority took particular care at playing with light to show remarkable sunsets and shadows. Shades from Monster?s body are artfully used. It is clear that the art directors did a thorough, immaculate conceptualization, synthesizing it with the gameplay. Rain, clouds, and rainbows play together with the surrealist, desolate, South-American environment.

The deep, thematic storyline and engaging artwork overshadow the gameplay, unfortunately. It?s a shame that Monster only reacts to the player in prescribed triggers (frogs, fruit, etc) and doesn?t continually interact with Quico to further simulate the relationship. Papo & Yo is definitely more about the story than the gameplay, although younger players? impressions may be different. The game?s themes of alcoholism and abuse, handled in subtle, meaningful metaphors, will definitely resonate more with some people than others, but it should at least evoke emotion in anyone remotely empathetic.

Papo & Yo, ultimately, is worth the time to invest, and the game?s tackling of issues that overshadow the gameplay itself are admirable and well-executed. It?s like a Pixar movie or a classic storybook in video game form, and even though it may not be the most engaging platform-puzzler out there, it still is a pleasure to listen to, watch, and play.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/uQe4UFqjlm4/0,2817,2417926,00.asp

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Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 hits the FCC, sports AT&T compatible HSPA+

Samsung's Galaxy Mega 6.3 still doesn't have an exact launch date, but it has made its way to the FCC. While the Mega was announced with LTE and HSPA+ radios, it appears that this version, model I9200, only has the latter onboard (I9205 is the LTE-equipped variant) -- the Galaxy slightly-less Mega, it seems. It's a safe bet that this particular model won't officially make it stateside, but the reports seem to indicate that it'll play nice with AT&T's HSPA+ bands. In case you're thinking of importing this 1.7Ghz device down the line, you can have a look at our hands-on here. Otherwise, you can have a look at the filing by heading to the source link.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

Comments

Source: FCC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/21/samsung-galaxy-mega-6-3-hspa-att-fcc/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Sheriff: 5 snowboarders killed in Colo. avalanche

GEORGETOWN, Colo. (AP) ? Five snowboarders were killed Saturday afternoon in a backcountry avalanche on Colorado's Loveland Pass, authorities said.

Clear Creek County Sheriff Don Krueger said in a statement that six snowboarders were caught in the slide. The condition of the lone survivor was not released, and it was unclear if the victims were still buried.

Colorado Avalanche Information Center forecaster Spencer Logan said there have been weak layers in Colorado's snowpack since early January.

"Our last series of storms made them more active again," he said. "Over the last week and a half, that area got over 18 inches of snow, so if you melted that that would be 2 inches of water, so that is a heavy load."

Loveland Pass, at an elevation of 11,990 feet, is popular among backcountry skiers and snowboarders. The Colorado Department of Transportation closed U.S. Route 6 as many skiers were headed home from nearby Arapahoe Basin ski resort.

Lisa Clarke Devore, who was headed back to Denver from the resort, told The Associated Press she saw a fire truck and ambulance on the pass, as well two search dogs headed into the area of the slide. She says she saw several ambulances, including one towing snowmobiles, driving toward the pass.

On Thursday, a 38-year-old snowboarder died in an avalanche south of Vail Pass. Eagle County sheriff's officials said the man and another snowboarder likely triggered the slide after a friend on a snowmobile dropped them off at the top of Avalanche Bowl.

U.S. avalanche deaths climbed steeply around 1990 to an average of around 24 a year as new gear became available for backcountry travel. Until then, avalanches rarely claimed more than a handful of lives each season in records going back to 1950.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sheriff-5-snowboarders-killed-colo-avalanche-223833422.html

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In Boston and beyond, thanks and jubilation

A crowd reacts to news of the arrest of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects during a celebration at Boston Common, Friday, April 19, 2013, in Boston. Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured in Watertown, Mass. The 19-year-old college student wanted in the bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A crowd reacts to news of the arrest of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects during a celebration at Boston Common, Friday, April 19, 2013, in Boston. Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured in Watertown, Mass. The 19-year-old college student wanted in the bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A crowd gathers at Boston Common after the final suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing was arrested, Friday, April 19, 2013, in Boston. Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured in Watertown, Mass. The 19-year-old college student wanted in the bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Women cheer after the arrest of a suspect of the Boston Marathon bombings in Watertown, Mass., Friday, April 19, 2013. Two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing killed an MIT police officer, injured a transit officer in a firefight and threw explosive devices at police during their getaway attempt. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A police officer gives a thumbs up to another in Watertown, Mass. Friday, April 19, 2013, after the manhunt for the second of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing was captured. A 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Police officers smile to fellow officers as they leave the scene after the arrest of a suspect of the Boston Marathon bombings in Watertown, Mass., Friday, April 19, 2013. A 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

BOSTON (AP) ? They gathered in silence on Boylston Street, just three blocks away from the chaos and carnage caused by twin bombings four days earlier. Some were crying.

Boston University student Aaron Wengertsman, 19, wrapped himself in an American flag. He was on the marathon route a mile from the finish line when the bombs exploded.

"I'm glad they caught him alive," he said of one of two brothers authorities say were responsible for the explosions. "I thought people might be more excited, but it's humbling to see all these people paying their respects."

As Wengertsman and dozens of others held a solemn commemoration Friday night for the victims of the blasts, others took to the streets of Boston and beyond to celebrate the capture of the surviving suspect following a manhunt that left the city largely paralyzed.

In Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, where an 8-year-old boy killed in the bombing lived, people set off fireworks.

Boston University juniors Brendan Hathaway and Sam Howes gave high fives to strangers as they walked down the street bathed in the flashing lights from Kenmore Square's iconic rooftop Citgo sign.

"This was like our first opportunity to really be outside without feeling like there imminent danger," said Hathaway, a mechanical engineering student from nearby Newton. "It was close to home for me."

At Boston Common, Beth Lloyd-Jones said it felt like she had her city back. She was blocks away from the blast on Monday in her south end home.

"It's personal," she said, noting that she's planning her wedding for the public library building adjacent to where the bombs exploded.

"That could have been any one of us," she said of the victims. "Now I feel a little safer."

The surviving suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was taken to a hospital after engaging in a firefight with police while hiding out in a parked boat in a Watertown backyard. Earlier in the day, his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had been killed in a gunbattle and car chase during which he and his younger brother hurled explosives at police from a stolen car, authorities said. During the getaway attempt, the brothers killed an MIT policeman and severely wounded another officer, authorities said.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this would result in a shootout in Watertown," said Sheamus McGovern, of neighboring Belmont.

Less than 24 hours after the shootout, police officers and firefighters stood grim-faced with guns and rifles, lining the street leading to the property about a mile away where the younger brother was believed to be holed up in the boat.

Reporters and spectators lined up on the other side. The mood was tense, with the few neighbors who ventured out hugging and crying as they heard bangs. Others merely looked on curiously.

Then, one officer slowly started clapping. Then it spread to the crowd. Then loud cheers broke out.

People in the crowd started asking, "Is he alive?" One of the officers nodded, yes. Any time a first responder emerged from the street, there was loud applause.

"They finally caught the jerk," said nurse Cindy Boyle, 41. "It was scary; it was tense." She said she knew when police started clapping that everything would be all right.

In Boston, celebratory bells rang from a church tower after the capture. Teenagers waved American flags in the center of town. Every car that drove by honked. Every time an emergency vehicle went by, people cheered loudly.

Liz Rogers, a 65-year-old attorney, took one of the pieces of yellow police tape and tied it around her neck like a necklace.

"When you see your town invaded like this, it's stunning," she said. "Everyone in Watertown is just so grateful that he's caught and that we're liberated."

The jubilation was widespread. The mayor of Boston tweeted, "We got him!" And at the home of the New York Mets, spectators leapt to their feet and cheered when the news spread during a game against the Washington Nationals.

Hundreds of people marched down Commonwealth Avenue, chanting "USA" and singing the Red Sox anthem "Sweet Caroline" as they headed toward Boston Common. Police blocked traffic along part of the street to allow for the impromptu parade.

"I can finally sleep tonight," said 27-year-old Lisa Mara, standing along Boylston Street, just a few blocks from her home.

___

Lindsay reported from Watertown, Mass. Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed, Bridget Murphy and Katie Zezima in Boston contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-20-Boston%20Marathon-Reaction/id-b1723c6d19ef47c4a3f9f6c7242d329e

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Mathematical models out-perform doctors in predicting cancer patients' responses to treatment

Apr. 19, 2013 ? Mathematical prediction models are better than doctors at predicting the outcomes and responses of lung cancer patients to treatment, according to new research presented today (Saturday) at the 2nd Forum of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO).

These differences apply even after the doctor has seen the patient, which can provide extra information, and knows what the treatment plan and radiation dose will be.

"The number of treatment options available for lung cancer patients are increasing, as well as the amount of information available to the individual patient. It is evident that this will complicate the task of the doctor in the future," said the presenter, Dr Cary Oberije, a postdoctoral researcher at the MAASTRO Clinic, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands. "If models based on patient, tumour and treatment characteristics already out-perform the doctors, then it is unethical to make treatment decisions based solely on the doctors' opinions. We believe models should be implemented in clinical practice to guide decisions."

Dr Oberije and her colleagues in The Netherlands used mathematical prediction models that had already been tested and published. The models use information from previous patients to create a statistical formula that can be used to predict the probability of outcome and responses to treatment using radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy for future patients.

Having obtained predictions from the mathematical models, the researchers asked experienced radiation oncologists to predict the likelihood of lung cancer patients surviving for two years, or suffering from shortness of breath (dyspnea) and difficulty swallowing (dysphagia) at two points in time:

1) after they had seen the patient for the first time, and

2) after the treatment plan was made. At the first time point, the doctors predicted two-year survival for 121 patients, dyspnea for 139 and dysphagia for 146 patients.

At the second time point, predictions were only available for 35, 39 and 41 patients respectively.

For all three predictions and at both time points, the mathematical models substantially outperformed the doctors' predictions, with the doctors' predictions being little better than those expected by chance.

The researchers plotted the results on a special graph [1] on which the area below the plotted line is used for measuring the accuracy of predictions; 1 represents a perfect prediction, while 0.5 represents predictions that were right in 50% of cases, i.e. the same as chance. They found that the model predictions at the first time point were 0.71 for two-year survival, 0.76 for dyspnea and 0.72 for dysphagia. In contrast, the doctors' predictions were 0.56, 0.59 and 0.52 respectively.

The models had a better positive predictive value (PPV) -- a measure of the proportion of patients who were correctly assessed as being at risk of dying within two years or suffering from dyspnea and dysphagia -- than the doctors. The negative predictive value (NPV) -- a measure of the proportion of patients that would not die within two years or suffer from dyspnea and dysphagia -- was comparable between the models and the doctors.

"This indicates that the models were better at identifying high risk patients that have a very low chance of surviving or a very high chance of developing severe dyspnea or dysphagia," said Dr Oberije.

The researchers say that it is important that further research is carried out into how prediction models can be integrated into standard clinical care. In addition, further improvement of the models by incorporating all the latest advances in areas such as genetics, imaging and other factors, is important. This will make it possible to tailor treatment to the individual patient's biological make-up and tumour type

"In our opinion, individualised treatment can only succeed if prediction models are used in clinical practice. We have shown that current models already outperform doctors. Therefore, this study can be used as a strong argument in favour of using prediction models and changing current clinical practice," said Dr Oberije.

"Correct prediction of outcomes is important for several reasons," she continued. "First, it offers the possibility to discuss treatment options with patients. If survival chances are very low, some patients might opt for a less aggressive treatment with fewer side-effects and better quality of life. Second, it could be used to assess which patients are eligible for a specific clinical trial. Third, correct predictions make it possible to improve and optimise the treatment. Currently, treatment guidelines are applied to the whole lung cancer population, but we know that some patients are cured while others are not and some patients suffer from severe side-effects while others don't. We know that there are many factors that play a role in the prognosis of patients and prediction models can combine them all."

At present, prediction models are not used as widely as they could be by doctors. Dr Oberije says there are a number of reasons: some models lack clinical credibility; others have not yet been tested; the models need to be available and easy to use by doctors; and many doctors still think that seeing a patient gives them information that cannot be captured in a model. "Our study shows that it is very unlikely that a doctor can outperform a model," she concluded.

President of ESTRO, Professor Vincenzo Valentini, a radiation oncologist at the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, Rome, Italy, commented: "The booming growth of biological, imaging and clinical information will challenge the decision capacity of every oncologist. The understanding of the knowledge management sciences is becoming a priority for radiation oncologists in order for them to tailor their choices to cure and care for individual patients."

[1] For the mathematicians among you, the graph is known as an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC).

[2] This work was partially funded by grants from the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF), the European Fund for Regional Development (INTERREG/EFRO), and the Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (CTMM).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO), 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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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/fjbMmwCEnt4/130420110651.htm

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News in Brief: American Physical Society meeting

Highlights from the April physics meeting, Denver, April 13-16

By Andrew Grant

Web edition: April 19, 2013

Enlarge

The Crab Nebula, shown in a composite X-ray, visible-light and infrared view, may have finally yielded its secrets. An astronomer proposes that it is the product of a rare kind of supernova.

Credit: X-ray: J. Hester/ASU, CXC; Optical: J. Hester and A. Loll/ASU, NASA, ESA; Infrared: R. Gehrz/U of Minn., JPL/NASA

?Classifying the Crab Nebula supernova

In 1054, eyes turned to the sky as a giant star 6,500 light-years away exploded as a supernova. Today, what?s left behind is a colorful shell of gas and dust known as the Crab Nebula. Now an astronomer has laid out a blueprint of just how that star exploded.

The Crab supernova confounds astronomers because it packed less energy than a typical explosion of a star of its size, yet a large portion of that energy seemed to show up as visible light ? so much so that Chinese astronomers reported seeing the supernova in the daytime sky for 23 days.

In an April 15 session and a paper posted on arXiv.org, astronomer Nathan Smith from the University of Arizona in Tucson argued that the Crab Nebula is the product of a rare type of supernova called a Type IIn-P. He surmises that a large star rich in oxygen, neon and magnesium exploded and sent out a shock wave that heated up interstellar material to temperatures that maximize the emission of visible light. The brightness of Type IIn-P explosions observed in 1994, 2009 and 2011 plateaued for a few months before plummeting, which Smith says is consistent with observations from 1054.

Fossils show bacteria may have eaten supernova?s iron

Ancient bacteria may have chewed up the radioactive remains of a star that exploded more than 2 million years ago, according to research presented April 14.

Only a few giant stars explode as supernovas close enough to Earth to deposit shrapnel on the planet. A rock recovered from the Pacific Ocean nearly a decade ago suggested one such supernova occurred about 2.2 million years ago. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich in Germany made that determination in 2004 by analyzing the rock's concentration of iron-60, a radioactive isotope spewed by supernovas.

Shawn Bishop, a physicist from Technical University who was not involved in the prior research, wondered whether he could find any radioactive iron from the supernova in the fossil record. He looked to bacteria that live beneath the seafloor and process iron to produce magnetic crystals.

Bishop and his team obtained a sediment core from the Pacific seafloor that dates back to 3.3 million years ago. They extracted iron-60 from samples of the core and counted the atoms with a mass spectrometer. The radioactive isotope was nonexistent in most of the samples, but it showed up in very small amounts in samples from around the time of the supernova. The findings could indicate that bacteria harvested supernova-produced iron-60 atoms.

Black hole fires particle jet toward Earth

A burst of activity from a nearby supermassive black hole has drawn the gaze of a suite of telescopes, including NuSTAR, NASA's newest space probe. The jet of energetic particles emanating from the black hole was a hot topic at an April 15 session on NuSTAR?s latest results.

The supermassive black hole, located 400 million light-years away in the galaxy Markarian 421, is inhaling enormous amounts of gas and dust. The black hole?s extreme gravity heats up that material, and some of it escapes at nearly the speed of light in a narrow jet, along with intense radiation. In the case of Markarian 421?s black hole, that jet is pointed straight at Earth.

NuSTAR, which is short for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, is an X-ray telescope designed to explore the inner workings of black holes. It has been monitoring Markarian 421 since January, and on April 12 the black hole suddenly started beaming out up to100 times as much radiation as usual. NuSTAR astronomers contacted colleagues around the world through an online forum, and almost immediately as many as 20 telescopes began tracking Markarian 421?s emission of gamma rays, radio waves and visible light.

Caltech?s Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR?s principal investigator, says these combined observations will help astronomers understand where and how matter gets accelerated in the vicinity of an active black hole.

---

Suggested Reading

R. Cowen. Frozen cosmic fingerprints. Science News online. March 9, 2009. [Go to]

C. Brownlee. Polar-opposite bacteria swim south in the north. Science News. Vol. 169, January 28, 2006, p. 62. Available online: [Go to]

R. Cowen. Powerhouse astronomy: Blazing black hole from the early universe. Science News. Vol. 166, July 3, 2004, p. 4. Available online: [Go to]

R. Cowen. Crab Nebula activity keeps confounding. Science News. Vol. 179, June 4, 2011, p. 10. Available online: [Go to]

NuSTAR team?s online announcement of ?extreme X-ray flaring,? in The Astronomer?s Telegram.
[Go to]

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349844/title/News_in_Brief_American_Physical_Society_meeting

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Suspect in ricin-laced mailings known as Elvis impersonator (Washington Post)

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