DURHAM, N.C. – New research into the earliest events occurring immediately upon infection with HIV-I shows that the virus deals a stunning blow to the immune system earlier than was previously understood. According to scientists at Duke University Medical Center, this suggests the window of opportunity for successful intervention may be only a matter of days – not weeks – after transmission, as researchers had previously believed.

Appearing in the August issue of the Journal of Virology, the finding may make the challenge of designing an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine appear daunting. But researchers say the study has also yielded a blueprint for what a successful vaccine should like, and moreover, when such a vaccine would need to work.

Until now, scientists believed that the window of opportunity to intervene in the process of HIV-1 infection lay in the three to four weeks between transmission and the development of an established pool of infected CD4 T cells. HIV-1 cripples the immune system by invading and killing CD4 T cells, key infection-fighters in the body. Read the full story from the source.

Fears that the most powerful atom-smasher ever built could cause a disaster that threatens the world have been dismissed by scientists. Some people fear that the Large Hadron Collider could create black holes that swallow the planet.

ORNL demonstrates super-sensitive explosives detector
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., June 25, 2008 — Using a laser and a device that converts reflected light into sound, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory can detect explosives at distances exceeding 20 yards.

The method is a variation of photoacoustic spectroscopy but overcomes a number of problems associated with this technique originally demonstrated by Alexander Graham Bell in the late 1880s. Most notably, ORNL researchers are able to probe and identify materials in open air instead of having to introduce a pressurized chamber, which renders photoacoustic spectroscopy virtually useless for security and military applications.

ORNL’s technique, detailed in Applied Physics Letters 92, involves illuminating the target sample with an eye-safe pulsed light source and allowing the scattered light to be detected by a quartz crystal tuning fork.

“We match the pulse frequency of the illuminating light with the mechanical resonant frequency of the quartz crystal tuning fork, generating acoustic waves at the tuning fork’s air-surface interface,” said Charles Van Neste of ORNL’s Biosciences Division. “This produces pressures that drive the tuning fork into resonance.”

The amplitude of this vibration is proportional to the intensity of the scattered light beam falling on the tuning fork, which because of the nature of quartz creates a piezoelectric voltage.

Van Neste and co-authors Larry Senesac and Thomas Thundat note that other advantages of quartz tuning fork resonators include compact size, low cost, commercial availability and the ability to operate in field conditions environments.

For their experiments, researchers used tributyl phosphate and three explosives - cyclotrimethylenetrinitromine, trinitrotoluene, commonly known as TNT, and pentaerythritol tetranitrate. They were able to detect trace residues with lasers 100 times less powerful than those of competing technologies.

While the researchers have been able to detect explosives at 20 meters, using larger collection mirrors and stronger illumination sources, they believe they can achieve detection at distances approaching 100 meters.

Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival Celebrates NASA’s 50 Years

Moon buggies, stardust and space food are a few of the things visitors will learn about at the “NASA: 50 Years and Beyond” program during this summer’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The program will showcase the role men and women of NASA have played in broadening the horizons of American science and culture, and the role they will continue to play in shaping the future through exploration and stirring the public imagination.

The festival will be held outdoors on the National Mall between 7th and 14th streets from Wednesday, June 25, through Sunday, June 29, and Wednesday, July 2, through Sunday, July 6. Admission is free. Festival hours are from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EDT each day, with special 6 p.m. evening events that include concerts and dance parties. The festival is co-sponsored by the National Park Service.

“The Folklife Festival will be a unique way for more than a million people to learn more about the history and heritage of our nation’s exploration of space and cutting-edge aeronautics research,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale. “With this festival, NASA celebrates its 50th anniversary, and in the forty-two years of the annual Folklife Festival, NASA is only the second federal agency invited to participate. NASA is in the inspiration business, and my hope is that visitors to our nation’s capital will take the opportunity to learn more about our scientific discoveries of Earth and space, and the future of exploration with our talented engineers, scientists and astronauts.”

Through hands-on educational activities, demonstrations, narrative sessions and exhibits, the program will highlight the skills and specialized knowledge that are uniquely NASA. About 200 NASA astronomers, astronauts, astrophysicists, educators, engineers and other experts will engage with visitors to represent a cross-section of NASA’s 80,000 employees, contractors and grantees. The popular, Web-based “NASA Edge” podcast, as well as NASA TV will be on hand to report from the festival and conduct live interviews with participants.

NASA PROGRAMS
The festival program will illustrate the geographic and occupational diversity of NASA’s 10 field centers and inform visitors of the agency’s many past, present and future projects. The topics of space science, Earth science, aeronautics, human spaceflight and future projects will be represented at the festival. Space science participants will be on hand to discuss the collection and analysis of interstellar dust, robotic missions to Mars and planetary exploration. Earth science participants will share recent findings about climate change, weather patterns and satellite imagery.

Since NASA’s inception, the agency’s employees have conducted cutting-edge research in traditional aeronautical disciplines and new, emerging fields to support future air and space vehicles. At the festival, aeronautics engineers and technicians will share with visitors the work they are doing on wind tunnel testing and improving air traffic control.

NASA’s most visible mission is human spaceflight. Both current and former astronauts will share their adventures and experience with festival visitors. Also on hand will be NASA engineers and scientists who are building new spaceships that will enable astronauts to return to the moon by 2020.

BENEFITS TO SOCIETY
Society often benefits from the technological advances of NASA. While, contrary to popular belief, Tang and Velcro are not NASA inventions, visitors will learn that many other commercial products and services in the fields of health, medicine, industry and consumer goods came from NASA-derived technologies.

Society also has its imaginations stirred by the exploration of space. Countless painters, sculptors, poets, writers, filmmakers and musicians have used NASA’s work as the basis for their art. Several of these people who have documented or interpreted NASA’s missions through their art will demonstrate their work at the festival.

FAMILY ACTIVITIES
Younger festival visitors can participate in a variety of hands-on activities that will illustrate the many different facets of NASA. Using their “Mission Guide” activities booklet, children can try such activities as comparing satellite images and studying the impact of comets. After completing the tasks and determining if they have “the right stuff,” kids will earn a reward.

Visitors to the festival also will have the opportunity to leave record their memories of and thoughts about NASA, including where they were during important NASA moments.

FOODWAYS
Daily discussions on creating menus for space, packaging food for space, and planning for long term missions beyond Earth will showcase the design of nutritious and appetizing meals for space travelers. NASA staff also will discuss the challenges and rewards that come with feeding a multicultural crew on the International Space Station.

NARRATIVE STAGES
Participants from all areas of the program, as well as NASA alumni and other special guests, will share stories, traditions and memories of 50 years of NASA on the program’s two narrative stages, Exploration and Galaxy.

ALSO AT THE SMITHSONIAN
During the evenings of the festival’s first week, the National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium will feature films relating to NASA, including “Apollo 13,” “In the Shadow of the Moon” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Also on the National Mall, the National Air and Space Museum’s exhibition “Space: A Journey to Our Future” opened June 14. This exhibition highlights current achievements in space exploration — satellites, space telescopes, people living in space — and provides a glimpse into future human space travel.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will feature three programs. In addition to “NASA: 50 Years and Beyond,” the other programs are “Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon” and “Texas: A Celebration of Music, Food and Wine.”

The Folklife Festival, inaugurated in 1967, honors people from across the United States and around the world. With about 1 million visitors each year, the festival unites presenters and performers in the nation’s capital to celebrate the diversity of cultural traditions. It is produced by the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Source:Nasa

Public release from The National Science Foundation

Crinoids, Sea Lilies Fossil, originally uploaded by vinny12.

Crinoids, commonly known as “sea lilies,” from the approximately 460-million-year-old Ordovician Bobcaygeon Formation in Ontario, Canada. These marine animals, which are echinoderms related to starfish and sand dollars, attached themselves to the sea floor and filtered food from the water with their feathery appendages. Crinoids are still alive today, but they are part of the Paleozoic evolutionary fauna, which was more abundant and diverse in the shallow seas that covered much of the present-day land area. The delicate specimens on this slab of rock were preserved when a strong storm toppled them to the sea floor and then buried them with a thin layer of mud.

Credit: Shanan Peters, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Ebb and flow of the sea is the primary cause of the world’s mass extinctions over the past 500 million years

If you are curious about Earth’s periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes as culprits.

But a new study, published June 15, 2008, in the journal Nature, suggests that it is the ocean, and in particular the epic ebbs and flows of sea level and sediment over the course of geologic time, that is the primary cause of the world’s periodic mass extinctions over the past 500 million years.

“The expansions and contractions of those environments have pretty profound effects on life on Earth,” says Shanan Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of geology and geophysics and the author of the new Nature report. In short, according to Peters, changes in ocean environments related to sea level exert a driving influence on rates of extinction, which animals and plants survive or vanish, and generally determine the composition of life in the oceans.

Since the advent of life on Earth 3.5 billion years ago, scientists think there may have been as many as 23 mass extinction events, many involving simple forms of life such as single-celled microorganisms. Over the past 540 million years, there have been five well-documented mass extinctions, primarily of marine plants and animals, with as many as 75-95 percent of species lost. For the most part, scientists have been unable to pin down the causes of such dramatic events. In the case of the demise of the dinosaurs, scientists have a smoking gun, an impact crater that suggests dinosaurs were wiped out as the result of a large asteroid crashing into the planet. But the causes of other mass extinction events have been murky, at best.

“No matter what the ultimate driving extinction mechanisms might be at any one time, Professor Peters brings the repeated and resultant extinction on oceanic shelves front and forward where it belongs,” says National Science Foundation (NSF) Program Manager Rich Lane. “This breakthrough speaks loudly to the future impending modern shelf extinction due to climate change on Earth.”

Paleontologists have been chipping away at the causes of mass extinctions for almost 60 years, according to Peters, whose work was supported by NSF. “Impacts, for the most part, aren’t associated with most extinctions. There have also been studies of volcanism, and some eruptions correspond to extinction, but many do not.”

Arnold I. Miller, a paleobiologist and professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati, says the new study is striking because it establishes a clear relationship between the tempo of mass extinction events and changes in sea level and sediment: “Over the years, researchers have become fairly dismissive of the idea that marine mass extinctions like the great extinction of the Late Permian might be linked to sea-level declines, even though these declines are known to have occurred many times throughout the history of life. The clear relationship this study documents will motivate many to rethink their previous views.”

Peters measured two principal types of marine shelf environments preserved in the rock record, one where sediments are derived from erosion of land and the other composed primarily of calcium carbonate, which is produced in-place by shelled organisms and by chemical processes. “The physical differences between these two types of marine environments have important biological consequences,” Peters explains noting differences in sediment stability, temperature and the availability of nutrients and sunlight.

In the course of hundreds of millions of years the world’s oceans have expanded and contracted in response to the shifting of the Earth’s tectonic plates and to changes in climate. There were periods of the planet’s history when vast areas of the continents were flooded by shallow seas such as the shark and mosasaur infested seaway that neatly split North America during the age of the dinosaurs.

As those epicontinental seas drained, animals like mosasaurs and giant sharks went extinct, and conditions on the marine shelves where life exhibited its greatest diversity in the form of things like clams and snails changed as well. The new Wisconsin study, Peters says, does not preclude other influences on extinction such as physical events like volcanic eruptions or killer asteroids, or biological influences such as disease and competition among species. But what it does do, he argues, is provide a common link to mass extinction events over a significant stretch of Earth history.

“The major mass extinctions tend to be treated in isolation by scientists,” Peters says. “This work links them and smaller events in terms of a forcing mechanism, and it also tells us something about who survives and who doesn’t across these boundaries. These results argue for a substantial fraction of change in extinction rates being controlled by just one environmental parameter.”

Source: NSF

For more breaking space news see the left side bar of this page where you will find many real-time news feeds.

NASA Phoenix Mars Ice or Salt Photo, originally uploaded by vinny12.

The Robotic Arm on the Phoenix Mars Lander took a second scoop full of soil and revealed whitish material at the bottom of the dig area. Scientists are debating whether this is a salt layer or the top of an ice table.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Latest Space News

Shuttle Discovery docks at space station with lab (AP via Yahoo! News)

Yahoo News
Space shuttle Discovery performed a slow back flip and then docked at the international space station on Monday, delivering a mammoth lab and two new occupants: a NASA astronaut and Buzz Lightyear.

Injuries to high school baseball players becoming more serious

New study calls for increased use of protective equipment to reduce injuries

Although the overall rate of high school baseball-related injuries has decreased within the last 10 years, the severity of injuries that occur has increased, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. During the two-year study period, an estimated 132,000 high school baseball-related injuries occurred with an injury rate of more than one per 1,000 athletic exposures.

Potential explanations for the increase in the severity of these injuries are attributed to the increase of intensity during competition and the size and strength of players resulting in them throwing faster, hitting harder and generating more force during player-to-player contact. The fact many high school baseball players now participate in baseball year round also likely contributes to overuse injuries.

“Based on our findings regarding the risk of sustaining an injury when hit by a batted ball, we strongly recommend helmets with face shields or at least mouth guards and eye protection be used by all pitchers, infielders and batters at the high school level,” explained the study’s lead author Christy Collins, MA, research associate in CIRP of Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

According to the study, published in the June issue of Pediatrics, being hit by a batted ball is one of the more common mechanisms of baseball-related injuries and one of the most serious. More than half of the injuries that occurred as a result of being hit by a batted ball were to the head/face and teeth and 40 percent resulted in fractures, lacerations or concussions. When compared to other injuries, injured players struck by a batted ball were more than twice as likely to require surgery. The study also found pitchers are not the only players at risk. Half of the injuries attributed to being hit by a batted ball were sustained during fielding.

“The use of face guards among batters is becoming more accepted in youth baseball,” added study co-author Dawn Comstock, PhD, principal investigator in CIRP of Nationwide Children’s and faculty member of The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “However, the use of proven protective equipment such as face shields, mouth guards and eye protection is not yet widely accepted by players and coaches at the high school level. Research shows that wearing such protective equipment reduces the risk of sports-related facial and dental injuries.” Source: Eurekalert

Yahoo! News: Technology News
Technology News
Web networking photos come back to bite defendants
(AP)

AP - Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in a black-and-white striped shirt and an orange jumpsuit labeled “Jail Bird.”

Black market iPhones being sold for $1,200 in Russia
(AP)

AP - In the Soviet days, Russians asked their American friends to bring blue jeans, rock records and other Western goods into the country. Today Russians can buy almost anything they want here — but they are still begging for one item: Apple Inc.’s slick iPhone.

Big shareholder backs Yahoo board over Icahn
(AP)

AP - One of Yahoo Inc.’s largest shareholders is supporting the re-election of the Internet company’s incumbent board, delivering a significant blow to an attempted coup being led by activist investor Carl Icahn.

GM researches high-tech windshields to aid vision
(AP)

AP - When Coke bottle glasses just won’t cut it for safe driving, a futuristic windshield might do the trick.

Pondering Microsoft’s ‘Everett Dirkson moment’
(CNET)

CNET - Illinois Sen. Everett Dirkson is remembered for the quip, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.” (Truth be told, it’s unclear whether those were his exact words, but he’s got that tagline for posterity.)

Google shares plummet after disappointing earnings
(AP)

AP - Google Inc. shares plunged nearly 10 percent Friday after the Internet search leader’s second-quarter earnings missed analysts’ expectations.

zCover ships iSAglove 3G cases for iPhone
(Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - zCover on Friday announced that it is shipping its iSAglove 3G cover for the iPhone. It costs $29.99 and joins zCover’s line of iPhone accessories.

Going Mobile with Windows Live Mesh
(PC World)

PC World - Microsoft’s new, networked file synchronization service can keep your files in order across multiple devices.

Dell Upgrades Linux PCs To Ubuntu’s Hardy Heron
(TechWeb)

TechWeb - InformationWeek - The computer maker has launched two notebooks and a desktop with Hardy Heron, the version of Ubuntu Linux that was released in April.

European Researchers Developing Touchy-Feely Robots
(TechWeb)

TechWeb - InformationWeek - The Feelix Growing project is developing software, cameras, and sensors that help robots detect facial expressions, voice, proximity, and other parameters to determine a person’s emotional state.

RIM Fixes BlackBerry Enterprise Server Vulnerability
(TechWeb)

TechWeb - InformationWeek - The flaw could let malicious PDFs cause problems with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Nintendo Leads in Sales of Video-Game Consoles
(NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - In the wake of the big E3 trade show in Los Angeles, sales reports show the Nintendo Wii is the leading video-game console in the U.S. this year.

BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
Visit BBC News for up-to-the-minute news, breaking news, video, audio and feature stories. BBC News provides trusted World and UK news as well as local and regional perspectives. Also entertainment, business, science, technology and health news.
Unsafe chargers ‘flooding’ the UK

Trading Standards says hundreds of thousands of unsafe chargers for mobiles and games consoles could have come into the UK

‘No decision’ on giant database

No decision has been taken on whether to gather details of all phone calls, e-mails and internet use, a security minister says.

Cern lab goes ‘colder than space’

A giant physics lab on the Swiss-French border is being cooled to a temperature lower than that of outer space.

MoD admits loss of secret files

Over 100 USB memory sticks, some with secret data, have been lost or stolen from defence officials since 2004, it emerges.

Say goodbye to the computer mouse

Gestural interfaces could spell the end for the humble computer mouse says analyst company Gartner.

Microsoft results hit its shares

Microsoft’s quarterly earnings and predictions for the next three months are worse than expected, hitting the software firm’s shares.

‘Teen date’ website faces criticism

A Newsbeat investigation has uncovered a dating website specifically for teenagers which campaigners fear will become a “playground for paedophiles”.

Cost-cutters boost IBM’s results

IBM benefits from companies calling in its services division to help them cut costs.

Google profits trigger concerns

Google’s quarterly profits rise by less than expected, raising concerns of a slowdown in the online advertising market.

Get your up-to-date fix of blog posts about all things digital

E3: Best in show

Which games stood out at the E3 show in LA?

Chip shape

Hi-tech giant Intel marks 40 year milestone

Found sounds

The lost tapes of Dr Who composer Delia Derbyshire

Future fun

Nintendo boss talks about what’s next for the Wii

Playing Narnia

Film and game makers join forces for Prince Caspian

Technology - Google News
Technology - Google News
ReVolt Technology, Ltd. Selected by AlwaysOn as an AO Global 250 … - Market…

PR Web (press release)
ReVolt Technology, Ltd. Selected by AlwaysOn as an AO Global 250 …
MarketWatch - 20 hours ago
Inclusion in the AO Global 250 signifies major developments in the creation of new business opportunities in the global technology industries. …
IMImobile One of the Winners of AlwaysOn Global 250 TMCnet
Yapta.com Selected by AlwaysOn as an AO Global 250 Winner MarketWatch
Truviso Selected by AlwaysOn as a 2008 "AO Global 250" Winner MarketWatch
MarketWatch
all 206 news articles

Who Is the San Francisco Hacker? - CRN

Who Is the San Francisco Hacker?
CRN, NY - 10 hours ago
By Damon Poeter, ChannelWeb San Francisco Department of Technology employee Terry Childs was in a jail cell Friday, accused of illegally locking out fellow …
Suspect In Hijacking Of San Francisco Computer Network 'Willing To … InformationWeek
Insider threat looms large as San Francisco's network crisis plays out NetworkWorld.com
SF IT System Lockout Continues eWeek
Times Online - Wired News
all 439 news articles

Linear Technology and Microbonds Announce Qualification of X-Wire … - FOXBu…

Linear Technology and Microbonds Announce Qualification of X-Wire …
FOXBusiness - 12 hours ago
Microbonds' X-Wire(TM) insulated bonding wire technology is a nano-scale material breakthrough that addresses many of the difficult interconnect challenges …

IBM Posts 16% Gain In Outsourcing Sales - InformationWeek

FinFacts Ireland
IBM Posts 16% Gain In Outsourcing Sales
InformationWeek, NY - 16 hours ago
IBM said its Global Technology Service outsourcing group saw sales increase 15% to $10.1 billion, while sales at its Global Business Services consulting …
IBM, after 22% profit gain, ups forecast MarketWatch
IBM Profits Rise 22% on Services, Software eWeek
IBM 2Q profit jumps 22 percent, beats forecast The Associated Press
guardian.co.uk - CRN
all 445 news articles

Technology Week in Review: Brighter LEDs, firefighting UAVs - EETimes.com

Technology Week in Review: Brighter LEDs, firefighting UAVs
EETimes.com - 9 hours ago
35 people, places & things: We are witnessing the integration of technology with society to an unprecedented degree. In this special report, …

Marlabs Presenting at UBS' First Annual Global Technology Forum - FOXBusiness

Marlabs Presenting at UBS' First Annual Global Technology Forum
FOXBusiness - 12 hours ago
The forum will also offer perspectives on issues facing companies across the technology spectrum. Selection of presenting technology companies was based on …
Access Granted to Present at the Collaborative Communications … PR-USA.net (press release)
Access Granted to Present at the Collaborative Communications … PR Web (press release)
all 13 news articles

Wayside Technology Group, Inc. to Announce Second Quarter 2008 … - FOXBusiness

Wayside Technology Group, Inc. to Announce Second Quarter 2008 …
FOXBusiness - 12 hours ago
Wayside Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSTG) was founded in 1982 and is a unified and integrated technology company providing products and solutions for …

Arizona Technology Enterprises plans tech transfers with partners … - Bizjo…

Arizona Technology Enterprises plans tech transfers with partners …
Bizjournals.com, NC - 11 hours ago
Arizona Technology Enterprises is launching a plan to help two partners of Arizona State University transfer their technology to private companies. …

ICOR Information Technology Restructuring Group (ITRG) Announces … - FOXBus…

ICOR Information Technology Restructuring Group (ITRG) Announces …
FOXBusiness - 12 hours ago
ITRG is a pioneer in the information technology turnaround and restructuring industry. As a dedicated practice, ITRG assists clients to unlock enormous …

Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. Expands … - FOXBusiness

Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. Expands …
FOXBusiness - 12 hours ago
Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. is specialized in IC packaging and final testing for customers worldwide. It has been ranked as one of …

Future Shop's New ConnectPro Installation Services Connects Your … - Market…

Future Shop's New ConnectPro Installation Services Connects Your …
MarketWatch - 13 hours ago
ConnectPro experts help connect technology with Home Theatre Installation, Computer Services such as set up, network customization, repairs, and Car Audio …

Huggers to head BBC technology - Financial Times

Digital Spy
Huggers to head BBC technology
Financial Times, UK - 6 hours ago
By Rob Minto Erik Huggers has been appointed director of future media and technology at the BBC, replacing Ashley Highfield. Mr Huggers joined the BBC in …
BBC names Erik Huggers as Future Media & Technology controller Journalism.co.uk
Erik Huggers lands top BBC tech job VNUNet.com
Huggers confirmed as Director of BBC Future Media Telecom Paper (subscription)
Silicon.com - PC Pro
all 22 news articles

Xiom Corp.'s Technology Tested in Top Oil Field - FOXBusiness

Xiom Corp.'s Technology Tested in Top Oil Field
FOXBusiness - 12 hours ago
s (OTCBB: XMCP) portable polymer powder coating technology at Tengiz, one of the world's richest oil fields, have shown positive results. …

Direct Energy Gives the Gift of Technology to Texas Members of the … - FOXB…

Direct Energy Gives the Gift of Technology to Texas Members of the …
FOXBusiness - 12 hours ago
The Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club of Aldine-Westfield unveiled their new technology center in the spring, while the East Dallas Boys & Girls Club …

SEC revokes securities of Uniroyal Technology - Bizjournals.com

SEC revokes securities of Uniroyal Technology
Bizjournals.com, NC - 14 hours ago
… the Securities and Exchange Commission has revoked each class of securities held by Uniroyal Technology Corp., which had been traded on the Pink Sheets. …

OHSU Cancer Institute researchers find novel chemo drug helps treat prostate cancer
International study of sagopilone shows promise in some cases of advanced prostate cancer

PORTLAND, Ore. – Men with a certain type of prostate cancer have been shown to respond to a new chemotherapy drug, Sagopilone, plus prednisone in an international trial led by Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers.

The research involved men with androgen-independent prostate cancer that has metastasized, meaning their cancer has spread beyond the prostate and is not longer responding to hormonal therapies. This is the most advanced form of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men in the United States, where it is responsible for more male deaths than any other cancer, except lung cancer.

“We are showing solid activity that this drug shows promise,” said Tomasz Beer, M.D., principal investigator. He is the Grover C. Bagby Endowed Chair for Cancer Research, director of the Prostate Cancer Research Program at the OHSU Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine (hematology/medical oncology), OHSU School of Medicine.

This research will be presented Saturday, May 31 at 8 a.m. at the annual American Association of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

Of the 37 study participants taking the Sagopilone and prednisone long enough to be evaluated, the majority showed positive results in the reduction of their prostate specific antigens, or PSA. PSA is often elevated in the presence of prostate cancer.

During the three-month trial thirteen study participants had a more than 50 percent reduction in their PSA; 23 showed a 30 percent reduction; one who had radiographic measurable disease showed complete response; and four had unconfirmed prostate response. A 30 percent reduction in PSA levels in three months is a strong indicator of survival.

Sagopilone, a fully synthetic derivation, is a new class of drug that inhibits growth and the spread of malignant cell, similar to docetaxel, which has been the gold standard for this type of hormone independent prostate cancer. Docetaxel, however, it is not a cure and not all patients benefit from it. For this reason, Beer and colleagues are committed to searching for new drugs that will be effective against advanced prostate cancer.

“We look forward to completing this study and to the further investigation of Sagopilone as a new treatment option for men with advanced prostate cancer,” said Beer.

###
The study was carried out in collaboration with members of the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium, as well as a number of collaborating institutions in the United States and Argentina.

Research sites include: Blair Medical Associates, Altoona, Penn.; Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center Billings Clinic, Billings, Mont.; Gabrail Cancer Center, Canton, Ohio; University of Nebraska Medical Center; University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Md.; Pacific Coast Hematology/Oncology Medical group, Fountain Valley, Calif.; Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, Wash.; Veterans Affairs Puget Sound, Seattle, Wash.; John Peter Smith Center for Cancer care, Farmington, N.M.; Eastchester Center for Cancer Care., Bronx, N.Y.; University of Michigan Health System, An Arbor, Mich.; Florida Urology Specialists, Sarasota, Fla.; Hospital Privado Cordoba, Sanatorio Allende, both Cordoba, Argentina; Policlinica Bancaria, Hospital Alvarez, Hospital Durand and Hospital Britanico, all in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Sagopilone is an experimental drug made by Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, which has funded this research.

The OHSU Cancer Institute is the only National Cancer Institute-designated center between Sacramento and Seattle. It comprises some 200 clinical researchers, basic scientists and population scientists who work together to translate scientific discoveries into longer and better lives for Oregon’s cancer patients. In the lab, basic scientists examine cancer cells and normal cells to uncover molecular abnormalities that cause the disease. This basic science informs more than 300 clinical trials conducted at the OHSU Cancer Institute.

Oregon Health & Science University is the state’s only health and research university, and Oregon’s only academic health center. OHSU is Portland’s largest employer and the fourth largest in Oregon (excluding government), with 12,400 employees. OHSU’s size contributes to its ability to provide many services and community support activities not found anywhere else in the state. It serves patients from every corner of the state, and is a conduit for learning for more than 3,400 students and trainees. OHSU is the source of more than 200 community outreach programs that bring health and education services to every county in the state.

Source: Eurekalert.

EurekAlert! - Breaking News
The premier online source for science news since 1996. A service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Still puzzling: Best care for the frail and elderly with coronary artery disease

A new study from Duke University Medical Center finds that patients treated solely with medications after suffering from chest pain, heart attack or coronary artery disease are more likely to die during the first year following their initial hospitalization.

PCI preference — will that be an arm or a leg?

When it comes to stenting — using metal tubes to prop open blocked arteries — physicians are continuing to choose to gain entry to the circulatory system through an opening in the leg instead of the arm, even though the latter option appears to be safer, with fewer side effects, say researchers at Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Sorry, Charlie, you and Nemo aren’t the only fish that talk

Talking fish are no strangers to Americans. From the comedic portrayal of “Mr. Limpet” by Don Knotts, to the children’s Disney favorite, “Nemo,” fish can talk, laugh and tell jokes — at least on television and the silver screen. But can real fish verbally communicate?

Analysis of quickly stopped Rx orders provides new tool for reducing medical …

By studying medication orders that are withdrawn (”discontinued”) by physicians within 45 minutes of their origination, researchers at The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated a systematic and efficient method of identifying prescribing errors. The method, they say, has value to screen for medication errors and as a teaching tool for physicians and physicians-in-training.

An ID for Alzheimer’s?

UCLA researchers have confirmed that in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s, levels of specific proteins in the blood and spinal fluid can be used to track the progression of AD, long before symptoms appear. The hope is that, one day, screening for such biomarkers could take their place beside such routine tests as colonoscopies and mammograms as another common tool of preventive medicine.

Averting postsurgical infections in kids: Give antibiotics within hour before…

Giving children preventive antibiotics within one hour before they undergo spinal surgery greatly reduces the risk for serious infections after the surgery, suggests a Johns Hopkins study to be published in the August issue of Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

Studies refute common stereotypes about obese workers

New research led by a Michigan State University scholar refutes commonly held stereotypes that overweight workers are lazier, more emotionally unstable and harder to get along with than their “normal weight” colleagues.

iTunes allows radiologists to save, sort and search personal learning files

iTunes has the ability to manage and organize PDF files just as easy as music files, allowing radiologists to better organize their personal files of articles and images, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at Renji Hospital and Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine in Shanghai, China.

Molecular hula hoop

Japanese researchers at the Universities of Osaka and Kyoto have observed the action of a nanorotor on the molecular scale. As Akira Harada and his team report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, they were able to get “snapshots” of individual molecular rotors caught in motion.

CSHL scientists correlate enzyme expression levels with chemotherapy drug res…

Why do cancer patients develop resistance to chemotherapy drugs, sometimes abruptly, after a period in which the drugs seem to be working well to reduce tumors or hold them in check? Although largely a mystery to scientists, the result when this occurs is all too familiar: patients relapse and in many cases die when their cancers become resistant.

Saharan dust storms sustain life in Atlantic Ocean

Research at the University of Liverpool has found how Saharan dust storms help sustain life over extensive regions of the North Atlantic Ocean.

New report warns current policies will not avert health workforce crisis

A report from the Association of Academic Health Centers, “Out of Order, Out of Time: The State of the Nation’s Health Workforce,” warns that the nation is facing a health workforce crisis and is running out of time to ensure an adequate health workforce to meet needs resulting from critical socioeconomic challenges for health care. The study calls for, and provides, specific recommendations for immediate action to develop an integrated, coordinated national health workforce policy.

HIV conquers immune system faster than previously realized

New research into the earliest events occurring immediately upon infection with HIV-I shows that the virus deals a stunning blow to the immune system earlier than was previously understood. According to scientists at Duke University Medical Center, this suggests the window of opportunity for successful intervention may be only a matter of days — not weeks — after transmission, as researchers had previously believed.

ESA to consult the science community on Earth Explorer selection

As part of the agency’s user-driven approach to preparing new Earth Explorer missions to advance our understanding of the Earth system, six candidate missions will be presented to the science community at a User Consultation Meeting in January 2009.

The International Space Station, a test-bed for future space exploration

The Heads of the International Space Station Agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States met today at ESA Headquarters in Paris, France, to review ISS cooperation.

Science - Google News
Science - Google News
Purdue physicist found guilty of misconduct - Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times
Purdue physicist found guilty of misconduct
Los Angeles Times, CA - 3 hours ago
In a 2002 paper touted on the cover of the prestigious journal Science, Taleyarkhan reported that he had used sonoluminescence on acetone in which the …
Purdue panel finds misconduct in professor's nuclear fusion research Chicago Tribune
Purdue panel finds misconduct by fusion scientist The Associated Press
Findings complete, but Purdue controversy hardly over Journal and Courier
Science Magazine (subscription) - Thaindian.com
all 148 news articles

$250M 'science quarter' plan fulfills longtime dream - Bizjournals.com

$250M 'science quarter' plan fulfills longtime dream
Bizjournals.com, NC - 10 hours ago
A $250 million building proposed by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education could be an important next step toward creating a science and technology …

Visionary 'NASA Exploration Experience' Exhibit on Display at … - FOXBusine…

Visionary 'NASA Exploration Experience' Exhibit on Display at …
FOXBusiness - 12 hours ago
… system beyond - are featured in an interactive exhibit that will be on display at the Liberty Science Center located at Liberty State Park, July 20-23. …

Results Mixed On Connecticut Mastery Test - Hartford Courant

Capital News 9
Results Mixed On Connecticut Mastery Test
Hartford Courant, United States - Jul 18, 2008
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER | Courant Staff Writer No one knew exactly what to expect when the state began testing fifth- and eighth-graders in science this …
CAPT results are in: