Mar. 27, 2013 ? New research into ageing processes, based on modern genetic techniques, confirms theoretical expectations about the correlation between reproduction and lifespan. Studies of birds reveal that those that have offspring later in life and have fewer broods live longer. And the decisive factor is telomeres, shows research from The University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of chromosomes. The length of telomeres influences how long an individual lives. Telomeres start off at a certain length, become shorter each time a cell divides, decline as the years pass by until the telomeres can no longer protect the chromosomes, and the cell dies. But the length of telomeres varies significantly among individuals of the same age. This is partly due to the length of the telomeres that has been inherited from the parents, and partly due to the amount of stress an individual is exposed to.
?This is important, not least for our own species, as we are all having to deal with increased stress,? says Angela Pauliny, Researcher from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg.
Researchers have studied barnacle geese, which are long-lived birds, the oldest in the study being 22 years old. The results show that geese, compared to short-lived bird species, have a better ability to preserve the length of their telomeres. The explanation is probably that species with a longer lifespan invest more in maintaining bodily functions than, for example, reproduction.
?There is a clear correlation between reproduction and ageing in the animal world. Take elephants, which have a long lifespan but few offspring, while mice, for example, live for a short time but produce a lot of offspring each time they try,? says Angela Pauliny.
The geese studied by researchers varied in age, from very young birds to extremely old ones. Each bird was measured twice, two years apart. One striking result was that the change in telomere length varied according to gender.
?The study revealed that telomeres were best-preserved in males. Among barnacle geese, the telomeres thus shorten more quickly in females, which in birds is the sex with two different gender chromosomes. Interestingly, it is the exactl opposite in humans,? says Angela Pauliny.
The journal BMC Evolutionary Biology has classified the research article ?Telomere dynamics in a long-lived bird, the barnacle goose? as ?Highly Accessed?.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Gothenburg, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Angela Pauliny, Kjell Larsson, Donald Blomqvist. Telomere dynamics in a long-lived bird, the barnacle goose. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2012; 12 (1): 257 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-12-257
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.
Mar. 26, 2013 ? As public health authorities across the globe grapple with the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, Tufts University School of Medicine microbiologists and colleagues have identified the unique resistance mechanisms of a clinical isolate of E. coli resistant to carbapenems. Carbapenems are a class of antibiotics used as a last resort for the treatment of disease-causing bacteria, including E. coli and Klebsiella pneumonia, which can cause serious illness and even death. Infections involving resistant strains fail to respond to antibiotic treatments, which can lead to prolonged illness and greater risk of death, as well as significant public health challenges due to increased transmission of infection.
The study, published in the April issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, demonstrates the lengths to which bacteria will go to become resistant to antibiotics.
Resistance to carbapenems usually emerges through the acquisition of an enzyme, carbapenemase, which destroys the antibiotic intended to treat infection. Resistance may also block entry of the drug into the E-coli bacteria. The current research, led by corresponding author Stuart Levy, M.D., Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology and of Medicine and Director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics & Drug Resistance at Tufts University School of Medicine, sought to determine what made this particular clinical isolate of E. coli resistant to carbapenem in the absence of carbapenemase.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has documented a significant increase in Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) -- so-called 'super bugs' that have been found to fight off even the most potent treatments," Levy said. "We knew that bacteria could resist carbapenems, but we had never before seen E. coli adapt so extensively to defeat an antibiotic. Our research shows just how far bacteria will go with mutations in order to survive."
Levy and his colleagues determined that the E. coli genetically mutated four separate times in order to resist carbapenems. Specifically, the isolate removed two membrane proteins in order to prevent antibiotics from getting into the cell. The bacteria also carried a mutation of the regulatory protein marR, which controls how bacteria react in the presence of antibiotics. The isolate further achieved resistance by increasing expression of a multidrug efflux pump. Moreover, the researchers discovered that the E. coli was expressing a new protein, called yedS, which helped the drug enter the cell, but whose expression was curtailed by the marR mutation. yedS is a normally inactive protein acquired by some E. coli that affects how the drug enters the bacterial cell. It is generally expressed in bacteria through a mutation.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CRE germs have increased from 1% to 4% in the United States over the last decade. Forty-two states report having identified at least one patient with one type of CRE. Approximately 18% of long-term acute care hospitals in the United States and 4% of short-stay hospitals reported at least one CRE infection in the first half of 2012.
The clinical isolate of E. coli studied by Levy and his colleagues came from the sputum of a patient at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing, China, where three of the study authors are on the faculty. Drug resistance is a particularly serious public health concern in China, antibiotics are overprescribed and used widely in the livestock and farming industries.
"The first quinolone-resistant strains of bacteria came out of China, where we see that the drugs of last resort begin being used, because the other drugs don't work after so much overuse," Levy said.
Additional authors of the paper are Doug Warner, Director of Undergraduate Laboratories, Boston College; Qiwen Yang, Section Director of Clinical Microbiology, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Peking Union Medical College Hospital; Valerie Duval, Research Assistant at Tufts University Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance; Minjun Chen, Professor of Clinical Microbiology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital; and Yingchun Xu, Chair, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01AI56021.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Tufts University, via Newswise.
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Journal Reference:
D. M. Warner, Q. Yang, V. Duval, M. Chen, Y. Xu, S. B. Levy. Involvement of MarR and YedS in Carbapenem Resistance in a Clinical Isolate of Escherichia coli from China. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 2013; 57 (4): 1935 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.02445-12
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
EEG identifies seizures in hospital patients, UCSF study findsPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi jason.bardi@ucsf.edu 415-502-6397 University of California - San Francisco
Electroencephalogram is underused tool for diagnosis, say authors
Electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures and records electrical activity in the brain, is a quick and efficient way of determining whether seizures are the cause of altered mental status (AMS) and spells, according to a study by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco.
The research, which focused on patients who had been given an EEG after being admitted to the hospital for symptoms such as AMS and spells, appears on March 27 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
"We have demonstrated a surprisingly high frequency of seizures more than 7 percent in a general inpatient population," said senior investigator John Betjemann, MD, a UCSF assistant professor of neurology. "This tells us that EEG is an underutilized diagnostic tool, and that seizures may be an underappreciated cause of spells and AMS."
The results are important, he said, because EEG can identify treatable causes of AMS or spells, and because "it can prompt the physician to look for an underlying reason for seizures in persons who did previously have them."
Seizures are treatable with a number of FDA-approved anticonvulsants, he said, "so patients who are quickly diagnosed can be treated more rapidly and effectively. This may translate to shorter lengths of stay and improved patient outcomes."
In one of the first studies of its kind, Betjemann and his team analyzed the medical records of 1,048 adults who were admitted to a regular inpatient unit of a tertiary care hospital and who underwent an EEG. They found that 7.4 percent of the patients had a seizure of some kind while being monitored.
"As I tell my patients, seizures come in all different flavors, from a dramatic convulsion to a subtle twitching of the face or hand or finger," said Betjemann. "There might be no outward manifestation at all, other than that the person seems a little spacey. It's easily missed by family members and physicians alike, but can be picked up by EEG."
Another 13.4 percent of patients had epileptiform discharges, which are abnormal patterns that indicate patients are at an increased risk of seizures.
Almost 65 percent of patients had their first seizure within one hour of EEG recording, and 89 percent within six hours.
"This is good news for smaller hospitals that don't have 24 hour EEG coverage, but that do have a technician on duty during the day," Betjemann said.
He speculated that lack of 24-hour coverage is a major reason that EEG is not used as an inpatient diagnostic tool as often as it might be. "This paper shows that, fortunately, it's not necessary. Almost two thirds of patients with seizures can be identified in the first hour, and almost 90 percent in the course of a shift."
EEGs are easy to obtain, painless and noninvasive, said Betjemann. "The technician applies some paste and electrodes and hooks up the machine. All the patient has to do is rest in bed."
Betjemann said that the next logical research step would be a prospective study. "We have to start at the beginning, see if patients are altered when they are admitted, and do an EEG in a formal standardized setting. Then we'd want to see how often EEG is changing the management of patients either starting or stopping medications," he said. "A patient may be having spells, and an EEG might tell you this is not a seizure, and that it's important not to treat it with anti-epileptic medications."
###
Co-authors of the study are Ivy Nguyen, BS, Carlos Santos-Sanchez, MD, Vanja C. Douglas, MD and S. Andrew Josephson, MD, of UCSF.
Ivy Nguyen was awarded a Quarterly Research Fellowship by UCSF Dean's Office Medical Student Research Program.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
EEG identifies seizures in hospital patients, UCSF study findsPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi jason.bardi@ucsf.edu 415-502-6397 University of California - San Francisco
Electroencephalogram is underused tool for diagnosis, say authors
Electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures and records electrical activity in the brain, is a quick and efficient way of determining whether seizures are the cause of altered mental status (AMS) and spells, according to a study by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco.
The research, which focused on patients who had been given an EEG after being admitted to the hospital for symptoms such as AMS and spells, appears on March 27 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
"We have demonstrated a surprisingly high frequency of seizures more than 7 percent in a general inpatient population," said senior investigator John Betjemann, MD, a UCSF assistant professor of neurology. "This tells us that EEG is an underutilized diagnostic tool, and that seizures may be an underappreciated cause of spells and AMS."
The results are important, he said, because EEG can identify treatable causes of AMS or spells, and because "it can prompt the physician to look for an underlying reason for seizures in persons who did previously have them."
Seizures are treatable with a number of FDA-approved anticonvulsants, he said, "so patients who are quickly diagnosed can be treated more rapidly and effectively. This may translate to shorter lengths of stay and improved patient outcomes."
In one of the first studies of its kind, Betjemann and his team analyzed the medical records of 1,048 adults who were admitted to a regular inpatient unit of a tertiary care hospital and who underwent an EEG. They found that 7.4 percent of the patients had a seizure of some kind while being monitored.
"As I tell my patients, seizures come in all different flavors, from a dramatic convulsion to a subtle twitching of the face or hand or finger," said Betjemann. "There might be no outward manifestation at all, other than that the person seems a little spacey. It's easily missed by family members and physicians alike, but can be picked up by EEG."
Another 13.4 percent of patients had epileptiform discharges, which are abnormal patterns that indicate patients are at an increased risk of seizures.
Almost 65 percent of patients had their first seizure within one hour of EEG recording, and 89 percent within six hours.
"This is good news for smaller hospitals that don't have 24 hour EEG coverage, but that do have a technician on duty during the day," Betjemann said.
He speculated that lack of 24-hour coverage is a major reason that EEG is not used as an inpatient diagnostic tool as often as it might be. "This paper shows that, fortunately, it's not necessary. Almost two thirds of patients with seizures can be identified in the first hour, and almost 90 percent in the course of a shift."
EEGs are easy to obtain, painless and noninvasive, said Betjemann. "The technician applies some paste and electrodes and hooks up the machine. All the patient has to do is rest in bed."
Betjemann said that the next logical research step would be a prospective study. "We have to start at the beginning, see if patients are altered when they are admitted, and do an EEG in a formal standardized setting. Then we'd want to see how often EEG is changing the management of patients either starting or stopping medications," he said. "A patient may be having spells, and an EEG might tell you this is not a seizure, and that it's important not to treat it with anti-epileptic medications."
###
Co-authors of the study are Ivy Nguyen, BS, Carlos Santos-Sanchez, MD, Vanja C. Douglas, MD and S. Andrew Josephson, MD, of UCSF.
Ivy Nguyen was awarded a Quarterly Research Fellowship by UCSF Dean's Office Medical Student Research Program.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Nothing can overcome summer heat as cold, stimulating the waters of a swimming pool. The cold water of the pool is a haven in the burning heat of summer. You never want to exit the pool. The pool becomes inevitable.
Pool are usually created recreational swimming and competitive swimming tasks. A personal swimming pool definitely includes design and value to your home.
Ponds are mainly of two types, in ground pool and on the ground in ground swimming pool, ponds are long-term structures requiring excavation and installation expert; on the floor of the pool they are ever more dear these days, as they are conveniently.
About ground swimming pool
Above ground pond are the best choice for leisure bathing because they have very low expenses. The standard amenities of these pools is that they are easy to build. Soil bath pools are composed of construction kits. These sets can be easily together for a Do It Yourself enthusiast enthusiast to make a pool. But many people put it by experts such as the swimming pool after a warranty included.
A specialist undoubtedly will launch the swimming pond pretty consistently for you. First, the land is level to provide an area of structure flat. Then the installers built the base track. The surface of the outer wall of plastic, steel or wood is also compatible with the track. The plumbing system is then placed after the sand and spreads in the pool area. Finally, the vinyl siding on the surface of the pool wall is hired, straightening, and attached in place and bathing pool is fulled of water. Now the system of pumping and filtration system are linked and the swimming pool is ready for swimming.
Type of above ground pools
An above ground pond is the joy of the owner. They can be placed anywhere. They are easy to build and easy to use swimming pools there is mainly two types of ground pool, face tough pools and inflatable pools to bathe with soft edges.
Hard side pools.
Hard side ponds are available in several assortments of depths and sizes. These face hard bath pools tend to be oval or round shaped with a piece steel frame. For stablizing, a piece of the wall surface of flexible metal with a sheet steel rail is affixeded to the best. The main lane joins to placed vinyl siding to ensure that water had been. Face pool metal is difficult to assemble, requiring more work in preparing the land of fantasy.
Soft pools.
Soft pools have become increasingly more favorite in recent years many. These floor bathroom ponds are available in both oblong and round forms, along with the oblong shape additional prominent. Also, these pools have steel frames and are available in a wide range of sizes and depths. These pools are understood by their strength and endurance and are cheaper compared with hard side pools. They are a great way to really have a pool to measure, such as built-ined sizes.
Soft bath tanks can be used in virtually any area. It can be easily put into the dirt, grass, gravel, sand, concrete e even. The pools have resistance up to 3 "offline at every grade level. The liner product used in these pools is similar to that used in bullet proof vests. This makes that Raja resistant and sturdy backing. Soft pools can be easily fitted within a few hours.
Swimming pools both hard and soft face ask for one electric pump to circulate the water. They also need filters and step ladders. Filters are guarantee that the water is clean and stairs, for one can easily permeate in and from the pool as well.
Both pools also require an automatic chlorinator, heating system of pond and a swimming pool cleaner. A pool slide and swimming pond lights make great accessories to enhance your swimming experience. Soil pools are cheaper in comparison to pool on the floor. A small floor bath turned pool games approximately $1500 and a large can easily cost up to $10,000. On Earth, they are easier to install, however, these pools also have disadvantages. They are not extremely attractive and certainly some landscaping will be called to help them assimilate to your garden. They are also much less heavy in comparison with in-ground pools.
However, over the pond of Earth are very dear and are bought by a multitude of people. They provide many happy days loaded with easy relaxation, and enjoy a fantastic financial investment for his residence.
My name is Ashton Grey, 25 years old and I live in Sydney Australia and work at all stations Solar Pty Ltd specialising in solar pool facilities. If you need more ideas about swimming pool visit here.
KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) ? A breakaway Islamic extremist group said Saturday it had killed seven foreigners who its members kidnapped from northern Nigeria, according to an online message purportedly from the group.
The message, identified as coming from Ansaru, could not be immediately verified by The Associated Press, though it included photographs the group claimed showed the dead, who were kidnapped from a construction company compound in February. Those kidnapped included four Lebanese citizens and one each from Britain, Greece and Italy ? all employees of Setraco, a Lebanese construction company with an operation in Bauchi state, officials said.
Two Nigerian military spokesmen declined to immediately comment when reached by the AP, while a presidential spokesman and a spokeswoman for the country's domestic spy service could not be immediately reached. In a statement later Saturday, the British Foreign Office said it was "urgently investigating" the killings claimed by the group.
The message, posted to an Islamic extremist website Saturday, said Ansaru members killed the hostages after British warplanes were reported to have been seen in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi by local journalists. However, the reports referenced in the online statement actually referred to the airplanes being seen at the international airport in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.
"As a result of this operation, the seven hostages were killed," the group said in the statement. It said a video of the killings would be posted online. An online image accompanying the posting appeared to show a gunman standing over dead bodies.
Ansaru said its decision to kill the hostages was also sparked by a statement immediately after the abduction from Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan who said the government would do anything in its power to free the hostages. The group said security forces had recently arrested an unspecified number of its members.
Ansaru previously issued a short statement in which it said its fighters kidnapped the foreigners Feb. 16 from a construction company's camp at Jama'are, a town about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state. The attack saw gunmen first assault a local prison and burn police trucks, authorities said. Then the attackers blew up a back fence at the construction company's compound and took over, killing a guard in the process, witnesses and police said.
The gunmen appeared to be organized and knew who they wanted to target, leaving the Nigerian household staff at the residence unharmed, while quickly abducting the foreigners, a witness said. Local officials in Nigeria initially identified one of the hostages as a Filipino, something the Philippines government later denied.
In January 2013, Ansaru declared itself a splinter group independent from Boko Haram, the north's main Islamic terrorist group, analysts say. Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege," has launched a guerrilla campaign of bombings and shootings across Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. Boko Haram is blamed for at least 792 killings last year alone, according to an AP count.
On Saturday, a military spokesman said at least two soldiers and 52 Boko Haram fighters were killed in Maiduguri in fighting after a visit by the president. Those tallies could not be independently confirmed by the AP. Security forces often downplay their casualties, as well as those of civilians in the ongoing fight with guerrillas.
Britain has previously linked Ansaru to the May 2011 kidnapping of Christopher McManus, who was abducted with Italian Franco Lamolinara from a home in Kebbi state. The men were held for months, before their captors killed them in March 2012 during a failed Nigerian military raid backed up by British special forces in Sokoto, the main city in Nigeria's northwest. That rescue mission strained Italian-British relations, and out of it came pledges from Italy and Britain to beef up their cooperation on security matters and share information.
Ansaru earlier claimed the kidnapping in December of a French national working on a renewable energy project in Nigeria's northern Katsina state. Meanwhile, a group of men claiming to belong to Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of seven French tourists from northern Cameroon late February ? a first for the group.
Analysts say Ansaru likely has closer ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the Africa branch of the terror network. Analysts have warned that there likely will be more attacks by Ansaru targeting Westerners and Western interests in Nigeria, as well as neighboring nations. Ansaru initially said it carried out the kidnappings in part as a response to the French military intervention in Mali. The French, backed up by Malian soldiers, have been fighting the Islamic militants who seized control of northern cities there in the weeks following a coup that toppled the West African nation's democratically elected government.
Despite the deployment of more soldiers and police to northern Nigeria, the nation's weak central government has been unable to stop the killings. Meanwhile, human rights groups and local citizens blame both Boko Haram and security forces for committing violent atrocities against the local civilian population, fueling rage in the region
___
Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Sylvia Hui in London, Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria, and Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
___
Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .
It's entirely possible to build motion aware apps if you've got the know-how to wield a tool like the Kinect SDK. But what about the rest of us? IntuiLab may have the solution through an upcoming version of IntuiFace Presentation. The Windows software will let would-be developers create gesture-driven apps for the rapidly approaching Leap Motion controller using a simple trigger system. The results are self-evident in the video after the break: a basic app can react to finger pointing and swipes with comparatively little effort. While we're not expecting any music games or other truly sophisticated releases, the updated IntuiFace could give us at least one avenue for our creativity when it launches in sync with the controller itself.
OCEAN CITY -- The 29th Annual Home, Condo & Outdoor Show will be making its annual appearance in Ocean City and the Roland E. Powell Convention Center this weekend.
The event will be held on Friday, March 8, from noon-6 p.m.; Saturday, March 9, from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Sunday, March 10, from 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
The ?home show? features all-under-one-roof convenience and will display an exciting array of the latest home improvement products and services for your primary residence as well as your second home.
Mar. 7, 2013 ? The upheaval caused by Hurricane Katrina seems to have disrupted the usual timing of heart attacks, shifting peak frequency from weekday mornings to weekend nights, in a change in pattern that persisted a full five years after the storm, according to research being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session.
The study, which could inform decisions about hospital staffing after natural disasters, compared the timing of heart attacks in patients admitted to Tulane Medical Center six years before and five years after the storm hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, devastating New Orleans with floods and killing more than 1,800 people. The latest analysis expands on the previously published research that looked at these trends in the three years post-Katrina. The new data show that even five years after the hurricane, heart attacks were still less likely to occur in the mornings or on weekdays and were instead more frequent at night and on the weekends -- a major shift from what cardiologists and hospitals normally see. Researchers point to prolonged periods of stress as the most likely cause.
"The stress and devastation brought on by Katrina doesn't just make a heart attack more likely, but it also can alter when they occur," said Matthew Peters, MD, a second year internal medicine resident at Tulane University School of Medicine and the study's lead investigator. "It may even outweigh or augment some of the physiological mechanisms [behind heart attacks]."
Heart attacks tend to be more common in the morning and on weekdays, especially Mondays, because of surges in the body's stress (cortisol) and "fight-or-flight" (catecholamines) hormones, higher than normal blood pressure and heart rate, and a dip in the body's ability to break up blood clots. But the shifts in behaviors and routines seen after the storm may have trumped some of these factors, Dr. Peters said.
Still, researchers did find a potentially encouraging sign from this latest analysis -- a slight return of Monday morning heart attacks in a pattern closer to pre-storm events. Before the hurricane, 23 percent of heart attacks occurred on Mondays. This dropped to 10 percent in the three years after the storm and only recently crept up to 16.5 percent, though it is not a statistically significant change.
"It suggests some normalization in employment and work patterns, but generally things still appear to be pretty much in disarray," Dr. Peters said.
He speculates that with so many people forced out of work after Katrina, weekday mornings and Mondays, in particular, became less stressful. In the last two years, the unemployment rate in New Orleans has dropped slightly -- from 17.9 to 15.2 percent; however, it is still twice the pre-storm unemployment rate of 7 percent. Night and weekend heart attacks may be more likely because day-to-day life at home became more anxiety-ridden with temporary housing, rebuilding homes and financial stressors.
Researchers looked at heart attack trends in a total of 1,044 confirmed heart attack cases; 299 before Katrina, 408 in the three years after Katrina and another 337 in the four and five years after the storm.
Compared to the pre-Katrina group, morning and weekday heart attacks continued to be a significantly smaller portion of total heart attacks in years four and five after the storm (45.2 vs. 30.5 percent and 60.2 vs. 36.3 percent, respectively). Heart attacks occurring over the weekend were nearly twice as likely as before the storm hit (30.6 vs. 16.1 percent of all heart attacks) and night heart attacks remained significantly elevated as well (43.6 vs. 29.8 percent). Compared to the one to three years after the storm, years four and five showed non-significant decreases in morning, weekday and weekend heart attacks and a substantial (but non-significant) reduction in heart attacks at night.
Patients in the post-Katrina group were more likely to be smokers (52.3 vs. 34.4 percent) and lack health insurance (17.1 vs. 8.4 percent) compared to those before the storm. No significant differences were noted between groups in terms of age, sex, ethnicity, medical comorbidities, medications or substance abuse. Excluded from the study were non-New Orleans residents, hospital transfers, patients with symptom onset while hospitalized and patients without adequate documentation of timing of symptom onset.
Dr. Peters says this research may affect hospitals and health care workers in areas hard-hit by hurricanes and other natural disasters as they tend to be understaffed at night or on the weekends because, under normal circumstances, fewer patients come in. However, based on these findings, after a disaster the opposite might be true. He says this could affect patient outcomes as well because patients who are treated at night generally have higher failure rates for angioplasty, longer door-to-balloon times and higher rates of in-hospital mortality, he adds.
"With the increased incidence of major disasters in the U.S. and worldwide, it is important to understand how these disasters affect the heart because clearly they do," Dr. Peters said.
Dr. Peters and his team, led by Anand Irimpen, MD, associate professor of medicine at the Heart and Vascular Institute of Tulane University School of Medicine and chief of cardiology at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, are planning to collaborate with medical centers in other regions hard-hit by hurricanes or other natural disasters to collect more data on these trends.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American College of Cardiology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
YANGON (Reuters) - Aung San Suu Kyi's inexperienced party begins its first congress on Friday aiming to push forward positions that will become increasingly important in the run-up to a 2015 election in Myanmar that could sweep it into government.
For years Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) had the singular, unswerving objective of ending rule by the generals who hounded it and locked up its leaders.
While that mission may not be completely over, the NLD has become fully involved in politics under reforms ushered in by President Thein Sein and his quasi-civilian government since the end of direct military rule in 2011.
But the NLD has not set out its aims and spelt out how it will achieve them.
Foreign investors are moving in but uncertainty remains while the investment and financial climate evolves. The prospect of Suu Kyi's NLD taking the reins of government brings additional risk, especially if its policies are vague.
"The biggest problem is the NLD needs more policy expertise - not who calls the shots, but they need to bring in more outside experts who can help them craft a policy platform and, potentially, govern," said Joshua Kurlantzick of the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank in the United States.
"While the current government is OK, it is still putting into place decent policies in an essentially authoritarian framework, so an NLD victory would open up politics and make it more democratic. They just need to bring in more policy expertise."
While Suu Kyi has become an influential voice in the newly empowered parliament, political analysts say the NLD has few real policies beyond its famous chairwoman's statements.
Suu Kyi co-founded the party in 1988, just after the military crushed a months-long democracy uprising and after years of military rule when opposition parties were banned.
The party was defined by its opposition to the military and easily won a 1990 election. But the junta refused to accept the result. Suu Kyi and many party members spent years in detention.
Struggling to survive, the party did little work on policy. But even during the reform process that began in 2011, and has seen the military surrender rule to a government run by ex-soldiers, it has not set out an agenda.
The party issued a two-page manifesto for by-elections in April 2012 that put Suu Kyi and 42 NLD colleagues in parliament, after they boycotted a general election in November 2010.
It made the rule of law, internal peace and reforming the constitution top priorities. The constitution was ratified after a fraudulent referendum in 2008 and it reserves a quarter of parliamentary seats for military personnel, effectively giving the military a veto.
"NEW BLOOD ... CORRECT CHOICES"
Senior NLD member Han Tha Myint said the congress, which runs until Sunday, was the party's first opportunity to fill out its middle ranks, bringing in new faces and new ideas.
"We didn't get this chance in the past," he told Reuters.
All seven members of the party's Central Executive Committee, which is led by Suu Kyi, are in their sixties or seventies. Suu Kyi, 67, and other leaders who risked their lives to try to end military rule are expected to continue to determine the party's overall direction.
Suu Kyi, in comments in the party's weekly paper, D-Wave, warned of "a rough journey" ahead.
"It is necessary to strengthen the party with new blood and it is necessary to make correct choices," she wrote.
The party's popularity, built on its stand against the generals, is unquestionable. It has more than 1.2 million members in a country of an estimated 60 million people. Members have chosen 894 delegates for the congress.
The party said the agenda would include national reconciliation - a preoccupation in a diverse country plagued by ethnic conflicts - human rights and democracy and policy.
Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar, said the NLD needed practice.
"One task they face is to get as much knowledge and experience between now and 2015 when they might assume the running of the government," he said.
"They still have quite a bit of time to do this."
(Additional reporting and writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Martin Petty and Robert Birsel)
Green tea extract interferes with the formation of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a new potential benefit of a molecule in green tea: preventing the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain.
The aggregation of these proteins, called metal-associated amyloids, is associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.
A paperpublished recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesexplained how U-M Life Sciences Institute faculty member Mi Hee Lim and an interdisciplinary team of researchers used green tea extract to control the generation of metal-associated amyloid-? aggregates associated with Alzheimer's disease in the lab.
The specific molecule in green tea, (?)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, also known as EGCG, prevented aggregate formation and broke down existing aggregate structures in the proteins that contained metals?specifically copper, iron and zinc.
"A lot of people are very excited about this molecule," said Lim, noting that the EGCG and other flavonoids in natural products have long been established as powerful antioxidants. "We used a multidisciplinary approach. This is the first example of structure-centric, multidisciplinary investigations by three principal investigators with three different areas of expertise."
The research team included chemists, biochemists and biophysicists.
While many researchers are investigating small molecules and metal-associated amyloids, most are looking from a limited perspective, said Lim, assistant professor of chemistry and research assistant professor at the Life Sciences Institute, where her lab is located and her research is conducted.
"But we believe you have to have a lot of approaches working together, because the brain is very complex," she said.
The PNASpaper was a starting point, Lim said, and her team's next step is to "tweak" the molecule and then test its ability to interfere with plaque formation in fruit flies.
"We want to modify them for the brain, specifically to interfere with the plaques associated with Alzheimer's," she said.
Lim plans to collaborate with Bing Ye, a neurobiologist in the LSI. Together, the researchers will test the new molecule's power to inhibit potential toxicity of aggregates containing proteins and metals in fruit flies.
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University of Michigan: http://www.umich.edu/
Thanks to University of Michigan for this article.
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LANCASTER, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A second Federal Reserve policymaker is calling on the U.S.central bank to have some patience and begin tapering the amount of bonds it is buying, instead of ramping up stimulus with each month.
Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser said on Wednesday the benefits of the so-called quantitative easing program, which snaps up $85 billion in assets per month to promote investment and economic growth, are "meager" and outweighed by the potential costs of such aggressive policy easing.
The comments echo those last week of Richard Fisher of the Dallas Fed, a fellow inflation hawk at the central bank, and could up the ante as the Fed's 19 policymakers debate the effectiveness of the asset purchases at a meeting March 19-20. The vast majority of U.S. monetary policymakers back the program.
"I would like the FOMC to begin to taper these purchases with an aim toward ending them before the end of the year," Plosser told an economic development conference in this small southern Pennsylvania city.
"We are trying to be easier and easier and easier," he later told reporters. "I think we need to just stop and have some patience."
Plosser did not specify how much of a decrease he would like to see in the monthly buying. But he has always stood against the program, he noted, so the sooner the tapering begins the better.
Plosser, who does not have a vote this year on the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), said his stance is based on the expectation that U.S. economic growth would pick up enough to lower the unemployment rate by almost a full percentage point by year end.
The central bank has kept interest rates at rock bottom for more than four years and is currently buying Treasury and mortgage bonds in an effort to keep longer-term borrowing costs low enough to spur spending and hiring.
Frustrated with the slow and erratic U.S. economic recovery and an unemployment rate that is still high at 7.9 percent, Chairman Ben Bernanke and most Fed policymakers endorse the program, which known as QE3 because it is the third such easing effort by the Fed since the 2007-2009 recession.
With higher taxes and lower government spending set for 2013, the central bank does not want to see the mid-year economic slump that hurt U.S. growth the last few years.
LOOMING RISKS
Plosser, however, listed several familiar risks posed by QE3 including financial stability, market functioning and price stability. He also noted a longer-term threat to the central bank's independence if the Fed starts taking big losses on the bonds, which have swelled the central bank's balance sheet to more than $3 trillion.
The Fed returns profits to the U.S. Treasury each year and it has never missed a payment before. Last year, remittances hit a record $89 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates the Fed will contribute some $95 billion a year to federal coffers through 2016.
But remittances are expected to hit zero from 2018 through 2020 due to higher rates and the possibility the central bank would sell off some assets, before remittances resume in 2021.
"Would such a situation spur renewed calls to reduce the Fed's independence to set monetary policy?" Plosser asked. The outcome, he said, could hurt the central bank's independence from political interference in the longer term.
"The public and central bankers should scale back their expectations of the role and power of monetary policy," Plosser added.
Last week, Fisher said he would like the Fed to immediately taper the purchases because of the related risks and the fact that the housing market is on a sounder footing.
Other internal critics of QE3, such as Kansas City Fed President Esther George, who dissented on the policy decision in January, have warned about the troubles it could bring but have stopped short of calling for an immediate paring of purchases.
Plosser, who like many at the Fed have been overly optimistic on the economy in past years, repeated he expects U.S. economic growth to rise to about 3 percent in 2013 and 2014, with inflation close to the Fed's 2-percent goal. He expects a drop in the unemployment rate to near 7 percent by the end of this year.
But he said the ongoing uncertainty over the U.S. budget, including the spending cuts that took effect last week and the need to fund the government beyond this month, "will likely be a drag on near-term growth.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Hugo Chavez, socialist leader of Venezuela, dies after long battle with cancer at the age of 58.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the charismatic leftist who dominated his country with sweeping political change and flamboyant speeches, died Tuesday?at age 58, after a long battle with cancer that was shrouded in mystery and prevented him from being inaugurated for a fourth term.
Adored or reviled for his self-styled?populist revolution, Chavez held sway over Venezuela through a cult of personality, government reforms that championed the downtrodden, and an endless stream of rhetoric denouncing capitalism, imperialism and the United States.
The "Chavistas" praised El Comandante for reducing extreme poverty and expanding access to health care and education. Critics blamed him for high inflation, food shortages, escalating crime and mismanagement of the country?s oil industry.
Human rights groups lambasted him for politicizing the judicial branch, and undermining the democratic system of checks and balances.
In response to news of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's death, the U.S. released a statement saying, in part, that the U.S. "remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights." For two years, the U.S. has not had an ambassador in Venezuela, the largest exporter of oil in the hemisphere. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
To many he was a charming populist who sang and danced on his weekly television show and gave the impoverished a voice; others saw him as an autocrat who plastered his portrait all over the country and failed to deliver on the promises of what he called the "Bolivarian revolution."
"He will be remembered as someone who generated over 14 years an international presence and impact way beyond his country's size or wealth and beyond his own talent and personal charisma," said Jorge Castenada, the former Mexico foreign minister and NBC's Latin American policy analyst.
"And I think he'll be remembered for having tried to make a life of poor people in Venezuela better but in the end of the day, having made it worse. When the consequences of his economic policies become apparent, it will end up that he spent an enormous amount of money to make people a little better off for a short period of time."
The last two years of his presidency were overshadowed by his health struggles. After declaring himself free of an unspecified cancer, he fended off a tough challenge to win re-election in 2012 ? even giving an epic nine-hour speech during the campaign.
He soon relapsed and was rushed to Cuba for surgery. He was deemed too sick to be sworn into office in early January, and was still gravely ill when he made a surprise return to Venezuela in mid-February, heralded on a Twitter account with 4 million followers.
His deputies insisted he was still in control, signing documents and holding meetings in a Caracas hospital room even if a tube in his throat had silenced his well-known voice. But by this week, the end seemed imminent with reports of a new respiratory infection.
In an address to the nation Tuesday afternoon, Vice President Nicholas Maduro said Chavez was facing his "most difficult hours" and claimed the cancer was an "attack" by his enemies. A few hours later, he announced Chavez's death at 4:25 p.m.
"Honor and glory to Hugo Chavez," an emotional Maduro said in Spanish on Venezuelan television, calling for public memorials at every town square in the country but warning against violence or hatred.
Born July 28, 1954, to schoolteachers in a small Venezuelan village, Chavez was raised by his grandmother and entered the military academy in Caracas at age 17. Six years later, inspired by the life of 19th century South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar, he formed a secret movement within the army.
Rising through the military to the rank of captain, he led a bloody coup attempt in 1992 that failed and landed him in prison. Pardoned two years later, the ex-paratrooper re-launched his revolt against the ruling class and announced his candidacy for president in 1998.
"The resurrection of Venezuela has begun, and nothing and no one can stop it,'' he bellowed to a roaring crowd after a landslide victory made him the youngest president in the history of Venezuela.
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The life of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from his rise as a lieutenant colonel after his failed coup attempt in 1992.
As president, Chavez created a new constitution and had the name of the country changed to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. He took greater control of the state-run oil company, expanded the country?s armed forces, and instituted government programs to create jobs, housing and services for the poor.
A 2009 report by the progressive think tank Center for Economic and Policy Research found poverty was cut in half during the first decade of Chavez?s rule; child mortality fell by a third; malnutrition deaths were down by 50%; and college enrollment almost doubled.
At the same time, one non-government report estimated Venezuela?s murder rate quadrupled while Chavez was in power. In 2012, inflation hit 18%. Accusations of corruption and nepotism dogged his administration.
Problems aside, he enjoyed tremendous loyalty from his supporters. A 2002 coup during an economic crisis kept him out of power for just two days ? and he claimed the United States had orchestrated it.
Chavez?s relations with the U.S. ? referred to derisively as the "empire" in his epic speeches ? were icy. He called President George W. Bush "the devil" and "the king of vacations." In 2010, he demanded Secretary of State Hillary Clinton resign "along with those other delinquents working in the State Department."
He often lavished praise on Libya?s Moammar Gadhafi and Iran?s Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, but his staunchest ally was Cuba. He kept the island nation flush with oil in exchange for its well-trained doctors and teachers, and he was visiting Havana when he fell ill in June 2011.
In an address to the nation a few weeks later, he admitted neglecting his health and said it was Fidel Castro who got him to admit he wasn?t feeling well, leading to the discovery of a tumor in his pelvis and emergency surgery.
In the following months, the twice-divorced Catholic shuttled between Cuba and Caracas for treatment even as he sought a fourth term, made possible because he had pushed through the abolition of term limits in the constitution he had rewritten.
Days before the election he would win with 54 percent of the vote to his opponent?s 45 percent, he spoke to a rally of supporters in Caracas, displaying the trademark swagger that had made him one of Latin America?s most captivating, if polarizing, leaders.
"Since I haven?t failed you in these 14 years," he said, according to the Associated Press. "I promise I won?t fail you in the next presidential term.
"Because Chavez doesn?t lie. Because Chavez doesn?t sell out. Because Chavez is the people. Because Chavez is truth. Because all of you are Chavez. We all are."
Related:?
World leaders pay tribute to Chavez
Analysis: Chavistas begin search for Latin America's next 'Comandante'
PITTSBURGH, Pa. - A Pittsburgh Roman Catholic church says the mystery of its missing pipe organ has been solved.
Police said Monday the church's former organist confessed he removed it last week for safekeeping.
Worshippers had struggled to understand how and why anyone would take the massive 200-pipe instrument from St. Justin's, which closed last month after merging with another church.
Authorities say the organist had a key to the building in the city's Mount Washington neighbourhood and was worried the organ would be damaged by the cold of winter.
The church's pastor, Father Michael Stumpf, says taking the organ was an imprudent and terrible mistake but not a criminal one so the church is choosing to forgive and not press charges.
Mar. 5, 2013 ? Some of the dramatic differences seen among patients with schizophrenia may be explained by a single gene that regulates a group of other schizophrenia risk genes. These findings appear in a new imaging-genetics study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
The study revealed that people with schizophrenia who had a particular version of the microRNA-137 gene (or MIR137), tended to develop the illness at a younger age and had distinct brain features -- both associated with poorer outcomes -- compared to patients who did not have this version. This work, led by Drs. Aristotle Voineskos and James Kennedy, appears in the latest issue of Molecular Psychiatry.
Treating schizophrenia is particularly challenging as the illness can vary from patient to patient. Some individuals stay hospitalized for years, while others respond well to treatment.
"What's exciting about this study is that we could have a legitimate answer as to why some of these differences occur," explained Dr. Voineskos, a clinician-scientist in CAMH's Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute. "In the future, we might have the capability of using this gene to tell us about prognosis and how a person might respond to treatment."
"Drs. Voineskos and Kennedy's findings are very important as they provide new insights into the genetic bases of this condition that affects thousands of Canadians and their families," said Dr. Anthony Phillips, Scientific Director at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction.
Also, until now, sex has been the strongest predictor of the age at which schizophrenia develops in individuals. Typically, women tend to develop the illness a few years later than men, and experience a milder form of the disease.
"We showed that this gene has a bigger effect on age-at-onset than one's gender has," said Dr. Voineskos, who heads the Kimel Family Translational Imaging-Genetics Research Laboratory at CAMH. "This may be a paradigm shift for the field."
The researchers studied MIR137 -- a gene involved in turning on and off other schizophrenia-related genes -- in 510 individuals living with schizophrenia. The scientists found that patients with a specific version of the gene tended to develop the illness at a younger age, around 20.8 years of age, compared to 23.4 years of age among those without this version.
"Although three years of difference in age-at-onset may not seem large, those years are important in the final development of brain circuits in the young adult," said Dr. Kennedy, Director of CAMH's Neuroscience Research Department. "This can have major impact on disease outcome."
In a separate part of the study involving 213 people, the researchers used MRI and diffusion tensor-magnetic resonance brain imaging (DT-MRI). They found that individuals who had the particular gene version tended to have unique brain features. These features included a smaller hippocampus, which is a brain structure involved in memory, and larger lateral ventricles, which are fluid-filled structures associated with disease outcome. As well, these patients tended to have more impairment in white matter tracts, which are structures connecting brain regions, and serving as the information highways of the brain.
Developing tests that screen for versions of this gene could be helpful in treating patients earlier and more effectively.
"We're hoping that in the near future we can use this combination of genetics and brain imaging to predict how severe a version of illness someone might have," said Dr. Voineskos. "This would allow us to plan earlier for specific treatments and clinical service delivery and pursue more personalized treatment options right from the start."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
T A Lett, M M Chakavarty, D Felsky, E J Brandl, A K Tiwari, V F Gon?alves, T K Rajji, Z J Daskalakis, H Y Meltzer, J A Lieberman, J P Lerch, B H Mulsant, J L Kennedy, A N Voineskos. The genome-wide supported microRNA-137 variant predicts phenotypic heterogeneity within schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/mp.2013.17
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
A Predator drone is shown in an undated photo from the Air Force.
Michael Reynolds / EPA
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder addresses the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 26.
By Michael IsikoffNational Investigative Correspondent, NBC News
The Obama administration has no intention of carrying out drone strikes against suspected terrorists in the United States, but could use them in response to ?an extraordinary circumstance? such as the 9/11 terror attacks, according to a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder obtained by NBC News.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who received the March 4 letter from Holder, called the attorney general?s refusal to rule out drone strikes in the U.S. ?more than frightening.??
The letter from Holder surfaced just as the Senate Intelligence Committee was voting 12-3 to approve White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to be CIA director. The vote came after the White House agreed to share additional classified memos on targeted drone strikes against U.S. citizens overseas.
Paul had threatened to hold up Brennan's confirmation on the floor of the Senate if the administration did not clarify whether targeted drone strikes could be used inside the U.S.
In his letter, Holder called the question of drone strikes inside the U.S. "entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur and we hope no president will ever have to confront. ? As a policy matter, moreover, we reject the use of military force where well-established law enforcement authorities in this country provide the best means for incapacitating a terrorist threat."
But Holder then appeared to leave the door open to such strikes in extreme circumstances.
Read the full letter
"It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the president to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States. For example, the president could? conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on Dec. 7, 1941 and Sept. 11, 2001."?
Most men and women who appear to be successfully climbing the corporate ladder say they can ?have it all? ? but maybe not all at the same the time.
A new, international survey of managers and executives?at big companies finds that about 7 in 10 of the men and women surveyed?believe they can have a successful career and family life.
But there is a catch. Half of the executives surveyed on behalf of consulting firm Accenture conceded that although?you could have both professional success and a family life, you cannot have it all?at the same time.
The online survey of 4,100 executives in 33 countries was conducted in November of 2012. The respondents included professionals such as managers, vice presidents and owners or partners at medium to large organizations. It had a two percentage point margin of error.
The Accenture survey did offer evidence that many are at least striving for a successful work/life balance. When the professionals were asked what they define as career success, the most popular answer was ?work/life balance,? with about 56 percent of the vote.
That beat out even ?money,? which got 46 percent of the vote. The respondents were allowed to give more than one answer.
In addition, about half said they had turned down or not pursued a job because of concerns about work/life balance.
The survey comes amid a heated debate over whether ambitious, career-minded men and women can balance success at work with success at home.
Former State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughter?sparked a huge debate last year when she argued in The Atlantic that women still can?t have it all, at least in the United States.
More recently, Yahoo Chief Executive ? and new mom ? Marissa Mayer also created a stir when her company ordered telecommuting workers to start coming into the office. Many argued that such a directive is a major blow to parents who are trying to balance work, family and long commutes.
The debate isn?t just confined to women. These days, many dads?also are struggling to "have it all."
Do you think you can have it all when it comes to work and family?
Everyone's favorite buzzing, prancing robot, the BigDog from Boston Dynamics, has a new trick. It now has an arm which can be used to manipulate nearby objects with great force ? for instance, in this video, tossing a cinder block a good 15 feet.
The approach Boston Dynamics is taking is to use the robot's whole body as power for its actions. So, as you can see, it actually bends down to pick up the block rather than just extending its arm further. And it tilts its whole body to one side as a counterweight to the block before it throws.
BigDog's creators point out (in their characteristically minimal YouTube description) that this is how athletes and real animals perform many tasks, and it does appear to be practical ? but it's also eerily lifelike. The improved body and lessened noise from the original have failed to make its uncanny animal-like movements any less unnerving.
The latest news on the BigDog project, which is currently funded by the Army Research Laboratory, can always be found on the Boston Dynamics YouTube page. They typically upload a video or two every few months.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
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Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
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