CAIRO (Reuters) - The first commercial flight between Egypt and Iran in 34 years took off on Saturday, the latest step towards normalising ties broken following the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution.
Egypt and Iran agreed to resume direct flights in October 2010 before President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power, but no flights were made.
"A flight by Air Memphis, owned by Egyptian businessman Rami Lakah, took off from Cairo to Tehran earlier on Saturday carrying eight Iranians including diplomats," one airport official said adding that the airline could later carry out more tourist and business trips between Egypt and Iran.
Diplomatic relations between Iran and Egypt were cut in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Tehran when the government in Cairo gave sanctuary to the deposed shah.
But ties improved over the years, and have become significantly better since the election of Islamist Mohamed Mursi as president of Egypt in June 2012.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Egypt in February, the first visit by an Iranian leader to Cairo in more than three decades, and called for a strategic alliance with Egypt and offered a loan to the cash-strapped Arab state.
Mursi visited Iran in August to attend an international summit where he initiated a quartet committee that included Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia to discuss ways to end the Syrian civil war. Saudi Arabia later left the group.
Fitness & health are thought most important within our everyday life and our every day diet plays an important part in it. The Thyroid Diet has mysterious tricks of fat loss. Thyroid diet contains food you intend to eat and lose weight immediately. Thyroid diet is the greatest for people who have weight problems as a result of thyroid problems. It can help us to go back to a wholesome weight, with no change inside our diet and exercise.
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The reality star reveals to her sister Kourtney and stepbrother Brandon that getting pregnant has been much more stressful than she anticipated, and she?s worried it may never happen for her. Watch the emotional clip.
Khloe Kardashian?has been vocal about her struggles to get pregnant, but on the March 31 episode of?Kourtney & Kim Take Miami,?the 28-year-old, who has been married to her NBA hubby Lamar Odom for more than three years, reveals just how hard it has been to?conceive?the baby she so desperately wants.
Khloe visits with her stepbrother?Brandon?Jenner?and his wife,?Leah Felder,?and opens up just how difficult it has been to welcome a baby.
?How long have you guys been trying?? Brandon asks. ?Since I married?Lamar,? Khloe says.
Khloe Kardashian Reveals Her Fertility Treatments
When Leah suggests Khloe just take a break from worrying about getting pregnant and letting it happen naturally, the?X Factor host says she and her hubby have done just that before.
?About a year ago, we were like, ?Let?s just see what happens.? And then when it didn?t happen,?[sister]?Kim [Kardashian]?was like, ?Let?s go to the doctor. I found out I don?t ovulate, and now my uterus lining isn?t thick enough and I have to take pills to make my? uterus lining thicker. If that doesn?t get thicker, then I cannot carry a baby.?
Kourtney Kardashian ?Sad? Khloe Can?t Get Pregnant
Her older sister Kourtney Kardashian was at the table for the discussion, but says in her private interview that she feels bad for her little sister:
?I overhear Khloe talking about her pregnancy drama, and she never really talks to me about it anymore. I kind of don?t really ask her, because I don?t want to always bother her. It just makes me sad that she has to struggle with getting pregnant.?
Kourtney suggests that she may serve as a surrogate for Khloe.?Of course, Khloe asks her if she?d really push her baby ?out of her vag.?
WATCH: Khloe Kardashian Discusses Her Fertility Struggles
??Christina Stiehl
More On Khloe?s Fertility Struggles:
Khloe Kardashian Making Getting Pregnant Her Top Priority Now
Khloe Kardashian On ?GMA?: I Never Knew It?d Be So Hard To Get Pregnant
Khloe Kardashian: I Am Sure I Will Get Pregnant One Day
When the Browns signed quarterback Jason Campbell, many assumed he?d potentially become the team?s starter in 2013.? And he?ll definitely get a chance to win the job, since he?s the first signal-caller signed by the new regime in Cleveland, after previously starting in Washington and Oakland.
For now, though, he?s getting paid like a backup, and not a lot when compared to other backups.? A source with knowledge of the contract tells PFT that Campbell?s contract pays out $1.5 million in 2013.
Specifically, he gets a base salary of $1.5 million in 2013, $500,000 of which is fully guaranteed.
That said, if Campbell can win the job, he?ll make more money via incentives.? Specifically, he gets $150,000 for 50 percent playing time in 2013, 65 percent results in $350,000, and 80 percent triggers $600,000.
In 2014, Campbell?s base salary is a bit higher, at $2 million.? He also gets roster bonus of $250,000 due the third day of the league year.
But there are escalators for 2014 based on playing time in the coming season.? Campbell?s 2014 base salary will increase by $500,000 based on 30 percent playing time in 2013.? 40 percent playing time in 2013 increases the 2014 salary by another $500,000.? Ten more percent in 2013?? Another $500,000 in 2014.? And if Campbell takes 65 percent or more of the snaps in 2013, his $2 million salary will double.
Still, his backup pay for 2013 is low, and that?s largely because Campbell?s options were limited.? Especially in light of the egg he laid when he had a chance during 2012 to sub for Jay Cutler in Chicago, during that Monday night debacle against the 49ers.
Campbell could have stayed in Chicago and backed up Cutler, or he could have gone to Cleveland with a chance to win the starting job.? If Campbell pulls it off, he?ll be paid more on the back end.
And if he plays really well in 2013, the Browns likely will tear up the 2014 deal and sign him to something better.
Mar. 26, 2013 ? Living in colder climates in the US is more energy demanding than living in warmer climates. This is according to Dr Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan, who has published new research today, 28 March, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters.
Dr Sivak has calculated that climate control in the coldest large metropolitan area in the country -- Minneapolis -- is about three-and-a-half times more energy demanding than in the warmest large metropolitan area -- Miami.
Dr Sivak calculated this difference in energy demand using three parameters: the number of heating or cooling degree days in each area; the efficiencies of heating and cooling appliances; and the efficiencies of power-generating plants.
Not included in the analysis were the energy used to extract fuels from the ground, the losses during energy transmission, and energy costs.
"It has been taken for a fact that living in the warm regions of the US is less sustainable than living in the cold regions, based partly on the perceived energy needs for climate control; however, the present findings suggest a re-examination of the relative sustainability of living in warm versus cold climates."
Heating degree days (HDDs) and cooling degree days (CDDs) are climatological measures that are designed to reflect the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a building. They are calculated by comparing the mean daily outdoor temperature with 18?C.
A day with a mean temperature of 10?C would have 8 HDDs and no CDDs, as the temperature is 8?C below 18?C. Analogously, a day with a mean temperature of 23?C would have 5 CDDs and no HDDs.
Based on a previous study, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis has 4376 heating degree days a year compared to 2423 cooling degree days in Miami.
In the study, Dr Sivak used a single measure for the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, as most are currently rated using different measures so they cannot be directly compared. His calculations showed that a typical air conditioner is about four times more energy efficient than a typical furnace.
"In simple terms, it takes less energy to cool a room down by one degree than it does to heat it up by one degree," said Dr Sivak.
Grouping together climatology, the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, and the efficiency of power-generating plants, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis was substantially more energy demanding than Miami.
"In the US, the energy consumption for air conditioning is of general concern but the required energy to heat is often taken for granted. Focus should also be turned to the opposite end of the scale -- living in cold climates such as in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Rochester, Buffalo and Chicago is more energy demanding, and therefore less sustainable from this point of view, than living in warm climates such as in Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Orlando and Las Vegas," Dr Sivak concluded.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institute of Physics (IOP), via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Michael Sivak. Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami. Environmental Research Letters, 2013; 8 (1): 014050 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014050
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
There are many well-known, skilled magicians that you might not know about because even though they're well known, they haven't reached magician cult status. Most people know about the magician David Copperfield, but there are many more magicians equally skilled. So, take a moment to learn about other wizards of magic and expand your knowledge about magicians.
Curtis Adams: A magician who appeared at the age of 16 in the Young Magicians Showcase featured on Fox Television. He was born on October 12, 1984 and was one of the youngest magicians to perform in Reno, Nevada casinos.
Criss Angel: The only three-time magician winner of the Merlin Award from the International Society of Magicians. Angel is a skilled magician who did stunts like lying on a bed of nails while a Hummer drove over him.
Ed Balducci: A street magician who died in 1988 at the age of 82. He is a magician known for his gimmick-free trick of visibly rising several inches from the ground with his back turned to his audience.
Derren Brown: A British magician who practiced traditional close-up magic in the 1990s. Brown's claim as a magician is his "mind-reading" act. Brown claims aliens abducted him.
Cardini: Richard "Cardini" Pitchford was a magician with almost 50 years of performing tricks and illusions. He's one of the world's most imitated magicians, but no one to date has ever been able to completely duplicate his tricks. He was a magician known for his sleight of hand. Items were forever appearing and disappearing from his hands. He died in 1973.
Tommy Cooper: A magician and comedian known who was a member of the Magic Circle until his death in 1984. He collapsed while doing a live magician act that became his last.
Paul Daniels: A currently retired British magician who in 1983 became the first magician to ever receive the prestigious Magician of the Year Award by the Hollywood Academy of Magical Arts.
S.W. Erndase: A magician and author whose real identity has never been figured out. Erndase is a magician who wrote a book in 1902 about card playing tricks.
Ching Ling Foo: The first Asian magician to achieve fame. He was a magician who did tricks like breathing fire and pulling a fifteen-foot pole from his mouth. He died in 1922.
Lennart Green: A magician known for his close-up card tricks. In 1991 this magician became the world champion of in close-up card magic.
Paul Harris: A magician known for pulling coins from mirrors. Many claim he is a magician with skills like a combination of Copperfield and Henning.
Scott Interrante: An American magician specializing in escape-artist tricks. He won awards from the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
Ricky Jay: A magician listed in the Guinness Book of Records as throwing a playing card 190 feet at 90 miles per hour.
Fred Kaps: A Dutch magician who died in 1980. He is a magician known for making a saltshaker create an endless supply of salt.
Juan Tamariz: A Spanish magician who in 1971 founded a school that has trained generations of Spanish magicians.
Dia Vernon: This Canadian magician was born in 1894 as David Frederick Wingfield Verner. This magician, who died in 1992, is known for fooling Houdini with one of his card tricks.
Paul Zenon: A British street magician who also performed in the bars and pubs in the U.K. This magician has written three books about magic, the most recent published in 2005.
Mar. 28, 2013 ? When Charles Babbage prototyped the first computing machine in the 19th century, he imagined using mechanical gears and latches to control information. ENIAC, the first modern computer developed in the 1940s, used vacuum tubes and electricity. Today, computers use transistors made from highly engineered semiconducting materials to carry out their logical operations.
And now a team of Stanford University bioengineers has taken computing beyond mechanics and electronics into the living realm of biology. In a paper to be published March 28 in Science, the team details a biological transistor made from genetic material -- DNA and RNA -- in place of gears or electrons. The team calls its biological transistor the "transcriptor."
"Transcriptors are the key component behind amplifying genetic logic -- akin to the transistor and electronics," said Jerome Bonnet, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering and the paper's lead author.
The creation of the transcriptor allows engineers to compute inside living cells to record, for instance, when cells have been exposed to certain external stimuli or environmental factors, or even to turn on and off cell reproduction as needed.
"Biological computers can be used to study and reprogram living systems, monitor environments and improve cellular therapeutics," said Drew Endy, PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering and the paper's senior author.
The biological computer
In electronics, a transistor controls the flow of electrons along a circuit. Similarly, in biologics, a transcriptor controls the flow of a specific protein, RNA polymerase, as it travels along a strand of DNA.
"We have repurposed a group of natural proteins, called integrases, to realize digital control over the flow of RNA polymerase along DNA, which in turn allowed us to engineer amplifying genetic logic," said Endy.
Using transcriptors, the team has created what are known in electrical engineering as logic gates that can derive true-false answers to virtually any biochemical question that might be posed within a cell.
They refer to their transcriptor-based logic gates as "Boolean Integrase Logic," or "BIL gates" for short.
Transcriptor-based gates alone do not constitute a computer, but they are the third and final component of a biological computer that could operate within individual living cells.
Despite their outward differences, all modern computers, from ENIAC to Apple, share three basic functions: storing, transmitting and performing logical operations on information.
Last year, Endy and his team made news in delivering the other two core components of a fully functional genetic computer. The first was a type of rewritable digital data storage within DNA. They also developed a mechanism for transmitting genetic information from cell to cell, a sort of biological Internet.
It all adds up to creating a computer inside a living cell.
Boole's gold
Digital logic is often referred to as "Boolean logic," after George Boole, the mathematician who proposed the system in 1854. Today, Boolean logic typically takes the form of 1s and 0s within a computer. Answer true, gate open; answer false, gate closed. Open. Closed. On. Off. 1. 0. It's that basic. But it turns out that with just these simple tools and ways of thinking you can accomplish quite a lot.
"AND" and "OR" are just two of the most basic Boolean logic gates. An "AND" gate, for instance, is "true" when both of its inputs are true -- when "a" and "b" are true. An "OR" gate, on the other hand, is true when either or both of its inputs are true.
In a biological setting, the possibilities for logic are as limitless as in electronics, Bonnet explained. "You could test whether a given cell had been exposed to any number of external stimuli -- the presence of glucose and caffeine, for instance. BIL gates would allow you to make that determination and to store that information so you could easily identify those which had been exposed and which had not," he said.
By the same token, you could tell the cell to start or stop reproducing if certain factors were present. And, by coupling BIL gates with the team's biological Internet, it is possible to communicate genetic information from cell to cell to orchestrate the behavior of a group of cells.
"The potential applications are limited only by the imagination of the researcher," said co-author Monica Ortiz, a PhD candidate in bioengineering who demonstrated autonomous cell-to-cell communication of DNA encoding various BIL gates.
Building a transcriptor
To create transcriptors and logic gates, the team used carefully calibrated combinations of enzymes -- the integrases mentioned earlier -- that control the flow of RNA polymerase along strands of DNA. If this were electronics, DNA is the wire and RNA polymerase is the electron.
"The choice of enzymes is important," Bonnet said. "We have been careful to select enzymes that function in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, so that bio-computers can be engineered within a variety of organisms."
On the technical side, the transcriptor achieves a key similarity between the biological transistor and its semiconducting cousin: signal amplification.
With transcriptors, a very small change in the expression of an integrase can create a very large change in the expression of any two other genes.
To understand the importance of amplification, consider that the transistor was first conceived as a way to replace expensive, inefficient and unreliable vacuum tubes in the amplification of telephone signals for transcontinental phone calls. Electrical signals traveling along wires get weaker the farther they travel, but if you put an amplifier every so often along the way, you can relay the signal across a great distance. The same would hold in biological systems as signals get transmitted among a group of cells.
"It is a concept similar to transistor radios," said Pakpoom Subsoontorn, a PhD candidate in bioengineering and co-author of the study who developed theoretical models to predict the behavior of BIL gates. "Relatively weak radio waves traveling through the air can get amplified into sound."
Public-domain biotechnology
To bring the age of the biological computer to a much speedier reality, Endy and his team have contributed all of BIL gates to the public domain so that others can immediately harness and improve upon the tools.
"Most of biotechnology has not yet been imagined, let alone made true. By freely sharing important basic tools everyone can work better together," Bonnet said.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Jerome Bonnet, Peter Yin, Monica E. Ortiz, Pakpoom Subsoontorn, and Drew Endy. Amplifying Genetic Logic Gates. Science, 28 March 2013 DOI: 10.1126/science.1232758
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
CNBC's Jim Cramer sees no reason why investors should put money in Europe banks or stocks right now. With a strengthening U.S. economy, the investing opportunities are vastly more attractive on this side of the Atlantic, he said Tuesday.
"The euro is a hobbled currency, and money is going to come here (to the U.S.) not overnight, but if you're a trust officer over in Europe or a treasurer of a public company, I'd be worried about being sued if I had my money in a Spanish bank," he said, referring to fiduciary responsibility of these officers.
Cramer expects money will flow from Europe to the U.S. in a flight to safety, especially in the wake of the bailout in Cyprus.
Cramer added that in the U.S., "you have autos, housing, oil and gas looking pretty good, commercial real estate could come back."
(Related: U.S. Home Prices Up, Best Yearly Increase Since 2006)
In Europe, he said, "I just see no reason to invest there, either to put money in their banks, or invest in their stocks. I just don't get it."
"When you crunch all of these banks, you are making it difficult to get credit," he said. "Here credit is getting more plentiful; there it's getting scarce." He said consumers will be faced with the hard decision to keep their money in troubled European banks, and he thinks that the money will leave those names slowly. "Do you really believe the credit is good there?" he asked.
(Related: Cramer: Make Europe's Pain Your Gain)
He added that Europe is more concerned with environmental issues than about creating jobs and strengthening their economies. "They care about austerity and they care about fossil fuels, they don't seem to care about jobs."
"How can you put money there, when you've got so much going on over here?" he asked.
Going against the tape and fighting the Fed in this environment of cheap liquidity is dangerous, Cramer warned, pointing to strength in companies like Dollar General as "instructive" on growing strength in the U.S. retail sector.
The show season's just heating up, and we're live this week from sunny (or is it soggy? Or foggy? Whatever -- just wait 10 minutes) San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference, otherwise known as GDC. Full Mobile Nations coverage is in effect here, with Simon Sage rocking things for Android Central, Rene Ritchie hitting things up for iMore, and Paul Acevedo for WPCentral.
The coverage starts now, Now, NOW! Get ready for more gaming gamage than should legally be allowed by law!
Laser empties atoms from the inside outPublic release date: 25-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caron Lett caron.lett@york.ac.uk 44-019-043-22029 University of York
An international team of plasma physicists has used one of the world's most powerful lasers to create highly unusual plasma composed of hollow atoms.
The experimental work led by scientists from the University of York, UK and the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of Russian Academy of Sciences demonstrated that it is possible to remove the two most deeply bound electrons from atoms, emptying the inner most quantum shell and leading to a distinctive plasma state.
The experiment was carried out using the petawatt laser at the Central Laser Facility at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to further understanding of fusion energy generation, which employs plasmas that are hotter than the core of the Sun.
The results are reported in the journal Physical Review Letters.
A hollow atom occurs when an electron buried in an atom is removed, usually by being hit by another electron, creating a hole while leaving all the other electrons attached. This process creates plasma, a form of ionised gas. An X-ray is released when the hole is filled.
Normally the process involves removing electrons from the outer shells of atoms first and working inwards. The team of scientists demonstrated a new mechanism for creating hollow atoms that involved emptying atoms from the inside out.
The experimental work used an intense laser, which at one petawatt delivers approximately 10,000 times the entire UK national grid, delivered in a thousand-billionth of a second, onto an area smaller than the end of a human hair.
Dr Nigel Woolsey, from the York Plasma Institute, Department of Physics, at the University of York was the Principal Investigator for the experimental work.
Dr Woolsey said: "At such extraordinary intensities electrons move at close to the speed of light and as they move they create perhaps the most intense X-rays ever observed on Earth. These X-rays empty the atoms from the inside out; a most extraordinary observation and one that suggests the physics of these interactions is likely to change, as lasers become more powerful."
Analysis and theoretical work was led by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA and Osaka University, Japan.
The analysis showed the mechanism for hollow atom generation was not due to the collision of electrons or driven by the laser photons, but was driven by the resulting radiation field from the interaction.
Lead author Dr James Colgan, from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said: "The conditions under which the hollow atoms were produced were highly non-equilibrium and the production mechanism was quite surprising. These results indicate that a little-explored region of physics is now starting to become accessible with the unprecedented intensities reached by the world's leading laser facilities."
Co-author Dr Alexei Zhidkov, from Osaka University, said: "This experiment has demonstrated a situation where X-ray radiation dominates the atomic physics in a laser-plasma interaction; this indicates the importance of X-ray radiation generation in our physics description. Future experiments are likely to show yet more dramatic effects which will have substantial implications for diverse fields such as laboratory-based astrophysics."
If the scientific and technological challenges can be overcome, fusion offers the potential for an effectively limitless supply of safe, environmentally friendly energy. The experimental work was designed to further scientists understanding of how intense lasers can create electron beams with speeds close to the speed of light, then use these beams to heat fusion fuel to thermonuclear temperatures.
Co-author Dr Sergey Pikuz, from the Joint Institute for High Temperatures RAS, said: "The measurements, simulations, and developing physics picture are consistent with a scenario in which high-intensity laser technology can be used to generate extremely intense X-ray fields. This demonstrates the potential to study properties of matter under the impact of intense X-ray radiation."
Co-author Rachel Dance, a University of York PhD physics student, said: "This was a very dynamic experiment which led to an unexpected outcome and new physics. The hollow atom diagnostic was set to measure the hot electron beam current generated by the laser, and the results that came out of this in the end, showed us that the mechanism for hollow atom generation, was not collisional or driven by the laser photons, but by the resulting radiation field from the interaction."
###
The UK researchers received funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Royal Society.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Laser empties atoms from the inside outPublic release date: 25-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caron Lett caron.lett@york.ac.uk 44-019-043-22029 University of York
An international team of plasma physicists has used one of the world's most powerful lasers to create highly unusual plasma composed of hollow atoms.
The experimental work led by scientists from the University of York, UK and the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of Russian Academy of Sciences demonstrated that it is possible to remove the two most deeply bound electrons from atoms, emptying the inner most quantum shell and leading to a distinctive plasma state.
The experiment was carried out using the petawatt laser at the Central Laser Facility at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to further understanding of fusion energy generation, which employs plasmas that are hotter than the core of the Sun.
The results are reported in the journal Physical Review Letters.
A hollow atom occurs when an electron buried in an atom is removed, usually by being hit by another electron, creating a hole while leaving all the other electrons attached. This process creates plasma, a form of ionised gas. An X-ray is released when the hole is filled.
Normally the process involves removing electrons from the outer shells of atoms first and working inwards. The team of scientists demonstrated a new mechanism for creating hollow atoms that involved emptying atoms from the inside out.
The experimental work used an intense laser, which at one petawatt delivers approximately 10,000 times the entire UK national grid, delivered in a thousand-billionth of a second, onto an area smaller than the end of a human hair.
Dr Nigel Woolsey, from the York Plasma Institute, Department of Physics, at the University of York was the Principal Investigator for the experimental work.
Dr Woolsey said: "At such extraordinary intensities electrons move at close to the speed of light and as they move they create perhaps the most intense X-rays ever observed on Earth. These X-rays empty the atoms from the inside out; a most extraordinary observation and one that suggests the physics of these interactions is likely to change, as lasers become more powerful."
Analysis and theoretical work was led by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA and Osaka University, Japan.
The analysis showed the mechanism for hollow atom generation was not due to the collision of electrons or driven by the laser photons, but was driven by the resulting radiation field from the interaction.
Lead author Dr James Colgan, from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said: "The conditions under which the hollow atoms were produced were highly non-equilibrium and the production mechanism was quite surprising. These results indicate that a little-explored region of physics is now starting to become accessible with the unprecedented intensities reached by the world's leading laser facilities."
Co-author Dr Alexei Zhidkov, from Osaka University, said: "This experiment has demonstrated a situation where X-ray radiation dominates the atomic physics in a laser-plasma interaction; this indicates the importance of X-ray radiation generation in our physics description. Future experiments are likely to show yet more dramatic effects which will have substantial implications for diverse fields such as laboratory-based astrophysics."
If the scientific and technological challenges can be overcome, fusion offers the potential for an effectively limitless supply of safe, environmentally friendly energy. The experimental work was designed to further scientists understanding of how intense lasers can create electron beams with speeds close to the speed of light, then use these beams to heat fusion fuel to thermonuclear temperatures.
Co-author Dr Sergey Pikuz, from the Joint Institute for High Temperatures RAS, said: "The measurements, simulations, and developing physics picture are consistent with a scenario in which high-intensity laser technology can be used to generate extremely intense X-ray fields. This demonstrates the potential to study properties of matter under the impact of intense X-ray radiation."
Co-author Rachel Dance, a University of York PhD physics student, said: "This was a very dynamic experiment which led to an unexpected outcome and new physics. The hollow atom diagnostic was set to measure the hot electron beam current generated by the laser, and the results that came out of this in the end, showed us that the mechanism for hollow atom generation, was not collisional or driven by the laser photons, but by the resulting radiation field from the interaction."
###
The UK researchers received funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Royal Society.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
As Jermaine Jones shook so much snow from his hair that it looked like the world's worst case of dandruff and the field attendants cleared enough of the white stuff to make an army of snowmen, it all begged one question.
Why?
Why would the United States play one of the matches that will decide its hopes of qualifying for next year's World Cup in a part of the country where elements like the blizzard that bombarded the Denver region on Friday night can take place?
USA's Jermaine Jones tries to control the ball at snowy Dick's Sporting Goods Park. (USA TODAY Sports)The U.S.'s 1-0 victory over Costa Rica resembled an utter farce for much of the 90 minutes, with the ball burrowing in the surface and the field lines impossible to see only moments after they had been cleared. However, for all its bizarre scenes and scant resemblance to soccer, this was no accident. This was not an act of administrative ineptitude or abysmal planning by the powers that be at the national federation.
This was on purpose.
Homefield advantage is one of soccer's most ingrained conventions. Scientists and psychologists alike have tried on countless occasions to determine why two teams can perform so differently in a familiar environment compared to an alien one.
In international soccer, it is even more prevalent. And taking on a team that prefers warmer climes in chilly Commerce City, Colo., seemed like a darn good idea when the game was scheduled several months ago.
Sure, things got a little out of hand weather-wise in a way no one could have predicted, but this was a job well done. With much of the U.S. team stationed in Europe, a cold venue will always be preferable against the likes of Costa Rica and Mexico.
Friday's game probably should have been called off, most reasonably at the point in the second half when the officials met briefly but were reportedly talked into continuing by both the American players, and incredibly, the Costa Rican players.
Yet, even though this was not the greatest spectacle for soccer, don't expect any changes in scheduling philosophy, even if soccer federation presidents make noise to that effect this weekend.
The U.S. will still make Mexico come to Columbus, Ohio, in September, hoping for a wet and windy night. And if you think it's not fair because it doesn't allow the players to showcase their true talents and could even pose a health hazard, you might be right. But consider that the alternative for the U.S. is to revert back to the dark days when decisions on hosting venues were made for shortsighted fiscal reasons.
Clint Dempsey celebrates the USA's victory with the home fans. (USA TODAY Sports)A few decades ago, the Americans would do things like play Canada in Portland due to the city's relative proximity to our northern neighbors. Also, World Cup qualifiers would routinely be hosted in places with a strong ethnic community of the visiting nation. Great idea, right?
Well, it was so great that in 1985 a boisterous band of Costa Rican ex-pats cheered their team to victory over the host Americans in Torrance, Calif., dumping the U.S. out of the World Cup qualifying pool and delaying its return to the international stage another four years.
Truth is, every team in the world plays where it thinks it can win, and the three points collected by the Americans at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Friday were invaluable. Clint Dempsey's 16th-minute goal ensured the U.S. second place in the CONCACAF qualifying group behind Honduras despite some shaky moments in its opening two games.
Fair or not, going to Denver or Columbus or Hopkinsville, Ky., if necessary, is no different to Mexico playing its qualifiers in the Estadio Azteca at the altitude of Mexico City ? with an afternoon kickoff time to maximize the heat and discomfort for the opposition.
Dempsey, despite appearing to be on the verge of hypothermia, wasn't complaining following his first qualifier as captain.
"It is not easy to play with snow up past your ankles," he said. "But trying to qualify for a World Cup is never easy. It is a roller coaster."
A roller coaster indeed. But the U.S.'s ride to Brazil next year might be a whole lot trickier if it didn't use conditions to its advantage.
The hair of US National Team's Jermaine Jones turns white in the snow as he competes against Costa Rica in the first half of the FIFA World Cup qualifier at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce ... more? The hair of US National Team's Jermaine Jones turns white in the snow as he competes against Costa Rica in the first half of the FIFA World Cup qualifier at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado, USA, 22 March 2013. less?
US-CHINA-CYBERSECURITY-UNIVERSITY:Top China college in focus with ties to army's cyber-spying unit
By Melanie Lee
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Faculty members at a top Chinese university have collaborated for years on technical research papers with a People's Liberation Army (PLA) unit accused of being at the heart of China's alleged cyber-war against Western commercial targets.
Several papers on computer network security and intrusion detection, easily accessed on the Internet, were co-authored by researchers at PLA Unit 61398, allegedly an operational unit actively engaged in cyber-espionage, and faculty at Shanghai Jiaotong University, a centre of academic excellence with ties to some of the world's top universities and attended by the country's political and business elite.
The apparent working relationship between the PLA unit and Shanghai Jiaotong is in contrast to common practice in most developed nations, where university professors in recent decades have been reluctant to cooperate with operational intelligence gathering units.
The issue of cyber-security is testing ties between the world's two biggest economies, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama to raise concerns over computer hacking in a phone call with new Chinese President Xi Jinping. China denies it engages in state-sponsored hacking, saying it is a victim of cyber-attacks from the United States.
There is no evidence to suggest any Shanghai Jiaotong academics who co-authored papers with Unit 61398 worked with anyone directly engaged in cyber-espionage operations, as opposed to research.
"The issue is operational activity - whether these research institutions have been involved in actual intelligence operations," said James Lewis, director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "That's something the U.S. does not do."
"(In the U.S.) there's a clear line between an academic researcher and people engaged in operational (intelligence gathering) activities."
Shanghai Jiaotong declined to comment.
CO-AUTHORS
In reviewing the links between the PLA and Shanghai Jiaotong - whose alumni include former President Jiang Zemin, the head of China's top automaker and the former CEO of its most popular Internal portal - Reuters found at least three papers on cyber- warfare on a document-sharing web site that were co-authored by university faculty members and PLA researchers.
The papers, on network security and attack detection, state on their title pages they were written by Unit 61398 researchers and professors at Shanghai Jiaotong's School of Information Security Engineering (SISE).
In one 2007 paper on how to improve security by designing a collaborative network monitoring system, PLA researcher Chen Yi-qun worked with Xue Zhi, the vice-president of SISE and the school's Communist Party branch secretary. According to his biography on the school's website, Xue is credited with developing China's leading infiltrative cyber-attack platform.
Calls and emails to Xue were not answered. Reuters was unable to find contact details for Chen.
Fan Lei, an associate professor at Shanghai Jiaotong whose main research areas are network security management and cryptography, also co-authored a paper with Chen. Fan told Reuters he has no links with Unit 61398 and his work with Chen in 2010 was because Chen was a SISE graduate student. Fan said he was unaware Chen was with the PLA when they collaborated. Both of the papers Chen co-wrote with SISE professors stated he was with the PLA unit.
Cyber-security experts say the publicly available papers and China's National Information Security Engineering Centre are ostensibly about securing computer networks.
"The research seems to be defensive, but cyber-security research in general can be dual purpose," said Adam Meyers, director of intelligence at CrowdStrike, a security technology company based in Irvine, California. Figuring out how best to defend networks, by definition, means thinking about the most effective means of attack, he noted.
Efforts to reach the PLA for comment on its collaboration with Shanghai Jiaotong were unsuccessful.
TECH PARK NEIGHBORS
Set amid manicured lawns, Shanghai Jiaotong University is one of China's top four colleges, turning out brilliant technical engineers much in demand by both domestic companies and foreign multinationals. Its reputation has led to tie-ups with elite universities abroad.
Last month, Mandiant Corp, a private U.S.-based security firm, accused China's military of cyber-espionage on U.S. and other English-speaking companies, identifying Unit 61398 and its location at a building on the outskirts of Shanghai. China said the report was baseless and lacked "technical proof".
"SISE at Shanghai Jiaotong has provided support" to PLA Unit 61398 - known more formally as General Staff Department (GSD), Third Department, Second Bureau - said Russell Hsiao, author of papers on China's cyber-warfare capabilities for Project 2049 Institute, a Virginia-based think-tank, who drew his research from the technical papers and government reports.
He said another Shanghai Jiaotong department, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, also did research work with another PLA unit. A Project 2049 report last year found the GSD's Third Department had oversight of "information security engineering bases" in Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin.
The GSD Third Department's Shanghai base is in an industrial park housing mainly government research institutes and high-tech firms. The SISE building is in the same development, 40 kms from the university's main Minhang campus. Across the street from SISE is the National Information Security Engineering Center, a building commissioned in 2003 by PLA Unit 61398. Also part of the base is the Ministry of Public Security's Third Research Institute, which researches digital forensics and network security.
AUTO RESEARCH
Shanghai Jiaotong is not officially linked to China's military. SISE says on its website its goal is to speed up the development of China's information security sector and address the national shortage of information security professionals.
Shanghai Jiaotong set up a joint institute in China's second city in 2006 with the University of Michigan - seeking, it says on its web site, to "develop innovative and highly reputable education and research programs in various engineering fields." A spokesman for the U.S. college said it has no relationship with SISE. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh also had a partnership with Shanghai Jiaotong's School of Electronic, Information and Electrical Engineering, and Singapore Management University said it ended a tie-up with SISE last June.
Among the industries in the United States allegedly targeted by Unit 61398, as recently as last year according to Mandiant, is transportation, including the auto sector.
The University of Michigan collaborates closely with Detroit-based automakers on research projects, and is one of three colleges that comprise the University Research Corridor, which spent $300 million on R&D projects over the last five years. Nearly a third of that was funded by private industry, according to local consultant the Anderson Economic Group.
"There was no indication in 2010 that the joint institute was involved in any way and that also is the case today. We do, of course, watch the news reports on these issues carefully," said Rick Fitzgerald, a University of Michigan spokesman, referring to a New York Times report in 2010 citing investigators' claims to have tracked cyber-attacks against Google Inc to Shanghai Jiaotong and an eastern Chinese vocational school.
(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle and Joseph Menn in SAN FRANCISCO; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
Global nitrogen availability consistent for past 500 years, linked to carbon levels
Friday, March 22, 2013
A Kansas State University research team has found that despite humans increasing nitrogen production through industrialization, nitrogen availability in many ecosystems has remained steady for the past 500 years. Their work appears in the journalNature.
"People have been really interested in nitrogen in current times because it's a major pollutant," said Kendra McLauchlan, assistant professor of geography and director of the university's Paleoenvironmental Laboratory. "Humans are producing a lot more nitrogen than in the past for use as crop fertilizer, and there is concern because excess levels can cause damage. The mystery, though, is whether the biosphere is able to soak up this extra nitrogen and what that means for the future."
Nitrogen is a key component of the ecosystem and the largest regulator of plant growth. It determines how much food, fuel and fiber the land can produce. It also determines how much carbon dioxide plants remove from the atmosphere, and it interacts with several components of the climate system. Excessive amounts of nitrogen in ecosystems contribute to global warming and impairment of downstream ecosystems.
McLauchlan worked with Joseph Craine, research assistant professor in biology; Joseph Williams, postdoctoral research associate; and Elizabeth Jeffers, postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oxford. The team published their findings, "Changes in global nitrogen cycling during the Holocene epoch," in the current issue of Nature.
In the study the team also looked at how nitrogen availability changed thousands of years ago.
Roughly 15,000 years ago, the Earth began to warm, melting many glaciers and ice sheets that covered the landscape. Researchers found that Earth experienced an 8,000-year long decline in nitrogen availability as temperatures rose and carbon and nitrogen became locked up in soils. According to researchers, how the nitrogen cycle responded to these ancient global changes in carbon dioxide could be a glimpse into the future.
"What happened in the past might be a dry run for Earth's future," Craine said. "By looking at what happened millennia ago, we can see what controlled and prevented changes in nitrogen availability. This helps us understand and predict how things will change in the future."
The team collected and analyzed data from the sediment records of 86 lakes scattered across six continents. The lakes were distributed between tropical and temperate zones. With the data, the team was able to compare past and present cycling in various regions.
Researchers found that once most of the glaciers and ice sheets had melted around 11,000 years ago, the Earth continued to experience a global decline in nitrogen that lasted another 4,000 years.
"That was one of the really surprising findings," Craine said. "As the world was getting warmer and experiencing higher carbon dioxide levels than it had in the past, just like we are currently experiencing, the ecosystems were starting to lock carbon in the soils and in plants, also like we are seeing today. That created a long decline in nitrogen availability, and it scrubbed nitrogen out of the atmosphere."
McLauchlan said the most surprising finding, however, was that although humans have nearly doubled the amount of nitrogen to the ecosystems, globally nitrogen levels have remained stable at most sites for the past 500 years.
One reason may be that plants are using more nitrogen than they previously have, keeping nitrogen levels consistent with those thousands of years ago even though humans continue to add carbon dioxide and nitrogen to the atmosphere, McLauchlan said.
"Our best idea is that the nitrogen and carbon cycles were linked tightly back then and they are linked tightly today," McLauchlan said. "Humans are now manipulating both nitrogen and carbon at the same time, which means that there is no net effect on the biosphere."
The balance may be only temporary, McLauchlan said.
"Based on what we learned from the past, if the response of plants to elevated carbon dioxide slows, nitrogen availability is likely to increase and ecosystems will begin to change profoundly," McLauchlan said. "Now more than ever, it's important to begin monitoring our grasslands and forests for early warning signs."
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Kansas State University: http://www.k-state.edu
Thanks to Kansas State University for this article.
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A unique opportunity to become an Associate of Middlesbrough College.
Do you have an aptitude for maths or English and/or would like to explore a career in Further Education?
We are looking for people who could be Learning Coaches and work with our students to improve their maths and English skills. You may be a student at the college, retired and looking for voluntary work and just looking for a new opportunity.
Many of our young people in Middlesbrough would benefit from improving their applied maths and English skills ? not only in their current course but to enable them to progress to a job and career.
We are not necessarily looking for Maths or English experts but someone who is able to work alongside students in practising and developing their maths and English skills both in a 1:1 and group setting. We are looking for people who have patience but can stretch and challenge our students, be innovative in their methods and dedicated to helping and supporting our students.
In return we would offer you:
? Up to ?50 per week for 6 hours work per week ? The opportunity to explore a career in Further Education ? Enrolment onto the Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector ? A reference that would help your future career goals
Please note this is not a teaching position, this role is to supplement the work our qualified teachers do with our students.
To express an interest or for any queries please contact:
By Simon Evans DENVER, Colorado, March 21 (Reuters) - A leadership role rarely falls to a 24-year-old playing in just his second World Cup qualifier but U.S. defender Omar Gonzalez will have little choice but to be an organiser on Friday against Costa Rica. Gonzalez, who plays Major League Soccer with L.A. Galaxy, lacks an experienced partner to guide him after former captain Carlos Bocanegra was left out. Injuries have robbed Klinsmann of his main options at full-back - Steve Cherundolo, Timmy Chandler and Fabian Johnson. ...
ST. PAUL ? Minnesota senators approved 39-28 a health insurance marketplace along party lines Monday, leaving only Gov. Mark Dayton?s signature as the final step.
Dayton is expected to sign the measure that would give Minnesotans a mostly Web-based place to buy health insurance, as required by federal law. If Minnesota does not establish its marketplace, also known as an exchange, the federal government will.
Republicans opposed the marketplace in the Senate, as well as when the House approved it 72-61 early Friday.
Bill author Sen. Tony Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, said business representatives such as the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce refused to come up with their own ideas about how to set up an exchange.
?At some point, you have to ask if they want a Minnesota exchange,? Lourey said. ?I have yet to see that marketplace that they would support.?
Republicans and chamber leaders disagreed. Chamber representatives said they spent thousands of hours developing hundreds of suggestions they offered legislators organizing the marketplace bill. The ideas mostly were rejected by Democrats who control the Legislature.
The final marketplace bill is a merger of what passed the House and Senate. One of the major changes was in how to fund the estimated $60 million annual marketplace cost.
Senators had approved taking money from state funds, while the House wanted to withhold up to 3.5 percent of premiums of policies sold in the marketplace. The compromise was for the first two years taking 1.5 percent of premiums, and allowing the marketplace board to borrow from the state any more funding it needs.
The health care marketplace bill is at http://tinyurl.com/mnhealthexchange.
In a recent report from Brother, a leading home and office supplier, small business owners are ready to put more money into their companies. Of the?leaders surveyed, 52 percent plan on investing more capital?in attempt to drive up their small business sales.
Of those, 51 percent put investments?in new technology above all else. Purchases related to machinery and facilities were planned by 21 and 20 percent of owners, respectively.
Also, stress regarding the outlook of their enterprises fell among entrepreneurs. In 2012, 24 percent reported experiencing ?extreme stress.??This year, only 13 percent said stress levels were at such a level.?
?While running a small business is still tough in this slow economic recovery, I?m seeing that?small business owners are more optimistic about the future,? said Gene Marks, a small business owner the report cited as an expert.
These numbers are in line with the outlook a joint survey by The Wall Street Journal and business resource?Vistage conducted in February. The study?s confidence index hit an all-time high of 101.4 which was up from January?s mark of 94.2
As the outlook improves for small business finance, it seems that entrepreneurs are willing to invest more capital into their operations, which should bode well for the economy.
Mar. 20, 2013 ? Women who experienced physical, emotional, or sexual abuse as children are more likely to have a child with autism than women who were not abused, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Those who experienced the most serious abuse had the highest likelihood of having a child with autism -- three-and-a-half times more than women who were not abused.
"Our study identifies a completely new risk factor for autism," said lead author Andrea Roberts, research associate in the HSPH Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. "Further research to understand how a woman's experience of abuse is associated with autism in her children may help us better understand the causes of autism and identify preventable risk factors."
The study appears online March 20, 2013 and in the May 2013 print issue of JAMA Psychiatry. It is the first to explore the relationship between a mother's exposure to childhood abuse and risk of autism in her children.
The authors examined data from more than 50,000 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study II. They found that it was not just women exposed to the most serious levels of abuse who had higher risk of having a child with autism, but also a large number of women who experienced moderate abuse. While about 2% of women reported the most serious abuse, even women in the top 25% of abuse severity -- which included mostly women who experienced more moderate levels of abuse -- were 60% more likely to have a child with autism compared with women who did not experience abuse. These results suggest that childhood abuse is not only very harmful for the person who directly experiences it, but may also increase risk for serious disabilities in the next generation, the authors said.
Delving further, the researchers looked at nine pregnancy-related risk factors to see if they were linked to higher risk of having a child with autism in women who were abused as children. These nine risk factors -- including gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and smoking -- have been previously associated with an increased likelihood of having a child with autism.
The researchers did find that women who had experienced abuse as children had a higher risk for each of the pregnancy-related risk factors that were examined. Surprisingly, though, those risk factors accounted for only 7% of the increased likelihood of having a child with autism among women who were abused.
Given that these factors accounted for so little of the association between mother's experience of abuse and risk of autism in her children, the authors speculated that other factors may be playing a role. One possibility, they said, is that long-lasting effects of abuse on women's biological systems, such as the immune system and stress-response system, are responsible for increasing their likelihood of having a child with autism. More research is needed to tease out the mechanisms involved in the maternal childhood abuse-autism link, the authors said.
"Childhood abuse is associated with a wide array of health problems in the person who experiences it, including both mental health outcomes like depression and anxiety, and physical health outcomes like obesity and lung disease. Our research suggests that the effects of childhood abuse may also reach across generations," said senior author Marc Weisskopf, associate professor of environmental and occupational epidemiology at HSPH.
Given the findings in this study, the authors suggest increasing efforts to prevent childhood abuse, and suggest that clinicians focus more strongly on limiting pregnancy-related autism risk factors, particularly among women who experienced abuse in childhood.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard School of Public Health, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Andrea L. Roberts et al. Association of Maternal Exposure to Childhood Abuse With Elevated Risk for Autism in OffspringAutism and Maternal Exposure to Childhood Abuse. JAMA Psychiatry, 2013; : 1 DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.447
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Stayin' alive -- delivering resuscitation messages to the publicPublic release date: 21-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jacqueline Partarrieu press@escardio.org 33-492-947-756 European Society of Cardiology
Encouraging bystander intervention
Teaching bystander Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) strategically to the general public offers the greatest potential to make the biggest overall impact on survival in out of hospital cardiac arrests in Europe, reported a main session on Resuscitation Science at the European Society of Cardiology's EuroHeart Care Congress, which took place in Glasgow, 22 to 23 March, 2013.
"The reality is that four out of five cardiac arrests happen at home, and unless the public are trained in resuscitation many people die before emergency services get to them," said Mary Hannon. "The good news is that CPR is an important life saving technique that can be effectively taught to most people."
The European Resuscitation Council estimates that around 500,000 people suffer a sudden cardiac arrest every year in Europe. While bystander CPR increases survival rates by two to three times, it however is only delivered in one in five out of hospital cardiac arrests. Optimizing this rate, the European Resuscitation Council has estimated, could save 100,000 lives in Europe each year.
"We want to get the message across that anyone, whether First Aid trained or untrained can help someone in an emergency and that doing something is better than not doing anything at all," said Hannon.
It is estimated that a victim's chance of survival slips away by 7% to 10% each minute before CPR is started. "So it's vital not to procrastinate. The challenge is to persuade everyone to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in as quickly as possible," she said.
While in emergency situations everyone should be prepared to have a go, studies have suggested that people who have formally learnt CPR are ten times more likely to respond than those who have not. And training makes a big difference to survival. Statistics from the American Heart Foundation show that in cities such as Seattle and Washington where CPR training is widespread, the survival rate for cardiac arrest is around 30%, where as in cities such a New York city, were training is less, survival rates averages 1-2%.
Ireland's CPR success story
In her presentation Hannon, who works as Resuscitation Training Officer at the Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown (CHB), Dublin, described Ireland's success story, where the "National First Responders campaign" set out to teach resuscitation to the general public.
The campaign, launched in 2005, was a joint initiative from The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF), Pre Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHEC), National Ambulance Service (NAS), and others. The initiative, which involved integrations of the statutory and voluntary services, aimed to train as many people from the community as possible in bystander CPR. In the campaign the Heart Saver AED course was taken out into the community, with members of the public taught the basic techniques of CPR, how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED) and the relief of choking for adults, children and infants.
Overall 65,000 people are now trained in CPR annually in Southern Ireland, and the campaign has resulted in the number of people surviving out of hospital cardiac arrests in Southern Ireland rising from just 1% in 2005, to 6.5% in 2012.
Perhaps the most innovative part of the programme was the introduction of CPR training into the school curriculum. In the "CPR 4 Schools Programme", which ran in 2009, all Transition Year students (aged 16 years), amounting to around 27000 people, were issued with self training kits containing a DVD, booklet and inflatable manikin, which together create and easy to follow lesson in CPR. Teachers acted as facilitators to the training, rather than instructors.
In an evaluation of the programme, 76% of school children who took part said that they would be likely to give CPR if they were present when a person collapse; 90% felt more confident to perform CPR after training; and 68% said they would show their family and friends how to do CPR.
"We showed that by targeting school children there was a real potential that they'll take the knowledge home and teach the rest of the family," said Hannon.
Although the initiative was unfortunately discontinued due to monetary constraints, she said, some schools have continued, and there are future plans to incorporate CPR into the school curriculum.
Future moves to establish a registry of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) in Southern Ireland, she said, should further increase survival. "Once we know exactly where defibrillators are based we hope to link them to the ambulance services so that lay rescuers can be contacted to take them directly to the victim," said Hannon. An additional advantage, she added, would be that such knowledge would enable strategies to be put in place to ensure good maintenance of the devices.
Can music help achieve the correct rate and depth in CPR?
One of the big challenges in CPR has been to train members of the public and health care professional to achieve the correct rate and depth of chest compressions. In the session Dr Lettie Rawlins gave an overview of the research she undertook at Coventry University, while a medical student, using music as a prompt to help people achieve the correct tempo of chest compressions.
"It's really important to use the correct amount of force to compress the heart sufficiently to push the blood out, and at the same time you need the correct rate of compressions to enable sufficient blood to reach the brain," said Rawlins, now a junior doctor at the Great Western Hospital, Swindon, UK.
"It's quite difficult to get the right rate even if someone shows you, and really easy to deskill if you haven't practiced for a while. The idea behind using popular music is that songs stay longer in your head," she said.
In a study published in the BMJ in 2009 , Rawlins and colleagues showed that using "Nellie the Elephant" as background music significantly increased the number of people getting the right rate of compressions on a manikin, but that there was a drop in those hitting the correct depth.
A second study, published in the Emergency Medical Journal in 2012 , found that the proportion of paramedics who maintained compressions within the optimal range of 100 to 120 a minute was significantly higher when listening to "Disco Science" by Mirwais (82%) than when listening to "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus (64%) or no music at all (65%). But over a third of compressions were still too shallow, irrespective of the music used. "We found that "Achy Breaky Heart" was actually harmful because it made people compress too fast, so that the heart didn't have a chance to fill properly," said Rawlins. They did not, however, investigate "Stayin' Alive", by the Bee Gees, which the British Heart Foundation used in their 2012 "Hard and Fast" ad campaign.
At the end of the studies the investigators remained unconvinced that music provided any additional benefits in improving the quality of CPR compared with using a metronome. "We think the problem may be that music distracted people from focusing on the force of the compressions," explained Rawlins.
In future, she said, it might be more effective to develop manikins with sensors for pressure and rate that could be attached to Wii Fit type devices to deliver real time feedback, and also to have smart phone aps that could be used to provide a metronome in emergency situations.
Appendix
The latest guidelines from the European Resuscitation Council (ERC)4 and the American Heart Association, both updated 2010, emphasize that chest compressions are the most important action in resuscitation. The new drill goes that if someone is unresponsive and their breathing is noisy, infrequent or doesn't seem normal, after calling for an ambulance you should start hands only CPR. Here the technique involves pushing hard and fast at the centre of the casualty's chest, at a rate of two pushes per second to a depth of 5 to 6 cm (two inches).
The idea behind the simplified guidelines, said Hannon, is to aid the retention and acquisition of life support skills by lay people. It has been found that for untrained members of the public having to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation can get in the way of crucial chest compressions. Furthermore rescuers are more willing to give resuscitation if they don't have to provide ventilation.
While CPR alone is unlikely to restart the heart (treatment with high voltage electrical shocks, defibrillation, is needed to restore the normal heart rhythm), its main purpose is to restore flow of oxygenated blood to the brain and heart and extend the brief window for a successful resuscitation without permanent brain damage. Typically, blood contains five to seven minutes worth of oxygen and the effect of constant fast chest compressions is to keep that oxygen moving to the brain and other vital organs. "The idea of CPR is to buy valuable time before the defibrillator arrives," said Hannon.
Guidelines additionally state that bystanders who are trained and willing should combine chest compressions with rescue breathing at a ratio of 30 compressions to two breaths. In children, since 70% of out of hospital cardiac arrests are asphyxia in origin, survival rates are better if they are provided with both chest compressions and ventilations. "But even here hands only CPR is better than nothing," stressed Hannon.
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Stayin' alive -- delivering resuscitation messages to the publicPublic release date: 21-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jacqueline Partarrieu press@escardio.org 33-492-947-756 European Society of Cardiology
Encouraging bystander intervention
Teaching bystander Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) strategically to the general public offers the greatest potential to make the biggest overall impact on survival in out of hospital cardiac arrests in Europe, reported a main session on Resuscitation Science at the European Society of Cardiology's EuroHeart Care Congress, which took place in Glasgow, 22 to 23 March, 2013.
"The reality is that four out of five cardiac arrests happen at home, and unless the public are trained in resuscitation many people die before emergency services get to them," said Mary Hannon. "The good news is that CPR is an important life saving technique that can be effectively taught to most people."
The European Resuscitation Council estimates that around 500,000 people suffer a sudden cardiac arrest every year in Europe. While bystander CPR increases survival rates by two to three times, it however is only delivered in one in five out of hospital cardiac arrests. Optimizing this rate, the European Resuscitation Council has estimated, could save 100,000 lives in Europe each year.
"We want to get the message across that anyone, whether First Aid trained or untrained can help someone in an emergency and that doing something is better than not doing anything at all," said Hannon.
It is estimated that a victim's chance of survival slips away by 7% to 10% each minute before CPR is started. "So it's vital not to procrastinate. The challenge is to persuade everyone to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in as quickly as possible," she said.
While in emergency situations everyone should be prepared to have a go, studies have suggested that people who have formally learnt CPR are ten times more likely to respond than those who have not. And training makes a big difference to survival. Statistics from the American Heart Foundation show that in cities such as Seattle and Washington where CPR training is widespread, the survival rate for cardiac arrest is around 30%, where as in cities such a New York city, were training is less, survival rates averages 1-2%.
Ireland's CPR success story
In her presentation Hannon, who works as Resuscitation Training Officer at the Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown (CHB), Dublin, described Ireland's success story, where the "National First Responders campaign" set out to teach resuscitation to the general public.
The campaign, launched in 2005, was a joint initiative from The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF), Pre Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHEC), National Ambulance Service (NAS), and others. The initiative, which involved integrations of the statutory and voluntary services, aimed to train as many people from the community as possible in bystander CPR. In the campaign the Heart Saver AED course was taken out into the community, with members of the public taught the basic techniques of CPR, how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED) and the relief of choking for adults, children and infants.
Overall 65,000 people are now trained in CPR annually in Southern Ireland, and the campaign has resulted in the number of people surviving out of hospital cardiac arrests in Southern Ireland rising from just 1% in 2005, to 6.5% in 2012.
Perhaps the most innovative part of the programme was the introduction of CPR training into the school curriculum. In the "CPR 4 Schools Programme", which ran in 2009, all Transition Year students (aged 16 years), amounting to around 27000 people, were issued with self training kits containing a DVD, booklet and inflatable manikin, which together create and easy to follow lesson in CPR. Teachers acted as facilitators to the training, rather than instructors.
In an evaluation of the programme, 76% of school children who took part said that they would be likely to give CPR if they were present when a person collapse; 90% felt more confident to perform CPR after training; and 68% said they would show their family and friends how to do CPR.
"We showed that by targeting school children there was a real potential that they'll take the knowledge home and teach the rest of the family," said Hannon.
Although the initiative was unfortunately discontinued due to monetary constraints, she said, some schools have continued, and there are future plans to incorporate CPR into the school curriculum.
Future moves to establish a registry of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) in Southern Ireland, she said, should further increase survival. "Once we know exactly where defibrillators are based we hope to link them to the ambulance services so that lay rescuers can be contacted to take them directly to the victim," said Hannon. An additional advantage, she added, would be that such knowledge would enable strategies to be put in place to ensure good maintenance of the devices.
Can music help achieve the correct rate and depth in CPR?
One of the big challenges in CPR has been to train members of the public and health care professional to achieve the correct rate and depth of chest compressions. In the session Dr Lettie Rawlins gave an overview of the research she undertook at Coventry University, while a medical student, using music as a prompt to help people achieve the correct tempo of chest compressions.
"It's really important to use the correct amount of force to compress the heart sufficiently to push the blood out, and at the same time you need the correct rate of compressions to enable sufficient blood to reach the brain," said Rawlins, now a junior doctor at the Great Western Hospital, Swindon, UK.
"It's quite difficult to get the right rate even if someone shows you, and really easy to deskill if you haven't practiced for a while. The idea behind using popular music is that songs stay longer in your head," she said.
In a study published in the BMJ in 2009 , Rawlins and colleagues showed that using "Nellie the Elephant" as background music significantly increased the number of people getting the right rate of compressions on a manikin, but that there was a drop in those hitting the correct depth.
A second study, published in the Emergency Medical Journal in 2012 , found that the proportion of paramedics who maintained compressions within the optimal range of 100 to 120 a minute was significantly higher when listening to "Disco Science" by Mirwais (82%) than when listening to "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus (64%) or no music at all (65%). But over a third of compressions were still too shallow, irrespective of the music used. "We found that "Achy Breaky Heart" was actually harmful because it made people compress too fast, so that the heart didn't have a chance to fill properly," said Rawlins. They did not, however, investigate "Stayin' Alive", by the Bee Gees, which the British Heart Foundation used in their 2012 "Hard and Fast" ad campaign.
At the end of the studies the investigators remained unconvinced that music provided any additional benefits in improving the quality of CPR compared with using a metronome. "We think the problem may be that music distracted people from focusing on the force of the compressions," explained Rawlins.
In future, she said, it might be more effective to develop manikins with sensors for pressure and rate that could be attached to Wii Fit type devices to deliver real time feedback, and also to have smart phone aps that could be used to provide a metronome in emergency situations.
Appendix
The latest guidelines from the European Resuscitation Council (ERC)4 and the American Heart Association, both updated 2010, emphasize that chest compressions are the most important action in resuscitation. The new drill goes that if someone is unresponsive and their breathing is noisy, infrequent or doesn't seem normal, after calling for an ambulance you should start hands only CPR. Here the technique involves pushing hard and fast at the centre of the casualty's chest, at a rate of two pushes per second to a depth of 5 to 6 cm (two inches).
The idea behind the simplified guidelines, said Hannon, is to aid the retention and acquisition of life support skills by lay people. It has been found that for untrained members of the public having to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation can get in the way of crucial chest compressions. Furthermore rescuers are more willing to give resuscitation if they don't have to provide ventilation.
While CPR alone is unlikely to restart the heart (treatment with high voltage electrical shocks, defibrillation, is needed to restore the normal heart rhythm), its main purpose is to restore flow of oxygenated blood to the brain and heart and extend the brief window for a successful resuscitation without permanent brain damage. Typically, blood contains five to seven minutes worth of oxygen and the effect of constant fast chest compressions is to keep that oxygen moving to the brain and other vital organs. "The idea of CPR is to buy valuable time before the defibrillator arrives," said Hannon.
Guidelines additionally state that bystanders who are trained and willing should combine chest compressions with rescue breathing at a ratio of 30 compressions to two breaths. In children, since 70% of out of hospital cardiac arrests are asphyxia in origin, survival rates are better if they are provided with both chest compressions and ventilations. "But even here hands only CPR is better than nothing," stressed Hannon.
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Public release date: 25-Mar-2013
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