Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/155079458?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, October 31, 2011
Michael Lohan denied bail in Florida (AP)
TAMPA, Fla. ? The estranged father of actress Lindsay Lohan has been denied bail in Florida.
Hillsborough County jail records show Michael Lohan was being held Saturday without bond on four charges.
He was arrested on domestic violence charges Tuesday. His bail was set at $5,000 and a judge warned him not to make any contact with his on-and-off girlfriend. Two days later, he was accused of violating the terms of his release by making a harassing phone call to her.
Police went to arrest him and he tried to avoid them by jumping off a third-floor balcony at a Tampa hotel. He was injured and had to be taken to the hospital.
He was released from the hospital Friday and put back in jail.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Michael Lohan in jail after release from hospital (AP)
TAMPA, Fla. ? The estranged father of actress Lindsay Lohan has been released from a Tampa hospital and is now in jail.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office says Michael Lohan will be held in administrative confinement in the infirmary at the Falkenburg Jail. He will make his first court appearance Saturday morning.
Tampa police say Lohan's on-and-off girlfriend reported receiving a harassing phone call from him Wednesday. Police went to Kate Major's condo, and she put the call on speaker so detectives could listen.
Authorities then went to a hotel where Lohan was staying. He jumped from a third-floor balcony in an attempt to escape.
Lohan was taken into custody, the second time within a week. He was jailed Tuesday on domestic violence charges and later released.
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Nature Valley creating Street View-style tour of National Parks, chews through countless granola bars to do so
Nature Valley creating Street View-style tour of National Parks, chews through countless granola bars to do so originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Merck 3Q profit soars, beats analysts' views (AP)
Drugmaker Merck & Co. said Friday that its third-quarter profit soared from results a year ago that were weighed down by huge acquisition and legal charges.
The latest results beat Wall Street estimates, and Merck shares rose 84 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $35.15 in morning trading.
"Three consecutive quarters of top and bottom line growth demonstrate out ability to consistently perform while at the same time making the strategic investments necessary for the future," CEO Kenneth Frazier said in a statement.
The maker of diabetes drug Januvia and Singulair for asthma and allergies said net income climbed to $1.69 billion, or 55 cents per share, the July-September period. That's up from $342 million, or 11 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding acquisition and restructuring charges in the latest quarter, adjusted income 94 cents per share. The charges were mostly related to its November 2009 purchase of fellow drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp. for $49 billion.
The adjusted earnings were 3 cents per share higher than the 91 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet. The analysts typically exclude one-time items from their estimates.
Revenue rose 8 percent to $12.02 billion from $11.12 billion. The analysts expected revenue of $11.62 billion. Merck said revenue was boosted about 5 percent by favorable currency exchange rates.
The company raised the lower end of its 2011 forecast, to a new range of $3.72 to $3.76 per share, or $2.03 to $2.20 per share excluding one-time items. Analysts expect $3.73 per share for the year.
Prescription drug sales totaled $10.35 billion, led by strong sales of Singulair, Januvia and combination diabetes drug Janumet, the HIV drug Isentress and the Gardasil and Zostavax vaccines.
Singulair, Merck's top drug, saw sales rise 10 percent to $1.34 billion. Its U.S. patent expires next August, when generic competition will quickly reduce sales ? the key reason for Merck's latest round of job cuts.
Januvia and Janumet sales both jumped more than 40 percent, to $846 million and $350 million, respectively. They have quickly risen to be among the most popular and fastest-growing diabetes pills.
Sales of biologic immune disorder drug Remicade fell 15 percent to $561 million, because of revised terms of Merck's revenue-sharing deal on the drug with Johnson & Johnson. The new terms took effect in the third quarter, following settlement of a dispute in arbitration.
Sales of animal health products jumped 20 percent to $826 million. Consumer health sales edged up 3 percent to $421 million.
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Friday, October 28, 2011
British man's prosthetic arm doubles as Nokia C7 dock
[Image source: The Telegraph]
British man's prosthetic arm doubles as Nokia C7 dock originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Study identifies genetic basis of human metabolic individuality
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_s1-Y-481GD6CevJncq5G73vfgWnBo1Gojct_XL1jcJcLjznaKvDsZJEOt0oOWeQxpwFiZmkLKq_c5oi8NdqQgEyjxVSqknqeOZORc5RUw=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 26-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: John Rodgers
jdr2001@med.cornell.edu
212-821-0560
New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College
Research may lead to highly targeted, individualized therapies
NEW YORK -- In what is so far the largest investigation of its kind, researchers uncovered a wide range of new insights about common diseases and how they are affected by differences between two persons' genes. The results from this study could lead to highly targeted, individualized therapies.
Led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and published in a recent edition of the journal Nature, the study provides details on the genetics behind many diseases, including cardiovascular and kidney disorders, diabetes, cancer, gout, thrombosis and Crohn's disease, and elucidates the role that individual differences in metabolism play in these disorders.
Disturbances in metabolism are at the root of a variety of human afflictions and complex diseases. Although many of the genes that contribute to these conditions have been identified since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, it is still not known how metabolic disorders related to these genetic aberrations disrupt cellular processes.
One hundred years ago, Archibald Garrod, one of the fathers of modern biochemistry, realized that inborn errors in human metabolism are "merely extreme examples of variations of chemical behavior which are probably everywhere present in minor degrees" and that this "chemical individuality [confers] predisposition to and immunities from the various mishaps which are spoken of as diseases." Ever since, identification of the genetic basis of human chemical individuality has been elusive.
Now researchers addressed this challenge by using a new technology, called metabolomics. They measured the levels of more than 250 biochemical compounds in over 60 metabolic pathways, including lipids, sugars, vitamins, amino acids and others in blood from over 2,800 individuals. They then combined this dataset with information on more than 600,000 genetic variants (SNPs) that were detected in the genes of each of the study participants. Most of the SNPs were located in genes known to encode proteins involved in the relevant metabolic pathways. Fifteen of the SNPs had previously been associated with metabolism-related conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, gout, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, cancer and adverse drug reactions. But the new findings also uncovered a wealth of new associations that link the genetic makeup of a person to his or her biochemical capacities. This data is publicly available in an online database, accessible at http://www.gwas.eu.
Given the exceptional size of the dataset, the researchers prioritized the data to focus on 37 SNPs that were most strongly associated with metabolic traits, 23 of which had never been described before. The 37 SNPs had very large effects on the individuals' metabolite levels and can be considered to constitute what the authors call the "genetic basis of human metabolic individuality."
First author Dr. Karsten Suhre, professor of physiology and biophysics and director of the Bioinformatics Core at Weill Cornell Medical CollegeQatar, says, "These findings will enable researchers to identify new and potentially relevant metabolic processes and pathways. Two highly sophisticated biochemical measurement methods -- genetics and metabolomics -- applied to only two drops of blood can reveal deep insights into the genetic make up of our metabolic capacities. In addition to providing functional insights into the genetic basis of metabolic traits and complex diseases, this information is a way to understand an individual's uniqueness so as to develop highly targeted, personalized therapies and enable novel types of treatments or prevent adverse drug reactions."
###
In addition to Dr. Suhre, study co-authors include So-Youn Shin, Panos Deloukas and Nicole Soranzo of Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute; Ann-Kristin Petersen, Elisabeth Altmaier, Gabi Kastenmller, Christian Gieger, Christa Meisinger, Cornelia Prehn, Janina S. Ried, Werner Rmisch-Margl and Thomas Illig of Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health; Robert P. Mohney and Michael V. Milburn of Metabolon Inc.; David Meredith of Oxford Brookes University; Brigitte Wgele, Martin Hrab de Angelis, Thomas Meitinger, Hans-Werner Mewes and Jerzy Adamski of Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health and Technische Universitt Mnchen; Jeanette Erdmann of Medizinische Klinik II; Elin Grundberg of Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and King's College London; Christopher J. Hammond, Massimo Mangino, Kerrin S. Small, Guangju Zhai and Tim D. Spector of King's College London; Anna Kttgen of University Hospital Freiburg; Florian Kronenberg of Innsbruck Medical University; Johannes Raffler of Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health, and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt; Nilesh J. Samani of University of Leicester and Leicester NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Cardiovascular Disease, Glenfield Hospital; H.-Erich Wichmann of Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt, and Klinikum Grosshadern; and CARDIoGRAM.
Weill Cornell Medical CollegeQatar
Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar is part of Weill Cornell Medical College. It was established in 2001 through a partnership between Cornell University and Qatar Foundation. WCMC-Q offers an innovative educational program that includes a two-year premedical program followed by a four-year medical program leading to the M.D. degree from Cornell University. Each program has a separate admission process guided by the standards of admission at Cornell University in Ithaca and its Medical College in New York City. For more information, visit http://www.qatar-weill.cornell.edu.
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with the Methodist Hospital in Houston. For more information, visit http://www.weill.cornell.edu.
[ | 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.
Public release date: 26-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: John Rodgers
jdr2001@med.cornell.edu
212-821-0560
New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College
Research may lead to highly targeted, individualized therapies
NEW YORK -- In what is so far the largest investigation of its kind, researchers uncovered a wide range of new insights about common diseases and how they are affected by differences between two persons' genes. The results from this study could lead to highly targeted, individualized therapies.
Led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and published in a recent edition of the journal Nature, the study provides details on the genetics behind many diseases, including cardiovascular and kidney disorders, diabetes, cancer, gout, thrombosis and Crohn's disease, and elucidates the role that individual differences in metabolism play in these disorders.
Disturbances in metabolism are at the root of a variety of human afflictions and complex diseases. Although many of the genes that contribute to these conditions have been identified since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, it is still not known how metabolic disorders related to these genetic aberrations disrupt cellular processes.
One hundred years ago, Archibald Garrod, one of the fathers of modern biochemistry, realized that inborn errors in human metabolism are "merely extreme examples of variations of chemical behavior which are probably everywhere present in minor degrees" and that this "chemical individuality [confers] predisposition to and immunities from the various mishaps which are spoken of as diseases." Ever since, identification of the genetic basis of human chemical individuality has been elusive.
Now researchers addressed this challenge by using a new technology, called metabolomics. They measured the levels of more than 250 biochemical compounds in over 60 metabolic pathways, including lipids, sugars, vitamins, amino acids and others in blood from over 2,800 individuals. They then combined this dataset with information on more than 600,000 genetic variants (SNPs) that were detected in the genes of each of the study participants. Most of the SNPs were located in genes known to encode proteins involved in the relevant metabolic pathways. Fifteen of the SNPs had previously been associated with metabolism-related conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, gout, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, cancer and adverse drug reactions. But the new findings also uncovered a wealth of new associations that link the genetic makeup of a person to his or her biochemical capacities. This data is publicly available in an online database, accessible at http://www.gwas.eu.
Given the exceptional size of the dataset, the researchers prioritized the data to focus on 37 SNPs that were most strongly associated with metabolic traits, 23 of which had never been described before. The 37 SNPs had very large effects on the individuals' metabolite levels and can be considered to constitute what the authors call the "genetic basis of human metabolic individuality."
First author Dr. Karsten Suhre, professor of physiology and biophysics and director of the Bioinformatics Core at Weill Cornell Medical CollegeQatar, says, "These findings will enable researchers to identify new and potentially relevant metabolic processes and pathways. Two highly sophisticated biochemical measurement methods -- genetics and metabolomics -- applied to only two drops of blood can reveal deep insights into the genetic make up of our metabolic capacities. In addition to providing functional insights into the genetic basis of metabolic traits and complex diseases, this information is a way to understand an individual's uniqueness so as to develop highly targeted, personalized therapies and enable novel types of treatments or prevent adverse drug reactions."
###
In addition to Dr. Suhre, study co-authors include So-Youn Shin, Panos Deloukas and Nicole Soranzo of Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute; Ann-Kristin Petersen, Elisabeth Altmaier, Gabi Kastenmller, Christian Gieger, Christa Meisinger, Cornelia Prehn, Janina S. Ried, Werner Rmisch-Margl and Thomas Illig of Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health; Robert P. Mohney and Michael V. Milburn of Metabolon Inc.; David Meredith of Oxford Brookes University; Brigitte Wgele, Martin Hrab de Angelis, Thomas Meitinger, Hans-Werner Mewes and Jerzy Adamski of Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health and Technische Universitt Mnchen; Jeanette Erdmann of Medizinische Klinik II; Elin Grundberg of Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and King's College London; Christopher J. Hammond, Massimo Mangino, Kerrin S. Small, Guangju Zhai and Tim D. Spector of King's College London; Anna Kttgen of University Hospital Freiburg; Florian Kronenberg of Innsbruck Medical University; Johannes Raffler of Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health, and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt; Nilesh J. Samani of University of Leicester and Leicester NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Cardiovascular Disease, Glenfield Hospital; H.-Erich Wichmann of Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt, and Klinikum Grosshadern; and CARDIoGRAM.
Weill Cornell Medical CollegeQatar
Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar is part of Weill Cornell Medical College. It was established in 2001 through a partnership between Cornell University and Qatar Foundation. WCMC-Q offers an innovative educational program that includes a two-year premedical program followed by a four-year medical program leading to the M.D. degree from Cornell University. Each program has a separate admission process guided by the standards of admission at Cornell University in Ithaca and its Medical College in New York City. For more information, visit http://www.qatar-weill.cornell.edu.
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with the Methodist Hospital in Houston. For more information, visit http://www.weill.cornell.edu.
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/nyph-sig102611.php
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
New test can precisely pinpoint food pathogens
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
With salmonella-tainted ground turkey sickening more than 100 people and listeria-contaminated cantaloupes killing 15 this year, the ability to detect outbreaks of food-borne illness and determine their sources has become a top public health priority.
A new approach, reported online Oct. 14 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiologyby a collaborative team led by Cornell University scientists, will enable government agencies and food companies to pinpoint the exact nature and origin of food-borne bacteria with unprecedented accuracy, says food science professor Martin Wiedmann.
The standard method of tracing food-borne illness involves breaking up the DNA of bacteria samples into smaller pieces and analyzing their banding patterns.
But scientists often find that different strains of bacteria have common DNA fingerprints that are too genetically similar to be able to differentiate between them, making it difficult to establish whether the salmonella that made one person sick was the same salmonella that infected another person. This was the case in a salmonella outbreak linked to salami made with contaminated black and red pepper that included 272 cases in 44 states between July 2009 and April 2010.
To surmount this challenge, Wiedmann adopted a genomic approach.
By sequencing the genome of 47 samples of the bacteria -- 20 that had been collected from human sources during the outbreak, and 27 control samples collected from human, food, animal and environmental sources before the outbreak -- Wiedmann and his team were able to rapidly discriminate between outbreak-related cases and non-outbreak related cases, isolating four samples believed to be connected to the pepper contamination.
In the process of doing so, he also found other links: A Salmonella strain that led to a nationwide recall of pistachio nuts in 2009 turned up in samples from four people -- only one of whom had reported eating pistachios.
Other connected cases suggested smaller outbreaks of which officials had been previously unaware.
"The use of genome sequencing methods to investigate outbreaks of food-borne bacterial diseases is relatively new, and holds great promise as it can help to identify the temporal, geographical and evolutionary origin of an outbreak," Wiedmann said. "In particular, full genome sequence data may help to identify small outbreaks that may not be easily detected with lower resolution subtyping approaches."
Wiedmann, research associate Henk den Bakker and other lab members developed the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) test that is specific to the 2009 pepper-associated outbreak with the help of researchers at Life Technologies Corp. They also collaborated with researchers at Washington State University and departments of health in New York City and New York state.
A similar approach has previously been used in hospital settings to trace pathogenic bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, but this is its first application for food-borne illness. Wiedmann said he is continuing to perfect the method and use it to test other types of bacteria. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other agencies are also starting to use similar approaches.
###
Cornell University: http://pressoffice.cornell.edu
Thanks to Cornell University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114610/New_test_can_precisely_pinpoint_food_pathogens
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Scientology's 'super-creepy' South Park investigation (The Week)
New York ? A new leaked memo reveals the shocking retaliation measures the church allegedly employed after an unflattering 2005 episode of the raunchy cartoon
A 2005 episode of South Park titled "Trapped in the Closet" ranks number 17 on TV Guide's list of TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time. Of course, the episode, which mocks the Church of Scientology's tenets (as well as high-profile church member Tom Cruise), was slammed by Scientologists. But the true extent to which the show angered the church has only just been revealed, thanks to a document leaked by a former high-level Scientologist. The memo explains that following the episode, the church targeted South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone with an extensive investigation meant to embarrass the duo. (A spokesperson for Scientology?told?E! Online?that?"the church at no time authorized any of the actions suggested in the statement.")?Here, a concise guide to the "super-creepy" probe: ?
What allegedly happened?
Former Scientology executive Marty Rathbun, who left the church in 2005, released an internal Scientology document on his blog detailing the investigation by the religion's Office of Special Affairs (OSA) ? which he calls "the harassment and terror network of Corporate Scientology." The probe of Parker and Stone was apparently direct "retaliation for the South Park episode that exposed the religion's bizarre upper-level teachings," says Tony Ortega at The Village Voice. According to Rathbun, the OSA uses methods comparable to Cold War-era CIA and KGB "intelligence and propaganda techniques," such as investigation, threats, and infiltration.
How did they conduct this alleged investigation?
In order to find a "direct line" to Parker and Stone, the OSA allegedly identified close friends of Parker and Stone, including formerly married actors John Stamos and Rebecca Romijn, "in an effort to find some weakness," says Kimberly Nordyke at The Hollywood Reporter. These people were than the targets of "covert information gathering" that included searching through their trash, purchasing their phone records, hacking their airline reservations, going through their bank records, and reading their personal letters. "They'll read stuff into the kind of alcohol you're drinking and how much. Prescriptions. They'll figure out your diet," says Rathbun. "They can find out a lot about you through your trash."
What else did the OSA allegedly do?
Frustrated that these methods weren't producing "any vulnerabilities to exploit," says Ortega, the OSA allegedly attempted to employ a film student as a mole to "get intelligence" about Parker and Stone directly from the studio where they worked. The group hoped the film student would be able get a job either as an intern at South Park or as a writer there. It's unclear whether this plan ever panned out.
How much information was allegedly gathered?
The document reveals that the OSA kept careful watch over Parker and Stone's workplace, discovering what catering service they used for lunch, where the duo's parking spaces were, and the makes, models, and license plate numbers of their cars. But beyond that, "whether Scientology was ever successful at digging up dirt on the filmmaking duo or their friends is something we'll be trying to find out," says Ortega.
Is Rathbun incurring the church's wrath now?
Since leaving the church, Rathbun has "made it his mission to expose the inner workings of Scientology," says Nordyke. He's used his blog to publicly criticize church leader David Miscavige since 2009. But it hasn't been without consequence. Rathbun has been harassed by a "goon squad" that allegedly showed him an image of his head on top of squirrel's body inside of a red circle with a diagonal line through it ? a "squirrel" is Scientology slang for someone who has left and perverted the church. According to Ortega, the church "began a five-month siege of [Rathbun's] Texas house and even had him arrested."
Sources: Death and Taxes, E! Online, Entertainment Weekly, Hollywood Reporter, Mark "Marty" Rathbun's Place, Stir, Village Voice (2,3)
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Neanderthals' legs look ideal for steep hills
Neanderthals had shorter lower legs than we do, leading scientists to theorize that this was an adaptation to the cold times in which they lived, even if it slowed them down.?
But two scientists offer a new explanation for those short lower legs: They allowed these early humans to move efficiently across the sloped terrain of their mountainous homes. Instead of being at a disadvantage on rugged terrain, as was generally thought, Neanderthals even may have been at an advantage, depending on the nature of the slope, they found. The research team also found the same connection between shorter lower-leg bones and mountain life among modern animals. [The Many Mysteries of Neanderthals]
"Studies looking at limb length have always concluded that a shorter limb, including in Neanderthals, leads to less efficiency of movement, because they had to take more steps to go a given distance. But the other studies only looked at flat land," said lead researcher Ryan Higgins, a graduate student in the Johns Hopkins Center of Functional Anatomy and Evolution. "Our study suggests that the Neanderthals' steps were not less efficient than modern humans in the sloped, mountainous environment where they lived."
Neanderthals lived between about 200,000 and 40,000 years ago, during the cold of ice-age Europe and Western Asia. They had a shorter, more compact stature than we do. Since animals in colder areas tend to be more compact ? less surface area means less body heat loss ? this appeared to explain the length of a Neanderthal's lower legs. More-modern humans, by contrast, lived in warmer climates, meaning they were less concerned about losing body heat.
Neanderthals also lived in more-mountainous places. Using a mathematical model relating leg proportions to the angle of ascent, the researchers found that Neanderthals' proportions would have helped them move about on slopes.
"It has to do with leg clearance as you are going up a slope," explained researcher Christopher Ruff, also of Johns Hopkins. He said that if the lower half of your leg ? the part below the knee ? is shorter, you can take bigger steps, relative to your height, while traveling uphill. This is because you don't have to bend your knee or hip as much to clear the ground. ???
Higgins and Ruff also analyzed the relationship between lower leg-bone length and habitat for a group of mammals called bovids, which includes flat- and hilly-dwelling species of gazelles, antelopes, goats and sheep. They found that, overall, the mountainous species had shorter lower leg bones than those on flat land, even when they lived in the same climate.
The research was published online in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.?
You can follow LiveSciencesenior writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.
? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45007642/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Keys to Argentine president's landslide victory
Argentina's vice president-elect Amado Boudou, left, sings at a celebration rally at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011. Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez chose Boudou as her running mate not just because of his youthful appeal but also as economy minister he was a key player in nationalizing the pensions and using foreign reserves to pay down debt, both unorthodox decisions, that enabled Fernandez to spread the country's wealth among the poor and working classes. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Argentina's vice president-elect Amado Boudou, left, sings at a celebration rally at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011. Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez chose Boudou as her running mate not just because of his youthful appeal but also as economy minister he was a key player in nationalizing the pensions and using foreign reserves to pay down debt, both unorthodox decisions, that enabled Fernandez to spread the country's wealth among the poor and working classes. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
A woman walks by a newspaper stand that displays Argentina's largest circulating daily newspaper the Clarin in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday Oct. 24, 2011. The Clarin's front page highlights Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez who was re-elected in a landslide Sunday, winning with the widest victory margin in the country's history as voters were mobilized by popular programs that spread the wealth of a booming economy. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
A woman looks at Argentinean newspapers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. The frontpages highlight the re-election victory of Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez. Fernandez was re-elected on Sunday with one of the widest victory margins in Argentine history by convincing voters that she alone, even without her late powerbroker husband, is best able to keep spreading the wealth of an economic boom. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
A woman reads Argentina's daily La Nacion at a coffee shop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. The frontpage of La Nacion highlights the re-election victory of Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez. Fernandez was re-elected on Sunday with one of the widest victory margins in Argentine history by convincing voters that she alone, even without her late powerbroker husband, is best able to keep spreading the wealth of an economic boom. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez holds a photo of her late husband and former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner at the Plaza de Mayo square after general elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Fernandez was re-elected in a landslide Sunday, winning with the widest victory margin in the country's history as voters were mobilized by popular programs that spread the wealth of a booming economy. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? Argentina's vice president-elect is a hoodie-wearing, Harley-riding rock 'n roll guitarist who plays up the pace of the country's prosperity in every financial summit he attends as economy minister.
President Cristina Fernandez chose Amado Boudou as her running mate not just because of his youthful appeal, a key factor now that she's a 58-year-old widow limited to a second term in office. Boudou also was a key player in several unorthodox decisions, such as nationalizing the pensions and using foreign reserves to pay down debt, that enabled her to spread the country's wealth among the poor and working classes.
And this, in turn, helps explain how Fernandez came to be re-elected Sunday with perhaps the widest victory margin in Argentine history, and 54 percent of the vote.
How did she and Boudou do this, in a world where leading economies are slowing and smaller countries are swallowing unpopular austerity measures in exchange for financial lifelines?
Since Fernandez and her late husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner moved into the presidential palace in 2003, they presided over one of the longest periods of economic growth in the country's history ? growing twice as fast in real terms as the economic powerhouse of Brazil, and faster than any other nation in the world save China and India, according to the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The Kirchners also cut the wealth gap ? the difference in income between the 95th and 5th percentile ? nearly in half by nearly tripling social spending in real terms, economist Mark Weisbrot said.
They rebuilt Argentina's industrial capacity after the 2001 economic collapse, creating jobs, lowering poverty and putting disposable income into many more pockets. They did it by either trying to mask or ignore the high inflation their spending encouraged, preferring to keep the economy moving. As a result, shops are open, business is thriving, and people are buying new cars and televisions like never before.
How long this kind of spending can be sustained is an open question. La Nacion, Argentina's leading newspaper, warned in a front-page opinion column Monday that the nation's economic engines are running dry. Socialist Hermes Binner, the second-place finisher, said it's not clear whether Argentina can withstand a coming global crisis.
On the other hand, Argentina still has near-record foreign reserves of more than $48 billion, thanks in large part to risky moves by Fernandez and her long-haired, 47-year-old economy minister, a confirmed bachelor with two motorcycles, a growing collection of electric guitars and a live-in TV journalist girlfriend who is almost half his age.
While Boudou pursued the youth vote, the government was able to use funds generated by his decisions for "social inclusion," increasing pensions, child welfare and the minimum wage by about 25 percent last month to keep up with price increases. Fernandez even expanded the $3 billion family support program she created by presidential decree so that poor mothers get cash starting early in their pregnancies.
All this has had a huge social impact: Among other things, public school classrooms are packed with children who would otherwise be working or on the streets.
They were able to do this, fundamentally, by rejecting the kind of orthodox economic advice that has made the "Occupy" marchers so indignant worldwide.
Boudou has insisted to the Club of Paris, a group of lender nations including the U.S. to whom Argentina still owes more than $6.5 billion, that the government would accept no conditions in exchange for a new payment plan, even as the same lenders force austerity measures on Greece and other suffering economies.
"When a society expresses itself and decides in free and democratic elections to adopt a decision, this decision must be respected," Fernandez warned in her victory speech Sunday night, referring to those who would return Argentina to its 1990s model of neoliberal conservatism.
It was Boudou who suggested to the Kirchners before becoming economy minister that they should renationalize the pension funds that had been privatized in the 1990s, a decade when the World Bank and International Monetary Fund had encouraged Argentina to take on impossible debts, leading to its world-record 2001 default. The private funds were forcing Argentine taxpayers to foot 60 percent of miserly minimal pensions, even as the funds took profits out of the country.
Fernandez took Boudou's advice and in 2008, signed a law seizing $23 billion in private pension funds. This infuriated some investors, invited no end of attacks by the news media and made her even more of a pariah among financial analysts. But it also created a vast credit pool from which to invest in projects "made in Argentina," and provided an alternative to foreign debt, which they couldn't assume without conceding to an independent examination of Argentina's official inflation numbers. That, in turn, would have surely increased pressure for budget cuts, leading to a voter backlash.
"This is why I value Amado Boudou so much," Fernandez explained in her authorized biography, published in August. "In two years, we've duplicated the funds that they built up in 12. It was an impressive business deal. Many of the things we've done were already thought of by others, but they didn't have the guts to act."
Boudou also was the point man for Fernandez's ouster of the Central Bank president, which enabled the government to use its reserves to pay off foreign debts. Opponents predicted it would weaken Argentina's ability to support its currency. But reducing the debt load freed up money for more productive uses, in turn building reserves. Argentina now has accumulated much more than it had to cushion against previous global turbulence.
When the new Congress is sworn in on Dec. 10, Fernandez, Boudou and his yet-to-be-named replacement as economy minister will benefit from narrow majorities in both houses for the first time since 2009's midterm elections. The president will be able to get laws passed, rather than having to invoke her emergency decree power to get things done.
This is one advantage Fernandez has over President Barack Obama: Nearly her entire congressional opposition adheres to centrist or leftist parties. The only political bloc promoting ideas remotely similar to U.S. conservatives is the Pro party, led by Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri, but it has just 11 seats in the lower house and none in the Senate.
It remains to be seen if Macri can now rally what's left of a divided opposition.
"Clearly the fragmentation has been an enormous error: Half or more of the Argentines were open to hearing a proposal for change, but it had to be articulated," Macri said Monday.
Fernandez's agenda may include changes in banking regulations to more tightly control currency flows, and a union-backed proposal to require corporations to share 10 percent of their profits with their employees, which if passed could force businesses to open their books in a country where tax evasion still runs rampant.
Such moves would surely raise new complaints that Fernandez is failing to ensure stability for investors.
Her likely response: Argentina is open for any investor willing to meet her government's terms.
"I'm not a genius or a fool," Fernandez said Sunday night, speaking of those opposed to her populist approach. "But I know that these people are the minority ? powerful, but a minority. It depends, therefore, on the great majorities, comprising our workers and our middle classes, to not be knocked off track as has happened to us so many times in our history, ruining projects that served the nation. They are still out there, those who knocked us down, many times directed from abroad."
___
Michael Warren can be reached at www.twitter.com/mwarrenap
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Monday, October 24, 2011
French President: EU to anticipate bank rules
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left. arrives for an EU summit in Brussels on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Big banks find themselves under pressure in Europe's debt crisis with finance chiefs pushing to raise billions of euros in capital and accept huge losses on Greek bonds they hold. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left. arrives for an EU summit in Brussels on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Big banks find themselves under pressure in Europe's debt crisis with finance chiefs pushing to raise billions of euros in capital and accept huge losses on Greek bonds they hold. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for an EU summit in Brussels on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Big banks find themselves under pressure in Europe's debt crisis with finance chiefs pushing to raise billions of euros in capital and accept huge losses on Greek bonds they hold. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, left, speaks with Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Greece's prime minister is pleading with European leaders in Brussels to act decisively to solve the continent's debt crisis. At a summit Sunday, the leaders are expected to ask banks to accept huge losses on Greek bonds to ease the pressure on the country, and to raise billions more in capital to weather those losses. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, left, speaks with Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Greece's prime minister is pleading with European leaders in Brussels to act decisively to solve the continent's debt crisis. At a summit Sunday, the leaders are expected to ask banks to accept huge losses on Greek bonds to ease the pressure on the country, and to raise billions more in capital to weather those losses. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, speaks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Greece's prime minister is pleading with European leaders in Brussels to act decisively to solve the continent's debt crisis. At a summit Sunday, the leaders are expected to ask banks to accept huge losses on Greek bonds to ease the pressure on the country, and to raise billions more in capital to weather those losses. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
BRUSSELS (AP) ? The European Union will require banks to raise their capital buffers to higher levels by 2012, much earlier than required, France's president said Sunday, signaling one element of a broader plan to finally get a grip on Europe's escalating debt crisis.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who was speaking after a summit of the 27 EU leaders in Brussels, said the capital buffers that banks have to achieve under the Basel III rules by 2019 will already be obligatory for big EU banks as of next year.
He did not say how much money banks will have to raise as a result of the anticipation of the rules, but a European official said Saturday that they would force banks to find just over euro100 billion ($140 billion) ? either through issuing new shares, selling off assets or asking their governments for help.
EU leaders were reluctant to unveil details of the new bank rules until they have other parts of their rescue plan in place, especially a decision on how to boost the firepower of their bailout fund.
They also have to find a solution for Greece's massive debt problem. Negotiations with banks to take losses on their bond holdings were only advancing slowly, but leaders have promised a full-fledged plan in time for a second summit on Wednesday. A report from Greece's debt inspectors has suggested that the value of the bonds may need to be reduced as much as 60 percent.
"It is a comprehensive package and the recapitalization of the banks, getting a lasting solution to the Greek debt, and what we call the leveraging of the European Financial Stability Facility are the three main parts of that package," said EU President Herman Van Rompuy, who chaired the discussions of the 27 EU leaders. "We are confident that we will get an agreement on Wednesday. Otherwise we would not take a decision on recapitalization of the banks on Wednesday."
Weaker countries such as Italy and Spain did not want to fully approve the requirement for banks to shore up their rainy-day funds unless they know for sure that they can get help from the European Financial Stability Facility, if necessary.
But Europe is quickly running out of time, with turmoil on financial markets worsening since the summer. The longer leaders put off important decisions, the less trust investors and even citizens have in their ability to achieve results.
"Greece has proven again and again that we are making the necessary decisions to make our economy sustainable, and make our economy more just," said Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, whose country has undergone more than a year of painful austerity after being frozen out of bond markets. "The crisis is a European crisis, so now is the time that we as Europeans need to act decisively and effectively."
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Parents: Hispanic kids being bullied in law's wake
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama?? It was just another schoolyard basketball game until a group of Hispanic seventh-graders defeated a group of boys from Alabama.
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The reaction was immediate, according to the Mexican mother of one of the winners, and rooted in the state's new law on illegal immigration.
"They told them, 'You shouldn't be winning. You should go back to Mexico,'" said the woman, who spoke through a translator last week and didn't want her name used. She and her son are in the country illegally.
Spanish-speaking parents say their children are facing more bullying and taunts at school since Alabama's tough crackdown on illegal immigration took effect last month. Many blame the name-calling on fallout from the law, which has been widely covered in the news, discussed in some classrooms and debated around dinner tables.
Justice Department officials are monitoring for bullying incidents linked to the law.
"We're hearing a number of reports about increases in bullying that we're studying," the head of the agency's civil rights division, Thomas Perez, said during a stop in Birmingham.
The Justice Department has established a bilingual telephone hotline and special email account for residents to report any violence or threats based on racial or ethnic background that could be linked to the law. Officials would not provide a breakdown on the types of complaints being received.
Yet the Alabama Department of Education hasn't received any reports of bullying linked to the law, said spokeswoman Malissa Valdes, and it isn't tracking the issue to determine whether there could be a problem. Any parents who call the state with complaints would be referred to their child's principal, she said.
Federal officials say some parents ? particularly illegal immigrants ? may not report bullying to teachers and principals because they fear coming into contact with government officials.
Supporters of the law ? which is being challenged by the Obama administration, individuals and private groups ? contend it's vital to reducing the cost of state and local government by getting illegal immigrants off public assistance. They also argue the measure will create jobs for legal residents by opening up positions that had been held by people living in the country illegally. However, Americans so far have shown little interest in the backbreaking, low-paying jobs at farms and poultry factories that were usually held by illegal immigrants.
Opponents contend the law is creating a climate of fear and mistrust in the state that's unsettling for immigrants who are both legal and illegal. Immigrants tell of dirty looks in grocery stores, and online forums are full of angry, anonymous comments from both supporters and opponents of the law.
Machine shop manager Hector Conde said his family has seen the problem firsthand. Conde, whose family lives in Autauga County north of Montgomery, was appalled when his 12-year-old daughter, Monica Torres, told him a schoolmate called her a "damn Mexican" during a school bus ride.
"She is a citizen. She doesn't even speak Spanish," said Conde, a U.S. citizen originally from Puerto Rico. "The culture being created (by the law) is that this sort of thing is OK."
A Hispanic woman said her 13-year-old niece was called a "stupid Mexican" and told to "go back to Mexico" by a classmate in Walker County.
"She said, 'If you're not going I'm going to punch you,'" said the woman, who spoke through a translator and didn't want her name used.
Courts have struck down sections of the law, including a provision that required public schools to verify the citizenship status of students. Other sections remain in effect, including a part that lets police check a person's immigration status during a traffic stop. Courts also can't enforce contracts involving illegal immigrants, such as leases, and it's still a felony for an illegal immigrant to do business with the state for basic things like getting a driver's license.
In Shelby County, where hundreds of Hispanic children are enrolled in schools in Birmingham's southern suburbs, officials say they've had few reports of conflicts between Hispanic students and others.
"That isn't to say that it hasn't happened, but if it has they haven't been reporting it to school officials," said Cindy Warner, a spokeswoman for the system.
U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, the lead federal prosecutor for north Alabama, said many Hispanic parents may be afraid to report bullying for fear of coming in contact with government officials. Under the law, authorities are supposed to detain suspected illegal immigrants found living in the state and hold them for federal immigration authorities.
Parents may be afraid to even go to school teachers and principals, she said. "It seems likely to me that people are trying to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble," said Vance.
Charles Warren is school superintendent DeKalb County, where about 18 percent of the 8,900 students enrolled in public schools are Hispanic. He doesn't see much tension between Hispanic students and others ? Crossville High School has had a Hispanic homecoming queen the last two years, he said.
"The kids get along great, it's the adults who are the problem," Warren said. "There are a lot of similarities to what went on back in the '50s and '60s with the civil rights movement. A lot of people are out of work now and they want to blame someone. I think the Hispanic people are catching a lot of that."
Warren is right about at least one thing: The taunting extends to the grown-up world. Supporters of the law have filled Steve Dubrinsky's email account with critical messages and peppered online message boards with negative reviews of his popular restaurant, Max's Delicatessen, after a talk radio show mistakenly said he employs illegal immigrants at his business in suburban Birmingham.
Dubrinsky's wife is a legal immigrant from Mexico, and he said all nine of his immigrant workers have proper papers. But he is still worried about the future of his business amid the onslaught.
"I've never experienced anything like this before," said Dubrinsky. "Those reviews were just plain and simple out to get me over this."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44999117/ns/us_news-life/
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Sunday, October 23, 2011
[OOC] What The Storm Brought
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Saturday, October 22, 2011
How Complicated Was the Byzantine Empire?
Only compared to those of medieval Europe. Ceremony and ritual were important features of the imperial court at Constantinople. Guests at royal banquets were assigned titles that denoted where they could sit in relation to the emperor, whom they could talk to, and what they were allowed to discuss. Eventually, the rituals became so complex that treatises were written to help outsiders understand proper etiquette, and the emperor employed officials to teach newbies how to behave. During this period, Western Europeans had lost a taste for the pomp and circumstance of empire. Their leaders were little more than feudal lords who more closely resembled generals than true emperors, although they sometimes carried that title. Ambassadors to Constantinople complained loudly about the formality of the court: For example, in the late 10th century, Liutprand of Cremona, who traveled twice to Byzantium as an ambassador of German emperor Otto, wrote a book in which he bemoaned the overly choreographed Byzantine court ceremonies. Still, Byzantium was far less complicated than any modern government.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4877a306263b8ecddf8721847029bc23
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California Adopts Cap-and-Trade System to Limit Emissions
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The new system includes cap-and-trade market incentives to encourage polluters to clean up their plants, an approach much of the rest of the country has resisted.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=69dfbb2f9cf4404c1cd6fb69c94bc296
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Friday, October 21, 2011
Glowing beacons reveal hidden order in dynamical systems
Public release date: 19-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Dr. Kathrin Bilgeri
kathrin.bilgeri@lmu.de
49-892-180-6938
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen
Experimental confirmation of a fundamental physical theorem
The so-called ergodic theorem formulates a fundamental physical principle relating to the behavior of dynamical systems. Essentially the theorem states that in a multiparticle system each individual particle behaves just as "chaotically" as does the system as a whole. In other words, one can extrapolate from the behavior of a single element to that of the whole system. Strangely enough, in spite of its wide-ranging implications, the theorem has not been rigorously tested experimentally. A collaborative effort mounted by Professor Christoph Bruchle's team in the Department of Chemistry at LMU Munich and Professor Jrg Krger's group at Leipzig University has now confirmed the validity of the theorem by measuring the diffusive behavior of ensembles of particles and the trajectories of single molecules in the same system. Using fluorescent molecules as tracers and high-resolution imaging methods, the LMU investigators were able to track the paths of individual molecules, while the Leipzig group studied the collective behavior of the whole ensemble. "It will be very interesting to take a closer look at systems that do not conform to the tenets of the ergodic theorem and to determine the reasons for their aberrant behavior," says Bruchle.
The term "diffusion" refers to the random motion of particles, such as atoms and molecules, under the influence of thermal energy. This physical process is an essential component of innumerable phenomena in nature, and also plays a crucial role in many technological procedures. For instance, in virtually all chemical reactions, diffusion is responsible for bringing reactants sufficiently close together to enable them to react at all. It is generally accepted that the ergodic theorem is applicable to the dynamics of diffusive processes. The theory basically states that repeated measurements of a given variable such as the distance covered by a particle in a given time interval should yield the same average value as a single measurement of the same variable on a collection of particles provided the system considered is in a state of equilibrium. However, as Krger points out, "although diffusive processes have been investigated for the past 150 years, the principle of ergodicity has not yet been experimentally verified." This is because it has so far been possible to quantify diffusive processes only by means of ensemble measurements i.e. measurements of many particles simultaneously. One of the most informative methods for this purpose is pulsed-field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR), a technique for which Krger and his group are well known. The actual trajectory of a single particle, on the other hand, could not be observed directly. "With the development of single-molecule spectroscopy and single-molecule microscopy, we can now follow the trajectories and therefore monitor the diffusion behavior of single molecules," Bruchle explains. Optical tracking methods visualize molecules on the basis of their fluorescence, making it possible for their positions to be localized and monitored with a precision of a few nanometers.
This still leaves one problem to be solved - successful application of the two methods requires very different, indeed apparently conflicting, conditions. NMR measurements need high concentrations of molecules with large diffusion coefficients, while single-molecule spectroscopy works best with extremely dilute solutions of species with small diffusion coefficients. By using particular organic dyes with high fluorescence yields in combination with porous silicate glasses containing networks of nanometer-sized channels in which the dye molecules can diffuse, the researchers were able to create conditions that were compatible with both methods. This experimental set-up allowed them to perform single-molecule and ensemble measurements on the same system.
When the two teams compared their data, they found that the diffusion coefficients (the parameter that describes diffusive motion) obtained by the two techniques agreed with each other providing the first experimental confirmation of the ergodic theorem in this context. The next step will be to examine systems in which the theory does not apply. "The diffusion of nanoparticles in cells looks like an interesting example," says Bruchle, "and for us the important thing is to find out why the ergodic theorem doesn't hold in this case."
The project in Munich was carried out under the support of the Cluster of Excellence "Nanosystems Initiative Munich" (NIM) and DFG Priority Program 749 (Dynamics and Intermediate Molecular Transformations), while the work in Leipzig was supported by the DFG as part of Research Unit 877 (From Local Constraints to Macroscopic Transport). (gd)
###
Publication:
Single-particle and ensemble diffusivities - Test of ergodicity
F. Feil, S. Naumov, J. Michaelis, R. Valiullin, D. Enke, J. Krger, C. Bruchle
Angewandte Chemie/International Edition Angewandte Chemie, Online Publication
14. October 2011
DOI: 10.1002/ange.201105388
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Christoph Bruchle
Department of Chemistry
Chair of Physical Chemistry I
LMU Munich
Phone: +49 89/2180-77549
Fax: +49 89/2180-77550
http://www.cup.uni-muenchen.de/pc/braeuchle/
[ | 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.
Public release date: 19-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Dr. Kathrin Bilgeri
kathrin.bilgeri@lmu.de
49-892-180-6938
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen
Experimental confirmation of a fundamental physical theorem
The so-called ergodic theorem formulates a fundamental physical principle relating to the behavior of dynamical systems. Essentially the theorem states that in a multiparticle system each individual particle behaves just as "chaotically" as does the system as a whole. In other words, one can extrapolate from the behavior of a single element to that of the whole system. Strangely enough, in spite of its wide-ranging implications, the theorem has not been rigorously tested experimentally. A collaborative effort mounted by Professor Christoph Bruchle's team in the Department of Chemistry at LMU Munich and Professor Jrg Krger's group at Leipzig University has now confirmed the validity of the theorem by measuring the diffusive behavior of ensembles of particles and the trajectories of single molecules in the same system. Using fluorescent molecules as tracers and high-resolution imaging methods, the LMU investigators were able to track the paths of individual molecules, while the Leipzig group studied the collective behavior of the whole ensemble. "It will be very interesting to take a closer look at systems that do not conform to the tenets of the ergodic theorem and to determine the reasons for their aberrant behavior," says Bruchle.
The term "diffusion" refers to the random motion of particles, such as atoms and molecules, under the influence of thermal energy. This physical process is an essential component of innumerable phenomena in nature, and also plays a crucial role in many technological procedures. For instance, in virtually all chemical reactions, diffusion is responsible for bringing reactants sufficiently close together to enable them to react at all. It is generally accepted that the ergodic theorem is applicable to the dynamics of diffusive processes. The theory basically states that repeated measurements of a given variable such as the distance covered by a particle in a given time interval should yield the same average value as a single measurement of the same variable on a collection of particles provided the system considered is in a state of equilibrium. However, as Krger points out, "although diffusive processes have been investigated for the past 150 years, the principle of ergodicity has not yet been experimentally verified." This is because it has so far been possible to quantify diffusive processes only by means of ensemble measurements i.e. measurements of many particles simultaneously. One of the most informative methods for this purpose is pulsed-field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR), a technique for which Krger and his group are well known. The actual trajectory of a single particle, on the other hand, could not be observed directly. "With the development of single-molecule spectroscopy and single-molecule microscopy, we can now follow the trajectories and therefore monitor the diffusion behavior of single molecules," Bruchle explains. Optical tracking methods visualize molecules on the basis of their fluorescence, making it possible for their positions to be localized and monitored with a precision of a few nanometers.
This still leaves one problem to be solved - successful application of the two methods requires very different, indeed apparently conflicting, conditions. NMR measurements need high concentrations of molecules with large diffusion coefficients, while single-molecule spectroscopy works best with extremely dilute solutions of species with small diffusion coefficients. By using particular organic dyes with high fluorescence yields in combination with porous silicate glasses containing networks of nanometer-sized channels in which the dye molecules can diffuse, the researchers were able to create conditions that were compatible with both methods. This experimental set-up allowed them to perform single-molecule and ensemble measurements on the same system.
When the two teams compared their data, they found that the diffusion coefficients (the parameter that describes diffusive motion) obtained by the two techniques agreed with each other providing the first experimental confirmation of the ergodic theorem in this context. The next step will be to examine systems in which the theory does not apply. "The diffusion of nanoparticles in cells looks like an interesting example," says Bruchle, "and for us the important thing is to find out why the ergodic theorem doesn't hold in this case."
The project in Munich was carried out under the support of the Cluster of Excellence "Nanosystems Initiative Munich" (NIM) and DFG Priority Program 749 (Dynamics and Intermediate Molecular Transformations), while the work in Leipzig was supported by the DFG as part of Research Unit 877 (From Local Constraints to Macroscopic Transport). (gd)
###
Publication:
Single-particle and ensemble diffusivities - Test of ergodicity
F. Feil, S. Naumov, J. Michaelis, R. Valiullin, D. Enke, J. Krger, C. Bruchle
Angewandte Chemie/International Edition Angewandte Chemie, Online Publication
14. October 2011
DOI: 10.1002/ange.201105388
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Christoph Bruchle
Department of Chemistry
Chair of Physical Chemistry I
LMU Munich
Phone: +49 89/2180-77549
Fax: +49 89/2180-77550
http://www.cup.uni-muenchen.de/pc/braeuchle/
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/lm-gbr101911.php
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