Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press? ? ?15 hrs.
It's the end of the line for Roadrunner, a first-of-its-kind collection of processors that once reigned as the world's fastest supercomputer.
The $121 million supercomputer, housed at one of the nation's premiere nuclear weapons research laboratories in northern New Mexico, will be decommissioned Sunday.
The reason? The world of supercomputing is evolving and Roadrunner has been replaced with something smaller, faster, more energy efficient and cheaper. Still, officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory say it's among the 25 fastest supercomputers in the world.
"Roadrunner got everyone thinking in new ways about how to build and use a supercomputer," said Gary Grider, who works in the lab's high performance computing division. "Specialized processors are being included in new ways on new systems and being used in novel ways. Our demonstration with Roadrunner caused everyone to pay attention."
In 2008, Roadrunner was first to break the elusive petaflop barrier by processing just over a quadrillion mathematical calculations per second.
Los Alamos teamed up with IBM to build Roadrunner from commercially available parts. They ended up with 278 refrigerator-size racks filled with two different types of processors, all linked together by 55 miles of fiber optic cable. It took nearly two dozen tractor trailer trucks to deliver the supercomputer from New York to northern New Mexico.
The supercomputer has been used over the last five years to model viruses and unseen parts of the universe, to better understand lasers and for nuclear weapons work. That includes simulations aimed at ensuring the safety and reliability of the nation's aging arsenal.
As part of the U.S. nuclear stockpile stewardship program, researchers used Roadrunner's high-speed calculation capabilities to unravel some of the mysteries of energy flow in weapons.
Los Alamos has been helping pioneer novel computer systems for decades. In 1976, the lab helped with the development of the Cray-1. In 1993, the lab held the fastest supercomputer title with the Thinking Machine CM-5.
"And to think of where we're going to be in the next 10 to 15 years, it's just mindboggling," said lab spokesman Kevin Roark.
Right now, Los Alamos ? along with scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California ? is using a supercomputer dubbed Cielo. Installed in 2010, it's slightly faster than Roadrunner, takes up less space and came in at just under $54 million.
Roark said in the next 10 to 20 years, it's expected that the world's supercomputers will be capable of breaking the exascale barrier, or one quintillion calculations per second.
There will be no ceremony when Roadrunner is switched off Sunday, but lab officials said researchers will spend the next month experimenting with its operating system and techniques for compressing memory before dismantling begins. They say the work could help guide the design of future supercomputers.
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
In times of financial panic, like when you realize your credit card payment is overdue, the Pageonce mobile app (free) proves its worth. The free app, available for Android (the focus of this review), iPhone, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry, lets you see a snapshot of all your account balances and upcoming bills, with bill-payment functionality included, too. You can manage payments to credit card companies, utility providers, lenders, and even small proprietors, such as your landlord.
Don't mistake Pageonce for a complete financial management tool, though. You won't find in it budgeting tools or detailed information about your spending habits, something Editors' Choice Mint.com (free, 5 stars) provides through a fully automated site and mobile app. If your goal is to get a handle on your money, I highly recommend dedicating yourself to Mint. Pageonce is more for checking in on your financial situation and making quick corrections when you need to pay bills. It has one or two other miscellaneous features thrown in, such as the ability to see at a glance many of your travel reward program balances, but the core Pageonce experience on Android is to answer the question, "Do I have enough money in the right places right now?"
Fully Free It may be worth pointing out that Pageonce formerly locked some features behind a paid Gold membership, but the company has done away with this premium tier. All Pageonce's features and functionality are now totally free.
You can set up a Pageonce account either right on your Android device or from the full Pageonce.com website?and while we're on that subject, I should note that in my review of Pageonce, I point out that the mobile apps meet a need more than the website does. For setting up your accounts, it helps to have a full screen, keyboard, mouse, and additional browser tabs at the ready. But in actually getting use out of Pageonce, I wholly prefer the mobile app over the site. I think the former meets a consumer need better than the latter.
App Features Inside the Android app, a plus sign at the top of the screen is your key to adding more accounts. Connect any kind of financial account?savings, checking, investment, retirement, loan?and the balance will be counted toward your Pageonce net worth (updated once daily, with a manual refresh option included). As mentioned, you can also connect to online accounts for bills, be they for insurance policies, Internet service, gas and electricity, or phone service. Whenever one of these bills or your credit card bill is near due, Pageonce will let you know via an alert, shown at the bottom of the screen.
The app's main dashboard shows totals for available cash, bills owed and minimum payment due, investment balances, credit card debt, offers (essentially, advertisements for financial services), and Credit Guard (an offer for a credit report and protection service). These six items appear as easy-to-access tiles on the main dashboard.
Other buttons at the top let you manage existing connected accounts, view reports, access your settings, and add new accounts.
The reporting section contains a few interesting bits of information, such as a "file cabinet" that houses previous bill statements, although in testing the app, only two of my connected accounts put any information here, even though I had at least two more accounts that generate a monthly statement.
Another sub-section to the Reports page shows "all your account transactions." This area proves useful when you need to quickly check to see what changed recently in an account if the balance seems off from what you expected it to be. Also under the Reports page is payment history, although it doesn't contain any information prior to the date you connected your financial accounts to Pageonce. And finally, there's "Where your money's going," the place you can actually find real reports. Pie charts and tables detail your expenditures into five simple categories: bills and utilities; insurance; credit cards; loans; and other. In my testing, I found the report just didn't accurately capture what I truly wanted to know about my spending habits, like if I spend much more than I realize eating out, and whether I might be able to cut back on that kind of unnecessary expense to fund something else I need or want. Mint not only has those features, but it does most of the work for me in terms of identifying different kinds of credit card charges.
Bill Pay The bill pay function is what makes Pageonce worthwhile for some people, namely, those who forget to pay their bills until the day before they're due (or later). ?
You can pay a bill, right from within the app, but the very first time you do so, it isn't exactly a one-two-three process (it does become more streamlined afterward, though). Let's say you want to pay your upcoming credit card bill. First, you have to enter the full credit card account number, even if that card is already connected to Pageonce. Second, you have to enter the complete information, meaning account and routing numbers, from the checking account you want to use to pay. Also, it can take up to two business days for a payment to process. That's typically of any online payment you initiate, however, so it's the same results you'd see from making an online payment right from your service provider's website.
One minor problem: In my account, I had one bill payment already scheduled (which I did outside Pageonce), but Pageonce had no knowledge of it, so had I not been careful, I might have tried to pay the same bill twice and double-taxed my own checking account. One thing I've always appreciated about one particular credit card company's online user account experience is that it pops up a warning if I try to schedule a payment within three days of an existing scheduled payment. You wouldn't believe how often I try to pay my bills more than once.
Security Pageonce has good security measures in place to keep your financial information safe. You can't transfer money using Pageonce, so no one else can move your money through this service either. All your account info is kept under lock and key. Similar to Mint.com, Pageonce doesn't store any information on the phone itself, and uses bank-level encryption.
The app has a four-digit PIN, which you enter every time you exit the app or your phone goes on standby. Furthermore, Pageonce is VeriSign Secured (i.e., tested and approved by Norton) and TrustE approved.
Pageonce in a Pinch The Pageonce Android app delivers on its promise to quickly show you your account balances as well as set up a bill to be paid on the fly when you forget to do it ahead of time. If you're the kind of person always getting hit by late charges, give Pageonce a try. But if you're looking for real guidance about how to manage your money and debts, put yourself in the hands of Editors' Choice Mint.com.
Sonia greets her new parents, Kristina and Rich England.
By Jim Maceda, Correspondent, NBC News
BRYANSK, Russia --?Kristi and Rich England of Marshall, Minn., shook with nerves and joy on their fourth and last trip to an orphanage in Bryansk, in?rural Russia. ?
They were finally taking Sonia, a partially blind and hyperactive 3-year-old, home with them.?The tearful Feb. 12 meeting, punctuated by Sonia?s screams of ?mama? and ?dada,? was all the more emotional because the Englands knew that they were the last lucky couple to leave Russia with an adopted child.?
?So many other families have seen their children and have loved their children and can?t bring them home,? said Kristi England, 34, a family doctor. ?It?s so unfair in so many ways.?
Those already undergoing the costly process of adopting a child from Russia found out Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law barring any future adoptions, canceling the ones in progress. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.
The process wasn?t easy ? the Englands endured multiple background checks and spent at least $50,000 to ensure that Sonia, now called Sophia, could go home with them.
But the ban signed into law on Dec. 28 barring all U.S. adoptions ? which numbered more than 60,000 over the past two decades ? has marooned hundreds of families in the middle of adopting, and stranded thousands of children in orphanages throughout Russia.??
"We should do all we can so that orphaned children find a family in our country, in Russia," President Vladimir Putin said in defense of the ban.
Fueling the outrage in Russia over the fate of children adopted by Americans, Russian media reported earlier this week that Alexander Abnosov, 18, showed up in the Volga River port town of Cheboksary saying his adoptive family had mistreated him. He had left Russia five years earlier, having been adopted by a family outside Philadelphia, but said he fled after suffering from verbal abuse by his adoptive mother. ?
"She would make any small problem big and always try to find a reason to shout at you," he told Russia?s state-owned Channel 1.
While UNICEF estimates there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia, only about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt.?
But while Putin denies any direct connection, Kremlin-watchers say the ban is really about geopolitics and not about protecting kids.
NBC News
Russian child psychologist Valentina Rakova Valentina (left) stands with Kristina and Richard England and newly adopted Sonia in an orphanage in Bryansk, rural Russia.
They say it was retaliation by Moscow for an American law banning any Russian human rights violators from U.S. soil, enacted after the suspicious death in prison of Sergey Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer working for Heritage Fund, an American private equity firm.?
Russian media didn't hesitate to bolster the official line. ?
Despite the negative reports, child psychologist Valentina Rakova, who has worked in the Bryansk orphanage for 30 years, says the ban is terrible for children.?
?Here in Russia we have many examples of bad parents -- even worse than these American cases -- where kids are just tossed out,? she said as she coiffed Sonia, who requires special medical attention.
?A child like Sonia, no Russian would accept her,? Rakova said. ?Before the ban, orphans were offered to Russian families but no one took them in.??
Rakova's experience confirms the U.N.'s statistics. As far as she has seen, Americans are far more likely to adopt children who are ill or suffer from a disability.
Becky Preece, a housewife from Nampa, Idaho, is one such American. ?
She was finally able to take home 4-year-old Gabe, who has Down syndrome, in February, after years of filling out paperwork and a court battle. ?
Preece, who like the Englands beat the ban by days but was then delayed by red tape, said she saw a complete disconnect between the horrors of Russia?s adoption ban and the kindness and hospitality of the Russians themselves.?
NBC News
Becky Preece from Nampa, Idaho, adopted 4-year-old Gabe just days before the ban on Americans adopting Russian orphans went into force.
?It?s not a matter of the people,? she said while walking with the little boy in the thick Moscow snow.
?It?s politically charged and it?s something that is hard for us to understand because it?s so different from the experience that we?ve had here.?
Preece said she was excited to get Gabe into school back home, and watch him bond with his new brother who also has Down syndrome.?
?They need the infrastructure, they need the kind of support that we get at home for our children,? she said.?
But for the hundreds of American families who missed the cut and are now unable to bring their adoptive children home, the future could mean months -- even years -- of waiting and praying that the two superpower rivals find common ground before more of society?s most vulnerable pay the price.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jim Maceda is a London-based correspondent who has covered the Soviet Union and Russia since the 1980s.?
Related:
Boy's Christmas wish: Adoption of little brother caught in US-Russia spat
Thousands march in Moscow to protest Russian adoption ban
File- This Dec. 30, 2012 file photo shows Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) throwing a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in Landover, Md. Romo and the Cowboys have agreed on a six-year contract extension worth $108 million, with about half of that guaranteed. The agreement was reported on the team?s website Friday March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
File- This Dec. 30, 2012 file photo shows Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) throwing a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in Landover, Md. Romo and the Cowboys have agreed on a six-year contract extension worth $108 million, with about half of that guaranteed. The agreement was reported on the team?s website Friday March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
File- This Dec. 30, 2012 file photo shows Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) standing during the national anthem before an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in Landover, Md. Romo and the Cowboys have agreed on a six-year contract extension worth $108 million, with about half of that guaranteed. The agreement was reported on the team?s website Friday March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ? Tony Romo has a chance to start for the Dallas Cowboys longer than Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman. The question is whether he will ever match their Super Bowl pedigrees.
Romo signed a six-year contract extension worth $108 million Friday, with about half of that guaranteed to make him the highest-paid player in franchise history.
The agreement, reported on the team's website, will lower the quarterback's salary cap number for 2013 by about $5 million, giving the team more room to sign free agents and draft picks.
Romo, who turns 33 next month and was entering the final year of his contract, gets $55 million guaranteed.
Super Bowl winner Joe Flacco got $52 million guaranteed in the six-year, $120.6 million contract he signed with Baltimore earlier this month.
"I think it's just exciting more than anything that you know you're going to be here the rest of my career," Romo said in a video on the team's website that showed owner Jerry Jones exchanging high-fives with Romo's nearly 1-year-old son. "We're a team on the rise and I think it's going to show here going forward."
Romo could be with Dallas through 2019, giving him a chance to be the starter longer than the 11 seasons of Aikman and seven of Staubach, who was a part-time starter his first four years with the Cowboys.
Aikman and Staubach won five Super Bowls between them, while Romo has just one playoff win in six full seasons as the starter. He had a gut-wrenching playoff loss the year he took over midseason in 2006, flubbing the hold after driving the Cowboys into position for the go-ahead field goal in the final minutes.
Romo alluded to changes "behind the scenes" in the interview on the team's website, and Jones said in a statement that his quarterback will have "a significant level of input and contribution to the planning and implementing of our offensive approach ? both in the meeting room and on the field."
"Tony is uniquely qualified to lead this team at the quarterback position for the next several years," Jones said. "He knows how to run an offense and run a team."
Romo lost playoff-or-bust games in regular-season finales the past two years. That included a loss to Washington last season when Romo threw an interception with a chance to tie or win the game with a drive in the final 3 minutes.
A former Romo rival, Donovan McNabb, questioned the deal on Twitter.
"Wow really, with one playoff win," McNabb wrote. "You got to be kidding me."
Dez Bryant, who teamed with Romo for career highs of 1,382 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns in 2012, tweeted, "Congrats Big Tony on the contract extension."
Romo is the franchise leader in touchdown passes and the single-season leader in touchdowns, passing yards, completions and attempts. He had a career-high 4,903 passing yards in 2012 but matched his highest interception total at 19 and had his lowest quarterback rating at 90.5 rating.
His best rating of 102.5 came in 2011, when the Cowboys lost to the New York Giants with a playoff berth on the line in the finale. His other best season was 2009, which included his only playoff win against Philadelphia.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott has made his opposition to tuition hikes for college students well-known in the last several months. He has repeatedly said that he worries that the cost of a college education is getting too high in the Sunshine State.
"This is a tax, it's a tax on students, it's a tax on families," Scott told reporters earlier this week.
But Scott's opposition has done little to dissuade the Florida House from proposing a 6-percent tuition hike.
House Speaker Will Weatherford on Thursday strongly defended the move, which would generate an estimated $37 million for the state's 12 public universities.
"Our students and our parents are spending as much money on their cellphones a year as they are paying for tuition," Weatherford said.
Weatherford, who made his remarks before the Florida Board of Governors, also said that the state's overall tuition rate for university students remains among the lowest in the country. The board is the appointed panel that oversees the university system.
Florida charges undergraduate students an average in-state rate of $6,232 a year ? which ranks about 41st in the nation, according to data compiled by the State University System of Florida.
"We think to just take tuition off the table and ignore the fact that we are ranked so low...is not right," Weatherford said.
The difference over tuition is yet another flash point in a building tug-of-war between Weatherford and Scott. The Republican governor last week was critical of a campaign finance bill pushed by the speaker. Weatherford, meanwhile, has questioned Scott's desire to give teachers a $2,500 pay raise.
The Wesley Chapel Republican responded sarcastically when asked about Scott's opposition to tuition hikes.
"Is that right? He's not for tuition increases?" he said.
The Florida Senate has not recommended any tuition increases in its proposed budget. Weatherford said the House was not fixated on a 6 percent amount and said the final figure was "negotiable." The House and Senate have until early May to pass a new state budget and send it to Scott.
Florida has a complicated system for setting tuition rates. The Legislature can order across-the-board tuition increases and the Board of Governors can approve increases requested by individual universities. State law limits the increases to a combined 15 percent annually.
Last year Scott vetoed a bill that would have permitted the state's top two research schools, the University of Florida and Florida State University, to exceed that current cap.
As legislators have cut state spending in recent years, the universities have responded by raising tuition. Last year lawmakers cut university budgets by $300 million.
University presidents pledged last December that they would not seek a tuition increase this year if legislators restored the 2012 cut and agreed to spend $118 million more in state money on the 12 schools.
University of Florida Bernie Machen said that the initial budget proposals rolled out by the House and Senate would allow the schools to keep that promise. The House and Senate budgets would increase state dollars to universities between $143 million and $198 million. The budgets even include extra money for both UF and FSU.
"If that holds, we're fine," Machen said.
Follow Gary Fineout on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fineout
Fisher Price Apptivity Case is your baby?s gateway to the iPhone. I want my 2-year-old to be smart and healthy and well-adjusted. I don't know how smartphones and tablets fit into that. Worse, it seems like there is simply no ...
What advances are driving clinical applications of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine?Public release date: 29-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, Mar 28, 2013Explosive growth in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has led to innovative and promising applications and techniques, many of which are now being tested in human clinical trials. Hot topics, research advances, and transformative publications that are driving the field forward are highlighted in a comprehensive overview of the field presented in Tissue Engineering, Part B, Reviews, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available on the Tissue Engineering website (http://www.liebertpub.com/ten).
Matthew Fisher, PhD and Robert Mauck, PhD, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, identify four key areas in which the field is progressing. The first main theme, in the area of tissue engineering, focuses on advances in grafts and materials, including human or animal tissue from which the cells are removed and the remaining scaffold is used to regenerate new tissues, as well as scaffolds made of new types of biomaterials. Second, in the field of regenerative medicine, the authors highlight the role of novel scaffolds and various growth and control factors in promoting tissue formation and, for example, bone healing.
In the article "Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: Recent Innovations and the Transition to Translation," (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ten.teb.2012.0723) the authors identify two additional areas that signal progress in the field: the increasing number of applications advancing into clinical trials; and the growing use of novel types of cells, such as induced pluripotent stem cells.
"Considering the rapid pace of growth and development in regenerative medicine, it is imperative that we fully consider recent advances," says Reviews Co-Editor-in-Chief John P. Fisher, PhD, Professor and Associate Chair, Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. "Dr. Matthew Fisher and Dr. Robert Mauck have wonderfully reviewed the efforts in the tissue engineering field over the past few years, highlighting advances in biomaterials, cell-based constructs, and translational endeavors."
###
About the Journal
Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online in three parts: Part A--the flagship journal; Part BReviews; and Part CMethods. Led by Co-Editors-In-Chief Antonios Mikos, PhD, Louis Calder Professor at Rice University, Houston, TX, and Peter C. Johnson, MD, Vice President, Research and Development, Avery Dennison Medical Solutions of Chicago, IL and President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC, Raleigh, NC, the Journal brings together scientific and medical experts in the fields of biomedical engineering, material science, molecular and cellular biology, and genetic engineering. Tissue Engineering is the Official Journal of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Tissue Engineering website (http://www.liebertpub.com/ten).
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers, is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy and HGT Methods, and Advances in Wound Care. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers website (http://www.liebertpub.com).
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215 http://www.liebertpub.com
Phone: (914) 740-2100 (800) M-LIEBERT Fax: (914) 740-2101
[ | 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.
What advances are driving clinical applications of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine?Public release date: 29-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, Mar 28, 2013Explosive growth in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has led to innovative and promising applications and techniques, many of which are now being tested in human clinical trials. Hot topics, research advances, and transformative publications that are driving the field forward are highlighted in a comprehensive overview of the field presented in Tissue Engineering, Part B, Reviews, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available on the Tissue Engineering website (http://www.liebertpub.com/ten).
Matthew Fisher, PhD and Robert Mauck, PhD, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, identify four key areas in which the field is progressing. The first main theme, in the area of tissue engineering, focuses on advances in grafts and materials, including human or animal tissue from which the cells are removed and the remaining scaffold is used to regenerate new tissues, as well as scaffolds made of new types of biomaterials. Second, in the field of regenerative medicine, the authors highlight the role of novel scaffolds and various growth and control factors in promoting tissue formation and, for example, bone healing.
In the article "Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: Recent Innovations and the Transition to Translation," (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ten.teb.2012.0723) the authors identify two additional areas that signal progress in the field: the increasing number of applications advancing into clinical trials; and the growing use of novel types of cells, such as induced pluripotent stem cells.
"Considering the rapid pace of growth and development in regenerative medicine, it is imperative that we fully consider recent advances," says Reviews Co-Editor-in-Chief John P. Fisher, PhD, Professor and Associate Chair, Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. "Dr. Matthew Fisher and Dr. Robert Mauck have wonderfully reviewed the efforts in the tissue engineering field over the past few years, highlighting advances in biomaterials, cell-based constructs, and translational endeavors."
###
About the Journal
Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online in three parts: Part A--the flagship journal; Part BReviews; and Part CMethods. Led by Co-Editors-In-Chief Antonios Mikos, PhD, Louis Calder Professor at Rice University, Houston, TX, and Peter C. Johnson, MD, Vice President, Research and Development, Avery Dennison Medical Solutions of Chicago, IL and President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC, Raleigh, NC, the Journal brings together scientific and medical experts in the fields of biomedical engineering, material science, molecular and cellular biology, and genetic engineering. Tissue Engineering is the Official Journal of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Tissue Engineering website (http://www.liebertpub.com/ten).
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers, is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy and HGT Methods, and Advances in Wound Care. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers website (http://www.liebertpub.com).
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215 http://www.liebertpub.com
Phone: (914) 740-2100 (800) M-LIEBERT Fax: (914) 740-2101
[ | 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.
(Reuters) - Animal rights advocates on Thursday sued U.S. regulators to correct what they say is misleading labeling on cartons of eggs that come from caged hens.
The lawsuit comes more than seven years after animal rights groups started petitioning the federal government to take action, with no success. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, alleges that claims made in unregulated egg labeling falsely portray a higher standard of animal treatment to consumers than actually exists, and that various government agencies, led by the Food and Drug Administration, have failed to address the plaintiffs' petitions on the matter, as required by law.
The lawsuit asks that egg producers nationwide be required to clearly label egg cartons with egg production methods, including the identification of "Eggs from Caged Hens," said Megan Backus, a spokeswoman for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit group that is one of the plaintiffs.
FDA officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Reporting By Carey Gillam; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Camping purists may prefer to eschew traditional toilet paper in favor of nature's very own brand of sticks and leaves, but to the untrained eye, becoming one with Mother Earth might might leave a lasting, painful reminder on those tender, poison-ivy-scrubbed nether regions. So for those of us who aren't quite ready to give up all the comforts of home, students at the Alberta College of Art and Design have put together this clever, waterproof toilet paper dispenser to make outdoor defecating a delight. More »
A wheelchair-bound man was awarded $8,000 by Disneyland after the "It's A Small World" ride broke, stranding him for a half hour while the theme song played continuously, according to an attorney for the plaintiff.
Jose Martinez, who suffers from panic?attacks and high blood pressure,?did not medically stabilize for three hours after the ride broke down in 2009, attorney David Geffen said.
"He has panic disorder and that was really what started everything rolling,"?Geffen said. "What caused the court concern, as well, because Disney was alerted about his panic problem and didn't call for the fire department right away."
Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown said the Anaheim theme park believes it provided appropriate assistance during the incident, and is disappointed that the court did not fully agree.
Martinez uses a wheelchair, and Geffen said the plaintiff's high blood pressure was aggravated by a need to urinate while he was stuck on the ride.
More news from NBCLosAngeles.com
While the other riders were able to get off, Martinez was stuck until he could access his wheelchair.
Half the award ordered last week is for pain and suffering, and the rest is for a violation of disability law, Geffen said.
Brown told NBC4 the violation concerning the height of the counter in Disneyland?s first aid station has been corrected.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
VANDERBIJLPARK, South Africa (AP) ? The brother of double-amputee athlete Oscar Pistorius pleaded not guilty to a charge of culpable homicide or negligent killing in a South African court Wednesday for the death of a woman in a road collision in 2008.
Carl Pistorius also pleaded not guilty to two alternative charges of driving in a reckless and inconsiderate manner. He wore a dark suit and was accompanied by his sister, Aimee. Oscar Pistorius, who was charged with murdering his girlfriend on Feb. 14, was not present. The Olympian hasn't been seen in public since he was granted bail at Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Feb. 22. His lawyers plan to challenge his bail restrictions on Thursday.
Initial proceedings in Carl Pistorius' case at Vanderbijlpark Magistrate's Court south of Johannesburg focused on a request by South Africa's national broadcaster, SABC, to show the trial proceedings live on national television or record them for later use.
Magistrate Buks du Plessis said reporters could attend the trial but turned down the SABC request, saying he wanted to guard against "emotional hype" and that any public interest in the trial stemmed only from the intense interest in the murder case against Oscar Pistorius. News photographers were not allowed to cover the trial while it was in session.
"He's not a celebrity in his own right," du Plessis said of Oscar's brother. Addressing Carl Pistorius, the magistrate then said: "Apologies to you, sir."
Carl Pistorius smiled and nodded.
Defense lawyer Kenneth Oldwadge said the legal team for Oscar Pistorius had been "overwhelmed by the media," and that similar press scrutiny would make it difficult to work in court during the older brother's case. Oldwadge cited a comment by the judge in Oscar Pistorius' bail hearing that the media treated the athlete like some kind of unusual "species" instead of a human being.
Prosecutors say Carl Pistorius was driving an SUV in March 2008 when he collided with a female motorcyclist. The woman, Marietjie Barnard, died in a hospital. Although the culpable homicide charge against Carl was initially dropped, it was reinstated this year because forensic evidence and reports from the accident scene became available, according to prosecutors.
The Pistorius family said last month that Carl deeply regretted the incident but insisted it was a "tragic accident." He was not under the influence of alcohol, the family said.
Oscar's legal team filed an appeal against some of his bail conditions on March 7, objecting to him being not allowed to travel outside of South Africa even though a magistrate said he was not a flight risk when granting him 1 million rand ($108,000) bail. They're also challenging an alcohol ban and a ruling that Pistorius cannot speak with residents at the gated estate where he shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp dead in the early hours of Valentine's Day.
The athlete denies murdering Steenkamp and says he shot her by mistake, fearing an intruder was in his home. Prosecutors say he killed her intentionally following an argument.
Oscar Pistorius must appear in court again on June 4.
An image produced by a scanning electron microscope shows two Tetrahymena cells in the act of mating.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
Biologists have known for decades that there are up to seven sexes of the single-celled organism known as Tetrahymena thermophila ? but they didn't know exactly how those different sexes "did it." Until now.
When it's time for Tetrahymena to mate, two organisms of different mating types recognize each other and get together to swap DNA. The results of the hookup are totally random. One critter may be mating type No. 1, the other may be mating type No. 3, and the two resulting progeny may turn out to be, um, mating type No. 6. How do they do that?
In the journal PLOS Biology, researchers report that the hooked-up organisms almost literally roll the genetic dice to determine what the sex of the progeny will be.
The researchers say the key to Tetrahymena's sexual proclivities lies in its double genome: Every cell has a "somatic" genome that manages its everyday life, plus a "germline" genome that serves a function similar to that of the ovaries or testes in humans. The germline genome contains incomplete gene pairs for each of six or seven sexes, depending on the cell line. (In this case, the cells came in six sexual flavors.)
Random sex When two microbes hook up, the progeny's newly created somatic genome latches onto one of those incomplete gene pairs, producing one complete sex-specific gene pair. The other sexy bits from the germline genome are wiped out. The random rearrangement leaves the resulting cells with exactly one complete sex-specific gene pair ? and one mating type.
"It's completely random, as if they had a roulette wheel with six numbers, and wherever the marble ends up is what they get," senior researcher Eduardo Orias, a research professor emeritus at the University of California at Santa Barbara, explained in a news release. "By chance they may have the same mating type as the parents ? but it's only by chance. It's a fascinating system."
Most of the time, Tetrahymena reproduces asexually, simply by having a parent cell divide into two progeny cells. But the organisms tend to pair up sexually when food is scarce, apparently as part of an evolutionary mechanism that takes advantage of genetic diversity. Sex-specific proteins on the surface of the cells serve as a signal that mating is likely to result in more diverse progeny. That's how two cells of the same mating type avoid pairing up with each other.
This type of mating process doesn't by itself increase the Tetrahymena population: Two cells hook up, and after recombining DNA, two cells separate again. "This is sex without reproduction," Orias said during a telephone interview. After mating, the recombined genetic information is passed down from parents to progeny through asexual reproduction ??until it's time for the next hookup.
What it means for humans Although the process sounds totally alien to us two-sex types, the lessons from Tetrahymena could have implications for human health.
"Tetrahymena has about as many genes as the human genome," Orias said in the news release. "For thousands of those genes, you can recognize the sequence similarity to corresponding genes in the human genome with the same biological function. That's what makes it a valuable organism to investigate important biological questions."
For example, Tetrahymena may reveal new tricks relating to the methods that cells use to recognize friend vs. foe. That could have implications for studying human immune response. Also, the way that the organisms rearrange their DNA may point to new strategies for fighting cancer, which often results from the faulty rearrangement of genetic material.
"The hope is that at some point, there may be useful applications for medicine," Orias told NBC News.
More about microbial marvels:
In addition to Orias, the authors of "Selecting One of Several Mating Types Through Gene Segment Joining and Deletion in Tetrahymena Thermophila" include Marcella D. Cervantes, Eileen P. Hamilton, Jie Xiong, Michael J. Lawson, Dongxia Yuan, Michalis Hadjitomas and Wei Miao.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Mar. 26, 2013 ? Increasing tourism and the spread of marine invasive non-native species is threatening the unique plant and marine life around the Galapagos Islands.
UK scientists from the Universities of Southampton and Dundee are currently investigating the extent of the problem following a grant from the UK Government's Darwin Initiative, which aims to protect biodiversity and promote sustainability around the world.
UK Environment Minister Richard Benyon said: "The UK has played a major role in supporting the establishment of the Galapagos Marine Reserve and our Darwin Initiative has funded a range of important projects protecting and enhancing both marine and terrestrial wildlife.
"Invasive non-native species can cause huge damage to local ecosystems and I am delighted that action is being taken to monitor this threat."
Project leader Dr Ken Collins, Ocean and Earth Science of University of Southampton based at the National Oceanography Centre said: "Tourism is partly to blame for the influx of invasive non-native species, due to the huge rise in ships and planes from mainland Ecuador bringing in pests. In recent years, it was realised that cargo ships were carrying disease-infected mosquitoes, which were attracted to the ship's bright white deck lights. Simply changing from conventional filament bulbs to yellow sodium lamps, along with fumigation in the hold has substantially reduced the threat.
"We are trying to protect marine biodiversity by identifying newly arrived species to the Galapagos, assessing if they have the potential to compete for space and overcome other species of algae and native corals."
White coral, which has already been reported off the mainland Ecuador coast (600 miles away), is also causing anxiety. It could easily hitch a lift on the frequent vessels supplying Galapagos tourists and residents. Already, two new algae species have been found in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, a World Heritage Site.
Another species causing concern and which has the potential to overwhelm natural populations is the Indian Ocean lionfish. This fish colonised the Caribbean through accidental release from an aquarium and has spread through the entire Caribbean in the last decade. Its rapacious appetite has led to the decimation of coral reef fish populations in the southern Caribbean. Lionfish can consume prey up to two thirds of their own length and data shows that they can eat 20 small wrasses in 30 minutes. Their stomachs can expand by up to 30 times in volume when consuming a large catch. The Panama Canal could provide a short cut to Ecuador's Pacific coast and then the Galapagos.
One of Ken Collin's PhD students is Fadilah Ali, who is at the University of Southampton studying how the lionfish is eating its way through coral reef fish populations in the southern Caribbean. For over a hundred years Southampton, one the UK's busiest ports has been receiving marine hitchhikers from around the world, changing the entire balance of its underwater marine plants and animals. One example is the Pacific Oyster, which is being studied in the Solent region by another of Ken's PhD students Steff Deane.
Prof Terry Dawson, SAGES Chair in Global Environmental Change at Dundee, added, "Invasive species are becoming one of the greatest threats to biodiversity on a global scale. The Galapagos islands are particularly vulnerable due to the fact that much of the indigenous wildlife have evolved over millions of years in the absence of predators, competition, pests and diseases, which makes them very susceptible to the negative impacts of aggressive non-native species.
"We are very pleased to have Inti Keith, one of the staff of the Charles Darwin Research Station, registered with the University of Dundee to study for her PhD on this important topic. Her extensive local knowledge of the marine environment of the Galapagos Islands gives us a head start in developing the research to tackle the issue.
The team have recently returned from the Galapagos, where they met the Ecuadorian Navy and DIRNEA, the national maritime authority, to discuss control measures and helped take part in the first underwater survey of the Galapagos capital port.
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Virus Filename: mshosts.exe.u~
Date Discovered: 10/30/2006 12:55:00
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Virus Filename: vakqolpf.exe.~
Date Discovered: 10/31/2006 03:33:00
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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ? When Teddy Jackson heard Sunday morning that the lone winning ticket for a $338.3 million Powerball drawing was sold in New Jersey, the Toms River resident combed through his 40 tickets and hoped for the best.
About 20 minutes later, after checking each ticket at least a couple times, Jackson realized he would have to go work on Monday.
"There were a few where I had one or two numbers, but that was it," the 45-year-old electrician said Sunday. "Now, I have to watch someone else get my money, buy the powerboat I would have gotten .... it was fun to dream about those things for a few minutes while I checked everything."
Details on where and when the winning ticket was purchased and other related information were not disclosed Sunday by New Jersey Lottery officials, who also would not say if anyone claiming to hold the ticket had contacted them as of Sunday afternoon.
They said information on the ticket would be released at a news conference on Monday morning at the lottery's headquarters in Lawrenceville.
Lottery officials say it was the fourth-largest jackpot in Powerball history. The numbers drawn were 17, 29, 31, 52, 53 and Powerball 31. A lump sum payout would be $221 million.
Retailers in New Jersey said the growing jackpot had spurred a big boost in ticket sales in recent days, and many people were willing to stand in long lines to get their tickets. Staffers at some stores said Sunday that they didn't know where the winning ticket had been sold.
"We are hoping that we sold it here because that would be a blessing for one of our customers in these tough times," said a worker at a Camden area convenience store.
Lottery officials said 13 tickets worth $1 million apiece ? matching the first five numbers but missing the Powerball ? were sold in Arizona, Florida (2), Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina and Virginia.
Powerball said on its website that the grand prize jackpot has now been reset to an estimated $40 million or a lump sum cash amount estimated at $25 million for Wednesday's next drawing.
No one had won the Powerball jackpot since early February, when Dave Honeywell in Virginia bought the winning ticket and elected a cash lump sum for his $217 million jackpot.
The largest Powerball jackpot ever came in at $587.5 million in November. The winning numbers were picked on two different tickets ? one by a couple in Missouri and the other by an Arizona man ? and the jackpot was split.
Nebraska still holds the record for the largest Powerball jackpot won on a single ticket ? $365 million. That jackpot was won by eight workers at a Lincoln meatpacking plant in February 2006.
Powerball is played in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The chance of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is about 1 in 175 million.
Powerball said on its website that the game is played every Wednesday and Saturday night when five white balls are drawn from a drum of 59 balls and one red ball is picked from a drum with 35 red balls. It added that winners of the Powerball jackpot can elect to be paid out over 29 years at a percentage set by the game's rules ? or in a lump sum cash payment.
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Public release date: 29-Mar-2013
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