timwattsw: এপ্রিল 2013

মঙ্গলবার, ৩০ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Medicaid-insured children have limited access to dermatologists, SLU researchers find

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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Contact: Riya V. Anandwala
ranandwa@slu.edu
314-977-8018
Saint Louis University

ST. LOUIS A recent Saint Louis University study revealed that Medicaid-insured children with eczema, an inflammatory skin condition that affects 20 percent children in the United States, do not have easy access to dermatologists.

"This is a complex problem and a major health disparity in our country," said Elaine Siegfried, M.D., professor of pediatrics at SLU and the principal investigator of the study. "Thirty percent of all children seen in primary care offices have a skin problem. It's an everyday issue."

SLU researchers found that only 19 percent of all dermatologists in 13 metropolitan areas across the United States accept Medicaid-insured children. Of the 471 dermatologists who were listed as Medicaid-participating providers by Medicaid insurance plans, 44 percent declined to schedule a new Medicaid-insured child.

"The purpose of this study was to compare access to dermatologists for new pediatric patients with eczema insured by Medicaid verus private plans," said Sofia Chaudhry, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology at SLU and the first author of the study, which was published online in the Journal of American Academy of Dermatology last month.

In this secret-shopper survey, researchers posed as parents and called dermatology offices across the country to request an appointment for their child with eczema. Even when a dermatologist was accepting new Medicaid-insured children, these children were more often required to provide a written referral and/or identification numbers before an appointment date could be offered, in comparison to privately-insured children.

Eczema mainly affects children and is often a chronic condition in which the skin becomes itchy, reddened, cracked and dry. In addition to the physical effects, eczema also impacts the quality of life, causing emotional, behavioral and sleep disturbances.

"Since it can be a chronic debilitating disease, it's important for these children to be able to see a dermatologist," said Chaudhry, who is also a SLUCare dermatologist. "Improved access to dermatologists is important for treating eczema in order to enhance the well-being of affected children and to minimize the expensive cost of emergency care," Chaudhry added.
About 32 million children are insured with Medicaid health insurance plans, and that number is likely to expand by 16 to 18 million with the new health care reform.

Chaudhry and other researchers identified several possible factors that may discourage dermatologists from seeing a Medicaid-insured patient. These include a physician's concern of additional administrative paperwork, convoluted or delayed payments, a high no-show rate of patients, extra time required to address patients with complex social issues and possible medical-legal liabilities associated with them.

###

Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of Medicine has the distinction of awarding the first medical degree west of the Mississippi River. The school educates physicians and biomedical scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health care on a local, national and international level. Research at the school seeks new cures and treatments in five key areas: cancer, infectious disease, liver disease, aging and brain disease and heart/lung disease.

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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.

Medicaid-insured children have limited access to dermatologists, SLU researchers find Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Riya V. Anandwala
ranandwa@slu.edu
314-977-8018
Saint Louis University

ST. LOUIS A recent Saint Louis University study revealed that Medicaid-insured children with eczema, an inflammatory skin condition that affects 20 percent children in the United States, do not have easy access to dermatologists.

"This is a complex problem and a major health disparity in our country," said Elaine Siegfried, M.D., professor of pediatrics at SLU and the principal investigator of the study. "Thirty percent of all children seen in primary care offices have a skin problem. It's an everyday issue."

SLU researchers found that only 19 percent of all dermatologists in 13 metropolitan areas across the United States accept Medicaid-insured children. Of the 471 dermatologists who were listed as Medicaid-participating providers by Medicaid insurance plans, 44 percent declined to schedule a new Medicaid-insured child.

"The purpose of this study was to compare access to dermatologists for new pediatric patients with eczema insured by Medicaid verus private plans," said Sofia Chaudhry, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology at SLU and the first author of the study, which was published online in the Journal of American Academy of Dermatology last month.

In this secret-shopper survey, researchers posed as parents and called dermatology offices across the country to request an appointment for their child with eczema. Even when a dermatologist was accepting new Medicaid-insured children, these children were more often required to provide a written referral and/or identification numbers before an appointment date could be offered, in comparison to privately-insured children.

Eczema mainly affects children and is often a chronic condition in which the skin becomes itchy, reddened, cracked and dry. In addition to the physical effects, eczema also impacts the quality of life, causing emotional, behavioral and sleep disturbances.

"Since it can be a chronic debilitating disease, it's important for these children to be able to see a dermatologist," said Chaudhry, who is also a SLUCare dermatologist. "Improved access to dermatologists is important for treating eczema in order to enhance the well-being of affected children and to minimize the expensive cost of emergency care," Chaudhry added.
About 32 million children are insured with Medicaid health insurance plans, and that number is likely to expand by 16 to 18 million with the new health care reform.

Chaudhry and other researchers identified several possible factors that may discourage dermatologists from seeing a Medicaid-insured patient. These include a physician's concern of additional administrative paperwork, convoluted or delayed payments, a high no-show rate of patients, extra time required to address patients with complex social issues and possible medical-legal liabilities associated with them.

###

Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of Medicine has the distinction of awarding the first medical degree west of the Mississippi River. The school educates physicians and biomedical scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health care on a local, national and international level. Research at the school seeks new cures and treatments in five key areas: cancer, infectious disease, liver disease, aging and brain disease and heart/lung disease.

[ | 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/2013-04/slu-mch042913.php
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সোমবার, ২৯ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

James Bond studio to open 1st US facility in Ga.

ATLANTA (AP) ? The British film studio home to the James Bond franchise announced plans Monday for its first U.S. movie production facility at a site near Atlanta.

The large-scale film complex will be called Pinewood Atlanta and Pinewood will manage the facility under an agreement with a group of private investors. Plans call for the studio to be developed on 288 acres south of Atlanta in Fayette County and include at least five soundstages as well as production offices.

"Today's agreement is another step forward for the Pinewood brand internationally," said Ivan Dunleavy, CEO of Pinewood Shepperton PLC, which has studios in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Germany and Malaysia. Recent films shot at Pinewood Studios, based outside of London, include the upcoming Angelina Jolie film, "Maleficent," and "Jack Ryan," directed by Kenneth Branagh.

It's the fifth major studio development or expansion announced in Georgia in recent months. Last week, Atlanta-based developer Jacoby Development said it would build an estimated $1 billion multi-use project north of Atlanta that will include 12 soundstages as well as production offices and an arts and media school aimed at training the next generation of film industry employees.

The Pinewood project is a major coup for Georgia and opens the state to major, big-budget films that need large studio space. While Pinewood Studios has an office in Los Angeles, it chose the Southeast for its first U.S. production facility.

While California has numerous soundstages, not many have been built in recent years as the state has been grappling with the effects of runaway production and the lagging economy. A survey last year found California lost $3 billion in wages from 2004 to 2011 because of film and TV production moving to other states and countries, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Half the wages went to states, including Georgia, that offer tax incentives and rebates to the industry. Other states included New York, Louisiana and North Carolina.

"Pinewood Atlanta's location will contribute significantly to Georgia's growing reputation as a top draw for movie and television productions," Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said. "We welcome the business this world-renowned company will bring to the state and the jobs it will create for our crew base and supporting companies."

Last year, productions filmed in Georgia generated an estimated $3.1 billion in economic activity, a 29 percent increase from the year before. TV shows such as AMC's "The Walking Dead" film in Georgia, and recently "The Hunger Games" sequel, wrapped up in locations around Atlanta.

While studio developers building soundstages are not eligible for the state's generous tax credit program, the production companies making films are. Georgia currently provides a 20 percent tax credit for companies that spend $500,000 or more on production and post-production in the state, either in a single production or on multiple projects. Georgia also grants an additional 10 percent tax credit if the finished project includes a state promotional logo.

The Pinewood project is a joint venture with River's Rock LLC, which is an independently managed trust of the Cathy family, according to the studio. The Cathy family is known for establishing the Chick-fil-A fast-food restaurant empire based in Atlanta. The chain last year generated both criticism and support when company president Dan Cathy made comments against same-sex marriage. The company later said it would stop funding anti-gay marriage groups.

Pinewood will maintain a 40 percent interest in the venture and will also provide sales and marketing services under the agreement. Plans call for additional construction phases that could add several more soundstages. The project also includes a vocational job skills training program to help build up the state's workforce. Georgia already has an estimated 5,000 union and non-union professionals associated with the film industry along with more than 1,000 production suppliers and support companies.

County officials say 75 companies have been in contact saying they want to locate to the site and provide industry-related services.

"We are tremendously excited to be creating a world-class studio in the state of Georgia and are looking forward to working with Pinewood in the many years to come," said Jim Pace, managing partner of the investment group, River's Rock LLC. "The Pinewood brand is so well recognized in the global film industry and together there is a great opportunity to build an excellent facility that will attract the very best producers."

The project in Georgia has the possibility to be a major economic driver, allowing big-budget films to come to the state.

"It takes the state to a whole new level," said Matt Forshee, president of the Fayette County Development Authority, who has been closely involved in the project. "When you look at the films that have filmed in Georgia, for the most part, they have been smaller budget films, in the range of $20-25 million. This allows us to open up to larger budget productions, which means more expenditures occurring within the state, which becomes a bigger return on the investment on the state level for the tax credits."

___

Follow Christina Almeida Cassidy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Christina .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/james-bond-studio-open-1st-us-facility-ga-112110555.html

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Arbitrary iPad Swipes and Taps Make Accidental Art

When you check your email, when you play Temple Run, when you're selecting a song to listen to, you're making art. You just don't know it. In a series called Invisible Hieroglyphics, artists Andre Woolery and Victor AbiJaoudi highlight those hidden masterpieces you don't even mean to make.

Bombing shifts Mass. Senate race before primaries

This panel of 2013 file photos show Democrat candidates for U.S. Senate, Reps. Stephen Lynch, left, and Edward Markey, right, vying for their party's nomination in the special April 30, 2013 primary. (AP Photos)

This panel of March 2013 file photos show Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, from left, Gabriel Gomez, Michael Sullivan, and Daniel WInslow, vying for their party's nomination in the special April 30, 2013 primary. (AP Photos)

BOSTON (AP) ? Even before the explosions, polling suggested that Massachusetts voters weren't excited about the looming special election to replace former U.S. Sen. John Kerry.

But in the days after bombs ripped through the Boston Marathon's crowded streets, politics were all but forgotten as authorities launched an unprecedented manhunt and a region grappled with terror. It didn't matter that competitive primary contests were 15 days away; everything was put on hold.

"There are things that are more important than campaigning and that horrific event was clearly one of them," said U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, who is competing against U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch for the Democratic nomination to replace Kerry, now the secretary of state.

After suspending political activities for roughly a week, the candidates have been forced to walk a delicate balance as they engage voters ahead of Tuesday's Republican and Democratic primaries. They have largely avoided the site of the attack out of sensitivity for victims, but some have tweaked campaign advertising to address the bombing, highlighted their national security credentials and tried to use the sudden focus on terrorism to shift the direction of the race.

"It completely changed the landscape," Lynch aide Scott Ferson said of the bombing.

Indeed, a campaign once dominated by debates about the environment, health care and women's rights has become more focused on enemy combatants, Miranda rights and counterterrorism agencies. Some candidates welcomed the shift.

On the Democratic side, Lynch has seized on national security in recent days to attack Markey, thought to be the front-runner. One of the most memorable moments in last week's Democratic debate, just a week after the bombing, focused on support for federal security efforts

"Unlike my colleague Mr. Markey, I've actually voted for the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bills," Lynch charged.

Markey responded: "He's taking a page right out of the Karl Rove swift boat playbook, and it's very sad, especially just one week after what just happened in Boston, Cambridge and Watertown."

Through Tuesday's primary election, Markey outspent Lynch on television advertising $1.7 million to $1.2 million, according to advertising figures obtained by The Associated Press. But only Lynch focused on the bombings in a television ad that blanketed the state last week, while Markey focused on traditional Democratic priorities such as women's reproductive rights.

"We hold in our hearts those we lost, but we will get through this together and work toward a brighter day," Lynch says in the campaign ad.

But Lynch was forced to distance himself last week from a so-called robo-call made on his behalf by the leader of an ironworkers' union, who mentions the bombings while encouraging voters to support someone who "understands the day-to-day problems facing working families." It was an awkward moment for the Lynch campaign, which called on the group to stop the calls.

But it's unclear how many people were paying attention.

"Whatever momentum this primary had ? and it didn't have a lot ? was totally exhausted by the bombing," Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said.

Weeks before the blasts, Steve Koczela, president of MassINC Polling Group, found that more than 40 percent of likely Democratic voters and nearly 50 percent of likely Republican voters hadn't settled on a candidate.

"It just doesn't seem like ? even as of the last poll ? people were really paying attention to who was running," Koczela said. "There's room for any of the candidates to make a move."

On the Republican side in particular, the recent violence shifted the contours of the contest.

GOP candidate Gabriel Gomez, a former Navy SEAL, finished running the marathon minutes before the bombs exploded along the finish line, killing three and injuring more than 260.

Like other candidates, Gomez immediately pulled television ads off the air and suspended campaign activities. He said he was focused on being respectful as he eased back into campaigning the following weekend.

"We can't let the terrorists win and completely suspend what is fundamental right in the United States," Gomez said.

He charged that President Barack Obama's administration should have designated 19-year-old suspect Dzhohkar Tsarnaev an "enemy combatant" and tried him outside the traditional criminal justice system.

Another GOP candidate, Mike Sullivan, says the federal government should have denied Tsarnaev his Miranda rights, tried him as an enemy combatant and revoked his U.S. citizenship.

"Our first concern must always be preventing future terrorist acts against our people," said Sullivan, a former U.S. attorney whose campaign has been reminding people that he previously led the prosecution of shoe bomber Richard Reid.

Republican candidate Dan Winslow, a former judge and chief legal counsel under former Gov. Mitt Romney, said the entire GOP field has experience with national security.

"We've got a Navy SEAL, a former prosecutor and a former judge all in the field for Republicans," Winslow said. "I think we all have our own credentials. The key is, Who's got the better ideas? Who's got the better electability in June?"

The key may also be which candidate can get his supporters to get to the polls as the bombing continues to dominate attention in Massachusetts. State officials were already predicting a low turnout, likely less than 20 percent of eligible voters, even before the attack.

Wendy Becker, 45, of Newton, was among the thousands who visited the bomb site in Copley Square late last week. A registered voter, she said she didn't know the primaries were happening so soon.

"I didn't even know it was Tuesday and haven't cared," she said, noting that her little brother and brother-in-law ran in the marathon. She's been glued to the television coverage of the aftermath ever since.

The general election, featuring the primary winners, is scheduled for June 25.

___

Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-28-Massachusetts%20Senate-Bombing%20Impact/id-dbd6c86f551c4170ae39176ad23e9a0f

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Meet Some Hackers And Their Promising Projects At The Disrupt NY Hackathon

It's only been about six hours since our Disrupt NY Hackathon officially began, and we're starting to see our intrepid hackers hit their stride. Granted, some of them are a little farther along than others -- Darrell found one guy who made an Arduino-powered robot for physically testing apps and devices -- but there's still plenty of time to bring some of these wild-eyed designs to fruition. Let's take a peek at what everyone else is working on, shall we?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TRN2PbCd_qU/

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রবিবার, ২৮ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Before Bombs, a Battered American Dream

The New York Times:

It was a blow the immigrant boxer could not withstand: after capturing his second consecutive title as the Golden Gloves heavyweight champion of New England in 2010, Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev, 23, was barred from the national Tournament of Champions because he was not a United States citizen.

Read the whole story at The New York Times

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/27/tamerlan-tsarnaev-radicalization_n_3171702.html

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শনিবার, ২৭ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Police arrest Tupelo, Miss., man in ricin case

The FBI arrested Tupelo, Miss., resident Everett Dutschke in connection to the ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and two other officials, police said Saturday. NBC News' Kristen Welker reports.

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

A Tupelo, Miss. man has been arrested and charged in connection with the letters addressed to President Obama and a U.S. senator that initially tested positive for the poison ricin, police said Saturday.

James Everett Dutschke, 41, was charged with possessing and attempting to use ricin as a biological weapon, the Department of Justice announced. Dutschke could face life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

He was arrested in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday morning by federal agents. Investigators searched Dutschke?s home on Tuesday in the expanding case into the letters sent to the president, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker and Lee County, Miss., Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland.

The arrest took place at Everett?s home in Tupelo without incident, an FBI spokesperson said.

The possibility that Dutschke might be of interest to investigators was raised earlier in the week by an attorney representing another Mississippi resident, Paul Kevin Curtis, who was arrested on April 18. Charges against Curtis were dropped on Tuesday.

?I respect President Obama and love my country,? Curtis said at a news conference on Tuesday. ?I would never do anything to pose a threat to him or any other U.S. official.?

As Dutschke?s home was searched on Tuesday, he told reporters that he had nothing to do with the case.

?I guess Kevin got desperate,? Dutschke told the Jackson Clarion Ledger. ?I feel like he?s getting away with the perfect crime.?

?I don?t know anything about this. Where are the allegations coming from? Who made the allegations? The defense attorney for the accused,? Dutschke said.

Curtis, 45, a professional Elvis impersonator, was the first man arrested in the case. Wicker said that he recognized the man after his arrest, and had once hired the man he called ?very entertaining? to perform as Elvis at a party.

The letters sent to Obama and Wicker were both postmarked April 8, 2013, and mailed out of Memphis, Tenn. They end with an identical phrase, according to an FBI bulletin obtained by NBC News: ?to see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.?

The letters also ended with the message, ?I am KC and I approve this message.?

An FBI agent testified on Monday that a search of Curtis? home and vehicle did not turn up any ricin or castor beans, which are used to make the poison.

?There was no apparent ricin, castor beans, or any material there that could be used for the manufacturing, like a blender or something,? Agent Brandon Grant said in a courtroom in Oxford, Miss., according to the Associated Press.

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Syrian officials deny use of chemical weapons

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Two Syrian officials denied Friday that government forces had used chemical weapons against rebels, the first response from President Bashar Assad's regime to U.S. assertions that it had deployed such weapons during the 2-year-old civil war.

On Thursday, the White House and other top Obama administration officials said that U.S. intelligence had concluded with "varying degrees of confidence" that the Syrian government has twice used chemical weapons in its battle against rebels trying to oust Assad.

In the Syrian capital of Damascus, a government official said Assad's military "did not and will not use chemical weapons even if it had them." Instead, he accused opposition forces of using them in a March attack on the village of Khan al-Assal outside of the northern city of Aleppo, the largest in Syria. The official said the Syrian army had no need to use chemical weapons because it can reach any area in Syria it wants without them.

He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements.

His comments were echoed by Sharif Shehadeh, a Syrian lawmaker, who said the Syrian army "can win the war with traditional weapons" and has no need for chemical weapons.

Syria's official policy is not to confirm nor deny it has chemical weapons.

Shehadeh called the U.S. claims "lies" and likened them to false accusations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction ? a claim U.S. policymakers had used to justify the invasion of that country in 2003.

"What is being designed for Syria now is similar to what happened in Iraq when Colin Powell lied in the Security Council and said Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction prior to the U.S. invasion and occupation of that country," he said.

President Barack Obama has said that the use of chemical weapons would be a "red line" that could result in a significant military response. But the administration said on Thursday that the new revelation won't immediately change its stance on intervention.

Following the Khan al-Assal attack, the government called for the United Nations to investigate alleged chemical weapons use by rebels.

Syria, however, has still not allowed a team of experts into the country because it wants the investigation limited to the single Khan al-Assal incident while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging the Syrian government to accept an expanded U.N. probe into alleged chemical weapons use.

"They want this team to be similar to the inspection teams in Iraq that destroyed the country after it became clear that it was all a great lie," Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said in comments published on Syria's state-run news agency SANA.

On the streets of Damascus, the conflict dragged on Friday. Government troops pushed into two northern neighborhoods, triggering heavy fighting with rebels as they tried to advance under air and artillery support, activists said. The drive was the latest in a days-long offensive by government forces in and around the capital, an apparent bid to secure Assad's main stronghold against rebel challenges.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting between rebels and soldiers backed by pro-government militiamen was concentrated in the Jobar and Barzeh areas. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said troops also used mortars and multiple rocket launchers to bombard the nearby neighborhood of Qaboun.

SANA said troops killed five rebels in clashes near the main mosque in Jobar. It added that many other "terrorists," the term the government uses for rebels, were killed in the area and the nearby neighborhood of Zamalka.

The regime has largely kept the rebels at bay in Damascus, although opposition fighters control several suburbs of the capital from which they have threatened the heart of the city. Last month, government troops launched a campaign to repel the opposition's advances near the capital, deploying elite army units to the rebellious suburbs and pounding rebel positions with airstrikes.

The Observatory also reported clashes in Aleppo between rebels and Kurdish gunmen in the contested Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood. It also said there was fighting around the sprawling Abu Zuhour air base in the northwestern Idlib province.

Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011 but later degenerated into a civil war, which has left an estimated 70,000 dead.

___

AP reporter Zeina Karam and Bassem Mroue contributed from Beirut.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-officials-deny-chemical-weapons-113003061.html

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Markets trade lower on weak U.S GDP data

The Toronto stock market was trading lower today, with nearly all sectors down in response to lower-than-expected U.S. GDP numbers.

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped about 130 points, or one per cent of its value, to 12,198 late in the trading day on Friday afternoon.

The base metals sector saw the largest decline of 2.05 per cent following a strong week for the metals, mining and gold.

Oil was trading down 61 cents on the day at $93.03 a barrel in New York.

The loonie gained a little over a quarter of a cent to 98.31 cents US.

The drops followed reports from the U.S. government that its gross domestic product grew only 2.5 per cent in the first quarter of this year ? economists had expected a rate of as high as three per cent.

CIBC World Markets chief economist Avery Shenfeld said deep public sector cuts were responsible for the slower pace. "While this wasn't a weak quarter, it wasn't the bang up start to the year we had hoped for, and the signals from March suggested that we will only decelerate from here into the spring trimester," Shenfeld said.

The New York Stock Exchange was also down about 35 points, or less than half a per cent, to 9,152, after several companies, including Amazon.com, released weak earnings. The online retailer reported net income declined in the first three months of the year even though revenue increased 22 per cent.

The NASDAQ fell about 18 points to 3271.68, while the the Dow Jones Industrial dipped slightly, dropping about seven points to 14,694.08.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/markets-trade-lower-weak-u-gdp-data-173854384.html

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Arkansas group plans meeting on Exxon oil spill

MAYFLOWER, Ark. (AP) -- A group that's critical of the oil spill in central Arkansas from an Exxon Mobil Corp. pipeline is holding a meeting to mark the one-month anniversary of the accident.

The group Arkansans Concerned about Oil Pipelines is to gather at 6 p.m. Monday at Pearce Park in Mayflower.

Thousands of gallons of oil spilled into a cove off Lake Conway and more than 20 homes had to be evacuated.

Environmental testing has shown no oil has leaked into Lake Conway, but hazardous fumes have been registered in the evacuated area, where the cleanup continues.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arkansas-group-plans-meeting-exxon-161305931.html

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Movie review: Weak execution overwhelms message of 'Disconnect ...

This film image released by LD Entertainment shows Alexander Skarsg?rd, left, and Paula Patton in a scene from "Disconnect." (AP Photo/LD Entertainment)

It?s technology vs. hugs in "Disconnect," a heavy-handed compendium of interlocking stories about the perils of our wired society.

Jason Bateman plays Rich, a lawyer who?s too attached to his work email to notice his moody son Ben (Jonah Bobo) has taken up an online romance ? not knowing that the "girl" is actually two pranking classmates. One of the classmates, Jason (Colin Ford), is the son of Mike (Frank Grillo), a tech-savvy private detective who investigates when identity thieves wipe out the bank accounts of a struggling couple, Derek (Alexander Skarsgard) and Cindy (Paula Patton). One of Rich?s clients is a TV station where reporter Nina (Andrea Riseborough) has befriended Kyle (Max Thieriot), a hustler working for a sex-for-money website.

?Disconnect?

Opens Friday, April 26, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas and Century 16 (South Salt Lake); rated R for sexual content, some graphic nudity, language, violence and drug use - some involving teens; 115 minutes.

Director Henry Alex Rubin, a documentarian making his feature debut, makes an earnest attempt to illustrate the ways technology has alienated us from human interaction. But writer Andrew Stern?s hamfisted homilies, and the creaky devices linking the characters to each other, swallow up the good intentions with weak dialogue and plotting.

movies@sltrib.com; www.sltrib.com/entertainment

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment2/56204310-223/disconnect-classmates-jason-rich.html.csp

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শুক্রবার, ২৬ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

US economy accelerates at 2.5 percent rate in Q1

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. economic growth accelerated to an annual rate of 2.5 percent from January through March, buoyed by the strongest consumer spending in more than two years. Government spending fell, though, and tax increases and federal budget cuts could slow growth later this year.

The Commerce Department said Friday that the economy rebounded from an anemic 0.4 percent annual growth rate in the October-December quarter. Much of the gain reflected a jump in consumer spending, which rose at an annual rate of 3.2 percent. That was the biggest such jump since the end of 2010.

Growth was also helped by businesses, which responded to the greater demand by rebuilding their stockpiles. And home construction rose further.

But government spending fell at a 4.1 percent rate, led by another deep cut in defense spending. The decline kept last quarter's increase in economic growth below expectations of a 3 percent rate or more.

Many economists say they think growth as measured by the gross domestic product is slowing in the April-June quarter to an annual rate of just 2 percent. Most foresee growth remaining around that subpar level for the rest of the year.

GDP is the broadest gauge of the economy's health. It measures the total output of goods and services produced in the United States, from haircuts and hamburgers to airplanes and automobiles.

Across-the-board government spending cuts, which began taking effect March 1, have forced federal agencies to furlough workers, reduced spending on public projects and made businesses more nervous about investing and hiring.

Consumers' take-home pay has also fallen because President Barack Obama and Congress allowed a Social Security tax cut to expire. A person earning $50,000 a year has about $1,000 less to spend this year. A household with two high-paid workers has up to $4,500 less. Consumers' take-home pay is crucial to the economy because their spending drives roughly 70 percent of growth.

Americans appeared to shrug off the tax increase at the start of the year. They spent more in January and February, helped by a stronger job market. In part, that's why growth is expected to be solid in the first quarter.

But hiring slowed sharply in March. And consumers spent less at retail businesses, a sign that many were starting to feel the tax increase. Economists expect spending to stay weak in the second quarter as consumers adjust to their smaller paychecks.

Ben Herzon, an economist at Macroeconomics Advisers, said the tax increases could shave roughly 1 percentage point from growth this year. He also expects the government spending cuts to reduce growth by about 0.6 percentage point.

The drop in government spending cut growth in the January-March quarter by 0.8 percentage point. Three-fourths of that decline came from defense spending.

Income growth slowed sharply after a big surge in the final three months of 2012. The fourth-quarter gain had reflected a rush to pay dividends and make bonus payments before higher tax rates took effect on Jan. 1. Incomes were also held back in the first three months by the increase in Social Security taxes.

The big jump in consumer spending, along with slower income growth, meant that the saving rate fell to 2.6 percent of after-tax income in the first quarter. That was down from 4.7 percent in the fourth quarter.

The first-quarter growth figures will be revised twice more based on more complete data.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-26-Economy-GDP/id-afd6e0dceb494d2895dc69aa24fd41e4

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Oil production rises for Exxon, Conoco in first-quarter

By Anna Driver

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Quarterly results from Exxon Mobil Corp and ConocoPhillips on Thursday showed that while overall growth remained elusive, output rose in key basins in the United States where the oil and gas companies are spending heavily to grow crude production.

North American shale basins and the Gulf of Mexico are seen as more secure places for energy companies to invest because they typically offer a steady source of growth. Conoco said in December that more than half of its nearly $16 billion budget for 2013 will be spent in North America.

Exxon's U.S. oil and natural gas liquids production rose 2 percent in the first quarter, compared with an overall output decline of 3.5 percent.

"Lower production at Exxon is an ongoing trend, they need so many projects to come online to offset field decline," said Brian Youngberg, energy company analyst at Edward Jones. "But Conoco's shift toward the U.S. continues to proceed well."

Conoco said oil and gas production rose a combined 42 percent in the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and Texas' Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale. Conoco's total output from continuing operations edged 1 percent lower.

Fourth-largest U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum Corp said its daily domestic oil and gas production rose to a record 478,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), most of which was oil or natural gas liquids.

"WEAK" BEAT

Exxon's quarterly profit edged up, helped by higher earnings in its chemicals business but oil and gas production fell.

Earnings per share for the world's largest publicly traded oil company topped Wall Street expectations but the gains largely came after a big stock buyback reduced the number of outstanding shares.

Analysts at Credit Suisse characterized it as a "weak" beat in a note to clients.

Exxon said it will lower its quarterly share buyback to $4 billion in the second quarter, below the $5 billion in the first quarter.

First-quarter profit for the world's largest publicly traded oil company was $2.12 per share. Analysts, on average, expected the Irving, Texas, company to report a profit of $2.05 per share.

Conoco's first-quarter results met Wall Street expectations and Occidental beat the Street, helped by higher profits in its midstream and marketing business and lower costs, analysts said.

Conoco had a first-quarter profit of $2.1 billion, or $1.73 per share, down from $2.9 billion, or $2.27 per share, a year earlier.

Occidental reported a first-quarter net profit of $1.36 billion, or $1.68 per share, compared with $1.56 billion, or $1.92 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the Los Angeles company earned $1.69 per share, topping analysts' average estimate of $1.54 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of Exxon fell nearly 1 percent to $88.62. Conoco shares edged down 6 cents to $58.19 and Occidental was up 8 cents to $84.41.

(Reporting By Anna Driver; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-production-rises-exxon-conoco-first-quarter-152527150--finance.html

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Cost-effectiveness of helicopter transport of trauma victims examined

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have for the first time determined how often emergency medical helicopters need to help save the lives of seriously injured people to be considered cost-effective compared with ground ambulances.

The researchers found that if an additional 1.6 percent of seriously injured patients survive after being transported by helicopter from the scene of injury to a level-1 or level-2 trauma center, then such transport should be considered cost-effective. In other words, if 90 percent of seriously injured trauma victims survive with the help of ground transport, 91.6 need to survive with the help of helicopter transport for it to be considered cost-effective.

The study, published online this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, does not address whether most helicopter transport actually meets the additional 1.6 percent survivorship threshold.

"What we aimed to do is reduce the uncertainty about the factors that drive the cost-effective use of this important critical care resource," said the study's lead author, M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS, an instructor in the Division of Emergency Medicine. "The goal is to continue to save the lives of those who need air transport, but spare flight personnel the additional risks of flying -- and patients with minor injuries the additional cost -- when helicopter transport is not likely to be cost-effective." (Helicopter medical services generally bill patients' insurance providers directly, but patients may have to pay some of the bill out of pocket, or, if they're uninsured, possibly all of it.)

The study comes at a time when finding ways to cut medical costs has become a national priority, and the overuse of helicopter transport has come under scrutiny. Previous studies have shown that, on average, over half of patients transported by helicopter have only minor, non-life threatening injuries. For these patients, transport by helicopter instead of ground ambulance is not likely to make a difference in outcomes, and the additional risk and cost of helicopter transport outweighs the benefit, Delgado said.

In 2010, there were an estimated 44,700 U.S. helicopter transports from injury scenes to level-1 and level-2 trauma centers, with an average cost of about $6,500 per transport. The total annual cost is around $290 million. (Level-1 and -2 trauma centers are hospitals equipped and staffed to provide the highest levels of surgical care to trauma patients; level-1 centers offer a broader array of readily available specialty care, and also are committed to research and teaching efforts.)

Yet emergency helicopter transport sits in a cost-efficiency conundrum: It is most needed in remote, rural areas where transport by ground can take far longer than by air. These areas also tend to have sparser populations and therefore fewer calls for aid, making it difficult to recoup the overhead costs of maintaining helicopter services, Delgado said.

In some areas of the country, however, helicopters are automatically launched based on the 911 call. "Once ground responders and the helicopter arrive, sometimes they may find patients who are awake, talking and have stable vital signs," Delgado said. "The challenge is getting helicopters to patients who need them in a rapid fashion so the flight team can intervene and make a difference, but also know based on certain criteria who isn't sick enough to require air transport."

Most health economists consider medical interventions that yield a year of healthy life -- a measure known as a quality-adjusted life-year -- at a cost of between $50,000 and $100,000 to be cost-effective in high-income countries, such as the United States, Delgado said. If society is willing to pay as much as $100,000 toward helicopter transport for each QALY gained by the seriously injured patients, then helicopter transport needs to reduce the mortality rate of these patients by a modest 1.6 percent compared with ground transport to meet this threshold, the study says. Or it needs to improve long-term disability outcomes, the study says.

"If future studies find helicopter transport leads to improved long-term quality of life and disability outcomes, then helicopter transport would be considered cost-effective, even if no additional lives were saved," Delgado said. "Only a handful of studies have examined outcomes other than death, without definitive results."

For severely injured patients, helicopter evacuation to a trauma center is preferable if it is faster than ground transport. However, helicopter transport is more expensive and poses rare, but often fatal, safety risks -- specifically, the risk of crashing. Plus, it is often difficult for emergency responders to discern which patients would actually benefit from being flown in a helicopter rather than driven in an ambulance to a high-level trauma center. Until this study, the survival benefit needed to offset these potential drawbacks hasn't been clear.

"More accurately determining which patients have serious injuries and need to be flown is the most promising way to ensure you are getting a good value by using helicopter transport," Delgado said. "To do this, we should promote diligent use of the Centers for Disease Control's field triage guidelines among EMS responders. This would help ensure that injured victims who are transported by helicopter to a trauma center actually require trauma care. Secondly, we need to figure out whether the practice of autolaunching helicopters based on a 911 call makes sense. If the benefit of the faster response time outweighs the expenditure of resources on those patients who may not actually need helicopter transport, then autolaunching makes sense. If not, the practice should be reconsidered."

There is mixed evidence in the literature about the degree to which helicopter transport reduces mortality. It is therefore uncertain whether the routine use of helicopter transport is cost-effective for most patients in the United States when ground transport is also feasible. The study found that the cost-effectiveness also depends on regional variation in the costs of air and ground transport and the percentage of patients who are flown that have minor injuries.

"Of course, this study only applies to situations in which both ground and helicopter transport to a trauma center are feasible," Delgado added. "In situations where the only alternative is being taken by ground to a local nontrauma-center hospital or being flown to a trauma center, then clearly we want any patient with a suspicion of a serious injury flown to that trauma center."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

M. Kit Delgado, Kristan L. Staudenmayer, N. Ewen Wang, David A. Spain, Sharada Weir, Douglas K. Owens, Jeremy D. Goldhaber-Fiebert. Cost-Effectiveness of Helicopter Versus Ground Emergency Medical Services for Trauma Scene Transport in the United States. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2013.02.025

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/RUBDo2zsyzY/130425164502.htm

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Sad Robert De Niro Super Cut Makes Us Sad

FROM NEXT MOVIE Robert De Niro has made a reputation out of being one of the toughest on-screen actors to ever work in Hollywood. The list of rough characters he has played throughout his career extends far beyond almost any other actor. That's why it's so weird to see him cry. The folks over at [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/04/25/sad-robert-de-niro-super-cut/

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Behold, The Bastard Child Of Crocs: Crosskix

Source: http://www.getoutdoors.com/goblog/index.php?/archives/4592-Behold,-The-Bastard-Child-Of-Crocs-Crosskix.html

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Teen Mom 2 Recap: Jenelle Evans Probably Gets High on Heroin on National TV

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/teen-mom-2-recap-jenelle-evans-probably-gets-high-on-heroin-on-n/

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Acer announces Liquid E2 smartphone with quad-core processor, optional dual-SIM slots

Acer announces Liquid E2 smartphone with quadcore processor, optional dual SIM slots

We haven't heard much from Acer on the smartphone front since it announced a pair of handsets at Mobile World Congress, but the company's now back with another that it hopes will improve its standing in markets outside North America: the Liquid E2. Expectedly, this one is an update to the E1, and includes a bump up from a dual-core to a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, and the addition of an optional dual-SIM card slot (availability of it will depend on the particular market). Otherwise, you'll get a 4.5-inch qHD IPS display, an 8 megapixel camera that promises "zero shutter delay," the same dual-speakers 'round back found on the E1, and stock Jelly Bean for an OS. There's no word yet of this one making its way over here, but you can look for it to hit the UK, France, Germany and a number of other countries in early-to-mid-May for €229, or just under $300.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/24/acer-announces-liquid-e2-smartphone-with-quad-core-processor-op/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Orbital Sciences Antares test launch scrubbed after malfunction (+video)

Orbital Sciences has a contract with NASA to help resupply the space station with its Antares rocket. A test launch Wednesday was abandoned when a cord detached prematurely.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / April 17, 2013

Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket sits on the launch pad along the beach at the NASA facility on Wallops Island Va., Tuesday. A technical problem scrubbed the launch Wednesday.

Steve Helber/AP

Enlarge

The launch of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares rocket was scrubbed Wednesday afternoon after an umbilical cord to the rocket's second stage detached prematurely.

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The rocket is one of two commercial rockets NASA is relying on to resupply the International Space Station in the post-space-shuttle era.

Umbilical cords typically supply power and allow flight controllers to monitor a rocket's systems until shortly before launch, when these functions are transferred to the rocket's internal control systems.

The cord dropped from its connector about 12 minutes before the main engines were to ignite. The ground team must drain the fuel tanks before technicians can reach the rocket and pinpoint the cause of the failure.

The mission has been billed as a test flight. It aims to iron out any wrinkles in the processes and hardware used at the pad, in addition to demonstrating that the rocket can deliver a payload to orbit. In this case, the payload is a full-size, full-weight mock-up of the cargo carrier Orbital Sciences has designed to carry cargo.

"You learn a little bit form every launch attempt. So we'll take the lessons learned today and move into another launch attempt as soon as it's safe to do so," said John Steinmeyer, a senior project manager at Orbital Sciences.

The test represents a milestone Orbital Science must clear under its $1.9 billion contract with NASA for eight cargo missions through 2015. Successful completion of this mission represents an immediate check for $4 million from the agency, whose payouts to this point depend on the company passing specified milestones.

In all, Mr. Steinmeyer says, the contract with NASA represents "the most ambitious collaboration to date" for the company, which has been building and launching satellites and smaller rockets for more than 30 years.

The launch site, dubbed the the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport, is run by the Virginia Commonwealth Spaceflight Authority, a collaboration between Virginia and Maryland.

The spaceport was established in 1997 at the southern end of NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility. Participants broke ground on Antares's launch pad in June 2009.

Until now, rockets launched from Wallops Island have tended to be suborbital sounding rockets, whose motors burn solid fuel. Antares' installation required pumps, plumbing, and tank farm needed to store and deliver the chilled liquid fuel that Antares's main engines require.

The launch window for this test extends through April 21. If troubleshooting goes well, Orbital Sciences could try again as soon as Friday.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/SJhQISJwHG8/Orbital-Sciences-Antares-test-launch-scrubbed-after-malfunction-video

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CA-NEWS Summary

Canada thwarts "al Qaeda-supported" passenger train plot

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Monday they had arrested and charged two men with plotting to derail a Toronto-area passenger train in an operation they say was backed by al Qaeda elements in Iran. "Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or seriously injured," Royal Canadian Mounted Police official James Malizia told reporters.

French embassy in Tripoli hit by car bomb: embassy source

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - France's embassy in Libya has been hit by what appeared to be a car bomb, injuring two guards, an embassy official said on Tuesday. "There was an attack on the embassy. We think it was a booby trapped car," the official told Reuters.

North Korea demands recognition as nuclear arms state

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea demanded on Tuesday that it be recognized as a nuclear weapons state, rejecting a U.S. condition that it agree to give up its nuclear arms program before talks can begin. After weeks of tension on the Korean peninsula, including North Korean threats of nuclear war, the North has in recent days begun to at least talk about dialogue in response to calls for talks from both the United States and South Korea.

Security officials face questions over Boston Marathon bombings

BOSTON (Reuters) - Top security officials face a grilling from lawmakers on Tuesday over whether authorities who have charged one man with the Boston Marathon bombings may have overlooked warning signs two years ago flagging the other suspect. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was formally charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death at a bedside hearing on Monday in his hospital room, where he was recovering from gunshot wounds suffered in shootouts with police.

What next for Boston bombing suspect?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A decision to charge the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in a civilian rather than a military court means he will face the same legal process as other federal criminal defendants in U.S. courts. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was charged on Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death.

Japan nationalists near disputed isles, MPs visit shrine

EAST CHINA SEA (Reuters) - Japanese nationalists sailed a flotilla of boats on Tuesday in waters near islands at the centre of a row between China and Japan, putting further strain on Tokyo's tense ties with Beijing as a group of more than 160 Japanese lawmakers visited a shrine seen by critics a symbol of Japan's past militarism. Last year members of the same right-wing group landed on one of the disputed islets and triggered anti-Japanese protests in China, where lingering bitterness over Japan's wartime aggression has been rekindled in recent days.

Assad urges Lebanon to help fight his foes: Lebanese delegates

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad believes neighboring Lebanon cannot shield itself from the civil war in his country and that both states should fight his opponents, three members of a Lebanese delegation who visited Assad said on Monday. Lebanon, which suffered its own civil war from 1975 to 1990 and endured a military presence by its historically dominant neighbor for 29 years until 2005, has maintained a policy of "dissociation" from Syria's two-year-old conflict.

Insight: China consolidates sea claims as Asian diplomacy struggles

MASINLOC, Philippines (Reuters) - For decades, fishermen along the northwestern Philippine coast treated the teeming fishing grounds of the Scarborough Shoal as their backyard, less than a day's boat ride away. Now, they see it as a foreign country.

Palestinian prisoner in deal with Israel to end fast

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian prisoner held by Israel has agreed to end an on-off hunger strike on Monday which lasted for more than eight months in exchange for an early release, Palestinian officials told Reuters. The fast by Samer al-Issawi, 32, from a suburb of Jerusalem, had stoked weeks of street protests and concerns by Israel that his death might lead to mass unrest.

Irate Italian president to begin talks on new coalition

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's president launches urgent talks on Tuesday that could see a prime minister designated after two months of post-electoral stalemate that has weighed on a stagnant economy and alarmed Rome's partners in the euro. After directing an emotional blast of impatience on Monday at the very parliament which handed him an unprecedented - and heartily unwanted - second term as head of state at the weekend, 87-year-old Giorgio Napolitano has announced a "rapid round of consultations" with political leaders, starting early Tuesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-003014290.html

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Slow is scary if France quits nuclear : state institute

By Marion Douet

TOURNEMIRE, France (Reuters) - A long slow retreat from nuclear power in France or indecision over policy could be very risky as skilled staff retire and young people reject careers with an uncertain future, the state-funded atomic safety research institute said.

If France does decide to pull out of atomic energy it should follow Germany's example and do it quickly, or face operating with inadequate personnel, said Jacques Repussard, who heads the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN).

"You can't spread the exit of nuclear over half a century. It's very dangerous," he said, adding that this consideration partly explained Germany's decision to opt for a fast exit to avoid a loss of skills.

France's state-owned utility EDF, which operates its 58 nuclear reactors, faces a wave of retirements and will have to replace half its nuclear staff by 2017-18.

While Socialist President Francois Hollande has undertaken to cut the country's reliance on atomic energy to 50 percent of electricity consumption by 2025, from 75 percent now, he has not made clear what would happen after that date.

"If, in the next 10 years, there is no clarity on what the future of nuclear energy will be, we will inevitably see a trend in our universities of young people saying: 'I don't want to do that line of work'," Repussard told Reuters in an interview at one of its research centers in the south of France.

As part of the reduction drive in France, the world's most nuclear-reliant country, the government has announced that Fessenheim in the east, its oldest nuclear plant, will shut by the end of 2016.

While the government has allowed EDF to pursue building its first next-generation nuclear reactor in Flamanville in northwestern France, it abandoned the previous government's project to build another reactor at Penly in Normandy.

Germany decided to shut all its nuclear reactors by 2022, in a policy reversal drafted in a rush after Japan's Fukushima disaster in March 2011.

CONSIDERABLE RISKS

"It was criticized and we asked ourselves how they would do it... But it's wise because doing it slowly means taking considerable risks with the last operating reactors, as finding skilled subcontractors and companies manufacturing certain parts (could become problematic)," Repussard said.

But he admitted that France, where nuclear reactors are on average 26 years old, would never consider a fast exit even though this would be the safest approach if it decided to stop building new reactors or conducting research.

Another issue for the government to consider, he said, was that generic defects would probably appear in several reactors at around the same time, leading them to stop working abruptly.

This echoed comments earlier this month by Pierre-Franck Chevet, the head of France's nuclear safety agency, who said the country needed to ensure there was enough available electricity generation capacity to cope with the sudden outage of 5 to 10 nuclear reactors.

"One day we will see wear and tear appear in the steel of core tanks... and when we see it in one, we will probably see it in all the reactors of the same generation in a short space of time," Repussard said.

Electrabel, the Belgian subsidiary of GDF Suez, has had to close two reactors in Belgium after finding possible cracks in the core tanks that house them.

"To be 80 percent reliant on nuclear energy exposes us to that kind of situation," he added.

(Writing by Muriel Boselli; Editing by Anthony Barker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/slow-scary-france-quits-nuclear-state-institute-154437859--finance.html

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Antares Rocket Launch Is A Success, In Test Of Orbital Supply Vehicle

The Antares rocket sits ready, moments before launch at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

NASA TV

The Antares rocket sits ready, moments before launch at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

NASA TV

The Antares rocket launch is back on for 5 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon, as engineers and spectators look for the rocket to lift off from a launch pad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. A check of all systems at 10 minutes before its launch was positive.

Update at 5:10 p.m. ET. Orbit Achieved, Payload Separated:

Antares moved smoothly through its stages and achieved orbit, drawing applause from engineers watching in the control room. Soon after, it delivered its practice payload into orbit around the Earth. The test mission has about eight more minutes remaining.

Update at 5:02 p.m. ET. Liftoff Is A Success:

The Antares rocket soared above Wallops Island Sunday afternoon. Just before the engines were throttled down in Stage 1, the vehicle was traveling at more than 7,000 miles per hour. Our original post continues:

The mission had been postponed twice this week, after a connecting cable came loose on Wednesday and unfavorable winds forced a one-day delay on Saturday. Officials believe the launch may be visible from sites all along the eastern U.S. coast.

Around 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday, the rocket was approved for launch and fueling of the vehicle began, NASA reported.

The NASA facility is located just behind the beach on Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Antares is a product of a joint development project between NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp., based in Virginia.

As NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reported Wednesday, a successful test would eventually make Orbital "the second private company after California's SpaceX to dock with the space station."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/21/178289293/antares-rocket-launch-is-a-go-in-test-of-space-station-supply-vehicle?ft=1&f=1007

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Scientists map all possible drug-like chemical compounds: Library of millions of small, carbon-based molecules chemists might synthesize

Apr. 22, 2013 ? Drug developers may have a new tool to search for more effective medications and new materials.

It's a computer algorithm that can model and catalogue the entire set of lightweight, carbon-containing molecules that chemists could feasibly create in a lab.

The small-molecule universe has more than 10^60 (that's 1 with 60 zeroes after it) chemical structures. Duke chemist David Beratan said that many of the world's problems have molecular solutions in this chemical space, whether it???s a cure for disease or a new material to capture sunlight.

But, he said, "The small-molecule universe is astronomical in size. When we search it for new molecular solutions, we are lost. We don't know which way to look."

To give synthetic chemists better directions in their molecular search, Beratan and his colleagues -- Duke chemist Weitao Yang, postdoctoral associates Aaron Virshup and Julia Contreras-Garcia, and University of Pittsburgh chemist Peter Wipf -- designed a new computer algorithm to map the small-molecule universe.

The map, developed with a National Institutes of Health P50 Center grant, tells scientists where the unexplored regions of the chemical space are and how to build structures to get there. A paper describing the algorithm and map appeared online in April in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The map helps chemists because they do not yet have the tools, time or money to synthesize all 10^60 compounds in the small-molecule universe. Synthetic chemists can only make a few hundred or a few thousand molecules at a time, so they have to carefully choose which compounds to build, Beratan said.

The scientists already have a digital library describing about a billion molecules found in the small-molecule universe, and they have synthesized about 100 million compounds over the course of human history, Beratan said. But these molecules are similar in structure and come from the same regions of the small-molecule universe.

It's the unexplored regions that could hold molecular solutions to some of the world's most vexing challenges, Beratan said.

To add diversity and explore new regions to the chemical space, Aaron Virshup developed a computer algorithm that built a virtual library of 9 million molecules with compounds representing every region of the small-molecule universe.

"The idea was to start with a simple molecule and make random changes, so you add a carbon, change a double bond to a single bond, add a nitrogen. By doing that over and over again, you can get to any molecule you can think of," Virshup said.

He programed the new algorithm to make small, random chemical changes to the structure of benzene and then to catalogue the new molecules it created based on where they fit into the map of the small-molecule universe. The challenge, Virshup said, came in identifying which new chemical compounds chemists could actually create in a lab.

Virshup sent his early drafts of the algorithm's newly constructed molecules to synthetic chemists who scribbled on them in red ink to show whether they were synthetically unstable or unrealistic. He then turned the criticisms into rules the algorithm had to follow so it would not make those types of compounds again.

"The rules kept us from getting lost in the chemical space," he said.

After ten iterations, the algorithm finally produced 9 million synthesizable molecules representing every region of the small-molecule universe, and it produced a map showing the regions of the chemical space where scientists have not yet synthesized any compounds.

"With the map, we can tell chemists, if you can synthesize a new molecule in this region of space, you have made a new type of compound," Virshup said. "It's an intellectual property issue. If you're in the blank spaces on our small molecule map, you're guaranteed to make something that isn't patented yet," he said.

The team has made the source code for the algorithm available online. The researchers said they hope scientists will use it to immediately start mining the unexplored regions of the small molecule universe for new chemical compounds.

The research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (P50-GM067082).