Reported by Lauren Hughes, M.D.:
There's a new weapon in the war against malaria - the cell phone.
Harvard researchers found they could track the spread of malaria in Kenya using phone calls and text messages from 15 million mobile phones.
"Before mobile phones, we had proxies for human travel, like road networks, census data and small-scale GPS studies," said study author Caroline Buckee, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. "But now that mobile phones have spread throughout the world, we can start using these massive amounts of data to quantify human movements on a larger scale and couple this data with knowledge of infection risk."
Buckee and colleagues used mobile phone records from June 2008 and June 2009 to track the timing and origin of calls and texts among 15 million Kenyan mobile phone subscribers. They then compared the volume of subscribers in a particular region to that region's known malaria prevalence. By studying networks of human and parasite movement, the team could then determine primary sources of malaria and who was most likely to become infected.
The results, published Thursday in the journal Science, suggest that malaria transmission within Kenya is dominated by travel from Lake Victoria on the country's western edge to the more central capital city of Nairobi. And human carriers of the malaria parasite, who may not show symptoms, far outpace the flying limits of mosquitoes in endemic regions.
"How travelers acquire malaria elsewhere and bring it home has been mostly surmised from expert knowledge and judgment," said Dr. William Schaffner, professor and chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University. "Here we've used this unrelated cell phone technology."
With 89 percent of the estimated 1 million annual malaria deaths occurring in Africa, the Harvard findings may help researchers better understand how human travel patterns can spread disease and potentially lead to improved public health efforts to curb the mosquito-borne infection.
"I think it is so neat and extraordinarily imaginative," said Schaffner. "It has me bouncing up and down in my chair with excitement."
Buckee anticipates that mobile technology could change approaches to malaria control. Long-employed anti-malaria strategies, such as the use of insecticides, bed nets, medications and mosquito-habitat removal, could be augmented by warning texts sent to travelers en route to and from malaria hot spots.
"I suspect that some people will get antsy about big brother following you," Schaffner said, alluding to the privacy concerns that accompany mobile technology. "I'm more excited about the possibilities to prevent serious disease."
Buckee said efforts to eradicate malaria in sub-Saharan countries, including Kenya, has been challenged by tight budgets.
"They can't screen and treat everyone," she said. "[Mobile phones] could be really powerful tools for targeting resources with very practical applications."
Also ReadSource: http://news.yahoo.com/tracking-malaria-cell-phones-180050834--abc-news-health.html
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Elderly Jewish people agreed that their suffering was the perfect metaphor for the former Archbishop of Canterbury?s brave refusal to mind his own business.
Survivors of Auschwitz and Dachau said that, with the possible exception of drivers who compare traffic wardens to Hitler, George Carey?s remarks could not have been more appropriate or free from self-pity.
Chaim Berkowitz, 88, said: ?As a young man, I bore personal witness to the rampages of Kristallnacht. I remember thinking to myself, ?This is what I imagine being an Anglican in the 21st century will feel like. I must be as brave as them?.?
A spokesman for the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation, added: ?If the Holocaust is to have any meaning for future generations then it must be as an easy, go-to point of comparison for people who are being disagreed with.
?George Carey is right. Being criticised because you don?t like two men having bouncy fun is the same as the Final Solution. It?s as plain as the nose on Himmler?s face.
?If anything, the Warsaw ghetto could have done with being slightly worse, just to reinforce the Archbishop?s point.?
The spokesman added: ?Much as Jews were forced to wear yellow stars, so the anti-gay Christians will surely be made to wear sew-on patches by the liberal fascists.
?Probably a triangle. But what colour??
?
?
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Coming nearly on the anniversary of its US launch, the UltraViolet digital locker system is getting a boost in the UK from BBC Worldwide. The BBC's commercial wing is releasing four Blu-ray / DVD titles that are UltraViolet-enabled and is partnering with Warner-owned Flixster to allow users to redeem their copies. The digital versions are available via streaming and downloading for viewing on or offline, and the first four titles queued up consist of Doctor Who Series 7 Part One, Rollercoaster, a new Top Gear special and Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild. UltraViolet was already live in the UK, and recently announced it's spreading to cover Canada, Ireland and Australia. We'll see how users like the signup process with its multiple logins, but a quick check of previous Blu-ray releases didn't show any iTunes or Windows Media digital copies at all so at least they'll appreciate the option.
Continue reading BBC Worldwide announces first four Blu-ray / DVDs with UltraViolet digital copies
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
BBC Worldwide announces first four Blu-ray / DVDs with UltraViolet digital copies originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 06:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TOKYO (AP) ? Sales of Japanese vehicles nosedived in China during September as anti-Japanese sentiment flared over a territorial dispute that threatens to hobble what was a booming business relationship between Japan and its biggest export market.
Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that sales of new vehicles in China dropped 48.9 percent in September from a year earlier to 44,100 vehicles. Honda Motor Co. said September sales plunged 40.5 percent to 33,931 vehicles. China sales for Nissan Motor Co. slid 35.3 percent last month to 76,100 vehicles.
The stunning plunge in sales comes after Japan last month nationalized tiny islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, which had already been controlled by Tokyo but also claimed by Beijing.
The move set off violent protests in China, and a widespread call to boycott Japanese goods. Toyota and Honda dealerships were burned down in one city, and crowds shouting anti-Japanese slogans have gathered and smashed Japanese cars.
Although the flare-ups have calmed in recent weeks, it would still require courage to be seen in a Japanese car in some Chinese cities.
Japanese automakers temporarily closed some of their China factories. Production is back up this week ? but reduced to lower levels as demand has collapsed.
Last week, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. reported that China sales dived 63 percent to 2,340 vehicles in September. Mazda Motor Corp. said its sales in China sank 36 percent to 13,258 vehicles for the month.
A study by J.P. Morgan, released Tuesday, projected Japanese auto exports to China to crash 70 percent during the October-December period. It said that the export of auto parts will slip by 40 percent ? about the same drop estimated for exports of other consumer products such as electronics.
Combined, the aftermath of the territorial spat with China will shave 0.8 percentage point off Japan gross domestic product growth for the fourth quarter, sending Japan's overall economy slightly downward, instead of the initial forecast for flat growth, according to J.P. Morgan.
China, with its growing middle class, had been one of the emerging markets that Japanese automakers were counting on to boost sales amid a long stagnation in the domestic auto market.
Toyota, Japan's No. 1 auto company, which makes the Prius hybrid, Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models, had planned to sell 1 million vehicles in China this calendar year.
"But that may be very difficult to achieve," company spokesman Dion Corbett said.
___
Follow Yuri Kageyama: www.twitter.com/yurikageyama
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-consumers-spurn-japan-cars-amid-islands-row-115801506--finance.html
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SHFL Entertainment has entered an agreement with mobile and social technology company Joingo, to offer digital versions of the company?s popular casino table games on the Joingo Game Network.
Gavin Isaacs, SHFL Entertainment CEO, said, ?We are excited about working with Joingo. Their reputation for being innovators in mobile engagement is one of the reasons why we chose their platform as a method to deploy our games to our casino customers around the world.?
SHFL?s customers looking to engage their players with the company?s popular casino games can now do so with a branded mobile application deployed by Joingo.
Steve Boyle, Joingo CEO, commented, ?We?re thrilled to be working with SHFL to bring their game titles to casino operators within their branded mobile experience. The number of mobile devices in the hands of casino customers today surpasses the number of desktops. This trend is accelerating, making mobile the dominant force in patron engagement.?
Together, Joingo and SHFL will enable casino operators to offer their players an authentic Las Vegas-style gaming experience from within their branded mobile app, enjoying integrated casino games such as Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold?em, Fortune Pai Gow Poker and Casino War, with more titles on the way.
About SHFL EntertainmentThe company operates in legalized gaming markets across the globe and provides state-of-the-art, value-add products in the five distinct categories utility products, proprietary table games, electronic table systems, electronic gaming machines, and newly introduced iGaming.
More Information
Website: SHFL.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/SHFLentertainment
Twitter: @SHFLent
About Joingo?
Joingo is a mobile and social technology company based in California with offices in Nevada. Joingo?s Mobile Loyalty System integrates as the central hub connecting CRM systems with robust mobile marketing application services, extending the customer brand and leveraging it into increased revenue.
More Information
Website: Joingo.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/JoingoMobile
Twitter: @Joingo_com
Source: SHFL Entertainment, Inc.
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2012) ? The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 jointly to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.
The Nobel Prize recognizes two scientists who discovered that mature, specialised cells can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body. Their findings have revolutionised our understanding of how cells and organisms develop.
John B. Gurdon discovered in 1962 that the specialisation of cells is reversible. In a classic experiment, he replaced the immature cell nucleus in an egg cell of a frog with the nucleus from a mature intestinal cell. This modified egg cell developed into a normal tadpole. The DNA of the mature cell still had all the information needed to develop all cells in the frog.
Shinya Yamanaka discovered more than 40 years later, in 2006, how intact mature cells in mice could be reprogrammed to become immature stem cells. Surprisingly, by introducing only a few genes, he could reprogram mature cells to become pluripotent stem cells, i.e. immature cells that are able to develop into all types of cells in the body.
These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and cellular specialisation. We now understand that the mature cell does not have to be confined forever to its specialised state. Textbooks have been rewritten and new research fields have been established. By reprogramming human cells, scientists have created new opportunities to study diseases and develop methods for diagnosis and therapy.
Life -- a journey towards increasing specialisation
All of us developed from fertilized egg cells. During the first days after conception, the embryo consists of immature cells, each of which is capable of developing into all the cell types that form the adult organism. Such cells are called pluripotent stem cells. With further development of the embryo, these cells give rise to nerve cells, muscle cells, liver cells and all other cell types -- each of them specialised to carry out a specific task in the adult body. This journey from immature to specialised cell was previously considered to be unidirectional. It was thought that the cell changes in such a way during maturation that it would no longer be possible for it to return to an immature, pluripotent stage.
Frogs jump backwards in development
John B. Gurdon challenged the dogma that the specialised cell is irreversibly committed to its fate. He hypothesised that its genome might still contain all the information needed to drive its development into all the different cell types of an organism. In 1962, he tested this hypothesis by replacing the cell nucleus of a frog's egg cell with a nucleus from a mature, specialised cell derived from the intestine of a tadpole. The egg developed into a fully functional, cloned tadpole and subsequent repeats of the experiment yielded adult frogs. The nucleus of the mature cell had not lost its capacity to drive development to a fully functional organism.
Gurdon's landmark discovery was initially met with scepticism but became accepted when it had been confirmed by other scientists. It initiated intense research and the technique was further developed, leading eventually to the cloning of mammals. Gurdon's research taught us that the nucleus of a mature, specialized cell can be returned to an immature, pluripotent state. But his experiment involved the removal of cell nuclei with pipettes followed by their introduction into other cells. Would it ever be possible to turn an intact cell back into a pluripotent stem cell?
A roundtrip journey -- mature cells return to a stem cell state
Shinya Yamanaka was able to answer this question in a scientific breakthrough more than 40 years after Gurdon?s discovery. His research concerned embryonal stem cells, i.e. pluripotent stem cells that are isolated from the embryo and cultured in the laboratory. Such stem cells were initially isolated from mice by Martin Evans (Nobel Prize 2007) and Yamanaka tried to find the genes that kept them immature. When several of these genes had been identified, he tested whether any of them could reprogram mature cells to become pluripotent stem cells.
Yamanaka and his co-workers introduced these genes, in different combinations, into mature cells from connective tissue, fibroblasts, and examined the results under the microscope. They finally found a combination that worked, and the recipe was surprisingly simple. By introducing four genes together, they could reprogram their fibroblasts into immature stem cells!
The resulting induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) could develop into mature cell types such as fibroblasts, nerve cells and gut cells. The discovery that intact, mature cells could be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells was published in 2006 and was immediately considered a major breakthrough.
From surprising discovery to medical use
The discoveries of Gurdon and Yamanaka have shown that specialised cells can turn back the developmental clock under certain circumstances. Although their genome undergoes modifications during development, these modifications are not irreversible. We have obtained a new view of the development of cells and organisms.
Research during recent years has shown that iPS cells can give rise to all the different cell types of the body. These discoveries have also provided new tools for scientists around the world and led to remarkable progress in many areas of medicine. iPS cells can also be prepared from human cells.
For instance, skin cells can be obtained from patients with various diseases, reprogrammed, and examined in the laboratory to determine how they differ from cells of healthy individuals. Such cells constitute invaluable tools for understanding disease mechanisms and so provide new opportunities to develop medical therapies.
Sir John B. Gurdon was born in 1933 in Dippenhall, UK. He received his Doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1960 and was a postdoctoral fellow at California Institute of Technology. He joined Cambridge University, UK, in 1972 and has served as Professor of Cell Biology and Master of Magdalene College. Gurdon is currently at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge.
Shinya Yamanaka was born in Osaka, Japan in 1962. He obtained his MD in 1987 at Kobe University and trained as an orthopaedic surgeon before switching to basic research. Yamanaka received his PhD at Osaka City University in 1993, after which he worked at the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco and Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan. Yamanaka is currently Professor at Kyoto University and also affiliated with the Gladstone Institute.
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azfamily.com
Posted on October 7, 2012 at 12:09 PM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Mormon church will lower its minimum age requirements for missionaries from 19 to 18 for men and from 21 to 19 for women, the faith's president announced Saturday.
Thomas S. Monson said at the church's 182nd semiannual General Conference that the historic change is expected to significantly increase the missionary force of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - currently more than 55,000 worldwide.
The new age requirements will take effect immediately and replace limits that had been in effect for decades. Mormon men serve full-time, two-year missions, while women serve 18-month missions.
"I am not suggesting that all young men will - or should - serve at this earlier age," Monson said, adding it's an option based on individual circumstances and a determination by local church leaders.
Missionaries must be graduates of high school or its equivalent, he said.
Monson also said the church will build temples in Tucson, Ariz., and Arequipa, Peru. In Arizona, three temples already are in operation and two others - in Phoenix and Gilbert - were under construction. The state is home to about 400,000 church members.
The temple in Arequipa will be the third in Peru, which has more than 500,000 church members. Members in Arequipa, Peru's second most populous city, currently attend temple services about 500 miles away in Lima.
The church, with its more than 14.1 million members, has 139 operating temples worldwide and has another 29 planned or under construction.
At a later news conference, Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said church leaders were unsure how many more missionaries would serve due to the lowered age requirements but they expect a boost.
He also said leaders considered extending the length of missions for women to two years, but decided to see how the lower age goes first before possibly taking that step, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Tens of thousands of Mormon faithful were gathering in Salt Lake City through Sunday for the general conference.
Source: http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/Mormon-church-lowers-age-limit-for-missionaries-173035741.html
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