Unraveling synesthesia

Tangled senses may have genetic or chemical roots, or both

Web edition : 5:56 pm

A sense-mixing condition in which people taste colors or see smells tends to run in families, and recent studies have homed in on a selection of genes that may contribute to the phenomenon, called synesthesia. Understanding the condition?s genetic basis might reveal why it has perpetuated in humans and help scientists develop cures for degenerative neurological diseases.

Only about 3 percent of the population claim to experience some form of synesthesia, but nearly half of those report having a close family member whose senses become similarly entangled. ?We know that synesthesia tends to travel in families,? says experimental psychologist David Brang of the University of California, San Diego who, along with V.S. Ramachandran, discusses synesthesia genetics in an article published online November 22 in PLoS Biology.

But children often exhibit different forms of synesthesia than do their parents. This ?complicates the picture and hints at the idea that more than one gene is involved,? says Brang.

A recent study led by neuroscientist David Eagleman from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston zeroed in on a region on chromosome 16, which he and his colleagues believe holds the gene responsible for the most common form of the condition, colored sequence synesthesia (where letters and numbers are associated with a specific color). ?We don?t know which gene it is yet, but we?re getting closer every day,? says Eagleman, who published his findings September 30 in Behavioural Brain Research.

It?s possible that the gene Eagleman?s group and others are searching for helps ?prune? connections in the brain, Brang suggests. Synesthesia may result from a defect in such a gene, leading to insufficient regulation or removal of the brain?s many neural bridges. ?It could be that everyone is born with global connectivity in the brain, and over time most undergo a refining process,? says Brang. Synesthetes may retain pathways linking different parts of the brain that most people shut down as they get older.

Another theory suggests synesthesia is caused not by excess wiring, but by a shift in the brain?s balance of chemicals. ?Synesthesia waxes and wanes depending on if a person is extremely tired or if they?re on drugs,? Eagleman says. Furthermore, people can have synesthetic experiences if they take hallucinogens or if they suffer severe damage to one sense. To him this suggests that everyone has the neural circuitry connecting the senses, and that people with synesthesia just happen to have innately stronger linkages in the brain.

Brang believes that a combination of both a faulty pruning gene and a unique chemical mixture ? usually treated as dueling hypotheses ? could cause senses to collide more frequently and dramatically in synesthetes.

Continued study of synesthesia could also provide a more complete picture of how a genetic change spins its way up to a change in brain function, and potentially help solve some major medical issues. ?Synesthesia provides a very powerful inroad into learning how different brain areas interact with each other,? says Eagleman. ?And a lot of interesting diseases have to do with networking problems in the brain.?


Found in: Body & Brain and Genes & Cells

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336404/title/Unraveling_synesthesia

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Review: Knightley a force of nature in `Method' (AP)

Spitting and stammering, clawing and convulsing, her jaw jutting forward and her eyes popping out of her head, Keira Knightley is a frightening force of nature in "A Dangerous Method." And this is only at the film's start.

It's a brazenly over-the-top performance, a huge gamble in depicting her character's mania and self-loathing in such intentionally off-putting fashion. But eventually it pays off as it makes sense in context, and especially as this woman evolves. For this is a David Cronenberg film ? although the pristine, cultured trappings might suggest otherwise ? and this time, Knightley is his monster.

Cronenberg has specialized in a peculiar brand of horror film over the decades, with physical mutations serving as the norm in such 1980s movies as "Videodrome" and "The Fly." Here, the transformation occurs within; it's psychological, invisible, but no less startling. Don't let the genteel, costume-drama niceties fool you.

Set in the early 20th century in Zurich and Vienna, "A Dangerous Method" follows the relationship between two of the leading voices in the development of psychoanalysis: Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen, a Cronenberg regular of late). Knightley plays Sabina Spielrein, the wealthy Russian who is as beautiful as she is tormented, and who ultimately comes between these two men.

Sabina goes to Jung as his patient, not only shaking up his dull, structured life but also providing him a bountiful source of research for the new "talking cure" he's crafting. (The film, written by the esteemed Christopher Hampton and based on his play "The Talking Cure," is itself based on the John Kerr book "A Most Dangerous Method.") Seems she's as screwed-up as she is because of spankings her father gave her starting in early childhood, punishment that she didn't just endure but actually began to welcome and find sexually stimulating. The buttoned-down Jung is fascinated from a scholarly standpoint but also secretly aroused as a man; Fassbender, with his proper dress and carriage, quietly conveys Jung's inner conflict, his percolating desire.

But Jung also turns to his mentor, Freud, for advice. Freud, of course, thinks every symptom is a manifestation of some sort of subconscious sexual impulse, so Sabina's case gives these two much to chew on. Mortensen, star of Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" and "A History of Violence," dials down his smoldering masculinity here for a performance that's dryly humorous, full of snarky vanity and droll little digs.

Eventually another troubled mind turns this three-way into a foursome when Freud sends Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel), a patient of his, to Jung for treatment. Otto is all id, impossible to control ? and Cassel does play casual menace beautifully ? but he also inspires Jung to follow his own impulses, even though they're at odds with the comfortable life he shares with his docile, moneyed wife (Sarah Gadon) and their children. Jung's interludes with Sabina provide sudden, stunning moments of sadomasochistic intensity, which punctuate a prevailing tone that might actually be too restrained. Their afternoons at her sparse apartment are thrilling, though, and they help maintain a wild streak in a film that is crisply and meticulously shot and edited.

As Sabina's behavior settles down ? as she morphs from patient and lover to student and therapist in her own right ? the relationship between Jung and Freud grows more bitter and volatile. The passive-aggressive series of letters they exchange provides some much-needed humor in this frequently serious, intellectual exercise. But they're onto something, though: As anyone who has ever been in therapy can attest, the danger is inside all of us, whether we're willing to face it or not.

"A Dangerous Method," a Sony Pictures Classics release, is rated R for sexual content and brief language. Running time: 99 minutes. Three stars out of four.

___

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G ? General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG ? Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 ? Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R ? Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 ? No one under 17 admitted.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_en_mo/us_film_review_a_dangerous_method

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3D Game Developer Rocket Ninja Raises $7.5 Million

Rocket Ninja |Rocket Ninja, a developer of social 3D entertainment, has raised $7.5 million in Series B funding led by European private investor Marcel Boekhoorn. This brings the company's total funding to $11 million. Founded two years ago, Rocket Ninja company enhances third-party games and applications with 3D technology. The company offers a proprietary 3D browser-based, content pipeline engine, Shr3d, is accessible across devices and applications. Shr3d can render complex scenes, features a robust content pipeline and provides a platform for publishing for games in a wide variety of styles and genres.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/0jcVTfe-tgQ/

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NASA's NPP satellite acquires first VIIRS image

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Nov-2011
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Contact: Rani Gran
Rani.C.Gran@nasa.gov
301-286-2483
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

GREENBELT, Md. -- The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite, NPP, acquired its first measurements on Nov. 21, 2011. This high-resolution image is of a broad swath of Eastern North America from Canada's Hudson Bay past Florida to the northern coast of Venezuela. The VIIRS data were processed at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, Md.

VIIRS is one of five instruments onboard the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Oct. 28. Since then, NPP reached its final orbit at an altitude of 512 miles (824 kilometers), powered on all instruments and is traveling around the Earth at 16,640 miles an hour (eight kilometers per second).

"This image is a next step forward in the success of VIIRS and the NPP mission," said James Gleason, NPP project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

VIIRS will collect radiometric imagery in visible and infrared wavelengths of the Earth's land, atmosphere, and oceans. By far the largest instrument onboard NPP, VIIRS weighs about 556 pounds (252 kilograms). Its data, collected from 22 channels across the electromagnetic spectrum, will be used to observe the Earth's surface including fires, ice, ocean color, vegetation, clouds, and land and sea surface temperatures.

"VIIRS heralds a brightening future for continuing these essential measurements of our environment and climate," said Diane Wickland, NPP program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington. She adds that all of NPP's five instruments will be up and running by mid-December and NPP will begin 2012 by sending down complete data.

"NPP is right on track to ring in the New Year," said Ken Schwer, NPP project manager at NASA Goddard. "Along with VIIRS, NPP carries four more instruments that monitor the environment on Earth and the planet's climate, providing crucial information on long-term patterns to assess climate change and data used by meteorologists to improve short-term weather forecasting."

NPP serves as a bridge mission from NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) of satellites to the next-generation Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program that will also collect weather and climate data. NASA Goddard manages the NPP mission for the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The JPSS program provides the NPP ground system and NOAA provides operational support.

During NPP's five-year life, the mission will extend more than 30 key long-term datasets that include measurements of the atmosphere, land and oceans. NASA has been tracking many of these properties for decades. NPP will continue measurements of land surface vegetation, sea surface temperature, and atmospheric ozone that began more than 25 years ago.

"The task now for the science community is to evaluate VIIRS performance and determine the accuracy of its data products," said Chris Justice a professor of geography at the University of Maryland, College Park, who will be using VIIRS data in his research.

"These long-term data records are critical in monitoring how the Earth's surface is changing - either from human activity or through climate change."

###

For more information about NPP, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/npp


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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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Rani Gran
Rani.C.Gran@nasa.gov
301-286-2483
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

GREENBELT, Md. -- The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite, NPP, acquired its first measurements on Nov. 21, 2011. This high-resolution image is of a broad swath of Eastern North America from Canada's Hudson Bay past Florida to the northern coast of Venezuela. The VIIRS data were processed at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, Md.

VIIRS is one of five instruments onboard the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Oct. 28. Since then, NPP reached its final orbit at an altitude of 512 miles (824 kilometers), powered on all instruments and is traveling around the Earth at 16,640 miles an hour (eight kilometers per second).

"This image is a next step forward in the success of VIIRS and the NPP mission," said James Gleason, NPP project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

VIIRS will collect radiometric imagery in visible and infrared wavelengths of the Earth's land, atmosphere, and oceans. By far the largest instrument onboard NPP, VIIRS weighs about 556 pounds (252 kilograms). Its data, collected from 22 channels across the electromagnetic spectrum, will be used to observe the Earth's surface including fires, ice, ocean color, vegetation, clouds, and land and sea surface temperatures.

"VIIRS heralds a brightening future for continuing these essential measurements of our environment and climate," said Diane Wickland, NPP program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington. She adds that all of NPP's five instruments will be up and running by mid-December and NPP will begin 2012 by sending down complete data.

"NPP is right on track to ring in the New Year," said Ken Schwer, NPP project manager at NASA Goddard. "Along with VIIRS, NPP carries four more instruments that monitor the environment on Earth and the planet's climate, providing crucial information on long-term patterns to assess climate change and data used by meteorologists to improve short-term weather forecasting."

NPP serves as a bridge mission from NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) of satellites to the next-generation Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program that will also collect weather and climate data. NASA Goddard manages the NPP mission for the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The JPSS program provides the NPP ground system and NOAA provides operational support.

During NPP's five-year life, the mission will extend more than 30 key long-term datasets that include measurements of the atmosphere, land and oceans. NASA has been tracking many of these properties for decades. NPP will continue measurements of land surface vegetation, sea surface temperature, and atmospheric ozone that began more than 25 years ago.

"The task now for the science community is to evaluate VIIRS performance and determine the accuracy of its data products," said Chris Justice a professor of geography at the University of Maryland, College Park, who will be using VIIRS data in his research.

"These long-term data records are critical in monitoring how the Earth's surface is changing - either from human activity or through climate change."

###

For more information about NPP, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/npp


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/nsfc-nns112211.php

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India opens door to foreign supermarket chains (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? India threw open its $450 billion retail market to global supermarket giants on Thursday, approving its biggest reform in years that may boost sorely needed investment in Asia's third-largest economy.

The world's largest retail group, Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), and its rivals see India's retail sector as one of the last frontier markets, where a burgeoning middle-class still shops at local, family-owned merchants.

Allowing foreign retailers to take stakes of up to 51 percent in supermarkets would attract much-needed capital from abroad and ultimately help unclog supply bottlenecks that have kept inflation stubbornly close to a double-digit clip.

"I think it will have a very deep and long-lasting impact on the Indian landscape," Raj Jain, CEO of Wal-Mart India, told CNBC TV18. "I think it will redefine the way consumers shop in India, but more importantly the way supply chains in India run."

Under fire for a slow pace of reform, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's embattled government appears to be slowly shaking off a string of corruption scandals to focus on policy changes long desired by investors.

"This is a very bold move and the economic reforms process is back on track." Rajan Mittal, vice chairman of India's Bharti Enterprises, which is Wal-Mart's partner, told reporters.

Millions of small retail traders vigorously oppose competing with foreign giants, potentially providing a lightning rod for criticism of the ruling Congress party ahead of crucial state elections next year.

Food Minister K.V. Thomas said the government will allow foreign direct investment of up to 51 percent in multi-brand retail - as supermarkets are known in India. It will also raise the cap on foreign investment in single-brand retailing to 100 percent from 51 percent, he added.

The new rules may commit supermarkets to strict local sourcing requirements and minimum investment levels aimed at protecting jobs, according to local media.

A heavyweight member of Singh's coalition government warned on Thursday it totally opposed opening the sector.

The move is politically risky. Fears of potential job losses could heighten popular anger at the Congress party ahead of key state polls next year that will set the stage for the 2014 general election.

But slowing growth and investment in India, with the rupee currency around historical lows and government finances worsening, may have spurred the government into action.

"Manmohan Singh, after all the scams and the impression of government paralysis, has realized it's time to take some bold steps. This is a very bold step that will please the middle class," said political analyst Amulya Ganguli.

POLITICAL OPPOSITION

India previously allowed 51 percent foreign investment in single-brand retailers and 100 percent for wholesale operations, a policy Wal-Mart and rival Carrefour, among others, had long lobbied to free up further.

"For international retailers, it will open up a $1.6 trillion market growing at 8-9 percent so it's a big business opportunity for all of them," said Thomas Varghese, CEO of Aditya Birla Retail, an Indian supermarket chain.

Indian retailers have operated supermarket chains in India for years, but their expansion has been hampered by a lack of funding and expertise as well as poor infrastructure which makes the cold storage of food transported around the country practically impossible.

Political opponents of the proposal, with an eye to the ballot box, argue an influx of foreign players - which could include Carrefour (CARR.PA) and Tesco Plc (TSCO.L) - will throw millions of small traders out of work in a sector that is the largest source of employment in India after agriculture.

India's biggest listed company, Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), was forced to backtrack on plans in 2007 to open Western-style supermarkets in the state of Uttar Pradesh after huge protests from small traders and political parties.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposes opening up the retail sector, arguing that letting in "foreign players with deep pockets" would bring job losses in both the manufacturing and service sectors.

"Fragmented markets give larger options to the consumers. Consolidated markets make the consumer captive," the BJP's leaders of the upper and lower houses of parliament said in a statement before the decision. "International retail does not create additional markets, it merely displaces (the) existing market."

(Additional reporting by Nigam Prusty and Krittivas Mukherjee; Editing by John Chalmers)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/bs_nm/us_india_retail

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U.S. hands over detainees to Iraq, with one exception (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? U.S. officials in Iraq have handed over to the Iraqi government all detainees in their custody as the Obama administration prepares to withdraw, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, with the exception of one high profile prisoner.

Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman, said the detainee handover had been completed as of Tuesday, with the exception of Ali Mussa Daqduq, who U.S. officials say is an operative for the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

"Since the process began a few years ago, we've been working to complete this transfer safely and securely in a way that wouldn't overburden the Iraqi system," Breasseale said.

"Mr. Daqduq remains in US custody. There are serious and ongoing deliberations about how to handle this individual in order to protect U.S. service members as well as broader US interests," he said.

The move to transfer all but one U.S. detainee to Iraqi authorities comes a little over a month before the deadline for withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq.

There are now around U.S. 20,000 troops left in Iraq. As commanders race to meet their deadline, only a small force of around 150 U.S. military officials, reporting to a State Department security office at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, are expected to be left on January 1.

The drawdown, laid out in a 2008 bilateral agreement, culminates more than eight years of major U.S. military presence in Iraq, where more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis are believed to have been killed in the sectarian and insurgent slaughter that followed.

Daqduq is suspected by U.S. officials of orchestrating a 2007 kidnapping that resulted in the killing of five U.S. military personnel. He must be transferred to Iraqi custody by the end of this year under terms of the U.S.-Iraq security agreement.

Some U.S. lawmakers fear Iraq will be unable to hold Daqduq, who was born in Lebanon, for long. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration would like the Iraqis to release him to U.S. custody.

Daqduq's fate is one of the remaining unanswered questions following President Barack Obama's decision to abandon efforts to secure an extended military presence in Iraq.

Violence in Iraq is a far cry from what it was at the height of the war in 2006-07, but bloodshed continues and political stability remains elusive.

If U.S. officials were able to remove Daqduq from Iraq, it's unclear where he would go. It appears highly unlikely Obama would want to add to the population at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, which he promised but has so far failed to close.

(Reporting by Missy Ryan; editing by Todd Eastham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111123/pl_nm/us_usa_iraq_detainees

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Correction: Balanced Budget Amendment story (AP)

WASHINGTON ? In a Nov. 18 story on a House vote on a proposed balanced budget amendment, Neil Kinkopf was erroneously identified as a law professor at the University of Georgia School of Law. He is a professor at Georgia State University College of Law.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_go_co/us_balanced_budget_amendment

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New magnetic-field-sensitive alloy could find use in novel micromechanical devices

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 23-Nov-2011
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Contact: Michael Baum
baum@nist.gov
301-975-2763
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Led by a group at the University of Maryland (UMd), a multi-institution team of researchers has combined modern materials research and an age-old metallurgy technique to produce an alloy that could be the basis for a new class of sensors and micromechanical devices controlled by magnetism.* The alloy, a combination of cobalt and iron, is notable, among other things, for not using rare-earth elements to achieve its properties. Materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) contributed precision measurements of the alloy's structure and mechanical properties to the project.

The alloy exhibits a phenomenon called "giant magnetostriction," an amplified change in dimensions when placed in a sufficiently strong magnetic field. The effect is analogous to the more familiar piezoelectric effect that causes certain materials, like quartz, to compress under an electric field. They can be used in a variety of ways, including as sensitive magnetic field detectors and tiny actuators for micromechanical devices. The latter is particularly interesting to engineers because, unlike piezoelectrics, magnetostrictive elements require no wires and can be controlled by an external magnetic field source.

To find the best mixture of metals and processing, the team used a combinatorial screening technique, fabricating hundreds of tiny test cantilevers -- tiny, 10-millimeter-long, silicon beams looking like diving boards -- and coating them with a thin film of alloy, gradually varying the ratio of cobalt to iron across the array of cantilevers. They also used two different heat treatments, including, critically, one in which the alloy was heated to an annealing temperature and then suddenly quenched in water.

Quenching is a classic metallurgy technique to freeze a material's microstructure in a state that it normally only has when heated. In this case, measurements at NIST and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) showed that the best-performing alloy had a delicate hetereogenous, nanoscale structure in which cobalt-rich crystals were embedded throughout a different, iron-rich crystal structure. Magnetostriction was determined by measuring the amount by which the alloy bent the tiny silicon cantilever in a magnetic field, combined with delicate measurements at NIST to determine the stiffness of the cantilever.

The best annealed alloy showed a sizeable magnetostriction effect in magnetic fields as low as about 0.01 Tesla. (The earth's magnetic field generally ranges around roughly 0.000 045 T, and a typical ferrite refrigerator magnet might be about 0.7 T.)

The results, says team leader Ichiro Takeuchi of UMd, are lower than, but comparable to, the values for the best known magnetostrictive material, a rare-earth alloy called Tb-Dy-Fe** -- but with the advantage that the new alloy doesn't use the sometimes difficult to acquire rare earths. "Freezing in the heterogeneity by quenching is an old method in metallurgy, but our approach may be unique in thin films," he observes. "That's the beauty -- a nice, simple technique but you can get these large effects."

The quenched alloy might offer both size and processing advantages over more common piezoelectric microdevices, says NIST materials scientist Will Osborn. "Magnetorestriction devices are less developed than piezoelectrics, but they're becoming more interesting because the scale at which you can operate is smaller," he says. "Piezoelectrics are usually oxides, brittle and often lead-based, all of which is hard on manufacturing processes. These alloys are metal and much more compatible with the current generation of integrated device manufacturing. They're a good next-generation material for microelectromechanical machines."

###

The effort also involved researchers from the Russian Institute of Metal Physics, Urals Branch of the Academy of Science; Oregon State University and Rowan University. Funding sources included the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation. SSRL is part of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy.

* D. Hunter, W. Osborn, K. Wang, N. Kazantseva, J. Hattrick-Simpers, R. Suchoski, R. Takahashi, M.L. Young, A. Mehta, L.A. Bendersky, S.E. Lofland, M. Wuttig and I. Takeuchi. Giant magnetostriction in annealed Co1-xFex thin-films. Nature Communications. Nov. 1, 2011. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1529

** Terbium-dysprosium-iron.



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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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 23-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Michael Baum
baum@nist.gov
301-975-2763
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Led by a group at the University of Maryland (UMd), a multi-institution team of researchers has combined modern materials research and an age-old metallurgy technique to produce an alloy that could be the basis for a new class of sensors and micromechanical devices controlled by magnetism.* The alloy, a combination of cobalt and iron, is notable, among other things, for not using rare-earth elements to achieve its properties. Materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) contributed precision measurements of the alloy's structure and mechanical properties to the project.

The alloy exhibits a phenomenon called "giant magnetostriction," an amplified change in dimensions when placed in a sufficiently strong magnetic field. The effect is analogous to the more familiar piezoelectric effect that causes certain materials, like quartz, to compress under an electric field. They can be used in a variety of ways, including as sensitive magnetic field detectors and tiny actuators for micromechanical devices. The latter is particularly interesting to engineers because, unlike piezoelectrics, magnetostrictive elements require no wires and can be controlled by an external magnetic field source.

To find the best mixture of metals and processing, the team used a combinatorial screening technique, fabricating hundreds of tiny test cantilevers -- tiny, 10-millimeter-long, silicon beams looking like diving boards -- and coating them with a thin film of alloy, gradually varying the ratio of cobalt to iron across the array of cantilevers. They also used two different heat treatments, including, critically, one in which the alloy was heated to an annealing temperature and then suddenly quenched in water.

Quenching is a classic metallurgy technique to freeze a material's microstructure in a state that it normally only has when heated. In this case, measurements at NIST and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) showed that the best-performing alloy had a delicate hetereogenous, nanoscale structure in which cobalt-rich crystals were embedded throughout a different, iron-rich crystal structure. Magnetostriction was determined by measuring the amount by which the alloy bent the tiny silicon cantilever in a magnetic field, combined with delicate measurements at NIST to determine the stiffness of the cantilever.

The best annealed alloy showed a sizeable magnetostriction effect in magnetic fields as low as about 0.01 Tesla. (The earth's magnetic field generally ranges around roughly 0.000 045 T, and a typical ferrite refrigerator magnet might be about 0.7 T.)

The results, says team leader Ichiro Takeuchi of UMd, are lower than, but comparable to, the values for the best known magnetostrictive material, a rare-earth alloy called Tb-Dy-Fe** -- but with the advantage that the new alloy doesn't use the sometimes difficult to acquire rare earths. "Freezing in the heterogeneity by quenching is an old method in metallurgy, but our approach may be unique in thin films," he observes. "That's the beauty -- a nice, simple technique but you can get these large effects."

The quenched alloy might offer both size and processing advantages over more common piezoelectric microdevices, says NIST materials scientist Will Osborn. "Magnetorestriction devices are less developed than piezoelectrics, but they're becoming more interesting because the scale at which you can operate is smaller," he says. "Piezoelectrics are usually oxides, brittle and often lead-based, all of which is hard on manufacturing processes. These alloys are metal and much more compatible with the current generation of integrated device manufacturing. They're a good next-generation material for microelectromechanical machines."

###

The effort also involved researchers from the Russian Institute of Metal Physics, Urals Branch of the Academy of Science; Oregon State University and Rowan University. Funding sources included the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation. SSRL is part of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy.

* D. Hunter, W. Osborn, K. Wang, N. Kazantseva, J. Hattrick-Simpers, R. Suchoski, R. Takahashi, M.L. Young, A. Mehta, L.A. Bendersky, S.E. Lofland, M. Wuttig and I. Takeuchi. Giant magnetostriction in annealed Co1-xFex thin-films. Nature Communications. Nov. 1, 2011. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1529

** Terbium-dysprosium-iron.



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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/nios-nma112311.php

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Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Safe for Long-Term Use, Study Finds (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Nov. 22 (HealthDay News) -- British researchers have good news for anyone taking the cholesterol-lowering medications known as statins: These drugs are effective and safe, even when used for long periods of time, they say.

The 11-year study found that simvastatin (brand name Zocor) reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease by almost one-quarter. In addition, the researchers found no increase in illness or deaths from cancer or other non-vascular causes.

"All those at increased vascular risk should start taking statins early and continue taking them long term," said the study's lead author, Dr. Richard Bulbulia, a consultant vascular surgeon and research fellow in the clinical trial service unit at the University of Oxford in England.

"This will maximize the reductions in heart attacks, strokes and other vascular diseases, and is safe," said Bulbulia, who added that the study's findings should provide reassurance to physicians and their patients.

There are numerous other drugs in this class of medication, and Bulbulia said, "it seems reasonable to assume that [this study's findings] should hold true for other currently prescribed statins." Other commonly used statins include Lipitor, Crestor and Mevacor.

Results of the study are published in the Nov. 23 online issue of The Lancet. Funding for the study was provided by the U.K. Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, Merck & Co. (manufacturer of Zocor) and Roche Vitamins.

The study looked at the long-term safety of simvastatin because some research suggested that the rates of some cancers and non-vascular health conditions were increased in people who had lower levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Initially, the study recruited more than 20,500 people who had a high risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular problems for a trial of simvastatin versus a placebo. The study volunteers were between 40 and 80 years old.

Half the group was randomly assigned to take 40 milligrams of simvastatin daily, while the other half took a placebo. At the end of the treatment phase of the trial, which lasted about five years, study participants were encouraged to continue on their study treatment for as long as another six years. About 17,500 of the initial participants continued in the follow-up phase, according to the report.

People taking simvastatin reduced their "bad" cholesterol an average of 1 millimole per liter over five years. This reduction translated into a 23 percent drop in the risk of major cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke, the researchers said. This benefit continued throughout the follow-up, reported the study.

When the researchers examined the data from the treatment and follow-up phases for evidence of any increases in non-vascular events, such as cancer, they found no significant differences between the two groups.

"Statin therapy appears safe, with no hazards, such as an excess risk of cancer or other major non-vascular morbidity or mortality emerging during the 11-year post-trial period," said Bulbulia.

Another expert praised statins' record.

"I think the statin drugs are an extraordinary class of medications, and a necessity in Western populations, where there is less physical exercise and more calorie consumption," said Dr. Howard Weintraub, clinical director of the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

"These are very safe drugs, and this study demonstrates that safety, and that the vascular protection continues well beyond the termination of treatment," said Weintraub.

"I think the picture for cardiovascular disease would be very different if these drugs weren't a part of our armamentarium," he added.

More information

Learn more about statins from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111124/hl_hsn/cholesterolloweringdrugssafeforlongtermusestudyfinds

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Taking bushmeat off the menu could increase child anemia, study finds

ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2011) ? A new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, finds that consuming bushmeat had a positive effect on children's nutrition, raising complex questions about the trade-offs between human health and environmental conservation.

They further estimated that a loss of access to wildlife as a source of food -- either through stricter enforcement of conservation laws or depletion of resources -- would lead to a 29 percent jump in the number of children suffering from anemia. Among children in the poorest households, the researchers added, there would be a three-fold increase in the incidence of anemia. Left untreated, anemia in children can impair growth and cognitive development.

The findings are to be published the week of Nov. 21 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"When thinking of creating protected areas for diversity, policymakers need to take into consideration how that will impact local people, both in livelihoods and from a health perspective," said study lead author Christopher Golden, who did the research while a graduate student in UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management and at the School of Public Health. "We need to find ways to benefit the local population in our conservation policies, not hurt them."

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide consume bushmeat a key source of bio-available iron, particularly for those living in rural communities. But when the menu includes endangered species, the researchers said, human nutritional needs must contend with efforts to manage wildlife resources.

Because bio-available iron is primarily sourced from meat, the researchers hypothesized that increased consumption of wildlife would result in a reduced incidence of clinical anemia. They tested their theory by monitoring the diet and hemoglobin levels of 77 children every month for a year.

The children, all under 12 years old, lived in the Makira Protected Area of Madagascar, one of the most critical biodiversity hotspots in the world. The Makira region is located in a remote part of eastern Madagascar, and its inhabitants rely heavily upon local wildlife -- such as lemurs and bats -- for food.

Children there who ate more bushmeat had higher levels of hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein in red blood cells, even after factoring in such variables as consumption of domesticated meat, household income, sex, age and nutritional and disease status, the researchers found.

Eating domesticated meat is prohibitively expensive for many households, while wildlife is free, the authors noted. They found that, among impoverished people, bushmeat accounted for up to 20 percent of overall meat consumption. While many of the wildlife species are illegal to hunt, enforcement in the protected areas can often be lax.

"It is clearly not environmentally sustainable for children to eat endangered animals, but in the context of remote, rural Madagascar, households don't always have a choice," said Lia Fernald, UC Berkeley associate professor in the School of Public Health, who worked with Golden to design the study. "In places where a diverse range of nutritious food is unavailable, children rely upon animal-source foods -- milk, eggs and meat -- for critical nutrients like fats, protein, zinc and iron. What we need for these children are interventions that can provide high-quality food sources that are not endangered."

The authors of the study, which received its primary support from the National Geographic Society Conservation Trust and the National Science Foundation (NSF), emphasized the need for site-specific and culturally relevant solutions.

"In our study area, domesticated meat is actually desirable, but unaffordable, so one possible solution is to support programs that allow the people there to raise chickens or goats," said Golden, now a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Center for the environment and a visiting scientist at Harvard's School of Public Health. "But in places like Africa's Gabon or Equatorial Guinea, bushmeat is a desirable luxury item, so simply offering people there domesticated chicken meat as an alternative may not be successful. The sustainability of any type of conservation project relies upon local buy-in."

In addition to Fernald, Golden was advised at UC Berkeley by associate professors Claire Kremen and Justin Brashares in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. All are co-authors of the study.

The intersection of human health, household income and wildlife populations has become an increasingly important focus of research at UC Berkeley, they said. For instance, the NSF recently awarded a five-year grant for a project led by Brashares to understand the links between human health, household wealth and natural resource use. Kremen, Fernald, Golden and other colleagues are also part of this project, which will take place at nine rural sites in Ghana, Kenya and Madagascar.

B.J. Rodolph Rasolofoniaina, a seven-year member of Golden's research team and a research associate at the Wildlife Conservation Society in Madagascar, was another co-author of the study.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. The original article was written by Sarah Yang, Media Relations.

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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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111121151548.htm

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