It came out of nowhere, and after months of waiting ? it?s finally out. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 is the company?s next flagship phone, and it features a combination of all the things that you would actually look for in a phone.
Earlier this morning, the company?s CEPNATSOC (Chief Executive in Product Design, Naming and All Things Samsung Of Course), Samson Sung, was asked in an interview on why they would release such a product. Here is his reply:
?We already have a lot of great products out in the market already ? and yet, people are complaining; why can?t we just produce a device that had it all? And so we made the Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3.?
Originally, the display of the device should have been at 8-inches, however they thought of adding the Mini moniker to it, so they had to make it the same size as the Mega 6.3 instead ? 6.3-inches.
In addition to that insanely small form factor, Samsung puts the sensor found on the S4 Zoom and adds it to the device, calling it larger than life. Also, as inspired by the S4 Active, the phone is waterproof and dustproof.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 will come in Exynos Quad, Exynos Octa, Snapdragon 600, 800 & Tegra 4 variants ? which will be released in different time frames for your convenience. When they were asked on which ones will receive software updates faster, all they said was ?it will arrive someday?.
A part of the interview as well, Sung also mentioned that they didn?t want to keep it all for the Galaxy S5; they wanted to produce as much S4 devices so that everyone will have an S4.?This is the most perfect strategy ever since customers will now be extremely satisfied, and this is expected to save the company from its falling shares of stocks and slowing down S4 sales.
The Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 will be available this month for a price of Php39,990 (not to be confused with the Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Note that is in the works ? will be released next month).
Editor?s Note: Just in case it was not clear, this is a satire.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The lead plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California's same-sex marriage ban tied the knot at San Francisco City Hall on Friday, about an hour after an appeals court cleared the way for same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses for the first time in 4 1/2 years.
State Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, of Berkeley. The couple sued to overturn the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban along with Jeff Katami and Paul Zarrillo, of Burbank, who planned to marry Friday evening at Los Angeles City Hall.
"They have waited and fought for this moment," Harris said. "Today their wait is finally over."
Harris declared Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, "spouses for life," but during their vows, they took each other as "lawfully wedded wife."
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving a stay it imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 worked its way through the courts.
Sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban said the appeals court's decision was "disgraceful."
Anthony Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups, called the 9th Circuit's order an "outrageous act" by judges and politicians determined to overturn Proposition 8.
He called the court's decision an "abuse of power to manipulate the system and render the people voiceless."
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that the sponsors of California's voter-approved gay marriage ban lacked authority to defend the measure in court once Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown refused to do so.
The decision lets stand a trial judge's declaration that the ban, approved by voters in November 2008, violates the civil rights of gay Californians and cannot be enforced.
Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side in a legal dispute has 25 days to ask the high court to rehear the case. The court said earlier this week that it would not finalize its ruling in the Proposition 8 dispute until after that time had elapsed.
It was not immediately clear whether the appeals court's action would be halted by the high court.
June 29 (Reuters) - Teenager Jordan Spieth and second-year tour player Roberto Castro shared a one-shot lead heading into the third round of the AT&T National after completion of the weather-interrupted second round on Saturday.
The 19-year-old Spieth and fellow American Castro finished their rounds on Friday and stood at seven-under-par 135 at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.
Argentina's Andres Romero, who had five holes to finish for the second round when the threat of lightning suspended play on Friday, made a late push to join them but bogeyed the par-five 16th on his way to a 66 and was one shot back on 136.
Tied at five-under 137 were big-hitting Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts (68) and South Korea's Lee Dong-hwan (66).
The cut came at three over par with Hunter Mahan among those failing to qualify for the third round. The former U.S. Ryder Cup player, who shot 72 for five-over 147, has been in the top 12 here four times, including a runner-up showing in 2009.
John Merrick aced the par-three seventh hole on Saturday with a six-iron from 178 yards but that was not enough for him to make the cut as he posted an even-par 71 for 147.
Castro and Spieth, a former University of Texas standout, are both seeking their first PGA Tour win, with Spieth competing on a sponsor's exemption this week.
(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York,; Editing by Gene Cherry)
June 29, 2013 ? University Hospitals (UH) Eye Institute will be one of the first medical centers in the United States to offer the Argus? II Retinal Prosthesis System ("Argus II").
The Argus II is the first and only "bionic eye" to be approved in countries throughout the world, including the U.S. It is used to treat patients with late stage retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Argus II was developed by Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., located near Los Angeles.
In preparation for the launch of Argus II later this year, implanting centers, including UH, will soon begin to accept consultations for patients with RP. UH is one of a select number of medical centers in 12 major markets in the nation, and the only one in Cleveland and the state of Ohio, chosen by Second Sight to offer the Argus II, which received FDA approval earlier this year.
Argus II works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera, housed in the patient's glasses, into a series of small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina's remaining cells resulting in the corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. Patients then learn to interpret these visual patterns thereby regaining some visual function.
"This is a remarkable breakthrough," said Suber S. Huang, MD, MBA, Director, UH Eye Institute's Center for Retina and Macular Disease, who also served as the Independent Medical Safety Monitor for clinical trials of the system and gave the summary closing to the FDA Ophthalmic devices panel.
"The system offers a profound benefit for people who are blind from RP and who currently have no therapy available to them. Argus II allows patients to reclaim their independence and improve their lives."
RP is a rare inherited, degenerative eye disease that often results in profound vision loss to the level of bare light perception or no light perception. It affects nearly 100,000 Americans. Noted Cleveland businessman and professional sports owner Gordon Gund is blind from this disease.
"We are thrilled that several of the nation's top hospitals will be the first to offer Argus II to patients in the U.S.," said Brian Mech, Vice President of Business Development, Second Sight. "After an intensive and difficult selection process, these sites were chosen for their cutting-edge approach to medicine and unparalleled commitment to patient care. We are confident that RP patients seeking treatment at these centers will benefit greatly from the best-in-class services these sites provide."
Argus II had more than 20 years of work in the field, three clinical trials, more than $100 million in public investment by the National Eye Institute, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, and an additional $100 million in private investment.
The triple crown of marketing is getting the right content to the right person at the right time.
Insightera has raised $6.5 million to help marketers achieve this goal. The startup provides a business-to-business marketing platform that personalizes content in real time. It collects data on a visitor?s industry, location, and digital behavior, and automatically presents targeted, customized content. The goal is to boost conversion rates and accelerate customer acquisition.
CEO Mickey Alon told VentureBeat that most of the sales process happens before actual contact is made. Before meeting with a company, most people will check out its website for background information. This is a chance to make a strong first impression.
?Prospects make initial decisions, educating themselves and learning about your offerings from your website, while still comparing you to the competition,? Alon said. ?The best marketing is done when it?s most relevant. The control is moving to the buyer?s side and this requires a new playbook for marketers.?
Insightera applies data analytics and machine learning to automate the personalization process. It integrates with any CMS and requires no coding. Businesses gain greater insight into potential clients that are visiting their site and the platform helps them make the most of the opportunities.
Advancements in the areas of big data and machine learning have made it possible for businesses to ramp up their marketing efforts using technology, which leads to better sales and improved returns-on-investments. Accordingly, marketing automation is a hot space right now. Digital marketing firm ExactTarget was just acquired by Salesforce for $2.5 billion, and Oracle bought cloud marketing company Eloqua for $871 million in December 2012. Marketing automation company Marketo went public in May and raised $79 million. ?
Insightera?s biggest competitor Demandbase recently closed $15 million to push for growth. It works with large companies such as Adobe, HP, Dell, and Informatica. Insightera?s customers include smaller names like Hortonworks, Landa, Prophix, Cellbrite, Powtoon, and LiveU. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Opus Capital led this Series A round, which will support customer acquisition and product development.
Insightera is headquartered in San Mateo with a team in Israel. It has 25 employees.
We're playing a massive amount of post-WWDC, inter-Talk Moble catchup here this week, and to take it to it's most extreme level, we're not only doing both the iMore show and ZEN & TECH today, but we're doing two episodes of each of them! That's four podcasts back-to-sorta-back today! Here are the details!
IRIS, the new NASA space telescope, is being sent aloft to study a region of the sun's atmosphere physicists previously had little interest in, so much so the region was dubbed the 'ignorosphere.'
By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / June 27, 2013
This undated image shows technicians preparing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for the launch of IRIS, the new NASA space telescope, that will study the sun. NASA is set to launch the space telescope Thursday night.
Randy Beaudoin/VAFB/NASA/AP
Enlarge
NASA is set to launch a space telescope Thursday night that is designed to explore the sun's version of terra incognita ? a region between the sun's lower atmosphere and its expansive outer atmosphere blandly dubbed the interface region.
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Indeed, for understanding some of the sun's processes, solar physicists didn't need to know what was going on there, earning it the title "ignorosphere," notes Ed DeLuca, a solar physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
But over the past five to 10 years, as physicists developed models to more fully represent the sun's processes, it became clear that the ignorosphere could be ignored no longer.
It's the region that generates most of the ultraviolet light the sun delivers to Earth, affecting everything from sun tans to atmospheric chemistry and climate. It's thought to play a key role in the solar outbursts that can disrupt power grids and satellite navigation. And, mysteriously, it's the region where temperatures in the sun's atmosphere soar.
At the top of the sun's lower atmosphere, known as the chromosphere, temperatures rise from about 10,000 degrees at the sun's surface to roughly 36,000 degrees. Processes in the interface region ? only about 200 miles thick ? kick those temperatures up to 1 million degrees F., feeding an even hotter outer atmosphere, or corona. There, temperatures are comparable to those in the sun's core.
Getting a handle on what's happening in the interface region is challenging because the region is so thin and because the processes taking place there are so fast. And with more mass than all the matter in the corona or in the solar wind currently flowing through the solar system, the interface region's density can make it hard to observe.
Hints of just how fast processes are have come from Japan's Hinode orbiting solar observatory.
Taking one image every 4 seconds, the craft delivered data that allowed researchers to produce a short video starring a dense forest of hair-like tendrils of plasma rising through the interface region. These represent the central cores of jets of hot gas that rise to give the top of the interface region the look ? from a distance ? of rolling hills.
The hair-like cores are about 100 miles wide and some 10,000 miles long, said Alan Title, a solar physicist with Lockheed Martin Corporation and the mission's lead scientist, during a prelaunch briefing. They rocket up through the transition region at about 270,000 miles an hour, and last for about 10 minutes before vanishing, only to be replaced by fresh tendrils.
The images Hinode captured were scientifically useful. But seeing them, scientists also realized "for the first time that four-second exposures and just one wavelength [of light] wasn't enough" to see the full structures, Dr. Title said
NASA?s new solar telescope, known as IRIS, aims to remedy that.
As satellites go, it's a lightweight. Some seven feet long, the craft and its telescope weigh 403 pounds. IRIS is set for launch between 10:27 and 10:32 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time tonight from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast. It's being launched on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket ? a launch vehicle carried aloft underneath an L-1011 jet, then release for its final ascent.
IRIS has 20 times the ability of previous telescopes to see fine details. Its instrument, an imaging spectrometer, can make measurements 20 times faster than its predecessors. And it is designed to gather ultraviolet light at several groups of wavelengths.
And that's a good thing, Dr. DeLuca says, because if the models are correct, processes in the interface zone are nothing if not complicated.
From the sun's core through its surface, the photosphere, the sun's hot gas is dense enough to twist and contort the star's magnetic fields, DeLuca explains. Up in the corona, the reverse it true, with magnetic fields working their will on the hot gas, giving shape to the enormous, glowing coronal loops that appear there.
In the ignorosphere, however, magnetic fields hold sway over gas in some areas. In others, the opposite happens. And still other regions neither gas nor magnetism holds sway over the other, DeLuca says. The shapes of structures in this region are equally complex.
Still, to understand the corona's energy budget and the role magnetic fields play in transferring energy from the sun's surface to the corona, getting a handle on the interface region is important.
"It's all gotta go through the chromosphere and interface region," he says.
ACerS' Ross Coffin Purdy Award will recognize the article, which was the first to describe a facile method to produce a large family of two-dimensional layered, early transition metal carbides and nitrides, labeled MXenes. The latter are so-called because they are produced by selective etching of the A-group element ? aluminum in this case ? from an even larger family of layered solids labeled the MAX phases. The MAX phases were in turn discovered by Michel Barsoum, Ph.D., and co-workers roughly 15 years ago at Drexel University.
Barsoum, A.W. Grosvenor and Distinguished Professor at Drexel University, and Distinguished University Professor and Trustee Chair Yury Gogotsi, Ph.D., also from Drexel Materials, were co-authors of the award-winning paper, along with students Michael Naguib, Olha Mashtalir and Joshua Carle, together with collaborators from Linkoping University in Sweden.
The annual Ross Coffin Purdy Award recognizes researchers "judged to have made the most valuable contribution to ceramic technical literature." The ACerS board unanimously agreed to grant the honor to the Barsoum and Gogotsi team's work. The award will be presented in October during the Materials Science and Technology Conference in Montr?al, Canada.
MXenes have potential uses in a broad range of energy and electronics applications, including lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors. The materials' layered structure resembles that of graphene ? hence the suffix ene ? a two-dimensional sheet of carbon, but its chemistry is more complex and more versatile.
"The research reported in this paper is an exciting advance in this new family of materials for which the applications are just beginning to be envisioned," said Dawn Bonnell, Ph.D., Trustee Chair Professor in the Materials Science Department of the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center. Bonnell nominated Barsoum's group for the honor.
In their ACS Nano paper "Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Carbides," the authors acknowledge funding from the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of Vehicle Technologies of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? Kevin Rudd will be sworn in as Australian prime minister on Thursday, three years and three days after he was ousted from the nation's leadership in an internal government showdown.
Julia Gillard tendered her resignation as prime minister to Governor-General Quentin Bryce Wednesday night after losing a ballot of ruling lawmakers to Rudd 57 votes to 45.
Bryce revealed she took late night legal advice on whether she should swear Rudd in as her replacement.
A minority government such as Gillard led has not been seen in Australian federal politics since World War II and the ruling Labor Party's leadership change has raised unique constitutional questions.
While Rudd has the support of his party, he does not necessarily have the support of a majority of lawmakers in the 150-seat House of Representatives.
He could face a vote of no confidence before Parliament adjourns Thursday night for what is likely to be the last time before elections.
Gillard had set Sept. 14 as the election date. But Rudd has given no indication of whether he would stick with that timetable.
A loss of a no-confidence motion could trigger an election as early as Aug. 3.
Acting Solicitor-General Robert Orr wrote to Bryce that Rudd should be commissioned as prime minister.
Bryce's secretary Stephen Brady wrote that she wants an assurance from Rudd " that he will announce his appointment at the first possible opportunity to the House of Representatives on order to give the House the opportunity for whatever, if any, action it chooses to take."
Wednesday's leadership ballot was forced by government lawmakers hoping to avoid a huge defeat in upcoming elections.
Gillard lacked Rudd's charisma, and although many Labor lawmakers preferred her style, her deepening unpopularity among voters compelled a majority to seek a change ahead of looming elections.
Labor depends on independents and a minor party for its fragile ruling coalition, but Rudd appeared capable of retaining it after two independent lawmakers who did not back Gillard's government said they would support his.
Rudd gave no indication of new policy directions or when he expected Australians would go to the polls.
"In 2007, the Australian people elected me to be their prime minister and that is a task I resume today with humility, with honor and with an important sense of energy and purpose," he said.
A second amyloid may play a role in Alzheimer's disease, UC Davis researchers findPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phyllis Brown phyllis.brown@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu 916-734-9023 University of California - Davis Health System
A protein secreted with insulin travels through the bloodstream and accumulates in the brains of individuals with type 2 diabetes and dementia, in the same manner as the amyloid beta ?? plaques that are associated with Alzheimer's disease, a study by researchers with the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center has found.
The study is the first to identify deposits of the protein, called amylin, in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease, as well as combined deposits of amylin and plaques, suggesting that amylin is a second amyloid as well as a new biomarker for age-related dementia and Alzheimer's.
"We've known for a long time that diabetes hurts the brain, and there has been a lot of speculation about why that occurs, but there has been no conclusive evidence until now," said UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center Director Charles DeCarli.
"This research is the first to provide clear evidence that amylin gets into the brain itself and that it forms plaques that are just like the amyloid beta that has been thought to be the cause of Alzheimer's disease," DeCarli said. "In fact, the amylin looks like the amyloid beta protein, and they both interact. That's why we're calling it the second amyloid of Alzheimer's disease."
"Amylin deposition in the brain: A second amyloid in Alzheimer's disease?" is published online in the Annals of Neurology.
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that increases the risk for cerebrovascular disease and dementia, a risk that develops years before the onset of clinically apparent diabetes. Its incidence is far greater among people who are obese and insulin resistant.
Amylin, or islet amyloid polypeptide, is a hormone produced by the pancreas that circulates in the bloodstream with insulin and plays a critical role in glycemic regulation by slowing gastric emptying, promoting satiety and preventing post-prandial spikes in blood glucose levels. Its deposition in the pancreas is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes.
When over-secreted, some proteins have a higher propensity to stick to one another, forming small aggregates, called oligomers, fibrils and amyloids. These types of proteins are called amyloidogenic and include amylin and ??. There are about 28 amyloidogenic proteins, each of which is associated with diseases.
The study was conducted by examining brain tissue from individuals who fell into three groups: those who had both diabetes and dementia from cerebrovascular or Alzheimer's disease; those with Alzheimer's disease without diabetes; and age-matched healthy individuals who served as controls.
The research found numerous amylin deposits in the gray matter of the diabetic patients with dementia, as well as in the walls of the blood vessels in their brains, suggesting amylin influx from blood circulation. Surprisingly, the researchers also found amylin in the brain tissue of individuals with Alzheimer's who had not been diagnosed with diabetes; they postulate that these individuals may have had undiagnosed insulin resistance. They did not find amylin deposits in the brains of the healthy control subjects.
"We found that the amylin deposits in the brains of people with dementia are both independent of and co-located with the A?, which is the suspected cause of Alzheimer's disease," said Florin Despa, assistant professor-in-residence in the UC Davis Department of Pharmacology. "It is both in the walls of the blood vessels of the brain and also in areas remote from the blood vessels.
"It is accumulating in the brain and we found signs that amylin is killing neurons similar to ??," he continued. "And that might be the answer to the question of 'What makes obese and type 2 diabetes patients more prone to developing dementia?'"
The researchers undertook the investigation after Despa and his colleagues found that amylin accumulates in the blood vessels and muscle of the heart. From this evidence, he hypothesized that the same thing might be happening in the brain. To test the hypothesis he received a pilot research grant through the Alzheimer's Disease Center.
The research was conducted using tissue from the brains of individuals over 65 donated to the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center: 15 patients with Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes; 14 Alzheimer's disease patients without diabetes; and 13 healthy controls. A series of tests, including Western blot, immunohistochemistry and ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) were used to test amylin accumulation in specimens from the temporal cortex.
In contrast with the healthy brains, the brain tissue infiltrated with amylin showed increased interstitial spaces, cavities within the tissue, sponginess, and blood vessels bent around amylin accumulation sites.
Despa said that the finding may offer a therapeutic target for drug development, either by increasing the rate of amylin elimination through the kidneys, or by decreasing its rate of oligomerization and deposition in diabetic patients.
"If we're smart about the treatment of pre-diabetes, a condition that promotes increased amylin secretion, we might be able to reduce the risk of complications, including Alzheimer's and dementia," Despa said.
###
Additional study authors are Kaleena Jackson, Gustavo A. Barisone, Elva Diaz and Lee-Way Jin, all of UC Davis.
The study was funded by National Science Foundation grant CBET 1133339 (F.D.); American Diabetes Association grant 1-13-IN-70 (F.D.); the University of California, Davis Alzheimer's Disease Pilot Project Program (F.D.); National Institute on Aging award P30AG010129 (C.D.); and a Vision Grant from the University of California, Davis Health System (F.D.).
The UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center is one of only 29 research centers designated by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging. The center's goal is to translate research advances into improved diagnosis and treatment for patients while focusing on the long-term goal of finding a way to prevent or cure Alzheimer's disease. Also funded by the state of California, the center allows researchers to study the effects of the disease on a uniquely diverse population. For more information, visit alzheimer.ucdavis.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A second amyloid may play a role in Alzheimer's disease, UC Davis researchers findPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phyllis Brown phyllis.brown@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu 916-734-9023 University of California - Davis Health System
A protein secreted with insulin travels through the bloodstream and accumulates in the brains of individuals with type 2 diabetes and dementia, in the same manner as the amyloid beta ?? plaques that are associated with Alzheimer's disease, a study by researchers with the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center has found.
The study is the first to identify deposits of the protein, called amylin, in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease, as well as combined deposits of amylin and plaques, suggesting that amylin is a second amyloid as well as a new biomarker for age-related dementia and Alzheimer's.
"We've known for a long time that diabetes hurts the brain, and there has been a lot of speculation about why that occurs, but there has been no conclusive evidence until now," said UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center Director Charles DeCarli.
"This research is the first to provide clear evidence that amylin gets into the brain itself and that it forms plaques that are just like the amyloid beta that has been thought to be the cause of Alzheimer's disease," DeCarli said. "In fact, the amylin looks like the amyloid beta protein, and they both interact. That's why we're calling it the second amyloid of Alzheimer's disease."
"Amylin deposition in the brain: A second amyloid in Alzheimer's disease?" is published online in the Annals of Neurology.
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that increases the risk for cerebrovascular disease and dementia, a risk that develops years before the onset of clinically apparent diabetes. Its incidence is far greater among people who are obese and insulin resistant.
Amylin, or islet amyloid polypeptide, is a hormone produced by the pancreas that circulates in the bloodstream with insulin and plays a critical role in glycemic regulation by slowing gastric emptying, promoting satiety and preventing post-prandial spikes in blood glucose levels. Its deposition in the pancreas is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes.
When over-secreted, some proteins have a higher propensity to stick to one another, forming small aggregates, called oligomers, fibrils and amyloids. These types of proteins are called amyloidogenic and include amylin and ??. There are about 28 amyloidogenic proteins, each of which is associated with diseases.
The study was conducted by examining brain tissue from individuals who fell into three groups: those who had both diabetes and dementia from cerebrovascular or Alzheimer's disease; those with Alzheimer's disease without diabetes; and age-matched healthy individuals who served as controls.
The research found numerous amylin deposits in the gray matter of the diabetic patients with dementia, as well as in the walls of the blood vessels in their brains, suggesting amylin influx from blood circulation. Surprisingly, the researchers also found amylin in the brain tissue of individuals with Alzheimer's who had not been diagnosed with diabetes; they postulate that these individuals may have had undiagnosed insulin resistance. They did not find amylin deposits in the brains of the healthy control subjects.
"We found that the amylin deposits in the brains of people with dementia are both independent of and co-located with the A?, which is the suspected cause of Alzheimer's disease," said Florin Despa, assistant professor-in-residence in the UC Davis Department of Pharmacology. "It is both in the walls of the blood vessels of the brain and also in areas remote from the blood vessels.
"It is accumulating in the brain and we found signs that amylin is killing neurons similar to ??," he continued. "And that might be the answer to the question of 'What makes obese and type 2 diabetes patients more prone to developing dementia?'"
The researchers undertook the investigation after Despa and his colleagues found that amylin accumulates in the blood vessels and muscle of the heart. From this evidence, he hypothesized that the same thing might be happening in the brain. To test the hypothesis he received a pilot research grant through the Alzheimer's Disease Center.
The research was conducted using tissue from the brains of individuals over 65 donated to the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center: 15 patients with Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes; 14 Alzheimer's disease patients without diabetes; and 13 healthy controls. A series of tests, including Western blot, immunohistochemistry and ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) were used to test amylin accumulation in specimens from the temporal cortex.
In contrast with the healthy brains, the brain tissue infiltrated with amylin showed increased interstitial spaces, cavities within the tissue, sponginess, and blood vessels bent around amylin accumulation sites.
Despa said that the finding may offer a therapeutic target for drug development, either by increasing the rate of amylin elimination through the kidneys, or by decreasing its rate of oligomerization and deposition in diabetic patients.
"If we're smart about the treatment of pre-diabetes, a condition that promotes increased amylin secretion, we might be able to reduce the risk of complications, including Alzheimer's and dementia," Despa said.
###
Additional study authors are Kaleena Jackson, Gustavo A. Barisone, Elva Diaz and Lee-Way Jin, all of UC Davis.
The study was funded by National Science Foundation grant CBET 1133339 (F.D.); American Diabetes Association grant 1-13-IN-70 (F.D.); the University of California, Davis Alzheimer's Disease Pilot Project Program (F.D.); National Institute on Aging award P30AG010129 (C.D.); and a Vision Grant from the University of California, Davis Health System (F.D.).
The UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center is one of only 29 research centers designated by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging. The center's goal is to translate research advances into improved diagnosis and treatment for patients while focusing on the long-term goal of finding a way to prevent or cure Alzheimer's disease. Also funded by the state of California, the center allows researchers to study the effects of the disease on a uniquely diverse population. For more information, visit alzheimer.ucdavis.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Bad, bad news for the Yankees and Mark Teixeira. An official statement from the Yankees, marking the end of Teixeira?s season:
?After a recent MRI with dye contrast was performed on Mark Teixeira?s right wrist, New York Yankees Team Physician, Dr. Christopher Ahmad, along with Dr. Melvin Rosenwasser and two other New York-based hand specialists (Dr. Michelle Carlson from the Hospital for Special Surgery and Dr. Keith Raskin from NYU) confirmed that the sheath has not adequately healed.? Surgery has been recommended to repair the tear on the tendon sheath of his wrist.?
Injured during the runup to the World Baseball Classic, Teixeira only managed 63 ineffective plate appearances this year. He?s 33 now and is under contract through 2016 at $22.5 million a year.
Given the severity of this injury and the fact that it has often sapped power and production from other players who have had it in the past ? Mark DeRosa is one; while Jose Bautista is a more optimistic example ? one has to wonder if that?s not a worse contract than A-Rod?s at this point.
Brick News has obtained photos of the official Lego Back to the Future set, including the minifigs for Marty McFly and Doc Brown. As you can see, it's more elaborated than the version approved by Lego Cuusoo. You'll be able to create all the three versions of the car using the pieces in this set.
It will be available on July 18, apparently, priced at ?35 in the UK?which will be about $50 in the US. [Brick News]
Sen. Kirk Watson, left, D-Austin, and Sen. Royce West, right, D-Dallas, vote against actions that would begin the debate early on legislation sent over by the house, Monday, June 24, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature pushed Monday to enact wide-ranging restrictions that would effectively shut down all abortion clinics in the nation's second most-populous state, and Democrats planned an old-fashioned marathon filibuster to stop the final vote. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Kirk Watson, left, D-Austin, and Sen. Royce West, right, D-Dallas, vote against actions that would begin the debate early on legislation sent over by the house, Monday, June 24, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature pushed Monday to enact wide-ranging restrictions that would effectively shut down all abortion clinics in the nation's second most-populous state, and Democrats planned an old-fashioned marathon filibuster to stop the final vote. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, holds up two fingers to casts a no vote to bring an abortion bill to the floor early for debate, Monday, June 24, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Women's rights protesters react in gallery of the House of Representative Chambers as State Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker, works on the second reading of Senate Bill 5, the bill she sponsored, during debate on abortion held on the House floor of the State Capitol in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, June 23, 2013. If passed, the bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks, require that they take place in surgical centers, and restrict where and when women can take abortion-inducing pills_and force 37 out of 42 abortion clinics in Texas to close and undergo millions of dollars in upgrades. (AP Photo/Statesman.com, Rodolfo Gonzalez)
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst presides over the senate, Monday, June 24, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature pushed Monday to enact wide-ranging restrictions that would effectively shut down all abortion clinics in the nation's second most-populous state, and Democrats planned an old-fashioned marathon filibuster to stop the final vote. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, center, talks with state senators on the floor of the senate chamber, Monday, June 24, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature pushed Monday to enact wide-ranging restrictions that would effectively shut down all abortion clinics in the nation's second most-populous state, and Democrats planned an old-fashioned marathon filibuster to stop the final vote. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? A sweeping bill that would effectively shut down most abortion clinics across the nation's second most-populous state has stalled in the Texas Senate, and a Democratic filibuster that will only need to last a seemingly manageable 13 hours Tuesday looks like it will be enough to talk the hotly contested measure to death.
After thwarting two attempts Monday by majority Republicans to bring the abortion bill to a floor vote ahead of its scheduled time Tuesday morning, Democrats are turning to Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, to stage the marathon speech.
"We want to do whatever we can for women in this state," said Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin, leader of the Senate Democrats.
The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. Also, doctors would be required to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles ? a tall order in rural communities.
Although Texas is just the latest of several conservative states to try to enact tough limits on abortions, the scope of its effort is notable because of the combination of bills being considered and the size of the state.
When combined in a state 773 miles wide and 790 miles long and with 26 million people, the measures would become the most stringent set of laws to impact the largest number of people in the nation.
"If this passes, abortion would be virtually banned in the state of Texas, and many women could be forced to resort to dangerous and unsafe measures," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and daughter of the late former Texas governor Ann Richards.
Outnumbered 19-11 ? with San Antonio Sen. Leticia Van de Putte missing to attend the funeral of her father, who died last week in a car crash ? Senate Democrats held firm Monday to their razor-thin margin of a single vote to block the bill from moving forward.
That's key since the 30-day special legislative session ends at midnight Tuesday, meaning the filibuster Democrats have promised only needs to last the better part of one day, instead of two.
Davis gave a filibuster at the end of the 2011 session to temporarily block $5.4 billion cuts to public schools, and said she was preparing for her upcoming speech but refused to say exactly how.
She will have to speak nonstop, remain standing, refrain from bathroom breaks or even leaning on anything. Other Democrats can give her voice a break by offering questions to keep conversation moving.
"Democrats chose not to negotiate, and we could not get the block undone," said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican who controls the flow of Senate legislation. He refused to declare the issue dead ? but others were less optimistic.
Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said the Democrats never should have been allowed to put Republicans "in a box" and complained that many in the Senate GOP were "flying by the seat of their pants."
But the bill's bogging down began with Gov. Rick Perry, who summoned lawmakers back to work immediately after the regular legislative session ended May 27, but didn't add abortion to the special session to-do list until late in the process. The Legislature can only take up issues at the governor's direction during the extra session.
Then, House Democrats succeeded in stalling nearly all night Sunday, keeping the bill from reaching the Senate until 11 a.m. Monday.
The measure only passed the lower chamber after a raucous debate that saw more than 800 women's rights activists pack the public gallery and surrounding Capitol, imploring lawmakers not to approve it.
While supporters say it will protect women's health, abortion rights groups warn the practical effect of the bill would be to shutter most abortion providers statewide ? making it very difficult for Texas women to have the procedure.
Debate ranged from lawmakers waving coat-hangers on the floor and claiming the new rules are so draconian that women are going to be forced to head to drug war-torn Mexico to have abortions, to the bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Jodie Laubenberg of Spring, errantly suggesting that emergency room rape kits could be used to terminate pregnancies.
In the end, though, the bill passed by more than 60 votes as Republicans and some conservative Democrats approved it.
Still, Legislature rules prohibit the Senate from taking up a bill for 24 hours after it clears the House. Republicans struggled to find a way to break the Democratic roadblock, but the vote swung Monday on Sen. Eddie Lucio, a Brownsville Democrat who voted for the abortion bill when it first passed the Senate a week ago but pledged not to approve suspending the rule with Republicans unless Van de Putte was able to make it to the chamber.
She didn't show and Lucio voted with his party, despite his support for the bill.
If the abortion restrictions go down, other measures could fall with it. A proposal to fund major transportation projects as well as a bill to have Texas more closely conform with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision banning mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for offenders younger than 18 might not get votes. Current state law only allows a life sentence without parole for 17-year-olds convicted of capital murder.
Watson said Democrats are willing to pass the transportation and 17-year-old sentencing measures but won't budge on abortion.
"Let's get those up, let's get those out of here," Watson said. "Let's not make these victims of red-meat politics."
Patrick said that if the filibuster succeeds, he hopes Perry will summon lawmakers back for a second or even third special session.
"If the majority can't pass the legislation that they believe is important and the people believe is important," he said, "than that's of great concern to me."
A 31-year old woman's heart problems and fainting might have had something to do with the fact that she drank only soda for about half her life, according to a report of her case.
The woman, who lives in Monaco, a small country near southern France, was brought to a hospital after she fainted.
A blood test showed she had severely low potassium levels. And a test of her heart's electrical activity revealed she had a condition called long QT syndrome, which can cause erratic heart beats.
The woman did not have a family history of heart or hormone problems. But she told her doctors that, since the age of 15, she had not drunk any water -- soda (specifically cola) was the only liquid she consumed. She drank about 2 liters (2 quarts) of cola daily, she said.
After abstaining from soda for just one week, the woman's potassium levels and heart electrical activity returned to normal.
Drinking too much cola may cause excess water to enter the bowels, which in turn leads to diarrhea, and loss of potassium, the researchers said.
High amounts of caffeine can also increase urine production and decrease potassium reabsorption, the researchers said. Potassium plays a role in helping a person's heartbeat, and low levels of potassium may cause heart rhythm problems.
After searching for other similar cases, the researchers found six reports of excessive cola consumption that were thought to be related to adverse medical problems, including heart rhythm problems.
"One of the take-home messages is that cardiologists need to be aware of the connection between cola consumption and potassium loss, and should ask patients found to have QT prolongation about beverage habits," said study researcher Dr. Naima Zarqane, of Princess Grace Hospital Centre in Monaco.
Future studies should examine whether those who drink cola excessively have lower potassium levels than people who don't drink cola, the researchers said.
Excessive soda consumption can also lead to weight gain, which is a risk factor for heart disease, the researchers said.
The case report was presented this week at the European Heart Rhythm Association meeting in Athens, Greece. It has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
This year's supermoon ? it's also a strawberry moon ? will be (slightly) larger and brighter than others, because its full phase comes as the orb makes its closest approach to Earth.
By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / June 21, 2013
A 'supermoon' rises behind the Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion, Greece. The phenomenon occurs when the moon passes closer to Earth than usual. The event this Sunday will make the moon appear larger than normal, but the difference is so small that without magnification most skywatchers won?t notice.
Dimitri Messinis/AP/File
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It's bigger than a bleached beach ball, able to orbit Earth in 27.3 days ? it's supermoon! And it's coming to a night sky near you on June 23.
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It will be bright, beautiful, but definitely not "five times bigger" than usual, as some widely circulating web alerts suggest. More like 12 percent larger than average ? a difference too small to detect by eye without help from a camera.
Take a picture of Sunday's full moon high in the sky, then take a picture of another full moon of your choosing ? at roughly the height above the horizon using the same magnification. Set the two white disks side by side, and the difference is easier to see ? but nowhere near a five-fold difference.
Still, what can be finer on an early summer's night (or winter's night in the Southern Hemisphere) than sitting on the front porch or back deck and enjoying Earth's companion, weather willing?
In fact, it's a two-fer. The first full moon in June is called a strawberry moon, marking the harvest of strawberries after their short growing season ends, according to that annual compendium of weather prognostications, recipes, and lore, the Old Farmer's Almanac.
Supermoons occur once a year. This month's super-strawberry moon will be (slightly) larger and brighter than others because its full-moon phase comes as the moon makes its closest approach to Earth.
The moon's orbit around the third rock from the sun traces an elliptical path.? At closest approach, or perigee, the moon swings to within 362,570 kilometers (224,793 miles) of Earth, while its most-distant point, or apogee is 405,410 km. But those are averages.
Sunday night, the moon's perigee will come within 356,989 km of Earth, about 2 percent closer than average. And the moon reaches full status about 20 minutes after perigee.
As Phil Plait, an astronomer who pens the "Bad Astronomy" blog over at Slate.com puts it: "That's pretty nifty timing."
As with any full moon, Sunday's supermoon will appear unusually large when it's close to the horizon. In one sense, that makes any full moon super to view. But don't be fooled. As the late, great 18-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant noted: "The astronomer cannot prevent himself from seeing the moon larger at its rising than some time afterwards, although he is not deceived by this illusion."
If you miss this supermoon, it's not too early to mark your calendar for the next one. It should show up Aug. 10, 2014. And it's free!
BEIJING (AP) ? The Chinese businessman behind plans to build a waterway across Nicaragua to rival the Panama Canal said Tuesday that his ambitious project is no joke and is backed by experienced consultants, despite skepticism that the 40-year-old can deliver the $40 billion project.
"We don't want it to become an international joke, and we don't want it to turn into an example of Chinese investment failures," Wang Jing, chairman and owner of Hong Kong-based HKND Group, told a news conference in Beijing.
Wang, a relative newcomer whose business history prior to 2010 is virtually unknown, got approval from Nicaragua's government earlier this month for HKND to study, and possibly build and run a shipping channel across the Central American country. Some Nicaraguan lawmakers and residents have expressed reservations about the company's competence.
"The world trade has been so developed today that it needs a new canal," Wang said. "The Panama Canal is not enough for the trade conducted currently between East and West."
Early assessments of the project have been favorable, taking into account future economic growth of the U.S. and China as well as the enormous Chinese appetite for mineral resources from Latin America, Wang said.
"There has been a huge amount of data and business modeling, and the results are considerably optimistic," he said. "The return is sure to make every investor smile broadly."
Wang said his consultants on the project have rich experience and include U.S.-based McKinsey & Co. and China's biggest construction firm, the state-owned China Railway Construction Corp.
He said his team is proposing ways to minimize risk, for example by routing the canal through the middle of Nicaragua to avoid any potential border dispute with neighboring Costa Rica. Wang said that he hopes to deliver the feasibility report a year from now, and that the project would break ground by the end of 2014 and be completed in less than six years.
Wang offered little new information about himself, saying that he comes from an ordinary Chinese family in Beijing and that he studied traditional Chinese medicine before becoming a businessman.
He has invested in several industries, including telecommunications and mining. In 2010, Wang invested in the medium-sized Chinese telecommunications company Xinwei Telecom Enterprise Group. Since then he has been credited with turning it around financially, partly by expanding into overseas markets, including Nicaragua, where Xinwei was granted an operating license last November.
The company builds telecom networks and develops wireless communication technology ? though its patent technology McWiLL is considered obscure. In Cambodia, Xinwei has become the latest player in the country's telecommunication market by offering phone and data services that are now available in Phnom Penh, the capital, with plans to expand nationwide.
In Nicaragua, a Xinwei contract to invest as much as $700 million to improve the country's telecom system has so far shown little sign of any spending, leading to skepticism among many residents about Wang's competence to build a canal. "It's all a lie," opposition Nicaraguan congressman Eliseo Nunez said earlier this month.
Ji Yongqing, a Chinese information technology commentator, said Xinwei apparently has fit into the strategic push by China's government to help developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America with projects sourced with Chinese products.
"Personally, I think Xinwei's success has a lot to do with China's strategy to go out and use Chinese products in its aid projects," Ji said.
Xinwei's website has pictures of Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, visiting the company, indicating its likely solid government connections ? a boon for any business in a country where the government controls key resources and much of the economy.
Wang said Tuesday that the project is purely a business venture with no connection to the Chinese government. China has no diplomatic relationship with Nicaragua.
___
Associated Press writer Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, contributed to this report.
24 June 2013Last updated at 14:39 ETBy Jonathan AmosScience correspondent, BBC News
Adverse weather has delayed the launch of an innovative new space network.
A Soyuz rocket was due to put four satellites in orbit for the O3b company, to provide communications to parts of the world that have poor fibre-optic infrastructure.
But unfavourable winds at the Sinnamary spaceport in French Guiana have forced a 24-hour delay.
O3b says the aim of its new network is to change the broadband experience for millions of people.
Its first four satellites will be followed by a further four in September, and then another quartet next year.
They will handle primarily voice and data traffic for mobile phone operators and internet service providers. The spacecraft will pick up this traffic as they pass overhead and then relay it to ground stations, or teleports, for onward connection to global networks.
Although other satellites routinely do this, O3b is taking a markedly different approach.
By flying in a Medium-Earth Orbit of 8,000km, the satellites will be a quarter of the distance from Earth than is the case with traditional geostationary (GEO) telecommunications spacecraft, which sit some 36,000km above the planet.Adverse weather has delayed the launch of an innovative new space network.
This should reduce substantially the delay, or latency, of the signal as the voice or data traffic is routed via space.
"The network was designed to avoid much of the difficulty that satellite connectivity provides today which is this delay," said O3b CEO Steve Collar.
"We've all been on a satellite call and you have that 600 milliseconds delay, which doesn't sound like much but it's enough to make that connection almost unusable. It's just as much of a problem on data networks. If you are on the internet and are searching for a site, it affects your behaviour if you get slow responses. You'll stop using the service. We wanted to fix those problems and the only way to fix them is to bring the satellites closer to Earth."
O3b is promising round-trip transmission time of a little more than 100 milliseconds.
The satellites will operate in the high-frequency Ka-band and have the capability to deliver 10 beams, at 1.2Gbps per beam, to each of O3b's seven operational regions.
The company expects to start services at the end of the year, once it gets eight spacecraft in orbit, but the intention is to put up perhaps as many as 20 eventually.
It has taken about six years to put the O3b project together. Important backers include not only Google but SES, one of the big players in the traditional satellite communications business.
O3b was born from founder Greg Wyler's frustration with the difficulty of connecting a modern teleco in Rwanda to the global fibre optic network, and the constraints that placed on performance.
O3b actually stands for "other three billion" - the number of people whose poor communications experience is expected to improve over the coming decade. O3b sees itself as an important agent of that change.
"There are two billion people in the world that are connected to the internet today; there are five billion who are not; and three billion who will be in the course of the next 10-15 years," said Mr Collar. "The other three billion is our target - that's who we're trying to reach, and that's where our name comes from."
The Jersey, Channel Islands-based outfit has raised more than $1bn to build its space and ground infrastructure.
O3b's largest debt facility, over $0.5bn, is provided by HSBC, ING, CA-CIB and Dexia, and is underwritten by the French export credit agency, Coface. The agency is supporting three new space constellations, all of them built by Thales Alenia Space.
The 700kg spacecraft that TAS is building for O3b are based on the 24 spacecraft it has just finished for the Globalstar satellite phone network.
One of the challenges of running the system is tracking platforms as they move across the sky.
"The constellation will be spread equally around the equator which means you have to pick the satellite up as it comes over the horizon and follow it to the other side; and as soon as it goes out of visibility there is already another satellite waiting to be picked up," explained Philippe Nabet, the TAS programme manager on the O3b project.
"There will be three antennas at the ground stations - two to track the satellites; the third is a spare."
Tuesday's attempt at a launch will take place at 15:54 local time (18:54 GMT)
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
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Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
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