tv 3 news

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Nanotechnology could help fight diabetes

Friday, May 17, 2013

Injectable nanoparticles developed at MIT may someday eliminate the need for patients with Type 1 diabetes to constantly monitor their blood-sugar levels and inject themselves with insulin.

The nanoparticles were designed to sense glucose levels in the body and respond by secreting the appropriate amount of insulin, thereby replacing the function of pancreatic islet cells, which are destroyed in patients with Type 1 diabetes. Ultimately, this type of system could ensure that blood-sugar levels remain balanced and improve patients' quality of life, according to the researchers.

"Insulin really works, but the problem is people don't always get the right amount of it. With this system of extended release, the amount of drug secreted is proportional to the needs of the body," says Daniel Anderson, an associate professor of chemical engineering and member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.

Anderson is the senior author of a paper describing the new system in a recent issue of the journal ACS Nano. Lead author of the paper is Zhen Gu, a former postdoc in Anderson's lab. The research team also includes Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, and researchers from the Department of Anesthesiology at Boston Children's Hospital.

Mimicking the pancreas

Currently, people with Type 1 diabetes typically prick their fingers several times a day to draw blood for testing their blood-sugar levels. When levels are high, these patients inject themselves with insulin, which breaks down the excess sugar.

In recent years, many researchers have sought to develop insulin-delivery systems that could act as an "artificial pancreas," automatically detecting glucose levels and secreting insulin. One approach uses hydrogels to measure and react to glucose levels, but those gels are slow to respond or lack mechanical strength, allowing insulin to leak out.

The MIT team set out to create a sturdy, biocompatible system that would respond more quickly to changes in glucose levels and would be easy to administer.

Their system consists of an injectable gel-like structure with a texture similar to toothpaste, says Gu, who is now an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and molecular pharmaceutics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. The gel contains a mixture of oppositely charged nanoparticles that attract each other, keeping the gel intact and preventing the particles from drifting away once inside the body.

Using a modified polysaccharide known as dextran, the researchers designed the gel to be sensitive to acidity. Each nanoparticle contains spheres of dextran loaded with an enzyme that converts glucose into gluconic acid. Glucose can diffuse freely through the gel, so when sugar levels are high, the enzyme produces large quantities of gluconic acid, making the local environment slightly more acidic.

That acidic environment causes the dextran spheres to disintegrate, releasing insulin. Insulin then performs its normal function, converting the glucose in the bloodstream into glycogen, which is absorbed into the liver for storage.

Long-term control

In tests with mice that have Type 1 diabetes, the researchers found that a single injection of the gel maintained normal blood-sugar levels for an average of 10 days. Because the particles are mostly composed of polysaccharides, they are biocompatible and eventually degrade in the body.

The researchers are now trying to modify the particles so they can respond to changes in glucose levels faster, at the speed of pancreas islet cells. "Islet cells are very smart. They can release insulin very quickly once they sense high sugar levels," Gu says.

Before testing the particles in humans, the researchers plan to further develop the system's delivery properties and to work on optimizing the dosage that would be needed for use in humans.

###

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice

Thanks to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 56 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128296/Nanotechnology_could_help_fight_diabetes

andrew luck pro day josh johnson kim kardashian flour matt forte jeremy shockey new orleans saints ireland

Someone Animated Patton Oswalt's Epic Star Wars/Avengers Mashup Rant

Not too long ago, Patton Oswalt riffed on his idea for a great plot for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII film on Parks and Recreation. Now, it's got a whole bunch of..."digital effects" that turn it into the film we all deserve. It's alright JJ, we've got this one on lock. But thanks for throwing your hat in the ring! [iZacLess via Patton Oswalt]

Toilet paper shortage sends Venezuelans scrambling for rolls

Toilet paper shortage:?After years of economic dysfunction, the country has gotten used to?shortages?of medicines and basic food items like milk and sugar but the scarcity of bathroom tissue has caused unusual alarm.

By Karl Ritter,?Associated Press / May 17, 2013

A customer leaves a private super market with her purchases, including toilet paper, in Caracas, Venezuela, May 15. First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities ? toilet paper.

Fernando Llano/AP

Enlarge

Venezuelans scrambled to stock up on?toilet?paper?Thursday as fears of a bathroom emergency spread despite the socialist government's promise to import 50 million rolls.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; // google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

After years of economic dysfunction, the country has gotten used to?shortages?of medicines and basic food items like milk and sugar but the scarcity of bathroom tissue has caused unusual alarm.

"Even at my age, I've never seen this," said 70-year-old Maria Rojas. She said she had been looking fortoilet?paper?for two weeks when she finally found it at a supermarket in downtown Caracas.

Thousands of rolls flew off the store's shelves as consumers streamed in and loaded up shopping carts Thursday morning.

"I bought it because it's hard to find," said Maria Perez, walking out with several rolls of?paper.

"Here there's a?shortage?of everything ? butter, sugar, flour," she said. But the latest?shortage?is particularly worrisome "because there always used to be?toilet?paper."

Economists say Venezuela's?shortages?of some consumer products stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency.

President Nicolas Maduro, who was selected by the dying Hugo Chavez to carry on his "Bolivarian revolution," claims that anti-government forces, including the private sector, are causing the?shortages?in an effort to destabilize the country.

The government this week announced it would import 760,000 tons of food and 50 million rolls of?toilet?paper.

Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming said "excessive demand" for tissue had built up due to a "media campaign that has been generated to disrupt the country."

He said monthly consumption of?toilet?paper?was normally 125 million rolls, but current demand "leads us to think that 40 million more are required."

"We will bring in 50 million to show those groups that they won't make us bow down," he said.

That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find bathroom supplies. Several supermarkets visited by The Associated Press in the capital on Wednesday and Thursday were out of?toilet?paper. Those that received fresh batches quickly filled up with shoppers as the word spread.

"I've been looking for it for two weeks," Cristina Ramos said at a store on Wednesday. "I was told that they had some here and now I'm in line."

Finance Minister Nelson Merentes said the government was also addressing the lack of foreign currency, which has resulted in the suspension of foreign supplies of raw materials, equipment and spare parts to Venezuelan companies, disrupting their production.

"We are making progress ... we have to work very hard," Merentes told reporters Wednesday.

Many factories operate at half capacity because the currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies verge on bankruptcy because they cannot extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Merentes said the government had met the U.S. dollar requests of some 1,500 small- and medium-sized companies facing supply problems, and was reviewing requests from a similar number of larger companies.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses.

Anointed by Chavez as his successor before the president died from cancer, Maduro won a close presidential election April 14 against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, who refused to accept the result, claiming Maduro won through fraud and voter intimidation. He filed a complaint to the Supreme Court, asking for the vote to be annulled, though that's highly unlikely to happen since the court is packed with government-friendly justices.

Patience is wearing thin among consumers who face?shortages?and long lines at supermarkets and pharmacies. Last month, Venezuela's scarcity index reached its highest level since 2009, while the 12-month inflation rate has risen to nearly 30 percent. Shoppers often spend several days looking for basic items, and stock up when they find them.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gYkvcp0kbxE/Toilet-paper-shortage-sends-Venezuelans-scrambling-for-rolls

Super Bowl Ads 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Superbowl Start Time Jim Harbaugh Who Won The Superbowl Super Bowl Halftime Show 2013 Super Bowl Commercials 2013

Official: Broken rail eyed in Conn. train crash

Emergency personnel work at the scene where two Metro North commuter trains collided, Friday, May 17, 2013 near Fairfield, Conn. Bill Kaempffer, a spokesman for Bridgeport public safety, told The Associated Press approximately 49 people were injured, including four with serious injuries. About 250 people were on board the two trains, he said. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT: CONNECTICUT POST, CHRISTIAN ABRAHAM

Emergency workers arrive the scene of a train collision, Friday, may 17, 2013 in Fairfield, Conn. A New York-area commuter railroad says two trains have collided in Connecticut. The railroad says the accident involved a New York-bound train leaving New Haven. It derailed and hit a westbound train near Fairfield, Conn. Some cars on the second train also derailed. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT

Injured passengers are removed from the scene of a train collision, Friday, May 17, 2013 in Fairfield, Conn. Two commuter trains serving New York City collided in Connecticut during Friday's evening rush hour, injuring about 50 people, authorities said. There were no reports of fatalities. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT

Map locates Bridgeport, Conn

Metro-North Railroad officials tour the scene of the train derailment, Saturday, May 18, 2013 in Bridgeport, Conn. Officials described a devastating scene of shattered cars and other damage where two trains packed with rush-hour commuters collided in Connecticut, saying Saturday it's fortunate that no one was killed and that there weren't even more injuries. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) ? The commuter train derailment and collision that left dozens injured outside New York City was not the result of foul play, officials said Saturday, but a fractured section of rail is being studied to determine if it is connected to the accident.

National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said Saturday the broken rail is of substantial interest to investigators and a portion of the track will be sent to a lab for analysis.

Weener said it's not clear if the accident caused the fracture or if the rail was broken before the crash. He said he won't speculate on the cause of the derailment and emphasized the investigation was in its early stages.

Seventy-two people were sent to the hospital Friday evening after a Metro-North train heading east from New York City derailed and was hit by a train heading west from New Haven. Most have been discharged.

Officials earlier described devastating damage and said it was fortunate no one was killed.

"All of the injured people described the really harrowing experience of having the train jolt to a stop, the dust, darkness, other kinds of factors that made it particularly frightening," said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who visited several patients in the hospital.

Blumenthal said a Metro-North conductor helped passengers despite her own injuries.

"Her story is really one of great strength and courage helping other passengers off the train in spite of her own very severe pain," Blumenthal said. "She eventually had to be helped off herself."

The crash damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the Northeast Corridor. The crash also caused Amtrak to suspend service between New York and Boston.

"The damage is absolutely staggering," Blumenthal said, describing the shattered interior of cars and tons of metal tossed around. "I feel that we are fortunate that even more injuries were not the result of this very tragic and unfortunate accident."

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said it was "frankly amazing" people weren't killed on scene.

Both said new Metro-North Railroad cars built with higher standards may have saved lives.

Metro-North said train service will remain suspended between South Norwalk and New Haven until further notice. Railroad officials said rebuilding the two tracks and restore train service "will take well into next week."

"We want our customers to know that while you travel on Metro-North, you can remain confident that your safety, and the safety of our employees, is always the first priority in everything we do," said Howard Permut, President of MTA Metro-North Railroad.

NTSB investigators arrived Saturday and are expected to be on site for seven to 10 days. They will look at the brakes and performance of the trains, the condition of the tracks, crew performance and train signal information, among other things.

When the NTSB has concluded the on-site phase of its investigation, Metro-North will begin to remove the damaged rail cars and remaining debris. The process requires specialized, heavy equipment that will be in place by Sunday, officials said. Only after the damaged train cars have been removed can Metro-North begin the work of rebuilding the damaged tracks and overhead wires.

"It is a significant undertaking that could take days to complete," MTA said in a statement.

The NTSB has allowed Metro-North to begin removing some of the track and wire from the scene.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said commuters should make plans for alternative travel through the area and urged them to consult the state Department of Transportation website for information.

Weener said data recorders on board are expected to provide the speed of the trains at the time of the crash and other information.

"Our mission is to understand not just what happened but why it happened and determine ways of preventing it from happening again," Weener said.

About 700 people were on board the Metro-North trains when one heading east from New York City's Grand Central Terminal to New Haven derailed at about 6:10 p.m. just outside Bridgeport, transit and Bridgeport officials said. Passengers described a chaotic, terrifying scene of crunching metal and flying bodies.

A spokeswoman for St. Vincent Medical Center said late Saturday that 46 people from the crash were treated there, with six of them admitted. All were in stable condition, she said.

A Bridgeport Hospital spokesman said 26 people from the crash were treated there, with three of them admitted. One was in critical condition and two were in stable condition, he said. The other 23 were released.

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch said the disruption caused by the crash could cost the region's economy millions of dollars.

Passenger Frank Bilotti said he was returning from a business trip in Boston on the westbound train when it crashed.

"Everybody was pretty much tossed around," said Bilotti, 53, of Westport, who wasn't injured other than a sore neck.

Firefighters used ladders to help people evacuate after the derailed cars dug into the banks of the tracks, Bilotti said.

"There were people on stretchers," he said. "There were people lying on the ground."

Blumenthal credited first responders, saying their "quick reactions and heroic efforts undoubtedly saved lives."

The MTA operates the Metro-North Railroad, the second-largest commuter railroad in the nation. The Metro-North main lines ? the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven ? run northward from New York City's Grand Central Terminal into suburban New York and Connecticut.

At Grand Central, Frances Liu and her family were trying to get to New Haven, where Liu is graduating from Yale. A train could get them only as far north as Stamford.

"And then we'll rent a car and drive," she said.

Liu's parents had flown in from China for her graduation and were touring the country around her commencement. But the car-rental plan could face a snag ? Liu never got a driver's license, although her parents had their Chinese licenses.

"My mom can drive. So I hope it'll be OK!" Liu said as she rushed off to decide on a train.

The last significant train collision involving Metro-North occurred in 1988 when a train engineer was killed in Mount Vernon, N.Y., when one train empty of passengers rear-ended another, railroad officials said.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Melia in Hartford, Conn., Susan Haigh in Fairfield, Conn., and Verena Dobnik in New York City contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-18-US-Trains-Collide-Conn/id-902023d0562b4b718fcb9ace5f648ebd

carrie underwood blown away chk ryan seacrest beltane ryan o neal dark knight rises trailer dark knight rises trailer

Bouteflika's health condition is alarming: French weekly Le Point ...

By Tarik Elbarakah

Morocco World News

Rabat, May 18, 2013

The Algerian president?s health is in decline!

Information given on Friday by the website of the French weekly Le Point.fr revealed that the health condition of Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika is alarming.

Medical sources familiar with the situation affirmed to the French website that ?some of the president?s vital functions are very affected.?

The recent information about the health of Algeria?s leader contradicted the official version of the story that according to which the president was sent to the military hospital of Paris because of a minor suffering from Transient Ischemic Attack also known as TIA.

Bouteflika, 76, spent already three weeks of hospitalization in Paris on grounds of an inconsequential illness as the official story stated, but the Algerian public opinion demanded more transparency on the subject, especially after the media blackout since the Algerian president was transferred to Paris three weeks ago.

Observers questioned the veracity of the diagnosis given by the presidency of the Republic and the president?s personal medical supervisor, Professor Rachid Bougherbal, who said that the president will remain in France only for few days until his recovery.

Few days turned out to be three weeks and counting, which prompts many Algerians to believe that their president suffers from a serious illness, and not only a health complaint with no irreversible complications.

The media blackout around the subject led to numerous rumors about the death of Bouteflika which circulated throughout the social networks in recent days.

Bouteflika?s health conditions began since 2005 and gave rise to speculations about the future of Algeria and who?s going to be in charge after his potential departure.

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/05/91274/bouteflikas-health-condition-is-alarming-french-weekly-le-point/

how to tie a tie sweet potato recipes the sound of music celebration church new york auto show 2012 tulsa easter eggs

Scientists capture first direct proof of Hofstadter butterfly effect

Friday, May 17, 2013

A team of researchers from several universities ? including UCF ?has observed a rare quantum physics effect that produces a repeating butterfly-shaped energy spectrum in a magnetic field, confirming the longstanding prediction of the quantum fractal energy structure called Hofstadter's butterfly.

This discovery by the team paves the way for engineering new types of extraordinary nanoscale materials that can be used to develop smaller, lighter and faster electronics, including sensors, cell phones, tablets and laptops.

First predicted by American physicist Douglas Hofstadter in 1976, the butterfly pattern emerges when electrons are confined to a two-dimensional plane and subjected to both a periodic potential energy and a strong magnetic field. The Hofstadter butterfly is a fractal pattern?meaning that it contains shapes that repeat on smaller and smaller size scales. Fractals are common in systems such as fluid mechanics, but rare in the quantum mechanical world. The Hofstadter butterfly is one of the first quantum fractals theoretically discovered in physics but, until now, there has been no direct experimental proof of this spectrum.

Columbia University led the study and also involved scientists from the City University of New York, Tohoku University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan. Columbia prepared the sample and the UCF team measured the regular recurrence of the high-fidelity periodic pattern, engineered by inducing nanoscale ripples on graphene, a carbon material. The measured recurrence served as the essential proof that the measured spectrum was indeed the Hofstadter butterfly. The image that captured the evidence was taken in UCF Assistant Professor Masa Ishigami's laboratory.

Jyoti Katoch, Ishigami's graduate student, used a non-contact atomic force high-resolution microscope to image the ripples, which have the height of only 0.2 angstroms (twenty trillionth of a meter), to confirm that the observed Hofstadter butterfly spectrum indeed matched the theoretical prediction.

"The arrangement of individual atoms, even just one atom can drastically alter properties of nanoscale materials. That is the basis for nanotechnology," Ishigami said. "Atomic structures must be resolved to understand the properties of nanoscale materials. What we do here at UCF is to explain why nanoscale materials behave so different by resolving their atomic structures. Only when we understand the origin of the extraordinary properties of nanoscale materials, we can propel nanoscience and technology forward. What Jyoti has done here is to image how graphene is rippled to explain the observed Hofstadter spectrum."

UCF's laboratory utilizes a novel, the state-of-the-art microscopy technique to simultaneously determine the atomic structure and electronic properties of nanoscale materials such as graphene.

Katoch has been working with Ishigami since 2008, when Ishigami joined UCF. Katoch helped build the laboratory and developed the atomic-resolution capability critical to capturing the picture proof for this study.

Ishigami has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor's degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has won multiple awards, including the Intelligence Community postdoctoral fellowship and the Hertz graduate fellowship, and has published more than 30 papers in journals including Science.

###

The study is published in today's advance online publication of Nature http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12186.html

University of Central Florida: http://www.ucf.edu

Thanks to University of Central Florida for this article.

This press release has been viewed 88 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128300/Scientists_capture_first_direct_proof_of_Hofstadter_butterfly_effect

invincible jesse jackson whitney houston funeral video tyler perry whitney houston r kelly r. kelly macular degeneration

Amtrak boosts WiFi on select trains, more upgrades coming this summer

There are plenty of wonderful things about train travel: the leg room, the scenery, the lack of security pat-downs. The WiFi, on the other hand, has long been the slowest thing about Amtrak. The company announced today that it's finally doing something about its frustratingly sluggish service, upgrading wireless on select trains, including the Acela express between Boston and Washington DC and a few California lines like the Capitol Corridor, Pacific Surfliner and San Joaquin. Travelers to other destinations will have to wait a bit longer for quicker load times -- Amtrak has promised that the rest of its WiFi-equipped trains will be upgraded by "late summer."

Comments

Via: Slashdot

Source: The New York Times

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/18/amtrak-wifi/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

the masters warren sapp i robot the big c the visitor king of kings ostara