Wild giant pandas are endangered loners that roam remote bamboo forests in the mountains of China. When the bears actually want to find each other ? typically during their short mating window ? it's important that they pick the perfect place to leave their scent.
So what qualities do peeing pandas look for in a tree? Researchers say bark roughness helps the pandas' scent carry, while a large width makes for an easier target to aim at, especially for male pandas spraying urine in a handstand.
Researchers monitored where pandas left their pee and smelly anogenital gland secretions (AGS) ? a waxy substance that carries information about a panda's sex and age ? in the Qinling Mountains from 2007 to 2008. They found that the pandas preferred to leave both scents on rough bark, which might ensure the odor is captured by the crevices and doesn't evaporate quickly.
The pandas also liked to leave their scent higher off the ground, maximizing the size of the odor field, the researchers said. To get their urine up as high as possible, male pandas often bust out a handstand and let it spray. This, in turn, could explain why the pandas tended to pee on wider trees. [ See Video of Panda Handstand and Panda Mating Dance ]
"Aiming urine backwards and hitting the target is probably no easy task, particularly when doing a handstand," the researchers wrote in the July 2012 issue of the journal Animal Behavior, "so selection of larger trees for urine marks probably maximizes the amount of urine that reaches the target."
The study's authors initially thought moss might have the same effect as bark roughness, serving as a sponge for the pandas' scent. But moss cover seemed to make little difference in where the pandas peed.
What's more, the bears liked to leave their waxy gland secretions (also called "long-lasting calling cards" by some) on trees with no moss. One explanation for this could be that the bark's sap might bind to scent chemicals and keep them potent. Moss cover might prevent that from happening, the researchers said.
The panda's deliberate scent-marking moves are likely tied to energy efficiency. The bears almost exclusively survive on bamboo, which contains just slightly more energy than it takes to consume it.
"These choices have clear effects on the scent signal, making it last longer, be detected from (farther) away, or otherwise enhance its communication efficiency," Ron Swaisgood, a San Diego Zoo researcher involved in the study, said in a statement.
Science news from NBCNews.com
Egypt's 'Google Earth pyramids' revisited
Updated 114 minutes ago
8/29/2012 12:27:49 AM +00:00
Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Remember that researcher who thought she spotted previously undiscovered Egyptian pyramids in Google Earth imagery? There really are some ruins in one of the pictures, but they?re not pyramids.
Amazing Hurricane Isaac photo a fake
How pandas pick perfect spot to pee
Chimp 'secret handshakes' may be cultural
"We are not surprised that pandas are efficient with their use of chemo-signals, as mounting evidence suggests that many aspects of giant panda life history are constrained by their energetically poor diet."
Conservationists estimate that fewer than 1,600 giant pandas exist in the wild and say the furballs are increasingly threatened by habitat loss from climate change and human activity.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on ?Facebook? and? Google+.
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This is a Voices on Writing feature I wrote for the June issue of The ASJA Monthly, which I edit.? This is the unedited version. More Voices on Writing Q&As at www.asja.org; click on The ASJA Monthly.
Voices on Writing: Robin Hemley
Robin Hemley is the author of ten books of nonfiction and fiction and the winner of many awards including a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship, The Nelson Algren Award for Fiction from The Chicago Tribune, The Story Magazine Humor Prize, an Independent Press Book Award, two Pushcart Prizes and many others.? His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry has been published in the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, and he teaches creative writing workshops around the world.? He has been widely anthologized and has published his work in such places as The New York Times, The Believer, The Huffington Post, Orion, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, New York Magazine, and literary magazines.? The BBC is currently developing a feature film based on his book Invented Eden that tells the story of a purported anthropological hoax in the Philippines. His third collection of short stories, Reply All, is forthcoming in 2012 from Indiana University Press (Break Away Books) and The University of Georgia Press recently published his book A Field Guide For Immersion Writing: Memoir, Journalism, And Travel (reviewed by Steve Weinberg in this month?s What?s in Store column). He is a senior editor of The Iowa Review as well as the editor of a popular online journal, Defunct (Defunctmag.com) that features short essays on everything that?s had its day.? He currently directs the Nonfiction Writing Program at The University of Iowa and is the founder and organizer of NonfictioNow, a biennal conference that will convene in November 2012 in Melbourne, Australia.? ?
Your CV is intimidating. Have you always been a writer?
I?ve always written, but I haven?t always identified myself as a writer.? I come from a literary family: My mother was a short story writer, translator, and novelist, and my father was a publisher, novelist, poet, and translator. So, from an early age, part of my life included writing and reading.?
Your focus, for the most part, has been short stories, essays, and memoir.??What is it about these genres that grabs you?
It?s true I like the short form?essays and stories?though I?ve gone long several times, as well.? My novel, The Last Studebaker, was well-received and reviewed, and I?m only now working on a second novel.? I love the novel form, too, but I tend to write in whatever form interests me at the time.?
??????????? Workshops tend to focus on the short story. When I went to the Iowa Writers? Workshop as a young writer, I wrote a lot of stories, some of which made it into my first book of stories. I loved short stories well before that.? I used to love to peruse my family library and pull short story collections from the shelves.? That?s how I discovered Kafka, Borges, and Isaac Babel, among others.
??????????? After graduate school, for a couple of years I taught part-time at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and there I taught ?Essay Writing.?? This was a basic composition course, but here, I fell in love with the essay, too, largely through an anthology that the poet Donald Hall edited.? At the time, hardly anyone in the academy thought of the essay as an art form that held its own against the short story and the poem.? That?s all changed now, and I?m glad of it.? I think the short form interests me so much because these forms tend to focus on what?s not written as much as what is written.? The gaps, what?s left out, what?s left to the reader?s imagination?this is what makes these forms so vibrant to me.??
What's the crossover?
??????????? Can you repeat the question? I didn't catch that.?
Um, crossover?
??????????? Ha, sorry, my silly sense of humor displays itself.? Okay, crossover.? With my family background, you can see that crossover is inevitable.? I?ve never been one to declare genre loyalty.? Sure, writers tend to excel at one form, but there are many writers who don?t want to limit their creativity to just one form, and that?s certainly how I feel about my own writing.???
Tell me about your new book, A Field Guide for Immersion Writing.
??????????? This book arose directly from my book, Do-Over, in which I revisited past embarrassments and failures from my childhood.? When I was asked what I?d call this type of writing, I said it was an immersion memoir.? The term ?immersion? has long been applied to journalism but never before to memoir?when I was speaking to an editor at The University of Georgia Press about this type of writing, she suggested I write a book on it.? Over time, I expanded the idea to consider immersion writing in all its forms: memoir, journalism, and finally, travel writing?which of course involves immersion as well.?
This book crosses over a little bit with another book of yours, Turning Life
into Fiction, which has sold more than 50,000 copies.? I love life-based fiction. ?What prompted you to write it?
Turning Life into Fiction, likewise, came out of my engagement with the subject and a discussion with an editor, Lois Rosenthal, who founded Story Press and briefly revived Story Magazine.? I had been teaching about the transformation process in fiction, the ways in which we turn experience into fiction, and Lois asked me if I?d write a book about this for her.? I believe it was the first book that Story Press published.? Later, when Lois and her husband Richard sold their publishing enterprise, the book somewhat inexplicably went out of print, though it was selling well.? And so, Graywolf Press picked it up and it?s now in its second or third printing with them.??
Both A Field Guide and Turning Life into Fiction talk about use what
you're living through and write about it.??Is this the main way you find your
subject matter?
I find my subject matter in a lot of different ways.? As a writer, I?m fairly eclectic.? I?ve written from dreams and I?ve written about people who have nothing to do with what I?m living. One story in my forthcoming collection of short stories is from the point of view of a Portuguese spy on the ship of the explorer Magellan and another takes place outside of Chino, France, in the time of Joan of Arc.? Ideas present themselves in many forms, and if they intrigue me enough, I take them on.
Do you believe immersion journalism is a more...valid brand of journalism?
I wouldn?t use the term ?valid,? but I do believe that traditional journalists can be blind to their own agendas.? I?ve experienced this personally?how a self-righteous journalist can completely muck up a story and still remain self-righteous.?
??????????? My experience with this comes from my book, Invented Eden: The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday.? This told the story of a group of 26 people who were ?discovered? living in the rainforest in supposed complete isolation in the Southern Philippines in 1971.?
??????????? For a while they were hailed as the ethnographic find of the century and a 45,000 acre reserve was given to them by the Marcos Administration.? For a while they were a world-wide sensation, supposedly living an existence that closely resembled the cave-dwelling lifestyles of our Pleistocene-era ancestors.
??????????? ?Then in 1986, a freelance reporter from Switzerland hiked into the rainforest unannounced and was told through interpreters that the Tasaday were a hoax, that they were simply local farmers who had been coerced into playing Caveman.?
??????????? Good story, but it wasn?t true.? The guy hiked in and out of the rainforest in a couple of days and believed his translator, a local anti-Marcos activist who had an agenda of his own.? Now, the world declared that they weren?t the find of the century, but the hoax of the century, and credulous reporters followed, all filing supposedly objective stories that agreed the Tasaday were a hoax, without knowing anything about the complex political and cultural situation of the Philippines at the time.
??????????? It?s called ?confirmation bias,? the idea that you pay attention to arguments and ?facts? that support your theories, and ignore or throw out anything that disagrees with your theories.? Everyone is susceptible to it, even supposedly objective journalists.? In this case, they created a mess.?
??????????? I spent five years researching the story, traveling around the world and meeting everyone alive who was a part of the story: journalists, academics, even the Tasaday themselves, and I found out that the story was a lot more complex and that the real hoax was perpetrated by the people who said the Tasaday were a hoax.? Yet the conventional wisdom today is still that the Tasaday were a hoax, mostly because of bad reporting that was broadcast on ABC?s 20/20 and taken as gospel.?
??????????? I simply think it?s good to own up to your biases, to allow the reader to see that a human being, and not a supposedly infallible news organization, has written the story and gathered the information.?
When doing immersion journalism or travel writing, I assume it's best to
come across as much like a non-writer as possible?
I wouldn't say that?s always the case; it?s only true of writers who write what I call an ?infiltration.?? Ted Conover, for instance in New Jack, when he was writing about being a guard at Sing Sing.? Or Kevin Roose when he, a liberal student from Brown, infiltrated the conservative Christian Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.? Short of that kind of infiltration, I think it?s good to be honest about being a writer?and I think that there are ethical considerations involved in the infiltration as well.? There?s no rulebook, but I have a chapter of ethical and legal considerations in which I delve into the writer?s responsibility to the subject.?
Talk about the marketplace, especially for travel writers.
I think there?s always a market for a well-written travel book.? I can?t say for certain because I?m not a marketer, but it seems to be a pretty strong niche.?
???????????
Quite a few publishers now print disclaimers on an opening page of a memoir that names have been changed.??Which makes me wonder: Should a memoir writer allow his or her subjects to vet the manuscript at any point along the way?
That?s a good question.? It really depends on what you?re writing about.? When I was writing Do-Over, one of the people I wanted to write about said that she didn?t want to be ?an incidental character in your adventure.?? I liked that. It made me think about my relationship to the people I wrote about.? In her case, I showed her what I had written and changed her name, but others didn?t ask that of me. I changed the names of anyone under 18 except for my daughters, but I also gave them the chance to read the manuscript before I sent it to the publisher.?
??????????? When I wrote Invented Eden, I didn?t have the luxury of changing names, and I needed to make sure that nothing I wrote was actionable.
??????????? Traditionally, journalists have resisted showing what they write to their subjects, but in some instances, that?s something worth reconsidering.?
Some have said the memoir genre is a crowded one. What do you think?
Every genre is crowded.? Thousands of novels are published every year.? Thousands of books of poetry.? There are plenty of good books and plenty of bad books of every kind.?
What's your opinion of the mountains of self-published books, and do you
think they help or hinder the publication and marketing of traditionally
published books?
I know of a couple of people who?ve self-published books successfully, but they are definitely the exception.? While I don?t think it carries the stigma it used to, there are so many exciting independent presses out there now.? Not only is it easier to self-publish, but it?s also easier to publish other people, to start your own press.? One start-up, Engine Books in Indianapolis, has published a short story collection and a novel by two friends of mine, both fabulous writers who might be relegated to the mid-list with traditional houses.? But they?ve been doing well?this publisher publishes two to three titles a year, and my friend?s short story collection was just reviewed in O: the Oprah Magazine.? So why self-publish when there are so many good independent publishers out there?
Many of your books have been published by smaller presses. In other words, not by the Big Six. Talk about the value of smaller presses.
I wouldn?t necessarily call them smaller presses. Three of my books have been published by Graywolf, which isn?t exactly a small press anymore, but a giant of independent presses.
??????????? In any case, I?d prefer to call these presses ?Independent? rather than ?small.?? My father was the founder and publisher of just such an Independent Press, the somewhat legendary Noonday, which in the fifties was what Graywolf is today.
??????????? One of the biggest strengths of independent presses is that they don?t necessarily have to be as slavish to the bottom line as some of the larger presses are.? They can take chances, especially those that are nonprofit, such as Graywolf.
??????????? A case in point is Noonday.? When my father was first starting it up in the 1950s he and my mother attended a cocktail party given by the owner of The New Yorker Theater, Dan Talbot.? In the middle of the party, Talbot shushed everyone and said he wanted to read this great new story that had just appeared in the latest issue of The Partisan Review, an important literary magazine of its day.? Can you imagine anyone at a party doing such a thing now?? The story in question was a translation by Saul Bellow of a then-unknown Yiddish writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer.
??????????? Talbot read the story and my father asked if Talbot knew Singer.? He did and a meeting was arranged.? It turned out that Signer was upset by the way that Alfred Knopf had edited his first novel, The Family Moskat.? According to Singer, Knopf had butchered the book, and so Singer was amenable to working with my father.? Singer and my father were a great match, and my father became Singer?s translator, editor, and trusted friend.
??????????? Independent publishers love literature.? That can?t always be said for the big corporate houses.? Matthew Arnold said that ?journalism is literature in a hurry,? but now literature is literature in a hurry.? What I mean is that that nurturing spirit is largely absent from large houses: If you don?t succeed right away, you?re out.? But independent publishers still nurture their writers for the most part.?
Let?s talk about teaching. How do you teach nonfiction writing?
That?s a difficult question to answer?but briefly I do it through a combination of manuscript critique, peer critique, and individual conferencing.? But it really depends on the venue: a traditional university, a weekend workshop, or a low-residency distance-learning model.? They all demand different approaches.? In general, I give students models in the genre in which they?re working, I sometimes use writing exercises (again, depending on the level), and I try to see what the writer is attempting to do and help him or her achieve that goal.? I?m working with so many different kinds of nonfiction writers that I have to tailor my approach somewhat to each writer.
How does teaching help or hinder your own work?
Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hinders.? It depends on the time of year and the students with whom I?m dealing.? I work with some mightily talented students and while I don?t usually find myself directly inspired by their work, I do get a vicarious pleasure in helping them turn their ideas into essays and books.?
Here?s my monthly real estate report for Northern Meadows in Rio Rancho. Northern Meadows is located in North-Central Rio Rancho?near the new Rio Rancho city hall, the Santa Ana Star Center, the New Hewlett Packard Customer Service and Technical Support center, the University of New Mexico West campus and the UNM/Sandoval County Regional Medical Center. Read more about Northern Meadows neighborhood.
Due to overbuilding in 2005/2006 and the slow economy, the housing market in Northern Meadows has?been challenging for sellers over the last several years. View Northern Meadows Homes for Sale.
Northern Meadows Home Sales in July 2012
11 homes sold in Northern Meadows during July 2012.?Here are the stats on the homes that sold:
Price Range
$92,000 to $203,000
Ave Sales Price
$151,290
Median Sales Price
$150,000
Ave Sq Feet
?2,133
Ave Price Per Sq Foot
?$74
Ave Days on Market
?54
Distressed Properties
?8
% Distressed
?73
?
Northern Meadows Homes for Sale
Right now there are 78?homes for sale in Northern Meadows. 46 are regular sales, 31 are short sales and 6 are bank owned or foreclosure homes.
Search for short sale property in Rio Rancho or foreclosed houses for sale in Rio Rancho today!
Related posts:
Northern Meadows Real Estate Stats for June 2012
Northern Meadows Real Estate Stats for June 2011
Northern Meadows Real Estate Report for October 2011
The Seven Hills Aurora neighborhood is located just east of Tower Rd, north of Hampden. With it's proximity to Cherry Creek State Park, I-225 and E-470, it is a popular location for buyers considering Aurora homes. This week, HUD released a new listing in the neighborhood bringing HUD's total number of Aurora foreclosures to just 10.
That's correct, far from the huge inventory of available Aurora foreclosures we grew used to seeing just a year ago, right now, HUD has only 10 aurora foreclosures on the market. And those that are listed, are moving quickly.
This listing is over 1,400 square feet, has an attached 1 car garage and is eligible for the $100 HUD down payment program.
Aurora Foreclosures:
HUD Owned Home 19514 e amherst dr aurora 80013 $120,000.00
Broker Remarks: hud home sold as-is by electronic bid only fha case #052-432292. bids for eligible bidders due on or before 09/03/12 @ ... more...
The $100 down HUD program that is available on all Denver HUD homes is an amazing deal. If you are considering buying a HUD home as your primary residence, give our team a call and we can explain the program to you in detail: 303-726-1874.
Several of our team members live in and around Aurora and can help you with any questions you may have on Aurora homes, Aurora foreclosures or Aurora short sales. Just call us and ask: 303-726-1874.
First, I don't think your soon-to-be husband has any say in this. Step-parents really have to know that the parent is the one who doles out punishment and makes the final decisions for thier children. Step-parents are important and they are free to give their input to the parent but then they have to step back and let the parent decide the best course of action. He/She may not always agree with the parent, but they should support him or her.
I do think your child has an issue and probably needs to see a counselor. I know plenty of children who are afraid to sleep alone, but 11 is a little old for it. For his sake, I hope you can get to the bottom of his fears. I wish your husband were equally concerned about his emotional well-being as his odd behavior. He's a child... I doubt he'll sleep with his brother when he's 16. He may just be going through a difficult thing - or got really afraid of a horror movie. I couldn't sleep for days after I saw Freddy Kruger - I was 19 and if I could have slept with my mommy, I would have!
Best of luck to you and your family.
- Response by walkdup3, A Married Girl, Female, 36-45, Administrative
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Tumors containing two types of skin cancer cells shrank or disappeared when researchers at the universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow applied a concentrated solution of EGCG.
They created a cell with epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and transferrin, a protein that naturally targets and latches on to the surface of cancer cells, and applied it to tumors.
The combination made two-thirds of the tumors shrink or disappear and produced no side-effects on other cells or tissue.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, ?tests were done on two types of skin cancer: epidermoid carcinoma which forms scales on the surface of the skin and melanoma which often develops in people who have moles on their skin.
In both studies, 40 per cent of tumors vanished, while 30 per cent of tumors in carcinoma cases and 20 per cent in melanoma cases shrank. A further 10 per cent of melanoma tumors were stabilized, so did not grow or shrink.
Lead researcher Dr. Christine Dufes, from the University of Strathclyde, said: ?These are very encouraging results which we hope could pave the way for new and effective cancer treatments.
?When we used our method, the green tea extract reduced the size of many of the tumours every day, in some cases removing them altogether. By contrast, the extract had no effect at all when it was delivered by other means, as every one of these tumors continued to grow.
?This research could open doors to new treatments for what is still one of the biggest killer diseases in many countries.?
The research is published in the medical journal Nanomedicine
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[unable to retrieve full-text content]New York City?s mayor said that drilling for natural gas should take place under ?common sense? regulations, to minimize environmental harm.
Reviewer: Donna Rolfe Source: Video Writer: Tom McComas Producer: Tom McComas Director: Tom McComas Genre: Children Runtime: 40 min. MPAA Rating: Not
Synopsis: A fun and educational DVD for the younger set. Kids will learn where food comes from and about the growing season -- planting, cultivating, and the harvest in the fall. They will see tractors and combines and lots of farm animals. Doodle Rooster narrates and is joined by Harvey Horse and Bell, the dairy cow.
Play the cloud game. Visit the Farm in the Zoo at Lincoln Park Zoo, right in the middle of Chicago. Go to the John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois to see how Deere makes their combines. All this fun is set to nine new original songs by award-winning singer/songwriter James Coffey. Kids will love the action, tap their toes to the music, and have lots of fun on the farm.
Dove Worldview: "John Deere" is a big part of the farming community and this video is educational and entertaining alike for young and old. Doodle Rooster along with some friends narrates some interesting facts and history about farming, the animals, equipment and crops. Along with all the information, Doodle is accompanied by cute toe-tapping songs teaching about numbers, letters and the farm animals, and charming games about vegetables and looking for animal shapes in the clouds.
This video is aimed toward children two to six but will be enjoyed by the entire family. It is filled with real action footage of activities that are a part of everyday farm life. Kids will be intrigued by the changes that John Deere tractors have made in their long history and the many other machines that are used on a farm.
The Dove "Family-Approved" Seal for all ages is awarded to this educational video.
Sony has confirmed that it's shuttering Studio Liverpool, more famously known as Psygnosis. The publisher was founded in 1984 and is responsible for a legion of best-selling titles including Lemmings, Colony Wars, Destruction Derby, Wipeout and the Formula One games. In a statement, the company said that after a review of its "commercially viable" projects, it's focusing on projects in other parts of the business -- after slashing the studio's remit in a cost-cutting exercise in 2010. The facility is also the location of the company's European Quality Assurance team, which will reportedly remain in operation.
Atlantic City Officials are currently collaborating with local businesses to expand the ?Do AC? campaign.
Jerry Driendl, Getty Images
After initially being reported that the Atlantic City Alliance was taking legal action against local businesses that were using similar logos to promote and advertise, the Alliance has clarified that they are not taking any serious legal action, and are actually encouraging businesses to use similar slogans.
?The use of the ?Do AC? logo and slogan by partner businesses is actually encouraged by the Atlantic City Alliance,? Chief Communications and Strategy Officer Jeff Guaracino said.
The city has however sent out a number of cease and desist letters to many businesses for the sole purpose of allowing the city to help the businesses develop the brand. No further legal action is being pursued.
Atlantic City officials have been working with businesses on a case-by-case bases to help develop the brand and logo so that no trademarks are violated.
?The legal issue is working with each business so that they use the proper colors and sizes which are compliant with the style guide. We want to make sure that no business violates the trademark,? Guaracino said.
Since being launched in April by the Atlantic City Alliance, the ?Do AC? slogan has taken off in popularity. Over 100,000 5.5 inch in diameter magnets bearing the logo have been distributed since April, and have quickly become a staple on many Atlantic City cars.
The main purpose of the new slogan launch was to create a buzz around Atlantic City. Many local businesses have seen how successful the campaign has been and felt that piggybacking on the campaign would be create more exposure for both their businesses as well as the city.
Weston? is a neighboring community of Westport enjoying a close association with Westport and its considerable amenities, including a shared Chamber of Commerce.
Weston Town website
Demographics ? Town Profile School Information ? ? Board of Education ? ?School Reports Recreation ? ? Newcomers Club ? ??Parks & Rec? ? ?Library ? ? ?Aspetuck Land Trust? ? ?Devils Den Golf & Tennis ? Aspetuck Valley Country Club? ? ? Weston Field Club? ? ? Weston Racquet Club Equestrian Fairfield Bridle Trails Salko Farm & StableWeston Ra Local News Sources ? ?Weston Forum? ? ?The Patch ? ??Daily Voice Articles ??Connecticut Magazine ranks?Weston #2?best?city with population 10-15,000.
US Vice President Joe Biden will look his opponents in the eyes next week when he campaigns in Tampa, Florida during the first two days of the Republican National Convention there.
The Republican event, which runs from August 27 to 30, will see former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan will be formally named candidates for the November 6 presidential election.
"On Monday, August 27 and Tuesday, August 28, Vice President Joe Biden will travel to the Tampa area and other cities for campaign events," the re-election campaign of Democratic President Barack Obama said in a brief statement.
Obama and Biden will be confirmed as the Democratic candidates at their party's convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, from September 4 to 6.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? After three weeks of listening to technology experts, patent professionals and company executives debate the complicated legal claims of Apple Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., a jury of nine men and women are set to decide one of the biggest technology disputes in history.
Apple is demanding Samsung pay it $2.5 billion and pull its most popular smartphones and computer tablets from the U.S. market after accusing the South Korean company of "ripping off" its iPhone and iPad technology. Samsung, in turn, is demanding Apple pay it $399 million for allegedly using Samsung's technology without proper payments in making the iconic iPhone and iPad.
Apple's damage demands, if awarded, would represent the largest patent verdict in the U.S. An appeals court last year overturned the largest award to date, a $1.8 billion judgment against pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories.
Apple and Samsung are the top-selling smartphone makers and combined account for more than half of global smartphone sales.
Barring a last-minute settlement, jurors are scheduled to hear the dueling companies' lawyers deliver closing arguments Tuesday in the San Jose federal courtroom of Judge Lucy Koh and they could begin deliberating late that afternoon, or more likely, Wednesday morning.
From the beginning, legal experts and Wall Street analysts have viewed Samsung as the underdog. To begin with, Apple's headquarters is a mere 10 miles from the courthouse and the jurors were picked from the heart of Silicon Valley where the company's late founder Steve Jobs is a revered technological pioneer.
And while the legal and technological issues may be complex, patent expert Alexander I. Poltorak says the case will likely boil down to whether jurors believe Samsung's products at issue look and feel almost identical to Apple's iPhone and iPad.
"Most jurors will probably say they look alike," said Poltorak, who is chief executive of General Patent Corp. The judge appears to agree.
The judge in June called Samsung's Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer "virtually indistinguishable" from Apple's iPad and banned its sale in the United States until the resolution of the case.
"There was some evidence that Samsung altered its design to make its product look more like Apple's," the judge found two months before the trial started.
To overcome that hurdle, Samsung's battalion of lawyers has been arguing that many of Apple's claims of innovation are either obvious ideas or were actually stolen ideas from Sony Corp. and others. Experts called that line of argument a high-risk strategy because of Apple's reputation as an innovator.
"Saying Apple is a copyist is going be a hard sell," said Ellen Brickman, a New York-based jury and trial consultant. "Apple changed the world when it came to computers. Apple changed the world when it came to phones. The fact that the iPhone and iPad are so popular shows people believe the products must be innovative. When you think of tech, you just don't think of Samsung."
Finally, Brickman and others argue that a foreign rival accused of stealing from a popular U.S. company like Apple during the tough economic climate faces an uphill battle with a "hometown" jury.
General Patent's Poltorak said a verdict in Apple's favor would cost Samsung "a lot of money," but wouldn't dramatically disrupt the smartphone markets. He predicted that Samsung engineers would quickly redesign the company's smartphone and computer tablets to compete with Apple if the Cupertino-based company won its lawsuit.
Apple lawyers argue there is almost no difference between Samsung's products and Apple's and presented Samsung's internal documents they say show it copied Apple's designs. Samsung lawyers countered that several other companies and inventors had previously developed much of the Apple technology at issue.
The U.S. trial is just the latest skirmish between the two over product designs. The two companies have been fighting in courts in Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany.
The case is one of some 50 lawsuits among myriad telecommunications companies jockeying for position in the burgeoning $219 billion market for smartphones and computer tablets.
VICTORIA ? The parents of three-year-old Hannah Day, a Victoria girl diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, say they will file a formal complaint with the Vancouver Island Health Authority.
They say their little girl was extremely ill, vomiting and unable to eat for weeks. But, a string of doctors sent them away, including doctors at Victoria General Hospital?s Emergency Department.
Dr. Rod Rassekh, an oncologist at B.C. Children?s Hospital says diagnosing cancer in children can be difficult. Rassekh says Hannah?s cancer it is often found when tumours grow to a point the stomach becomes enlarged.
Her mother is angry it took so long to get to her daughter into treatment. Brooke Ervin says doctor after doctor told her nothing was wrong. Ervin says Hannah started showing signs of being ill in mid June; she was vomiting and unable to eat.
The family visited a number of walk-in clinics in the following weeks, but each time they were given a different explanation for what was wrong. It turns out, none were correct.
On July 26th Ervin took Hannah to the emergency department at Victoria General Hospital. Three hours later she was released with instructions to follow up with her family doctor
?They said it was bad posture,? says Ervin.
When Hannah?s symptoms got worse, her family doctor told Ervin to rush her daughter back to emergency at VGH and suggested an emergency ultra-sound.
?But they didn?t do an emergency ultra-sound,? Ervin explains.
The Vancouver Island Health Authority released the following treatment timeline CTV News:
August 3rd, 2012
3:15pm ? Hannah arrives at VGH and immediately triaged as ?critical.? 3:30pm ? Hannah is seen by a doctor 6:00pm ? An X-ray is taken. 11:30pm ? Doctors ordered an ultra sound.
August 4th, 2012
1:30am ? Hannah is admitted to the paediatric ward. 9:30am ? Hannah receives an ultra-sound. 2:30pm ? The family learns Hannah has a mass in her stomach 11:30pm ? Hannah is flown to B.C. Children?s Hospital
The NDP is calling on the health authority to complete a full review of the case. But, VIHA says it cannot act, unless it receives a complaint from the family. Hannah?s family says that complaint is coming, but their first priority is Hannah, and supporting her during, what is expected to be, a year of chemotherapy.
VIHA says it is required by law to respond and that could include a meeting with doctors and family to address concerns.
Hannah?s diagnosis is just the latest in a series of tragedies for her family. A fire in January 2011 gutted the family business and later that year, Hannah?s grandfather died from a heart attack. Now they family is struggling to make ends meet as keep a home in Victoria and stay with Hannah at the hospital.
To help the family survive, friends are stepping forward to raise money, setting up a Facebook page ?Help Little Hannah Get Cancer Free.?
Follow Stephen Andrew on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CTVNewsStephen
A material to rejuvenate aging and diseased human vocal cordsPublic release date: 20-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
215-418-2056 (Philadelphia Press Center, Aug. 17-23)
202-872-6042
Michael Woods
m_woods@acs.org
215-418-2056 (Philadelphia Press Center, Aug. 17-23)
202-872-6293
American Chemical Society
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 20, 2012 A new made-in-the-lab material designed to rejuvenate the human voice, restoring the flexibility that vocal cords lose with age and disease, is emerging from a collaboration between scientists and physicians, a scientist heading the development team said here today.
That's just one of several innovations that Robert Langer, Sc.D., discussed in delivering the latest Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). More than 14,000 scientists and others are expected to attend the meeting, which features 8,600 reports on new advances in science and other topics. The sessions continue through Thursday in the Pennsylvania Convention Center and downtown hotels.
Langer heads a team of almost 100 in laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world's largest academic research laboratories. He holds, or has applied for, more than 800 patents, and has founded or co-founded numerous companies, with honors that include the ACS' 2012 Priestley Medal, the highest honor of the world's largest scientific society.
The artificial vocal cord material, the first designed to restore lost flexibility in human vocal cords, results from an ongoing effort to produce artificial tissues in the lab, Langer explained. Lost flexibility in the vocal cords, due to the effects of aging or disease, is a major factor in the voice loss that affects 18 million people in the United States alone.
"The synthetic vocal cord gel has similar properties as the material found in human vocal cords and flutters in response to air pressure changes, just like the real thing," explained Langer, who is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT.
The vocal cords are two folds in the "voice box" that vibrate, or come together and away from each other very quickly to produce puffs of air that help form sounds. They function in much the same way as a reed in a saxophone. The cords consist of layers of muscle, ligament and a membrane. A layer between the ligament and the membrane is very flexible, and that flexibility and pliability is critical for speech.
But when someone, such as a teacher, a politician or a performer, overuses their voice, scar tissue develops. The same thing happens when a person gets older, accounting for the lower volume and hoarseness often apparent in older people. Cancer or having a tube inserted in the throat for medical procedures also can damage the cords. Scar tissue is stiff, and scarring leaves a person with a hoarse, breathy voice.
"About 90 percent of human voice loss is because of lost pliability," said Steven Zeitels, M.D., F.A.C.S., Langer's collaborator on the project. Zeitels is the Eugene B. Casey Professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Voice Center. His patients include singers Julie Andrews of The Sound of Music fame, who lost her full vocal range after surgery done elsewhere in 1997, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Adele. "I recognized this need in my practice over the years, after seeing many patients with voice problems. I went to Bob Langer because I knew he could help design a material that would ultimately help patients speak and sing again. Currently, no treatments exist to restore vocal cord flexibility."
The material had to be very flexible and be able to vibrate just like human vocal cords. After trying numerous candidates, Langer's team settled on polyethylene glycol 30 (PEG30), which is already used in personal care creams and in medical devices and drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as a starting material and created polymers based on it. The PEG30 gel can flutter at a rate of 200 times per second, which is a normal rate for a woman speaking in a conversation. Watch a video of the artificial vocal cord gel in action here.
A physician would inject the gel into a patient's vocal cords. Patients would receive different formulations, depending on how they use their voices. The most stable version is highly "cross-linked," which means the molecules of PEG are more tightly stitched together than in other versions. That makes the material a little bit rigid, but it would still help restore someone's speaking voice. A singer, however, would likely receive a formulation that is more loosely stitched together, or less cross-linked, which is more flexible to allow the patient to hit high notes. The gel degrades over time, so patients would receive two to five injections per year, estimated Zeitels.
Tests in animals suggest that the material is safe, and human trials will hopefully begin in mid-2013. Some of Zeitels' patients, such as Andrews, have formed a nonprofit organization called The Voice Health Institute, which funds Langer and Zeitels' research on the vocal cord biomaterial.
Artificial vocal cords are just one artificial tissue in development in Langer's lab. He described work on building intestinal, spinal cord, pancreatic and heart tissue in the laboratory with many different types of materials. Among them: Nanowires (which are about a tenth the diameter of a human hair) and something called "biorubber."
"It's hard to know when they will be ready for clinical use," Langer said. "But In Vivo Therapeutics hopes to start clinical trials for the spinal cord tissue we've developed within the next year."
Langer also recently developed a pacemaker-sized microchip that delivers just the right amount of medication at just the right time, potentially allowing thousands of patients to ditch painful needles forever. A clinical trial of the device, implanted in women with osteoporosis, has just concluded and showed that it was safe to use. The device released osteoporosis medication when it received a signal from a computer. It worked just as well as daily shots of the drug. MicroCHIPS, Inc., a company that Langer co-founded, will commercialize the remote-controlled microchip.
Another way to make medicines more effective is to make sure they go exactly to the location where they are needed; this reduces harmful side effects. Langer's targeted nanoparticles can do just that. A clinical trial run by BIND Biosciences, another company co-founded by Langer, recently found that these nanoparticles are safe in humans. The particles have a homing molecule on them that targets them to prostate cancer cells or cancer blood vessels, and they deliver an anti-cancer medication called docetaxel. All of the materials, including the drug, are already approved by the FDA.
Langer said that the chemical engineering field, which marries chemistry and engineering to make useful devices and other substances, is booming. "There are all kinds of advances happening in drug delivery, new vaccines and immunotherapies, tissue engineering, nanotherapies and nanodiagnostics," he said.
Watch a video here for more information about Langer's innovations.
Langer acknowledged funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.
Sponsored by The Kavli Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports basic scientific research, the lectures are designed to address the urgent need for vigorous, "outside the box" thinking by scientists as they tackle the world's mounting challenges, including climate change, emerging diseases and water and energy shortages.
"We are dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity, promoting public understanding of scientific research and supporting scientists and their work," said Kavli Foundation President Robert W. Conn in a statement. "The Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture program at the ACS national meetings fits perfectly with our commitment to support groundbreaking discovery and promote public understanding."
The Kavli lectures debuted at the Anaheim meeting in March 2011 and will continue through 2013. They will address the urgent need for vigorous, new, "outside-the-box"- thinking, as scientists tackle many of the world's mounting challenges like climate change, emerging diseases and water and energy shortages. The Kavli Foundation, an internationally recognized philanthropic organization known for its support of basic scientific innovation, agreed to sponsor the lectures in conjunction with ACS in 2010.
###
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
Note to journalists: Please report that this research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Abstract
Advanced drug delivery systems are having an enormous impact on human health. We start by discussing our early research on developing the first polymeric controlled release systems for macromolecules and their use in the isolation of angiogenesis inhibitors and how this led to numerous new therapies. We then discuss new ways of using nanotechnology based systems to deliver DNA and siRNA. Approaches for creating new biomaterials are then evaluated and examples where such materials are used in brain cancer and shape memory applications are discussed. Finally, by combining mammalian cells, including stem cells, with synthetic polymers, new approaches for engineering tissues are being developed that may someday help in treating various diseases. Examples in the areas of cartilage, skin and spinal cord repair
[ | 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 material to rejuvenate aging and diseased human vocal cordsPublic release date: 20-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
215-418-2056 (Philadelphia Press Center, Aug. 17-23)
202-872-6042
Michael Woods
m_woods@acs.org
215-418-2056 (Philadelphia Press Center, Aug. 17-23)
202-872-6293
American Chemical Society
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 20, 2012 A new made-in-the-lab material designed to rejuvenate the human voice, restoring the flexibility that vocal cords lose with age and disease, is emerging from a collaboration between scientists and physicians, a scientist heading the development team said here today.
That's just one of several innovations that Robert Langer, Sc.D., discussed in delivering the latest Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). More than 14,000 scientists and others are expected to attend the meeting, which features 8,600 reports on new advances in science and other topics. The sessions continue through Thursday in the Pennsylvania Convention Center and downtown hotels.
Langer heads a team of almost 100 in laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world's largest academic research laboratories. He holds, or has applied for, more than 800 patents, and has founded or co-founded numerous companies, with honors that include the ACS' 2012 Priestley Medal, the highest honor of the world's largest scientific society.
The artificial vocal cord material, the first designed to restore lost flexibility in human vocal cords, results from an ongoing effort to produce artificial tissues in the lab, Langer explained. Lost flexibility in the vocal cords, due to the effects of aging or disease, is a major factor in the voice loss that affects 18 million people in the United States alone.
"The synthetic vocal cord gel has similar properties as the material found in human vocal cords and flutters in response to air pressure changes, just like the real thing," explained Langer, who is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT.
The vocal cords are two folds in the "voice box" that vibrate, or come together and away from each other very quickly to produce puffs of air that help form sounds. They function in much the same way as a reed in a saxophone. The cords consist of layers of muscle, ligament and a membrane. A layer between the ligament and the membrane is very flexible, and that flexibility and pliability is critical for speech.
But when someone, such as a teacher, a politician or a performer, overuses their voice, scar tissue develops. The same thing happens when a person gets older, accounting for the lower volume and hoarseness often apparent in older people. Cancer or having a tube inserted in the throat for medical procedures also can damage the cords. Scar tissue is stiff, and scarring leaves a person with a hoarse, breathy voice.
"About 90 percent of human voice loss is because of lost pliability," said Steven Zeitels, M.D., F.A.C.S., Langer's collaborator on the project. Zeitels is the Eugene B. Casey Professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Voice Center. His patients include singers Julie Andrews of The Sound of Music fame, who lost her full vocal range after surgery done elsewhere in 1997, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Adele. "I recognized this need in my practice over the years, after seeing many patients with voice problems. I went to Bob Langer because I knew he could help design a material that would ultimately help patients speak and sing again. Currently, no treatments exist to restore vocal cord flexibility."
The material had to be very flexible and be able to vibrate just like human vocal cords. After trying numerous candidates, Langer's team settled on polyethylene glycol 30 (PEG30), which is already used in personal care creams and in medical devices and drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as a starting material and created polymers based on it. The PEG30 gel can flutter at a rate of 200 times per second, which is a normal rate for a woman speaking in a conversation. Watch a video of the artificial vocal cord gel in action here.
A physician would inject the gel into a patient's vocal cords. Patients would receive different formulations, depending on how they use their voices. The most stable version is highly "cross-linked," which means the molecules of PEG are more tightly stitched together than in other versions. That makes the material a little bit rigid, but it would still help restore someone's speaking voice. A singer, however, would likely receive a formulation that is more loosely stitched together, or less cross-linked, which is more flexible to allow the patient to hit high notes. The gel degrades over time, so patients would receive two to five injections per year, estimated Zeitels.
Tests in animals suggest that the material is safe, and human trials will hopefully begin in mid-2013. Some of Zeitels' patients, such as Andrews, have formed a nonprofit organization called The Voice Health Institute, which funds Langer and Zeitels' research on the vocal cord biomaterial.
Artificial vocal cords are just one artificial tissue in development in Langer's lab. He described work on building intestinal, spinal cord, pancreatic and heart tissue in the laboratory with many different types of materials. Among them: Nanowires (which are about a tenth the diameter of a human hair) and something called "biorubber."
"It's hard to know when they will be ready for clinical use," Langer said. "But In Vivo Therapeutics hopes to start clinical trials for the spinal cord tissue we've developed within the next year."
Langer also recently developed a pacemaker-sized microchip that delivers just the right amount of medication at just the right time, potentially allowing thousands of patients to ditch painful needles forever. A clinical trial of the device, implanted in women with osteoporosis, has just concluded and showed that it was safe to use. The device released osteoporosis medication when it received a signal from a computer. It worked just as well as daily shots of the drug. MicroCHIPS, Inc., a company that Langer co-founded, will commercialize the remote-controlled microchip.
Another way to make medicines more effective is to make sure they go exactly to the location where they are needed; this reduces harmful side effects. Langer's targeted nanoparticles can do just that. A clinical trial run by BIND Biosciences, another company co-founded by Langer, recently found that these nanoparticles are safe in humans. The particles have a homing molecule on them that targets them to prostate cancer cells or cancer blood vessels, and they deliver an anti-cancer medication called docetaxel. All of the materials, including the drug, are already approved by the FDA.
Langer said that the chemical engineering field, which marries chemistry and engineering to make useful devices and other substances, is booming. "There are all kinds of advances happening in drug delivery, new vaccines and immunotherapies, tissue engineering, nanotherapies and nanodiagnostics," he said.
Watch a video here for more information about Langer's innovations.
Langer acknowledged funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.
Sponsored by The Kavli Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports basic scientific research, the lectures are designed to address the urgent need for vigorous, "outside the box" thinking by scientists as they tackle the world's mounting challenges, including climate change, emerging diseases and water and energy shortages.
"We are dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity, promoting public understanding of scientific research and supporting scientists and their work," said Kavli Foundation President Robert W. Conn in a statement. "The Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture program at the ACS national meetings fits perfectly with our commitment to support groundbreaking discovery and promote public understanding."
The Kavli lectures debuted at the Anaheim meeting in March 2011 and will continue through 2013. They will address the urgent need for vigorous, new, "outside-the-box"- thinking, as scientists tackle many of the world's mounting challenges like climate change, emerging diseases and water and energy shortages. The Kavli Foundation, an internationally recognized philanthropic organization known for its support of basic scientific innovation, agreed to sponsor the lectures in conjunction with ACS in 2010.
###
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
Note to journalists: Please report that this research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Abstract
Advanced drug delivery systems are having an enormous impact on human health. We start by discussing our early research on developing the first polymeric controlled release systems for macromolecules and their use in the isolation of angiogenesis inhibitors and how this led to numerous new therapies. We then discuss new ways of using nanotechnology based systems to deliver DNA and siRNA. Approaches for creating new biomaterials are then evaluated and examples where such materials are used in brain cancer and shape memory applications are discussed. Finally, by combining mammalian cells, including stem cells, with synthetic polymers, new approaches for engineering tissues are being developed that may someday help in treating various diseases. Examples in the areas of cartilage, skin and spinal cord repair
[ | 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.
22 Aug 2012
A fun and educational DVD for the younger set. Kids will learn where food comes from and about the growing season -- planting, cultivating, and the harvest in the fall. They will see tractors and combines and lots of farm animals. Doodle Rooster narrates and is joined by Harvey Horse and Bell, the dairy cow.
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Public release date: 20-Aug-2012
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