US-MICROSOFT-GOOGLE-RULING:Google can't enforce German Microsoft injunction: ruling
By Dan Levine
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled that Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit cannot enforce a patent injunction that it obtained against Microsoft Corp in Germany, diminishing Google's leverage in the ongoing smartphone patent wars.
The injunction would have barred Microsoft from "offering, marketing, using or importing or possessing" in Germany some products including the Xbox 360 and certain Windows software.
The ruling against the German injunction came from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard said the company was pleased with the ruling. A representative for Google's Motorola unit declined to comment.
Brian Love, a professor at Santa Clara Law school in Silicon Valley, said the decision helps Microsoft counteract a favorable dynamic for Google in Germany.
"To some extent Germany has a reputation as place you can go and get an injunction relatively easy," Love said.
The current Xbox 360 is the market-leading console in the United States. Microsoft is expected to unveil its next generation Xbox video game console in 2013.
Microsoft has said that Motorola's patents are standard, essential parts of its software and that Motorola is asking far too much in royalties for their use. Google closed on its $12.5 billion Motorola Mobility acquisition this year.
Microsoft sued Motorola in the United States in 2010, and Motorola then filed a lawsuit in Germany. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to move its European distribution center to the Netherlands from Germany ahead of a possible injunction.
After a court in Mannheim issued the sales ban, U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle granted Microsoft's request to put the German order on hold earlier this year. According to Robart, the ruling would remain in effect until he could determine whether Motorola could appropriately seek a sales ban based on its standard essential patents.
In its ruling on Friday, a three-judge 9th Circuit unanimously upheld Robart's order. Since Microsoft had already brought a lawsuit against Motorola for breach of contract in the United States, U.S. courts have the power to put the German injunction on hold, the 9th Circuit said.
"At bottom, this case is a private dispute under Washington state contract law between two U.S. corporations," the court ruled.
European regulators are investigating claims that Motorola over-charged Microsoft and Apple Inc for use of its patents in their products and thereby breached antitrust rules.
The case in the 9th Circuit is Microsoft Corporation vs. Motorola Inc, Motorola Mobility Inc and General Instrument Corporation, 12-35352.
(Additional reporting by Malathi Nayak in San Francisco and Bill Rigby in Seattle; Editing by Gary Hill and Richard Chang)
Related Keywords:US , MICROSOFT , GOOGLE , RULING Related Sites:CEN - Consumer Electronics Net , ? CEN - Toys , ? CEN - Games , ? CEN - PDAs , ? CEN - Phones , ? CEN - Web , ? VideoBasedTutorials
Related Newsletters:CEN - Gadgets Newsletter , ? Tutorial Finder , ? Review Seeker
One month after stepping down as chancellor of Los Rios Community College District, a position he held for 16 years, Brice Harris was named Thursday as chancellor of the California community college system.
Harris will officially succeed Jack Scott, a former state senator and community college president, in November.
The California community college system is the nation's largest, with 2.4 million students, and its 112 colleges have been hit hard by $809 million in budget cuts over the last four years with more looming on the horizon and strain showing across the system.
From the article:
Brice Harris has had one month of retirement to prepare for one of the most challenging leadership roles in higher education. The newly named chancellor of the California community college system ran the Los Rios Community College District for 16 years, stepping down as chancellor in August. His selection Thursday by the system's governing board was not a surprise. Harris was popular at Los Rios and had good relations with faculty groups while he led an expansion and modernization of the four colleges in the relatively large district. ...
London?s successful summer of sport has put UK firms in the box seat to win 2014 FIFA World Cup and Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Gamesprojects worth as much as ?250 million.
Prime Minister David Cameron is leading a trade mission of 58 companies to Brazil this week. Today, he brought British companies together with key decision-makers in Rio 2016 at a special summit on hosting sporting events. UK companies with concrete London 2012 expertise are keen to work together with Brazilian partners and share their Olympic expertise and lessons learned.
Already 22 British companies have won 36 contracts for 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games, which together amount to over ?70m.
Projects include urban and transport planning for nine World Cup host cities, the Olympic Park master plan design contract and communications and IT facilities. Transport for London is also working closely with Rio to share the experience it gained running London?s transport system during the 2012 Games and is actively working to develop this, with the potential for further investment in UK plc.
Prime Minister David Cameron said:
?This summer Britain set a new Olympic benchmark. We delivered London 2012 on time and under budget and showed the world that Britain has the skills, capacity, creativity and expertise to put on the greatest show on earth.
?Now we want to make sure we seize this unique opportunity to build on the close ties we have developed with Brazil as the next host nation, share our experiences and open the door for more British businesses.
?With UK companies already working closely with Rio 2016, winning contracts and building business links, we are in an ideal position to boost British business in Brazil from Rio 2016 and beyond.?
Britain wants to make the most of its experience as hosts of London 2012 to strengthen its relationship with Brazil and deliver an economic legacy for the UK. Already there have been 160 Olympic missions to and from Brazil on planning and delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, covering everything from transport to budget monitoring, sustainability to volunteering. No two adjacent host nations have worked so closely together.
London Organising Committee of Olympic and Paralympic Games chairman Paul Deighton said:
?Thousands of British businesses and partners delivered a hugely successful Olympic and Paralympic Games. We have a close working relationship with Rio and will be having a full de-brief with them in November and sharing our experiences. Hosting the Games presents a huge opportunity for Brazil and British companies are well placed to maximise on London?s excellent reputation for delivery.? Further World Cup and Olympic business won by British companies was announced today:
? Blue Cube (GB) Ltd, in partnership with Brazilian company NORA, has won the tender process to provide 64,000 seats for the Castelao stadium in Fortaleza which will be the first stadium to be completed for the 2014 FIFA world cup. Blue Cube has done extensive work in the UK, including the London 2012 Olympic Stadium.
Blue Cube Managing Director Russell Plant said:
?Brazil is the sixth largest economy in the world, and is also one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. In the next 4 years it is also host to the 2 biggest sporting events on the planet, with numerous facilities either being newly constructed or renovated for these events. Being involved in Brazil will help our company expand its international profile, and gain further business opportunities in other countries due to the significance of the projects that we will be completing.?
? London 2012 velodrome structural engineers Useful Simple are opening an office in Rio in the next few weeks. The company hope that over the next few years this will create 15 new jobs in London and annual revenue of ?1.5million.
Useful Simple Director Ed McCann said:
?We believe that economic story of the 21st century will be dominated by countries like Brazil which have so many of the earth?s key resources. We hope that we and others can play a small role in helping Brazil reach its full potential and in so doing secure our own future as individuals and as a business.?
? Vero MLA True Communications, a leading international sports marketing and communications agency, together with its Brazilian office, MLA TRUE Communications, has recently started working with UK company AECOM in Brazil. AECOM was the company behind the master plan design for the London Olympic Park and AECOM in Brazil is now working with a team of Brazilian and international professionals to develop the master plan for the Rio Olympic Park. VERO Communications, with its Brazilian sister agency, Approach, is helping AECOM to define its communications strategy in Brazil with local media delivery and showcasing the development of the project.
Vero MLA chief executive Mike Lee said:
?It is an honour to be working with AECOM, who are at the very heart of planning for the Olympic Park for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games and are continuing to grow a strong business in Brazil. As a leading communications agency specialising in the business of sport, VERO has the experience and expertise to support AECOM on the ground in its media and stakeholder communications goals in Brazil. AECOM has a great story to tell and we are excited to be working with them to help communicate their innovation, skills and track record. There are some very exciting opportunities ahead for the city as a result of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games and at VERO, we share some of this excitement having been part of the winning bid team and can now witness the dream become a reality.?
? The British Council are setting up a rugby development programme in S?o Paulo this month involving underprivileged communities. This comes as rugby is due to become an Olympic sport for the very first time at the Rio 2016 Games. Coaches from English Premiership Rugby will based in Brazil for 10 months and will work with at least 10,000 young Brazilians in 12 cities, helping to promote social development through team work and leadership, as well as raising the profile of the British sport of rugby.
British Council Sports Director in Brazil Guilherme Guimar?es said:
"The objective of the Try Rugby S?o Paulo programme is not about identifying talents in the sport, but promoting social inclusion and disseminating a better understanding of rugby in Brazil. Rugby will be a part of the Olympic programme for the first time in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, so this is the ideal moment to launch a project like this.
? Touch Bionics, a provider of world-leading prosthetic technologies today announced the worldwide launch of their prosthetic innovations for people with missing fingers. The company based, in Scotland, were featured in the GREAT campaign to showcase the strength and innovation of the UK?s life sciences sector.
Touch Bionics CEO Ian Stevens said:
?The new finger development enables i-limb digits prostheses to be made smaller, lighter and more anatomically accurate, and therefore suitable for a wider population, such as those with smaller hands, or whose amputations are closer to the base of the fingers. The wrist-band unit provides the ability to build an i-limb digits prosthesis that has full wrist mobility and with easily interchangeable and rechargeable batteries.?
Notes to editors:
1. It is estimated that the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games alone will generate business opportunities worth up to ?1.2 billion.
2. During the visit a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between UK and Brazil on Olympics cooperation. A High Level Olympic Dialogue will be held in Rio de Janeiro in November attended by the newly created UK High Level Olympics Advisory Group to Brazil, the Brazilian Ministry of Sport, the Public Olympic Authority and other organizers of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
3. Research published by Deloitte today reveals more than a quarter of British businesses (28%) believe the successful delivery of London 2012 will help UK firms to boost their exports to the host countries of future major events. The research also found that 50% of companies feel the Games have increased confidence in British companies? ability to deliver large infrastructure projects. For more information about the research see www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/about/340d16746460a310VgnVCM3000003456f70aRCRD.htm.
4. Examples of Brazil 2014 World Cup and Rio 2016 company partnerships and contracts won by UK companies include: ? ISG (International Stadia Group) ? construction and operation of the 45,000 seat 2014 World Cup Arena Pernambuco, Recife. ? Steer Davies Gleave? providing independent transport and major event consultancy to nine World Cup cities, including Rio de Janeiro. The company assisted the Olympic Delivery Authority on transport planning work as part of the planning for the London 2012 Games. ? PwC? consulting work for the Rio Investment Agency. ? Ernst & Young ? professional services consulting for the Rio 2016 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. ? ARUP? sustainability advisors for the Rio 2016 Olympic Village project. Arup were design partners for the London 2012 handball arena. ? London 2012 contractors Odgers Berndtson- executive searches for Rio 2016 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. ? Match Hospitality AG? worldwide exclusive rights holders of the FIFA Hospitality Programme for the 2014 World Cup. ? Sports gift company ADM Promotion - FIFA's official premium licensee for the 2014 World Cup. ? Security training company AKONA ? stewarding training. ? Populous ? 2014 World Cup Natal stadium architects. Populous were official architectural and overlay design services provider for London 2012. ? London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic masterplaners AECOM have been appointed masterplanners for the Rio 2016 Olympic Park and advisors to City Olympic Authority. ? The Works ? image and branding strategy for a major event taking place in Brazil. ? Wilkinson Eyre Architects ? Rio 2016 Olympic Park masterplan architect advisors with AECOM. The company designed the London 2012 basketball arena. ? Innovision ? worked on Brazil?s London 2012 Casa Brasil pavilion. ? Clive Richardson Limited ? sports pitch stadia construction specialists for 2014 FIFA World Cup Gremio and Mineriao arenas. ? Sepura ? communications and IT suppliers for 18 Infraero airports for 2014 FIFA World Cup. ? Sports marketing and entertainment company CSM through their Brazilian office, Golden Goal, are responsible for Engenhao Stadium hospitality.
5. Transport is always a major challenge for Olympic cities. It was for London and it will be for Rio 2016. For London 2012, Transport for London (TfL) and partners? meticulous planning and professionalism delivered on the twin objectives of hosting a great Games and keeping London moving and open for business.
All athletes, officials and spectators got to their events on time, whether via road or rail, and London?s transport network carried record numbers of passengers. Over 60 million journeys were made by London Underground ? up by over a third on normal summer levels ? around 7 million by the DLR network and a further 6 million via London Overground. Traffic levels in central London were typically reduced by around 15 per cent during the Olympics and over 90 per cent of Games vehicle journeys were on time. On the busiest day, 4.57 million passengers travelled by Tube, the most ever recorded in a single day and equivalent to the entire population of New Zealand.
Businesses and the freight and logistics industry planned to ensure supermarkets shelves were stocked, pubs full of beer and hospitals of vital supplies. The Games will provide a lasting transport legacy for London and the UK in terms of infrastructure and operational improvements, as well as behavioural change, skills and reputation.
TfL and Rio 2016 have already been working closely together in the run up to and during the London 2012 Games. Rio 2016 has observed how TfL runs a fully integrated multi-modal transport network encompassing underground, bus and coach, heavy and light rail, walking, cycling and cable car as well as maintaining and running the major road network. TfL has been asked to consider how it can use the experience and knowledge gained through London 2012 to further support Rio 2016 and is actively working to develop this, with the potential for further investment in UK plc.
6. The Government's economic policy objective is to achieve 'strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more evenly shared across the country and between industries'. It set four ambitions in the ?Plan for Growth? (PDF 1.7MB), published at Budget 2011:
To create the most competitive tax system in the G20
To make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business
To encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy
To create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe.
Work is underway across Government to achieve these ambitions, including progress on more than 250 measures as part of the Growth Review. Developing an Industrial Strategy gives new impetus to this work by providing businesses, investors and the public with more clarity about the long-term direction in which the Government wants the economy to travel.
7. UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is the Government Department that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy. We also help overseas companies bring their high quality investment to the UK?s economy ? acknowledged as Europe?s best place from which to succeed in global business. UKTI offers expertise and contacts through its extensive network of specialists in the UK, and in British embassies and other diplomatic offices around the world. We provide companies with the tools they require to be competitive on the world stage. For more information on UKTI, visit www.ukti.gov.uk or visit the online newsroom at www.ukti.gov.uk/media.
Google's new Field Trip app is a virtual local tour guide that's always running in the background. It pops up interesting local information???from local history and architecture to the best restaurants and shopping???without you having to ask for it.
After you choose whether you want just occasional notifications or frequent ones, Field Trip runs quietly in the background, looking for anything notable around you. The app pulls in information from a ton of sources, including Zagat and Eater in the food and drinks category; Architizer for architecture; and The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations and Atlas Obscura for unique (and possibly bizarre) finds.
When it finds something, Field Trip notifies you with a ringtone and/or vibration. It can even read the title and description to you. View the event, place, or thing on a map and read more about it within the app. You can also choose to get more or fewer notifications from individual sources.
The Android?app has a really pleasant interface and definitely encourages you to step out and go explore (as the video above suggests). Google says the app is like having a local friend with you as you explore a city. You can download this virtual friend on Google Play now; an iOS version is coming soon.?
NOTE:?If Google Play?says?your phone is incompatible, it might not really be. I got the incompatibility warning too on my Galaxy S2, but was able to download it directly from the phone and it works!
Field Trip?| on?Google Play?via?The New York Times
Governments failing to address 'global pandemic of untreated cancer pain'Public release date: 29-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: ESMO Press Office media@esmo.org European Society for Medical Oncology
Landmark global survey reveals major shortcomings in many countries around the world
Vienna, Austria, 29 September 2012 - Governments around the world are leaving hundreds of millions of cancer patients to suffer needlessly because of their failure to ensure adequate access to pain-relieving drugs, an unprecedented new international survey reveals.
The new data, released to the public during the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna, paints a shocking picture of unnecessary pain on a global scale, said Prof Nathan Cherny, lead author of the report from Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel, Chair of the ESMO Palliative Care Working Group.
"Unrelieved cancer pain is a cause of major worldwide suffering, not because we don't have the tools necessary to relive pain, but because most patients don't have access to the essential pain-relieving medication," Prof Cherny said. "This pandemic affects literally billions of people. Not only are the patients suffering often terrible unrelieved pain, but their family members are often permanently scarred by the memories of witnessing such suffering in their loved ones."
The International Collaborative Project to Evaluate the Availability and Accessibility of Opioids for the Management of Cancer Pain was initiated by the European Society for Medical Oncology and coordinated with the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC), the Pain and Policies Study Group (PPSG) at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). They were assisted by the cooperation and participation of a further 17 international oncology and palliative care organizations[1]. This project was undertaken under the auspices of the ESMO Developing Countries Task Force, led by Dr. Adamos Adamou, Cyprus.
The study data was gathered between December 2010 and July 2012, with 156 reports submitted by experts in 76 countries and 19 Indian states. These reports represented 58% of countries and 83% of 5.7 billion of the people living in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin and Central America and the Caribbean[2].
The researchers found that very few countries provided all seven of the opioid medications that are considered to be essential for the relief of cancer pain by the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care[3]. Those essential medications include, among others, codeine, immediate and slow release oral morphine, oral oxycodone and transdermal fentanyl.
In many countries, fewer than three of the seven medications are available. In many of the countries, those medications that are available are either unsubsidised or weakly subsidised by government, and availability is often limited. Furthermore, many countries have highly restrictive regulations that limit entitlement of cancer patients to receive prescriptions, limit prescriber privileges, impose restrictive limits on duration of prescription, restrict dispensing, and increase bureaucratic burden of the prescribing and dispensing process.
There is an urgent need to examine drug control policies and repeal excessive restrictions which impede this most fundamental aspect of cancer care, the researchers said. The issues were particularly severe in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin and Central America.
"The study has provided an unprecedented wealth of knowledge that will be an essential tool in lobbying to reformulate national plans for the treatment of cancer pain," Prof Cherny said. "We now know which countries have suboptimal formularies of medication to relive pain, we know how much patients must pay out-of-pocket for the medications, and we know which countries have excessive regulatory barriers making it sometimes nearly impossible for a patient to get a prescription, get it to a nearby pharmacy and have the medicine dispensed."
"In many, if not most, of the counties and states we have looked at, patients are stymied by regulatory barriers at multiple steps along this process; the end result being that hundreds of millions patients don't have access to essential pain-relieving medications," Prof Cherny said.
"We are determined to tackle this problem at every level. The first presentation of this data at ESMO 2012 is only the beginning of an organized and coordinated effort to take on one of the major global public health challenges of our time --the effective relieve of cancer pain for all cancer patients, wherever they may be."
Commenting on the study, Dr Carla Ripamonti, Head of the Supportive Care in Cancer Unit of the IRCCS Foundation National Cancer Institute of Milan, Italy, member of the ESMO Faculty Group on Supportive and Palliative care, not involved in the study, said: "Despite published guidelines and educational programs on the assessment and treatment of cancer-related pain, unrelieved pain continues to be a substantial worldwide public health concern in patients with solid cancers and hematological malignancies."
"Studies have shown that pain can affect as many as 64% of patients with metastatic, advanced or terminal phase disease, 59% of patients on anticancer treatment and 33% of patients after curative treatment," Dr Ripamonti said. "According to the World Health Organization, the incidence of cancer was 12,667,470 new cases in 2008 and based on the projections it will be more than 15 million cases in 2020. These statistics suggest that cancer-related pain may be a major issue of healthcare systems worldwide."
###
Related studies at ESMO 2012
Randomized, multicenter, phase ii trial of compound chinese herbal extract lc07 versus placebo for external treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy
Chinese researchers report that a herbal extract can treat chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, and is effective for relieving pain.
[ | 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.
Governments failing to address 'global pandemic of untreated cancer pain'Public release date: 29-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: ESMO Press Office media@esmo.org European Society for Medical Oncology
Landmark global survey reveals major shortcomings in many countries around the world
Vienna, Austria, 29 September 2012 - Governments around the world are leaving hundreds of millions of cancer patients to suffer needlessly because of their failure to ensure adequate access to pain-relieving drugs, an unprecedented new international survey reveals.
The new data, released to the public during the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna, paints a shocking picture of unnecessary pain on a global scale, said Prof Nathan Cherny, lead author of the report from Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel, Chair of the ESMO Palliative Care Working Group.
"Unrelieved cancer pain is a cause of major worldwide suffering, not because we don't have the tools necessary to relive pain, but because most patients don't have access to the essential pain-relieving medication," Prof Cherny said. "This pandemic affects literally billions of people. Not only are the patients suffering often terrible unrelieved pain, but their family members are often permanently scarred by the memories of witnessing such suffering in their loved ones."
The International Collaborative Project to Evaluate the Availability and Accessibility of Opioids for the Management of Cancer Pain was initiated by the European Society for Medical Oncology and coordinated with the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC), the Pain and Policies Study Group (PPSG) at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). They were assisted by the cooperation and participation of a further 17 international oncology and palliative care organizations[1]. This project was undertaken under the auspices of the ESMO Developing Countries Task Force, led by Dr. Adamos Adamou, Cyprus.
The study data was gathered between December 2010 and July 2012, with 156 reports submitted by experts in 76 countries and 19 Indian states. These reports represented 58% of countries and 83% of 5.7 billion of the people living in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin and Central America and the Caribbean[2].
The researchers found that very few countries provided all seven of the opioid medications that are considered to be essential for the relief of cancer pain by the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care[3]. Those essential medications include, among others, codeine, immediate and slow release oral morphine, oral oxycodone and transdermal fentanyl.
In many countries, fewer than three of the seven medications are available. In many of the countries, those medications that are available are either unsubsidised or weakly subsidised by government, and availability is often limited. Furthermore, many countries have highly restrictive regulations that limit entitlement of cancer patients to receive prescriptions, limit prescriber privileges, impose restrictive limits on duration of prescription, restrict dispensing, and increase bureaucratic burden of the prescribing and dispensing process.
There is an urgent need to examine drug control policies and repeal excessive restrictions which impede this most fundamental aspect of cancer care, the researchers said. The issues were particularly severe in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin and Central America.
"The study has provided an unprecedented wealth of knowledge that will be an essential tool in lobbying to reformulate national plans for the treatment of cancer pain," Prof Cherny said. "We now know which countries have suboptimal formularies of medication to relive pain, we know how much patients must pay out-of-pocket for the medications, and we know which countries have excessive regulatory barriers making it sometimes nearly impossible for a patient to get a prescription, get it to a nearby pharmacy and have the medicine dispensed."
"In many, if not most, of the counties and states we have looked at, patients are stymied by regulatory barriers at multiple steps along this process; the end result being that hundreds of millions patients don't have access to essential pain-relieving medications," Prof Cherny said.
"We are determined to tackle this problem at every level. The first presentation of this data at ESMO 2012 is only the beginning of an organized and coordinated effort to take on one of the major global public health challenges of our time --the effective relieve of cancer pain for all cancer patients, wherever they may be."
Commenting on the study, Dr Carla Ripamonti, Head of the Supportive Care in Cancer Unit of the IRCCS Foundation National Cancer Institute of Milan, Italy, member of the ESMO Faculty Group on Supportive and Palliative care, not involved in the study, said: "Despite published guidelines and educational programs on the assessment and treatment of cancer-related pain, unrelieved pain continues to be a substantial worldwide public health concern in patients with solid cancers and hematological malignancies."
"Studies have shown that pain can affect as many as 64% of patients with metastatic, advanced or terminal phase disease, 59% of patients on anticancer treatment and 33% of patients after curative treatment," Dr Ripamonti said. "According to the World Health Organization, the incidence of cancer was 12,667,470 new cases in 2008 and based on the projections it will be more than 15 million cases in 2020. These statistics suggest that cancer-related pain may be a major issue of healthcare systems worldwide."
###
Related studies at ESMO 2012
Randomized, multicenter, phase ii trial of compound chinese herbal extract lc07 versus placebo for external treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy
Chinese researchers report that a herbal extract can treat chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, and is effective for relieving pain.
[ | 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.
Things sound different in a place where no one goes. ??
Words echo off walls in empty rooms. ?
Real or imagined creatures scurry through mysterious puddles. ?
Shadows fall in strange places.?
Time doesn?t stop in abandoned buildings, it just moves differently -- and before their ultimate demise, photographer Matthew Christopher is determined to document the life, purpose, and deterioration of these structures.
Photographer Matthew Christopher , Abandoned America, ?photographs abandoned sites across America.? He documents the lost history and soul of structures as varied as homes, steel plants and asylums.????
They aren't just brick and mortar, wood and windows -- Christopher believes the abandoned buildings dotting America?s landscape also have something of a soul. ?He wants us to remember our country?s neglected factories, schools, churches, and hospitals before they are gone forever.
He started this project 10 years ago while working in the mental health field. ?Some of his first photographs were inside a deserted asylum. ?
Matthew Christopher / abandonedamerica.us
Photograph taken at Harmony House Inn.
Matthew Christophe / abandonedamerica.us
Photograph taken at Galilee Steel administrative offices.
Since then, he?s documented dozens of abandoned buildings across the country and presented their stories at galleries and on his website, abandonedamerica.us. ?The goal, he says, is to highlight the economic failures leading to their downfall and the social impact on communities fractured by the closing of these neighborhood mainstays.
Photographer Matthew Christopher , Abandoned America, ?explains his passion for taking pictures of abandoned sites across America. ?He documents the lost history and soul of structures as varied as homes, steel plants and asylums.?
We met recently at the partially deserted Holmesburg Prison near Philadelphia. ?It was eerie, but there was a certain beauty in the stillness and things left behind. ?Inside, it reminded me of a quote by French composer Claude Debussy who famously said, ?Music is the space between the notes.? The places Christopher photographs tell their stories with silence and extraordinary light ? the spaces between the life and death of a building.?
His pictures make me feel like someone told me a secret.?
Christopher is a thoughtful man, melancholy in his assessment of decay -- and I feel lucky he shared his art and technique with us. ?I am also grateful to NBC News photographer Bob Riggio for documenting our adventure inside a place almost no one goes.
JERUSALEM - When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held up a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb during his speech at the U.N., he set off an explosion of jokes and mockery ? but it also got plenty of attention.
The Bibi Bomb, as it's being called using Netanyahu's nickname, is the latest in a series of props used by the Israeli leader as he tries to keep the global spotlight on Iran's disputed nuclear program.
The image of Netanyahu and the diagram of a bomb with a lighted fuse was top news around the world. Headlines in Europe referred to Netanyahu's "bomb cartoon" and "comic strip."
"How much enriched uranium do you need for a bomb? And how close is Iran to getting it?" Netanyahu asked in his speech Thursday to the U.N. General Assembly. "Well, let me show you. I brought a diagram."
He proceeded to use a marker to draw a red line across what he said was a threshold that Iran was approaching and that Israel could not tolerate ? 90 per cent of the way to the uranium enrichment needed to make a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu is a fan of visual aids. At the U.N. in 2009, he waved the blueprints for the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. For a speech to the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC in March, he brought letters between the World Jewish Congress and the U.S. government written during the Holocaust. Both documents were used to link the Nazis and the possible modern threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
He also uses props on domestic issues. At a news conference in Jerusalem earlier this year, Netanyahu drew a tree to symbolize the state of Israel. As he explained his economic vision, he added roots, fruit and leaves to represent different facets of society. Journalists in the room chuckled, but the diagram made headlines.
"It's a perfect and extreme example of how politicians and leaders find themselves adapting their modes of communication in order to get the maximum amount of publicity," said Gadi Wolfsfeld, a professor of political communication at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a college near Tel Aviv.
Within hours of Netanyahu's speech Thursday, the stunt was fodder for jokes.
A "Bibibomb" hashtag made waves on Twitter. Memes of Netanyahu and the bomb diagram surfaced, with the weapon replaced with a photo of President Barack Obama and Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli.
On "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart mocked Netanyahu's simplistic drawing by saying: "Bibi, bubbe. What's with the Wile E. Coyote nuclear bomb?" Stewart then presented his solution to counter such a weapon by holding up a drawing of an equally cartoonish giant magnet.
Barcelona's El Periodico newspaper poked fun at the drawing in a headline that said Netanyahu used "a ridiculous chart" to warn about the advance of Tehran's nuclear program.
Madrid's El Mundo said: "Netanyahu explains the nuclear threat with a comic strip."
Photos of the prime minister and the drawing were in a handful of Austrian newspapers, including The Kurier, headlined: "Netanyahu and the Bomb Cartoon."
But even the mockery was welcomed by Netanyahu's supporters.
The jokes "are maybe part of the success because it was an unforgettable speech that delivered its message," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told Israel's Channel 2 TV. "Today everyone is talking about it."
It's not the first time that visual aids have been used in a U.N. speech. Displays of aerial photos were used in a 1962 speech by then-U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson on the Cuban missile crisis and satellite imagery was used in a 2003 presentation by then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to make the case that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
While the simplistic drawing displayed by Netanyahu succeeded in grabbing attention, it's not clear what effect it will have on the international community.
Netanyahu has repeatedly been at odds with world powers over Iran's nuclear program. He has argued that time is running out to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power and that the threat of force must be seriously considered.
While the international community has pushed for diplomacy as a way to dislodge Iran, Netanyahu has prodded world powers to set a red line on Iran. Obama has vowed to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power but has rejected Netanyahu's demands for setting an ultimatum past which the U.S. would attack. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, citing Iranian denials of the Holocaust, its calls for Israel's destruction, its development of missiles capable of striking the Jewish state and its support for hostile Arab militant groups. Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, a claim that is rejected by much of the international community.
Wolfsfeld said the diagram could be viewed as patronizing or insulting by diplomats.
"In this familiar ploy, (Netanyahu) apparently bought himself a respectable spot in the pictures that will appear in American newspapers and on television," columnist Eitan Haber wrote in Friday's Yediot Ahronot newspaper. "But gimmicks and speeches don't destroy the Iranian nuclear threat."
___
AP writers George Jahn in Vienna and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report.
It feels like it was only yesterday that we were praising Google for giving us access to a plethora of handy, everyday tools -- oh wait, it wasyesterday. At any rate, today the folks from Mountain View are back with more travel-friendly software for you to enjoy, announcing that its useful Flight Search service is now fully-optimized for use with, as Google points out, tablets such as its own Nexus 7 and, naturally, Cupertino's iPad. Jet-setters can see the changes now by simply hitting the Flights link below, and with the dearest holidays just around the corner, now is probably a good time to make use of that "lowest fare" tool.
What better way to study the world?s largest arboreal animals than by putting an eye in the sky? A team of scientists working in Indonesia has done just that by launching inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drone airplanes), to study critically endangered Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) from above the treetops. The technology is already being put into use in other conservation projects around the world.
Autonomous drones can help scientists and conservationists to inexpensively collect timely, high-resolution data, says Serge Wich, professor at the Research Center in Evolutionary Anthropology and Paleoecology at Liverpool John Moores University. Wich and his partner, Lian Pin Koh, assistant professor of applied ecology and conservation at ETH Zurich, who are studying orangutans on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, have developed a lightweight drone system that costs about $2,000?including the batteries, software, cameras and flight stabilizers. Other commercially available drones, by comparison, cost as much as $50,000. Wich and Koh have set up a Web site, ConservationDrones.org, to help spread the technology around the world, and have recently consulted on similar projects in Nepal, Malaysia and Gabon.
A drone photo of Sumatran deforestation
The duo first tested the drones in Sumatra in February, when they were able to capture video and photographs of orangutans and elephants. The drones also came back with striking images of Sumatra?s deforestation, caused by logging and palm oil plantations. The rapid destruction of the island?s forests (both legally and illegally) has devastated its native orangutans, which have lost about 80 percent of their population over the past 75 years to about 7,300 animals. (The related Bornean orangutan species, P. pygmaeus, also suffers from the effects of deforestation and its population is estimated at fewer than 45,000 animals.)
After working out some of the initial kinks, Wich and Koh returned to Sumatra earlier this month where they achieved a goal they weren?t able to accomplish the first time around: capturing photographs of orangutan nests high in the trees, information that will help inform future conservation activities.
I spoke with Wich about the research and their work to develop drones for conservation.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
What problems are you trying to solve with these drones? As conservation researchers, one of the main problems we have is that we?re almost always behind the facts on the ground. These areas are huge and difficult to monitor on a regular basis, so doing ground surveys is not the answer unless we had millions of dollars to do this all the time. So we need a means to get effective, timely and high-resolution data. Drones can help us with this because we can fly them whenever we like, and they provide us with high-resolution data whenever we like.
What do you hope to learn from these missions, and how will it be applied to conservation? Our main aim with this is that we have a system which enables us to monitor the distribution and abundance of orangutan populations much faster than we can now. We just finished a Sumatra distribution-wide orangutan survey, which took us about two and a half years and cost about $250,000 dollars. That?s a fantastic data set but it?s not something we can do every year, because it takes longer than a year and it?s not something we can fund every year. So these drones will be a system that we can use to fly over the forest edge every month if we like, or every week, to check what?s going on there. If there?s illegal encroachment, we can inform the authorities. We don?t learn it from a satellite image that we get half a year or a year later; we get it much faster, and that will hopefully enable us to react much faster to changes on the ground.
You don?t see what the drone sees while it?s in the air, right? You program their flight path, let them go and then look at the data when they return. We?re looking into getting a system that provides us live feedback from the video, but at the moment you have to wait until it lands to see the images. The flight path is really simple to program. It?s basically just a Google Earth or Google Map satellite and you plop in waypoints and load it into the autopilot on the plane. That?s all thanks to the do-it-yourself drone folks. They make this autopilot and the software for you.
You overcame some technical challenges with your mission this month. The main challenge in the beginning was to get high-resolution stills. Video went fine from the start, but for stills there was often motion blur. The plane flies really fast and if you have a long shutter time on the camera that won?t work. We had to fiddle a lot with the camera settings and develop a system that would dampen some of the plane?s vibrations?which ended up being a very simple kitchen sponge.
A collage of images of orangutan nests photographed by conservation drones
Getting back to the orangutans, are the plantations that you saw legal or illegal? It?s often a mixture. Surely in Indonesia there are a lot of legal concessions, either oil palm or timber, that take over forests. But at the same time there?s a lot of illegal encroachment on the forest edges.
How close to the plantations were the orangutan nests? Very close. You basically still find them in plantations as well, although we didn?t fly over plantations yet. You find them up until the edge of the forest, and also in habitat that?s partially converted. Orangutans are quite hardy in that sense. The females in particular don?t move away. They?ll hang on to any tree they have until they starve or are captured.
Do the nests degrade quickly? Could some of the nests you saw be months or years old? Orangutans make new nests every day. They?re pretty active nest builders. We can usually tell a little bit about the age of a nest from a photo but not all that much. They?re remarkably sturdy depending on the areas where you?re in. In some areas they can easily last for a year or sometimes two years. They?re great, pretty thick branches.
Is your main goal research or conservation? It?s a mixture of both. I really hope that we?ll be able to use these drones to monitor populations in pristine areas, so it will give us information on how these populations fluctuate in their natural habitats, what kind of trees they use, what their densities are and how that relates to environmental variables. But at the same time, we can use these drones to monitor habitat changes and help us in conserving orangutans and other species.
What?s next for your work in Sumatra? There are a few things that we?re planning. The first, now that we know we can detect nests, is to do a proper study where we do ground surveys and aerial surveys and see if we get the same numbers. And the second part will be to deploy other types of cameras. We?re looking into thermal imaging to see if we can detect orangutans by those means. That will be very interesting to put those up on a drone and fly them at dusk and dawn and see what we get.
What was the purpose for setting up ConservationDrones.org? The aim of the site is really to distribute everything that we learned from our work so anybody who wants to build the same drone as we use can do that with the information on our Web site. For us, it is really trying to bring this technology to every corner of the conservation world and especially into areas where there?s not so much money?so [it would be] where an NGO [nongovernmental organization] needs a system that is simple and that they can fix themselves and that provides them with a sustainable tool in their tool kit, instead of a very expensive drone from an expensive company.
You?re also consulting with the WWF on using drones in Nepal to try to prevent poaching of tigers, elephants and rhions. That?s our technology. Lian, my colleague, just came back from training many people there. We were there together a few months ago to do a demonstration. It?s one of our bigger projects at the moment.
What exactly are drones in Nepal looking for? It could either be the humans directly or traces of human activity, like people making fires. If there are poachers drying bushmeat, for instance, you would see that smoke above a forest and you would know that there are people there that are actively doing things like that?and then you can send a ground team in to try to prevent people from doing that.
What?s your next hope for this technology? We are working with some people so that hopefully in the not-too-distant future we will have a system that can detect objects directly on the video?like fires or people or elephants or whatever?so that when you look at a video, either live or when the drone lands, it tells you where those items of interest are. That would help the response time of antipoaching patrols but it would also facilitate any scientific research, as it?s quite a lot effort to go through thousands of photos to look for particular objects. We can automate that and an algorithm would just look for elephants, for example, in all of those images. That would help us a lot to use these drones even more effectively. That?s something we?re working on with several university people.
Photos courtesy of Serge Wich and ConservationDrones.org
Big science: local funding supports open access sequencing of the Puerto Rican Parrot genomePublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hilary Glover hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com 44-020-319-22370 BioMed Central
The critically endangered Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) is the only surviving parrot species native to the United States. A genomic sequencing project, funded by community donations, has published today, in BioMed Central and BGI's open access journal GigaScience, the first sequence of A. vittata, the first of the large Neotropical Amazona birds to be studied at the genomic level.
The Puerto Rican Parrot was once abundant throughout Puerto Rico but destruction of old forest habitats to make way for farming in the 19th Century resulted in a drastic decline in their population. By the mid 1970's only a handful of individuals were thought to remain. Captive breeding programs in Rio Abajo and El Yunque and the release of these birds have had some success, but the number of these birds in the wild is still very low.
In a unique initiative (developing of the Local Community Involvement), funded entirely by contributions from the communities of Puerto Rico alongside staff and students from the Biology Department of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagez, researchers collaborated internationally to sequence this beautiful parrot.
Dr Taras Oleksyk, who organized the The Puerto Rican Parrot Genome Project, explained their findings, "In this project we managed to cover almost 76% of the A. vittata genome using money raised in art and fashion shows, and going door to door asking for the support of Puerto Rican people and local businesses. When we compared our sequence of our parrot, Iguaca, from Rio Abajo to other species of birds, we found that she had 84.5% similarity to zebra finches and 82.7% to a chicken, but her genome was highly rearranged."
Dr Oleksyk continued, "We are very proud of our project and even more proud to be part of a local community dedicated to raising awareness and furthering scientific knowledge of this endangered bird. All the data from this project is publically available in GigaDB which we hope will be a starting point for comparative studies across avian genome data, and will be used to develop and promote undergraduate education in genome science in the Caribbean. Community involvement may be the key for the future of conservation genetics, and many projects like this are needed reverse the current rate of extinction of birds across the globe."
1. A Locally Funded Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) Genome Sequencing Project Increases Avian Data and Advances Young Researcher Education
Taras K Oleksyk, Jean-Francois Pombert, Wilfried Guiblet, Brian Ramos, Anyimilehidi Mazo, Christina T Ruiz-Rodriguez, Michael L Nickerson, Yashira Afanador, Daniel Siu, Ricardo Valentin, Luis Figueroa, Michael Dean, David M Logue and Juan-Carlos Martinez-Cruzado
GigaScience 2012, 1:14
Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
Please credit pictures to Jose Almodovar
Genomic data of the Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) from a locally funded project
Oleksyk, TK; Guiblet, W; Pombert, JF; Valentin, R; Martinez-Cruzado, JC
GigaScience.
2. GigaScience aims to revolutionize data dissemination, organization, understanding, and use. An online open-access open-data journal, we publish 'big-data' studies from the entire spectrum of life and biomedical sciences. To achieve our goals, the journal has a novel publication format: one that links standard manuscript publication with an extensive database that hosts all associated data and provides data analysis tools and cloud-computing resources. @GigaScience
3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral
4. Parrot sequencing data is also fully available as raw reads in the ENA (Accession # PRJEB225) and as scaffolds with assembly parameters in GenBank (Accession # PRJNA171587)
5. The Puerto Rican Parrot Genome project at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, (http://genomes.uprm.edu/drupal/?q=parrot), can be found at http://www.facebook.com/amazona.vittata
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Big science: local funding supports open access sequencing of the Puerto Rican Parrot genomePublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hilary Glover hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com 44-020-319-22370 BioMed Central
The critically endangered Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) is the only surviving parrot species native to the United States. A genomic sequencing project, funded by community donations, has published today, in BioMed Central and BGI's open access journal GigaScience, the first sequence of A. vittata, the first of the large Neotropical Amazona birds to be studied at the genomic level.
The Puerto Rican Parrot was once abundant throughout Puerto Rico but destruction of old forest habitats to make way for farming in the 19th Century resulted in a drastic decline in their population. By the mid 1970's only a handful of individuals were thought to remain. Captive breeding programs in Rio Abajo and El Yunque and the release of these birds have had some success, but the number of these birds in the wild is still very low.
In a unique initiative (developing of the Local Community Involvement), funded entirely by contributions from the communities of Puerto Rico alongside staff and students from the Biology Department of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagez, researchers collaborated internationally to sequence this beautiful parrot.
Dr Taras Oleksyk, who organized the The Puerto Rican Parrot Genome Project, explained their findings, "In this project we managed to cover almost 76% of the A. vittata genome using money raised in art and fashion shows, and going door to door asking for the support of Puerto Rican people and local businesses. When we compared our sequence of our parrot, Iguaca, from Rio Abajo to other species of birds, we found that she had 84.5% similarity to zebra finches and 82.7% to a chicken, but her genome was highly rearranged."
Dr Oleksyk continued, "We are very proud of our project and even more proud to be part of a local community dedicated to raising awareness and furthering scientific knowledge of this endangered bird. All the data from this project is publically available in GigaDB which we hope will be a starting point for comparative studies across avian genome data, and will be used to develop and promote undergraduate education in genome science in the Caribbean. Community involvement may be the key for the future of conservation genetics, and many projects like this are needed reverse the current rate of extinction of birds across the globe."
1. A Locally Funded Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) Genome Sequencing Project Increases Avian Data and Advances Young Researcher Education
Taras K Oleksyk, Jean-Francois Pombert, Wilfried Guiblet, Brian Ramos, Anyimilehidi Mazo, Christina T Ruiz-Rodriguez, Michael L Nickerson, Yashira Afanador, Daniel Siu, Ricardo Valentin, Luis Figueroa, Michael Dean, David M Logue and Juan-Carlos Martinez-Cruzado
GigaScience 2012, 1:14
Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
Please credit pictures to Jose Almodovar
Genomic data of the Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) from a locally funded project
Oleksyk, TK; Guiblet, W; Pombert, JF; Valentin, R; Martinez-Cruzado, JC
GigaScience.
2. GigaScience aims to revolutionize data dissemination, organization, understanding, and use. An online open-access open-data journal, we publish 'big-data' studies from the entire spectrum of life and biomedical sciences. To achieve our goals, the journal has a novel publication format: one that links standard manuscript publication with an extensive database that hosts all associated data and provides data analysis tools and cloud-computing resources. @GigaScience
3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral
4. Parrot sequencing data is also fully available as raw reads in the ENA (Accession # PRJEB225) and as scaffolds with assembly parameters in GenBank (Accession # PRJNA171587)
5. The Puerto Rican Parrot Genome project at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, (http://genomes.uprm.edu/drupal/?q=parrot), can be found at http://www.facebook.com/amazona.vittata
[ | 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.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]As warming temperatures are upending traditional Greenlandic life, they are also offering up intriguing new opportunities.
THURSDAY, Sept. 27 (HealthDay News) ? More than half of the cases of severe intellectual disability are the result of random genetic mutations that are not passed down from parents, researchers from Switzerland and Germany report.
Severe intellectual disability, also known as nonsyndromic mental retardation, is the most common form of mental retardation. Children or adults with the condition have no physical abnormalities, but have IQs of less than 50. It affects up to 2 percent of kids worldwide.
The new study, which appears online Sept. 27 in The Lancet, suggests that many of the gene variants associated with the condition show up for the first time in the affected children.
?The majority of patients with severe intellectual disability are due to gene mutations that are not present in the parents,? said study author Dr. Anita Rauch, a researcher at the Institute of Medical Genetics in Zurich. ?In the majority of cases, the recurrence risk within the family is low, which is usually a big relief for the parents and encourages them to have further children.?
Researchers from the German Mental Retardation Network used a new gene sequencing technique to look for mutations in 51 children with unexplained intellectual disability and their unaffected parents. According to the report, children with intellectual disability carried a significantly higher number of potentially disease-causing genes than those without the disorder. New mutations in 11 known and six new candidate genes were estimated to cause intellectual disability in up to 55 percent of the children, the study authors reported.
In the future, Rauch said, ?identification of subgroups of patients with a certain defect may soon lead to a better understanding of the respective natural course, which may then lead to a better disease management by earlier recognition of accompanying complications.? As it stands, children and adults with nonsyndromic mental retardation are treated only with ?supportive education and supportive treatment of complications such as epilepsy,? she added.
Commenting on the findings, Dr. Marshall Summar, chief of genetics and metabolism at Children?s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., said: ?This study drills down even deeper into our understanding of nonsyndromic mental retardation. This doesn?t change how you treat the child, but it gives us a few more clues into what is involved.?
The findings are reassuring for parents concerned that future children will also be affected, Summar noted. However, ?the chance is not zero, the genes may be in the parents? testes or ovaries, so there is still a chance that it is passed down from parents and may affect other children in the family,? he said. ?The risk is low, but it?s not zero.?
Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children?s Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park, pointed out that the new genetic screening tests and technologies are more sophisticated than older versions. ?We can?t rely upon physical signs of a genetic disorder to suggest gene testing,? he said. ?We should implement universal genetic testing for all kids with unexplained intellectual disability and/or severe forms of autism,? he suggested.
?The fact that the genes do not seem to be passed down from parents may prove reassuring,? Adesman said. ?When families have a child with severe intellectual disability or autism, they may have concerns about the recurrence risk or whether it was caused by something that they did during the pregnancy, but this is reassuring that they can have other children and not be worried about increased risk for another similarly affected child.?
Doctors were unable to give parents this type of reassurance before the advent of new gene testing technologies, Adesman explained.
More information
To learn more about intellectual disability, visit the Nemours Foundation.
SOURCES: Marshall Summar, M.D., chief, genetics and metabolism, Children?s National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; Andrew Adesman, M.D., chief, developmental and behavioral pediatrics, Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children?s Medical Center of New York, New Hyde Park, N.Y.; Anita Rauch, M.D., researcher, Institute of Medical Genetics, Zurich, Switzerland; Sept. 27, 2012, The Lancet, online
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Public release date: 29-Sep-2012
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What better way to study the world?s largest arboreal animals than by putting an eye in the sky? A team of scientists working in Indonesia has done just that by launching inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drone airplanes), to study critically endangered Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) from above the treetops. The technology is already being put into use in other conservation projects around the world.
