LONDON (Reuters) - A new report has called into question the effectiveness of the British government's drive to end a lending drought to small businesses and unlock the economic growth that has eluded the country since the financial crisis.
Nearly half of Britain's small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are concerned about managing their cash flow over the next year, a survey of 451 companies with a turnover of over 50,000 pounds showed on Tuesday.
In addition, 46 percent of those companies said they had recently suffered at least one disruption to their cash flow, mainly due to customers being late or unable to pay their bills.
"Cash flow clearly remains a huge challenge for thousands of UK businesses," said Marcelino Castrillo, head of SME at Santander Corporate & Commercial, which commissioned the study.
New regulations brought in after the financial crisis have forced traditional lenders to cut risky financing and left many small businesses short of funds.
The British government, which sees a lack of credit to small businesses as a major factor behind the country's slow recovery from the financial crisis, has tried to reverse that situation with various schemes aimed at boosting lending.
Last week it extended and expanded its flagship Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), which offers banks cheap credit if they increase lending to households and businesses.
While the Santander survey showed an increasing number of businesses are turning to alternative financing to help deal with cash flow fluctuations, Castrillo said more should consider going down this route.
The survey found one quarter of larger businesses, those with annual revenues between 5 million pounds and 20 million pounds, said they had used or intended to use invoice finance in the next 12 months, compared with just 2 percent of firms with revenues of 250,000-500,000 pounds.
Invoice financing - advancing funds to firms by buying their outstanding sales invoices - is booming in Britain as online platforms look to fill the gap left by banks.
(Reporting by Clare Hutchison; Editing by Mark Potter)
Scientists reach the ultimate goal -- controlling chirality in carbon nanotubesPublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Esko I. Kauppinen esko.kauppinen@aalto.fi 358-405-098-064 Aalto University
An ultimate goal in the field of carbon nanotube research is to synthesise single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with controlled chiralities. Twenty years after the discovery of SWNTs, scientists from Aalto University in Finland, A.M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute RAS in Russia and the Center for Electron Nanoscopy of Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have managed to control chirality in carbon nanotubes during their chemical vapor deposition synthesis.
Carbon nanotube structure is defined by a pair of integers known as chiral indices (n,m), in other words, chirality.
Chirality defines the optical and electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, so controlling it is a key to exploiting their practical applications, says Professor Esko I. Kauppinen, the leader of the Nanomaterials Group in Aalto University School of Science.
Over the years, substantial progress has been made to develop various structure-controlled synthesis methods. However, precise control over the chiral structure of SWNTs has been largely hindered by a lack of practical means to direct the formation of the metal nanoparticle catalysts and their catalytic dynamics during tube growth.
We achieved an epitaxial formation of Co nanoparticles by reducing a well-developed solid solution in CO, reveals Maoshuai He, a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University School of Chemical Technology.
For the first time, the new catalyst was employed for selective growth of SWNTs, adds senior staff scientist Hua Jiang from Aalto University School of Science.
By introducing the new catalysts into a conventional CVD reactor, the research team demonstrated preferential growth of semiconducting SWNTs (?90%) with an exceptionally high population of (6,5) tubes (53%) at 500 C. Furthermore, they also showed a shift of the chiral preference from (6,5) tubes at 500 C to (7, 6) and (9, 4) nanotubes at 400 C.
These findings open new perspectives both for structural control of SWNTs and for elucidating their growth mechanisms, thus are important for the fundamental understanding of science behind nanotube growth, comments Professor Juha Lehtonen from Aalto University.
###
The research has been recently published in a new Nature Publishing Group journal Scientific Reports, 3 (2013), 1460.
Link to article: http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130315/srep01460/full/srep01460.html
This work is financially supported by the CNB-E project in Aalto University through the Multidisciplinary Institute of Digitalization and Energy (MIDE) program and the Aalto Energy Efficiency program project (MOPPI). This work made use of facilities at Nanomicroscopy Center of Aalto University in Finland and at the Center for Electron Nanoscopy at the Technical University in Denmark sponsored by the A.P. Mller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Mller Foundation.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai7N84r-rnQ
Link to images: http://aalto.digtator.fi:80/public/a50ce783c8BF.aspx
Image captions: Initial carbon cap formation on Co nanoparticles
Aalto University, Finland is a new multidisciplinary science and art community in the fields of science, economics, and art and design. The University is founded on Finnish strengths, and its goal is to develop as a unique entity to become one of the world's top universities. Aalto University's cornerstones are its strengths in education and research. At the new University, there are 20,000 basic degree and graduate students as well as a staff of 5,000 of which 350 are professors.
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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.
Scientists reach the ultimate goal -- controlling chirality in carbon nanotubesPublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Esko I. Kauppinen esko.kauppinen@aalto.fi 358-405-098-064 Aalto University
An ultimate goal in the field of carbon nanotube research is to synthesise single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with controlled chiralities. Twenty years after the discovery of SWNTs, scientists from Aalto University in Finland, A.M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute RAS in Russia and the Center for Electron Nanoscopy of Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have managed to control chirality in carbon nanotubes during their chemical vapor deposition synthesis.
Carbon nanotube structure is defined by a pair of integers known as chiral indices (n,m), in other words, chirality.
Chirality defines the optical and electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, so controlling it is a key to exploiting their practical applications, says Professor Esko I. Kauppinen, the leader of the Nanomaterials Group in Aalto University School of Science.
Over the years, substantial progress has been made to develop various structure-controlled synthesis methods. However, precise control over the chiral structure of SWNTs has been largely hindered by a lack of practical means to direct the formation of the metal nanoparticle catalysts and their catalytic dynamics during tube growth.
We achieved an epitaxial formation of Co nanoparticles by reducing a well-developed solid solution in CO, reveals Maoshuai He, a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University School of Chemical Technology.
For the first time, the new catalyst was employed for selective growth of SWNTs, adds senior staff scientist Hua Jiang from Aalto University School of Science.
By introducing the new catalysts into a conventional CVD reactor, the research team demonstrated preferential growth of semiconducting SWNTs (?90%) with an exceptionally high population of (6,5) tubes (53%) at 500 C. Furthermore, they also showed a shift of the chiral preference from (6,5) tubes at 500 C to (7, 6) and (9, 4) nanotubes at 400 C.
These findings open new perspectives both for structural control of SWNTs and for elucidating their growth mechanisms, thus are important for the fundamental understanding of science behind nanotube growth, comments Professor Juha Lehtonen from Aalto University.
###
The research has been recently published in a new Nature Publishing Group journal Scientific Reports, 3 (2013), 1460.
Link to article: http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130315/srep01460/full/srep01460.html
This work is financially supported by the CNB-E project in Aalto University through the Multidisciplinary Institute of Digitalization and Energy (MIDE) program and the Aalto Energy Efficiency program project (MOPPI). This work made use of facilities at Nanomicroscopy Center of Aalto University in Finland and at the Center for Electron Nanoscopy at the Technical University in Denmark sponsored by the A.P. Mller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Mller Foundation.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai7N84r-rnQ
Link to images: http://aalto.digtator.fi:80/public/a50ce783c8BF.aspx
Image captions: Initial carbon cap formation on Co nanoparticles
Aalto University, Finland is a new multidisciplinary science and art community in the fields of science, economics, and art and design. The University is founded on Finnish strengths, and its goal is to develop as a unique entity to become one of the world's top universities. Aalto University's cornerstones are its strengths in education and research. At the new University, there are 20,000 basic degree and graduate students as well as a staff of 5,000 of which 350 are professors.
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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.
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Sunday refused to rule out the possibility of deploying American troops to Syria, while top Republican lawmakers called for increased U.S. intervention in the civil war there. The comments, made on various Sunday television programs, reflect an increased sense of urgency this week about the potential use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime.
"I don't think you want to ever rule it out," McCaskill said of U.S. troop involvement in the Syrian conflict, which has claimed more than 70,000 lives over two years. Speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation," McCaskill, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, "We don't want to [deploy U.S. troops] unless it's absolutely necessary, [but] I don't think you ever want to say absolutely not."
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took a more cautionary tack on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"The worst thing the United States could do right now is put boots on the ground in Syria," said McCain, who is a longtime advocate of greater American intervention in the Syrian conflict. He instead called on the U.S. to help establish "a safe zone," and to begin arming the Syrian rebels, to whom the U.S. has so far provided only nonlethal aid.
McCain also called for increased aid from Washington to assist with the growing refugee crisis in the region, and said the U.S. should help prepare an "international force" capable of securing Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons in the event Syrian President Bashar Assad is removed from power.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), appearing alongside McCaskill on "Face the Nation," said monitoring those chemical weapons was a top priority for the United States and the international community. "The greatest risk [to the U.S.] is a failed state with chemical weapons falling in the hands of radical Islamists," Graham said. "The longer [the conflict] goes, the more likely it is that you have a failed state, and all hell's going to break loose in the region."
Senators learned this week that American intelligence agencies have evidence that Assad's regime has deployed chemical weapons, but White House officials cautioned that this evidence is still being evaluated.
McCaskill, too, said the United States should be "ready if we need to take some kind of military action," but did not explicitly endorse sending weapons to the Syrian rebels, nor did she mention the creation of a "safe zone," as McCain advocated.
Graham appeared to go further than McCain or McCaskill in proposing direct U.S. action in Syria, saying, "One way you can stop the Syrian Air Force from flying is to bomb Syrian air bases with missiles. You don't need to go deep into Syria to do that." He said Assad's forces' aerial capabilities play a major role in the conflict, and "if you could neutralize the air advantage the Syrian government has over the rebels, I think you could turn the tide of battle pretty quickly."
President Obama said last year that the use of chemical weapons by Assad's regime was a "red line" for the U.S. and would have "enormous consequences." But late this week, White House officials sounded a cautious note, telling reporters on a background call, "If we reach a definitive determination that this red line has been crossed [we will be] consulting with our friends and allies and the international community more broadly, as well as the Syrian opposition, to determine what the best course of action is."
For House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the currently available evidence is conclusive, he said on ABC's "This Week."
"We have classified evidence, [which] strengthens the case [that] some amount of chemical weapons have been used over the last two years," he said, while acknowledging that "the options aren't huge, but some action needs to be taken."
LONDON (AP) ? Helen Mirren was crowned queen of the London stage at the Olivier Awards Sunday, while compelling, canine-titled teen drama "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" emerged as best in show with seven trophies.
Mirren, 67, was a popular and expected best actress choice for her regal yet vulnerable Queen Elizabeth II in "The Audience," Peter Morgan's behind-palace-doors drama about the relationship between Britain's queen and its prime ministers.
The actress, who won an Academy Award in 2007 for playing Britain's monarch in "The Queen," quipped that it was 87-year-old Elizabeth who deserved an award, "for the most consistent and committed performance of the 20th century, and probably the 21st century."
Backstage, it turned out she wasn't kidding. Mirren, who has been Olivier-nominated three times before, said that finally winning "doesn't mean that I was the best actor. There were so many incredible performances out there."
"I was making a joke about the queen winning, but I think actually it is a reflection of the kind of respect the queen is held in," she said.
Her "Audience" co-star, Richard McCabe, who won the supporting actor trophy for playing 1960s and 70s Prime Minister Harold Wilson, said Mirren was a joy to work with.
"It's important as an actor to be absolutely fearless, and she is," he said.
While the queen herself hasn't been to see the Stephen Daldry-directed show ? rumored to be Broadway-bound ? McCabe said "a lot of people in the royal household have been coming in and watching incognito, and they must be reporting back."
The surprise of the awards ceremony at London's Royal Opera House was "Curious Incident," an adaptation of Mark Haddon's best-selling young-adult novel about a teenage math prodigy with Asperger's Syndrome who sets out to find the killer of his neighbor's dog, with destabilizing results.
The show, which premiered at the state-subsidized National Theatre last year before transferring to a commercial West End playhouse, has won praise for its creative use of movement and technology to make the leap from page to stage.
The Simon Stephens-scripted drama was named best new play, and 28-year-old Luke Treadaway was crowned best actor, beating a strong list of contenders including Rupert Everett, Mark Rylance and James McAvoy.
Treadaway said the "Curious" company knew they had created "something really special" with the show about a teenager "who sees the world differently to a lot of people."
"I think people could kind of see themselves in him," Treadaway said.
"This is not even necessary," he said, holding his trophy, a bust of the late actor Laurence Olivier. "I enjoy doing it so much anyway."
The play also won prizes for director Marianne Elliott and supporting actress Nicola Walker, as well as for set, lighting and sound.
Walker said the play had, through some "magic," succeeded in creating an onstage world as seen through the eyes of a teenage hero with autism.
"You start out thinking (it) is completely different to our world, and you end up thinking 'No, there are parts of this world I understand.'"
The Olivier awards honor achievements in London plays, musicals, dance and opera. Winners in most categories are chosen by a panel of stage professionals and theatergoers.
Founded in 1976, the Oliviers have been laying on the glitz in recent years, with glossy ceremonies modeled on Broadway's Tony Awards.
"Downton Abbey" actor Hugh Bonneville and West End star Sheridan Smith ? an Olivier winner in 2011 and 2012 ? hosted a sparky ceremony that included performances by "Glee" star Matthew Morrison, Tony-winning "Wicked" diva Idina Menzel and 60s songstress Petula Clark.
The best new musical category had a retro feel, with the trophy going to "Top Hat" ? a tap-dancing, tail-coated homage to Hollywood's Golden Age based on the 1935 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie. It also won awards for costume design and choreography.
Blood-soaked musical "Sweeney Todd" took the prize for best musical revival, with its stars Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball named best actress and actor in a musical.
"I'm not sure I deserve this," Ball said. "But I've also got sciatica, and I don't deserve that either."
Royal Ballet principal dancer Marianela Nunez took the prize for outstanding achievement in dance, while the same company's "Aeternum" was named best new dance production.
An immersive staging of the Philip Glass opera "Einstein on the Beach" at London's Barbican Centre was named best new opera production. American tenor Bryan Hymel won the outstanding achievement in opera prize for performances at the Royal Opera House.
Special achievement awards went to choreographer Gillian Lynne ? best known for her work on Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals including "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera" ? and playwright Michael Frayn, whose classic backstage farce "Noises Off" is still going strong 30 years after its debut.
___
Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless
>>>the more we learn about the
boston marathon
bombing, the more new questions are raised. where did the suspects' money come from? and what went on in the car they hijacked before their confrontation with the
police
? joining me now is
boston globe
investigative reporter michael razendies. welcome back to the program. i'm curious where the guys were getting their money. it appears the parents didn't have much at all. students say dzhokhar drove around a bmw.
>>i think actually the opposite is probably the reality. we don't know for certain whether the tsarnaev brothers received any assistance, but it's looking more and more like the bombing of the
boston marathon
was an example of homegrown terrorism on a budget, if you will. i mean, each of these bombs could have been made for under $100 with commonly available components, pressure cooker stuffed with ball bearings and nails and commonly available explosive material. s about we know now when they staged their haphazard escape, they were broke. they had no money. furthermore, we know a lot now about how they were living, and while dzhokhar did seem to have more money than his older brother, the fact of the matter is he was a scholarship student at
umass dartmouth
and i think that's where a lot of his funds came from. we know fromself source that is he was a marijuana dealer. so i think his money was coming from dealing marijuana and the scholarship money he had.
>>yeah. any idea how -- how did tamerlan fund the six months in russia last year?
>>that i don't know. that's more of a bit of a mystery. maybe he had family connections over there and as i said, we're not certain whether there was any outside assistance offered to these two or not. but he obviously had family connections over there. we're not certain how he funded that, but we know he was a stay-at-home dad and living off his wife's salary as a
home health care
worker.
>>okay. your colleague, eric moskowitz, has an article where he interviewed the carjacking victim
danny
. it's fascinating. some of the stuff they were talking about, they're talking about girls, credit limits for students, the marvels of the mer mercedes-benz ml 350. it seems to teenage normal.
>>eric did write a terrific story. i think as he said, a lot of this was reminiscent of a
quinton tarantino
movie with these humorous remarks these guys were making about music and girls. what's really remarkable is after the bombing, there's a growing pile of evidence that suggests they were utterly casual about what they had done, just going about leading their routine lives. it's quite amazing.
>>absolutely amazing. you have to wonder if that's going to play into the cold-hearted interpretation of dzhokhar's actions as he's the only one who survived this. when
danny
, and this is not his
real name
, but sort of his american name, when he escaped, he called the cops immediately. he was critical to the
police
locating the brothers, wasn't he? and if so, how?
>>well, i'm not sure i understand that you mean he was critical of the
police
locating the brothers.
>>he had an iphone. didn't he leave that iphone in the car and, if so, if it was on, the ping, couldn't the cops trace that?
>>well, that's how they found them was because of the
cell phone
. so, in fact, i think he did the right thing and it was leaving the
cell phone
behind that allowed the
police
to pick up the brothers, absolutely, yeah. but i don't think that he was critical to my knowledge of the
police
. i think the
police
were grateful that he did the right thing --
>>i'm sorry. i meant critical to the
police
's investigation. i'm sorry if that came out wrong. i don't believe he was critical of the
police
and i apologize if i didn't say that right. the article notes that the
police
had
danny
then go and do this drive-by lineup after he escaped to try to identify the suspects that they detained. do we have any idea who those people were or what they were doing at the time?
>>no, we don't. i think when we reported that, it was the first i learned of that. i don't think we have any more detail on that, but it is very interesting.
>>yeah. there have been suggestions that this was not an operation conducted exclusively by these two men. is there anything in the investigation at this point that gives any concrete evidence to that fact?
>>i have not seen any, and i have not heard any. it's not to say it didn't happen, but, again, you know, it looks like very
home grown
kind of operation. was there outside assistance? perhaps. did tamerlan receive some instructions when he was in russia? perhaps. but again, this looks very, very
home grown
, very
low budget
operation, and not very well planned out when it came to the escape, that's for sure.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Thursday, lifted by stronger-than-expected earnings and a large drop in weekly jobless claims.
The S&P 500, up for five straight sessions, traded within a point of its record closing high before shedding about half of the day's gains. The high was near the 1,593 level that is expected to be technical resistance.
Telecommunications companies' shares led the S&P 500's advance, with the sector's index <.splrcl> up 1.7 percent. Verizon Communications hit a 13-year high with a 2.7 percent jump to $53.22 after sources told Reuters it has hired advisers to prepare a possible bid to take full control of Verizon Wireless.
Dow Chemical posted a 33 percent jump in quarterly profit as farmers in the Americas bought more of its seeds and pesticides, sending its shares up 5.6 percent to $33.97.
Investors expected the first quarter to be difficult for corporate America after cuts in government spending and the increase in the payroll tax earlier in the year.
"But consumers are holding on pretty well," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer of OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.
"There's optimism out there that conditions will improve," he said. "There's potential for an uptick in the economy."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 24.50 points or 0.17 percent, to close at 14,700.80. The S&P 500 <.spx> gained 6.37 points or 0.40 percent, to finish at 1,585.16. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 20.33 points or 0.62 percent, to close at 3,289.99.
The S&P 500 climbed intraday to a high of 1,592.64 - just a tad below its record closing high of 1,593.37 - set two weeks ago - on April 11.
Expectations were lowered sharply before the start of the current reporting season, and 68 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far have beaten earnings forecasts. However, less than 42 percent have beaten revenue forecasts - below the average beat rate of 52 percent over the last four quarters.
After the closing bell, online retailer Amazon reported solid first-quarter profits as it controlled shipping expenses and other costs, but international revenue growth slowed. Its shares fell 3.9 percent to $264 in after-hours trading, more than offsetting the 2.2 percent gain in the regular session when the stock closed at $274.70.
Thursday's U.S. data gave a less worrisome view of the economy than other data of late. Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the latest week dropped 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000 compared with expectations for 351,000.
Cliffs Natural Resources jumped 15 percent to $20.95 after it posted earnings late on Wednesday that were much better than analysts had estimated.
On Nasdaq, Alexion Pharma shares jumped nearly 11 percent after the company reported earnings and revenue above expectations. Akamai Tech soared almost 18 percent after a surge in earnings and a rosy outlook for this quarter. Alexion shares rose 10.7 percent to end at $98.82 and Akamai spiked 17.7 percent to close at $42.48.
UPS Inc , the world's largest package-delivery company, advanced 2.3 percent to $85.42 after it reported a quarterly profit above analysts' estimates.
But Exxon Mobil Corp and 3M Co bucked the trend as their shares fell.
Shares of Exxon Mobil , the world's largest publicly traded oil company, slid 1.5 percent to $88.07 after it said quarterly profit edged up, helped by its chemicals business, but oil and gas production fell.
Fellow Dow component 3M Co lost 2.8 percent to $104.88 after the diversified U.S. manufacturer posted first-quarter earnings and revenue that missed Wall Street's expectations and cut its 2013 profit forecast.
Shares of retailer J.C. Penney rose more than 7 percent to $16.39 in extended-hours trading after billionaire investor George Soros reported a 7.9 percent passive stake in the struggling department store chain. In the regular session, J.C. Penney shares rose 0.3 percent to close at $15.24.
About 7.0 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, more than the daily average so far this year of about 6.38 billion shares.
On the NYSE, advancers outnumbered decliners by a ratio about 2 to 1, while on the Nasdaq, roughly five stocks rose for every three that fell.
Q: I'm sold on pet insurance and am looking around for a company. Comparing policies is confusing, though. Any hints? -- R.S., Ann Arbor, MI
A: Dr. Jules Benson, vice president of veterinary services at Petplan Pet Insurance, has some general advice. "What are you seeking?" he asks. "No question, everyone with pet insurance should want coverage for catastrophic illness or accidents; that's what insurance is for But are you also interested in coverage for preventative care (which may hike the price)? That's a matter of person preference."
Benson continues, "Some companies may only cover conditions at the start. So, if a pet develops allergies, say, within the first year, the condition is covered. However, when the policy comes up for renewal, the problem is now considered a pre-existing condition. This is something to watch out for."
Reimbursement is all over the map. Some companies reimburse half or less of the original cost of care. Petplan, for example, provides reimbursement ranging from 80 percent to 100 percent. Pay attention to how that reimbursement works, Benson notes. With some companies, there may be a limit of a dollar amount per claim -- say $500 or $1,000. At Petplan, the limit is not per claim, but up to $22,000 per pet annually.
Benson is the first to concede that choosing a pet insurance company is complicated, since you're not always comparing 'apples to apples.' One great resource features comments from pet owners: www.petinsurancereview.com?(customer reviews). Also check out www.petinsuranceuniversity.com. Both are independent websites.
?Steve Dale, Tribune Media Services
?
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Apr. 24, 2013 ? Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have created a mouse model of muscular dystrophy in which degenerating muscle tissue gives off visible light.
The observed luminescence occurs only in damaged muscle tissue and in direct proportion to cumulative damage sustained in that tissue, permitting precise monitoring of the disease's progress in the mice, the researchers say.
While this technique cannot be used in humans, it paves the way to quicker, cheaper and more accurate assessment of the efficacy of therapeutic drugs. The new mouse strain is already being employed to test stem cell and gene therapy approaches for muscular dystrophies, as well as drug candidates now in clinical trials, said Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences and director of Stanford's Glenn Laboratories for the Biology of Aging.
Rando is the senior author of a study, published online April 24 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, describing his lab's creation of the experimental mouse strain in which an inserted gene coding for luciferase, the protein that causes fireflies' tails to glow, is activated only in an important class of rare stem cells that, collectively, serve as a reserve army of potential new muscle tissue. Under normal circumstances, these muscle stem cells, or "satellite cells," sit quietly adjacent to muscle fibers. But muscular injury or degeneration prompts satellite cells to start dividing and then to integrate themselves into damaged fibers, repairing the muscle tissue.
Muscular dystrophy is a genetically transmitted, progressive condition whose hallmark is the degeneration of muscle tissue. There are many different forms, whose severity, time of onset and preference for one set of muscles versus another depends on which gene is defective. But as a general rule, the disease begins to develop well before symptoms show up.
As the muscle fibers of someone with muscular dystrophy die off, nearby satellite cells -- which are normally dormant in the tissue -- begin replicating in an attempt to replace the lost muscle tissue. "But in the end, satellite cells' attempt to restore tissue is overwhelmed," said Rando, who is the founding director of Stanford's Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic.
No truly effective treatments for muscular dystrophy exist. "Drug therapies now available for muscular dystrophy can reduce symptoms a bit, but do nothing to prevent or slow disease progression," said Rando. Testing a drug's ability to slow or arrest muscular dystrophy in one of the existing mouse models means sacrificing a few of them every couple of weeks and conducting labor-intensive, time-consuming microscopic and biochemical examinations of muscle-tissue samples taken from them, he said.
So Rando decided to design a better mouse. Dozens of mouse models of different varieties of muscular dystrophy, designed to best reflect different forms of the disease, already exist. Rando's team chose to start with a strain whose human analog is called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. This steadily progressive form of the disease, whose clinical manifestations typically are most pronounced in limb muscles close to the torso (the thigh versus calf, or upper arm versus forearm), begins during the second or third decade of life, after the muscle-building burst of childhood is largely complete.
From that "starter" mouse strain, Rando's team developed another strain of mice that were prone to the same disease process but whose muscle cells contained the luciferase gene. When these mice are 2 months old, Rando and his associates use a sophisticated laboratory technique to activate the luciferase gene in the mice's satellite cells.
Once a luciferase gene is activated in a satellite cell, it stays "on" permanently in that cell and in all of its progeny, including mature muscle cells, causing them to glow whenever the mice are given a compound that gives off light in the presence of luciferase. So, as the muscular dystrophy progressed in the new mouse strain, the damage it inflicted on muscle fibers and the ensuing recruitment of neighboring satellite cells resulted in the affected muscle tissue's being increasingly luminescent. This luminescence, which could be observed through the mice's skin, was strong enough to be monitored and attributed to a precise anatomical location by a highly sensitive camera.
Invasive microscopic and biochemical methods are first able to detect disease symptoms in mice with the limb-girdle-analog strain when they are about 6 months old. In contrast, using this new method, the Stanford team could literally "see" the first signs of the disease's manifestation as early as 3 months.
Rando and his colleagues confirmed the validity of their luminescence assay with parallel examinations of the mice by standard microscopy and biochemical analysis. They also confirmed, in potentially luminescent but otherwise normal mice not suffering from progressive muscle deterioration, that healthy muscle tissue is ordinarily quiescent. In these mice, the Stanford scientists observed negligible luminescent output reflecting the less than 1 percent of all cells in muscle tissue that are satellite cells.
"In these luminescent mice, we could pick up the disease's pathological changes well before they could be seen otherwise," said Rando. "The readout was so sensitive we could observe those changes within a two-week period. Not only that, but we got our measurements instantaneously, without killing the mice."
The new assay's speed, accuracy and relative noninvasiveness will advance the pace of preclinical work, Rando said. "A lot of head-to-head comparisons of muscular-dystrophy therapies, including drugs already in clinical trials as well as stem cell therapies and gene therapies on the near horizon, can now be made that couldn't have been tried before, because they would have been too expensive and time-consuming to make them worth the effort."
The study was funded by the Jain Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (grant DP1OD000392). The first author was research associate Katie Maguire, PhD. Additional co-authors were Leland Lim, MD, PhD, clinical assistant professor of neurology and neurological sciences; and undergraduate student Sedona Speedy.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center. The original article was written by Bruce Goldman.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Katie K. Maguire, Leland Lim, Sedona Speedy, Thomas A. Rando. Assessment of disease activity in muscular dystrophies by noninvasive imaging. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2013; DOI: 10.1172/JCI68458
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ? The new tourism campaignNew Hampshire rolled out a year ago is working so well, it may be expanded to economic development and other areas, a state official said Monday.
The "Live Free and ...." is a fill-in-the-blank play on "Live Free or Die," written by Revolutionary War Gen. John Stark to his wartime comrades in 1809 and adopted as the state motto in 1945. The state has used variations including "Live Free and Play," ''Live Free and Explore" in its advertising, and attractions statewide have been putting their own twist on it.
Speaking at the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism, state Travel and Tourism Director Lori Harnois said the campaign has helped boost tourism spending, which increased to $4.4 billion in the last fiscal year. And Jeff Rose, commissioner of the Department of Resources and Economic Development, said he plans to use a similar approach to attract new businesses to the state.
"We're getting ready to try leverage that even beyond travel and tourism and promote all the special things we have," he said.
The department Rose oversees includes four divisions: travel and tourism, economic development, forest and lands and parks and recreation. While the "Live Free and..." campaign began in travel and tourism, he sees opportunity for the other three divisions to use it as well.
"It's rolling those four distinct divisions together under one roof that really provides the underpinning for the quality of life we enjoy here in New Hampshire," he said.
For now, Harnois said she is thrilled that the state's tourist industry has embraced the campaign. She showed the audience a video illustrating how various businesses and organizations have spent the last year promoting themselves by urging visitors to "Live Free and Shop" or "Live Free and Ski."
Gov. Maggie Hassan, who included more money for travel and tourism promotion in her proposed budget, offered similar praise.
"Live Free and Visit," she said. "That's what I'm confidant more and more people and families will do when they see our new brand and message, because it wonderfully highlights what makes New Hampshire so very special."
Tourism is one of New Hampshire's largest industries. The Institute for New Hampshire Studies at Plymouth State University estimates that the state saw 34.2 million visitors in fiscal year 2012, a slight increase from the previous year.
Apr. 23, 2013 ? When scientists torched an entire 22-acre watershed in Portugal in a recent experiment, their research yielded a counterintuitive result: Large, hot fires do not necessarily beget hot, scorched soil.
It's well known that wildfires can leave surface soil burned and barren, which increases the risk of erosion and hinders a landscape's ability to recover. But the scientists' fiery test found that the hotter the fire -- and the denser the vegetation feeding the flames -- the less the underlying soil heated up, an inverse effect which runs contrary to previous studies and conventional wisdom.
Rather, the soil temperature was most affected by the fire's speed, the direction of heat travel and the landscape's initial moisture content. These new findings could help forest managers plan when and where to ignite small controlled burns to reduce dry vegetation and restore the ecosystem in at-risk areas, said Cathelijne Stoof, the soil and water scientist who led this study as part of her PhD research at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
A report about the experiment by Stoof, who is now at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and her colleagues has been accepted for publication by Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
To study the real-world effects of landscape and fire dynamics on soil temperature, the research team mapped the watershed and installed instruments before setting the test area ablaze. During the burn the scientists monitored the fire and the resulting soil temperatures. As expected, the fire was most intense in the heavily vegetated areas, but the topsoil in these regions remained "surprisingly cool" during the duration of the fire, Stoof explained.
"Vegetation is fuel, so the areas with more vegetation had more intense fire," Stoof said. "But the heavily vegetated regions also were also more moist, which protected the soil."
The areas with the hottest soil temperatures were in direct sunlight and had sparse, dry vegetation. "Because it's already dried out, it doesn't have the moisture shield that more densely vegetated areas have to preserve the soil," Stoof said.
Other, previously observed behavior of fires could also help explain the new result, Stoof added. "Fires moving fast will quickly burn up all the vegetation and also have little effect on the soil, but slow-moving fires will have much more time to heat up the soil and burn up its organic matter and seeds," she noted.
Prior to this study, most of the research concerning fire effects on soil "took place in small scale field or laboratory settings, where they only burned small plots," Stoof said. "But these plots have less variation than a real watershed. If you have homogeneous conditions, you cannot extrapolate those results to the larger scale, where fire, soil and vegetation are heterogeneous."
Fire researcher Guillermo Rein of the Imperial College, London, called the results from Stoof and her colleagues "thought-provoking." They "go against the currently prevalent theory of soil heating," he said. "This paper ought to quickly mobilize the fire science community so that this soil heating theory can be reconfirmed, refuted or reformulated."
From the new results, Stoof has devised a strategy to minimize soil damage during controlled burns. "You need to burn heterogeneous areas in two stages," Stoof said. "Burn the driest area first when it has some moisture. The damp area will be too damp, and therefore will not carry fire. Then go back and burn the damp area when it's dried out enough so that it will burn. This way you end up with minimum soil damage."
But in order to apply the results of this study universally, soil and fire scientists need to work together and study other types of landscapes, Stoof added. "We just studied one type of environment and one fire. This experiment needs to be replicated so we can understand how different vegetation and soil types are affected. If soil scientists work with fire scientists, they can predict where the damage is going to occur and put up barriers to prevent erosion, or plan prescribed burns strategically to minimize soil depletion."
A scholarship from the International Association of Wildland Fire and a European Commission contract funded this work.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Geophysical Union.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Cathelijne R. Stoof, Demie Moore, Paulo M. Fernandes, Jetse J. Stoorvogel, Ricardo E.S. Fernandes, Ant?nio J.D. Ferreira, Coen J. Ritsema. Hot fire, cool soil. Geophysical Research Letters, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/grl.50299
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Researchers observe an increased risk of cancer in people with history of non-melanoma skin cancerPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Marjorie Montemayor-Quellenberg mmontemayor-quellenberg@partners.org 617-534-2208 Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, MA A prospective study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) observed an association between risk of second primary cancer and history of non-melanoma skin cancer in white men and women.
The researchers found that people with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer had a modestly increased risk of getting cancer in the future, specifically breast and lung cancer in women and melanoma in both men and women. Non-melanoma skin cancer, which includes basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, is the most common form of cancer in the United States.
The study will be published on April 23, 2013 in PLOS Medicine.
The researchers analyzed data from two large United States cohort studiesthe Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Nurses' Health Study. The researchers followed 46,237 men from June 1986 to June 2008 in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and 107,339 women from June 1984 to June 2008 in the Nurses' Health Study. The researchers identified 36,102 new cases of non-melanoma skin cancer and 29,447 new cases of other primary cancers.
A history of non-melanoma skin cancer was significantly associated with a 15 percent higher risk of other primary cancers in men, and a 26 percent higher risk of other primary cancers in women. When melanoma was excluded from this analysis, the rates changed slightly, with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer associated with an 11 percent higher risk of other primary cancers in men, and a 20 percent higher risk of other primary cancers in women.
After using statistical models to correct for multiple comparisons, looking at individual cancer sites, the researchers found that a history of non-melanoma skin cancer was significantly linked to an increased risk of breast and lung cancer in women, and an increased risk of melanoma in both men and women.
According to the researchers, these findings should be interpreted cautiously.
"Because our study was observational, these results should be interpreted cautiously and are insufficient evidence to alter current clinical recommendations," said Jiali Han, PhD, Channing Division of Network Medicine, BWH Department of Medicine and BWH Department of Dermatology. "Nevertheless, these data support a need for continued investigation of the potential mechanisms underlying this relationship."
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This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (CA87969 and CA055075).
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Researchers observe an increased risk of cancer in people with history of non-melanoma skin cancerPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Marjorie Montemayor-Quellenberg mmontemayor-quellenberg@partners.org 617-534-2208 Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, MA A prospective study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) observed an association between risk of second primary cancer and history of non-melanoma skin cancer in white men and women.
The researchers found that people with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer had a modestly increased risk of getting cancer in the future, specifically breast and lung cancer in women and melanoma in both men and women. Non-melanoma skin cancer, which includes basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, is the most common form of cancer in the United States.
The study will be published on April 23, 2013 in PLOS Medicine.
The researchers analyzed data from two large United States cohort studiesthe Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Nurses' Health Study. The researchers followed 46,237 men from June 1986 to June 2008 in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and 107,339 women from June 1984 to June 2008 in the Nurses' Health Study. The researchers identified 36,102 new cases of non-melanoma skin cancer and 29,447 new cases of other primary cancers.
A history of non-melanoma skin cancer was significantly associated with a 15 percent higher risk of other primary cancers in men, and a 26 percent higher risk of other primary cancers in women. When melanoma was excluded from this analysis, the rates changed slightly, with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer associated with an 11 percent higher risk of other primary cancers in men, and a 20 percent higher risk of other primary cancers in women.
After using statistical models to correct for multiple comparisons, looking at individual cancer sites, the researchers found that a history of non-melanoma skin cancer was significantly linked to an increased risk of breast and lung cancer in women, and an increased risk of melanoma in both men and women.
According to the researchers, these findings should be interpreted cautiously.
"Because our study was observational, these results should be interpreted cautiously and are insufficient evidence to alter current clinical recommendations," said Jiali Han, PhD, Channing Division of Network Medicine, BWH Department of Medicine and BWH Department of Dermatology. "Nevertheless, these data support a need for continued investigation of the potential mechanisms underlying this relationship."
###
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (CA87969 and CA055075).
[ | 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.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, the powerful Senate Finance chairman who steered President Barack Obama's health care overhaul into law but broke with his party on gun control, said Tuesday he will not run for re-election.
"I don't want to die here with my boots on. There is life beyond Congress," the 71-year-old Baucus said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Baucus, who arrived in Washington as a member of the 1974 Watergate class in the House and has been a fixture in the Senate since 1979, said the decision was hard.
"It was probably the most difficult decision in my life," Baucus said.
He faced a tough re-election bid next year, with opposition to the health care law in his state taking a toll on his approval ratings.
A Democrat with an independent streak, Baucus supported the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and Obama's signature 2010 health care law. He broke with his party this year to oppose both the Senate Democratic budget blueprint and a hotly fought effort to beef up background checks for gun purchases.
Baucus, who helped write Obama's health care law, stunned administration officials last week when he told the president's health care chief that he thought the law was headed for a "train wreck" because of bumbling implementation.
"I just see a huge train wreck coming down," Baucus told Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Baucus was the first top Democrat to publicly voice fears about the rollout of the new health care law, designed to bring coverage to some 30 million uninsured people through a mix of government programs and tax credits for private insurance. Polls show that Americans remain confused by the complex law, and even many uninsured people are skeptical they will be helped by benefits that start next year.
Republican campaign officials immediately seized upon Baucus' comments.
Baucus' retirement opens up an opportunity for Republicans to claim a Senate seat in a state where GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney easily defeated Obama by 12 percentage points last year. But Democrats have proved resilient in Montana, with Sen. Jon Tester winning re-election last year. The election of Steve Bullock last year is the third term in a row in which Democrats have held the governorship.
Former two-term Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer indicated an interest in the race in an interview with The Associated Press.
"The opportunity to try and get the country moving again like we did in Montana, that's appealing," Schweitzer said. "I'm a fixer."
Republican campaign officials, who last week seized upon Baucus' comments on the health care law, sought to tar other Democratic Senate candidates in a statement Tuesday responding to Baucus' decision.
"Just days after calling Obamacare a 'train wreck,' its architect Max Baucus waved the white flag rather than face voters," said Rob Collins, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Obamacare has gone from being an 'abstract' discussion to a real life pain for workers and families, which has Democratic candidates like Bruce Braley, Mark Pryor, Mark Begich and Kay Hagan backpedaling. ... The 2014 electoral map is in free-fall for Democrats, who were already facing a daunting challenge."
Possible Republican candidates are former Gov. Marc Racicot; Denny Rehberg, the former congressman who lost a bitter race last year to Tester; Rick Hill, another former congressman who lost to Bullock; and Steve Daines, the current Montana congressman.
The only Republicans who have declared their intention to run is state Sen. Champ Edmunds of Missoula and former state Sen. and gubernatorial candidate Corey Stapleton.
Democrats in the Senate will be defending 21 seats next year to Republicans 14, with several Democrats running for re-election in GOP-leaning states that Romney won handily. Among the Democrats facing tough challenges next year are Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
Democrats also have more retirements than the GOP. Five Democrats in addition to Baucus have announced they will not seek another term: Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Carl Levin of Michigan and Tim Johnson of South Dakota.
Among Republicans, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Mike Johanns of Nebraska have decided to retire.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, touted last year's re-election of Tester and said, "We will continue to invest all the resources necessary to hold this seat."
Despite his standing as a top Democrat in Capitol Hill, Baucus sometimes bucked the party line in recognition of Montana being a fundamentally conservative state with voters who want someone willing to base votes on more than party lines.
"I don't focus on labels," he has said. "For me, Montana comes first and partisan labels are a distant second."
He was an architect of the President George W. Bush's prescription drug plan in 2003, one of the few Democrats to back a GOP-led effort to provide prescription drug coverage under Medicare. The law is now widely popular with Republicans and Democrats.
Baucus is from a wealthy Helena ranching family. He practiced law in Montana in the early 1970s until he was elected to the state House in 1973. He first won election to the U.S. House as part of the huge 1974 Watergate class and easily moved up to the Senate in 1978. He has had only one close race since, when he defeated then Lt. Gov. Denny Rehberg with less than 50 percent of the vote in 1996.
Baucus became an advocate for the residents of the Montana town of Libby after news reports in 1999 linked asbestos contamination from a vermiculite mine there to deaths and illnesses. He helped deliver money to those who fell sick and became a vocal critic of both the W.R. Grace Co., and the Environmental Protection Agency for not doing enough to clean up the town.
He also worked to protect the land bordering Glacier National Park by advocating energy companies to retire their leases in the North Fork watershed of Montana's Flathead River.
Baucus voted in favor of invading Iraq, but said later that his vote was a mistake based on faulty intelligence delivered to Congress. After his nephew was killed while deployed in Iraq, Baucus said in later years that the troops should come home as soon as possible.
Baucus ran afoul of his constituents during President Bill Clinton's administration when he supported a handgun-control law and a ban on the sale of some assault-style weapons. Gun ownership is widespread in Montana, and Baucus later supported allowing those laws to expire in 2004.
Baucus came under criticism in February 2009 when he recommended Melodee Hanes for Montana's U.S. attorney post when he was dating her. Hanes withdrew her name from consideration in March and was hired in June as a top official in the Justice Department.
She and Baucus married in June 2011 at the historic Montana ranch north of Helena run by his family.
Baucus attended Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1964 and a law degree in 1967. He worked as an attorney with the Civil Aeronautics Board from 1967 to 1968, and with the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1968 to 1971. He practiced law in Montana from 1971 to 1974.
He and his ex-wife, Ann Geracimos, have one son, Zeno.
___
Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor and Carson Walker in Phoenix contributed to this report.
To mark Mental Health Week (May 6-12), HPaWS is offering a session on Mood Disorders. Learn some strategies for controlling your own mood and tips for supporting others experiencing difficulties. You may also wish to take in the presentation on Tai Chi to gain insight on how this physical activity can assist in maintaining good mental health and fitness. For more information on these and our other sessions, please see the HPaWS' May 2013 Lunch and Learn Bulletin.
Apr. 23, 2013 ? Researchers from North Carolina State University have solved a long-standing materials science problem, making it possible to create new semiconductor devices using zinc oxide (ZnO) -- including efficient ultraviolet (UV) lasers and LED devices for use in sensors and drinking water treatment, as well as new ferromagnetic devices.
"The challenge of using ZnO to make these devices has stumped researchers for a long time, and we've developed a solution that uses some very common elements: nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen," says Dr. Lew Reynolds, co-author of a paper describing the research and a teaching associate professor of materials science and engineering at NC State. "We've shown that it can be done, and how it can be done -- and that opens the door to a suite of new UV laser and LED technologies," says Dr. Judith Reynolds, a research scientist at NC State and lead author of the paper.
To make laser and LED technologies, you need both "n-type" materials and "p-type" materials. N-type materials contain an abundance of free electrons. P-type materials have "holes" that attract those free electrons. But the holes in the p-type materials have a lower energy state, which means that electrons release their excess energy in the form of light as they travel from the n-type material to the p-type material. The shedding of excess energy at the so-called "p-n junction" is what produces light in lasers and LED devices.
Researchers have been interested in using ZnO to create these devices because ZnO produces UV light, and because ZnO can be used to make devices with relatively fewer unwanted defects than other UV emitters- which means the resulting lasers or LEDs would be more energy efficient.
However, researchers had been unable to consistently produce stable p-type materials out of ZnO. Now researchers have solved that problem by introducing a specific "defect complex," via a unique set of growth and annealing procedures, in the ZnO. The defect complex looks different from a normal ZnO molecule. The zinc atom is missing and a nitrogen atom (attached to a hydrogen atom) substitutes for the oxygen atom. These defect complexes are dispersed throughout the ZnO material and serve as the "holes" that accept the electrons in p-type materials.
Not only does the research illustrate how to create p-type materials from ZnO, but the defect complex allows the ZnO p-n junction to function efficiently -- and produce UV light -- at room temperature.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by North Carolina State University.
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Journal Reference:
J. G. Reynolds, C. L. Reynolds, A. Mohanta, J. F. Muth, J. E. Rowe, H. O. Everitt, D. E. Aspnes. Shallow acceptor complexes in p-type ZnO. Applied Physics Letters, 2013; 102 (15): 152114 DOI: 10.1063/1.4802753
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Officers talk to residents before clearing them to return to their homes in West Texas (Adrees Latif/Reuters)
WEST, Texas?For the second day in a row, more than 100 displaced residents here lined up to gain access to their homes near the site of Wednesday?s deadly fertilizer explosion that killed 14 and injured at least 200.
City officials began allowing residents in homes farthest away from the center of the blast site in late Saturday, but imposed a strict curfew, permitting people to only enter the site between 7am and 7pm. Residents have the option of staying in their homes if they aren?t heavily damaged, but most of the area remains without power or running water. The explosion leveled a five-square block area of town, destroying dozens of homes, a nursing home and an apartment building adjacent to the plant.
On Sunday morning, a time when most residents would be in church, dozens of cars snaked through town, as residents who didn?t make it inside the blast area on Saturday returned in hopes of seeing the homes for the first time.
?You don?t know what to expect,? said Joanne Nors, who was cooking dinner at her home a few blocks from the plant when the explosion happened on Wednesday night. She and her husband fled their home and have been staying with relatives ever since.
State and local officials have warned residents that the city is unlikely to get back to normal anytime soon. ?This is going to be a very long process,? Mayor Tommy Muska said Saturday.
As some residents were allowed back in to see their homes, dozens of insurance companies have descended on the region, setting up mobile offices and handing out business cards along Oak Street, the main drag in the West?s downtown district.
Agents have also been spotted at the press conferences held by local officials at City Hall, just two blocks from the cordoned off neighborhood near the fertilizer plant. One agent, who declined to be named, said he was just trying to ?gather as much information as I can for my clients.?
Indeed, residents here have grown frustrated with the lack of information from city officials about how long the area will be closed and other basic information. Speaking to constituents Saturday at an impromptu town meeting, Muska, who also lost his home in the blast, apologized and said, ?I need to be doing a better job.?
"When you see this place," he added, referring to the explosion site, "you will know a miracle happened."
But residents fear the bureaucracy around the site is only to get worse. Yesterday, word spread around town that the site would soon be taken over the by Federal Emergency Management Agency?something officials in town declined to confirm.
But at the Village Bakery, one of the state's most famous Czech bakeries and a gathering point for West residents, a man announced the FEMA rumor to the entire dining room before making his displeasure clear.
?FEMA is taking over,? the man said. ?I don?t like that acronym.?
But there was some good news to emerge from the scene. Steve Vanek, a West City Council member and mayor pro-tem, told reporters most of the 60 people listed as missing on Friday had been found. He said the death toll remains at 14.
Still, that number is a huge blow to a town of less than 3,000 people, where, as one local puts it, ?everybody knows everybody.?
On Saturday evening, a group of firefighters from nearby towns gathered on an Interstate 35 overpass and dangled an American flag over the highway as a motorcade of ambulances escorted by police cars passed underneath. The vehicles reportedly were transferring first responders injured in Wednesday?s blast from a Waco hospital to another facility in nearby Hillsboro.
At the same time, someone placed a bouquet of silk flowers on the door of a flower shop downtown, where one resident said the owner had lost both her brother and her husband in the explosion. The men had been a part of West?s volunteer firefighter department.
?We?re just waiting for the funerals to start,? a woman, who declined to be named, said as she stood outside City Hall on Sunday. ?That?s going to be real tough.?
State and local officials have said they still have no cause for Wednesday's explosion.
Microsoft brings their "second screen" application to Amazon's storefront for Kindle Fire devices
About six months ago Microsoft released their Xbox SmartGlass app for Android to generally good reviews. If you haven't been paying attention, the app acts as a sort of controller for your Xbox, allowing you to surf the net from the console, act as a media controller remote and even change your Xbox 3D avatar. But until today, users wanting to use the app on their Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD devices had to resort to hackery to use Google Play or outright sideload a copy.
No longer, as it's now officially available from Amazon. We're not sure just how many folks want to use a tablet as a remote versus use a smartphone, or how many of the folks who do will be using a Kindle Fire, but if you're one of them, click this link to grab it, or check out the appstore from your Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD.
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Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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