Every year, an international panel of automotive journalists selects the best cars in the world under various categories, handing out its awards at the New York Auto Show. This year, the 2013 Mark VII Volkswagen Golf took top honors.?
By Kurt Ernst,?Guest blogger / March 31, 2013
Volkswagen design chief Walter de Silva holds a trophy after the Volkswagen Golf was named 2013 World Car of the Year during the New York International Auto Show in New York, March 28, 2013.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters/File
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Every year, an international panel of automotive journalists selects the best cars in the world under various categories, handing out its awards at the New York Auto Show.
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?Atop the hierarchy is the World Car of the Year, followed by the World Performance Car, the World Car Design of the Year and the World Green Car (where our own John Voelcker, editor of Green Car Reports, contributed his expertise for the panel of judges).
?For 2013, the panel chose the Mark VII Volkswagen Golf (which will debut in the United States next year, as a 2015 model) as the World Car of the Year, saying it was ?as close to the perfect hatchback design as any car company has come yet. If ever there was a car for everyman, the Golf is it.?
?This makes two in a row for Volkswagen, as the brand took top honors in 2012 with its Up! city car. The new Golf beat an impressive list of finalists, including the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, the Porsche Boxster / Cayman and the Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ / Toyota GT 86.
In the World Performance Car category, the new Porsche Boxster / Cayman defeated the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta and the Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ / Toyota GT 86 to take the win, with the judges declaring that the Boxster is now less of a ?secretary?s car,? while the Cayman is a ?better Porsche sports car than the iconic 911.? Those are their words, not ours.
In the World Car Design of the Year Category, it was the stunning new Jaguar F-Type that beat out challengers like the Mazda6 and the Aston Martin Vanquish. Of their pick the panelists called the F-Type ?almost Italian at first glance,? saying that the F-Type is ?the promising dawn for the company?s latest roadster.?
The Tesla Model S continued its global winning streak, earning the pick as the World Green Car of the Year and beating out the Renault Zoe and the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid in the process
Calling the Model S ?fast and stylish,? the judges cited the car?s sensible range, seating capacity and near-supercar performance as grounds for their selection. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best auto bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger,?click here.?To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link in the blog description box above.
The field of regenerative medicine holds great promise, propelled by greater understanding of how stem cells differentiate themselves into many of the body's different cell types. But clinical applications in the field have been slow to materialize, partially owing to difficulties in replicating the conditions these cells naturally experience.
A team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania has generated new insight on how a stem cell's environment influences what type of cell a stem cell will become. They have shown that whether human mesenchymal stem cells turn into fat or bone cells depends partially on how well they can "grip" the material they are growing in.
The research was conducted by graduate student Sudhir Khetan and associate professor Jason Burdick, along with professor Christopher Chen, all of the School of Engineering and Applied Science's Department of Bioengineering. Others involved in the study include Murat Guvendiren, Wesley Legant and Daniel Cohen.
Their study was published in the journalNature Materials.
Much research has been done on how stem cells grow on two-dimensional substrates, but comparatively little work has been done in three dimensions. Three-dimensional environments, or matrices, for stems cells have mostly been treated as simple scaffolding, rather than as a signal that influences the cells' development.
Burdick and his colleagues were interested in how these three-dimensional matrices impact mechanotransduction, which is how the cell takes information about its physical environment and translates that to chemical signaling.
"We're trying to understand how material signals can dictate stem cell response," Burdick said. "Rather than considering the material as an inert structure, it's really guiding stem cell fate and differentiation ? what kind of cells they will turn into."
The mesenchymal stem cells the researchers studied are found in bone marrow and can develop into several cell types: osteoblasts, which are found in bone; chondrocytes, which are found in cartilage; and adipocytes, which are found in fat.
The researchers cultured them in water-swollen polymer networks known as hydrogels, which share some similarities with the environments stem cells naturally grow in. These materials are generally soft and flexible ? contact lenses, for example, are a type of hydrogel ? but can vary in density and stiffness depending on the type and quantity of the bonds between the polymers. In this case, the researchers used covalently cross-linked gels, which contain irreversible chemical bonds.
When seeded on top of two-dimensional covalently cross-linked gels, mesenchymal stem cells spread and pulled on the material differently depending on how stiff it was. Critically, the mechanics guide cell fate, or the type of cells they differentiate it into. A softer environment would produce more fat-like cells and a stiffer environment, where the cells can pull on the gel harder, would produce more bone-like cells.
However, when the researchers put mesenchymal stem cells inside three-dimensional hydrogels of varying stiffness, they didn't see these kinds of changes.
"In most covalently cross-linked gels, the cells can't spread into the matrix because they can't degrade the bonds ? they all become fat cells," Burdick said. "That tells us that in 3D covalent gels the cells don't translate the mechanical information the same way they do in a 2D system."
To test this, the researchers changed the chemistry of their hydrogels so that the polymer chains were connected by a peptide that the cells could naturally degrade. They hypothesized that, as the cells spread, they would be able to get a better grip on their surrounding environment and thus be more likely to turn into bone-like cells.
In order to determine how well the cells were pulling on their environment, the researchers used a technique developed by Chen's lab called 3D traction force microscopy. This technique involves seeding the gel with microscopic beads, then tracking their location before and after a cell is removed.
"Because the gel is elastic and will relax back into its original position when you remove the cells," Chen said, "you can quantify how much the cells are pulling on the gel based on how much and which way it springs back after the cell is removed."
The results showed that the stem cells' differentiation into bone-like cells was aided by their ability to better anchor themselves into the growth environment.
"With our original experiment, we observed that the cells essentially didn't pull on the gel. They adhered to it and were viable, but we did not see bead displacement. They couldn't get a grip," Burdick said. "When we put the cells into a gel where they could degrade the bonds, we saw them spread into the matrix and deform it, displacing the beads."
As an additional test, the researchers synthesized another hydrogel. This one had the same covalent bonds that the stem cells could naturally degrade and spread through but also another type of bond that could form when exposed to light. They let the stem cells spread as before, but at the point the cells would begin to differentiate ? about a week after they were first encapsulated ? the researchers further "set" the gel by exposing it to light, forming new bonds the cells couldn't degrade.
"When we introduced these cross-links so they could no longer degrade the matrix, we saw an increase toward fat-like cells, even after letting them spread," Burdick said. "This further supports the idea that continuous degradation is needed for the cells to sense the material properties of their environment and transduce that into differentiation signals."
Burdick and his colleagues see these results as helping develop a better fundamental understanding of how to engineer tissues using stem cells.
"This is a model system for showing how the microenvironment can influence the fate of the cells," Burdick said.
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University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews
Thanks to University of Pennsylvania for this article.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is attending one of this weekend's big college basketball games.
The president is at Washington's Verizon Center to watch Syracuse and Marquette play for a berth in the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament.
Earlier Saturday, Obama played golf for the first time since automatic spending cuts known as the sequester went into effect on March 1.
Some conservatives have called on Obama to give up golf since popular public tours of the White House have been canceled because of the budget cuts. The White House has said the tours were canceled to keep Secret Service agents from being furloughed because of the spending reductions.
Obama played on the course at Andrews Air Force Base with a friend, Marty Nesbitt, and two White House aides.
It was getting dark, and the sheriff of Nelson County, N.D., was in a standoff with a family of suspected cattle rustlers. They were armed, and the last thing anybody wanted was a shoot out.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which monitors police radio chatter, offered to help. Their Predator was flying back to its roost at the Grand Forks Air Force base and could provide aerial support. Did the sheriff want the assist?
Yep.
"We were able to detect that one of the sons was sitting at the end of the driveway with a gun. We also knew that there were small children involved," Sheriff Kelly Janke told NBC News, remembering that tricky encounter in the early summer of 2011. "Someone would have gotten seriously injured if we had gone in on the farm that night." He decided to wait.
The next day, the drone gave them an edge again by helping them choose the safest moment to make a move. "We were able to surprise them ? took them into custody," Janke said. They also collected six stolen cows.
Rodney Brossart, the arrested farmer, sued the state, in part because of the cop's use of a drone. But a district judge ruled that the Predator's service was not untoward.
When advocates express concern about government drones threatening people's privacy, the Brossart case is one they bring up. It's one of the first instances of a flying robot doing a cop's dirty work, and this kind of intervention is likely to be more and more commonplace, as the FAA fulfills a congressional mandate to increase its granting of drone permits ? certificates of authorization, or COAs.
Cops and flying robots At the moment, there are only 327 active COAs, all held by these organizations, and all for unarmed crafts, of course. A tiny sliver of these permits are in the hands of law enforcement agencies, and from them, we're seeing the first glimpses of drone use in policing and emergency response.
"The FAA has approved us to cover a 16-county area," Sheriff Bob Rost of Grand Forks County, N.D., said of their COA. "To look for missing children, to look for escaped criminals and in the case of emergencies." In the spring, they will use two mini-copter drones ? a trusty DraganFlyer X6 and an AeroVironment Qube ? to check on flooded farms.
The police department in Arlington, Texas, also recently got FAA clearance to fly their drones after two years of testing. The two battery-powered Leptron Avenger helicopter drones won't be used for high-speed chases or routine patrol, the department explains. In fact, the crafts will be driven in a truck to where they're needed, and when they're launched to scope out incidents, local air traffic control will be informed.
In Mesa County, Colo., the police department has used drones to find missing people, do an aerial landfill survey and help out firefighters at a burning church. For them, it's seen as a cost-cutting technology.
"It's the Wal-Mart version of what we'd normally get at Saks Fifth Avenue," said Benjamin Miller, who leads the drones program in Mesa County, comparing drones to manned helicopters that would otherwise give police officers help from the sky.
In Seattle, the police department received an FAA permit ? but had to give back its drones when the mayor banned their use, following protests in October 2012.
Protests and red tape "Hasn't anyone heard of George Orwell's '1984'?" the Seattle Times quoted a protester as saying. "This is the militarization of our streets and now the air above us."
Protesters, not just in Seattle, seek more legal definition of what a drone can or can't do, and debate whether or not current laws sufficiently protect citizens from unauthorized surveillance and other abuses.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks of police drones as an inevitability ? "We're going to have them," he recently said in a radio interview ? while those on the police (and drone) side say the fears are unfounded.
"This hysteria of [a drone] hovering outside your backyard taking a video of you smoking a joint, it's just that ? hysteria," said Al Frazier, an ex-cop from Los Angeles who is now an assistant professor of aeronautics at the University of North Dakota, and a deputy at the Grand Forks sheriff's office.
The reason the sky isn't lousy with drones already mostly has to do with red tape. The FAA's highly restricted drone application for government agencies is supposed to take about 60 days, though unofficially, we're told it's much longer. COAs are also very strict about where, when and by whom a drone is flown.
"I think there are many agencies who would like to use [drones] for public good, but they're stymied by the process," Frazier said.
That's likely to change ? and soon. Last February, Obama signed a mandate that encourages the FAA to let civil and commercial drones join the airspace by 2015. This will take new regulations from the FAA for safe commercial drone flight, and it may take some convincing of local anti-drone activists (who sometimes don't differentiate between drones great and small). It may even require the passing of a few new privacy laws.
Folks like Frazier and Miller don't see the permit process getting easier any time soon but eventually ? inevitably ? and for better or worse, your local police department will get its drone.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.
Related:
The drones are coming ... but our laws aren't ready
Anticipating domestic boom, colleges rev up drone piloting programs
An effective vaccine against HIV-1 remains elusive, but one promising strategy focuses on designer antibodies that have much broader potency than most normal, exquisitely specific antibodies. These broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) can handle the high mutation rate of HIV particles that makes normal, very specific antibodies useless within a short space of time. A study published by Cell Press on March 28th in the journalCell reveals surprising mutations in these antibodies that are crucial for strong protection against HIV-1. The findings could guide efforts to design better HIV-1 vaccines.
"This study demonstrates a fundamental aspect of antibodies' function and development that was not fully appreciated before," says study author Ron Diskin of the Weizmann Institute of Science. "We show that it will be important to pay more attention to previously ignored regions of antibodies to design effective vaccines."
Scientists have recently found that some HIV-1-infected individuals produce bNAbs naturally several years after infection. Animal studies have shown that these antibodies are very effective at protecting against and controlling HIV-1 infection, but what makes them so effective was unknown. Antibodies are Y-shaped molecules, and most variation is found at the two tips of the Y, called the complementarity determining regions, where antibodies make direct contact with the virus. On the other hand, relatively few mutations have been found in framework regions (the bottom half of the Y), which maintain the structural integrity of the antibody. Until now, the role of framework region mutations had been unclear.
The study, led by Michel Nussenzweig of Rockefeller University and Pamela Bjorkman of the California Institute of Technology, has revealed that HIV-1-fighting bNAbs accumulate mutations in framework regions, in contrast to most antibodies. Surprisingly, these mutations strengthened the antibodies' antiviral activity while conserving key structural features. The researchers suggest that several years are required for infected individuals to produce these potent antibodies because it takes time for the right combination of various mutations to accumulate.
"Our study shows that the immune system has a variety of ways to make effective antibodies and that mutations in antibody framework regions, which are usually not changed when antibodies mutate to increase their efficacy, are required for anti-HIV antibodies," Bjorkman says. "This has clear implications for efforts to raise effective antibodies for the next generation of HIV vaccines."
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Cell Press: http://www.cellpress.com
Thanks to Cell Press for this article.
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The transistor revolutionized electronics and computing. Now, researchers have made a biological transistor from DNA that could be used to create living computers.
A transistor is a device that controls the flow of electrons in an electrical circuit, which acts as an on-off switch. Similarly, the biological transistor? termed a transcriptor ? controls the flow of an enzyme as it moves along a strand of DNA?(deoxyribonucleic acid). These cellular building blocks could be used to do anything from monitoring their environment to turning processes on and off in the cells. The findings were reported Thursday?in the journal Science.
"Transcriptors are the key component behind amplifying genetic logic," lead author Jerome Bonnet, a bioengineer at Stanford University, said in a statement. On their own, these devices do not represent a computer, but they allow for logical operations, such as "if this-then that" commands, one of three basic functions of computers (the other two being storing and transmitting information).
To make the transcriptors, the researchers took a group of natural proteins, the workhorses of cells, and used them to control how the enzyme known as RNA polymerase zipped along a DNA molecule. The team used these transcriptors to create the mathematical operators that perform computations using Boolean logic.
1s and 0s Boolean logic, named for the 19th-century mathematician George Boole, refers to a branch of math in which variables can have a true or false value (a 1 or a 0). In a Boolean circuit, the logic gates are like traffic conductors, deciding which of these values gets transmitted. [Album: The World's Most Beautiful Equations]
For example, the "AND" gate takes in two values as input, and only outputs 1 (a true value) if both inputs are 1. An "OR" gate, by contrast, outputs a 1 if either of its inputs is 1. Combining these simple gates in different ways gives rise to even the most complex forms of computing.
The scientists created biological versions of these logic gates, by carefully calibrating the flow of enzymes along the DNA (just like electrons inside a wire). They chose enzymes that would be able to function in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, so that biological computers might be made with a wide variety of organisms, Bonnet said.
Living Computers Like the transistor, one main function of the transcriptor is to amplify signals. Just as transistor radios amplify weak radio waves into audible sound, transcriptors can amplify a very small change in the production of an enzyme to produce large changes in the production of other proteins. Amplification allows signals to be carried over large distances, such as between a group of cells.
The new technology offers some electric possibilities: sensing when a cell has been exposed to sugar or caffeine, for example, and storing that information like a value in computer memory. Or telling cells to start or stop dividing depending on stimuli in their environment.
The researchers have made their biological logic gates available to the public to encourage people to use and improve them.
Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter?and Google+.?Follow us @livescience, Facebook?andGoogle+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Mar. 28, 2013 ? Messier 77 is a galaxy in the constellation of Cetus, some 45 million light-years away from us. Also known as NGC 1068, it is one of the most famous and well-studied galaxies. It is a real star among galaxies, with more papers written about it than many other galaxies put together.
Despite its current fame and striking swirling appearance, the galaxy has been a victim of mistaken identity a couple of times; when it was initially discovered in 1780, the distinction between gas clouds and galaxies was not known, causing finder Pierre Mechain to miss its true nature and label it as a nebula. It was misclassified again when it was subsequently listed in the Messier Catalogue as a star cluster.
Now, however, it is firmly categorised as a barred spiral galaxy, with loosely wound arms and a relatively small central bulge. It is the closest and brightest example of a particular class of galaxies known as Seyfert galaxies -- galaxies that are full of hot, highly ionised gas that glows brightly, emitting intense radiation.
Strong radiation like this is known to come from the heart of Messier 77 -- caused by a very active black hole that is around 15 million times the mass of our Sun. Material is dragged towards this black hole and circles around it, heating up and glowing strongly. This region of a galaxy alone, although comparatively small, can be tens of thousands of times brighter than a typical galaxy.
Although no competition for the intense centre, Messier 77's spiral arms are also very bright regions. Dotted along each arm are knotty red clumps -- a signal that new stars are forming. These baby stars shine strongly, ionising nearby gas which then glows a deep red colour as seen in the image above. The dust lanes stretching across this image appear as a rusty, brown-red colour due to a phenomenon known as reddening; the dust absorbs more blue light than red light, enhancing its apparent redness.
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Mar. 28, 2013 ? Images told the story: lower Manhattan in darkness, coastal communities washed away, cars floating in muck. Superstorm Sandy, a harbinger of future extreme weather intensified by climate change, caught the country off guard in October.
Unprepared for the flooding and high winds that ensued, the East Coast suffered more than $70 billion in property damage and more than 100 deaths.
Will Americans prepare and invest now to minimize the impact of disasters such as Sandy, or deal with storms and rising sea levels after they occur?
A new survey commissioned by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Center for Ocean Solutions finds that an overwhelming majority of Americans want to prepare in order to minimize the damage likely to be caused by global warming-induced sea-level rise and storms.
A majority also wants people whose properties and businesses are located in hazard areas to foot the bill for this preparation, not the government. Eighty-two percent of the Americans surveyed said that people and organizations should prepare for the damage likely to be caused by sea-level rise and storms, rather than simply deal with the damage after it happens.
Among the most popular policy solutions identified in the survey are stronger building codes for new structures along the coast to minimize damage (favored by 62 percent) and preventing new buildings from being built near the coast (supported by 51 percent).
"People support preventive action," said survey director Jon Krosnick, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and professor of communication, "and few people believe these preparations will harm the economy or eliminate jobs. In fact, more people believe that preparation efforts will help the economy and create jobs around the U.S., in their state and in their town than think these efforts will harm the economy and result in fewer jobs in those areas. But people want coastal homeowners and businesses that locate in high-risk areas to pay for these measures."
The challenges posed by rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms will only intensify as more Americans build along the coasts. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report released March 25 predicts that already crowded U.S. coastlines will become home to an additional 11 million people by 2020.
Survey questions were formulated to assess participants' beliefs about climate change and gather opinions about the impact of climate change, sea-level rise and storms on communities, the economy and jobs.
The survey also gauged public support for specific coastal adaptation strategies and how to pay for them. "People are least supportive of policies that try to hold back Mother Nature," Krosnick said. "They think it makes more sense to recognize risk and reduce exposure."
Among the survey's respondents, 48 percent favor sand dune restoration and 33 percent favor efforts to maintain beaches with sand replenishment, while 37 percent support relocating structures away from the coast and 33 percent support constructing sea walls.
Eighty-two percent of the survey's respondents believe that Earth's temperature has been rising over the last 100 years. However, even a majority of those who doubt the existence of climate change favor adaptation measures (60 percent).
"The question is, how does public support for preparation translate to action?" asked Meg Caldwell, executive director of the Center for Ocean Solutions. "Our impulse is to try to move quickly to put communities back together the way they were after devastation. But that impulse often leads to doubling down on high-risk investments, such as rebuilding in areas likely to experience severe impacts. To move toward long-term resiliency for coastal communities, we need to seize opportunities to apply new thinking, new standards and long-term solutions."
Krosnick presented the survey results this morning at a policy briefing hosted by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The survey was conducted via the Internet with a nationally representative probability sample of 1,174 American adults, 18 and older, conducted by GfK Custom Research March 3-18, 2013. The survey was administrated in both English and Spanish. The survey has a margin of error of +/-4.9 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A judge on Wednesday approved AMR Corp's plan to merge with US Airways Group, a step toward creating the world's largest airline.
AMR, parent of American Airlines and in bankruptcy since November 2011, must still construct a formal restructuring plan incorporating the merger that meets court and creditor approval before the airline can emerge from bankruptcy.
American Airlines announced the plan to combine with US Airways last month, a deal that also requires regulatory approval.
In a crowded Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane declined to approve, for now, a planned $19.9 million severance package for Tom Horton, AMR's outgoing chief executive.
Lane said he was not sure whether the severance package requires his approval, or whether the matter is more appropriate for inclusion in AMR's formal restructuring plan.
That plan, which all debtors in bankruptcy must propose, will lay out how creditors will get paid back, and will require creditor approval.
The fate of the severance payment is unclear. The version of the merger agreement that earned the judge's approval may have to be amended to remove it.
In a joint statement, AMR and US Airways welcomed Lane's approval of their planned combination.
"We are gratified to know that he considers the merger an 'excellent result' for stakeholders," they said.
Jack Butler, a lawyer for AMR's creditors' committee, said after the hearing that it was too early to tell how the parties will deal with the severance issue.
"The companies said they were prepared to amend the merger agreement in any respect, and I expect that there will be an amendment," Butler said.
'WATERSHED EVENT'
AMR filed for bankruptcy, citing untenable labor costs after years of futile attempts to negotiate cost savings from its unionized workforce.
It had been the last major U.S. carrier to go through bankruptcy, after its competitors underwent the same process in the last decade.
Stephen Karotkin, a lawyer for AMR, called the hearing a "watershed event" that moves AMR a step closer to exiting 16 months of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
AMR at first opposed merging while still in bankruptcy, but relented to pressure from its creditors' committee, represented by Butler and Jay Goffman, both lawyers at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom.
US Airways Chief Executive Doug Parker wooed AMR aggressively, taking advantage of AMR's labor relations problems to appeal to its unions.
US Airways hammered out a tentative deal with the unions last April, before formal merger talks between the two companies' management teams had gone into full swing.
The creditors' committee eventually convinced AMR to adopt a protocol to evaluate a merger, and played a large role in analyzing the net savings and benefits from a merger.
AMR shareholders are expected to receive a 3.5 percent equity stake in the new firm, which would make it one of the few major bankruptcies in which equity holders earn some recovery.
The Skadden legal team advising the creditors' committee also played a central part in negotiating the new management structure, including the details of Horton's severance package.
Parker will serve as CEO of the combined carrier, while Horton, who became AMR's CEO when it filed for bankruptcy, will serve as chairman through the first annual meeting of shareholders. After that Parker will take on the chairman role.
The merger is expected to close in the third quarter.
The case is In re AMR Corp et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-15463.
(Reporting By Nick Brown in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Richard Chang)
Mar. 27, 2013 ? The love affair between U.S. residents and salt is making us sick: high sodium intake increases blood pressure, and leads to higher rates of heart attack and strokes. Nonetheless, Americans continue to ingest far higher amounts of sodium than those recommended by physicians and national guidelines.
A balanced review of the relevant literature has been published in the March 27, 2013 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. Theodore A. Kotchen, MD, professor of medicine (endocrinology), and associate dean for clinical research at the Medical College of Wisconsin, is the lead author of the article.
Dr. Kotchen cites correlations between blood pressure and salt intake in a number of different studies; typically, the causation between lowering salt intake and decreased levels of blood pressure occur in individuals who have been diagnosed with hypertension. Although not as pronounced, there is also a link between salt intake and blood pressure in non-hypertensive individuals. Additionally, recent studies have demonstrated that a reduced salt intake is associated with decreased cardiovascular disease and decreased mortality.
In national studies in Finland and Great Britain, instituting a national salt-reduction program led to decreased sodium intake. In Finland, the resulting decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressures corresponded to a 75 -- 80 percent decrease in death due to stroke and coronary heart disease.
Nevertheless, not all investigators concur with population-based recommendations to lower salt intake, and the reasons for this position are reviewed.
"Salt is essential for life, but it has been difficult to distinguish salt need from salt preference," said Dr. Kotchen. "Given the medical evidence, it seems that recommendations for reducing levels of salt consumption in the general population would be justifiable at this time." However, in terms of safety, the lower limit of salt consumption has not been clearly identified. In certain patient groups, less rigorous targets for salt reduction may be appropriate.
Co-authors are Allen W. Cowley, Jr., PhD, James J. Smith and Catherine Welsh Smith Professor in Physiology, and Harry and Gertrude Hack Term Professor and chairman of Physiology, the Medical College of Wisconsin; Edward D. Frohlich, MD, Alton Ocshner Distinguished Scientist at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, La.
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Journal Reference:
Theodore A. Kotchen, Allen W. Cowley, Edward D. Frohlich. Salt in Health and Disease ? A Delicate Balance. New England Journal of Medicine, 2013; 368 (13): 1229 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1212606
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Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...
I love road trips. Just saying or writing the words sends shivers of excitement down my spine. If you think I'm crazy, it's probably because you grew up in a country where road trips are taken for granted, and the number of places you can drive to and go to are endless. To me, road trips are fun and exciting no matter why I have to take them. Regardless of how you feel about them, it's always good to prepare before you embark on one.
So how do you prepare for such a long drive? We each have our own way to ensure we're ready, whether it's a packing list, a box of games, some favorite foods, or a good playlist. Need to plan a long drive for the first time? Looking for ways to make your drive cheaper, more interesting, or safer? Below you'll find a collection of tools that can help you make any road trip a good one. But remember, tools aren't enough, and as cheesy as it sounds, you definitely need to go into your trip with good spirits. Once you have that, collect your favorite tools from this list, and enjoy!
Should You Drive?
When planning a road trip, the first question you might ask yourself is "should I drive or fly?" If you want to take a road trip for fun, the question might not be relevant, but if you actually need to get from point A to point B, you can't always assume driving is the cheapest option. A website called TravelMath can help you find the best way to travel by factoring in cost, distance, and time, and calculating the value of time vs. cost for each option.
TravelMath gives each option a score, and lets you know if you're better off driving or flying. You can also use this calculator to find information such as driving/flying distance and cost of driving from point A to point B. TravelMath supports destinations all over the world.
Plan a Road Trip Route
Now that you're set on driving to your destination, it's time to plan your route. I've already told you about several tools for planning fun road trips, which include planners for the US, Australia, Canada, and more. There are several aspects to planning a road trip, and in the end it all comes down to personal preferences and priorities. Is saving money your first priority? Perhaps travelling in fair weather is most important to you? Do you want to see lots of attractions on the way? Or maybe you just care about getting there quickly?
If you care about the cost of the trip, you're going to want to find the cheapest fuel stops possible. A website called FuelMyRoute can help you do just that. FuelMyRoute takes your start and end points, and the type of fuel you use, and find the best spots to re-fuel on your route. You can decide how far out of your way you want to go for cheap fuel, set preferred brands, and more. Aside from the map you can see above, FuelMyRoute provides detailed driving directions, and tells you exactly how much money you can save by stopping at the cheapest stations. Unfortunately, this website works only in the US.
If finding interesting attractions sits at the top of your list, don't skip websites like OnTheWay (worldwide) and RoadTrippers (US only) which can help you find the best spots to stop. But what fun will stopping and sightseeing be if it rains the entire way? You can't control the weather, but you can be prepared for it with Weather Underground's roadtrip planner. This planning tool lets you see the weather all along your route, which can include one starting point and several destinations. The weather is displayed based on dates and times you provide. While you can get routes for places all over the world, I only got weather information for routes in the US.
Don't Get Hungry
To me, food is the most important part of any road trip. You don't necessarily have to plan ahead for this?just stopping at a random out-of-the-way diner can be an experience by itself?but sometimes there are places along your route you just don't want to miss. There are several ways to find these, and two of them are Roadfood and TVFoodMaps.
If you're a Food Network addict, TVFoodMaps can help you find places that appeared in various programs and that happen to be on your way. Just enter your starting point and destination, and get a list of places you can visit, complete with the name of the program they appeared on, a full address, and a link to the official website. Roadfood, on the other hand, can help you find interesting places to eat sorted by US state or by category. Many of the places mentioned include must-eat dishes, ratings, reviews and more. If you sign up for a Roadfood Insider account, you can also access GPS support, offline information, Roadfood maps, and Google Earth integration.
Stay Safe
As with anything else you do, it's important to stay safe during your roadtrip. Long drives can get boring, but that doesn't mean you should be speeding or texting while driving. There are many ways to avoid messing around with your phone while driving, and still remain in communication with the world. So before you embark on your journey, check out these Android apps for safe driving or these iPhone tips and apps that will keep you safe on the road.
If you promise to drive safely, you might also want to install Trapster, which will help you avoid police traps and tickets. That doesn't mean you can speed, though!
Need A Hotel?
There are hundreds of ways to find and book hotels, and we each have our own preferred way. However, if for some reason you get stuck and have no place to sleep, Hotel Tonight is a great app to have, and can save you from an otherwise sticky situation. The app, available for both iOS and Android, can help you find a hotel for tonight, for quite a reasonable price. It doesn't work everywhere in the world, but can help you in major cities in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.
Have Fun!
What do you need for a fun road trip? Music and games! Music is not so hard to come by nowadays, and with services such as Spotify, Pandora, 8Tracks, Songza, etc., you can listen to music easily all through your drive. If you're more into actual radio, you can check out the NPR roadtrip page which will help you find stations along your way.
When it comes to games, the best ones are those you can play together without any additional devices, boards, or parts. While you must know at least one such game, there's a nice list of suggestions on RoadTripWise. You can also find some nice inspiration on Pinterest boards such as this Travel ideas and items one, this Family Road Trip Games one, and many others you can find if you search for "road trips." If you're set on playing games on your mobile device, you can find loads of excellent games on our best iPhone games page or best Android games page.
Bottom Line
Are you ready for your trip? If you find the idea of taking this long drive annoying, remember that road trips are a fantastic opportunity to put your attention on the outside world and forget your troubles for awhile. After taking everything into account, the most important thing is to look up, enjoy the view, and experience your trip for what it is.
Everything You Need to Prepare for a Long Car Journey or Road Trip?Make Use Of
Yaara Lancet is a freelance writer, tech blogger, and chocolate lover, who's also a biologist and a full-time geek. Find her also at lnct.org.
WASHINGTON ? Fifty-five percent of U.S. river and stream lengths were in poor condition for aquatic life, largely under threat from runoff contaminated by fertilizers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday.
High levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, runoff from urban areas, shrinking ground cover and pollution from mercury and bacteria were putting the 1.2 million miles of streams and rivers surveyed under stress, the EPA said.
"This new science shows that America's streams and rivers are under significant pressure," Nancy Stone, acting administrator of the EPA's Office of Water, said in a statement.
Twenty-one percent of the United States' river and stream length was in good biological condition, down from 27 percent in 2004, according to the survey, carried out in 2008 and 2009 at almost 2,000 sites.
Twenty-three percent was in fair condition and 55 percent was in poor condition, the survey showed. The finding uses an index that combines measures for aquatic life, such as crayfish and water insects.
Of the three major climatic regions surveyed - eastern highlands, plains and lowlands, and the west - the west was in the best shape, with 42 percent of stream and river length in good condition.
In the eastern highlands and the plains and lowlands, 17 percent and 16 percent of waterway length respectively was in good condition.
By far the most widespread stress factor was phosphorus and nitrogen, which are used in fertilizer. Forty percent of river and stream length had high levels of phosphorus and 28 percent had high levels of nitrogen, the report said.
Risk levels of mercury in fish tissue were exceeded in 13,144 miles of rivers. Streams were not surveyed. In 9 percent of river and stream length, samples for enterococci bacteria topped levels for protecting human health.
Federal, state and tribal researchers carried out the survey at sites ranging from the Mississippi River to mountain streams.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
New centers will lead to enhanced geriatric social work trainingPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Todd Kluss 202-587-2839 The Gerontological Society of America
The Hartford/GSA National Center on Gerontological Social Work Excellence has chosen the Boston College and the University of Michigan as the locations of the first two Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work.
The National Center was established through a three-year, $1.35 million grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation to The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) in February 2013. GSA Fellow Barbara Berkman, DSW, PhD, chairs its National Advisory Board.
"Being identified as a Hartford Geriatric Social Work Center commits that university to exemplary leadership in training future generations of geriatric social work practitioners and faculty, as well as to leadership in the translation of new knowledge into policy and practice," Berkman said. "This association provides a recognizable brand that empowers these universities to serve as models that will motivate other universities to meet the standards required of being an identified center."
The Hartford Center at Boston College will be led by GSA Fellow James Lubben, DSW, MPH, who also directs the University Institute on Aging there. GSA Fellow Ruth Dunkle, PhD, MSW, will lead the Hartford Center at the University of Michigan, where she serves as the associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at the School of Social Work. Three additional centers will be selected by the end of 2013.
"We are pleased and excited to be selected as one of the initial Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work," said Laura Lein, PhD, dean of the University of Michigan School of Social Work. "This initiative will allow us to build on our past relationship with the Hartford Foundation and GSA, extend our partnerships and collaborations with organizations serving older adults in our geographic region, and develop new training models for social work intervention. We look forward to working with our partner organizations in the field who are providing and extending services to older adults."
Each center is expected to provide leadership for social work educators; build bridges to local health professionals, such as those employed by Area Agencies on Aging; form regional consortia of social work field agencies serving older adults and their families, designed to address gaps in education and training on aging among these local agencies; engage in inter-professional collaborations with other departments of the university, with other professional groups within the region, and with Hartford Centers of Excellence in medicine and nursing; providing mentoring to Hartford-funded researchers based at the U.S. Veterans Administration; create and evaluate training models that translate new knowledge into practice and policy; and seek additional support to sustain the Social Work Centers.
"Being named a Hartford Academic Center of Excellence demonstrates our continued commitment to social work with older adults and their families," said Alberto Godenzi, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College. "The Hartford Center at Boston College will provide new opportunities for the Graduate School of Social Work to share our expertise and engage the practice community."
The grant that established the National Center was designed to build upon the successes of the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative (HGSWI), which has been coordinated by GSA since 1999 and has supported over 200 doctoral fellows and faculty scholars who are helping to build a workforce of social workers trained and educated in geriatrics.
In addition to founding the five Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work, the National Center will collaborate with the VA to develop social work research leaders to help advance evidence-based knowledge related to VA practice in aging; mobilize of the current HGSWI Alumni Network by using their expertise to impact practice and policy; and seek funding from a variety of sources to support and expand its objectives and functions, as well as ensure its sustainability.
###
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society and its 5,400+ members is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA's structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational branch, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.
Founded in 1929, The John A. Hartford Foundation is a committed champion of health care training, research and service system innovations that will ensure the well-being and vitality of older adults. Its mission is to improve the health of older Americans. Today, the Foundation is America's leading philanthropy with a sustained interest in aging and health. Through its grantmaking, The John A. Hartford Foundation seeks specifically to enhance and expand the training of doctors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals who care for elders; and promote innovations in the integration and delivery of services for all older people.
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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.
New centers will lead to enhanced geriatric social work trainingPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Todd Kluss 202-587-2839 The Gerontological Society of America
The Hartford/GSA National Center on Gerontological Social Work Excellence has chosen the Boston College and the University of Michigan as the locations of the first two Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work.
The National Center was established through a three-year, $1.35 million grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation to The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) in February 2013. GSA Fellow Barbara Berkman, DSW, PhD, chairs its National Advisory Board.
"Being identified as a Hartford Geriatric Social Work Center commits that university to exemplary leadership in training future generations of geriatric social work practitioners and faculty, as well as to leadership in the translation of new knowledge into policy and practice," Berkman said. "This association provides a recognizable brand that empowers these universities to serve as models that will motivate other universities to meet the standards required of being an identified center."
The Hartford Center at Boston College will be led by GSA Fellow James Lubben, DSW, MPH, who also directs the University Institute on Aging there. GSA Fellow Ruth Dunkle, PhD, MSW, will lead the Hartford Center at the University of Michigan, where she serves as the associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at the School of Social Work. Three additional centers will be selected by the end of 2013.
"We are pleased and excited to be selected as one of the initial Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work," said Laura Lein, PhD, dean of the University of Michigan School of Social Work. "This initiative will allow us to build on our past relationship with the Hartford Foundation and GSA, extend our partnerships and collaborations with organizations serving older adults in our geographic region, and develop new training models for social work intervention. We look forward to working with our partner organizations in the field who are providing and extending services to older adults."
Each center is expected to provide leadership for social work educators; build bridges to local health professionals, such as those employed by Area Agencies on Aging; form regional consortia of social work field agencies serving older adults and their families, designed to address gaps in education and training on aging among these local agencies; engage in inter-professional collaborations with other departments of the university, with other professional groups within the region, and with Hartford Centers of Excellence in medicine and nursing; providing mentoring to Hartford-funded researchers based at the U.S. Veterans Administration; create and evaluate training models that translate new knowledge into practice and policy; and seek additional support to sustain the Social Work Centers.
"Being named a Hartford Academic Center of Excellence demonstrates our continued commitment to social work with older adults and their families," said Alberto Godenzi, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College. "The Hartford Center at Boston College will provide new opportunities for the Graduate School of Social Work to share our expertise and engage the practice community."
The grant that established the National Center was designed to build upon the successes of the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative (HGSWI), which has been coordinated by GSA since 1999 and has supported over 200 doctoral fellows and faculty scholars who are helping to build a workforce of social workers trained and educated in geriatrics.
In addition to founding the five Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work, the National Center will collaborate with the VA to develop social work research leaders to help advance evidence-based knowledge related to VA practice in aging; mobilize of the current HGSWI Alumni Network by using their expertise to impact practice and policy; and seek funding from a variety of sources to support and expand its objectives and functions, as well as ensure its sustainability.
###
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society and its 5,400+ members is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA's structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational branch, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.
Founded in 1929, The John A. Hartford Foundation is a committed champion of health care training, research and service system innovations that will ensure the well-being and vitality of older adults. Its mission is to improve the health of older Americans. Today, the Foundation is America's leading philanthropy with a sustained interest in aging and health. Through its grantmaking, The John A. Hartford Foundation seeks specifically to enhance and expand the training of doctors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals who care for elders; and promote innovations in the integration and delivery of services for all older people.
[ | 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.
Mar. 25, 2013 ? Researchers have identified areas off southern California with high numbers of whales and assessed their risk from potentially deadly collisions with commercial ship traffic in a study released today in the scientific journal Conservation Biology.
Scientists from NOAA Fisheries, the Marine Mammal Commission and Cascadia Research Collective analyzed data collected over seven years by NOAA on marine mammal and ecosystem research surveys in the Southern California Bight. Maps predicting the density of endangered humpback, fin and blue whales were developed by merging the observed whale sightings with oceanographic conditions to identify the habitat preferred by the different whale species.
"We know several endangered species of whales occur in the waters off southern California," said Jessica Redfern, a NOAA Fisheries marine mammal biologist and lead author of the paper. "What we didn't know, and what this study helps provide, is an understanding of the areas with the highest numbers of whales."
Knowing where whales are more likely to be found in the ocean environment is vitally important to reduce human impacts. Although this information could be used to assess any number of human impacts, the study specifically looked at current and alternative shipping routes to and from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the risk to humpback, fin and blue whales from ship strikes.
Researchers selected four routes to study; the shipping route in the Santa Barbara Channel, which is the current shipping route; a Central route south of the northern Channel Islands; a Central Fan route, or just the eastern part of the Central route; and a Southern route, a course south of the Central route and constrained by the protected areas around Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, and San Nicolas Islands.
By overlaying the routes with the predicted whale densities, researchers found the route with the lowest risk for humpback whales (Southern route) had the highest risk for fin whales and vice versa. However, risk may be ameliorated for both species in one of the Central routes. Blue whales, however, were at approximately equal risk in all routes considered because of their more even distribution throughout the study area. The authors' estimate of the number of blue whales likely killed by ships exceeds levels established by the Marine Mammal Protection Act to ensure sustainable populations. This result suggests that it is important to find ways to reduce the risk of ships striking blue whales.
"The Southern California Bight is an incredibly complex system with a diverse set of users, including the military, shipping industry and fishing industry. All users have specific needs and their input is necessary to plan the best and safest uses of these waters," said Redfern, "This paper helps to incorporate whale habitat use in the planning process so that their needs can be considered as well."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
J. V. Redfern, M. F. Mckenna, T. J. Moore, J. Calambokidis, M. L. Deangelis, E. A. Becker, J. Barlow, K. A. Forney, P. C. Fiedler, S. J. Chivers. Assessing the Risk of Ships Striking Large Whales in Marine Spatial Planning. Conservation Biology, 2013; 27 (2): 292 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12029
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.
As long as you are open to it, there are always new opportunities for personal growth and improvement. If you want to grow and be a better person, start with learning and applying that knowledge to your life as often as possible.
Most employers don?t care about your school or college, they care about the degree you earned and if you can complete the work. There are only very few exceptions to this rule, such as working with a large financial institution. However, the important thing is to get a good education and increase your opportunities.
Make sure the goals you set for yourself are small and manageable so you can easily achieve them and develop the lifestyle that will make you happy. If you find what your weaknesses are, you can work to eliminate them and become a better person.
Make it a habit to constantly ask yourself what?s important in your life and whether you are still focused on it. Your life will be more peaceful, satisfying, and happy if you can stop obsessing over negative or meaningless things and concentrate your energy on what you really care about.
Do not go shopping for comfort. Instead of spending money, find a hobby. Doing something more productive will help keep money in your pocket and help your stress level.
Try not to take yourself too seriously. Everyone is a part of the world?s puzzle. Every individual can gain valuable insight from those around him, especially when acknowledging that no one person has all the answers. You?ll be open to more opportunities if you know this. Keeping an open mind will create a vacuum through which new ideas and information can flow.
A positive attitude will do wonders for your personal growth. Being a pessimistic sourpuss will hinder your efforts to get ahead and could even make your situation worse. Instead, stay positive and tell yourself that having a good attitude will help you achieve your goals.
Think of the gap between your current situation and your wishes as something you have to conquer. This can help you get where you plan to be. By living in denial of these facts, you will sabotage your efforts of reaching your true potential.
Becoming healthier will help immensely during personal development. It?s a well-known fact that a healthy body is a happy body. A healthy body also means that your mind will be sharper, and you may not have to spend as much money on heath care. Make a concerted effort to adopt healthy practices.
Maintaining benevolent wishes for others can lead to an increase in the good things you bring into your own life. Wish others well in life so you feel positive empowerment. If you keep your thoughts and feelings positive, you will find yourself less affected by negative emotions.
Organization should be central in your life. The process of cleaning up and organizing provides a massive boost to your self-esteem. Furthermore, you will feel accomplished after you finish this undertaking. Your stress level will also diminish as your life becomes more orderly. Having everything in its own place instills a calming energy.
These tips will give you a head-start on learning how to improve your self improvement. Personal development is a lifelong endeavor, so always be open to new self-betterment strategies.
I love road trips. Just saying or writing the words sends shivers of excitement down my spine. If you think I'm crazy, it's probably because you grew up in a country where road trips are taken for granted, and the number of places you can drive to and go to are endless. To me, road trips are fun and exciting no matter why I have to take them. Regardless of how you feel about them, it's always good to prepare before you embark on one. 
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Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
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