FILE - In this April 17, 2013 file photo, Washington Wizards center Jason Collins, right, battles for a rebound against Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago. Jason Collins has become the first male professional athlete in the major four American sports leagues to come out as gay. Collins wrote a first-person account posted Monday on Sports Illustrated's website. The 34-year-old Collins has played for six NBA teams in 12 seasons. He finished this past season with the Washington Wizards and is now a free agent. He says he wants to continue playing. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - In this April 17, 2013 file photo, Washington Wizards center Jason Collins, right, battles for a rebound against Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago. Jason Collins has become the first male professional athlete in the major four American sports leagues to come out as gay. Collins wrote a first-person account posted Monday on Sports Illustrated's website. The 34-year-old Collins has played for six NBA teams in 12 seasons. He finished this past season with the Washington Wizards and is now a free agent. He says he wants to continue playing. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2013 file photo, then-Boston Celtics center Jason Collins (98) guards Detroit Pistons center Greg Monroe, right, in the second half of an NBA basketball game in Auburn Hills, Mich. Jason Collins has become the first male professional athlete in the major four American sports leagues to come out as gay. Collins wrote a first-person account posted Monday on Sports Illustrated's website. The 34-year-old Collins has played for six NBA teams in 12 seasons. He finished this past season with the Washington Wizards and is now a free agent. He says he wants to continue playing. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson, File)
Foto de Jason Collins del 28 de septiembre del 2012, cuando todav?a militaba con los Celtics de Boston. Collins revel? que es gay. Es el primer deportista activo de uno de los cuatro deportes m?s populares de Estados Unidos que confirma que es homosexual.(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The White House is commending NBA veteran Jason Collins for becoming the first active male player in the four major American professional sports to come out as gay.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called that decision courageous and says the White House supports Collins. He says he hopes the 34-year-old center's NBA colleagues will also offer support.
"We view that as another example of the progress that has been made and the evolution that has been taking place in this country," Carney said.
Obama announced his support for gay marriage during his re-election campaign last year. Organizing for Action, a grassroots group run by Obama loyalists that grew out of his 2012 re-election campaign, expressed support as well, writing to Collins on Twitter on Monday that the group's supporters "stand with you today."
Collins announced he is gay Monday in a first-person account posted on Sports Illustrated's website. He has played for six teams in 12 seasons, including this past season with the Washington Wizards. He is now a free agent.
Former President Bill Clinton also voiced encouragement for Collins, releasing a statement that asks fans, NBA colleagues and the media to support and respect him. Clinton said he has known Collins since he attended Stanford University with his daughter Chelsea.
Clinton said Collins' announcement Monday is an "important moment" for professional sports and the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Collins is "a good man who wants no more than what so many of us seek ? to be able to be who we are, to do our work, to build families and to contribute to our communities," Clinton said. "For so many members of the LGBT community, these simple goals remain elusive."
Chelsea Clinton also tweeted her support for Collins Monday, saying she was proud of her friend for having the strength and courage to be the first openly gay player in the NBA.
Chad Griffin, the president of Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, said Collins has "forever changed the face of sports."
"No longer will prejudice and fear force gay athletes to remain silent about a fundamental part of their lives," Griffin said.
The NBA player also received support from Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., his college roommate. Kennedy tweeted Monday that "I've always been proud to call (Collins) a friend, and I'm even prouder to stand with him today."
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Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
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Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick
Scientists have long observed that species seem to have become increasingly capable of evolving in response to changes in the environment. But computer science researchers now say that the popular explanation of competition to survive in nature may not actually be necessary for evolvability to increase.
In a paper published this week in PLOS ONE, the researchers report that evolvability can increase over generations regardless of whether species are competing for food, habitat or other factors.
Using a simulated model they designed to mimic how organisms evolve, the researchers saw increasing evolvability even without competitive pressure.
"The explanation is that evolvable organisms separate themselves naturally from less evolvable organisms over time simply by becoming increasingly diverse," said Kenneth O. Stanley, an associate professor at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. He co-wrote the paper about the study along with lead author Joel Lehman, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.
The finding could have implications for the origins of evolvability in many species.
"When new species appear in the future, they are most likely descendants of those that were evolvable in the past," Lehman said. "The result is that evolvable species accumulate over time even without selective pressure."
During the simulations, the team's simulated organisms became more evolvable without any pressure from other organisms out-competing them. The simulations were based on a conceptual algorithm.
"The algorithms used for the simulations are abstractly based on how organisms are evolved, but not on any particular real-life organism," explained Lehman.
The team's hypothesis is unique and is in contrast to most popular theories for why evolvability increases.
"An important implication of this result is that traditional selective and adaptive explanations for phenomena such as increasing evolvability deserve more scrutiny and may turn out unnecessary in some cases," Stanley said.
Stanley is an associate professor at UCF. He has a bachelor's of science in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He has over 70 publications in competitive venues and has secured grants worth more than $1 million. His works in artificial intelligence and evolutionary computation have been cited more than 4,000 times.
Lehman has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in computer science from UCF. He continues his research at the University of Texas at Austin and is teaching an undergraduate course in artificial intelligence.
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University of Central Florida: http://www.ucf.edu
Thanks to University of Central Florida for this article.
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BAGHDAD (AP) ? Five car bombs struck in predominantly Shiite cities and districts in central and southern Iraq on Monday, killing 36 people and wounding dozens in the latest wave of violence roiling the country, Iraqi officials said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for Monday's blasts but coordinated bombings in civilian areas are a favorite strategy used by al-Qaida in Iraq.
Since last Tuesday and including the latest deaths, at least 218 people have been killed in attacks and battles between gunmen and security forces that began with clashes at a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq.
The deadliest attack on Monday was in the southern city of Amarah, where two parked car bombs went off simultaneously in the early morning near a gathering of construction workers and a market, killing 18 people and wounding 42, the police said.
That attack was followed by another parked car bomb explosion near a restaurant in the city of Diwaniyah, which killed nine people and wounded 23. At least three cars were left charred and twisted from the blast outside a two-story building whose facade was damaged in the bombing. Shop owners and cleaners were brushing debris off the bloodstained pavement.
Amarah, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad and Diwaniyah, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, are heavily Shiite and usually peaceful.
Hours later, yet another car bomb went off in the Shiite city of Karbala, killing three civilians and wounding 14, police said. Two early Islamic figures revered by Shiites are buried in the city, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad.
And in the otherwise predominantly Sunni town of Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Baghdad, a car bomb ripped through a Shiite neighborhood killing six people and wounding 14, another police said.
Ibrahim Ali, a schoolteacher in Mahmoudiya, said he was with his students in the classroom when he heard a thunderous explosion.
"We asked the students to remain inside the classrooms because we were concerned with their safety," Ali said. "The students were panicking and some of them started to cry," added Ali. He described burnt bodies and cars on fire at the nearby blast site.
The school was closed for the rest of the day and frightened students were told to go home. "We have been expecting this violence against Shiites due to the rising sectarian tension in the country," added Ali, the schoolteacher.
Four medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Sectarian violence has spiked since Tuesday, when security forces tried to make arrests at a Sunni Muslim protest camp in the northern city of Hawija. The move set off a clash that killed 23 people, including three soldiers.
In a sign of mounting worries over the deteriorating security situation, Iraqi authorities on Monday decided to close the country's only border crossing with Jordan, beginning on Tuesday. A brief Interior Ministry statement didn't elaborate on the decision, saying only it is "related to the country's domestic affairs."
Iraq shut the same border crossing in January, not long after anti-government protests erupted, citing unspecified security concerns. The route from Jordan passes through the overwhelmingly Sunni cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, which have been hotbeds of Sunni anger at the government. A protest camp straddling the Jordan-Iraq highway in Ramadi is the center of the protest movement.
On Sunday, the government suspended the operating licenses of pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera and nine Iraqi TV channels after accusing them of escalating sectarian tensions in Iraq.
That move drew a strong criticism from some of the news outlets and a sharp rebuke from Human Rights Watch. Qatar-based Al-Jazeera said it was "astonished" by the move.
Apart from Al-Jazeera, the decision affected eight Sunni channels and a Shiite one. Al-Jazeera was founded with support from the tiny, energy-rich nation of Qatar, which is a leading backer of rebels fighting in neighboring Syria and is accused by many supporters of the Iraqi government of backing protests in Iraq too.
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Associated Press writers Adam Schreck and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.
ROME (AP) ? Italy's interior minister says the shooting that seriously wounded two policemen in a square outside the premier's office in Rome was a "tragic criminal gesture by an unemployed man."
A female passer-by was slightly injured in the shooting, which happened just as Premier Enrico Letta and his new government were being sworn in Sunday elsewhere in the city.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told reporters the alleged gunman ? Luigi Preiti, a 49-year-old Italian ? wanted to kill himself after the shooting but ran out of bullets. The minister says Preiti fired six shots.
Anyone who wishes to become a tattoo artist must need to prepare and become aware of everything that goes along with it. You may think that putting a tattoo on someone is just easy but it is really very complicated. It is more complicated than depositing ink onto the skin. That is why it is a challenge to open up a tattoo shop and working for a tattoo shop. Getting into this kind of business requires anyone to become more oriented on what it is all about.
Mastering the act of tattooing takes time to master. Aside from that you must be aware of where to find a tattoo supply vendor that can be trusted. It is not only the trust that matters, an affordable prices that meets your budget is also necessary. Therefore if you really go for this type of business you must know the basic supplies that you need in order to become familiar with them. It is just easy to find them, all you need is to locate a tattoo supply vendor where you can buy tattoo starter kits in additional to the basic things you need like tattooing inks. Now that you found already a tattoo supply vendor, narrow down the supplies you need and decide to order those in bulk then start a shop right away.
There are many tattoo shop online that sell whole tattooing kits. You may check around and search for different resources online that will give you good reviews. Be careful in choosing and select the one that gives you the desires that you have.
The owner of a tattoo shop knows very well the importance of having the right tattoo supplies he need to stock so customers will keep coming back and visit his shop. Or else, if customers does not see enough stocks they need they would no longer be interested to visit the shop again. This is the reason that other businesses are falling and was not able to succeed because they dont have enough supplies.
Those people that succeeded in business and gain a lot of customers owned the good tattoo supplies. As they started their small tattoo business they purchase the most efficient equipment. This thing is really very crucial. The materials are bought from any retail stores that promote tattoo materials and equipment. The fact is anyone who just started a business find starting new equipment very critical.
A lot of businesses people today are after of getting the right tattoo kits as these kits help operate the enterprise effectively. These tattoo kits also made the buyers coming back. Tattoos are considered permanent. In fact, people who wish to own tattoo kits are searching on the Internet. The tattoo supplies price differs from brand to brand with good quality. It is advisable to buy these tattoo kits in bulk since buying by piece would just result to running out of supplies. The kits even though it is expensive but when it is ordered in bulk, you can purchase them at a very affordable cost.
There are many tattoo shop online that sell whole tattooing kits. You may check around and search for different resources online that will give you good reviews. Be careful in choosing and select the one that gives you the desires that you have. Just visit http://buytattoosupplies.com to assist you.
I just started juicing two days ago and i feel great My? memory came back
?is BANANAS? GOOD i use cellulary brac etc..
hi a dont have a juicer machine cant i use a blender and add water ?
Great queston! Fennel bulb, parsley, mint leaves are my favorite main ingredients? for this problem.
I drink once or? twice per day ; )
how any? time a day you have to drink this I need it to clean my blood
Excuse me but I really need one juice recepie for my stomach I?ve been really bloated and gasie lately hope you could help id appreciate? it very much thank you
My rule of thumb is if I can?t? eat it raw, then I don?t juice it. Rhubarb should not be eaten raw. Thanks for great question!!
Why peel the carrots if you are juicing them? I? don?t know about you but nobody ain?t got time for that.
How do you know what is safe to put in? the juicer and what is not? I know not to put seeds and pits in there because they are toxic ? are there any other fruit/veggie parts you can?t use? Thanks!!!
Doctors cant make money off of Raw Juice and Herbs! They have to sell there Pills to make millions and keep big? Pharma happy! Its all BS!!
Cool but dry area! The crisper in your fridge is where? that is!
thanks? for the recipe can?t wait to try it bless
the juice? is good though. Thanks
water mellon rhine? really?
That makes sense! Now I know how to address the questions, well first of all I really want to commend you on making the decision to start buying vegetables, good job!! When I buy my vegetables I usually store them in the refrigerator, to keep them longer. I even put my fruits such as oranges, watermelon, apples, etc, to keep them longer. Plus I really like my? produce chilled, If you want them to keep for 2 weeks, I would definitely refrigerate them. Good question!!
Well I suppose it?s more of a general question. See I pretty much never bought vegetables before, so I have no idea whether one stores them outside of a fridge, in an area of room-temperature like with bananas, or would keep them cool? in a refrigerator. I bought them from an organic food store, planning to keep them for around 2 weeks.
Sorry I did not list recipe: 1 large beet, with stems & leafs, 5 peeled carrots,? 3-4 small watermelon rinds, and a bunch of Italian parsley (handful).
What a completely worthless video. You dont tell people? the recipe.
Well, I don?t really know what you mean by better? If you grow them and when ready to eat or drink them that would be preferable, fresh! But depends in climate? where you live, if too cold or hot, in order to store them would be depending that, and how long you plan to keep them? so I really don?t know what your question is?
Is it better to store the beets in? a fridge or outside?
the exact same recipe was just laid out for you on this very video ; ) I just made one? very similar to this. Love putting the beets in! Love that red colour
For a Video compilation of a number of different alternative cancer cures. Go to hub page.com and read the? article called?? Could We Already Have ?THE Cure for Cancer??
Thanks? for sharing ; )
This juice for liver detox looks very interesting. First time I heard of using watermelon rind. The best juicer,? however, is the Norwalk juicer. The alternating current of centrifugal juicer have a negative effect on the health giving, live nutrients given by fruits and vegetables according to Charlotte Gerson?s book. Thanks for sharing.
omg I was? salivating! I would like the exact recipe please!
omg I was salivating! I would like the exact recipe? please!
omg I was salivating! I would like the? exact recipe please!
MUSCAT (Reuters) - An Iranian scientist held for more than a year in California on charges of violating U.S. sanctions arrived in Muscat on Friday, after being freed in what the Omani foreign ministry said was a humanitarian gesture.
Mojtaba Atarodi, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Sharif University of Technology, had been detained for allegedly buying high-tech U.S. laboratory equipment, previous Iranian media reports said.
The U.S. sanctions are linked to Tehran's disputed nuclear program, which it says is for peaceful purposes only but Washington says is aimed at manufacturing a nuclear weapon.
Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said Atarodi would return home on Saturday.
Oman, a U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state which enjoys good relations with Tehran, has previously helped mediate the release of Western prisoners held by the Islamic republic.
Authorities in the Sultanate had worked with U.S. officials to speed up Atarodi's case and return him home, the Omani foreign ministry said in a statement carried by local media. It said Oman would provide medical attention for Atarodi until his return to Iran, giving no further details.
He had been released after follow-ups by Iran's foreign ministry, that ministry's spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).
In a report on its website dated January 7, 2012, Iran's Press TV said Atarodi was taken into custody on his arrival in Los Angeles on December 7, 2011, accused of buying advanced lab equipment. It said he had been reportedly held at a detention centre about 35 miles southeast of San Francisco.
Iran and the United States severed relations after the overthrow of Iran's pro-Western monarchy in 1979.
Iran freed two U.S. citizens who had been sentenced to eight years in jail for spying into Omani custody in September 2011.
Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were among three people arrested while hiking along the Iraq-Iran border in 2009 were flown to Oman after officials there helped secure their release by posting bail of $1 million. They denied being spies.
The third, Sarah Shourd, has been freed in September 2010, also by way of Oman.
(Reporting by Saleh al-Shaybani and Sami Aboudi; additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich; Editing by John Stonestreet)
ZTE has managed to break a run of two straight quarterly losses by posting a net profit of $33 million in its first 2013 financials. Unfortunately, the extra cash has come from selling a $133 million stake in surveillance firm Shenzhen ZNV, rather than any surge in handset popularity. A three percent fall in sales, project holdups, and squeezed margins have all helped to heap woes onto ZTE's plate -- not to mention the ongoing hostility from the folks in Congress.
In a new study in the April 2008 print issue of The FASEB Journal (Harvard researchers describe the development of gene probe eye drops published ? for the first time ? make it possible to monitor and detect tissue repair in the brain of living organisms using MRI. Current methods involve a risky, invasive, and relatively slow process of penetrating the skull tissue samples tissue samples and then examining these samples in a laboratory.. Reference: Gao R, Brigstock D. Connective tissue attenuates growth factor hammerhead ribozyme human hepatic stellate cells, cell function.MRI images by genes in action in the living brain of Harvard researcher PublishedBiologists have just confirmed what poets known for centuries: eyes really are windows of the soul ? or at least of the brain.
Source:.. ?When people are ill, the last thing you want to do, puncture their skulls for a biopsy,?said Gerald Weissmann, Editor ? in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, ? occasionally it is inevitable These probes of genes in action go a long way toward an age of identifying where extracting brain tissue, a disease is as crude as when doctors measured skulls to be to diagnose a mental illness ?-##. #. The FASEB Journal and is consistently among the top three biology journals worldwide by the Institute for Scientific Information ranks FASEB comprises 21 nonprofit societies with more than 80,000 members and making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States FASEB advances biological science through shared advocacy for research policies that promote scientific progress and education and to improvements in human health.People does best in metastatic rectal trial version.
The recent results investigational product Bayer HealthCare is regorafenib treats from the international, multicenter, randomized, double ? blind, placebo ? Phase III controlled CORRECT trial were announced by Bayer HealthCare.
The study, conducted in North America, Australia, Japan and Chinese written 760 persons with metastatic colorectal cancer whose disorder during or within 3 months of following the last administration to the approved standard therapies, as oxaliplatinum has proceeded bevacizumab and cetuximab, irinotecan is fluropyrimidine pantiumumab pantiumumab.
Apr. 24, 2013 ? The production of a certain kind of brain cell that had been considered an impediment to healing may actually be needed to staunch bleeding and promote repair after a stroke or head trauma, researchers at Duke Medicine report.
These cells, known as astrocytes, can be produced from stem cells in the brain after injury. They migrate to the site of damage where they are much more effective in promoting recovery than previously thought. This insight from studies in mice, reported online April 24, 2013, in the journal Nature, may help researchers develop treatments that foster brain repair.
"The injury recovery process is complex," said senior author Chay T. Kuo, M.D., PhD, George W. Brumley Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Pediatrics and Neurobiology at Duke University. "There is a lot of interest in how new neurons can stimulate functional recovery, but if you make neurons without stopping the bleeding, the neurons don't even get a chance. The brain somehow knows this, so we believe that's why it produces these unique astrocytes in response to injury."
Each year, more than 1.7 million people in the United States suffer a traumatic brain injury, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 795,000 people a year suffer a stroke. Few therapies are available to treat the damage that often results from such injuries.
Kuo and colleagues at Duke are interested in replacing lost neurons after a brain injury as a way to restore function. Once damaged, mature neurons cannot multiply, so most research efforts have focused on inducing brain stem cells to produce more immature neurons to replace them.
This strategy has proved difficult, because in addition to making neurons, neural stem cells also produce astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, known as glial cells. Although glial cells are important for maintaining the normal function of neurons in the brain, the increased production of astrocytes from neural stem cell has been considered an unwanted byproduct, causing more harm than good. Proliferating astrocytes secrete proteins that can induce tissue inflammation and undergo gene mutations that can lead to aggressive brain tumors.
In their study of mice, the Duke team found an unexpected insight about the astrocytes produced from stem cells after injury. Stem cells live in a special area or "niche" in the postnatal/adult brain called the subventricular zone, and churn out neurons and glia in the right proportions based on cues from the surrounding tissue.
After an injury, however, the subventricular niche pumps out more astrocytes. Significantly, the Duke team found they are different from astrocytes produced in most other regions of the brain. These cells make their way to the injured area to help make an organized scar, which stops the bleeding and allows tissue recovery.
When the generation of these astrocytes in the subventricular niche was experimentally blocked after a brain injury, hemorrhaging occurred around the injured areas and the region did not heal. Kuo said the finding was made possible by insights about astrocytes from Cagla Eroglu, PhD, whose laboratory next door to Kuo's conducts research on astrocyte interactions with neurons.
"Cagla and I started at Duke together and have known each other since our postdoctoral days," Kuo said. "To have these stem cell-made astrocytes express a unique protein that Cagla understands more than anyone else, it's just a wonderful example of scientific serendipity and collaboration."
Additionally, Kuo said first author Eric J. Benner, M.D., PhD, a former postdoctoral fellow who now has his own laboratory at Duke, provided key clinical correlations on brain injury as a physician-scientist and practicing neonatologist in the Jean and George Brumley Jr. Neonatal-Perinatal Research Institute.
"We are very excited about this innate flexibility in neural stem cell behavior to know just what to do to help the brain after injury," Kuo said. "Since bleeding in the brain after injury is a common and serious problem for patients, further research into this area may lead to effective therapies for accelerated brain recovery after injury."
In addition to Kuo, Eroglu and Benner, authors include Dominic Luciano, Rebecca Jo, Khadar Abdi, Patricia Paez-Gonzalez, Huaxin Sheng, David Warner and Chunlei Liu.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University Medical Center.
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Journal Reference:
Eric J. Benner, Dominic Luciano, Rebecca Jo, Khadar Abdi, Patricia Paez-Gonzalez, Huaxin Sheng, David S. Warner, Chunlei Liu, Cagla Eroglu, Chay T. Kuo. Protective astrogenesis from the SVZ niche after injury is controlled by Notch modulator Thbs4. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12069
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.
Sri Lanka is an amazing country full of exciting new sights, sounds and experiences. A private tour of Sri Lanka will give you the opportunity to enjoy the pristine natural scenery and soak up the uniquely exotic culture. Sri Lanka is endowed with a rich history, a diverse variety of plant and animal life and an extremely friendly people. Sri Lanka has become one of the hottest destinations in recent years for tours and travels in Asia and probably the world.
When planning for an extended tour of Sri Lanka or a combination of short Sri Lanka tours try to include Colombo, the West or East Coast, the Cultural Triangle, the Central Mountains and a national park.
Colombo, the commercial capital of Sri Lanka is a fine blend of East and West. Due to its strategic location in the East-West ocean trade routes, Colombo has been an important trading port for more than 2000 years. You can find a variety of attractions in and around Colombo such as Fort Clock Tower, Dutch Period Museum, Pettah area, Independence Hall, Dehiwala Zoo and the Mt Lavinia Beach. The Old Fort area is a major landmark of the city and definitely worth a visit.
Being an island in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka boasts of some amazing beaches. The West coast stretchers form Kalpitiya to Galle.
The Kalpitiya peninsula has some un-spoilt beaches and a good place for whale and dolphin watching. Close to the Katunayake airport is Negombo a famous fishing village and plenty of seafood restaurants. South of Colombo is the legendary suburban resort of Mt. Lavinia followed by Kalutara, Bentota and Beruwela, places frequented by water sports enthusiasts. Hikkaduwa is famous for its coral reef, wreck diving, seafood restaurants and parties. The historic city of Galle boasts of the famous Galle Fort, a World Heritage Site.
The East coast lays claim to some of the finest beaches in Sri Lanka. Some these beaches are located at Uppuveli, Nilaveli. Passekudah and Kalkudah. Arugam Bay is one of the best surf spots in the world.
No tour of Sri Lanka is complete without visiting the Cultural Triangle in the center of the island. The area consists of the World Heritage sites of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Dambulla and Kandy.
Anuradhapura was the capital of Sri Lanka from the 4th century BC until the beginning of the 11th century AD. Anuradhapura contains Buddhist dagobas, monastic buildings, pokunas (bathing ponds) and some of the most complex irrigation systems in the ancient world. Polonnaruwa became the second capital of Sri Lanka after the destruction of Anuradhapura. This garden city was the mediaeval period capital from the 11 century AD till the 13th century. The Sigiriya Rock Fortress and Dambulla cave temples are other two important sites you should not miss.
The hill capital of Kandy is one of the most charming cities of Sri Lanka. This iconic city was the last capital of the Sri Lankan kings and has great appeal for the locals and visitors alike. The Dalada Maligawa houses the tooth relic of lord Buddha and is situated within the Royal Palace complex. Dont forget to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage.
Sri Lanka has loads of wildlife with many endemic plants, birds, amphibians and animals unique to the island. Visit the Sinharaja Forest reserve or go on a wildlife safari in the Uda Walawe or Yala National Park.
Dont delay! Start planning your next vacation with a tour to Sri Lanka. Get there before others discover this magical destination.
About the Author: Sri Lanka tours encompass the best of the enchanted island. Do not miss out on the natural attractions, historical monuments, adventure activities, wildlife safaris, colorful festivals, spicy cuisine and much more.
South Korea wants talks with North to reopen joint industrial zone
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Thursday it was proposing formal talks with North Korea to discuss restarting work at a joint factory zone located just north of the rivals' heavily armed border that was suspended in early April amid growing security tensions. The offer is the first formal proposal for direct talks by Seoul aimed at making a breakthrough in a deadlock over the Kaesong factory project, which was the last remaining channel open between the two Koreas until it was forced to close.
U.S. had more tips on Boston suspect; Congress asks questions
WASHINGTON/CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence was alerted when one of the Boston bombing suspects traveled to a volatile region of Russia last year, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, raising new questions about the government's handling of the case and how well law enforcement agencies share information and cooperate with one another. The trip by the suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, to southern Russia has come under scrutiny over whether he became involved with or was influenced by Chechen separatists or Islamic militants there, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Iraq on edge after raid fuels deadly Sunni unrest
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - More than 30 people were killed in gun battles between Iraqi forces and militants on Wednesday, a day after a raid on a Sunni Muslim protest ignited the fiercest clashes since American troops left the country. The second day of fighting threatens to deepen sectarian rifts in Iraq where relations between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims are still very tense just a few years after inter-communal slaughter pushed the country close to civil war.
Budget cuts back in spotlight as flight delays mount
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday backed a plan that would temporarily eliminate spending cuts disrupting U.S. air travel, while lawmakers in Washington scrambled to avoid blame as the impact of the reductions began being felt across the country. Airlines pushed for the government to act as flight delays increased and planes stacked up at airports, with one chief executive saying, "We can't do this for long."
In Myanmar, cheap SIM card draw may herald telecoms revolution
YANGON (Reuters) - Introduced a decade and a half ago under Myanmar's former military rulers, SIM cards sold for as much as $7,000 apiece. Today, they still cost more than $200. From Thursday, lucky winners of a lottery-style sale may get one for as little as $2. This is telecoms deregulation, Myanmar-style.
Train plot suspect rejects Canadian law, cites "holy book"
TORONTO (Reuters) - One of two men accused in an alleged al Qaeda-backed plan to derail a passenger train in Canada appeared in court on Wednesday and disputed the authority of Canadian law to judge him, saying the criminal code was not a holy book. Chiheb Esseghaier, a Tunisian-born doctoral student, faces charges that include conspiracy to murder and working with a terrorist group.
Analysis: Iran's unlikely al Qaeda ties: fluid, murky and deteriorating
LONDON (Reuters) - When al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri spoke in an audio message broadcast to supporters earlier this month, he had harsh words for Iran. Its true face, he said, had been unmasked by its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against fighters loyal to al Qaeda. Yet it is symptomatic of the peculiar relationship between Tehran and al Qaeda that in the same month Canadian police would accuse "al Qaeda elements in Iran" of backing a plot to derail a passenger train.
Venezuela's parliament launches probe into Capriles
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's government-controlled parliament set up an inquiry on Wednesday into violence over a disputed election that authorities blame on opposition leader Henrique Capriles. Nine people died and dozens were injured after opposition protests against Nicolas Maduro's narrow April 14 presidential poll win turned violent around the South American nation.
Egyptian judges accuse Mursi backers of attacking their independence
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian judges accused President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday of trying to clamp down on judicial independence by conducting a campaign ostensibly aimed at rooting out corruption. A rift between Egypt's Islamist rulers and the judiciary is steadily widening amid a broader struggle over the future character of the country following the 2011 uprising that overthrew autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.
Syrian army seizes strategic town near capital
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad seized a strategic town east of Damascus on Wednesday, breaking a critical weapons supply route for the rebels, activists and fighters said. Rebels have held several suburbs ringing the southern and eastern parts Damascus for months, but they have been struggling to maintain their positions against a ground offensive backed by fierce army shelling and air strikes in recent weeks.
North Korea: More Missiles. The North's military moved two launchers believed to be for Scud short range ballistic missiles to the east coast last week, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which cited a senior Seoul official.
?
"We have discovered the North has moved two additional TELs (transporter-erector-launchers) to the east coast ... after 16 April," the official was quoted as saying.
?
Comment: The report did not specify the location of the newly detected missiles, but the context suggests it is near the two intermediate range missiles between the cities of Wonsan and Hamhung on the east coast.
?
Media. On 20 April, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published a summary of a party daily "special article entitled, "There Will Be No DPRK-US Talks on Denuclearization."
?
"The U.S. is now talking about "dialogue" with the DPRK, putting up the latter's step for denuclearization as a precondition for dialogue."
?
"High-ranking U.S. officials let loose a spate of rhetoric that President Obama ordered to cancel some military drills, contributing to detente, the DPRK should be sincere in the efforts for realizing denuclearization and dialogue is possible only when it opts for denuclearization."
?
"Rodong Sinmun Saturday observed in a bylined article in this regard: This is nothing but rhetoric prompted by the U.S. crafty ploy to shift the blame for the tension on the Korean Peninsula on to the DPRK and put international pressure on it?."
?
"The U.S. should not think about the denuclearization on the peninsula before the world is denuclearized?"
?
"The DPRK's stand is clear."
?
"The U.S. should not think about the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula before the world is denuclearized. There may be talks between the DPRK and the U.S. for disarmament but no talks on denuclearization."
?
Comment: The position the Pyongyang government announced in March has not changed. The changed perspective continues in which the US is threatening a nuclear attack against North Korea. Presumably, that sets the groundwork for declaring victory when no attack occurs by the end of the month.?
?
No 1 Combat Duty. The text of the Rodong Sinmun article is much longer than the KCNA summary and was intended for the internal audience. It mentioned in passing that the US nuclear threat was the reason that the armed forces were placed at the highest alert condition. NightWatch added the emphasis.
?
"?.As long as the United States threatens us with nuclear weapons, our position is to repulse that with nuclear weapons. The fact that our army has entered a No 1 combat duty posture to strike the bases of the US imperialist forces of aggression in the Pacific operational theater, including the US mainland, with our style of powerful, precision nuclear strike means is a reflection of our intent not to tolerate any longer the nuclear threat the United States has made against us for the past several decades. The United States should understand that the era of threatening us with nuclear weapons is finished forever?."
?
Comment: This is the first reference to the No 1 combat duty posture since the order was announced on 26 March. The language of the text indicates that the order has not been rescinded. However, normality has crept all across the civilian sector.
?
The North's public statements beginning 18 April appear disjointed and confused. Clarifications required clarification and a one day standdown to clear the airwaves. Everything published has approval by one of the department of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. Thus, a signed article has some warrant of authority, but it is low in the propaganda hierarchy.
?
What makes this article noteworthy is KCNA republished its main points. The leadership liked it but wanted it crisper for the US audience.
?
Pakistan: Update. Former president Musharraf was remanded to house arrest at his villa near Islamabad on 20 April for two weeks until his next hearing. Musharraf is fighting prosecutions in the Islamabad High Court, the Anti-Terrorism Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan. On 22 April he faces a hearing on treason charges before the Supreme Court.
?
End ofNightWatch
###
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NightWatch is brought to readers of Townhall Finance by Kforce Government Solutions, Inc. (KGS), a leader in government problem-solving, Data Confidence? and intelligence. Views and opinions expressed in NightWatch are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of KGS, its management, or affiliates.
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.
It's a natural reaction to throw every due date you have into your calendar or task list, but podcaster and blogger David Sparks suggests you only use those due dates for tasks that absolutely need them.
Due dates are incredibly handy for big projects and small reminders, but they're not necessary for everything. When every item on your task list has a due date, you end up with tons of notifications and badges that don't mean anything. Sparks suggests never using using due dates unless a project will totally blow up if you don't get it done by that day. It's a simple trick, but it pulls your focus back to what needs to get done right now. Check out David Sparks video above for a few more tips on how he uses OmniFocus (or any productivity app) to keep things organized.
Apr. 22, 2013 ? A professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, N.Y., has put aside nearly a century and a half of conventional wisdom with the rediscovery of a species of giant Amazonian fish whose existence was first established in a rare 1829 monograph only to be lost to science some 40 years later.
Dr. Donald Stewart, a fisheries professor at ESF, found evidence in the monograph of a second species belonging to the genus Arapaima, air-breathing giants that live in shallow lakes, flooded forests and connecting channels in the Amazon River basin. For 145 years, biologists have thought that Arapaima consisted of a single species whose scientific name is A. gigas. But Stewart rediscovered a second species that he describes in the March issue of the journal Copeia, published by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.
"In a sense, this forgotten fish has been hiding in plain sight in this old monograph but that monograph is so rare that it now resides only in rare book collections of a few large museums," Stewart said. "I was truly surprised to discover drawings that revealed a fish very different from what we consider a typical Arapaima."
Part of the apparently rare fish's story remains a mystery, however, as scientists don't know if it still exists in the wild. "Scientists have had the impression that Arapaima is a single species for such a long time that they have been slow to collect new specimens. Their large size makes them difficult to manage in the field and expensive to store in a museum," Stewart said.
Arapaima can grow to three meters in length (about 10 feet) and weigh as much as 200 kilograms (440 pounds).
This different species was originally named A. agassizii in 1847 by a French biologist but a catalog published in 1868 considered it to be the same species as A. gigas. That second opinion was widely accepted and, since then, no scientist has questioned that view.
But Stewart has had doctoral students studying the conservation of Arapaima in both Brazil and Guyana. For those studies, it was important to be clear about the taxonomy of the fishes being studied in each country. In an effort to determine if they were really all one species, Stewart began to review taxonomic literature from the early 1800s, including the monograph that was published the year Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as the seventh president of the United States.
"What is remarkable is that this fish was not re-discovered swimming in the Amazon but, rather, on the pages of a rare monograph from 1829 that described its anatomy in great detail," Stewart said.
The fish described in the monograph had been collected in the Brazilian Amazon about 1819 and carried to Munich, Germany, as a dried skeleton. There the Swiss biologist Louis Agassiz, who was just beginning his career and later became a professor of zoology at Harvard University, supervised a technical illustrator in drawing the complete skeleton in great detail. At that time, however, he applied the name Sudis gigas to the drawings. That rare skeleton was in a museum in Germany until World War II, when it was destroyed by a bomb dropped on the museum. "To this day, we do not know the precise locality where the fish was collected because the German scientist who collected it died before indicating where he found it, and nobody has found a second specimen," Stewart said. "So, all that exists to know the status of A. agassizii is the original drawings of its bones."
Stewart said those drawings reveal numerous distinctive features that leave little doubt it should be considered a valid species. Those features include details related to the fish's teeth, eyes and fins.
The previously recognized Arapaima species is known by the common names "pirarucu" in Portuguese and "paiche" in Spanish. Because they rise to the surface to breathe every 5 to 15 minutes, they are easy to locate and fishermen harpoon them to sell their valuable meat or to feed their families. That combination of high value and vulnerability has led to widespread depletion of their populations and they are now listed as endangered.
The mystery surrounding the recently rediscovered fish's current status is not surprising, Stewart said, because there are still vast areas of Amazon basin where no specimens of Arapaima have been collected for study.
He expects the diversity of the genus to increase further with additional studies. Two more previously described species -- A. arapaima from Guyana and A. mapae from northeastern Brazil but outside the Amazon basin -- also should be recognized as valid. He is working on redescriptions of those species. He also has another paper due to be published soon that describes a new species of Arapaima from the central Amazon. That latter paper will bring the total number of Arapaima species to five. He anticipates that more species could be discovered as biologists working in South America begin to make new collections in unstudied areas.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Donald J. Stewart. Re-description of Arapaima agassizii (Valenciennes), a Rare Fish from Brazil (Osteoglossomorpha: Osteoglossidae). Copeia, March 2013, Vol. 2013, No. 1, pp. 38-51 [link]
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.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens to a question as he speaks to the media with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Syrian opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib after a "Friends of Syria" group meeting at the Adile Sultan Palace early Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey. The United States said Sunday that it will double its non-lethal assistance to Syria's opposition as the rebels' top supporters vowed to enhance and expand their backing of the two-year battle to oust President Bashar Assad's regime. (AP Photo)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens to a question as he speaks to the media with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Syrian opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib after a "Friends of Syria" group meeting at the Adile Sultan Palace early Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey. The United States said Sunday that it will double its non-lethal assistance to Syria's opposition as the rebels' top supporters vowed to enhance and expand their backing of the two-year battle to oust President Bashar Assad's regime. (AP Photo)
ISTANBUL (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is wrapping up a 24-hour visit to Istanbul with talks aimed at improving ties between Turkey and Israel and pushing ahead with Mideast peace efforts.
American officials say Kerry will use meetings Sunday with Turkey's foreign minister and the Palestinian president to urge the Turks to make good on pledges to normalize relations with Israel and explore ways to relaunch peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.
President Barack Obama has made both issues foreign policy priorities for his second term. During a trip to Israel in February, Obama secured pledges from Turkey and Israel to restore badly strained ties.
Earlier Sunday in Istanbul, Kerry announced that the Obama administration is doubling its non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition to $250 million.
Despite superbug crisis, progress in antibiotic development 'alarmingly elusive'Public release date: 18-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jerica Pitts jpitts@pcipr.com 312-558-1770 Infectious Diseases Society of America
Policy update: Time dwindling to meet IDSA goal of 10 new antibiotics by 2020
WASHINGTON, April 18, 2013 Despite the desperate need for new antibiotics to combat increasingly deadly resistant bacteria, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved only one new systemic antibiotic since the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) launched its 10 x '20 Initiative in 2010 and that drug was approved two and a half years ago.
In a new report, published online today in Clinical Infectious Diseases, IDSA identified only seven new drugs in development for the treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacilli (GNB) bacteria. GNB, which include the "nightmare bacteria" to which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alerted the public in its March 2013 Vital Signs report, represent the most pressing medical need. Importantly, there is no guarantee that any of the drugs currently in development to treat GNB will make it across the finish line to FDA approval and none of them will work against the most resistant bugs we're worried about today.
"In the past, the 10 x '20 goal would have been considered modest, but today the barriers to approval of nine additional antibiotics by 2020 seem insurmountable," said Henry Chambers, MD, chair of IDSA's Antimicrobial Resistance Committee (ARC). "Some progress has been made in the development of new antibiotics, but it's not nearly enough, and we absolutely must accelerate our efforts."
"We're losing ground because we are not developing new drugs in pace with superbugs' ability to develop resistance to them. We're on the precipice of returning to the dark days before antibiotics enabled safer surgery, chemotherapy and the care of premature infants. We're all at risk," said Helen W. Boucher, MD, lead author of the policy paper and a member of IDSA's Board of Directors and ARC.
Entitled "10 x '20 Progress: Development of New Drugs Active against Gram-negative Bacilli: An Update from the Infectious Diseases Society of America," the paper outlines actions that must be taken to address the synergistic crises of an anemic antibiotic pipeline coupled with an explosion in multi-drug resistant pathogens. A multi-pronged approach is needed, including new economic incentives to encourage antibiotic research and development (R&D); clarification of FDA's requirements for antibiotic approval; increased research funding; improved infection prevention; and new public health efforts including better data collection and surveillance of drug resistance and use of antibiotics. We also need to encourage "antibiotic stewardship," which includes measures that health care facilities, providers and even patients can take to preserve the life-saving power of antibiotics by limiting their inappropriate use.
IDSA leaders have been exploring with other stakeholders specific solutions to address the pipeline problem including the creation of a Limited Population Antibacterial Drug (LPAD) approval pathway to speed drugs to approval as well as new R&D tax credits and reimbursement models. Congressional Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives announced last month their intent to make fixing the antibiotic R&D pipeline a priority for the 113th Congress.
Ironically, at this urgent time of greatest need, the number of pharmaceutical companies investing in antibiotic R&D has plummeted. Pharmaceutical companies typically put R&D resources into the development of chronic disease drugs including those to treat high cholesterol, diabetes, and cancer which provide significant financial rewards, partly because they are intended to be taken for long periods of time. Antibiotics, which are intended to be taken for short courses, just can't compete. The results are playing out in real time, with the smaller pharmaceutical company Polymedix which has one of the seven drugs in development noted in the 10 x '20 paper filing for bankruptcy protection in early April 2013. Moreover, the policy update reports that only four large multinational companies remain in antibiotic R&D. One of these, AstraZeneca, which has two of the seven drugs in development, plans to reduce its future investments in antibiotics, its CEO, Pascal Soriot, recently announced. The current pipeline of antibiotics is fragile indeed, and the dwindling roster of antibiotic developers has dire consequences for public health, patient care and national security.
New antibiotics are critically necessary to save the lives of people such as Josh Nahum, a healthy 27-year-old man who died from an overwhelming Enterobacter aerogenes infection as he was recovering in the hospital after a skydiving accident. Although his doctors tried desperately to save Josh, they ran out of antibiotics to treat this virulent bug. Read more about Josh's story and the experiences of others whose lives have been devastated by antibiotic resistance: http://www.idsociety.org/Joshs_Story.aspx.
IDSA first warned of the looming antibiotic apocalypse with its 2004 report, "Bad Bugs, No Drugs." Nearly 50 other medical societies and organizations, including the American Medical Association, have endorsed the 10 x '20 initiative so far.
"IDSA is committed to ensuring proper use of currently-available antibiotics to make certain we can continue to count on them. But that is not enough. Simply put, the antibiotic pipeline is on life support and novel solutions are required to resuscitate it now," said IDSA President David A. Relman, MD. "In the past year, the heads of CDC and the World Health Organization, along with the United Kingdom's chief medical officer, have all sounded the alarm about rising rates of antibiotic resistance. The lack of new antibiotics to treat these potentially life-threatening infections signals the end of modern medicine as we know it."
###
To see the policy update, which appears in the May 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID), contact Jerica Pitts (jpitts@pcipr.com) at 312-558-1770. See also a fact sheet on antimicrobial resistance here: http://www.idsociety.org/AntibioticResistanceFactSheet-April2013.pdf.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Although the paper published in CID recognizes two drugs approved by the FDA since 2009, the 10 x '20 Initiative was launched in April 2010 following the approval of one of these drugs.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) is an organization of physicians, scientists, and other health care professionals dedicated to promoting health through excellence in infectious diseases research, education, patient care, prevention, and public health. The Society, which has more than 10,000 members, was founded in 1963 and is based in Arlington, Va. For more information, see http://www.idsociety.org.
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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.
Despite superbug crisis, progress in antibiotic development 'alarmingly elusive'Public release date: 18-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jerica Pitts jpitts@pcipr.com 312-558-1770 Infectious Diseases Society of America
Policy update: Time dwindling to meet IDSA goal of 10 new antibiotics by 2020
WASHINGTON, April 18, 2013 Despite the desperate need for new antibiotics to combat increasingly deadly resistant bacteria, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved only one new systemic antibiotic since the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) launched its 10 x '20 Initiative in 2010 and that drug was approved two and a half years ago.
In a new report, published online today in Clinical Infectious Diseases, IDSA identified only seven new drugs in development for the treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacilli (GNB) bacteria. GNB, which include the "nightmare bacteria" to which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alerted the public in its March 2013 Vital Signs report, represent the most pressing medical need. Importantly, there is no guarantee that any of the drugs currently in development to treat GNB will make it across the finish line to FDA approval and none of them will work against the most resistant bugs we're worried about today.
"In the past, the 10 x '20 goal would have been considered modest, but today the barriers to approval of nine additional antibiotics by 2020 seem insurmountable," said Henry Chambers, MD, chair of IDSA's Antimicrobial Resistance Committee (ARC). "Some progress has been made in the development of new antibiotics, but it's not nearly enough, and we absolutely must accelerate our efforts."
"We're losing ground because we are not developing new drugs in pace with superbugs' ability to develop resistance to them. We're on the precipice of returning to the dark days before antibiotics enabled safer surgery, chemotherapy and the care of premature infants. We're all at risk," said Helen W. Boucher, MD, lead author of the policy paper and a member of IDSA's Board of Directors and ARC.
Entitled "10 x '20 Progress: Development of New Drugs Active against Gram-negative Bacilli: An Update from the Infectious Diseases Society of America," the paper outlines actions that must be taken to address the synergistic crises of an anemic antibiotic pipeline coupled with an explosion in multi-drug resistant pathogens. A multi-pronged approach is needed, including new economic incentives to encourage antibiotic research and development (R&D); clarification of FDA's requirements for antibiotic approval; increased research funding; improved infection prevention; and new public health efforts including better data collection and surveillance of drug resistance and use of antibiotics. We also need to encourage "antibiotic stewardship," which includes measures that health care facilities, providers and even patients can take to preserve the life-saving power of antibiotics by limiting their inappropriate use.
IDSA leaders have been exploring with other stakeholders specific solutions to address the pipeline problem including the creation of a Limited Population Antibacterial Drug (LPAD) approval pathway to speed drugs to approval as well as new R&D tax credits and reimbursement models. Congressional Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives announced last month their intent to make fixing the antibiotic R&D pipeline a priority for the 113th Congress.
Ironically, at this urgent time of greatest need, the number of pharmaceutical companies investing in antibiotic R&D has plummeted. Pharmaceutical companies typically put R&D resources into the development of chronic disease drugs including those to treat high cholesterol, diabetes, and cancer which provide significant financial rewards, partly because they are intended to be taken for long periods of time. Antibiotics, which are intended to be taken for short courses, just can't compete. The results are playing out in real time, with the smaller pharmaceutical company Polymedix which has one of the seven drugs in development noted in the 10 x '20 paper filing for bankruptcy protection in early April 2013. Moreover, the policy update reports that only four large multinational companies remain in antibiotic R&D. One of these, AstraZeneca, which has two of the seven drugs in development, plans to reduce its future investments in antibiotics, its CEO, Pascal Soriot, recently announced. The current pipeline of antibiotics is fragile indeed, and the dwindling roster of antibiotic developers has dire consequences for public health, patient care and national security.
New antibiotics are critically necessary to save the lives of people such as Josh Nahum, a healthy 27-year-old man who died from an overwhelming Enterobacter aerogenes infection as he was recovering in the hospital after a skydiving accident. Although his doctors tried desperately to save Josh, they ran out of antibiotics to treat this virulent bug. Read more about Josh's story and the experiences of others whose lives have been devastated by antibiotic resistance: http://www.idsociety.org/Joshs_Story.aspx.
IDSA first warned of the looming antibiotic apocalypse with its 2004 report, "Bad Bugs, No Drugs." Nearly 50 other medical societies and organizations, including the American Medical Association, have endorsed the 10 x '20 initiative so far.
"IDSA is committed to ensuring proper use of currently-available antibiotics to make certain we can continue to count on them. But that is not enough. Simply put, the antibiotic pipeline is on life support and novel solutions are required to resuscitate it now," said IDSA President David A. Relman, MD. "In the past year, the heads of CDC and the World Health Organization, along with the United Kingdom's chief medical officer, have all sounded the alarm about rising rates of antibiotic resistance. The lack of new antibiotics to treat these potentially life-threatening infections signals the end of modern medicine as we know it."
###
To see the policy update, which appears in the May 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID), contact Jerica Pitts (jpitts@pcipr.com) at 312-558-1770. See also a fact sheet on antimicrobial resistance here: http://www.idsociety.org/AntibioticResistanceFactSheet-April2013.pdf.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Although the paper published in CID recognizes two drugs approved by the FDA since 2009, the 10 x '20 Initiative was launched in April 2010 following the approval of one of these drugs.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) is an organization of physicians, scientists, and other health care professionals dedicated to promoting health through excellence in infectious diseases research, education, patient care, prevention, and public health. The Society, which has more than 10,000 members, was founded in 1963 and is based in Arlington, Va. For more information, see http://www.idsociety.org.
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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.
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Public release date: 18-Apr-2013
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