Altor Networks Announces Altor 4.0; Smashes Virtualization and Cloud Adoption Barriers

June 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Altor Delivers Automated Security, Hypervisor-Based Virtual Machine Visibility,
Monitoring, and Compliance Assessment for Virtual and Cloud Environments
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.–(Business Wire)–
Altor Networks, a leading innovator and provider of security for virtualized
data centers and clouds, today introduced the latest version of its flagship
product, Altor 4.0. This release is packed with breakthrough security
innovations that leverage virtual machine introspection to bring X-Ray like
visibility to internal virtual machine (VM) states, delivering accurate
compliance assessment and automated security enforcement. In addition to a
comprehensive platform for protecting their virtual data center and cloud
deployments, Altor customers derive immediate value from v4.0 in the form of a
detailed virtual infrastructure audit and assessment of virtual machine risk
states, according to common industry best-practices and leading compliance
regulations.

“Companies turn to Virtustream and our xStream cloud computing platform to
realize the benefits of cloud computing while lowering total cost of ownership,
increasing uptime and deploying applications to scalable infrastructure,” says
Julian Box, chief technology officer of Virtustream, an infrastructure services
firm. “Based on our long history deploying virtual environments, we have
incorporated several different security technologies into our cloud computing
platform, including Altor`s solution, which provides a granular view of the
network traffic within the cloud.”

Leveraging its unique hypervisor-based footprint, Altor 4.0 automatically
detects unauthorized changes to VMs in virtual and cloud environments, and can
selectively quarantine the offending VMs while alerting IT administrators about
the exceptions to corporate policy. Altor`s 4.0 also inspects all traffic to and
from each VM to eliminate blind spots, and enforces policies at the global,
group, and per-VM level. With the Altor 4.0, enterprises can granularly define
security policies within zones of trust and precisely control how VMs within
these zones can communicate with one another, ensuring isolation between and
within trust levels and allowing for precise micro-segmentation.

“More and more companies are broadening their virtualization deployment across
the IT infrastructure,” said Brett Waldman, senior research analyst for Software
Appliances and Virtualization at IDC. “However, as companies virtualization
solutions mature towards a private cloud scenario, they are finding existing
networking and security solutions are being stressed to their limits.
Simultaneously, VM density is increasing per server, putting more eggs into a
single basket and making each server a mission-critical server. To address these
challenges it is time for a new security paradigm purpose-built for
virtualization.”

Altor 4.0 brings forward powerful new features that automate security and
compliance enforcement within virtualized datacenters and clouds. By leveraging
Introspection to collect VM attributes, such as installed applications, and
coupling it with Altor`s deep knowledge of the virtual network, Altor 4.0
creates a powerful database of control points by which security policies and
compliance rules can be defined. Altor makes this rich data available in
intuitive user interfaces (UIs) that let administrators build the entire range
of policies from corporate rules on global protocol handling to discrete
regulation and compliance driven policies for how VMs should be configured.
Built-in templates help jumpstart the process of building policies while
intuitive tools make quick work of customizing the rulesets.

“Altor has led the virtualization security market on a number of fronts with a
purpose-built, hypervisor-based and now VM Introspection-powered approach that
is unique to the industry,” said Amir Ben-Efraim, CEO and co-founder of Altor
Networks. “Our vantage point in the virtualized fabric lets us pinpoint the weak
spots for customers and seal them with the strongest possible security
[policies/controls], while leveraging automation to simplify administration,
monitor VM compliance and avoid costly errors.”

Altor 4.0 adds significant enhancements that improve the security posture for
both new and existing customers.

Features available in the release of Altor 4.0 include:

* Visibility: full view of all inter-VM network communication. Deep knowledge of
internal VM state including installed applications and services through VM
Introspection.
* Compliance: enforcement of corporate and regulatory policies for required
applications, services and VM settings. Segregation of duties via policy
automation to ensure VMs are assigned to the right trust zones inside the
virtual environment.
* Control: access control over all inter-VM network traffic via firewall
policies and enforcement. Deep inspection of allowed traffic for malware
suppression and intrusion detection.

For more details on this information, please visit our blog.

Pricing and Availability

The Altor 4.0 is currently in beta and will be available in early Q3`10. Pricing
starts at $1,500.00 per CPU socket. Evaluation copies are available at Altor`s
website:

www.altornetworks.com.

About Altor Networks

Altor Networks is the leading innovator and provider of security for virtual
data centers and clouds. The company developed the world`s first firewall
purpose-built for virtual networks. Now in its fourth release, Altor`s
hypervisor-based software is a comprehensive security package featuring
integrated intrusion detection (IDS), VM Introspection, security automation and
compliance assessment. Recently named the RSA`s Conference Innovator of the Year
and a Gartner Cool Vendor, Altor`s virtualization security solutions are
currently protecting some of the world`s most demanding virtual environments
including those of media giant Nielsen Corporation and the US Army`s Human
Resource Command. Founded in 2007 by security and networking experts from Check
Point Software, Cisco and Oracle, Altor Networks is headquartered in Redwood
Shores, California. For more information, please visit us at
www.altornetworks.com.

Voce Communications
Leah McLean, 415-848-2524
lmclean@vocecomm.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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Elekta Acquires Resonant Medical Inc., Adding New Solutions for Image Guided Radiation Therapy for Treating Cancer

June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Groundbreaking non-invasive, non-ionizing image guidance technology enables
exquisite visualization of soft tissue targets, provides promising platform for
next generation motion management.
STOCKHOLM–(Business Wire)–
Elekta today announced the acquisition of Resonant Medical Inc., Montreal
Canada. Through this acquisition, Elekta adds exciting new solutions for image
guidance as well as highly skilled R&D resources in the field of oncology
imaging and motion management.

Resonant Medical Inc. (`RMI`) develops systems for image guided radiation
therapy of soft tissues using latest generation, 3-D ultrasound technology.
Subject to customary closing conditions, Elekta will pay CAD 30 M in cash for
the outstanding shares of RMI.

RMI`s integrated software solutions have been developed in cooperation with
leading academic institutions to improve treatment accuracy for cancer in the
prostate, breast, liver, cervix, uterus, bladder as well as head and neck. RMI`s
equipment is in daily clinical use in the US, Canada, Italy, The Netherlands and
Ireland and its research collaborators are considered among the world leaders in
their field.

Elekta`s President and CEO Tomas Puusepp said “This is really exciting, as it
further enhances Elekta`s state-of-the-art solutions in IGRT, by adding RMI`s
leadership in soft tissue visualization and tracking, especially focused on
innovative solutions for breast and prostate cancer. In addition, given Elekta`s
dedication to open architecture, the technology will be made available to
customers with other vendors` equipment, making it possible to improve IGRT
processes everywhere.”

RMI`s current products will continue to operate with linear accelerators from
all manufacturers and provide outstanding image guidance for soft tissue
targets, especially in the breast and pelvic area, without additional x-ray dose
or using invasive implanted markers. They can add high quality IGRT to the
thousands of linacs in use today that do not have integrated imaging systems,
while the soft tissue detail is also highly complementary to linacs already
equipped with cone beam CT or MV (portal) imaging.

In addition, RMI will provide useful additions to Elekta`s MOSAIQ treatment
planning solutions by displaying soft tissue structures, not easily seen on
X-ray computed tomography but in exact spatial correlation with these CT images,
and offering a suite of automatic segmentation and contouring tools.

“Elekta has gained an experienced development team with mature, easy-to-use,
stable clinical products. And the established sales and marketing infrastructure
of Elekta is the perfect foundation to further introduce this valuable
technology to the radiation oncology market. Beyond just today however, the
really exciting things are yet ahead as we start to integrate RMI:s solutions
with MOSAIQ and in the future with our state-of-the art linear accelerators”,
says Elekta`s President and CEO Tomas Puusepp.

RMI was founded in 2000 based on research from McGill University, Montreal. The
CEO of the company, Tony Falco, Ph.D. is one of the founders and has over 15
years experience in advanced imaging technology; clinical, product development,
supply, and IP creation. The company has 35 employees, of whom most are based in
Montreal, Canada.

Tony Falco, CEO of RMI, says: “These are exciting times. RMI provides solutions
compatible with all vendors` simulators and linear accelerators and together
with Elekta`s world-wide customer network it provides us for the first time with
the ability to improve clinical standards on a global basis. In addition, being
fully integrated with a leading clinical solutions provider like Elekta makes it
possible for us to deliver truly unique integrated clinical solutions in the
future, all of which is important in improving patient care.”

Elekta expects to consolidate RMI into its accounts as from June 1st, 2010. The
revenue for 2010/11 is expected to be around CAD 10 M. The transaction is
forecasted to have a minor dilutive effect on reported earnings per share during
fiscal year 10/11 and be mildly accretive the following fiscal year.

About Elekta

Elekta is a human-care company pioneering significant innovations and clinical
solutions for treating cancer and brain disorders. The company develops
sophisticated, state-of-the-art tools and treatment-planning systems for
radiation therapy and radiosurgery, as well as workflow-enhancing software
systems across the spectrum of cancer care.

Stretching the boundaries of science and technology, providing intelligent and
resource-efficient solutions that offer confidence to both health-care providers
and patients, Elekta aims to improve, prolong and even save patient lives,
making the future possible today.

Today, Elekta solutions in oncology and neurosurgery are used in over 5,000
hospitals globally, and every day more than 100,000 patients receive diagnosis,
treatment or follow-up with the help of a solution from the Elekta Group. Elekta
employs around 2,500 employees globally. The corporate headquarter is located in
Stockholm, Sweden, and the company is listed on the Nordic Exchange under the
ticker EKTAb. For more information about Elekta, visit www.elekta.com.

About Resonant Medical

Established in 2000, Resonant Medical innovates and develops revolutionary
clinical solutions that are safe and gentle for the patient while increasing the
accuracy and precision of radiotherapy cancer care. The company commercializes
unique products that provide better visualization of soft tissue anatomy
throughout the radiotherapy patient workflow. Resonant`s Clarity system is the
first and only product to provide a non-invasive and radiation-free image
guidance solution for all conformal breast cancer treatments, as well as for the
treatment of other cancers such as prostate, cervix, uterus, liver, bladder and
head & neck. Resonant`s technologies are available in cancer centers throughout
the U.S., Canada and Europe, helping make significant improvements in patient
care. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. For further information
about Resonant, visit www.resonantmedical.com.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com.

For further information, please contact:
Elekta Software, Elekta AB
Todd Powell, +1 650-823-3085
Executive Vice President
todd.powell@elekta.com
Time zone: PDT: Pacific Daylight
or
Elekta AB
Stina Thorman, +46 8 587 254 37 / +46 70 778 60 10 (Mobile)
Vice President Corporate Communications
stina.thorman@elekta.com
Time zone: CET: Central European

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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Woman dies after docs fail to spot toilet brush handle embedded in her bottom

May 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 19 (ANI): A young woman is said to have died after doctors failed to spot a six-inch long toilet brush handle embedded in her buttock.

The inquest was told, Cindy Corton, 35, was left with the bizarre injury after a drunken fall in a friend”s bathroom in 2005 but “serious errors” by doctors then led to her death.

It was two years before Corton, who was in constant pain, was able to convince doctors that the thin serrated plastic handle was stuck in the flesh of her bottom.

By then what should have been a routine procedure to remove it had become much more dangerous because the handle had become embedded in her pelvis.

After two unsuccessful operations in 2007 the mother-of-one was in such agony that she agreed to undergo further surgery in June last year despite being told it could prove fatal.

Corton of Sleaford, Lincs, spent more than ten hours in surgery at Nottingham”s Queens Medical Centre but died from massive blood loss.

Husband Peter, 61, said that when his wife first attended A&E at Lincoln County Hospital she was sent home with painkillers, despite showing them the wound on her bottom.

Four days later she was in such pain she went to Grantham Hospital and, although x-rays were taken, nothing was found.

“She wasn”t properly examined by the doctor at Lincoln. At Grantham she wasn”t examined properly again,” the Sun quoted him as telling the inquest in Grantham.

“This was unsatisfactory. The failures to investigate sufficiently in the first place at Lincoln and Grantham were a major factor in Cindy suffering.

“This could have been prevented by early location and removal of the foreign body which would have been a simple procedure at the time,” he stated.

Recording a narrative verdict West Lincolnshire coroner Stuart Fisher criticised Dr Killian Mbewe who first examined Corton at Grantham Hospital.

Despite being told what had happened he simply had an x-ray taken which revealed nothing.

“It appears Dr Mbewe did not seek a second opinion,” Fisher said.

“My view is that this failure to pursue further medical inquiries at this stage was a very serious error on his part.

“Had he done so and surgery had taken place I have no doubt Mrs Corton would be alive today.

“Surely if it was not picked up on the x-ray you don”t abandon this woman and send her home with a few tablets.

“It was a significant foreign object. It is difficult to image anything more significant,” he stated.

Witness Bruce Hickling of Ruskington, Lincs, told the hearing of the night the accident happened when Corton had arrived at his home drunk.

“She was drunk. After about an hour she wanted to go to the toilet but I had to help her up the stairs,” he said.

“Then I heard the toilet flush followed by a bang and a cry.

“I went in and saw Cindy stuck between the toilet and the wall. I tried to lift her but she was wedged tight,” he explained.

He needed the assistance of a friend to free her before calling an ambulance because she was bleeding.

“When the crew arrived they weren”t very happy. They said she was drunk,” he recalled.

He said it was the next day when he discovered that the handle of the toilet brush was snapped off and missing.

Corton”s husband, a construction manager, is now taking legal action against United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.

“Ok she was drunk but they didn”t take her seriously. She showed them the wound but they didn”t do a proper examination,” he said after the hearing.

“I think it was probably down to the hospitals trying to save money and doing things as cheaply as possible.

“Cindy got a very poor service from the NHS. I”m sure she would have got better treatment in foreign countries,” he added. (ANI)

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How spiders spin their silk

May 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 13 (ANI): Spider silk is a fascinating material. It is stronger than steel and any available man-made fiber, and scientists have long puzzled over how to develop a material with such strength and flexibility. They might be one step closer.

Researchers have just figured out one step in the silk-making process: how the liquid proteins the eight-legged creatures carry onboard get spun into webs at a moment”s notice.

Specifically, spider silk has five times the tensile strength (a measure of how much something can be stretched before it breaks) of steel, and triple that of the best artificial fibers available today.

“The high elasticity and extreme tensile strength of natural spider silk are unmatched, even by fibers produced from pure spider silk proteins,” said Professor Horst Kessler, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen in Germany.

Kessler and colleagues wanted to pursue a particularly puzzling question: How do spiders keep the ingredients for silk at hand in such high concentrations, ready to be spun into webs at a moment”s notice.

Spider silk consists of protein molecules, long chains comprising thousands of amino-acid elements. X-ray structure analyses show that the finished fiber has areas in which several protein chains are interlinked via stable physical connections. These connections provide the high stability. Between these connections are unlinked areas that give the fibers their great elasticity.

The situation within the silk gland is, however, very different: The silk proteins are stored in high concentrations in an aqueous environment, awaiting deployment. The areas responsible for interlinking may not approach each other too closely; otherwise the proteins would clump up instantaneously. Hence, these molecules must have some kind of special storage configuration.

X-ray structure analysis, which is so successful in other domains, was of little help here, since it can only be used to analyze crystals. And up to the instant in which the solid silk fiber is formed, everything takes place in solution. The method of choice was therefore nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR).

Using the equipment of the Bavarian NMR Center, Franz Hagn, a biochemist from Horst Kessler”s work group at the Institute for Advanced Study (TUM-IAS) at the TU Muenchen, managed to unravel the structure of a control element responsible for the formation of the solid fiber. Now the researchers could shed light on this control element”s mode of operation.

“Under storage conditions in the silk gland these control domains are connected pair-wise in such a way that the interlinking areas of both chains can not lie parallel to each other. Interlinking is thus effectively prevented,” Thomas Scheibel said.

The protein chains are stored with the polar areas on the outside and the hydrophobic parts of the chain on the inside, ensuring good solubility in the aqueous environment.

When the protected proteins enter the spinning duct, they encounter an environment with an entirely different salt concentration and composition. This renders two salt bridges of the control domain unstable, and the chain can unfold.

Furthermore, the flow in the narrow spinning duct results in strong shear forces. The long protein chains are aligned in parallel, thus placing the areas responsible for interlinking side by side. The stable spider silk fiber is formed.

The results have been published in the current issue of the prestigious scientific journal Nature. (ANI)

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150 million-year-old ‘dinobird’ fossil key to animal’s original chemistry

May 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 11 (ANI): An international team of paleontologists, geochemists and physicists has found that a 150 million year old “dinobird” fossil has been hiding remnants of the animal”s original chemistry.

Using light source technology of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), located at the Department of Energy”s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the scientists traced a hair-thin X-ray beam across the fossil.

They then identified the locations of chemical elements hidden within the fossil, and found half a dozen chemical elements that were actually a part of the living animal and not merely chemicals that stuck to it from surrounding rocks.

“People have never used a technique this sensitive on Archaeopteryx before.

“Because the SSRL beam is so bright, we were able to see the teeniest chemical traces that nobody thought were there,” said SLAC physicist Uwe Bergmann, who led the X-ray scanning experiment.

The maps created from the chemical elements of the creature show that portions of the feathers are not merely impressions of long-decomposed organic material but actual fossilized feathers that contain phosphorous and sulfur, elements that comprise modern bird feathers.

Trace amounts of copper and zinc, which are present in bodies of birds today, were also found in the dinobird”s bones, which the Archaeopteryx may have required to stay healthy.

As a result, the research has the potential to change the way a paleontologist views a fossil. “We”re able to read so much more into these organisms now using this technology—we”re literally touching ghosts,” said Wogelius. “Chemistry is the real key in the future of paleontology. It”s a paradigm shift.”

As a result of this work, Manning said, he wouldn”t be surprised if “future excavations look more like CSI investigations where people look for clues at a scene of a crime. There”s info that”s still there that can”t be seen with the naked eye. We can only see these really quite valuable pieces of data with the synchrotron eye.”

The study has been published in Proceedings of National Academy of Science. (ANI)

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Hotel ‘Daddly Long Legs’ takes Cape Town by storm with its bizarre interiors

May 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, May 6 (ANI): Spaceship-like room with a white door and black walls, graffiti painted all over bathroom walls and a police car light that clanks into action when you flip on the switch – these are some of features of a room at a hotel called Daddly Long Legs in Cape Town.

The room, called Being Mak!One, is designed by Cape Town graffiti artist Mak1One. Many such creative artists have been let loose to design the various rooms at this hotel, one more outlandish than the other.

The lobby and staircases host rotating exhibitions and some eye-catching photography, while an individual artist designs each room.

Another freaky room is called the Emergency room, with a hospital theme, somewhat. An X-ray cabinet on the walls, faux blood-spattered canvas curtains, a patient”s gown is found hanging up and pillows with “Doctor” and “Nurse” written on them. The bathroom comes with a bedpan and a cabinet full of surgical tools.

The Photo Booth is where 3240 portraits of Capetonians are arranged subtly to look like the furrowed brow, nose and mouth of an elderly man”s face. The floor has artificial turf and the walls are said to be soundproof.

The room is also covered in Braille, which spells out the lyrics to Big in Japan by Alphaville.

For music lovers, there lies a stage, a TV screens loops of Karaoke DVDs and there are microphones jutting out from the floor and walls as well as dangling from the ceilings above!

According to The Age, manager Francois van Binsbergen concedes the odd bellow has been heard from the overly enthusiastic.

Binsbergen says that the project took flight after similarly decorated self-catering apartments became hugely popular with people. They also wanted to reflect and show off Cape Town”s not inconsiderable art scene. (ANI)

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Polymer pill the best method to improve lung cancer diagnosis

April 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 29 (ANI): Diagnosis of lung cancer would soon become more effective, thanks to scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), who claim that a polymer pill is the best method for tumour detection.

The researchers found ways both to increase the accuracy of computed tomography (CT) scans and to lessen the amount of time necessary to perceive telltale changes in lung tissue.

For years, radiologists have determined the size of potentially cancerous lung nodules by measuring the largest distance across them as displayed on a computer screen in two dimensions.

A method called RECIST is widely used for this purpose, but some members of the research community have suggested that three-dimensional analysis, or volumetrics, may provide a better way to determine the size of the nodules.

Recently, researchers quantified this improvement—volumetrics could allow physicians to notice volume changes that are up to 10 times smaller than RECIST can, potentially cutting diagnosis time from six months to four weeks—a critical difference in terms of a patient”s chance of survival.

CT scans combine a series of X-ray views taken from many different angles to produce cross-sectional images of the body, but there are several approaches to interpreting scan data.

Thus, NIST”s Zachary Levine set out to determine which was best by creating a set of reference objects that could mimic potential lung tumours.

His team measured 283 polymer-silicate ellipsoids of precise volume that resemble pills ranging from four to 11 mm in diameter.

“For diagnosis in the earliest stage of cancer, other studies have shown this is the size of nodule you want to be looking at,” said Levine.

The team encased the mimics in foam rubber and put them into layered racks of a box akin to one that holds fishing tackle.

Because foam appears transparent to the CT reconstruction, in a scan the denser mimics look very much like tumours.

The team was then able to compare their ellipsoids” known volumes with what the volumetrics and RECIST methods indicated from the scan data.

“We found that volumetrics allows you to notice volume changes that are a factor of 10 smaller than RECIST can with a similar level of confidence. This implies that you could notice life-threatening changes from a follow-up scan performed only weeks after the first, instead of months,” said Levine.

Levine has warned that cancers often grow in strange shapes not resembling elliptical pills which can make a diagnosis more difficult, but that the study was a good start toward improving data interpretation.

“Our work only applies to the simplest of cases, but it”s still a large class of lung cancers,” he said. (ANI)

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Follicle-stimulating hormone decreases bone mineral density during menopause

April 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 26 (ANI): Other than estrogen, another hormone—follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) may also be involved in decreasing bone mineral density during menopause, according to new research at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, GA.

Diminished bone density is common among menopausal women and raises their risk of osteoporosis, bone fractures and subsequent complications.

Traditionally, studies have focused on therapies that seek to maintain the level of estrogen in the body. This hormone seems to sustain bone health, but it drops to an extremely low level during and after menopause.

Dr. Joseph Cannon said that the level of FSH gradually increases in the five years leading up to menopause, when it reaches its peak and estradiol bottoms out.

Research has indicated that bone density begins to decrease over the same period of time.

In addition, data from animal studies indicated a link between FSH and bone density, which made the researchers to probe whether the increase of FSH has an effect on bone density in humans.

Bone mineral density is a balancing act between bone loss and bone growth involving two types of cells in the body— osteoclasts that break down bone, and osteoblasts that regenerate it.

During menopausal bone loss, the osteoclasts” destructive activity outweighs the osteoblasts” rebuilding activity, resulting in an overall weakening of the bone.

Cytokines, which are secreted by white blood cells such as monocytes, are thought to play a role in this imbalance. One cytokine in particular, interleukin-1 beta (IL-1), is known to activate osteoclasts.

“Our hypothesis was that [FSH] was decreasing bone mineral density by influencing the production or action of cytokines,” said Dr. Cannon.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers conducted a study of 36 women from 20 to 50 years old.

By measuring each woman”s level of FSH and then using a low-energy x-ray to analyse her bone density, the researchers saw that higher levels of FSH among the women were indeed associated with lower bone density.

With the results in hand, the researchers wanted to determine the effects of FSH on a cellular level.

They collected blood samples from the study participants and isolated the monocytes to investigate the effect of FSH on cells outside of the body.

They discovered that the monocytes that make IL-1 have receptors for FSH.

Receptors act like a lock for a key— when the key (FSH) enters the lock (receptor), the cell performs the activity coded by that key.

The researchers determined that FSH stimulates the production of IL-1 if the monocytes have a sufficient number of FSH receptors.

After further analysis, they confirmed that blood FSH levels corresponded to blood levels of IL-1, which indicated that both inside and outside the body, FSH stimulation of monocytes results in the production of IL-1.

On comparing the amount of IL-1 in the participants” blood to their bone density, the researchers found that the higher the level of IL-1, the lower the bone density, when other factors that control IL-1 activity were taken into account.

The study will be presented at the American Physiological Society”s Experimental Biology 2010 conference in Anaheim. (ANI)

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Emotional win for Mickelson at Masters

April 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Phil Mickelson’s win in the 74th Masters saw one of the most poignant moments in the history of the tournament, as he hugged cancer-stricken wife Amy moments after his triumph.

She had arrived at Augusta on Tuesday, but due to the treatment she is undergoing, had been unable to get to the course before Sunday’s dramatic finale.

Wearing dark sunglasses and holding on to daughters Amanda and Sophia, Amy clapped in delight as her husband holed out for a birdie at the 18th hole and a three-stroke victory.

Minutes later he took her in his arms and, in a world of their own, they celebrated the moment.

“I don’t normally shed tears over wins, and when Amy and I hugged off 18, that was a very emotional moment for us and something that I’ll look back on and just cherish,” he said.

“I mean, I’ll cherish every moment of this week. This has been a very special week.”

There was another, less serious, family drama for the Mickelsons on Saturday when daughter Amanda sustained a hairline fracture of the wrist while roller-skating.

“Fortunately one of the doctors here was nice enough to open the X-ray machine late at night around 10 o’clock and read the X-ray and get a splint for her,” he said.

“After that I stayed up until one o’clock watching movies.”

It has been almost a year since Amy has been battling breast cancer and in that time Mickelson has alternated between playing golf and taking time off to be with her and his mother, who was diagnosed with the same condition.

His form understandably has suffered and, coming into the Masters, he had failed to win a single tournament this year.

Second home

But Augusta National, where he won in 2004 and 2006, brings out the best in Mickelson, as it is a course where he can get away with his occasionally wayward driving and call on his superb short game skills.

“One of the things I’ve been saying this week is that I am very relaxed here at Augusta National because you don’t have to be perfect,” he said.

“I’ve hit a lot of great shots and driven the ball very well, but I’ve made some bad swings on 9, 10 and 11 and I was able to salvage par.

“I was able to get the ball, advance it far enough down by the green where my short game could take over and salvage par.

“That’s why I feel so comfortable here and I’m relaxed when I drive down Magnolia Lane because I know that I don’t have to play perfect golf.”

Typical of that was the situation he found himself in at the par-five 13th hole were he overhit his three-wood into trees right of the fairway and found the ball nestled on a blanket of pine needles.

Most golfers would have been content just to shunt the ball out back onto the fairway, but not so Mickelson, who risked hitting a six-iron through a narrow gap in the trees and was rewarded when it landed six feet from the pin.

“I had a good lie in the pine needles,” Mickelson said.

“I was going to have to go through that gap if I laid up or went for the green. I was going to have to hit a decent shot.

“The gap was a little bit wider – it wasn’t huge, but it was big enough for a ball to fit through.

“I just felt like at that time, I needed to trust my swing and hit a shot, and it came off perfect.”

It was typical of Mickelson’s play on a day that started for him with a booming drive down the first fairway and ended in a tearful embrace from his wife behind the 18th green.

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Camilla takes tumble, breaks leg

April 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Prince Charles’s wife Camilla has broken her leg while hiking in Scotland but plans to keep all her scheduled engagements.

She is likely to wear a plaster cast for about six weeks, by which time the “relatively minor” injury should have healed, experts said.

“While hillwalking in slippery conditions in Scotland, the Duchess of Cornwall took a tumble and hurt her leg,” a spokeswoman for Clarence House said after the accident Wednesday.

Following doctor’s advice on Thursday, Camilla, who has been staying on the Royal family’s Balmoral country estate in Scotland, had an X-ray “which showed a twisted fracture of the fibula”, the spokeswoman added.

“Consequently her royal highness is wearing a plaster cast and will be for six weeks. She has been advised not to put weight on her leg and her royal highness has every intention of carrying out all planned engagements.”

Camilla was said to be comfortable and philosophical about the accident, said the spokeswoman.

“The Duchess is cheerful and it’s a case of life goes on – it could be worse,” she said.

Charles, 61, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and heir to the British throne, married the former Camilla Parker Bowles in April 2005. His previous marriage to the late princess Diana ended in divorce in August 1996.

The 62-year-old Duchess needed to be helped down from the hill after the accident which happened while she and Charles were on their traditional Easter break at Birkhall, the Prince’s private home on the Balmoral estate.

Barry Ferris, an orthopaedic surgeon at Barnet Hospital in north London, said the break should heal relatively quickly.

“A fibula fracture is usually related to a direct blow. She may have fallen over on something like a rock. Age is not probably going to be a factor for her,” he said.

“While it’s true the bones thin as you get older, she is very active.

“This is a relatively minor injury. She will be sore for a couple of weeks but she should be fine after six weeks.”

The accident follows an unrelated health problem – a trapped nerve in her back – that forced Camilla to cancel a number of engagements during a recent trip to central Europe.

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Astronomers see supernova from different angle

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 1 (ANI): A group of astronomers has observed an exploding star or supernova, which left behind what we know today as Cassiopeia A, from another angle as well as in a 3-D perspective.

Armin Rest of Harvard University and his colleagues have used a technique that has allowed them to observe Cassiopeia A from a perspective other than that from the Solar System.

“The same event looks different from different places in the Milky Way. For the first time, we can see a supernova from an alien perspective,” said lead author Armin Rest of Harvard University.

The technique that the astronomers used is based on the familiar echo concept, but instead of sound it is applied to light.

When dust clouds in space reflect the light from the supernova it bounces off them; by catching those reflections, the astronomers were able to capture the images on them.

Thus, by collecting reflections from various dust clouds in different areas of space, they composed images of Cassiopeia A that depicted different angles of the supernova.

Additionally, by grouping all the images from multiple angles together with X-ray data on the supernova remnants and the movement of the left over neutron star, the astronomers were able to get a 3-D perspective as well.

The team observed that the supernova looks very different when viewed from all the different angles, especially from one particular direction.

They found this to possibly be due to the supernova explosion sending gas out one way and the star the other. (ANI)

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Osteoarthritis tied to unequal length of leg

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 1 (ANI): Arthritis in the knee is linked to the common trait of having one leg that is longer than the other, claims a new study.

Developing early strategies for treatment may be possible, believes Derek Cooke, Queen”s University adjunct professor and a co-author of the study.

“Most pediatricians adopt a ”wait and see” attitude for children with limb misalignment when they”re growing,” says Dr. Cooke. “If we can spot factors creating changes in alignment early in bone development, theoretically we could stop or slow down the progression of osteoarthritis.”

To reach the conclusion, data was collected using x-ray images from more than 3,000 adults aged 50 to 79 who either had knee pain or risk factors for knee osteoarthritis as a part of the Multi Centre Osteoarthritis Study (MOST). Subjects were reassessed after a 30-month period and the researchers found that osteoarthritic changes in the knee were most significant in individuals with pronounced (more than 1 cm) leg length inequality, the shorter leg being most affected.

Leg length inequality is difficult to detect. A small leg length differential – 1 cm or less – can be corrected with a shoe insert, while a bigger one can be corrected with surgery. But because the condition often goes undiagnosed, many people don”t realize they have a leg length differential until they”re diagnosed with osteoarthritis.

Arthritis in the knees can cause pain, swelling and stiffness, and limit mobility. (ANI)

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Lead “burrito” sarcophagus near Rome may hold a gladiator or a Christian dignitary

March 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 30 (ANI): A team of archaeologists has suggested that a burrito-like 1,700-year-old sarcophagus found in an abandoned city near Rome could contain the body of a gladiator or a Christian dignitary.

Found in a cement-capped pit in the ancient metropolis of Gabii, the coffin is unusual because it”s made of lead.

Only a few hundred such Roman burials are known.

“Even odder, the 800 pounds (362 kilograms) of lead fold over the corpse like a burrito,” said Roman archaeologist Jeffrey Becker.

Most lead sarcophagi look like “old-fashioned cracker boxes,” molded into a rectangular shape with a lid, he said.

The coffin, which has been in storage since last year, is about to be moved to the American Academy in Rome for further testing.

But, uncovering details about the person inside the lead coffin will be tricky.

For starters, the undisturbed tomb contained no grave goods, offering few clues about the owner.

What”s more, x-ray and CT scans-the preferred methods of coffin analysis-cannot penetrate the thick lead, leaving researchers pondering other, potentially dangerous ways to examine the remains inside.

“It”s exciting as well as frustrating, because there are no known matches in the record,” said Becker, managing director of the University of Michigan”s Gabii Project.

“Unlocking the lead coffin”s secrets could ultimately offer new insights into a powerful civilization that has lain forgotten for centuries,” he said.

Mysteries about Gabii society make the newfound lead coffin especially intriguing.

Lead was a high-value metal at the time, so a full sarcophagus made out of the stuff “is a sure marker of somebody of some kind of substance,” Becker said.

Past lead burials found throughout Europe have housed soldiers, elite members of the Christian church, and even female gladiators.

In fact, many lead coffins contain high-ranking women or adolescents instead of men, according to Jenny Hall, a senior curator of Roman archaeology at the Museum of London, who was not involved in the new study.

“However, the newfound sarcophagus” tentative age may make the gladiator scenario unlikely,” said Bruce Hitchner, a visiting professor in classical archaeology at All Souls College at the UK”s University of Oxford.

“The coffin dates back to the fourth or fifth centuries AD, while the gladiator heyday was centuries earlier,” said Hitchner.

Becker”s team hopes to find out more about the person inside the lead sarcophagus.

The researchers” only hint so far is a small foot bone protruding through a hole in one end of the coffin. (ANI)

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Supermassive black holes spend half their lives veiled in dust

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 26 (ANI): A new study by astronomers at Yale University and the University of Hawaii has determined that after undergoing huge growth spurts as a result of galactic collisions, supermassive black holes spend half their lives veiled in dust.

As massive, gas-rich galaxies in the distant universe collide, the central black hole feeds on gas that is funneled to the center of the merger.

“As a result of the violent, messy collision, the black hole also remains obscured behind a ”veil” of dust for between 10 million and 100 million years,” said Priyamvada Natarajan, professor of astronomy at Yale and one of the study paper’s authors.

After that time, the dust is blown away to reveal a brightly shining quasar—the central region of a galaxy with an extremely energetic, supermassive black hole at its center—that lasts for another 100 million years, the team found.

Until now, astronomers were unsure how long the quasars spent behind the dust cloud.

While unobscured quasars, which are the brightest optical objects in the early universe, were discovered in the late 1950s, examples of quasars obscured by dust were more difficult to detect, and were only discovered in the late 1990s.

“For many years, astronomers believed that these sources were very rare. Now we are seeing them everywhere,” said Ezequiel Treister of the University of Hawaii, lead author of the study.

The team used observations from the Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer space telescopes to identify a large number of obscured, dust-enshrouded quasars up to 11 billion light years away, when the universe was only about one-fifth its current age.

“We detected a signature of very hot dust at infrared and X-ray wavelengths to find these obscured sources,” Treister said.

“Once they had been identified, we used Hubble’s new Wide Field Camera 3—which astronauts installed last year during the final servicing mission—to confirm that these distant quasars were actually the result of mergers,” said Kevin Schawinski, another Yale co-author.

The astronomers coupled the telescope observations with estimated galaxy merger rates and theoretical models to come up with the amount of time it takes for the black hole to blow away the surrounding dust and gas and reveal the naked, bright quasar.

“We found that these growing black holes spend about half their lives veiled in dust, and half their lives unveiled,” Natarajan said.

“That means that, until now, we have likely been missing half of the actively growing black holes in the early universe,” she added. (ANI)

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Scientists come a step closer in controlling how matter behaves

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 25 (ANI): A team of scientists has used laser light to control x-ray beams, which is a step toward controlling how matter behaves, shaping x-rays with other x-rays, and eventually directing the paths chemical reactions can take.

Working at the Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source’s femtosecond beamline 6.0.2, the team of scientists shows how it can be done.

As a new generation of powerful light sources comes online, intense x-ray beams may be able to control matter directly and allow one beam of x-rays to control another.

Using the ALS’s femtosecond (quadrillionth of a second) spectroscopy beamline 6.0.2, Thornton E. Glover and his colleagues sent ultrashort pulses of laser light and higher-frequency x-rays together through a gas cell filled with pressurized neon.

Excited by the laser pulses, the gas, which normally absorbs x-rays, became transparent to the x-ray pulses during their quick passage.

“We were inspired by the interesting new science demonstrated in quantum optics experiments that use visible light to control visible light,” said Glover.

“One spectacular example is slowing light to a near standstill in some media. The ability to, in effect, stop light in a medium has potential applications for quantum information storage and processing,” he added.

Glover said that another example of optical control is using visible light to induce transparency in a medium.

“We embarked on our own research in the hope that it would lead to new and interesting ways to use x-rays as well as visible light,” he said.

The experiment’s intense laser pulses created brief coherent superposition states in the dense neon gas inside the cell, which rendered the pressurized neon in the gas cell transparent to the x-rays.

“Quantum mechanicaly speaking, there is destructive interference between two absorption pathways and this reduces the absorption,” said Glover. “That is, it makes the medium transparent,” he added.

For the first time, optical pulses had been used to control how x-rays interact with matter.

The experimenters quickly put this ephemeral neon window to practical service, using it to measure the duration of the femtosecond-scale x-ray pulse to high accuracy more simply than has been possible before, with the added ability of shaping x-ray pulses on a femtosecond time scale.

“By demonstrating a way to shape x-rays on the femtosecond time scale, we’ve opened the door to ‘quantum control’ experiments – now possible only with long-wavelength light – in the x-ray regime,” said Glover. (ANI)

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Israel probes shooting of Palestinian teens

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Israeli army is investigating the shooting deaths of two Palestinian teenagers at the weekend in the occupied West Bank, a spokesman said.

The incident in the village of Iraq Burin was one of two fatal clashes in which four died, worsening tension between the sides and further complicating US-led efforts to restart stalled peace talks.

Palestinian doctors, who produced an X-ray image showing a bullet lodged in the brain of one of the dead, said Mohammed Kaddous, 16, and Osaid Kaddous, 17, were shot by live ammunition when soldiers opened fire at stone-throwing demonstrators.

The army says troops fired rubber bullets, following standard procedure for handling disturbances. Israel soldiers are only permitted to use live ammo in life-threatening situations.

A statement from the spokesman’s office said the Israeli commander for the West Bank had named a brigadier general to head the investigation of what it called “the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two Palestinian rioters”.

Palestinians said the youths had been protesting against land confiscations by a nearby Jewish settlement.

The Israeli spokesman said it could take some days before any findings were issued.

- Reuters

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Now, Al Qaeda develops ”boob-job bombs” which are impossible to detect

March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar. 24 (ANI): Al Qaeda is laying deadly “booby traps” by equipping its female suicide bombers with explosive breast implants that are impossible to be detected at airport security checkpoints, British intelligence agency, MI5, has claimed.

“Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaeda are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery,” The Sun quoted Terrorist expert Joseph Farah, as saying.

The lethal explosives called PETN are inserted inside plastic shapes during the operation, before the breast is then sewn up, he added.

According to MI5, Al Qaeda doctors have been trained at some of Britain”s leading teaching hospitals before returning to their own countries to perform the surgical procedures.

The intelligence agency has also discovered that extremists are inserting the explosives into the buttocks of some male suicide bombers.

Top surgeons have confirmed the feasibility of the explosive implants.

“Properly inserted the implant would be virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines,” one surgeon said.

“You would need to subject a suspect to a sophisticated X-ray. Given that the explosive would be inserted in a sealed plastic sachet, and would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it with the usual body scanner,” he added.

A sachet containing as little as five ounces of PETN could blow “a considerable hole” in an airline”s skin, causing it to crash, experts say.

Hours after London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s Christmas Day flight bombing bid, MI5 began to pick up “chatter” emanating from Pakistan and Yemen that alerted MI5 to the creation of the lethal implants, the paper says.

A hand-picked team investigated the threat which was described as “one that can circumvent our defence,” it adds. (ANI)

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Injured Dhoni ruled out of IPL-3 for 10 days

March 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Kolkata, March 17 (ANI): Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the skipper of the Chennai Super Kings has been ruled out of the third edition of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament for ten days due to an elbow injury.

Dhoni was hit on his elbow by a Shane Bond delivery during the match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday, which they won convincingly.

However, the team”s coach Stephen Fleming ruled out any major injury adding, “He has gone for an X-ray. I hope that everything is well and it”s just a bruise and nothing more than that.”

Suresh Raina has been appointed the stand-in-skipper for the time Dhoni is out of the squad. He will lead the side in their next match against the Delhi Daredevils to be played at the Ferozshah Kotla on March 19. (ANI)

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Imaging layer of fat around heart may help predict disease

March 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 16 (ANI): The layer of fat around the heart can provide extra information compared with standard diagnostic techniques such as coronary artery calcium scoring, say scientists.

The size of the layer of fat around the heart, or imaging epicardial adipose tissue, can be measured by X-ray imaging techniques such as CT or MRI, according to research by cardiologists at Emory University School of Medicine.

“This information may be used as a ”gate keeper”, in that it could help a cardiologist decide whether a patient should go on to have a nuclear stress test,” says Paolo Raggi, MD, professor of medicine (cardiology) and radiology and director of Emory”s cardiac imaging center.

Results from two studies were presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Atlanta on Sunday, March 14.

The first study, presented by cardiology fellow Nikolaos Alexopoulos, MD, now at the University of Athens, Greece, shows that patients with a larger volume of epicardial adipose tissue tend to have the types of atherosclerotic plaques cardiologists deem most dangerous: non-calcified plaques.

Calcium tends to build up in atherosclerotic plaques. Even though the heart”s overall coronary calcium burden is a good predictor of heart disease, calcium in an individual plaque doesn”t necessarily mean imminent trouble, Raggi says. Researchers have been learning that non-calcified plaques indicate active buildup in that coronary artery, and studies suggest that the fat around the heart secretes more inflammatory hormones, compared to the fat just under the skin.

“Release of inflammatory factors from epicardial adipose tissue may be promoting an active atherosclerotic process, and this is indicated by the presence of non-calcified plaques,” Raggi says.

Emory researchers examined 214 patients through cardiac CT, and performed coronary artery scoring as well as assessing the patients” epicardial adipose tissue volume and the plaque in their coronary arteries. The epicardial adipose tissue volume was highest in the patients with non-calcified plaques (roughly 60 percent more than those with calcified plaques).

The second study, presented by Emory cardiology fellow Matthew Janik, MD, measured epicardial fat in patients receiving a nuclear stress test. The 382 patients had chest pain but did not have known cardiovascular disease. A nuclear stress test picks up signs of inducible ischemia: deficiencies in blood flow in the heart muscle.

In this, the researchers found that the presence of ischemia correlated more closely with epicardial adipose tissue volume than with the coronary calcium score. (ANI)

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Now, mobile phones to offer X-ray vision

March 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, March 10 (ANI): Researchers at the University of South Australia have developed mobile phone software that can offer X-ray vision to see what’s on the other side of the building in front of you.

Christian Sandor said that the application works by using the phone”s camera, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

He said that users can point the camera at a building and an image of it would appear on the screen. Then, the image would change to show what was behind the building, as if it was no longer there, Sandor said.

Sandor said the research group collaborated with Nokia to build the application, which it hoped could be introduced in the next two years.

The technology, known as augmented reality, appears to be X-ray vision, but in reality it uses pictures and images that already exist in databases such as Google Earth and Google Streetview.

Sandor said that the application needs two pieces of information: a 3D model of the area or city the phone user is in and the user”s exact position.

He said that a 3D model of a city could be built using information collected from aerial surveys.

Survey planes capture the shape and size of the buildings in a city. That data is merged with images from databases to complete the 3D model.

GPS is used to work out the user”s exact position. Once the software knows this information, it uses information and images from the 3D model to display a picture of what is behind the building.

Sandor said that the technology could not be used to see into people”s houses because only the exterior views of buildings and streets were held in the databases. (ANI)

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