One way to start grieving: Read names out loud

John Makely / NBC News

Erin Nemeth, 21, and Kelley Sullivan, 21, talk about some of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting and their families on Saturday in Newtown, Conn..

By Miranda Leitsinger, NBC News

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- ?A few tears marked Pete Kearney's face as he walked away from a vigil late Saturday near the fire station next to Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Kearney, 47 and the father of two teenagers and a 22-year-old, said he had read out loud the names of every victim of the school massacre to his 17-year-old son earlier Saturday to take in the loss to the community.

?It just felt never-ending ? overpowering, overwhelming,? said Kearney, a golf course greenkeeper whose children live with him in Newtown. ?It felt real before that, but then, you know, you see the ages and the names ? it's just incredible, so sad. I don't think I have the words.?

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Kearney said that the release of the names might be?a first step in the grieving process, and perhaps "we can start reaching out to some of the victims' families, helping them heal and in that step, help ourselves heal, and move forward, all of us. I guess it's all virgin territory, all of us. No answers here."

Kearney hoped to return later that evening with his daughter to the ongoing vigil, where people were placing flowers, stuffed animals and lighting candles. He choked up at times talking with a reporter about the tragedy that struck their community, noting that one of his children's friends had lost their mother.

?Nobody knows what to do, I think. You light a candle, say a prayer,? he said, his voice trembling as the words trailed off.

At makeshift memorials at the fire station and elsewhere across town, people gathered to mourn, cry, pray and sing.

Friends Kelley Sullivan and Erin Nemeth, both 21, brought 20 Beanie Babies to the fire station in Sandy Hook, where on Friday parents of victims waited to learn their children's fate. Even before the names were released, Nemeth said she knew that a boy and a girl on her block had been killed.

?To me it makes it seem even more surreal? with the release of the names, Nemeth said. ?It just doesn't seem like it's real,? she said, shuddering.

The small Connecticut town of Newtown is grieving in the aftermath of Friday's deadly school shootings. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

? ... the pictures are going to start coming up and stories of these little kids, and they're just like innocent lives of what they enjoyed to do, and now they won't be able to do anything,? Sullivan said.

?People don't really understand how young these children actually were ? most of them born in 2006, which to us does not sound long ago, because it wasn't. And that's when they started their life and it's over already,? she added.

Nemeth said they were supporting the family of a victim ?as we can providing meals. ? We can't even begin to make these families feel better right now.?

The pair, both from Newtown and friends since the seventh grade, said they each brought 10 of their favorite Beanie Babies to leave at the memorial at the fire station.

The dolls represent ?the innocence and the youth of those people who were lost,? said a teary-eyed Sullivan.?

Countries that have experienced similar tragedies tonight stand shoulder-to-shoulder with America as it mourns the deaths of 28, most of them young children. NBC's Annabel Roberts reports.

Noel Hernandez said he and his wife Lizbeth came from Shelton, two towns away, to "absorb everything that's going on." They stood in front of a Christmas tree down the street where some had gathered to leave mementos and where small, candle-illuminated decorations?had been placed in a memorial on the ground.

As Puerto Ricans, they also were moved by the death of a Puerto Rican girl who was among those killed at the school.

"Trying to make sense of it," said the father of seven. "We always think how would we react if that would happen to ... us?"

At the fire station vigil, he said: "It was ... quiet.?You can almost feel what everybody was thinking."?

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/15/15935095-one-way-to-start-the-grieving-process-read-the-newton-victims-names-out-loud?lite

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Economic slowdown throughout euro zone a worry for ECB: Liikanen

BERLIN (Reuters) - Economic growth is slowing to a worrying degree across the euro zone and not only in the periphery, European Central Bank Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said in an interview to be published on Sunday in Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

"There are a number of indications that the economy is getting weaker and not only in the indebted southern European countries, but across the euro zone," Liikanen was quoted as saying in an excerpt released on Saturday.

"Economic developments are causing us concern," he said, adding that no-one is immune to the effects of the debt crisis. "Not even the German economy."

Liikanen did not say what action should be taken to deal with the slowdown, and a Reuters poll this week found economists are evenly split on what else - if anything - the ECB will do.

Thirty-nine economists said the ECB would hold its main refinancing rate at its current record low of 0.75 percent through the first quarter of next year, while 38 believed it would cut the rate to 0.5 percent.

The ECB on December 6 predicted the euro zone economy would shrink again in 2013. Its projections for economic performance ranged from a 0.9 percent drop to a meager 0.3 percent rise next year, suggesting contraction is far more likely than not.

It had previously penciled in a range of -0.4 percent to +1.4 percent for the euro area economy.

On Dec 7. the central banks of Germany and Austria forecast barely any economic growth in 2013, with the Bundesbank flagging risks of a recession in the euro zone's biggest economy as the debt crisis hits the bloc's core.

(Reporting By Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/economic-slowdown-throughout-euro-zone-worry-ecb-liikanen-114353121--finance.html

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A guide to what is next for Egypt

Egyptian men line up outside a polling station to cast their votes during a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Morsi in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Egyptian men line up outside a polling station to cast their votes during a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Morsi in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

An Egyptian woman casts her vote at polling center during a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi, in Alexandria, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Egyptian women line up outside a polling station during a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Egyptian women wait before casting their votes in a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

CAIRO (AP) ? Questions and answers about the ongoing political crisis in Egypt, and what may lie ahead if the referendum on the draft constitution is passed or rejected. The vote is staggered over two days, Saturday Dec. 15 and 22.

What happens if the constitution is adopted?

Elections for parliament's low chamber must be held within two months after the official result is announced. The new chamber would replace an Islamist-dominated one dissolved by a court ruling in June. Until a new chamber is seated, parliament's upper chamber, known as the Shura Council, will take over legislating. Politically, a "yes" win will significantly strengthen the Islamists, giving them what they will consider a mandate to push through with their longtime plan to make Egypt's state and society more Islamic.

What happens if it's rejected?

President Mohammed Morsi will call for an election of a new panel to write a new draft within three months. Politically, the result will considerably weaken Morsi and his Islamist backers in the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, and the ultraconservative Salafis. It will embolden the opposition liberals and broaden their popular appeal as a viable political force.

What if it passes narrowly?

A narrow majority like, say, 55 or 60 percent, would somewhat diminish the credibility and the legitimacy of the document. Low turnout may have the same effect. The opposition has long argued that constitutions must be adopted by consensus not a majority. But Morsi will most likely take a narrow victory as a sufficient victory. The Egyptian president won office with 51.7 percent of the vote.

What is the procedure for amending the constitution if it is adopted?

According to the draft, articles 217 and 218 state that the president and parliament have the right to make a "request" to "amend an article or more." If one is made, then parliament must discuss the request within 30 days. Two-thirds of parliament members are needed to pass the request. Then parliament has 60 days to finalize the amended articles, and a third of parliament is needed to pass the final text before putting them to a national referendum. This process is mostly academic since the Brotherhood and its Salafi allies are virtually certain of dominating the next parliament and will not be prepared to dilute clauses giving Islamic Shariah laws supremacy or reduce the role of the state in enforcing Islamic teachings.

Will the referendum, regardless of its outcome, mark the end of the country's crisis?

Probably not. The dispute over the constitution has over the past three weeks evolved into an existential tug-of-war between the Islamists and the mostly liberal opposition over the identity and the future of the nation. It is still unclear how politicians and courts will treat the critical clauses on religion and the state, but Egypt may be facing a stark choice: a religious state, or least one with a great deal of religion injected into its government and where religious principles can trump civil rights, or maintaining Egypt's current compromise between secularism and its Islamic traditions.

Can the two sides meet halfway?

Unlikely. Morsi and his Brotherhood are under pressure from their Salafi allies to do more to align the nation's laws with Islamic teachings. The president and his movement may eventually have to cave in to maintain their hold on power. The liberals, in turn, are under pressure from large segments of the population, including educated women and minority Christians, not to compromise on points they believe are key to protecting the public's rights and interests over the long term.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-15-Egypt-QandA/id-02a5af435583418ba2cda82512a91ef9

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Blood pressure, smoking and alcohol: The health risks with the biggest global burden

Blood pressure, smoking and alcohol: The health risks with the biggest global burden

Friday, December 14, 2012

Over 9 million people died as a consequence of high blood pressure in 2010, making it the health risk factor with the greatest toll worldwide, say experts.

Smoking and alcohol use have also overtaken child hunger in the last two decades to become the second and third leading risks globally, according to a study estimating the disease burden attributable to 43 risk factors in 1990 and 2010.

The analysis was undertaken by an international consortium of scientists as part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, which is published in The Lancettoday.

"Overall we're seeing a growing burden of risk factors that lead to chronic diseases in adults, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and a decreasing burden for risks associated with infectious diseases in children," said Professor Majid Ezzati of the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, one of the study's senior authors. "But this global picture disguises the starkly different trends across regions. The risks associated with poverty have come down in most places, like Asia and Latin America, but they remain the leading issues in sub-Saharan Africa."

The researchers estimated both the number of deaths attributed to each risk factor and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), a unit that takes into account both years of life lost and years lived with disability.

"We looked at risk factors for which good data are available on how many people are exposed to the risks and how strong their effects are, so that our results can inform policy and programmatic choices," said Associate Professor Stephen Lim at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. IHME served as the coordinating center for GBD 2010.

The risk factor with the greatest increase in health burden was high body mass index (BMI), which was ranked 10th in 1990 and sixth in 2010. More than 3 million deaths in 2010 were attributable to excess body weight - more than three times as many as undernutrition. In Australasia and southern Latin America, high BMI ranked as the leading risk factor.

The harms of alcohol also rose sharply, becoming the leading risk factor in Eastern Europe, most of Latin America and southern sub-Saharan Africa and accounting for 4.9 million deaths worldwide in 2010.

Tobacco smoking, including second-hand smoke, was the risk factor with the biggest burden in western Europe and high-income North American countries, and accounted for 6.3 million deaths worldwide in 2010.

Dietary risk factors and physical inactivity collectively accounted for one tenth of DALYs in 2010, with the most prominent dietary risks being too much salt and not enough fruit.

The burden of household air pollution from burning solid fuels such as coal or wood for cooking fell noticeably, but not having clean cooking and heating fuels remains the leading risk in south Asia.

"The good news is there are lots of things we can do to reduce disease risk," Professor Ezzati said. "To bring down the burden of high blood pressure, we need to regulate the salt content of food, provide easier access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and strengthen primary healthcare services. Undernutrition has come down in the ranking because we've made a lot of progress in many parts of the world. This should encourage us to continue those efforts and to replicate that success in Africa, where it's still a major problem."

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Imperial College London: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/press

Thanks to Imperial College London for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 25 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125927/Blood_pressure__smoking_and_alcohol__The_health_risks_with_the_biggest_global_burden

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Game4u starts Christmas sale on digital game downloads - Video ...

Don?t gamers just love holiday sales? And with Christmas just around the corner, everyone looks forward to a good gaming deal. With that in mind, the good folks at Game4u have announced a limited time discount on all the hottest games through their digital game download service, downloads4u.

In a release, Game4u stated that the Christmas holiday season sale on digitally downloaded games will begin from today, December 14, and conclude on Christmas Day i.e. December 25. This offers gaming enthusiasts a chance to purchase and download a discounted game through downloads4u any time in the next 12 days.

What?s more, Game4u has promised a new gaming deal announced every day under the downloads4u section of its website, with today?s discounted game being the recently launched Need For Speed: Most Wanted.

The daily gaming deals will have between 40 to 70 per cent price discounts on popular gaming titles. For instance, the NFS: Most Wanted title at the time of launch and our review last month was selling for Rs. 1,499. The same game is available for Rs. 899 through downloads4u?s Christmas sale offer ? that?s a saving of over 40 per cent. Not bad, eh?

It gets better. While all through the Christmas game sale duration through downloads4u, there?ll be one game offered every day, we?ve heard the mother of all sale will actually take place on Christmas day itself ? with more than one AAA title up for grabs at seriously low prices!

Just ensure you have a fast internet connection to download these games (after you buy them) through downloads4u, a digital game download service started by Game4u back in October.

If you haven?t yet, bookmark Game4u?s website right now and don?t forget to check out their daily deals till Christmas. We?ll try and highlight some obvious ones you wouldn?t want to miss here on the website or through our Facebook and Twitter pages. Stay tuned.

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Gaming/Game4u-starts-Christmas-sale-on-digital-game_11763.html

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Reality check for DNA nanotechnology

Friday, December 14, 2012

Two major barriers to the advancement of DNA nanotechnology beyond the research lab have been knocked down. This emerging technology employs DNA as a programmable building material for self-assembled, nanometer-scale structures. Many practical applications have been envisioned, and researchers recently demonstrated a synthetic membrane channel made from DNA. Until now, however, design processes were hobbled by a lack of structural feedback. Assembly was slow and often of poor quality. Now researchers led by Prof. Hendrik Dietz of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have removed these obstacles.

One barrier holding the field back was an unproven assumption. Researchers were able to design a wide variety of discrete objects and specify exactly how DNA strands should zip together and fold into the desired shapes. They could show that the resulting nanostructures closely matched the designs. Still lacking, though, was the validation of the assumed subnanometer-scale precise positional control. This has been confirmed for the first time through analysis of a test object designed specifically for the purpose. A technical breakthrough based on advances in fundamental understanding, this demonstration has provided a crucial reality check for DNA nanotechnology.

In a separate set of experiments, the researchers discovered that the time it takes to make a batch of complex DNA-based objects can be cut from a week to a matter of minutes, and that the yield can be nearly 100%. They showed for the first time that at a constant temperature, hundreds of DNA strands can fold cooperatively to form an object ? correctly, as designed ? within minutes. Surprisingly, they say, the process is similar to protein folding, despite significant chemical and structural differences. "Seeing this combination of rapid folding and high yield," Dietz says, "we have a stronger sense than ever that DNA nanotechnology could lead to a new kind of manufacturing, with a commercial, even industrial future." And there are immediate benefits, he adds: "Now we don't have to wait a week for feedback on an experimental design, and multi-step assembly processes have suddenly become so much more practical."

Atomically precise control

To test the assumption that discrete DNA objects could be assembled as designed with subnanometer precision, TUM biophysicists collaborated with scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. They produced a relatively large, three-dimensional DNA-based structure, asymmetrical to help determine the orientation, and incorporating distinctive design motifs.

Subnanometer-resolution imaging with low-temperature electron microscopy enabled the researchers to map the object ? which comprises more than 460,000 atoms ? with subnanometer-scale detail. Because the object incorporates, in effect, a whole library of different design elements, it will also serve as a resource for further study. The results, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, not only demonstrate atomically precise assembly, but also show that such structures, formerly thought to be jelly-like and flexible, are rigid enough to be probed by electron microscopy.

Fast processing, near-100% yields

In contrast, DNA objects with 19 different designs ? including plate-like, gear-like, and brick-like shapes ? were used for a second series of experiments at TUM, reported in the latest issue of Science. Here the researchers' main focus was on the dynamics of DNA folding and unfolding. The usual self-assembly process is often described as a "one-pot reaction": Strands of DNA that will serve as the template, instructions, and building material for a designed object are placed together at a relatively high temperature where they will remain separate; the temperature is gradually lowered, and somewhere along the line the DNA strands zip together to form the desired structures.

Observing this process in unprecedented detail, the TUM researchers discovered that all of the action takes place within a specific and relatively narrow temperature range, which differs depending on the design of the object. One practical implication is that, once the optimal temperature for a given design has been determined, DNA self-assembly ? nanomanufacturing, in essence ? could be accomplished through fast processes at constant temperatures. Following up on this lead, the researchers found that they could "mass-produce" objects made from hundreds of DNA strands within minutes instead of days, with almost no defective objects or by-products in the resulting batch.

"Besides telling us that complex DNA objects are manufacturable," Dietz says, "these results suggest something we hardly dared to imagine before ? that it might be possible to assemble DNA nanodevices in a cell culture or even within a living cell."

From the viewpoint of fundamental biology, the most intriguing result of these experiments may be the discovery that DNA folding resembles protein folding more closely than anticipated. Chemically and structurally, the two families of biomolecules are quite different. But the researchers observed clearly defined "cooperative" steps in the folding of complex DNA objects, no different in principle from mechanisms at work in protein folding. They speculate that further experiments with self-assembly of designed DNA objects could help to unravel the mysteries of protein folding, which is more complex and less accessible to direct study.

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Xiao-chen Bai, Thomas G. Martin, Sjors H. W. Scheres, Hendrik Dietz. Cryo-EM structure of a 3D DNA-origami object. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Dec. 4, 2012, 109 (49) 20012-20017; on-line in PNAS Early Edition, Nov. 19, 2012. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215713109

Jean-Philippe J. Sobczak, Thomas G. Martin, Thomas Gerling, Hendrik Dietz. Rapid folding of DNA into nanoscale shapes at constant temperature. Science, vol. 338, issue 6113, pp. 1458-1461. DOI: 10.1126/science.1229919

See also: Martin Langecker, Vera Arnaut, Thomas G. Martin, Jonathan List, Stephan Renner, Michael Mayer, Hendrik Dietz, and Friedrich C. Simmel. Synthetic lipid membrane channels formed by designed DNA nanostructures. Science, vol. 338, issue 6109, pp. 932-936. DOI: 10.1126/science.1225624

Technische Universitaet Muenchen: http://www.tum.de

Thanks to Technische Universitaet Muenchen for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 36 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125935/Reality_check_for_DNA_nanotechnology

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Whoa: Physicists testing to see if universe is a computer simulation

Could this be a computer simulation? (Space.com)Will you take the red pill or the blue pill?

Some physicists and university researchers say it's possible to test the theory that our entire universe exists inside a computer simulation, like in the 1999 film "The Matrix."

In 2003, University of Oxford philosophy professor Nick Bostrom published a paper, "The Simulation Argument," which argued that, "we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation." Now, a team at Cornell University says it has come up with a viable method for testing whether we're all just a series of numbers in some ancient civilization's computer game.

Researchers at the University of Washington agree with the testing method, saying it can be done. A similar proposal was put forth by German physicists in November.

So how, precisely, can we test whether we exist? Put simply, researchers are building their own simulated models, using a technique called lattice quantum chromodynamics. And while those models are currently able to produce models only slightly larger than the nucleus of an atom, University of Washington physics professor Martin Savage says the same principles used in creating those simulations can be applied on a larger scale.

"This is the first testable signature of such an idea," Savage said. "If you make the simulations big enough, something like our universe should emerge."

The testing method is far more complex. Consider the Cornell University explanation: "Using the historical development of lattice gauge theory technology as a guide, we assume that our universe is an early numerical simulation with unimproved Wilson fermion discretization and investigate potentially-observable consequences."

To translate, if energy signatures in our simulations match those in the universe at large, there's a good chance we, too, exist within a simulation.

Interestingly, one of Savage's students takes the hypothesis further: If we stumble upon the nature of our existence, would we then look for ways to communicate with the civilization who created us?

University of Washington student Zohreh Davoudi says whoever made our simulated universe might have made others, and maybe we should "simply" attempt to communicate with those.?"The question is, 'Can you communicate with those other universes if they are running on the same platform?'" she asked.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/whoa-physicists-testing-see-universe-computer-simulation-224525825.html

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