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Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Canon Built An Image Sensor That Sees In the Dark
Cheltenham Center for the Arts to Hold Family Fun Day - Abington ...
The Cheltenham Center for the Arts will hold its annual Family Fun Day on Sunday, March 17 from noon to 4 p.m.
The day includes theater performances from the Cheltenham Center for the Arts? Young Improvisors? Troupe; musical performances from Cheltenham High School?s a cappella groups and an open house full of artists.
The day is free and open to the public.
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Up the Octave, Cheltenham High School's student-run, all-female a cappella group will begin the day with a performance at 2:30 p.m. The ensemble, with approximately 16 members in grades 9-12, performs mainly contemporary pop and rock music.
The Sons of Pitch, Cheltenham High School?s student-run, all-male a cappella group will perform at 3 p.m. The ensemble also has about 16 members and comprises students in grades 9-12.?
The instructors and artists will be demonstrating their craft in the unique and amazing studio spaces Cheltenham Center for the Arts has to offer. From pottery, painting, printmaking, theatre and more, the whole family will be able to create objects of art in the various studios and take their creations home that day. Dress for a mess and introduce yourself to everything Cheltenham Center for the Arts has to offer.
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The Cheltenham Center for the Arts is located at 439 Ashbourne Road, Cheltenham.
Source: http://abington.patch.com/articles/cheltenham-center-for-the-arts-to-hold-family-fun-day
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Monday, March 4, 2013
Researchers describe first 'functional HIV cure' in an infant
Mar. 3, 2013 ? A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins Children's Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School describe the first case of a so-called "functional cure" in an HIV-infected infant. The finding, the investigators say, may help pave the way to eliminating HIV infection in children.
A report on the case was presented at a press conference on Sunday, March 3, at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Atlanta. Johns Hopkins Children's Center virologist Deborah Persaud, M.D., lead author on the report, and University of Massachusetts Medical School immunologist and professor Katherine Luzuriaga, M.D., headed a team of laboratory investigators. Pediatric HIV specialist Hannah Gay, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center provided treatment to the baby.
The infant described in the report underwent remission of HIV infection after receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) within 30 hours of birth. The investigators say the prompt administration of antiviral treatment likely led to this infant's cure by halting the formation of hard-to-treat viral reservoirs -- dormant cells responsible for reigniting the infection in most HIV patients within weeks of stopping therapy.
"Prompt antiviral therapy in newborns that begins within days of exposure may help infants clear the virus and achieve long-term remission without lifelong treatment by preventing such viral hideouts from forming in the first place," Persaud says.
The researchers say they believe this is precisely what happened in the child described in the report. That infant is now deemed "functionally cured," a condition that occurs when a patient achieves and maintains long-term viral remission without lifelong treatment and standard clinical tests fail to detect HIV replication in the blood.
In contrast to a sterilizing cure -- a complete eradication of all viral traces from the body -- a functional cure occurs when viral presence is so minimal, it remains undetectable by standard clinical tests, yet discernible by ultrasensitive methods.
The child described in the current report was born to an HIV-infected mother and received combination antiretroviral treatment beginning 30 hours after birth. A series of tests showed progressively diminishing viral presence in the infant's blood, until it reached undetectable levels 29 days after birth. The infant remained on antivirals until 18 months of age, at which point the child was lost to follow-up for a while and, the researchers say, stopped treatment. Ten months after discontinuation of treatment, the child underwent repeated standard blood tests, none of which detected HIV presence in the blood. Test for HIV-specific antibodies -- the standard clinical indicator of HIV infection -- also remained negative throughout.
Currently, high-risk newborns -- those born to mothers with poorly controlled infections or whose mothers' HIV status is discovered around the time of delivery -- receive a combination of antivirals at prophylactic doses to prevent infection for six weeks and start therapeutic doses if and once infection is diagnosed. But this particular case, the investigators say, may change the current practice because it highlights the curative potential of very early ART.
Specialists say natural viral suppression without treatment is an exceedingly rare phenomenon observed in less than half a percent of HIV-infected adults, known as "elite controllers," whose immune systems are able to rein in viral replication and keep the virus at clinically undetectable levels. HIV experts have long sought a way to help all HIV patients achieve elite-controller status. The new case, the researchers say, may be that long-sought game-changer because it suggests prompt ART in newborns can do just that.
The investigators caution they don't have enough data to recommend change right now to the current practice of treating high-risk infants with prophylactic, rather than therapeutic, doses but the infant's case provides the rationale to start proof-of-principle studies in all high-risk newborns.
"Our next step is to find out if this is a highly unusual response to very early antiretroviral therapy or something we can actually replicate in other high-risk newborns," says Persaud, who is also the scientific chair of the HIV Cure Committee of the International Maternal, Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical (IMPAACT) network, a consortium of researchers and institutions that was critical in spearheading the earliest clinical trials of mother-to-child transmission and early treatment of infants 15 years ago.
A single case of sterilizing cure has been reported so far, the investigators note. It occurred in an HIV-positive man treated with a bone marrow transplant for leukemia. The bone marrow cells came from a donor with a rare genetic mutation of the white blood cells that renders some people resistant to HIV, a benefit that transferred to the recipient. Such a complex treatment approach, however, HIV experts agree, is neither feasible nor practical for the 33 million people worldwide infected with HIV.
"Complete viral eradication on a large scale is our long-term goal but, for now, remains out of reach, and our best chance may come from aggressive, timely and precisely targeted use of antiviral therapies in high-risk newborns as a way to achieve functional cure," says Luzuriaga.
Despite the promise this approach holds for infected newborns, the researchers say preventing mother-to-child transmission remains the primary goal.
"Prevention really is the best cure, and we already have proven strategies that can prevent 98 percent of newborn infections by identifying and treating HIV-positive pregnant women," says Gay, the HIV expert who treated the infant.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Massachusetts Medical School. The original article was written by Lisa M. Larson, UMass Medical School Communications.
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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.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/6s45GsrkCDg/130304105656.htm
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Syrians killed on road in Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen killed at least 40 Syrian soldiers and government employees who were being taken to the Syrian border by Iraqi authorities on Monday after fleeing into Iraq from a Syrian rebel attack last week, Iraqi officials said.
A convoy carrying the Syrians was ambushed in Iraq's western province of Anbar, where thousands of Iraqi Sunnis have been protesting daily for more than two months against the Shi'ite-led government and the perceived marginalization of their sect.
The conflict in neighboring Syria, where mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are fighting to overthrow a leader backed by Shi'ite Iran, is whipping up sectarian tensions in Iraq and the wider Middle East.
That has raised concerns of a return to the kind of sectarian strife that killed tens of thousands in Iraq in 2006-2007.
"The incident took place in Akashat when the convoy carrying the Syrian soldiers and employees was on its way to the al-Waleed border crossing," a senior Iraqi official told Reuters.
"Gunmen set up an ambush and killed 40 of them, plus some Iraqi soldiers who were protecting the convoy."
The Iraqi officials said some 65 Syrian soldiers and government employees had handed themselves over to Iraq on Friday after anti-government rebels seized the Syrian side of the Yaarabiya frontier crossing.
Anbar's Sunnis have been venting frustrations that have built up since the U.S.-led invasion overthrew the Sunni Muslim dictator Saddam Hussein and empowered Iraqi's majority Shi'ites.
(Additional reporting by Kamal Naama; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/least-40-syrians-killed-road-home-iraq-153245018.html
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Sunday, March 3, 2013
Iditarod kicks off with festive ceremonial start
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? Mushers and their dogs are taking a leisurely jaunt through Anchorage in the ceremonial start of Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
The 1,000-mile race kicked off Saturday in a festive mood as 66 teams posed with fans and sailed their sleds 11 miles on streets covered with trucked-in snow.
The event comes ahead of the real, competitive start of the race Sunday in Willow 50 miles to the north.
From there, mushers and their dog teams begin making their way through unforgiving wilderness toward the finish line in Nome on Alaska's western coast.
The winner will get a new truck and $50,400. The rest of the $600,000 purse will be split between the next 29 mushers to cross the finish line.
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Follow Rachel D'Oro on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rdoro
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iditarod-kicks-off-festive-ceremonial-start-190500240.html
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Warren Buffett: $24 billion gain is 'subpar'
Warren Buffett's annual shareholders letter says Berkshire Hathaway's 14.4 percent gain trailed the S&P's performance. That's happened only eight other times in 48 years that Buffett has owned Berkshire Hathaway.?
Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., arrives at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, in 2012. Mr. Buffett called the company's $24 billion gain 'subpar' in his annual shareholders letter, because it should outperform the S&P 500 index over time.
Paul Sakuma/AP/File
EnlargeWarren Buffett called 2012 "subpar" in his?annual letter to shareholders?as Berkshire Hathaway's per-share book value rose 14.4 percent, less than the S&P 500's 16-percent increase.
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It's the ninth time in 48 years this has happened. Buffett notes that the S&P has outpaced Berkshire over the past four years and if the market continues to gain this year the benchmark stock index could have its first five-year win ever.
"When the partnership I ran took control of Berkshire in 1965, I could never have dreamed that a year in which we had a gain of $24.1 billion would be subpar ... But subpar it was."
Buffett notes that while he believes Berkshire's intrinsic value will probably beat the S&P by a "small margin" over time, the company's relative performance is better when the market is down or unchanged. "In years when the market is particularly strong, except us to fall short."
Even so, Buffett warned that he and partner Charlie Munger "will not change yardsticks. "It's our?job?to increase intrinsic business value ? for which we use book value as a?significantly understated proxy?? at a faster rate than the market gains of the S&P." If they are successful, Berkshire's share price will beat the S&P "over time."
Berkshire's boss did have praise for his two new investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, writing that "we hit the jackpot with these two." Buffett said they both outperformed the S&P by "double-digit margins" in 2012. Using a very small font, Buffett added, "They left me in the dust as well."
Buffett also expressed disappointment that Berkshire didn't make a major acquisition last year. "I pursued a couple of elephants, but came up empty-handed."
Echoing what?he told us?after Berkshire announced two weeks ago that it's teaming up with 3G Capital for a?$23 billion acquisition?of?H.J. Heinz, Buffett said even though that deal accounts for much of what Berkshire earned last year, "we still have plenty of cash and are generating more at a good clip."
"So it's back to work; Charlie and I have again donned our safari outfits and resumed our search," Buffett said.?(Read More:?Warren Buffett: 'I'm Ready for Another Elephant')
Buffett criticized "hand-wringing" from CEOs who "cried 'uncertainty' when faced with capital-allocation decisions." Berkshire, he said, spent a record $9.8 billion on plants and equipment last year. "We will keep our foot to the floor and will almost certainly set still another record for capital expenditures in 2013. Opportunities abound in America."
Buffett still sees an opportunity in local newspapers. Berkshire has spent $344 million to buy 28 dailies, and Buffett expected more purchases of "papers of the type we like" at "appropriate prices."
Even though he still believes overall newspaper industry profits are "certain"?to drop, Buffett likes smaller community-oriented newspapers that provide local news and information that can't be obtained elsewhere. "Wherever there is a pervasive sense of community, a paper that serves the special informational needs of that community will remain indispensable to a significant portion of its residents."
Buffett isn't a fan of giving that information away for free on the Internet, pointing out that an Arkansas paper has retained its circulation "far better than any other large paper in the country" after it was an early adopter of a pay model.For its fourth quarter, Berkshire's operating earnings per share came in at $1704, below the consensus estimate of $1755 from the few analysts who follow the firm.?(Read More:?We Want Your Questions for Warren Buffett)
The company's net earnings were $4.55 billion in the quarter, up from $3.05 billion in last year's Q4. That includes "paper" gains for derivatives contracts Berkshire has sold that provide insurance against losses for some corporate bonds and stock indexes.
The bond-related contracts will expire in the next year. Buffett expects they will generate a $1 billion pre-tax profit. After unwinding about 10 percent of its exposure in 2010 at a profit of $222 million, the remaining stock index contracts will expire between 2018 and 2026.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/I4Lwa0i-CjE/Warren-Buffett-24-billion-gain-is-subpar
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