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greggsrosanne75 · ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011)

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) ? Life-threatening viruses such as HIV, SARS, hepatitis and influenza, could soon be combatted in an unusual manner as researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of plasma for inactivating and preventing the replication of adenoviruses.

When exposed to plasma -- the fourth state of matter in addition to solids, liquids and gases -- for a period of just 240 seconds, it was found that only one in a million viruses could still replicate -- practically all were inactivated.

The study, published in IOP Publishing's Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, is one of the first to concentrate specifically on viruses and builds on research that has already shown the usefulness of plasma in eradicating bacteria from skin (http://www.iop.org/news/09/november/page_42357.html) and sterilising water (http://www.iop.org/news/11/nov/page_52641.html).

Within a hospital environment, a plasma generating device could realistically rid hands of potentially lethal viruses that relay on a host organism to replicate and spread. In the long-term, plasma could be inhaled directly to treat viruses in the lungs, or applied to blood outside of the body to remove any viruses before transfusion.

The researchers, from the Max-Planck Institut f?r extraterrestrische Physik and Technische Universit?t M?nchen, specifically chose adenoviruses to examine as they are one of the most difficult viruses to inactivate. Illnesses resulting from this specific virus, for example, can only be managed by treating symptoms and complications of the infection, rather than targeting the actual virus itself.

Adenoviruses predominantly cause respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchitis and are hard to inactivate as the whole virus is encased in a protein layer, helping it to remain physically stable and tolerate moderate increases in heat and pH.

In this study, the adenoviruses were diluted to specific concentrations and then exposed to plasma for 240 seconds, before being incubated for an hour. A control group of adenoviruses were given the exact same treatment apart from the plasma exposure.

Two separate cell lines were then infected with the two sets of adenoviruses: the ones that were treated with plasma and the control group. To test whether a cell had the virus or not, the researchers programmed the virus to produce a protein that fluoresced green when a specific type of light was shone onto it.

Whilst the exact mechanisms behind the plasma?s impressive effects are relatively unknown, it is thought that they are a result of a combination of reactions between the plasma and surrounding air, which create similar species to the ones found in our own immune system when under microbial attack.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institute of Physics (IOP), via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal References:

J L Zimmermann, K Dumler, T Shimizu, G E Morfill, A Wolf, V Boxhammer, J Schlegel, B Gansbacher, M Anton. Effects of cold atmospheric plasmas on adenoviruses in solution. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2011; 44 (50): 505201 DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/44/50/505201
Matthew J Traylor, Matthew J Pavlovich, Sharmin Karim, Pritha Hait, Yukinori Sakiyama, Douglas S Clark, David B Graves. Long-term antibacterial efficacy of air plasma-activated water. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2011; 44 (47): 472001 DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/44/47/472001
G E Morfill, T Shimizu, B Steffes, H-U Schmidt. Nosocomial infections?a new approach towards preventive medicine using plasmas. New Journal of Physics, 2009; 11 (11): 115019 DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/11/11/115019

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111205102313.htm

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Republican presidential hopeful former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at the annual meeting of the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Americans are going to have to do more for themselves if they want the government to do less, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday.

The former House speaker's call for "more responsible" citizens is the crux of the message he said he planned to stress as he approached the final month of campaigning for votes in Iowa's leadoff nominating caucuses.

"Whether you are a parent or grandparent or an aunt or an uncle you have responsibilities to your community, your neighborhood," Gingrich told about 500 employees of an insurance company at its Des Moines headquarters. "And we're all going to have to roll up our sleeves and be a little bit more responsible in the next 30 years."

While warning that he alone couldn't turn the country around as president, Gingrich also expressed confidence in his resurgent campaign. He is riding a wave of late support, having lost most of his national campaign staff in June over fundraising and strategy issues. Larger crowds turned out during his two-day Iowa visit than those coming to see his Republican rivals recently.

Gingrich capped the visit Thursday by headlining the Polk County GOP fundraising dinner. Party officials said they had hoped two weeks ago to sell 300 tickets to the dinner, but they ended up packing packed 450 into the convention hall and had to turn about 100 away.

Earlier, he met with some of Iowa's many Republican state lawmakers and picked up backing from a former top supporter of rival Herman Cain.

"I'm going to be the nominee," Gingrich said in an ABC News interview. "It's very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I'm going to be the nominee."

Gingrich's demeanor, loose and cheerful, belied the increasing intensity in the once slow-moving campaign for Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses.

While a driving snow in central Iowa heralded the coming caucuses, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was preparing to air his first advertisement in Iowa, a spot for Friday touting his business background and plan to cut the budget.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also planned to introduce a new ad Friday, his seventh, focusing on his Christian faith.

Two nationally televised debates are scheduled within the next two weeks in the state.

Despite leading in some national and Iowa polls, Gingrich has little of the campaign infrastructure on the ground. Identifying supporters and turning them out at roughly 1,700 precinct-level political meetings requires an organizational network other candidates have spent more time developing than Gingrich has.

Last month, he hired back two of the Iowa staffers who quit in June, and added three more this week.

Gingrich joked Thursday that a methodical march to the caucuses would have been no challenge.

"We had a chance in June to do it easy, and thought to ourselves, why would you want to do that?" Gingrich said during an Associated Press interview.

He said he's now scrambling to build a campaign organization while hoping a winning message can resonate with undecided caucusgoers.

Gingrich's scholarly style ? he's a former college history professor ? and blunt candor have produced standout debate performances that have boosted his fundraising in recent months.

Without scolding, he said lasting economic recovery would require sacrifice.

"So every person who says they want a smaller bureaucracy and less power in Washington, you better sign up to do more things yourself," he told the AP.

It was a message that won over Charlie Gruchow. A tea party organizer in Iowa, he had been a strong supporter of Cain. But the reports of sexual harassment and an alleged extramarital affair had damaged Cain, said Gruchow, who said he would support and likely work for Gingrich's campaign.

Gingrich's path is far from certain.

Polls of Iowa GOP caucusgoers have shown Romney continually strong but not dominant, underscoring a healthy contingent of Republicans looking for an alternative to the former Massachusetts governor.

Gingrich's history as a Washington insider with nuanced positions, such as support for allowing some illegal immigrants to remain in the country, has prompted rivals to begin attacking him in the conservative state.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul released a blistering Internet video Wednesday, raking Gingrich in part for receiving more than $1.5 million from the embattled federally backed mortgage company Freddie Mac for consulting work after he left Congress.

"If we want nuance, we have that in Romney," said Iowa Republican activist Chuck Laudner. "What we want is clarity."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-01-Gingrich/id-ec7524e9a9574d31a441a271afafaaf1

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greggsrosanne75 · ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2011)

ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2011) ? Is there a psychological reason why people default on their mortgages? A new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people with bad credit scores are more impatient -- more likely to choose immediate rewards rather than wait for a larger reward later.

The new paper is by two economists who were working at the Federal Reserve's Center for Behavioral Economics and Decisionmaking in Boston at the time they did the research. People at the Fed are very interested in understanding how the default crisis came about. "Most often, the reasons economists put forward are, maybe there was not enough screening for mortgage applicants, or securitization, or other institutional reasons," says Stephan Meier, who is now at Columbia University. His coauthor, Charles Sprenger, is at Stanford University. "That's definitely important, but in the end humans make those repayment decisions. So there must be more psychological factors that explain how people make those decisions to default or not?"

During tax season, Meier and Sprenger recruited 437 low-to-moderate income people at a community center in Boston that was offering tax preparation help. Each person was given a questionnaire in which they made choices between a smaller, immediate reward and a larger reward later. This is a common test for seeing if people are willing to delay gratification. The questions offer different time periods and different amounts. The participants also agreed to let the researchers access their credit scores.

Impatient people had lower credit scores. A low credit score can indicate some problems with credit in the past, like failing to pay bills or defaulting on a mortgage. "Conceptually, it does make sense that how people discount the future, i.e. how impatient they are, affects their decision to default on their loans," Meier says. "Individuals accumulate debt and then have to decide whether to repay the money or use the money for something else?" If they don't pay off their debt, they will have short-term benefits -- any cash on hand is available for something else -- but the costs/problems come much later, when a landlord, mortgage lender, or someone else sees their bad credit report.

Meier acknowledges that defaulting on a loan isn't always a deliberate choice. People may default because they lose their job, for example. "But there is a little bit of strategic defaulting going on, where some people make this cost-benefit analysis" -- those individuals rather have more money now and deal with the repercussions later.

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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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111202155803.htm

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greggsrosanne75

The deal was obviously done, but today the MLBPA announced that the union membership has ratified the new collective bargaining agreement.

Some of our previous thoughts on the CBA can be read here,?here and here. ?The upshot: great for peace and notable issues like HGH testing and tobacco and stuff, worrisome for what it does to hamstring teams who want to build through the draft and amateur signings. ?It?s a surprisingly small number of people who seem to care about that even though it will have a pretty tremendous impact on the game going forward.

But hey, no strikes, right?

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/01/the-players-ratify-the-labor-deal/

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NEW YORK ? As potential voters in New Hampshire and Iowa scan the Internet, they probably are seeing ads for Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama alongside deals for shoes and holiday gifts.

The campaign ads will then follow those voters around the Web, popping up on news sites, Google searches and on social networking sites like Facebook.

Online advertising, once used primarily as a way to reach young and heavily wired consumers, has emerged as an essential communications tool in the 2012 presidential contest. While few expect Web ads to supplant television commercials anytime soon, strategists say online ads may be the most nimble, efficient and cost-effective way to reach voters.

"Online advertising cuts through because of its ability to target. It's unparalleled in any other medium," said Romney's digital director, Zac Moffatt. "TV may be more effective for driving a big message, but per usage, the Internet is more powerful. We are probably one presidential cycle from everyone believing that."

Web ads can take many forms, from small display boxes to clickable videos to 15- or 30-second commercials known as "pre-rolls" a viewer sees before the start of a news clip or YouTube video.

While campaigns invest heavily in television ads to reach a mass audience, Web ads are geared specifically to people based on their ZIP code, demographics and, most importantly, their Internet browsing history.

That means someone who has visited the Obama campaign website probably will start seeing his ads on a number of different Web pages. Those who use Google to search for information on the Republican candidates might notice a Romney campaign pre-roll the next time they watch a TV show online.

Campaigns also buy ads on websites that cater to the different demographic groups the campaigns are hoping to reach.

"When someone expresses interest in politics online, it's an incredibly good time for the campaigns to talk to them," said Andrew Roos, a Google account leader who works with Democratic campaigns on Web ad strategy. "You want to grab people when they are paying attention and ask them to take another action, like send money or attend an offline event. It's an old-school organization principle that has been working its way online."

Campaigns were slow to adapt to online advertising even as the corporate world flocked to the Web with product ads years ago. Internet ad revenue climbed to nearly $7.9 billion in the third quarter of 2011, up 22 percent from the same time last year, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau, which tracks online ad spending.

Corporations now spend from 18 percent to 28 percent of their advertising budget online, while campaigns historically have spent no more than 5 percent.

Chris Talbot, a freelance campaign digital strategist, noted that big companies can devote considerable time, money and research to figuring out what works online and what doesn't. Campaigns don't have that luxury.

"There is no `next quarter' in politics, so campaigns usually revert to a template of what's worked in the past," he said.

In 2008, Obama and Republican presidential rival John McCain both did limited online campaign advertising. Web ads grew more prevalent in the 2010 midterm elections, when 85 of the top-spending House races and 600 interest groups bought display ads on Google.

Plenty of Internet users say they aren't thrilled with the proliferation of online ads, particularly those that follow them from site to site.

A USA Today/Gallup poll taken in late 2010 found 9 of 10 respondents said they pay little attention to online ads. Two-thirds said they don't believe advertisers should be able to target them based on their past Web searches.

"The only way it works is on a mass scale. Most people ignore ads on the Web," said Aaron Shapiro, head of the digital marking firm HUGE.

Web ads' biggest advantage, many strategists say, is accountability.

"Online ads are very metric driven ? you can figure out how many impressions you got, how many people clicked, how many people signed up for an email address. All of that is calculated in real time," Google's Roos said. "It's much more efficient than direct mail and TV."

The Romney campaign's Moffatt said Web ads became part of the media strategy when officials there realized how much their own viewing habits had changed.

"Strategists here acknowledge they really don't watch live TV," Moffatt said.

___

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

___

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_el_pr/us_online_campaign_ads

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greggsrosanne75

Vice President Joe Biden arrived Tuesday in Iraq for a surprise visit aimed at touting the administration's promise to end the war, and also to thank US and Iraqi troops ??? and to start talks on a "new phase" in US-Iraqi relations.

The White House cast Biden's unannounced visit ? just over two weeks before the last US forces are scheduled to leave the country ? as a chance to highlight President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign promise to wind down the war in Iraq.

The administration said Biden would "commemorate the sacrifices and accomplishments of US and Iraqi troops" as well as meet with Iraqi officials as the US begins a "new phase" of cooperation with the country on a wide range of issues.

Can you find Iraq on a map? Take our Middle East geography quiz.

It's Biden's eighth visit to Iraq since becoming vice president.

"It's good to be back for this purpose," said Biden. At the US Embassy in Baghdad, which was decorated for Christmas, he met with Ambassador James F. Jeffrey and Gen. Lloyd Austin, the commander of US forces in Iraq. Biden, who was last in Iraq in January, noted that Austin kidded him that he's now eligible for Iraqi citizenship.

'Ending the war responsibly'White House spokesman Jay Carney called Biden's visit the fulfillment of a promise "where we are withdrawing the remaining US forces from Iraq and we are ending that war responsibly and giving the Iraqi people the chance for a better future that they deserve and also maintaining an important strategic relationship with Iraq."

While there, Biden will co-chair a meeting of the US-Iraq Higher Coordinating Committee and meet with Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi.

Republicans on the campaign trail and in Congress have criticized Obama for withdrawing all US troops from Iraq and failing to secure an agreement with Maliki to keep some U.S. forces in the country to help assure that it remains relatively stable. A sticking point for the administration was the Iraqi government's refusal to give US troops immunity from prosecution. Maliki is scheduled to meet with Obama at the White House on Dec. 12.

A new phase of US involvementAnalysts noted that the withdrawal of US forces doesn't end American involvement in Iraq, given its considerable oil resources and location: next to Iran.

"The timing is not so much dictated by the fact we're going to leave at the end of the year, but the fact that we do not have anything like the civil or military relationship we'd hoped to build a year ago," said Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a center-right think tank. "We need to see if we can find a better relationship and one that will do a better job of containing Iran and trying to bring political and security stability to the country."

Cordesman said he didn't expect any dramatic breakthrough from Biden's visit, but he said that with senior Iranian officials visiting Iraq, and Iraqi officials visiting Iran, "the last thing on Earth you want to do is leave a power vacuum in this area."

"We can say in a way that the war has ended, but our relationship with Iraq hasn't," Cordesman said.

Fears of a resurgence of violenceThe US ended its combat mission in Iraq on Aug. 31, 2010, and drew down to fewer than 50,000 troops from about 144,000 in January 2009. The administration maintains that violence in Iraq has remained at its lowest level since 2003, though some analysts fear a resurgence of violence after US troops withdraw.

In a statement, the White House said that Obama and Maliki "agreed that it was in the best interests of both the United States and Iraq to draw down US forces by the end of 2011 and embark on a new phase in our relationship ??? a long-term strategic partnership across a range of sectors."

The statement said that as part of a US-Iraq agreement, the two countries are "deepening our cooperation on politics and diplomacy; trade and finance; energy; services, technology, the environment, and transportation; law enforcement and the judiciary; and defense and security."

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20111130/wl_csm/430552

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