Victor Rasuk will play Ana's college friend Jose in E.L. James adaptation.
By Amy Wilkinson
FILE - This Sept. 10, 2013 file photo shows actor Ewan McGregor at the press conference for "August: Osage County" at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto. McGregor will make his Broadway debut next year in a revival of Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing.” Roundabout Theatre Company said Thursday McGregor will play the unhappily married Henry in the play under the direction of Sam Gold. Previews begin next October at the American Airlines Theatre. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - This Sept. 10, 2013 file photo shows actor Ewan McGregor at the press conference for "August: Osage County" at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto. McGregor will make his Broadway debut next year in a revival of Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing.” Roundabout Theatre Company said Thursday McGregor will play the unhappily married Henry in the play under the direction of Sam Gold. Previews begin next October at the American Airlines Theatre. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — "Star Wars" and "Trainspotting" star Ewan McGregor will make his Broadway debut next year in a revival of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing."
Roundabout Theatre Company said Thursday that McGregor will play the unhappily married Henry in the play under the direction of Sam Gold. Previews begin next October at the American Airlines Theatre.
McGregor was last seen on the stage in 2008 in London starring as Iago (ee-AY'-goh) opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor's (CHOO'-ih-tel EHJ'-ee-oh-fohrz) Othello at the Donmar Warehouse. He also starred alongside Jane Krakowski, Douglas Hodge and Jenna Russell in the original Donmar Warehouse production of "Guys and Dolls" at the Piccadilly Theatre in London.
McGregor will be seen next in John Wells' film adaptation of Tracy Letts' Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play "August: Osage County" opposite Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-31-Theater-Ewan%20McGregor/id-73386d82b3eb4699966d99fec39f0a97![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Ken Branson
kbranson@ucm.rutgers.edu
732-932-7084 x633
Rutgers University
Some climate change skeptics have pointed out that global atmospheric temperatures have been stable, or even declined slightly, over the past decade. They claim it's a sign that global warming has either ceased, slowed down or is not caused by human activity.
So, where did all that heat that we're supposedly producing go?
Climate scientists say it went into the ocean, which over the past 60 years has acted as a buffer against global warming. However, a new study led by Rutgers' Yair Rosenthal shows that the ocean is now absorbing heat 15 times faster than it has over the previous 10,000 years. Although the increased heat absorption by the ocean may give scientists and policymakers more time to deal with the issue of climate change, Rosenthal says the problem is real and must be addressed.
"We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy," Rosenthal said. "It may buy us some time how much time, I don't really know to come to terms with climate change. But it's not going to stop climate change."
Rosenthal, a professor of marine and coastal sciences in Rutgers' School of Environmental and Biological Sciences; Braddock Linsley of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; and Delia W. Oppo of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, used the shells of tiny single-celled, bottom-dwelling foraminifera found in sediment cores to reconstruct the Pacific Ocean's heat content over the last 10,000 years. Their paper has been published in Science.
The heat content of the ocean had been measured before, but only instrumentally, and only back to the mid-20th century.
Their research was undertaken on marine sediment collected from the seas surrounding Indonesia, where the waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans overlap. The researchers measured the ratio of magnesium to calcium in the shells of a particular species of foraminifera, Hyalinea balthica. The warmer the waters when the organism calcified, the greater the magnesium to calcium ratio.
Yair Rosenthal
The shell chemistry of these tiny creatures provides a record of intermediate water temperatures going back 10,000 years, not only in the part of the Pacific where they were collected but from the higher latitudes in the Pacific as well. That's because the intermediate water in the western Pacific depths between 450 and 1,000 meters consists of water that once was near the surface in the northern and southern Pacific. The waters became saltier and colder over time and sank, then flowed very slowly toward the equator and through the passages between islands in Indonesia.
"Our work showed that intermediate waters in the Pacific had been cooling steadily from about 10,000 years ago" said Linsley. This places the recent warming of Pacific intermediate waters in temporal context. The trend has now reversed in a big way and the deep ocean is warming."
###
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Ken Branson
kbranson@ucm.rutgers.edu
732-932-7084 x633
Rutgers University
Some climate change skeptics have pointed out that global atmospheric temperatures have been stable, or even declined slightly, over the past decade. They claim it's a sign that global warming has either ceased, slowed down or is not caused by human activity.
So, where did all that heat that we're supposedly producing go?
Climate scientists say it went into the ocean, which over the past 60 years has acted as a buffer against global warming. However, a new study led by Rutgers' Yair Rosenthal shows that the ocean is now absorbing heat 15 times faster than it has over the previous 10,000 years. Although the increased heat absorption by the ocean may give scientists and policymakers more time to deal with the issue of climate change, Rosenthal says the problem is real and must be addressed.
"We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy," Rosenthal said. "It may buy us some time how much time, I don't really know to come to terms with climate change. But it's not going to stop climate change."
Rosenthal, a professor of marine and coastal sciences in Rutgers' School of Environmental and Biological Sciences; Braddock Linsley of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; and Delia W. Oppo of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, used the shells of tiny single-celled, bottom-dwelling foraminifera found in sediment cores to reconstruct the Pacific Ocean's heat content over the last 10,000 years. Their paper has been published in Science.
The heat content of the ocean had been measured before, but only instrumentally, and only back to the mid-20th century.
Their research was undertaken on marine sediment collected from the seas surrounding Indonesia, where the waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans overlap. The researchers measured the ratio of magnesium to calcium in the shells of a particular species of foraminifera, Hyalinea balthica. The warmer the waters when the organism calcified, the greater the magnesium to calcium ratio.
Yair Rosenthal
The shell chemistry of these tiny creatures provides a record of intermediate water temperatures going back 10,000 years, not only in the part of the Pacific where they were collected but from the higher latitudes in the Pacific as well. That's because the intermediate water in the western Pacific depths between 450 and 1,000 meters consists of water that once was near the surface in the northern and southern Pacific. The waters became saltier and colder over time and sank, then flowed very slowly toward the equator and through the passages between islands in Indonesia.
"Our work showed that intermediate waters in the Pacific had been cooling steadily from about 10,000 years ago" said Linsley. This places the recent warming of Pacific intermediate waters in temporal context. The trend has now reversed in a big way and the deep ocean is warming."
###
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Deborah Elson
deborah.elson@sabin.org
202-621-1691
Public Library of Science
A leading cause of heart disease remains overlooked in North America's most impoverished communities, researchers said today in an editorial published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Chagas disease has rendered a heavy health and economic toll, yet insufficient political and medical support for gathering specific data, providing diagnosis and treatment, and developing new tools has impeded much-needed breakthroughs.
"We have already identified critical steps to save lives and make breakthroughs in Chagas disease control in North America," said Dr. Peter Hotez, the editorial's lead author, director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. "This is an achievable public health goal that will also reduce the disease's detrimental economic burden. Greater medical awareness, scientific cooperation between key countries, and public-private partnerships will help us beat this scourge."
Chagas disease is a parasitic infection most commonly transmitted through blood-feeding triatomine bugs, but it can also be spread through pregnancy, blood transfusion, and contaminated food or drink. Up to 30% of infections result in debilitating and life-threatening heart disease and severe intestinal and liver complications. People living in extremely impoverished communities are most vulnerable because of poor-quality housing and inadequate access to health care, education and vector control.
Chagas disease infects an estimated 10 million people worldwide; however, much less is known about the true disease burden in North America. According to some preliminary estimates, Mexico ranks third, and the United States seventh, in terms of the number of infected individuals with Chagas disease in the Western Hemisphere, where 99% of the cases occur.
It is also estimated that 40,000 pregnant North American women may be infected with T. cruzi at any given time, resulting in 2,000 congenital cases through mother-to-child transmission.
A lack of facilities offering diagnosis and treatment of Chagas disease has prevented at-risk and infected people from receiving the critical and often life-saving attention they need. While two drug treatments currently exist, they cause undesirable adverse effects, are unsafe for pregnant women and are not approved for use in the United States.
"The research community is pushing science as hard as possible to ensure we get new treatments to people living with Chagas disease, but we need to ensure that governments prioritize the disease," said Dr. Bernard Pecoul, a co-author of the editorial and Executive Director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). "It is urgent to diagnose and treat patients with what we have available today, until research and development efforts deliver true breakthroughs for the millions in need." DNDi has produced a pediatric dosage form of benznidazole for children with Chagas disease, and is currently developing new drug candidates for a truly novel, safe, effective and affordable treatment for all patients.
The Sabin Vaccine Institute's Product Development Partnership (Sabin PDP), in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital and with support from the Slim Initiative for the Development of Neglected Tropical Diseases and from the Southwest Electronic Energy Medical Research, has initiated development for a new therapeutic vaccine.
###
In addition to Dr. Hotez and Dr. Pecoul, the paper's authors include Eric Dumonteil, Autonomous University of Yucatan (UADY); Miguel Betancourt Cravioto, Carlos Slim Health Institute; Maria Elena Bottazzi, National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development; Roberto Tapia-Conyer, Carlos Slim Health Institute; Sheba Meymandi, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center; Unni Karunakara, Medecins Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders; Isabela Ribeiro, DNDi; and Rachel M. Cohen, DNDi.
PLEASE ADD THE FOLLOWING LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT: http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002300
(Link will go live upon embargo lift)
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Deborah Elson
deborah.elson@sabin.org
202-621-1691
Public Library of Science
A leading cause of heart disease remains overlooked in North America's most impoverished communities, researchers said today in an editorial published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Chagas disease has rendered a heavy health and economic toll, yet insufficient political and medical support for gathering specific data, providing diagnosis and treatment, and developing new tools has impeded much-needed breakthroughs.
"We have already identified critical steps to save lives and make breakthroughs in Chagas disease control in North America," said Dr. Peter Hotez, the editorial's lead author, director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. "This is an achievable public health goal that will also reduce the disease's detrimental economic burden. Greater medical awareness, scientific cooperation between key countries, and public-private partnerships will help us beat this scourge."
Chagas disease is a parasitic infection most commonly transmitted through blood-feeding triatomine bugs, but it can also be spread through pregnancy, blood transfusion, and contaminated food or drink. Up to 30% of infections result in debilitating and life-threatening heart disease and severe intestinal and liver complications. People living in extremely impoverished communities are most vulnerable because of poor-quality housing and inadequate access to health care, education and vector control.
Chagas disease infects an estimated 10 million people worldwide; however, much less is known about the true disease burden in North America. According to some preliminary estimates, Mexico ranks third, and the United States seventh, in terms of the number of infected individuals with Chagas disease in the Western Hemisphere, where 99% of the cases occur.
It is also estimated that 40,000 pregnant North American women may be infected with T. cruzi at any given time, resulting in 2,000 congenital cases through mother-to-child transmission.
A lack of facilities offering diagnosis and treatment of Chagas disease has prevented at-risk and infected people from receiving the critical and often life-saving attention they need. While two drug treatments currently exist, they cause undesirable adverse effects, are unsafe for pregnant women and are not approved for use in the United States.
"The research community is pushing science as hard as possible to ensure we get new treatments to people living with Chagas disease, but we need to ensure that governments prioritize the disease," said Dr. Bernard Pecoul, a co-author of the editorial and Executive Director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). "It is urgent to diagnose and treat patients with what we have available today, until research and development efforts deliver true breakthroughs for the millions in need." DNDi has produced a pediatric dosage form of benznidazole for children with Chagas disease, and is currently developing new drug candidates for a truly novel, safe, effective and affordable treatment for all patients.
The Sabin Vaccine Institute's Product Development Partnership (Sabin PDP), in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital and with support from the Slim Initiative for the Development of Neglected Tropical Diseases and from the Southwest Electronic Energy Medical Research, has initiated development for a new therapeutic vaccine.
###
In addition to Dr. Hotez and Dr. Pecoul, the paper's authors include Eric Dumonteil, Autonomous University of Yucatan (UADY); Miguel Betancourt Cravioto, Carlos Slim Health Institute; Maria Elena Bottazzi, National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development; Roberto Tapia-Conyer, Carlos Slim Health Institute; Sheba Meymandi, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center; Unni Karunakara, Medecins Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders; Isabela Ribeiro, DNDi; and Rachel M. Cohen, DNDi.
PLEASE ADD THE FOLLOWING LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT: http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002300
(Link will go live upon embargo lift)
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Ryouhei Nishigaya
rnishiga@hosp.ncgm.go.jp
Public Library of Science
Malaria is one of the major infectious diseases transmitted by mosquitos, with enormous impact on quality of life. According to World Health Organization figures, as of 2010 there were over 219 million reported cases of malaria with an estimated 660,000 deaths. Plasmodium vivax, which is the second most prevalent species of the human malaria parasite, is widely distributed around the world especially in Asia, Melanesia, the Middle East, South and Central America. 2.85 billion people worldwide live at risk of the infection in 2009.
Vivax malaria was once endemic in Japan including the mainland (Honshu) and the northern island (Hokkaido), but it has been eliminated from these areas as of 1959. In the same way as Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) is another country where vivax malaria had been successfully eliminated by the late 1970s. However, re-emergence of vivax malaria in South Korea was reported in 1993. The first patient was a South Korean soldier who served in the demilitarized zone (a border region between South and North Korea) and had never been abroad. In spite of continuous malaria control measures implemented by the South Korean government, there was a steady increase in the number of reported vivax malaria cases until 2000 (4,183 cases), then a gradual decrease until 2004 (864 cases), when the number of infected civilians who lived in or near the area increased gradually. The number of reported cases fluctuated between 838 and 2,227 per year from 2005 to 2011.
Similarities in the ecology (i.e., climate, vegetation, species of mosquito vector) of Japan and South Korea mean that the Japanese environment is particularly suited to the establishment of Korean strains of vivax malaria. For example, the main vector species of vivax malaria in South Korea is Anopheles sinensis, which in the past has also been the main vector species of vivax malaria in the mainland of Japan, and which remains distributed throughout Japan. In addition, mosquitoes on the mainland of Japan are highly prevalent from June to September (the rainy season and the summer season), which is the same period in which vivax malaria is most prevalent in South Korea.
For these reasons, it is very important not only for South Korea, but also for Japan, to understand the characteristics of vivax malaria in South Korea and to provide a possible explanation as to why, in spite of a continuous malaria control program spanning two decades, efforts to eliminate vivax malaria have been unsuccessful. To answer this question, Dr. Moritoshi Iwagami, et al. conducted a 15-year-long longitudinal study on P. vivax population genetics in South Korea using highly polymorphic neutral markers of the parasites.
The team of researchers from the Japanese National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Inje University and the University of Tokyo analyzed 163 South Korean P. vivax isolates collected from South Korean soldiers who served in the demilitarized zone from 1994 to 2008, using 14 microsatellite DNA loci of the parasite genome. Based on this data, they performed population genetic analysis, with a focus on the differences of the parasite populations between successive years. Through this, they aimed to provide a detailed and precise estimate of the characteristics of the vivax malaria population structure and the temporal dynamics of its transmission.
Their population genetic analyses show that two genotypes coexisted from 1994 to 2001, while three different genotypes coexisted from 2002 to 2008. This result suggested that a drastic genetic change occurred in the South Korean population during 2002 and 2003.
This data suggests that vivax parasites were introduced from another population, most probably from North Korea, especially during 2002 and 2003, and explains why South Korea was not able to eliminate vivax malaria for 20 years. The finding is an example that malaria parasites were transmitted by Anopheles mosquitos between two countries where traveling is basically prohibited. This evidence demonstrates the difficulty of malaria elimination by one country and the need for collaboration between two (or more) adjacent countries for effective malaria elimination.
In the (near) future, a distribution of Anopheles mosquitoes might expand in Japan due to global warming or climate change. Should a certain numbers of vivax malaria patients (and/or carriers of vivax malaria hypnozoites) come to Japan from South Korea and stay in or near A. sinensis breeding sites during summer season, indigenous vivax malaria transmission might occur by locally infected mosquitoes in Japan. Therefore, careful monitoring of all travelers coming from endemic areas of South Korea is required, as is collaboration between both nations in order to prevent the introduction of the malaria parasite into Japan.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Ryouhei Nishigaya
rnishiga@hosp.ncgm.go.jp
Public Library of Science
Malaria is one of the major infectious diseases transmitted by mosquitos, with enormous impact on quality of life. According to World Health Organization figures, as of 2010 there were over 219 million reported cases of malaria with an estimated 660,000 deaths. Plasmodium vivax, which is the second most prevalent species of the human malaria parasite, is widely distributed around the world especially in Asia, Melanesia, the Middle East, South and Central America. 2.85 billion people worldwide live at risk of the infection in 2009.
Vivax malaria was once endemic in Japan including the mainland (Honshu) and the northern island (Hokkaido), but it has been eliminated from these areas as of 1959. In the same way as Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) is another country where vivax malaria had been successfully eliminated by the late 1970s. However, re-emergence of vivax malaria in South Korea was reported in 1993. The first patient was a South Korean soldier who served in the demilitarized zone (a border region between South and North Korea) and had never been abroad. In spite of continuous malaria control measures implemented by the South Korean government, there was a steady increase in the number of reported vivax malaria cases until 2000 (4,183 cases), then a gradual decrease until 2004 (864 cases), when the number of infected civilians who lived in or near the area increased gradually. The number of reported cases fluctuated between 838 and 2,227 per year from 2005 to 2011.
Similarities in the ecology (i.e., climate, vegetation, species of mosquito vector) of Japan and South Korea mean that the Japanese environment is particularly suited to the establishment of Korean strains of vivax malaria. For example, the main vector species of vivax malaria in South Korea is Anopheles sinensis, which in the past has also been the main vector species of vivax malaria in the mainland of Japan, and which remains distributed throughout Japan. In addition, mosquitoes on the mainland of Japan are highly prevalent from June to September (the rainy season and the summer season), which is the same period in which vivax malaria is most prevalent in South Korea.
For these reasons, it is very important not only for South Korea, but also for Japan, to understand the characteristics of vivax malaria in South Korea and to provide a possible explanation as to why, in spite of a continuous malaria control program spanning two decades, efforts to eliminate vivax malaria have been unsuccessful. To answer this question, Dr. Moritoshi Iwagami, et al. conducted a 15-year-long longitudinal study on P. vivax population genetics in South Korea using highly polymorphic neutral markers of the parasites.
The team of researchers from the Japanese National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Inje University and the University of Tokyo analyzed 163 South Korean P. vivax isolates collected from South Korean soldiers who served in the demilitarized zone from 1994 to 2008, using 14 microsatellite DNA loci of the parasite genome. Based on this data, they performed population genetic analysis, with a focus on the differences of the parasite populations between successive years. Through this, they aimed to provide a detailed and precise estimate of the characteristics of the vivax malaria population structure and the temporal dynamics of its transmission.
Their population genetic analyses show that two genotypes coexisted from 1994 to 2001, while three different genotypes coexisted from 2002 to 2008. This result suggested that a drastic genetic change occurred in the South Korean population during 2002 and 2003.
This data suggests that vivax parasites were introduced from another population, most probably from North Korea, especially during 2002 and 2003, and explains why South Korea was not able to eliminate vivax malaria for 20 years. The finding is an example that malaria parasites were transmitted by Anopheles mosquitos between two countries where traveling is basically prohibited. This evidence demonstrates the difficulty of malaria elimination by one country and the need for collaboration between two (or more) adjacent countries for effective malaria elimination.
In the (near) future, a distribution of Anopheles mosquitoes might expand in Japan due to global warming or climate change. Should a certain numbers of vivax malaria patients (and/or carriers of vivax malaria hypnozoites) come to Japan from South Korea and stay in or near A. sinensis breeding sites during summer season, indigenous vivax malaria transmission might occur by locally infected mosquitoes in Japan. Therefore, careful monitoring of all travelers coming from endemic areas of South Korea is required, as is collaboration between both nations in order to prevent the introduction of the malaria parasite into Japan.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Gertie Skaarup
skaarup@nbi.dk
45-35-32-53-20
University of Copenhagen - Niels Bohr Institute
Darach Watson has been awarded the Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize for Young Scientists for his outstanding and innovative research in astrophysics, where he has developed a groundbreaking method for measuring distances in the cosmos using the light from distant quasars. The result was selected by Physics World as one of the year's most important breakthroughs in physics.
Darach Watson is from Ireland and received his PhD from University College in Dublin. He came to Denmark in 2003 and has been a core member of the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen since 2005. He is a leading expert in X-ray astronomy and has played a key role in the important developments in the research of supernovae (exploding massive stars) and gamma-ray bursts (violent outbursts of gamma radiation.
"His research style is original and inventive and by combining different techniques and ideas, he creates new knowledge," explains Jens Hjorth, professor and head of the Danish National Research Foundation's Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute.
New groundbreaking methods
Darach Watson has broken new ground in several areas. In 2006, he developed a new method to study the properties of cosmic dust. The method is now one of the most advanced for studying the detailed properties of cosmic dust in distant galaxies.
In 2011, he made his most important discovery to date. He developed a new method for measuring long distances in space using the light from quasars (active black holes). Again, it was ability to think differently, innovatively and originally that gave him the idea.
"During a lecture, as one of my colleagues was talking about quasars, I suddenly got the idea that if the brightness of the quasar was related to the size of the gas cloud surrounding it and if you could measure the size of this cloud, you could calculate the distance to the quasar," explains Darach Watson. The idea proved to be brilliant. He explains that quasars have many advantages. They are common throughout the universe and they are stable sources that do not fade and disappear after a short time like supernovae. They are also extremely luminous and can be observed at much greater distances than other sources for distance measurement. Most important, he points out, is that the measurements can be very accurate.
History Chemistry Physics - Astrophysics
But what was it exactly that led him to astrophysics?
"I always knew I wanted to do a PhD. My father was a professor of Irish and Dean of the Faculty of Celtic Studies and my mother had a PhD in history. I was interested in many topics and when I was in my last year of secondary school, I talked with my mother about what I should choose to study at university: chemistry or history. She said I could always become a professional research scientist and an amateur historian, but it was almost impossible to be an amateur scientist. I followed her advice and chose chemistry. Halfway through my studies, I discovered what really excited me were the physical processes; what the elements could do and what the physical mechanism was. At the same time, I looked at the curriculum for physics superfluidity, high-energy particle physics, relativity theory and gravity, superconductivity, plasmas and I thought it sounded incredibly exciting. So I switched to physics. When I had to decide what to do my PhD on, I discovered that astrophysics was the most interesting branch of physics," explains Darach Watson.
Enthusiastic research
Suddenly, he got a chance to work with gamma-ray bursts explosions of massive stars, the most violent explosions in the universe since the Big Bang and he jumped at the opportunity. They managed to obtain the first high-quality X-ray spectrum of a gamma-ray burst and discovered the signature of a supernovae in that spectrum. He can still remember the walk home after the discovery, "I was so elated," he explains. It is this excitement that is still the driving force for his research in astrophysics. But history has not been forgotten.
"What I find peculiar is that my love for and interest in history has crept into my science. My research is related to the history of the universe on a large scale: how it was formed and evolved, how stars and galaxies develop over time and how we ended up where we are now," says Darach Watson thoughtfully and welcomes the recognition his research has now received with the Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize for Young Scientists.
###
For more information contact:
Darach Watson, Associate professor, Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, +45 3532-5994, darach@dark-cosmology.dk
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Gertie Skaarup
skaarup@nbi.dk
45-35-32-53-20
University of Copenhagen - Niels Bohr Institute
Darach Watson has been awarded the Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize for Young Scientists for his outstanding and innovative research in astrophysics, where he has developed a groundbreaking method for measuring distances in the cosmos using the light from distant quasars. The result was selected by Physics World as one of the year's most important breakthroughs in physics.
Darach Watson is from Ireland and received his PhD from University College in Dublin. He came to Denmark in 2003 and has been a core member of the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen since 2005. He is a leading expert in X-ray astronomy and has played a key role in the important developments in the research of supernovae (exploding massive stars) and gamma-ray bursts (violent outbursts of gamma radiation.
"His research style is original and inventive and by combining different techniques and ideas, he creates new knowledge," explains Jens Hjorth, professor and head of the Danish National Research Foundation's Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute.
New groundbreaking methods
Darach Watson has broken new ground in several areas. In 2006, he developed a new method to study the properties of cosmic dust. The method is now one of the most advanced for studying the detailed properties of cosmic dust in distant galaxies.
In 2011, he made his most important discovery to date. He developed a new method for measuring long distances in space using the light from quasars (active black holes). Again, it was ability to think differently, innovatively and originally that gave him the idea.
"During a lecture, as one of my colleagues was talking about quasars, I suddenly got the idea that if the brightness of the quasar was related to the size of the gas cloud surrounding it and if you could measure the size of this cloud, you could calculate the distance to the quasar," explains Darach Watson. The idea proved to be brilliant. He explains that quasars have many advantages. They are common throughout the universe and they are stable sources that do not fade and disappear after a short time like supernovae. They are also extremely luminous and can be observed at much greater distances than other sources for distance measurement. Most important, he points out, is that the measurements can be very accurate.
History Chemistry Physics - Astrophysics
But what was it exactly that led him to astrophysics?
"I always knew I wanted to do a PhD. My father was a professor of Irish and Dean of the Faculty of Celtic Studies and my mother had a PhD in history. I was interested in many topics and when I was in my last year of secondary school, I talked with my mother about what I should choose to study at university: chemistry or history. She said I could always become a professional research scientist and an amateur historian, but it was almost impossible to be an amateur scientist. I followed her advice and chose chemistry. Halfway through my studies, I discovered what really excited me were the physical processes; what the elements could do and what the physical mechanism was. At the same time, I looked at the curriculum for physics superfluidity, high-energy particle physics, relativity theory and gravity, superconductivity, plasmas and I thought it sounded incredibly exciting. So I switched to physics. When I had to decide what to do my PhD on, I discovered that astrophysics was the most interesting branch of physics," explains Darach Watson.
Enthusiastic research
Suddenly, he got a chance to work with gamma-ray bursts explosions of massive stars, the most violent explosions in the universe since the Big Bang and he jumped at the opportunity. They managed to obtain the first high-quality X-ray spectrum of a gamma-ray burst and discovered the signature of a supernovae in that spectrum. He can still remember the walk home after the discovery, "I was so elated," he explains. It is this excitement that is still the driving force for his research in astrophysics. But history has not been forgotten.
"What I find peculiar is that my love for and interest in history has crept into my science. My research is related to the history of the universe on a large scale: how it was formed and evolved, how stars and galaxies develop over time and how we ended up where we are now," says Darach Watson thoughtfully and welcomes the recognition his research has now received with the Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize for Young Scientists.
###
For more information contact:
Darach Watson, Associate professor, Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, +45 3532-5994, darach@dark-cosmology.dk
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
FILE - Undated b/w file picture of former German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller. For decades there were alleged sightings of Mueller in Cuba, Argentina and elsewhere. But Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center, said Thursday Oct. 31, 2013 he’s uncovered evidence Mueller didn’t make it out of Berlin. He says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that Mueller died and was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP-Photo,File)
FILE - Undated b/w file picture of former German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller. For decades there were alleged sightings of Mueller in Cuba, Argentina and elsewhere. But Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center, said Thursday Oct. 31, 2013 he’s uncovered evidence Mueller didn’t make it out of Berlin. He says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that Mueller died and was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP-Photo,File)
A sculpture by German artist Will Lammert is pictured at the entrance to a Jewish cemetery and memorial in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in this Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
A sculpture by German artist Will Lammert is pictured at the entrance to a Jewish cemetery and memorial in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in this Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
A star of David is attached on a wall at the entrance to a jewish cemetery and memorial in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
A star of David behind a sculpture by German artist Will Lammert is pictured at the entrance to a Jewish cemetery and memorial in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
BERLIN (AP) — It was one of the great remaining mysteries surrounding the final days of World War II — what happened to Heinrich Mueller, the head of the Gestapo secret police and the highest-ranking Nazi never to have been captured or located.
But a leading German researcher said Thursday he has uncovered historical documents indicating Mueller never made it more than a few hundred meters (yards) from Hitler's bunker in downtown Berlin and was eventually buried in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis.
Though Mueller's body hasn't been found, Johannes Tuchel, the director of Berlin's German Resistance Memorial Center, said the evidence he uncovered is "clear-cut."
He said that, according to a death certificate he found, Mueller died in the final days of the war in 1945 near the Luftwaffe headquarters.
Tuchel said other evidence shows that about three months after the end of the war Mueller's body was found by a work crew cleaning up corpses and buried along with about 3,000 others in a communal grave on the site of a Jewish cemetery that the SS had destroyed in 1943.
The documents show "with near certainty" that Mueller was buried in August 1945 in the garden of the Luftwaffe headquarters, then brought to the Jewish cemetery on Grosse Hamburger Strasse, said Tuchel, whose story was first reported by Bild newspaper.
Mueller, who was an SS Gruppenfuehrer — roughly equivalent to a major general — was sought for decades after the war by investigators around the world, including Israel's Mossad, the U.S. Office of Special Investigations, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Tuchel said he had no explanation for why they hadn't come up with the same information. "That is a part of the puzzle I can't answer," he said.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center's top Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, sounded a note of caution, saying only DNA evidence could prove Mueller was buried in Berlin.
"The Nazis who wanted to escape very often took measures to create false documents faking their death," he said in a telephone interview from London. "I would be very wary of reports like that without forensic evidence."
He cited the case of Aribert Heim, a Mauthausen concentration camp doctor who allegedly died in Cairo in 1992.
"Heim was buried, according to his son, in a mass grave for poor people in Cairo, and it's a perfect story because it's impossible to verify," Zuroff said.
It's not yet known whether any efforts will be made to find Mueller's bones in Berlin.
According to the Berlin Jewish Community's website, the cemetery included the grave of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and was destroyed by the SS in 1943, when they built trenches through the area. At war's end, it was used to bury bombing victims and other war casualties that littered the German capital.
Tuchel came across the documents when researching an incident in which Mueller ordered the execution of 18 resistance members at the end of the war. In addition to a December 1945 death certificate for Mueller, Tuchel said he has evidence that the identity papers and medals were later turned over to military authorities to return to his family.
And in 1963 — when authorities were looking into a rumor that Mueller had been buried in West Berlin's Neukoelln district — a gravedigger told police in testimony Tuchel found that he had buried Mueller in the former Jewish cemetery, and had matched his identity papers to the face of the body.
Tuchel said the man did not give any indication as to Mueller's cause of death.
According to an article in the Holocaust and Genocide Studies journal in 2001, the gravedigger's story was known but could never be checked out because the graves were on the other side of the Berlin Wall.
Though there were persistent alleged sightings of Mueller in the decades after the war, including in Czechoslovakia, Cuba and Argentina, experts have always maintained that he most likely died in Berlin at the war's end.
That was the fate of Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann, who was thought to have escaped the capital until his bones were unearthed during construction in 1972 in downtown Berlin. DNA tests in 1998 confirmed they were his.
Zuroff said that, if the information on Mueller does turn out to be true, it would be a "comforting thought" that Mueller — who attended the notorious 1942 Wannsee Conference in which plans were coordinated for the genocide of the European Jews — didn't escape.
"This is the biggest fish that got away," Zuroff said.
Still, if his final resting place is a Jewish cemetery, Zuroff said it would be "absolutely horrifying."
"It's the last place on earth where he should be buried," said Zuroff. "If this is ever verified, they'd better move very quickly to make sure it doesn't become a shrine for neo-Nazis."
___
AP Investigative Researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this report from New York
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-31-Germany-Gestapo%20Head/id-f754b4cc1926456596215ec5f28bc054
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma
Obama Gets Firsthand Look at a Tornado Damage
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.
The following is excerpted from Blockbusters: Hit-Making, Risk-Taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment, by Anita Elberse, published by Henry Holt & Co.
Standing backstage at Boston’s sold-out TD Garden in March 2011 during Lady Gaga’s smash-hit tour, the Monster Ball, her manager, Troy Carter, paused a moment to take it all in. “It is amazing how far we have come in such a short time,” he said.
After emerging on the pop-music scene in 2008—touring as a supporting act for New Kids on the Block, a boy band beyond its glory years—Lady Gaga broke through in early 2009, when her singles “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” topped international charts. She rapidly became one of the biggest names in entertainment, sweeping up Grammys and Video Music Awards and selling tens of millions of singles. In 2011, Forbes ranked her first on its Celebrity 100 list, ahead of Oprah Winfrey.
As is the case with most “overnight successes,” Gaga’s ascent had been a long time in the making. In the early days of her career, through a relentless touring schedule—for months on end, she put on seven to eight shows a week, sometimes performing three times per night, in clubs around the U.S. and Canada—Gaga had built a fan base with a strong core. “We wanted to build her fan base from the ground up,” Carter said. “Once the audience feels they own something, they are going to run with it, and do the work for you.” She relied heavily on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to spread word of mouth and strengthen her connection with her fans—her ”little monsters,” as she called them. She turned out to be extraordinarily skilled at doing so: By 2011, Gaga was the most popular living person on Facebook and the most followed person on Twitter.
Given her extraordinary success with a grassroots approach to launching her music, one might have assumed that Gaga, Carter, and her label, Interscope, would stick with such a strategy in 2011 for her third album, Born This Way. Yet the Born This Way launch compared more to “a movie blockbuster in the summer months, like Avatar,” as Interscope’s vice chairman Steve Berman put it. “With an artist of Gaga’s caliber,” Carter said, “reaching full potential means doing things on an enormous scale.” He knew that the launch he had in mind would have to go beyond traditional music-distribution channels and would test the limits of what a record label—even one the size of Universal Music Group—could afford. Carter and his team likewise pursued a blockbuster strategy for Gaga's forthcoming record, ARTPOP, due Nov. 11.
Most leading entertainment businesses operate on such a blockbuster model: making risky bets on the development of a select few products, then increasing the stakes by investing a great deal of money in distributing and promoting those products as widely as possible, all with an eye toward opening as big as they can. Companies often set marketing budgets at high levels well before they know how those products will be received in the marketplace. But what’s the rationale? Why would the team behind Lady Gaga want to move away from a word-of-mouth-driven launch that worked so well for them in the past? With Gaga’s new album likely to sell like hot cakes, wouldn’t record label executives prefer to save on any unnecessary marketing expenditures?
Launching entertainment products—albums, movies, television shows, video games, books—using what marketers call a “limited” or “grass-roots” release strategy has undeniable advantages. The basic idea is to gradually discover what level of marketing spending is most appropriate. It is all about being as efficient as possible with the available resources. For a movie, for example, a limited-release strategy generally means that it debuts on only a few screens in major cities, and is supported with print and online advertisements in those regions. The goal is to attract not the largest but rather the right audience to the product, in the hopes that those early customers will in turn spread positive word of mouth and help draw in new audiences. Only if the product takes off—or shows some signs of being on the verge of taking off—will the producer gradually increase the distribution coverage or intensity and support the product with more advertising to further enhance growth. The principle is to spend sizable amounts of money on the marketing of only those products that are worth it—those that truly have a chance of success in the marketplace.
Lady Gaga’s first recordings were released in this fashion. When her first single, “Just Dance,” was released in April 2008, gaining traction proved difficult. “We could not get it played on pop radio,” Carter recalled. “Mainstream radio stations told us it was too much of a dance song for them.” Bobby Campbell, chief marketing officer at Carter’s management firm Atom Factory, agreed: “Dance music simply was not on the air in Top 40 radio.”
So Carter relied on an intense schedule of live performances targeted at communities that seemed especially receptive to her music. “The gay community seemed to stick to her, and that resonated with her personally, so gay clubs were a natural fit to start the work,” Campbell said. “It was about finding different groups: the gay community, the dance community, the club-going community, the fashion community, the art community, and developing those into a larger pool of Gaga fans. So when Interscope made some headway with radio later on, we had this really strong core of fans who had been following her for months, and who felt they were part of the reason why she was successful.”
Jimmy Iovine, Interscope’s chairman, talks about capitalizing on “sparks”: The idea is that if an entertainment product resonates with audiences in a given market, that market can, with the right kind of support, become a launching pad for a wider rollout.
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Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/31/obamacare_hearings_a_grudge_spectacle_318938.htmlAs the Oscar-winning actress turns 46 on Oct. 28, take a look at the beauty's transformation throughout her career!
Source: http://www.ivillage.com/julia-roberts-through-years-photos/1-b-396506?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ajulia-roberts-through-years-photos-396506PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 30-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Carolann Murphy
cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org
973-324-8382
Kessler Foundation
WEST ORANGE, N.J. October 30, 2013. Kessler Foundation scientists correlated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings with the negative impact of outdoor temperature on cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis (MS). This study, "Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with task-related increased BOLD activation in patients with multiple sclerosis," released by Brain Imaging & Behavior as epub ahead of print, corroborates the group's previous study that established that people with MS performed worse on processing speed and memory tasks during warmer outdoor temperatures versus during cooler outdoor temperatures. "Increased MS disease activity during warmer months is a recent discovery. Now, this work is the first report of brain activation associated with outdoor temperature in MS. This finding is novel and important for persons with MS who are shown to have worse cognition during warmer weather," said Victoria M. Leavitt, Ph.D., research scientist at Kessler Foundation and principal investigator for the study, funded by the National MS Society.
Kessler Foundation researchers previously demonstrated that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) demonstrate worse cognition on warmer days. (Leavitt VM, Sumowski JF, Chiaravalloti N, DeLuca J. Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with worse cognitive status in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2012 Mar 27;78(13):964-8). The purpose of the current study was to identify the neurophysiological basis for worse cognition. "Here, we examined the neurophysiology underlying this temperature-cognition relationship, said Dr. Leavitt. "The association between task-related BOLD fMRI activation and outdoor temperature was investigated in 28 MS patients who demonstrated worse cognitive function on warmer days. In MS patients, warmer outdoor temperature was associated with greater BOLD activation during performance of a simple sustained attention task. The brain areas that showed greater activation on warmer days were regions typically activated by MS patients during task performance: the frontal, dorsolateral, prefrontal and parietal cortex. The relationship between outdoor temperature and cerebral activation was absent in healthy controls. Increased brain activation required by MS patients on warmer days to perform a simple task may signify neural inefficiency."
Kessler Foundation co-investigators are Glenn Wylie, D.Phil., associate director of Neuroscience Research and the Center for Neuroimaging Research @ Kessler Foundation, Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., Director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, John DeLuca, Ph.D., Vice President for Research & Training, and James F. Sumowski, Ph.D., research scientist. All also have faculty appointments at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
According to Dr. Sumowski, "The significant effect of warmer weather on cognition should be considered when designing and conducting clinical trials. This information might assist clinicians in choosing clinical treatment, and help researchers develop effective strategies for coping with the negative effects of weather-related effects on cognition that impact independence, education, employment and activities of daily living."
###
About MS Research at Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation's cognitive rehabilitation research in MS is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National MS Society, NJ Commission of Brain Injury Research, Consortium of MS Centers, and Kessler Foundation. Under the leadership of Dr. DeLuca and Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, scientists have made important contributions to the knowledge of cognitive decline in MS. Clinical studies span new learning, memory, executive function, attention and processing speed, emotional processing and cognitive fatigue. Research tools include innovative applications of neuroimaging, iPADs, and virtual reality. Among recent findings are the benefits of cognitive reserve; correlation between cognitive performance and outdoor temperatures; the efficacy of short-term cognitive rehabilitation using modified story technique; and the correlation between memory improvement and cerebral activation on fMRI.
About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation is the largest public charity in the field of disability. Kessler Foundation Research Center advances care through rehabilitation research conducted in six specialized laboratories.. Research focuses on improving function and quality of life for persons with injuries of the spinal cord and brain, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic neurological conditions. Kessler Foundation Program Center fosters new approaches to the persistently high rates of unemployment among people disabled by injury or disease. Targeted grant making funds promising programs across the nation.
KesslerFoundation.org
facebook.com/KesslerFoundation
http://twitter.com/#!/KesslerFdn
Carolann Murphy, PA
973.324.8382
CMurphy@KesslerFoundation.org
Lauren Scrivo
973.324.8384/973.768.6583 (cell)
LScrivo@KesslerFoundation.org
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 30-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Carolann Murphy
cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org
973-324-8382
Kessler Foundation
WEST ORANGE, N.J. October 30, 2013. Kessler Foundation scientists correlated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings with the negative impact of outdoor temperature on cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis (MS). This study, "Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with task-related increased BOLD activation in patients with multiple sclerosis," released by Brain Imaging & Behavior as epub ahead of print, corroborates the group's previous study that established that people with MS performed worse on processing speed and memory tasks during warmer outdoor temperatures versus during cooler outdoor temperatures. "Increased MS disease activity during warmer months is a recent discovery. Now, this work is the first report of brain activation associated with outdoor temperature in MS. This finding is novel and important for persons with MS who are shown to have worse cognition during warmer weather," said Victoria M. Leavitt, Ph.D., research scientist at Kessler Foundation and principal investigator for the study, funded by the National MS Society.
Kessler Foundation researchers previously demonstrated that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) demonstrate worse cognition on warmer days. (Leavitt VM, Sumowski JF, Chiaravalloti N, DeLuca J. Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with worse cognitive status in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2012 Mar 27;78(13):964-8). The purpose of the current study was to identify the neurophysiological basis for worse cognition. "Here, we examined the neurophysiology underlying this temperature-cognition relationship, said Dr. Leavitt. "The association between task-related BOLD fMRI activation and outdoor temperature was investigated in 28 MS patients who demonstrated worse cognitive function on warmer days. In MS patients, warmer outdoor temperature was associated with greater BOLD activation during performance of a simple sustained attention task. The brain areas that showed greater activation on warmer days were regions typically activated by MS patients during task performance: the frontal, dorsolateral, prefrontal and parietal cortex. The relationship between outdoor temperature and cerebral activation was absent in healthy controls. Increased brain activation required by MS patients on warmer days to perform a simple task may signify neural inefficiency."
Kessler Foundation co-investigators are Glenn Wylie, D.Phil., associate director of Neuroscience Research and the Center for Neuroimaging Research @ Kessler Foundation, Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., Director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, John DeLuca, Ph.D., Vice President for Research & Training, and James F. Sumowski, Ph.D., research scientist. All also have faculty appointments at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
According to Dr. Sumowski, "The significant effect of warmer weather on cognition should be considered when designing and conducting clinical trials. This information might assist clinicians in choosing clinical treatment, and help researchers develop effective strategies for coping with the negative effects of weather-related effects on cognition that impact independence, education, employment and activities of daily living."
###
About MS Research at Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation's cognitive rehabilitation research in MS is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National MS Society, NJ Commission of Brain Injury Research, Consortium of MS Centers, and Kessler Foundation. Under the leadership of Dr. DeLuca and Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, scientists have made important contributions to the knowledge of cognitive decline in MS. Clinical studies span new learning, memory, executive function, attention and processing speed, emotional processing and cognitive fatigue. Research tools include innovative applications of neuroimaging, iPADs, and virtual reality. Among recent findings are the benefits of cognitive reserve; correlation between cognitive performance and outdoor temperatures; the efficacy of short-term cognitive rehabilitation using modified story technique; and the correlation between memory improvement and cerebral activation on fMRI.
About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation is the largest public charity in the field of disability. Kessler Foundation Research Center advances care through rehabilitation research conducted in six specialized laboratories.. Research focuses on improving function and quality of life for persons with injuries of the spinal cord and brain, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic neurological conditions. Kessler Foundation Program Center fosters new approaches to the persistently high rates of unemployment among people disabled by injury or disease. Targeted grant making funds promising programs across the nation.
KesslerFoundation.org
facebook.com/KesslerFoundation
http://twitter.com/#!/KesslerFdn
Carolann Murphy, PA
973.324.8382
CMurphy@KesslerFoundation.org
Lauren Scrivo
973.324.8384/973.768.6583 (cell)
LScrivo@KesslerFoundation.org
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
