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Friday, March 29, 2013
This Giant Mesh Wall Acts Like an Air Filter for Mexico City
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Simulations uncover obstacle to harnessing laser-driven fusion
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
A once-promising approach for using next-generation, ultra-intense lasers to help deliver commercially viable fusion energy has been brought into serious question by new experimental results and first-of-a-kind simulations of laser-plasma interaction.
Researchers at The Ohio State University are evaluating a two-stage process in which a pellet of fusion fuel is first crushed by lasers on all sides, shrinking the pellet to dozens of times its original size, followed by an ultra-intense burst of laser light to ignite a chain reaction. This two-stage approach is called Fast Ignition, and there are a few variants on the theme. In a recent paper, the Ohio State research group considered the long-discussed possibility of using a hollow cone to maintain a channel for the ultra-intense "ignitor pulse" to focus laser energy on the compressed pellet core. Drawing on both experimental results from studies at the Titan Laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and massively-parallel computer simulations of the laser-target interaction performed at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) in Columbus, Ohio, the research team found compelling evidence that the cone-guided approach to Fast Ignition has a serious flaw.
"In the history of fusion research, two-steps-forward and one-step-back stories are a common theme," said Chris Orban, Ph.D., a researcher of the High Energy Density Physics research group at Ohio State and the lead theorist on the project. "But sometimes progress is about seeing what's not going to work, just as much as it is looking forward to the next big idea."
Since the ultra-intense pulse delivers energy to the fuel through relativistic electrons accelerated by the laser interaction, the Ohio State study focused on the coupling of the laser light to electrons and the propagation of those electrons through the cone target. Rather than investigating how the interaction would work on a high-demand, high-cost facility like the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is also based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the largest scientific operations in the world, the researchers considered experiments just across from NIF at the Titan laser, which is much smaller and easily accessible.
Despite its size and despite having lower total energy, for a brief moment the Titan laser is many thousands of times more intense than NIF, which makes it a decent stand-in as a second-stage ignitor pulse. The OSU-led experimental team focused the Titan pulse on hollow cone targets attached at the tip to copper wires and observed the burst of X-ray photons coming from the copper as a measure of the laser energy to relativistic electron conversion efficiency.
The X-ray signal was much lower from the hollow cones with thicker cone walls. "This was strong evidence to the experimental team that the typical approach to cone-guided Fast Ignition wouldn't work, since thicker cones should be more realistic than thin cones," said Orban. "This is because electrons are free to move around in a dense plasma, much like they do in a normal metal, so the thicker cone target is like a thin cone embedded in a dense plasma."
These intuitions were tested in simulations performed at OSC. Whereas earlier efforts to simulate the laser-target interaction were forced to simplify or shrink the target size in order to make the calculations more feasible, Orban used the LSP code to perform the first-ever, full-scale 2D Particle-In-Cell simulations of the entire laser-target interaction using fully realistic laser fields.
These simulations also included a sophisticated model for the pre-heating of the target from stray laser light ahead of the ultra-intense pulse developed by collaborators at the Flash Center for Computational Science at the University of Chicago.
"We were delighted to help Chris use the FLASH code to provide realistic initial conditions for his Particle-In-Cell simulations," said Don Lamb, director of the Flash Center. "This is an outstanding example of how two groups can collaborate to achieve a scientific result that neither could have achieved alone."
To conduct the simulations, the Ohio State researchers accessed OSC's flagship Oakley Cluster supercomputer system. The HP-built system features 8,300+ Intel Xeon cores and 128 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. Oakley can achieve 88 teraflops, tech-speak for performing 88 trillion calculations per second, or, with acceleration from the NVIDIA GPUs, a total peak performance of 154 teraflops.
"The simulations pointed to the electric fields building up on the edge of the cone as the key to everything," said Orban. "The thicker the cone is, the further away the cone edge is from the laser, and as a result fewer energetic electrons are deflected forward, which is the crucial issue in making cone-guided Fast Ignition a viable approach."
With both the experiment and the simulations telling the same story, the evidence is compelling that the cone-guided route to Fast Ignition is an unlikely one. While other studies have come to similar conclusions, the group was the first to identify the plasma surrounding the cone as a severe hindrance. Thankfully, there are still many other ideas for successfully igniting the fusion pellet with current or soon-to-be-constructed laser facilities. Any future efforts to spark fusion reactions with these lasers using a two-stage fast-ignition approach must be mindful to consider the neutralizing effect of the free electrons in the dense plasma.
"We could not have completed this project without the Oakley Cluster," Orban noted. "It was the perfect combination of speed and RAM and availability for us. And thanks to the profiling I was able to do, the compute time for our production runs went from two weeks in November 2011 to three or four days as of February 2012."
"Energy and the environment is one of the primary focus areas of the center, and this research fits perfectly into that domain," said Brian Guilfoos, the client and technology support manager for OSC. "Many of our systems were designed and software packages selected to best support the type of computing required by investigators working in fields related to our focus areas."
###
The paper describing the study, "Coupling of high-intensity laser light to fast electrons in cone-guided fast ignition," was recently published in Physical Review E, a journal of the American Physical Society.
Ohio Supercomputer Center: http://www.osc.edu
Thanks to Ohio Supercomputer Center for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127477/Simulations_uncover_obstacle_to_harnessing_laser_driven_fusion
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McIlroy tries to find form going to Masters
Rory McIlroy walks past autograph-seeking fans as he heads to the first tee during the pro-am for the Houston Open golf tournament, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, in Houston. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer) MANDATORY CREDIT
Rory McIlroy walks past autograph-seeking fans as he heads to the first tee during the pro-am for the Houston Open golf tournament, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, in Houston. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer) MANDATORY CREDIT
Rory McIlroy tees off on the second hole during the pro-am for the Houston Open golf tournament, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, in Houston. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer) MANDATORY CREDIT
HUMBLE, Texas (AP) ? Once the frost thawed, Rory McIlroy was back at work Wednesday morning trying to find a swing he could trust and repeat.
McIlroy hasn't looked anything like the No. 1 player in golf this year, and now he's not. That spot belongs to Tiger Woods again after winning for the third time in two months to establish himself as the favorite going into the Masters.
None of this bothers McIlroy.
He is more concerned with the path of his swing than the mathematical average of his ranking. He wants to win whenever he plays, though there is pragmatic side to the 23-year-old from Northern Ireland. He still hasn't made the cut against a full field this year.
That makes the Houston Open more than just a final tuneup for the first major of the year. It's a place to measure progress.
"I want to get back to getting into contention in tournaments and trying to win," McIlroy said. "I think this is a good week to try and get into contention, have a chance with the Masters coming up. I'm just really focused on this week in Houston and trying to play well here."
McIlroy is part of a strong field at the Houston Open, where the tournament tries to give players a taste of what they might see in two weeks. The greens are fast and pure, with several closely mown collection areas that allow for a variety of shots around the green.
The Houston Open thought it was getting the No. 1 player in the world when McIlroy signed up to play Redstone Golf Club in January. It still has five of the top 10 players, including Steve Stricker, Brandt Snedeker, Louis Oosthuizen and Steve Stricker.
And it has Phil Mickelson, who likes Houston so much that he would rather be here than his usual schedule of playing the week before the Masters. Because the Masters is a week later than usual based on the calendar ? it always ends on the second Sunday of April ? the Texas Open was given the spot a week before Augusta.
That change worked out well for McIlroy, who wants to be in Augusta the weekend before the Masters.
"I thought it fit in really nicely," McIlroy said.
Far more important is what follows over the next few days. Under more scrutiny than he had ever faced ? a new place in the game, a new equipment deal with Nike ? McIlroy tripped badly coming out of the blocks. He missed the cut in Abu Dhabi. He lost in the first round of the Match Play Championship. Frustration boiled over to the point that he walked out in the second round of the Honda Classic.
Optimism came from Doral, a World Golf Championship event with no cut. McIlroy not only broke par for the first time all year, he closed with a 65 to crack the top 10. And then he took off for two more weeks, spending part of that time with tennis girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki in Key Biscayne, Fla., and hitting balls at a public course in Miami.
McIlroy was spotted hitting balls with a carry bag (decked out in Manchester United logos) next to other paying customers at Miami Municipal Golf Course. It was rare to see a player with McIlroy's credentials ? still No. 1 in the world with two major championships ? in such a public setting.
He didn't understand all the fuss. McIlroy still sees himself as normal.
And in his normal world, he is bound to hit the kind of rough patches he is going through now. And he looked like a regular guy Wednesday morning, sitting in a booth inside the caddie trailer having breakfast with his coach and his caddie, watching sports on TV, perfectly content with his world.
"We go through highs and lows. It's just sport and that's golf," McIlroy said Tuesday during his press conference. "You're going to have patches where you play great and have patches where you struggle a little bit. I guess you've just got to take the rough ... be patient and know that you're working on right things."
This should be a good week to figure out where he is.
Success at the Houston Open when it was the week before the Masters didn't guarantee a big week at Augusta.
Hunter Mahan, the defending champion at Redstone, tied for 12th last year. Mickelson made 18 birdies on the weekend at Houston in 2011 and followed with his worst Masters finish in 14 years. Anthony Kim won Houston and tied for third at the Masters, helped by a 65 on the last day, though he never had a serious chance to win. Paul Casey won in 2009 and didn't break par at Augusta until the final round.
For McIlroy, it's all about taking baby steps closer to where he knows he can be.
Even though he hasn't won a green jacket, Augusta National is McIlroy's kind of place. It wasn't an accident that he had a four-shot lead going into the final round in 2011. And last year, he was one shot out of the lead until he crashed on the weekend.
And while he hasn't played in two weeks, he had least has some positive memories from his most recent round.
"The things that I'm trying to work on are definitely becoming a lot more comfortable," McIlroy said. "I've seen enough good signs. The weekend at Doral was great and the way I've been hitting the ball recently. I've just got to keep working on it and keep working on it and ... I definitely feel like it's going in the right direction."
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Do You Really Need an SEO Expert for your Local Business Website?
This article aims to provide valuable information that will help small business owners to leverage the benefits of launching their business online. Is it really easy for them to handle their business and online stuff together? Well? I would say it?s not that easy, though it?s not that much harder as well!
Starting a local business and expecting local customers from offline marketing techniques like word of mouth publicity, local daily ads and other offline stuff is understandable but running your business online and targeting customers and sales on the web is another thing and it requires special tactics. I am going to explain some of those tactics in this article that will give you immense knowledge, confidence and determination to get started with your business online.
Steps to put your business online:
- The foremost step is to have a neat and clean website depicting your business specifications and services. Many a times I have seen people giving not much preference to the design of the website and that results in a shady image online. You can easily find information regarding how to create a website on Google. I would suggest that you hire a web designer to do that task for you. Just book a nice domain name for your website and book a hosting space from a credible hosting provider. This is a simple and common thing which many small business owners do not tend to focus on ? so make sure you get your basics right.
- Once your website is ready online, let?s get started with local SEO or in other words, local promotion within and nearby your area. To begin with, create an account on Google Places to list your business online. You can visit www.google.com/places and sign in with your Gmail account details.
- Once you are on the listing page, you will need to enter information like company name, address, website URL, phone numbers and other things. Make sure you enter all the information correctly. Google will then verify your information through a telephone call before creating map listing of your company. This process may take couple of weeks. You can also do a basic yahoo directory listing as per your category and?geographic location.
- Once placement of your business on Google Places is done, it is your job to encourage your current customers to take out some time to visit your Google Places profile and provide honest reviews about your products and services. A Google Places account with customer reviews stands ahead of your competitors and also instills a sense of credibility and reliability in new potential customers.
- The next step is to collate a list of local business websites wherein you can enter your company details. Some useful local business websites can be Yellow Pages, Craigslist, SuperPages, Insider Pages, and others. These websites will help spread your company?s presence online. Make sure you are mentioning your company address and phone numbers in all these local websites so that the potential customer can easily contact or reach you.
- You should keep your website up-to-date with all the information you want to pass on to your customers. Outdated websites tend to get lost in the overcrowded online marketplace.
- Do not forget to make your presence social through social media websites, as they prove to be a real destination to get targeted customers for your products or services. I would say this is the perfect platform to show the USP of your company and the products you offer. You can create your company pages on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and other social networking websites and showcase your products and special festive deals, if any. Doing regular updates of your social accounts with special deals will attract hoards of people to like your page and to become your ultimate customers.
- If you have a product-based business, then you can tie up with other e-commerce websites to list your products as such e-commerce or shopping websites have gigantic traffic that gives you a good chance to reap good amount product sales. This will further help in generating company awareness among the populace.
- You can also leverage classified ad websites like eBay, Craigslist and others to sell your products. It may require more time than you expected to create and maintain these accounts and that could become a problem for you. Later on, you?ll be able to afford a dedicated person who will do the marketing for you through classified ad websites.
I do not think that the above mentioned points require much money and time to give a real boost to your online business. I haven?t mentioned any technicalities whatsoever such as On-Site Optimization, Search Engine Optimization, Paid Advertising and so on. Google can make things happen in two ways ? simple way or the technical way!
Let?s first get started with the simple way and when you will get time and money for the resources, you can always go for the technical method.
Conclusion
If you are one of those small business owners who think that you need to hire an SEO expert to bring your business online, will you will at least ?forget that perception and give this a try yourself?
Chirag Suri is the Co-director and business development Head at Cyber Flavors. Being a chief at an Internet marketing firm, I love to share and receive all digital industry-related information to remain updated with all latest news and trends.Common gene variants explain 42 percent of antidepressant response
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Public release date: 28-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Rhiannon Bugno
Biol.Psych@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-0880
Elsevier
Reports new study in Biological Psychiatry
Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2013 Antidepressants are commonly prescribed for the treatment of depression, but many individuals do not experience symptom relief from treatment. The National Institute of Mental Health's STAR*D study, the largest and longest study ever conducted to evaluate depression treatment, found that only approximately one-third of patients responded within their initial medication trial and approximately one-third of patients did not have an adequate clinical response after being treated with several different medications. Thus, identifying predictors of antidepressant response could help to guide the treatment of this disorder.
A new study published in Biological Psychiatry now shares progress in identifying genomic predictors of antidepressant response.
Many previous studies have searched for genetic markers that may predict antidepressant response, but have done so despite not knowing the contribution of genetic factors. Dr. Katherine Tansey of Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London and colleagues resolved to answer that question.
"Our study quantified, for the first time, how much is response to antidepressant medication influenced by an individual's genetic make-up," said Tansey.
To perform this work, the researchers estimated the magnitude of the influence of common genetic variants on antidepressant response using a sample of 2,799 antidepressant-treated subjects with major depressive disorder and genome-wide genotyping data.
They found that genetic variants explain 42% of individual differences, and therefore, significantly influence antidepressant response.
"While we know that there are no genetic markers with strong effect, this means that there are many genetic markers involved. While each specific genetic marker may have a small effect, they may add up to make a meaningful prediction," Tansey added.
"We have a very long way to go to identify genetic markers that can usefully guide the treatment of depression. There are two critical challenges to this process," said Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. "First, we need to have genomic markers that strongly predict response or non-response to available treatments. Second, markers for non-response to available treatments also need to predict response to an alternative treatment. Both of these conditions need to be present for markers of non-response to guide personalized treatments of depression."
"Although the Tansey et al. study represents progress, it is clear that we face enormous challenges with regards to both objectives," he added. "For example, it does not yet appear that having a less favorable genomic profile is a sufficiently strong negative predictor of response to justify withholding antidepressant treatment. Similarly, there is lack of clarity as to how to optimally treat patients who might have less favorable genomic profile."
Additional research is certainly required, but scientists hope that one day, results such as these can lead to personalized treatment for depression.
###
The article is "Contribution of Common Genetic Variants to Antidepressant Response" by Katherine E. Tansey, Michel Guipponi, Xiaolan Hu, Enrico Domenici, Glyn Lewis, Alain Malafosse, Jens R. Wendland, Cathryn M. Lewis, Peter McGuffin, and Rudolf Uher (doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.10.030). The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 73, Issue 7 (April 1, 2013), published by Elsevier.
Notes for Editors
Full text of the article is available to credentialed journalists upon request; contact Rhiannon Bugno at +1 214 648 0880 or Biol.Psych@utsouthwestern.edu. Journalists wishing to interview the authors may contact Seil Collins, Press Officer at Institute of Psychiatry at +44 0207 848 5377 or seil.collins@kcl.ac.uk.
The authors' affiliations, and disclosures of financial and conflicts of interests are available in the article.
John H. Krystal, M.D., is Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and a research psychiatrist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. His disclosures of financial and conflicts of interests are available here.
About Biological Psychiatry
Biological Psychiatry is the official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, whose purpose is to promote excellence in scientific research and education in fields that investigate the nature, causes, mechanisms and treatments of disorders of thought, emotion, or behavior. In accord with this mission, this peer-reviewed, rapid-publication, international journal publishes both basic and clinical contributions from all disciplines and research areas relevant to the pathophysiology and treatment of major psychiatric disorders.
The journal publishes novel results of original research which represent an important new lead or significant impact on the field, particularly those addressing genetic and environmental risk factors, neural circuitry and neurochemistry, and important new therapeutic approaches. Reviews and commentaries that focus on topics of current research and interest are also encouraged.
Biological Psychiatry is one of the most selective and highly cited journals in the field of psychiatric neuroscience. It is ranked 5th out of 129 Psychiatry titles and 16th out of 243 Neurosciences titles in the Journal Citations Reports published by Thomson Reuters. The 2011 Impact Factor score for Biological Psychiatry is 8.283.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby's Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
[ | E-mail | 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: 28-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Rhiannon Bugno
Biol.Psych@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-0880
Elsevier
Reports new study in Biological Psychiatry
Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2013 Antidepressants are commonly prescribed for the treatment of depression, but many individuals do not experience symptom relief from treatment. The National Institute of Mental Health's STAR*D study, the largest and longest study ever conducted to evaluate depression treatment, found that only approximately one-third of patients responded within their initial medication trial and approximately one-third of patients did not have an adequate clinical response after being treated with several different medications. Thus, identifying predictors of antidepressant response could help to guide the treatment of this disorder.
A new study published in Biological Psychiatry now shares progress in identifying genomic predictors of antidepressant response.
Many previous studies have searched for genetic markers that may predict antidepressant response, but have done so despite not knowing the contribution of genetic factors. Dr. Katherine Tansey of Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London and colleagues resolved to answer that question.
"Our study quantified, for the first time, how much is response to antidepressant medication influenced by an individual's genetic make-up," said Tansey.
To perform this work, the researchers estimated the magnitude of the influence of common genetic variants on antidepressant response using a sample of 2,799 antidepressant-treated subjects with major depressive disorder and genome-wide genotyping data.
They found that genetic variants explain 42% of individual differences, and therefore, significantly influence antidepressant response.
"While we know that there are no genetic markers with strong effect, this means that there are many genetic markers involved. While each specific genetic marker may have a small effect, they may add up to make a meaningful prediction," Tansey added.
"We have a very long way to go to identify genetic markers that can usefully guide the treatment of depression. There are two critical challenges to this process," said Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. "First, we need to have genomic markers that strongly predict response or non-response to available treatments. Second, markers for non-response to available treatments also need to predict response to an alternative treatment. Both of these conditions need to be present for markers of non-response to guide personalized treatments of depression."
"Although the Tansey et al. study represents progress, it is clear that we face enormous challenges with regards to both objectives," he added. "For example, it does not yet appear that having a less favorable genomic profile is a sufficiently strong negative predictor of response to justify withholding antidepressant treatment. Similarly, there is lack of clarity as to how to optimally treat patients who might have less favorable genomic profile."
Additional research is certainly required, but scientists hope that one day, results such as these can lead to personalized treatment for depression.
###
The article is "Contribution of Common Genetic Variants to Antidepressant Response" by Katherine E. Tansey, Michel Guipponi, Xiaolan Hu, Enrico Domenici, Glyn Lewis, Alain Malafosse, Jens R. Wendland, Cathryn M. Lewis, Peter McGuffin, and Rudolf Uher (doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.10.030). The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 73, Issue 7 (April 1, 2013), published by Elsevier.
Notes for Editors
Full text of the article is available to credentialed journalists upon request; contact Rhiannon Bugno at +1 214 648 0880 or Biol.Psych@utsouthwestern.edu. Journalists wishing to interview the authors may contact Seil Collins, Press Officer at Institute of Psychiatry at +44 0207 848 5377 or seil.collins@kcl.ac.uk.
The authors' affiliations, and disclosures of financial and conflicts of interests are available in the article.
John H. Krystal, M.D., is Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and a research psychiatrist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. His disclosures of financial and conflicts of interests are available here.
About Biological Psychiatry
Biological Psychiatry is the official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, whose purpose is to promote excellence in scientific research and education in fields that investigate the nature, causes, mechanisms and treatments of disorders of thought, emotion, or behavior. In accord with this mission, this peer-reviewed, rapid-publication, international journal publishes both basic and clinical contributions from all disciplines and research areas relevant to the pathophysiology and treatment of major psychiatric disorders.
The journal publishes novel results of original research which represent an important new lead or significant impact on the field, particularly those addressing genetic and environmental risk factors, neural circuitry and neurochemistry, and important new therapeutic approaches. Reviews and commentaries that focus on topics of current research and interest are also encouraged.
Biological Psychiatry is one of the most selective and highly cited journals in the field of psychiatric neuroscience. It is ranked 5th out of 129 Psychiatry titles and 16th out of 243 Neurosciences titles in the Journal Citations Reports published by Thomson Reuters. The 2011 Impact Factor score for Biological Psychiatry is 8.283.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby's Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
[ | E-mail | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/e-cgv032813.php
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MakerBot teaming up with OUYA to make 3D printed consoles
Just as the first systems are getting ready to ship this week, MakerBot has teamed up with OUYA to make 3D printable cases for the consoles.
The partnership means that anyone who gets their hands on an OUYA and happens to have a MakerBot Replicator 2 can design and print custom cases for their console. OUYA helped create 3D printing design kits, which are available on MakerBot's website Thingiverse.com for anyone to use. OUYA sees the hardware customization as an extension of their commitment to having an open console.
If you're willing to spend the time (and money) on a 3D printer, there's no reason in their eyes that you shouldn't have a custom case around your OUYA. MakerBot plans to show off the first 3D printed OUYA consoles at the launch event tomorrow in San Francisco, so be on the lookout for some crazy new designs.
Source: MakerBot (BusinessWire)
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ApFmtxlORIY/story01.htm
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Drug dogs need a warrant to sniff outside your door, Supreme Court rules
When police brought a trained drug dog to the outside of a Florida home to sniff for evidence, that violated the homeowner's Fourth Amendment rights, the Supreme Court justices said in a 5-to-4 decision.
Franky, the starring character in today's Supreme Court ruling, has retired from Miami-Dade's narcotics division. The Court ruled that police cannot bring drug-sniffing police dogs onto a suspect's property to look for evidence without first getting a search warrant.
Alan Diaz / AP / File
EnlargeThe US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police violated the Fourth Amendment rights of a homeowner when they led a drug-sniffing dog to the front door of a house suspected of being used to grow marijuana.
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In a 5-to-4 decision, the high court said that police conducted a ?search? when they entered the property and took the dog to the house?s front porch.
Since the officers failed to first obtain a warrant from a judge before intruding onto private property, their search was unconstitutional, the court said.
?A police officer not armed with a warrant may approach a home and knock? at the front door, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the 10-page majority opinion. ?But introducing a trained police dog to explore the area around the home in hopes of discovering incriminating evidence is something else,? he said. ?There is no customary invitation to do that.?
The decision is important because it enforces what Justice Scalia calls the traditional property-based understanding of the Fourth Amendment.
Rather than analyzing whether the homeowner had a reasonable expectation of privacy, the property-based approach asks a more fundamental question: Did the underlying actions constitute a search.
?The basic rule is that a search occurs for Fourth Amendment purposes when the government physically intrudes for investigative purposes on one of the areas that the amendment protects: that is, onto persons, houses, papers, or effects,? Scalia said in announcing the decision in open court.
?Our later cases have supplemented this test, but the basic approach keeps easy cases easy ? and by those lights, this is an easy case indeed,? he said.
At issue in Florida v. Jardines (11-564) was whether police acted properly when they led a dog trained to detect illicit drugs onto the front porch and up to the front door of Joelis Jardines? house near Miami.
Investigators suspected Mr. Jardines was using his home to grow large quantities of marijuana. The drug-sniffing dog, ?Franky,? signaled his handler that he smelled narcotics.
The dog?s ?alert? was combined with other evidence to demonstrate probable cause and obtain a search warrant from a judge. A raid and search revealed that the house was, in fact, being used to grow marijuana.
Jardines? lawyer challenged the legality of the raid and search. He said police needed a warrant before bringing Franky onto Jardines? property and up to the front door.
The trial judge agreed and invalidated the search. A state appeals court reversed that decision.
The issue went to the Florida Supreme Court, which agreed with the trial judge that using a dog to sniff odors emerging from the interior of a private home is a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and requires that police first obtain a warrant before leading the dog onto the property.
In affirming Florida?s high court, the US Supreme Court said the police officers violated a basic rule of the Fourth Amendment by physically intruding into the area surrounding a private home for investigative purposes without securing a warrant.
?When it comes to the Fourth Amendment, the home is first among equals,? Scalia wrote. ?At the amendment?s very core stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable government intrusion.?
Scalia added: ?This right would be of little practical value if the state?s agents could stand in a home?s porch or side garden and trawl for evidence with impunity.?
In a dissent, Justice Samuel Alito said Scalia?s property-based rule ?is nowhere to be found in the annals of Anglo-American jurisprudence.?
?While the court claims that its reasoning has ancient and durable roots, its trespass rule is really a newly struck counterfeit,? Justice Alito wrote.
Alito said that a reasonable person would understand that odors emerging from a private home may be detected in locations open to the public. He added that the home owner would enjoy no reasonable expectation of privacy in the escaping odors.
?The conduct of the police officer in this case did not constitute a trespass and did not violate respondent?s reasonable expectations of privacy,? Alito said.
Joining the dissent were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.
Joining Scalia in the majority were Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
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Thursday, March 21, 2013
John Patrick Leary: Great Is the Emergency Manager; The Trains Will Run on Time
The vast American tourist class, which includes bankers, editors, senators and representatives, mayors and mayoresses, army officers and just plain 'folks,' returned to its native land, where railroading is an accepted institution but not necessarily a yardstick for patriotism, and roared in unison, 'Great is the Duce; the trains now run on time.'
--George Seldes, Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fascism (1935)
Sheila Cockrel's recent op-ed in the Detroit Free Press was a depressing nadir for Detroit's liberal intelligentsia, to say nothing of a radical tradition in which she herself played such a prominent role. Her argument, which will garner some support in a town where everyone in power not named Snyder has essentially thrown up their hands, amounts to the following: democracy notwithstanding, Detroiters should welcome an Emergency Manager because Detroiters have a right to city services. "Voting is a fundamental right, of course," she concedes; "but isn't the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of equal importance?"
Given most people's disaffection with voting and with local politicians, it's a tempting bargain, to be honest. If only it were an honest one. Cockrel is no fascist, of course, but at the risk of making a brazen analogy, it's worth pointing out that the logic at work here is that of law-and-order authoritarianism. We don't even have trains anymore, like Mussolini did, so the best we can hope for is that by sacrificing local elected government, "the police will show up on time" or "the street lights will shine on time." Cockrel is right in recognizing that appeals to abstract principles like "voting rights" may not convince many Detroit citizens so weary of poor city services. What matters more to you: the job security of your city council member or the fire department?
The trouble is that such defenses of EMs are made in terribly bad faith, based as they are on an illusion that the mandate of the Emergency Manager is, in fact, to improve services, rather than to repay Detroit's creditors. What reason, other than faith in a loving God who wants us to have a public library, do we have to expect anything other than substantially worse services? Cockrel celebrates, but does not bother to identify, the examples of Emergency Managers that have improved the quality of life in poor, industrial cities like Detroit. One can only conclude that she doesn't name them because they don't exist. The Free Press editorial board, in its own editorial shrug, concedes that city services may well deteriorate under an EM, but simply hopes that things might improve.
The other troubling claim Cockrel makes is her treatment of "rights" as discrete and particular -- some rights are less important in certain places rather than others -- rather than universal, as liberals have always claimed as a fundamental, bedrock principle. Cockrel's retail approach to democracy is also a misunderstanding of how rights work: in a truly democratic society, it's not life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, best two out of three, but all of them, together, of equal importance. You can't lose one without degrading the others. To rationalize otherwise means that this sort of liberalism is really as bankrupt as the city is about to be.
But you can put the Declaration of Independence aside. Liberal arguments for Emergency Managers are not based on any real principle. They're little more than concessions to present state and national political trends, where austerity rules and Wall Street always wins: the only really convincing argument for an Emergency Manager is that there's no point in arguing with him. He's coming whether you voted or not.
?
Follow John Patrick Leary on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnPatLeary
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Study: Pirates Rejoice, Illegal Downloading Doesn't Impact Digital Music Sales
Somewhere, there is a very sad music lobby analyst shedding a tear. "The vast majority of the music that is consumed illegally by the individuals in our sample would not have been legally purchased if illegal downloading websites were not available to them," reads a European Commission study on the impact music piracy. Unlike previous research studies whether piracy cannibalizes sales of physical music, the Commission's cross-country study looked sales of digital music (i.e. iTunes) and found that pirates have a negligible effect on the music industry.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yp2MGz_tt2I/
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Oracle shares fall on weak 3rd-quarter report
NEW YORK (AP) ? Oracle Corp. on Wednesday reported flat earnings for its fiscal third-quarter, hurt by a drop in sales of hardware systems and new software. Shares tumbled in after-hours trading on the weaker-than-expected results.
Revenue from new software licenses and online or "cloud" subscriptions, a closely watched figure, fell 2 percent year-over-year to $2.3 billion. The company had predicted that number would rise by 3 percent to 13 percent. Hardware systems revenue dropped 16 percent. But while the hardware revenue decline has been ongoing and expected, the drop in new software licenses and subscriptions was a surprise.
As one of the world's largest makers of business software, Oracle's numbers help Wall Street gauge the direction of corporate technology budgets. When Oracle's earnings are lackluster, it's often a sign that companies are concerned about the economy.
But Oracle also depends on international markets for a major part of its revenue. Europe's economy is still limping amid worries about unwieldy government debts and China's economic growth has been slowing. That said, Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels thinks it will take earnings reports from other technology vendors before it becomes clear whether the problem is Oracle-specific or reflects broader demand. He thinks it's likely both.
He said it was unfortunate that Oracle's quarter included all the worry about the 'fiscal cliff.' December was filled with concern about the automatic tax increases and spending cuts that threatened to drag the U.S. back into a recession until the issues were partially resolved on Jan. 1.
The company also faces the challenge of drumming up demand for Fusion, its new, cloud-based applications business, Bartels said, since many of its customers are content using its older Applications Unlimited program.
Oracle earned $2.5 billion, or 52 cents per share, in the December-February quarter. That compares with $2.5 billion, or 49 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier, when it had more shares outstanding. Adjusted earnings totaled 65 cents per share in the latest quarter.
Revenue fell 1 percent to $8.96 billion from $9.04 billion, hurt in part by the stronger dollar.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 66 cents per share, excluding charges for past acquisitions and other costs, on revenue of $9.38 billion.
Shares of the Redwood City, Calif., company fell $2.56, or 7.2 percent, to $33.20 in after-hours trading following the announcement. The stock had closed the regular session up 8 cents at $35.76 before the report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oracle-shares-fall-weak-3rd-quarter-report-212941968--finance.html
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Investor Sentiment: Too High, Too Low or Just ... - Yahoo! Finance
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Astrocyte signaling sheds light on stroke research
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
New research published in The Journal of Neuroscience suggests that modifying signals sent by astrocytes, our star-shaped brain cells, may help to limit the spread of damage after an ischemic brain stroke. The study in mice, by neuroscientists at Tufts University School of Medicine, determined that astrocytes play a critical role in the spread of damage following stroke.
The National Heart Foundation reports that ischemic strokes account for 87% of strokes in the United States. Ischemic strokes are caused by a blood clot that forms and travels to the brain, preventing the flow of blood and oxygen.
Even when blood and oxygen flow is restored, however, neurotransmitter processes in the brain continue to overcompensate for the lack of oxygen, causing brain cells to be damaged. The damage to brain cells often leads to health complications including visual impairment, memory loss, clumsiness, moodiness, and partial or total paralysis.
Research and drug trials have focused primarily on therapies affecting neurons to limit brain cell damage. Phil Haydon's group at Tufts University School of Medicine have focused on astrocytes, a lesser known type of brain cell, as an alternative path to understanding and treating diseases affecting brain cells.
In animal models, his research team has shown that astrocytes?which outnumber neurons by ten to one?send signals to neurons that can spread the damage caused by strokes. The current study determines that decreasing astrocyte signals limits damage caused by stroke by regulating the neurotransmitter pathways after an ischemic stroke.
The research team compared two sets of mice: a control group with normal astrocyte signaling levels and a group whose signaling was weakened enough to be made protective rather than destructive. To assess the effect of astrocyte protection after ischemic strokes, motor skills, involving tasks such as walking and picking up food, were tested. In addition, tissue samples were taken from both groups and compared.
"Mice with altered astrocyte signaling had limited damage after the stroke" said first author Dustin Hines, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in the department of neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine. "Manipulating the astrocyte signaling demonstrates that astrocytes are critical to understanding the spread of damage following stroke."
"Looking into ways to utilize and enhance the astrocyte's protective properties in order to limit damage is a promising avenue in stroke research," said senior author Phillip Haydon, Ph.D. Haydon is the Annetta and Gustav Grisard professor and chair of the department of neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine and a member of the neuroscience program faculty at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts.
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Tufts University, Health Sciences Campus: http://www.tufts.edu
Thanks to Tufts University, Health Sciences Campus for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127344/Astrocyte_signaling_sheds_light_on_stroke_research
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Behind the oil boom lurks oil well depletion
Recent oil discoveries sound large, Cobb writes, but, when put into the context of how much we consume, they won?t extend the oil age by much. Current oil wells are constantly being depleted.
A mixture of oil, diesel fuel, water and mud sprays as roughnecks wrestle pipe on a True Company oil drilling rig outside Watford, N.D. Production from "tight oil" wells has risen, Cobb writes, but not enough to offset declines elsewhere.
Jim Urquhart/Reuters/File
EnlargeWith the media awash in stories telling us how much oil is being discovered around the world, there is one word which the optimists quoted in these stories refuse to utter: Depletion.
Skip to next paragraph Resource InsightsKurt Cobb?is the author of the peak-oil-themed thriller, 'Prelude,' and a columnist for the Paris-based science news site Scitizen.?He is a founding member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas?USA, and he serves on the board of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions. For more of his Resource Insights posts, click?here.
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The simple fact is that depletion never sleeps. It starts as soon as an oil well begins production and goes on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Furthermore, it is not exactly news that oil is being discovered all around the world. The industry has been spending record amounts to find it.
What?s critical is the difference between the annual additions to oil production capacity and the annual decline in the rate of production from existing wells, a decline which is running anywhere from 4 to 9 percent depending on whom you talk to.
Even at the low end of decline rate estimates, the world must find and put into production the equivalent of what is currently coming out of the entire North Sea, one the world?s largest finds, and we must do so EVERY SINGLE YEAR before worldwide production can rise. So difficult has this task become, that we?ve only just been able to keep global production on?a bumpy plateau since 2005. For now, the oil industry is on a treadmill which requires ever more drilling just to keep production even.?
Heart failure patients with depression have four times risk of death
Mar. 19, 2013 ? Heart failure patients who are moderately or severely depressed have four times the risk of dying and double the risk of having to go to the emergency room or be hospitalized compared to those who are not depressed, according to new research reported in Circulation: Heart Failure, an American Heart Association Journal.
"Depression is a key driver of healthcare use in heart failure," said Alanna M. Chamberlain, Ph.D., M.P.H., the study's lead author and assistant professor of epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences Research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "Treatment programs should be tailored to each patient's needs with greater emphasis on managing depression either through medication or lifestyle interventions."
In 2007-10, 402 heart failure patients (58 percent male, average age 73) in three Minnesota counties completed a nine-question survey. Based on the answers, 59 percent of patients were classified as having no depression, 26 percent had mild depression and 15 percent had moderate-to-severe depression. Researchers gathered information on the participants for about a year and a half.
Even those who reported mild depression had almost a 60 percent increased risk of death, but a much smaller increased risk of emergency room visits (35 percent) and hospitalizations (16 percent), researchers found.
Because the patients studied were mostly white and lived in southeastern Minnesota, the results may not apply to all heart failure patients throughout the United States, researchers said only a third of the patients with moderate-to-severe depression were taking antidepressant medication. Depression may be underdiagnosed in these patients; however, some may have been undergoing therapy that didn't include prescription drugs, researchers said.
"We measured depression with a one-time questionnaire so we cannot account for changes in depression symptoms over time," Chamberlain said. "Further research is warranted to develop more effective clinical approaches for management of depression in heart failure patients."
Co-authors are: Amanda R. Moraska, B.A.; Nilay D. Shah, Ph.D.; Kristin S. Vickers, Ph.D.; Teresa A. Rummans, M.D.; Shannon M. Dunlay, M.D., M.Sc.; John A. Spertus, M.D., M.P.H; Susan A. Weston, M.S.; Sheila M. McNallan, M.P.H.; Margaret M. Redfield, M.D.; and Veronique L. Roger, M.D., M.P.H.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Aging funded the study.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/7dzU9mcWW_M/130319202146.htm
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Monday, March 18, 2013
Sunday surprise: Pope's impromptu appearance
Afp / AFP - Getty Images
Pope Francis waves as he arrives to lead his first Angelus prayer from the window of the apartments at St Peter's Square on Sunday.
By Frances D'Emilio, The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis began his first Sunday as pontiff by making an impromptu appearance to the public from a side gate of the Vatican, startling passersby and prompting cheers, then kept up his simple, spontaneous style by delivering a brief, off-the-cuff homily at the Vatican's tiny parish church.
Dressed only in white cassock, Francis waved to the crowd in the street outside St. Anna's Gate and before entering the church, which serves Vatican City State's hundreds of residents, he shook hands of the parishioners and kissed babies.
In keeping with his informal style, Francis then went over to the chief of his security detail and appeared to indicate he wanted to greet two priests in the crowd, who approached and embraced him.
Marcos Brindicci / Reuters
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected to lead the Catholic Church following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.?
The impromptu appearance came more than two hours ahead of his first appointment of his papacy with the faithful from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square.
Tens of thousands of people crowded St. Peter's Square at noon, when the pope's studio window was opened for the first time since Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI gave his last window blessing on Sunday, Feb. 24. Four days later, Benedict went into retirement, the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.
Francis, the first Latin American pope, was elected on March 13.
Giant video screens were set up so that the overspill crowd could have a close-up look at Francis. Fifty medical teams were set up in case people fell or felt ill in the rush and crush to see Francis.
Pope Francis said Saturday he wanted "a poor church for the poor" in his first remarks to the media since he was elected leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
After the Mass, the pope stepped out jauntily from St. Anna's Church and waved to a crowd of hundreds kept behind barriers across the street, and then greeted the Vatican parishioners one by one. One young man patted the pope on the back in an indication of the informality that from the first moment of his papacy has been evident.
"Francesco, Francesco," children shouted his name in Italian from the street. As he patted one little boy on the head, he asked "Are you a good boy?" and the child nodded. "Are you sure?" the pope quipped.
In his homily, Francis spoke only five minutes, saying the core message of God is "that of mercy." He said God has an unfathomable capacity to pardon, and noted that people are often harder on each other than God is towards sinners.
Related:
Pope Francis describes wish for 'poor church for the poor'
Vatican dismisses 'dirty war' accusations about pope as left-wing smear
Full coverage of Pope Francis from NBC News
This story was originally published on Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:14 AM EDT
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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On the Brink: Israel to grill Obama over possible military strike on Iran
Iran presidency via EPA, file
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (center) inspects the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran in March 2007. The U.S. and Israel fear Iran wants to build a nuclear bomb, a claim Tehran denies.
The leaders of the United States and Israel are about to have some serious face time -- five-and-a-half hours culminating in a late-night dinner on Wednesday. Three key issues will dominate the agenda: Iran, Syria and the Palestinians. In the first part of our "On the Brink" series,?NBC News correspondent Martin Fletcher --?who has been covering the region for three decades?--?gives his take?on a problem of global significance: the prospect of Iran getting nuclear weapons and military action to stop that happening.
News analysis
Israel?s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have one key question for President Barack Obama when they meet Wednesday: If push comes to shove, will America attack Iran to stop the Iranians from developing a nuclear bomb?
Obama has a question of his own, just as critical. Will Israel promise not to attack Iran without American approval?
Ahead of the U.S. president's trip, Israel?s President Shimon Peres described Iran as ?the greatest threat to peace in the world.?
Lucas Jackson / Reuters, file
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he has drawn on a graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the United Nations General Assembly in September last year.
He made the remark in a March 12 speech to the European Parliament in Strasburg, but he likely had Washington in mind.
On paper there is little light between the U.S. and Israeli positions. Obama and Netanyahu both say they will not permit Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. They both hope sanctions and political pressure will do the job. Both say all options are open, including military.
So how come neither trusts the other?
Israeli analysts point to North Korea, which has also been subject to international sanctions and American warnings against pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
Yet today, North Korea not only has a nuclear weapon but has threatened to use it to attack America.
So the Israeli analysts ask, what good are American promises on Iran?
On the other hand, can Israel really go it alone?
The reality is that Israel?s so-called red line -- the point at which it must attack for the strike to be effective -- is much closer than America?s because the U.S. has many more, and more powerful, bunker-busting bombs that can hit Iranian nuclear installations like Fordow.
The shared U.S./Israeli assessment appears to be that the Iranians will have enough weapons-grade uranium for an atom bomb by mid-2013. So what to do?
Most analysts in Israel agree on two things. First, Israel must act. No country can ignore threats to obliterate it, especially a country born from the Holocaust. Second, Israel cannot destroy Iran?s nuclear program alone. At best, it can delay it. Yet that is what Israel?s policy has been for a decade.
Israel is already fighting a secret war against Iran, reportedly assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, planting computer viruses in the heart of Iranian scientific complexes, destroying centrifuges by taking over their operating programs and making them spin themselves to destruction, and booby-trapping key items that Iran imports from foreign countries.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voices concern over the progress of Iran's nuclear program while addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
So why up the stakes by launching an air attack, with all the risks of downed pilots being captured, civilian casualties, and massive reprisals?
This would at best buy a few years' time, while giving Iran the excuse it needs -- in the light of open Israeli aggression -- to publicly declare its need for a defensive nuclear option.
Israel?s considerations go beyond an actual attack. The question is, will Iran?s response be so severe that Israel would regret attacking it for evermore? That?s certainly what Iran wants Israel to think.
But Iran?s threats to rain down thousands of rockets a day on Israel appear increasingly hollow.
Syrian support for Iran is now far from guaranteed. And economic sanctions mean Iran is less able to finance and supply its allies in the war against Israel -- Hezbollah in south Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli military analysts are increasingly sanguine about the threat. They believe Iran?s response will be severe, but nothing like it would have been before the revolt against President Bashar Assad in Syria, which weakened him and Hezbollah.
As for Washington, there is certainly no stomach for another war just as it is winding down troop levels in Afghanistan.
It?s the last thing America needs as it tries to cut down on spending and reduce its $16 trillion national debt.
Yet Obama appears committed to doing whatever it takes to stop the Iranians from getting a nuke.
Foreign Policy magazine reported last October that America and Israel were considering a joint air attack that could last days, or maybe just hours. But then what?
The best hope for a peaceful solution would be regime change in Iran, or a change of heart by the present fundamentalist Muslim leaders.
Neither seems likely.
On Monday, Martin Fletcher looks at what is possibly an even more urgent threat to Israel: the civil war in Syria.
Martin Fletcher is the author of ?Walking Israel," "The List" and "Breaking News."
Related:
Obama: Iran more than a year away from nuclear weapon
Netanyahu says nuclear talks buy Iran time to build the bomb
Analysis: Israel airstrike may foreshadow Iran attack
This story was originally published on Sun Mar 17, 2013 4:06 AM EDT
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