Big spending cuts mark tea party success, and risk

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The pending $85 billion in federal spending cuts would seem like a tea partyer's dream. Why, then, are tea party activists and other conservatives so wary on the eve of the big reductions, which Congress and the White House seem unable or unwilling to stop?

It's because even ardent cost-cutters see the so-called "sequester" as a ham-handed and unpredictable way to reduce federal spending. While a few tea party activists are claiming all-out victory, others are keeping their distance, calling the across-the-board cuts the least-bad of several unpleasant options.

"I think it's a crazy idea," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a tea party favorite. "The only thing crazier than sequester is to walk away from the cuts that it guarantees."

Rubio's remarks reflect Republicans' nervousness about how the public might react to the domestic and military spending cuts scheduled to begin Friday.

But in many ways, the sequester marks the tea party movement's maturation into a virtually mainstream role in the Republican Party. Cutting the Pentagon's budget once was unthinkable for most Republican lawmakers. But now it is trumped by the drive to keep taxes down while reducing costs wherever possible.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans agreed to the sequester in 2011 only as a consequence so unpalatable that it would goad them into finding a deficit-reduction compromise. The compromise never materialized, however, and now the nation is about to swallow what lawmakers once called a "poison pill" of their own making.

Republicans fear a possible backlash against program cuts and furloughs of government workers and contractors, especially at military bases. They also worry that the cuts will have an economic domino effect, eliminating thousands of private-sector jobs and possibly pushing the nation back into recession.

If that happens, and if voters decide Republicans are chiefly to blame, then the tea party movement could further divide an already roiling GOP.

President Barack Obama and other Democrats say Republican intransigence on tax increases is the sequester's main cause. And public polls indicate Americans are more inclined to fault the GOP if things go badly, although some Republicans believe they can change that.

For now, the approaching cuts are testament to the power of anti-tax sentiment ? and, to a less proven degree, anti-spending sentiment ? in the Republican Party. The tea party movement is strongly associated with these sentiments. But it certainly can't take all the credit.

Long before the tea party's birth in 2009, anti-tax activists such as Grover Norquist were pushing the Republican Party to take inviolable stands against new taxes, even as the deficit soared and the federal tax burden approached historic lows.

Obama won re-election after calling for new taxes on the wealthy. He achieved some of them in January. But Republican lawmakers now say "no more," contributing to the sequester impasse.

The tea party has lost much of its exotic flavor that was punctuated by noisy rallies with costumed activists in 2009 and 2010. Its influence, however, appears larger now. "It has melted into the GOP base," said John J. Pitney, Jr., a former Republican staffer who teaches political science at Claremont McKenna College in California. "Anti-tax voters make up a large share of the vote in GOP primaries," he said, "so Republican lawmakers support tax increases at their peril."

But Republicans could face another kind of peril, Pitney said, if the sequester lasts for months and begins to erode "visible, popular programs."

Duke University political scientist David Rohde said the tea party has become "the populist conservative faction of the Republican Party." It drew well-deserved credit for fueling the Republicans' big congressional and gubernatorial wins in 2010, he said, even though some tea party-backed Senate nominees lost key races.

The movement's future, Rohde said, depends on whether tea party activism is seen as helping or hurting Republican candidates in 2014 and beyond. Fallout from the sequester could play a big role in those elections.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is typical of Republican lawmakers who grudgingly accept the sequester and worry that tea party ideals can go too far.

"I believe that the cuts in defense are ill-conceived and will do a lot of damage," said Graham, whose state includes several military installations. "Some of these tea party folks don't mind losing their bases; others will."

The tea party drive to reduce federal spending at almost every level is potent in GOP circles. Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, eyeing a Senate race that will draw several hard-right Republican rivals, says the sequester appears inevitable, but it will extract an economic and political price.

Referring to military bases in his Savannah-based district, Kingston said, "my people will take it on the chin." But in constituent feedback about the sequester, he said, "the overwhelming number of people are saying, "Let it happen." They want to see that we are serious about cutting spending."

Even some tea party leaders say the movement's take-no-prisoners approach has its costs.

"Our brand is tarnished, but that's what happens when you get beat up," said Sal Russo, a founder of the California-based Tea Party Express. "It's not the brand" that counts, he said, "it's the ideas."

In the long run, Russo said, the benefits of reducing deficit spending will overshadow any short-term hits to the economy this year. If that happens, he said, the tea party's status will rise in the Republican Party and the nation at large.

The movement "is quite alive and well," he said.

But some question the tea party's willingness to embrace domestic and military cuts that don't touch the greatest causes of deficit spending: the popular but costly "entitlement" programs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

"They're amputating the wrong limb," said Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker. If the tea party movement is to achieve its goal of undoing the government's borrowing habits, he said, it must prove it can blaze a political path to reductions in entitlement spending.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/big-spending-cuts-mark-tea-195151299.html

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Little Boy Dances To 'Sexy And I Know It' By LMFAO -- And The Crowd Goes Wild (VIDEO)

This enthusiastic young performer sees your viral "It's Tricky" dance -- and raises you some "Sexy and I Know It" moves, gutsy enough to make the crowd go wild.

We only wish he'd been dancing along to Elmo's far more age-appropriate version of the song -- our forever favorite.

(h/t BuzzFeed)

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/little-boy-dances-sexy-and-i-know-it-concert_n_2773622.html

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State health insurance becomes a reality for Georgians | Democracy ...

Health Minister Davit Sergeenko presented the new health insurance program Thursday. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch?A new health insurance program became available to Georgians from Thursday. The program is open for citizens from the age of 6 to 60 who have not had health insurance before.

Health insurance for every Georgian citizen was a part of the Georgian Dream coalition?s election program, and was criticized by its opponents. Not many people use insurance services in Georgia. Most people who do, are insured by their employer, but many are not ?used to? use those services.

Opponents of the government?s new program think that a large portion of the population who don?t have health coverage have enough income to get their own insurance, but don?t, because they don?t think it is necessary. Therefore, they reason, it would have been better to popularize insurance services and reduce beneficiaries of this new program to a minimum.

Health Minister Davit Sergeenko told journalists that there are more than two million citizens who don?t have health insurance. According to the latest census data, there are about four million people living in the country, which means that the government insurance program applies to about half of the population. Census data in Georgia are disputed.

The new program offers citizens free visit to a family doctor, and services of USD 9 000 for outpatient and inpatient treatment.

USD 211 million was allocated for the first level health insurance, but the government plans to improve the insurance package from July, 2013.

---

Source: http://dfwatch.net/state-health-insurance-becomes-a-reality-for-georgians-79383

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Huawei Claims It Has the World?s Fastest 4G Phone?But Who Really Cares?

Huawei could add a waffle-maker to its Ascend P2, and I doubt even that would be enough to pull people over to its side of the phone stores. Unlike the Ascend D2 unveiled at CES, there's no 3,000mAh battery lurking here (you'll have to "make do" with a 2420 one), but there's a CAT 4LTE chipset, meaning 4G speeds can reach 150Mbps (the iPhone 5 and S3 LTE only have CAT 3, FYI). More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/oe3wdapZJbQ/huawei-claims-it-has-the-worlds-fastest-4g-phonebut-who-really-cares

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WH Brief Previews Supreme Court Arguments on Gay Marriage

The White House has asked the Supreme Court to strike down a main provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, but in the legal paper filed with the judiciary it may have signaled a wider push for same-sex marriage as a constitutional right on the horizon.

The Justice Department issued an amicus brief Friday urging the court to repeal Section 3 of DOMA when it hears a challenge to the act late next month. The portion bars the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages for health benefits, income tax purposes, and other issues.

In 2011, President Obama announced the executive branch would cease upholding the 1996 law, although it remained on the books. Given that the Obama administration has been named a party to the case, the filing with the court does not come as a surprise, yet the equal protection issues covered in United States v. Windsor are relatively narrow in scope.

Instead, court watchers have been waiting to see whether the president would weigh in on a separate case involving gay marriage: California's Proposition 8. The administration has until next week to decide whether to join other parties in challenging the ballot-approved state law, later overturned, that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Friday's brief could serve as hat-tip that the Justice Department is preparing for such a move.

See also: Will Obama join legal fight for gay marriage?

Any ruling regarding Prop 8 would have sweeping ramifications over a much broader issue than DOMA: Whether the U.S. Constitution guarantees a fundamental right to gay marriage.

Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. is not required to file a so-called "friend of the court" brief in that, but sources say the administration is considering the possibility at the highest levels.

In an interview Wednesday with San Francisco's ABC station, KGO-TV, Obama said his administration had yet to reach a decision.

"I have to make sure I'm not interjecting myself too much into this process, particularly when we're not party to the case," he told KGO-TV. "I can tell you, though, that obviously my personal view is that I think that same-sex couples should have the same rights and be treated like everybody else."

Historically his administration has left such decisions to the states; the administration has not previously offered an official statement on Prop 8 because the federal government was not directly affected by it.

Although the California case and DOMA do not directly intertwine Friday's brief does offer a window into the language likely to be employed by the Justice Department in Prop 8, should it become involved. The brief can be found at the well-established SCOTUSblog.com.

"Gay and lesbian people are a minority group with limited political power," reads the administration statement. "Although some of the harshest and most overt forms of discrimination against gay and lesbian people have receded, that progress has hardly been uniform (either temporally or geographically), and has in significant respects been the result of judicial enforcement of the Constitution, not political action."

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has also filed a brief urging that the law be upheld, arguing gay-rights issues would be better left to the democratic process.

"Gays and lesbians are one of the most influential, best-connected, best-funded, and best-organized interest groups in modern politics, and have attained more legislative victories, political power, and popular favor in less time than virtually any other group in American history," it says.

The House named itself a party to the case after the executive branch announced its decision to abandon the legislation.

ABC's Ariane de Vogue contributed reporting.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wh-brief-previews-supreme-court-arguments-gay-marriage-011631913--abc-news-politics.html

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How To Treat Your Employees

Editor?s note:?James Altucher?is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He has started and sold several companies, run a VC fund, and is an active investor in many private companies. His latest books are?I Was Blind But Now I See?and?40 Alternatives to College.?You can follow him on Twitter?@jaltucher. Wade had sex with Karen and now I had to fire him. She was our top designer. And he was also starting to make fun of one of my partners behind his back. He’d do that roll-the-eyes thing whenever my partner spoke. Wade had caught the disease. The disease is very contagious and it spreads to the other employees quickly and it contaminates everyone’s work. Like a tumor you have to cut it out as soon as it appears. Wade was fired. The disease spreads in stairwells. The archaelogical digs of startups are found by deciphering the cigarette butts and condoms flung down the stairwells. The employees talk to each other there. They talk about you. And they don’t say very nice things. Put a microphone there. And while you are at it put a microphone in the elevator. It can’t hurt. When I was a kid one of my friends told me he got a blowjob every weekend in the stairwell at Quakerbridge Mall near the movie theater. I had acne, bad hair, cysts, braces, glasses, and bad clothes. Fucking stairwells. – L. was crying when she called me and asked me to meet her at the cafe across the street from work. I said, “what’s wrong?” She said, “just meet me at the cafe.” She was a project manager working at my first company. The cafe was the Abracadabra cafe and for some reason they served coffee and donuts in a magic store. The best magic store in the city. Where David Blaine supposedly learned his stuff and everyone made fun of him behind his back. Like people do. L. was still crying. She had heard one of my partners call her ugly and stupid when he thought she wasn’t listening. She didn’t know what to do. “I had been so happy at work until this moment,” she said. One word can destroy people. It’s so easy. The magic word. We want to be loved and when it’s not returned by those in authority we just feel horrible. There was nothing I could tell L. other than that I valued what

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/wK85GxqxPQM/

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Cuba's Raul Castro mentions possible retirement

HAVANA (AP) ? Cuban President Raul Castro has unexpectedly raised the possibility of leaving his post, saying Friday that he is old and has a right to retire. But he did not say when he might do so or if such a move was imminent.

The Cuban leader is scheduled to be named by parliament to a new five-year term on Sunday, and Castro urged reporters to listen to his speech that day.

"I am going to resign," Castro said at a joint appearance with visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

"I am going to be 82 years old," Castro added, the hint of a smile on his face. "I have the right to retire, don't you think?"

When reporters continued to shout questions about his plans for the next five years, Castro replied: "Why are you so incredulous?"

He said to listen carefully on Sunday.

"It will be an interesting speech," he said. "Pay attention."

Castro's tone was light and his comments came in informal remarks at a mausoleum dedicated to soldiers from the former Soviet Union who have died around the world.

The Cuban leader has spoken before of his desire to implement a two-term limit for all Cuban government positions, including the presidency. He has also alluded to the limited time he has left to overhaul the island's weak Marxist economy.

That has led many to speculate that this upcoming term would be his last, though term limits have never been codified into Cuban law.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland had no comment on Castro's remarks.

Most Havana residents had not heard about the comments, which were not shown on Cuban television, although other footage from his appearance with Medvedev was shown. Many reacted with skepticism.

"Who would they put in?" asked Marta Alvarez, a 45-year-old housewife walking through Old Havana. "But I don't think it would be now. It would happen in five years."

Castro will be 86 when his next term ends in 2018. Up until now, all eyes had been on who would emerge as Castro's first and second vice presidents during Sunday's proceedings. The positions are currently occupied by two loyal octogenarians who fought in the 1959 revolution.

Putting someone younger in one of those roles would be the first sign that Castro was settling on a potential next-generation successor, something he and his brother Fidel have never done, even as many comrades have succumbed to old age.

As far back as December 2010, Castro began to reflect on his responsibility, and that of his aging generation, to right Cuba's economy, noting that the actuarial tables leave them few remaining years.

"The time we have left is short, the task is enormous," he told lawmakers in his year-end speech that year. "I think we have an obligation ... to set (the country) on the right course."

When Raul Castro does leave the political stage, it would end more than a half century of unbroken rule by the two brothers, who came to power in 1959 at the head of a revolution against U.S.-backed strongman Fulgencio Batista.

Armando Gutierrez, a 78-year-old Cuban-American lawyer in Florida and veteran of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, said he hoped Castro wasn't joking about retiring, but doubted that whoever follows would bring true political change.

"Can you imagine 54 years?" Gutierrez said. "Not even the Roman emperors lasted that long."

Relations with the United States have been sour since shortly after the revolution. One of the key provisions of the 51-year U.S. economic embargo on Cuba stipulates that it cannot be lifted while either of the Castros is in power.

Castro has implemented a series of economic and social reforms since taking over from his ailing brother in 2006, but the island is still ruled by one party. Fidel Castro is 86 and retired, and has seemed increasingly frail in recent appearances.

The elder Castro was also visited by Medvedev, Cuban state-run media reported. Communist Party newspaper Granma reported that the two countries signed an agreement on restructuring more than $20 billion in Soviet-era debt Cuba owes.

The terms of the restructuring weren't announced. The debt has been a point of contention between Cuba and Russia for years. It was originally built up in rubles to pay the Soviet Union for services provided in the 1980s, and Cuba has questioned how much it should be worth today.

___

Associated Press journalists Camilo Losada and Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.

___

Follow Paul Haven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulhaven

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cubas-raul-castro-mentions-possible-retirement-152153266.html

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Only Afghan parliament can decide on US troops immunity

By Sayed Jawad - 23 Feb 2013, 9:06 pm

Leader of the National Front ? main political opposition coalition of the Afghan government opposed with the grand assembly (Loya Jirga) to discuss US troops immunity in Afghanistan.

Ahmad Zia on Saturday said organizing grand assembly to decide over US troops immunity in the presence of Afghan parliament is against the Afghan constitution.

However Afghan president Hamid Karzai said US troops immunity will be decided by Afghan tribal elders during a national grand assembly.

Karzai said, a decision on immunity for U.S. troops staying in Afghanistan after the 2014 planned withdrawal will be made by the end of the year.

The Afghan government rejected an initial U.S. proposal regarding the question of immunity and a second round of negotiations will take place this year in Kabul, he said.

This comes as the U.S. and its NATO allies revealed Friday they may keep as many as 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after the combat mission ends next year, largely American forces tasked with hunting down remnants of al-Qaida and helping Afghan forces with their own security.

However the Obama administration has not said how many troops or diplomats it intends to keep in Afghanistan after 2014; it is in the early stages of negotiating a bilateral security agreement with Kabul that would set the legal parameters.

There currently are 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a 2010 peak of 100,000.

Follow Khaama Press (KP) | Afghan Online Newspaper on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook. Stay updated via RSS

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/khaama/~3/JH-CybNP54I/only-afghan-parliament-can-decide-on-us-troops-immunity-2220

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Video: Secrets In the Mist, Part 3

Dateline NBC

'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3032600/vp/50914854#50914854

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FOR KIDS: Feeling the invisible

Sensor wired into a rat?s brain lets it detect light the animal can?t see

By Sid Perkins

Web edition: February 21, 2013

Enlarge

Researchers trained a rat with a sensor wired into its brain to find water at a door marked with an invisible light.

Credit: Thomson et al., Nature Communications (2013)

A sensor wired to a portion of the rat brain that normally processes the sense of touch enabled the animal to detect a form of light it cannot ordinarily see, scientists report. The new research underscores how adaptable the brain is. It also offers hope that someday people who have suffered severe brain damage or who have?gone blind can regain some lost function.

Researchers mounted infrared sensors onto the scalps of rats.?Using tiny wires, they connected the detectors to that part of the rat brain that normally interprets signals coming from the whiskers. The connection allowed the rats to sense the infrared light that was visible only to the scalp sensors.

Visit the new?Science News for Kids?website?and read the full story:?Feeling the invisible

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348516/title/FOR_KIDS_Feeling_the_invisible

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Dress in Blue Day to raise colon cancer awareness | VUMC ...

by Dagny Stuart | Posted on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 ? 9:13 AM

?Nashville Elvis? will be in the building at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks, Friday, March 1, to celebrate colon cancer awareness.

?We have invited the entertainer known as Nashville Elvis to our Dress in Blue Day celebration because one of Elvis? best-loved songs is ?Blue Suede Shoes,? and blue is the color associated with colon cancer,? said Sheila Bates, MSSW, community outreach manager for Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center?s Office of Patient and Community Education.

?We?re encouraging everyone to wear something blue as a reminder that early screening may help detect or even prevent the disease.?

Bates said anyone old enough to remember Elvis is the right age to start thinking about colon cancer screening.

The Colon Cancer Alliance initiated Dress in Blue Day in 2009 to raise awareness about colorectal cancer which is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Approximately 150,000 people are diagnosed with colorectal cancer every year and more than 51,000 die from the disease.

During the Dress in Blue Day event on March 1, Nashville Elvis will be in the Courtyard Caf? at lunchtime between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and in the lobby at Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks from 2-4 p.m. Visitors to the cafeteria and One Hundred Oaks may have their pictures taken with Nashville Elvis, and with two VUMC employees who are dressed as giant colon polyps.

Polyps are small growths on the lining of the intestinal tract that may turn into cancer.
There will also be games and prizes for visitors who stop by the colorectal cancer education tables.

Everyone is advised to start screening beginning at age 50, and individuals who have a family history of the disease or persistent symptoms may need to start screening even earlier.

Screening with a test like a colonoscopy is the best way to prevent colorectal cancer. During the test a physician uses a long, flexible tube with a camera on the end to search for polyps inside the colon and can remove the polyps to prevent cancer from developing.

Obesity, cigarette smoking, a poor diet and lack of exercise all contribute to colon cancer risk.

The Vanderbilt Hereditary Colorectal Cancer Registry provides genetic counseling and testing for those who may have a hereditary risk. Contact Duveen.sturgeon@vanderbilt.edu or call 322-1590 for registry information. For more details about Dress in Blue Day, contact Sheila.bates@vanderbilt.edu or call 948-4130.

Contact:
Dagny Stuart, (615) 936-7245
Dagny.stuart@vanderbilt.edu

---

Source: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/02/dress-in-blue-day-to-raise-colon-cancer-awareness/

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Bob Beckel on Fox News: Who Gets Raped Anymore?!?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/bob-beckel-on-fox-news-who-gets-raped-anymore/

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Conservation Triage

Politically controversial species attract more funding, as do those with symbolic value, like bald eagles

Photo by Reuters/Victor Fraile

Let?s say you?re in charge of picking the survivors. You?ve got a boat?oh, let?s just make it an ark, shall we??and you can load it with any kind of animals you like. The species you coax on board will probably make it through climate change. The ones you leave on shore probably won?t. While you can choose your passengers, there are limits: Put too many critters in the ark and the whole thing, you included, will start to sink.

Which species will you save? Will you pick the rarest, the largest, or the smallest? The strongest or the weakest? The most beautiful ? or just the tastiest?

The thing is, most of us are already making these choices, and making them all the time. Not that we think much about it. But every time we decide what to buy, where to build, or who to put in charge of spending our tax dollars, we?re indirectly deciding which species deserve our consideration and which species can do without it.

It?s easy to ignore this reality and pretend that we can and will protect everything. The U.S. Endangered Species Act, which turns 40 this year and is still considered by many to be the most powerful environmental law in the world, made essentially all species eligible for federal protection. But federal, state, and private dollars are finite, and in recent years, it?s become all too obvious that the demands of conservation are functionally infinite.

You?ve heard the news: Species of all sizes and descriptions are contending with habitat destruction, pollution, and the accelerating and far-reaching pressures of climate change. Some species will adapt. Those that aren?t picky about their habitats or diets, such as crows and coyotes, stand the best chance. But species that require particular habitats, such as polar bears, or a single type of prey or pollinator aren?t likely to make it, at least not without huge investments of time and money.

So in recent years, some conservationists and scientists have been pushing for a more explicit, systematic approach to conservation decisions?a kind of triage system in which a rational set of criteria is used to allocate limited resources. Environmentalists have long been wary of any sort of triage approach to species conservation, and understandably so. Explicit triage is, in a way, an admission of failure, an acknowledgement that we?ve fallen short of the Endangered Species Act?s goal of protecting all species without prejudice. And any such acknowledgement could well be exploited by traditional foes of conservation.

But some environmentalists now say the status quo is an even riskier path. ?The way we?re doing it right now in the United States is the worst of all possible choices,? says Tim Male, a vice president at Defenders of Wildlife. ?It essentially reflects completely ad hoc prioritization.? Politically controversial species attract more funding, as do those with symbolic value (think bald eagles) or furry, expressive faces (think lemurs and baby seals). ?We live in a world of unconscious triage,? says Male.

So how to make these life-and-death decisions? Scientists have proposed several approaches. One is to prioritize species that play some sort of essential role in their ecosystem?top predators such as wolves, for instance. Another is to focus on protecting extremely rare and unusual species, with the hope of preserving a diverse genetic pool and with it the ability of species to evolve and adapt to new conditions. The EDGE of Existence program, run by the Zoological Society of London, takes the latter approach. It has a fascinating collection of weird and wonderful species in its portfolio, ranging from the Chinese giant salamander to the two-humped Bactrian camel.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=1a48939d36a429e61d4a5cc26bc69ad9

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Pistorius charged with murdering girlfriend

A woman holds a photo of Reeva Steenkamp, as she leaves her funeral, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. The defense lawyer says it was an accidental shooting. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

A woman holds a photo of Reeva Steenkamp, as she leaves her funeral, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. The defense lawyer says it was an accidental shooting. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

El atleta ol?mpico Oscar Pistorius, centro con la cabeza cubierta, sale escoltado en una patrulla de la Estaci?n de Polic?a Brooklyn, el martes 19 de febrero de 2013, en Pretoria, Sud?frica. (Foto AP/Waldo Swiegers)

Barry Steenkamp, third left, the father of Reeva Steenkamp, greets people as he and others attend her funeral, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013.Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. The defense lawyer says it was an accidental shooting. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

Barry Steenkamp, the father of Reeva Steenkamp, leaves his home to attend her funeral ceremony in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. The defense lawyer says it was an accidental shooting. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

South African rugby player Francois Hougaard, left, arrives for the funeral of Reeva Steenkamp in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. The defense lawyer says it was an accidental shooting. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? Olympian Oscar Pistorius fired into the door of a small bathroom where his girlfriend was cowering after a shouting match on Valentine's Day, hitting her three times, a South African prosecutor said Tuesday as he charged the sports icon with premeditated murder.

The magistrate ruled that Pistorius faces the harshest bail requirements available in South African law. He did not elaborate before a break was called in the session.

Pistorius sobbed softly as his lawyer insisted that Reeva Steenkamp's shooting was an accident.

"She couldn't go anywhere. You can run nowhere," prosecutor Gerrie Nel said at a bail hearing.

The shooting death has shocked South Africans and many around the world who idolized Pistorius for overcoming adversity to become a sports champion, competing in the London Olympics last year in track besides being a Paralympian. Steenkamp, 29, was a model and law graduate who made her debut on a South African reality TV program that was broadcast on Saturday, two days after her death.

Nel said the couple had had a shouting match and Steenkamp fled to the bathroom, down a seven-meter (yard) passage from the bedroom, and locked herself in. He said the 26-year-old Pistorius got up from bed and had to put on his prosthetic legs to reach the toilet door.

Nel told the court the door was broken open after the shots were fired. Pistorius' lawyer insisted there was no evidence to substantiate a murder charge.

"Was it to kill her, or was it to get her out?" defense attorney Barry Roux asked the court, referring to the broken-down door. "We submit it is not even murder. There is no concession this is a murder."

Pistorius, who had appeared grim and solemn at the start of the hearing, broke down and sobbed softly with his head in his hands as his lawyer argued that it was an accidental shooting. It occurred in the early hours of Feb. 14. Neighbors had heard a loud argument and then gunshots, police have said. The couple had been dating for only about three months.

As details emerged at the dramatic court hearing in the capital, Steenkamp's body was being cremated Tuesday at a memorial service in the south-coast port city of Port Elizabeth. The family said members had arrived from around the world. Six pallbearers carried her coffin, draped with a white cloth and covered in white flowers, into the church for the private service.

June Steenkamp, the mother, said the family wants answers.

"Why? Why my little girl? Why did this happen? Why did he do this?" she said in an interview published Monday in The Times newspaper.

Outside the court, several dozen singing women protested against domestic violence and waved placards urging Pistorius be refused bail. "Pistorius must rot in jail," one placard said.

South Africa has some of the world's worst rates of violence against females and the highest rate in the world of women killed by an intimate partner, according to a study by the Medical Research Council. Another council study estimates a child or woman is raped every four minutes. While homicide rates have dropped, the number of women killed by current or former partners has increased, said the council's Professor Rachel Jewkes. At least three women are killed by a partner every day in the country of 50 million, she said.

Steenkamp campaigned actively against domestic violence and had tweeted on Twitter that she planned to join a "Black Friday" protest by wearing black in honor of a 17-year-old girl who was gang-raped and mutilated two weeks ago.

What "she stood for, and the abuse against women, unfortunately it's gone right around and I think the Lord knows that statement is more powerful now," her uncle and the family spokesman Mike Steenkamp said after her memorial.

He said the family had planned a big get-together at Christmas but that had not been possible. "But we are here today as a family and the only one who's missing is Reeva," he said, breaking down and weeping.

At the court, Nel said the killing was premeditated because Pistorius had planned to say that he thought he was shooting an intruder, and had told that story to his sister, Aimee.

"It was all part of the preplanning. Why would a burglar lock himself inside the bathroom?" Nel asked. The shooting happened at Pistorius' home in a guarded and gated community in a luxury suburb of Pretoria.

Roux, in arguing that Pistorius should be freed on bail, he said there were no other charges outstanding against the double-amputee who last year became the first double-amputee track athlete to run at the Olympics.

Legal experts say it could take months for the case to be tried.

Pistorius, in a gray suit and tie, nodded after the chief magistrate asked if he was well. And he nodded his appreciation when his brother, Carl, pressed his shoulder in support. Journalists jammed into the courtroom, which was full with almost 100 people, including Pistorius' father, Henke, and sister Aimee.

In an email to The Associated Press on Monday, Pistorius' longtime track coach ? who was yet to comment ? said he believes the killing was an accident.

"I pray that we can all, in time, come through this challenging situation following the accident and I am looking forward to the day I can get my boy back on the track," Ampie Louw wrote in his statement. "I am still in shock following the heart-breaking events that occurred last week and my thoughts and prayers are with both of the families involved."

---

Associated Press writer Michelle Faul contributed from Johannesburg and AP photographer Schalk van Zuydam from Port Elizabeth.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-19-Pistorius-Shooting/id-a7a99d736c1c4ce3ad774eef417137d9

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Mexico's new president has 56 percent approval rating: poll

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has a lower approval rating at the start of his term than his predecessor did, a poll showed on Monday, underscoring the challenge he faces to push key economic reforms through a divided Congress.

Less than three months into office, 56 percent of Mexicans approve of Pena Nieto as president compared to 29 percent who disapprove of the job he is doing, according to a survey by Buendia y Laredo published by daily El Universal on Monday.

After 12 years of opposition rule, Pena Nieto returned to power his centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for most of the past century.

Pena Nieto's ranking is below the 58 percent approval rating scored by former President Felipe Calderon at the start of his own term. Some 26 percent disapproved of Calderon at the time.

Monday's poll was based on face-to-face interviews with 1,000 people and reported a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

Pena Nieto has promised to push through a series of economic reforms, including tax legislation and an overhaul of the lumbering state-run energy sector, that the last two presidents failed to drive through a divided Congress.

Calderon, from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), failed to win support for his major economic plans in the country's Congress, where no party holds a majority. He was able to pass only minor tax and energy reforms while in office.

Pena Nieto managed to quickly push through an education reform bill and pass his first budget but he still will have to prove that a political pact forged with opposition parties will be strong enough to quickly move other reforms.

Just after his election, Pena Nieto sealed a broad accord dubbed the "Pact for Mexico" with leftist and conservative opponents that includes a timetable to discuss major reforms this year.

"Pena Nieto has an important advantage over Calderon. It has been many years since there has been such a wide agreement between political parties," said Javier Oliva, a political analyst at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

"His rating will stabilize as they begin achieving these important agreements," Oliva said.

(Reporting by Michael O'Boyle; Editing by Simon Gardner and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mexicos-president-56-pct-approval-rating-poll-192641702.html

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Shedding new light on infant brain development

Feb. 18, 2013 ? A new study by Columbia Engineering researchers finds that the infant brain does not control its blood flow in the same way as the adult brain. The paper, which the scientists say could change the way researchers study brain development in infants and children, is published in the February 18 Early Online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"The control of blood flow in the brain is very important" says Elizabeth Hillman, associate professor of Biomedical Engineering and of Radiology, who led the research study in her Laboratory for Functional Optical Imaging at Columbia. "Not only are regionally specific increases in blood flow necessary for normal brain function, but these blood-flow increases form the basis of signals measured in fMRI, a critical imaging tool used widely in adults and children to assess brain function. Many prior fMRI studies have overlooked the possibility that the infant brain controls blood flow differently."

"Our results are fascinating" says Mariel Kozberg, a neurobiology MD-PhD candidate who works under Hillman and is the lead author of the PNAS paper. "We found that the immature brain does not generate localized blood-flow increases in response to stimuli. By tracking changes in blood-flow control with increasing age, we observed the brain gradually developing its ability to increase local blood flow and, by adulthood, generate a large blood-flow response."

The study results suggest that fMRI experiments in infants and children should be carefully designed to ensure that maturation of blood-flow control can be delineated from changes in neuronal development. "On the other hand," says Hillman, "our findings also suggest that vascular development may be an important new factor to consider in normal and abnormal brain development, so our findings could represent new markers of normal and abnormal brain development that could potentially be related to a range of neurological or even psychological conditions."

Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, is one of several brain-imaging methods that measure changes in blood flow to detect the presence and location of neuronal activity. In adults, blood-flow increases occur in specific regions of the brain during a particular task like moving your hand or reacting to a stimulus. FMRI relies upon measuring decreases in deoxygenated hemoglobin resulting from this blood-flow increase to understand which parts of the brain are responsible for different actions and emotions. FMRI and other brain-imaging methods are currently being widely used to explore brain development, and to understand disorders in infants and children including autism and ADHD.

"Until now, we had been studying blood flow in the adult brain," Hillman notes, "but we became interested in several studies that reported odd, sometimes negative, blood-flow responses in newborn and premature infants and decided to carefully explore what was different about the immature brain compared to the adult. Initially, I saw these studies as a way to watch how the adult system assembled itself during development. Then we realized how important our findings were to those using brain imaging to study child development and developmental disorders."

The team used a unique multispectral optical intrinsic signal imaging system (MS-OISI) built in Hillman's lab to perform the research. MS-OISI is a high-speed, high-resolution imaging approach that takes advantage of the different absorption spectra of deoxygenated and oxygenated hemoglobin in order to determine changes in the concentrations of each. The researchers found that, with increasing age, there was a gradual development of a localized increase in blood flow, while a strong, delayed decrease in flow was consistently present. Only by adulthood was the positive increase able to balance the decrease in flow.

"Our results suggest that the infant brain might not be able to generate localized blood- flow increases, even if there is neuronal activity occurring, and that the development of blood- flow control occurs in parallel with early neuronal development," says Kozberg. "This could suggest that fMRI studies of infants and children may be detecting changes in both vascular and neuronal development -- in fact, vascular development may be an important new factor to consider in normal and abnormal brain development."

The team also found that the younger age groups were highly sensitive to blood pressure increases in response to stimulation and that these increases can cause large increases in blood flow across the brain. "This finding indicates that the newborn brain is also unable to regulate its overall blood-flow levels," Kozberg explains. "This could explain earlier fMRI results in infants and children that were sometimes positive and sometimes negative, because it is difficult to tell whether blood pressure increases are occurring in infants and children. This result suggests that great care should be taken in setting stimulus thresholds in young subjects."

The researchers add that, since the newborn brain appears to be able to sustain itself without tightly controlled blood flow, their findings suggest that the infant brain may be intrinsically more resistant to damage due to a lack of oxygen than the adult brain. "This could be an important property to understand, both in terms of understanding how best to treat blood-flow problems in the newborn infant brain, which can cause lifelong problems such as cerebral palsy, and to potentially better understand how to treat the adult brain in conditions such as stroke," Hillman observes.

"Our lab operates at the intersection of neuroscience and engineering," continues Hillman." Not only do we develop the imaging systems that let us investigate the living brain in new ways, but like all engineers, we're fascinated with figuring out 'how things work,' and the brain is no exception."

Next steps for Hillman and her team include further defining the cellular mechanisms underlying the developing hemodynamic response at a cellular and microvascular level, using methods such as high-speed and multi-plane in-vivo two-photon microscopy, another technique developed in the lab. They're particularly interested in tracking changes in neuronal activity, microvascular architecture and connectivity, and the distribution and activity of other cellular populations thought to be associated with neurovascular coupling as a function of development.

"This will help us understand how the neonatal brain is different, and better understand how mature blood-flow control mechanisms in the adult brain work," says Kozberg. Adds Hillman, "We are also keen to take this research into the clinic and explore whether our findings could improve diagnosis and monitoring of newborn infants. Our findings so far feel like just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more for us to do now to understand why the infant brain is so different, and how we can use our findings to improve understanding of a wealth of devastating childhood and developmental conditions."

This research was supported by grants and student fellowships from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Eye Institute, the National Science Foundation, the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, the Medical Scientist Training Program, and the Human Frontier Science Program. Hillman is also a member of the Columbia University graduate program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Kavli Institute for Brain Sciences.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science. The original article was written by Holly Evarts.

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

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/B4IRQuFo-wI/130218164126.htm

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Are You Too Difficult To Work With? - Motivational Speakers Review

I was reading the blog post by the funny motivational speaker, Marilyn Sherman on customer service (link to blog post:?http://motivational-speakers-review.com/201li3/02/14/success-2/obsessed-or-just-passionate-about-customer-service)?and it got me to thinking about being accessible to our customers, and more importantly, being easy to work with. We all like to think we are easy to do business with. But are we sure? Have we defined what customer service looks like in our business? Do we know what our customers?define as good customer service? Do we return calls in a timely manner? Do we respond to deadlines? Do we listen more than we talk? Do we show them we appreciate their business? Is our website easy to maneuver? How many hoops do they have to jump through to do business with us? ?

Sometimes I wish CEOs would call their own companies and see what it feels like to enter voice mail hell ? or be put on hold three times ? or have to talk with someone whose accent we can't understand. Often I wonder how in touch the people at the top are with the front line service? ?And so today, I'm going to step back (as best I can) and try to see what it's like to do business with me from the customer's perspective.

If you think this doesn't matter, you're wrong. ?I have heard many clients complain about how hard it was to work with their last speaker. Amazing how they remember a small detail like what the speaker made them pick up for their green room -??over the job perfomance of the speaker! Being easy to work with matters. Can you afford to lose that business?

?

Source: http://motivational-speakers-review.com/2013/02/15/communications/are-you-too-difficult-to-work-with

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Facebook wins German court fight on fake names ban

BERLIN (AP) ? Facebook has won a court battle against a German privacy watchdog that challenged the social networking site's policy requiring users to register with their real names.

Schleswig-Holstein state's data protection body said Friday it will appeal the court decision. It argues the ban on fake names breaches German privacy laws and European rules designed to protect free speech online.

The administrative court in northern German Schleswig argued in its ruling Thursday that German privacy laws weren't applicable because Facebook has its European headquarters in Ireland ? which has less far-reaching rules.

The California-based company argues its real name policy protects users.

Germany's strict privacy rules have posed a legal headache for Facebook, Google and others in recent years, giving consumers significant rights to limit the way companies use their information.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-02-15-EU-Germany-Facebook/id-d3a0e9d28b6349bebbe03cfc67958dd0

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Seven reasons to love MMA this Valentine?s Day

Happy Valentine's Day, Cagereaders! In honor of the day, let's take a look at some reasons to love mixed martial arts.

Heavyweight division to love. Remember when the UFC heavyweight division was a joke? No longer. UFC 160 will feature a title bout between Cain Velasquez and Antonio Silva, and Junior dos Santos will fight Alistair Overeem.

So much MMA on television. MMA was once the province of pay-per-view and occasional specials on network and cable television. Now, with Bellator on Spike, the UFC on Fox's networks, and the World Series of Fighting on NBC Sports Network, a fight fan doesn't have to drop $55 a month to see any fighting at all.

New divisions giving opportunities to fighters who wouldn't have gotten them in the past. A few weekends ago, we watched Demetrious Johnson defend his 125-lb UFC championship belt against John Dodson. Next weekend, we'll watch women's bantamweights fight in the UFC for the first time. Two years ago, neither division existed.

Blood. In most sports, a little bit of blood stops the action. In MMA, we revel in it. It flows from the faces of fighters, colors the canvas a morbid red, and changes fight shorts from white to pink.

Amazing knockouts. Is there a more pure moment in sports than when one fighter hits the other cleanly, creating a knockout that somehow quiets and thrills a crowd all at once?

Bones and Spider and Rush. Jon Jones, Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre are all UFC champions who have easily beat the challenges in front of them, and are constantly adding to their arsenals in fights. It's easy to sit back and wish they would fight each other, but it's also nice to just sit back and enjoy every time they step in the cage.

No off-season. In covering football, February through August can be agonizing because there are no actual games. For the Olympics, the wait is even worse because it spans years. But there is always another fight around the corner. Weekends without fights -- whether in the UFC, Bellator, World Series of Fighting and Invicta, or at the local hotel ballroom -- are rare. If you want to watch a fight, you can. MMA is never that far away, and that's a really good reason to love it.

Why do you love this sport? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/seven-reasons-love-mma-valentine-day-173043355--mma.html

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Obama's plan for universal preschool

Two days after his State of the Union pledge to guarantee high quality preschool for every 4-year-old in the U.S., President Barack Obama takes his pitch on the road Thursday to an Atlanta suburb where he will deliver a speech on the issue at a local recreation center.

Obama cast his preschool plan as a way to bring low income and minority children up to speed with higher income children -- a move he says would save taxpayer money and give those children greater opportunity to succeed over their lifetimes.

"Every dollar we invest in high-quality early childhood education can save more than seven dollars later on by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime," Obama said in his State of the Union remarks. "In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, form more stable families of their own."

The president is set to speak at 1:20 p.m. ET at the Decatur Community Recreation Center, following a tour of a local pre-kindergarten classroom.

According to a fact sheet released by the White House Thursday morning, Obama's preschool plan would create a new federal-state cost-sharing partnership to guarantee high quality preschool to all low and moderate income 4-year-old children, including families that earn up to 200 percent of the poverty level. The program would be extended to middle class families who may pay on a sliding scale, and would incentivize full-day kindergarten.

The Department of Education will allocate funds to states based on the number of 4-year-olds in each state who qualify. Standards for preschools will include "well-trained teachers, who are paid comparably to K-12 staff," as well as small class size, and a rigorous curriculum.

White House officials said the new preschool proposal will not replace or destroy the current Head Start early education government program. Instead, a new early Head Start program will be created to support communities affected by the new preschool proposal.

The White House has not released cost estimates for the new preschool plan. The president has said this proposal and others announced in his address would not add to the federal deficit.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-push-universal-preschool-proposal-142600889--election.html

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Akela Fallen Angel shared a profile on Twitter

I am Afraid, not of you but of me.
I am afraid of the scars that run so deep.
The scars of tears that were once shed,
Upon the wrists of sorrow; the passion of dread.
I wear my dress, the color of ebony,
To the sound of the piano as I walk out in the snow,

Walking towards the graves of you and me...
What else is there to know, but?

Continue

Source: http://nerdfighters.ning.com/xn/detail/1833893%3AUser%3A2402529?xg_source=activity

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Vanderbilt study reveals clues to childhood respiratory virus

Public release date: 13-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Craig Boerner
craig.boerner@vanderbilt.edu
615-322-4747
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

New Vanderbilt-led research published in the Feb. 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has identified the relatively unknown human metapneumovirus (MPV) as the second most common cause of severe bronchiolitis in young children.

Senior author John Williams , M.D., associate professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and a well-known expert in MPV research, said it is gratifying to offer a clearer picture of how this virus impacts children.

"We found MPV is as important a cause of respiratory illness as influenza, and caused more illness than the three common types of parainfluenza virus combined. In fact, in young children, the burden of MPV was second only to RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) as a cause of bronchiolitis," Williams said.

The prospective research spanned six years, from 2003 to 2009, and involved samples taken from more than 10,000 children under age 5. The children were hospitalized, treated in an emergency department, or seen in an outpatient clinic with a lower respiratory infection (bronchiolitis).

Lead author Kathryn Edwards, M.D., the Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, led the clinical portion of the study while Williams' laboratory tested the samples for their viral content.

Three New Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN) sites participated: Rochester, N.Y., Cincinnati and Nashville, making this the largest prospective trial to date to investigate the burden of MPV.

Researchers found MPV tends to affect more children over age 1 than RSV, and while both viral infections strike in late winter or spring, MPV has a seasonal peak that lags behind the typical peak for RSV by about a month. The authors said physicians commonly see patients with this virus, but know little about it.

"It is important to understand the burden of disease caused by human metapneumovirus so that we can work on vaccines to prevent them. We want to understand the enemy so that we can counteract it," said Edwards.

MPV was first described in 2001 and there are no specific treatments or vaccines for it other than supportive care for bronchiolitis, such as oxygen, bronchodilators and intravenous fluids. No children involved in this study died from their infections. Williams said this is generally true for all the major causes of bronchiolitis in the United States because of the level of medical care available in this country.

"But in developing nations worldwide, lower respiratory illness is a leading cause of death in young children. Only diarrhea kills more children under the age of 5. We can infer, because of this study, that MPV is a major contributor to these deaths worldwide. We hope this will help stimulate more interest in research on vaccines and treatment for MPV," Williams said.

###

The major funding for this work came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Other Vanderbilt authors include Marie Griffin, M.D., MPH, professor of Preventive Medicine and Yuwei Zhu, M.D., M.S., senior associate in Biostatistics.

---

[ | 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: 13-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Craig Boerner
craig.boerner@vanderbilt.edu
615-322-4747
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

New Vanderbilt-led research published in the Feb. 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has identified the relatively unknown human metapneumovirus (MPV) as the second most common cause of severe bronchiolitis in young children.

Senior author John Williams , M.D., associate professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and a well-known expert in MPV research, said it is gratifying to offer a clearer picture of how this virus impacts children.

"We found MPV is as important a cause of respiratory illness as influenza, and caused more illness than the three common types of parainfluenza virus combined. In fact, in young children, the burden of MPV was second only to RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) as a cause of bronchiolitis," Williams said.

The prospective research spanned six years, from 2003 to 2009, and involved samples taken from more than 10,000 children under age 5. The children were hospitalized, treated in an emergency department, or seen in an outpatient clinic with a lower respiratory infection (bronchiolitis).

Lead author Kathryn Edwards, M.D., the Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, led the clinical portion of the study while Williams' laboratory tested the samples for their viral content.

Three New Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN) sites participated: Rochester, N.Y., Cincinnati and Nashville, making this the largest prospective trial to date to investigate the burden of MPV.

Researchers found MPV tends to affect more children over age 1 than RSV, and while both viral infections strike in late winter or spring, MPV has a seasonal peak that lags behind the typical peak for RSV by about a month. The authors said physicians commonly see patients with this virus, but know little about it.

"It is important to understand the burden of disease caused by human metapneumovirus so that we can work on vaccines to prevent them. We want to understand the enemy so that we can counteract it," said Edwards.

MPV was first described in 2001 and there are no specific treatments or vaccines for it other than supportive care for bronchiolitis, such as oxygen, bronchodilators and intravenous fluids. No children involved in this study died from their infections. Williams said this is generally true for all the major causes of bronchiolitis in the United States because of the level of medical care available in this country.

"But in developing nations worldwide, lower respiratory illness is a leading cause of death in young children. Only diarrhea kills more children under the age of 5. We can infer, because of this study, that MPV is a major contributor to these deaths worldwide. We hope this will help stimulate more interest in research on vaccines and treatment for MPV," Williams said.

###

The major funding for this work came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Other Vanderbilt authors include Marie Griffin, M.D., MPH, professor of Preventive Medicine and Yuwei Zhu, M.D., M.S., senior associate in Biostatistics.

---

[ | 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/2013-02/vumc-vsr021313.php

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