Power of cloud computing harnessed by Imperial collaborationPublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Colin Smith cd.smith@imperial.ac.uk 44-020-759-47612 Imperial College London
Harnessing the power of the 'cloud'
The partnership, which includes five other European academic institutions and technology companies, will integrate advanced new technologies into cloud computing to vastly increase the capacity and efficiency of these services.
Cloud computing means using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process information in data centres, rather than a local server. Facebook is a company that depends on cloud computing to provide their services to users. Companies such as Google and Amazon are examples of companies that offer cloud computing services.
There has been an increase in companies around the world using cloud computing to do business. More than half of US corporations, for example, now use cloud computing to store and process information.
The requirements from clients for more advanced services are evolving quickly and companies that offer cloud computing are now keen to capitalise on this vast untapped business potential.
Professor Alexander Wolf, from the Department of Computing at Imperial, is leading the consortium. He says:
"The potential of cloud computing has not yet been fully realised and our project aims to make it more flexible and powerful for customers. Ultimately this could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of companies and open the door to a whole range of new business developments, spurring on the global economy in the process."
The consortium will integrate new technologies seamlessly into the existing computer infrastructure in data centres. These technologies will enable more complex computations, communication and storage capabilities.
Ultimately, improvements to the computing technology will make cloud computing more energy efficient, flexible and easier to use and manage.
The name of the consortium is called HARNESS, which stands for Hardware- and Network-Enhanced Software Systems for Cloud Computing. It will run for three years.
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HARNESS is funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) for Research and Technological Development. Other universities participating in the project are cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Universit de Rennes 1 and Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fr Informationstechnik Berlin. The commercial partners are Maxeler Technologies and SAP.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Power of cloud computing harnessed by Imperial collaborationPublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Colin Smith cd.smith@imperial.ac.uk 44-020-759-47612 Imperial College London
Harnessing the power of the 'cloud'
The partnership, which includes five other European academic institutions and technology companies, will integrate advanced new technologies into cloud computing to vastly increase the capacity and efficiency of these services.
Cloud computing means using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process information in data centres, rather than a local server. Facebook is a company that depends on cloud computing to provide their services to users. Companies such as Google and Amazon are examples of companies that offer cloud computing services.
There has been an increase in companies around the world using cloud computing to do business. More than half of US corporations, for example, now use cloud computing to store and process information.
The requirements from clients for more advanced services are evolving quickly and companies that offer cloud computing are now keen to capitalise on this vast untapped business potential.
Professor Alexander Wolf, from the Department of Computing at Imperial, is leading the consortium. He says:
"The potential of cloud computing has not yet been fully realised and our project aims to make it more flexible and powerful for customers. Ultimately this could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of companies and open the door to a whole range of new business developments, spurring on the global economy in the process."
The consortium will integrate new technologies seamlessly into the existing computer infrastructure in data centres. These technologies will enable more complex computations, communication and storage capabilities.
Ultimately, improvements to the computing technology will make cloud computing more energy efficient, flexible and easier to use and manage.
The name of the consortium is called HARNESS, which stands for Hardware- and Network-Enhanced Software Systems for Cloud Computing. It will run for three years.
###
HARNESS is funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) for Research and Technological Development. Other universities participating in the project are cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Universit de Rennes 1 and Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fr Informationstechnik Berlin. The commercial partners are Maxeler Technologies and SAP.
[ | 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.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said it expects to appoint lead bank advisers for a possible stock market listing of Royal Mail Group by the end of May, as it pushes on with plans to privatise the firm.
In what would be one of the most significant privatisations of a British asset since John Major's Conservative government sold the railways in the 1990s, Business Minister Michael Fallon said on Monday a listing is the preferred method of sale for government and that investor feedback so far had been positive.
An initial public offering (IPO) of the group, which has around 150,000 staff and sales of 9.5 billion pounds ($14.72 billion), is expected to take place this autumn, with British media reports valuing it at between 2 and 3 billion pounds.
In a speech to the Policy Exchange, Fallon said Royal Mail would also soon begin exploring access to debt market capital.
Momentum behind privatising Royal Mail has increased since government took on its hefty pension deficit last year and the firm received regulatory approval to rise some stamp prices. It says it needs access to external capital for future investment.
The group posted half-year operating profit of 144 million pounds in November, up from 12 million pounds a year before, after reshaping the company towards a growing parcels market and away from declining letter volumes.
Included in a sale will be a 10 percent stake reserved for Royal Mail workers, in what would be the largest employee share scheme for 25 years, the government said. It has yet to clarify if shares would be free or at a discounted price.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents 120,000 Royal Mail workers, has fiercely opposed government's privatisation plans, fearing it would lead to a break-up of the company, job losses and worse terms and conditions.
Last December Royal Mail, which has shed around 50,000 staff in the last decade, enlisted Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs to work alongside Barclays as its financial advisers. UBS has been advising the government.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Volkswagen's namesake brand saw operating earnings slip by 45 percent in the first quarter, as it joined the ranks of European carmakers suffering a tough first quarter.
The brand earned 590 million euros before interest and taxes, compared to 1.08 billion euros in the same period a year earlier.
Audi, Volkswagen AG's luxury mainstay and a key driver of earnings, dipped to 1.31 billion euros from 1.41 billion euros a year ago.
The company's other brands include Bentley, Porsche, SEAT and Skoda. VW reported detailed earnings Monday after releasing key figures last week. The group as a whole saw net income fall 38 percent to 1.95 billion euros.
CEO Martin Winterkorn called it "a good start to the year" but added that "the coming months will be anything but easy."
When Deena Christy decided to become a personal trainer, she first figured she'd get the training online.
She paid the fee, did some of the course work, and then just stopped.
"I paid $500 for a class I never completed," Christy said.
She is a former teacher and longtime landscaping business owner who decided to make a career change just a few months shy of her 62nd birthday. She is fit, with strawberry-blond hair and a direct, no-nonsense attitude that should serve her well when she starts working with aging baby boomers and overweight children. "So I came here to Colorado to take this course, because I need to be immersed in this to succeed at my goal," Christy said.
She is among the latest class of aspiring personal trainers at Philippe Ray's National Personal Trainer Institute of Colorado in Golden. The personal training course there is seven months long, and costs $8,400, a big jump up from the online course fee of $500. Christy believes it's worth the investment because Lifetime Fitness, 24-Hour Fitness, The Point Athletic Cluband other fitness centers seek out NPTI graduates.
"Unfortunately, there are many ways to become a personal trainer, and if I hire someone who purchased their certification over the weekend, then I open myself up to liability," says Scott Preston, general manager at The Point.
If anyone can call himself a personal trainer -- state laws don't require certification -- then how are consumers supposed to sort the wheat from the chaff?
"All credentials are not created equally," Ray says.
"I could go online and get certified in 40 minutes if I paid $2,000 and passed an exam. There are too many ways you can study for a half a day or a few days and get certified. That seems bass-ackwards, as we say in Georgia. You should go to school and then get certified."
Anthony Wall, the director of professional education for the American Council on Exercise, recommends researching a personal trainer's education and the agency that certified her (or him) before signing a contract. "There are more than 100 organizations that certify personal trainers in the U.S., but only 11 of us are NCCA affiliates, which keeps to a certain standard of teaching basic exercise physiology and understanding how to work with certain groups of people," Wall said, referring to the National Commission for Certifying Agencies. Continued...
A trainer certified through an organization affiliated with the NCCA must complete a minimum course of education. The basic course at National Personal Training Institute of Colorado is typical. It's seven months long and covers approximately 500 hours of basic anatomy, physiology, exercise science, diet and nutrition, and special populations.
After completing the course, new personal trainers take credential exams through an NCCA affiliate. Once certified, they must take continuing education classes and recertification courses. "What's important to us at ACE is: What's the best thing for the client, the consumer, the public?" Wall said.
"It's not about what's going to be best for us, but what's going to be best for a person who's overweight, who's stressed out and wants to feel better. Your personal trainer, group fitness instructor or health coach should be able to tell you not only what to do, but why you're doing it -- the intent behind a sequence of exercises."
That's especially important for personal trainers working with special populations, including newbies struggling with weight problems or aging gym rats. "An obese individual has a very different thought process from mine when I say, 'Let's get on the bike for 10 minutes,'" Wall said.
"Someone who's been trained understands that thought process, and how it's different from that of someone who's healthy. That individual has low self-esteem, and when we talk about exercise, they immediately think about why they can't do it.
"Our job is to try to change that voice in their heads, to say 'Here's a way you can be successful.' It's the same for someone who's elderly, or has a disability like Parkinson's Disease."
Hiring a personal trainer? Here are some questions suggested by Philippe Ray, president of the National Personal Training Institute of Colorado:
1. Where were you educated to become a personal trainer?
2. How many years have you been a personal trainer?
3. What organization certified you? Is that organization affiliated with the National Commission for Certifying Agencies? (The top certifying organizations are the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the American Council on Exercise, the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and IDEA Health & Fitness Association.) Continued...
4. Is your certification current?
5. What was the last continuing-education class you took, and when and where you did you take it?
6. Can you provide contact information for three clients whose goals and needs are similar to mine?
7. What is your philosophy as a personal trainer?
8. What is your policy regarding missed training sessions?
Apr. 25, 2013 ? You are walking down the street with a friend. A shot is fired. The two of you duck behind the nearest cover and you pull out your smartphone. A map of the neighborhood pops up on its screen with a large red arrow pointing in the direction the shot came from.
A team of computer engineers from Vanderbilt University's Institute of Software Integrated Systems has made such a scenario possible by developing an inexpensive hardware module and related software that can transform an Android smartphone into a simple shooter location system. They described the new system's capabilities this month at the 12th Association for Computing Machinery/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks in Philadelphia.
For the last decade, the Department of Defense has spent millions of dollars to develop sophisticated sniper location systems that are installed in military vehicles and require dedicated sensor arrays. Most of these take advantage of the fact that all but the lowest powered firearms produce unique sonic signatures when they are fired. First, there is the muzzle blast -- an expanding balloon of sound that spreads out from the muzzle each time the rifle is fired. Second, bullets travel at supersonic velocities so they produce distinctive shockwaves as they travel. As a result, a system that combines an array of sensitive microphones, a precise clock and an off-the-shelf microprocessor can detect these signatures and use them to pinpoint the location from which a shot is fired with remarkable accuracy.
Six years ago, the Vanderbilt researchers, headed by Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Science Akos Ledeczi developed a system that turns the soldiers' combat helmets into mobile "smart nodes" in a wireless network that can rapidly identify the location of enemy snipers with a surprising degree of accuracy.
In the past few years, the ISIS team has adapted their system so it will work with the increasingly popular smartphone.
Like the military version, the smartphone system needs several nodes in order to pinpoint a shooter's location. As a result, it is best suited for security teams or similar groups. "It would be very valuable for dignitary protection," said Kenneth Pence, a retired SWAT officer and associate professor of the practice of engineering management who participated in the project. "I'd also love to see a version developed for police squad cars." In addition to the smartphone, the system consists of an external sensor module about the size of a deck of cards that contains the microphones and the processing capability required to detect the acoustic signature of gunshots, log their time and send that information to the smartphone by a Bluetooth connection. The smartphones then transmit that information to the other modules, allowing them to obtain the origin of the gunshot by triangulation.
The researchers have developed two versions. One uses a single microphone per module. It uses both the muzzle blast and shockwave to determine the shooter location. It requires six modules to obtain accurate locations. The second version uses a slightly larger module with four microphones and relies solely on the shockwave. It requires only two modules to accurately detect the direction a shot comes from, however, it only provides a rough estimate of the range.
The research was supported by Defense Advance Research Project Agency grant D11PC20026.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Vanderbilt University. The original article was written by David Salisbury.
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? Heritage recipe albums are a priceless treasure. Food often has strong ties to our emotions and memories. Certain foods may remind us of Thanksgiving at Grandma's, or goody baskets received at Christmas time. Most of us associate certain foods with particular events, people or traditions. Foods that remind us of home or family are often a comfort.
Many of us have family recipes that have been passed down for generations. Memories and stories are often lost from one generation to the next. Recipe scrapbooks not only preserve the recipe itself, but also the tips and heart-felt stories that accompany them.
Gathering Recipes Gathering the recipes and memories from family members is the biggest task in creating a heritage recipe album. Send out a letter or email asking them for several of their favorite family recipes. Have them include thoughts and memories about each recipe.
Include a list of questions to get the information you would like for each recipe. You may want to note that the person shouldn't feel obligated to answer every question for each recipe. Hopefully some will spark some great memories. Ask them to include a photo of an occasion where that recipe was served. Here are some possible questions:
Whose recipe is this? Who in your family makes this most often, or is most strongly associated with this recipe? Where did the recipe come from? Whose favorite recipe is this and why? Are there any memorable stories associated with this recipe? Are there any special tips or suggestions in preparing this recipe? Is there a special secret ingredient for this recipe? Is there a certain time of year your family enjoys this recipe? Was this recipe served at a memorable occasion or event?
Scrapbook Layout Suggestions Now that you have gathered all your recipes and information, it's time to start the album. Here are a few things to consider before you start laying out pages. Choose your album size and type Make a list of recipe categories you want to include Divide the recipes into the proper categories Choose a color, pattern or some way to distinguish each category You are ready to begin your recipe album. Some suggested pages may include:
Title page - This may include the name of the family the recipes are from. Dedication page - This is a great place to describe the person or family and why the album was created. Table of contents - List each category of food included in the book, ei:Entrees, side dishes, salads and desserts. Subtitle page - List each recipe included in that category. Recipe page - For larger albums (12 X 12) a single page per recipe may work. For smaller albums (8 X 8) a two page spread may work better. Use photo corners to attach recipe card Include a photo of people or event where recipe was served Include information from questions sent out
Scrapbooking recipes is a fun creative way to preserve many treasured family traditions. A digital album is a great option that would allow those traditions to be shared with everyone in the family. Melanie Hansen simply-stunning-scrapbooks.com [http://www.simply-stunning-scrapbooks.com/] More information, please visit :
Apr. 24, 2013 ? Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers at EMBL have described the striking diversity of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that such start and end variation produces, even from the simple genome of yeast cells. Their findings, published today in Nature, shed new light on the importance of mRNA boundaries in determining the functional potential of genes.
Hundreds of thousands of unique mRNA transcripts are generated from a genome of only about 8000 genes, even with the same genome sequence and environmental condition. "We knew that transcription could lead to a certain amount of diversity, but we were not expecting it to be so vast," explains Lars Steinmetz, who led the project. "Based on this diversity, we would expect that no yeast cell has the same set of messenger RNA molecules as its neighbour."
The traditional understanding of transcription was that mRNA boundaries were relatively fixed. While it has long been known that certain parts of mRNAs can be selectively 'spliced' out, this phenomenon is very rare in baker's yeast, meaning that the textbook one gene -- one mRNA transcript relationship should hold. Recent studies have suggested that things aren't quite that simple, inspiring the EMBL scientists to create a new technique to capture both the start and end points of single mRNA molecules. They now discovered that each gene could be transcribed into dozens or even hundreds of unique mRNA molecules, each with different boundaries.
This suggests that not only transcript abundance, but also transcript boundaries should be considered when assessing gene function. Altering the boundaries of mRNA molecules can affect how long they stay intact, cause them to produce different proteins, or direct them or their protein products to different locations, which can have a profound biological impact. Diversifying mRNA transcript boundaries within a group of cells, therefore, could equip them to adapt to different external challenges.
The researchers expect that such an extent of boundary variation will also be found in more complex organisms, including humans, where some examples are already known to affect key biological functions. The technology to measure these variations across the entire genome as well as a catalogue of boundaries in a well-studied organism are a good starting point for further research. "Now that we are aware of how much diversity there is, we can start to figure out what factors control it," points out Vicent Pelechano, who performed the study with Wu Wei. Wei adds: "Our technique also exposed new mRNAs that other techniques could not distinguish. It will be exciting to investigate how these and general variation in transcript boundaries actually extend the functional capacity of a genome."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
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Journal Reference:
Vicent Pelechano, Wu Wei, Lars M. Steinmetz. Extensive transcriptional heterogeneity revealed by isoform profiling. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12121
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Apr. 24, 2013 ? In a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Energy & Environmental Science, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory describe details of a low-cost, stable, effective catalyst that could replace costly platinum in the production of hydrogen. The catalyst, made from renewable soybeans and abundant molybdenum metal, produces hydrogen in an environmentally friendly, cost-effective manner, potentially increasing the use of this clean energy source.
The research has already garnered widespread recognition for Shilpa and Shweta Iyer, twin-sister high school students who contributed to the research as part of an internship under the guidance of Brookhaven chemist Wei-Fu Chen, supported by projects led by James Muckerman, Etsuko Fujita, and Kotaro Sasaki.
"This paper reports the 'hard science' from what started as the Iyer twins' research project and has resulted in the best-performing, non-noble-metal-containing hydrogen evolution catalyst yet known -- even better than bulk platinum metal," Muckerman said.
The project branches off from the Brookhaven group's research into using sunlight to develop alternative fuels. Their ultimate goal is to find ways to use solar energy -- either directly or via electricity generated by solar cells -- to convert the end products of hydrocarbon combustion, water and carbon dioxide, back into a carbon-based fuel. Dubbed "artificial photosynthesis," this process mimics how plants convert those same ingredients to energy in the form of sugars. One key step is splitting water, or water electrolysis.
"By splitting liquid water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen, the hydrogen can be regenerated as a gas (H2) and used directly as fuel," Sasaki explained. "We sought to fabricate a commercially viable catalyst from earth-abundant materials for application in water electrolysis, and the outcome is indeed superb."
This form of hydrogen production could help the scientists achieve their ultimate goal.
"A very promising route to making a carbon-containing fuel is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide (or carbon monoxide) using solar-produced hydrogen," said Fujita, who leads the artificial photosynthesis group in the Brookhaven Chemistry Department.
But with platinum as the main ingredient in the most effective water-splitting catalysts, the process is currently too costly to be economically viable.
Comsewogue High School students Shweta and Shilpa Iyer entered the lab as the search for a cost-effective replacement was on.
The Brookhaven team had already identified some promising leads with experiments demonstrating the potential effectiveness of low-cost molybdenum paired with carbon, as well as the use of nitrogen to confer some resistance to the corrosive, acidic environment required in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis cells. But these two approaches had not yet been tried together.
The students set out to identify plentiful and inexpensive sources of carbon and nitrogen, and test ways to combine them with a molybdenum salt.
"The students became excited about using familiar materials from their everyday lives to meet a real-world energy challenge," Chen recounted. The team tested a wide variety of sources of biomass -- leaves, stems, flowers, seeds, and legumes -- with particular interest in those with high protein content because the amino acids that make up proteins are a rich source of nitrogen. High-protein soybeans turned out to be the best.
To make the catalyst the team ground the soybeans into a powder, mixed the powder with ammonium molybdate in water, then dried and heated the samples in the presence of inert argon gas. "A subsequent high temperature treatment (carburization) induced a reaction between molybdenum and the carbon and nitrogen components of the soybeans to produce molybdenum carbides and molybdenum nitrides," Chen explained. "The process is simple, economical, and environmentally friendly."
Electrochemical tests of the separate ingredients showed that molybdenum carbide is effective for converting H2O to H2, but not stable in acidic solution, while molybdenum nitride is corrosion-resistant but not efficient for hydrogen production. A nanostructured hybrid of these two materials, however, remained active and stable even after 500 hours of testing in a highly acidic environment.
"We attribute the high activity of the molybdenum-soy catalyst (MoSoy) to the synergistic effect between the molybdenum-carbide phase and the molybdenum-nitride phase in the composite material," Chen said.
Structural and chemical studies of the new catalyst conducted at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) are also reported in the paper, and provide further details underlying the high performance of this new catalyst.
"The presence of nitrogen and carbon atoms in the vicinity of the catalytic molybdenum center facilitates the production of hydrogen from water," Muckerman said.
The scientists also tested the MoSoy catalyst anchored on sheets of graphene -- an approach that has proven effective for enhancing catalyst performance in electrochemical devices such as batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells, and water electrolyzers. Using a high-resolution transmission microscope in Brookhven's Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, the scientists were able to observe the anchored MoSoy nanocrystals on 2D graphene sheets.
The graphene-anchored MoSoy catalyst surpassed the performance of pure platinum metal. Though not quite as active as commercially available platinum catalysts, the high performance of graphene-anchored MoSoy was extremely encouraging to the scientific team.
"The direct growth of anchored MoSoy nanocrystals on graphene sheets may enhance the formation of strongly coupled hybrid materials with intimate, seamless electron transfer pathways, thus accelerating the electron transfer rate for the chemical desorption of hydrogen from the catalyst, further reducing the energy required for the reaction to take place," Sasaki said.
The scientists are conducting additional studies to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of the interaction at the catalyst-graphene interface, and exploring ways to further improve its performance.
In the paper, the authors -- including the two high-school students -- conclude: "This study unambiguously provides evidence that a cheap and earth-abundant transition metal such as molybdenum can be turned into an active catalyst by the controlled solid-state reaction with soybeans?The preparation of the MoSoy catalyst is simple and can be easily scaled up. Its long-term durability and ultra-low capital cost satisfy the prerequisites for its application in the construction of large-scale devices. These findings thus open up new prospects for combining inexpensive biomass and transition metals?to produce catalysts for electro-catalytic reactions."
Additional collaborators in this research were Chiu-Hui Wang and Yimei Zhu of Brookhaven Lab.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory.
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Journal Reference:
Wei-Fu Chen, Shilpa Iyer, Shweta Iyer, Kotaro Sasaki, Chiu-Hui Wang, Yimei Zhu, James T. Muckerman, Etsuko Fujita. Biomass-Derived Electrocatalytic Composites for Hydrogen Evolution. Energy & Environmental Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40596F
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Apr. 24, 2013 ? Billions of people worldwide burn animal dung, crop residues, wood and charcoal to cook their meals. And the chemicals produced and inhaled sicken or kill millions. At particular risk are women who prepare their families' food and children 5-years-old or younger.
Up to now, most interventions have focused on improving the cookstove to lower emissions. And that would be fine, if there were enough improved cookstoves to go around. But there aren't. In 2012, only 2.5 million improved cookstoves were distributed, improving the household air pollution situation for exactly one-half of 1 percent of the world's biomass burners.
So an interdisciplinary team of Michigan Technological University students took a different tack. They decided to look for ways to improve the cooking environment, not just the stove. And they found a low-cost, highly effective way to reduce the impact of cooking over biomass fires without designing and installing high-tech, costly stoves.
Better ventilation.
The cookstove project was born in small town on the Guatemalan border with Mexico, where Michigan Tech environmental engineering graduate student Kelli Whelan was working on an Engineers Without Borders project. She noticed that the kitchen of a family who had built an attic to insulate their house from a hot aluminum roof was much cooler than others she had visited, although they all used the same kind of wood-burning cookstove.
"That made me wonder if the temperature difference helped clear the smoke out, either by a draft or the greater temperature differential between the fire and the surrounding space," she explains.
When she returned to Michigan Tech, Whelan and several fellow environmental engineering graduate students started work on a project to explore the situation. They built both a working model of a biomass cookstove and a computer model to test different kitchen and cooking conditions.
After receiving the EPA P3 grant, they surveyed Peace Corps Master's International and Pavlis Global Technological Leadership Institute students at Tech who had worked in countries where biomass-burning cookstoves are used. They also conducted more physical and computational model tests, 57 of them, testing for the presence and transport of particulate matter, carbon monoxide and carbon, as well as comparing wind speed, temperature, humidity, roofing materials, wall height, cookstove placement and windows and doors open or closed.
"Our focus was not on ventilation, but on trying to determine which factors really influence the air quality in a kitchen and which do not," said Whelan.
They discovered that ventilation is very important. "The improved cookstoves, which are supposed to reduce emissions, actually made the air quality worse under completely enclosed conditions," she said. "In contrast, we saw the greatest reduction in ambient particulate matter and carbon monoxide with an improved cookstove and with windows and doors open."
They also learned that not all ventilation helps. "Having two windows open on opposite ends of the kitchen was best, whereas having all the windows and doors open was worse," Whelan said. "This is because having all outlets open creates turbulence inside the kitchen, and the smoke is not forced out."
The Michigan Tech students took the results of their field and computer modeling analysis of cookstove air pollution to the EPA Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, DC, last week.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Michigan Technological University, via Newswise.
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Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, introduces the new name - College Football Playoffs - and competition framework of what will replace the BCS in 2014 at a meeting of the football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, introduces the new name - College Football Playoffs - and competition framework of what will replace the BCS in 2014 at a meeting of the football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby talks to reporters during a break from a meeting of the Bowl Championship Series NCAA college football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The Bowl Championship Series will be replaced by the College Football Playoff. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press the new four-team playoff starting after the 2014 regular season will be called the College Football Playoff, and the conference commissioners will make it official with an announcement later Tuesday. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) commissioner John Swofford talks to reporters during a break from a meeting of the Bowl Championship Series NCAA college football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The Bowl Championship Series will be replaced by the College Football Playoff. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press the new four-team playoff starting after the 2014 regular season will be called the College Football Playoff, and the conference commissioners will make it official with an announcement later Tuesday. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany talks to reporters during a break from a meeting of the Bowl Championship Series NCAA college football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The Bowl Championship Series will be replaced by the College Football Playoff. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press the new four-team playoff starting after the 2014 regular season will be called the College Football Playoff, and the conference commissioners will make it official with an announcement later Tuesday. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany talks to reporters during a break from a meeting of the Bowl Championship Series NCAA college football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The Bowl Championship Series will be replaced by the College Football Playoff. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press the new four-team playoff starting after the 2014 regular season will be called the College Football Playoff, and the conference commissioners will make it official with an announcement later Tuesday. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ? The Bowl Championship Series will be replaced by the College Football Playoff.
The BCS conference commissioners announced the name of the new postseason system that starts in 2014 on Tuesday, the first of three days of meetings at a resort hotel in the Rose Bowl's backyard.
They also will choose the remaining three sites for the six-bowl semifinal rotation and the site of the first championship game to be held Jan. 12, 2015, this week.
The website www.collegefootballplayoff.com is already up and running and allowing fans to vote on a new logo. And there also is a Twitter handle: (at)cfbplayoff.
"It's really simple. It gets right to the point," BCS executive director Bill Hancock, who will hold the same position in the playoff system, said at a short news conference with the 10 commissioners of the FCS conferences.
"Nothing cute. Nothing fancy. We decided it would be best to call it what it is."
Premiere Sports Management in Overland Park, Kan., was hired to help come up with a name and brand the new system. A committee of commissioners handled the naming of the new system. Hancock said they ran through "in the neighborhood of three dozen" names.
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said, "We're clearly trying to make a clear break from the BCS."
Before the news was reported, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said he'd be happy with whatever was selected.
"I'm am not good with names ? obviously," Delany said with a smile, referring to the Big Ten's division names, Legends and Leaders, that produced so much negative feedback the conference has already decided to change them.
The new postseason format will create two national semifinals to be played New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, with the winners advancing. The six bowls in the playoff rotation will host marquee, BCS-type games on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day during the seasons they do not host a semifinal.
"I don't think you can ever go too wrong calling something what it is," Scott said. "Things that make sense tend to stand the test of time."
Three semifinal spots have already been decided: the Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls.
Four other bowls have bid for the final three spots. The clear front-runners are the Cotton, Chick-fil-A and Fiesta. The Holiday Bowl in San Diego also put in a bid, but even its organizers have acknowledged they are a long shot at best to land the game.
Those decisions will be announced Wednesday.
The coaches on the Big 12's spring teleconference were already talking about the Cotton Bowl having a spot in the rotation as if it was a done deal.
"I think it's really exciting for this region, for everybody, and I think all of the schools in this region, to have Dallas as one of those sites is great for everybody in this region, and exciting for everybody," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "Obviously, everybody knows what a great and quality, what an awesome stadium it is, then the location for us is an advantage, or should be."
The first semifinals will be played at the Rose and Sugar bowls.
The site of the first national championship game in the new system will also be determined at these meetings and the finalists are Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the billion dollar home of the NFL team and the Cotton Bowl, and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., home of the Buccaneers.
Arlington is the favorite to land that first championship game, but the competition from Tampa has been serious.
"I'm glad it has," Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Tuesday. "I think it will give us a better outcome."
Also on the agenda this week for the commissioners will be the composition of the selection committee that will set the field for the playoff. They have said they would like the committee to be similar to the one that picks the teams for the NCAA basketball tournament, made up of conference commissioners and athletic directors.
Bowlsby said he expected both current and former administrators to have a spot on the committee.
"The hardest thing is making sure we're arming whoever is on the committee with the tools that it takes to differentiate among closely proximal teams," Bowlsby said. "You have to have some metrics available to differentiate between three, four, five, six and seven."
"You can't just say we like blue uniforms and not gold uniforms. You've got to arm the committee with the tools that it takes to do their job."
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) ? A federal judge postponed Lauryn Hill's tax evasion sentencing on Monday but not before scolding the eight-time Grammy-winning singer for reneging on a promise to make restitution by now.
Hill pleaded guilty last year to not paying federal taxes on $1.8 million earned from 2005 to 2007. At that time, her attorney said she would pay restitution by the time of her sentencing. It was revealed Monday in court that Hill has paid $50,000 of a total of $554,000.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo criticized her for relying on the promise of a recording contract to pay the tax bill.
"This is not someone who stands before the court penniless," Arleo said to Hill's attorney, Nathan Hochman. "This is a criminal matter. Actions speak louder than words, and there has been no effort here to pay these taxes."
The reclusive singer didn't speak during the proceeding and left the court without commenting. Arleo rescheduled the sentencing for May 6.
The total Hill owes is in dispute. Hochman contends it is slightly less than $1 million, counting civil penalties and interest, while the U.S. attorney's office estimates it at a little more than $1 million. Hochman accused the government of trying to pad the amount because once it surpasses $1 million, the sentencing range for Hill under federal guidelines would increase from 24 to 30 months to 30 to 36 months.
Whatever the range is, Hochman said he would seek a probationary sentence for Hill, a 37-year-old South Orange resident who has six children.
After the proceeding, Hochman said Hill was about to sign a loan against two properties that would allow her to pay the remainder of the restitution before her next court date.
"I fully expect that by May 3 Ms. Hill will be able to pay back all the restitution she has," Hochman said.
Hill has a recording contract but hasn't yet realized any revenue from it, Hochman said outside the courtroom.
Hill got her start with The Fugees and began her solo career in 1998 with the acclaimed album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill."
At the time of her June arrest, Hill wrote in a long post on the Internet how she had rejected pop culture's "climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism." She also wrote that she hadn't paid taxes since she withdrew from society to guarantee her family's safety but that she had always intended to rectify the situation.
"When I was working consistently without being affected by the interferences mentioned above, I filed and paid my taxes," she wrote. "This only stopped when it was necessary to withdraw from society, in order to guarantee the safety and well-being of myself and my family."
Southeast Asia has always been a major destination on the backpacker trail, but as we all get a little older, I for one would like to share these adventures with my family. Now it?s possible thanks to the advent of cheaper flights and with the rise of budget airlines within the region. The whole of Asia has opened up and the resorts and activities aimed at families have skyrocketed. Here is a taster of the possibilities.
1. Singapore The city-state of Singapore on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula offers everything you would expect from a wealthy, modern metropolis. A major international airport makes it a doddle to get to and there are a huge number of world class hotels and resorts, gourmet restaurants and luxury shops. The amazing Sentosa resort is a world in itself with luxury hotels, theme park attractions including Universal Studios, beaches, nature walks and two world-class golf courses. If you do manage to take yourself away from Sentosa, a personal favourite is the Singapore Zoo, which boasts more than 2,800 animals and a Night Safari that?s like nothing else you?ll find in the country.
2. Hong Kong Many have stopped off in Hong Kong en-route to other destinations, but for an unforgettable family holiday, you really needn?t go any further. The unbelievable skyline is the first thing you?ll recognize, so a trip to The Peak is a must. The highest point on Hong Kong Island, The Peak offers views that will stay with you and your family for a lifetime. The Star Ferry Cruise gives great views of the metropolis from the harbour, and it provides a relaxing way to explore Hong Kong. You may be surprised by possibilities of outdoor activities away from the city, and with Disneyland and Ocean Park theme parks you?re truly spoilt for choice. One last thing: at night the city is transformed into a neon wonderland, so make sure to go out in the evening and enjoy the lights.
Hong Kong is an extremely colourful and vibrant city, with lively markets, temples and theme parks like Disneyland and Ocean Park for all the family.
3. Phuket, Thailand When you first hear Phuket, you might think beach party, but this tropical paradise has really developed since its backpacker heydays, and is now a major family destination.?Phuket hotels?are world class and for the ultimate beach side family break, you can?t do much better than this resort. Thailand?s excellent value for money still applies, and elephant rides for the kids and parents alike will be an activity you?ll never forget. There are tons of other great activities too, like diving, windsurfing, island hopping and even and go-karting. That is, if you can drag yourselves away from the beach first!
Phuket is home to beautiful beaches and many luxury hotels located along Patong, Kata and Karon beach.
4. Nha Trang, Vietnam Nha Trang is considered one of the most beautiful bays in the world. Friendly locals, a fascinating history, stunning beaches with crystal clear waters, and warm sunny weather all year round make this part of Vietnam a tourist hotspot. A number of large family oriented resorts have sprung up along the shore, including Vinpearl Island, which is home to its own theme park. The resort is connected to the mainland by the world?s longest over water cable car, and is an attraction in itself.
Nha Trang is an upcoming resort destination located on the central coast of central Vietnam
5. Cameron Highlands, Malaysia In the heart of Malaysia, the Cameron Highlands sit high above sea level. Surrounded by endless valleys of stunning green, made up of tea plantations and forests, any family with a passion for nature and rural life will relish the Cameron Highlands. The nature reserves make for perfect trekking and 4WD tours that are ideal for families. The area is rich in colonial history and with fertile soils ideal for farming, a trip to some of the farms is a must. The tea plantations are some of the world?s finest, and this ancient process is fascinating to experience firsthand. You also won?t want to miss out on the strawberry picking either ? delicious!
Cameron Highlands is a favourite family holiday destination thanks to its picturesque hills and activities like strawberry picking
Wan Phing is the online editor at AsiaRooms.com. Born and raised in Penang, Malaysia, she has lvied in Beijing, London, Benevento, Kuala Lumpur, Manchester and currently resides in Singapore. She loves travel, photography and discovering new trends.
Apr. 22, 2013 ? Drug developers may have a new tool to search for more effective medications and new materials.
It's a computer algorithm that can model and catalogue the entire set of lightweight, carbon-containing molecules that chemists could feasibly create in a lab.
The small-molecule universe has more than 10^60 (that's 1 with 60 zeroes after it) chemical structures. Duke chemist David Beratan said that many of the world's problems have molecular solutions in this chemical space, whether it???s a cure for disease or a new material to capture sunlight.
But, he said, "The small-molecule universe is astronomical in size. When we search it for new molecular solutions, we are lost. We don't know which way to look."
To give synthetic chemists better directions in their molecular search, Beratan and his colleagues -- Duke chemist Weitao Yang, postdoctoral associates Aaron Virshup and Julia Contreras-Garcia, and University of Pittsburgh chemist Peter Wipf -- designed a new computer algorithm to map the small-molecule universe.
The map, developed with a National Institutes of Health P50 Center grant, tells scientists where the unexplored regions of the chemical space are and how to build structures to get there. A paper describing the algorithm and map appeared online in April in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The map helps chemists because they do not yet have the tools, time or money to synthesize all 10^60 compounds in the small-molecule universe. Synthetic chemists can only make a few hundred or a few thousand molecules at a time, so they have to carefully choose which compounds to build, Beratan said.
The scientists already have a digital library describing about a billion molecules found in the small-molecule universe, and they have synthesized about 100 million compounds over the course of human history, Beratan said. But these molecules are similar in structure and come from the same regions of the small-molecule universe.
It's the unexplored regions that could hold molecular solutions to some of the world's most vexing challenges, Beratan said.
To add diversity and explore new regions to the chemical space, Aaron Virshup developed a computer algorithm that built a virtual library of 9 million molecules with compounds representing every region of the small-molecule universe.
"The idea was to start with a simple molecule and make random changes, so you add a carbon, change a double bond to a single bond, add a nitrogen. By doing that over and over again, you can get to any molecule you can think of," Virshup said.
He programed the new algorithm to make small, random chemical changes to the structure of benzene and then to catalogue the new molecules it created based on where they fit into the map of the small-molecule universe. The challenge, Virshup said, came in identifying which new chemical compounds chemists could actually create in a lab.
Virshup sent his early drafts of the algorithm's newly constructed molecules to synthetic chemists who scribbled on them in red ink to show whether they were synthetically unstable or unrealistic. He then turned the criticisms into rules the algorithm had to follow so it would not make those types of compounds again.
"The rules kept us from getting lost in the chemical space," he said.
After ten iterations, the algorithm finally produced 9 million synthesizable molecules representing every region of the small-molecule universe, and it produced a map showing the regions of the chemical space where scientists have not yet synthesized any compounds.
"With the map, we can tell chemists, if you can synthesize a new molecule in this region of space, you have made a new type of compound," Virshup said. "It's an intellectual property issue. If you're in the blank spaces on our small molecule map, you're guaranteed to make something that isn't patented yet," he said.
The team has made the source code for the algorithm available online. The researchers said they hope scientists will use it to immediately start mining the unexplored regions of the small molecule universe for new chemical compounds.
The research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (P50-GM067082).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University. The original article was written by Ashley Yeager.
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Journal Reference:
Aaron M Virshup, Julia Contreras-Garc?a, Peter Wipf, Weitao Yang, David N. Beratan. Stochastic voyages into uncharted chemical space produce a representative library of all possible drug-like compounds.. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2013; : 130402114828001 DOI: 10.1021/ja401184g
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.
CLARKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) ? An all-too-familiar springtime ritual played out around the nation's heartland through the weekend as volunteers, National Guardsmen and even prison inmates joined together in an effort to ward off fast-rising floodwaters.
Dire flooding situations dotted at least six Midwestern states following torrential rains this past week that dumped up to 7 inches in some locations. Record flooding was possible in some places as dozens of rivers overflowed their banks.
The floods and flash floods forced evacuations, closed roads, swamped hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland and shut down much of the upper Mississippi River to barge traffic. Even two Mississippi River bridges were closed.
Several Mississippi River towns north of St. Louis were expected to see crests sometime Sunday, including hard-hit Clarksville, Mo.
Volunteers in the tiny community have worked endlessly since Wednesday to build a makeshift sandbag levee that seemed to be holding as the crest? expected to be 11 feet above flood stage ? approached. Even prisoners from far-away Jefferson City were brought in to help.
After four straight 12-hour days of sandbagging, Trish Connelly, 57, was exhausted but optimistic the town would beat back the daunting river. Her plans to open a new fine arts gallery downtown this weekend were on hold "until we know what the river is going to do," she said.
"This is frustrating for people," Connelly said. "This isn't as bad as 2008, but thank God it stopped raining."
Gov. Jay Nixon on Saturday toured the unprotected-by-choice town that was also flooded in 2008, 2001, 1998, 1995 and many times before that.
"The water is continuing to rise but it is our full hope and expectation that these walls will hold," Nixon said of the sandbag levees.
Travel was at a standstill on most of the Mississippi between the Quad Cities and St. Louis. The Army Corps of Engineers closed several locks, halting barge traffic.
Recreational traffic was halted, too, including the Mark Twain Riverboat that offers excursions at scenic Hannibal, Mo. Owner and pilot Steve Terry has moored the ship since Thursday, with no end in sight.
Just crossing the river was becoming difficult. One of two bridges at Quincy, Ill., closed Friday, and the narrow two-lane bridge at the Missouri town of Louisiana was shut down Saturday by high water on the Illinois side.
To get across the river, people in the Louisiana, Mo., area either had to drive 35 miles north to Hannibal, Mo., or 50-plus miles south to suburban St. Louis. Penny Scranton's normal 13-minute commute from Rockport, Ill., to the BP convenience store in Louisiana turned into an hour and a half.
"There are others worse off," she shrugged.
Among those worse off was Louisiana resident Erica Campbell, whose rented home in a low-lying area of the town was flooded for the second time in three years.
This time, Campbell said, she's had enough. Campbell, her husband and their eight kids are packing up.
"We're planning to move to the country ? as far away from water as I can get," Campbell, 35, said.
Mississippi River levels vary greatly but are typically highest in the spring, so minor flooding is not uncommon. But when river levels exceed flood stage by several feet, serious problems can occur.
Smaller rivers across the Midwest were swelling, too. In Illinois, heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar will shut down its East Peoria, Ill., factory on Sunday as the Illinois River approaches an expected 30-foot crest early next week.
Several Indiana towns were threatened by high water, forcing hundreds of evacuations. The Wabash River in Tippecanoe County reached more than 14 feet above flood stage on Saturday, the highest level since 1958.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Pence took a helicopter tour Saturday of damage in Kokomo, Tipton and Elwood. A spokeswoman said the tour is the first step toward determining if a disaster declaration might be needed.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., high water forced the evacuation of the Courtyard Marriott Hotel and an apartment building on Saturday. Apartment resident Johnny Cartwright said water was coming into the basement and parking garage "like the Titanic."
___
Salter reported from St. Louis. AP Photographer Jeff Roberson in Clarksville and Louisiana contributed to this report.
Intensity modulated radiotherapy reduces side effects in patients with early breast cancerPublic release date: 21-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mary Rice mary.rice@riceconseil.eu European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO)
Geneva, Switzerland: Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) gives better results than standard radiotherapy in patients with early breast cancer, according to results from a randomised trial presented today (Sunday) to the 2nd Forum of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO). IMRT is an advanced, high-precision form of radiotherapy that can deliver an even dose of radiation, thus reducing the cosmetic problems that can often occur after breast radiotherapy.
"We believe that this study, the largest prospective trial in the world to test breast IMRT against standard two-dimensional radiotherapy, will be practice-changing at an international level," said Dr Charlottes Coles, from Addenbrooke's Hospital Oncology Centre, Cambridge, UK. "Analysing the results five years after treatment, we saw significant benefits in patients who had received IMRT."
The researchers analysed the radiotherapy treatment plans of 1145 patients with early breast cancer who had previously had breast-conserving surgery. The plans were screened to see if they would produce an uneven radiation dose with standard two-dimensional radiotherapy (2DRT). A total of 71% of the plans fell into this category, and those patients were randomised between standard 2DRT and IMRT. The 29% of patients whose plans would not produce an uneven dose were treated with standard 2D RT, but still followed up within the trial.
One of the aims of external radiotherapy is to treat the target in this case the whole breast with an even dose distribution, i.e. within a range of 95% to 107% of the prescribed dose. Too low a dose can risk tumour recurrence, and too high a dose can cause undesirable side-effects such as skin changes.
"The problem with 2D breast radiotherapy is that the dose distribution is only recorded across the central part of the breast. Usually it meets the 95-107% constraints, but the shape of the breast changes, so if the same plan is looked at in 3D, then there may well be areas with overly high doses. By modulating the intensity of the radiation beam, IMRT can be used to correct for this and smooth out the dose," said Dr Coles.
The researchers set out to see whether the effect of using IMRT in those patients who would have received a dose greater than 107% to parts of their breast with 2DRT would translate into clinical benefit. IMRT planning uses results from scans to determine the dose intensity that will best treat the tumour, and therefore is more complex and time-consuming than 2DRT planning, so there was an important need to see a clear advantage to patients from the use of the procedure.
The only previous study looking at this was much smaller, and rather than picking out all patients with doses greater than 107% and randomising them, it only included women with larger breasts who are already known to be more likely to have regions of dose above the upper limit. "Our trial was more inclusive as all women were able to take part and we could quantify those who would receive an uneven dose," said Dr Coles.
"We saw that fewer patients in the IMRT group developed skin telangiectasia (dilated blood vessels near the surface of the skin), and the overall cosmetic effect in the breast was better," she said. Although there was no significant difference between the two groups in breast shrinkage, breast oedema, breast induration (hardening), and pigmentation changes, the benefits of using IMRT in these patients were clear.
The researchers intend to follow up their work by analysing the patients' questionnaires to see whether IMRT has an influence on quality of life. The trial has also contributed 1000 blood samples to the UK translational research study RAPPER (Radiogenomics: Assessment of Polymorphisms for Predicting the Effects of Radiotherapy), which aims to ultimately develop individualised radiotherapy plans based on the analysis of individual patients' genetics.
"Although IMRT is employed increasingly in breast cancer, its use is far from universal throughout the world. We hope that the evidence of benefit shown in our trial will encourage its greater use, resulting in improved patient access and, ultimately, improved outcomes for breast cancer patients," said Dr Coles.
President of ESTRO, Professor Vincenzo Valentini, a radiation oncologist at the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, Rome, Italy, said: "This study not only shows a better outcome for the women treated with IMRT, but has an additional value in defining the selection criteria for providing treatment to those patients who will benefit from new frontline technologies. In the study design, the patients who could be treated satisfactorily by standard technology were not referred for IMRT, avoiding the use of a complex technique where it was not necessary. At a time when resources are limited, individualised medicine can help us offer new technology only to those patients who will have a tangible benefit from it."
###
Abstract no: OC-0202, Symposium/ Breast at 08.45 hrs (CEST) on Sunday 21 April, Auditorium
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Intensity modulated radiotherapy reduces side effects in patients with early breast cancerPublic release date: 21-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mary Rice mary.rice@riceconseil.eu European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO)
Geneva, Switzerland: Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) gives better results than standard radiotherapy in patients with early breast cancer, according to results from a randomised trial presented today (Sunday) to the 2nd Forum of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO). IMRT is an advanced, high-precision form of radiotherapy that can deliver an even dose of radiation, thus reducing the cosmetic problems that can often occur after breast radiotherapy.
"We believe that this study, the largest prospective trial in the world to test breast IMRT against standard two-dimensional radiotherapy, will be practice-changing at an international level," said Dr Charlottes Coles, from Addenbrooke's Hospital Oncology Centre, Cambridge, UK. "Analysing the results five years after treatment, we saw significant benefits in patients who had received IMRT."
The researchers analysed the radiotherapy treatment plans of 1145 patients with early breast cancer who had previously had breast-conserving surgery. The plans were screened to see if they would produce an uneven radiation dose with standard two-dimensional radiotherapy (2DRT). A total of 71% of the plans fell into this category, and those patients were randomised between standard 2DRT and IMRT. The 29% of patients whose plans would not produce an uneven dose were treated with standard 2D RT, but still followed up within the trial.
One of the aims of external radiotherapy is to treat the target in this case the whole breast with an even dose distribution, i.e. within a range of 95% to 107% of the prescribed dose. Too low a dose can risk tumour recurrence, and too high a dose can cause undesirable side-effects such as skin changes.
"The problem with 2D breast radiotherapy is that the dose distribution is only recorded across the central part of the breast. Usually it meets the 95-107% constraints, but the shape of the breast changes, so if the same plan is looked at in 3D, then there may well be areas with overly high doses. By modulating the intensity of the radiation beam, IMRT can be used to correct for this and smooth out the dose," said Dr Coles.
The researchers set out to see whether the effect of using IMRT in those patients who would have received a dose greater than 107% to parts of their breast with 2DRT would translate into clinical benefit. IMRT planning uses results from scans to determine the dose intensity that will best treat the tumour, and therefore is more complex and time-consuming than 2DRT planning, so there was an important need to see a clear advantage to patients from the use of the procedure.
The only previous study looking at this was much smaller, and rather than picking out all patients with doses greater than 107% and randomising them, it only included women with larger breasts who are already known to be more likely to have regions of dose above the upper limit. "Our trial was more inclusive as all women were able to take part and we could quantify those who would receive an uneven dose," said Dr Coles.
"We saw that fewer patients in the IMRT group developed skin telangiectasia (dilated blood vessels near the surface of the skin), and the overall cosmetic effect in the breast was better," she said. Although there was no significant difference between the two groups in breast shrinkage, breast oedema, breast induration (hardening), and pigmentation changes, the benefits of using IMRT in these patients were clear.
The researchers intend to follow up their work by analysing the patients' questionnaires to see whether IMRT has an influence on quality of life. The trial has also contributed 1000 blood samples to the UK translational research study RAPPER (Radiogenomics: Assessment of Polymorphisms for Predicting the Effects of Radiotherapy), which aims to ultimately develop individualised radiotherapy plans based on the analysis of individual patients' genetics.
"Although IMRT is employed increasingly in breast cancer, its use is far from universal throughout the world. We hope that the evidence of benefit shown in our trial will encourage its greater use, resulting in improved patient access and, ultimately, improved outcomes for breast cancer patients," said Dr Coles.
President of ESTRO, Professor Vincenzo Valentini, a radiation oncologist at the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, Rome, Italy, said: "This study not only shows a better outcome for the women treated with IMRT, but has an additional value in defining the selection criteria for providing treatment to those patients who will benefit from new frontline technologies. In the study design, the patients who could be treated satisfactorily by standard technology were not referred for IMRT, avoiding the use of a complex technique where it was not necessary. At a time when resources are limited, individualised medicine can help us offer new technology only to those patients who will have a tangible benefit from it."
###
Abstract no: OC-0202, Symposium/ Breast at 08.45 hrs (CEST) on Sunday 21 April, Auditorium
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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