The Xbox One! It looks terrific, assuming you're into turning your home entertainment system into a motion-and-voice-controlled dictatorship. And while the devices won't be shipping until the "end of the year" (read: in time for the holidays), you can go ahead and preorder yours right now.
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Turns out, that old "practice makes perfect" adage may be overblown.
New research led by Michigan State University's Zach Hambrick finds that a copious amount of practice is not enough to explain why people differ in level of skill in two widely studied activities, chess and music.
In other words, it takes more than hard work to become an expert. Hambrick, writing in the research journal Intelligence, said natural talent and other factors likely play a role in mastering a complicated activity.
"Practice is indeed important to reach an elite level of performance, but this paper makes an overwhelming case that it isn't enough," said Hambrick, associate professor of psychology.
The debate over why and how people become experts has existed for more than a century. Many theorists argue that thousands of hours of focused, deliberate practice is sufficient to achieve elite status.
Hambrick disagrees.
"The evidence is quite clear," he writes, "that some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice."
Hambrick and colleagues analyzed 14 studies of chess players and musicians, looking specifically at how practice was related to differences in performance. Practice, they found, accounted for only about one-third of the differences in skill in both music and chess.
So what made up the rest of the difference?
Based on existing research, Hambrick said it could be explained by factors such as intelligence or innate ability, and the age at which people start the particular activity. A previous study of Hambrick's suggested that working memory capacity ? which is closely related to general intelligence ? may sometimes be the deciding factor between being good and great.
While the conclusion that practice may not make perfect runs counter to the popular view that just about anyone can achieve greatness if they work hard enough, Hambrick said there is a "silver lining" to the research.
"If people are given an accurate assessment of their abilities and the likelihood of achieving certain goals given those abilities," he said, "they may gravitate toward domains in which they have a realistic chance of becoming an expert through deliberate practice."
###
Michigan State University: http://www.newsroom.msu.edu
Thanks to Michigan State University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128329/Practice_makes_perfect__Not_so_much
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In this photo taken Sunday, May 19, 2013, James Franco and Ahna O'Reilly at the Art of Elysium Party, in Cannes, southern France. This is O'Reilly's first trip to the Cannes Film Festival, and she has two films on display. Both were in attendance as she was the guest of honor at the event, hosted by the charity Art of Elysium. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision/AP)
In this photo taken Sunday, May 19, 2013, James Franco and Ahna O'Reilly at the Art of Elysium Party, in Cannes, southern France. This is O'Reilly's first trip to the Cannes Film Festival, and she has two films on display. Both were in attendance as she was the guest of honor at the event, hosted by the charity Art of Elysium. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision/AP)
In this photo taken Sunday, May 19, 2013, Ahna O'Reilly, Melonie Diaz and Octavia Spencer at the Art of Elysium Party, in Cannes, southern France. This is O'Reilly's first trip to the Cannes Film Festival, and she was the guest of honor at the event, hosted by the charity Art of Elysium. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision/AP)
Actors Carey Mulligan, left, and Justin Timberlake arrive for the screening of the film Inside Llewyn Davis at the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
CANNES, France (AP) ? Associated Press journalists open their notebooks at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival:
AHNA O'REILLY FETED AS SHE CELEBRATES TWO CANNES FILMS
Along the water on the yachts where many of the Cannes Film Festival's uber-exclusive parties are thrown, guests are required to take off their shoes before stepping on the boat And for that, "Fruitvale Station" actress Ahna O'Reilly is grateful.
"I can't be in heels for that long ? I'm so uncomfortable!" the smiling actress said Sunday evening aboard the posh Jettee Albert Edouard. "But it's amazing, I love seeing people all dolled up, it's fine."
This is O'Reilly's first trip to the Cannes Film Festival, and she has two films on display. The actress, who was also in "The Help," is starring in "Fruitvale" with good friend Octavia Spencer and also in "As I Lay Dying," in which she was directed by another friend, James Franco, who also stars in the film. Both were in attendance as she was the guest of honor at the event, hosted by the charity Art of Elysium.
"I'm just pinching myself, I can't believe it, and I'm here with some of my best friends in the world representing projects that I'm deeply passionate about, and also here tonight representing the 'Art of Elysium, an organization I care a lot about," she said. "So it's just all of these people that I love in the most beautiful setting where everybody is celebrating their love of cinema, so it's a total dream."
The Art of Elysium has thrown events at Cannes for the past five years. The charity brings artists into hospitals to entertain children afflicted with life-threatening diseases like cancer.
Founder Jennifer Howell said it was a natural to have the event at a film festival: "We're so artist-centric that we want to be tied into what are artists actually do as fundraisers."
O'Reilly is in Cannes for a week as she promotes her two films. She hasn't had much down time to explore the area, but had one to-do on her wish list:
"I'm dying to go to the Hotel du Cap," she said of the ritzy hotel outside of Cannes where some of the festival's top events are held. "Everyone says it's the most beautiful location."
? Nekesa Mumbi Moody, http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi
'INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS' AFTER-PARTY
What was inside the "Inside Llewyn Davis" after-party? Plenty of bold-faced names and of course, more folk music.
The movie, which got a rapturous reception when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday night, is about the folk-music scene in 1960s New York. The Coen brothers film features Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hudland and stars Oscar Isaac.
Timberlake was on hand with wife Jessica Biel, while Hudland cozied with his girlfriend, Kirsten Dunst. Others at the party include Frances McDormand, Grammy-winning producer T Bone Burnett, CBS head Les Moonves and his wife, Julie Chen.
A DJ played music from the film, which is in competition at the festival.
? Nekesa Mumbi Moody, http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi
LARS ULRICH WORKING HARDER THAN EXPECTED IN CANNES
Metallica's Lars Ulrich is used to fast-paced action, but even he was a bit taken aback by the pace at the Cannes Film Festival.
"Most people have a romantic notion of Cannes," said Ulrich, who was promoting the band's upcoming film "Metallica Through the Never.
"(But) there is a lot of work that goes on here. And I was a little bit unprepared for. basically the whole infrastructure of worldwide cinema and the movie business is here," he said in an interview on Friday.
"People have a tendency to think that is just red carpet and movie stars and sipping champagne but people come here to work. People come here to sell their films, people come here to finance their films, people come here to create hype."
"Metallica Through the Never" marries the concert film format with a dramatic narrative. Directed by Nimrod Antal and released by Picturehouse, the film stars young "Chronicle" actor Dane DeHann as a member of Metallica's concert tour crew who's sent on a special mission by the band. The movie blends concert footage with a plot that includes CGI effects.
"We wanted to challenge ourselves a little bit and try and do something different and try and bring a little bit more of a film element into it," explains Ulrich.
"Whether anybody loves the film as much as we do we'll have to wait and see in a few months, but the one thing I can guarantee you, which there is no question about, is that it is a very unique film. Nobody has ever seen a film quite like this."
"Metallica Through the Never" is scheduled for release on Sept. 27.
? Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Adam Egan, (http://www.twittercom/nekesamumbi)
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Lockheed Martin just completed the latest high angle of attack test series. It was a complete success, as this video shots. The video footage is spectacular, especially that unreal first shot:
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., May 16, 2013 ? The latest in a series of Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35A high angle of attack (AOA) testing was recently completed. The testing accomplished high AOA beyond both the positive and negative maximum command limits, including intentionally putting the aircraft out of control in several configurations. This included initially flying in the stealth clean wing configuration. It was followed by testing with external air-to-air pylons and missiles and then with open weapon bay doors. The F-35A began edge-of-the-envelope high AOA testing in the Fall 2012. For all testing, recovery from out of control flight has been 100 percent successful without the use of the spin recovery chute, which is carried to maximize safety.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-most-awesome-f-35-video-ive-ever-seen-508892506
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Sometimes, more medical information is a bad thing. The influential United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends against most women getting genetic screenings for their susceptibility to breast cancer. Why? Because the tests are imperfect: for every woman who gets tested for genes associated with onset breast cancer, even more will falsely test positive, leading spooked patients into needless surgery or psychological trauma. Super cheap genetic testing from enterprising health startups, such as 23andMe, have complicated cancer detection for us all by increasing the accessibility of imperfect medical information.
After discovering a mutated BRCA1 gene, known to increase the?likelihood?of breast cancer 60 to 80 percent, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a radical preventive double mastectomy. Her brave confession in the New York Times brought much needed attention to breast cancer awareness, but it?s dangerous in the hands of a statistically illiterate population.
For instance, as New York Times statistical guru, Nate Silver, once reminded me, while breast cancer mammograms are 75 percent accurate, a woman who tests positive only has about a 10 percent chance of actually getting cancer. Since the vast majority of women don?t have cancer, there are far more women who will falsely test positive (here is a helpful blog post with the numbers worked out). Most importantly, surveys reveal that many people don?t understand the math behind false positives in cancer testing, and may make uninformed decisions as a result.
The same math holds true for the mutated BRCA1/2 gene of Jolie?s confession: researchers estimate that a tiny 0.11 to 0.12 of women have the faulty gene. ?I believe in doing genetic testing for BRCA1/2 with appropriate counseling,? writes University of Southern California?s David Agus, one of Steve Jobs? cancer doctors. The answers are not simple in this case and require experienced professionals to discuss with the patient.?
Traditionally hundreds of thousands of dollars to test, a cottage industry of cheap genetic testing has sprung up. 23andMe, one of the most popular, offers the service for as little at $99, and has even dared to weigh in on the BRCA controversy on the company blog.
Citing a new study that found no negative emotional consequences from patients after learning about their BRCA1 mutation, 23andMe concludes, ?The findings are important given that a frequent criticism of direct-to-consumer testing is based on the assumption that it causes either serious emotional distress or triggers deleterious actions on the part of consumers.?
Given the absence of evidence for serious emotional distress or inappropriate actions in this subset of mutation-positive customers who agreed to be interviewed for this study, ?broader screening of Ashkenazi Jewish women for these three BRCA mutations should be considered.?
Sometimes, however, voluntary surveys don?t tell the whole story. In its cover story on Jolie?s decision, TIME magazine recounts the tale of one woman who likely had unnecessary preventative surgery after learning about a genetic defect. ?She freaked out and had a bilateral mastectomy,? said Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, who worried that this patient?s particular mutation was not as troubling as she worried it was.
Interestingly, TIME?s author, Kate Pickart, argues the financial costs of genetic testing has stall mass run on genetic tests. Even a new provision under the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) only mandates 100 percent insurance coverage for patients with a family history of genetic flaws.
But, at just $99 (and probably far less in the future), financial barriers are crumbling. This isn?t to say that genetic screening is bad, it just complicates things for the rest of us, especially those who don?t understand statistics. The more women get tested, the more false positives exist, the less confident patients and physicians become in a course of action.
Maybe our only hope out of this cheaper testing spiral is technology that makes detection more accurate and more predictive. One promising solution is a new bra that constantly monitors deep tissue for cancerous signs (below).
So, perhaps, before long, we will innovate our way out of this dilemma.
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/19/how-cheap-genetic-testing-complicates-cancer-screening-for-us-all/
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3 hours ago
Getty Images
Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals.
A Richmond, Va. area man was charged on Sunday with aggravated assault and public intoxication after throwing a bottle at reggae singer Frederick "Toots" Hibbert during a concert Saturday, reported The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Toots, who fronts Toots and the Maytals, were performing at the Dominion Riverrock Outdoor Sports and Music Festival when William C. Lewis, 19, reportedly threw a glass vodka bottle from the crowd. The set ended early.
"I was on stage at the sound monitor desk when a clear glass liquor bottle struck Toots Hibbert in the head," said John O'Donnell, who works for Soundworks, which co-produced the event. "Blood was flowing heavily from his head."
A guitarist told the crowd that Hibbert was "going to the hospital with a busted head."
Workers discovered that a vodka bottle had disappeared from a bar, said Jack Berry, executive director of Venture Richmond, which co-produced the event.
Hibbert, 67, was treated at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, then released early on Sunday morning, and appears to hold no grudge against the area, according to festival manager Stephen Lecky.
"He was in good spirits and was very appreciative of Richmond," he said. "He said he wanted to come back, and he understood this was just one bad apple, basically."
Added Lecky, "He was one of the nicest men I ever met."
The band's Facebook page featured a post late on Sunday which read: "Toots would like to thank all his friends, fans and family who have reached out to him since the bottle throwing incident in Richmond Saturday Night. After 7 seven stitches and a little rest he was able to perform a wonderful show in Westhampton NY tonite as the 1st show of his acoustic tour. The youth who threw the bottle for no apparent reason is in custody and being charged. Being the soldier he is he will hopefully be able to continue the tour."
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/toots-hibbert-injured-bottle-thrown-concert-6C9995714
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? The office of Syria's deputy foreign minister says gunmen have abducted his elderly father in the southern Daraa province.
The office says Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad's father was seized Saturday in the village of Ghossom in Daraa province.
An official in Mekdad's office said the elder Mekdad is over 80 years old, but did not immediately know his name.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-seize-elderly-father-syrias-deputy-fm-132111295.html
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Public release date: 15-May-2013
Share ] Contact: Sue McGreevey
smcgreevey@partners.org
617-724-2764
Massachusetts General Hospital
At a time when the U.S. health system is facing both an increasing demand for primary care services and a worsening shortage of primary care physicians, one broadly recommended strategy has been to increase the number and the responsibilities of nurse practitioners. In 2010 an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee recommended that "advance practice registered nurses should be able to practice to the full extent of their education and training" and that nurse practitioners should be able to admit patients to hospitals and hospices, lead medical teams and medical homes, and receive reimbursements similar to what physicians receive for providing the same services.
A study published in the May 16 New England Journal of Medicine finds, however, that while primary care physicians and nurse practitioners for the most part agreed with the first recommendation, they significantly disagreed about some proposed changes to the scope of nurse practitioners' responsibilities. Specific points of disagreement revealed in the survey led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Institute for Medicine and Public Health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center include appropriate leadership roles for nurse practitioners, reimbursement levels and the overall quality of services they provide.
"We were surprised by the level of disagreement reported between these two groups of professionals," says Karen Donelan, ScD, EdM, of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at MGH, lead author of the report. "We had hypothesized that, since primary care physicians and nurse practitioners had been working together for many years, that collaboration would lead to more common views about their roles in clinical practice. The data reveal disagreements about fundamental questions of professional roles that need to be resolved for teams to function effectively."
Adds Peter Buerhaus, RN, PhD, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies at Vanderbilt and a co-author of the paper, "It is unsettling that primary care physicians and nurse practitioners, who have been practicing together for several decades, seem so far apart in their perceptions of each other's contributions. I am concerned that these large gaps in perceptions will inhibit efforts to redesign care delivery and to improve the productivity and configuration of the primary care workforce." Additional co-authors of the paper are Catherine DesRoches, DrPh, Mathematica Policy Research, Cambridge, Mass.; and Robert Dittus MD, MPH, Veterans Administration Tennessee Valley Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center and Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health.
Although debates on the appropriate roles of health professionals are nothing new, the authors note, little data has been available on the roles played by nurse practitioners in primary care and how they differ from those of primary care physicians. The current study was designed to assess those roles and how expanding them might affect the health care system. The survey was mailed to a national random sample of nearly 2,000 primary care clinicians evenly divided between physicians and nurse practitioners and responses were received from 467 nurse practitioners and 505 physicians.
The majority of both groups 96 percent of nurse practitioners and 76 percent of physicians agreed with the IOM recommendation that nurse practitioners "be able to practice to the full extent of their education and training," and 76 percent of nurse practitioners reported they were doing so. Majorities also agreed that increasing the supply of primary care nurse practitioners would improve the timeliness of and access to care, and respondents working in collaborative practices indicated that both professions provide a wide range of services in their practices.
But the survey revealed significant disagreements on specific recommendations:
The investigators note the need for more analysis of the economic implications of expanding nurse practitioner roles and responsibilities, as well as the contribution of nurse practitioners to the care of complex patients. Buerhaus stresses, "At this stage, discussion is critical to finding points of agreement. Several states have workforce commissions that might serve as a forum for primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, payors and even patients to discuss these issues. Our study did not find major differences by states and did not include physician assistants or other allied health professionals, but including everyone in this dialogue will be important."
Adds Donelan, "Patients need health care teams that work in concert. We need to look at models of successful collaboration and understand how good teams function effectively and efficiently. We also need to consider how to structure nursing, medical and interprofessional education to enhance understanding and appreciation of each others' professional cultures."
###
Donelan is a senior scientist in Health Policy at the Mongan Institute and an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Buerhaus is the Valerie Potter Professor of Nursing at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. The study was supported by grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing's Future, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
[ | 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: 15-May-2013 Share ] Contact: Sue McGreevey
smcgreevey@partners.org
617-724-2764
Massachusetts General Hospital
At a time when the U.S. health system is facing both an increasing demand for primary care services and a worsening shortage of primary care physicians, one broadly recommended strategy has been to increase the number and the responsibilities of nurse practitioners. In 2010 an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee recommended that "advance practice registered nurses should be able to practice to the full extent of their education and training" and that nurse practitioners should be able to admit patients to hospitals and hospices, lead medical teams and medical homes, and receive reimbursements similar to what physicians receive for providing the same services.
A study published in the May 16 New England Journal of Medicine finds, however, that while primary care physicians and nurse practitioners for the most part agreed with the first recommendation, they significantly disagreed about some proposed changes to the scope of nurse practitioners' responsibilities. Specific points of disagreement revealed in the survey led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Institute for Medicine and Public Health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center include appropriate leadership roles for nurse practitioners, reimbursement levels and the overall quality of services they provide.
"We were surprised by the level of disagreement reported between these two groups of professionals," says Karen Donelan, ScD, EdM, of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at MGH, lead author of the report. "We had hypothesized that, since primary care physicians and nurse practitioners had been working together for many years, that collaboration would lead to more common views about their roles in clinical practice. The data reveal disagreements about fundamental questions of professional roles that need to be resolved for teams to function effectively."
Adds Peter Buerhaus, RN, PhD, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies at Vanderbilt and a co-author of the paper, "It is unsettling that primary care physicians and nurse practitioners, who have been practicing together for several decades, seem so far apart in their perceptions of each other's contributions. I am concerned that these large gaps in perceptions will inhibit efforts to redesign care delivery and to improve the productivity and configuration of the primary care workforce." Additional co-authors of the paper are Catherine DesRoches, DrPh, Mathematica Policy Research, Cambridge, Mass.; and Robert Dittus MD, MPH, Veterans Administration Tennessee Valley Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center and Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health.
Although debates on the appropriate roles of health professionals are nothing new, the authors note, little data has been available on the roles played by nurse practitioners in primary care and how they differ from those of primary care physicians. The current study was designed to assess those roles and how expanding them might affect the health care system. The survey was mailed to a national random sample of nearly 2,000 primary care clinicians evenly divided between physicians and nurse practitioners and responses were received from 467 nurse practitioners and 505 physicians.
The majority of both groups 96 percent of nurse practitioners and 76 percent of physicians agreed with the IOM recommendation that nurse practitioners "be able to practice to the full extent of their education and training," and 76 percent of nurse practitioners reported they were doing so. Majorities also agreed that increasing the supply of primary care nurse practitioners would improve the timeliness of and access to care, and respondents working in collaborative practices indicated that both professions provide a wide range of services in their practices.
But the survey revealed significant disagreements on specific recommendations:
The investigators note the need for more analysis of the economic implications of expanding nurse practitioner roles and responsibilities, as well as the contribution of nurse practitioners to the care of complex patients. Buerhaus stresses, "At this stage, discussion is critical to finding points of agreement. Several states have workforce commissions that might serve as a forum for primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, payors and even patients to discuss these issues. Our study did not find major differences by states and did not include physician assistants or other allied health professionals, but including everyone in this dialogue will be important."
Adds Donelan, "Patients need health care teams that work in concert. We need to look at models of successful collaboration and understand how good teams function effectively and efficiently. We also need to consider how to structure nursing, medical and interprofessional education to enhance understanding and appreciation of each others' professional cultures."
###
Donelan is a senior scientist in Health Policy at the Mongan Institute and an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Buerhaus is the Valerie Potter Professor of Nursing at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. The study was supported by grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing's Future, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
[ | 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/2013-05/mgh-sfd051013.php
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Footage from Nasa shows massive flares on the Sun's surface
The Sun has unleashed its most powerful eruption of 2013 so far.
The solar flare - a sudden release of radiation - peaked at 1705 BST on Monday, and was associated with a huge eruption of matter.
When these eruptions reach Earth, they can interfere with electronic systems in satellites and those on the ground.
Nasa said this solar explosion - known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) - was not directed at Earth, but it could pass several US spacecraft.
The event on Monday was classified as an "X-class" flare - the most intense type - with a designation of X2.8 (higher numbers denote a stronger flare). It surpassed an X1.7-class flare that occurred 14 hours earlier.
They are the first X-class events to occur this year.
When intense enough, a flare can disturb the Earth's atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
This disrupts the radio signals for as long as the flare is ongoing - the radio blackout associated with this flare has since subsided.
CMEs can be even more disruptive because they can send billions of tonnes of solar particles into space. In those cases when very strong eruptions do reach Earth, the charged matter can blow out transformers in power grids.
The so-called Carrington Event of 1-2 September 1859 shorted telegraph wires, starting fires in North America and Europe, and caused bright aurorae (northern and southern lights) to be seen in Cuba and Hawaii.
The CME associated with this flare may pass the Stereo-B and Spitzer spacecraft. The operators of those science missions can choose to put their spacecraft into a "safe mode" to protect the electronics in onboard instruments from being tripped.
Increased numbers of flares are expected at the moment because the Sun's normal 11-year activity cycle is approaching a "high" of activity - known as a solar maximum.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22525233#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Why Humans Took Up Farming: They Like To Own Stuff
Source: NPR
Posted on:
Tuesday, May 14, 2013, 9:00am
Views: 22
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128253/Why_Humans_Took_Up_Farming__They_Like_To_Own_Stuff
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GENEVA (AP) ? An elderly Swiss woman who would rather end her life now than decline further in health found sympathy Tuesday from the European Court of Human Rights, which called on the Swiss to clarify their laws on so-called passive assisted suicide.
Alda Gross, a woman in her early 80s who lives outside Zurich, appealed to the Strasbourg, France-based court after she couldn't find a doctor to prescribe her a lethal dose of drugs and couldn't force Swiss authorities to order a doctor to grant her wish.
While she didn't suffer from any clinical illness, Gross argued that she shouldn't have to keep suffering from the decline of her physical and mental facilities.
The vagueness of Swiss laws "concerning a particularly important aspect of her life was likely to have caused Ms. Gross a considerable degree of anguish," the court found. And while Swiss laws allow for the possibility of obtaining a lethal dose of a drug on medical prescription, it added, those laws "did not provide sufficient guidelines ensuring clarity as to the extent of this right."
Passive assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942; the law allows someone to give another person the means to kill themselves, provided the helper doesn't personally benefit from the death or aid in the actual act of death. Most people who avail themselves of the law are terminally ill, but some have cited depression or blindness for wanting to end their lives and some are young and physically healthy except for a permanent disability or severe, debilitating mental disorder.
Other countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium, and U.S. states such as Oregon and Washington, have passed laws allowing the incurably sick to consult a doctor who can speed their death, under special and tightly regulated circumstances.
In 2011, the Swiss government dropped plans to impose stricter rules regarding "passive assisted suicide." The government said the current rules strike a balance between protecting vulnerable individuals and safeguarding their right to self-determination, and new laws could infringe on people's personal freedoms.
Gross, who lives in a village on the shore of Lake Greifen in northern Switzerland, was turned down by a Zurich health board when she tried to force her doctors to prescribe her a lethal dose of sodium pentobarbital. The Swiss Federal Supreme Court in 2010 upheld the health board's decision.
Gross did not submit a claim for damages to the European court, which did not take a stand on whether she should have been given the lethal dose.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-court-finds-swiss-assisted-suicide-laws-vague-152216628.html
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May 13, 2013 ? Human intelligence cannot be explained by the size of the brain's frontal lobes, say researchers.
Research into the comparative size of the frontal lobes in humans and other species has determined that they are not -- as previously thought -- disproportionately enlarged relative to other areas of the brain, according to the most accurate and conclusive study of this area of the brain.
It concludes that the size of our frontal lobes cannot solely account for humans' superior cognitive abilities.
The study by Durham and Reading universities suggests that supposedly more 'primitive' areas, such as the cerebellum, were equally important in the expansion of the human brain. These areas may therefore play unexpectedly important roles in human cognition and its disorders, such as autism and dyslexia, say the researchers.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) today.
The frontal lobes are an area in the brain of mammals located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere, and are thought to be critical for advanced intelligence.
Lead author Professor Robert Barton from the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, said: "Probably the most widespread assumption about how the human brain evolved is that size increase was concentrated in the frontal lobes.
"It has been thought that frontal lobe expansion was particularly crucial to the development of modern human behaviour, thought and language, and that it is our bulging frontal lobes that truly make us human. We show that this is untrue: human frontal lobes are exactly the size expected for a non-human brain scaled up to human size.
"This means that areas traditionally considered to be more primitive were just as important during our evolution. These other areas should now get more attention. In fact there is already some evidence that damage to the cerebellum, for example, is a factor in disorders such as autism and dyslexia."
The scientists argue that many of our high-level abilities are carried out by more extensive brain networks linking many different areas of the brain. They suggest it may be the structure of these extended networks more than the size of any isolated brain region that is critical for cognitive functioning.
Previously, various studies have been conducted to try and establish whether humans' frontal lobes are disproportionately enlarged compared to their size in other primates such as apes and monkeys. They have resulted in a confused picture with use of different methods and measurements leading to inconsistent findings.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/eiG5DM9MW3Y/130513152827.htm
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Google is well known for its regular bouts of spring cleaning when it kills off a number of products in one fell swoop, but it also sometimes makes quick changes in between the bigger announcements. One of those has now hit its portfolio of SMS-based products aimed at users of lower end devices: Google has quietly closed down SMS Search.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rqEBQzIYZ_w/
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FILE - In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., center, and others Senators, participate in a news conference on immigration on Capitol Hill in Washington. From left are, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Rubio, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. One of the legislation?s authors, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has already acknowledged that the bill will face a tough road to passage if the border security elements are not improved. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
FILE - In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., center, and others Senators, participate in a news conference on immigration on Capitol Hill in Washington. From left are, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Rubio, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. One of the legislation?s authors, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has already acknowledged that the bill will face a tough road to passage if the border security elements are not improved. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Supporters and opponents of sweeping immigration legislation faced off Thursday as a Senate committee began considering hundreds of amendments that could improve the bill's chances of eventual passage through Congress, or doom it to failure.
In opening remarks in the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, the panel's senior Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, charged that the landmark bill backed by President Barack Obama does little more than repeat mistakes of the past.
"It falls short of what I want to see in a strong immigration reform bill, so you will hear me say many times that we shouldn't make the same mistakes that we made in 1986," the last time Congress passed a major immigration overhaul bill, Grassley said. "You'll hear me say many times that we ought to move ahead with a bill that does it right this time."
A lead author of the bill, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, countered that the legislation represents the country's best hope for immigration reform and a chance to break through the partisanship that's riven Congress and the country.
"We have come up with a fair bill where no one gets everything they want, but at the end of the day, it will mean dramatic improvement for the American economy, the American people, and will make our immigration policy much more in sync with what is good for jobs and America," Schumer said.
The 844-page legislation crafted in months of closed-door negotiations by four Democratic and four Republican senators would toughen border security, remake legal immigration to allow tens of thousands of new high- and low-skilled workers into the country, require all employers to check their workers' legal status, and create a 13-year path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants already in the U.S. illegally.
Senators on the Judiciary Committee have filed some 300 amendments on a wide range of issues including border security and workplace enforcement, along with Democratic-authored measures to make the legislation more welcoming to immigrant families.
A focus throughout the committee session, expected to last about two weeks, will be on whether the four committee members among the so-called Gang of Eight senators who authored the legislation can stick together to protect against efforts to chip away at the bill's core provisions.
In addition to Schumer, those lawmakers are Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
Although the bill allows citizenship to go forward only after certain border security goals have been met, those "triggers" haven't proven convincing enough for many GOP lawmakers. Amendments expected to be offered Thursday were likely to focus on that issue, according to the schedule laid out by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Even one of the bill's authors, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has said border measures need to be stronger, so some changes are likely to be accepted as the authors work to show they are open to alterations that could attract additional support for the bill.
But measures offered by some Republican senators would dramatically change the bill's delicately crafted compromises in a way its authors are unlikely to accept.
For example, Grassley has filed an amendment to prohibit anyone from obtaining legal status until the Homeland Security Department has maintained "effective control" of the border for six months ? a potentially arduous standard to reach, depending upon how it is defined.
Rubio conceded in a broadcast interview Thursday that some amendments could be seen as attempts to thwart the legislation, but said he thought most were intended to refine and improve it, saying "that's the way the process is supposed to work."
He called the work of the Gang of Eight "an excellent starting point" and said there is overwhelming support among the American people, including social conservatives, for immigration changes as long as they tighten border security. Rubio said in an interview on "CBS This Morning" that the public wants legislation that would ensure that "this illegal immigration wave doesn't happen again."
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DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) ? Baxter International Inc. says that a blood product it was testing failed to slow mental decline or to preserve physical function in a major study of 390 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.
The company says that people who received 18 months of infusions with its drug, Gammagard, fared no better than others given infusions of a dummy solution.
Gammagard is immune globulin, natural antibodies culled from donated blood. Researchers thought these antibodies might help remove amyloid, the sticky plaque that clogs patients' brains, sapping memory and ability to think.
Patients with moderate disease and those with a gene that raises risk of Alzheimer's who were taking the higher of two doses in the study seemed to benefit, although the study was not big enough to say for sure.
"The study missed its primary endpoints, however we remain interested by the prespecified sub-group analyses" in groups that seemed to benefit, Ludwig Hantson, president of Baxter's BioScience business, said in a statement.
Gammagard is already sold to treat some blood disorders, and the results of the Alzheimer's study do not affect those uses. About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million have Alzheimer's. Current medicines such as Aricept and Namenda just temporarily ease symptoms. There is no known cure.
Excitement about Gammagard grew last summer, when researchers reported at a medical conference that the drug had stabilized Alzheimer's disease for as much as three years in four patients who had been receiving the highest dose of it for three years in the study. People typically go from diagnosis to death in about eight years, so to be stable for so long was considered remarkable.
The new results on the full group of study participants are disappointing, said the study's leader, Dr. Norman Relkin, head of a memory disorders program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
"The bar was set very high" for the drug to show improvement, and "there does appear to be a signal" that it helped the two-thirds of patients in the study who had the apoE4 gene that raises the risk of developing Alzheimer's, as well as those with moderate versus mild disease, Relkin said.
No new side effects were seen in the study. About 5 percent of patients on the drug had a rash and decreases in hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood. There were 17 serious reactions, 12 in the drug group and five in the placebo group.
Full results will be presented in July at an Alzheimer's conference in Boston.
Meanwhile, other studies are under way to test drugs earlier in the course of the disease. An experimental drug, Eli Lilly & Co.'s solanezumab, showed some promise in that setting in an earlier study.
Shares of Baxter fell $2.53, or 3.6 percent, to $67.78 in morning trading.
___
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
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Astute observations from Jonah Goldberg:
Let me say upfront: I would rather we lived in a society where adultery had a higher social cost. That's not to say people shouldn't be forgiving or that there should be no such thing as second chances. But ideally, I'd like it if things were less loosey-goosey. Cheat on your wife, and maybe you don't get to run for public office anymore. Send junk-tweets to random young women who aren't your wife? Well there goes your dream of becoming mayor. Exploit an intern whose name you can barely remember while you're the President of the United States, maybe your moral ranking should be downgraded to junk and you should quietly skulk off the public stage. Or, if that's too much to ask, maybe the interval between scandal and rehabilitation could last a little longer than the maturation time of a fruit fly. No politician is so indispensable that we just can't do without him (or her), never mind for a little while.
But, here's a newsflash: We don't live in that country anymore...
Indeed we don't. As Jonah notes, Mark Sanford's victory yesterday marks another low-point in American politics and for the society at-large (emphasis mine):
...[I]t's worth noting that what has changed the most isn't the supply of moral politicians, but the demand for them. Ambitious, selfish, amoral men have always been attracted to politics. At least in terms of his sex life, John F. Kennedy was a disgusting man who, among other things, pimped out an intern. Other presidents, Republican and Democrat, cheated on their wives, too. Such behavior is not new. But that was all kept from the public eye -- by the press, by the establishment, etc - in part because it was understood that if the public found out, the politician's career would be over. Times have changed and the public doesn't demand -- or demand sufficiently -- either the myth or the reality of morality anymore.
I was chatting this morning with a friend about today's Benghazi hearings on Capitol Hill and about the media's seeming lack of interest. ?No one died in Watergate, we recalled, yet the media's appetite for the truth couldn't be satiated. ?Fast-forward to today and the media flippantly dismiss the current administration's woeful (and deadly) negligence as a political stunt by Republicans. ?
Sure the media have always had an agenda. ?But when lives are lost, it seemed in the past that that agenda necessarily took backseat to the pursuit of truth. ?But not any more -- whether it's a murdered U.S. ambassador or the slaughter of innocent babies at the hands of an abortionist, it seems the media's liberal agenda now takes priority over the sanctity of life itself. ?One has to ask: Is this because the media has become increasingly amoral or because society has?
In the end, Jonah concludes, it's up to conservatives to stick to their guns and their morals:?
Indeed, when Democratic politicians get caught in scandals, the response from liberals is invariably, Why can't you conservatives lighten up? Who are you to judge? Etc. It is only when conservatives are caught in such messes, that liberals walk over to the conservative side, pick up our standards, and beat us up with them. Any talk of lightening-up or forgiveness is immediately denounced.?
It's absolutely true that conservatives need to wrestle with the question of what we should expect from our politicians. But I'm not sure liberals have anything worth listening to on the subject.?
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sanford-gosnell-benghazi-america-moral-culture-decline-145827187.html
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May 5, 2013 ? As schools around the country look for ways to reduce violence and bullying, they may want to consider encouraging students to participate in team sports, according to a study to be presented Sunday, May 5, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC.
Researchers analyzed data from the 2011 North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey to see if athletic participation was associated with violence-related behaviors, including fighting, carrying a weapon and being bullied. A representative sample of 1,820 high school students in the state completed the survey, which also asked adolescents whether they played any school-sponsored team sports (e.g., football) or individual sports (e.g. track).
Results showed that half of the students ages 14-18 years reported playing a school-sponsored sport: 25 percent were on a team, 9 percent participated in an individual sport, and 17 percent played both individual and team sports.
Girls who played individual or team sports were less likely to report having been in a physical fight in the past year than girls who didn't participate in sports (14 percent vs. 22 percent). Female athletes also were less likely carry a weapon in the past 30 days than non-athletes (6 percent vs. 11 percent).
However, there was no difference in reported physical fighting in the past year or weapon carrying in the past 30 days between boys who played sports and those who did not. Approximately 32 percent of boys reported physical fighting, and 36 percent reported carrying weapons in the past 30 days.
"Athletic participation may prevent involvement in violence-related activities among girls but not among boys because aggression and violence generally might be more accepted in boys' high school sports," said senior author Tamera Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH, FSAHM, FAAP, professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Coaches, school administrators and parents should be aware that students who participate in sports might still be at risk for fighting and carrying weapons, added presenting author Robert W. Turner, PhD, research associate and Carolina postdoctoral fellow for faculty diversity at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Survey results also indicated that boys who played team sports were less likely to report being bullied than boys who played individual sports.
"Though we don't know if boys who play team sports are less likely to be the perpetrators of bullying, we know that they are less likely to be bullied," Dr. Coyne-Beasley noted. "Perhaps creating team-like environments among students such that they may feel part of a group or community could lead to less bullying."
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/R6DUm_X6VCY/130505073740.htm
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