Cancer Drug Effectiveness Substantially Advanced, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute Study
4/9/2010

Sanford Burnham -- Santa Barbara, Calif., April 8, 2010 – Researchers have shown that a peptide (a chain of amino acids) called iRGD helps co-administered drugs penetrate deeply into tumor tissue. The peptide has been shown to substantially increase treatment efficacy against human breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers in mice, achieving the same therapeutic effect as a normal dose with one-third as much of the drug. In a transformative paper published today in the online edition of the journal Science, Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., distinguished professor at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and founding member of the UC Santa Barbara-Sanford|Burnham Center for Nanomedicine, Kazuki N. Sugahara, M.D., Ph.D., Tambet Teesalu, Ph.D., and fellow researchers at the Center for Nanomedicine and the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara, announced this significant advance in cancer therapy.

From PR Newswire

Washington Post - 6/24/2010

IPhone frenzy comes to D.C. area

Sherman Callis wins!

The 24-year-old Temple Hills man arrived at the Georgetown Apple store at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday to stake his claim on the No. 1 spot in line for the latest iteration of company's smartphone, the iPhone 4. By Thursday morning, there were hundreds behind him. It was a scene repeated throughout Washington-area Apple stores.

About 50 lucky souls queued up in a pre-order line at the Georgetown store, an option that was blocked for most customers after Apple was deluged by more than 600,000 reservations and stopped allowing them.

The rest had to try their luck against the store's unknown inventory, a plight that fueled fast friendships among customers who lounged on coolers and camp chairs in a line stretching down Wisconsin Avenue and up M Street NW.  Read More

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Blackberry maker Research in Motion broke into the top five cellphone makers in January-March for the first time, helped by 50 percent growth in the global smartphone market. The global handset market has been dominated by five major players -- Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, Motorola and Sony Ericsson for the last five years. Read More

There once was a time when the process of testing and measuring signals was straightforward.

At the studio and control room end, you needed just a waveform monitor and vectorscope to keep an eye on signals, making adjustments so that the signal met long-established parameters. At the transmitter, you pretty much needed to check forward and reflected power, as well as internal measurements provided on the transmitter's control panel.

Things are quite different in the digital world. Do you know if your transmitter's MPEG encoder is causing jitter? Can you tell if the cellphone video the news director wants to run has the right color gamut?
Meanwhile, the ability to view signal measurements has moved out of dedicated devices and into video monitors, where both the images and waveforms can be viewed together.  Read More

Jackson is the first chemical engineer and the first African American to head EPA. She is the first agency administrator to take a deep interest in reforming the nation's law for managing chemicals. She also recently signed the nation's first-ever regulation controlling greenhouse gas emissions.

And she was first in her high school graduating class.

"I was a straight-A student in high school," Jackson tells C&EN during a recent interview. What set her apart, she says, was her aptitude in math.

But those math skills didn't develop in a vacuum. Jackson got a push from the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering & Science, known now as the National GEM Consortium.  Read More

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Inc. is doing its part to stimulate the economy and hurting its stock in the process.

With its payroll swelling at the fastest rate in four years, some of Google's expenses are climbing faster than its revenue.

That's creating a drag on its earnings, which is pulling down the Internet search leader's stock price.

Consider Google's second-quarter results released late Thursday. Both net income and revenue rose 24 percent from the previous year, but that didn't impress investors because the earnings missed the target set by analysts.   Read More

 From C-SPAN

Senate Likely To Take Up Energy Policy

In response to the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told Democrats, "to address both the existing situation and to reduce the risks of such a catastrophe happening again." He has asked committee leaders to come up with a comprehensive energy strategy by July 4.

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) is expected to introduce a bill this week aimed at cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions through expanding nuclear power, focusing on constructing energy efficient homes and buildings and addressing both renewable fuels and overall mpg efficiency in vehicles. A "cap and trade" system is not in this bill which differs from the House passed "American Clean Energy and Security Act" that included the plan.  Read More

As part of its commitment to the community’s health and well-being, Grupo Bimbo, the leading baked goods company in the Americas, invites professionals and young scientists to participate in the Pan-American Nutrition Award 2010. The award recognizes the best research papers of the year in the fields of human nutrition, food science, and technology. Awarded only bi-annually, the awards are granted to both established professionals and young scientists in the four zones served by Grupo Bimbo: the U.S., Mexico, Central America, and South America. Prizes will be awarded in the amounts of $5,000 for the Professional category and $2,000 for the Young Scientist category.

The deadline to submit papers is Oct. 15, 2010. Award submissions should register at http://premiopanamericano.grupobimbo.com. An independent Scientific Jury from each geographical zone, composed of renowned researchers and experts in human nutrition, food science, and technology, will rate the submitted papers based on the evaluation criteria.

Source:  Microwave Journal

 Skyworks Enables World's First Commercial LTE Device

By Steven Mufson and Anne E. KornblutWashington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 15, 2010

To save time and drilling costs, BP took "shortcuts" that may have led to the oil rig explosion and the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a letter released Monday by two House Democrats leading an investigation of the disaster.

The letter, sent in advance of congressional hearings with senior oil executives this week, paints a damning picture of five decisions the lawmakers said the oil firm took "to speed finishing the well," which was running "significantly behind schedule." Marshaling e-mails, interviews and documents, the lawmakers said: "In effect, it appears that BP repeatedly chose risky procedures in order to reduce costs and save time, and made minimal efforts to contain the added risk."  Read More

From Beverage World.com

USDA Report Says Soda Tax Would Reduce Obesity

A recent report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) argues that adding a tax to caloric sweetened beverages - such as carbonated soft drinks - may help reduce high American obesity rates.

Titled Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity, the report, by the agency's Economic Research Service, states that a 20 percent increase in the cost of sweetened beverages would reduce an adult's net calorie intake from all beverages by 37 calories per day, or 13 percent. The effects for children were estimated to be larger, an average reduction of 43 calories per day, or 11 percent. By assuming that 1 pound of body fat has about 3,500 calories, the daily calorie reductions would translate into an average reduction of 3.8 pounds over a year for adults and 4.5 pounds over a year for children, the report says.  Read More

The nation’s industrial sector boosted production in dramatic fashion in May, as a steep rise in activity in the nation’s factories continued to lift the broader economy.

The 1.2 percent increase in industrial production, which the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday, was stronger than expected and the best reading on that indicator since August 2009. The gain drove capacity utilization in the nation’s industrial sector to 74.7 percent, the highest level since October 2008, when the recession was worsening.

The industrial sector has been a driver of the economic recovery that began last summer, reflecting both steadily rising consumer demand for goods and inventory levels that had grown so lean during the recession that they needed to be rebuilt.

The strong new data offers some reason for confidence that the economic recovery remains underway after disappointing May data on private sector job creation and retail sales.

The rise in overall industrial production was driven by an 0.9 percent increase in manufacturing activity and a very sharp, 4.8 percent rise in output by the nation’s utilities. The latter tends to fluctuate based on the weather (in an unusually hot summer, for example, more people run their air conditioners, and electrical generation plants operate at a higher rate). The mining sector contracted slightly.

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators are reconsidering the rules that govern high-speed Internet connections - wading into a bitter policy dispute that could be tied up in court for years.

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday to begin taking public comments on three different paths for regulating broadband. That includes a proposal by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a Democrat, to define broadband access as a telecommunications service subject to "common carrier" obligations to treat all traffic equally.

Genachowski's proposal is a response to a federal appeals court ruling that has cast doubt on the agency's authority over broadband under its existing regulatory framework. Read More

By Shannon Dininny (AP) – 23 hours ago

Regulators consider broadening testing for E. coli

YAKIMA, Wash. — The food industry and government regulators have focused for years on finding the most virulent strain of E. coli bacteria, which every year sickens thousands.

But they don't regularly test for six less common E. coli strains that can cause illnesses equally as serious. Most recently, two dozen illnesses in four states were tied this spring to bagged romaine lettuce contaminated by an uncommon E. coli strain that can be difficult to detect.

Industry officials said tests aren't available to do widespread monitoring of these other strains, but food safety advocates have begun pushing the government to step up surveillance after several outbreaks. Read More

July 19 2010 - 1:06 pm ET | Tracy Ford | RCR Wireless News

Nokia Siemens Networks to increase U.S. customer base with Motorola purchase

Nokia Siemens Networks should be able to increase its presence in the United States and Japan with the announced acquisition of Motorola Inc.'s networks business. The $1.2 billion acquisition was hinted at last week. Motorola will retain its iDEN networks business.

Nokia Siemens will pick up Motorola's CDMA, GSM, wideband CDMA and LTE business, which counted sales of about $3.3 million in 2009. "We like to think we are buying at least part of the history of innovation at Motorola," said Rajeev Suri, CEO of NSN. "First and foremost, this deal is about customers," Suri noted. "We expect to gain an incumbent position with many of our customers. … Second the deal is about scale and building our presence in some regions." Suri noted that the merger will move NSN from the No. 5 in North America to No. 3, as well as strengthen its position in Japan, including a contract with KDDI Corp. Motorola also counts contracts with Verizon Wireless and Clearwire Corp., among others.  Read More

ARLINGTON, VA.: The buzz around 3DTV has served its purpose: Interest is heating up. However, as with any emerging technology, questions abound. The Consumer Electronics Association’s latest survey of 250 retail sales associates revealed "that many consumers are still confused about 3D technology," the group said.

"Interest at retail for 3D technologies is growing," said Shawn DuBravac, CEA’s chief economist and director of research. "Ensuring consumers and retail sales associates have the answers they need is paramount."

CEA said that 3D content is "pivotal" for most folks in retail. Nearly 80 percent of the associates interviewed believed sales of 3D technologies would not be strong until more 3D content becomes available. They said customer questions about 3D content were among those most frequently asked.  Read More