Wednesday, December 7, 2011

UK auditors warn Olympic budget is on the edge

(AP) ? Britain's spending watchdog warned London Olympic organizers Tuesday that they run a risk of exceeding their 9.3 billion-pound ($14.6 billion) budget for hosting the event and have little room for unforeseen costs.

The National Audit Office report concluded that while the venues are on time and largely complete, "not everything is rosy." The report came as British Olympic officials announced that they had doubled the funding for security operations at venues, raising overall security costs for the 2012 Games to more than 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion).

"The government is confident that there is money available to meet known risks, but, in my view, the likelihood that the games can still be funded within the existing 9.3 billion-pound public sector funding package is so finely balanced that there is a real risk more money will be needed," said Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office.

If that's the case, Olympic officials would be heading back hat in hand to British taxpapers who are already embroiled in tough economic times. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects the U.K. economy to contract in this current quarter and in the first three months of 2012 and grow only 0.5 percent next year.

Britain's National Audit Office, an independent organization, examines public spending on behalf of Parliament.

Just hours before the report, Olympics minister Hugh Robertson told reporters at a news conference that the London Games remained financially on track ? and within budget contingency planning despite the increased security costs. But the new security costs will certainly become a sensitive political issue.

"We're confident we can do this and remain on budget," Robertson said.

But the auditors noted that only 500 million pounds ($785 million) remains unallocated for dealing with future costs ? a fact that will alarm ministers already trying to stem public anger over cuts in pensions, social services and national programs. Security and transport costs figured among the question marks in the future.

The increase comes after security reviews suggested the initial estimate of 10,000 security guards for the games would not be enough. Thousands of soldiers are now part of the planning, though officials have declined to reveal the exact number.

Robertson made clear that security was not a negotiable item and that the British government was obligated to make sure it took every precaution to make the July 27-Aug. 12 event safe.

The government said an additional 271 million pounds ($424 million) has been allocated to making venues and other sensitive sites, such as hotels, more secure. That means the total cost of securing the venues has climbed to over 553 million pounds ($862 million).

But the rise announced Monday only deals with security guards and other measures needed to protect the venues and related sites. That money is in addition to the cost of paying police and others services to provide overall security for the games. Although Britain's Home Office initially budgeted 600 million pounds ($940 million) for that, that number has been trimmed to 475 million pounds ($745 million).

Authorities say they could only come up with a figure after complex arrangements to actually stage the games were in place. Robertson said an evolving security picture also played a role, suggesting that planners could not have known about the Arab Spring, for example, when first making their plans. He insisted that the British riots last summer, however, did not play a role in the funding increase.

But Tony Travers, a government expert at the London School of Economics, said the riots will serve to spook politicians about planning for "the unknown unknown."

"Security and transport are clearly by a long way the remaining unknown elements in the Olympics being delivered," Travers said. "Security for cost reasons and transport for uncertainty of effectiveness reasons."

The biggest security worry for the Olympics is terrorism. Security has been an intricate part of the games since a terror attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. London has not been immune from terror attacks ? four suicide bombers targeted the city's transit network in 2005, killing 52 commuters.

The British government is planning for the national terror threat to be "severe" during the Olympics, meaning an attempted attack is highly likely. About 12,000 police officers will also be on duty on the busiest days of the games.

Another increase likely to spark discussion was an additional 41 million pounds ($63.9 million) devoted to the Olympic ceremonies. Robertson defended the increase, saying that a proper spectacle was needed to make sure Britain and its tourism industry benefit. Billions of people around the globe are expected to watch the televised opening ceremonies.

"We're just never going to get another moment like this," Robertson said.

Auditors also expressed concern about the failure to finalize transport plans around the venues, pushed back from November to March.

"The experience of spectators, visitors and Londoners in general would be diminished and the reputation of the Games put at risk if these issues were not sorted out," Morse said of the transport and security issues.

Britain's total cost for the event remains at 9.3 billion pounds ($14.6 billion).

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-05-OLY-London-2012-Security/id-fe90ebee038548bdb31e22cc59497188

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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tiny genetic variation can predict ovarian cancer outcome

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) ? Yale Cancer Center researchers have shown that a tiny genetic variation predicts chances of survival and response to treatment for patients with ovarian cancer.

The findings, published in the journal Oncogene, provide new insights into the biology of a new class of cancer marker and suggest a genetic test may help guide the treatment of women with ovarian cancer.

"This gives us a way to identify which women are at highest risk for resistance to platinum chemotherapy, the standard treatment for ovarian cancer, and helps identify ovarian cancer patients with the worst outcomes," said Joanne Weidhaas, associate professor of therapeutic radiology and senior author of the study. "There just aren't many inherited gene variants than can do that."

Women who possess the biomarker identified by the Yale team -- a variant of the well-known KRAS oncogene -- are three times more resistant to standard platinum chemotherapy than women without the variant. Also, post-menopausal women with the variant are significantly more likely to die from ovarian cancer. About 12-15 percent of Caucasians and 6 percent of African-Americans are born with the variant of the gene, which helps regulate destruction of damaged cells. This variant is found in up to 25% of newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients.

Although good alternatives to chemotherapy are not yet available for women with ovarian cancer and this variant, several drugs in development which target the KRAS gene and associated pathways have shown great promise, Weidhaas said.

Weidhaas is a co-founder of a company that has licensed intellectual property from Yale that has developed a diagnostic test based on the Kras-variant.

The biomarker intrigues scientists because it is a functional variant in an area of DNA that does not code for proteins. Instead this variant disrupts how a microRNA controls gene expression.

"This is a new paradigm," Weidhaas said.

Yale researchers have also found this microRNA variant of the KRAS gene is associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer and lung cancer. Other researchers have found associations with poor outcome in colon as well as head and neck cancers.

In laboratory tests, researchers blocked the variant and significantly reduced growth of ovarian cancer cells. This suggests targeting the variant site may someday help treat cancer in these patients.

The study was funded by the NIH, the National Cancer Institute and the Merkel Foundation.

Other Yale authors are Elena S. Ratner, Florence K. Keane, Michelle Glasgow, Sunitha Nallur, Yanhong Deng, Stefania Bellone, Marta Boeke, Xiaopan Yao, Daniel Zelterman, Herbert Yu, Thomas J. Rutherford, Peter E. Schwartz, Frank J. Slack and Alessandro D. Santin.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Yale University.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. E S Ratner, F K Keane, R Lindner, R A Tassi, T Paranjape, M Glasgow, S Nallur, Y Deng, L Lu, L Steele, S Sand, R-U Muller, E Bignotti, S Bellone, M Boeke, X Yao, S Pecorelli, A Ravaggi, D Katsaros, D Zelterman, M C Cristea, H Yu, T J Rutherford, J N Weitzel, S L Neuhausen, P E Schwartz, F J Slack, A D Santin, J B Weidhaas. A KRAS variant is a biomarker of poor outcome, platinum chemotherapy resistance and a potential target for therapy in ovarian cancer. Oncogene, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/onc.2011.539

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

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

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111205082253.htm

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Saturday, December 3, 2011

After 10 Years, Segway Falls Short Of High Hopes

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/02/143062995/despite-splashy-debut-segway-shows-lackluster-sales?ft=1&f=1007

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Obama, Clinton to announce energy saving program (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Enlisting former President Bill Clinton as a partner, President Barack Obama is announcing a $4 billion effort to increase the energy efficiency of government and private sector buildings, aiming for fuel savings and job creation at no cost to taxpayers.

The proposal, to be announced by Obama and Clinton on Friday, would upgrade buildings over the next two years with a goal of improving energy performance by 20 percent by 2020. The federal government would commit $2 billion to the effort and a coalition of corporations, labor unions, universities and local governments would undertake the other half.

The contractors who undertake the work would be paid with realized energy savings, thus requiring no up-front federal expenditure.

"Upgrading the energy efficiency of America's buildings is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest ways to save money, cut down on harmful pollution and create good jobs right now," Obama said in a statement.

The president will make the announcement after touring a downtown Washington office building whose owners have agreed to make more energy efficient under Obama's plan.

The program, known as Energy Savings Performance Contracts, has been in place since the Clinton administration but has been little used. Obama's announcement is yet another in a string of White House initiatives designed to address the current weak economy without having to seek congressional approval.

Gene Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council, said private economic analyses indicate that the $4 billion plan could generate about 50,000 jobs over two years.

The program builds on an initiative that Obama launched in February and that Clinton led through his Clinton Foundation to get the private sector to invest in greater energy efficiency. Clinton already had announced commitments of $500 million in energy efficiency projects in June.

The Obama administration helped finance private sector energy upgrades through its 2009 stimulus program. But that money has begun to run out, and advocates of the new initiative say they hope the effort fills the void.

Joining Obama and Clinton will be Thomas Donohue, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a long-time proponent of the Energy Saving Performance Contracts.

"We have been pushing the ESPC program for more than a decade because this holds tremendous potential," Donohue said in a statement. "Despite the benefits of ESPCs, the program has been grossly underutilized."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_energy_efficiency

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Friday, December 2, 2011

ADATA S101 flash drive brings USB 3.0 speeds, shrugs off shocks and splashes

USB flash drives may not be the hottest tech hardware out there, but that doesn't mean they can't look good. ADATA's latest thumb drive refresh packs the same military-spec rough and tumble credentials of last year's S007, but this time it's guarding some USB 3.0 goodness. While the design of the S107 is nigh-on identical to its predecessor, it's now capable of read speeds of up to 100MB per second. The rubberized storage sticks, available in red and blue, will be available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB sizes, although ADATA is still keeping schtum on pricing and release dates.

Continue reading ADATA S101 flash drive brings USB 3.0 speeds, shrugs off shocks and splashes

ADATA S101 flash drive brings USB 3.0 speeds, shrugs off shocks and splashes originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/01/adata-s101-flash-drive-brings-usb-3-0-speeds-shrugs-off-shocks/

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Lavin to miss St. John's game at No. 1 Kentucky (AP)

NEW YORK ? St. John's coach Steve Lavin won't accompany his team to Thursday night's game at No. 1 Kentucky, the third straight game and fourth this season he's missed while recovering from prostate cancer surgery.

Lavin, who had surgery Oct. 6, said he is cancer-free but his stamina has not improved enough for him to coach in games. He said there is no date for him to return to the bench with the Red Storm (4-3).

He missed the season opener, but was on the bench for four games before missing last week's win over St. Francis, N.Y., and loss to Northeastern at home.

The second-year coach says he will keep working with his doctors as he follows a modified schedule.

Assistant coach Mike Dunlap will serve as head coach of the Red Storm in Lavin's absence.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_sp_co_ne/bkc_st_john_s_lavin

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