SEFFNER, Fla. (AP) ? A huge sinkhole opened up under a man's bedroom and swallowed him as he screamed for help. He was missing Friday and feared dead.
Officials lowered equipment into the sinkhole but didn't see any sign of life. Jeremy Bush, who was at the home near Tampa, said it took him only seconds to get to his brother's room about 11 p.m. Thursday. He jumped into the hole and dirt was quickly up to his neck.
"The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care. I wanted to save my brother," he said. "But I just couldn't do nothing."
Jeremy Bush had to be helped out of the sinkhole by a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy. Bush stood in a neighbor's yard across the street from the house Friday and recounted the harrowing collapse.
"He was screaming my name. I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him," he said of his brother.
Engineers worked to determine the size of the sinkhole. At the surface, officials estimated it was about 30 feet across. Below the surface, officials believed it was 100 feet wide.
From the outside of the small, sky blue house, nothing appeared wrong. There wear no cracks and the only sign something was amiss was the yellow caution tape circling the house.
Jeremy Bush's wife and his 2-year-old daughter were also inside the house. "She keeps asking where her Uncle Jeff is," he said. "I lost everything. I work so hard to support my wife and kid and I lost everything."
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy Douglas Duvall said he helped Jeremy Bush as the bedroom was still collapsing.
"I reached down and was able to actually able to get him by his hand and pull him out of the hole. The hole was collapsing. At that time, we left the house," Duvall said.
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said when Duvall arrived, there was nothing left of the bedroom.
"There was no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking up," she said.
"We put engineering equipment into the sinkhole and didn't see anything compatible with life," Damico said. "The entire house is on the sinkhole."
Neighbors on both sides of the home have been evacuated.
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman Larry McKinnon said authorities asked sinkhole and engineering experts, and they were using equipment to see if the ground can support the weight of heavy machinery needed for the recovery effort.
A lot of European startup competitions have avoided the 'pitch on the main stage' model of startup competition. Instead, to sort the wheat from the chaff, they often have a separate startup stage to the main conference stage, with only the final 4 or 5 to make it rhough a judging process to appear at the end. That's the model used at the London Web Summit and today we saw those final four do their thing. They were joined in the final on-stage pitch in front of a top panel of judges. So after over 200 entries, assessed by 40 judges and over 27 live pitches on the startup stage at London Web Summit there can be only one winner. And that winner today was Flubit. The judges said: "It won because of the potential it has over the next 24 months and its championing of the consumer. It was the most interesting business." Here's a run-down of the startup in their own words, followed by the three other finalists and finally the other, many companies that pitched during the day.
UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country researchers are using nanotechnology for therapeutic purposes
This press release is available in Spanish.
At the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Basque Public University (UPV/EHU) the Pharmacokinetics, Nanotechnology and Gene Therapy research team is using nanotechnology to develop new formulations that can be applied to drugs and gene therapy.Specifically, they are using nanoparticles todesignsystems for delivering genes and drugs; this helps to get the genes and drugs to the point of action so that they can produce the desired effect.
The research team has shown that lipid nanoparticles, which they have been working on for several years, are ideal for acting as vectors in gene therapy.Gene therapy is a highly promising alternative for diseases that so far have no effective treatment.It consists of delivering a nucleic acid, for example, a therapeutic gene, to modulate the expression of a protein that is found to be altered in a specific disease, thus reversing the biological disorder.
The main obstacle is that the genetic material cannot be formulated in conventional pharmaceutical ways, because it becomes degraded within the organism and cannot perform its function.To overcome this obstacle, viral vectors are normally used and they are able to deliver the therapeutic gene to the cells in which it has to act.However, as Dr Alicia Rodriguez explains, "viral vectors have a great drawback because they have a great potential to develop tumours.That is why there is a lot of interest in developing non-viral vectors, like vectors based on lipid nanoparticles."
"In this respect," adds Dr Rodriguez, "we have for several years been working to develop formulations for treating degenerative retina diseases, diseases for which there is currently no effective curative or palliative treatment and which causes blindness in the patients who in many cases are very young people."The research they have done has borne fruit already, and they have in fact managed to develop a vector capable of making a protein express itself in the eyes of rats after ocular delivery.The work has produced two patents and various papers published in top scientific journals, like Human Gene Therapy.
Aim:to improve drug absorption
Another application of lipid nanoparticles is to develop new formulations to deliver drugs that are not particularly soluble or which are difficult to absorb.Dr Rodriguez explained the problem with these drugs:"40% of the new pharmacologically active molecules are reckoned to be insoluble or not very soluble in water; that prevents many of these potentially active molecules from ever reaching the clinic because of the problems involved in developing a safe, effective formulation."
The Faculty of Pharmacy's research team has shown that the strategy of encapsulating drugs of this type in lipid nanoparticles is effective:"They are spheres made of lipids and they have very small particleswhich encase the drug.That way, the absorption of the drug given orally can be increased," points out Dr Rodriguez.
Part of the research was done in collaboration with the research team led by DrVroniquePrat, of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.There they studied the capacity of the nanoparticles to pass through the intestinal barrier and therefore increase the permeability of the drug.The results of this work have been published in the Journal of Controlled Release, a leading journal within the specialty.
Furthermore, while considerable advances have been made in both areas (vectors for gene therapy and improvement in insoluble drug absorption), the researchers in the Pharmacokinetics, Nanotechnology and Gene Therapy team are working in a third area linked to hepatitis C in which they also hope to achieve positive results.
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Researchers show that lipid nanoparticles are ideal for delivering genes and drugsPublic release date: 28-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country researchers are using nanotechnology for therapeutic purposes
This press release is available in Spanish.
At the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Basque Public University (UPV/EHU) the Pharmacokinetics, Nanotechnology and Gene Therapy research team is using nanotechnology to develop new formulations that can be applied to drugs and gene therapy.Specifically, they are using nanoparticles todesignsystems for delivering genes and drugs; this helps to get the genes and drugs to the point of action so that they can produce the desired effect.
The research team has shown that lipid nanoparticles, which they have been working on for several years, are ideal for acting as vectors in gene therapy.Gene therapy is a highly promising alternative for diseases that so far have no effective treatment.It consists of delivering a nucleic acid, for example, a therapeutic gene, to modulate the expression of a protein that is found to be altered in a specific disease, thus reversing the biological disorder.
The main obstacle is that the genetic material cannot be formulated in conventional pharmaceutical ways, because it becomes degraded within the organism and cannot perform its function.To overcome this obstacle, viral vectors are normally used and they are able to deliver the therapeutic gene to the cells in which it has to act.However, as Dr Alicia Rodriguez explains, "viral vectors have a great drawback because they have a great potential to develop tumours.That is why there is a lot of interest in developing non-viral vectors, like vectors based on lipid nanoparticles."
"In this respect," adds Dr Rodriguez, "we have for several years been working to develop formulations for treating degenerative retina diseases, diseases for which there is currently no effective curative or palliative treatment and which causes blindness in the patients who in many cases are very young people."The research they have done has borne fruit already, and they have in fact managed to develop a vector capable of making a protein express itself in the eyes of rats after ocular delivery.The work has produced two patents and various papers published in top scientific journals, like Human Gene Therapy.
Aim:to improve drug absorption
Another application of lipid nanoparticles is to develop new formulations to deliver drugs that are not particularly soluble or which are difficult to absorb.Dr Rodriguez explained the problem with these drugs:"40% of the new pharmacologically active molecules are reckoned to be insoluble or not very soluble in water; that prevents many of these potentially active molecules from ever reaching the clinic because of the problems involved in developing a safe, effective formulation."
The Faculty of Pharmacy's research team has shown that the strategy of encapsulating drugs of this type in lipid nanoparticles is effective:"They are spheres made of lipids and they have very small particleswhich encase the drug.That way, the absorption of the drug given orally can be increased," points out Dr Rodriguez.
Part of the research was done in collaboration with the research team led by DrVroniquePrat, of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.There they studied the capacity of the nanoparticles to pass through the intestinal barrier and therefore increase the permeability of the drug.The results of this work have been published in the Journal of Controlled Release, a leading journal within the specialty.
Furthermore, while considerable advances have been made in both areas (vectors for gene therapy and improvement in insoluble drug absorption), the researchers in the Pharmacokinetics, Nanotechnology and Gene Therapy team are working in a third area linked to hepatitis C in which they also hope to achieve positive results.
###
[ | 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.
28 February 2013Last updated at 10:33 ETBy Jen WhyntieBBC Radio Science Unit
Scientists have connected the brains of lab rats, allowing one to communicate directly to another via cables.
The wired brain implants allowed sensory and motor signals to be sent from one rat to another, creating the first ever brain-to-brain interface.
The scientists then tested whether the rat receiving the signal could correctly interpret the information.
As the ultimate test of their system, the team even linked the brains of rats that were thousands of miles apart.
Details of the work are outlined in the journal Scientific Reports.
Professor Miguel Nicolelis and his team at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina built on their previous work with brain-machine interfaces.
In a study published earlier this month, the researchers implanted electrodes in the part of the rat's brain that processes tactile information and attached these to infrared sensors - effectively allowing the rat to "touch" infrared light.
In their latest study, the scientists wanted to test whether the systems they had developed could be used to establish a new artificial communication channel between animals.
"Until recently we used to record this brain activity and send it to a computer... and the [computer] tells us what the animal is going to do," Prof Nicolelis told the BBC's Science in Action programme.
"So we reasoned, if we can do that with a computer, could another brain do that?"
Water reward
The researchers first trained pairs of rats to solve a simple problem - pressing the correct lever when an indicator light above the lever switched on, to obtain a water sip.
The researchers then placed the rodents in separate chambers and connected their brains using arrays of microelectrodes - each roughly one hundredth the diameter of a human hair - inserted into the area of the cortex that processes motor information.
Continue reading the main story
One rat was designated as the "encoder". Once this rat pressed the correct lever, its brain activity was delivered as electrical stimulation into the brain of the second rat - designated the "decoder".
The decoder rat had the same types of levers in its chamber, but it did not receive any visual cue indicating which lever it should press to obtain a reward.
In order to receive the reward, the decoder rat would have to rely on the cue transmitted from the encoder via the brain-to-brain interface.
The team members then conducted trials to determine how well the decoder animal could decipher the brain input from the encoder rat to choose the correct lever. The decoder rat ultimately achieved a maximum success rate of about 70%.
Although the information was transmitted in real time, the learning process was not instantaneous.
"[It] takes about 45 days of training an hour a day," said Prof Nicolelis.
"There is a moment in time when... it clicks. Suddenly the [decoder] animal realises: 'Oops! The solution is in my head. It's coming to me' and he gets it right."
There was also a feedback system, denying the encoder rat an extra reward if the decoder rat did not press the correct lever.
The encoder rat's brain signals then became clearer, giving the decoder a greater chance of interpreting the message correctly, Prof Nicolelis noted.
He explained: "Basically [the second rat] is working as... a biological computer."
Long-distance link
One replication of the experiment successfully linked a rat at Duke with one at the University of Natal in Brazil. Nicolelis foresees eventually extending the system to larger numbers of animals. "We are already building the setup... You could actually have millions of brains tackling the same problem and sharing a solution."
And he also thinks the idea could be extended to humans.
"We will have a way to exchange information across millions of people without using keyboards or voice recognition devices or the type of interfaces that we normally use today," he said.
"I truly believe that in a few decades? we will know what it is to communicate in that way."
But Prof Nicolelis is clear that this depends on the development of non-invasive techniques to share information between human brains.
Prof Christopher James, an expert in neural engineering at the University of Warwick, who uses non-invasive techniques in his own research, explains that it is currently not possible to put information into a brain using just the surface of the scalp.
"If you want to get information into the brain, then putting electrodes right at the brain sites is the way to do it. However, it's clearly very invasive," said Prof James.
He added that the invasive nature of the research raised ethical questions: "It's very, very interesting isn't it? Because in humans you'd obviously get informed consent in doing this."
Prof James explained: "It's an exciting paper which basically shows that it is possible to take information out of the brain, and it is possible to take information and pump it into the brain.
"What this shows is that the technology is here. And the sort of things we should be talking about is: Why are we doing this, and what do we hope to get out of it?"
The BBC World Service programme Science in Action will be broadcast at 1932 GMT on 28 February; a schedule of repeat broadcasts can be found here. Or you can listen anytime here or download the podcast here.
This theater image released by Sam Rudy Media Relations shows Laura Osnes as Cinderella, slipping on glass slippers designed by Stuart Weitzman, during a performance of "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway." Weitzman knows how to make shoes that make a splash. For years, he made the ?million-dollar Oscar shoes,? diamond-covered footwear that a celebrity would wear to the Academy Awards. (AP Photo/Sam Rudy Media Relations, Carol Rosegg)
This theater image released by Sam Rudy Media Relations shows Laura Osnes as Cinderella, slipping on glass slippers designed by Stuart Weitzman, during a performance of "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway." Weitzman knows how to make shoes that make a splash. For years, he made the ?million-dollar Oscar shoes,? diamond-covered footwear that a celebrity would wear to the Academy Awards. (AP Photo/Sam Rudy Media Relations, Carol Rosegg)
This image released by Stuart Weitzman shows the reknown shoe designer Stuart Weitzman holding a pair of glass slippers that will be worn by actress Laura Osnes in the title role of the Broadway musical, "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway." Weitzman knows how to make shoes that make a splash. For years, he made the ?million-dollar Oscar shoes,? diamond-covered footwear that a celebrity would wear to the Academy Awards. He employed a welded-construction technique that uses no screws so that Cinderella could have a seamless look. (AP Photo/Stuart Weitzman )
This image released by Stuart Weitzman shows a pair of glass slippers designed by Stuart Weitzman that will be worn by actress Laura Osnes in the title role of the Broadway musical, "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway." Weitzman knows how to make shoes that make a splash. For years, he made the ?million-dollar Oscar shoes,? diamond-covered footwear that a celebrity would wear to the Academy Awards. He employed a welded-construction technique that uses no screws so that Cinderella could have a seamless look. (AP Photo/Stuart Weitzman )
NEW YORK (AP) ? There would be no "happily ever after" for Cinderella without her glitzy glass slippers, so careful attention was paid to the shoes for the princess-to-be's Broadway opening this weekend.
For "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella," which officially opens Sunday at the Broadway Theatre, costume designer William Ivey Long and footwear designer Stuart Weitzman created a pair of pumps so sparkly they "light up the upper balcony," Weitzman says.
"The shoe is its own character in the show, and it will inspire the dream for so many other women."
Shoe shopaholics and Carrie Bradshaw types surely have been inspired by the Cinderella fashion fantasy, muses Weitzman, a 26-year industry veteran. How could they not? After all, he says, Cinderella gets the shoes ? flattering, delicate and powerful all at once ? and then gets her Prince Charming.
When people describe the stunning bride or the prettiest red-carpet starlet, the comparison rarely ? if ever ? is made to Sleeping Beauty or Snow White.
It's always Cinderella, belle of the ball.
"Cinderella is the gold standard for aspiration," agrees Long. "The slippers are so iconic, and they are recognized worldwide."
He says their only rival might be Dorothy's red ruby slippers in "The Wizard of Oz."
Because the shoes are so famous, the designers had to work with a certain set of expectations: The shoes had to be romantic and sexy, have a sparkly fairy-dust touch ? and they had to be seen by everyone in the theater.
Actress Laura Osnes, who plays Cinderella, couldn't risk shards and splinters from real glass, so the designers used Plexiglas instead.
Weitzman employed a welded-construction technique that uses no screws, normally used in high heels, so Cinderella could have a seamless look.
"This is the most magical world I've been asked to conjure up," says Long, whose 60-plus show credits include costumes for "Chicago," ''Hairspray" and "The Boy From Oz." Instead of going all Disney or using the famous French illustrations that came a century before (Cinderella-style folk tales are hundreds of years older than that) as inspiration, Long decided to weave nature ? with an emphasis on butterflies and vines ? into his visual picture instead of a particular time or place.
The idea that Cinderella had to be the most beautiful woman in the room, with the most gorgeous dress and coveted shoes, is what guided him and Weitzman, Long says.
They had to walk a fine line to avoid anything too gimmicky, even working on the giant Broadway stage, so they decided against threading lights through the heel of the shoe or other special effects.
Weitzman knows how to create shoes that light up a room. For years, he made "million-dollar Oscar shoes," diamond-covered footwear that a celebrity would wear to the Academy Awards. He gave that up at the height of the recession, but says he can do pretty much the same dazzling look with crystals.
The designer says he could imagine his typical customer wearing a version of the Cinderella slipper at a summer party, a night at the opera or a night on the town. He adds: "It would be one sexy shoe with cool jeans."
Yes, his Clearly Timeless collection based on the fairy-tale footwear is being shipped to stores.
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Online:
http://www.cinderellaonbroadway
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Samantha Critchell tweets fashion at "at" AP_Fashion and can be reached on Twitter at "at" Sam_Critchell.
FILE - In this April 21, 2010 file photo, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Saxby said Thursday the panel is scheduled to vote early next week on John Brennan's nomination to be director of the CIA. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - In this April 21, 2010 file photo, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Saxby said Thursday the panel is scheduled to vote early next week on John Brennan's nomination to be director of the CIA. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, CIA Director nominee John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. said Thursday the panel is scheduled to vote early next week on John Brennan's nomination to be director of the CIA. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote early next week on John Brennan's nomination to be director of the CIA, the panel's leaders said Thursday.
The Democratic leader of the committee had hoped to hold the vote Thursday. But Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the committee's vice chairman, said consideration of Brennan's nomination was delayed because he and other committee members had not received all the material they'd requested from the White House about lethal drone strikes against terror suspects and the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
"Once we get the documents, we're actually getting what we want," Chambliss said. "But it's just been slow in coming."
The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Chambliss said the intelligence committee is slated to vote Tuesday on Brennan's bid to lead the spy agency. Feinstein said she believes the panel will approve the Brennan's nomination for a vote by the full Senate.
Brennan is currently working as President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser in the White House.
Feinstein would not describe on Thursday the records that lawmakers requested from the Obama administration because she said they are classified. But Feinstein said the White House has promised to provide all the material prior to the vote. "We have gotten one set of information and the second one, I am assured, is forthcoming," she said.
Earlier this week, however, Feinstein was more specific. She said Monday that the White House had committed to providing the Benghazi records. But Feinstein also said at the time that the administration had not yet responded to the committee's request for more details about a series of classified Justice Department legal opinions that justify using unmanned spy planes to kill al-Qaida suspects overseas, including American citizens.
Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, said Thursday in an emailed statement that administration officials are talking to members of Congress about their requests for information, but he did not indicate whether those requests had been granted.
The White House released two out of a total of 11 Justice Department legal opinions to the intelligence committee just hours before Brennan's Feb. 7 confirmation hearing in front of the panel. Two other memos had already been released to the committee.
While it's primarily been the Republicans who've demanded the Benghazi documents, the push for the Justice opinions has been bipartisan.
During his confirmation hearing, Brennan defended drone strikes only as a "last resort." But he also said he had no qualms about going after U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in September 2011. A drone strike in Yemen killed al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens. A drone strike two weeks later killed al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, a Denver native.
In a letter sent earlier this month to Obama, 11 senators, including Republicans Charles Grassley of Iowa and Susan Collins of Maine, called on the president to provide the opinions to the Senate intelligence and judiciary committees so lawmakers can determine whether "the president's power to deliberately kill American citizens is subject to appropriate limitations and safeguards."
A lot of European startup competitions have avoided the 'pitch on the main stage' model of startup competition. Instead, to sort the wheat from the chaff, they often have a separate startup stage to the main conference stage, with only the final 4 or 5 to make it rhough a judging process to appear at the end. That's the model used at the London Web Summit and today we saw those final four do their thing. They were joined in the final on-stage pitch in front of a top panel of judges. So after over 200 entries, assessed by 40 judges and over 27 live pitches on the startup stage at London Web Summit there can be only one winner. And that winner today was ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sI0qHnicgicrTQiwfgZceeE-xD5CpXeqy3P_rn7EkDcFyyqsNqn3pbYX8lt12kQacxsNxtZgKS2C2JBPbZubUzoLe4bzKriQjA8-Kg3W4=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
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