Apr. 29, 2013 ? In a process one researcher compares to squeezing an elephant through a pinhole, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have designed a way to engineer atoms capable of funneling light through ultra-small channels.
Their research is the latest in a series of recent findings related to how light and matter interact at the atomic scale, and it is the first to demonstrate that the material -- a specially designed "meta-atom" of gold and silicon oxide -- can transmit light through a wide bandwidth and at a speed approaching infinity. The meta-atoms' broadband capability could lead to advances in optical devices, which currently rely on a single frequency to transmit light, the researchers say.
"These meta-atoms can be integrated as building blocks for unconventional optical components with exotic electromagnetic properties over a wide frequency range," write Dr. Jie Gao and Dr. Xiaodong Yang, assistant professors of mechanical engineering at Missouri S&T, and Dr. Lei Sun, a visiting scholar at the university. The researchers describe their atomic-scale design in the latest issue of the journal Physical Review B.
The researchers created mathematical models of the meta-atom, a material 100 nanometers wide and 25 nanometers tall that combined gold and silicon oxide in stairstep fashion. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter and visible only with the aid of a high-power electron microscope.
In their simulations, the researchers stacked 10 of the meta-atoms, then shot light through them at various frequencies. They found that when light encountered the material in a range between 540 terahertz and 590 terahertz, it "stretched" into a nearly straight line and achieved an "effective permittivity" known as epsilon-near-zero.
Effective permittivity refers to the ratio of light's speed through air to its speed as it passes through a material. When light travels through glass, for instance, its effective permittivity is 2.25. Through air or the vacuum of outer space, the ratio is one. That ratio is what is typically referred to as the speed of light.
As light passes through the engineered meta-atoms described by Gao and Yang, however, its effective permittivity reaches a near-zero ratio. In other words, through the medium of these specially designed materials, light actually travels faster than the speed of light. It travels "infinitely fast" through this medium, Yang says.
The meta-atoms also stretch the light. Other materials, such as glass, typically compress optical waves, causing diffraction.
This stretching phenomenon means that "waves of light could tunnel through very small holes," Yang says. "It is like squeezing an elephant through an ultra-small channel."
The wavelength of light encountering a single meta-atom is 500 nanometers from peak to peak, or five times the length of Gao and Yang's specially designed meta-atoms, which are 100 nanometers in length. While the Missouri S&T team has yet to fabricate actual meta-atoms, they say their research shows that the materials could be built and used for optical communications, image processing, energy redirecting and other emerging fields, such as adaptive optics.
Last year, Albert Polman at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam and Nader Engheta, an electrical engineer at the University of Pennsylvania, developed a tiny waveguide device in which light waves of a single wavelength also achieved epsilon-near-zero. But the Missouri S&T researchers' work is the first to demonstrate epsilon-near-zero in a broadband of 50 terahertz.
"The design is practical and realistic, with the potential to fabricate actual meta-atoms," says Gao. Adds Yang: "With this research, we filled the gap from the theoretical to the practical."
Through a process known as electron-beam deposition, the researchers have built a thin-film wafer from 13 stacked meta-atoms. But those materials were uniform in composition rather than arranged in the stairstep fashion of their modeled meta-atoms.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Missouri University of Science and Technology. The original article was written by Andrew Careaga.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Lei Sun, Jie Gao, Xiaodong Yang. Broadband epsilon-near-zero metamaterials with steplike metal-dielectric multilayer structures. Physical Review B, 2013; 87 (16) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.165134
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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A Culture Ministry official says exhibition organizers wanted to avoid scandalizing female visitors.
Greek Deputy Culture Minister Costas Tzavaras, who visited the Muslim country last month for the exhibition opening, objected, saying the works should be displayed as they were or shipped home.
So the statues were returned to Athens last week, the official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on the record.
Qatari officials could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday night.
The statues date to the 6th and 2nd centuries BC. They were among nearly 600 antiquities brought from Greece for the "Olympics - Past and Present" exhibition.
?For the first time, an exhibition showcases the cultural history of the ancient and modern Olympics on such a scale, not to mention a special section on Qatar?s participation in the world-class event,? said Dr. Christian Wacker, Director of the Qatar Olympic & Sports Museum. ?ExxonMobil has shown its dedication to sports in Qatar in various local events and we welcome the opportunity to cooperate with such a committed partner.?
Of course, the Qatar isn't the only place where nude statues are objectionable. According to The Daily Mail, a 40-foot statue of Vivienne Westwood was banned from a "Punk: Chaos to Couture" exhibit scheduled to open May 6 at London't Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Adhaalath Party has issued a statement condemning former President Mohamed Nasheed?s comments on Islamic radicalism during an address in Denmark.
During his address, Nasheed stated the Maldivian population had largely rejected Islamic extremism, and, in a veiled reference to the Adhaalath Party, noted that ?the Islamists were never a credible electoral threat.?
? The Islamic extremists also didn?t like the Maldives? new democracy because they were unpopular. They failed to win the Presidential elections in 2008, they failed to win local government elections ? in 2011 they won less that four percent of the vote. But now, after the coup, extremists have been rewarded with three cabinet positions in government, and in many ways set the tone of government communications. They are busy trying to indoctrinate people with a misguided version of Islam,? Nasheed said.
?Nasheed misled them about the party he fears and envies most: the Adhaalath Party,? the party responded in a statement. ?Nasheed knows very well that the Adhaalath Party is not a party that has no power and influence, unlike what he said in Denmark.?
The party accused Nasheed of ?placing idols? in Maldivian lands ? a reference to the SAARC monuments gifted to the country by other South Asian nations during the 2011 SAARC Summit hosted in Addu Atoll ? and of ?giving our assets to foreigners? ? a reference to the concession agreement to manage and upgrade the international airport granted to Indian firm GMR.
In his address, the former President acknowledged that there was ?a lot of xenophobia, Islamic rhetoric and intolerance going on in the Maldives?, and noted the destruction of 12-century Buddhist statues, manuscripts, and other evidence of the Maldives? pre-Islamic history.
?There is idea of wanting to return to Hejaz at it was in the 7th century. This is Wahabism in principle. And it is difficult and worrying,? Nasheed said.
?The vast majority of our society are very tolerant people. If all this Islamist rhetoric is removed from official discourse, there will be a much more liberal society. I assure you the rhetoric will be removed from official discourse,? he said.
The Adhaalath Party meanwhile expressed astonishment ?that there are a few Maldivians joining [Nasheed] in his work to get another chance to brainwash the Maldivian people. God willing Mohamed Nasheed will not be able to come to power ever again,? the party said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad had probably used chemical weapons on a small scale in the country's civil war, but insisted that President Barack Obama needed definitive proof before he would take action.
The disclosure created a quandary for Obama, who has set the use of chemical weapons as a "red line" that Assad must not cross. It triggered calls from some hawkish Washington lawmakers for a U.S. military response, which the president has resisted.
In a shift from a White House assessment just days earlier, U.S. officials said the intelligence community believed with "varying degrees of confidence" that the chemical nerve agent sarin was used by Assad's forces against rebel fighters. But it noted that "the chain of custody is not clear."
While Obama has declared that the deployment of chemical weapons would be a game-changer and has threatened unspecified consequences if it happened, his administration is moving carefully - saying it is mindful of the lessons of the start of the Iraq war more than a decade ago.
Then, the George W. Bush administration used inaccurate intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq in pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that turned out not to exist.
"Given the stakes involved and what we have learned from our own recent experiences, intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient - only credible and corroborated facts that provide us with some degree of certainty will guide our decision-making," Miguel Rodriguez, White House director of the office of legislative affairs, said in a letter to lawmakers.
One senior U.S. defense official told reporters, "We have seen very bad movies before," where intelligence was perceived to have driven policy decisions that later, in the cold light of day, were proven wrong.
The term "varying degrees of confidence" used to describe the assessment of possible chemical weapons use in Syria usually suggests debate within the U.S. intelligence community about the conclusion, the defense official noted.
The White House said the evaluation that Syria probably used chemical weapons was based in part on "physiological" samples. But a White House official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, repeatedly declined to say what that evidence was. Nor is it clear who supplied it.
Chemical weapons experts say sarin, a nerve agent, can be detected in human tissue, blood, urine and hair samples, or in nearby soil or even leaves. But the chemical can dissipate within days or weeks, depending on ambient heat, wind and other factors.
Iraq is said to have used sarin 25 years ago in an attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja during the Iran-Iraq war. More recently, the agent was used in the 1994 attack by a religious cult on riders of the Tokyo subway system.
In Syria, U.S. officials said the scale of the use of sarin appeared limited. Nobody is "seeing any mass casualties" from the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria, one U.S. intelligence official noted.
The United States has resisted being dragged militarily into Syria's conflict and is providing only non-lethal aid to rebels trying to overthrow Assad. Washington is worried that weapons supplied to the rebels could end up in the hands of al Qaeda-linked fighters.
But acknowledgement of the U.S. intelligence assessment appeared to move the United States closer - at least rhetorically - to some sort of action in Syria, military or otherwise.
A White House official told reporters that "all options are on the table in terms of our response" and said the United States, which has been criticized for not doing enough to halt the bloodshed, would consult with its allies.
The official said the U.S. military was preparing for a range of "different contingencies," but declined to give specifics. Options available to Obama could include everything from air strikes to commando raids to setting up a Libya-style "no-fly" zone, either unilaterally or in cooperation with allies.
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But Obama appeared intent on deflecting pressure for swift action by stressing the need for a comprehensive U.N. investigation on the ground in Syria - something Assad has blocked from going forward.
Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, in an interview with Reuters, dismissed Western and Israeli claims that government forces had used chemical weapons and said it was a "big lie" that Syria was preventing the U.N. probe.
Assad has clung to power despite repeated U.S. calls for him to step down. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the revolt against his family's decades-long autocratic rule. A military stalemate has set in, but Assad has still been able to rely on support from Russia and Iran.
"The reality is that as a country we can't declare red lines and then do nothing when they are crossed. Eventually we have to do something," said Ariel Ratner, a former Middle East adviser in the State Department and now a fellow at the Truman National Security Project.
The Obama administration's sudden disclosure caught many off guard. It came just two days after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other U.S. officials appeared to play down an Israeli assessment that there had been repeated use of chemical weapons in Syria.
France and Britain have also concluded that evidence suggests chemical arms have been used in Syria's conflict.
"The intelligence community has been assessing information for some time on this issue and the decision to reach this conclusion was made within the past 24 hours," Hagel said.
The White House said it wanted to provide a "prompt response" to a query on Wednesday from lawmakers about whether Syria had used chemical weapons. The legislators' letter to Obama cited the assessments by Israel, France and Britain.
Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, one of the leading advocates of deeper U.S. involvement in the Syrian conflict, said the intelligence assessment demanded a response.
"The president of the United States said that if Bashar Assad used chemical weapons, it would be a game-changer, that it would cross a red line," he said. "I think it's pretty obvious that red line has been crossed."
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, voiced concern that the public acknowledgement of the U.S. intelligence assessment could embolden Assad and may prompt him to calculate "he has nothing more to lose."
"Syria has the ability to kill tens of thousands with its chemical weapons. The world must come together to prevent this by unified action," she said.
In Brussels, the NATO alliance was "concerned by reports of the possible use of chemical weapons," an official said.
"As NATO has said in the past, any use of these weapons would be completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law, and if any side uses these weapons we would expect a reaction from the international community," the official said.
Patriot missile interceptors that NATO has sent to Turkey, a member of the alliance which borders Syria, would "help ensure the protection of Turkey against any missile attack, whether the missiles carry chemical weapons or not," the official added.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Roberta Rampton, Patricia Zengerle and Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney)
President Barack Obama is delivering remarks Friday at Planned Parenthood's annual national conference in Washington, D.C. The organization is a target of the chairman of the Republican Party, anti-abortion supporters and other pro-lifers.
Obama originally had planned to give the keynote speech at the organization's "Time for Care" gala Thursday night, an appearance he canceled to spend more time meeting those affected in West, Texas by last week's deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant.
The group, which is the largest source of reproductive health care in the nation, was recently targeted by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who wrote a scathing op-ed for conservative news site Red State accusing Planned Parenthood and Democrats of supporting infanticide. Priebus wrote that testimony from a Planned Parenthood lobbyist in Florida indicated the organization supports the killing of infants.
Planned Parenthood later released a statement on the lobbyist's testimony, saying, "As a trusted health care provider, Planned Parenthood strongly condemns any physician who does not follow the law or endangers a woman's or child's health. And while HB 1129 addresses a situation that is extremely unlikely and highly unusual, if the scenario presented by the legislation should happen, of course a Planned Parenthood doctor would provide appropriate care to both the woman and the infant."
The president's appearance at the gala comes at a time when infanticide has been in the national news due to the murder trial of former abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell, of Philadelphia, is charged with murdering one woman in 2009 during an abortion procedure and killing four babies. He and his clinic officials allegedly performed countless illegal late-term abortions.
NEW YORK (AP) ? NBC says it's planning a 12-day-long, around-the-clock competition show to air this fall.
The network said Wednesday that the trivia-based game show, "The Million Second Quiz," will air live in prime time from a specially built studio in the heart of Manhattan. This hourglass-shaped complex will also serve as the living quarters of the four finalists.
When the 12 days ? or 1 million seconds ? draw to a close, the winner could claim a cash prize of as much as $10 million.
Viewers will be able to play along in real time and sync to the prime-time broadcast.
NBC's president of alternative and late night programming calls the show "a game, a social experiment and a live interactive event."
Research on ecosystems of the future has startedPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Froukje Rienks f.rienks@nioo.knaw.nl 31-610-487-481 Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)
Climate change does not provide group travels
What will happen when a plant moves to higher latitudes driven by climate change, potentially leaving behind friends and foes? Will it outcompete local plants, will originally interacting species become re-united, or do we get novel communities and ecosystems? This will be studied by professor Wim van der Putten of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) with a prestigious European grant of two million Euros. His research aims to enhance predictions of our nature's future in a warming world. The first experiment already began when the Netherlands' future king personally planted two species in the 'ecosystems of the future'.
How will nature look like in the near future, and how stable will it be? Because of a changing climate, southern species are now able to settle in more northerly parts of Europe. New species are regularly being found, however, although they do not all arrive at the same time. For example, plants with light seeds can cover a distance in a couple of days, whereas this same travel might take decades for some soil organisms. Even if a plant's enemies, such as small herbivores or pathogens, shift their ranges, they may not easily locate their favourite host.
"You could compare it to a theatre company where the actors are not travelling to the next stage all together, but separately by their own means of transport," visualises soil ecologist Wim van der Putten. "It really is the question if all actors arrive in time at the new theatre, as well as if they perform the same play or a totally new one together with the local actors."
Those plants moving up north may be temporarily released of their enemies and pathogens, as Van der Putten has demonstrated already. Therefore, chances are higher that some plants become 'invaders' in their new territory. They simply become 'too successful'. The opposite situation is also possible, for example when plants lose contact with beneficial fungi. With his ERC Advanced Grant for excelling scientists meant to stimulate innovation in the field of research he is now trying to unravel the consequences of range shifts for biodiversity and stability of the invaded ecosystems. "This new research project enables us to study how aboveground and belowground organisms are meeting up with their host plants in the new range, how long this takes, and if the original communities of plants, friends and enemies are restored."
Until now, predictions are based on species shifts without taking their 'ecological partners' into account. Van der Putten: "I expect that our research makes forecasts more realistic. On top of that I hope to understand what has taken place in the past millions of years during the interglacial periods."
As a first experiment the researchers have just built forty mini-ecosystems. Northern and Middle European plant species are planted in Northern and Middle European soils, including soil life. They will assess the response of Dutch ecosystems to more southern influences. The southern plants are already present, but the southern soil organisms are still new to the country. The plants are pairs of closely related species from riverine habitats, such as the native brown knapweed and spotted knapweed. The same applies to salsify and Sisymbrium species.
After one year the 'ecosystems of the future' will be exposed to an experimental extreme weather event. It enables the research team to study stability and resilience of both the communities and the nutrient cycles in the mini-ecosystems. The results will provide insight in the measures that may be needed to support the transition from our current to future nature.
During last week's 'big planting day' His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange planted some brown and spotted knapweed plants into the ecosystems of the future. The crown prince to be crowned king of the Netherlands in only a few days visited NIOO that day for his last meeting as a chair of the national Advisory Board on Water. The research on the nature of the future can now really start!
###
With more than 200 staff and students, NIOO is one of the largest research institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). It specialises in terrestrial and freshwater ecology. As from 2011 it is located in a sustainable research building in Wageningen. Follow us on Twitter: @niooknaw.
[ | 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.
Research on ecosystems of the future has startedPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Froukje Rienks f.rienks@nioo.knaw.nl 31-610-487-481 Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)
Climate change does not provide group travels
What will happen when a plant moves to higher latitudes driven by climate change, potentially leaving behind friends and foes? Will it outcompete local plants, will originally interacting species become re-united, or do we get novel communities and ecosystems? This will be studied by professor Wim van der Putten of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) with a prestigious European grant of two million Euros. His research aims to enhance predictions of our nature's future in a warming world. The first experiment already began when the Netherlands' future king personally planted two species in the 'ecosystems of the future'.
How will nature look like in the near future, and how stable will it be? Because of a changing climate, southern species are now able to settle in more northerly parts of Europe. New species are regularly being found, however, although they do not all arrive at the same time. For example, plants with light seeds can cover a distance in a couple of days, whereas this same travel might take decades for some soil organisms. Even if a plant's enemies, such as small herbivores or pathogens, shift their ranges, they may not easily locate their favourite host.
"You could compare it to a theatre company where the actors are not travelling to the next stage all together, but separately by their own means of transport," visualises soil ecologist Wim van der Putten. "It really is the question if all actors arrive in time at the new theatre, as well as if they perform the same play or a totally new one together with the local actors."
Those plants moving up north may be temporarily released of their enemies and pathogens, as Van der Putten has demonstrated already. Therefore, chances are higher that some plants become 'invaders' in their new territory. They simply become 'too successful'. The opposite situation is also possible, for example when plants lose contact with beneficial fungi. With his ERC Advanced Grant for excelling scientists meant to stimulate innovation in the field of research he is now trying to unravel the consequences of range shifts for biodiversity and stability of the invaded ecosystems. "This new research project enables us to study how aboveground and belowground organisms are meeting up with their host plants in the new range, how long this takes, and if the original communities of plants, friends and enemies are restored."
Until now, predictions are based on species shifts without taking their 'ecological partners' into account. Van der Putten: "I expect that our research makes forecasts more realistic. On top of that I hope to understand what has taken place in the past millions of years during the interglacial periods."
As a first experiment the researchers have just built forty mini-ecosystems. Northern and Middle European plant species are planted in Northern and Middle European soils, including soil life. They will assess the response of Dutch ecosystems to more southern influences. The southern plants are already present, but the southern soil organisms are still new to the country. The plants are pairs of closely related species from riverine habitats, such as the native brown knapweed and spotted knapweed. The same applies to salsify and Sisymbrium species.
After one year the 'ecosystems of the future' will be exposed to an experimental extreme weather event. It enables the research team to study stability and resilience of both the communities and the nutrient cycles in the mini-ecosystems. The results will provide insight in the measures that may be needed to support the transition from our current to future nature.
During last week's 'big planting day' His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange planted some brown and spotted knapweed plants into the ecosystems of the future. The crown prince to be crowned king of the Netherlands in only a few days visited NIOO that day for his last meeting as a chair of the national Advisory Board on Water. The research on the nature of the future can now really start!
###
With more than 200 staff and students, NIOO is one of the largest research institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). It specialises in terrestrial and freshwater ecology. As from 2011 it is located in a sustainable research building in Wageningen. Follow us on Twitter: @niooknaw.
[ | 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.
This undated photo provided by the Illinois State Police shows Rick Smith, 43, of rural Morgan County in Illinois. Smith has been identified as the suspected gunman in the shooting deaths of five people, two women, one man and two young boys, in Manchester, Ill., early Wednesday morning, April 24, 2013. Smith died later after a car chase and gunfire exchange with police. (AP Photo/Illinois State Police)
This undated photo provided by the Illinois State Police shows Rick Smith, 43, of rural Morgan County in Illinois. Smith has been identified as the suspected gunman in the shooting deaths of five people, two women, one man and two young boys, in Manchester, Ill., early Wednesday morning, April 24, 2013. Smith died later after a car chase and gunfire exchange with police. (AP Photo/Illinois State Police)
Police tape is seen around a house in Manchester, Ill., Wednesday, April 24, 2013, where the bodies of five people were found slain early Wednesday in the tiny southwestern Illinois town. Authorities said a suspect was injured and taken into custody. (AP Photo/Regina Garcia Cano)
Police officials investigate the scene at a house in Manchester, Ill., where five people were found slain in the tiny southwestern Illinois town early Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Illinois State Police said the suspect died after a car chase and an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement. (AP Photo/The State Journal-Register, Ted Schurter)
Illinois State Police Lt. Col. Todd Kilby addresses the media gathered in Manchester, Ill., after five people were found slain at a house early Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Authorities said the suspect died after a car chase and an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement. (AP Photo/The State Journal-Register, Ted Schurter)
Illinois State Police process the scene Wednesday, April 24, 2013, near Winchester, Ill., where a suspect that was wanted in the deaths of five people in nearby Manchester, Ill., was wounded after a car chase and an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement. The suspect, who was driving the white sedan, died later at a hospital. (AP Photo/The State Journal-Register, Ted Schurter)
MANCHESTER, Ill. (AP) ? The nephew of a small-town Illinois mayor shot and killed five people, including two boys, before leading police on a chase that ended in an exchange of gunfire that left him dead, authorities said Wednesday.
Illinois State Police said they believe Rick O. Smith, 43, entered a Manchester home through the back door and shot the victims at close range with a shotgun, leaving two women, one man and the boys dead. Two people were found in a bedroom, two in a second bedroom and the man in the hallway. A sixth victim, a 6-year-old girl, was injured and taken to a Springfield hospital.
"The offender took the 6-year-old out of the residence and put her in the hands of a neighbor," State Police Lt. Col. Todd Kilby said.
Officials have not revealed a motive for the killings. Police said the victims are related. Authorities believe Smith and the victims were acquainted, but they didn't provide details of the relationships.
A bystander called police and told them that Smith fled the home in a white sedan. A car chase ensued, leading authorities to the nearby town of Winchester, where Smith and officers exchanged gunfire. Officers shot Smith, and he later died at a hospital.
Police said they found a rifle, shotgun and large hunting knife in Smith's car.
Coroner officials said they plan autopsies on the victims Thursday morning in Bloomington and identities would be released at that time.
Scott County State's Attorney Michael Hill said Smith, of rural Morgan County, had previous convictions for reckless homicide, drugs and bad checks.
Manchester Mayor Ronald Drake confirmed that Smith was his nephew, saying he hadn't spoken to Smith in two years, but he believed his nephew was unemployed. Drake said the last time Smith contacted him was to borrow tools.
In Manchester, yellow police tape surrounded the small one-story brick home where the victims were found. Manchester is a village of about 300 residents located about 50 miles west of Springfield.
"It's a close-knit community," Drake said. "Everybody talks to everybody. ... We enjoy that goes on (in) town. This is just a tragedy for (the) whole town."
The last homicide in Scott County was 20 years ago, in 1993.
Manchester resident Julie Hardwick, 48, said she lives in the same county housing authority complex as the victims. Authorities told her she couldn't return to her home yet because of the investigation, she said.
"The kids were really nice," Hardwick said of the family. "You couldn't ask for better kids."
The Rev. Robin Lyons of Manchester United Methodist Church, one of two churches in the community said, "this shows tragedy can happen anywhere."
Two area school superintendents said they received calls from county sheriffs before 6 a.m. informing them that five people had been shot to death at a house in Manchester and that a suspect was at large.
Superintendent David Roberts of the Winchester School District and Les Stevens of the North Greene Unit District No. 3 both said they immediately canceled classes when they were told of the shootings and that other school districts did the same.
Roberts said the wounded girl is a student at Winchester Grade School and her teacher was with her at the Springfield hospital.
The school will use its own counselor, nurse and other staff members to help students who need to talk, Roberts said. Other area districts have offered to help too.
Roberts said he also will call on area ministers to be available on campus. "I've found that to be helpful in the past," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Don Babwin and Jason Keyser in Chicago and David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., contributed to this report.
Reporter in North Korea investigates fight against multidrug resistant tuberculosisPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: SciPak scipak@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
This release is available in Korean and Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese.
Richard Stone, International News Editor for the journal Science, last month traveled to Pyongyang, in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), to check in on the country's only laboratory capable of detecting strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
While the overall incidence of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide has gone down in recent decades, the bacteria that cause TB are steadily developing resistance to treatments. North Korea is a newly recognized hot spot for multidrug resistant (MDR) TB strains. The article about Stone's trip to North Korea appears in the 26 April issue of the journal Science, which is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The rise of TB in North Korea has been swift. According to a 2012 report by the World Health Organization, between 1994 and 2011, reported cases went from fewer than 50 per 100,000 people to 380 cases per the same. Today, the incidence of TB in North Korea is second only to that in sub-Saharan Africa.
Several complicating factors have allowed TB to take such a strong hold here, first of which was a four-year famine that started in 1994 and left the malnourished survivors highly susceptible to TB infection. A shortage of TB drugs at the time and a tendency of locals not to comply with the therapy recommended by doctors have only made matters worse.
Today, the country's health ministry estimates that up to 15% of patients with TB fail to respond to commonly used first-line TB drugs, which suggests they are carrying drug-resistant strains. Neighbors, like China, are worried; MDR is difficult to treat even at top-tier health programs.
But promise is shown in ongoing efforts, including the establishment in 2010 of the aforementioned lab, the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory (NTRL). Built with the help of the Stanford-led Bay Area TB Consortium and DPRK's Ministry of Public Health, it provides a rare example of scientific collaboration between the United States and North Korea. The collaboration was made possible, Stone reported, by Christian Friends of Korea (CFK), a humanitarian organization that has been supplying aid to DPRK for 18 years.
In March, along with several CFK members including CFK executive director Heidi Linton, Richard Stone went to visit the NTRL lab. Also on this trip was Stanford microbiologist Kathleen England, whose priority is to see that the NTRL facility wins international accreditation. She hopes this will happen by 2015. If it does, the lab can join the global fight against TB.
While England said she is happy with the lab's progress so farthe facility has begun molecular testing, and it recently acquired a machine used to detect multidrug resistant TB strainsshe acknowledges that much remains to be done to bring it up to speed and make inroads into the MDR problem. She presses on, training the 14 NRTL staff and establishing quality control measures. Soon, she said she plans to conduct a survey on drug resistance.
In addition to visiting the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, Stone visited the pediatric ward of a TB hospital in Pyongyang. Though the pediatric ward wasn't very crowded during Stone's visit, staff explained that they expect to see more patients later in the spring, when people who'd stayed huddled during the winter months are willing to come out. One physician working at the hospital pointed out that children are easier to treat than adults because they are eager to follow doctors' orders.
Farther afield from Pyongyang, Stone visited four rural rest homes, where TB patients go for care. Linton came along to assess the health of these small facilities, evaluating things like how many doctors, patients, and beds each one had, and whether drug stocks were sufficient.
"This was my fifth trip to DPRK, and my first opportunity to experience the bleakness of life in the countryside," Stone said. "The TB epidemic only adds to the hardship of villagers who depend on government food rations for survival."
To supplement diets of people in rural rest homes, CFK donates several tons of canned meat each year.
In one rest home Stone visited, he found mixed news. The number of MDR cases had stabilized, but patient conditions had worsened. Scientists are not sure what strains are circulating in North Korea, and continued work is needed to identify them so that effective treatments can be developed.
Stone noted that his trip to North Korea came at a delicate time, as South Korea and the United States were conducting annual military exercises that included stealth bomber flights over South Korea.
"Our visit took place during heightened tensions with the West. It didn't escape our attention that the seven of us were the largest group of Americans there at the time," Stone said.
He said he didn't feel overly anxious, however. "Our hosts with the Ministry of Public Health seemed genuinely concerned about our welfare. I came away with the feeling that the scientists we encountered have good hearts and a real desire to help their countrymen."
The efforts of these scientists will be critical in fighting the TB epidemic in North Korea, particularly as multidrug resistant strains proliferate. Indeed, some hope that the presence of the National Tuberculosis Research Lab will be a building block, paving the way for opportunities for scientific collaboration between North Korea and other countries participating in the global TB fight.
###
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (http://www.sciencemag.org) as well as Science Translational Medicine (http://www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org) and Science Signaling (http://www.sciencesignaling.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS (http://www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, http://www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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Reporter in North Korea investigates fight against multidrug resistant tuberculosisPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: SciPak scipak@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
This release is available in Korean and Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese.
Richard Stone, International News Editor for the journal Science, last month traveled to Pyongyang, in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), to check in on the country's only laboratory capable of detecting strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
While the overall incidence of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide has gone down in recent decades, the bacteria that cause TB are steadily developing resistance to treatments. North Korea is a newly recognized hot spot for multidrug resistant (MDR) TB strains. The article about Stone's trip to North Korea appears in the 26 April issue of the journal Science, which is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The rise of TB in North Korea has been swift. According to a 2012 report by the World Health Organization, between 1994 and 2011, reported cases went from fewer than 50 per 100,000 people to 380 cases per the same. Today, the incidence of TB in North Korea is second only to that in sub-Saharan Africa.
Several complicating factors have allowed TB to take such a strong hold here, first of which was a four-year famine that started in 1994 and left the malnourished survivors highly susceptible to TB infection. A shortage of TB drugs at the time and a tendency of locals not to comply with the therapy recommended by doctors have only made matters worse.
Today, the country's health ministry estimates that up to 15% of patients with TB fail to respond to commonly used first-line TB drugs, which suggests they are carrying drug-resistant strains. Neighbors, like China, are worried; MDR is difficult to treat even at top-tier health programs.
But promise is shown in ongoing efforts, including the establishment in 2010 of the aforementioned lab, the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory (NTRL). Built with the help of the Stanford-led Bay Area TB Consortium and DPRK's Ministry of Public Health, it provides a rare example of scientific collaboration between the United States and North Korea. The collaboration was made possible, Stone reported, by Christian Friends of Korea (CFK), a humanitarian organization that has been supplying aid to DPRK for 18 years.
In March, along with several CFK members including CFK executive director Heidi Linton, Richard Stone went to visit the NTRL lab. Also on this trip was Stanford microbiologist Kathleen England, whose priority is to see that the NTRL facility wins international accreditation. She hopes this will happen by 2015. If it does, the lab can join the global fight against TB.
While England said she is happy with the lab's progress so farthe facility has begun molecular testing, and it recently acquired a machine used to detect multidrug resistant TB strainsshe acknowledges that much remains to be done to bring it up to speed and make inroads into the MDR problem. She presses on, training the 14 NRTL staff and establishing quality control measures. Soon, she said she plans to conduct a survey on drug resistance.
In addition to visiting the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, Stone visited the pediatric ward of a TB hospital in Pyongyang. Though the pediatric ward wasn't very crowded during Stone's visit, staff explained that they expect to see more patients later in the spring, when people who'd stayed huddled during the winter months are willing to come out. One physician working at the hospital pointed out that children are easier to treat than adults because they are eager to follow doctors' orders.
Farther afield from Pyongyang, Stone visited four rural rest homes, where TB patients go for care. Linton came along to assess the health of these small facilities, evaluating things like how many doctors, patients, and beds each one had, and whether drug stocks were sufficient.
"This was my fifth trip to DPRK, and my first opportunity to experience the bleakness of life in the countryside," Stone said. "The TB epidemic only adds to the hardship of villagers who depend on government food rations for survival."
To supplement diets of people in rural rest homes, CFK donates several tons of canned meat each year.
In one rest home Stone visited, he found mixed news. The number of MDR cases had stabilized, but patient conditions had worsened. Scientists are not sure what strains are circulating in North Korea, and continued work is needed to identify them so that effective treatments can be developed.
Stone noted that his trip to North Korea came at a delicate time, as South Korea and the United States were conducting annual military exercises that included stealth bomber flights over South Korea.
"Our visit took place during heightened tensions with the West. It didn't escape our attention that the seven of us were the largest group of Americans there at the time," Stone said.
He said he didn't feel overly anxious, however. "Our hosts with the Ministry of Public Health seemed genuinely concerned about our welfare. I came away with the feeling that the scientists we encountered have good hearts and a real desire to help their countrymen."
The efforts of these scientists will be critical in fighting the TB epidemic in North Korea, particularly as multidrug resistant strains proliferate. Indeed, some hope that the presence of the National Tuberculosis Research Lab will be a building block, paving the way for opportunities for scientific collaboration between North Korea and other countries participating in the global TB fight.
###
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (http://www.sciencemag.org) as well as Science Translational Medicine (http://www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org) and Science Signaling (http://www.sciencesignaling.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS (http://www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, http://www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
[ | 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.
TORONTO (AP) ? One of two men accused of plotting with al-Qaida members in Iran to derail a train in Canada became radicalized to the point that his father reached out to a Muslim support group for help and advice, a local religious leader said Wednesday.
Muhammad Robert Heft, president of the Paradise Forever Support Group Inc., a non-profit organization that provides support to Muslims in Canada, said Mohammad Jaser came to him several times citing concerns about the radicalization of his son.
"He came to me about his son saying he how concerned he was getting about the rigidness of his son and his interpretation of Islam. He was becoming self-righteous, becoming pushy, pushing his views on how much they (his family) should be practicing as a Muslim," said Heft.
Jaser's son, Raed, 35, has been charged along with Chiheb Esseghaier, 30 with conspiring to carry out an attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group in their plot to derail a train that runs between New York City and Montreal.
Canadian investigators say the men received guidance from members of al-Qaida in Iran. Iranian government officials have said the government had nothing to do with the plot.
"His son was becoming overzealous and intolerant in his understanding of the religion," Heft said. "Those are the telltale signs that can lead into the radicalization process."
The discussions took place between 2010 and 2011, while the father was renting a basement apartment in Heft's home in Markham, Ontario.
On Wednesday, the other suspect appeared briefly in court where he made a statement suggesting he did not recognize the court's jurisdiction.
"This criminal code is not a holy book," Esseghaier said at the hearing. "We cannot rely on the conclusions taken out from these judgments."
At the hearing Esseghaier rejected the allegations against him and declined to be represented by a court-appointed lawyer.
Jaser had appeared in court Tuesday and did not enter a plea. The court granted a request by his lawyer, John Norris, for a publication ban on future evidence and testimony.
Both men were ordered to return to court on May 23.
"We are waiting for the disclosure and we will be defending against the charges," Norris said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Norris declined to comment when asked if he wanted his client's case separated from Esseghaier, who has spoken out twice in court despite being advised not to.
Police ? tipped off by an imam worried by the behavior of one of the suspects ? said it was the first known attack planned by al-Qaida in Canada. The two could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
The case has raised questions about the extent of Shiite-led Iran's relationship with al-Qaida, a predominantly Sunni Arab terrorist network. It also renewed attention on Iran's complicated history with the terror group, which ranges from outright hostility to alliances of convenience and even overtures by Tehran to assist Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Canadian police said this week they didn't think it was a case of state sponsored terrorism.
Law officials in New York with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press the attack was to take place on the Canadian side of the border. They are not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Norris has questioned the timing of the arrests, pointing to ongoing debates in the Canadian Parliament over a new anti-terrorism law that would expand the powers of police and intelligence agencies.
Norris has noted Jaser was a permanent resident of Canada who has lived there for 20 years. Norris refused to say where Jaser was from, saying that revealing his nationality in the current climate amounted to demonizing him.
Canadian police have declined to release the men's nationalities, saying only they had been in Canada a "significant amount of time." But a London-based newspaper Al Arab reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources in the Gulf, that Jaser is a Jordanian passport holder with full name Raed Jaser Ibrahim Amouri, who had visited the UAE several times and most recently in September 2011. The newspaper reported that the suspect also visited other Gulf countries including Qatar and Saudi Arabia. It was not possible to independently confirm the report.
Esseghaier, in a profile on a university department website ? which has since been removed ? says he was born in Tunis, Tunisia.
The investigation surrounding the planned attack was part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Canadian police said the men never got close to carrying out the attack.
The warning first came from an imam in Toronto, who in turn was tipped off by suspicious behavior on the part of one of the suspect.
___
Associated Press writers Benjamin Shingler in Montreal, Tom Hays in New York, Kimberly Dozier in Washington and Brian Murphy in the United Arab Emirates contributed to this story.
Mostly known for its extravagant speaker systems, KEF is finally taking a whack at ear gear. Today, the company announced two new types of HiFi headphones, known as the M Series, which include a pair of on-ear cups (M500) and a set of in-ear buds (M200). Priced at $300, the M500 sports a full aluminum frame and sweat resistant padding, along with a 10mm driver for lows and a 5.5mm driver for mids and highs in each earcup. If enclosed head gear isn't your thing, the $200 M200 offers an aluminum housing and a pair of silicone ear tips with an adjustable arm for improved comfort. Like their pricer sibling, these earphones also feature a dual-driver system. While we've yet to spend time with the M500 or M200, their press pictures and specs aren't too shabby. Call it a hunch, but we doubt they'll need any celebrity endorsements. For more info on KEF's new headphone line, hit the presser after the break.
TORONTO (AP) ? One of two men accused of plotting with al-Qaida members in Iran to derail a train in Canada became radicalized to the point that his father reached out to a Muslim support group for help and advice, a local religious leader said Wednesday.
Muhammad Robert Heft, president of the Paradise Forever Support Group Inc., a non-profit organization that provides support to Muslims in Canada, said Mohammad Jaser came to him several times citing concerns about the radicalization of his son.
"He came to me about his son saying he how concerned he was getting about the rigidness of his son and his interpretation of Islam. He was becoming self-righteous, becoming pushy, pushing his views on how much they (his family) should be practicing as a Muslim," said Heft.
Jaser's son Raed, 35 has been charged along with Chiheb Esseghaier, 30 with conspiring to carry out an attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group in their plot to derail a train that runs between New York City and Montreal.
Canadian investigators say the men received guidance from members of al-Qaida in Iran. Iranian government officials have said the government had nothing to do with the plot.
"His son was becoming overzealous and intolerant in his understanding of the religion," Heft. "Those are the telltale signs that can lead into the radicalization process."
The discussions took place between 2010 and 2011, while the father was renting a basement apartment in Heft's home in Markham, Ontario.
On Wednesday, the other suspect appeared briefly in court where he made a statement suggesting he did not recognize the court's jurisdiction.
Chiheb Esseghaier, one of two men accused of plotting a terror attack on rail target, is led off a plane by an Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer at Buttonville Airport just north of Toronto... more? Chiheb Esseghaier, one of two men accused of plotting a terror attack on rail target, is led off a plane by an Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer at Buttonville Airport just north of Toronto on Tuesday April 23, 2013. Canadian investigators say Raed Jaser, 35, and his suspected accomplice Esseghaier, 30, received "directions and guidance" from members of al-Qaida in Iran. In a brief court appearance in Montreal Tuesday, Esseghaier declined to be represented by a court-appointed lawyer. He made a brief statement in French in which he called the allegations against him unfair. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young) less? "This criminal code is not a holy book," Esseghaier said at the hearing. "We cannot rely on the conclusions taken out from these judgments."
At the hearing Esseghaier rejected the allegations against him and declined to be represented by a court-appointed lawyer.
Jaser had appeared in court Tuesday and did not enter a plea. The court granted a request by his lawyer, John Norris, for a publication ban on future evidence and testimony.
Both men were ordered to return to court on May 23.
"We are waiting for the disclosure and we will be defending against the charges," Norris said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Norris declined to comment when asked if he wanted his client's case separated from Esseghaier, who has spoken out twice in court despite being advised not to.
Police ? tipped off by an imam worried by the behavior of one of the suspects ? said it was the first known attack planned by al-Qaida in Canada. The two could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
The case has raised questions about the extent of Shiite-led Iran's relationship with al-Qaida, a predominantly Sunni Arab terrorist network. It also renewed attention on Iran's complicated history with the terror group, which ranges from outright hostility to alliances of convenience and even overtures by Tehran to assist Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Canadian police said this week they didn't think it was a case of state sponsored terrorism.
Law officials in New York with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press the attack was to take place on the Canadian side of the border. They are not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Norris has questioned the timing of the arrests, pointing to ongoing debates in the Canadian Parliament over a new anti-terrorism law that would expand the powers of police and intelligence agencies.
Norris has noted Jaser was a permanent resident of Canada who has lived there for 20 years. Norris refused to say where Jaser was from, saying that revealing his nationality in the current climate amounted to demonizing him.
Canadian police have declined to release the men's nationalities, saying only they had been in Canada a "significant amount of time." But a London-based newspaper Al Arab reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources in the Gulf, that Jaser is a Jordanian passport holder with full name Raed Jaser Ibrahim Amouri, who had visited the UAE several times and most recently in September 2011. The newspaper reported that the suspect also visited other Gulf countries including Qatar and Saudi Arabia. It was not possible to independently confirm the report.
Esseghaier, in a profile on a university department website ? which has since been removed ? says he was born in Tunis, Tunisia.
The investigation surrounding the planned attack was part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Canadian police said the men never got close to carrying out the attack.
The warning first came from an imam in Toronto, who in turn was tipped off by suspicious behavior on the part of one of the suspect.
___
Associated Press writers Benjamin Shingler in Montreal, Tom Hays in New York, Kimberly Dozier in Washington and Brian Murphy in the United Arab Emirates contributed to this story.
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Public release date: 25-Apr-2013
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