SHANGHAI (Reuters) ? China's central government will run a smaller fiscal deficit in 2012, according to a report by local media.
Fiscal outlays will increase 11 percent to 11.1 trillion yuan ($1.75 trillion) in 2012, against a revenue increase of 9 percent, according an unnamed finance ministry source cited by the Shanghai Securities Journal.
The figures, which emerged at the conclusion of the national Ministry of Finance Work Meeting on Monday, imply a 2012 fiscal deficit of 800 billion yuan, down 50 billion yuan from the expected 2011 deficit, the paper calculated.
A smaller deficit would disappoint those hoping for robust stimulus by the government to support growth. Industrial production slowed to its slowest pace in four years in November.
Concerns about slowing growth prompted policymakers to lower the required reserve ratio for banks on December 5, but analysts believe authorities have limited space for additional monetary stimulus, given the flood of bank lending that resulted from the previous round in 2008-10.
The relatively healthy state of China's public finances raised hopes that China would use fiscal spending to support the economy in 2012.
For 2011, China's full-year fiscal revenue is on pace to reach 10.2 trillion yuan, a 22 percent increase over 2010, the source said, while spending will reach 11 trillion yuan, an increase of 20 percent.
Of next year's 800 billion yuan deficit, the central government's share will be 550 billion yuan, a decrease of 150 billion yuan, while the local government share will be 250 billion yuan, an increase of 50 billion yuan.
Local government spending will be fueled by an increase in direct bond issuance by local governments, the source said. ($1 = 6.3364 yuan)
(Reporting by Gabriel Wildau; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
In the continuing story of "Nobody knows what the hell's going on with the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab," (see Part 1 and Part 2) a new report out of Korea suggests that the manufacturer's 2010 flagship devices may receive a "Value Pack" update instead of a full-fledged refresh to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The "Value Pack" -- we'd expect a better name once all the translation and marketing is done -- would bring some of the sex of ICS without the hastle of an actual OS update.
That's probably a good middle ground, if indeed it is the case. It's not going to silence those who won't settle for anything less than Android 4.0, of course. But for the vast majority out there (who likely wouldn't really notice the difference anyway), it's a compromise worth exploring.
Bernie's Dawg Blawg: On Charles, Rome, Lynch...and Figgins
On Charles, Rome, Lynch...and Figgins
No meatloaf today. After all that Christmas Day turkey and fixins I just didn't have the energy to make a meatloaf. If all goes well I should have some leftover turkey for your Tuesday. However, I did want to share a couple really good reads.
First, Ching evaluates?($$) the tight end position with White graduating and Charles possibly leaving for the NFL. Jay Rome ended up redshirting this season and is now on the bench for Coach Fox. Lynch is the often forgotten man at the position. White and Bobo talk like he will more than fill any cleats left behind. There's also a nice interview with Rome by Nabulsi.
Georgia has proven they have the system to support multiple tight ends. And even should Charles turn pro (which many think he will according to the poll) we should still have some quality depth, just inexperienced. Lynch has seen few legitimate snaps and Rome will be just a redshirt freshman. We have a commit in Ty Smith of Colquitt Co as well.
Also, really good read by Clarkson on Bruce Figgins' career as a Dawg and what his graduation meant to his family, especially his mom who is fighting breast cancer. Figgins' road in Athens has been a little bumpy, but he's proven to be a team player and a damn good Dawg. I'm really sad to see him go. I think I get pretty soft and mushy when it comes to players who change positions to help the team. I've heard Richt say on a couple occasions that he's hesitant to hand the ball off to someone who's never had a carry in his career. I get that. But I hope we work 89 into the plan some more in the Outback. Would bark extra loud if he found the endzone.
And I really hope NFL scouts see what he did this year as a fullback and see him as a valuable commodity in a tightend/H-back role. I think he'd do well.?And it couldn't happen to a better man. Stay strong Ms. Figgins and GATA Bruce!
Senior al-Qaeda members are feared to be moving to north Africa to open up a new front after being targeted in Pakistan.
A British official said several Al Qaeda members have been killed in US drone attacks and added "only a handful of the key players" remain alive.
Sources close to Islamist groups in north Africa told the Guardian at least two senior al-Qaida operatives have already reached Libya, provoking fears that north Africa could become a new "theatre of jihad" in future.
"A group of very experienced figures from north Africa left camps in Afghanistan's [north-eastern] Kunar province where they have been based for several years and travelled back across the Middle East. Some got stopped but a few got through," a source said.
It is, however, unclear whether they are shifting to north Africa to achieve greater security or to exploit the current scenario after the Arab spring revolution.
The Al Qaeda move might signal shifting of its centre of operations to North Africa, which is the homeland of majority of its members, as increasing number of volunteers are making makeshift bases in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Officials described al-Qaeda's activity as "effectively marginal" as compared to other events occurring in the region, and viewed local networks like the Haqqani in North Waziristan as a more potent threat.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that mercenaries ousted from Libya could join radical terror group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which aims to topple the Algerian Government.
Sources in Libyan mainstream Islamist groups said there is evidence to indicate that grassroot activism by individuals linked to al-Qaeda could lead to formation of new terror groups. (ANI)
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The eurozone will be a different place from what it is today, even if EU leaders take the serious steps necessary to tackle the eurozone's debt problem.
Milton Friedman, never a fan of the eurozone, predicted it would collapse in 10 years. Now entering its 13th year, the currency union is facing its most critical challenge. And at the Nobel -winning economist may turn out to be right on everything except the exact timing of the dissolution.
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The reason? European leaders continue to miss the mark in their assessment of the root cause of the continuing crisis. To paraphrase Bill Clinton: It's the debt, stupid.
Earlier this month, European lawmakers held the latest in a string of emergency summit meetings to deal with the worsening crisis. Many billed it as the last chance to save the euro. If this is the standard by which the outcome is to be measured, the meeting was an abject failure.
The plan of action European officials positioned as the salvation of the euro consisted of an agreement to draft a revised treaty giving central European Union authorities greater control over how sovereign nations manage their budgets. The participants also agreed that EU central banks would lend another ?200 billion ($262 billion) to the International Monetary Fund. This money would then be used by the IMF as part of the European Stability Mechanism to support the handful of countries struggling to remain solvent.
The first measure is unlikely to ever be ratified as an EU treaty in the face of British opposition. And the alternative fiscal compact that the other EU members are now trying to create is proving legally tricky, even before it runs a gauntlet of political challenges. This leaves the ?200 billion loan to the IMF as the only probable legacy of the summit meeting. Unfortunately, it's not enough to address the issue.
Greece illustrates the problem. ?As the poster child for eurozone fiscal incompetence, it owes all by itself roughly ?350 billion in sovereign debt with about ?200 billion of this owed to banks and other financial institutions. (The remainder is held by the International Monetary Fund and other countries.) But only ?130 billion has been committed to helping Greece. Even if all ?200 billion were committed to Greece alone, it would not cover the debt it owes. No matter how one slices it, that nation is headed for a partial default and the future remains very much in question.
Until the debt is addressed, the EU is simply throwing good money after bad. The reason is that even if EU leaders seem unaware of the debt, markets are not. And markets are forcing indebted nations to pay ever higher amounts of interest to service that debt.
In its most recent bond offering this past Wednesday, Greece was forced to offer yet another euro-era record yield of 6.47 percent on five-year bonds. By contrast, German two-year debt sold at just 0.29 percent. In 2012, Greece has over ?50 billion in maturing debt that will come due, ?17 billion of which is in the form of interest payments.
Other, much larger eurozone countries face similar challenges. And if the EU can't come up with enough money to bail out a tiny country like Greece, there's no way it can do it for a big one like Italy or Spain. The resources simply are not there.
The only way out is to ?reset? the debt by forcing these countries into default. This approach also makes it possible to redirect the bailout fund money to the bondholders, thereby softening the blow to the financial system.
Forcing the default of one or more Eurozone countries is a drastic move, but it is necessary to safeguard the remaining members. Under the current approach, even the strongest economies will eventually be bled dry as investor confidence deteriorates and bailout costs rise.
Whether? governments have the political will to act in such a decisive manner is a different matter. Nevertheless, the realization is dawning that in the near future, the eurozone will be a different place than it is today. The question is whether this change will be the product of reasoned policy for the betterment of all, or a collapse that a wise economist predicted years ago.?
??Scott Boyd?is a currency analyst with OANDA,?a Forex trading company with offices in?New York,Toronto,?Singapore, and?Dubai,?and contributes to the company?s?MarketPulse FX?blog.
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Australia recall Hilfenhaus for first India test
CRICKET-AUSTRALIA:Australia recall Hilfenhaus for first India test
By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia have brought back workhorse paceman Ben Hilfenhaus into the test fold in place of youngster Mitchell Starc for the first test against India, which starts on Monday.
Hilfenhaus, a natural swing bowler, was dropped after a poor series against England earlier this year, but has worked his way back into the side with strong form in domestic cricket.
He will join a pace attack that features Peter Siddle and James Pattinson, with Nathan Lyon the lone specialist spinner.
Top order batsman Shaun Marsh has been recalled after recovering from a back strain suffered in South Africa, while former captain Ricky Ponting and middle order batsman Mike Hussey have retained their places.
All rounder Shane Watson has yet to shake off an injury while Starc has been named as the 12th man.
Skipper Michael Clarke will lead Australia into the first match of a four-test series, with his counterpart Mahendra Singh Dhoni hoping to guide India to their first test series win on Australian soil. (Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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Who's officially on the record backing what could be the worst thing to ever happen to the internet? All of these companies listed below. Don't take our word for it—this list comes straight from Congress. Just FYI. More »
Soccer ? Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman and goalkeeper Nick Rimando will compete in the U.S. team?s annual January camp, coach Jurgen Klinsmann announced Thursday.
In addition, RSL assistant coach Jeff Cassar and Salt Lake-Arizona Academy technical director Martin Vasquez will join Klinsmann?s staff for a portion of the camp, which will be held Jan. 3-26 in Arizona, California and Panama.
The U.S. team will conclude the camp with two friendlies ? against Venezuela at Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 21 and against the host country in Panama on Jan. 26.
IndyCar may add 2 races to schedule
Auto Racing ?The IndyCar schedule will have a different look in 2012.
China will host its first race Aug. 19, series officials have put Detroit and Fontana, Calif., back on the schedule, and only four of 15 races are currently slated for ovals. It could change again, too.
Series CEO Randy Bernard acknowledged he?s still contemplating the addition of two more races.
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The long-awaited schedule had been delayed as the series conducted an investigation into the October crash that killed two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas. Some critics contended it was too dangerous for the series to race on ovals and only four ? Indianapolis, Texas, Iowa and Fontana, Calif. ? appear on this year?s calendar.
Chryst is Pitt?s 4th coach in 13 months
College football ? Paul Chryst turned Wisconsin?s historically ho-hum offense into a high-powered attack that lit up scoreboards across the Big Ten.
Pittsburgh would love to see him do the same with the Panthers, but only after he provides the beleaguered program with some much-needed stability.
The school hired Chryst on Thursday to replace Todd Graham, who bolted for Arizona State last week after less than a year on the job.
The 46-year-old Chryst is Pitt?s fourth head coach in the past 13 months, following Dave Wannstedt, Mike Haywood and Graham, who left for the Sun Devils following a disappointing 6-6 season.
Turkey and France traded barbs Thursday, with the Turkish ambassador recalled from Paris. Turkey also suspended all bilateral political, economic and military cooperation.
The French National Assembly today passed a controversial bill penalizing anyone who denies the Armenian genocide by Ottoman forces almost a century ago.??
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The bill, which now has to be voted on by the Senate, provoked a furious Turkish reaction. ?Ankara is recalling its ambassador to France while freezing official contacts between the two countries.?
?We are recalling our ambassador in Paris to Ankara for consultations," said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Associated Press reports.?
Ankara lobbied hard for the French government to shelve the bill and warned? of potential retaliatory measures. Earlier this week, a delegation of Turkish MPs and businessmen visited Paris to request that the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy abandon the bill.
"As of now, we are canceling bilateral level political, economic and military activities," Mr. Erdogan said. "We are suspending all kinds of political consultations with France" and "bilateral military cooperation, joint maneuvers are canceled as of now," he added.
Erdogan said that he will annul any permissions given to French military vessels to dock at Turkish ports and would consider on a case-by-case basis requests for military overflights and landings. ?The Turkish prime minister said that?"This decision is cause for concern not only for France where there are efforts to make gains through enmity toward Turks and Turkey, and in general terms, through Islamophobia, but also for Europe and principles defended by Europe."
The French bill requires a prison term of up to one year and a fine of $58,000 (45,000 euros) to anyone who publicly denies the mass killings of the Armenians during World War I.? In 2001, France officially recognized the ?Armenian genocide? but a subsequent parliamentary effort to criminalize it was dropped by the Senate.
"It is important, in the current context, that we keep the paths of dialogue and cooperation open," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a statement.
French lawmakers were vexed over what they saw as Turkish interference into the country?s internal affairs.
Airports. Hotels. Cabs. Ugh. There's a class of wayward wretch who's condemned to spend more time in these horrible places than in his own home. This is the man in a suitcase. These gifts will help him survive his Sisyphean labor even when the final destination is nowhere in sight. More »
MANILA, Philippines?? More than 250 people were killed and almost twice that number were missing after a typhoon hit the southern Philippines, officials said on Saturday, triggering flash floods and landslides and forcing tens of thousands from their homes.
Typhoon Washi, with winds gusting up to 56 mph, hit the resource-rich island of Mindanao late on Friday, bringing heavy rain that also grounded some domestic flights and left wide areas without power.
The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) said 256 people were killed in flash floods in Mindanao and another island. Soldiers and police were recovering more bodies washed ashore in nearby towns.
"The death toll might still rise because there are still a lot of missing people," said Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the PNRC.
Photoblog: Storm, floods hits south Philippines
She said the hardest-hit areas were in the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.
Almost 400 people were unaccounted for, most of them from a coastal village in Iligan. Houses were swept into the sea by floodwaters while people were sleeping inside late on Friday.
The latest Red Cross figures put the death toll in Iligan at 144. Another 86 were killed in Cagayan de Oro, many of them children.
Five miners were killed in a landslide in Monkayo on Mindanao and another 21 people drowned on the central island of Negros, the PNRC said.
The national disaster agency put the death toll at 131, but other government officials also said at least 256 people had been killed.
The Philippines social welfare department said about 100,000 people were displaced and brought to more than a dozen shelters in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.??
Villages 'swept to the sea'
Teddy Sabuga-a, a disaster officer in Misamis Oriental province, said 60 people were rescued in waters off El Salvador city, about 6 miles northwest of Cagayan de Oro, after they were swept to the sea by a raging river, and about 120 more were rescued off Opol township, closer to the city.
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He said an island in the middle of the Cagayan de Oro river was inundated, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or people missing.
Cruz said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river.
The floodwaters were waist-high in some neighborhoods that do not usually experience flooding. Scores of residents escaped the floods by climbing onto the roofs of their homes, Cruz said.
Army spokesman Colonel Leopoldo Galon said search and rescue operations would continue along the shorelines in Misamis Oriental and Lanao del Norte provinces.
"I can't explain how these things happened, entire villages were swept to the sea by flash floods," Galon told Reuters, saying the death toll could rise as hundreds of people were unaccounted for.
"I have not seen anything like this before. This could be worse than Ondoy," he said, referring to a 2009 storm that inundated the capital, Manila, killing hundreds of people.
Prominent radio broadcaster missing
Television images showed bodies covered in mud, cars piled on top of each other and wrecked homes. Helicopters and boats searched the sea for survivors and victims.
Those missing included prominent radio broadcaster Enie Alsonado, who was swept away while trying to save his neighbors, Cruz said.
Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro said that about 20,000 residents of the city had been affected and that evacuees were packed in temporary shelters.
Television footage showed muddy water rushing in the streets, sweeping away all sorts of debris. Thick layers of mud coated streets where the waters had subsided. One car was shown to have been carried over a concrete fence.
The chief of the national disaster agency, Benito Ramos, said that officials were still getting reports from the field and that the number of casualties would likely rise.
"Massive flooding had been reported over the region, especially in Iligan city and Cagayan de Oro city," Ramos said, adding that tens of thousands of people sought shelter on high ground.
Strong winds toppled trees onto the rain-saturated ground in Polanco township in Zamboanga del Norte province. An 80-year-old woman drowned after being trapped in the first floor of her flooded home. A 30-year-old man and a 10-year-old boy also drowned, said provincial disaster officer Dennis Tenorio.
Washi, the 19th storm to hit the Philippines this year, came ashore in eastern Mindanao and blanketed the region with thick rain clouds 250 miles in diameter.
It quickly cut across the region overnight and was over the Sulu Sea by midmorning Saturday, packing maximum winds of 47 miles per hour and gusts of up to 56 mph. It is expected to blow out of the country late Sunday, forecaster Raymond Ordinario said.
Back-to-back typhoons in September left more than 100 people dead in the northern Philippines.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON ? Days in the laboratory are numbered for chimpanzees, humans' closest relative.
Chimps paved astronauts' way into space and were vital in creating some important medicines. But the government said Thursday that science has advanced enough that from now on, chimpanzees essentially should be a last resort in medical research ? a move that puts the United States more in line with the rest of the world.
Chimps' similarity with people "demands special consideration and respect," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.
His move came after the prestigious Institute of Medicine declared that most use of chimpanzees for invasive medical research no longer can be justified ? and that strict new limits should determine which experiments are important enough to outweigh the moral cost of involving this species that is so like us.
"The bar is very high," said bioethicist Jeffrey Kahn of Johns Hopkins University, who led the institute panel.
The group stopped short of recommending an outright ban, saying a handful of research projects today might still require chimps ? but more importantly, that the animals might be required in the future as new diseases evolve and emerge.
Animal welfare groups welcomed the change but continue to push for Congress to pass legislation that would go a step further and phase out all invasive chimp research.
"Chimpanzees have provided limited value in research settings, and now alternative methods have been developed that will make their use all but obsolete," said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States.
But some scientists say it's not that big a change because chimp studies already were dwindling fast as researchers turned to less costly and ethically charged alternatives.
"The use of a chimpanzee in biomedical research is the rare exception," said Dr. Thomas Rowell, who directs Louisiana's New Iberia Research Center, one of five research centers that houses chimps and other primate species used in both government- and privately financed studies.
It's not clear exactly how many of the nation's 937 research chimps ? 612 of them owned by the NIH ? are in the midst of experiments that would be affected by the new standards and could be moved into retirement instead. Most of the chimps are fairly old, as the nation has had a moratorium on breeding since 1995.
But Collins temporarily barred new government-funded studies involving chimps as his agency began implementing the recommended restrictions. Also, a working group will decide whether to phase out about 37 ongoing projects, about half of which Collins said probably don't meet the new standards.
These apes' genetic closeness to humans ? the genome is about 99 percent identical to ours ? has long caused a quandary, making the animals valuable to medical researchers for nearly a century but also sparking ethical and emotional questions about how they are housed and used.
"They are highly intelligent. They live in complex social settings, and they live for a very long time," said evolutionary anthropologist Anne Pusey of Duke University, who once worked with chimp expert Jane Goodall in Tanzania and manages an archive of Goodall's field data on the animals.
"When you enclose a chimp in a very small cage for 50 years, it really is cruel and unusual, even regardless of whether you're doing invasive things to them," she added.
The U.S. is one of only two countries known to still conduct medical research with chimpanzees; the other is Gabon, in Africa. The European Union essentially banned such research last year.
Thursday's decision was triggered by an uproar last year over the fate of 186 semi-retired research chimps that the NIH, to save money, planned to move from a New Mexico facility to an active research lab in Texas. They are staying put for now.
The Institute of Medicine's investigation found over the past 10 years, the NIH has paid for just 110 projects of any type that involved chimps. Most involved hepatitis C, a liver virus that infects only humans and chimps. Some involved HIV, a disease that scientists now know is better to study in rhesus monkeys. Still others involved comparing the genetics of chimps and humans, or behavioral research examining such things as development and mental health.
The institute recommended two different sets of restrictions. Biomedical research ? testing new drugs or giving chimps a disease ? should allow using the apes only if studies could not be done on other animals or people themselves, and if foregoing the work would hinder progress against life-threatening or debilitating conditions. The panel said behavioral and genetic research, while less controversial, nonetheless should be limited to studies that provide insights otherwise unattainable, using techniques that minimize any pain or distress.
The institute combed research files to see what types of projects would fit those strict criteria ? and could come up with only a handful, such as a possible need to test vaccines against hepatitis C in the animals. But the panel concluded chimps aren't needed to study cancer or a host of other diseases or even to test most drugs.
The standards wouldn't automatically apply to privately funded pharmaceutical research, although the industry, too, is shifting away from use of chimps. One drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, adopted an official policy ending its use of great apes, including chimpanzees, in research.
Plasma treatment zaps viruses before they can attack cellsPublic release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Catherine Meyers cmeyers@aip.org 301-209-3088 American Institute of Physics
Adenoviruses can cause respiratory, eye, and intestinal tract infections, and, like other viruses, must hijack the cellular machinery of infected organisms in order to produce proteins and their own viral spawn. Now an international research team made up of scientists from Chinese and Australian universities has found a way to disrupt the hijacking process by using plasma to damage the viruses in the laboratory environment, before they come into contact with host cells.
The researchers prepared solutions containing adenoviruses and then treated the samples with a low-temperature plasma created by applying a voltage to a gaseous mixture in a syringe. The strong electric field energized electrons that collided with molecules in the gas, generating charged particles and highly reactive species such as oxygen atoms that likely etched away the protein shell of the viruses and damaged or destroyed the viral DNA. When the virus solutions were later added to colonies of embryonic kidney cells, the plasma-treated samples showed much less viral activity, as measured by the amount of a florescent virus protein the infected kidney cells produced. If the virus solution was covered during treatment to maximize plasma-virus interactions, more than 99 percent of the viruses could be deactivated in eight minutes. The technique is described in a paper accepted for publication in the AIP's journal Applied Physics Letters.
Adenoviruses pose life-threatening risks to patients undergoing stem-cell therapy, so the anti-viral plasma treatment may help pave the way to safer therapies, the researchers write. Because plasma jets have multiple biomedical applications, the team is also developing a portable device that generates plasma by using a 12 V battery to decompose and ionize air, says Dr. XinPei Lu at the HuaZhong University of Science and Technology in China and leader of the team. The device might be used in rural areas and battlefields, according to Lu.
###
Article: "Room-temperature, atmospheric plasma needle reduces adenovirus gene expression in HEK 293A host cells" is accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters.
Authors: Z. Xiong (1), X. Lu (1), Y. Cao (2), Q. Ning (3), K. Ostrikov (4), Y. Lu (5), X. Zhou (2), and J. Liu (3).
(1) State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, China
(2) Department of Stomatology, Tongji Hospital, HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, China
(3) Laboratory of Infectious Immunology, Tongji Hospital, HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, China
(4) Plasma Nanoscience Centre Australia, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering and School of Physics, the University of Sydney, Australia
(5) School of Physics, Anhui University, China
[ | 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.
Plasma treatment zaps viruses before they can attack cellsPublic release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Catherine Meyers cmeyers@aip.org 301-209-3088 American Institute of Physics
Adenoviruses can cause respiratory, eye, and intestinal tract infections, and, like other viruses, must hijack the cellular machinery of infected organisms in order to produce proteins and their own viral spawn. Now an international research team made up of scientists from Chinese and Australian universities has found a way to disrupt the hijacking process by using plasma to damage the viruses in the laboratory environment, before they come into contact with host cells.
The researchers prepared solutions containing adenoviruses and then treated the samples with a low-temperature plasma created by applying a voltage to a gaseous mixture in a syringe. The strong electric field energized electrons that collided with molecules in the gas, generating charged particles and highly reactive species such as oxygen atoms that likely etched away the protein shell of the viruses and damaged or destroyed the viral DNA. When the virus solutions were later added to colonies of embryonic kidney cells, the plasma-treated samples showed much less viral activity, as measured by the amount of a florescent virus protein the infected kidney cells produced. If the virus solution was covered during treatment to maximize plasma-virus interactions, more than 99 percent of the viruses could be deactivated in eight minutes. The technique is described in a paper accepted for publication in the AIP's journal Applied Physics Letters.
Adenoviruses pose life-threatening risks to patients undergoing stem-cell therapy, so the anti-viral plasma treatment may help pave the way to safer therapies, the researchers write. Because plasma jets have multiple biomedical applications, the team is also developing a portable device that generates plasma by using a 12 V battery to decompose and ionize air, says Dr. XinPei Lu at the HuaZhong University of Science and Technology in China and leader of the team. The device might be used in rural areas and battlefields, according to Lu.
###
Article: "Room-temperature, atmospheric plasma needle reduces adenovirus gene expression in HEK 293A host cells" is accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters.
Authors: Z. Xiong (1), X. Lu (1), Y. Cao (2), Q. Ning (3), K. Ostrikov (4), Y. Lu (5), X. Zhou (2), and J. Liu (3).
(1) State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, China
(2) Department of Stomatology, Tongji Hospital, HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, China
(3) Laboratory of Infectious Immunology, Tongji Hospital, HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, China
(4) Plasma Nanoscience Centre Australia, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering and School of Physics, the University of Sydney, Australia
(5) School of Physics, Anhui University, China
[ | 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.
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan declared its tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant to be in cold shutdown on Friday in a major step toward resolving the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was wrecked on March 11 by a huge earthquake and a towering tsunami which knocked out its cooling systems, triggering meltdowns, radiation leaks and mass evacuations.
In making the much-anticipated announcement, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda drew a line under the crisis phase of the emergency at the plant and highlighted the next challenges: post-disaster clean-up and the safe dismantling of the plant, something experts say could take up to 40 years.
"The reactors have reached a state of cold shutdown," Noda told a government nuclear emergency response meeting.
"A stable condition has been achieved. It is judged that the accident at the plant itself has ceased," he added, noting radiation levels at the boundary of the plant could now be kept at low levels, even in the event of "unforeseeable incidents."
"The government is due to set a clear road map and will do the utmost to decommission the plant," Noda later told a news conference.
A cold shutdown is when water used to cool nuclear fuel rods remains below boiling point, preventing the fuel from reheating. One of the chief aims of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), had been to bring the reactors to cold shutdown by the year-end.
After months of efforts, the water temperature in all three of the affected reactors fell below boiling point by September, but Tepco has been cautious about declaring a cold shutdown, saying it had to see if temperatures and the amount of radiation emitted from the plant remained stable.
The declaration of a cold shutdown could have repercussions well beyond the plant. It is a government pre-condition for allowing about 80,000 residents evacuated from within a 20 km (12 mile) radius of the plant to go home.
But Kazuhiko Kudo, professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University, said authorities still needed to determine exactly the status of melted fuel inside the reactors and stabilize a makeshift cooling system, which handles the tens of thousands of tons of contaminated water accumulated on-site.
"What is more important is the next steps the government and Tepco decide to take," Kudo said.
HUGE COSTS, ANXIETY
The government and Tepco will aim to begin removing the undamaged nuclear rods from the plant's spent fuel pools next year. However, retrieval of fuel that melted down in their reactors may not begin for another decade.
The enormous cost of the cleanup and compensating the victims has drained Tepco financially. The government may inject about $13 billion into the company as early as next summer in a de facto nationalization, sources told Reuters last week.
An official advisory panel estimates Tepco may have to pay about 4.5 trillion yen ($57 billion) in compensation in the first two years after the nuclear crisis, and that it will cost 1.15 trillion yen to decommission the plant, though some experts put it at 4 trillion yen ($51 billion) or even more.
Japan also faces a massive cleanup task outside the east coast plant if residents are to be allowed to go home. The Environment Ministry says about 2,400 square km (930 square miles) of land around the plant may need to be decontaminated, an area roughly the size of Luxembourg.
The crisis shook the public's faith in nuclear energy and Japan is now reviewing an earlier plan to raise the proportion of electricity generated from nuclear power to 50 percent by 2030 from 30 percent in 2010.
Japan may not immediately walk away from nuclear power, but few doubt that nuclear power will play a lesser role in future.
Living in fear of radiation is part of life for residents both near and far from the plant. Cases of excessive radiation in vegetables, tea, milk, seafood and water have stoked anxiety despite assurances from public officials that the levels detected are not dangerous.
Chernobyl's experience shows that anxiety is likely to persist for years, with residents living near the former Soviet plant still regularly checking produce for radiation before consuming it 25 years after the disaster.
(Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Mark Bendeich and Robert Birsel)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? A top Republican on Wednesday introduced legislation to protect the military from automatic budget cuts despite stiff opposition from Democrats and a veto threat from President Barack Obama.
Republicans have been trying to find savings to replace the $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts that go into effect from 2013 after a congressional debt panel failed to reach a deficit reduction plan in November.
Half the savings would come from the Pentagon's budget and the rest from domestic federal programs.
The bill proposed by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Representative Howard McKeon, would slash the federal workforce by 10 percent in order to spare the military and other programs from spending cuts.
"The troops simply don't have any more to give. It is time we address our debt crisis sensibly, by literally shrinking the size of government," McKeon said in a statement.
Congress has been struggling with how to rein in the country's $15 trillion public debt.
As part of this summer's deal to raise the debt ceiling, a super committee of lawmakers was charged with finding $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. When they failed to forge a deal, it triggered the series of budget cuts.
Republicans in the Senate also announced plans on Wednesday to protect the Pentagon's budget, which has nearly doubled over the past decade to $700 billion.
They said they would introduce legislation in January that would rely on savings proposed by other means including broadcast spectrum and land sales.
"We are not talking about raising taxes," said Jon Kyl, the no 2 Republican in the Senate.
"The bottom line is, we will identify savings, we will present that in the best legislative vehicle we can and thereby offset the savings from (the automatic budget cuts)," he said.
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Public release date: 16-Dec-2011
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