NOAA and NASA's next generation weather satellite may provide earlier warnings

Feb. 28, 2013 ? A new satellite that will detect the lightning inside storm clouds may lead to valuable improvements in tornado detection. The GOES-R satellite is currently being built with new technology that may help provide earlier warnings for severe weather.

The national average is a 14-minute lead time to warn residents of a tornado, but NASA and NOAA scientists are looking to improve severe weather detection to save lives and property. They are developing the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series, or GOES-R, to observe thunderstorm development with much greater spatial and temporal detail than ever before. Severe weather knows no specific season and the new technology aboard GOES-R is expected to help provide earlier detection for warnings, whatever the time of year.

On Jan. 29 and 30, 2013, a winter-time tornado outbreak produced multiple tornadoes from the southern Plains states, across the Mississippi River Valley, eastward to the Mid-Atlantic. On Feb. 10, several tornadoes touched down in Mississippi, destroying 200 homes, damaging and causing injuries near Hattiesburg.

"These storms can spin up pretty quickly which limits warning lead-time," said NOAA scientist Steve Goodman. "The radar and storm spotter's view of tornadoes reaching the ground can be blocked by terrain, or visibility is very poor when the tornado is wrapped in rain. And it's certainly more challenging for storm spotters to observe and confirm tornadoes occurring at night. Sometimes it's just plain hard to come up with enough advance warning."

For the first time, scientists will be able to detect the lightning occurring inside storm clouds, and thus better track how developing storms are moving and intensifying before and during the occurrence of severe weather, Goodman said, all of which will help meteorologists better predict weather disasters.

"Based on the GOES-R research, there is a potential for greater accuracy and additional tornado warning lead time," Goodman said. One significant advancement could help detect developing tornadoes at night to provide the public more time to get to safety.

Studies show that a sudden increase in total lightning flash rate is correlated to impending tornadoes and severe storms. The GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) will have a new capability to take continuous day and night measurements of the frequent intra-cloud lightning activity that accompanies many severe storms. This will help forecasters identify intensifying storms before they start producing severe weather on the ground, enabling the issuance of more timely and accurate severe weather warnings.

"The majority of lightning is the in-cloud lightning and that's difficult to detect, especially in the daytime," Goodman said. "GLM will provide new information on lightning in the cloud that our eyes cannot see to allow forecasters to make an earlier determination of a severe and tornadic storms' potential."

The GLM instrument will see all types of lightning: cloud-to-ground, cloud-to-cloud and inside each cloud, and because the GOES-R satellite will cover most of the Western Hemisphere, it will help meteorologists track storms over the land and ocean from their inception.

But lightning isn't the only sign of an impending storm.

Monitoring overshooting cloud tops can provide an early indication of a severe storm. These are dome-like clouds that penetrate above the anvil of a thunderstorm. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on GOES-R will better detect these overshooting tops that indicate a strong updraft.

While the current GOES satellite imager usually provides updated weather conditions during the formation of a storm about every 15 or 30 minutes, ABI will be able to show the changing cloud and weather conditions every 30 seconds in rapid scan mode. When ABI is not monitoring the formation of a storm, it will send imagery over the United States every 5 minutes instead of every 15 minutes, greatly increasing the data available to weather forecasters.

In addition to providing crucial information as part of NOAA's fleet of operational weather satellites, GOES-R will also monitor space weather, such as solar flares and geomagnetic storms that stem from the sun's activity and can affect spacecraft and human spaceflight.

The Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) will detect solar flares that can disrupt communication, power grids and have effects on satellites and airline passengers. The Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) is a telescope that observes the sun to detect eruptions which may result in coronal mass ejections. And to assess radiation hazard to astronauts and satellites, the Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS) will monitor protons, electrons and heavy ion fluxes at geosynchronous orbit. GOES-R's Magnetometer (MAG) will also measure the magnetic field in space.

NOAA manages the GOES-R Program with an integrated NOAA-NASA program office organization, staffed with personnel from NOAA and NASA, and supported by industry contractors. The program is co-located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. GOES-R is expected to launch in late 2015.

For more information about GOES-R and the current GOES satellite fleet, visit: www.goes-r.gov/ http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/qwrNM05PYbY/130228171531.htm

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DNA science points to better treatment for acne

Ancient Egyptians were vexed by it, using sulfur to dry it out. Shakespeare wrote of its "bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames o' fire."

Today, acne plagues us still. Doctors can cure some cancers and transplant vital organs like hearts, but they still have trouble getting rid of the pimples and splotches that plague 85% of us at some time in our lives ? usually, when we're teenagers and particularly sensitive about the way we look.

But new research hints that there's hope for zapping zits in the future, thanks to advances in genetic research.

Using state-of-the-art DNA sequencing techniques to evaluate the bacteria lurking in the pores of 101 study volunteers' noses, scientists discovered a particular strain of Propionibacterium acnes bacteria that may be able to defend against other versions of P. acnes that pack a bigger breakout-causing punch.

As best as dermatologists can tell, zits occur when bacteria that reside in human skin, including P. acnes, feed on oils in the pores and prompt an immune response that results in red, sometimes pus-filled bumps. But the study subjects who had the newly discovered bacterial strain weren't suffering from whiteheads or blackheads, according to a report published Thursday in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

Someday, the realization that "not all P. acnes are created equal" might help dermatologists devise treatments that more precisely target bad strains while allowing beneficial ones to thrive, said Dr. Noah Craft, a dermatologist at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute who conducted the study with colleagues from UCLA and Washington University in St. Louis.

Doctors might prescribe probiotic creams that deliver "good" P. acnes to the face the same way a daily serving of yogurt helps restore healthy bacteria in the digestive tract.

"There are healthy strains that we need on our skin," Craft said. "The idea that you'd use a nuclear bomb to kill everything ? what we're currently doing with antibiotics and other treatments ? just doesn't make sense."

The research is part of a broad effort backed by the National Institutes of Health to characterize the so-called human microbiome: the trillions of microbes that live in and on our bodies and evolve along with us, sometimes causing illness and often promoting good health.

Most of the microbiome attention so far has gone to studying species in the gut, said study leader Huiying Li, an assistant professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA's Geffen School of Medicine. But the NIH's Human Microbiome Project, which funds her research, also looks at microbial communities in the nasal passages, the mouth, the urogenital tract and the skin.

Li said she became interested in studying acne because the skin microbiome seemed particularly understudied.

The research team recruited 101 patients in their teens and 20s from dermatology clinics in Southern California. Among them, 49 had acne and 52 had "normal skin" and were not experiencing breakouts but had come to the clinics for other problems.

Doctors used adhesive pore strips to remove skin bacteria from patients' noses. The researchers then collected the waxy plugs ? a combination of bacteria, oils, dead skin cells and other stuff ? and used DNA to figure out which bacteria were present.

They found that the P. acnes species accounted for about 90% of the bacteria in pores, in both healthy patients and acne sufferers. Digging a little deeper into the DNA, they found that two particular strains appeared in about 20% of acne sufferers, while a third strain was found only in acne-free patients.

"Dogs are dogs, but a Chihuahua isn't a Great Dane," Craft said. "People with acne had pit bulls on their skin. Healthy people had poodles."

The team then sequenced the complete genomes ? about 2.6 million base pairs apiece ? of 66 of the P. acnes specimens to explore in more depth how the good and bad strains differed.

The two notable bad strains had genes, probably picked up from other bacteria or viruses, that are thought to change the shape of a microbe to make it more virulent. The researchers hypothesized that the foreign DNA, perhaps by sticking more effectively to human host tissues, may help trigger an inflammatory response in the skin: acne.

The good strain, on the other hand, contained an element known to work like an immune system in bacteria, Li said. Perhaps it allows this P. acne to fight off intruders and prevent pimples from forming.

Li said the researchers did not know why some people had the bad P. acnes strains and others did not, and whether genetics or environment played a bigger role.

Dr. Vincent Young, who conducts microbiome research at the University of Michigan Medical School but wasn't involved in the acne project, said advances in sequencing technology and analysis made the new study possible. In the past, he said, scientists wouldn't have tried to sequence dozens of genomes in a single species.

"They'd say, why waste the money?" he said. "Now you can do this in a couple of days."

Li and Craft ? neither of whom suffered bad acne as teens ? plan to keep up the work.

More research is needed to come up with super-targeted anti-microbial therapies, or to develop a probiotic cream for acne sufferers.

Craft continues collecting samples from patients' pores. He hopes to study whether twins share the same microbial profiles, how acne severity is reflected in bacteria populations, and how things change in a single patient over the course of a treatment regimen.

One of the study volunteers, 19-year-old UC Santa Cruz student Brandon Pritzker, said he would have loved to have treated his acne without affecting the rest of his body. When he took Accutane, he suffered back pain and mood shifts.

Now off the drug, Pritzker said he is at peace with his pimples. "I still have breakouts, but I figure I'm 19, that's the way it's going to be," he said.

But, he added, "it hindered my confidence at the time. Kids with clear skin are probably a little happier."

For the Record: 12:13 p.m. Feb. 28: The name of a study volunteer from UC Santa Cruz was misspelled. His name is Brandon Pritzkat.

eryn.brown@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/qDe_7ZOCWNs/la-sci-acne-bacteria-20130228,0,3862061.story

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Lingering racism at center of voting rights case

The historical marker, placed by the Alabama Historical Association, on the original Shelby County courthouse. (Tommy Daspit/YCN)

?Nobody likes to be stereotyped,? said Reggie Giles, a resident of Shelby County, Ala. Which is why stereotypical assumptions about Southerners, he noted?specifically, that they?re racists?is offensive.

?Racism is a stigma that the South can't seem to shake and that most of the rest of the country seems to want to perpetuate,? Giles, a software engineer, said.

Giles was one of several Shelby County residents who shared their thoughts with Yahoo News earlier this week as the Supreme Court prepares to hear Shelby County v. Holder on Wednesday. It?s a case that may determine the constitutionality of nearly five decades of voting rights legislation, specifically Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and a referendum of sorts on how far their county, and most of the South, has evolved on voting rights in the past 50 years.

Giles, who lives in Pelham, a Birmingham suburb, said protecting all voters? rights is a ?no-brainer.? But like many Shelby County residents, he finds some laws antiquated: Legislation conceived in 1965, he noted, doesn?t always apply in 2013.

At the heart of the debate reaching the court is local control of election laws against alleged racial discrimination in voting. Nine states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia) are covered under Section 5 of the act, which mandates that changes to local election laws?no matter how trivial those alterations are perceived?must receive clearance from the Justice Department or through a lawsuit at the D.C. district court. Also subject to Section 5 are 57 counties and 12 townships outside those nine states. (See a full list.)

Congress has renewed the law several times, the last time in 2006 when it extended the Voting Rights Act until 2032.

The petitioner in this case is Shelby County, home to nearly 200,000 residents. The county didn?t seek to amend its voting laws, but it nevertheless sued the Justice Department to strike down Section 5 in its entirety.

(SCOTUS Blog has more in-depth analysis and information for those interested in exploring the legislation?s more esoteric nooks and crannies, including the formula in Section 4 that determines which areas Section 5 covers.)

Legislative diversity helps battle racism in government

The racism label is hardly limited to the South. Former South Dakota state Sen. Thomas Shortbull, who also shared his thoughts with Yahoo News, says government oversight is needed in his state.

Two of the state?s counties?Shannon and Todd?already comply with the federal government. And for years, state politicians fought over the counties that hold part of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations along the southern border with Nebraska.

In 1975, Shortbull recommended that Shannon and Todd counties sit in the same legislative district where 90 percent of the voters would be American Indian. Shortbull argued that the only way the group could gain a legislative voice was to merge the reservations into one district. Five years later, the state?reluctantly, Shortbull said?created one district that covered most of the reservations.

?[Section 5] is the only vehicle in some states to fight institutional racism in local and state governments,? Shortbull wrote in his first-person account. ?In the state of South Dakota, racism towards minorities is prevalent, and the only means of diminishing the racism is to elect more minorities to state and local governments.?

Local victories tough to win?and maintain

In Houston, Rogene Calvert has advocated for the city?s Asian-American communities for years. While there are 280,000 Asian-Americans in Houston, Calvert says, they rarely can elect a representative candidate because the state has dispersed those voters into separate districts.

They did score a victory in 2004, however, when Rep. Hubert Vo bounced a 22-year incumbent from House District 149 in southwestern Houston and became Texas? first Vietnamese-American representative.

Vo, who won that race by 16 votes after three recounts, has been re-elected four times. But, Calvert said, in 2011, the state eyed redistricting to eliminate Vo?s seat and break it up into three districts.

?We objected to this at every stage of the process,? she said, noting that she testified before the state?s House Redistricting Committee, urging it to reconsider its plan to split up Asian-American voters in southwest Harris County.

?The state legislature ignored us,? she added.

Under Section 5, however, the Justice Department refused to approve redistricting.

?Because of that, we still have a vibrant coalition in HD 149 and we still can elect the candidates of our choice,? Calvert said. ?Without the protection of the VRA, the influence of the Asian-American community would have been drastically reduced.?

?Punished for the sins of our fathers?

In Shelby County, things are less pragmatic and more philosophical. Residents who shared their thoughts about the Voting Rights Act focused less on political gerrymandering and more on how they believed it impugns local control and the spirit of sovereignty.

Jonathan Williams, a 32-year-old Montevallo resident, often gathers at the local coffee shop to listen to wisdom from men he calls the town?s elders.

?Occasionally, they let me sit in their august presence?one of my favorite ways to spend a Friday afternoon,? Williams wrote in his account. ?Between the eight of them, they have seen and done almost everything?fought for their country, traveled the world, raised families, lost and won fortunes. Black, white, blue-collar and white-collar, they all gather around a table each afternoon to solve the world's problems while shamelessly flirting with the servers.?

When Williams raised Shelby County v. Holder, the elders weren?t shy about sharing their opinions, he said.

One elder offered: "Are we second-class citizens in our own country?"

Another said: "I don't care if a man is black, white, Mexican or Chinese.?

The more important questions, to him: ?Is he Republican or Democrat? Where does he go to church?"

Williams said he?s seen too much progress to believe Section 5 should survive a court challenge. ?How long must we be punished for the sins of our fathers before the rest of the nation realizes things have changed? I'm sick of it," he said.

Elections are the only true shared experience

Unlike Williams, Tommy Daspit hasn?t live in Shelby County his whole life. He?s called it home for three years after living in diverse locales such as Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Washington state and Indiana.

He noted the subtle differences in dialect, food, music and ideologies. But elections, he said, are the same.

?The experience of voting in Shelby County, Ala., was the same as it was in Tippecanoe, Ind., Kittitas County, Wash., or Dallas County, Texas,? Daspit, a photographer, said. ?Sure, there are some differences in the way the ballots look from one place to the next, but the experience of voting is the same.?

Daspit said Section 5 is dispensable and excessive: ?It has aided in transforming the South into a place where my children can grow up friends with children of all colors. However, it is no more relevant to Shelby County today than it would be in the North or the West.?

Bigots are not the prevailing entities

Daspit?s wife, Kelly, said she sees postracial evolution in Shelby County?s youngest residents. She writes:

Last week, my 8-year-old son was making Valentines for his 21 classmates at the elementary school he attends in Shelby County. He spent extra time decorating five of them, writing on those, in his approximated spelling, the word "FRANDS."

Two of those "FRANDS" are African-American boys. They play together and sometimes argue together, but they are friends. When my son celebrates his birthday, those two boys will be among the others invited to his party. There wouldn't be a question in the children's or in their parents' minds that it should be otherwise.

Born in 1975, Kelly Daspit said she understands life wasn?t always that way. Even after legal integration, unofficial social segregation?black and white students sitting at separate tables in school cafeterias?continued in her youth. But through the years, she said, it?s improved:

I have taught in five schools, and little by little, year by year, I have watched the change. No longer is it taboo for black and white children to have relationships. There are no longer "white" and "black" tables, and today's children could hardly imagine otherwise. Why? Because their parents did not teach them otherwise. Because, as we grew up in integrated schools, working in integrated workplaces, we learned each other. We learned there was nothing to fear from another's skin or another's culture. We learned that we really do all have the same worth. And racism, little by little, year by year, has perished. Yes, there are still some bigots; there always will be. You can find those in any town, in any state. But they are not the majority. They are not the prevailing entity.

How can I be sure? Because a public school is a reflection of its society. And if you wish to know about the prevailing society in Shelby County, Ala., just consider my 8-year-old son and consider who his "FRANDS" are.

Giles, the Pelham resident, offered his own evidence of progress: ?For the record, my votes were split in the past two presidential elections. In 2008, I voted for one of the two major party's candidate, and in 2012 I voted for the other.?

Nobody likes to be stereotyped.

The original Shelby County courthouse, 1854-1908, in Columbiana, Ala. (Tommy Daspit/YCN)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/shelby-county-v-holder-pits-local-election-control-224753576.html

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Falcon Pro releasing new version of app to sidestep token limit

Twitter client Falcon Pro is attempting to step around Twitter's 100,000 token authorization limit by releasing a new version of the app with a separate application ID. Just a few days ago, the client had to stop authorizing new users because it hit the Twitter-imposed limitation, which users feared would stop development. Taking to its official Twitter account (naturally), the developer explained the situation, and how he intends to fix it -- at least for the time being.

The plan right now is to release a new version of Falcon Pro -- just the small step to 1.6.7 -- that has a new application ID, which would technically identify it to Twitter as a new client, with a fresh new set of 100,000 user tokens to assign. In order to do this, old user tokens have to all be revoked, and anyone opening a previously installed version will have to re-login. By wiping out old tokens and "starting over", Falcon Pro is hoping to stay active for a while longer.

The price has also been raised -- to $1.95 (€1.49) from $0.99 previously -- to hopefully slow down how long it takes to hit the limit again. The last version hit the 100,000 token limit with less than 50,000 official paid Google Play downloads though, which is disconcerting. We know that a "token" is not a user, and those with multiple devices and accounts occupy multiple tokens, but the average tokens per user is likely well under 2.

For now, Falcon Pro v1.6.6 is still a comical $132.12 in the Play Store, with a reminder in the description not to buy it because there are no tokens left. The developer plans to release the 1.6.7 update to the Play Store tonight, and we'll have to see how long it takes to hit the limit again.

Source: @Falcon_Pro (Twitter); Via: AusDroid

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/PHmq2UmSbfg/story01.htm

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Cheat on taxes? Not cool, say most Americans

IRS Oversight Board

Most Americans don't think it's OK to cheat on taxes.

By Allison Linn, TODAY

Americans may make plenty of jokes about cheating on their taxes, but a new survey finds that in reality most don?t think it?s OK to rob the tax man. Or at least, that?s what they?re telling the IRS Oversight Board.

The?2012 Taxpayer Attitude Survey, released Tuesday by the independent oversight board, finds that 87 percent of Americans don?t think it?s OK to cheat on your taxes. That?s a 3 percentage point increase from last year.

Only 11 percent think it?s OK to cheat, either a little or as much as possible.

Perhaps more surprising, 95 percent of Americans said their personal integrity influences them to report their taxes honestly, an 8 percentage point increase from five years earlier.

About 63 percent said they are influenced by fear of an audit, while 70 percent are motivated by third-party information that could show them to be a tax cheat.

The IRS Oversight Board, an independent body created by Congress in 1998 to oversee the Internal Revenue Service?s actions, completed its annual survey of 1,500 Americans last August and September. The survey has a 3.1 percent margin of error.

If they?re going to pay their taxes honestly, most Americans seem to think everyone else should, too.

The survey found that more than 90 percent of Americans think it?s important that the IRS ensures that low- and high-income taxpayers, small businesses and corporations honestly pay their taxes, too.

Those results appear to show that Americans have come to feel more strongly in recent years that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes, and the IRS should vigorously enforce tax laws.

The results come as many Americans are either getting ready to file their 2012 income tax returns, or already have done so.

They also follow a bruising battle in Washington over the so-called fiscal cliff, a series of tax hikes and spending cuts that were scheduled to take effect until Congress reached a last-minute deal.

The fiscal cliff agreement raised taxes for wealthy Americans earning $400,000 or more and allowed taxes on capital gains and dividends to go up. It also ended a payroll tax holiday, meaning that most Americans are seeing more of their paycheck going to the tax man for Social Security and other entitlements this year.

{"contentId":"17102914","totalVotes":"3478"}

How honest should people be on their tax returns?

Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/02/27/17102914-cheat-on-taxes-not-cool-say-most-americans?lite

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Study finds small increase in incidence of advanced breast cancer among younger women

Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Alyse Bernal
alyse.bernal@seattlechildrens.org
206-987-5213
JAMA and Archives Journals

An analysis of breast cancer trends in the U.S. finds a small but statistically significant increase in the incidence of advanced breast cancer for women 25 to 39 years of age, without a corresponding increase in older women, according to a study appearing in the February 27 issue of JAMA.

"In the United States, breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor in adolescent and young adult women 15 to 39 years of age, accounting for 14 percent of all cancer in men and women in the age group. The individual average risk of a woman developing breast cancer in the United States was 1 in 173 by the age of 40 years when assessed in 2008. Young women with breast cancer tend to experience more aggressive disease than older women and have lower survival rates. Given the effect of the disease in young people and a clinical impression that more young women are being diagnosed with advanced disease, we reviewed the national trends in breast cancer incidence in the United States," the authors write.

Rebecca H. Johnson, M.D., of Seattle Children's Hospital and University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues conducted a study in which breast cancer incidence, incidence trends, and survival rates as a function of age and extent of disease at diagnosis were obtained from 3 U.S. National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries. These registries provide data spanning 1973-2009, 1992-2009, and 2000-2009. SEER defines localized as disease confined to the breast, regional to contiguous and adjacent organ spread (e.g., lymph nodes, chest wall), and distant disease to remote metastases (bone, brain, lung, etc).

Since 1976, there has been a steady increase in the incidence of distant disease breast cancer in 25- to 39-year-old women, from 1.53 per 100,000 in 1976 to 2.90 per 100,000 in 2009. The researchers note that this is an absolute difference of 1.37 per 100,000, representing an average compounded increase of 2.07 percent per year over the 34-year interval, a relatively small increase, "but the trend shows no evidence for abatement and may indicate increasing epidemiologic and clinical significance."

"The trajectory of the incidence trend predicts that an increasing number of young women in the United States will present with metastatic breast cancer in an age group that already has the worst prognosis, no recommended routine screening practice, the least health insurance, and the most potential years of life," the authors write.

The researchers also found that the rate of increasing incidence of distant disease was inversely proportional to age at diagnosis. The greatest increase occurred in 25- to 34-year-old women. Progressively smaller increases occurred in older women by 5-year age intervals and no statistically significant incidence increase occurred in any group 55 years or older.

"For young women aged 25 to 39 years, the incidence of distant disease increased in all races/ethnicities assessed since at least 1992, when race/ethnicity became available in the SEER database," the authors write. These increases occurred in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, and were statistically significant in African American and non-Hispanic white populations.

Incidence for women with estrogen receptor-positive subtypes increased more than for women with estrogen receptor-negative subtypes.

"Whatever the causesand likely there are more than 1the evidence we observed for the increasing incidence of advanced breast cancer in young women will require corroboration and may be best confirmed by data from other countries. If verified, the increase is particularly concerning, because young age itself is an independent adverse prognostic factor for breast cancer, and the lowest 5-year breast cancer survival rates as a function of age have been reported for 20- to 34-year-old women. The most recent national 5-year survival for distant disease for 25- to 39-year-old women is only 31 percent according to SEER data, compared with a 5-year survival rate of 87 percent for women with locoregional breast cancer," the authors write.

###

(JAMA. 2013;309(8):800-805; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

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[ | 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.

Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Alyse Bernal
alyse.bernal@seattlechildrens.org
206-987-5213
JAMA and Archives Journals

An analysis of breast cancer trends in the U.S. finds a small but statistically significant increase in the incidence of advanced breast cancer for women 25 to 39 years of age, without a corresponding increase in older women, according to a study appearing in the February 27 issue of JAMA.

"In the United States, breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor in adolescent and young adult women 15 to 39 years of age, accounting for 14 percent of all cancer in men and women in the age group. The individual average risk of a woman developing breast cancer in the United States was 1 in 173 by the age of 40 years when assessed in 2008. Young women with breast cancer tend to experience more aggressive disease than older women and have lower survival rates. Given the effect of the disease in young people and a clinical impression that more young women are being diagnosed with advanced disease, we reviewed the national trends in breast cancer incidence in the United States," the authors write.

Rebecca H. Johnson, M.D., of Seattle Children's Hospital and University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues conducted a study in which breast cancer incidence, incidence trends, and survival rates as a function of age and extent of disease at diagnosis were obtained from 3 U.S. National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries. These registries provide data spanning 1973-2009, 1992-2009, and 2000-2009. SEER defines localized as disease confined to the breast, regional to contiguous and adjacent organ spread (e.g., lymph nodes, chest wall), and distant disease to remote metastases (bone, brain, lung, etc).

Since 1976, there has been a steady increase in the incidence of distant disease breast cancer in 25- to 39-year-old women, from 1.53 per 100,000 in 1976 to 2.90 per 100,000 in 2009. The researchers note that this is an absolute difference of 1.37 per 100,000, representing an average compounded increase of 2.07 percent per year over the 34-year interval, a relatively small increase, "but the trend shows no evidence for abatement and may indicate increasing epidemiologic and clinical significance."

"The trajectory of the incidence trend predicts that an increasing number of young women in the United States will present with metastatic breast cancer in an age group that already has the worst prognosis, no recommended routine screening practice, the least health insurance, and the most potential years of life," the authors write.

The researchers also found that the rate of increasing incidence of distant disease was inversely proportional to age at diagnosis. The greatest increase occurred in 25- to 34-year-old women. Progressively smaller increases occurred in older women by 5-year age intervals and no statistically significant incidence increase occurred in any group 55 years or older.

"For young women aged 25 to 39 years, the incidence of distant disease increased in all races/ethnicities assessed since at least 1992, when race/ethnicity became available in the SEER database," the authors write. These increases occurred in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, and were statistically significant in African American and non-Hispanic white populations.

Incidence for women with estrogen receptor-positive subtypes increased more than for women with estrogen receptor-negative subtypes.

"Whatever the causesand likely there are more than 1the evidence we observed for the increasing incidence of advanced breast cancer in young women will require corroboration and may be best confirmed by data from other countries. If verified, the increase is particularly concerning, because young age itself is an independent adverse prognostic factor for breast cancer, and the lowest 5-year breast cancer survival rates as a function of age have been reported for 20- to 34-year-old women. The most recent national 5-year survival for distant disease for 25- to 39-year-old women is only 31 percent according to SEER data, compared with a 5-year survival rate of 87 percent for women with locoregional breast cancer," the authors write.

###

(JAMA. 2013;309(8):800-805; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/jaaj-sfs022113.php

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PFT: Mathieu runs a fast 40? |? But bench is weak

AP

Giants right tackle David Diehl said he hasn?t been asked to take a pay cut yet, or? heard any inkling about his future with the team.

But he?s seen enough to know his time could come any time.

Diehl offered Newsday?s Tom Rock a glimpse into the mind of a smart NFL veteran, admitting he never knows when he shows up at the office whether it?s going to be his last.

?The thing you realize at an early age is that as an NFL player you have an expiration date on you and it comes with a price tag,? Diehl said. ?That?s the way that it always goes. Nothing has been said to me yet, but that?s all things you can?t control. The only things you can control are the way you prepare each and every day, getting myself healthy, and whenever that comes about we?ll deal with it. But as of now, nothing has been said.?

The Giants have already parted ways with Chris Canty, Michael Boley and Ahmad Bradshaw, and more moves could be coming.

Diehl has been showing up daily at the Giants facility to rehab his right knee after an arthroscopic procedure, which he had right after the season. Getting well is a big deal, whether it?s for the Giants or another team.

The 32-year-old tackle is entering the last year of his contract, set to earn a base salary of $4.475 million. That makes him ripe for some degree of transaction depending on other moves the Giants make up front.

With Will Beatty and Kevin Boothe pending unrestricted free agents, the Giants might have to prioritize.

?Am I shocked or surprised? No,? Diehl said of Giants roster turnover so far. ?This has happened year in and year out since I?ve been in the NFL, not only with our team but with teams across the league. This is something that always happens.?

Diehl?s approach is at once fatalistic and realistic, as very few players get to leave on their own terms. And with the salary cap a factor in every transaction, having a big salary is only good news if you get to keep it into the regular season.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/26/tyrann-mathieu-runs-a-4-43-on-his-first-40/related/

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Brent hits 1-mth low below $114 on Italy vote uncertainty

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent crude futures fell by more than a dollar to one-month lows below $114 a barrel on Tuesday, hit by worries over demand growth as a potential political vacuum in Italy revived fears over instability in the debt-plagued euro zone.

The uncertainty in Rome, along with soft manufacturing data from China and concerns the United States may rein in its economic stimulus, are clouding the global economic outlook and could erode oil's modest price gains so far this year. Investors exited riskier assets because of the uncertainty, pushing down Asian shares and base metals along with oil, while gold rose.

Brent crude hit a session low of $113.30 a barrel, its weakest since January 29, and was down 61 cents at $113.83 by 0403 GMT. U.S. oil slipped 54 cents to $92.57, after touching a low of $91.92 earlier, a level not seen since January 4.

"Market sentiment has certainly turned bearish. Uncertainty in Italy is on top of everyone's mind, plus we had weak China numbers," said Victor Shum, an oil analyst at IHS Purvin & Gertz. "So we are seeing selling in oil. Directionally it is correct because the market was overbought."

Italy's election results confirmed market fears that the polls would not produce a government strong enough to carry out effective reforms, reviving memories still fresh of the financial crisis that took the 17-member currency block to the brink of collapse in 2011.

Italy's centre-left coalition will win a majority in the lower house of parliament but the upper house will be deadlocked, the Interior Ministry said after almost all votes were counted following weekend elections.

"There's a possibility that the Italians might be heading back to the polls," said Ben Le Brun, market analyst at OptionsXpress in Sydney. "In the short term, investors and traders don't like the uncertainty."

MARKET OUTLOOK

Le Brun said he saw support for Brent oil at $110 a barrel and for U.S. crude at $90. Shum expects U.S. oil to trade between $90 and $95 a barrel over the next week and Brent's premium to the U.S. benchmark capped at $20.

Brent is up a modest 2.4 percent so far this year, with prices failing to build on a rally to nine-month highs in early February, hurt by signs the global economy remains fragile.

Data on Monday from No. 2 oil consumer China showed manufacturing activity slowed this month from two-year highs in January.

There was also growing concern among investors that the U.S. Federal Reserve could ease up on its bond-buying stimulus programme sooner than expected, and all eyes will be on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's congressional testimony later in the day for clues to the Fed's plans. Markets suffered a two-day rout last week on fears the Fed could soon end the stimulus.

Investors remain worried about a looming spending cut in top oil consumer the United States, where $85 billion will be slashed from the budget effective on Friday.

"There's a belief in the market that there's going to be some resolution between now and March 1, but there's still a clear and present danger from the fiscal drag to the U.S. economy," said Le Brun.

U.S. crude oil stockpiles are forecast to have climbed for the sixth straight week in the seven days to Friday as imports and production both rose, an initial Reuters poll of analysts showed. The survey ahead of weekly reports forecast crude stocks rose by 2.3 million barrels.

Stemming further losses in oil are lingering concerns of geopolitical tension worsening in the Middle East. Major powers start talks with Iran to force the Islamic Republic to halt a controversial nuclear programme.

Major powers will offer Iran some sanctions relief during talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this week if Tehran agrees to curb its nuclear programme, a U.S. official said on Monday.

"There are several counterbalancing factors that are supporting prices," Shum said. "Iran is one of them."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brent-hits-1-mth-low-below-114-italy-051637225--finance.html

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Scientists link extreme weather to giant atmospheric waves

A new study links extreme weather events to interference in global air-flow patterns.

By Tanya Lewis,?LiveScience Staff Writer / February 25, 2013

The sun rises Saturday over grain bins and a corn crop struggling from drought in Ashland, Ill.

Seth Perlman/AP

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Extreme weather events have been on the rise in the last few decades, and man-made climate change may be causing them by interfering with global air-flow patterns, according to new research.

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The Northern Hemisphere has taken a beating from?extreme weather?in recent years ? the 2003 European heat wave, the 2010 Pakistan flood and the 2011 heat wave in the United States, for example. These events, in a general sense, are the result of the?global movement of air.

Giant waves of air in the atmosphere normally even out the climate, by bringing warm air north from the tropics and cold air south from the Arctic. But a new study suggests these colossal waves have gotten stuck in place during extreme weather events.

"What we found is that during several recent extreme weather events these planetary waves almost freeze in their tracks for weeks,"?lead author Vladimir Petoukhov, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany, said in a statement. "So instead of bringing in cool air after having brought warm air in before, the heat just stays."

How long these weather extremes last is critical, the researchers say. While two or three days of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) pose little threat, 20 days or more can lead to extreme heat stress, which can trigger deaths, forest fires and lost harvests. [The World's 10 Weirdest Weather Events]

Monster Waves

The researchers created equations to model the motion of the massive air waves, determining what it takes to make the waves plough to a stop and build up. The team then used these models to crunch daily weather data from the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction.

During extreme weather events, the waves were indeed trapped and amplified, the scientists found. They also saw a significant increase in the occurrence of these trapped waves.

Here's how the waves may be getting trapped: The burning of fossil fuels causes?more warming in the Arctic?than in other latitudes, because the loss of snow and ice means heat gets absorbed by the darker ground, not reflected (as it would by the white snow). This warming lessens the temperature difference between the Arctic and northern latitudes like Europe. Since these differences drive air flow, a smaller difference means less air movement. Also, land areas warm and cool more easily than oceans. The result is an unnatural pattern of air flow that prevents the air waves from circulating over land.

The study's results help explain the spike in summer weather extremes. Previous research had shown a link between?climate change and extreme weather, but did not identify the mechanism.

"This is quite a breakthrough, even though things are not at all simple ? the suggested physical process increases the probability of weather extremes, but additional factors certainly play a role as well, including natural variability," study co-author Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, also of PIK, said in a statement.

The 32-year period studied provides a good explanation of past extreme weather events, the researchers say, but is too short to make predictions about how often such events may occur in the future.

The findings were reported online today (Feb. 25) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter?@livescience. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.?

Copyright 2013?LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/j-wyAF1tLBg/Scientists-link-extreme-weather-to-giant-atmospheric-waves

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Lyoto Machida pulls out split-decision win over Dan Henderson at UFC 157

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Lyoto Machida took a split decision over Dan Henderson in the co-main event at UFC 157 on Saturday. The judges saw it 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 for Machida.

Machida was elusive as usual in the first round, but Henderson was able to sneak in and land a few kicks and punches. At the end of the round, Machida took Henderson down with a leg trip and landed strikes.

The second round showed Machida still being elusive and keeping his distance from Henderson. Machida tried for a front kick several times, but couldn't land it. Meanwhile, Henderson couldn't land much.

[Also: Ronda Rousey survives UFC debut, wins via first-round arm bar]

Henderson is known for his big, overhand punches. Most of the time, when he throws it, it can mean the end of a fight. However, he had trouble getting close enough to Machida for the overhand to work.

In the third round, Machida moved in for a takedown but ended up with Henderson on top. Henderson used elbows from the top, but Machida was able to get out with less than two minutes left in the fight.

Before the fight, UFC president Dana White said that the winner of this bout will get the next title shot. UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will put the title up against Chael Sonnen in April, but the next fight will likely go to Machida.

[Also: Josh Koscheck suffers upset loss]

Machida was once the UFC light heavyweight champion, but lost the title to Rua in 2010. Since then, he has wins over Randy Couture and Ryan Bader, but losses to current champion Jon Jones and Quinton Jackson. It will be his third chance at the light heavyweight title. He won it with a knockout of Rashad Evans in 2009, but lost to Jones in 2011.

Henderson had a long layoff between fights. His last bout was one of the best in MMA history. In November of 2011, Henderson defeated Mauricio Rua in a five-round decision. Since then, Henderson had a fight lined up with Jones in September, but had to pull out at the last minute because of a knee injury. His record falls to 29-9. He's 42 years old, and against Machida, looked slow and old for the first time in his career.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/lyoto-machida-pulls-split-decision-win-over-dan-045605104--mma.html

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I Corps troops to turn focus on Pacific

The Defense Department's highest ranking officer in the Pacific visited Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Friday to get battle-hardened Iraq and Afghanistan veterans thinking about new challenges as diverse as climate change and rising Asian powers.

Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear's trip sent another signal in the Pentagon's shift in focus from wars in the Middle East to emerging threats and neglected alliances in other parts of the world.

"We can't stay Middle East-focused forever," Locklear, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told Lewis-McChord's I Corps.

The base supplied about 10,000 soldiers a year to Iraq and Afghanistan for much of the past decade. About 5,000 Lewis-McChord soldiers are in Afghanistan today, but most should be home by August.

With the wars ending, the Pentagon assigned new responsibilities to the I Corps under Locklear's command. That means local soldiers will be expected to respond to humanitarian crises in South Asia, nurture relationships with allied armies and work to prevent large-scale conflicts from unfolding.

Locklear told I Corps soldiers that a complex Pacific environment calls on them to prepare for:

--A warming planet causing the rise of sea levels and destabilizing Pacific countries.

--Violent extremist groups, such as ones that have carried out terrorist attacks in India and the Philippines.

--International narcotics smugglers and human traffickers.

--Pandemics.

--A nuclear-armed North Korea.

His forward-looking speech urged soldiers to study up on their new territory and to look at how the region might change in the near future. For instance, climate change could make some coastal areas uninhabitable and exacerbate natural disasters.

"The world is getting warmer," he said. "When you potentially have millions of people impacted by weather and climate change, that's going to have a potentially significant impact on security."

So far, the Pentagon is protecting Lewis-McChord's new task in the Pacific from budget cuts. Lewis-McChord soldiers over the next 12 months are on course to carry out exercises in Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

The fact that the exercises still are scheduled to take place despite the threat of looming budget cuts shows the value the Defense Department places on Lewis-McChord's work in the Pacific, I Corps commander Lt. Gen. Robert Brown said earlier this week in a briefing that led up to Locklear's visit.

"You might think this is routine and normal," he said. "In this environment, nothing is routine and normal."

Those exercises in Pacific nations often fell to Fort Lewis soldiers in the past. Recently, though, Iraq and Afghanistan took precedence and units from other stations filled in at the Pacific drills.

Locklear's visit came at the end of a week of classes that I Corps soldiers took to prepare for their exercise in Australia this summer. The drill will call on them to overcome an enemy and then stabilize a local population.

The idea is to incorporate a traditional battle plan with lessons learned from the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan about interacting with civilians.

"You will hear we're going to get back to basics, but I would submit to you that the basics have changed," Brown said.

Locklear spoke for about 40 minutes and then took questions from I Corps soldiers who put him on the spot about nuclear proliferation, U.S. partnerships with India, Japan's strengthening military and Chinese cyber attacks.

Last year, he said, he confronted Chinese officials with evidence about state-sponsored cyber attacks against U.S. institutions during a visit to Beijing with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Some of the material resembled a report released this week by the security firm Mandiant that connected the Chinese military to cyber attacks, Locklear said.

The Chinese officials deflected the American criticism, Locklear said, and characterized themselves as victims of U.S. cyber attacks. He jokingly noted Chinese military equipment looks surprisingly similar to American weapons.

?

?

Source: http://www.stripes.com/news/army/i-corps-troops-to-turn-focus-on-pacific-1.209457

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Global warming to make work miserable, study says

Eric Kayne / Getty Images

In this file photo, construction worker Chester Gibson wipes sweat from his face on a hot day in Houston, Tex.

By John Roach, Contributing Writer, NBC News

Hot and muggy weather over the past few decades has led to about a 10 percent drop in the physiological capacity of people to do their work safely and those drops will be even greater as the climate continues to warm, a new study finds.

People may continue to work in the hot and muggy conditions, "but their misery will increase while they are productive," John Dunne, a research oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Princeton, N.J., told NBC News.

Dunne is the lead author of the study, which addresses the impact of rising humidity associated with global warming on the capacity of people to safely do their jobs ? from toiling in agricultural fields to crunching numbers at a desk.

The federal government maintains industrial and military guidelines that call for laborers to take breaks when conditions on a widely-used heat-stress index cross certain thresholds.?

"Black flag" conditions in military parlance, for example, correspond to a reading of greater than 90 degrees on the wet bulb global temperature index. Under those conditions, all non-mission critical physical training and strenuous exercise is suspended.

Dunne and colleagues combined historical analysis of the heat-stress index and model projections of future climate with the worker safety guidelines.?

They found that environmental heat stress has reduced worker capacity over the past few decades?to 90 percent during the hottest months of the year and project a further reduction to 80 percent in peak months by 2050 and less than 40 percent by 2200.

The highest plausible warming scenario modeled will expose ?mid-latitude regions such as the US east of the Rockies to environmental heat stress experienced only by the most extremely hot regions of the present day? such as parts of India, Dunne and colleagues write in a paper published today in Nature Climate Change.?

Dunne noted the findings come with several caveats. For example, uncertainty remains over how much the climate will warm in coming decades and how people will adapt their lifestyles to accommodate warmer conditions. It?s possible that agricultural work will shift to higher latitudes, for example, and afternoon siestas could be routine in mid-latitudes.

"The thing I like about this metric," noted Dunne, "is it is something that people have adapted their life to across the globe in the present day."

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website.?

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/24/17062733-global-warming-to-make-work-miserable-study-says?lite

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Acura comes roaring back with NSX supercar

Paul A. Eisenstein , The Detroit Bureau ? ? ? 15 hrs.

These days, it?s common for automakers to display ?concept cars? on the auto show circuit that are thinly disguised versions of upcoming production models ? like the MDX Acura introduced at the Detroit Auto Show last month.

But the show car that drew the real crowds was a model that won?t hit the street for at least two years, the reincarnation of Acura?s once formidable NSX supercar.

The Japanese maker is desperately hoping that the re-born NSX will grab the high-line brand some much-needed attention and bring curious new shoppers into Acura showrooms even before it reaches production.

When it was launched more than a quarter-century ago, Acura transformed the way Americans thought about Japanese cars, proving that the Asians could challenge the well-established European and domestic luxury brands. But the initial success of the Honda Motor Co. subsidiary proved far too fleeting and in recent years, Acura has lagged in the back of the premium pack.

The Detroit Bureau: Despite Recent Price Spike, DoE Expects Gas to Level Off, Even Decline

?It was a brave experiment when it was first launched,? says automotive analyst George Peterson, of AutoPacific, Inc. And now, he adds, there are signs Acura ?has hit bottom and is on the upswing.?

That was clearly something the maker intended to prove when it invited automotive journalists to the race track in Sonoma, California, several weeks back, to check out the new Acura RLX and pit it against some of its most formidable competitors, including the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5-Series.

?This is a big deal for us,? asserted Mike Accavitti, the marque?s head of marketing. ?It?s the best product we have ever built.?

What the Honda subsidiary has pronounced its new ?flagship? is the direct heir to the original Acura Legend, a stylish and technically sophisticated product that turned conventional wisdom on its head. Produced in both coupe and sedan body styles, the original Acura model quickly ran up the sales chart and, if anything, created a conundrum for Honda officials who feared the Legend nameplate was better known than that of Acura itself.

The Detroit Bureau: Ford Looking to Novel Way to Get Back into Compact Pickup Market

Their solution proved disastrous. They not only replaced the Legend but switched to a new, European-style alphanumeric nameplate strategy for its replacement ? and for the new models to follow. The problem is that the cache of the original products was lost and motorists became completely confused by the new names; was the new flagship the RL or TL was a frequently heard question.

?Internally, they believe that (name) change cost them $1.5 billion in lost sales,? says Peterson, who has worked with Acura strategists over the years to figure out how to regain lost momentum.

Compounding the situation, Acura faced a wave of new competitors, including the even more up-market Japanese upstarts Lexus and Infiniti, launched by Toyota and Nissan respectively, which looked at Acura as a ?case study,? says the analyst.

Acura seemed to be regaining its footing in the early days of the new Millennium with an assortment of products such as the downsized RDX crossover, sales climbing to a record 209,610 in 2005 and putting it within striking distance of the first-tier luxury brands.

The Detroit Bureau: VW to Build 261 mpg 2-seater

But then, industry observers suggest, the Honda subsidiary again shot itself in the foot with a series of new mistakes, such as the introduction of an oversized chrome grille shield that has been derisively dubbed the ?beak.?

The new RLX and upcoming MDX feature a significantly smaller version of that shiny proboscis, but Acura remains committed to the alphanumeric nameplate strategy despite senior officials admitting it still confuses many customers.

But they?re hoping that a broader product line that is receiving generally positive reviews will overcome such concerns. It should also help, said Accavitti, to have new products like the Acura RLX offered at prices ?$1000s less than comparably equipped competitors.?

In keeping with its roots, meanwhile, the new models will also put an emphasis on advanced technologies, from state-of-the-art infotainment systems to the electric Super-Handling All-Wheel-Drive Acura will launch in the coming year.

That technical mouthful, abbreviated as e-SH-AWD, is a hybrid drivetrain that can deliver excellent fuel economy in routine driving but transform a vehicle like the RLX into a serious performance machine when the driver stomps the throttle. The unusual layout, which uses a V-6 gas engine and three electric motors also can direct power to individual wheels to help improve handling in aggressive turns, a concept known as torque vectoring.

An even more aggressive version of the system will be the fast-beating heart of the NSX, which is expected to debut in late 2014 or early 2015, Acura officials hint.

The maker clearly needs the boost. Sales tumbled to just 105,723 in 2009, a notably sharper downturn that the overall U.S. automotive market. Last year, the maker posted a strong gain, but at 156,216 cars and crossovers it was still down nearly 25% from its all-time high.

The new year is off to a good start, January volume up about 13%, year-over-year, buoyed by other new models such as the entry-lux sedan the Acura ILX.

Acura still has some serious challenges to overcome, but the maker appears to be making inroads after what some have dubbed a lost decade. It helps to have new products at the top and bottom of the luxury range ? and a striking new NSX supercar in the offing that packs potential buyers in whenever it goes on display.

Copyright ? 2009-2012, The Detroit Bureau

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/acura-comes-roaring-back-nsx-supercar-1C8496355

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Earnhardt tops final practice for Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Quiet most of Speedweeks, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a little noise Saturday.

Earnhardt topped the speed chart for the final practice session before Sunday's season-opening Daytona 500.

The 2004 Daytona 500 champion turned the fast lap by averaging 198.592 mph around the 2? -mile superspeedway. David Gilliland was second, followed by Clint Bowyer, Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola.

Pole-sitter Danica Patrick and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Tony Stewart were among 10 drivers who skipped the 1? -hour final tuneup. Patrick is trying to become the first driver win the Daytona 500 from the pole since Dale Jarrett in 2000. Only nine drivers have accomplished the feat in 54 years.

Three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon, 2010 Daytona 500 champ Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears, Terry Labonte and Joe Nemechek also sat out the session. So did Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.

"We don't have any plans to go out," Gordon said. "We feel like this entire week we have been able to learn everything we need to get prepared for the race tomorrow. ... We've got a great race car. We are excited. We've got a great opportunity here."

Before Saturday, Earnhardt had done little during Speedweeks. He finished eighth in the Sprint Unlimited and ninth in his qualifying race. He will start 19th in the "Great American Race," his lowest opening spot in 14 years at NASCAR's premier event.

His speed in the final practice had to boost the team's confidence.

Almirola, however, posted the best 10-lap average. He averaged 196.195 mph over 10 laps on new tires. Earnhardt was sixth on that chart.

"We are excited about this weekend and feel like we have a good car and got it driving good in that last practice session," Almirola said.

The final session involved little bump-drafting and even less side-by-side action ? no doubt because teams were leery of wrecking race cars about 24 hours before the Daytona 500.

Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski provided the most action when he hit a bird.

"I killed a Tweetie bird," said Keselowski, one of auto racing's top Tweeters.

Keselowski was 17th in the final practice.

"This is our 500 engine, so trying to get an idea of how it's going to perform," he said. "My car is really good. Definitely faster than what it was, so that's good, right? I'm definitely optimistic."

Of the teams that didn't practice, most of them valued keeping their car intact over incremental gains that could be found so late in Speedweeks.

Patrick, Stewart, Gordon and the Gibbs cars have been some of the fastest all week.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/earnhardt-tops-final-practice-daytona-500-175130887--spt.html

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US, NATO, mull Afghan troop strength after combat

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, right, and Britain's Secretary of State for Defense Philip Hammond attend the two-day NATO defense ministers meeting to discuss Syria and Afghanistan, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. The head of NATO urged member countries Thursday to stop cutting their defense budgets in response to tough economic times, saying continued reductions will compromise the safety of all of the military alliance?s 28 members. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, right, and Britain's Secretary of State for Defense Philip Hammond attend the two-day NATO defense ministers meeting to discuss Syria and Afghanistan, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. The head of NATO urged member countries Thursday to stop cutting their defense budgets in response to tough economic times, saying continued reductions will compromise the safety of all of the military alliance?s 28 members. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his NATO counterparts are considering leaving 8,000 to 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but a dispute arose Friday between the U.S. and German defense officials over whether that contingent would be an international force or an American one.

The conflicting accounts came as NATO defense ministers gathered here to discuss the endgame of the 11-year-old war in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama has said that the last combat troops will leave Afghanistan on Dec. 31, 2014, leaving the bulk of the country's security in the hands of the Afghans.

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters Panetta had informed him at the Brussels meeting that the United States would leave between 8,000 and 10,000 troops in the war-torn country at the end of 2014.

But Panetta, speaking to reporters later, called de Maiziere's comments inaccurate.

Panetta, who will leave Obama's Cabinet when his successor is confirmed, told reporters that he and the NATO partners instead talked about ranges of options for the post-2014 troop force. And he said the figures reflected contributions that other nations would make, in addition to the United States.

"There's no question in the current budget environment, with deep cuts in European defense spending and the kind of political gridlock that we see in the United States now with regards to our own budget, is putting at risk our ability to effectively act together," he said. "As I prepare to step down as secretary of defense, I do fear that the alliance will soon be, if it is not already, stretched too thin."

His spokesman, George Little, told reporters that the range for an international force was 8,000 to 12,000.

"The reports that the U.S. told allies that we are considering 8,000 to 12,000 U.S. troops after 2014 are not correct," Little said. "A range of 8,000 to 12,000 troops was discussed as the possible size of the overall NATO mission, not the U.S. contribution."

Little said Obama had not yet decided on the size of the post-2014 force in Afghanistan.

"We will continue to discuss with allies and the Afghans how we can best carry out two basic missions: targeting the remnants of al-Qaida and its affiliates, and training and equipping Afghan forces," he said.

Panetta said officials are planning to leave troops in all sectors of the country as well as in Kabul. Pentagon officials have said the military has mapped out plans to carry on its mission of training and advising the Afghan forces and also leave a small counterterrorism force to battle insurgents.

When asked about troop numbers, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters that no decision had yet been made.

The Obama administration is considering a plan to maintain 352,000 Afghan troops for the next five years as part of an effort to maintain security and help convince Afghanistan that America and its allies will not abandon it once combat troops leave in 2014, senior alliance officials said Thursday. NATO officials are also widely considering that option.

Such a change, if NATO endorses it, could increase the costs to the U.S. and allies by more than $2 billion a year, at a time when most are struggling with budget cuts and fiscal woes. Last May, NATO agreed to underwrite an Afghan force of about 230,000, at a cost of about $4.1 billion a year after 2014. It costs about $6.5 billion this year to fund the current Afghan force of 352,000, and the U.S. is providing about $5.7 billion of that.

Panetta said Friday that he can defend that spending to Congress because it would give the U.S. more flexibility and savings as it withdraws troops from Afghanistan.

Maintaining the larger troop strength could bolster the confidence of the Afghan forces and make it clear that NATO is committed to an enduring relationship with Afghanistan, a senior NATO official said.

In private meetings with other defense ministers, Panetta warned allies that Washington's fiscal impasse will have repercussions abroad, as impending budget cuts force the military to scale back its training and presence overseas.

Many of his meetings, however, centered on the plans to wind down the war in Afghanistan, including the withdrawal of 34,000 U.S. troops over the next year and the transfer of security responsibilities to the Afghan forces.

According to an Obama administration official, the Pentagon plans to reduce the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to about 60,500 by the end of May; then to 52,500 by November, keeping a relatively stable number of troops there during the peak fighting season. The sharpest cuts in U.S. troop strength will come over the winter months as the remaining 20,500 leave after the main fighting season. There currently are about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Panetta acknowledged those ranges of numbers on Friday, but also added that the U.S. would maintain the 34,000 through the Afghan elections, then withdraw the final combat troops toward the end of 2014.

The administration officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the numbers publicly.

This is Panetta's fifth visit to Brussels for a NATO meeting ? a trip he never intended to take. Expectations were that defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, would be confirmed by the Senate last week and he would travel to the meeting.

Hagel's nomination stalled, however, as it got caught up in senators' complaints about the attack in Benghazi, which left four Americans dead, including the ambassador. There are indications now that Hagel has support from enough senators to be confirmed next week.

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Associated Press writers Don Melvin and Julie Pace contributed to this report.

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Lolita C. Baldor can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lbaldor

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-22-NATO-Afghanistan/id-8cf2d78489944788a809006ad66a9c21

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